That Kleptomaniac Talking Horse

Lots of notes to be taken, and read, and reread... We sampled some chocolate chips in my chocolate class today. Last Wednesday we tasted various chocolates from various parts of the world- all dark chocolates without additional sugars or flavorings added, so just the natural flavors of those areas. One of them tasted like Froot Loops and another tasted like lavender. That was weird.

I made spaghetti for dinner tonight. It tasted better than the last time I tried, although it wasn't the most amazing.

We weren't planning to trick-or-treat tonight. My first year not, possibly. Demetria invited Eliza over to watch something. She came in her pajamas and with her knitting, and we watched the first four or five episodes of "Over the Garden Wall". Demetria and I had both seen it on our own time pre-college, but this was Eliza's first introduction to the series. She's getting really into it. Shame there are only ten episodes, but it's also kind of nice, too, since every episode is valuable to the plot. Still, I wonder why the creators chose to make it a miniseries instead of an actual movie.

As we watched, Demetria named the different actors who voiced characters in the show. Apparently Doc from "Back to the Future" is the woodsman... That's actually the only one I remember. Just judging by ear, I'm 99% sure that Fred the talking horse is voiced by the same guy who played Chuck the Evil Sandwich-Making Guy in "WordGirl", though. I didn't notice my first watch through, but once I thought of it I couldn't unhear it.

That was my Halloween: Homework, doing a required online alcohol education and sexual assault prevention course thing, and watching a Halloween-esque show about lost half-brothers in the woods.

Stake Conference (Really)

Ah, so apparently last week we went to REGIONAL Conference, and so this week we had STAKE Conference. My missed stake.

We were able to secure a ride with Caterina and her roommate down to the tabernacle since the buses don't run on Sunday. It was a neat place. We sat up in the balcony and heard some talks, and Demetria ran into a friend of hers from her old ward. That friend is going to BYU Idaho, but I guess she was down here for Conference with some friends.

On the way back to Blue Square, Caterina told us stories about that guy who's been bothering Eliza. Apparently he asked her out awhile ago, too... Three times in a week, in fact, because she'd said yes the first time. He asked her the first time right when school was beginning, probably right after the croquet activity (I guess we played croquet with both him and Caterina that night). She said it was difficult because she was trying to adjust to starting her second year of college, she'd recently broken up with her ex, and she told us she'd said yes because she felt awkward saying no and I guess thought she could drop enough hints to ease him off.

So awhile ago he apparently posted a Facebook message about how things were hard for him in life. She met up with him (In her apartment, Caterina told us, and said she'd offered it without thinking and then regretted it). Fortunately nothing bad came out of it, but she said she'd be more careful not to do that again. They sat down and had a talk, and after awhile the talk morphed into one about how things were going for her. She told him that she wasn't looking for a relationship now, as she was still in love with her ex. He asked her if she could ever love him... Remember, three dates in a week.

She finally was able to let him down, although he came up to her shortly after with "friendship flowers" he had bought, insisting that they weren't romantic, but it still made her uncomfortable. He also posted a Facebook status stating he would never love again and then the next day or day after was seen with another girl. After a few more girls, he's now on Eliza's heels. Hmm.....

Anyway, Demetria got a kick out of all this because she was thinking she might have overreacted, but hearing this other story made her feel a little better. He's not a bad person, but he's an odd fellow who can't seem to take (or at least accept) a hint, and I'll have to keep my eyes out for him if he ever comes my way.

I waited all day to call Grandpa Millburn to thank him for my birthday money, because I wanted to make sure he wasn't still in church. I ended up calling him around 9:30. Whoops. My original plan had been to write him a thank you note upon coming home over the weekend, but I forgot.

I did some writing and studying and such. I've basically given up on using my own notes. Apparently it's more effective to not take notes during class and to study from off the PowerPoints my teachers post.

Not that it always guarantees a good score. I do have to say, I'm still livid about being told (both in class and on the slides) details such as "The bean is dried to 3% moisture content", only to turn around and mark on a quiz that water is an ingredient present in chocolate. It is not. I don't know what the moisture content is from, but apparently not water.

My other options were cocoa butter and cocoa liquor, and something else... maybe salt or something- this was a bit ago and I can't remember precisely. Anyway, cocoa liquor is pressed into two completely separate things before it's used- cocoa butter and cocoa powder. Therefore, one might assume the liquor itself is not present in chocolate. But apparently it is. Sigh.

Holly's Party

I had my hair-removal appointment today, and spent some time with my family. I voted, and we watched the second half of that "Doctor Who" episode from yesterday. I'm not planning to come home for Thanksgiving (although I'll see them for Christmas), so it was good to have this time with them.

Mom and Dad both drove me up to Logan. While he was here, my dad took a look at my blender and said he thought he could buy the part needed to replace it, and we don't have to buy an entirely new blender. Nice.

They both came up with me because my mom wanted to attend a Halloween party hosted by an old friend of hers who lives in this area. Holly was my mom's first roommate. They haven't really kept in contact a lot, but they'd talked about this party and this was their first time meeting in twenty years.

There was some really great food at that party, and Demetria and I got to enjoy dressing up again. Holly was very nice to me and insisted that if I ever need anything, I should let her know. She said I should come for dinner sometime. I told her I didn't have transportation to get to her house, but she gave me her number and said she could pick me up for things like this. Good to have someone in the area who could get to me faster than my parents if I needed her to. Holly was dressed like a clown for the Halloween party. I wonder what she looks like underneath?

My parents dropped me and Demetria off back at Blue Square. Tonight we watched one of Demetria's favorite movies, "Penelope". It was very good, and after it was over, I deeply enjoyed having the opportunity to sleep in my own bed. Tomorrow we have Stake Conference at the tabernacle... We just need to find a way to get a ride down there... The buses don't run on Sunday.

Home For Friday

After my behavior and horticulture classes today, I swung by the greenhouse to check on my plants. They seem to be doing all right. Two had started to mold, so I had to remove them, but the other plants are rooting. That's good news.

When I'd finished with the greenhouse, I went to Blue Square and met up with my mom. She took me grocery shopping, which was nice, and then after I had packed a few things, we made the long drive home. I have a laser hair-removal appointment tomorrow. Is that the correct way to say it? Laser-hair-removal would imply I had laser hairs, I think. Maybe I have that backwards. Hm.

So I got to see my family again! I didn't think to take any pictures, but I stayed at my house. We watched a "Doctor Who" episode about Atmos cars and Mom, Dad, Preston, and I played Settlers of Catan with the 3D board my dad and I made some time ago. Apparently Preston won fifteen minutes before the game ended, but no one realized because we all thought Dad was going to come out the victor.

We had Little Caesar's pizza for dinner. It was delicious. I haven't had pizza since I took that box home from Connections- it's hard to justify buying it when Demetria can't have gluten and the box can keep me fed for a week, but it's not too healthy.

Got some writing and studying done too, so that was good. Went to bed at a reasonable time. Also good. Weird to sleep in my old room again, though... It a lot messier than when I left it and just feels odd. Hopefully Demetria isn't feeling too lonely without me!

He Thinks He's a Fruit Bat But He's Not

Hmm.... Not much to say about today, although the rat lab is officially over and I only had one class today, so it was great. Turns out my test in lifespan development was today instead of next class like I thought it was (I even looked at the syllabus and saw the due date, and turned in my extra credit assignment, its due date also being before the test) but I still got confused. 

Ended up doing really well on the test though, I think. There was only one question or maybe two that I hesitated over, but at the very least I did well, my grade is still over 100% in this class, and I did the extra-credit assignment. And luckily I decided to study for this class before my behavior class today, because that helped, I think.

I only got two hours of sleep last night but never felt tired all day. Kept expecting to crash but never did. That was a blessing.

Drew an Anti-Cosmo on and off in between my study periods to positively reinforce myself for staying in my room and working:

My take on him is as a short and fluffy majorly-overreacting nervous wreck who has an obsession with the zodiac (specifically the luckiness associated with it) and considers himself honor-bound to help his people even though he has political powers that would let him leave the prison of Anti-Fairy World at any time. Basically the only reason why he fought his way up the social ladder is because he wanted to wear a hat but his social anxiety is really bad and he thought everyone else would laugh at him, so he secured a position of power so no one would say anything about it.

Wings pierced because wedding rings are difficult to push over his gnarled fluffy fingers and Anti-Wanda would more likely eat hers than not.

I finally figured out an explanation for why his family are practically the only Anti-Fairies to have their eyes colored instead of having the default red design and ended up with the idea that due to the very limited color palettes in Anti-Fairy World, an STD that colors one's eyes became a major status symbol and it's withheld from most of the population and passed only among the aristocrats. Anti-Cosmo was born with his, but Anti-Wanda had to get her eyes "lit", I guess? Can't imagine she came from an aristocratic family.

I think Anti-Fairies would never lose the Babinski reflex (toe-curling reflex babies show when you stroke their feet) because they're bats and hang upside-down. I actually wrote a short story about Foop having his developmental process tested by a therapist (and failing because as smart as he is and although he obviously has object permanence, he has no concept of conservation, falls prey to the A-Not-B search error, can't reverse events in his head, and can't see from the point of view of others and assumes that what he sees, everyone can see, and of course he has his dissociative identity disorder) to help me study for my lifespan development quiz about a month ago. That was fun. Unfortunately it's my horticulture and chocolate classes that I really have trouble retaining information in.

Bats also can't see glass (their echolocation tells them that smooth, flat things are water) and I think this is why all the windows in Anti-Fairy World are covered with bars instead. It's also really funny because Anti-Cosmo and Foop are the only ones who've been locked behind glass walls in a prison where everyone else is behind bars.

Pretty sure embryonic diapause is the reason Anti-Cosmo didn't understand why there was such a huge gap between Poof and Foop's births.

This show is everything I've ever wanted in a cartoon and then some.

Monster Mash

Ah, it was the last day of the rat lab today. I still have projects to do - I have a graph to finish up now that I have all my data, and then I need to do a write-up - but luckily I have until mid-December before those need to be turned in.

That's the nice thing about being in the first set of people to work with the rats- the second wave will start tomorrow and work until December 6th. Not fun to cram a write-up after that too, on top of studying for finals... not to mention walking to the lab in the snow.

We had our ward Halloween party today, although technically it wasn't for the whole ward. I was a bit disappointed when I heard it was a Relief Society activity only and the boys wouldn't be coming. Not because I needed the attention of boys, but because I knew this meant that even fewer people than I'd anticipated were actually going to show up, and I'd kind of wanted to show off our pumpkins as much as possible. 

Demetria ended up getting back from her last class of the day a little late, so while she changed into her costume, I went early to help set up for the party, and because this way I'd get to hitch a lift to the church in Caterina's car instead of having to walk. Haha... No. Didn't find out about the car thing until after I'd agreed to go, but there were so many pumpkins and I wanted to help. Plus, y'know, being out of the house and having an excuse not to study.

As we were finishing setting up, Demetria arrived to help. She braided my hair in the bathroom and helped me stick my craft store accessories on. Those wings came with clips for the dolls, so that was really nice. I took this picture really quick in case I ran out of time or forgot to take one later, and I was planning to delete it, but then I kind of liked it.

Wings and pretty hair- taken after I got home

In a disappointing turn of events, because we carried the pumpkins to the party in groups in bags, they scratched one another with their stems and peeled off a lot of the acrylic paint. We gave it our best shot.

There were maybe twelve or thirteen people who came in all, so I guess it was a decent turnout, though the multipurpose room was big enough that it looked so empty. We saw Eliza. Didn't get a picture with her though, and I did get to meet some more people, though I can't remember all their names. 

Oh- and Eliza told us that she'd passed that guy who drove us to the Pumpkin Walk while she was on campus yesterday, and he'd asked her how things were going, and that today he called her and asked if she wanted to hang out with him sometime. Dude... please let it go. The secondhand embarrassment is eating me alive.

Some activities had been arranged, like charades and "spider racing" (blowing glittery toy spiders across a long table with straws), and music played. Mostly we ate cookies and candy and talked. I ate a powdered donut off a long horizontal string, "racing" against another girl. After her donut fell off, she put it back on (which wasn't easy to do given that about half of it was missing and the wait kept dragging it down, but somehow she made it work). When she leaned beneath the string to try to eat it, I grabbed the string and bounced it up and down until her donut fell off before she could stop it.

Everyone was impressed with our decorations, so that was great. The pumpkins we'd painted got adopted out when the party was over. We kept Foop and the Boo that I painted, that cliff in front of the moon scene from "Nightmare Before Christmas", and Demetria's "Phantom of the Opera" mask, which I'll have to get pictures of in the morning.

I wouldn't have wanted to deal with twenty-six pumpkins taking up space, especially when they started to go bad. Nice to know they went to good homes!

Rushing and Blankets and Painting- Oh My

With all the excitement from last night, I guess, I forgot to set my alarm and didn't wake up until 7:55 this morning. My first class starts at 8:00.

When I saw the clock, two thoughts collided in my head at the same time. The first, that we'd been told the door to the rat lab was locked at 8. The second, maybe I could make it.

Luckily, I'm not one of those girls who refuses to go outside without half an hour spent getting ready. I threw on my clothes, grabbed my things, skipped breakfast, pulled on my hat without brushing my hair, and shot out the door. The elevator was already on my floor, which was great since it can take an entire minute for it to get all the way to the top sometimes. Then, the shuttle was right outside. I jumped on and was on my way.

Of course, I ended up making it a few minutes after 8, but to my surprise, the door was unlocked. I went in, marked myself on the roll, and joined the boys in my group by our Skinner box. I'd missed the first interval, but they gave me the tallies and our rat's starting weight. My back-up plan had been to sit outside the door reading my book for my chocolate class (which technically speaking would have been a better use of my time), but this worked too.

Also, I didn't blog about it yesterday, but I received a package from Uncle Brett, Rachel, and their girls yesterday. Demetria went down to check the mail and came back with it. Apparently, if packages are small enough, they get delivered to a second, "secret" mailbox and we don't get informed via text of their arrival as we do with bigger packages. Good to know. Of course, I was texted one time and only recieved a small lightbulb as a package, and this box was much bigger, so who knows?

... Come to think of it, I wonder if I was actually texted about this package, and it was just fate that I had a different package waiting for me in the pick-up office.

Anyway, the girls sent me an adorable blanket they'd tied, and I got a card from Brett and Rachel. I'll take it!

Eliza joined us for some more pumpkin painting tonight, although I stayed for only a little while because I wanted to go to the SI super session for my behavior class tonight. Here are two of the pumpkins she did:

Day of the Dead

"Sam and the Firefly"

I decided to do a Ludo pumpkin tonight, and he looks okay:

He has his bat wing eyeball staff too, 

though you can't see it from this angle

It's tough painting on that round surface. I mixed his skintone, the two shades of his robes, and even his peach-white skull cap myself, so lots of testing colors and balancing out ratios. Pretty proud of that.

This was the other pumpkin I designed tonight:

I finished it when I got back from SI, and then Demetria and I parted our separate ways for bed. The ward Halloween party is tomorrow, and we still have one or two pumpkins to finish, so hopefully we can manage all right. I don't have horticulture class tomorrow, so that will be nice, breathing and such.

The Guy Who Drove Us to the Pumpkin Walk

As it turns out, today was the best day for the Pumpkin Walk. Demetria and I had planned to go earlier, but our ward actually decided to make this activity our Home Evening for the week and carpool there, which worked for us. The weather was great, we arrived fine, Demetria and I ran into Eliza, and we were introduced to... The Guy.

We met him while we sat on the curb around the side of the church with the other members in our ward. Eliza had been out of town for the weekend, so we caught her up to speed on how things had been for us. Also, Demetria told me there was a 50% chance of rain, and encouraged me to bring my umbrella. I was a bit reluctant, not looking forward to toting it around, but I took it in the end, and it wasn't so bad. Didn't rain, but that was fine.

It was awhile before we started breaking into carpool groups. We'd been told to arrive at 7:00, and it was maybe 7:10 when one of the elders in the ward outlined a vague plan for the night: Carpool, pumpkins, return for treats. We were released to find our own groups. The three of us were just standing up when this talk boy walked quickly past Demetria and I, straight up to Eliza, and asked her if she needed a ride.

Okay. Red flag (or at least a yellow flag). I believe the correct way to approach this situation would have been, "Hey, I have three seats- Do you guys want to ride with me?"

I asked this guy if we could join them and how many his car fit. He completely ignored me, until I asked a second time. Then he hesitated, possibly not wanting to tell me how many seats he had, but he did in the end. Three. The three of us could all ride with him. But he obviously didn't want us to. Perhaps he was Eliza's boyfriend? She was cheerful and nice, after all, and he'd gone straight for her.

We made our way up to the Greenville Elementary area where the Pumpkin Walk was held. Eliza sat up front. Our driver talked to her the whole way, except for one time when (after asking Eliza) he asked Demetria and I where we were living. Turns out he lives in Blue Square too, but in a different building.

At last, we arrived. I got out of the car slowly, squinting up at the sky and trying to decide if I should bring my umbrella or leave it behind. The sky was very dark, and the clouds were dark. However, there didn't seem to be clouds overhead. In the middle of my thoughts, Eliza politely asked me to shut the door- I'd left it open as I debated the umbrella question. Once I closed it, the lights went out. She and the boy were still inside, and the parking lot was dark. I shot a startled look to Demetria, who stood on the opposite side of the car, and quickly headed around to join her. Maybe they were going to kiss, and wanted to be alone for a minute? 

Turns out, he was backing up the car and reparking. Oh. Okay. In my defense, Demetria thought the same thing I did. She whispered to me, "I think he likes her. I'm just getting that vibe."

Here was the thing- he acted so comfortable around her, and Eliza is so nice to everybody, that Demetria and I hovered at the sidelines unsure if she liked him back or not. We didn't want to be overprotective judgmental friends if she did, but we couldn't decide what to think of him at first. He wasn't exactly creepy per se, but he was definitely a bit odd. I did notice that he had a very Halloween-ish laugh. I think he laughed about sixty times the whole night, always starting softly and then growing louder, shifting from "Heh heh"s to "Ha ha"s. Like a cackle. It was very interesting and I may just have to give a character a laugh like that someday.

We took a five-minute shuttle ride from the parking lot to the Walk. First, there was a slow, snaking line to wait in, but we had a good view of a nice mural of owls, so that was okay. Once we were inside I found that it was a bit like the Festival of Trees, only with pumpkins, and in the dark, and with everyone walking in a very slow circle. 

There were some very interesting choices of scenes set up. Several astronauts. Several military personnel. Hillary Clintons and Donald Trumps. A row of Hershey Kiss pumpkins armed with knives and prepared to do battle with giant M&Ms. Multiple Charlie Brown scenarios (I think at least three). One area was dedicated entirely to Steve Jobs. There was also a scene of a boy in a doctor's office with his pants partway down and his rear showing towards us. I guess it was a remake of a famous painting or something, but it totally caught me by surprise.

Anyway, we were hardly through the gate when our driver flat-out asked Eliza, "So, are you dating anyone?" Caught off guard, Eliza mumbled something about how there was another guy she was interested in. She then tried to redirect his attention to the scene on our right, which consisted of people with human clothes and pumpkins for faces (Probably the "Hamilton" musical scene, if I'm remembering correctly). 

After a slight pause, the boy chuckled uncertainly and said, "So, I don't understand what you mean when you said you had friends". Yes, she has friends. They're right next to you. He pressed a little more, but Eliza gave up answering the question. She didn't need to explain herself

We kind of did that the whole night, pointing out silly things about the pumpkins, like how the shape of the gourd that made up Snoopy's face was perfect, or the cute little vegetable birds in various areas. Our ride made some interesting comments throughout. He'd learned on the way up that Eliza and Demetria were both interested in Japanese culture and enjoyed Japanese foods and such, so he'd say, "So, you're interested in Japan? Tell me about that," and then several minutes later, when the conversation had turned and faded, would randomly say, "Japan is cool. They have anime and stuff", and act like he'd loved Japan for years, trying to impress her.

Then a minute after that, when we were looking at and talking about the pumpkins, I remember he sort of snorted and said, "The problem is that Eliza is more interested in the pumpkins than I am". That type of stuff. So many questions about her interests, if she enjoyed video games, what she thought about this and that... Always targeting Eliza, though Demetria and I would occasionally chime in to lighten things up and remind him that hey, we were here too, and that was our friend he was jabbering with.

Also, he asked Eliza when she'd last gone to the temple, and subtly offered to go down to do baptisms with her sometime. On and on. Eliza's responses grew cooler and more vague, and we tried repeatedly to be verbal about the pumpkins, which was what we'd actually come here for, wasn't it? Demetria and I both had to be thinking, Is this guy for real? There are all those stereotypes about how boys aren't as skilled as girls when it comes to picking up on signals, but how is he not getting this? I guess someone should have outright told him, Buddy, let it go. Maybe another time.

Eventually the walk ended. We returned to the shuttle, and from the shuttle made our way towards the parking lot. As we neared the car, Demetria whispered to me that she was going to speak up now since Eliza was clearly uninterested in this guy. She called shotgun, and you could just feel the light draining out of him. I think he knew exactly what was going on.

Still, he didn't say anything more about it, aside from a slightly disgruntled comment about Demetria rather than Eliza being his navigator. We returned to the church and swung by the kitchen for our promised treats: cookies, hot chocolate, and milk. I actually asked for the milk, although I did it jokingly to Demetria by pointing out the three empty jugs on the counter and saying that I could have had milk if we'd been back a little sooner. Brother Thurgood, one of the Bishopric, heard me and told me there was milk in the fridge that I could have, so that worked out.

We chatted for a few minutes. Demetria and I didn't voice anything, but I could tell we were both thinking the same thing: We're going to walk Eliza back to her place. We're not leaving without her.

Fortunately, it wasn't long before Eliza said, "Is it already nine? I need to get back". I immediately volunteered Demetria and I to walk her home. Easy request to make (and to excuse, if that had been necessary) what with her living between the church and Blue Square. Halfway down the hall, Demetria turned her head slightly and opened her mouth. Eliza immediately said, "If you're going to talk about that, wait until we get outside", so you know we weren't wrong. 

As it turns out, Eliza had only met the guy the same instant Demetria and I did. He just out of nowhere started acting flirtatious, directly targeting her when we were right there and ignoring her obvious lack of interest in him. She thanked us four or five times for keeping our eyes out for her, and said she had mentally cheered when Demetria called shotgun. I cheerfully reminded everyone that for worst case scenarios, I had the umbrella to defend us with, and we laughed.

We stayed for a moment outside her building to talk about the pumpkins Demetria and I painted over the weekend. Eliza's an arts major, and we invited her to help us finish off the last of our batch. She's excited, and the plan is to have her come over tomorrow. 

When we parted ways, Eliza said was glad to have us as friends. She called us the best, and said we were cute and sweet. I'll take it. Our driver was just a weird guy, but he was in our ward and we vaguely knew him (I think he played croquet with me and Demetria that one Home Evening night), so none of us were going to tell him directly that we thought that about him. Plus, we shouldn't have had to. Her disinterest was really obvious. That, and given how forward he was, we thought he knew Eliza well and they had to be good friends, and we didn't want to spoil that.

I don't think any of us felt unsafe, but we were all uncomfortable as the night wore on. Demetria said later that every time she's seen him in the past, he seems to be flirting with a different girl, testing the field. There's nothing inherently wrong with that if he's not in a relationship, but seriously... Brush up on your conversational skills, don't be so forward, and learn to recognize when the other party isn't interested.

So, adding to the list of things I'm grateful for tonight: I'm grateful for that excursion on Saturday that made getting to the Pumpkin Walk so complicated, because otherwise Demetria and I would have been there and done that, and Eliza would have been alone with this guy tonight. Well, she may have found other people to carpool with them, but when Demetria and I were standing directly next to her, we were ignored, and he obviously didn't want us to come with, so...

The interesting thing was, the Pumpkin Walk wasn't even the original plan for Home Evening. The plan for our ward was to visit a corn maze. However, around 5:30, I received a new text saying that plans had change: we were to meet at the church, where we'd be carpooling to the Pumpkin Walk.

Neither Demetria and I had been interested in going to the corn maze (or at least, we weren't excited about trying to cram it into our night after our own visit to the Pumpkin Walk) and weren't going to attend until we found out the plan had been updated. I wonder if Eliza would have ended up carpooling with The Guy alone to the corn maze had Demetria and I not come tonight?

Anyway, that was my evening and we got a nice laugh out of it. One of those interesting college stories that you'll keep with you forever, I guess.

Too Late to Be Known as Jared the First

Demetria and I ended up arriving at church late today (too late for the sacrament), but it turned out not to be too bad because it was Stake Conference. We heard some neat talks, so that was nice. I do enjoy Stake Conference.

One of my New Year's resolutions was to draw a different scripture character each Sunday of 2016. Today I drew King Jared, son of King Omer and father of Abish, and I'm very proud of my drawing and want you all to look at him:

Otherwise, I did lots of homework and studied. I'm a bit worried about my chocolate and horticulture classes, as usual. The information really doesn't seem to be sticking in my head. I'll try some new study methods over the coming days and we'll see how it goes.

I had to throw out a loaf and a half of bread today... lots of mold sneaking up on it. The whole loaf was the one I'd bought when Demetria and I got lost on our way home from Walmart, I think. I've been eating a lot of turkey sandwiches, but since Demetria can't have gluten, it's up to me to try to make use of it before it spoils. Additionally, I've been buying bananas regularly, so I'm always having to scramble to finish those off. Today I finished my last banana and threw out my bread. Hmm...

My behavioral analysis professor got back to me about that missing assignment today, and he said that he would be willing to drop it as opposed to one of my quizzes (since he drops the lowest two quizzes). I figured that I could make do with an 8 out of 10 much better than a 0 out of 10, so I took him up on that offer. I just have to remember to remind him as we near the end of the semester. I'm glad I reread his syllabus and asked him about it!

Busy Buses

Woke up late this morning, but that's only to be expected when I didn't fall asleep until around two. I tried to hard to stay awake while reading my scriptures, so even though my phone screen glowed, I left my lamp on thinking that would help me stay awake. I've never fallen asleep with my lamp on before in recent memory. I woke up around 4:30 and managed to turn the lamp off before I drifted off again.

It was around 7:30 when I next woke up, but close to ten when I finally elected to close down the Google Docs app and get out of bed for real. Although I did fritter away more of my morning than I really should have, I did find the time for studying today.

Additionally, I checked my grades online and found out I never turned in an assignment for my behavior class back in September. What? I e-mailed my teacher about it, and he wrote back saying it was something that he had told us about in class, and that it was an online assignment.

That came as a surprise to me, since Canvas, the online assignment-submitting and grade-managing program used in many if not all of the Utah schools, has a sidebar that displays your upcoming assignments a week in advance, and lets you click on them to go to their information pages. I've been checking my Canvas daily or semi-daily, or at least I thought I was. It was due around a busy week full of homework, right when I was having a Connections class, experimenting with that study group, and participating in the SI super session... but still, I really shouldn't have missed it...

One of the features Canvas offers is that there's a page where you can view the grades you've received on all your assignments for a single class. Here you can "change" your grades by clicking on a grade and typing in a new number, and thereby generating an "updated" hypothetical grade so you can see how your grade will be affected by upcoming assignments if you score well, or how scoring better on past assignments may have helped you. Good news: If I work hard, I can still manage to pull an A in this class.

That relieved my anxiety a bit knowing that I haven't been doomed just because I missed one ten-point assignment, but I still don't like seeing that awful zero. I don't miss assignments. At least, I didn't think I did.

Later this afternoon, Demetria and I made the attempt to attend the annual Pumpkin Walk held at Elkridge Park. Mom told me that if there was one event I should definitely attend while at Utah State, it would be this one. We had seen advertisements on the shuttles and looked up information online, so we thought we knew what we were doing.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize until we stepped out to the curb that there was a football game going on today. The stadium is right across the street from Blue Square, which meant it was closed off for tailgating. A yellow flyer had been attached to the bus stop sign informing us that the bus would not be coming this way today, and the nearest stop was down at Lee's Marketplace.

It wasn't a terribly long walk down there - it's maybe ten to fifteen minutes - but this meant that we had to wait twenty-five minutes to half an hour for the bus to arrive. It dropped us off at the Transit Center, where we had to wait around forty-five minutes for Bus 15 to show up. I finally got around to downloading the Bus Tracker app, but it drained my battery too quickly to justify watching the bus make its slow crawl down from Springfield. When it came in, the bus driver told us that she wasn't the bus that would take us to the Pumpkin Walk, despite the insistence of the Internet.

A little irritated now, I called Mom and asked what she knew about the situation, since the Pumpkin Walk was apparently memorable enough to stick out in her Utah State memories. We talked for awhile until the bus that would take Demetria and I back to the Blue Square area rolled in. For whatever reason, all the other buses had arrived fifteen minutes prior this, and had returned to their routes, and were making their return trip. Bus 15 showed up alone, because of course it did. So we had fifteen minutes to wait for the other buses to come back.

After stepping onto the Route 2 bus that could bring us home, we asked the driver if he knew how to get to the pumpkin walk. He did. Route 5 would take us to a stop where a special shuttle would then take us directly to the Pumpkin Walk. But it was about 6:00 by now, and he warned us that the buses would stop running by 6:30. What? That seems odd, but I guess they run later on the weekdays than on the weekends. You would think it would be the other way around.

Anyway, Demetria and I agreed we'd try again on Monday. I was frustrated with a lot of things. First, there was that questionable missing assignment. Then the Internet telling us to ride Bus 15. Then all the time wasting. I don't handle sitting around and killing time in general, but I also had homework to do! I'd almost brought the book I needed to read for class, but had changed my mind because I didn't want to carry it. Wrong choice. I say this constantly when someone scolds me for bringing books to family gatherings and things, but there have been hundreds of times when I've wished I had a nice reading book when I didn't have one, but never one when I had a book on hand and regretted it.

The bus couldn't take us back to Blue Square, and due to driving on the other side of the road from Lee's, it dropped us off even farther away. That wasn't really annoying in itself, but it was the last little sigh of a long, wasted, irritated afternoon. I got up late, so this day seemed like it slipped through my fingers too quickly for me to really enjoy my three-day weekend. At least I had work on my Google Docs app to fiddle with and Demetria to talk to, and we didn't get lost in the cold with groceries and need Alison to pick us up. So it's okay.

Back at our room, Demetria and I split our separate ways to work on homework. I had six chapters of my book to read (I'd thought it would be four), and luckily it's a fairly interesting book on autism and wasn't that bad. I just need to write a half-page summary by Monday morning. After that, I studied some notes for my chocolate and horticulture classes.

I also looked up information on housing and the renewal of the Regent's scholarship. Housing applications for Blue Square will begin to be available November 29th or so, and it looks as though they'll be given to us directly (since we're residents here already). I'll keep my eyes on that.

As for the Regent's scholarship, I have to send them proof that I'm meeting certain requirements (Taking 15 credits, a minimum GPA of 3.3...) each semester. February 1st is apparently the due date for winter semester, so I have some time. I'll look into the actual sending process when I have a little less to do around here. For now, I really want to keep on top of my assignments. I can't afford any more slip-ups!

Painting Pumpkins All Around

Demetria went back to the store today while I did homework and gave Mom a call. When she came back, she had eighteen or so pumpkins with her to be used as decorations for the ward Halloween party on Wednesday.

Demetria's pumpkins along with the two Alison brought us

She also bought some acrylic paint, so we watched Disney movies - "Mulan", "Hercules", and "The Emperor's New Groove" - and painted pumpkins until one in the morning.

Still a work in progress, but not bad for a single sitting!

Bargain Halloween Shopping

Fall Break began at noon today. Even though my mornings are busy with three classes, and two of them in the same room, it's nice to have time off the remainder of the day.

This afternoon Demetria and I hopped the bus and headed down to Walmart. She's one of the activities coordinators (or some such thing) for relief society and they asked her to find some decorations for the Halloween party at our church on Wednesday. We scoured Walmart for a long time, but didn't find anything that really called to us.

So we crossed the street (it's a long walk thanks to the position of the store and crosswalks) and checked out one of those seasonal Halloween stores. The quality isn't great, but this is the only picture I took of our entire outing:

Milk Carton Hat

There were lots of costumes, though not so many dinner table decorations. Demetria is planning to dress up as Minnie Mouse for Halloween, so we were also on the lookout for ears for her costume. We saw a few options, but she didn't really like any of them.

I was seriously considering picking up something for myself. I love Halloween- decorations, dressing up, candy, all of it. But the holiday's lost some of its charm in recent years since I could never manage to pull together a costume I really enjoyed. Probably should have been more assertive about it, since my siblings have ended up with some pretty neat costumes. I just don't like to be a bother. I do have a decent black cloak that I made with my dad several years ago, so that's something. But it was more appreciated in successive Halloweens, since it didn't turn out the way I wanted for its first year (being black instead of purple and yellow like the video game character I'd wanted to emulate, for one thing).

So I debated buying a neat looking cape and some really pretty wings, or at the very least a feathered masquerade mask- one of them had a beak and looked very nice. I told myself that I could buy a few things for a neat costume since my last ones have been less than stellar in the dressing-up department. What stopped me was the price. I just couldn't justify the purchase, even if the wings were really pretty, and even if the capes were really cool.

In the end, I decided to forgo it entirely. Demetria had offered to let me wear a sweater she owns that has a pink squirrel on it, with the idea being that I could dress up as Mabel from "Gravity Falls". I enjoyed the show and Mabel is a good character (I'm always here for girly protagonists), but I felt a little weird since I was never super into the show like I am with "Fairly OddParents" and "Star vs. the Forces of Evil", or even "ChalkZone". "ChalkZone" met all my cartoon needs. I don't know what the barrier between me and "Gravity Falls" is. I just never fell in love with it.

After our trip to the Halloween store, we walked over to Hobby Lobby and began our search for decorations with renewed vigor. Demetria couldn't find anything that seemed like it would work, and it didn't help that she didn't know exactly how many tables were going to be used at the party. Plus, she was also on the lookout for a spotted Minnie Mouse bow.

That's why we were exploring the Dolls section of the store. As Demetria hunted for bows and ribbons, I caught sight of a pair of white angel wings meant for dolls, each one a little bigger than my hand. Hmm... The wings at the Halloween store had been neat, coming in some different colors and styles, but the cheapest was around twenty dollars and some were even thirty. These doll wings were small and cost $4.50. Hey, if the magical creatures in "Fairly OddParents" can get by with itty-bitty wings, so can I!

So as we went, I started to piece together a bargain Halloween costume for the party from various items around the store. I think I'm going to be some sort of nature fairy. I found a simple lacy black butterfly masquerade mask for five dollars. In the gardening section, I found a lacy black butterfly on a wiry stick. I think it's supposed to be an accent to a bouquet, but we should be able to stab it through my hair if I wear a braid or bun. In the fake plant area, I bought two rubbery orange flowers for about $1.50 each that I can wear behind my ears. Passing by the gardening aisles on a second loop, I picked up another "bouquet accent" for two dollars- a long stick with three tall brown feathers on it. That will make an excellent wand!

It's something!

Because most everything was on sale, my grand total was about eleven dollars. And, it was just really satisfying to select things from the craft store instead of the Halloween one. Points for creativity!

Upon our return, I made some macaroni and cheese and then Demetria and I watched a Charlie Chaplin movie (I think the first Charlie Chaplin movie) called "The Kid". We enjoyed that quite a bit... mostly we were pseudo-screaming at the characters on-screen every time they tried to kill or otherwise rid themselves of baby John. I do like my black and white silent comedies.

Landmines

We were able to get into the rat lab this morning, which was nice. Just a few more days and it's all over. Well, the part where we visit our rat, anyway- there are still graphs and a lab report to be done.

In my behavior class, we discussed the natures of giant Gambian pouched rats and how in some third-world countries, the rats are used to sniff out landmines that were buried during war and then left for large animals and people to step on, causing loss of limbs or death. The rats are too light to activate the mines, and they are already used to sniffing for prey underneath them.

I had the thought that I could use this idea in my writing- specifically in Gavin and Ethel's story. I've desperately been needing to rework Ethel's motivation for teaming up with Gavin before they travel across her country to the capital city. Journey stories aren't my strong suit (which is why I specifically wanted this one to be a journey) and so I've been struggling. 

But, I wonder if I could use the idea of sniffing out the landmines. This is a fantasy novel. Perhaps Ethel could be a "leading pioneer" in using lightweight or perhaps magically-immune animals to deactivate clumps of magic left over from war. She already has the pet jackalope I gave her since in the original plan for the story, she was merely a stage magician who could pull a rabbit (and various foods and pieces of furniture) out of her uncle's magical hat.

The substitute we have in my horticulture class talks incredibly fast, and flips through the slides of his PowerPoints faster. I've all but given up on taking notes- each slide is on the wall for only four seconds or so. It's funny, because they warned us in third grade that we needed to learn cursive so we could write fast enough to take notes in college. I doubt even a skilled cursive-writer could keep up with this man's pace! Luckily the PowerPoints are online.

Following Institute and my chocolate class, I ate dinner on campus at the Marketplace and went to SI for behavior class. Then I came home and some homework was done this evening. Due to this Friday being our Fall Break, we have an interesting schedule for tomorrow. Our Friday classes will be held on Thursday, and we won't have Thursday classes at all. I wonder who will forget and slip up along the way.

Autumn Cometh

We had our first casualty of fall today- Demetria was sick. Just a bit sleepy and sniffly, I think, and her voice didn't sound great later in the day, which of course isn't good for her what with almost all her classes being singing classes.

I headed off to my rat lab this morning, although for some reason, our aide never showed up to unlock the door. After a time, I checked my e-mail. Sometimes the teacher and aides send out messages later in the day and forget that this information would have been helpful for the first group of us to know. There were no messages saying we didn't have class today.

Next I checked the syllabus- both for the behavior class and for the rat lab. Again, no indication that we weren't supposed to be here. Someone e-mailed the teacher in charge of the lectures and the class as a whole what was up, and I e-mailed the person in charge of the actual rats and the lab (Though, after I did, someone said that the TA I'd sent my message to was in Europe or something). It was very cold and I hadn't brought a coat- foolishly thinking I didn't need one if I was wearing two layers of a shirt and a hooded sweatshirt. 

I stayed outside for half an hour, but when all my peers drifted away, I figured I'd go too. Ten minutes left of class when my entire group had bailed? Maybe not. Still haven't heard back on what the reason for this event was, or if the other students scheduled for later in the day managed to get in. Hmm.

But it wasn't all bad. I had Google Docs on my phone and I finished Chapter 8 of my current project. How many times do you get to write about magical single dads trying dozens of escape plans in order to ditch a reverse-harem while simultaneously caring for the newborn son they never wanted to have but feel obligated to rescue? Never enough! You better believe I milked it.

My appointment at the wellness center was today (and not yesterday as I had previously thought). The doctor talked to me for awhile and checked out my hand and declared that I don't have carpal tunnel or anything, and that my hand is probably just sore from overuse. Good. Of course, given how much I type on my keyboard or grip my mouse, he didn't promise I wouldn't develop problems later- he just said I was doing fine now. He suggested icing my wrist for fifteen minutes twice a day, among other things. For how long, I can't remember. Forever?

One thing I thought was interesting was that I was asked to fill out a paper when I went in, and it was implied that I'll have to fill it out a new copy every time I visit the wellness center, if I end up coming back. I thought the questions were going to be at least somewhat varied, or ask for my address or something. Nope. Both sides of the paper wanted me to describe myself on a scale of 1 to 5 for questions like, "Do you feel like you have no energy?" and "Do you feel worthless?" and "Do you feel like you would be better off dead?" 

I mean, I guess it makes sense that they would ask these things to keep up with their patients, especially since a lot of them might be coming in for those types of treatments, but it still came as a bit of a shock to me that there are enough people around who regularly suffer from those types of feelings that it's pretty much assumed by default that everyone is depressed. It was just so blunt that it caught me off guard.

I don't know. Even with all the health classes and psychology classes in school, depression and feelings of stress and suicide are still a foreign concept to me. The teachers always say, "It's okay, every single one of you has these types of feelings sometimes", and I've always had to scratch my head. Depression? Definitely not. Stress? Next to never in my entire life. Suicide? Not even once.

I know that depression is indeed a valid issue and one of its side effects is a lack of interest in things that one once found exciting, but I honest to goodness feel like that would never happen to me. I never have enough time to finish everything I want to do and I'm never really happy unless I'm working and finishing things. I can't afford to be depressed- my body and mind simply refuse to be. I have too much to do!

In other news, Demetria and I decided that we wanted to add decorations to our door for the major holidays throughout the year. I took a bit of time after my studying had ended for the day to finish up mine. Of course, I forgot that my printer only prints black and white, so I want all of you to appreciate it:

Maybe I'll e-mail myself the file and print off a colored copy when I next go home. Yes, good.

Rain and Pumpkins

It's been a rainy couple of days. There are so many 

My chocolate class today was cancelled since my instructor wasn't going to be in town and she didn't want a substitute to be the one to introduce us to the new unit. I took advantage of that free time to enjoy a shower and giving my hair plenty of time to dry before I dressed. Since I felt up to it, I went to SI for my behavior class tonight. It turned out not to be the most productive session, but maybe it still helped me.

Demetria and I went to the pumpkin carving activity for Home Evening tonight. The people in charge of the annual pumpkin walk donated these pumpkins to our ward, so we left our pumpkin there and it will be in this year's pumpkin walk.

Mine and Demetria's Jack Skellington pumpkin

Some honorable mentions:

Demetria taught me how to sew the button back onto my pajama shirt, and that was really cool. Achievement Unlocked: Infinite Clothes and Immortal Stuffed Animals!

Then we watched the Disney "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" short and the Buster Keaton short "Cops" before bed. Ichabod Crane had a very good personality, I thought. Mostly because he was a superstitious and egg-headed glutton whose main motivation for courting his love interest was to win her money. Wasn't expecting that from a Disney protagonist. Nor the ending. That was quite the plot twist ending for a title character. Huh.

Leftover Cake

I had cake for breakfast. I don't regret it. It was very good.

Most of our talks in church today were about tithing. And speaking of which, I went to tithing settlement this afternoon. That made me uncomfortable. I haven't received money for the last year and so haven't been paying anything. Technically, I have been "earning money", but it's been "imaginary money" that my parents were putting in our "checkbooks", until they were lost. I have no clue how much money I owe.

What I do know is that I did just get money for my birthday, which I'm planning to pay next week (I didn't want to do that until after I talked with the bishop about my situation) and I did receive money from various relatives and family friends following my graduation, and I should still have that information written down. I just really wish that I could get my hands on those checkbooks. I don't like cheating God.

I'm not doing fabulously in my horticulture class. I don't understand how I can manage to do poorly on three open-note quizzes in a row. That takes a certain skill. I've been copying everything down from the PowerPoint slides and as much of the verbally-given information that I can manage, and I've been studying every day, and yet I was missing some of those terms. Some of those questions were definitely not in my notes, and many questions were True or False. My teacher gets a kick out of writing trick questions, which isn't fun for us either.

I guess I should read my textbook. I read the first few chapters, but our teacher told us the text was recommended, not required. I've asked him several times and have been repeatedly told that we will only be tested on material given during the lectures and the book is not actually necessary for the class. Hmm.

After I finished my online quiz and received my score, I cheered myself up with some ice cream. Then Demetria and I watched a Charlie Chaplin movie, "The Gold Rush". There's a really funny scene in it where the cabin is balancing on the edge of a cliff, and every time the characters move around, it starts to tilt. It moved during a blizzard while they were sleeping and they didn't know they were in danger- only that the building tilted. So one of the characters - who also happened to be rather large - said, "Let's see how far it will tip over", or something along those lines. Demetria and I were softly screaming, "No, no, no!" at them every time they strayed to far to the side or started jumping. We figured they would make it out alive, but it was still intense. That was fun. 

There's also an amusing scene in that movie where Chaplin's character says, "I can't make a speech, so I will do a dance with the rolls". Then he stabs two rolls with two forks and makes them dance like legs and shoes on the edge of the table. It's very awkward and silly and was a pleasant way to end the night.

Demetria also looked up a bunch of facts about this movie and "The General" when it was over. There's a scene at the end of "The General" when a train called The Texas goes over a damaged bridge and plunges into the river below. This was the most expensive scene filmed in any silent movie of the time, and apparently they just left the train there until it was fished out for scrap metal during World War II. Huh. 

Also, during the filming of the battle scene, the forest caught fire and Buster Keaton and the crew stopped production to put it out. Good.

Belated Birthday Party

Today Demetria and I picked up groceries, did a lot of cleaning, and had our birthday party. We invited some friends over (although only Alison and Eliza were able to make it) and ate cake.

Demetria's gluten-free confetti cake and my yellow cake with chocolate frosting

We made the cakes in Demetria's rice cooker and they turned out to be super delicious. Demetria said the sprinkles that came with her icing were ugly, so I put them on my cake.

We told everyone that presents weren't necessary, but Alison said that she felt awkward not bringing anything and surprised us with hand-painted birthday cards, pumpkins, and pumpkin-carving supplies. How thoughtful!

After cakes had been eaten and Alison and Eliza had left, then Demetria and I ended our night by watching "The General". It was Demetria's first time seeing Buster Keaton, and she approved. She wants to show me some Charlie Chaplin in the next few days, because apparently there's a movie that Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton both acted in and we thought we'd check it out.

It's nice to have the apartment clean again, and that was some really good cake. I'm liking it up here.

Plants and Chemistry and Hands

I checked up on my plants in the greenhouse today. I'm not sure they're doing well. We're supposed to be watching them to see when they root, but it didn't seem as though any of mine had, except the creeping charlie and possibly the snake plant. 

My cuttings didn't seem to be dead and brown or anything. They just seemed like they were sitting there loosely in the dirt. Perhaps I didn't plant them correctly. Hopefully they'll all grow roots soon, since I did my best to follow the instructions and part of my grade is dependent on their growth.

This afternoon I went to recitation for my chocolate class to ask questions. There are certain things we need to know about chemistry, and our teacher specifically invited everyone who wanted to touch base with the chemistry stuff to stop by on Friday. So I did. The first thing she did was look me up and down and ask in a disinterested, slightly irritated voice, "Did you review the PowerPoints I've posted?"

Okay, that should be irrelevant. I came to ask exactly what I need to know for the test. Are we balancing chemical equations? Which chemical structures are we supposed to know? Do we need to draw them? Are we supposed to know that the carbons need hydrogens attached to them? What about double bonds? Is there anything related to chemistry I might need to know for this class considering that I took chemistry three years ago?

"Did you review the PowerPoints".

The PowerPoints you never posted? Since you asked, no. But why did you invite us if that's what you're going to say?

On the way back from chocolate class, I stopped by the student wellness center to make an appointment to get my hand looked at on Monday. I'm pretty sure I have tendentious. Maybe not tendentious, but there's something definitely going on with it. It doesn't hurt. I can just... feel "thickness", and it makes a lot of clicking noises. This has been happening for almost a year and a half now. I didn't bring it up with my parents for awhile because I thought, "I'll just ask the doctor at my next appointment". Mom never actually made another appointment, which did make me feel dumb, and one of the things I need to learn to do is be more vocal about things like this, I guess. 

I did talk to her about my hand a few times, but the general consensus seemed to be that we'd leave it alone until it really started bothering me. Over the last few days, it's been bothering me a little more. It still doesn't hurt, but it feels a little stiff in the distal part of my forearm and seems to be clicking more often. I guess we'll see what the doctor says on Monday. Luckily being a student gets me free healthcare.

Demetria and I watched "Nightmare Before Christmas" tonight. It was my first time actually watching it all the way through (I'd seen the beginning before in school one time, I think). Tim Burton's work is an acquired taste and not really my fancy, but now I've seen the movie. 

Could've used a little more "show, don't tell" flavoring, though. And maybe a romance that wasn't so vague and awkwardly forced (or there at all). And maybe an explanation for why Jack never tried any of the other holiday doors while trying to learn about the magic of Christmas, because comparing and contrasting the other dimensions that you have the power to access seems like it would be obvious and might have made a more interesting movie. And maybe an explanation for what the Boogeyman was actually doing whatsoever. And maybe Jack could have been the one to imprison Santa instead of demanding he be kidnapped so they could converse and then tossing him aside. And maybe less of a deux ex machina ending when it came to Oogie Boogie's defeat. But, well.

Demetria is Twenty-One

Nothing much was done for Demetria's birthday, although we did watch some new "Star" episodes. One was Halloween-themed and Star dressed up like Ludo. Ouch.

Today was Demetria's busy day, so I mostly hung around my room and alternated between studying and writing. I feel like I'm doing a good job of keeping on top of things. This morning I also pieced together my schedule for next semester. The times aren't finalized and I'll probably be removing one of the classes, but it's nice to have something to go off of.

I also learned that a sequel to "Enchanted" is on its way. Fingers crossed that it's great, I guess.

Dinner at the Market

My day was long and busy, full of my usual classes and several other things. I picked up our mail for the first time since we moved in. I've been meaning to do that for weeks, but kept putting it off because I kept forgetting. Demetria and I live on the top floor and the mail boxes are some ways away from our building. The key to our mailbox is very small and could be easily lost, so I never really wanted to take it with me on my way to classes, and never wanted to go back down after returning to Blue Square. Demetria pointed out that probably no one would be mailing us things anyway.

So I picked up the mail today because I knew I'd be getting birthday cards. I got one from each of my grandpas, so that was nice. Papa's money is all on a Walmart giftcard, so I'll need to think of something to buy with it since Walmart isn't normally where I get my groceries. I could either buy dozens of mini-muffins, or maybe poke around in search of a DS game or something frivolous. 

Otherwise, we had quite the impressive stack of newspaper and magazine advert things to comb through. We saved a few coupons and dumped the rest. I like being able to magnet coupons to our fridge - it's been years since I lived with a magnetic fridge - but we only have two or three magnets, so sometimes these things end up on my desk and take up annoying space. We also had some envelopes addressed to people we can only assume were the previous residents of our room.

I went to the SI session tonight for my psychology class. It wasn't too bad. It helped to have only seven people my age there instead of an entire classroom full of older people, and I think I understand the terms for our differential reinforcement unit better now. This was supposed to be a study session for our Friday quiz and in my psychology class our quizzes are open-note, but I'm glad I went, because I think it helped.

I still have several free meals on my meal plan card, so straight after SI I walked over to the TSC and treated Demetria to a birthday lunch up at the Aggie Marketplace buffet, since she hadn't eaten there yet. She turns twenty-one tomorrow. The Marketplace's spaghetti tastes a lot better than mine. Good to know. I also had a delicious cupcake in addition to the other things I ate. Bit of a splurging week for me on food, what with my birthday and all.

We talked a lot both after we'd finished eating and after we'd returned to our room, and ended the night by finishing up the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. 

It was a long day, but I'm loving having the lighter days interspersed throughout my week. Demetria keeps reminding me that we actually do get to have Fall Break, which almost seems odd to me, since I feel like I'm going to very little school at all. It's nice how even on my heavy days, I get an hour break after my rat lab, a two-hour lunch break, and then a one-hour Institute class followed by another hour-long break after that.

Spaghetti and Psychology

Our rat is doing very well. Much better than he was just a few days ago. His task is to climb a set of stairs made of taped-together Jenga blocks, slip through a hoop (in the right direction), then turn left, get on his hind paws, and touch a hanging ball with his nose before circling to the stairs again from the correct side of the hoop. We finally got him to stop rubbing the ball with his cheek. It also looks like he finally realizes that even if he taps the ball ten times, he'll only receive the one reinforcer until he goes through the hoop again.

Some time ago I made an appointment with one of the advisers of psychology, and today was the day I paid her a visit. We talked about class schedules and careers, and she told me not to worry too much about trying to pick all psychology-oriented classes. It looks like I'm on track to graduate in 2019 right now.

This evening I made spaghetti in my special red pot for the first time. I picked up this red pot before leaving for college, and it's the best. It has a handle that doesn't heat up and a lid that locks on. The lid is also a strainer, it has a flap for adding additional small ingredients, and on top of it is a handle that stirs the pot's contents when you turn it. It even came with a utensil that's partially spoon, partially fork, partially knife, and partially for measuring out portion sizes.

So I made spaghetti in that for the first time (up until now I had only made macaroni). It didn't taste very good, but I did remember to add all the ingredients, and I got to use my pumpkin-shaped salt shaker, and I made the correct amount of noodles for a single person, so I'm considering it a success.

I ate it while sitting in bed reading my psychology textbooks. That was enjoyable.

Nineteen

I turned nineteen today! I didn't have a big celebration or anything. No celebratory breakfast- actually, I woke up a bit late and didn't have all that much time to get ready. 

Monday is my busy day for classes. I hurried through my rat lab, behavior, and horticulture classes, and then had the chance to breathe as I rode the bus back to my room. Mom had said she wanted to call me around noon to wish me Happy Birthday, so I dropped off my things and waited for her call. 

After that, I headed up to the Aggie Marketplace and splurged on a birthday lunch at the buffet. Well... I got chocolate milk, grilled cheese, and fries (the fries are always really good here) and some nachos, which I'd been wanting for awhile but kept turning down on the grounds that they were more unhealthy than they were worth.

To top it off, I grabbed a scoop of chocolate ice cream and a scoop of cookies and cream before I headed out to Institute. Once Institute had ended, I returned to Blue Square, grabbed my things, and made my way to my chocolate class. I thought I gave myself plenty of time to get there, but I must have missed the last bus by about thirty seconds, because it was eleven minutes before the next one rolled around. My chocolate class is in the engineering building, which is the most remote area on campus as far as buses are concerned. I had a long way to walk (I ran for most of it), and made it just after class started.

My day was more relaxing once the chocolate class was over. I dedicated it to me, since I had no homework, and after glancing over my study notes, I spent the evening doing what I wanted to do. There's a scene in one of my stories that I've been stuck on for months. It's in Chapter 7, and I've kind of worked around it by finishing Chapters 9 through 12, in addition to many more later in the story. 

The main problem with this section is that I have a quote-unquote immortal protagonist, and Chapter 7 is the bridge between early adolescence and the early 40s of adulthood. That's a 320,000-year timeskip. For a traveler with an obvious deformity and a sarcastic tongue which render him unable to stay in a single place for long. There were a few important scenes that needed to be in this chapter (Namely at the beginning when he interacts with early humanoids) and end (when he accidentally summons an annoying demon girl who was trying to plant a tree in a dimension with limited oxygen), so I couldn't skip it altogether. 

I buckled down and wrote for a long while, and even though by its nature this is the most boring chapter in the story and I've been dreading it for the last two months, it's always exciting to see things coming together. Since one of the details in this story is that it's questionable at times whether our main character is more good than bad or vis versa, it pleases me when I draw together vague sentences like, "I took up work as a personal servant for another hundred seventy thousand years or so to a reclusive man called Cattahan before I was let go due to a rumor that I had been embezzling from his manor. No actual proof was ever found, of course. Someone had been careful".

Demetria and I watched a bunch of "ChalkZone" and "Fairly OddParents" episodes tonight too. "Hole in the Wall" has major foreshadowing for the rest of the series and "The Terrible Two and a Halfs" is one of my favorite episodes because Rudy can't accept that the people of ChalkZone think his two-year-old cousin is a good artist. He's bitter about their praise for her the entire episode, because to them, they think she's "A New Creator" and essentially a god, and all Rudy can do is snark about how "all she draws is steel wool".

Snap finally gets fed up with it and pulls him aside to give him a talk about how Rudy wasn't such a great artist when he was two, either, and "there are probably lots of silly squiggles around ChalkZone" that he drew at that age. Rudy ignores the message, of course. I love him. He's such a nice guy, but he absolutely cannot handle criticism, and he always wants the attention to be on him.

As for "Fairly OddParents", we watched "Love Triangle". This is my second-favorite episode of the entire series, because in this episode, Cosmo pressures his son to perform in the school play against his will. Poof even starts to bond with his anti-fairy counterpart Foop over their hatred for this play, until, of course, a new girl arrives in class and steals their hearts, thus pitting them against one another. In multiple episodes Poof has been shown to be obsessed with what the media portrays as desirable, so it's really funny to me that he fell for a pretty blonde girl with blue eyes and a Southern accent.

This episode is very silly because Goldie has both boys wrapped around her little finger, and she knows it. She ignores them when they're hurt and deliberately urges them to fight over her. And of course, she ends up with a lead role in the school play, so suddenly Poof and Foop are all over the chance to be Mr. Cookie so they can win her kiss at the end. When Foop ends up as Table Number 3 and Poof's understudy, he tries to wipe Poof out in order to take over that position... despite being synced up to Poof so that if Poof dies, he dies too (a fact which won't click for him until the following episode, when he actually does manage to erase both Poof and himself from existence).

Foop rewrites the play script so Table Number 3 is the star of the play and the script narration refers to Poof as "a big ugly purple thing who is really dumb", and it's quite amusing to watch a table "slay a monster with his handsomeness".

The blatant discrimination against Anti-Fairies is rampant in this episode, and it's just fascinating to watch Foop deal with it every single time one of these school episodes crops up. Actually, discrimination towards Anti-Fairies is kind of an underlying thing throughout the series. Every time Fairies and Anti-Fairies are competing together in something, no Anti-Fairies are allowed to judge. Only Fairies (and in one instance, one pixie). Competitions are always rigged in the Fairies' favor. The Fairies try to paint it as "That's because Anti-Fairies are the bad guys", but... it's pretty obvious that the Fairies are racist. They name-call pixies and genies on TV, too.

"Love Triangle" is also one of the few episodes where we get to see Poof act like a jerk, and it's wonderful. The popular kid laughing and eating popcorn while watching the nerd get beaten to a pulp... It's terrible.

It's just... It's so obvious that Poof is on such a bad course for his future. He's obsessed with the media, popularity, sports, pretty girls who are more interested in his looks than his personality, and there are some episodes where he just picks on Foop mercilessly (not that Foop doesn't pick on him first, but Poof is really not a turn-the-other-cheek type). I just think that's a really interesting choice for the child of the "good guys". Plus, Cosmo was designed to be in the "50s" era, and I just imagine Poof's teenage years in the "70s" era as a hippie and getting into all sorts of trouble... He already has a sugar addiction like his mom, and drinking soda and eating candy in this show is the equivalent of getting drunk.

After "Love Triangle", Demetria wanted to watch the genie episodes "Genie Meanie Miney Mo" and "Back to the Norm", so we did. We're working our way up to "Fairy Idol". Sanderson is really something special in "Fairy Idol".

So that was my day. Not the most celebratory birthday of them all, but it worked for me. I did have some more ice cream before bed so I could finish off the box in the freezer. Cake will come later. Check back on Friday.