My Submission to My Family Newsletter

What I am supposed to be doing: Writing an essay about Baroque concertos and suites for the BYU Independent Study class that I'm taking - Music 101.
What I am actually doing: Writing this Robertson Review entry, with my textbook open next to me, hoping that the essay will write itself.

What I am supposed to be listening to: Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5 and Orchestra Suite #3
What I am actually listening to: The soundtrack from Battlestar Galactica, because it's that cool.

How I as an almost-legal adult am supposed to feel about Pottermore (JK Rowling's newest project, which was announced this morning): "Oh, cool."
How I actually feel about Pottermore: GAHOHMYGOGGLESNOWAYTHISISTHECO

OLESTTHINGEVEROMGIMGONNADIETHISISSOCOOL *fangirl seizure*


What I'm supposed to say when people ask me if I like Louisiana: "Yeah, it's great, the people are really friendly, and it's so green!" (That is all true, btw.)
What I feel like saying when people ask me if I like Louisiana:


Things I, as a teenage girl, should apparently get excited about: Prom, drugs, getting completely wasted in college, jewelry, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, alcohol, Twilight, tea, Justin Bieber, random raps in the middle of songs, boys who have tons of muscles, Glee, New York City, more alcohol and Matthew MacFayden
This I actually get excited about: BBC Sherlock, Doctor Who, Harry Potter, The fact that The Hobbit stars Martin Freeman and has Benedict Cumberbatch in it, BBC/PBS Mysteries, song with really cool rhythms, Joss Whedon's Firefly, pudding, Simon Woods, really awesome soundtracks, boys who are really smart, David Tennant's nose and smile, Cardiff, did I mention that The Hobbit will be so freaking cool, grammar jokes


Things I should have nightmares about: sharks, grizzly bears, falling, showing up to school in my underwear
Things that I actually have nightmares about: being press-ganged into suicide bombing standardized tests, very powerful and distressed small children in gas masks, snakes, Korihor from the Book of Mormon


Things I should find funny but don't: Primetime TV, blonde jokes
Things I should not find funny but do:


Thing I am supposed to find cute: That talking dog from Up!
Thing I actually find cute: The entire Dr. Harrison/Sophy plot in Cranford

Hours I should be sleeping (according to my family): 9pm-6am
Hours I am actually sleeping: 2:30am-9am (Oh I do love summer)

Things that have happened in my life that do fit into this format: See above
Things that have happened in my life that (until now) did not fit in this format: I registered for classes at BYU, I've been along for the ride for buying a house, I've done laundry and dishes and non-interesting stuff.


Well, I'm off to fight crime, find horcruxes, destroy the ring of power, get the Lamanite guards drunk, lead the human race to a new planet, solve murders, and if I have time after that, I'll write that music essay.

Just Remembered

And now that I've just posted that last post, I've remembered stuff that has happened.

1. Pottermore. I'll post my reflections once we find out what it is.
2. Went to Vicksburg with the family. I'm not a huge fan of historical sites.
3. Watched Daniel Deronda.
4. Watched The Big Bang Theory.
5. Watched Firefly. Definitely like it a lot.
6. Watched March of the Penguins; fell asleep.
7. Watched a documentary on credit card debt.
8. Got laughed at for asking for a veggie burger at a steakhouse.
9. My mother keeps volunteering me for things without asking me and it's really driving me crazy.
10. Signed up for classes at BYU.

Nothing Happens To Me

What can I say? Nothing's been happening. I work on music, I watch
Doctor Who, I kickbox.

Mom and Dad put an offer on a house. Hopefully it works out.

I feel like John Watson, from Sherlock.

"Writing a blog about everything that happens to you will honestly help you."
"Nothing happens to me."

I went for a run in the rain this morning. It felt nice. Now I'm just plugging away at Music essays again, wishing I could be watching Sherlock.

At least I've got my shock blanket here.

Moving

Thursday
We got ready to leave. Did lots of laundry, lots of packing, lots of last-minute stuff. I took a few hours to go on a walk with Olivia, and eventually say goodbye to her. That was a difficult goodbye. I've been trying to stay too busy to think about how much I miss everyone, though.

Friday
Mom and Dad sent Ariel and I out to redeem coupons for free stuff - namely, donuts and chicken sandwiches. It was good to get out of the house and out of the way as they finished packing. Ariel and I got the donuts (they had donuts named after Bismarck!) and sandwiches, and then we bid our house farewell and started driving. I drove the Honda with Ariel, and Mom and Dad took the Toyota. Ariel and I had a good time driving fast, listening to music, chatting, singing to music, and just being silly. We stoppped at a Subway for lunch, continued driving, and finally reached Amarillo, which was really boring. We went out for sushi in Amarillo, which was quite nice (I love tofu curry), and then slept.

Saturday
Same driving arrangements. Departed from Amarillo. Listened to more music. Ariel read articles from Cracked.com to me. More singing, fun-having, etc. We also discussed stories we are writing/wantt to write, one of which is together. It's actually the sequel to the novel that I'm working on and will hopefully finish this summer. We arrived in Dallas. Mom and Dad went to the temple, while Ariel and I hung out at the hotel pool, discussing characters in our stories. Then we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which was many kinds of delicious, and then returned to the hotel and fell asleep.

Sunday
Went to church in Dallas. The ward we attended had a whole lot of young men, and one of them looked like a dark-haired version of Aladdin. He was also really cute - even Ariel thought so! He may have also had an Australian accent, so church was more interesting than usual. After church, the family packed up and departed Dallas, with Dad driving Ariel and Mom driving me. Mom and I listened to the entirety of Handel's Messiah and also most of the The Importance of Being Earnest (yay for YouTube in the car!). We finally arrived in Monroe, and unpacked, ate, unpacked more, and collapsed on our beds, exhausted after so much travel.

Monday
Went house-hunting. Was bored. Very bored. Did not shoot any walls. Went to Wal-Mart. Still bored. Am now blogging. More stuff is due to happen later today. Hopefully it'll be interesting.

Last Days in the 303

Monday
Bolder Boulder! My family and I got up early, drove to Boulder, and ran the Bolder Boulder - one of the biggest 10k races in the world. I ran with Ariel, and we had a good time! Ariel actually goes through the five stages of grief when we run: first she's in denial that we're actually running, and then she gets angry about it, which is kind of funny. Then she'll begin the bargaining ("I'll run the next kilometer if we can walk the next half kilometer!"), and then the grief sets in ("I can't do this, Sam!"). I drag her across the finish line, and then she hits stage five: acceptance. After running the race, we got our food, and I downed about 15oz of free soymilk, which was lovely. Then we walked a long way back to our car, drove home, showered, and Ariel and I watched the first half hour of A Study in Pink with commentary. Then Ariel skedaddled to go out with her friend's family, and I went to a barbecue at my friend Mindy's house, which was wonderful. We sat around, talked, ate so much food that Katie and I got huge food babies, then ate some more, and laughed a lot. Olivia eventually showed up, and we watched How To Train Your Dragon, which Katie absolutely adored. It's a very cute movie. After that, we played through an entire deck of cards in Taboo, which was aboslutely hilarious and strangely Sherlock-related. Then I got lost on the way out of Mindy's neighborhood, and was thankful to have learned my way around Louisville back when I dated Dr. Baltar and Aladdin.

Tuesday
On Tuesday, Ariel and I went to Olivia's house, along with Katie, Mindy, Kelly and Kate for a sushi lunch. I ate enough sushi to shock everyone else (it was really good!), and then we ate more strawberries and ice cream and Nutella. Fantastic way to do lunch. Then we watched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, which was horrendous. Olivia and Katie have long tried to convince me that 2005's drunken-sailor-Darcy is hotter than 1995's proper-Jew-fro-Darcy, and they have failed. The 2005 version was waaay to short, and the characterization was awful, and the only thing that was better in the 2005 version was how cute Mr. Bingley is. I absolutely adore Simon Woods, though he was better in Cranford, when he didn't have the Edward-Cullen hair. After Pride and Prejudice, we pillow-fought and tickle-fought, and then walked to the park nearby. We hung out there for a while, just talking, swinging, rolling down the grassy hill, throwing grass at each other, and lazing in the sun. Then Mindy took Ariel and I home for a few hours. For dinner, I met Olivia at the grocery store, and we bought dinner and stuff for smores and took them to Katie's house, since Katie has a fire pit. We sat around the fire with Katie and Kate and made smores and talked for a few hours. Olivia had never made proper smores before, so it was time well spent. Then we went back to King Soopers for cheap raspberries for breakfast the next morning, and then spent the night in sleeping bags in my backyard. It was also Olivia's first near-camping experience.

Wednesday
We woke up in the morning, and after rolling around a bit, actually got out of our sleeping bags. We packed up, ate breakfast (berries!), and took turns showering in my shower. We did each others' nails, played the piano and sang songs, and then Mindy, Kelly and Heidi showed up to my house. We went to Qdoba and Chipotle, got our burritos, and took them to the park by my house, where we ate and hung out for a few hours. Then we repaired to my house, drank some juice, and I started throwing stuff in the freezer into a fruit smoothie, which didn't turn out too badly. We talked and watched videos on YouTube for a while, which was lovely. Then my girls had to go, and we said goodbye for a few months - until I come back to Colorado. Ever since then, I've been running around getting ready to, you know, move, in a couple days. Stressful times.

Last Week Happened

Monday
Sherlock Day! Tim, Heidi, Kate, Katie, Tom, Olivia, Allyson, Mindy and Kelly came over to my house to watch all three episodes of BBC Sherlock. We started our day off with a run to Wal-Mart, where we bought enough orange fleece for ten large shock blankets, much to the confusion of the staff helping us there. We then watched A Study in Pink. After a quick run to Noodles & Co., we made the blankets and watched The Blind Banker and The Great Game. So good! Then we ran to King Soopers for dinner and played Chronology, which was lots of fun!

Tuesday
Tuesday was a much more mellow day. I helped my mom figure out her new phone, went for a run, helped clean up the house, and went to my last Mutual activity ever, where we played some board game, ate a cake with our faces on it, and talked a lot.

Wednesday
I drove my mother and sister around to various activities, and then picked Hannah up for the final installment of our Lord of the Rings experience. The Return of the King was absolutely fantastic, and Aragorn is still quite attractive.

Thursday
Ariel aced her last final at Peak to Peak, and we celebrated never having to see the place again. I went to the rec center with Mom and Ariel. I got to bake with Olivia and Katie, which was lovely. We made these chocolate lava cake things - Olivia's idea - and then ran off to get a pair of sunglasses for Olivia before her weekend trip to Moab for kung-fu.

Friday
Went for another run. I wrote my talk for Sacrament Meeting on the meaning of life. There was a block party, so I socialized there for a while, and ate a lot of food. Then I picked up Allyson and took her to my house, and we basically just sat on my couch and talked and laughed for a few hours. It was really nice to spend time with her - I'm so glad we're both going to BYU.

Saturday
I went for a run - again. I also went to a last-supper sort of deal for Tim, because Saturday was his last day in Colorado - he's going to work in Nebraska over the summer. We went to a Thai place, and had a lovely last lunch together. Then Allyson, Kate and I returned to Heidi's house and ended up discussing religion for a few hours with Heidi and her sister. Allyson fell asleep. :) I invited them all to the Mormon dance that night. I dropped Allyson off at her house, and then picked up Tyler. We watched A Study in Scarlet. Then Heidi came by for the Mormon dance, and at the last minute, we decided to invite a set of brothers that we know from school to the dance. Heidi also knows them from running. Ariel says I should call the older one Bill Clinton and the younger one Ralph Nader. They both have strong political opinons, and apparently Bill Clinton does a really good... well, Bill Clinton impression. Anyway, we had a ton of fun at the dance! There was one kid who knew the entire "All the Single Ladies" dance, which was amazing! After we took Bill Clinton and Ralph Nader home from the dance, Bill Clinton told me that a song he had recently written was actually for me, which was really sweet of him. :D

Sunday
My entire family had to speak in Church. Ariel and I spoke about the meaning of life. My mom spoke about prayer, and her talk was really good. My dad spoke about fasting, which was also really good. My dad said the official good-bye to the congregation for us, and I totally felt like we were the VonTrapp family from the Sound of Music. He mentioned that we wouldn't be seeing anyone from the congregation for a long time, and it totally sounded like Captain VonTrapp's speech right before the family runs away after the music festival. A lot of people said they liked our talks, which was good! We then auf-wiedersehen-ed, and had a family meeting where we planned the rest of our week. Then Mr. Bingley came over to watch The Blind Banker, which was good fun. After he left, I went hiking with my family, thus furthering the Sound of Music parallelism.