Photo a Day

Jenny shared this idea about the February Photo-a-day Challenge. So I'm going to give it a try!

Fun Friday Night

 

Last night Jen was getting honored by a local firm for her grade in Civil Procedure, so we went to take part in the celebration and let her know how proud we are of her. 

 

After the event at the law firm, we decided to grab some dinner. A party of 7 has a hard time walking in to restaurants on Friday nights, so we tried (and struck out at) a few restaurants before settling in at the Dundee Dell. 

After dinner, we decided to hang out at Toby and Glori's apartment. They got a dachshund-corgie mix puppy recently, and we've been trying to find a time to introduce her to Zipsie. So Toby and Glori graciously invited Zipsie to join in on our fun. I went home and picked her up, and I'd say the play date was a success!

 

There was a lot of sniffing going on. As soon as we thought they were adequately acquainted with one another, the sniffing would start again. Callie is great with other dogs, but Zipsie has a history of disliking a lot of the dogs she meets, so we weren't sure how they'd get along. There were a few tense moments when Callie tried to play with Zipsie and Zips only growled in response, but they spent most of the night sitting by each other and chasing each other around the couch.

 While the dogs played, the humans did the same. As a group, we're fond of games. Word games, card games, getting-to-know-you games, made-up games. So yesterday we combined them all and invented a new game. Each person/couple was assigned a suit, and a card was drawn at random. Whoever's suit was on the card was asked a question by the other three, and the number on the card dictated the type of question asked. For instance, on the 4 of Hearts, the Varons were asked, "Which of the four directions (north, south, east, or west) are you most interested in traveling?" Or on the 5 of Clubs I was asked, "If there was a fire in your apartment and Zipsie was safe outside, what five things would you grab?"

It was a fun game that quickly turned mushy and sentimental, and we all loved it. These people have become my life in Omaha, and sometimes it feels like we've known each other for years. Then there are small things that come up that remind us we've only actually had five months to get to know one another and there's still so much left to learn.

Wasting Time

I woke up too early today (we don't have class until 1). So I've been hanging out on my computer, playing around with Photo Booth. The combination of pictures and computers reminded me I haven't blogged for awhile. So here's an update: Things are going swell in Nebraska. It's been warmer the last few days, which I have loved.

Were you aware I don't know how to curl my hair? It's true. I've never known. Sometimes I try and end up pulling it up. Sometimes I try and don't care enough to pull it up. Today I'm experiencing the latter.

 No matter what I do, my left side is lame and dead

And my right side is relatively cooperative. But in about half an hour, both sides will be limp and lifeless.

Also, I got a job for the summer. Well, an externship, not a job. I'll be working with the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at BYU. I'll be calling the director today to accept the position, so consider yourself special that you found out first. I'm very excited. I think it will be a great opportunity for me. Plus I'll be happy to be back in Utah for a few months.

Hope all is well with you!

Weird day

Do you ever have moments in life when you stop and wonder, "What just happened?"

This morning I got in my car to drive to school. It was freezing outside and my car was super sluggish. I had the thought, "Am I pressing on the brake?" It was an absurd thought, of course. My car was accelerating, even if it wasn't at the same rate as normal. I knew I wasn't actually braking, but the question stuck in my mind. It progressed to me wondering, "Is the gas on the right or the left?" I was pretty sure that it was the right, but I wasn't certain if my foot was on the right of the two pedals. Strange, right?

Our Tuesday/Thursday class load is pretty intense this semester. I walked into the classroom for our third straight class of the day at 10:20-ish (class starts at 10:30), so I set down my stuff and went to the bathroom. I walked back into the classroom and the clock looked about like this:

 

and I thought, "Darnit, I'm late." As I sat down I realized the professor hadn't started class yet, so I looked at the clock again and thought for certain it was after 10:30. Then I had to talk myself through the fact that the 5 is before the 6 on the clock, so it couldn't be 10:30 yet.

Let me stop right here. If for some reason you just stumbled across my blog, I should let you know that I'm a relatively intelligent person. I'm in law school and managed to pass the first semester. I drive a car and tell time successfully each day. These brain failures have nothing to do with sheer lack of intelligence (at least I hope). I can't even blame them on stress, because as my "slump" post indicated, I'm feeling no stress or drive to do anything right now.

When class ended, I panicked a little. I had a phone interview in ten minutes for a research externship back in Utah this summer. I got myself into the reserved study room and had a successful interview, during which I was invited to join the research program. Exciting, yes?

I walked upstairs out of the library and started to walk toward a professor's office. In the commons area, I heard someone call my name. I knew it was my name that had been called, but for some reason it didn't occur to me that I should respond. My name was called again. And again. And suddenly I remembered that's what people do when they want your attention. I turned around, spoke to my friends for a quick second, but for some reason I was on a mission to visit my professor's office. Typically, I'm shy about going to a professor's office. I need to have a very specific question that can only be answered by that person before I'll even consider going in. But when I arrived at Professor Dallon's office, I wasn't even sure why I was there. I talked to him about the externship and without much prompting, he began to give me feedback as to what he thought I should do. While he was talking, I realized that was exactly what had brought me to his office, but I hadn't formulated that thought beforehand.

I made it through the rest of classes, but the weirdness never let up. I feel like I've been living life outside myself all day. I inadvertently uncovered random information about a situation that I needed to know but would have continued on, ignorant of, if not for an accidental internet search. I acted carelessly and hurt a dear friend by acting completely unlike myself. I bought a roast and $32 worth of tuna (okay, those were actually thought-out decisions. But still, out-of-the-ordinary).

This post doesn't have much of a point. I guess I simply wanted to make a record of the craziness during this moment of lucidity.

Here's hoping for a more normal tomorrow...

my365

One more thing: I know I'm not great with the blogging, but I have a new friend. It's called my365. It's an app for iPods and iPads and if you have one, I think you should download and use it (It's free!). A picture a day, 20 characters max for the title, and you've got yourself a post. This is much more my style!

http://my365.in/wendy_b/p/1779029

Mid-January Slump

A little more than a month ago, I was beginning intense studying for finals. It was a lot of hard work, and I started to notice little things that I could have done throughout the semester that would have made finals week easier on me. So before I had even taken finals, I was looking forward to starting this new semester and having a chance to implement all of my ideas.

When I got my grades at the beginning of January, I felt that same surge of motivation. I was so close to where I wanted to be, and I felt confident that with a little extra effort I could certainly reach my potential this semester.

Then I got back to Omaha.

It's not that I'm not happy to be back...I love my apartment and really enjoyed changing the decorating a bit when I got home in order to accommodate some of my Christmas and Birthday presents. Clearly I have friends in Omaha that I was happy to see again. Generally speaking, I enjoy Omaha. But for whatever reason, I completely lack motivation. It's the very beginning of the semester and I'm only giving my reading assignments a half-hearted effort, at best. I want to sleep all the time. (Seriously. All the time.) My sluggish attitude has worn off on Zipsie and we spend our nights one of two ways: sitting around the apartment doing nothing or napping.

In my head I know I need to care more. In my head I know I had a schedule that worked for me last semester. In my head I know that each day I'm falling further from attaining my goals for this semester. Yet my body refuses to respond to my head.

I do have a theory about all of this. Last semester was the first time in my life that I slept responsibly. I went to bed and woke up at the same time each day with very little variance. I'm hoping that if I can make myself get back on that schedule, I'll feel better and the motivation will follow. I just need the discipline to do that before I fall too far behind. Guess that means I should go to bed...

Where I've Been

In the past month, I traveled from Nebraska to Wyoming to Utah to Arizona to California to Utah to Nevada to California to Nevada back to Utah. Plus tomorrow I will once again travel to Wyoming and, finally, to Nebraska. Let me tell you a bit about what I've been doing during my tour of the West...

 I studied for, took, and passed my first round of law school finals

 I was in a pretty major car accident (we're all fine)

 I did a gift exchange with my Omaha BFFs (I had Jen; Kate had me)

 Zipsie and I packed up and left Omaha

 I ate Jen's (my sister's) delicious Pumpkin Roll she had made for my arrival in Utah

  I packaged and delivered neighbor gifts with my parents

 I got awesome Christmas gifts (From Ashley in our sibling gift exchange I got a sweater, earrings, and shoes. From Adiel I got a journal, incredible Cheerleader pen and mega makeup set. From my Dad I got a BYU basketball poster and Christmas decoration. And from my parents combined I got the LDS Pride and Prejudice dvd, a new charger for my Kindle, perfume, two books, an iTunes gift card, toaster, and a crockpot)

I spent a lot of time with Whitney, including 11 hours in the car driving to California (where Tyler is now going to school)

 I saw Southern California for the first time, and I loved it. This is Jess and me at Newport Beach

 I watched Matt take 2nd in the Southern Scuffle

 I played Barbies

 I drove to Carson City to visit Ashley, Nic, and Samantha, where they had a Birthday celebration waiting for me

 I saw Lake Tahoe. One word: WOW

 

I turned 26 (and made myself feel better about it by constantly reminding Heath he turned 37)

For my birthday, my parents paid for my trip to Carson City and a nice dinner at Olive Garden; my dad got me this adorable BYU pillowpet; my mom got me gift cards to Amazon.com; Ashley got me two books; Jen made knock-off Red Lobster biscuits for my birthday meal, gave me a black pen (long story) and allowed me to make up my own rules while we played Rummy :)

Overall, I had a fantastic Christmas break. I've been packing up and preparing to head back tomorrow, and it's making me very sad. You forget how comfortable home is while you're away, and the prospect of being away from everyone again sort of makes me want to drop out of school and do nothing with my life. But don't worry, I'll resist that urge...at least for now!