started early, probably going to be a long one...

Man, what a week.  Such a week, in fact, that I think this is going to be a post for the ages.  

I find bulleting things therapeutic.

• School is crazy.  Add seventeen credit hours, a job, random SI's, social-ness, and family, and you have a recipe for disaster.  Or lots of stress.  Either way.
• I find sometimes that people can suck.  And, whenever I feel that way, I read this poem by Mother Teresa.  (emphasis added)
  

DO GOOD ANYWAY... 

"In the Final Analysis" 

by Mother Teresa 

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered... 

forgive them anyway  

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives... 

be kind anyway

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies... 

succeed anyway

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you... 

be honest and frank anyway

What you may spend years building, someone may destroy overnight... 

build anyway

If you find serenity and happiness, people may be jealous... 

be happy anyway

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow... 

do good anyway

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough... 

give the world the best you have anyway 

You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God... 

it was never between you and them anyway

I read it for a few different reasons.  1 - the place I was in and the people I was with when I heard it the first time.  (A dark mountainside near palisades with some of the most important people in my life) 2 - Life must have been pretty tough for someone so small.   If she could do it, I can do it.  And 3 - It's pretty inspirational.  It makes a lot of sense to be nice to people even if it's just so that you can have a clean conscience and maintain confidence enough to continue being social.  

• We had a ward-wide FHE tonight in which we all built hobo houses out of cardboard boxes and tape.  We totally rocked the competition, but we failed to receive due recognition.  The highlight of our house was the 20 foot steeple we built that we had to anchor to Jake (who was amazingly well outfitted in hobo gear).  Pictures to follow.  We had discussed strategy ealier and decided that we either had to go for hobo-ness or for elaborateness.  We went for the hobo look, and lost.  
• I went home this last weekend, and it rocked.  We went to dinner on Friday night, then I took a friend to lunch on Saturday, then I went to celebrate a birthday at a restaraunt that sells all-you-can-eat steak.  Those who love me know that I like to eat.  :)  Looks like Val and Blaze and mom and dad love me lots.  Even more important than the food, though, was how good I felt as I drove home from Idaho Falls after being with people who I love who love me back.
• I bought a shirt for the big BYU game this weekend that says, "YBU" on the front and on the back it says, "Win or lose, you still live in Provo.  'Nuff said."  It made my day when I bought it, and it still makes me laugh when I think about it.  My favorite thing in the world is that we never have anything football-related that talks about us winning.  All of our shirts/cheers/posters just have insults just like that one that infers that we are going to get killed, but it's okay because we still live in the best city in Utah.  Just wait for basketball...

where has it all gone?

so...  my Spanish teacher informed us today that we are already in the 5th week of classes.  Time goes by crazy fast.  My highlights -

1. We won a football game.  Not only did we win, but we owned the Vandals.  Who loses to USU?  That's embarassing.  We were ranked as the 6th worst team in the nation, and the vandals as the 10th, so as you can imagine it was quite the contest.  I admired the fans that came to support the vandals because driving so far to support your football team that loses that often is quite the act of faith.  I doubt they'll ever play again.
2. I had three tests.  One of which I am happy with.  
3. It is already starting to get cold in Logan.  I did enjoy my two weeks of warm weather.
4. I had crepes for breakfast on Sunday.  Thank you France.
5. Logan is way cooler than Provo.  Hands down.

monday night 1:25 a.m.

Well, as yet another 11-2 shift closes down at the TSC, I have made a few very important discoveries.

1 - it is 301% impossible for me to study if I have a computer in front of me.
2 - the true friends are the ones that still communicate with me at like 12:30 to make sure I'm still awake.
3 - This week with three tests is going to take a lot out of me. Math Wednesday, Chemistry and Biology on Friday. We'll see how that goes.
4 - Staying up late Friday nights with staff meetings at 8:00 am on Saturday mornings, and then not getting enough sleep on Sunday mornings = tough 11-2 shifts Monday nights.
5 - #4 can lead to some pretty fun experiences. For example, today I had two classes in the ESLC. The best drinking fountain on campus is right outside the bathrooms, and who can pass up a bathroom visit between classes? Well, it turns out that I made a few trips into the restroom today, and each and every time I did, I was surrounded by guys with really long woman-hair. It scared me to death that I had gone into the wrong bathroom both times. Pure enjoyment.
6 - Exercise is nice. Even more nice when it becomes an outlet.
7 - Stake luau home evenings can get really awkward, really fast. "Hi, my name is Whitney, I'm going to guess your major in three tries."
8 - Mom's cinnamon bread is delicious when microwaved.

I think that's enough inspiration for one evening.

The football game on Saturday was pretty good, if you're a Ute fan. Admittedly not as fun as the basketball games where personal insults shouted at the players are understood and have more of an effect, but fun none-the-less. Especially with good friends. Speaking of which, my favorite basketball game would have to be this one because every time that guy Nelson would touch the ball for the rest of the game, we would all shout his name. I think he scored like one more basket. Watch the angry gestures from the crowd after he gets stuffed.

We had a really good dinner yesterday in our apartment. Brian made up a few crockpots full of elk roast, I made some bread in the machine, and we invited over the neighbors and feasted before the fireside. And - after the fireside, our neighbors rocked our worlds with brownie-sundae-banana splits. Amazing. Add that to the three other dessert parties that were going on, and you'll understand why continental is such a great place to live.

what a day...

So, Sunday I went to dinner with my cousin instead of the fireside, with all intentions of making it to ward prayer at 8 to remain social. Well, it turns out that they moved ward prayer to directly after the fireside, and I missed it. My roomates thought it would be really funny to play a joke on me and all text me telling me how funny it was that I was the new fhe dad. I didn't really believe them, and when I got back to the apartment, I asked a few other people and they confirmed that they really hadnt made any assignments for parents. My roomies did a good job with it all, and even had a girl from upstairs text me about a good time to get together to prepare a lesson. I finally got it out of them.

Tonight, after going to the gym, our ward clerk came by and told me that I needed to go to the church for an interview. Guess who the new FHE dad is? AND - guess who the mom is? Yeah. Pretty amazing.

Oh, and I tested out our neighbors taser tonight on Jake - I'm slowly making up for what happened on Sunday. I have some movie I'll post a little later.

another 2 am shift in the computer lab...

Surprisingly enough, this shift has been pretty productive for me. I've successfully caught up with all of my facebook friends, I've read up on my Spanish, and I still have another hour to go. I guess that's life, eh? Oh, I also made a picasa album with all of the pictures from this latest trip to Yellowstone. Nothing too special, just playing around a little. Some day (when I make $500k a year) I'll buy a nice camera and my pictures will be worth talking about.

a few weeks later

So, over these last few days, I have realized just why I love college so much. Here are a few of my top reasons -

1 - I can be as social as I want, when I want, where I want, how I want.
2 - I am constantly surrounded by people my age who (for the most part) share my happiness for being alive.
3 - At least half of #2 are of the female persuasion.
4 - Some of my best friends are my roommates.
5 - Betos.
6 - Cousins who feed me and take care of me.
7 - Studying for school and doing well in classes is a higher form of satisfaction than I have experienced for a while.
8 - Working in the computer labs rocks my world. Thanks to an older brother who rocked the computer world while he was here.
9 - Something about being a Stone in Logan just feels right.
10 - Something about going to school somewhere other than BYU-I also feels right.

Ten is good for now. As for a few of the recent goings-on -

* Just got back from Yellowstone on Monday. Mer and Cory were kind enough to pick me up in Brigham and save me thousands of dollars on gas by taking me with them to Idaho Falls and also allowed me the high honor of playing leapster with Audrey in the back seat. Yellowstone is easily one of my favorite places on earth, and it seems to only get better as time goes on. This last excursion was one of the best yet because Blaze and I had planned according to our soda addictions, and between the Manzana Apple, Fresca Peach, and Fanta Orange, we were constantly bibbing. Good times.

Highlights -

Taking pictures with Blaze

Singing loudly with Blaze

Eating breakfast in the Lake Hotel

"I have my yellowstone hair, he has his..." "And you have yours!"

"We're going to starve to death before she even gets back."

The Fishing Bridge general store

As far as school goes - it has been a crazy week. Monday Wednesday and Friday are just crazy days. Even though I am all done with classes by 2:20, it still feels like I have been on campus all day. Fridays are the craziest of the bunch - Chem recitation, Biology, Math, Spanish, and Chemistry starting at 8:30 with only a few minutes in between has made me appreciate even more my one-class Tuesdays. I have a pretty good lab partner - it is definitely going to be a little more of a fight than it was last semester when the three smartest chemistry students were my lab partners. My apartment rules. Between Jake's mom's cookies, Brian's home-made elk jerky, my magic bread maker (which worked a lot better this last time around btw) and Nate's mom's brownies, we have a constant supply of smell-good-come-to-our-houseness that usually attracts crowds into the late evening/early morning. Also, last semester we didn't have a tv in our house at all. Thankfully, that problem has been remedied and I have been introduced to Seinfeld and Arrested Development. Math is pretty easy so far, Spanish is easy if I do my reading, Biology will probably end up killing me along with Chemistry as a few of the first tests are on the same day...but what can you do.

That's about all there is on my mind.

I'm going to post my yellowstone pictures as soon as I can use my laptop up on campus again.