Good-bye senior year (kind of)

Yesterday was the last day of finals for my (technical) senior year. Technically I should be graduating today but that's not really how college goes when you have to apply to get into your program. Regardless, finals are over and that means it's time for FUN.

After I finished my Spanish final yesterday morning, I went to lunch at Cafe Rio with Margaret. In June Margaret leaves for her mission to Japan. She and I grew up together and it seems like our families have known each other forever. It's weird to think about going home and not having Margaret there. She's one of those people that always makes Utah feel a bit more like home.

I also started packing for New York. The biggest problem I'm running into is, of course, shoes. I'm trying to be reasonable about what I'll actually want to wear for the 2 months I'm there but the thing is I really do wear  almost all of the shoes I own on a fairly regular basis. I'm only bringing one suitcase with me for 2 months away. I'm really not all that worried about not having enough clothes; though I do really like options for shirts, it's all about shoes for me.

Bronwyn's mission call opening was the highlight of the night, though. It was hilarious to watch her start reading her call out loud, stop a little bit to cry, keep reading and then finally read where she's called to serve only to have her stop AGAIN before she actually said it out loud. She's going to Salem, Oregon. It seems to be an perfect fit for her. I'm super excited to write her letters.

Peter and I then spent the rest of the night together. Finals kept us both terribly busy so we only saw each other at church on Sunday. It was great to finally sit down together with literally no responsibilities or stress left to bother either of us. After Bronwyn's mission call opening he and I went to In and Out. While there I ran into my friends Will and Braden! I've known them almost 4 years now. They're absolute gems, two people I  love talking with and who constantly make me smile. And while I'm not a crazy In and Out fan, I realized it's been quite long while since I had a cheeseburger and it sure was delicious, more so than usual I think. After eating we spent the rest of the night mostly talking.

Every now and then Peter and I try to come up with an "activity," something to actually do together, but when it comes down to it we're both more than happy to just sit on his couch talking for hours on end. And sometimes we throw in watching some TV show. Last night we watched an episode of Psych, a show I used to watch all the time but haven't seen in quite some time. I forgot how much I loved it! I laughed more watching that show than I have watching anything else in a long while. But like always, we went back to talking about life. Kirk and Kyle eventually showed up, at which point we eventually got on the topic of science jokes and Kyle told some joke he made up which I did not understand in the slightest but he thought was hilarious. That was the best part, the fact that he laughed so much at his own joke.

My Friday night

Absolutely terrible effort

I didn't mean to become such a terrible blogger but nearly 10 days have passed since I last posted and I'm pretty sure that equates to being a terrible blogger when it comes to blogging every day of a month.

No one is missing out on much, however. I spend my days at work (in the library) and then studying (in the library or at home). In just over a week I'll be in New York, though. That's quite exciting. Two months in New York City and then it's back to Provo.

I suppose another exciting thing is that I'm all set for graduation. I'll be walking at the ceremony in August and in December I'll be officially done. Pretty cool, eh?

And the final exciting thing I've done lately is finish designing a magazine. It was the final project (a group project) for my publication graphics and design class and it turned out pretty great, if I do say so myself. We present it to the rest of the class on Saturday night. There is perhaps no time more terrible for a final exam than 8-10 pm on a Saturday, except maybe for 7-10 am on the last day of finals, which is when my Spanish exam is.

So here's to a few days of me and my friends suffering through finals.

Nothing left to say?

Normally I have SOMETHING I want to say on this blog. But tonight I honestly have nothing. It's not that I don't want to write. I'm going over and over in my mind anything interesting I could possibly put down that would allow it to pass for a decent blog post.

But I've got nothing.

I did just read another person's blog post about the "friend zone" which is a subject I could go on about for AGES but that would mean not going to bed anytime soon. So look forward to a post on the supposedly dreaded friend zone in the near future.

For now, I'm off to bed. I've much to do tomorrow, namely finishing up multiple pages for a fake magazine. InDesign and I have a love/hate relationship I'm pretty sure.

In which I profusely apologize

Today was Thursday and Thursdays are pretty terrible in that I go to campus at 9 am and do not return to my apartment until 7:30 pm.

Upon returning home, I made a quick dinner, added a bunch of footnotes to my history paper, made a notecard for my Spanish presentation tomorrow and added a few bits of information to the PowerPoint. I originally expected all of that to take quite a long time but surprisingly I finished before 10! I'm not quite sure how I managed that but I did.

And so now it is time for bed. Not much exciting stuff went on today; my classes were same old, same old and my fun for the night consisted of watching an episode of Doctor Who with some of my friends and then coming home to watch a bunch of YouTube. There's not much better than ending a night with watching YouTube videos. At least to me.

In which my day starts (and ends) happy

I totally forgot to blog on Wednesday and it was only the third day of April! I'm still putting up the post from the 3rd, even though it is the 4th, because I can't just gloss over such a nice day.

I woke up feeling pretty, well, sad and did a great job moping on the way to work at 9. It was a beautiful morning, absolutely perfect really. It was hard to enjoy because all I could think about was how I wouldn't see my Lorraine for 18 months.

As I moped my way to the library, I ran into Peter, almost quite literally as he came up beside me and slightly shoved me. I'm not sure if my moping was just that obvious or if Peter just knows me that well but whatever the case he knew something was up. So I moped to him a little bit about being sad and he gave me some cheesy lines about smiling and being happy and hugged me a couple times before sending me on my way.

It was a small thing for him to stop me and really ask how I was doing. It made my day infinitely better. The rest of the day was spent in class or working on projects. Most days I have very little down time between classes and Wednesdays are no different. I got home from my Utah history class just after 6:30, made some dinner and then hunkered down in my room to get all my homework done. Thursdays are by far my busiest day and there much to get done.

But, of course, the Internet wasn't working! I needed it to finish an InDesign project so I went to the Lava Lounge for a couple hours to finish all my work. I left around 10:15 but I wasn't quite ready to go home yet because I knew I would just mope more if I went to my apartment. Instead I called Peter and spent time with him and his lovely roommates.

As we are prone to doing, Peter and I ended up talking for a long while and stayed up far too late. Kirk and Kyle were a party to this talking/not sleeping as well but they went to bed well before Peter and I. The four of us talked about dreams, their anatomy class, organ donation, medical school, happiness and our weekend plans. I even convinced Kyle to come with me to my friend Chelsea's senior piano recital on Friday night. Ever since freshman year I've been telling Chelsea I would bring a date to her senior recital and I'm actually going to follow through on it. It doesn't really count as a date since it's with Kyle and Peter and I had to do use some persuasion tactics to get him to agree but she'll think it's hilarious no matter what. And as much as I love talking with Kirk and Kyle, talking with Peter alone was even better.

It ended up being a really relaxing night, which is not something I expected. Spending a weeknight with some of my dearest friends was something I needed though I didn't quite realize it at the time. I slept great that night and even though I woke up pretty tired, it was worth it. There are some days when staying up late and talking with friends is worth the hassle the next morning.

Wise words from friends

My advice to everyone reading this: Stop focusing on that huge, daunting task in front of you that seems so ominous and so endless. Stop staring at that long line of grass, wondering just how far it drags on. Start taking things bit by bit, day by day. Start focusing on those little patches of grass, remembering at every step of the way how beautiful each and every individual cluster is. And before you know it, that long line of grass will be a thing of the past. 

Not only will that big task go by much more quickly, but you'll have so much more fun along the way. You'll be able to focus on the wonder and beauty in the little things — all the little things that make up this crazy, beautiful thing we call life. 

I woke up this morning and the first thing I did after looking at my e-mail was check Blogger. I'm not sure why; usually Twitter gets looked at way sooner. I'm glad I did though because I got to read my dear Taylor's latest post about her time interning in Germany. Everything she wrote isn't particularly "new" and it's not like we all haven't heard that kind of stuff a hundred times already in life, but does that make it any less true? Not at all

The thing about Taylor and I, even though we're on completely different sides of the world right now and experiencing completely different things, we're still coming to learn the same things. It's been so fun to write mile-long Facebook messages to each other, all full of encouragement and kind words, knowing we're helping each other through life.

Life is hard, my friends. But that's okay because life is also totally awesome. It's just hard to remember that some times.

Day by day, minute by minute, second by second we went from where we were to where we are now. The lives of all of us, of course, go through similar alterations and changes. The difference between the changes in my life and the changes in yours is only in the details. Time never stands still; it must steadily march on, and with the marching come the changes. -Thomas S. Monson

Take today for instance: we said our farewells to Lorraine. That was incredibly difficult, but also totally awesome because she's going to do marvelous things in France. But time will march on and things will change. That doesn't mean we won't be happy, though. On the contrary, I'm sure some of our happiest days are yet to come.

Blog Every Day In April: SENIOR YEAR EDITION

April is here and that means it's time to record my thoughts every day for a month! BEDA has been a spectacular way to document the end of winter semesters. I've been doing it since freshman year and have never regretted it once.

Some things to look forward to in my April posts:

• More thoughts on Lorraine leaving
• The very beginnings of my New York stay
• Mentions of saying good-bye to various friends who graduate this month
• Hopefully the story of one last road trip before leaving all spring
• Pictures and words about longboarding
• Sharing of things I've cooked lately
• Complaints about finals week
• Name dropping of all my favorite Provo friends. I'll even start now. Here are names of some people in Provo who are near and dear to me: Ben, Peter, Jeffrey, Lorraine (always here in spirit), Becca, Stacy, Cameron, Margo, Ryan, Bethany, Bronwyn and Angela.

So there you have it. BEDA has begun. I do hope you enjoy the random plethora of posts to come for the next 29 days. I know I'll enjoy writing them; at least, I'll enjoy writing most of them.

It's tired in here

That's what some of my freshman friends would always say. And it's true.

Today was a very long day and began at 7:30. I usually get up around 8 but for some reason 7:30 just seems like hours earlier. I'm having a hard time focusing right now on blogging and on anything Internet-wise. I just need some time to regenerate my thoughts.

I wish I had something better to say because today really was exciting but I don't have it in me to write about and it's almost 11:30 and I think I might go to bed. Tomorrow though I'll try to do a nice run-down. And I have this really cool poem to share some time this week, so the last few posts of BEDA should be great. April has just flown by, that's for sure.

Last YouTube video I watched: Best Spot in the Lot

BEDA is coming

For the past 2 years I've participated in Blog Every Day in April. I have yet to WIN at it, though.

This year, that is all going to change. I am going to blog EVERY SINGLE DAY in April.

So, all two of you that read this: what do you want me to blog about? I'll let you know now that a lot of it will be documenting my last few weeks of school. But do you have any other TOPICS I should address?

(ALL CAPS brought to you by Maureen Johnson)