Recent Happenings

I decorated a shirt to fight childhood cancer! I wonder slightly if people would mind that I turned the St. Jude symbol into a mutant with a weapon...










After going to the homecoming football game to catch up with my senior friends, Joel and I decided to show Tim a little game we used to play all the time when we were little...










It's the food game!
By the luck of the roll,





And by mistake...




Joel had to eat the nastiest concoction he made himself!
















Tim leans closer to see what exactly that is.










Here he is bravely drinking something similar to the old milk left over in cereal bowls.






Today, we went to Cow Town.
I got in touch with my hick side, while Joel got in touch with not wanting to pose in front of anything in the hot sun.
You can see that Momma took his pictures anyway.

A day at the Fair--Meet Gloria

This entire week has been cloudy, cold, and rainy. It's sweater weather. Sunday we were worried that the weather might not have permitted us to go to the state fair, but after church last Sunday, I was surprised to find cold weather, cloudy skies, but no sign of rain.
The fair was pretty great, and we practiced being foreign, wearing Hungarian T-shirts, drinking Incan Cola, not smiling, and using what little we knew of Spanish, Italian, French, and German.

We also took this video of a Llama standing majestically in front of a fan while it chewed its cud:

We got lost in the RV display, got ripped off on purpose...
but most importantly... we got free stuff.
There's just something about shuffling past booths and looking at all the free stuff that makes you think, "A free pencil?! Yeah! I want one!" even though it's usually just a bunch of junk you'll just end up having to find a place for later. "Well, I'm home from the fair, guess I should sort through my sack-o-junk!"
Anyway, I was pretty good about resisting Propane's little deluxe toothpicks in cool plastic containers, or the pretzel dip samples, but I had my moment while Tim and I were lost near the anti-abortion booth. While relying on Tim's height to spot Joel or Jon, I was confronted by an old man holding probably the ugliest free item at the fair. He offered it to me, and I gladly accepted. It was by far the most interesting thing I could've picked up, and this booth wasn't exactly handing these away like candy (or should I say temporary tattoos?). What the man gave me was actually a rubber fetus, no longer than my thumb. He informed me that it was the actual size of a 12 week old fetus (and anatomically correct). He then noticed Tim and, to my shock said, "Now you two have a baby!" We shared some nervous laughter before stashing the thing in my bag and pushing through the crowds.
Here is us with our new arrival:
The happy family

Her name was Gloria. I had to endure countless mother jokes from Joel and Tim, and he would often shove it against my stomach to what he thought was "back where it belonged." We finally decided that the teasing was not only getting old, but that it was slightly disturbing.
We were through with the jokes, but what would we do about Gloria?
But I mean, what are you going to do with a rubber fetus anyway?
The Operation (don't worry, her sole purpose in being created was to turn people AGAINST abortion; we weren't going to get rid of her)




Now Gloria can live without being too much trouble, and I won't have to worry about people wanting to borrow my car often!

Quotes from this Evening

Playing King Of The Hill on a stump:

"Watch out for Dale, she has weapons we know not of!"
"Yeah, these hips don't lie"

Me: "Benji! Don't trample my pumpkin!"
Benji: "What pumpkin?"
Me: "That pumpkin!"
Benji: "Okay, pumpkin!"
(it was then that I realized he didn't say "What pumpkin?" but rather, "What, Pumpkin?"

Tim: "Benji, you left a shoe print on my stomach!"

Benji: "The patent office never goes for my ideas because they usually require undiscovered alloys or magic."

Jeremy: "I'm trying to see myself so I can draw an accurate picture."
Benji: "Just look at me, Jeremy."

Benji: "I'm losing money on you!"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Benji: "We've got a pool going on to see how long Tim will last before you kill him."
Me: "What?! You and Jeremy, right?"
Benji: "My date has already gone by, and Jeremy's still in, but Levi's time is almost up, and Sam, well, Sam Rembolt has a while go go, but the other Sam..."

(This one wasn't from tonight but I've been thinking about it lately.)
Amber: "Nothing beats a good camp boy... except Naomi."

Tim: "Uh-oh, Joel... Jeremy's pulling the "yawn move" on you."
(Joel then shoots a nervous glance at Jeremy while he flexes his muscles and tries to sneak an arm around him.)

Aunt Carrol: "I used to wrap my boys' presents right in front of them. I didn't have to be very sneaky about it; they didn't pay much attention until it started to look like a present. I'd put the bow on top and they'd get all excited. 'Is that a present?! Who's it for?!' and I wouldn't tell them, but then they'd stop paying attention by the time I got another gift on the table, and then 0nce I put the bow on the top, they'd realize what it was again. You'd think by the third time they'd start to understand that I'm wrapping presents, but they never caught on..."

People in School

I thought about it recently, and I don't care about the people I've met at Butler (El Dorado campus) so far. I'm sure they could be really awesome, but after only 3? weeks, my Andover classmates have struck me as way more interesting.

At El Dorado, I'm taking a student connect class. All the other kids in it (I can say kids because they're around my age) are typical college freshmen. They seem like anyone I could meet at a high school, and they're pretty predictable. The teacher does not have my favorite personality type, but as I've been working on loving her anyway, I've noticed that I love her attitude about the class. The first day she never showed up, and two of the three classes after that she gave us an assignment and let us leave. Although she had a good reason to be gone, and had contacted her superiors about it, she's still frazzled and a little late all the time. This is not why I like her. I like her because of what she said the first day of class. "Okay, so you know you don't need to take this class, and I know you don't need to take this class, but they say you have to, and guess what? I'm in charge. So I'm going to try to keep this from being too painful for you guys, and we'll just go through it. You can get out of this class what you'd like."
This week, unfortunately, we've had a sub. Even more unfortunate is that the sub is Tim's teacher. He's an old guy with a beard who would like to believe he's hip and young and funny. He finishes every stupid pun with "Okay, I'll be serious now, guys" and thinks this class is the best thing that ever happened to college. He's just like the counselor in Freaks and Geeks.

However, he talks kinda like this guy from A Mighty Wind.

I also take a drawing class, but the kids in there are always focused on their work, and though I've gotten to know them a little, no one seems very interesting at the moment.

In Andover, I've been able to meet students like me who are too practical to live on campus, middle aged women going back to school, and determined high school drop-outs ready to start over and get serious this time.

My Beginning Spanish II class is pretty interesting. The other students are older than me. We spend most of the class talking in Spanish about nothing in particular. (That's what's great about learning a second language; you can answer any question however you want, as long as it's grammatically correct.)
My Spanish teacher is tall and thin with a wispy comb-over and thick glasses. He was a navigator in the Air Force and is full of stories. He has a strange sense of humor. He always talks about his wife because "she's not here to defend herself" and most of my classmates aren't sure whether he really likes her or not. On the first day he told us, "I used to like kids until I had some... Me and my wife always say that if we were to get a divorce, the first one to sign the papers has to take the kids... that's why we're still married." He has two horses, and they're his life. "Yeah, I raised them from colts. This past year, one died, and I was really attached to her. It was really sad... especially because I had to dig the grave by hand!"
There is a middle-aged woman who is only enrolled at Butler for this class. She is more comfortable with written Spanish, so when asked questions out loud, she stutters through the answer in a strong American accent, but I love that she wants to learn. One answer made me laugh really hard (not out loud).

Teacher: "So it says here that Spaniards live longer than Americans, but their calorie intake is about the same. I wonder why that is..."
Lady: "They exercise more."
Teacher: "That's probably it. "
Lady: "They just live healthier lives... (and then with a thoughtful expression) ...unless it's el dia de Running of the Bulls..."

Reasons Why Today is Such a Good Day

Hey! um, yeah, as you can see in my title, today has been an amazing day. I can already tell it is, and it's 11:41. Here's why:

1. My room is mostly clean, and everything's organized.
2. I've got a lot of gifts figured out for Christmas! That makes me excited because I love giving gifts, and I'm happy when I get it right and give someone something they actually like. Early, yes, but smart... also yes. I now have time to afford everything!
3. I've been filling out my calendar. This makes me happy for lots of reasons.

• I only have 11 more class periods of Student Connect! (that's less than four classes of psychology!)
• I'm in school less than half of November...
• ...and solo two semanas in December.

• I don't have school Fridays! (this seems like so little to me, and I'm taking 18 hours)

4. My birthday's on a Friday this year, so although I probably won't do much for it, I'll still be happy that I don't have to be in school, and that I can sleep in the next day.
5. We're going to the Mission for Thanksgiving! That means awesomeness, lots of hiking, and riding a bus with little Navajo children. ...not to mention all the good food!