Friday, April 19, 2013

Too brain dead from studying to come up with a clever title.

As you recall, I have already blogged about finals. Not this semester (as that would be superfluous) but you may notice that we've already kinda been down this road. --Here's a secret.--- I will never NOT blog about finals. Why, you ask? because
If I'm talking about finals, it means I'm in the middle of finals.
If I'm in the middle of finals it means I'm supposed to be studying.
If I'm supposed to be studying, it means that I will look for any excuse to take a break.
And this is the excuse.

What shall we discuss? As long as it has nothing to due with statistics, entrepreneurship or chemistry, it's free game! how about what it means to be a BYU freshman? Being a BYU freshman means:

1. Being on a first-name basis with ANYONE who works at a restaurant on campus

2. Eating at the cannon center

3. Fearing for your life on April fools day because you are surrounded by a hall full of mischievous freshman girls

4. Watching every disney movie ever made ever

5. Seriously contemplating filing a PDA petition

6. Studying outside when it's sunny

7. Having an infinite "oh, s/he's just a freshman" get-away-with-anything card

8. Getting a free mug on campus

9. Anyone you ever knew or ever knew of ever in your life getting a mission call

10. Getting a mission call

11. Sleeping way too much

12. Sleeping way too little

13. Freaking out when you figure out the person you sit next to is married

14. Freaking freaking out when they bring their baby to class

15. Getting the first wedding announcements from people your age and wanting to curl up in a corner and only eat hot pockets for the rest of your life

16. Avoiding saying you're a freshman at all costs

17. Watching waaaaay too much netflix

18. Getting friendly with the vending machines

19. People using you for your meal card

20. Meeting upperclassmen  and trying to discretely hypnotize them into asking you out

21. Going to see a lot of local bands. Some good, some.....spirited

22. Crying with joy when you come home because there is real food.

23. The freshman 15.....

24......turning in the freshman 50

I'm sure there are more, but I've really procrastinated much too long. Here we go. (finally)

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

It's been a good run

*disclaimer* I am writing this post because

1. my mother asked me to write this post

2. I really don't want to study for finals (it's amazing how productive you can be when you're avoiding a chemistry test)

3. I've been working on my farewell talk for a solid 2 hours and still have nothing to show for it.




Hello friends! The events that occur in this post actually happened last week, but my body was too fatigued to exert the approximately .01 calories it takes to type this out.

Flashback to last wednesday. It was my sister's birthday.

(Shout out to Liz who had her birthday on Wednesday and also doesn't read this blog!)

As per ush, we went out to dinner as a family to a veeeeeeeeeery Hope-approved restaurant that I totally forgot the name of. (Order the fish.) We talked about the reasons we love Liz, certain movie trailers for Despicable Me 2, and the fact that I ran 5.64 miles that day. And the fact that I ran 5.64 miles that day. And also my 5.64 mile run. (I was very enthusiastic about it.) Luckily, my family is my family and they listened to my braggart-y self for more minutes than it took me to actually run the run. They also teased me and I love them.

Then we had cake and my run didn't matter anymore.

The next day I was so stoked about the last day's run that I decided to do it again. I started running in a new direction, which meant that I had no idea how far I was running. I just sort of....didn't stop.

Reasons why Hope didn't stop running

1. she has the "oh-it's just adding a liiiiiiiiittle bit by going up another street" mentality

2. she runs uphill first and therefore feels like she can run downhill forever (don't try to understand it, it doesn't make sense)

3. she is competitive to the point of betting with herself. (ex: I bet you a dollar you can't make it up that hill without stopping)

4. watching the mileage add up on mapmyrun.com after you've already run creates a feeling of euphoria second only to winning ten million dollars.

Also,
*******The Next piece of information may NEVER be held against me*******
           on the way back home, she remembered how close two of the guys she kind-of-sort-has-a-crush-on live. so she took a quick detour to their apartment (they live like next door to each other) and it added a good mile to her tally.

Hey. I'm just a girl.

anyways, when I came home and mapped-my-run it turned out to be (hold your streamers and confetti at the ready)

9.61 miles.

whoop

except I was really disappointed that I didn't make it to 10. Also, I remembered that it was my mom's birthday (she's a suuuuuuuuuuuper awesome-opposum marathon veteran runner) and that I hadn't gotten her a gift. so I decided to take my jelly legs back outside, and run two times around the track for a total of 10.11 miles. happy birthday, mom.

I'd love to spend time reflecting on this accomplishment but.....I gotta run!


Monday, April 1, 2013

Testing happiness

Picture your happy place. 

Where is it? Disneyland? Palm Springs? Florida? Well mine is the BYU testing Center. 

Wait, wait, wait, please don't think that it's because I love taking tests (because believe me, I do NOT) nor is it the endless line to get a bubble sheet, or the random coughs throughout the room that foreshadow a sickness in your very near future. No. For this venue to achieve the status of "happy place" you must first abandon the regular downstairs room that seats about 5 million, and make the wonderful trudge to the upstairs music room. 

this beautiful little brainchild of some music-loving faculty member long ago is an intimate little room with about 40 desks, and it is always playing wordless music for you to enjoy whilst bubbling answers. (yes, that would be a run-on sentence, but I won't fix it because I'm feeling rebellious today) 

While this is a wonderful thing, what truly makes this bump disneyland down to the 2nd happiest place on earth is the seat. THE seat. It's a seat right nest to the window, and it is what dreams are made of. I try to go start taking my tests about 5:00 PM so that you can see the beautiful collegic landscape transition from late afternoon to sunset to dusk (these tests are long.) It forces you to contemplate the whole university experience as little inch-sized students bustle in and out of your third story picture frame. 

I mean, whenever you are contemplating which is MORE correct A, C, or F, it helps to glimpse a little piece of someone's day. walking out of the testing center, sitting under a tree studying, holding hands with a new beau, they're just quick snapshots that reminds you that there's more to life than getting 96.7% on your statistics test. that there's in fact more to life than even life. 

so while the thrill of the matterhorn may entice some, and relaxing on a beach is paradise to others, give me a stuffy little room with crackling mozart in the background, and you've got yourself one happy girl.