The Chastity Chair

As I mentioned before, Bekka and I took in a BYU baseball game last weekend. We were in the bottom of the second when something a few rows in front of us caught our attention:

This couple was holding hands across an empty chair. With further investigation, we found that the girl was wearing a ring but the guy wasn't, which could only mean one thing: Girl was surreptitiously cheating on absent husband by holding hands with random Boy two seats down.

Alternatively, the couple was engaged and saving a seat for the Holy Ghost...

Once upon a time...

...mommy got dressed up to go out and play with the puppies:



"She looks like Punky Brewster," said Meagan.
"Now would be the perfect time to bring your boyfriend home to meet the parents," said Taylor.
"She's the unibomber!" said Ian.
"Wazzup, Dawgs?" said Mommy.

And they all died laughing.

The End.

Flashback Friday - School Daze

Having completely forgotten that BYU graduation was going on (although the insane traffic should have tipped me off), I headed down to Provo last night for some Jdawgs and baseball goodness.

It's true that the sea of caps and gowns made me feel a little nostalgic, but it mostly made me excited to start school again. Which then got me thinking about the last time I was a beneficiary of the British education system:
This is the school I went to for 3rd and 4th grade. As you can see, I was quite the fashion maven in the mandatory plaid shift dress and matching polyester jumper. (The fluorescent green fanny pack was optional and my own fantastically successful attempt at accessorizing, thank you very much.)

But wait, there's more!

Here we are wearing the mandatory blazer with the embroidered school logo on the breast pocket, the mandatory straw boater (replaced by a mandatory black felt bowler in the winter months), the mandatory white knee-highs and Mary Janes, and my absolute favorite mandatory accessory: the black patent leather briefcase (which replaced the brown leather satchel that was mandatory in Form 2).

And to accompany the mandatory uniform, mandatory report cards at the end of every term:

Some highlights:

• Nine-year-olds being graded on elocution. As you can see (if you click to enlarge), I had "great enthusiasm for verse and learn[ed] and perform[ed] [my] recitations with confidence." To bad entertaining a crowd with ease didn't stick. I could be a rich woman.
• In music class, I made "very pleasing progress with [my] recorder." This is because I was a proud member of the recorder club. We blew. In a good way...
• My "unexpected and disappoint[ing]" maths score was prophetic.
• My "uninhibited gusto" in art made me lose ten house points later that year when I went a little "gusto" with the papier-mache paste. Totally worth it though.
• And the best news: I got my highest marks in history (96%). Hopefully my penchant to "participate freely and spontaneously in class" serves me well come this September...

happy earth day!

Daffodils

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth (1804)

Flashback Friday - Spring Break

{oops...wrote and forgot to post this...}

Okay, yes, I've taken a bit of a vacation from Flashback Fridays. Time to repent. So let's talk about vacations. Specifically: Spring Break.

My family has been on Spring Break this week, and while I love spending time with the fam, it's wreaked havoc on my work schedule. Which meant I had to spend a significant part of my weekend catching up in my basement office instead of enjoying the lovely spring weather ):

Not that not having a Spring Break is anything new. Bless you BYU, but having negative percent vacation days during winter semester is one of your biggest failures.

So one semester, we decided to take matters into our own hands. The result:

Spring Break 2006: Barcelona

During study abroad, several members of the LC took advantage of a long weekend and low airfares to travel and dispersed to Austria, Scotland, and Sweden (I think), etc. We chose Spain.

Fun Facts:

• With two whole semesters of Spanish under my belt, I was the most fluent of our group. This fact has Justin in hysterics whenever he thinks about it now (post-Bolivia mission).
• The Mediterranean sun--even in early April--gave me one fantastic sunburn. Strangers pointed and winced everywhere we went.
• The valet at the Hilton was hot.
• A glimpse of the Picasso museum, a tour of Gaudi architecture, a stroll down Las Ramblas, and a sampling of Paella and Spain's best export (chocolate con churros) were all on our list of things to do. But let's be honest, all we really cared about was the beach:

Insanity

Main entry: in·san·i·ty
Pronunciation: \in-ˈsa-nə-tē\
Function: noun

Definition: (a) extreme folly or unreasonableness (b) something utterly foolish or unreasonable
Ungrammatical sample sentence: This weather is insanity.

Twelve hours ago:

Twelve minutes ago:

Now, I could start spouting off all sorts of crazy, but as my good friend Albert Einstein once said: "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

So I'll just stop while I'm ahead...

British or Bust

Despite opening myself to ridicule, I'm going to admit I'm an on-again-off-again fan of American Idol. (This shouldn't come as a surprise.)

But lest you stop reading, thinking this is a blog in honor of Adam Lambert. It is so not. I'm off-again this season, and if you need a reason, here it is. Creeper.

There have been, however, performances in past years that have given me shivers in a good way. Here, for example.

But despite the wow-factor of some of these numbers, I've never been as touched by American Idol or its other reality counterparts as much as I have been while watching the British versions of these shows.

Anyone remember Paul Potts? Brilliant. I watched every one of his performances during the premiere season of Britain's Got Talent (thanks to Youtube) and was blown away. Every. Single. Time.

And now there's a new winner in town. Meet Susan Boyle. Love her. Season 3 just started on Saturday.

Inspiration is now just a Youtube search and a click away...

Rerun

When I was a baby, my grandma had a little poodle mix named Napoleon, "Nappy" for short. We were great friends:

Nappy was Grandma's favorite. He went everywhere with her and she attributed some of the happiest memories of her life to the short time they were together. A time which was tragically cut short when Nappy tried to take the steep, old stairs of my grandparents' Michigan home too quickly and fell, breaking his neck.

My Grandma mourned for about three years, until she learned that Nappy's mother was having another litter. She decided to buy one, and when the puppies were weaned, she picked one that looked just like Nappy. Same color fur, same curly hair, same chocolate eyes. In fact, the new puppy looked so much like Nappy that she named him Rerun.

While he never replaced the sweet memories Grandma had of her time with Nappy, the memories she had with Rerun were just as sweet. And Grandma always said that she loved Rerun all the more because she'd had Nappy first.

_____

Well, I've had my own Nappy. (Steep, scary stairs included.)

Now it's time for a Rerun.

Same city. Same neighborhood. Much longer.

Easter Top Ten

Love, Love, Loved this weekend:

10. Peeps. Bought two weeks ago and left out to harden.

9. Deviled eggs. Always taste better in dyed shells.

8. Easter bread. As part of a delicious dinner with tons of family.

7. Chocolate. Eggs, bunnies, wrapped in pastel-colored foil.

6. Ward choir number 1. "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" to the tune of "Come Thou Fount" with some a capella goodness.

5. Ward choir number 2. Men's a capella version of D&C 76:22. Sublime.

4. Baptisms in the Draper temple. One of my names was "Theophilia". So coolly appropriate. Also met with some of the temple presidency.

3. Sacrament talks. Practically perfect in every way.

2. Relief Society lesson. Amazing, per the usual.

1. Palpable Spirit all weekend.