A week off.

So this week was pretty much a week off of anything school related for me. Sure, I did all the reading that I had to do and went to class and whatnot. But there were no tests, no papers, not much of anything really. Just a whole lot of free time to chill and get to do some pretty crazy stuff. Monday night started it all off, or course, like it usually does every week. Although, I guess I should accurately start with Sunday and first start by stating my disappointment with the Superbowl and great despair at the loss of the Cardinals. I did convert a few Cardinals fans, however, and had some people who were strongly against me and I ended up being the loser. But oh well. Its not like I could help the team do any better than they did. I did learn that I am one of the only people in my room who watches TV or movies on Sundays. To me, its a great bonding experience, and to them Im not sure what it is. So I was kind and went to a room a couple doors down to watch the Superbowl and enjoy the company of people who didn't think I was the devil for watching it on Sunday. I guess people are just raised differently and I just need to accept that fact, even if it means watching something like a Disney movie on a Sunday can then be taken to be a bad thing. Monday night Kelly Ann and I started building the largest marble shoot I think BYU campus has ever seen. It spanned out from our dorm and down all the stairs into the basement and ended up right near the base of the ping pong table. It had it all: jumps, drops, curves, dominoe tower to knock down at the end, and a three months worth collection of toilet paper and paper towel tubes. It was magnificent. Although, by the end only half the marbles ended up making it all the way down, but still you can't have everything. We spent a grand total of around 2 1/2 hours getting it all constructed and messing around with it. And then just played with it until we were forced to take it down around 11:30. By the end, we had Brad, Courtney, Whitney, Greg, Aaron, Jared, Will, and even some others working on it. I guess I should mention that Regan helped by pointing out all the faults and flaws in the design. He seems to relish taking that job a lot. Tuesday was free grand slam at Denny's day. A truly wonderful invention. My morning class was cancelled which was great because it meant that I could end up waiting in line outside the restaurant for the 45 minutes it took to get in and the same time it took our food to get to the table. But it was free, which was the important thing. Free food is always amazing and worth waiting for. That took up most of the morning, as I am sure anyone could see. Tuesday night was my fabulous night class where I had to lead my group's entire relay set up and get everyone excited and pumped up for it. I was up in front of everyone the whole time and had a blast doing it - and yelling and screaming at the top of my voice and making sure everyone was having fun and so on. I don't think there is a better class anywhere ever invented than that. Simply a blast plus an easy A for three credits. After that, I went to Legends Grille and had a hamburger which turned out to be delicious. They make them in big hunks of meat which tastes just right especially with the homemade toasted buns that they use. Then I came home and watched Batman Begins for fun and to waste some time because I honestly had nothing else to do and not much energy left to do it with. Wednesday turned out to be Psych night because the first and second season finally arrived in the mail on Tuesday. We watched the pilot episode for the series and saw how the whole crazy awesome show started. It was a very long pilot, but it was still awesome and fun to watch. My only problem with the show is swearing. If they could just fix that and take it out, the show would be almost perfect. After that I watched Dark Knight to finish up a Batman two days. The movie still creeps me out to no end and I don't think I should ever watch it again but there is something vaguely addicting to watching the movie and seeing how all the characters can spiral downwards into madness and despair based upon the actions and terrible misdeeds of a single person. A single person can have such a major effect on the entire world around them, its ridiculous. Thursday was laundry day (as usual)! But it gave me the chance to catch up on all my homework (history reading) and to get some napping in on the couch, eat delicious food, and play with Brooke and Bryn and review my Disney movies. Its a time I look forward to every week in order to relax and just get away from the crazy insanity that is college life. Thursday night I felt like being random and so got people to come with me to Walmart and play some pretty intense games of Sardines. Its quite amusing to see how people can hide inside the store and how extraordinarily long it can take to find them or for some people to find them at any rate. Brad, Whitney, Kelly Ann, Kahi, Will, and I played there and had a blast doing it. Friday I had a date night once I survived through all my classes and work and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I took Sherrie so naturally, it was more fun than anything. Best friends usually make for the best dates. We went to Knight Games, which was supposed to be a mini-Renaissance festival but turned out to be somewhat of a fluke. It was still fun though, at least a little bit. After that we played some murderous sardines in the HFAC and Sherrie and I were the first and only ones to hide because no one could ever find us. We were that good at finding the perfect spot. After the building closed, we came home and played Imaginiff and Quelf in the lobby and had some ice cream sundaes to go with it. Sherrie and I lost Imaginiff terribly, but won Quelf by a landslide. So apparently we can't think the same as anyone else, but we can out-random anybody. We finised up the night watching the new episode of Psych. Yesterday was Saturday and it was as busy as the rest of the week. I started off with racquetball at 8 in the morning and managed to roll my ankle pretty bad. I then headed off to a geology lab and then went snowshoeing in the moutains. If you wear shoes that aren't waterproof, snow manages to numb a swollen and throbbing ankle fairly well. Plus the gorgeous scenery and sheer fun of hiking made it a blast. I went with Will, Stephen McNary, Sherrie, and Colten and we ended up hiking all the way to the top of Squaw Peak, which was never the plan to start off with but we ended up doing it and once we started up the peak, we just couldn't stop. The snow was amazing - almost all of it was fresh and powdery and clean. And the view at the top was stunning. We ended up sitting at the top for a full 30 minutes before we felt the need to start thinking about coming down at all. The snowshoes in themselves were just fun too and I have to say I wouldn't mind doing it again. Not in the least. After we finished that (and it took almost all day) I came home and called Adam for his birthday and tried to go see Humor U but it sold out in a ridculous amount of time - all of about ten minutes. So we play Cranium at Courtney's apartment and I went to bed around midnight exhausted and sore but extremely happy and at peace with the world. It was nice to just get a week to do some of the things that I have not had the opportunity to do yet and to go outside my normal comfort range and do something adventurous. This week I plan on starting and sticking to a schedule. Waking up around 7 every morning and then proceeding to get in an hour workout (basketball, volleyball, running, racquetball, etc.), reading the scriptures, showering, indexing, and then whatever time is left for breakfast and some cleaning up. That way I can start feeling like a productive person and not like Im just wasting my life away doing nothing. Also, Wednesday night will be Psych crockpot night. Monday night is FHE. Tuesday night is class and some special dinner set up (whether going out to eat or making something fancy). Friday night will be smoothie/movie night. Im going to need to find movies that are G or PG and perfectly clean in every way, so if you have any suggestions, let me know please! And then Thursday or Saturday Im going to start making a date night, or at least once every other week. So I plan on keeping myself busy and on track for the rest of the semester.

Thought of the week: "I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in." ~George Washington Carver. This is something I rediscovered as I was hiking up the mountain and seeing all that God has created and the beauty and the majest contained therein.

Song of the week: "Superman" by Five for Fighting. It has always been one of my favorite songs and one that always hits me deeply. I listened to it a lot this week.

Pictures of the week:

The Marble Tube
The Date Night
Snowshoeing Extravaganza!