I woke up this morning with my bed covers still on me, which is always a nice plus. My ones back home were slippery, but this one is more cushy and doesn't fall off so much.
I decided to start my day by looking up my schedule and copying it over to some sticky notes for ease of transport. I have my thick Alta High School blanket, but I did find myself wishing for a lighter one for when I want to still be capable of moving my arms. I had switched the thermostat to 'Heat' last night, but noticed later today that Demetria had switched it back to 'Cool'. Looks like we'll have to find a middle zone.
With my schedule in hand, I pulled out my campus map and began circling buildings and dotting possible routes. I'd brought a pack of colored Sharpie highlighters from home, so I started with pink. Turns out, the pink didn't like this idea very much. The cap simply would not come off. I couldn't even twist it at all. I ran it under water for a bit. Still nothing. Then I covered my hands with a dry rag and tried to yank it off that way. The 'clip' part of the cap accidentally tore a small but decent hole in the cloth when I did. Oops. Of all the problems I'd expected to face now that I'm an adult living on my own for the first time, not being able to uncap a marker wasn't one of them. None of the other markers gave me any trouble, but I'll have to keep an eye on pink's attitude problem. I switched to orange instead.
The sign near the elevator informed me that church wasn't supposed to start until 11, so after changing into my purple dress, eating, and brushing my hair and teeth, I watched "Leroy and Stitch", did a little drawing, and just generally killed time until about 10:15 when I decided that I would rather walk up sooner than later. On my way out the door, I was struggling some locking my room, and a boy named Anthony helped me get the key from the lock again. I then showed him my pink marker and explained my predicament about the cap. He popped it off very easily. Of course. What a little brat.
I walked the half mile or so up to the stake center and made it there in plenty of time. I sat next to one of the RAs from the "Snow" housing complex (I think her name was Lindsay). When I told her I was rooming in Blue Square, she said she didn't think Blue Square was in this stake, but where it was, she wasn't sure. Hmm.
We sustained one or two of the High Priests and were given some introductory talks welcoming us to USU. Once that was over, we were divided into wards by housing. The only problem was, Blue Square wasn't on the list. I asked one of the bishops or counselors about that, and was told that this wasn't supposed to be my stake center. Figures. Maybe they shouldn't hang the sign in Blue Square if it doesn't apply to the Blue Square people? I guess they handed out the signs to the people in charge of residential housing, and Blue Square IS housing...
After snapping a picture of the address and my correct ward, I made my way back to Blue Square. The church I was looking for turned out to be a quarter of the mile down the road, in the opposite direction I had originally walked. Church was over - I'll have 9:30 church - but I ran into a Brother Wade. He gave me a pink sheet to fill out so my records could be transferred up here, to the YSA 16th Ward.
As I finished up, I spoke one-on-one with Bishop Israelsen. I told him about my plan to study psychology with a later emphasis in animal behavior, and how I had taken the veterinary science class last year and am now a certified veterinary assistant. He grew up on a farm, so he found that interesting.
After a bit of discussion, he confessed that they were looking for one more person to give a talk next Sunday. Not exactly what I had planned. Still, I offered to do so, figuring that this way I'd be able to get that all done before classes grew too complicated. I asked him in what order we would be speaking. He said he hadn't decided yet, so I requested to go first. How cool will that be if it works out, being the first speaker the first day? Hopefully I can keep everyone engaged, teach a little, and maybe make some friends. Good way to start off, I think. Perhaps visiting the wrong stake center wasn't a mistake after all.
Brother Ward told me about the upcoming activities. Tonight at eight there was to be a "ward prayer", as the combined wards would be splitting up with the influx of students now that the school year was about to begin. Tomorrow for Family Home Evening, we're supposed to be meeting in the Relief Society Room at six so we can carpool to a hill for "ice blocking"... which seems to involve laying a towel across a block of ice and sliding down to the bottom. That should be interesting.
I headed home after that, and talked with Demetria while eating some lunch. We finished watching "Up" and I told Demetria about my plan to spend the afternoon wandering campus and dropping pins on Google Maps so I could navigate by my phone. She told me she had planned to do the same thing tomorrow when her private singing and music classes are supposed to be finalized. Sounds good.
I did some blogging and worked on my talk after that. While Demetria played around with her rice cooker, I told her about my favorite cartoon - "Fairly OddParents" - and she told me about her favorite cartoon - "Star vs The Forces of Evil" - as well as a couple of anime shows with titles that I don't remember. We watched half an episode of "Elena of Avalon" that was on while we waited for a girl downstairs to run up with a key to open Demetria's door after she accidentally locked hers in her room. Turns out the girl, Maddie, went to Demetria's ward in Arizona.
After that, we went to ward prayer, sang "How Firm a Foundation", and snagged some cinnamon rolls. On our way back, we ran into our hallway neighbors just outside the elevator. I went to Alta with Shantal, so it should be fun to have her just around the corner. Still no sign of my other friend Molly, but I'm on the lookout!
Demetria and I ended the day by watching some of her show and some of mine. "Star" is about a ridiculous and irresponsible magic-slinging princess who is sent to school on Earth, and since she's clueless about how our dimension works, the principal assigns the self-proclaimed "bad boy" Marco (who is really a major goody-two-shoes obsessed with safety) to watch over her. Sounds like something Jorja would be interested in. Nice to settle in after a morning of plunging into the thick of things!
