Okay, Marta, hold on to your horses. You could just call me, you know.. Well, last Friday I went to homecoming with Robert and his brother and his date. It was okay, but not that exciting. Probably the two most thrilling parts of the evening were discovering how delicious fried breaded eggplant is and finding a dollar on my rearview mirror as I drove down the highway (the outside mirror). Tomorrow I will scan the pictures and hopefully get them up in a few days...

So Saturday I didn't do very much either... I hung around at home for most of the morning and then went to the library in the afternoon, where I promptly fell asleep. Then I looked up some books for my BOM paper, and stayed in the library until 11 pm, going home briefly for dinner. I finally went to bed around 1, after much partying with my roommates.

Sunday morning I got up at 6 to go to the Pre-Mission Morningside. Kirsi and I were one of a dozen or so girls from our stake, but I was surprised at the number of guys there - fewer than I would have thought. Oh well. We heard great talks from a couple of missionaries who'd gotten their calls already, as well as two members of our Stake Presidency (including Bro. Madsen, more on him later). There was also a lovely musical number with guys on the cello, the piano, and singing. When we got home, Kirsi went back to bed but I decided to stay up and do my BOM paper. That didn't work out too well. My roommates laughed at me when they came into the kitchen - apparently I was sprawled uncomfortably with my head hanging off the edge of the couch. Anyways, I got up and went to hall council/hall meeting, and then to church. We had wonderful talks, including one by my friend Charity. All of the talks were about charity. So at the beginning she had to bring up that scripture about "and if men have not charity they have nothing." We got a pretty good laugh about that one, especially when she said jokingly that she should have a date every Friday night. It was pretty amazing. On Sunday evening I got a little bit of pre-cooking done for the week - I sauteed zucchini, yellow pepper, garlic, onion, yellow squash, and mushrooms, which I used throughout the week. I had decided that I wouldn't work on my paper on Sunday, so I went to bed at 7:45.

I woke up Monday morning at 1 am. Earliest I've ever woken up in my life. I worked on my paper, going through the 13 books I'd checked out on my subject, until 11 am, when my BOM class starts. I only got 700 words written, (in spite of the fact that I missed weights training to write it) and then on my way to class when I got to the library to print it out, I realized I didn't have my ID card on me, and so couldn't print it out. Ugh. I was SOO frustrated. But the TA told me that if I emailed it to her and gave her a written draft on Wednesday, I'd only get a few points taken off. So I went to all the rest of my classes, and my day was slightly redeemed by the fact that in my international politics class, my professor (who is AMAZING - google Valerie Hudson) told the entire class about a website I'd found answering one of her questions about the way the UN works. That was nice, and I needed a little ego-booster after the bruising of that morning. Monday evening I went to Kohl's and got some new boots, a shirt (for $1.50) and some running pants. Oh, and I also bought a Christmas present for Tess :). I got a little bit of studying done that night, but not as much as I needed to.

Tuesday I got up and got ready, put some laundry in, and went to see the forum by Greg Mortensen (who wrote Three Cups of Tea). I met up with Aunt Geniel, Uncle Steven, Suzannah, Kelsey, and Jared and we went to see it. Very fun. You should totally watch it. Anyways... Oh, and it snowed on Tuesday!! I was worried about it snowing this early in the year, but it wasn't heavy snow, just little sprinkles. I went to class and had fun doing math homework for three hours. Tuesday night I finished my English paper, wrote a little more on my BOM paper, and went downstairs to finish my laundry. I folded two loads of laundry from other girls, who had had their laundry thrown out of the dryers after it was done, and hadn't come to take care of it yet. That made me feel like a good person :)

On Wednesday I actually went to my weights training class (what a novelty!) and then came home, got ready, did some more homework, and went to my four-hour block of classes. Fun, fun. We got our international politics tests back and I got a 90.5, which is okay I guess. The guy who sits next to me got 100, though - he wants to be one of Dr. Hudson's research assistants and is trying to prove himself. I would have been jealous, but we're friends so I let it go this time. I went home, studied like crazy, ate a grilled cheese sandwich with the mix I made on Sunday in it (yum) and then went to take my philosophy test. I got there at 8, and then finished except for one question at 9:55, five minutes before the testing center closes. I couldn't figure it out, but it was only worth a few points so I sighed and left. I went to the library (talking to you guys on the way) and worked until 11:45, when they started playing Thriller to get us out of the library. It made me sad that I wouldn't be going to the RS enrichment meeting on Thursday, when they would be teaching us how to dance to Thriller. Oh well. That'll have to be my Thanksgiving project. Oh, I forgot! Before I went to take my test I went to our hall party for a few minutes, where we had treats (every apartment brought some) apple cider, and a game. Everyone got a name taped to their back and had to guess, asking yes or no questions of others, who they were. I was Mulan, which made me SO excited I can't even describe it. After I left they had scary stories and learned self defense from the campus police. Sorry, mom...

So, Thursday morning I got up, worked on some more homework and stuff, and then went out to breakfast with Grandma Houghton! She had been staying with her cousin, Ann Madsen (who has been teaching at BYU for 42 years, is the wife of Truman G. Madsen, who died in June, and is the mother of the first counselor in my stake presidency), so we went to Sister Madsen's house. She had made some delicious bran muffins, which I got the recipe for, and had freshly-picked raspberries and cream, which were delicious. I had so much fun listening to Grandma and her cousin talk, about life, relatives, ancestors, etc. It was amazing. I was intimidated by the two of them! And Grandma showed me a picture of herself as a young woman (maybe around 14, but I'm not sure). She could definitely be part of our family. I just had a wonderful time overall, and it was so nice to see Grandma. (Oh, and sidenote: Grandma lived in Broadbent hall in Heritage Halls, which I walk past every day on my way to class!! I felt so connected with her!)

After spending some time at the Madsens' house, we drove to BYU and I went to class. It was kind of a letdown. Also, the homework that we'd covered on Friday, when I'd skipped class to finish working on my English paper, was due Thursday, so that was fun... But I survived. After class, I went home, made another grilled cheese, and then went to Annalisa and Vance's house! Kelsey, Jared, and Ken were also there, along with two Kindt cousins. We ate dessert, talked, and overall had a rollicking good time. Vance even de-stressed me a little bit about choosing a major. (He didn't choose his until halfway through his junior year) After that I went visiting teaching, which wasn't nearly as stressful or scary as I'd thought it would be. Then I went to the library to write the (three-page long!) outline due the next morning for my international politics class. At 10:45 I realized that my chosen topic wasn't going to work, so I quickly chose a new one, got a few books on the subject, and got to the circulation desk seconds before it closed (at 11). I wrote some more, and then left at 11:50. They played Thriller two nights in a row, which I had mixed feelings about. It's pretty cool that it was Thriller, but they're supposed to play different music every night, so...

When I got home I worked for about half an hour before I decided I was going to die if I didn't sleep. So I went to sleep on the couch (again) and woke up at 3:30. I felt very refreshed, and worked on my outline until 6:30, whereupon I took a shower and went to bed. I woke up at 10, made a delicious omelet, and got ready for the day. I got to my outline conference at the TA office at 11:30 sharp (I would have gotten 5 points off for being late). The TA, Brooke, said that my TA was very good, and that made me quite happy. I got through the rest of my classes somehow, and then came home. I quasi-studied for a bit and then went to play basketball with Heidi. It was raining by this point, but we had a fantastic time. She's taking a basketball class this semester, and I blame my losing "Around the World" and "Horse" on that fact. It was the day before Kirsi's birthday (by now it's Friday) and so our apartment got Papa John's pizza. By this point, Amy had left for Las Vegas, Shyler was at her brother's apartment, and Madi was on a date. So Ashley, Kirsi, and I had some lovely pizza with garlic sauce. Then Heidi and I went shopping for halloween costumes. We'd decided to be flappers, so we went to DI to find some crazy old-fashioned dresses. I found one, and bought it. Then we went to Target and she got a dress. We discovered how expensive this whole venture was going to be, and cringed, but continued ahead. When I got home I watched the end of a scary movie with my roommates and some of Kirsi's friends. Then Kirsi went to her house and Ashley and I attempted to learn the Charleston, by watching videos from youtube. We were not hugely successful.

Saturday morning I forgot to set my alarm, so I woke up at 10:30, and was very upset that I'd wasted my day that way. I ate cold pizza and vegetables for breakfast/lunch and then did a little bit of homework. I went to the bookstore with our RA Stephanie to buy some supplies for a birthday sign to hang on doors (I'm on the birthday committee for our hall), and then went grocery shopping. I got home, with candy for our little trick-or-treaters, at 4, and then went with Heidi to see if there was anything at the dollar store that would salvage our costumes. We couldn't find anything, so we bought some off-brand animal crackers to assuage our grief (she laughed at my use of the word assuage). We decided to make a brief appearance at our stake Halloween dance that night, in whatever costumes we could find, and then go to a movie at the dollar theater with a whatever group we could round up. While I was at home, my roommates were watching Batman returns, when Catwoman is born. I was wearing black sweats, so I decided to put on my four-inch black boots, a black v-neck sweater worn backwards, paper cut-out ears, and an eyeliner mask to become Catwoman. We went to the party (Ashley, Heidi, some other friends, and I) and it was a bit lame. It was really hot and there wasn't that much going on, but there were some cool costumes. There were tons of Waldos and Hermiones, a kissing booth, and a set of three roommates dressed as eggs - one had devil horns and a tail for a deviled egg, one had a "sunburn" around the yolk for either "fried egg" or "sunny-side up" egg, and one had a hard hat on for hard-boiled. There were tons of other clever and funny costumes, but I don't remember all of them. My BOM professor was there with his wife, and they were dressed as the straw man and Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. But anyways, the party was kind of lame, so we left after about 40 minutes. We hung out at Heidi's apartment for a while and then she, two of her roommates, and I went to the dollar theater to see Ponyo, which is a very cute movie. There were a couple of guys across the aisle dressed up, and one of them was a cat. We did a chin nod to each other. That was really funny, and the movie was fun as well. When I got home I went to bed. (Oooh, that was anticlimactic. I bet you were expecting some really fun story about how we partied all night long, but we didn't :)

This morning I set my alarm for 9:30, but it didn't go off. I woke up at 11:30 (an unprecedented amount of sleep, I know) and my cell phone was nearly smirking at me. I checked the settings and it said the alarm was set for 9:30, but it hadn't gone off! I nearly killed my phone. I guess it was the DST change or something.... I missed hall meeting because of my recalcitrant cell phone, but I got to church. It was good, but I was tired because I'd slept too much and confused my body after a week of not sleeping at all. I went home between RS and Sunday School to preheat the oven to bake the artisan bread for our ward break-the-fast. (Oh, that's one thing I did last night after I got home - I prepared the dough). After Sunday School, I came home and baked the bread, then went to our ward break-the fast. There was spaghetti, salad, bread, and desserts. My bread was the only home-made stuff there, and my roommates appointed me the official bread-maker of our apartment. The dessert I got was a nutella-filled crepe. Yumm.... When we got home I started making some food for later on in this week. The main thing I did was this dish that's red potato and green cabbage. It's actually really good. While I did this we watched the CES Fireside, by President Utchdorf. I was persuaded by my roommates to stay home and watch it with them (only Shyler, Madi, and Ashley were there) and I won't be doing that again. They were talking and joking the entire time, and then sang off-key with the choir (on purpose). Ugh. But it was nice to be able to cook at the same time. Then I started on some applesauce, and went in my room to start typing this blog. Unfortunately, I forgot I'd started the applesauce so it burned. I tried to save it but it didn't work. Then Shyler's brother came over and sang for my roommates while I continued writing. (He does this regularly - they think he's amazing, but he's okay). When Amy and Kirsi got home we talked for about an hour, which was fun, and now I'm going to bed. I love you lots!

Eliza

Oh, p.s. I'm choosing classes tomorrow and I need some help deciding what to take. I'm going to take Chinese and Calculus 2, but here's the list of other stuff I'm thinking about (assuming there are any spots open still): Honors Economics Principles and Problems, Intro to English Language (so I can get started on an editing minor), Honors Geography and World Affairs, Human Biology, Human Anatomy, Honors Physical Science, Honors General Psychology, Honors Book of Mormon (pretty much for sure), Honors Current Social Problems, Civilization 2, Accounting 200, Biological Diversity: Animals, Fundamentals of Computing and Information, and General Chemistry (they're not offering Honors Chem 1 this semester, which is a bummer because I already have the books for that). I'm also thinking about taking extramural rugby, or I'll sign up for whatever P.E. class is open. Let me know what you guys think, asap! I sign up tomorrow at midnight. Love you!

Eliza