Football is back!

Tonight is BYU's first game of the season! I'm quite ecstatic. It's not even September and I'm already being immersed in glorious football goodness. The sad part about tonight is that I'll miss kickoff. I work until 9 and the game starts at 8:15. I'm just glad I'll get to see any of it at all.

Today was also exciting because I got lunch with my beloved Brooke. It was the first time seeing her since April. We got to hang out for well over an hour. I cherish the wisdom she brings to the table, what with her having been married over a year now.

Oh, and my history class is amazing. The TA sat next to me which one might think as negative. But on the contrary, it's the best thing ever, especially when he's already a friend. He even shared some Mentos  candy with me. We also kind of matched. Both of us were wearing blue button down shirts and dark pants. Our shoes, though mine Birkenstocks and his sneakers, were also both brown. I don't know if he noticed our matching but I loved it.

And that is my Thursday thus far. I doubt I'll be back in time to write a post after the game so I'm ending it here. Have a lovely night.

Last YouTube video I watched: I Am The Doctor Remix

A home of sorts

Since May there has been a serious increase in the number of my freshman friends returning from their missions. Sometimes it feels like every other day another one returns home. I can't help but smile as I see their names change on Facebook with the loss of the title "Elder." I can't help but smile as they make their first posts, proclaiming in some way, "I'M BACK," posts which are inevitably followed by a plethora of welcome back comments and likes from friends and family.

What I'm most excited about though is seeing those guys on campus again. Everywhere I went freshman year I felt like I was always running into someone I knew. The last two years I hardly saw people I knew on campus; this past year that might have had something to do with the fact that I spent nearly all my time in a single building. There was always something so comforting about knowing people on campus and being able to talk with them for even a brief moment. After freshman year literally half the people I knew were suddenly gone. But this next school year hopefully I'll get those little campus moments once again.

Recently my friend Katie wrote a blog post about enjoying time w/ her family before she leaves for a year and a half to Hong Kong. Her post started off with this:

Do you ever have those moments when something is so beautiful that you can't breathe? When your heart is so full and fit to burst that there actually isn't enough room in your chest for air? When you ache with longing, and you aren't quite sure why, but your white-hot joy is tinged with just a shade of grief? When you are reminded of something that feels more like home than anything you've ever experienced, but you can't quite put your finger on what it is? 

Katie is quite the wordsmith, something I've always known but appreciated so much more when I read that. She managed to put into words a few different emotions that are often so hard to explain, especially the emotions directly related to what "home" is. As I saw my friends come home while I was in Utah for spring term I experienced a different version of home. Walking and talking with Jordan was incredibly familiar; we didn't skip a beat. Watching Matthew interact with his old roommates and talking with him one-on-one was so comforting; in so many ways little had changed. But in so many ways a lot had changed as well. We're all different but also the same. Two years changed us but I also think it made us realize even more so how "home" is not the place but the people.

And while those freshman friends make college feel like home, there are plenty of people I met while they were gone that make me feel at home. The boys of Fiery Passion. The girls across the hall in apartment #2. Carson & Kaitlin from Italian. Mckenna. Jeff, and sometimes even his crazy roommates. James, Brooke's husband of almost one year(!) And most recently Cameron for starting Doctor Who night.

In about a year or so I won't be a college student anymore. It's probable that I won't reside in Utah, nor will many of my friends who made it into a home at all, but that's okay. Utah itself isn't all that special. Utah is special because of the people I met and learned to love, people I will always continue to know and love. Without those people Utah would mean nothing to me. The great thing about having met people from all over the United States is the fact that home is wherever we happen to meet again.

I'd also like to mention that this my 300th post on this blog. Incredible. Three hundred posts, some more intricate and thought-provoking than others, that's for sure. I'm not sure if I'll get to 300 more but you never know.

Last YouTube video I watched: Meyers Leonard Highlight Mix

Candy association

One of my roommates works at the candy counter in the bookstore here on campus. This semester she's been working the close shift so that means any candy that was spilled or couldn't be sold, she gets to bring home.

I sit here this fine evening, not doing homework because I've basically finished all of it, eating some of this fabulous candy. And I realized tonight how much I associate certain candy with certain people. For example:

The only package I ever sent a missionary was to my lovely Jordan. He's serving in Scotland. I sent him Reese's Pieces because he was so subtle in one letter at expressing his love for them. Today's bag of candy Stacy brought home is full of Reese's Pieces and as I began eating them I realized how I automatically began thinking of Jordan.

My friend Chelsea and I love the MadTV skit that goes something along the lines of, "Can I Have Yo Numba'?" We quote it often and have for the past few years. Ergo, whenever I eat Mike & Ikes, which I happen to love, I automatically think of that skit and then of Chelsea.

At the beginning of last semester, one night Hank and I went to the grocery store and bought candy. It was his idea. (He is very much so a child in the fact that he loves sugar.) It was quite a good idea, though. We bought, rather, he bought for us, Swedish Fish and those fruity flavored Tootsie Roll dealios. (Does anyone know what are they called exactly?) Swedish Fish already held a special place in my heart because my friend Brooke loves them so much. (She registered for them when she got married.) Now it's double memories since Hank and I had a great time hanging out that night.

My dad is a fan of those Milky Way Midnight bars. Therefore if I am having one I think of the time when they first came out and he said he liked them.

Perhaps my favorite candy memory comes from Matthew. We went on a date in November of 2009. Before going to this improv show, we stopped at the grocery store because he thought he wanted a snack. So we're looking at the candy aisle and there's a king sized Kit Kat bar. He decided we'd just get something to eat after the show, which was fine by me, so he didn't get the Kit Kat, but for the rest of the night he kept going on and on about that candy bar. And not just for the rest of the night, for the rest of forever. We still talk today about the date we went on when he didn't buy that giant Kit Kat bar. I'm pretty sure I mention in most of my letters to him whether or not I've eaten a Kit Kat bar lately.

And those are just the beginning. Candy is something special in my book, apparently. I like that idea.

Last YouTube video I watched: George Watsky - Go Big, Young Friends
(Okay, so technically it was the "Can I Have Yo Numba" skit because I just had to watch it after mentioning it. But I did watch George Watsky before that. I've been on a gwatsky kick lately.)