let the season begin

There is a reason I haven't posted in a few days. It is called school. It is a sad tale, with a somewhat happy ending. A tale of late nights, dead brains, heavy eye lids, sore backs, and non-social weekends. I have been studying all weekend. I had a statistics test today. My first midterm of the semester. And I was really worried about it. So I studied a few nights last week, all night Friday, and all afternoon. I went into the test feeling pretty confident, and that confidence grew considerably as I went through the test, slowly, as to not make any stupid mistakes, but comfortably.

An hour and a half later, as I walked down the stairs to the monitor where my score would be posted, I had a bounce in my step. This was a great way to start out my testing season! Mentally crossing my fingers behind my back, my eyes darted to the screen for my student ID number.

student 9-9648..... 120 points...... 82%

No congratulations next to my name, as seen when you get a 90% or above, but I guess I can live with it. I really did feel like I did better. But I won't complain! The short answer still has to be graded, and I know I got them all right. It was the easiest part of the test. So that'll bump it up a percentage point or two.

I also had my cha cha test today in my dance class. That was actually fun. I love test day! I get to do my hair, put on a ton of hot make up, and dress up in my swirly skirt. I tested with the impossible man firefighter. He's a great dancer. Then 3 other guys asked me to test with them. So I felt pretty special :) It was a lot of fun.

But, yes. My back is killing me (probably from sitting in the hard library chairs and the desk at the testing center combined with my 40 lbs. book bag). I'm brain dead. My eyes are tired, and I'm going to bed really early tonight. After I make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. My mom sent me a new recipe I'm anxious to try, but I'm taking cookies to people, so I need a recipe that makes more than just a dozen cookies. Maybe I'll give those other ones a go after my biology test tomorrow.

Biology... tomorrow... oh, crap.

Quote of the Day:

Mom: "I thought he was retarded, but he was just a Brazilian with a lisp."

deep despair

RIP CHARLIE!!!!

My iPod is officially dead. No life whatsoever. I am completely devastated. It had a really good run, though. Lasted a lot longer than most. Four years. I still remember the day I got it. I was so happy.

I lost my crutch. I never ever ever went anywhere without my Charlie. He was attached to me at all times. I can hardly even walk around campus without it. I love taking walks in the evening, and now I can't go because I don't have my music. That's what calms me down and relaxes me. Putting on my favorite tunes and going on a long walk. I'm sooooo depressed. You have no idea. It's like I've lost a child.

Mommy... I want an iPod for Christmas. Please. That's the only thing I will ask for. They have some gorgeous 8 gig nanos that are going down in price because Apple is releasing a new model. So the old ones are cheaper now.

On a completely different note...

Amanda wrote an absolutely hilarious blog the other day about me and my husband Spencer. You have to read it. Click here.

It made me really happy.


Quotes of the Day:

Me: "Whoa. Psychedelic Utah."

and

Amanda: "What grows in Utah?"
Me: "Um, weeds."

and

Me: "I got married for 10 minutes today!"

really quick

The Office is tomorrow!!!!!


Quotes of the Day:

Quinn: "I might go out of town this week, but it all depends. I might not."
Me: "Is this like a family trip?"
Quinn: "No. When my older brother was 16, he and my dad went to China. Just the two of them."
Me: "Oh, that's fun. So you're going on a trip with your dad? Just you two?"
Quinn: "Yep."
Me: "Where are you going?"
Quinn: "China."
Me: "What?! China? You could've said something earlier! Here I thought you were going on some like business trip or a family vacation, and you'll be all the way around the world!"
Quinn: "I guess I did only say that I'm going out of town, huh."

and

Me: "I would totally go on a date with my husband."
Amanda: "You should. He was way cute."

breathe

Ugh I need a "Me" day. I have so much going on soon. I don't know how to handle it all.

Bring it on.


Quotes of the Day:

Amber: "Cosmo isn't gay. This is an LDS school."

and

Quinn: "Theyre your goals. You can set any rules you want."
Me: "With that mindset I can accomplish anything!"

ready, get set...

I have a brilliant plan involving cookies. I will win!

Quote of the Day:

Wistie: "I'm going to Idaho!"
Me: "Yay."
Wistie: "This weekend. I won't be here!"
Me: "I'm happy for you"
Wistie: "You know what that means?"
Me: "What?"
Wistie: "I'll be in Idaho!"

and

Me to Kellie over Facebook messenger:
"Allison: Hey what's up
Oh i'm good. just having lunch
Yeah so I guess i didn't need to tell you that did i?
he was nice. and he liked the dance show. but i wouldn't want to date him
he had a lisp
i know
it's my main priority to work on
i really appreciate that
what classes do you have today?
you can come with me to my stats lab instead
it's not
but it could be if you went with me
i want to join you
i dont wanna!
so is life. life sometimes sucks
i dont want it either. and i don't want to finish your food"

and

Wistie: "i feel like we are an estranged couple trying to revamp our relationship by going out but we just push ourselves farther apart."

goal of the week

So I just decided to do something. I'm going to work on things little by little. There are many things that I want to become, and that I wish I would do. So I'm going to pick one thing every week and work on it. I've been trying to do this for a while but I realized something. And this came when during last week's Sunday School lesson, actually. We were talking about goal making and how to achieve them. First, you should write it down. Somewhere. Otherwise, it'll go forgotten, or won't be taken seriously. And I expanded on this on my own- at least this is true for me- I have to report it. If I don't have a way to report my success with goals, then I won't do it. I think, "Well, I set this goal, but if I don't complete it no one will know. It doesn't matter. I'll try again later."

I'm going to fix that.

Every Sunday I'm going to set a goal. And then next Sunday, I'll report on it, and pick a new goal, etc. I'm actually excited about this!

Here is my goal: I'm going to get to bed every school night before midnight.

Sounds silly, but I want to do it. I am definitely a night person, and since I don't have to wake up early every day, I tend to stay up really late. So I'm going to set a goal to get to bed before midnight so I can wake up earlier and feel better. Early to bed, early to rise, right?

the love of my life

I MET COSMO!!! I was SO happy! :D :D :D

BYU won, again. We shut out Wyoming 44-0. It was an awesome game, but I wish that it could've been more exciting, you know? I'm extremely happy at the result, but it's always fun to have a close game.


Quotes of the Day:

Status on Facebook: "Allison is stiff, sore, and bruised. Wow."
Ashley: "From what? O.o"
Me: "Country dancing. We do a bunch of crazy lifts and flips and stuff. I just realized it could've sounded very dirty lol. What were you thinking?! PS No, I wasn't covered in feathers this morning. And my pillows are all intact."
Ashley: "Haha I had no idea what to think! And LOL at the Twilight reference."
Me: "I think I should delete this conversation. I don't know what to make of it."
Ashley: "I think it's awesome!"

world of dance

I saw the World of Dance concert tonight. It was so good! I will admit that I'm a little biased, but I thought the ballroom dancers were the best. I was actually disappointed with the ballet numbers. It was really dark depressing music. And really modern. I like the happy, classic, beautiful ballet.

Oh man. Then there were the modern dancers. Okay, story time.

"Once upon a time, there was a small family in Gardnerville, Nevada. The mother of this family had heard that the amazing BYU Dance Company was coming to perform in a nearby town. Full of excitement, she bought four tickets. One for herself, her daughter, her mother, and her father, who reluctantly decided to come out of pure boredom. The night of, they dressed up and drove to the theatre to watch the dancers. But little did they know that it was actually the modern dance team. During the performance, the whole family was confused and a bit unbelieving of what they were seeing. The drive home proved to be the best part of the night as they discussed the dance numbers. The decided favorite was the one where the whole company was twirling around, throwing scarves up in the air and bounding around the stage gaily. But the cherry on top was a comment made by the woman's father. 'If I paid tuition for my sons to learn scarf dancing, I'd kill them!'"

Okay, so I totally respect the modern dancers. They do display incredible talent and are very passionate and committed to what they do. I just don't understand. And have a hard time taking them seriously. So for you, Mom, I thought I'd share something. Do you remember that night when the company did a dance number with colored mats? And how they were wrapped up in them and acting like turtles, and then like big, giant squares with arms, and rolling around in them? They did that number tonight. And I thought of you. And started laughing really hard.

I did love the performance, though. The folk dance team did a clogging number that was absolutely fantastic. And of course, the Cougarettes were incredible.


Quotes of the Day:

Amanda: "We caught a tarantula once. But it died. Actually, it exploded."

and

Jacob: "You're beautiful."
Me: "You are too sweet. Thank you."
Jacob: "You're welcome. Why are you still up? And who's the boy this time?"
Me: "I'm always up late. And what do you mean by your latter question?"
Jacob: "I figgered there was a guy over. At least it'd be a good reason to yet be up."
Me: "No boy tonight."
Jacob: "Get working on that. Seriously."
Me: "You want me to have guys over at my apartment the wee hours of the morning?"
Jacob: "Indeed."
Me: "Okay. I can find one. Give me five minutes... I'll do it later. Curfew is in 10 minutes."
Jacob: "Oh bother. See, if you had a guy over, then I couldn't do this: I love you. And sweet dreams."
Me: "Good night, friend."

and

Amanda: "Why are you up so late? I'm reading. What are you doing?"
Me: "I'm... being a retard?"

and

Me: "You can describe him as my Jacob. I know that's weird, but it's the same exact situation."
Amanda: "So he's going to fall in love with your mutant baby? Weird. Let me know how that works out."
Me: "lol!!!!!! No! I mean in New Moon Jacob, gosh."
Amanda: "Oh, so your second love. I see."
Me: "No. I don't love him. That's Eclipse."

mute

This week at BYU is Accessibility Awareness Week. Yesterday and today, the University Accessibility Center set up a few booths around campus. At these booths were explanations of a bunch of different disabilities some students have. There were disabilities like leg and arm impairment, leg and arm loss, speech impairment, hearing impairment, speech and hearing impairment, tunnel vision, and dyslexia.

So, as part of this awareness week, they had a challenge for students. We could pick one of the disabilities and take that on for a few hours. They had wheel chairs, crutches, arm bandages, tunnel vision glasses, and ear plugs. I chose to do the speech impairment. So I had to sign a release form, and at that moment, I was mute and could not speak with my mouth until my challenge was complete. The things they had listed for me were

1. Get directions to one of your classes
2. Listen to your favorite music for a half hour and don't sing along
3. Go to the library LRC and check out a music CD
4. Attend classes

It was so hard! First I went to my D&C class. I never realized how many questions and comments I have in class. Luckily Sarah is in there with me, and I wrote down my questions so she asked the teacher for me. It was really frustrating not being able to ask myself, especially if things he said would spur further questions, or if I needed clarification.

From there, I decided to ask for directions to my next class. I got out my notebook and wrote, "Could you direct me to the JSB?" and walked outside. I stopped a passing girl who looked startled and confused. Then I pointed to my notebook, she read it and asked loudly and very exaggerated, "ARE YOU DEAF??" I shook my head and mouthed "Mute" and pointed to my mouth. She just said, "Um, okay well, follow me." She didn't look at me, acted very nervous and didn't talk to me. We got close to it, and she pointed and said, "There it is." I signed, "Thank you," and she said, "Yep." And walked away. It was an interesting experience. Just because I can't speak doesn't mean that I'm stupid. It made me realize I need to watch myself so I don't act differently to disabled people. They want to be treated the same.

I then went to my Stats class, which was easier since I don't ask questions in there. With a class of 700 students, one is always bound to ask my questions before I even realize that I'm confused. My new friend, Jordan, is in there. We met in class last week and sit by each other and discuss the lecture with each other. So I did miss that. Okay, I lied. When I have a question, I ask Jordan. So I just wrote my questions down to him.

After that, I ventured to the library to get a CD. This was a better experience. I looked up the call number on the catalogue, wrote it down, and went up to the Music/Dance Library desk. I decided to get the Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD, "Called to Serve" because I've heard it before, and it's incredible. Anyway, I went up to the desk, and gave the attendant my notebook with the call number and a question about where to return the CD. The girl at the desk was sooo nice. I really wish I couldn't told her about my experience earlier and how helpful and kind she was being to me. But I couldn't speak and didn't want to write it all down. That made me really sad. I really wish I could've told her that I appreciated her.

After that, I listened to Across the Universe on my iPod. Which was hard! I wanted to sing soooo badly! It's my favorite thing to sing along to and I couldn't! After that, I was finished and went back to the Wilk to watch a short video. And I get a t-shirt for finishing it, too. I'll wear it with pride.

I am so incredibly grateful for the gifts that I have, and that I have been blessed with the working body that I have. I also have incredible respect for anyone with a disability. They are much more courageous and brave than I, and more so than a lot of people. This has taught me how to respect them and that they are normal people that just want to be treated like everyone else. This was an incredible experience.

math tutor

A question from my stats class:

"Births are not, as you might think, evenly distributed across the days of the week. Here are the average numbers of babies born on each day of the week in 2003:

Day	Births
Sunday	7,563
Monday	11,733
Tuesday	13,001
Wednesday	12,598
Thursday	12,514
Friday	12,396
Saturday	8,605

Suggest a reason why there are fewer births on weekend days than during the week."

What the freak? What am I, a flippin doctor? I thought this was a statistics class, not an obstetrics class.

So here was my BS answer:
"When pregnant women move around a lot it can cause an early birth. Perhaps there are many working women who are up on their feet all day and go into labor because of it. So because most work weeks are Monday through Friday, it would make sense to have a birth on a working day than a weekend resting day."

Is that even true? Let's hope the TA that grades this believes me.