Home sweet home

So now that I have been home for almost a month I've gotten into enough of a routine to actually remember to write on this little ol' blog of mine. Not a lot has happened since I do basically the same thing every day. It took some getting used to I must say. I've never worked full time before. It reminds me why I'm going to college. My current job is to sanitize instruments for a Orthodontist. The people I work with are great, I'm just bored. I spend a lot of my day in my own little corner with my back to everyone else. It's not that much different from my last job in that respect. So I am continuing my old habits of planning stories or singing to myself, anything to keep my mind busy. 

I also thought I'd throw in some of the pictures I've been taking. I walked  past this window almost every day after school so on the last day of finals I finally took a picture of it. BYU graffiti, friends. It's really intense. 

Nah, I think it's great. A reminder of the Jimmer craze and it's on a building that will probably not be used again for ten years. I don't even know what it was used for before it was closed, that was before I ever walked past. 

 The boys came with my mom to pick me up from school. Neither of them like having their pictures taken but I did manage to catch a couple. Most of them are as the boys are dodging away from me (like the bottom two where they cover their faces. Typical.), but I bribed them into letting me have just one smiling picture of them. When it comes to these two it's cheesy smiles all the way.

We stopped to spend the night with my Grandparents in a little farming town outside of Boise. I love it there, it's so peaceful and there's plenty of room to breathe. 

The End of Semester-ness

I am studied out. Done for. Except I've only studied for half of my finals. Blurb. I shall take my last final tonight at 9 pm (I know, ick. It's scheduled, so I have no choice) and then be half way done. But good news! I had my last day of work today. It feels wonderful. And I had a chocolate shake that was just okay. And my roommate got contraband gold fish. They are adorable and still unnamed.

Dear Friends. I am so ready to be home. I think I will make some Spring Rolls and go take pictures of the arboretum with my sister. And I will not study or think about art history. Art history is amazing. But I am pretty much breathing it right now. Last night I could not fall asleep because I was trying to remember if the Amiens Cathedral was High or Early Gothic.

Bleck.

Summer is almost here friends. I am ready to not do finals any more.

Happy thought! These are my last finals for almost 2 years. It will feel wonderful in about a week.

Apology: I have no quotes for this semester. I forgot, like, every day. *Shamed face*. It's okay, we'll survive. I took lots of pictures instead. Also, these are completely unedited because I have no time for editing pictures. So bare with me.

Because I should be doing homework, yet I am not

 I really should be working on my final for my drawing class. But I am rationalizing myself into relaxation. I  made headway in the assignment this morning. I worked for six hours. I'm feeling lazy now that I have finally eaten dinner (it's 9 pm. It was banana pancakes. So good.), etc, etc.

So make this mildly better I am trying to be mildly productive and write this post. I think I shall even post pictures.

These just below are from our jaunt to the Festival of Colors. It's an Hindu festival that I know nothing about except that everyone throws colors at each other. We all felt quite creepy in our doctors masks, but when everyone threw a handful of color into the air at once (its a thing) they came in quite handy. Without them I'm pretty sure our lungs would have been rainbow colored.

We rather enjoyed ourselves. For more pictures check out our group photo blog here. 

I've recently developed this love for street art and graffiti. Even though a lot of it is just ugly and crude, some of it can be quite beautiful. I've decided that if it weren't totally illegal (and I believe in following the laws, they are good things) I would be a tagger. Do they have permits for this kind of thing? I bet there's some place where there's this giant wall where people are allowed to just paint whatever. I should find this place and get out some of my tagging angst. 

The rest of the pictures are from our various adventures. Okay, just one adventure. But that's just because I was really good at taking pictures pretty much all day one Saturday. It was after we went to the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference (click here to learn about Mormons). But we've been on several adventures lately and I rather enjoy it. I think I might go on some more (most likely solo as I will be home and all my friends elsewhere) rambling picture taking adventures before I leave on my mission. 

So friends. I should probably try to actually be productive. It is finals an all. 

This Was Going To Be A Post About Dementors, But Now Its About TV

WARNING: If you do not appreciate ranting or are watching Once Upon a Time and aren't up to date, do not read past this sentence. This is all.

Once Upon a Time writers, you annoy me. Just thought you should know. The show is going the way of so many others, except slowly and painfully. The show was never amazing to start with. It was a fun idea with some really great potential. And now it's dying. All the complex characters are getting destroyed. Regina has taken what is (I assume) a permanent turn for the worse. Her efforts to not use magic and stay good for Henry were so interesting. And Emma, she was forced to grow up and change so much. Now she is stagnant.

But the character that hurts my soul, the one that has me wanting to strangle the writers, is August. A.k.a. Pinocchio. He was such  a good character. Complex with out being too obvious about it. No one was waving a giant red flag saying 'look! we can write complex characters!'. And now he is once again a little boy. A little boy with no personality and no memories. How boring is that! He was going to form this great love triangle with Emma's ex and struggle with staying good. He should have stayed wooden for a few more episodes, grown into a good person instead of a complete reversal. And the new evil girlfriend woman is annoying. It's like the writers are fulfilling a certain equation they have lined up. They need a certain number of evil characters. Bleh.

At least Mr. Gold is still interesting. I'm glad at least someone still has an interesting inner struggle. Everyone else is boring.

I understand that not all the characters can be really complex. There's too many characters. But even the main characters are disappointing me.

I would do a much better job writing this show than the current writers. Just saying.

Is it so hard to write interesting characters? The British and Korean seem to have it a grip on it.

Ok, phew. My rant is over. My apologies
 to anyone who actually made it this far.

Veggies and Scones. But not together.

I feel like a cooking boss. My roommate and I made scones today, that's a new one for me. They weren't amazing, but that was because we had to substitute a few ingredients. So for the modifications we made they were pretty good. I'm starting to dream of having a kitchen with a wide range of foods so I can actually make the things I think of making. Like ginger chicken and spring rolls and fancy rice dishes that I can't pronounce or spell. 

I can't wait until I have my own garden so I can have fresh green beans and onions and tomatoes and raspberries. I love raspberries. I must admit, I've even dreamed of owning chickens. But only so I can have fresh eggs. Chickens are ugly and right up there with squirrels (tree rats) on my list of animals I dislike. But fresh eggs.... I spent ten minutes last night looking at an add trying to sell me chicks. I don't know why we got this ad (it was from a farming store) seeing as how my whole area is college students who will get kicked out of their apartments if we have animal. It wasn't very well thought through on the stores part. 

I also have this dream of living in New York with a hubby, living in a tiny apartment and eating Thai and Indian food all the time. These are two very different dreams. Strange how they come out of one person. But they aren't that different, I imagine having vegetables filling my little, almost non-existent patio. Home grown vegetables are important. I miss them. Probably part of this stems from the fact that it is now spring. I am keeping a sharp eye out for buds. 

Missions and voices

I am speechless. I don't mean this in the 'That is so amazing I can't come up with any words to do it justice' way. I mean it in the literally. I have lost my voice. My guess would be it is from a combination of too much sugar, talking much more than usual (with my family in town and all), and a cold. Mix all these in a pan and cook at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Wa-la! The perfect recipe for losing your voice. Or rather, mine. So I am staying home from work and skipping class in order to save others from sharing in my fate. My poor roommates are already at risk.

But lets speak of happier things. I finally got my mission call! All of you that read this blog already know this, but I'm going to share anyways. I like sharing. Drumroll please......
Malaga, Spain!! I am going to the Madrid, Spain MTC on July 24th to start my 18 months serving the Lord. I am so excited. Thus the multitude of pictures. I don't know if these are a good representation of Spain or not, they're all from Google.  

Because I have amazing friends

My roommates are amazing, I must say. We have had so much fun this year. Somehow, grocery shopping has become something I look forward to as we go to the "magical place called Winco", to quote one of these roommates. Winco really is amazing. If you live in Idaho or Utah, see if you have one in town. You'll be amazed how much  money you save.

But anyways. Amazing roommates who are lots of fun. We will all be going our separate ways in a few months when the semester ends. Some on missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints , some onto other college adventures. We were sad to not be living together any more, but excited for all the adventures we were going to have.

And then someone had a moment of inspiration. 

So we have started a blog together. A photo blog, to be precise. There are nine of us and we are going to share our adventures with each other. And you dear reader, if you care to join our little party. Pictures fill the spaces between words, thus the name of the blog, Bracing Ellipsis. Take a look! We've already got quite a few pictures up and the design is much better than my little blog here. It's fun, and it gives me another place to let out my artsy itches. 

Speaking of splitting ways, I am currently waiting for my mission call. It could possibly come today. The experience of waiting for my mission call has shown me that I am not a very patient person. I guess this is good practice. When I find out I will let you all know with a beautiful little map and all sorts of unnecessary details. 

Peace out.