Meaning in Music

I have my choir concert tomorrow (I'm in University Chorale, the non-audition school choir) and I was working on memorizing my music last week, and I was very moved by the beautiful lyrics to one of our pieces. The piece is called "Christ Hath a Garden," and I never paid too much attention to the lyrics until now, but the song means so much more now that I've thought about them:

Christ hath a garden walled around
a paradise of fruitful ground,
chosen by love and fenced by grace
from out the world's wide wilderness.

Like trees of spice, his servants stand,
there planted by his mighty hand,
by Eden's gracious streams that flow
to feed their beauty where they grow.

Awake, O wind of heaven and bear
their sweetest perfume through the air,
stir up, O south the boughs that bloom
'til the beloved master come.

That he may come and linger yet
among the trees that he hath set,
that he may evermore be seen
to walk among the springing green.

I am so moved by the image of Christ lingering among us, the plants in His garden. He put us here, upon fruitful ground, that we may grow and share our beauty with the world.

My concert is tomorrow night, and I am so excited to perform with a choir again. My most powerful musical experiences have occurred when performing with a choir, and I have missed that so much this year. When I and the rest of the choir is focused on the director, we all become part of something so much bigger than us as individuals; when this happens, I can feel the music move and grow and live within us as an ensemble for those few sublime moments.

Random Updates, Thoughts, Plans

Can I just say how more I love studying art and music than memorizing facts about rocks and stars? I actually enjoy memorizing how to recognize art from Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Ucello, Durer, Cimabue, El Greco, Giotto, and Vermeer. Hmmm? Art and music, or plate tectonics and the life cycle of a star? Tough call.

I took my last physical science midterm last night, and I only have the final before I can forget all about that stupid class. I don't do very well on the tests, (my highest score was an 83, and it was on the first, and easiest test) but it's because I would have to spend way more time memorizing and drilling concepts than I want to devote to a dumb GE. What was the most frustrating GE you ever took?

So, last Tuesday I declared it an official "Do the Bare Minimum of Homework and Get into the Christmas Spirit" day. It was AWESOME! After a long day of work and class I picked up Charlotte and we went to Target, which is officially my favorite place for therapeutic errand-running. I always come out of Super Target feeling happy, whether it's due to the 12-pack of Coke Zero in my shopping bag, or in this case, the Christmas tree and sparkly decorations I came out with. I bought a pre-lit, 3-foot tree for just $25, and I bought a box of small, sparkly, round ornaments in green, red, pink, aqua, and silver. Perfect. I also bought some white and green sparkly snowflake ornaments, and Charlotte bought me a bright sprig (I don't know what else to call it) to stick at the top of my tree.

When I got home, I had the suite all to myself, so I turned on the latest episode of "Chuck" and decorated my very first Christmas tree! I felt pure holiday joy, and now every time I come home to my tree after a long day, it brings me happiness and peace. One of my friends said that "It's an Emily tree!" I agree, seeing as I even tied together some of my ribbons in colors that match the ornaments to make a garland. Channeling Mom and Susan's decorating that week, I primped my tree, wove in my garland, and hung my ornaments two-to-a-hook.

This picture doesn't really do it justice, seeing as my camera screen cracked while it was in my schoolbag, so I can't see what my pictures look like until I put them onto my computer. I'll borrow Charlotte's camera soon so I can do justice to my colorful, spunky tree. I'm pretty much in love.

I'm Alive!

My recent blogging break was due to severe tunnel vision leading up to Thanksgiving Break. I'm back from break now, and working on getting through the end of my classes and finals, so that in just 14 short days I can return home, hopefully satisfied with my grades and ready to forget about everything else but being home with my family.

Last week was wonderful because I was able to do all the things with my family and in my home that I don't get to do here.

I was goofy with my siblings!

I mopped!

I hugged my family and smelled Mom's perfume again!

I ate a lot of really good food!


I listened to hours of Christmas music, free from roommates who think it's too early in the season!

I also:
-watched the tv shows that my family has been saving on our DVR, which primarily included hours and hours of "House."
-went to Costco with Mom and Grandma.
-did some Christmas and personal shopping. (At the Banana Republic Factory Store by our house, everything was 50% off, and I did have to keep myself from splurging too much.)
-sat on real couches that don't have hard wooden beams in them.
-didn't do any of the reading I brought with me.
-wore warm, cozy pajamas because I was sleeping where it actually gets pleasantly chilly at night.
-benefited from my Mom's laundry day, and I didn't have to swipe my card to start the machines.
-had time to iron all my clothes, and came home with a crisp stack of freshly ironed jeans. Ahh, the luxury.

I LOVE BEING HOME!

Destination Imagination: Turkey Edition

For almost all of elementary school, I participated in the program called Destination Imagination. This program involved being on a team of other students and creating skits and doing improvisation activities. The objective is to develop creative problem-solving skills, and looking back, I feel like I have really benefited from it. (If they offer it at your kids' schools, I highly recommend looking into it!) One thing my team did every week at our meetings/practices was find ways to creatively interpret the end-of-meeting snacks. For example, if the snack was Tootsie Rolls, we would go around the circle and everyone would say something that their Tootsie Roll was, i.e. a log on a fire. I introduce with this information, because I was able to put my D.I. skills into action this week!

Last week, I volunteered to plan Family Home Evening for my group this week because I thought that it would be fun to make the chocolate turkeys that my family makes every year on Thanksgiving. Though a good concept, the execution tested my creative problem solving skills to the max! The supply list for this project is fairly simple, requiring Whoppers, red decorating gel, chocolate frosting, and chocolate stars. I forgot in my planning that the chocolate stars, which are crucial to the composition of the turkeys, are tricky to find. We find ours at an over-priced, obscure grocery store near our house, and I was hoping to have similar luck out here. I hoped in vain. Charlotte sent me to Allen's Family Grocers, which is more ghetto and sketchy than obscure, and they had nothing in the area of chocolate stars.

I'm a "Can-Do" person, so I didn't give up hope. Rather, after asking a couple workers about the stars and realizing that they had not such thing, I returned to the candy aisle and let my creative juices flow. What could be used as or turned into roundish, flats disks of chocolate? I started by grabbing a bag of miniature Reeses, which I figured could be cut in half to produce the desired thickness necessary for the turkeys. I then selected a bag of Hershey's nuggets (you know, those little rectangles of milk and dark chocolate, Krackle, and Mr. Goodbar?) The chocolate is soft enough that I decided that they could be used to carve out the round base and back of the turkeys. My friends weren't sold on that one, but I had confidence in my plan. Finally, I found some chocolate covered gummy ring things in a box up front, so I bagged about a pound of those. These turkeys would not be classic Wood Family Thanksgiving turkeys, but they would be inventive, unique turkeys.

As is to be expected by any circumstance which involves sixteen college freshmen and a table full of chocolate, we didn't end up with many actual turkeys, but some very creative chocolate sculptures. Jace made a tractor, Greg made a snowman and a Christmas tree, (note how these are both guys) and the other guys mostly stood around eating the Whoppers. It was fun though, (not to mention delicious) and I considered it a success. Displayed below are my attempts at turkey creation with my limited supplies, and I don't think they're half bad!

This was made by slicing a Reeses in half horizontally.
It looks more like an oyster in my opinion.

This is an example of carving a rectangle of Hershey's milk chocolate into a circle. This is probably the closest thing to the real deal.

This was my attempt at being creative with the chocolate covered gummy rings. The ring is on the bottom and what looks like a run-down fence behind it is Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate trying to look like feathers.

Catch Up

Well, my "12 Days Before Thanksgiving" series lost momentum quickly amidst my week of studying, so I'll just stick with one big recap of the week.

Tuesday: 11 Days Left
-Spent 14 hours up on campus, which was spent at work, in class, studying, in a review session, and taking a test.
-I got my second D ever. My first was the 60 I scored on the last Physical Science test, and this second one the 69 I got on American Heritage. At least I'm showing improvement. I was pretty disappointed, though, because I really thought I understood the material, but I'm realizing more and more that multiple choice tests don't work with my brain very well. It was pretty frustrating to score that low after having studied for about 10 hours over the course of two days. I know a lot of people who scored low as well, so hopefully the curve will help me out. Also, I felt good about the essay portion, so that will hopefully bring me up a little.
-My boots made their on-campus debut paired with my skinny jeans, and I feel I definitely gave them a good breaking-in. Once again, I failed in my documentation due to the fact that by the time I got back to my room a little after 10:00 that night, my feel were blistered and I was so mentally and physically drained, it was all I could do to get my boots off, put on pajamas, and get ready for bed.

Wednesday: 10 Days Left
-I wore my boots again, this time with less pain.
-At work, I was excited because there were brownies, but was sorely disappointed when they tasted like PlayDough. What's worse is that I at an entire brownie, even though it tasted very little like the baked good it claimed to be.
-I was only on campus for 11 hours, but stayed up studying for my third Physical Science test until about 1 a.m. Wednesday night was rough, because I felt so discouraged because even when I study hard, I feel like I can't do as well in my classes as I'd like.

Thursday: 9 Days Left.
Thursday was an interesting day. It started off pretty horribly, because I woke up with a headache and felt completely wiped out. I was late to work, and spent my five hours there running down the clock and feeling completely drained. My day steadily improved, climaxing when I broke my streak of D test scores by getting a 70 on my physical science. I was so excited because after Tuesday, all I was praying for was to get better and get a C, and I got exactly what I needed! This was a good reminder to us that God rarely answers our prayers with miracles, but rather gives us just what we need to keep going and stay motivated. Not only did I feel great about my score, but I was thrilled to be finished with my last midterm before finals. I took a celebratory trip to Target with Charlotte, during which I splurged on a twelve pack of Cherry Coke Zero and some Honeycrisp apples, which are our family's favorite variety. Thursday night was one of those times when I just felt happy and smiled for no apparent reason. I sang along with Supertramp in my car, and I just felt happy. I am so grateful that because of the gospel, even though life is crazy and I'm getting D's on tests and spending 14-hour days on campus, I can still feel happy.

On the 12th Day Before Thanksgiving Break

I cannot believe that I only have twelve days left until Charlotte and I go home! I love looking back on the last two months and seeing how much I've grown and all that I've learned. It's amazing, and so strengthening to see all that I've been able to overcome through faith and prayer. I've been so blessed, and I am so grateful for all that's behind me and for all that's still ahead. 

So, today, the 12th day before Thanksgiving break, I:

Dined on my favorite vending machine fare. On the menu today was my favorite breakfast of a honey wheat bagel with strawberry cream cheese. These are pretty delicious, though the bagels are always stale. This is a common meal for me in between Music Civ and ELang, since those classes are in the same building, and said building houses the best vending machine assortment on campus.

Also got lunch from the vending machines.  EasyMac is a staple. Mmm.

Reconnected with my days as a preteen by listening to *NSync on my Pandora Christmas playlist. I'm actually disappointed that I got rid of my *NSync Christmas cd with the rest of their cds, because it's pretty decent holiday music.

Wore a new outfit, but sadly forgot to document before changing into pajamas and washing all my jeans. I wore my new flats, which was fun. It's my goal to wear a new ensemble everyday this week so that I have some good outfits to wear when I'm home. I love getting even just a couple new pieces for my wardrobe, because then I can do all new things with those plus what I already have.

Passed my cleaning check for the first time this year! I know this may seem surprising, as I enjoy cleaning, so allow me to explain. Our cleaning checks always take place on Mondays, and they don't announce each month's until the Saturday before. I never see the sign until Saturday night, at which time I don't want to clean. I don't like to clean on Sunday, either, so I end up trying to mask the dust and dirt. Our room really does stay pretty clean, but the cleaning days I select personally rarely match up with the scheduled checks. It felt good to get the sticker for once.

Only 11 days to go!

The Votes Are In!

I would first of all like to thank all my readers for their opinions and input on my boot contemplations. I took it all into consideration and have the results!

I went for a slouchy, buckled pair that I found in a little store in University Mall for $34. I saw them just as we entered the mall, and knew it was fate. I like to think that they found me. The store reminded me of China Town because there were no shelves, just stacks and stacks of shoe boxes. This meant that finding one's desired size required much digging through and toppling over of boxes and display shoes. There was not open seating, so I had to try on my boots while standing up and leaning awkwardly against an unstable stack of shoe boxes. I was on a mission, though, and I got my boots. They made their debut at church today, and I look forward to experimenting with them with skinny jeans and skirts this week. I've entered the world of boots, and I'm never going back!

Here's a closer view, in which you can see them in greater detail. The color is true charcoal, for it is dark, but not black, but not grey. I love that they have a heel, and it's not too high or too skinny, so they will not hinder campus traversing. I love them!

I have studied more this week than I ever have in my life. I've been so blessed, though, because I've actually enjoyed my week. I love the satisfaction of walking out of the library after focusing on something for three hours and thinking about how much more I have accomplished than when I walked in. I had papers for Music 201 and American Heritage due this week, and tests for ELang and Book of Mormon. This coming week, I have my hardest tests, which are in American Heritage and Physical Science. However, since I was focusing on the things I had due last week, I didn't get started on my studying for these harder tests until this weekend. Therefore, I pulled a Friday night study session in the library for three hours. I felt super lame, but got some good studying in. It was especially important for me to get a head start this weekend, though, because Saturday was game day, which eats up a lot of potential study time.

That being said, Saturday, Jessica and I went to the last home football game of the season. Since the beginning of the year, we have worked our way down from our seats at the very top of the stadium. Our tickets still say we should be up there, but we have friends who have closer seats, so we just sit with them. It's all benches anyway, so it's easy to fit extras into the row, especially when they are as fun as we are! :)

We got some "last time in the stadium" shots, and had a lot of fun. Andrew, the guy on the right, realized that since all the guys will go on missions next year, they won't be back in the stadium for three years! Whoa! I'm going to miss our guys so much next year; it's weird to think about them all being gone, and then coming back when we're seniors. Weird. I love that they're all planning on serving missions. I get so excited for missionaries and love doing missionary work. For the last few years I've loved the idea of serving a mission myself. Kristen, Kimberly, and I went with some guys from our ward to the call center at the Missionary Training Center, and it was so cool being in there! I'm such a dork, but I just get so excited about missionary work! My friend from home got his call to Cordoba, Argentina, and two of friends here already have their calls for Alaska and Anaheim. Way to go, guys!

After our shopping trip, we went to the library (not to study this time) because we heard that they were showing "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others" in the auditorium. To our dismay, our information was incorrect, but we were able to rent out a viewing room upstairs and watch "The Others" online. I love the adventures I have on campus with my friends. Last night, Tyler and I made a trip over to the JKB for vending machine treasures. Armed with our friends' id cards, we braved the confusing labyrinth that is the layout of the Jessie Knight Building. We decided that it's like Hogwarts, in that the staircases move, because nobody could possibly design a building to be that confusing. We found our way into the proper wing on the proper floor, and filled all the orders.

So, how do you smuggle this:

many beverages up to the fourth floor of the library?

Simple. You thank your lucky stars that you come from a family that values large purses.

We still maneuvered past the security guards with caution, but our mission was successful, and I got enjoy the movie with my Sprite Zero. Ah, refreshing.

The library plays loud music at quarter to midnight every night to rid themselves of all studious stragglers, and last night, the selection was especially happy. I thoroughly enjoyed myself by dancing my way down the stairs and out the building, rejoicing in a fun, productive, weekend, good friends, and a good life.

Photo Updates!

I feel like I'm finally getting a grip on life here. I went through a couple weeks in October of homesickness, where I just wanted to get in my car and drive home. One of the downsides to working data entry for up to five hours in a day is that I have plenty of time to just think, and when that thinking is about all the things I miss from home, those five hours seem very long. It's a good thing my office is in the back where nobody can see me unless they make the specific effort of actually coming back there, (that is, if they even know there is an office back there) because I can be sad and maybe cry if I need to. One Friday a couple weeks ago, I was so close to driving home as soon as work was finished. After looking up air fare, and deciding that I didn't want to spend $200+ to fly home that night, I texted Mom, asking "how crazy would it be if I drove home tonight." To my dismay, she responded that with my car, that would be pretty crazy. That was probably wise, seeing as I've never driven that far by myself, and my car really isn't as reliable as I like to pretend. A Saturday at home, mopping with Mom would have been pretty Shamazing, however.

Part of my homesickness came because at home, with my family, I am my truest form of Emily. Being here, I miss doing some of the things that make me that way. I don't have time or resources to acommadate the baking I did at home, cleaning, and piano practicing. I miss our King Soopers grocery store, the high school choir community, my ward, and most of all, my family (Duh). Last week, therefore, I decided that I needed to do those things that make me feel like me. Monday night, I put on my favorite cleaning shirt, and attacked the hair, dirt, and grime that filled our bathroom. I used a considerable amount of Clorox Cleanup, and I'm pretty sure I was getting high on the fumes by the end, but the cleaning was wonderfully therapeutic and satisfying. Tuesday night, I took my ever-increasing stack of ironing down to the basement, and pressed all my t-shirts and jeans as only a daughter of Denise would. The rest of the week went well, and I was able to get on top of my school work. 

The week culminated with Halloween, which I spent with my friends at the condo. Our plan was to make homemade pizzas with homemade pizza crust, which failed when the dough I mixed up was severely floury. It didn't even hold together. Leaving behind the failed dough, I drove over to the dorms to pick up the two carloads of party guests. (One of my friends really needs to get a car.) On the way back, we picked up some pizza crust mixes, but by the time we got back, one girl had found a way to repair the dough. Thus, we had four pizzas, and enough dough leftover to make a pan of cheesy bread and cinnamon sticks. The pizzas turned out deliciously, and we topped them so that when they were cut into pieces, each piece would look like a piece of candy corn. (See pic below for visual)

The Halloween pizza! It was actually pretty delicious.

Patriotic cheesy bread. Even things without minds had their minds on the upcoming election!

Making Halloween houses

Monster dough.

There was more that I had to report, but I'm too behind, so I'm going to move forward. 

Contamination!

Just moments ago, I was taking a break from the large stack of quizzes I'm entering into the computer, commenting on Susan's blog, when I noticed a funny taste in the baby carrots I was snacking on. (Previously, I had purchased a vending machine meal of EasyMac and a "Carrot Dippers" pack. I hate vending machine lunches, but on Mondays and Wednesdays I have work right after class, so they are a sad necessity.) When I first opened my carrots, I could tell they weren't fresh, but they looked edible. False. After eating over half, I looked down to see the horrific sight of black spots on a few of the carrots at the bottom of the package! #*!@&%! Gross! In a panic, I ran (yes, I actually ran) out of my office, back up to the third floor bank of vending machines, and frantically purchased a bag of trustworthy Wheat Thins and a Dasani. Phew.

Back in my office now, I am munching on my sanitary Wheat Thins and drinking my purified water, hoping to clean my mouth of any mold or other nastiness from those stupid carrots. It's a good thing I didn't crack open the ranch dip that came with the carrots; who knows what state of aging that would have been in?!

Attention! Alert!

Attention all bloggers! Freshmen t-shirt sighting in the Harold B. Lee library, second floor, periodicals! With Charlotte as my witness, I declare that students actually bought, and wear said shirts. (She and I just happened to come to the same area to study this lovely fall afternoon, and have been sharing Wheat Thins and Facebook messages back and forth. Later today we're going to see High School Musical 3. Good day.)

Shoe Dilemma

With Petersen blood running through my veins, a love of shoes is in my nature. Thus, preparing from the transition from Fall to Winter presents to me a problem to solve. The majority of shoes I wear are flats. They work with pants or skirts, are comfy, and often come embellished with buttons, ribbon, and rhinestones. Nothing wrong there.

I've been contemplating lately what I want to do with my winter wardrobe, and I've decided that I want to add boots to my everyday shoe wardrobe. I am fully against Ug boots, and all similar styles, but I can see myself rocking a pair of slouchy boots this winter. I can already picture the outfits I could create with my skinny jeans and slouchy boots, or a wintery skirt and said boots. Thus comes my dillema. I've never bought boots before, and don't know which ones are scary and which ones are acceptable. Help! Oh, Petersen women, (and anyone else with an opinion on shoes) I call for your aid in selecting the perfect boots for this season!

I've done a little online looking, and found a couple options. On the whole, I prefer boots with heels, but I'm afraid that for everyday shoes for walking across campus, I need something flat. Here are a couple options:

I saw a girl on campus with boots similar to these, and liked them on her. My question, however, is if the buckles are too much? I don't mind them, but I could use a second opinion. I, of course, would get the grey, and the price on them is pretty reasonable. I'm looking at these more and more, however, and picturing my Mom's reaction, and it's looking more and more like when I thought the hippie dress at TJMaxx was a good idea. . .

I like this pair because they are metallic-ish. Again, grey would be my selection, but, again, I need a second opinion.


These boots are just gross. Why in the world would you pay $339.00 for something so heinous?

My Mother's Daughter

So, this is me, posing for a picture in my "I Heart Mom" shirt. I had Jessica take the picture, but didn't realize that camera was on video mode. I thought it was funny though, and a a chance for all of you at home to see me in action! Too bad it's blurry and you can't really see my face. . . Haha. I wore this, my favorite, most bleach-stained shirt after work to go to the gym with Jessica and Kristen. Impressed by my Mom's workout routine, Jess and I decided to try 20 minutes on the elliptical. We made through 15 minutes, which equated to 1.15 miles! Our legs were jello afterwards, but it felt good. Thanks, Mom!

A lovely post-workout/Jamba Juice shot. 

(The locker room attendant told me she liked my shirt!)

My exercising is not the reason I am my mother's daughter, however. This morning, I was on my way down the hall, running late for class, when I realized that in my haste to get out the door, I hadn't put on any jewelry! The Petersen gene in me would not let me proceed out of my building with no accessories, so I quickly turned around, went back into my room, and grabbed a long necklace and matching earrings. Crisis averted.

Shortly after my accessory emergency, I was on my way up to campus, and feeling a little blue. I've been homesick on and off lately, and this morning I just wanted to be back in Denver. I was thinking about a night last year at this time when Mom and I were home after school, making pumpkin bread in the kitchen. It had been a hard day for both of us, so we turned on our favorite Amy Grant Christmas cd. I immediately set my iPod to my Christmas music favorites from last year, and indulged all day in Amy Grant, James Taylor, Hilary Weeks, and Manhattan Transfer Christmas songs that remind me more of home than most anything. I felt pretty funny walking across campus with "Snowfall," and "White Christmas" playing in my ears on such a sunny, beautiful fall day. I was okay with that. Only 26 days left until I go home for Thanksgiving!

A Little More Wolf Awareness

In my last update post, I just gave you a taste of the adventure I had in Salt Lake on Saturday, and will now share more of the hilarity and frustrations from the days events.

So, we caught the 12:05 bus at University Ave. and University Pkwy. Saturday to head to to the zoo. I packed a couple school books in one of my big purses (which happened to coordinate nicely with my wolf shirt) with the intention of studying on the ride. Hello, Emily! You get severely carsick in any moving vehicle even when you aren't reading! I don't know why I forgot this oh, so painful fact, seeing as my family and I have had many an unpleasant car ride due to my extreme proneness to motion sickness. I guess I thought maybe a bus would be different. Nope. Within 5 minutes of reading in my ELang book about syntax, I was making plans for what I what bag I could grab if need be. I won't elaborate further, but needless to say, I spent the first leg of our journey with my head on my knees resisting the nausea I was feeling. Gross.

It was also on this first stretch that I was informed that our travels would take an approximate 2 and a half hours each way! I found myself thinking, "What the heck am I doing here?! I have homework and laundry and ironing!" Sadly, I was trapped on the UTA.

After about 45 minutes or so, we transferred to TRAX, the Utah lightrail, and the fresh air definitetly helped me feel better. We saw some interesting characters, though, and missed our stop. Blast. We got off at the next stop, waited about 10 minutes on the platform, and caught the train going back to our intended stop. That took us to some random shopping complex in Salt Lake, next to the Rock Church, where we caught another bus that took us further into the city.

Okay, so by the time we got off at our final stop, it was almost 3:00, and we still had no idea where the zoo was. We ended up at some park, where our group parted ways. Half went to find the zoo, while Jessica, Nick, Billy, and I stayed behind because we didn't want to pay $8 to go to the zoo for only an hour before we caught our bus home at 5:00. Those of us who stayed behind took naps in the park because it really was a beautiful day, and walked over to A&W for some draft root beer and french fries.

This lunch stop provided the highlight of our trip. This is the wonderfully quotable conversation that went down between me and the cashier:

Cashier: I love your shirts!
Me: Thanks! It's Wolf Awareness Day at the zoo, and we're just supporting the wolves.
Cashier: I. Love. Wolves. You should see my checkbook. Nothing but wolves.

Hahahahahaha. This makes me laugh every time I think about it. She was dead serious, and seriously hilarious. We think there was something genuinely wrong with her though, because later, we heard her pressuring an innocent customer into adding a dessert to his order. She kept saying "But don't you want a root beer float with that?" Jessica was scared to go up to get change for her return bus fare, afraid that the wolf lady would try to get her to buy some ice cream too.

Our return trip was more of the same of train rides and bus exchanges. This time, however, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would get absolutely nothing done that day, so it wasn't as stressful. We had a 45 minute wait in between the train and second bus, and had fun playing games at the bus stop. A couple of our friends taped their homemade wolf awareness signs to the glass bus stop wall thing, and we were baffled when a guy drinking something out of a Big Gulp cup (it looked like Coke, but based on his behavior, it could have been something much stronger) came over, removed the signs, and walked away carrying them down the lightrail tracks. Hmm. Maybe he's just trying to spread Wolf Awareness too.

We made it back into Provo at 7:30, tired and sad about never seeing the zoo or the wolves. It was good to see more of Utah. You don't realize how much of a bubble Provo is until you go somewhere outside of the town where you can smell cigarette smoke and see people in tank tops and U of U paraphenalia.

Updates: To-the-Max!

So, I didn't realize how much has happened since last weekend, but I have been pretty busy. The week has flown by so fast, and the following extensive post documents several events of said busy week. 

This was hanging in my hall on Tuesday, and I think that it's hilarious. This is what you get when the ward opera major is the ward choirster. Haha. 

Last weekend was homecoming, so my friends and I got up and went to the somewhat sad little parade through campus. My favorite part was the appearance of the Quill and the Sword club, pictured below. 

The game was freezing, but way fun. Jessica and I ventured down from our top-of-the-stadium seats to sit with Charlotte and Brennan down WAY closer to the field.

The Quill and the Sword is my favorite of all the BYU clubs. They're hard to miss in their capes and medieval weaponry. My favorite is the blue guy who had a black fencing mask on. 

Homecoming night, I went to the dance with my friends, with Nick as my date. Melanie's older sister dubbed herself official photographer for the evening, and we accommodated her by posing for these, well, posed pictures. We had Chinese food down in the guys' basement, and went to the casual dance at the Wilk. Neither Nick nor I are big dancers, but it was fun to go with everyone.

Hooray for Good Mail this week! The anticipation of this package from Mom, Grandma, Susan, and Rachelle collectively got me through a long day on Thursday, and it delivered. (Haha. Get it?!) Pictured above is the bounty of Halloween baking goods I received, including ghost baking cups, two kinds of Halloween sprinkles, a Halloween hot cocoa, and Halloween party picks! Oh, baby! Jessica and I are making do with a cake mix tonight to make our first round of cupcakes, but will go shopping for ingredients with which to make cupcakes from scratch for our Halloween party coming up. 

This is the exterior of said package. I love the labels Mom makes, always addressing packages to "Misses Emily and Charlotte Wood," from "Mom!" 

Rachelle sent a couple cute vinyls, including this Rhumbas cover and a ridiculously cute one with a giant orange slice. I couldn't get a good photo, but believe, it's probably my new favorite.

I love these picture frames from Susan. They match both mine and Jessica's stuff, and brighten up the front of our room, next to my Izze bottles and gerbera daisies.

Congratulations for making it through most of these updates. This last set of photos documents the events of the last couple days, complete with an adventure on the UTA (Utah Transit Authority, for those non-locals).

Like Charlotte, Mom's homemade pumpkin bread was my favorite part of my package. I took it to a Friday-night study session with Jessica and Nick at the library. I even took my Rachel Ray plates, and though we didn't do much studying, the pumpkin bread was amazing, as can only be expected. Thanks, Mom!

Saturday was Wolf Awareness Day at the Salt Lake Zoo. We wanted to go to the zoo anyway, and this occasion was just too much to pass up. We never actually made it to the zoo, but we did get in a stop at A&W for some draft root beer in frosted mugs. Naturally, we made a trip to DI on Friday night for wolf shirts. (you know, those Native American, over-large t-shirts with a howling wolf pictured in front of a majestic mountain?) You can kind of see mine in the pic above. 

Here's a shot that captures both Jessica's wolf t-shirt and one of the many unique characters we encountered while traversing the public transport of Utah state. So, as previously stated, we didn't make it to the zoo because after a bus ride, train ride, and second bus ride we ended up somewhere in Salt Lake, a mile from the zoo, location of which we were unaware. Looking back, the day could have been better spent catching up on homework instead of venturing around Salt Lake, but it was interesting seeing the diversity Utah has to offer outside of the public transport system.

A quick tribute to Jessie. This fungus was thriving at the bus stop outside of A&W. Gross.

And finally, an inspirational sign outside of "The Rock Church," which was located right by the train tracks. We heard them practicing for their 6:48 service, (I'm not joking. That's the time the sign said.) and let me tell you, it was rockin'.