Whew!

It has been a long time since I’ve taken a minute to write anything that wasn’t school or work related, upwards of two weeks it seems. And why? Well, because things got busy. Papers needed to be written, a thesis needed to be plotted, a medieval literature test needed to be studied for and taken, hundreds of pages needed to read, and so on and so forth. Although there are a hundred things that I would LOVE to comment on, I think that the only way to accurately sum up what I’ve been doing is the worst kind of retrospective – best only used in VH1 specials or on E! And here it is, my very own Best Week(s) Ever:

• My Utopia/Dystopia class is awesome – I’ve been reading More’s Utopia, Gilman’s Herland, and some awesome short stories in the last two weeks.
  
  I love the course, but I usually don’t have much to say until after the class has ended and I’ve missed my chance to wow my fellow Senior course students and professor. Sigh. I learn a lot and honestly can’t get enough of the reading and the discussion, even if I only listen in.

Note: I’ve wanted to keep up on my monthly reading list and review, but I don’t have the time to review my books outside of class. Maybe I’ll revisit in a few.

• It seems that I am no scholar when it comes to Old and Middle English literature. I spent all of last night (from 6:00 pm to 1:30 am) writing a junky version of a Canterbury tale in Middle English, one of three major assignments due for the course. It is silly and I hope that my lame joke at the end will earn me some sympathy points from the TA. It worked last week when I referenced Beckham and Posh in a quiz.
  
• I went to Idaho Falls with Joc, Trav, and Hannah a few weekends ago and thoroughly enjoyed the time I had to spend with family there. They invited me to the open house of the new Rexburg temple and it was great to be able to go through the tour, something I haven’t done since the Timpanogos Temple was built.

I loved being able to hang out with Grandma and Val (including one of my favorite pastimes with these lovely ladies, going to the a fun chick-flick like “27 Dresses”) as well as getting to spend time with the Elwood clan and getting to know baby Kinzie a little more. I have to say, I adore that little girl. She is the funniest thing and made me laugh my head off a number of times in just a few short days. You guys are the best - - thanks for letting me crash your weekend and for putting up with my shoe-shopping obsession! Can’t wait to see you all in just a few short weeks – start getting excited!

• It has been snowing here non-stop for weeks. Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but I honestly don’t remember the last time that there were so many storms during the week. I started to shovel our driveway last Saturday and was shoveling eight or so inches of accumulated snow on top of three inches of solid ice. As a result, I am dying to get out of town for a few days. If you live out of state (preferably somewhere warm) please invite me to come and visit. I’ll be there in a jiffy.

• Ashley coordinated a rad dance party at my house a few weeks ago to celebrate Jessica’s and Heather’s birthdays. Who doesn’t enjoy a little dirty dancing with strangers once in a while? Nobody, that’s who.

• My office moved from our space at the Riverwoods to a bigger building at Thanksgiving Point. Unfortunately, it’s an increased commute for me and a further stress on my already super-tight schedule. However, it will be nice once the weather is warmer because I will definitely be taking lots of walks through the gardens and maybe some bike rides in the summer. I guess I’m a glass-half-full kind of girl.

• I’ve taught a few Sunday School lessons in the past few weeks and I’m beginning to get over some of the anxiety that makes me wish I could melt into the wall during the class. I’m no scholar but once I get over the public speaking issue I have, I may actually start to enjoy the calling. MAYBE.

• My sleeping habits have been pretty strange over the past week or so; one night last weekend I remember dreaming that it was important that I make a trail or path in my bedroom for someone to follow. I woke up at around 4:30 in the morning to find all of my five pillows, two comforters, both sheets, and extra blanket wound around in an S-shaped pattern on my floor from the door to my bed. I can only imagine that I was hoping some man would find and follow it.
  
  (Just kidding Mom and Dad. Sort of.)

• I bought a new ipod, a little guy like this:
  

We’re not really friends yet, I still miss my little white nano but am getting used to the blocky-ness of the new style. I really need to attempt some sort of organization of my library so that I know where everything is on the new one, I’m thinking this may help with the issue of familiarity.

• My “roomie” Kaylene and I finally met up last weekend for a little bit of sledding followed by a little bit of girls night. I have been talking about getting out in the snow for the past TWO winters with this girl; I remember how fun it was the last time I went sledding in American Fork canyon with the family-Chandler and this time Jared is in the country to come too! What fortune! We went to some decent hills off of a golf course in Salem and lasted a few short hours before we were dead tired from trekking up the hills even just a couple of times. She might not admit that it was very fun, but Kay got some awesome air as she ran directly towards a jump; I thought that I was going to break a rib as I saw her take the hill like a pro. It was so much fun, thanks for humoring me you guys!

• The worst weather I have ever experienced took form in a blizzard that hit the area directly where I work on Wednesday night. It started snowing and blowing really intensely around 2:00 in the afternoon and by 5:00 had turned into a full blown blizzard accompanied by merciless wind that caused a total whiteout.
• At one point, all of the freeway was at a standstill for hours and all exits and side-roads had been closed because of the traffic accidents and danger. A friend told me that she saw people stopping to put chains on their tires right in the middle of the freeway! Torrey tells it much better than I do and was a doll to keep my updated on the traffic situation since she left the office a couple of hours before I did. Hilary was headed north towards Salt Lake and kept me updated with the situation on that front also. I have some very nice friends :) There were abandoned cars all over the roads and in the parking lots of the offices, so there was a lot of carpooling that night. I left work a little bit before 8:00 and had only made it about a half a mile in almost 90 minutes before it was decided that it was probably best to wait out the worst of the storm. So, I ended up at one the restaurants at Thanksgiving Point where some people from my office had dinner (courtesy of Matt) and hung out for an additional 2 ½ hours until the freeway exits were clear. After a scary drive home (in which I totally spun-out on the freeway, barely missing being sideswiped by a semi) I got home a little bit after 1:00 am - - it was a long day and made for rough business to wake up for work in the morning!
  


• As a result of all of the homework and unexpected weather delays of the past week, I have spent the last four nights on campus until at least midnight and have at best only been catching a few hours of sleep each night. Unfortunately, this means that I completely missed the last four days of the world, including Valentines Day. So, Happy Valentines Day to one and all! I hope to get caught up enough this weekend that I can still celebrate – I’m shooting for Sunday J Please make yourselves available for visits or phone calls in the afternoon because I would love to have a minute to chat and let you all know how much I love/miss you!

So there you have it - what I’ve been doing and seeing and procrastinating for the last while. The recall of that list was monstrous - for my own benefit I am going to have to keep more on top of updating. The procrastination thing can only work for so long, after all…