My Thanksgiving Adventure

Thanksgiving this year was a blast! i got to hang out with my cousins that i haven't seen in a really long time and not have to worry about school or responsibility. i'll just start at the beginning...

wednesday:
i got to sleep in and bum around my apartment all morning. i made shortbread to take to "wednesday night pie", seeing as one cannot come to a party empty handed. when it finally came time to go, i packed my things into my backpack and headed out to the bus stop. i have never used public transit before but i felt confident in my ignorance, as my roommates had comforted me and told me everything i needed to know about using the bus (thanks caresse and stephanie!). according to uta.com's handy-dandy itinerary, i was to meet the bus at the stop across the street from the wilkinson center, but seeing as time was not on my side, i realized i may not make it in time. soon after i reached this realization, i noticed the bus stop i was coming upon was the same number as the one i was heading to but was further down the road. a young woman was standing at the designated area, which lead me to assume that she may be boarding my same bus. unlike myself, she seemed to know what she was doing so i asked for her assistance, wondering if this was the right bus stop, and if it would take me to the correct destination. she said it would. i deemed her answer trustworthy, and it so happened the bus was pulling up to the curb at that very moment. after paying my fare and asking the driver for a transfer ticket (thanks to megan for this gem of information), i sat down and pulled out mikey's letter to finish reading until we got to my next stop.

stop after stop, i grew more and more anxious to see my family. i made a few friends on the bus, namely that first girl and a boy, justin, of whom i asked questions and sat by. i'm not sure when the girl got off the bus because i sat next to justin most of the time, but i was grateful for her help in my time of need. justin was nice and good to keep company with for our short time together. he got off the train before i did so i was left alone to find my last stop. anxiety filled my veins as i was left alone to fend for myself to find my stop. i finally found my relative's house and was welcomed into the arms of my extended family. i had a great time catching up with my aunts, uncles, and cousins. following this familial communion, my cousins, rick and crystal, and i had a movie party and watched cinderella man; a really good film, if i do say so myself. all around, a good day.

thursday:
thanksgiving day! hot cereal for breakfast and then crystal, rick, and i were off to aunt diane's apartment to decorate for christmas. we then took diane to my cousin adam and his wife's house for our feast. it was delicious! i ate so much food, but it was so worth it. these are my only cousins that are married and have kids. so there were children running rampant through the house; they were so cute. i learned a new game called amun-re. it is kind of like monopoly and zarahemla put together, which equals a really long game. it was great fun being with my cousins and reminiscing the good old days when rick and adam would chase us around the house. *sigh* good times. rick, crystal, and i had another movie night upstairs where we watched the ultimate gift, another great movie. i like a bunch of songs from it so i may try to look for the soundtrack or something.

friday:
slept in again and had waffles for breakfast. the conversation of the morning was american history, politics, and economics, so of course i was happy to listen. crystal had plans for the afternoon so rick and i got to go computer shopping for a laptop. i had been researching computers for a few weeks now and price checking everything, so now it was time to see what deals i could get on black friday *eek!*. the apple store was packed and it was only $50 off the price of the laptop i wanted. we looked at so many computers. i was almost considering one until the person trying to sell it to me let me know that the lifetime service and custom built computer was going to set me back about $2000! much too much out of my price range. a used computer warehouse held possibility but didn't quite hit the mark. finally, after 6 grueling hours of shopping, i decided on a black macbook. oh man! i was hyperventilating in the store. but i thought i could try it and see how it goes. i think i might return it; it is a lot for the things i will be doing with it so maybe i should downgrade. and it is a mac, which is great for pictures and things, just i'm not sure yet how much i'll be using all these extra features. but i don't think i like vista, which is the only os microsoft is putting on their computers now. idk...we'll see.

crystal had a date that night so rick and i and one of his friends went ice skating. so much fun. i have pictures (and videos :) ) that i'll try to put up later. oh and before i forget, i should probably mention that rick took me out computer shopping in his big, huge, hunting truck. apparently this was the most fun i was going to have the whole vacation (according to rick). it was an adventure, seeing as the power steering didn't work and my door always got stuck. anyway, ice skating then dropped off rick's friend, then walmart where we packed up on snacks for our movie night. we were totally loaded! cookies, candy, popcorn...so much fun. the movie was tarzan, an undisputed classic. a really good day, full of all sorts of emotions and fun.

saturday:
leftover waffles for breakfast (still delicious) and i helped carolyn and gary, my aunt and uncle, edit the book they're writing. it is about the paradigm of the electoral college, or something like that. i think it sounds really cool that they are putting their opinions out like that and trying to inform people about this. then went looking for a christmas tree with rick, crystal, and amy. the trees we looked at were way too expensive and not all that great. leaving empty handed and dejected, we returned home empty handed. brianna and ray from my american gov't class picked me up to go to slc and do our service project. we went to the one world, everybody eats cafe. so delicious and the people were very nice and grateful for our help. we cleaned out and reorganized their storage shed and deep cleaned the entire place. it was a great experience. i may write more about it later, but this should suffice for now. anyway, i picked up my stuff from carolyn and gary's house and went back home to provo. now it's time to get back to reality :(

biology paper due monday and lots of reading to catch up on. yikes...better get started!

p.s. today was my half birthday. happy 20 1/2 years old! funny how life kind of sneaks up on you like that...

so many thoughts, so little time

this week is incredibly busy for me. as we speak i should be writing the next half of my rough draft (due tomorrow) before running off to a study session, after which i will be studying in the library for a test i have tomorrow. i have papers due on friday, monday, and tuesday, as well as a huge test on monday and tuesday. eek! hopefully my brain doesn't explode. tomorrow's schedule doesn't look too promising either: class at 9, take my test from 10-12, class at 12, ice skating at 2, finish my paper due friday, study session at 6, and more studying. biology paper due the monday after thanksgiving, but after that things are pretty chill. i just need to last until then. oh i love my life. wish me luck!

avoiding homework...

I've been wanting to start a blog for a while but just haven't gotten around to it. So here I am to join the rest of the world as they talk about things that they think are important that no one else will probably read anyway. I could go on about this subject, but I have a ton of studying that is calling so excuse me as I quell its outcries. Hello Monday, your victim is coming.