"Increase More and More"

I'm taking my last college religion class this semester. I hate hate hate online classes, but take a look at my schedule for this semester.

I couldn't mess with a schedule like that. It's too perfect.

Anyway, the class covers the New Testament from Acts through Revelations. Part of my assignments for each week allows me to blog about our readings. (This was actually due Saturday, but I'll do better in future weeks.)

Scattered throughout both of his epistles to the Thessalonians, Paul gave members of the early church a list of attributes for them to improve on. These are the ones I found.

• Increase in love toward each other and their community. He noted that they already great at it, but they could increase more and more. (1 Thess. 3:12, 4:9-10)
• Sexual purity (1 Thess. 4:3-5)
• Self-sufficiency and hard work(1 Thess. 4:11)
• Service to the needy (1 Thess. 4:12)
• Sobriety as an attitude (1 Thess 5:8)
• Patience (1 Thess 5:14)
• Avoiding negative influences (2 Thess. 5:6)

I could definitely improve in some of these, and my assignment requires that I discuss that a bit.

• I could certainly be more patient, with myself and with those I'm close to. I'm also terrified to pray for patience because maybe then I'd be given something to really be patient about. Sometimes, though, I think I already have the tools I need to be patient, I just forget to use them. Maybe I could ask for help remembering what they are instead. 
• There are 74 days left until graduation. I have worked so hard and I am too close to the end to give up now. You'd be surprised how fleeting a motivator that is. I need help going full steam ahead, but I also know some habits I could develop to continue to work hard and keep as I start my first post-grad "real world" job.
• Pretty much everything is lacking somehow while in college. I can do better noticing and filling some of the needs of those around me: a ride to the store, a hug, helping a study session I might not need to have, etc.

There is light at the end of this tunnel.

This week has been good. Oh-so busy and occasionally disappointing, but good. 

There was the blizzard that soaked my hair.

There was the chance to meet Mitt Romney I missed because there was a mix-up with rides.

There were the cool names I found while indexing.

There were all the adventures I had with my roommates (most of them without leaving the house), including leaving my milk and eggs at WalMart and watching Saturday Night Live on Hulu until 4 in the morning.

There were the 6 hours I spent in the library on Tuesday preparing for my SuperLit mid-term.

There was the photoshoot/vegetarian stir-fry/movie night with my neighbors.

There was the fact that I'm caught up on my homework now! The end of the semester is in sight! My hair is cooperative! Life really is good.

Accomplishments of Fall Semester (So Far)

• I got a Pell Grant!
• Chelsea and I watched all six seasons (or series, as they call them in Britain) of Doctor Who in about two months. 
• I went to the BYU Law Fair and learned that I can earn a JD and a MPA at the same time. Tempting.
• I secured more convenient housing for next semester.
• I'm reading for pleasure again...and bought more new books than I should be comfortable reading. (SIX.)
• I really like all my classes. (Sometimes it's a statement, sometimes it's a reminder.)

• I'm taking pictures I can be proud of. Like this one!
• The side effects of my medicine (read: constant nausea and occasional lightheadedness) haven't killed me yet. 
• I'm a Relief Society teacher, which is my very favorite calling.
• I was a glam zombie.
• Rachel and I arranged a marriage between my brother John and her sister Sari. Just don't tell them, okay?
• I dropped my phone in milk last week. And I can still use it!

Social Media Appreciation

GPOY, n. short for "Gratuitous Picture Of Yourself," usually accompanied picture of yourself, or something that you do.Most commonly used on tumblr both in the main post and as a tag.

I worked all day today, with a power nap in between shifts. Tomorrow will be more of the same.  I have a lot of time to think while I do busywork. And sometimes those thoughts come in a status update/tweet form. Here are a few that crossed my mind, but I didn't post (even though I could have done a few. Things have been a  bit around City Hall for me lately.) 

I don't know how Relient K ended up on my Adele station, but I'm more than okay with it. #pandoraispsychic

I guess nobody gets used to the crazies coming here. #governmentwork

WHY is there still June gloom in the middle of July?!

It's cousin power night at Baskin-Robbins! <3

Can it be my birthday now so that I don't have to work? #exhausted

So there you go. My less-than-interesting day summed up in even less interesting tweets. But hey--twitter is not exactly a place of great profundity, either.

Good Things About My Dad.

Photo by me, Summer 2010

• He's taught us how to work hard.
• He's silly.
• He tells great stories.
• He can't enjoy something he thinks he paid too much for-especially food. 
• He sets me straight when I'm being irrational.
• He's never given me a curfew. Not an official one, anyway. Just drops the hint that "nothing good happens after midnight."
• He loves his family. 

Things that are making me happy.

The realization that I can register for Fall classes on Thursday. I planned out all my classes a month ago, I'm just excited to make it official.

The fact that my sweatshirt smells like the beach--salt and sand and smoke. (Thanks, Maddie.)

The phone call that meant I start at City Hall on Wednesday.

This picture.

So much music: We the Kings, Carla Bruni, Adele, Eric Whitacre, and Voices in Your Head especially.

Today's adventure that started with "I don't know, what do you want to do?"

Smarties.

Learning to play one of the best songs to ever be taught in Primary. 

Today's To-Do List

(Things that actually got done are crossed out)

• Go to the bank
• Clean
• Write letters
• Practice
• laundry
• work out
• Edit photos

What Actually Got Done Today

(In addition to what I had planned)

• Weeded what will soon become the garden below (photo below)
• FHE in Claremont with good friends
• Honestly, lots of video games. I've never finished a full game of Pokémon and I intend to get all the way through FireRed this summer.
• Invented a disease called Taylor-Harmon-Whitehead Syndrome, which is best described as the unberable mutual missingness that occurs when there's an imbalance of Taylors, Harmons, and Whiteheads in Rexburg. (The proper ratio is 1:2:3, and is currently 0:2:3. So not cool.)  One day I'll be able to write a post and not mention how much I miss my roommates, I promise!

Ah, well. There's always tomorrow.

My California Adventure

I'm home for the summer! I'm back in my own room! I don't have to buy my own food for a while! Yay!

Okay, hopefully I've got that out of my system enough to tell you a story.

Today my mom asked if I wanted to come to Michael's with her and Jared and Noah. We got in the car, hopped onto the freeway, and instead of getting off on Mountain like we were supposed to, we kept going. "Surprise! We're going to Disneyland!"

I had planned on surprising my brothers with a Disneyland trip sometime in the next few weeks, and I had no idea that they would do it to me!

We spent more time in California Adventure tonight than in Disneyland. It was a beautiful night and we had a blast. I was thinking about it on the way home, and I'd like for this summer to be my own "California Adventure." Every time I leave LA it's harder because I've come to love the area even more. I don't want to miss out on the treasures that I live so close to! So here for public consumption, is my Spring/Summer 2011 To-Do List:

• Visit the Getty Center
• Disneyland with friends!
• Go with friends to Downtown LA and/or Hollywood 
• Attend the LA temple as often as possible
• Go to the beach more than twice like I did last summer
• (All of the above can also be considered a To-Photograph List as well.)
• Get good at piano again (not LA related, necessarily, but still an appropriate to-do)
• Start making money with photography (You can help me out with that, but that's another post for another day.)

Inspiration/Edification

I filled my journal this weekend. I was reading through it and found some great quotes I've accumulated taking notes in church meetings and devotional. Here are some of my favorites.
"Meekness[...]is a posture of kindness." -Neal A. Maxwell

"Our faith is not in the weather." -Kim B. Clark

"We are not left to our own devices." -Walter F. Gonzalez

"No one ever gets anywhere in life with greatness without being picky." -Dallin's director at Colburn

"No failure ever need be final." -Thomas S. Monson

"Don't look ahead of the pain. Just get through the day." -D. Todd Christofferson

"The mustard seed is not just tiny, it is dynamic." -Kim B. Clark

"Jesus went about doing good. Most of us just go about."

"We beat up on Martha for being so busy." -Julie B. Beck

"Love your enemies, for they point out your faults."

"In order to get the prince, you have to be a princess."

"God is in the people business." -President Packard

There were also a few of my own quotes that I particularly liked.
"My life will be so much better when he realizes we should be in love."
A few days later...
"I've decided that falling in love with [him] would be an awful idea."

"The difference between studio recordings and live shows is that you listen to one and feel the other."

"Then the Pharisees came a-creepin'."

"I was on the treadmill for like five minutes and my body was like 'forget this, I need some sleep.'"

I feel like I should write tonight, but I don't have much to say. So here's a sampling of what's going through my mind right now.

• Papers to write.
• Time with the Morgans this weekend.
• Will there be room in the car to bring my guitar and my computer home?
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt
• Maybe I should get myself dateable so that I don't have to have TV boyfriends or husbands.
• "C'est Bientôt la Fin" from Mozart l'Opéra Rock
• I paid extra to have Mozart l'Opéra Rock shipped faster, then I accidentally had it sent it to my parent's house. -_-*
• I hate that travel costs money. Otherwise I would do it all the time.

Okay, good night.

Lists and Letters

Things I Hate, but Have a Morbid Fascination With

1. Jersey Shore

2. Snow

3. Economics 

Dear Cadbury,
     I will be eternally grateful for your having created the Caramello. Keep up the good work.
                         Love, Brooke

Reasons I Think the Federal Government Hates Me.

1. I never got my birth certificate back when I got my passport.

2. The Social Security Office has my birthday wrong.

Dear Summertime,
      I love, miss, and desperately need you.
                              Love, Brooke

Awesome Things I Did This Week

1.  Read de Tocqueville

2. Learned John Lennon's middle name was Winston

3. Made beautiful and delicious cookies.

4. Listened to Adele almost nonstop.

Tag.

My lovely friend Ryanne (who was supposed to be my roommate my first semester, but wasn't) tagged me, so now I get to tell you fifteen interesting things about myself. Or try to, at least.

1. I have a Saturday Night Live clip for almost any situation.

2. I'll take sleep over food about 80% of the time.

3. After taking International Relations and Comparative Politics, I realize that I cannot wait to study American politics again.

4. I performed in Carnegie Hall my senior  year of high school.

5. The most recent nicknames I've received are Brookie Baby (from Raelene), Brookalinda (from Chelsea), and Brookachu (from Beth, but Noelle made it up).

6. The older I get, the shyer I become.

7. It really bugs me when people talk smack about the French because one of my best friends is French and she's the one of the coolest people ever.

8. To say I enjoy Jones Soda is almost an understatement. I put every bottle on the windowsill because they're so pretty. There's not too many, considering that I started that in September...

9. I'm going on a police ride-along tomorrow, and I'm really quite excited about it.

10. I've got an opinion for just about everything.

11. I will kick your butt at Jeopardy! You have to put the exclamation point at the end of it because that's part of the name.

12. I think my cut-down-on-sugar resolution is stupid and I will probably make cookies or brownies tomorrow.

13. I watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat almost every Sunday. I have it memorized. Even the colors.

14. I'm thinking of naming my iPhone Dean.

15. I like Al Jazeera.

So if you're Beth, Gigi, or Bonnie, consider yourself tagged.

7 Things I Learned at the 122nd Annual Tournament of Roses Parade

1. The Marine Corps is too hardcore for mellophones. I don't have a picture (silly me!), but their band marched with French Horns. I was impressed. But then again, I am easily impressed by Marines in general. 

2. No one makes pretty guard costumes. I had pictures of the worst of them, but I felt bad later and deleted them. 

3. If it's too hard to make something out of flowers, you just coat things with flowers. Like these teddy bears.

4. Sometimes the floats are too big to fit underneath the freeway. These ones fold somehow.

5. Cirque du Soleil will always have the element of surprise.

6. The TV will never do the parade justice.

7. There's a reason I rarely saw Dallin or John while I was home.

Things I Learned About Myself in 2010

1. I watch a LOT of television. I like it better than movies.
2. One of my tonsils is bigger than the other.
3. The worst part of working at Baskin-Robbins is that pressed-for-time feeling I get an hour or two before my shift starts.
4. Doesn't matter what color it is before I fix it. I'm a natural redhead. It's a state of mind.
5. I'll never be done shopping for dresses and/or skirts.
6. I need to step up my academic game.
7. I can't handle living alone.
8. I don't really tan anymore.
9. Food and I are complicated.
10. I am fantastically blessed.

The Thankful List

• I got home before Idaho and Utah got attacked by that "blizzard."
• My momma knows how to cut hair.
• My brothers aren't embarrassed to be seen with me.
• They also jumped to help me find a jazz standard to audition for Vocal Union with.
•  New headphones & boots (major lifesavers on multiple levels.)
• Los Angeles
• Good music
• Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan
• The Beatles (on iTunes!)
• Clean water
• Vogue
• Cars
• Cousins!
• Modern communication
• Memory cards
• My camera
• Time to relax
• Time to work
• AMERICA
• Good friends
• Jesus Christ

More Lists

Mistakes I've Made So Far Today

• Sleeping in.

• Trying to uninstall/reinstall Chrome, hoping it would solve all the problems I've been having with it.

•  Not wearing gloves.

• Going to the Crossroads at 12:30.

Things I'd Rather Be Doing (As opposed to what I am doing)

• Reading. I've got Green Lantern comics, Jesus the Christ, Mansfield Park waiting for me at home. (I have reading to do for American Foundations and International Relations.)

• Sitting on the couch with a blanket and hot herb tea, watching the lovely gray day. (I'm doing homework in the library.)
• Family history research--I think I've finally found the elusive Barkowskis. (I'm "actively listening" and writing down what I hear on the radio for a mini-project.)
• Going to California. (It's supposed to snow tomorrow.)

Things I Should Be Doing (And Why)

• Not complaining. (I go to an awesome school, I have good teachers, I have friends and roommates that love me, I have a family who supports me, the temple's a ten minute walk away, and I live in the United States of America. Oh, and there's brownie batter waiting for me at home.)
• Getting back to work (I have a bit to do today.)

Lists

Nicknames I've Accumulated Over the Years (And the people who actually call me that)

Brookie (Most people have at one point or another)

Brookie Cookie (The Morgan boys)

Cookie Brooke (A friend in high school)

Brookey Lou Who (Bethany)

Brookums (Connor & Liz)

Brookie Baby (Raelene)

Brooklynn (Teri & Kyle)

Brooklynn Wonderful (Alissa Terrific)

Brookis (My grandpa Taylor )

Brooksie (An elementary school teacher)

Brookamimi (Again, the Morgan boys)

Amazon Girl, or AG for short (Neil)

Honey Bee (Kasey, aka Sugar Face)

Energizer (Camp Taloa)

rBiF (other BiFs)

Fat BiF (Kyle)

Look-Alikes in My Life

Maddie, who is not my sister, but I will introduce her as such anyway...

...and a young Emma Watson.

Umm. That's about it.  I'm watching Emma Stone on SNL .  That's taking up my entire thought process right now. I'm so glad I got my homework done before it started.