Single-Person Conference

Today was the first day of October General Conference for 2017. I'd bought a little bit of candy, but my goal was not to go overboard.

So, I passed my day hanging out on the couch, mostly drawing, and doing a bit of writing during the breaks. Of course, I got up to walk around the apartment and stretch too. Even cooked some food. A bit lonely and unusual, but nice.

Meat at the Zoo

Early this morning, I took the bus down to the zoo again. It's a little intimidating since it's crazy dark at that time of day, but it isn't too bad.

I recorded the behaviors of several animals with the ethograms again today. I also helped prepare some food for the bobcat, lynx, some owls, the eagle, and redtail hawk. I chopped their meat into smaller chunks. I don't know what they were being served, but it smelled absolutely delicious, and I'm saying this from the perspective of someone who has hated meat for years. It was quite an interesting experience.

Following my trip to the zoo, I attended my fiction writing class. It's pretty nice not to have Institute on Fridays. It certainly lightens my load.

Behavior Exam 1

I had an exam in my behavior class today. It certainly wasn't enjoyable; some of the questions were worded strangely, and my stomach was hurting a lot. I kept squirming in my seat as I tried to get comfortable. My teacher brought donuts to cushion the annoyance of taking an exam, but I was stuffed from lunch. I walked home with it and left it on the counter so I could crawl into bed. I'll eat it later.

Up For Sudden Fiction Review

Today was the day we were to come to fiction writing class and critique one another's sudden fiction pieces. Not all of them, of course, but just the ones we had been assigned to look at over the weekend. Mostly I was looking forward to it, though knowing you'll be receiving critiques on something you put time and energy into always comes with a bit of dread.

To be honest, it didn't go too well. Everyone in my group who was assigned to read my story understood what was going on... except for the person who did the write-up for mine. And as non-judgmental as I try to be, it does sting when I write eight pages of both positive and negative feedback for the person I was assigned to, and only get 3/4 of one with very choppy sentences and evasive, noncommittal responses in return. Especially when we were instructed to write in complete sentences. Oh well. At least I got one.

My story was basically an elevator pitch, except the guy doing the pitch was trying to convince his boss why he should be fired... and manipulated him into granting him a promotion. I thought it was pretty straightforward, and everyone else seemed to think so too, but it's always helpful to get the perspective of someone who wasn't onboard. If you didn't catch the subtleties early enough, I can see how the end would be confusing.

I also found out that we had a 4-page limit on our sudden fiction piece instead of a 3-page one, which is what I'd confined myself to. That might work out in my favor when I do revisions, since it gives me more room to work.

The person I was assigned to be "main editor" for wasn't actually here today. She was an interesting case: Her writing style was too much instead of too little. She went into extreme details about little things that weren't very important, like the sticky cheese on the nachos a side-character was eating, and the way they rained down when he threw them up into the air. Interesting, but very confusing at times. It wasn't clear why the nachos were raining from the sky a moment later- had he jumped up and thrown them? Was he excited? Startled? And why were people on the soccer field holding the ball and their heads? Had someone fallen? Was someone hurt? In soccer, players get down on one knee when someone is hurt. Had a player just tried to make a winning kick but failed, and was now falling to the ground in shame, clasping his hair? It was a bit jumbled up. Still, I had a lot of fun looking over her story and making comments. It was an enjoyable read overall.

Tuesday

Sometimes there's nothing to say about Tuesday.

Ordinary Monday After

Just an ordinary Monday for me. Luckily, I was able to finish my homework on Saturday, although it sure does feel busy going back to school right after spending Saturday preparing a lesson, and Sunday teaching. Still, I'm glad I was able to rest Sunday afternoon. That wouldn't have been fun to try to cram all my homework in after teaching. It's nice to have a day of rest.

Our Callings

This morning, I printed out the items I needed for my lesson on magnifying our callings. I had a few quotes and scripture to cut into strips, and I had people volunteer to come up and get them while I introduced myself and gave the brief outline of my lesson. I figured that was better than handing the strips out to people as they came in, since people generally don't like to be forced into participating.

My lesson went well. I had a lot to say about Eyring's talk, and some stories to share. One thing that I mentioned was that when I'd first been asked to give this talk, I still had lingering traces of bronchitis that made me constantly cough and rasp a bit. However, I accepted the task anyway, and my bronchitis ended up disappearing before it was time for me to give my lesson. I hadn't even realized it until then, and I hadn't planned to discuss it, but suddenly I felt prompted to mention that.

I think I was engaging and many people came up afterwards to tell me they really enjoyed my lesson. I sent Mom a quick test to let her know I thought I'd done well. Of course, I later found out I'd given a lesson on the wrong talk... but no one actually confronted about it. Maybe it was the lesson the girls just starting relief society needed to hear.

Prep Work

Most of today was spent working on homework and preparing my lesson for church tomorrow. Pretty simple.

First Day At the Zoo

I was just a little bit frustrated with the zoo today. One of the main people in charge had specifically told me that a calendar with the different times volunteers were supposed to show up would be sent out through email. She made it sound like I should check the calendar to determine if I was supposed to come in this Friday. Well, I looked and looked all week, but the calendar never came. I decided to go to the zoo anyway. Good thing I did. Apparently the calendar was only sent to staff members, not to volunteers. Oh. Good to know- both about the calendar, and to know the difference between a volunteer and a staff member so I don't hear "staff member" later and think that includes me.

My task this morning was using this machine that looks and functions a lot like a lawnmower, but is a leaf blower. I pushed it around the walking paths all of the zoo, blowing leaves out of the way and onto the grass. This was a great first task, because I was able to walk around the zoo and get a feel for the animals and their locations. My fingers quickly got cold and sore from having to hold the "Go" lever on the machine, though.

I had gone around the loop once and was coming back from one of the side paths when I bumped into Troy, the main zoo director. He checked to see what I had done so far, then did the other side of the loop for me. By this I mean, I had driven the machine while sticking as far to the right side of the path as possible for my first loop around. Troy also stuck to the right side, but went along the loop the other way to blow off the rest of the leaves and loose grass and things. He was a lot faster at that than I was. Then he pulled me aside so that we could talk about ethograms.

The zoo seems really excited about my background in psychology and my interest in animal behavior. Troy gave me several ethogram sheets to fill out, asking me to look at the muntjacs, the yak, and the coyotes. A muntjac is a tiny deer. A really, really tiny deer that only comes up to your knee. Oh, and it has fangs. The female and the male are housed separately right now, but the goal is to house them together when they get moved to their winter pens. The female is generally shy and skittish whereas the male is more forward. So, he wanted me to record those behaviors. He also showed me the enrichment binders for various animals so that I could look through those if I want to.

So, I went out and recorded some behavior today. The female muntjac stared at me without moving the entire time (until I stood up again and she bolted), but the male was a lot more friendly and came right up to the fence to see me, even though it was drizzling a bit and he had been hiding in his "tunnel" until I got there. The yak paced in circles a lot, and the coyotes ran about their area. It was neat to spend so long watching each animal, whereas zoo patrons probably stay for just a few minutes and then move on. Luckily the rain didn't cause any problems, though I quickly became aware that the season is changing and I'm going to want to start dressing more warmly.

My shift is from 8:00 - 11:00 Friday mornings. I rode the bus to Blue Square to rest, eat, and prepare for my fiction writing class at 2:30 today. My class wasn't impressed with the guy that lots of them went to hear speak on Wednesday. I was a little amused by that. My teacher kept insisting that he was great and the lecture or reading thing would be great, but my classmates who went complained that what happened at the lecture was a lot different than what was advertised. I didn't get the details, but I didn't feel bad about missing out in favor of Institute instead.

Speaking of which, I went to Institute today accidentally before remembering there was no class on Fridays. Whoops. That'll take a bit of getting used to, since I go to it after fiction writing two other days during the week. Well, maybe it only takes forgetting one time to remember for later.

Lots to Do

Busy day of classes combined with homework and trying to get my lesson planned for Relief Society this weekend. The works.

Magnifying

I ate lots of reheated pizza today. Them's the breaks.

My fiction writing teacher cancelled class today. We were invited to attend a lecture about folklore and things that some guy the university brought in was giving somewhere. It didn't sound interesting to me, so I decided not to go- That, and the reason class was cancelled because the lecture started halfway through class. It ran into my Institute class. I elected to go to Institute.

I walked home after Institute is done. I've definitely done a lot of walking home instead of bus riding this semester, what with all the construction and all. Hopefully they finish it up soon. There was tons of dust in the air as I was walking by. Probably wasn't great for my bronchitis, but hopefully that will be gone soon.

I received a text from the Relief Society president today. She asked if I would be willing to teach the lesson in relief society this Sunday. I was a little concerned because I have a lot of work coming up over the next few weeks, and I've never taught a Relief Society lesson before. I agreed to teach, and I'm sure I'll be able to pull it off. I'm teaching on magnifying your callings. Hopefully all goes well with that and I get everything done that I need to do.

Holly's Pizza Delivery

I took a quiz for my Research Methods class today. It's always amusing that universities have such a huge Zero Tolerance Plagiarism policy when you see evidence of teachers creating their quizzes by copying things in like this:

May not be posted on a website, in whole or in part. Hmm.

In answer number three, that word is "naive" if you were wondering.

I took my first exam in Measurements today. When teachers scan scantrons through the reading machine, the machine automatically sends out an email to each student to distribute their score immediately, so I knew how I did within a few hours. I only missed 4, which I guess is okay. The most missed question was number 2 (missed by 19% of the class) but I got that one right, so that's nice.

I ate lunch and then went to my behavior class. It's crazy how many people just don't go to classes. We've had significant drops, especially in that class. I don't know if people have switched out or if they just think that the book will give them all they know and they don't need to attend. Maybe that's true, but you wouldn't know that until you've been in class for a long time, and would you really risk that when you haven't even taken the first test of the class? I guess people just trust their studying abilities. Well, it's none of my concern.

I stopped by my apartment to use my inhaler and grab a sweatshirt, but I made absolutely sure not to dilly-dally around, and hurried around the corner and down the hill so I could get to the credit union stop before the other bus. I definitely didn't want to have to call on Holly again.

I made it to the zoo in plenty of time today for my second day of overview training. We saw tons of loud birds and saw the food preparation areas and things. The zoo directors told everyone not to get their hopes up about being anywhere near the monkeys, "Except maybe Maysen as she studies their behavior from two fences away." They're really excited about having me work on ethograms for some of the animals, though getting to the monkeys might take a bit of working up to.

Additionally, they assigned me to come into work on Fridays (including this Friday, I think? They said they would send out a calendar). While it's great that my Wednesdays are still free, I kind of hope they allow me to volunteer on Wednesdays too after a month or so. I may need those extra hours. That would be a shame if I had everything for my internship figured out, but I had no way to accrue enough hours.

Holly picked me up at 8:30. Yay! We made it! It was really nice of her to do that for me, but it's nice that she won't need to anymore. She kept telling me that I could "seriously call her for anything". I mentioned that maybe one of these days I'd have to ask her if she'd take me to get pizza (asking a day or two in advance) because it's difficult to ride the bus, walk from the stop to Little Caeser's, walk back, wait forever for the bus, and by the time I get home the pizza is cold. She surprised me by suggesting she stop by right now. Luckily I had some money.

So, Holly went through the drive-thru and when she dropped me off at Blue Square, I had a box of warm pizza and a smile on my face. She's been really nice to me. I'm glad that I've been able to meet her. I'm sure she's great at touching the lives of everyone around her.

Basketball Baptism

Some things I did today: Studied for upcoming exams before heading up to campus to buy some scantrons. I'll need those for my Measurements tests. After that I went to fiction writing. Mostly normal stuff.

Today was my first day at my new Institute class, however. My teacher was very friendly and joking when I came in. Much more lively than my old teacher. He was funny and kind of reminded me of Mom's brothers. The class was huge, too. I guess that happens when you're in a cornerstone class instead of just a little side early morning class.

Our lesson was on the different types of sin commitment and repentance. My teacher explained that there are sins committed because of weakness and sins committed because of rebellion. Your reaction to different sins (godly sorrow vs. sorrow of being caught vs. no remorse) can determine whether your heart is in the right place and whether you can truly be forgiven if you repent, if you repent for that sin at all.

Speaking of the heart not being in the right place, my teacher gave us a scenario. He said, "You know how every Church basketball team seems to have that one nonmember on it because they're really good? Imagine if a change was made that you had to be a member to play basketball. The bishop calls you in and tells you that we need to get that man baptized so he can play. He says, 'I don't want to know how you get him baptized- just do it'. So, you and your friends approach the nonmember and ask him about the Church. He says he's not interested. So, you put him in a headlock, drag him to the font, say the prayer, and dunk him."

Is that a valid baptism? Why not? The Bishop said it was okay, the priesthood authority was there, the person was immersed, and there were witnesses. But, the Holy Spirit wouldn't uphold that baptism due to the heart not being in the right place, and not being truly converted.

My teacher then told us that this is how his dad was baptized- except without the headlock. His dad had little interest in the Church and had never taken missionary discussions, but wanted to keep playing basketball, so he was baptized very quickly. He didn't even know the name of the Church; years later he was in the army, he wrote down Mormon when asked what his religion was. Eventually, through the army, he met up with some missionaries and was converted for real.

It was definitely an interesting story and a cool lesson for my first time there. This teacher seems a lot more engaging than my old one. I think I'll enjoy his class, and it's great that it's on my lighter day too. Since this is a cornerstone class, though, that means there is required reading to keep up with. Hopefully I don't fall too far behind.

I had dinner at the Marketplace tonight and attended a study session for my Measurements class taught by the TA. He hinted that the example questions we had been sent earlier in the week were actual questions from the test. Which was good, because I'd looked over those, and then we went over them in the study session. Measurements is a confusing class, but I'm starting to get my bearings. Hopefully I'm able to pull through with decent grades by the end.

I'd Call My Dad

I felt pretty sick today. Oddly enough, my eyelids especially felt really heavy and sore. I had a pretty runny nose and started having a bit of trouble breathing. Not to the point that my life was at risk or anything, but that I felt congested and it was really bothering me. This probably had something to do with the fact that I stopped using my inhaler eleven days ago so I could attend my laser appointment. I had Mom check my forehead so she could help me decide if I was well enough to go to church. She said I wasn't warm. Really? I wasn't feeling too well, but okay. I figured I'd sit quietly and not open my mouth too much or touch anyone. Maybe that would prevent other people from getting sick.

I'd also been talking to Mom about my crazy class schedule on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I had to be up on campus pretty early every day and stay until fairly late. Yes, I have a lunch break where I could potentially go home instead of eating on campus, but with all the construction and crazy bus routes, there's really no telling how long it would take to get down there and back. Plus, I don't have tons of lunch food in my apartment anyway. What I do have, I'd kind of like to save for dinner. I like eating on campus. Anyway, it gets pretty exhausting to be running around on Tuesdays and Thursdays every week.

Mom suggested that I switch my Institute class to Mondays and Wednesdays. I was pretty surprised- I hadn't even thought about doing that. But it made sense. Institute was my early class each day, so switching it out would mean I didn't have to go up to campus until just after 10:00 each morning, giving me plenty of time to get ready and make sure I've gathered all my things for the day. And, I haven't been liking this class very much anyway. So today, we made the switch. Fingers crossed.

Preston had really hoped I would make macaroni while I was here. I'd told him yesterday that we could have it for lunch today. I got Dad to help out a bit, since I didn't want my sickness to spread to the food I was making.

Church went well, and after it was over, Dad drove me back up to school and dedicated my apartment. Last year, my home teachers had offered to dedicate it for me. This year, I decided it was a good thing to do and I didn't want to wait too long. One of elder's quorum presidency, I guess (I don't really know how they organize themselves) had come into relief society last Sunday and written a phone number on the board so that we all had someone to contact since official home teachers haven't been assigned yet. I'd considered calling them, but as the guy wrote the number, he said, "So if there's like, ghosts in your house, we can come give you a blessing or something". Hmm. Well, that wasn't really why I wanted my apartment dedicated, but now I felt weird about asking.

To sum it up, I was glad that Dad came up with me to dedicate the place himself. It was kind of nicer that way than having it done by strangers, even if we are in the same ward. Plus, I'm not sure if they're allowed to come over if I'm the only one living in my apartment... though, they came over last year at a time when Demetria wasn't around. Huh.

While Dad drove me up, I managed to finish my "sudden fiction" assignment for fiction writing class. It's a little three-page story about an employee who gives an elevator pitch to his boss about why he should be fired instead of accepting the promotion he's been offered. Of course, his boss decides that his debate skills are very good and decides to give him a better promotion- much to the horror of the other employees in the elevator who are watching this play out. Also, since our story was supposed to focus on a physical fight scene, I have a bit of hand slapping going on, because I really liked this elevator pitch idea and the hand slapping fight was the only thing I could think of.

So tonight I submitted the piece- and realized immediately afterwards that the page length for this assignment was actually 3-4 pages, not 2-3 like I'd thought. Oh. It had been pretty hard to condense everything I wanted to say down to three pages, and a little extra room might have been nice. But, my story takes place in an elevator, and it's probably about as long as the elevator ride allows anyway.

I still wasn't feeling too well tonight. I took a long, hot shower and tried to get some work done. Busy day tomorrow, and now I have a new Institute class straight after fiction writing too. Hopefully I enjoy it, and hopefully I don't forget to go.

I Ride With My Mom If I Want To

I had an 8:00 laser hair-removal appointment today. Due to the issue with the antibiotics and rescheduling last time, the lady I'd been talking to offered to come in early. That was really nice of her. She was the only one there when we arrived, since technically they weren't supposed to be open.

She was a little weird once she started talking to me, though. She kept asking me about how I had gotten here from school, and she didn't seem too impressed when I explained how Mom picked me up every six weeks. She said that I could ride the bus to Salt Lake instead, and then my mom could just pick me up from there. That sounds like it would get expensive pretty quickly, and then I'd have to ride the public bus with lots of strangers for a few hours. This way, my mom is able to come up and buy me groceries, we talk, and sometimes we go out to eat. Oh well. The hair removal got done, and I guess that's the important part.

I spent some time studying today, mostly for my measurements class. I wanted to review my notes and do some extra research to better understand those things that had confused me on Tuesday. It was surprisingly difficult to hunt down the information I was looking for. Apparently my teacher makes up a lot of the terms and definitions he uses, so they don't actually have real names or definitions that can be found via Google. Lovely.

Dad made tasty homemade spaghetti for dinner tonight, which was almost too bad since Mom brought back pizza after I ate. Stockton had asked for it. I don't get pizza when I'm up at school a lot, so I managed to eat one slice. That meant that we finished off the box and didn't have to refrigerate anything, so that's a great reason to eat pizza. I'm a hero.

Noodles and Spicy Food

Fridays are kind of nice because I have only my fiction writing class. On Tuesday, I told the zoo staff that I would be able to work an 8-11 shift on either Wednesdays or Fridays. Even though my schedule gets really busy and kind of overwhelming on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it's nice that I have so much time on the other days so I can do things like ride the bus to the zoo. It sure takes up a large chunk of time.

Mom picked me up after class today. I'm going home for the weekend for another hair-removal appointment. For real this time, since I've gone off antibiotics for ten days. My cough has gotten a lot better, so hopefully it won't be a problem. We went grocery shopping, then ate at Noodles and Company. I had a large bowl of macaroni and cheese, and Mom had a spicy dish that she didn't really like. I was slightly amused watching her since she didn't like it, but she did eat it all.

After that, we headed home, and I was able to check in with my family again. Kind of nice to have an excuse to see them every once in awhile.

Phew, No Zoo

Pretty busy day of classes again, but at least there was no zoo today. No breakdowns in measurements class either, so I count it as a success.

Recovery Morning

Today I took a "recovery morning" to cool down from the craziness of yesterday. I just enjoyed some writing for awhile. It was great because I was pretty sure I didn't have any assignments to do. Of course, when I did check Canvas, I had one assignment to do for my behavior class and one for research methods.

Luckily, I was able to get them both done. For behavior, I just had to draw a graph. The research methods assignment took a bit longer since I had to answer several questions in depth about the hypothetical research project I'm supposed to be designing throughout the semester, but I was able to manage that too.

All Theoretical

I had some struggles with my Measurements class today. The Central Test Theory concepts are a bit difficult to grasp. There are new symbols in the math, like an equals sign with three lines. I didn't notice the other day that it had three lines, so I wrote it down wrong in the notes I turned in. But apparently the triple equals sign just means "definition". Also, we've been using the Greek symbol Tau in some of our formulas. It looks like a T. So naturally, when I saw the E written on the board, I assumed it was the Greek letter epsilon, which my teacher had named by name earlier in the semester. It was not. It was a capital E. So the formulas in the notes I turned in are wrong.

My teacher went over the concepts of observed and true values again. He did this last time too, only now he included error variables in the mix. We were given a formula that helps us calculate the true scores (observed score + error score = true score), but there's no way to get the error score data. It's literally, physically impossible to get that information. When I asked how he was able to get it and put it on the board, he told me that we can't do it, but he can because he's amazing. Um.

This amazingness must also explain how he was able to average 107 and 110 and get 105. I specifically raised my hand and asked him about this when he called 105 the average, and why he wasn't using the average that was actually on the graph on the other side of the board, only for him to look me in the eyes and tell me seriously that it was because he was magic. He moved on.

There's also this concept of indexes (or indices, as he calls them). If you look at the picture above, you can see the two tests are called Yi and Yj. These are the names of the two tests. You could also call them Test 1 and Test 2. Simple enough. But then there's Ym. Ym means "all of the tests". Okay. Sure. But then there's Yk, Yl, et cetera, for Tests 3 and 4. As many tests as you have.

I asked what happens when you get to Test 5, Ym, and my teacher got pretty frustrated. He said it doesn't matter, and that m is just a variable. So I tried to ask why we use i and j if there is this obvious confusion with Ym. He said that this only applies to this class, and there isn't a standard in the psychological world. Wait... So, we're learning things that only apply in this class? We're only learning these things so we can take a test on these things and pass this class?

Most of the class was confused. He started getting very frustrated, demanding how we had managed to get into this class if we hadn't taken stats, because surely we knew this from stats. I was laughing so hard, just in the middle of his lecture. Silently, but my shoulders were shaking and I wanted to cry. When my teacher asked us to give an example of an "unconditional expectation", I said "love". He was not impressed.

The trick is that these central test theory concepts are all theoretical- hence why it's called a theory. The concept is based around the idea that if you could erase someone's mind after they took a test, and had them take the test again, and then erased their mind and had them take it again, over and over, you could average all those scores and determine their "true score". You know. For the one test. It's a very strange theory.

All in all, it was a hard day. I ended up having lunch at Aggie Ice Cream, because I wanted to see if they had cheese sandwiches, and just generally look around. It's near my before-lunch and after-lunch classes. A lot closer than the TSC where I usually eat at the Marketplace. I tried some of their Aggie Birthcake ice cream, but it was no substitute for Cold Stone cake batter. Oh well. I also texted Dallin and asked how his family were doing with Hurricane Irma going on in the southeast. He said they were fine, they mostly just got a lot of wind. Well.

I was supposed to catch the bus to the zoo so that I could participate in the first of my two volunteer training days. Only, I ended up taking a quiz for my research methods class, and I made it to the bus stop just minutes after the bus I wanted to take had left.

I didn't know what to do. I knew that it took half an hour to get from that stop to the zoo. With all the construction, the buses have had to form alternate routes, so I wasn't sure if I could trust the website if I looked up to see when the next bus would come. Though, I had a general idea of how long it would be before it was back. So if I waited for the next bus to come around, I would end up being pretty late.

I called Mom's friend, Holly, who lives nearby and had already agreed to pick me up from the zoo, since the meeting would run late and the buses stop running before then. I apologized and told her that I knew her taking me down wasn't what we agreed, but that I'd be able to make it on time if she took me straight there instead of following the bus route. She's super nice, and showed up soon to drive me down. I approached her car hesitantly, and checked to make sure that she was Holly. She was surprised that I didn't recognize her, but I pointed out that the last time I'd seen her, she'd been wearing clown make-up at the Halloween party. Now I know what she looks like underneath.

I was able to join up with the other volunteers and walk around the zoo, including the Employees Only sections. I got my apprenticeship papers signed so I can start working there and gathering hours. The people in charge are really nice, and I think I'll enjoy working for them. I told them I would be available to take the 8:00-11:00 shift on Wednesday and Friday mornings. They'll probably start me on just one day a week, though. That will be fine.

Holly came by and picked me up at 8:30, dressed in her scrubs since she works the night shift at the hospital. I asked her if we could swing by Lee's real quick, since I had run out of bananas and I have to pay a $30 minimum before Lee's will deliver. She really is super nice, and was totally on board. I had money to pay with, and she dropped me off at Blue Square after that. A much happier end to what had been a stressful day.

Almost Hit

I had heard some noises this morning that sounded like nearby construction or something, but I didn't think too much of it until I walked out and found washing machines and dryers right outside my door. I guess they're getting some new ones put in. Hopefully they're nice and there are plenty of them.

I had my apprenticeship class today, so we could all check in with our teacher and make sure things were going well. I won't have it again for another several weeks. Kind of nice. Then I went to fiction writing. I forgot to mention that on the first day of class, we wrote down two truths and a lie that were supposed to be tied together with some sort of theme. Each day of class, someone is called on to come up and get their card, introduce themselves, and then read their truths and lie and have the rest of the class guess what they lied about. My things were, "I own a pet cat named Ribbons, I'm a certified veterinary assistant, and I've never eaten popcorn". My teacher asked what my theme was and wasn't super impressed when I said it was, "Things I usually say on Two Truths and a Lie". I thought it was funny.

I rode the Blue Stadium shuttle back down to its stop. With all the construction going on, it doesn't go down 8th East, circle around, and come up through the stadium the way it did last year. Instead, it goes partway down the main hill, cuts across a parking lot, and then comes down and turns to get in the stadium from there. This means that it stops and lets people off on its right, whereas the actual bus stop is on its left. So, you have to either walk in front of the bus or behind it to head towards Blue Square.

So that's what I was doing. I think I must have been first in line. I was crossing in front of the bus, and just stepping out from in front of it and into that little strip of parking lot between the bus and the bus stop on its left when a big red car barreled around the corner and shot past me through the lot. It almost ran me right over at top speed. I could have sworn it's illegal to pass a stopped bus, but okay, that's fine. Maybe that only applies when the bus has an actual stop sign.

I wasn't hit, thankfully, but I easily could have been. I guess now I know to pay better attention to my surroundings when I move between the bus door and the bus stop.

Third World Problems

I met with the stake relief society presidency, and the presidencies of my own ward and two others, at the church this morning at 7:45. Huge cinnamon rolls and milk were provided, which was nice. I'm the relief society secretary, the president is Shelbie, the first counselor is Emily, and the second is Maggie. Everyone seems nice and I think we'll get along great.

The stake relief society president only made a few comments since she had talked to the other presidents previously- comments like, we should all help each other out and not write things off as "not being our job". Her first counselor ended up talking for a very long time. Somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour. She handed the new first counselors a thick folder of papers. And ours is a freshman. I hope she does okay.

The other counselor and the secretary were briefer. We had our picture taken, and Shelbie walked me home. Or more specifically, I walked her to her house, since she was on the way between the church and Blue Square. Not long after I was back, I got a text asking if I could meet with the bishop at 11:00, sent by the guy I had originally scheduled my appointment with (and apparently failed to cancel with) on Wednesday. I guess he was a little out of the loop about me going to see the bishop, and the meeting with the relief society presidency already having ended.

I went back to church at 1:00, and we had a lesson on the importance of education. I also ended up watching David A. Bednar's devotional on the TV, though the Guide button on my remote doesn't work, and I had to flip through tons of channels to find it after frantic Google searches failed. He referenced a previous talk made by Gordon B. Hinckly about being a strong chain link in your family, connecting your past to your future.

One of the stories he told was especially interesting to me, about a guy from a tribal village, Fred, who was the half-brother of the chief. The people of the village wanted him to be the next chief. He had just recently converted to the Church, and turned them down. They persisted. He spoke to the village elders, explaining that he did not want to participate in the ceremonies and other duties of the chief that were contrary to the teachings of the Church. They basically told him to suck it up and sent him on his way.

Fred didn't know what to do. His family and the tribe weren't listening to him. He got in his car and joined the funeral procession as his half-brother was taken to be buried. The road split into two paths up ahead: the left and the right. The procession went left, but Fred turned right and sped away. He found out later that had he gone left, he would have been officially named chief by the people when at the funeral. Instead, he was prompted to leave, and he did.

Just a fascinating story, I think. It's interesting to learn of the different ways members of the church live around the world, and the trials they face. I found the story amusing because saying, "My family are forcing me to become a chief" in conversation would probably get some raised eyebrows among people who might jump at that chance. Sounded like a third world problem, heh heh.

Test Run

Today I went on a test run to the zoo. I'd thought I might have to walk up to campus in the hopes of finding a bus station that was still being serviced despite the construction outside, but there was one around the corner and down the hill some ways from Blue Square, at the credit union, so I went there.

It took half an hour to get to the zoo from the time I got on the bus. The last time I rode the bus there, I ended up missing the stop and had to go back to the transit center and ride again. The Google Maps app on my phone told me it would take longer to get there than it actually did, so I couldn't just rely on it when it said I still had five minutes before my stop. This time, I kept an eye out for Wendy's, and then watched the road until I saw the stop I wanted.

I walked up the street to the zoo's parking lot, hung out for a second, and then headed off to Wendy's for lunch (It's a fifteen minute walk from the zoo, but at least there are no hills). I'd brought my readings for fiction writing class along with me so I could read them while I ate. Nice that they were all digital files instead of in the books this time, so I didn't have to try to hold the book open or anything. You're not allowed to eat on the bus, so I figured I'd just stay until I was done.

While walking to Wendy's, I crossed the bridge over the creek and stopped to take a picture of these ducks for Dad. You can't see them too well, but there are four birds (two white, two brown) on the right.

The readings were really long today. I ended up eating all my food before I finished reading, so it was nice that I had something to keep me busy. Then I caught the bus back to Blue Square from there. Nice that I know how long it takes to reach the zoo from my apartment.

Territorial Bananas

I took a picture of this banana today. There's nothing particularly special about it, but I thought its speckles were really pretty and I was kind of sad to peel it. It was a very pretty banana.

I also need to mention a psychological fact I learned in one of my classes awhile ago. Apparently, when there's another car waiting for their parking space, people take longer to leave the spot because "the instinct to defend one's territory is stronger" than just... basic human decency. Also, men left a lot faster when the car waiting for them was a car of higher status than when it was a lower one.

While interesting to hear, I'm not sure I agree. I thought about it, and I think I always pick up the pace when I see someone is waiting for a public thing that I am using if I'm finished with it. While I guess I don't have too many memories about waiting in a car for someone else to back out so I can take their spot, since usually there are other places to park, I don't remember ever thinking that the person was taking an unusually long time to leave. But then again, my thought processes have always seemed a bit out of sync with the rest of society, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if I differ from most people on this point too.

I did some research on my own to see if I could find the source of this research. Apparently the study in question is from 1997, so it may be outdated by now. It seems that it took an average of 27 seconds to leave if there was no one waiting for the spot, and an average of 31 to leave if someone was. Doesn't seem like a significant difference to me. Also, after checking a few more articles that mentioned this study, I found a comment that researchers admitted the extra time taken may be due to people wanting to make sure that when they backed out, they wouldn't get in an accident.

Either way, it was a curious fact to learn about.

26 Sentences A to Z

Our first writing assignment for fiction writing class was to write a piece that was only 26 sentences long. Every sentence needed to start with the next letter of the alphabet. Also, we had to include one sentence fragment, and one sentence that was exactly 100 words long and grammatically correct. Here is what I submitted:


Always and forever–Wasn’t that what she was supposed to say, as tactful as a politician skimming a teleprompter, the default response programmed in her blood as though genetically wedged there through God or evolution or a combination somewhere between? Benefits outweighing consequences, gentleness outweighing fear, lies outweighing truths?

Chilly skin wasn’t warmed by hot chocolate tonight.

Dreary rain soaked the kitchen window. Endless coils of steam curled from the mug clenched between two hands, neither outfitted with a ring. Fog nuzzled the window glass. Glass spiderwebbed with cracks that, for once, captured and held down her mood more than the formerly-smooth pane ever had.

Her name was Helen, which was not important; no, “Helen” wasn’t, but her surname yesterday had been Rockefeller, and today it was still Rockefeller, and that’s the part that mattered. Ideal.

Jumping up, though still hunched halfway over with her dyed pink hair dangling in her eyes, because ducking beneath the level of the windows offered that extra layer of faux security, she clamped the hot chocolate mug in her hand and scurried from the kitchen, through the living room, across the strewn cushions and dirty bits of clothing, down the hall, up the stairs, into the lonely master bathroom, where she locked the door before she slammed it—harshly slammed it—and with her back flattened against it, slid down and landed her rump with a plop on the floor.

Kittens sang in the bedroom behind her, hushed a moment later by the mewling of their mother. Lawrence’s cats, several months old. Maybe she shouldn’t have accepted them even knowing what she knew about his home life and knowing what he hoped to coax out of her by offering them, but she couldn’t simply toss the creatures out in the rain and snow. Never mind the fact that her niece had already fallen in love with all of them.

Opening the envelop a second time hurt more than she’d expected, considering she’d read it last night and brooded over every memorized word all day.

“Popping the question” hardly covered it. Questions had been popped, yes, and answers had been received. Rude, shrill answers. She’d aimed her sharp tongue at his weakest point, hitting the wife he didn’t know she knew he had dead-center like a deer. Ten years ago, maybe her reply would have been different.

Until last night, it had seemed so innocent, all these kindnesses from her best friend. Visions of his kindly check-ins, once platonic but smeared forever now with poisoned romance, danced through her head and automatically urged her throat to constrict.

When can I see you again?

Xs and Os marked the bottom of the page. Your dear friend, if we can still be friends.

“Zip it,” Helen muttered, and threw the letter down.

Also, the desks in our fiction writing class look like this and I forgot to mention that earlier:

They're pretty cool, I think. Comfortable too. They roll easily and the desk part swivels around. They're sort of arranged around the room in a half-circle, but you can move them easily back and forth. I haven't seen these desks anywhere else on campus, but yeah. They're nice.

Today also happened to be Utah State's first football game for the school year. So the buses stopped running early, and of course we weren't told. After waiting for a long time, I ended up walking home. Oh well. At least I got some good exercise.

Gibbs and Groceries

Got my assigned reading done and squeezed out a bit of time to write this morning, just to take a break from schoolwork. I ended up getting a call from Gibbs Smith, much to my surprise. Apparently he was at the Smith Family reunion. He also presented at WIFYR, though I wasn't particularly impressed- mainly because his focus is on picture books, not on novels like what I write. Still, he was excited to hear that I enjoy writing, and eager to send me some newsletter for his publishing company... so I gave him the go ahead. I guess I'll keep an eye out for that.

I had my groceries delivered in the evening today, because I knew I'd be home to receive them. All the surrounding slots had been taken. Unfortunately, I received a text asking if I could meet with the bishop at 7. I'd thought I could make the appointment - after all, my groceries were supposed to arrive between 6 and 7, and it seemed unlikely they'd arrive at 7 on the dot - only to realize too late that the groceries were scheduled to arrive any time between 6 and 8.

So I texted back early this afternoon and asked if I could reschedule the appointment. The guy on the other end was reluctant, and told me to try to make it if I could, and to keep him updated. So, I let him know how things were going over the next few hours, when there was no sign of groceries and my appointment neared. He said that the bishop would probably be in his office until 7:30, so it was "totally fine" and "no worries" if I came that late. I received my grocery delivery just after 7:30. Just as I was putting them away, I received a text from the bishop asking if I was going to show up for my appointment.

A bit frustrated, I replied that I'd tried to cancel the appointment due to this conflict with the groceries, and that I was sorry. I told him that I could run over to the church right now if he was willing to wait, and he said I could.

So I did. I was called to be the relief society secretary for my ward. That's a higher position than my visiting teaching supervisor last year, and I think that will be a good thing. Now I get to have a hand in everyone's pie, so to speak, and hopefully we can bring more order into this ward. For one thing, it would be great to get visiting teaching assignments out as soon as possible. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Return of the Red Bus

This morning, I was distraught when I tried to prepare myself a shake for breakfast, only to find my blender leaking everywhere. It took awhile, but I eventually realized that the bottom piece of the blender. Normally, when I place the blender in its base, I twist it a bit so that it fits and locks. Apparently I've been loosening the blender's bottom bit by bit this entire time, and it finally gave way today. Who designed that? Well, tightening the piece fixed the problem, and now I know to be more careful.

My Institute class has been very small up until now. It seems there are only four of us. Today, our population doubled when some students dropped in to see what was going on. We've moved on from Joseph Smith to Brigham Young. I believe he was the prophet who held that position the longest in this dispensation, so we'll spend three days on him.

I'd forgotten to print my notes for Measurements. I'd written then up, but they weren't printed. I realized this at the end of my Research Methods class, and since let us out a bit early, I took advantage of that time to handwrite a copy I could turn in instead. When I turned them in, I talked to my teacher about numbers and formulas not showing up on the PowerPoint slides he had shared on Canvas. He was quite surprised to hear this, but agreed to start submitting PDFs. That was a huge relief. There are so many formulas to learn, and it was hard to scribble them all down and not me able to refer back to them later on the slides.

After lunch, I headed up to the Fine Arts building for my behavior class. On the way, I stopped by the bus stop to talk to a disabled woman who's in my fiction writing class. I don't think she's totally blind, because her cane isn't white, but she's an older lady and I'm not sure how many friends she has, so I took some time to talk to her. She seemed pleased with that.

When my behavior class was over, I thought that since I was at the Fine Arts building, I'd give the red South Campus bus another try. When I texted it, it said it would be here in two minutes. Perfect. There's some construction going on in the middle of campus, so it would be nice to avoid all of that. I ended up waiting fifteen minutes for the red bus before I gave up and started walking to the TSC myself. After a long day, the last thing I wanted to do was stand around outside in the heat, waiting for a bus that clearly had no intention of coming despite the fact that it was marked to arrive in two minutes.

I'd talked to another girl who was also waiting for the bus, but she didn't come back with me (She'd also told me a story that when she was riding that bus the other day, the driver stopped mid-route and ran off to use the bathroom. I've always seen old men driving the red bus, so I guess that's the price you pay). I walked along the road, and saw the green Campus Loop bus on it's way, but no red bus. I made it all the way back to the TSC without seeing a sign of it. Oh, red bus. How great thy follies.

Sophomore Year Labor Day

Ah, Labor Day. That is indeed what I did. I stayed home and finished catching up on my school assignments. Crazy how much needed to be done after only one week.

I read my textbooks and completed some quizzes on Canvas. I also ordered groceries from Lee's online. With the buses not running due to the construction, shopping might be a little difficult. So it's nice that I can do things like order online. Although I had to order a minimum of $30 worth of stuff. That was a bit more difficult than expected, since my main wants were almond milk, regular milk, and bananas.

I ended up ordering two boxes of yellow cake mix and some frosting too. Hey, I'll probably be celebrating my birthday up here. It might be a good idea to have those things on hand. And make a practice cake first. Last year, Demetria and I made cakes in her rice cooker, and they were amazing. Hopefully I can bake something nice. I think I will miss her sharp ceramic knives.

My birthday is on a Tuesday this year, which is kind of a shame since with no roommate around (still), it might have been fun for my family to pay me a visit so I didn't end up celebrating alone. Maybe they'll stop in to see me the weekend before, or maybe I'll find some cool friends who would like to celebrate with me. I guess we'll see what happens a month from now. Crazy to think I'm turning 20.

I Spy Demetria

Went to church today! Not much to say about it, though I did bump into Demetria. I suppose I could have gotten a picture of her, but we were in the chapel, and I ended up losing her by the time we were let out.

We had some lessons today on Joseph Smith, Missouri, and martyrdom. Yep. I worked on more school assignments when I came home, and snuck in a bit of writing too. Busy busy busy.

First Saturday Sophomore Year

Saturday. I took a breather this morning and treated myself to some relaxing writing time. I needed that badly. My first week caught me totally off guard with the heavy workload, when I'd gone in expecting little more than syllabuses and basic introductions. But for the most part, the day was spent with homework. I'm already missing summer and longing for the next vacation. Has to be done.

Minor Trouble with an English Major

I met with the English adviser today. It took a while to find the right building: Old Main. Specifically, I was right outside the right door of the right building, and had I walked through it then I would have been exactly where I needed to be, but I hesitated and asked an official-looking older professor guy if this was the place I thought it was. He told me no and pointed me to the opposite side of campus.

Luckily, I was smart enough to raise my eyebrows at this comment. On my way over, I had stopped in the main office of the TSC to confirm that I was heading to the right place. The last time I talked to the English advisers, their office had been on the TSC's third floor. They had just recently moved, and I guess the professor guy didn't realize that. So I was pretty sure I was in the right location. But I had been given an abbreviation and thought I was looking for a building with a name that matched it. I couldn't find one.

I decided to head inside Old Main anyway, though I circled around to its front door in search of any sign that maybe Old Main was a nickname and its real name matched the abbreviation I'd been given. No luck. In the end, with my appointment time threateningly close, I called the English adviser office and asked someone to direct me to the proper place. What do you know- it was the first thing I would have seen if I had used the door that I almost used before I talked to that professor. I guess he didn't notice the sign. Shame. He could have turned around and told me and it would have saved me some stress.

I was a few minutes late for my appointment. I had to sign in on their computer, and it informed me in a stern sort of way that I was late, I might need to reschedule, but the adviser I had come to see had been notified of my arrival anyway. I was kind of amused by that. Time and time again, it seems, the psychology department is a lot more friendly when it comes to human interaction, and the English department gives off an aloof and snobbish air. Oh, stereotypes. I couldn't help but notice that the computer said "Your are late for your appointment", too. So close.

My adviser's name is Susie. She talked to me for a nice long while, and recommended some classes for upcoming semesters. It never fails to amuse me how the advisers I've met always want to schedule every class for all my years of college right then and there. They pull up these fancy Excel documents and arrange things so painstakingly, without asking which order I want to take the classes in or sometimes even which classes I want to take. Susie explained to me that since I'm double majoring, and psychology is my main major, she won't be the one I come to see about my generals and other graduation requirements. She just does English stuff. Secretly, I'm kind of glad about that. True, the psychology advisers may be on the very top floor of their building and down some long and complicated halls, but I do feel more comfortable communicating with them.

Susie told me that I should wait a week or so before I officially declared myself an English major, so I could think my decision over. It was hard to hold back my laughs at that. Would I have come here and specifically requested she help me declare myself an English major if I wasn't serious about it? It makes sense, though- when someone hears what the requirements are, maybe they would change their mind, especially if they're already tackling another major like me. But, I want to be a traditionally published author. Writing is my deepest passion, and the thing I enjoy doing most in the world. This is what I want. It's what I've wanted ever since I was a kid. I've thought about it plenty.

I went to the library to return the short story book I'd checked out. I stayed there for a few hours and caught up on my blog until it was time for my fiction writing class. Then I came home, relaxed a bit, ate, and got to work on homework. It's been a busy week, but somebody's got to do it.