Halloween, mission call, dance lab, corn maze, midterm, movie nights, Quelf, thrift store trips, working dishes, carnivals, homework, classes, sleep, making cookies, home teaching, Legends Grill, friends, food, fun, stress, practice, Iceberg, rain. Piece them all together and you get the general picture of my week this week. Every day was just go, go, go and they all just seem to blend together. Time is so out of whack - it goes so fast that you don't even know what happens. Its like trying to hold water in the palms of your hand as it rushes out over the sides and the cracks in your fingers, no matter how much you try to hold on and keep it, you still lose it. So it had better be spent wisely. That is real question: am I spending my time to the best that I am able? Surely there needs to be fun but there also needs to be work and school and sleep and church and all those good things as well. The problem is finding the right balance to make it work out and in order to fit eveyrthing in so that I don't go insane from too much of one and a huge lack of another. I guess Ill start out with Monday and move through the week even though its just a big jumbled mess of memories with no real day of the week attached to them. Monday we went to Cornbelly's as a ward which is a Halloween carnival place with a corn maze, jumpy things, go karts, haunted stuff, pig races (didn't even know that was possible), and amazing jack-o-lanterns. We started off with the corn maze and promptly got lost in the middle of it and wandered around forever trying to find the correct way out but really only getting deeper and deeper in. When we finally emerged, we found that we had somehow changed mazes halfway through and came out the kiddie maze exit. Thats how talented we are haha. We then played around on all the slides and bouncy stuff and just had a good time for a few hours forgetting about all the worries and pressures of college. After that we went over to Iceberg for some really good food and ice cream, I wish it had never left Mesa! I had the mini pumpkin shake which of course was about the size of a half gallon of ice cream on its on with a really good hamburger and some of the best fries ever. Delicious! After that we came home fo find that Greg had been asked to prefernce by his girlfriend (Samuel's cousin). We had goldfish all up and down our hallway. Although the sad thing is that none of them even survived a week, 60 dead fish that we kept having to throw down the toilet all week. Tuesday was a relaxation day even though it wasn't supposed to be. But Sherrie just came over to my apartment and we ended up playing Jeopardy for hours and having fun. That is one of the problems with me that I need to fix is that when people come over I stop working and start playing or talking or whatever. I never get anything done because people come over a lot. So I squish in all my homework in between people's visits and try to make it all work out. Which so far luckily, it has. Tuesday night we started using the projector and watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I just couldn't get into it though because it just didn't make any sense to me. Something about giant talking turtles just doesn't work. I talked to my mom a lot instead and we found a way for me to be able to go home for Thanksgiving! I am so excited and can't wait. I'm missing everyone growing up and mom and dad's comfort and support and Sunday dinners at Grandma's house and Mesa friends and my house and room and books. But mainly just my family and the fact that I took them way too much for granted while I lived at home. Wednesday brought its own whole new set of stuff to do. I had to take my Book of Mormon midterm which was really quite evil. I got an 83% but with the scaled curve Ill end up with a 90% or a 93%, gotta love the curve when it boosts everyone's grades up. I didn't know someone could test you over the Book of Mormon that hard though, it was quite an eye opener and now I know how much more I have to study and prepare for the actual final. After that I came home and made ginger snaps for hometeaching that I went to go do at 6, but they had forgotten the appointment so we just dropped off the cookies and headed back to our apartments. I had a dance lab next which turned out to be a lot of fun. They played foxtrots, waltzes, cha chas, and swings all night long and you would just ask someone to dance and then dance. None of the awkward stake dance kind of dancing either where you are trying to have a conversation the entire time, but actually dancing steps and having oodles of fun. I managed to dance them all and get all (well most) of the figures I had learned in and even got complemented on my good leading. I have worked a lot on my frame recently to bring it up and so far it has been working, my dancing has improved tenfold. About halfway through the dancelab they had a snowball showcase and my teacher came up and picked me to be one of the first ones on the floor. Not cool. I think I did ok, but there were about 200 people watching me dance and it was just awkward especially dancing with someone eons beyond my level. After that I got a call from Samuel saying that he had got his mission call and was going to open it now. Jared and I made him stop and wait till all his family was ready and all the people came over. He opened it up and got his mission call to Sacramento, California, reporting February 4. English speaking. Watching him open his mission call made me really want to get one to. I keep watching all those around me leave like Kendall, Darrik, David, Matt, etc. and new people getting calls like Joe, Samuel, Sean. Christian finished filling out his papers and now only has to wait for his call to get here. Its this mission frenzy and I really want to take part in it but can't because I am so, so young. After Joe and Samuel are gone next semester, Im afraid Ill catch it even more. Just restless to get out and go do the Lord's work for two years. Anxious to start serving and Im sure working at the MTC is helping that feeling out a lot too. Thursday is family day. I go visit Aunt Julie, Uncle Karsten, Bryn, and Brooke and eat, do laundry, do homework, and enjoy the company. Its one of the best days of the week and I wouldn't really switch it for anything. Especially Bryn's and Brooke's smiles and laughter as I play with them. After I got back from that, I went on one of the random adventures that college is all about. We went to Savers and Walmart and Krispy Kremes. The "hot" sign was on at the donut place and so we had to stop and go inside and get a free one. Then I tried one of their pumpkin spice donut holes and as Sherrie call it, it was "a ball of pure ectasy." We came home and played around in the leaves for a little bit and then watched some of Anastasia before the girls had to leave. Friday is sleep in day and that is truly marvelous. Then all I have is humanities which is one of the most fun classes ever invented. After that I come back to the apartment and clean up a bit. There was also a Halloween carnival that Jared and I went to on Brigham Square that was a blast. They had all those classic games like the fishing pond and the cake walk. We also played Jeopardy and I managed to win against 10 other people and get a t-shirt! Plus we got our caricatures drawn by another booth and got tons and tons of candy. Gotta love free stuff especially on a holiday. After that I tromp off to work and then got back and changed into my Halloween costume. It was interesting. I had a neon trippy headband, shirt, pants, and glowsticks. I basically glowed at the dance and it was quite easy to spot me. The dance was fun just wayyy too hot so we watched Nightmare Before Chistmas on the projector and then played Quelf out in the lobby. Saturday I decided to be ambitious and made the Neiman Marcus chocolate chip cookies. And wow, does it take a lot of work. They came out good though. Then I went to Legends Grill with Samuel after returning the Lyon's white shirt I had borrowed. Then came work and finishing up the rest of Anastasia. Today it is all cloudy and raining and lovely. Perfect for contemplating life's deep questions kind of weather.