BROWN THUMB

P.S. I got a camera, so there will be nice pics instead of
the usual pixelated beauties from my phone!! Yay!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Guess what the Boy Next Door gave me??

He gave me an orchid. And I completely melted.  Why was I so weak at the knees?

Orchids are not a traditional flower

--which is perfect, because-- 

I am not a traditional kind of girl.

He also mentioned that he wanted something that would last a long while*.  This surreality carried on for  a few days.  Then I came off my cloud:

Dang. 

Anyone know how to take care of one of these things??

*No, this is not a fairy tale, daydream or figment of my imagination.  And I am not lying.  
(I know you're melting too, don't deny it.)

MELE KALIKIMAKA

is the thing to say
on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day.

Especially when you find a ukulele under the ol' tree.
Excuse me while I go practice until my fingers bleed.

CRAPPY WRAPPING:

A post dedicated to my least favorite Christmas tradition 

When I first found out who Santa was, I couldn't believe it.  Not that I was crushed, or shocked that my parents purchased all of those gifts, but that 

MY PARENTS WRAPPED 

ALL OF THOSE THINGS

  WITHOUT ANY HELP 

FROM ELVES. 

"They must really love us kids." I thought to myself.  Because to me, that is the worst chore that could ever be inflicted upon a human.

I tried to love it. I really did. I practiced and practiced getting my creases crisp and my tape jobs even. I tried getting excited about fancy bows and tags.  And I know lots of people enjoy wrapping presents...

I don't.

As long as the paper sufficiently hides the identity of the gift is my motto.

This MAY look like a bad example of my motto, but it is actually
a great one, because the logo is a red herring for my brother.
It is just an old shoe box. Ha.

Plus, I hate it when there are extra squares of paper sitting around that are too small to cover the surface area of any present. I prefer to optimize the square foot area of my wrapping paper.  Waste not, want not is another one of my wrapping mottos.

I go for the "quilted" effect.

And last but not least, I cannot justify wrapping my own presents just so I can unwrap them Christmas morning.  My dad, in his funny ways, asked me to wrap a present to myself. Here's what actually happened:

To: Sarah
From: Dad
Lack of Wrapping by: Sarah

Merry Christmas.

UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY

Do you remember that feeling you felt when you took one quick, timid hop across The Line while playing capture the flag in grade school?

The surge of adrenaline

The terror that you might be tagged

The sheer thrill of rescuing from jail 

      or dodging opponents' outstretched fingers

And if you're me--

      the skittish scurry back to your side for safety

Oh, the glorious playground days.


I had very similar feelings this weekend in Ute Land at:
The Pie (π) Pizzeria
{Way cool. I know. SO fitting for my blog.}


I had two very contradictory feelings while eating here, since it is basically a culinary rite of passage for any true Ute.  Therefore:

1. I felt like a real, cool college student
2. I felt like a squeaky clean Cougar

I mean, there were beer logos all over the walls! Ah! My eyes!
Just kidding.

See this expression? What a beautiful mix of  the emotions
described above.  I just couldn't comprehend that I could actually buy
a coke WITH CAFFEINE.

I hope you hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice. 

Anyways. I had this supergood pizza called The Greek (appropriate, I know) with gyro meat, tzatziki sauce, feta cheese, dash of lemon etc. Wowzers.

I wish I could take more appetizing pictures. My bad. 

And speaking of feeling a bit out of place...I was in the audience for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert. That was a bit weird.  I even sang along to some of the songs.

(A picture of two stressed individuals after ticket, parking,
waiting-in-line, and seating ordeals.)

Oh and one last "unfamiliar territory":

I got bored waiting for the concert to start...
these are my vintage oxford shoes.

This is the only picture I have of this moment, but I went to a baptist church to listen to the Boy Next Door perform Handel's Messiah. He had a marvelous trumpet solo on The Trumpet Shall Sound.  The entire chapel was filled with his majestic melody.  Nothin' like a trumpet to proclaim tidings of good joy, in my opinion. A-maz-ing.

He was still in his tux when we went to get pizza.  OK. Maybe we do dress up to go out to eat.

A good weekend in the city, if I do say so myself. Later days!

FASHION NO-NO:

The Boy Next Door criticizes my ugg boots
Obviously, he has no room to talk.




Is this a good piece of blackmail, or what??
Gross.

I HAVE A FUTURE, I SWEAR

A rundown of my week so far:

Studied a whopping grand total of 14 hours for my econ test, and I bust out a C on the final.

I am a smart and capable woman.

Procrastinated studying for linear algebra by peeling my pomegranate.  When my roommate got home, she asked what the purple spots were on our ceiling.

I am a smart and capable woman.

Ok. Bragging time. Studied a mere 6 hours for my mechanics of materials test and walked out with 100%.  Yet another living testimony that I shouldn't be an econ major and should stick to engineering.

I am a smart and capable woman.


{No sarcasm that time}

Procrastinated some more (honestly, this is my week. Procrastinate. Take Test. Rinse. Lather. Repeat.) by microwaving popcorn for my personal consumption.  It was also a celebratory measure taken in behalf of my mechanics test score. Score = 100, in case you forgot. Anyways, you know how you can elevate the package with an inverted bowl to maximize the poppage capacity?

Uh, yeah.

Whoops.

I am a smart and capable woman.

*Tupperware failure was due to the fact that I neglected to calculate the maximum temperature of the popcorn bag and compare it to the minimum melting temperature of standard soft plastic before popping.  You would think that after  - ahem - *ACING* my mechanics materials test (oh, did I mention that already??)  I would have applied my fountain of knowledge to real life.

LOVE ME SOME VITAMIN D

{And yes. I am blogging before finals are over. Shoot me.}

I am missing the warm weather, being stuck in the basements of the HBLL and studying for finals. Luckily, there was sun this week in P-town.  And I don't mean just the weather.

Take a gander at who might be my daily dosage of vitamin D...

The Boy Next Door in the living flesh. Yes, scream & jump up and down. It is for reals.

Just humor me and notice the tux.  Yum.  And no.  We do not dress up for frozen yogurt.  He had a concert that night.  He plays the trumpet.


And I know what you're going to say next. 
 (... haven't heard that one before...)
And, yes, he is. 

This weekend we relived our childhood and played Candy Land with real candy.  It was his idea. Cute, huh?  I think I ate myself into a stupor. Not so cute.

 

BYU students replace partying beverages with candy.

This is me and Spencer standing on the same square amongst the gingerbread and candy cane forests.

He is red and I am blue. And don't you forget it.



A good way to spend a reading day if I do say so myself.
Have a wonderful week of finals! If this isn't you, pray for those of us who are studying.
Heaven knows I need it.

GOODBYE

You will all have to deal with no more posts for the next week plus 3 days.  I have to study.

I have to force feed myself information, and digest it, by....let's see...monday at 6:45 a.m.

Brutal. I know.  The butt crack of dawn for the econ final.

No more bad cooking stories.
No more ranting and raving on my classes.
No more Boy Next Door stories. (I can hear you all booing and hissing. Sorry, I know. I know.)




So I dramatically sign off my blog for the better good until December 17th at 5:00 p.m.

Boy Next Door is changing my password.



Later Days!
Sarah

MY THOUGHTS ON GOD

I believe God has a sense of humor.  The more I study science, the more I am convinced. {In God, and his humor}

For example, consider the speed of light (3x10^8 meters/sec).

It is ALWAYS 3x10^8 m/s.  

What do I mean by that? You know when you are driving on the freeway and another car is traveling at 65 mph in the opposite direction in the other lane? It appears as if you are sitting still and the other car is approaching at 130 mph. (65+65)

BUT theoretically if you were approaching another spaceship at the speed of light, who is also traveling at the speed of light, the relative velocity between you and the other spaceship is STILL 3x10^8.  Not 6x10^8.  Craziness.



Just think, us humans can develop bridges, cars, cell phones and cures for diseases, but we can't figure out the speed of light or a way to travel that fast.

I think God did that on purpose.

Ha. Watch 'em try to figure THIS one out.

Note: I also have similar thoughts about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle since it sends scientists scrambling. I think God had to throw in a few mind-boggling mysteries into this world for his own personal enjoyment.

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME

A few months ago I, rather dramatically, dedicated a post to my new bf of the semester: my major.

Haha. Now, I laugh.

"Trading men for matrices and flirting for free body diagrams" ? 

Try: Traded Studying for Spencer.

And after being force fed hundreds of equations and still having outputs of "C" on my tests, I think it is time for us to take a break.

I am here this afternoon to publicly denounce that title of boyfriend.
Especially with two weeks left in the semester.

Mechanical Engi....who? 

I dropped him like he's hot.*  

 It's ok, I applied for all my scholarships this week so I could use my good GPA before it TANKS after finals.




*Don't freak.
I'm not changing my major.