Monday, December 26, 2011

By the months

January: I started my second semester of sophomore year. My roommate Lorraine and I really started crossing things off our list of "20 things to do before we turn 20." I think it was in January that I began to become real friends with Jeff, also known as the boy in this picture. Nothing of much report happened in January, or at least I didn't blog about any of it, because I only wrote 4 posts. And one of those was about how much I love and want to write about guys like Aaron Rodgers.

February: I turned 20 and threw a cake on the ground. Lorraine and I also went on a fake fancy dinner date to Taco Bell in the student center. I watched the Packers defeat the Steelers in the Super Bowl with two of my lovely Wisconsin friends. I blogged even less in February. Oh, one of the highlights of the month was getting a letter from one of my best friends the day after my birthday, having not heard from him since September or October. I went longboarding 4 days before my birthday and it was like 50 degrees and beautiful. Becca and I planned a trip to Disneyland but then the weather got bad in California so we didn't go. Instead, I went to Arches in Moab and that is one of my greatest places I've ever been, hands down.

March: I watched a lot of basketball. Like, tons. Jimmer Fredette was killin' it all season long and March was no exception. Throughout the semester, I was going to as many home games as I could and watching all the ones I couldn't go to. Because of all the basketball I watched, I spent even more time with Jeff. My best friend on his mission in Scotland and I kept up our writing and I mailed him a letter chock full of glitter and homemade confetti on account of how his birthday is in March. It exploded all over him and he loved it. I hit up the Festival of Colors again and that was a blast.

April: I blogged every day in April and that was really fun. The Scottish missionary sent me a package. I watched more basketball. I said good-bye to my Harry Potter fandom friend, Hannah, who was graduating. That sucked. I went on a date with Jeff to spite my brother and I think it solidified our friendship. Final exams came again and they were fine. I road tripped it home with my parents and stopped in Iowa to see my true best friend, Kate. Once home, I read a lot of books and enjoyed time watching YouTube before I started my summer job at the cream cheese factory. (No, that's not the beginning to a joke.)

May: I wrote all of ONE blog post in May. It was about flow. I was really missing some of my freshman friends in May, I remember that much. Besides missing my boys, I visited my friend Megan in Madison. That was super fun and I've gone for a few days every year after I've been done with school. Seeing her is always a blast. I started work at my summer job before any of the other college kids got back. I'm pretty sure it was in May that I bought my Ryan Braun replica jersey too. My brother turned 23 but he was still at school so we didn't really celebrate it.

June: I bought a plane ticket to Tennessee to see my old roommate and magnificent friend, Brooke, get married. That made me feel like a real adult. Fathers' Day was also in June; my dad and I went fishing together and that was lovely. I love fishing and I love spending time with my dad, so it was a win-win.

July: The second half of Deathly Hallows came out and I saw it at midnight with 3 friends, friends who I've gone with to nearly every Harry Potter movie. It was a good way to end things. There were definitely tears. July also seems to be the first time I mentioned the band Noah And The Whale. It certainly wasn't the last time. My brother finally came back from Idaho and he brought his girlfriend along to meet the family, though I'd already met her a bunch of times.

August: I went to two Brewers games, one of which was just mere days before road tripping back out to Utah. I also blogged every day in August as well. Before going out to school I got new glasses, really nerdy ones. I really started preparing my application for the journalism program, which was due at the beginning of September. I moved into a new apartment/condo with Lorraine and it was awesome. With my old roommate Mckenna I was a group leader at freshman orientation, which was super fun and I met some cool kids. Pottermore happened too! I got sorted into Gryffindor and I got the wand of my dreams. And oh my gosh I almost forgot: I went to Tennessee for barely over 24 hours to see Brooke and James get married! That was the best part of my entire summer. Right before school started I got to see Jeff for the first time in months and all we did was watch YouTube videos and talk about sports; it was great.

September: I turned in my application to the journalism program. I freaked out over it a lot and stressed all the time. Luckily, I have some amazing friends who really helped me out. I wrote a little about it in my favorite blog post of all time about kindred feelings. I met an awesome guy named Hank pretty early on in September and he became an integral part/friend of the whole semester. One of the first things we bonded over was Arrested Development. He also inspired a lot of different blog posts throughout October and November. In September I also got to 200 posts. Hank, his roommate, and my roommates started Thursday Night Netflix and we'd watch a bunch of episodes of whatever we wanted on that particular Thursday.

October: I found out I got into the journalism program and went out to a celebration dinner with a big group of friends. I made super good friends in my Italian class. It was the first time I mentioned "happiness is a choice." Football season was in full swing and we were all about supporting Riley Nelson as quarterback; forget Jake Heaps. One such post inspired by Hank was about t-shirts and it's another of my favorites. One of my favorite things about this month was playing tennis at weird hours of the night. I think at least twice Hank and I went to the courts around 10 or 11. It was incredibly fun. Being with him made me feel irresponsible in the wonderful way only college students can feel, and I hadn't felt that way since freshman year. I definitely took advantage of the excuse that I am in college, young, and (relatively) carefree. Another favorite moment of this month was making Hank watch Star Trek even though he hates the movie with a passion,

November: I know during the entire semester I played intramural soccer but the end of it came in November. My team lost practically every game we played but we still had a lot of fun. Thanksgiving came and went; I tagged along with my brother and his friends to Idaho. November also meant crunch time for a huge advertising project that was just a few days after getting back from Thanksgiving break. It was stressful stuff. I know more about Converse All Stars than most people know about anything else. I don't think I ever mentioned the project on my blog but I talked about it pretty much anywhere else and to anyone else about it. My apartment also got an awesome Christmas tree; don't worry, it was put up after Thanksgiving. I had Thai food for the first time, courtesy of my friend Hank. And now I love Thai food. (No, that is not a metaphor.)

December: The event that shall not be named occurred pretty early on, maybe in the second week, and I blogged a lot about it without ever explaining it. (I promise this event is not as dramatic/horrible/unspeakable as I make it out to be with that name.) I survived finals quite easily, doing super awesomely well on pretty much all of them. Lorraine and I watched a lot of The Office. It was, arguably, my favorite semester of them all, and it was easily the happiest one I've ever had. I think. It was just really good. Insanely good. I found out I messed up my flight for coming home so I had to leave on Sunday instead of Thursday. That sucked but also was great because I got to see my old roommate and wonderful friend Kelsey before she left for Spain for a year and a half. Leaving Sunday also made it possible for me to see the BYU/Baylor basketball game and it was amazing, one of the best collegiate games I've ever seen. And basically at this point we're to the present day. Yesterday was Christmas and that was really fun. I had delicious pie. My mom got my brother and I little Lego sets. Of course I got other things but the Legos are kind of my favorite. My other favorite thing is a memory foam pillow. It's heavenly.

Basically, the year has been great. It was both one of the hardest and greatest I've ever experienced. Besides all the stuff I mentioned, some things happened pretty consistently: I still ate tons of pasta, drank a lot of Ovaltine, and snacked on pizza rolls. I watched YouTube all the time. I learned more ukulele. I bought even more Threadless tees. I was definitely a better blogger near the end, but I guess that's something to work on for 2012. It's going to be another amazing year. I'm definitely most excited about seeing my friends come home from their missions, because at this point in my life, there is nothing I have ever wanted to happen more.

Last YouTube video I watched: Shaytards Christmas Special 2011 (Yes, I did just watch an hour long video of a family I've never met. You're missing out if you don't.)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

It sounds like an eventful year for you. I hope 2012 is even better!

Anonymous said...

this was precious. and you tricked me into reading things on like half the links. haha. so I spent way more time reading this blog post than I thought. haha.

ps. I was shocked when I read the march one and realized that Jimmermania wasn't that long ago, it seems like it was longer..haha.