The Hunt.

I, my friends, am observing “the hunt.” I won’t go into specifics, but I will say that it is fierce. I happen to be in the freshmen apartments for this summer term (and as I’ve transferred as a junior, this is the only freshman experience I will thankfully ever have) so the mannerisms around me are especially peculiar. It’s rather irritating and overwhelming and I can firmly say that for the time being, I want no part of it.

That said, I really love my roommates. Out of the whole hall, I would have not had a better time with anyone but these girls. God knew what he was doing.

Here are two of them:

My mom has sent me a few emails and called a few times, mostly worrying about stuff, so I haven’t always been diligent in returning her messages. Earlier in the week, I was talking to one of my roommates and somehow decided I was going to take fake engagement pictures to freak my mom out and use as an explanation as to why I wasn’t the most communicative with her this week. Keep in mind that I’ve only been a student here for a week.

Enter Stephen Zimmerman.

I feel like I’ve known everyone for a long time. We’ve had dinner with the boys in this one apartment multiple times because somehow, we just feel like a family, our two apartments. Here is a picture from our very crowded Sunday early dinner:

Meet Karyann and Danny.

Anyway, I’ll end with a quote:

“You’re going to find a golden man because you’re so funny!” -Kelsey

She thinks I’m really funny. She’s so great!

I’ll add an audio clip here of my mom’s reaction to the engagement photo when Gary emails it to me. A huge thanks to Gary for helping to make this amazing thing happen.

Update:

Monday

On Monday night, as I put my retainer in, I discovered it to have a small piece broken off. I appropriately e-mailed my parents asking what to do (I’m in Utah, my orthodontist is in California). It’s been a few years since I got my braces off, so I assume it’s not that big of a deal, but my mom and dad’s responses are wonderful and worth sharing:

“I don’t know, can you super glue it?

Love,

Dad”

“Don’t Super Glue it!!! I’ll call the ortho dr. and ask if it can wait until Dec.

Love you!!!!
Mom”

These came in separate emails about seven hours apart. I really love my family!

Utah

We left on Monday, stayed overnight in Mesquite, then got to Utah on Tuesday. It seems there is a heat wave all through Nevada and Utah. It got to around 113 degrees on Monday.

Even though Utah is very warm right now, the mountains still have snow on them. We (Susan, her boys, my mom, and I) decided to go on a hike in the mountains on Thursday morning. I took this picture on the drive up to the park:

I know what you’re thinking: Holy Heck! We went on a trail that led around a lake. Half of it was snowy so we lost the path and just played in the snow for a while. It was at least around 80 degrees when we got back down to the valley.

I checked into BYU on Friday. I must say, I love my roommates and I love everyone I’m meeting. We have a nice ward, and classes are going to be good, but there’s a lot of reading (obviously). I don’t think I can slide on by like I used to.

my brother is getting older

My brother is getting older. He just graduated from high school and soon he will be able to smoke a pipe if he wanted to (please don’t, Gary, but I’m just saying, you could legally do that in a couple of weeks).

And here we are:

This week, aside from the graduation, I was able to see a lot of my family and friends, eat a lot of delicious food (which I did last week, as well, to my delight), and go to two wedding receptions. It’s that season, friends.

friends, food

On 5 June 2008, I had my last voice recital (hallelujah!) and it went well. I think I knew pretty well beforehand how I would do on each song, and I didn’t sway from that expectation.

While I’m fine with singing alone, I find singing duets much more enjoyable (in most cases, such as this one). My old friend Chase Kassel and I sang the song “Pa Pa Pa” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. It is originally sung in German, I believe, but we sung it in English.

(Priscilla the pianist, Chase, me, Rachel, Peggy the teacher)

And just because I love this song, I’m posting it as well:

Les Berceaux. Ignore my poor French.

My family came, and then Gary, Kendall, and I went out to eat afterwards at Islands. I’ve been rather sad that I’ll be missing both of their birthdays this year (as I leave for school just prior to them) so we celebrated early with two free ice cream cake slices. Thanks, Islands!

In other news, on Friday, June 6, Gary went to the Greek festival. I asked him to bring me back some Greek pastries and I can firmly say that he went above and beyond his duty as a brother.

Hurray!

I ended the week by eating out with Andrew and Riz last night. I’ve eaten a lot of really delicious food lately (and this blog is proof!)

I’ve had a wonderful time seeing people before I go. I also went out to breakfast earlier in the week with Amanda and Kendall, which was great fun!

I substituted for my mom’s class at church today. I used to teach that group of kids last year, so I love them to death, and they love me. I took a picture of us but I don’t think kindergarten-aged kids can handle the 10 second timer. The pictures are pretty entertaining.

In other news, my room is a mess! I’m throwing away so many things but the floor is still coated with mess!

must the winter / winter coats

I have a voice recital this week. I recorded my voice lesson last week to study in preparation. This song is called “Must the Winter Come So Soon” from Vanessa.:

I didn’t like “Must the Winter” at first, but it’s really grown on me. It’s a gorgeous piece and I’m thrilled to be singing it.

On the other side of music, Foreign Loren played our last show on Saturday (May 31) combined with Cartoon Bar Fight (as “Foreign Bar Fight”). Here is the song “Winter Coats”:

Everything is happening at just the right time. Doors are closing, doors are opening, and I’m quite alright with it.