21. Evaluation

I am glad for this assignment. At first, I thought that it would be burdensome and long but I found that I liked writing these blogs. There were just days where my blog came in handy for me to expel some of the things that were floating around in my head, and I found that I expressed myself. After writing these blogs, I feel like my life is a little more organized in my head, and that I have a place to expel feelings and things that are just stuck in my head. I hope that my blog has helped others in some small way. I also hope that I provided some entertainment. I am going to try and plan and write more blogs and use it more as a open journal. Thanks Sis. Steadman!

20. The End of the Semester

The end is coming. Not of the world. I don't believe in the end of the world coming in 2012. Please, that's just the end of the Mayan Calendar. No one should ever be able to predict the end of the world. Anyway, the end is near for us. This is semester is ending quite soon. All there is after this last week is finals. I shudder at that word. But this is the end of the old, and the end of the Freshman Academy that everyone has come to love and enjoy. This is the end to eight o'clock chemistry everyday. This is the end of seeing the familiar faces everyday. This is the end of the semester. I didn't realize how fast it was coming to an end. But I am glad that I chose to come to BYU. I am glad to have met all of those who have helped me through the semester with tests, and with homework. I look forward to the incoming semester and for the much needed break that will becoming next week. Good luck to all on your finals. And have a very Merry Christmas!

19. Drive

Outside there is much snow. And many people from out of state have never seen this wonderful, fluffy, white stuff that falls from the sky. I'm lucky, I have lived in Idaho my entire life, and I have seen plenty of snow. I am also a very fortunate person, that I get a ride to school every morning. But this morning was very a very different morning from the rest that we've had this past school year. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground and none of my friends, who both happen to be guys, have no idea how to handle their vehicles with this much snow, especially the one friend from Southern California. So they both turned to me, and they asked me to drive them to school. What a change in events. Most guys would not allow a girl to drive their car, no matter what the situation. But in this case, these two guy friends of mine, allowed their female, and not to mention Asian, friend drive them through the snow.

18. Music

Has there ever been a song in your head? One that you might now particularly like, but one you've heard recently and it just won't leave? Well, I have. It's rather obnoxious. This morning, I had a Celion Dion song stuck in my head. Not a good choice for the early morning and with classes to begin in a short matter of time. I did the only thing that I could think of and plugged in my iPod and listened to the first song that came on. And luckily that helped with the struggle to relieve my head of unwanted music. And I carried on my day without any good music, just the random thoughts in my head. Hopefully, I have just given you a remedy to that song that gets stuck in your head.

17. More Snow

As I woke up again this fine morning, I looked out to see even more snow. This has to be one of the best days that I have had down here in Provo. I love the snow and the forecast for the rest of the week says that there will be snow for the next two days and then a relief. I don't care so much about the stopping of snow. I just love the snow. The even better part of snow, is that Sundance got tons and tons of snow. It will be perfect for its opening on Dec. 11. Just in time for finals. So I don't know if I will get the chance to go boarding this fine week. Hopefully all will go well with my finals and maybe get a chance to go boarding before I head for home for the holidays.

16. Finally!

As always, I slept in on Sunday morning. It's a good thing that I don't have church until two in the afternoon, or I would almost always be late for church. But this morning when I woke, I looked outside and I saw the most amazing sight. It was snowing! Finally! I have been waiting for this weather for ages. I love the snow, not so much the cold, but I can deal with the cold. Finally, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. The snow always makes me want to put on the Christmas music and sing all the good Christmas music. Which is what I am doing right now. Thank goodness for snow and the beauty that it brings to the world. I do feel bad for the people from warm climates that move to Utah. They aren't used to this white Christmas, and some haven't even seen the snow. Oh well, it's too bad for them. I am glad that the snow is finally here.

15. Thanksgiving Break

I love no school. I was so glad that we had Thanksgiving break. I went home to the great land of Burley, Idaho. I missed the fields and the wide open spaces. I missed my dogs and of course my family. They were equally thankful that I was able to come home and spend about six days with them. That's the longest I'd been home since I moved down to Provo. There was so much food! My mom is the best cook in the entire world. I was so tired of making things for myself, which usually ended up in cold cereal or maybe a sandwich. But when I went home, I was treated like a queen. They fed me every meal and had never been so full, happy and so very tired. I even saw some of my old friends. I was greeted with open arms and welcomed home. Going to my home ward was an experience. All the people in the ward swarmed around me, and they all asked questions like, "How is the Y?" "How are your classes?" "Got a boyfriend yet?" I grew very weary of all the questions, so going home and being alone was nice. But being back in Provo, is a different feeling altogether. It is a feeling of being independent. But truly, I think I'd rather be back in Burley, with my family, even if it is for a short visit.

14. One Weekend

Alright, I thought this through and I am going to tell you all about an experience that I had a couple of weekends ago. Thursday morning at 12:10, I went and saw "New Moon" and I was out till 3 AM. "Lovely," I thought, "I get to have three hours of sleep and then wake up and go to eight o'clock class." And I did just that. Then Friday after I finished up my classes at one that afternoon, I took a three hour nap, I woke up and went over to my friend's place, where she had asked me to help her get ready for her date, which I did help her. She happily went out on her date promptly at seven o'clock that evening. Remember, seven o'clock pm, it's important. My other friend was a work until 11 and so I went back to my apartment and did some mindless things until my friend returned home from work. When she did come home from work, we popped in "He Just Not Into You" and my friend and I fell asleep within the first twenty minutes. I slept till one thirty am and woke up to see if my other friend had returned home from her date, I discovered that she had not, and I freaked out, and then went back to sleep. Then then my friend's (the one I was watching the movie with) roommate came in and woke me up at two thirty am, and she said that my friend on a date had not come home yet. So at that point I went back to my apartment to sleep in my nice warm bed. I was woken up once again at four forty-five am, to my phone ringing. It was none other than my friend who had been on a date, she needed a place to stay since she didn't have her key and she was locked out. I let her in and then we both went to sleep.
It was the worst night for sleep in the entire world. When I added up all the sleep that I got, I got about twelve and a half hours, but it was not good sleep. So all of Saturday, I was the grouchiest person in the entire world. All thanks to my friend!

13. The final

I am actually pretty pumped for this final. It's a test that I don't need to study so much for. I just need that outline and to showcase what I learned in Eng 150. Way easy in my opinion. People back home have told me that I do an excellent job of doing speeches and performing. That may seem hard to believe but I kind of enjoy it too. The hard part of the final is picking something to tell everyone that I learned. Maybe I will pick how to write a thesis. I don't know, I'm a bit clueless as to what to pick. Oh well, I do have a week to figure it out. I hope I figure it out so that I can make it very humorous. I love to make people laugh. That way, it doesn't matter if you make a fool of yourself.

12. Personal Narrative

I did enjoy writing the personal narrative. It's kind of fun to look back on some of the things that you've done and look at them in a new light. In my narrative, I realized that my mom was right in having me switch schools. It's been a great experience for me to graduate with people who love me for me and they are still my friends today. However, I wish that I could still write a narrative that has nothing to do with a moral. Just a story that makes people laugh. Maybe I should become a children's book writer. I don't know, that sounds pretty good right now since I have to take so many biology courses just to get the career that I want. Anyway, I did enjoy reading other people's blogs with their personal narratives on it. It opened up a chance for me to see what made you, you. Every narrative I read was well written and I wish I had tried harder to know you. Keep up the good writing!

11. The Refiner's Fire

This is my draft, it isn't quite finished please feel free to write any comments about it and if it is too wordy please let me know. Happy blogging and reading. Oh and a Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Growing up in Burley, Idaho, there isn’t much diversity in who you get to go to school with. From age five to thirteen, I didn’t know anyone else outside Minidoka County. But then, my mom got her English degree, and that meant that she wanted to return to the work force. She chose to teach English, and she began to apply to many of the local schools in the area and to my dismay, she sent her resume to Burley High School, home of the dreaded, mangy, and green Bobcats. I was so shocked and disappointed that she would even to apply to that school, the school that had large cats and were green. There was no other high school for me besides Minico High School, home of the glorious, majestic, and toned Spartans. Plus to add to it, that’s where all of my friends were going, there was no way I was going to leave my friends whom I loved so dearly. But my parents had another fate for me, and there was going to be a change in my life.

In eighth grade, I didn’t have the best of friends. It worried my parents that I was hanging out with the wrong kind of people, but of course I thought that my friends were the best thing in the entire universe. My friends were the girls that a person would describe as rebellious, unruly, and disrespectful. But they were my friends, and that was the only thing that mattered to me. My parents always claimed that my eighth grade year and on would be my defining moments. I didn’t care about what they told me, I was going to be what I wanted to be and I was going to do what I want to do. My parents weren’t going to stand for that, and that is part of the reason why my mom sent her resume to the home of the green and white, Burley High School.

Caylee Pfeifer was everything that I wanted to be. She towered among the boys, and I always admired the way she had with those boys, even if they still had cooties. Caylee was blonde, and even though she said I had the hair that she wanted, I always wanted her short, bobbed blonde hair. She dressed exactly the way that I dressed, blue jeans, frayed at the bottom, a t-shirt that could only enhance what meager womanly figure that each of us had at thirteen, and then the thing that only make our bodies look better, a zip-up hoodie, all of varying colors ranging from brown to brown.

Caylee and I did almost everything together, but she was not a member of the church, and I was. There were some limitations in what we could to do together, but there were always plenty of sleep-overs. At many of these sleep-overs, there would be talk of the boys, and Caylee always had the juiciest stories about her boys. And I would listen to the details that she gave, and I would wish, and hope that someday my prince would come, and I too could have a great make out and then I would be the one to boast about how well my prince could kiss. She taught me all the tricks to getting the boys, and together we would stay out late and do all the things that our parents had asked us not to do. Things like toilet papering people’s houses, and sneaking out and wandering outside and dancing in the middle of the street, and saying that I was where I was supposed to be but really I was out with Caylee. And of course we were reprimanded by our parents, and we would be grounded. Separated for a few weeks, then we would be freed to do dark deeds on the weekends.

We were connected to the hip, and together we hated Burley High School. It was the bane of our existence. Then the unfortunate day came when I had to tell Caylee that my mom had applied to teach at Burley High School, and could be possibly switching schools, she about broke my face.

“What do you mean you might be switching schools?!” Caylee cried.

“I have no choice, I have to go wherever my mom goes.” I said brokenheartedly.

“No, there is no way you are leaving me in this place with all these nasty boys. And who is going to be my best friend when you go? I will be by myself, starting out as a freshman at Minico, with no one to help me get around. We are friends for life, remember?” Caylee sobbed to me.

“Like I said, I have no choice. My parents are forcing me.” My voice cracked on the last two words.

Already, the shift was beginning. As the school year faded into summer, Caylee and I only grew closer. Every moment brought us closer to the possible end of our friendship. Then that fateful day came. It was a bright and sunny June morning when my mom entered my room to talk to me. But before she could open her all powerful mouth, I knew what she was going to say.

“Honey, I want you to know something, I got the job at Burley.” These words nearly ended my life. I could see the world spinning and crashing right before my eyes. I started hyperventilating, and then the tears came, and they poured out of my eyes like man pouring a water bottle down his back after a good run. I’m sure I fainted and I was out for a good ten seconds. I woke to my mom shaking me, and saying things like, “Livvy! Livvy! Wake up! There is no need to be dramatic!” But this was the time that I needed to be dramatic, I was going to be switching schools for crying out loud! I was going to be leaving all that I knew behind, I was going into uncharted waters, and I was going to be that new kid at school. I was not a brave person, there was no way I could handle standing up in each of my new classes and introducing myself, and I could not handle sitting by myself in each classes and alone at lunch, the most social time of the day. I called Caylee that very same day, and then that was the end of our lifelong friendship. For the rest of the summer, every time I passed Burley High School, I threw up a little in my mouth. It wasn’t that the school itself was bad looking, it just meant that I was going to be the newest member of that school, and it went against everything that I knew.

10. The blogs

Well, since we are supposed to write about something right now for English, I am going to write about our blogs. I think it's pretty funny that we write about the randomness stuff. But it's enjoyable as well. So I guess that this is a good exercise from Sis. Steadman to teach us how to enjoy writing and also how to use a blog. This is my very first blog and I don't use it very often, just enough to do the 20 required blogs. But now that I have this I might just use it. So those of you who are following (i.e. my entire english class) can enjoy my random bloggings and thoughts. I'm running out of things to write down. So I'm going to stop rambling and comment on some of other people's blogs. Happy blogging all!

9. Thanksgiving!

It is November. You know what November means...TURKEY DAY! This has to be one of the best holidays of the year. There is so much good food and I get to go home and see my family. I haven't seen them in a little while. And not to mention all the naps that we all get to take. Thank you tryptophan that makes me sleepy. It happens to be one of the best times of the year to take a nap because there's no school, there's plenty of time, and usually teachers want the break so they don't give any homework. However, there is a downside to having turkey day, there is turkey for the rest of the year. But that's the good part of going to college, you are no longer forced to eat whatever it is your mom makes. And after Thanksgiving, there is a lot of turkey soup, turkey stew, and turkey sandwiches. Well I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving, even though it's not for a few more weeks.

8. Issue Paper

So it is finally finished. The paper that we all have been working on for the past few weeks. Personally, I am thrilled that this paper is done, even though it was a topic that I picked and got to research, it was just killer to write so much about one thing. But at any rate, I suppose that it is useful for us to really learn how to write a decent paper. This class really reminds me of my AP English class that I took my senior year, except I don't have to write as many papers here as I did back home. Oh well. And I discovered that I can listen to music and write. I usually don't do that seeing as I usually put what I'm listening to into my paper. But this time I paid close attention to the fact that I wrote what I wanted to write instead of some random lyrics to a song. If there is any weird words that don't coincide with what I write, I apologize, it's just some song lyrics for your enjoyment.

7. The end of the semester

It's that time again. The scramble to get the classes you want. Which is why I am writing this blog at 11:55 pm. I am impatiently waiting for my turn to get online and hurry and rush to get those classes that are still available. And currently my much needed Chem 106 class is chuck full, so I don't know what I am going to do with that. I just will have to wait it out. Anyway back to English, maybe I should change my major to English. I do enjoy writing and reading, even if it is reading other people's papers. You never know what one has to write about. So it's always an adventure to read something new. I wonder how Sis. Steadman feels about reading the many hundreds of papers that she gets. I bet it's a pain but at the same time, somewhat exciting. Well it's off to fight for my classes. Till later my fellow bloggers.

6. Ah, the library

You know what, I can't study in the no shhh zone. There are always too many people there and they are always talking! It's very distracting. So instead of studying and attempting to work on my research paper there, I go where I feel most at home, the Asian Collection on the fourth floor. It is so wonderful to feel like home with all the Asian artifacts. The best part of the Asian Collection is the quiet serenity that welcomes all kinds of studying. That brings peace unto my soul, and can write an effective part in the quiet. Yay for the nice quiet places in the library. I do enjoy the Asian Collection because of its excellent use of decoration. There is the most intriguing pagoda. I mean, it's pretty bomb. I wish I were allowed to touch it and marvel its excellent design. So thank you Harold B. Lee Library. Thank you for the excellent decore and the nice quiet studying. I will be staying in your quiet places for the next four years.

5. Indiana Jones!

I love Indiana Jones. I always have and I always will. Except I didn't like the new movie. It was decent until it went all sci-fi on me. Aliens and secret universes are too overdone. I get enough of Area 51 back home in Idaho. We have some weird things that happen there, like horses staying in a pasture with a single rope outlining the entire pasture. Anyway back to Indiana Jones, I love action movies. I don't know why but there is always something thrilling about cracking a large whip and running away from a perfectly shaped rock that is rolling toward you. So thanks Sis. Steadman for showing me a little bit of a movie that I haven't seen in ages. It's ok that you had to make the reference back to the issues paper. I still thoroughly enjoyed the ten minutes of Harrison Ford making the connections for his next adventure. Sometimes I wish that I could be the female version of Indie and go all over the world finding lost treasures and hooking up with random hot guys that stay for just that journey. It would be great. Go Indiana Jones!

4. Sources

Well, I guess it's that time to write that issues paper. And there is so much controversy in the world today that there are many topics that we can write on and take a stance. But what makes a source? In my opinion, anything can be a source. So Sis. Steadman, why can't I just randomly pick up a newspaper off the newstand and call that my first source (Just so you know, I am just kidding, I know why...)? But not everything can be based off fact when there first has to be some kind of opinion, or some kind of question. Isn't that the basis of a scientists' paper about stem cell research? They had a question that they went and research and now it's a fact. But of course it's something that really interested that particular scientist. And this controversy I picked is something that interests me. And I have a question about this particular topic. So now that I get to research this topic, does my paper become a source? It's full of facts that I get from other people's research, so logically my paper could be used in another person's paper. Not only is my paper an opinion, but it is factual as well. I encourage people to use my paper as a source, and if you really really want my paper, I'll post it here on my blog and everyone has access to my wonderful opinionated and factual paper to use in their paper.

3. Fanny's Dream

Sis. Steadman read us a great book. I know that it's a children's book, but at the same time it gives a good meaning. It's a bit of a spoof off of the original Cinderella, and I'm not going to deny that I once believed in a Fairy Godmother, and that one day my Prince Charming was going to come. Cinderella did fill my head with dreams and hopes of the chance of being a princess and living a castle. I don't have any evil stepmothers or stepsisters. Just normal sisters and a loving mom and dad, and they even bought me the movie to watch with my little sister. After the movie was over we would sing and dance and dream about the day when we would be carted off to live in a castle. In Fanny's Dream, it was more realistic. The things that happened to Fanny would be more likely happen and it showed that young girls didn't need a Fairy Godmother or someone to transform their lives. It would be more likely that young girls know that they can marry someone that was their friend and still have a life, even though it might not be a in glamorous castle or with the most handsome prince. Though it's still a dream to live in a giant castle, a nice house would do just fine for me.

2. The Princess Bride

The other day in English, we watched a part of a movie that no one can say that they haven't seen. "The Princess Bride" is an all time classic. The part of the movie that we witness was the part where the man who says "inconceivable" and Wesley have the battle of wits. It was out of control at how much the inconceivable man tried to confuse Wesley. It was ridiculous. Every time the inconceivable man spoke it was a line a gibberish and in the end he dies to the fact that he didn't think that both goblets were poisoned (in my head, I saw that as a relief at all the gibberish was done). The inconceivable man lost, and not just his life. He was so unconvincing and random that no one would really listen to him. That isn't a good idea to do this. Although I did a little bit of rambling in this, I am learning to effectively use my words to my advantage. It's doing a load of good for me too. And if you haven't seen this movie, I chastise you and urge you to watch this all time classic of humor, action and love. You won't be disappointed.

1. Fry Sauce

There is nothing like some good fries and some super delicious fry sauce. However, nobody really knows about this fry sauce. I found out that it must have been just an Idaho and Utah thing, because coming to BYU and finding that nobody knew about this delicious sauce. It really occured to me, as I was working with my english group on an opinion editorial. Each of the members of my group were from out of state, like California and Virginia. Each of my classmates claimed that they had never had fry sauce in any resturant, their version of fry sauce is ketchup. That is total yuck. Of course that is a matter of opinion, I just don't like ketchup with my fries (I think that it tastes funny). I think that fry sauce should be made nationwide, it is a delicious sauce that doesn't always have to be just for fries, it goes great on burgers as well. It's one of the best things that I have tasted in my life. I hope that the students here at BYU, get a chance to try this amazing sauce, before they move out of Utah, and or/Idaho.