c'era una volta...

So, just a general announcement... A) I have two college classes left, but I won't graduate until 2011. No big deal. This is a very good thing, it will remind me that I actually like learning, and prepare me to return to the world of midterms. B) I am going to be serving a mission for my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [The Mormons]) from July 2009 to late December 2010 or early January 2011, depends on when they decide to send me home. I will be serving in the Italy Catania mission. :D This is the map of my mission. I get Sicilia and the toe and the heel of the boot. And Malta. Some Sicilian history: ~It was colonized by the Greeks beginning around 750 BC. They left some amazing things. The valle dei templi has a few temples that are still incredibly intact. ~Rome took over in the 200s BC, and it switched hands between the Romans, the Vandals, the Goths, the Byzantines, Muslims, and the Normans in the 11th century AD. ~Then it became the Kingdom of Sicily, ...

It's been a while. Goodness. I can never think of anything to write about, unless I'm ranting :), so I found a journal jar site and I'm going to use things from that for a while. I love the rain. There is something about it that is just so amazing--a feeling of action combined with the peaceful constancy of raindrops falling down. One of my favorite things is sleeping in when it's cold outside and listening to the sound of rain on the roof when i can just curl up under my blankets and listen and know that I am safe inside. And the rain just keeps falling, lulling me back to sleep. I loved when we kept the recycling outside my window; all the old soda cans that couldn't go with the regular recycling because or the cash redemption value. So we collected them in the backyard, on the side of the house where nobody could see them, until the day when there would be enough to put them in the back of the car and drive over to the recycling place. On rainy days these cans be...

to the eighteen year old girls who come to byu just to get married--grow up! oh wait, you will. you may not realize right now while you're living in your cushy dorms that your parents are paying for and that get you an automatic more-than-anyone-should-eat-if-they-want-to-be-healthy meal plan, but there is more to being married than a pretty dress. obviously, i'm not married. and some would say waiting for a missionary is just as crazy. but i've known him for almost two years and dated him for almost half of that time. not nearly as ridiculous, especially when you consider that he really is my best friend--not in the cliche way. but going from strangers to engaged in under three weeks is just ridiculous. especially when you're 18 and still a baby. there's this thing called money. do you know how to make it? or spend it? there's school. will you finish? or did you honestly come here with no other purpose than to marry the first guy who told you you're beautif...

I was walking out of a class today when I overheard two girls behind me, also in my class. They were talking about the story of King Solomon and the baby and trying to decide who its real mother was by cutting it in half, etc, etc. Anyway, the one girl was telling the other that her brother was in a class in law school with a Jewish professor, and that there's a Jewish version of the King Solomon story. HELLO. The King Solomon story IS a Jewish version. It's in the Old Testament, where everyone followed the law and waited for the Messiah. So whether they were directly descended from Judah or not, they were Jewish. I don't understand how people don't realize these things. Honestly, saying there's a Jewish version of King Solomon ranks higher on the ignorance charts than not knowing that there's a difference between male and female circumcision. Both are well up there though. And a twenty minute discussion in my humanities of Islam class trying to explain the diff...

So, the summer has passed and another year of school is about to start. It's been an interesting thing, that even after going to school all summer I feel like I haven't been in class forever. Part of it must be that the last few weeks have been ridiculously long. Take that back, the fourteenth and fifteenth went far too fast. And then I guess the week in Salt Lake went relatively quickly. But the break still seems like too long. Boredom isn't as fun when there is nobody to share it with. And I miss Alex. This summer I learned more than any summer I can remember. I relearned how to pay attention in class. I learned how to ask questions and discuss, and actually contribute to the classes I was taking--this didn't really take effect until summer term I suppose. I also learned a whole lot about life. I learned how to cook with someone, and how to not get upset if something went wrong. I relearned how to play games and do puzzles for hours on end, laughing all the way throug...

1. Copy this whole list into your journal. 2. Bold the things that are true about you. 3. Add something that is true about you. 4. Or you could not do any of that. I don't really care. --------------------------------------------- 01. I miss somebody right now 02. I don't watch much TV these days 03. I love olives 04. I own lots of books. 06. I wear glasses or contact lenses 07. I love to play video games. 08. I've tried marijuana 09. I've watched porn movies 10. I have been in a threesome 11. I have been the psycho-ex in a past relationship 12. I believe honesty is usually the best policy. 13. I love ice cream 14. I like and respect Al Sharpton 15. I curse sometimes. 16. I have changed a lot mentally over the last year. 17. I have a hobby 18. I've been told I have a nice smile. 19. I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me 20. I'm really smart. (i just forget sometimes) 21. I've never broken someone's bones 22. I have a secret that I am ashamed to reve...

I'm so utterly bored. It's been months since I've been alone after 4 pm. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, it's not even been a week since Alex went exit polling, but before that it's been months. So it's really weird that he's in Missouri for a week. And that suddenly I can't figure out what to do with myself. What's the point in getting homework done when there's no "boyfriend coming over" deadline? Besides, you know, getting good grades. Anyway, Alex got his mission call to Argentina. Be excited. Because it's exciting. In a completely bittersweet way, naturally. He leaves Provo mid-August, comes back in October to go to the MTC on October 22. My mom's birthday and his brother Mikal's birthday. Mik's not happy--he thinks he won't get any presents. There were new ducklings at the duckpond again. This one mama duck had 13 babies. And the older babies are growing up. Happy almost July.