Halloweenie!

One of my favorite things about Halloween is not knowing if people are dressing up or dressing normal...a guy just walked past me and I thought, "oh cool, he's a nerd for Halloween." On second thought, I wasn't so sure. The more authentic the costume--the more believable it is--the better, right? I decided to be a diligent homework-doing-non-procrastinating student this Halloween. What about you?

Highlights from today's news

From the reader's forum section:

"We live in a competitive world where jobs and research opportunities favor those with higher GPAs. There are many hardworking students who do all they can just to make C's and low B's. It is not at all fair for these students to earn lower grades than people who have an aptitude for academics. I think the university should impose a redistribution of grades policy that would spread high GPAs around, taking grade points from top students and giving them to those who aren't as lucky. This would allow those making A's to help C students so that everyone evens out with a B average. There would be more equality and the best opportunities would not be limited to the top 1-2 percent smartest students."

From the special politics section:

"When a McCain supporter asked 'Joe the Plumber' if he believed 'a vote for Obama is a vote for the death of Israel,' Wurzelbacher(J.T.P) replied, 'I'll go ahead and agree with you on that.' He didn't elaborate on how Obama, who has said his commitment to Israeli security is 'nonnegotiable,' would be caustic for the Jewish state."

From the Voter's Voice section:

"The attitude that the vote doesn't count is a dangerous thing to be widespread, because, ultimately, some of all of our votes do count."

From the BYU police beat:

"BYUPD received a phone call at 7:49 pm reporting loiterers at the gazebo at the Alumni House. Upon arrival, police discovered a group of students composing poetry."

Dear Mrs. Paxton:

The first floor of the library smells like your classroom--at least today it does. It smells like reading Island of the Blue Dolphins, Z for Zacharias, Call it Courage, and that one book about Julie and the wolves. It smells like my green spiral bound response journal with my belabored cursive prose, and your letters to me which you marked with fluorescent tabs. It smells like staying in during recess on snow days and playing the pig game, and sitting around your feet while you read to us the book about avalanches.

It's a good smell.

p.s.

I just purchased my first pop-tart. and to be honest, i'm stumped. what am i eating, and why?

schmindividuality

1. In my personal opinion (see Jimmy Kimmel's discussion of Miss Teen USA), there are a few things that really can only be done once or twice with total umph. After that, everyone else who does it looks silly. For example: writing your name in all lower case all the time. e.e. cummings, bell hooks...sure, whatever. but for most others, it is a little pretentious. kind of like if a bunch of random people started going by symbols after the whole artist formerly known as Prince bit. L-ame.

2. In my professional opinion, individuality for individuality's sake is annoying and boring. Maybe these people should knock being an individual from their top hobby spot and take up something interesting--modgepodge or a bug collection. just a few ideas.

3. In my objective opinion, people who have blogs are particularly hungry for individualism...a whole page of memememeeeeeeeeee (that last part should go kind of like a rollercoaster yell, cause the thought is so thrilling.)

You're not weird--you're quirky.

Creme brulee can never be jello.

1. I like having music on in my bedroom whether or not I'm in my room so that if I leave I don't have to walk back into silence. (learned this from Jane.)
2. I hate frog eggs, mountainsides of burned tree remains, and hundreds of birds on a telephone wire. Hate as in it makes my stomach queasy.
3. I wish I wanted to be as good as Jane in Pride and Prejudice, but I simply don't want to be that good.
4. I don't like turning on the lights in the bathroom if I can help it--too much bright light, making my face too vulnerable in over-sized mirrors.
5. That said, I love looking at my face from a distance.
6. Sometimes I sit on public restroom toilet seats and sometimes I don't. No consistency of criteria for when I do or when I don't.
7. I continue to wear my ring on my left ring finger because four years ago someone told me I shouldn't because it hurts my chance of getting married at BYU.
8. I like having my window open all day and night, through sun or snow.
9. I like forbidden sleep so much more than regular sleep that I will sometimes set an alarm just to be able to sleep through snoozes.
10.If people around me are laughing, even if they are people I don't know, I'm pretty sure they are laughing at me. (Like the one time I fell UP the stairs at east high and several of the Bosnian exchange students were right there, witnesses of my shame, and they really were laughing at me, in Bosnian no less.)

I tag Steph, Liz, Lauren, Amy, Lindsay, Jana, Jenny, and Kate...the quirkiest cookies I know.

Winning

I just won in an elevator. I NEVER win. Normally, I hit the up button and the elevator comes as it should. The doors open, a group of grumpy people stare out, and I look up hopefully at the arrows above the door.... The darn elevator is going down. Usually I get in for the ride and to participate in the grumpy community and to save my heel-clad feet. Today, I hit the up button, the elevator came, the doors opened, a grumpy face looked at me, and without even looking I got in. (I had been running all over tarnation and there was not no way I was going to walk those stairs.) The anonymous elevator voice thing said, "Going up," and the grumpy girl squeaked in frustration as she looked at the "B" button illuminated, all in vain. Ha! She got out and I went up. Amazing.

I have lost in many other ways today to compensate for this small win. Most notably, I finally realized why I don't get as much done as the people around me...I'm way too busy being unproductive to think about being productive. I blog, I listen to my iPod, I surf the web, I look out the window, I daydream, I write in my journal. Jane, who hates on "staying on task" now?

"The world is everywhere whispering essays..."

I walk into the Maeser (why have I stayed away so long?) and sneeze as I'm coming down the stairs. I hear a faint "Bless You" but see no one--blessings falling on my head from the air, from the walls of BYU's oldest (established permanent floating) building; I move across the basement floor, sneeze again,and I am blessed again. Who is this person, so eager and anxious to bless that she sends petition in my behalf from her hiding place not once, but twice! She cannot see me, I cannot see her, and it doesn't seem to matter. Someone has sneezed and needs blessing. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who you can't see, and have never seen? Have you ever had a conversation where all you contribute is a sneeze (I didn't say thank you! for shame.)? Do you wander in pursuit or let her stay concealed, accepting your blessing and going on your way?

Later, I had arrived at my destination, set down my bag (which is a story in itself these days), and felt inside for my loveliest of lovely peaches. Suspicion confirmed--a traveling casualty. I pulled back the paper towel carefully, like pulling up denim over a skinned knee. The sight was about the same--a surface abrasion, vibrant orange flesh surrounded by ragged edges and a chunk of wrinkled skin on one side. Small bits of skin, more resilient, floated on the orange, looking like a revised world map. Europe is looking bigger these days.
I bite, juice dribbles, my third blessing today, and it's hardly 10:00.

ps. fourth blessing--rewatching the movie link jim sent me...please watch it! hilarious.

Dreams do come true!

Scroll down to the bottom of my blog to see my latest feature, courtesy of my bro-in-law Jim. My very own "Make a wish foundation...."

I am a team player

When they announce free food in the quad because it is Homecoming, I do my part to make the line shorter for everyone else and walk right past into the library. (Where I feast on words. Mostly I'm just hungry in the library.)

hmm

I was planning on giving multiple examples, but that is the only one I can think of. Hunger does that to me...causes my brain to slowly slow slower down.

In such a circumstance, I must fall back on my stump speech, which is an uniformed soapbox on the latest election haps (DEBATE TONIGHT! woo-woo). My blogo tries so hard to not be political or partisan, such an earnest little blogo. So I will say no more ("please, say no more") except that I have replaced CNN and the NYTimes with The Onion and SNL. Same news, and so much funnier.

I will leave you with a question, and then I can say no more ("please, say no more"). Which of the three candidates wants common Americans to be team players in the political process? Truly?

Snow in the mountains

In honor of winter...I can feel it coming!

Attitude of Gratitude

Things I'm grateful for this morning:

1. Wonderful sisters who, when I was marrying someone I didn't love in my dream last night, told me, "It's okay to not marry him." Those are good sisters.

2. Wonderful dreams that let me experience the sensation of giving someone the shaft at the altar. (For those of you who don't know how this feels--it's terrible. And liberating.)

3. The HFAC (music/arts building), where people sing shamelessly in public spaces. I feel more dramatic just by walking into that building.

4. Jazz music, and how it makes it socially acceptable to twitch noticeably throughout a whole concert.

5. THE WEEKEND. sigh of relief.

Labrynthine Sentence

I'm on an embarrassing/awkward story kick. Here is one of my best.

I often chuckle when the phrase "most embarrassing moment" is brought up in conversation; not because I find my own experience particularly humorous (though it is), and not because I find the experiences of others humorous either (thought they usually are too)--no, I chuckle because I know that my story is top-notch when it comes to embarrassment factor (my past story-sharing experience showing me that my story blows most competition out of the water); top-notch from my ridiculous green spandex shorts to the too-good-to-not-be-out-of-a-movie situation of school-wide toilet out-age, hence the four portapotties out back, one of which I peed behind; from my bashful approach of the secretary's desk (for how, exactly, do you, a fourth-grader, let a seemingly ancient woman know that you have peed your green spandex shorts?) to the unbearable drive home in the principal's car--all embarrassment culminating in the final question: should I take the paper towels I've been sitting on or leave them with Principal (not to be confused with principle; remember, your principal is your pal) LaMalfa?

The above is all one sentence. That should explain why it was hard to read. I had to do this exercise in class today--I recommend it for a good time. 192 words. One sentence.