DAY 27

i have never been so bold in all my life.

it's not like me at all.

also, i remembered my paper was due today and i pumped out 7 pages in 3 hours!
BOOYAH GRAMMA

hurry up santa! i want to go home!

DAY 22

two more days of fall semester 2008 and i am doing ok actually. i have so much to do, it is 3:20 in the AM, i have a paper to write after this paper, but i feel ok and i'm not really worried about it. my body is starting to hurt though.

my to do:
meet w/ lavay and write my service experience
write about 8 service hours for intro to health professions....blah
finish this english theory paper
2 cultural activity write-ups for french
study for 291 exam
read "moll flanders" before thurs morning
take 291 exam!
buy william's bday present tomorrow
send william's bday present by tomorrow
call liz
study for french test/take it tomorrow
call mom
sleep by friday
study study study
test test test
booty booty booty

but then it's christmas!



back to work...

DAY 18

things are getting so busy. pretty sure the world wants you to hate everything before you settle down to enjoy christmas. but i have managed to get in the spirit anyway! i've watched "white christmas" twice already and last night i went to see the play "a christmas carol" with an interactive open stage and everything. it was really fun! and i surprised myself and cried! i guess i've never really thought about how much that play relates to the Atonement but last night it was really ringing true for me how living like the Savior can completely change our natures and make us so much more happy. it's the reason for the season. and our existence. after that we went to Pudding on the Rice and it was semi-good. i still can't decide.

i've kind of let time slip by so here is a montage of internet-found pics that represent what i've been doing lately:

going to work/looking at webcomics



checking the mail

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=1359+New+Market+Rd.+Richmond,+VA+23231&sll=37.926868,-95.712891&sspn=27.813362,79.101563&ie=UTF8&ll=37.483525,-77.394326&spn=0.007271,0.019312&t=h&z=16&g=1359+New+Market+Rd.+Richmond,+VA+23231&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=37.482047,-77.394194&panoid=qpzttHZ1E1ZEzzAd8_E0PQ&cbp=12,241.79459669429332,,0,-2.727462218765226

wanting to go here

DAY 12

this blog is off because i do it so late it counts for the day before. :( yesterday, saturday, the whole fam dambly went up to salt lake to see the christmas lights. it was b-yootiful. again, i was wanting my camera to work but i realize now that rechargeable batteries must be charged even before you use them. what a hoax! time is money and i feel a little robbed so far. or william was a little robbed so far.

anyway, today, sunday, not really today because that would be monday, was alright. this girl holly in my ward invited me to eat lunch with her and some boys that she liked came too. then damon picked me up and i had a regular mcneil sunday sans maderin :( but like i was one o' the gang. it was so nice. what a sweet sweet nice fun nice family. also the rolls were SLAMMIN'! i must f'real get that recipe.

my friend ian just rode over on his bike in 34 degrees of coooold to make sure i could watch 'motorcycle diaries' before tomorrow. what a guy. i hope he is showered with blessings and christmas spirit.

and now i must start/finish my 3 page paper. yes, i know what time it is. goodnight kind of!

DAY 10

i wish my blog didn't look so boring. i wanted to take pictures of the feast and family yesterday but my camera wasn't working :(

i've been so lazy lately. my whole body clock is off! look at me! it's almost 2 in the morning! the wisest peeps have been asleeps for hours! when i finish this i'm climbing into bed. literally. i have the top bunk. its kind of an ordeal.

i watched some of 'elf' at tua's house with the fam. i hung out there all day. we went to the mall around 8 with the kids. they are the cutest little buttons i know. then we watched 'get smart' when we got home. i'm grateful for family: brothers/sisters, mummas/papas, old/new.

DAY 9

happy franksgiving!

today i am grateful for:
- little bitty babies
- mashed potatoes
- tiny sugar houses
- a warm bed to fall into

goodnight already!

DAY 8

yesterday marks a month til christmas, and less than that til i get to go back to the home of my heart: richmond. i'm excited :D

today i was really independent mostly because there was nobody around. most of my roommates left last night to go home for thanksgiving and so i had the day to myself.
i went to the library and read some and flipped through magazines.
i walked to the store and bought a few things since my cashflow will only permit a few things, and carried them all home.
i watched my whole lauryn hill dvd.


it was a really therapeutic day in some respects. in other respects it was lonely. i was by myself the whole time. plus i haven't heard one peep from william for a week now. his p-day was yesterday i know and today i still only got coupon catalogs in the mail. i brought them inside and stomped on them for a little bit. i'm not crazy.
i sent him a package yesterday so it got there today-finally with my return address. i can't really understand why we didn't work that out beforehand. anyway, i hope it doesn't take another week for him to respond. this week, a day felt like a week. so something needs to happen.

the good news is: sara got here tonight. i spent most of the night hanging out at tua's with everybody. it was fun, tomorrow is looking even better.

in other news: my dad is on facebook.
(note to self: take down those pictures of me "freak dancing".)

DAY 7

today i took a piece of my old pita bread over to the ducks for a little treat. i feel bad for feeding them but these particular ducks are so far gone anyway, i decided it was more an issue of original sin for whoever fed them first. plus they are so cute.

anyway it was so funny! they all came up and then i started throwing bread to them while i circled the pond and they swam all around the edges. i almost wish i had been watching me do it. that's how cute i bet it was.

DAY 5 - DAY 6

the internet at my mansion house was out last night so i couldnt blarg. i'm not really looking forward to staying here next semester but i don't want to move either so i'm just not thinking about it right now.

last night lori, rach, and rob came over for cocoa and fun. oanh briefly brought brownies. it was really nice. it feels good to be among friends. i feel lonely for one person but not lonely all around.

BUT i started/finished my first letter to william. he hasn't written me yet and i thought it was because he didn't know my address, but now i think it's because he's just been too busy. his p day's on tuesday so i'll have to wait and see i guess...

this is a quote by salvador dali that i've been thinking about lately:
"Intelligence without ambition is like a bird without wings."

here is another quote by dali:
"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it."

here is another one:
"I don't do drugs. I am drugs."

maybe what i most want to get out of my english lit major is to become a "character" myself. i envy eccentric people.

DAY 4

today went smooth and easy.

firstly, i love working at the library. i might want to do it for the rest of my life as long as i could be in there every day. i already have 6 books at home ready to be read over thanksgiving break.

then at 6 i was off and i borrowed "dave chappelle's block party" from a guy in my ward and just finished watching it with madeline. IT WAS SO GOOD. i knew it would be. if i could i would be lauryn hill. be her.


i dont know why but watching block party just now kind of gave me a little more hope in humanity. there's so much that's violent and awful in the world and it's powerful to see people come together, wanting to uplift each other. more and more lately i've been trying to route out how i could become the type of famous person that inspires by music? art? pen?

i'm content to sit back and listen/learn for now but i hope one day when i'm older and wiser i'll have stored enough sense to say something worth listening to.

oooh la la la

DAY 3

today at work i only had a few minutes left, so i started to help this girl in children's finish the rest of her cart. after a few minutes i approached the cart at the same time she did and said good-naturedly, "how's it going?" to which she responded:
"no offense, and i'm having a really bad day, but i really prefer doing carts by myself because you're over there, she's over there, and there's no room for me to be and i just feel useless..." [this is when she grabs a chair and tries to move it past another girl but she does it too hastily and drops it] ...she comes back over to me, who is still flabbergasted at the cart and says "ok well...would you mind finishing it for me? i just don't have the patience for this right now." then she stormed away.

wow. wow! i thought i was having it kind of rough. and i've lost it (crying) at work before but it was awful enough for me to never let it happen again. anyway, i wrote her a note and left it in her locker. i hope hope hope her name is kat. i think it is but if not, stranger, i am truly sorry. but have a great weekend!

DAY 2

was hard. I woke up and put some laundry in. Ate a muffin that my sweet roommates left out for me with a note.

I met Briana, and a few other people at the MOA Cafe for lunch. It was light because I'm broke. Then I tried to read some for my class at 1:30. Not very successful.

I came home and checked my email. Looked at pictures on facebook and then I had to be at work by 4:00. It's really a blessing to be working again. Heaven knows I need the money and it's taking up a lot of time that I would be sulking in my room I think. I don't really think that me getting my job back again was a coincidence.


I like it there.


This guy Jeff in my ward asked me if I wanted to see "The Dark Knight" at the dollar theatre with him and his roommates. It was a good distraction I guess but so depressing and intense. I should have seen Twilight maybe. They dropped me off after and I realized my keys were locked inside my house. I ran around to the side door to try to get in and so they wouldn't see me standing there knocking. Whitney and Chelsey turn in around 10 so I figured they would be out of it. Luckily, I walked over to Jaime's house and the baby was keeping them awake at all hours so they were up when I knocked on the door. We talked about today and I told them it was hard and I was sad. Then I fell asleep on their floor until Madeline called and picked me up at 2:30 to come back home.

Now I'm in my pjs and so so ready to sleep. I felt so strange all day. I'm hoping that first letter will lift my spirits. I'm probably not as sad as I sound, I hope. Just need a lift.
I can't think of anyone I'd rather get a letter from.

DAY 1

today marks the start of something very good.

i have been setting an alarm when i get in the shower so i only take 15 min. to save time! but i always have to reach my hand out and press the snooze button. i took 30 min today.

at 9 we went to see eric paat (one of william's missionaries from c-ville) sashay those hips for his dance exam, then

at 10 we all walked over to the marb for mission prep with brother randy bott, where william announced his mission call to the class. bro. bott asked me if i would wait in front of the whole class and i said yes and i really meant it.

at 11 we walked back to eric's house and got william's bags. then we went to taco bell for a quick bite of the last fake mexican food william will have in a long time.

at about 12, we pulled up to a massive crowd at the MTC. we dropped off our luggage and found the fam, took pictures, and filed in for the big show. i started getting weepy before the meeting even started, but they were tears for a good cause at least. it was hard to take it all in because i was so anxious about saying goodbye, but soon the prayer was over, and we stood up slow and shook hands and looked at each other with big watery eyes and knew it would be really hard but very very worth it.


i came home and cried and cried and then walked to a lecture about optometry. it was a solitary walk but i know all my weird feelings will go away soon.
after class, to help my grief pangs, i went to dearelder.com and wrote my first note to the best/cutest missionary to ever set sail for LA.


i really am excited to see what happens and as someone's mom would say all i have to do now is take each day and "untie the ribbons"