Sunday, July 31, 2011

My week and books

I learned something new this week. It is possible to procrastinate and work at the same time. About the same assignment. It's called working really, really, really, really (did I say really?) slow. It took me a very long time to do an assignment that should have taken me a couple hours. It was annoying, because I had planned to work on a big project due a week from tomorrow (I'm still a little flustered by the idea). I took all my stuff for both of these assignments to the library, my roommate and I both determined to get a lot done.
Ha.
The funniest part is that we weren't even talking or distracting each other that much. It just took me forever to do the assignment. Painfully long. And I never did get to my project.
But on the upside I had a wonderful and fun Saturday. And I've probably spent far too much time on my homework this term. I really want to get A's in both of my classes. I never really cared in high school, as long as it wasn't a C. Now I want to try to get scholarships.
Why didn't I think of this earlier? I keep asking myself that. My guess: High school was too easy (with a few exceptions) for me to ever really care. I could get by with out really trying, so I didn't. I focused on other things, like reading, or friends. Good things, but I could have spent a little more time on school. And my music. I slid by with the piano too. But I'm going to change that. I have sheet music I plan on buying, and I am going to work really hard and get that song down as fast as I can.
I read two books this week. Shadow Hunter and Firethorn. Not a huge fan of either of them. I couldn't even finish Firethorn. Please don't read it. It's only perk is what made it so awful; the characters didn't have modern ideals about how to treat women or people of lower class. It grated on every cell of my body. I put up for it for a while, thinking that as the two main characters fell in love he would treat her better. Nope. He was a jerk the whole time.
Shadow Hunter was good, but it wasn't amazing. It was a good quick read, an action book with a little mystery in a very realistic setting. It's not going on my list, though. It just didn't have enough... spark for me. Maybe if I was a guy I would have liked it, who knows.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Being a Mormon

I was thinking about it last night, and I realized something that I just absolutely love about being LDS. I love how members give the talks and teach sunday school. It's so amazing. It really helps the people teaching learn a lot more about their topic, and then for all of those listening it gives new insights. There are some things that one person can teach me much better than another. I'm so glad we have church callings. And now that I'm in college and I'm being taught by (0r like two weeks ago, teaching) my peers. It gives a whole new twist on things. These are other college kids who are going through some of the same things as me. They can bring their different backgrounds in to the discussion and really make things a lot more interesting.
I also really love how the Prophet and his counselors almost never make a statement about something not purely religious. The other day for my Bio100 class we were supposed to write a short paper on our opinion on stem cell research. Part of that was we were required to look at various websites that gave both sides of the argument. And we were asked to look up the church's official statement. The official statement: we won't be making an official statement. I just love that. The gospel is all about making your own opinion. Praying for yourself, studying the scriptures for yourself, learning for yourself if you really do believe all the teachings. To me this is an amazing example of having agency (the freedom to choose). God loves us enough to let us make our own political and social choices. Isn't that amazing? It really shows me that when the church does make a statement about something, like "The Family: A Proclamation to the World", they are dead serious. Which means its important for me to listen closely and take to heart what they say.
On a less serious note, I had an amazing weekend. Most of the time. Two of my cousins and I made delicious no-bake cookies and watched Dr. Who. I've decided that the actor for season... 5? or is it 6? Is adorkable. Even more adorkable than Merlin. (gasp! I know. It's a crime.) It was a lot of fun... until I started to get a headache. Probably from too much tv and sugar all at once, something I haven't had much of lately. So I asked my cousin for some ipbrophen/tylenol/advil-ish medicine. All she had was childs Advil so I took two of those and hoped it would work.
It did the opposite. I started to feel worse. In fact, when I got home I threw up. I'm pretty sure it was the pill. Only then did I remember that I'm on a prescription acne medication. Which probably means I shouldn't take anything else. Which is probably why I threw up.
Lesson learned.
To keep myself from upsetting my stomach again I went straight to bed and then the next day took it easy, reading a book and doing a little homework. I watched She's the Man with one of my roommates (Funny movie! I love it!) and in general just stayed really laid back. It was wonderful and reminded me of how my summer would be if I weren't here at school.
As much as I love college, I am ready for the term to be over. I'm dreaming of green hills and a constant breeze like at home. I'd actually gotten to the point where I didn't really notice how it was always a little windy at home, but now that it's not that way here I notice the lack of breeze.
And my sister got her braces off this week, and I'm dying to see. She sent me a picture, but it's just not the same. And my friends at home must be terribly bored without all my amazing Kelsey-ness. How could they not be? ;)
Wish me luck on my midterm next week! I'm a little freaked out.
And happy Pioneer day tomorrow. Only in Utah would I EVER say such a thing.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Matched

I borrowed this book from a roommate and read it in one day. It was very good. It reminded me a little of The Hunger Games but wasn't as dark and with a different twist on the idea. I enjoyed the plot and the characters, both were well thought out. I finished the book eager for the next one in the series (it comes out in November. I looked it up.)
I love that its by an LDS author too. That means it has good morals and is nice and clean. This isn't true 100% of the time, but it's more true than with non-LDS authors.
I think you should all read Matched by Ally Condie if you like a good, clean romance.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Weekend family reunion

Yes, I had another reunion. And I loved every minute of it. Its so much fun to see my family and spend some quality time with them. It was nice to know my roommates missed me while I was gone too. They all seemed excited to see me.
I went and saw Harry Potter this weekend, midnight showing. I must say, I rather enjoyed it. (Imagine me saying that in a bad imitation of a British accent.) Even though they changed things and rushed the first half, I still enjoyed it. The effects were cool, as always. I think I might just have to save up and buy myself the two HP 7 movies. Because I really do enjoy them. A lot. though, I'll wait till they are both out and the price has gone down. I'm very.... tight with my money, especially now that I'm in college.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Besties

I had an amazing week. My two closest friends from home came and spent the day with me. One of them was actually there as a surprise, I didn't know she was coming. The very first thing we did was go to Jamba Juice. They'd never been. If you have never been, then shame on you. Go look one up and go. It's the best place in the whole entire world. (Except for home, of course). After messing around on campus for a little while we went to a nearby mall.
You see, we have this tradition of going ugly dress shopping. We would always go to Ross and find the ugliest dresses we could for each other, try them on, laugh, take pictures, laugh some more.... yeah. It's pretty much amazing.
So we went from store to store, trying to find ugly dresses. It was almost sad, because we couldn't really find anything that wasn't cute. If I had money to spare I would have bought lots of cute dresses. But sadly as a college student I don't have any lose change lying around. It's very sad.
Hanging out with them pretty much made my week.
And, I've discovered that Utah onions leave a weird aftertaste. It never happened at home. Just here. It's strange.
I also had a very hilarious story that I was going to share on here. And since the world always works this way, I forgot it. Hopefully I'll remember sometime soon so I can post it. Because it really was superdy-dupery amazing. (And so is making up words. It's fun.)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Weekend Fun

This weekend I was lucky enough to be able to go to part of the family reunion. It was really nice to see everyone, I think I managed to talk to almost all my aunts and uncles at least once and quite a few of my cousins. Having moved away I've really learned to value my family. I never really thought much about it, but I really, really love my big, loud family.
To make things even better, I was able to spend the 4th with most of the other side of my family. We went up into the mountains for an hour or so, and I realized how much I loved being outside. I haven't been out in the wilderness much in this summer, being in school and all. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I was up in the mountains, driving through the forest.
I also was given a great idea by one of my cousins. I don't know how I never thought of it before, but I didn't. She told me she makes a specific playlist of songs for each of her main characters. I thought it was a brilliant idea. I have a playlist of just general writing music, but I've never made one for one character in specific. I started working on it as soon as I got home. So, now my three main characters in my main story have the beginnings of a playlist. I don't have enough songs on each list to really call it a playlist, but I've begun. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Because (for obvious reasons) all the music I have I like I wanted all three characters to like it too. It was difficult to make it so that the songs matched the characters' personalities, not mine. That's why there's only a few songs on each list. But I took those songs and made a Pandora playlist with them for each character, so I'm hoping it will help me get a fill for the characters 'tastes' more. I hope it works, cause I really like the idea! I might even ask a couple of my friends that know the story almost as well as I do what they think the characters would listen to.
I was surprised (in a good way) to see that I have two more followers. I love getting new followers! It makes me feel like I'm not just rambling on to myself. Though, it does surprise me every time I see a new follower. I'm not really sure what you guys see in my blog. My guess: I talk about books/movies every once in a while. Books are really cool, aren't they? I think so.
Even though it was yesterday, Happy 4th of July! It's one of my favorite holidays. It's humbling to realize how much some people have sacrificed for the country we live in today. And it makes me sad to see people treat our country like its not worth much. I think its one of the most amazing things in the whole wide world. I'm very lucky to live in the USA and have the freedoms I have. Even being able to have this blog is a huge blessing. I'm allowed to say whatever I want, whenever I want. It's a beautiful thing.