ah, friday.

Normally, I should be in my geography class right now on fridays. heh. Obviously, I'm not. I'm sitting here at my desk, in my pajamas, blogging. Activities as of this morning; woke up, brushed my teeth, continued my letter to Justin Turner (who is serving in Columbus Ohio) and upon realizing my internet was finally up, checked up on blogs, (I'm so jealous the Garrards are going camping) and now I'm updating.

To answer Daniel's question, I'm sure Mike would love for me to tell him "you're the only one for me," "no one even compares to you," "don't worry about the wait, I'll be right here when you come back..." but I also think he really wants to know about my dating life so that he can be aware of what's going on, vs. no news and all the suddenly, "I'm engaged! Surprise!" But, I do try to slip in little assurances here and there without being distracting. Little assurances like a scrapbook, brownies and a tape! Which, turns out, he finally got on wednesday. (I'm sure the brownies are disgusting rocks by now.) He wrote me a VERY short email telling me that his mission president would be bringing it by for apartment interviews and that he was going to Wal-Mart to get a tape player so he could listen to the tape. Hopefully I'll hear just how much he loved it in a letter today or tomorrow.

Andrea is having her baby today. Her Doctor is going out of town for two weeks on Tuesday, so they decided to get induced today so her doctor could deliver the baby. Her name is going to be Karalee Jo Lemmon. Named after 3 of her aunts, Karalyn, Loralee and me, Jo. Yes, I get the middle name all to myself. SO, while others will be calling her Karalee, she will be nothing but Karalee Jo to me. So please, keep Andrea in your prayers today, we'd all appreciate it. I'M SO EXCITED FOR A NEW BABY!!!

Also, I've discovered (well, Hannah's homecoming date discovered) a group called Tally Hall, and I love them! They sound a bit like Queen. You should check them out, they're really good.

Work was fun again last night. Men's Soccer always is. I had a guy come a little late and as I approached him to check him in, I noticed he had about a weeks worth of a beard, and since BYU intramurals goes by the honor code, he was going to have to shave. Here was the conversation.

Me: Hi, I'll need to see your id (and upon seeing his face) oh, and you'll need to shave before I can check you in.
Guy: Which do you need first?
Me: I can't check you in until you've shaved
Guy: K, I'm just going to run to my car to get my id (totally nice guy)
(leaves)
meanwhile, one of his teammates finds a shaver and is waiting for him.
Guy comes back: ok, so why do I have to shave? (with an attitude now)
Me: Because it's the Honor code and I can't let you play without shaving.
(it's supposed to be clean shaven, but if I can tell they've shaved within the last 24 hours or so, I generally let it pass. This was not the situation)
Guy: well what if I'm not even taking any classes this semester?
Me: This is still BYU intramurals, and you're playing on a BYU intramural team, and we play by the BYU honor code which says you have to be clean shaven.
Guy: Well I would understand if I was going to a class or taking a test (testing center has the same situation)
(Meanwhile, Tristan, the other supervisor, comes over asks what the problem is, I tell him and he explains the exact same thing I explained to this guy)
Guy: (to Tristan) well you aren't clean shaven
Tristan and me: I/He shaved this morning.
Guy: well fine, but it's the way she approached me with the whole situation
Me: How did I approach you. (aka, what the crap! are you kidding me? tell me you're kidding)
Guy: you said it like the first thing...
Me: Because it is the first thing you need to do and I can't check you in if you are not clean shaven.
Guy: Fine, I don't want to give you guys a hard time, but this is rediculous. I can't believe you're telling me I have to shave before I can play.
(meanwhile, his teammate is standing there with the shaver telling him to just shave)
Me: It's your choice, you don't have to shave if you don't want to play.
Guy: well I think I'm just going to sit out this time then, I can't believe you're being so rediculous about this
Tristan: (as he's walking away) I can't believe that you aren't going to play just so you don't have to shave.

And then the guy sits on our supply bin, like he's making some sort of a statement. What I don't understand is why people can't just comply with the rules. I mean, it's not that hard to shave that day, let alone when someone in shoving a shaver in your hand. He was just trying to be difficult. I love it when that happens.

So, I think I'm going to shower and get ready for the day now. Perhaps finish my letter to Justin and then mail off his and Cj's, which I finished yesterday. Tonight's my night off. Yay. More baby time. I'm excited.

I bought that book

You know, The People Code (formerly known as The Color Code). I started reading it yesterday while waiting in the bookstore for some pictures to be printed off and got so into it that I decided to buy it. I've learned a lot about myself and why I do/don't do the things I do/don't do. Like why I'm writing this blog vs. doing the homework I'm so behind in. I've also learned why some of my relationships are the way they are. I'm very much a white with some blue tendencies. I figured as much... It explains my lack of motivation in almost every situation (homework, planning events, work, etc.) Eh, I'm not going to dwell on that though. Whatever. At least I have the things I need to work on narrowed down.

Also, I got a letter from mike on friday. He told me about the rediculous day of rain, ("No joke, we might as well have jumped in a pool, gotten out, and went and knocked on people's doors. Like anyone's gonna let us in...")
and the getting used to the bike riding, ("All through the MTC I thought it would be cool to be on a bike, but apparently here in this area they don't believe in flat ground. So we're either flying down a hill or going up what feels like an 80 degree slope. I just keep saying in my mind, 'Ooo bring on the blessings!' ")
and the ghettoness of his area ("Our area is totally 'the ghetto.' 85% of the people we talk to or see are black. It's fun, especially since I'm so in touch with my ghetto side. And when there's 2 white boys on bikes that are not-so-ghetto looking, we get a lot of comments. And these aren't like MySpace comments that make you happy. THese are like 'ok, thanks crazy person' comments. So if you want to pass that along to my fmaily, I"m sure they'd enjoy it. If you wanted to put it in a blog, I bet they'd love that. I'm sure you haven't posted since I left.") PSHAW! whatever. But I'm passing along the message, as he asked.
And then he decided he wants to hear about my dating life. Like I'm really going to be telling him about that. How unfocused does the boy want to be? (Not that I'm a dating machine up here or anything. I've only been on one "date" if you can even call it that. It was an assignment for my marriage prep class.) But even then, holy cow, that would just be stupid of me to tell him about any dates I go on. Let's just say, as of now, he has no need to be worrying about that.
Anyways, there are things that need to get accomplished today, and blogging isn't the best way to get those done. I'm such a procrastinator. But hey! Have a lovely day, k?

I'm in geography.

and I brought my laptop to class. I'm totally paying attention though, we're talking about... high manufacturing areas in the United States? anyways. I don't know if hauling my laptop up to campus is really worth it. It's pretty heavy and I was also hauling my scriptures for my new testament class. All in all, pretty much a load of bricks. And I was walking up that massive hill on 5th E and 8th N. ish. goo.
ALSO! I figured today is mike's p-day and I want to be able to read his email asap. Does that make me completely rediculous? I haven't heard from him in over two weeks, so I'm kind of sad about that. Obviously I'm not going to give him a hard time about it because he needs to stay focused and if he doesn't have time to write me, then he doesn't have time. But still.
Work last night was rediculous. Let me just say that supervising lower division women's volleyball is not the most interresting thing to do, especially when I have homework to be doing and can't do it because I'm needlessly "supervising". And then, one team started to care about the net height... I almost lost it. There I was, thinking, "if you're a good enough team to be caring about the height, then adjust! If you're not good enough, then get over it, IT'S INTRAMURALS!" Luckily, I held my tounge and patiently told her that everyone plays at that net height and if I were to change it for them, it would change the advantage for other teams. I might have let, "it's just intramurals..." slip in. She didn't find that too amusing. She retaliated with, "So you're not going to do anything about it?" and I looked her strait in the face and said no. With attitude I might add. Honestly, who do these people think they are that the playing conditions should be changed only for them?! really. suck it up, dang it. Lucky for my sanity, the schedule people saved the upper division for the last hour of the night so I wouldn't go crazy. These are the girls who actually ARE good and have been playing for years. They know the rules and intramural system well enough to check in efficiently and not complain about the rules. And it's interresting to watch. And if I'm allowed to complain about the joys of PMSing, add that to the mix. If not, then never mind.
We are now learning about the agriculture of the United States.

I went to the True Blue today with Natalie, one of my roommates. It was a BLAST! Of course, we took pictures because that's basically the reason why we went. We weren't even going to go in the first place, because I had work and Natalie had class, but two boys from our ward came over and convinced us otherwise. But I've never laughed so hard in my life. ok, maybe I have... but it was fun. And it just occured to me that you people reading this may not know what "true blue" is. Let me explain. They cover the Helamen fields with this blue foam and people play frisbee and flag football and they have a slip in slide, all in this blue foam. I dont exactly know what the blue stuff was, it might have been soap foam, but it did NOT taste good, I know that much from experience. Anyways, it turns your skin blue. I couldn't risk taking my camera on the field, (you could lose it see) it's seriously a foot deep in some places. But I brought it with me, left it in the car, and Natalie and I took pictures afterwards... AFTER we had rinsed off. Here they are!

Or not! I'll post them the next time I go to the library.

Aaaand now it is 11:00 pm. I got back from work about an hour ago and here are some things I've noticed in the past hour.

1) I opened a new box of cocoa puffs yesterday. I threw the empty box away about 5 minutes ago.
2) Mike is such a punk. Wasn't today p-day? So tell me, where's the email?
3) Men's volleyball is SO much more interresting than women's lower division volleyball. Always.
4) Losing 3 chapsticks in one day sucks really bad.
5) I'm still blue in places I don't want to think about.
6) I was supposed to meet with the bishop tonight to get a calling, but I had work and forgot to call them to tell them that.
7) Liberty square internet access SUCKS.
8) I need to print out some pictures to send to missionaries. I have 3 letters waiting for the pictures to go into the envelope so they can be sealed and sent off.
9) Lower division women's volleyball may suck, but it's always better than soccer where I have to stand for 4 hours. At least I get a chair in the gym.
10) I really shouldn't eat an entire box of Cocoa puffs in two days.

ok, so there you have it. The pictures are coming. Just wait, and in the mean time, pray Liberty Square will work out it's internet issues.

scrapbook pages

So I'm at the library and I'm going to attempt to blog the pictures. I have a better internet connection here than I do at my apartment. I was finally able to send pictures via email, but Beth, my email said it wouldn't send to you, so here it is... hopefully. We'll see. This is the final order I got them in as well. It SHOULD be in chronological order. So for all of you who have NOT seen it, here it is in it's final glorious stage. I've decided I think Mike DID get the package. Based off of past letters, I don't think he'd be smart enough to complain about no packages, (I'm getting this from his not sending any of us his address in the email that would reach us so much quicker than the snail mail, not telling us the city he's in, not telling us much of anything besides the fact that he's sore from the waist down... Sorry, that was mean...) so that whole "(JULINA!!)" must have meant he got it. If that made any sense... that's my theory. K! pictures!

mike's email

It was a good email. I wasn't expecting to hear anything for another week and a halfish or so, so that was a pleasant surprise. SO, for all of you who read it, I have one question. The part at the end that says, "packages are nice too, (JULINA!!)" do we think that means he got my package just fine, or he has expected one from me before now and hasn't gotten it? Thoughts?

the grief of a bite.

So, I have this massive, and when I say massive, I mean, like, slightly larger than a baseball sized bug bite on the back of my left calf. And let me tell you, it has caused more grief than any bite ever should. It all started Sunday night when Sarah, Casey Jo and I were playing this game called Famous with 4 girls that live above us and three guys from our ward. We had the front door open because it was so stinkin hot (again, the lack of air conditioning in our apartment is thoroughly frustrating) and of course, a mosquito ("freaking huge moth" as Casey Jo claims) flew in. Casey Jo had it within reach, and not really thinking she could, caught it, and then disgusted, threw it back into the air. And it was still alive... none of us really thought anything of it until I felt a little pinch on the back of my leg... I've always had bad experiences with bugs, so I groaned as I looked down and brushed the bug off. Little to my surprise, Monday morning I woke up with a golf-ball-sized reaction on the back of my leg. All day, I tried to resist scratching and did pretty good... I applied hydrocortisone anti-itch cream all day and did my best.
This morning, I woke up around 8 and started scratching my leg, while still in bed, totally delirious, forgetting what my problem was. Then I looked at it, and again, groaned at the baseball-sized, red and puffy bite. Hannah (my roommate, in case you forgot) said she had some stuff that would take care of it, so I put some on and tried to use all of my self control to just lay on my bed and not think about it.
Then I heard my phone vibrating on my desk. I looked at the number and didn't recognize it, and decided that it was best to not be distracted during my focused non-scratching time, and therefore did not answer. About a minute later, it said I had a message, so I listened to it and this is what it said.

"Hey pretty lady. I can't believe you're not answering your phone. This is Elder Garrard. Right now I'm at the Salt Lake air port. It's almost 8:30. We fly out in a little more than 2 hours. Um, I really wish I could have talked to you. I'll probably call you back before we leave, so, yeah. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

So... yeah. Needless to say, I was pretty ticked off at myself, but more so at the freaking retarded mosquito. I waited for two hours... postponed not only my shower, but even going to the bathroom, but no call. My mom called and I started crying to her about it... a lot of good that did. but hey, there's always Christmas, right? Anyways. That was my morning. I tried to get some homework done, but I wasn't really focused. ah, my life is so great right now.

Preocupied in Provo

So, I've been attempting to blog pictures for the past week and a half ish... and Provo must hate me and my computer habits. I could post pictures in Vegas, but not here. I don't know what it is, but there you have it. Last night, I made caramel brownies and then pulled an all-nighter in order to finish Mike's scrapbook. I think it turned out pretty good. And I took pictures of all the pages, but a fat load of good that's gonna do anyone now seeing as I can't blog them or email them out. Anyways, I had also bought a tape recorder, and I made him a little tape as well... When it was all done this morning, I called my cousin Emily, who teaches Italian in the MTC and she delivered the book, brownies and tape to the mail office for me. There's a chance he got it today, but it's more likely he'll get it monday, which is kind of unfortunate, but there you have it. (which I have noticed I now say a lot... "there you have it...") Also, I got his first two letters today that had been lost somewhere in the system. They finally got to me. That was kind of a weird experience; reading things I already knew about, but hearing him saying it. (rather, reading him write it, but I read with his voice in mind, that's where I get it.) I almost felt like I could read his feeling overwhelmed. They were short, but good. And that contributed to another rough day with Casey Jo and I. We both sat and gave ourselves pity parties for missing our boys. But it was ok. They normally don't last that long and we end up telling funny stories and laughing it off anyways. So all in all, a healthy emotional day for me. Anyways, it's late and I want to attempt to catch up on my sleep again before I have to start another week of school.

palindromes.

Today was like the first day of school... because I only had volleyball yesterday. I started out the day with Geography, which is looking like it won't be terrible. The professor seems really nice. She's not going to try and trick you in the tests you know?, and she'll prepare you as best as she can. Then I had New Testament with Brother Robert Millet. He is SUCH a great professor of religion. He knows everything. I know I'm going to love that class. He taught my book of mormon class last fall. Then I went to marriage prep. I've never laughed so much while being so scared. It's taught by a brother barlow, who's hilarious, but he guarentees a 50% marriage rate from the students in the class. And it's not that I'm not really worried, but the statistic kind of scared me. And in the middle of class, he told us to look around at all of those of the opposite sex within a 5 foot radius, and said, "of you 50%, some of you might be marrying one of these who you're looking at... Anyone want to move?" That was pretty funny and everyone laughed, but I didn't see who was sitting exactly behind me. Turns out it's this RM RA from my ward last year, and he stoped me and said hi and said he didn't remember my name and I told him and he said, "hastings right?" k, how often is it that someone remembers your last name but not your first? Awkward. Anyway, I didn't remember his name, so he told me, and I didn't know what building my next class was in so he walked me there... he's totally not my type, not like I'm looking anyways, but after the lecture brother Barlow gave us, I had to laugh at the situation. Then I went to what I thought was statistics, but it ended up being a book of mormon class... it took me almost 10 minutes to realize it though. And don't laugh, it was decieving!! There were math problems on the board and all we had done was sing an opening song and had a prayer (not like that would be odd for a statistics class at BYU anyways.) and then he started talking about the demographics of the class a little bit and how he ran it and then he said, "we've been asked by the department to ask all the returned missionaries to leave, since this is a pre-mission book of mormon class" and I turned to the girl next to me and asked, "did he really just say book of mormon class?" and she said yes and I asked, "this isn't statistics in room 1102?" and she said, "no that's next door." So... retarded me... I guess that's what happens after the jolting experience I had in Marriage prep. So I totally missed everything that happened in that class, but oh well. The walk home was lovely. I was just hoping I wouldn't get poured on, its been raining on and off. And I didn't. So it was good. But theres this HUGE hill I have to walk up and down every day, (at least it's better than the huge set of stairs) and the huffing and puffing totally makes me aware of how out-of-shapely I am. Anyways, I did some laundry and Sarah and I made some delish chicken and pasta... She wanted corn for our vegitable... I like corn, but it takes an awkward digestive track. Whatever, I told her she could choose, so there you have it. The bishopric came to visit. That was fun. And for the past hour or so, I've been talking and laughing hysterically with my roommate Hannah. Who's name is a palaindrom. Like racecar, or level.

update! on life.

DISCLAIMER:
Beth, this may sound really familiar. Yes. I did copy and paste (and then edit) some of my email to you into this blog so I wouldn't have to re-type the general news. You can skim over the familiar stuff. Or skim over it all if you so choose. Whatever.

So... I'm moved in. mostly. The rooms still aren't done. I think that's mostly what I was waiting for... to be totally done so I could post pictures. but whatever. It's not that important and as soon as the apartment IS done, you'll all be the first to see it. k? wonderful. We set up our living room and chose to go with the whole green/beige/black color scheme. We went to Wal-Mart and got some really cute green couch covers because the couches we have are hideous, (of course) and Casey had tons of black picture frames she wasn't using so we arranged them cutely on our wall. yes I just made up the word cutely. They also bought black and beige pillows for the couch. All-in-all, it's going to turn out really really cute and I'm pretty excited about it. Again, pictures as soon as it's done.

YESTERDAY! was a wonderful day. yesterday, I got my first letter from my missionary. I had written him through dearelder.com, (a nice way to send letters for free to missionaries in the MTC) and he got that monday, and he was responding to that. He said he had already written me, but that if I hadn't gotten it, that it was probably just lost in the mail system somewhere. I'm thinking that IS what happened because we weren't receiving any mail during the first 3 or 4 days we were here. So, it's a good thing I did get a letter yesterday, because I was starting to get a little depressed with the whole situation. It was a really good letter... mostly just telling me about his schedule, and how the sister missionaries get all the mail... a completely unfair situation. PSH! I've talked to the Garrards, so I know he's getting stuff. Whatever. Liar. Anyways, his letter not only brought a few tears (of joy, of course) but also sent me on an hour long tangent about how mike and I met, and all about our relationship to my new roommate... HANNAH GEARHEART! Luckily she's not the kind of girl who's gonna get annoyed with my stories. hopefully. sweet girl.

I went to a "retreat" for my job here as an intramural supervisor. Phil Kelly, my boss, says it's mostly to get to know all the other supervisors so we can "bond" and "enjoy work" when we go. Happy employees make happy work, right? So this all occured last wednesday through friday morning ish. Wednesday was hard just because we had a ton of free time that we were supposed to use for "bonding" and there is 30 of us... I dunno, I really had to go out of my comfort zone to talk to complete strangers, half of which already knew each other and were already friends. Thursday was easier because we had less free time and I didn't have to meet as many new people. All we really did Friday was wake up, eat breakfast, vaccuum and had a last minute "announcement session." Then we came home. So I got back to my house around 9:30 am. Not too bad. The evenings were hardest, just because I would be tired from the days activities, and... other reasons.. I had to spend a few minutes to myself wednesday night because I was so tired and stressed... not too fun. All in all though, it was ok. Not a complete waste of time.

SO. I went to visit Erin, Sarah, Stacy and Howard Garrard who had all come up for Swiss days last night. There wasn't a parking space available under the house so we all decided it would be a good idea to park next door in the school parking lot. hehe. right. So after spending a lovely hour and a half ish with them, and watching Sarah's stelthy MTC goodbye video (I don't know why I decided to watch that there... eh, oh well) and sheding a few tears, I left to leave. Erin walked me out to make sure there wasn't a boot on my car or anything, and low and behold...

k, I was gonna paste the picture here, but that didn't work... LAME. but uh, yeah, there was a boot on my car. Erin did her best, but alas, we were cut NO break. anyways. long story short, it's 12:20 and I've got 9 am church. and with 6 of us to shower... I've got to get up early. so. there you have it.

Thanks again for breakfast Brother Garrard! it was delish.