Scatterbrain

I'd really like to see (500) Days of Summer.

Yesterday I made a Nutella and bacon sandwich using Eggo waffles instead of bread. It was delicious.

Then today I found a recipe for Candied Bacon Ice Cream. Something may be wrong here.

photo courtesy of the Telegraph

Look at this dress. It has special pockets for markers to create the colored pattern. How clever! 

I'm tempted to not go to my American government class on Tuesday because I know something more horribly sexist than usual will happen in the name of an object lesson.

50% of Haitians agree with Pat Robertson about the deal with the devil thing.

Mari Winsor is officially my arch-nemesis.

Barbershop or Jazz?

mmm Whatcha Say?

I've been a musician most of my life. I love love love music. I sang by myself in sacrament meeting for the first time when I was four. In high school, I performed in St. Mark's Basilica in Venice and Carnegie Hall in New York.

I'm a sucker for a powerful melody, but I often have to find a cover because I don't like the original performer's voice. Case and point: "Wonderwall" by Oasis. It's a gorgeous song and the words make me smile. However, Liam Gallagher has one of the most grating voices I've ever heard. I can't listen to the song because my quest for the ultimate cover has so far been in vain. Ben Folds made it easy by releasing an album called "Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella!"

While a good melody draws me in, THE most important part of a song has always been the lyrics. I've had to get rid of a lot of good songs because they were only good until I listened to the words. It's why I can never watch RENT again. Some songs I can't listen to because the lyrics are just dumb, like "You're Beautiful" by James Blunt.

Songs like Nickelback's "Rockstar," Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl," and Usher's "Yeah!" have no place in decent society. If people really took the time to care about lyrics, I honestly believe the world would be a better place.

It really bugs me when people intentionally ignore the lyrics of a song because of a beat or melody. Music is so powerful, and I only want it influencing me for good. I had to learn this the hard way at the Nickelback concert I went to before I left for Rexburg. I'm not proud of the way I acted that night. And while going to the David Archuleta concert tonight would probably be a positive experience, I don't like his music enough to go by myself. I'm trying to scalp my ticket.

Any takers?

How I Came to Drop Choir and Other Adventures.

Well for one thing, I failed to mention one of the most exciting parts of my summer. Audra and I went to see Nickelback on September 3!

We got kind of lost going into Irvine, but we were there to see the end bit of Saving Abel's set. Didn't hear enough of them to form an opinion. Papa Roach SUCKED. Their songs were horrible and they put on a horrible show. Hinder was great, but Nickelback was SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME.

We stood for the entire two-hour set and screamed and sang along and had a wonderful time. Chad Kroeger is a funny guy. He seems like you could hang out with him, know he's a huge rockstar, but not get star-struck because he's so cool.

We ended our evening at Denny's.

 Audra had a Grand Slam and an Oreo shake.

 

 I had chicken strips and a Plain White Shake. It's vanilla ice cream, cheesecake, and white chocolate chips with whipped cream. Yum.

Anyway, on to college stuff. First I'll tell you about my roommates.

(Yes, the title is a huge tease and I'm saving it to the end.)

Laura (pronounced Lara) shares my room. She's an elementary education major from La Grande, Oregon. We share a love of a Capella music and reading. I don't have a silly picture of her like I do of everyone else. =[

 Iris is from San Francisco. She's majoring in biology. We look at boys together. Especially Korean celebrities who are half white.

Our boyfriends Daniel Henney and Dennis O'Neil

Shayna is from Northern California (Grass Valley...I haven't heard of it, either.) She's majoring in Chemistry and is very social.  She loves to do hair and makeup and we have a similar sense of humor. 

Now let's do a tour of the dorm.

My bed.

Laura's bed. I didn't take pictures in Shayna and Iris's room because I'm not sure if they'd want their room seen by others in its current state.

The shelf between my bed and Laura's

The living room

The kitchen.

 

My ID card. I got the picture taken today after class...I slept in this morning! Can't you tell??

Class started yesterday, but I didn't go into much detail, did I?

Yesterday morning was Book of Mormon. This class is the first half (1 Nephi up to Alma 29), but it's also a first block class-one semester's worth of stuff in half a semester. Luckily, Bro. Williams, the professor, is offering the second half of Book of Mormon (Alma 30-Moroni 10) at the same time second block. That way, I get twice the religion credits in the same amount of time!

Brother Williams is serious, but there's a layer of humor just beneath the surface and he knows how to use it. For example, we have Celebrations of Learning, not tests. He's easygoing and I feel like I'm going to enjoy being in his class.

Soeur Carlus* is my French teacher. She's brand new at BYU-Idaho (and America). She's straightfoward and strict, but there's a comfortable atmosphere in her classroom. I was SO scared to be going to a sophomore level language class on my first day of school, but I felt much better by the time the hour was done.

Brother Hicks is my Comm(uncations) teacher. He doesn't look like it here, but he vaguely reminds me of a grayer Stephen Colbert. He seems like a really nice guy.

Brother Hammar is my Humanities teacher. He's kind of scatterbrained, but that may because he's so used to teaching English. That's right. He's never taught humanities before.

Okay, NOW you get your choir story. Yesterday I was supposed to go audition for Women's Choir. I had a headache didn't go. I dropped and switched to Women's Glee, which is unaudtioned. Today I was late and got lost and then got locked out of the room. I'll take that as a sign. I can wait until next semester to sing.

No More Summer!

Ok, I love summer as much as the next guy, but I'm done! I want to go to school and live in Perkins Hall and make new friends and walk everywhere and HAVE SOMETHING TO DO.

Okay, I guess I should be spending a little more time on my Personal Progress (three projects to go, including Virtue), but that can only occupy so much of my day.

And I do have a few things to look forward to. Like the Nickelback concert on September 3rd. My cousin/coworker Audra was able to find $7.11 tickets. Sure, with other charges it's about $20, but still- it's $20 to see Nickelback.

And BiF Prom. In my AP Bio class my senior year, my lab group became VERY close. Diana dubbed us "Best iternal Friends," shortened to BiFs. She claims to have intentionally misspelled "eternal." So we have our BiF nicknames. Caitlyn and Diana are owBiF and obBif (for original white BiF and original black BiF), Chris is wBiF (for whipped BiF -he's so much a gentleman it's almost silly), Liz is aBiF (for absent BiF - she was sick a lot this year), and I'm rBiF or fBiF ( for redhead BiF or fat BiF, depending on the day). WE soon befriended Kyle from the next table over and became hBiF (honorary BiF). Since we weren't able to all go to prom together, we decided to have a summer "prom" - we'll get dressed up and go to dinner together and then I'm not sure yet. Chris's friend Dennis is visiting from Germany, so the gBiF will also be coming.

And Raging Waters tomorrow. Good night!