Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Caught singin' in the grocery store

Yesterday I was in the grocery store when I was delighted to hear Hilary Duff's classic Come Clean play over the loudspeakers. Naturally I started singing along, and continued to sing along as I walked down the aisle and carefully selected real, unsalted butter and still as I turned around to find a guy standing behind me. I think I blushed, but as I glanced over at another girl in the dairy section, I heard her singing along as well :)

Going Dutch

My folklore teacher (who also served a mission in Belgium and the Netherlands, only back in the 80s) told us a story about his Dutch friend who moved to America. It went something like this:

I took him to a hamburger place because I wanted to share the American culture with him. We went back and forth between talking in English and talking in Dutch, because my Dutch was pretty rusty. Well, I wanted to buy his dinner for him so I asked him how to say "my treat" in Dutch. He just laughed and said he didn't think they had a word for that. 

And of course he looked at me because he knew I'd understand about the Dutch and how it's not typical for them to offer to pay for someone else's meal--not because they are rude or unfriendly, but just because their culture is thrifty. Even on dates the girls are typically expected to pay for themselves (correct me if I'm wrong...). So if you ever wondered where the term "going Dutch" came from, that's where :). 

Friday, November 23, 2012

The next big thing: Pillow Ties!

I found this treasure when walking through the bookstore on campus a few days ago. It's a tie that you wear as a normal tie, but secretly it also functions as a pillow! My favorite line on the advertisement was something to the effect of, "Because most events that require a tie should be slept through anyway!"



Sorry, I must have thought you were someone else!

I was running up to the Provo temple this morning (trying to burn off some of those extra calories I ate at Thanksgiving dinner yesterday) when I saw a young man who looked a lot like my friend, Josh. Even though Josh and I aren't that close, we both served in the same mission which pretty much means we're family and therefore should at least say hello when we pass each other. But from a distance I really wasn't sure it was him, so I jogged on.

As I got closer I noticed a flash of recognition in my peripheral vision and focused my attention back to the young man who started to walk toward me. It must be Josh after all! I slowed to a walk, took out my earphones, and walked toward him.

"Thank you for..." he said to me.

"Huh?" I couldn't think of anything I'd done for Josh recently.

"Oh, you're [girl name I can't remember]?" he seemed confused as well.

Obviously, I wasn't! As he approached me I read the official name tag he was wearing and it did not say Josh. 

"Sorry!" I said and smiled. "I think I thought you were someone else, too." I had barely spoken the words when he said simply, "Oh," turned abruptly, and walked away. It was like the walking equivalent of being cut off. I don't know what I had expected--maybe shared laughter in our moment of mutual misunderstanding? Instead, I laughed alone, shook my head, and kept running.

 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Girl's night!

I honestly can't remember the last legit sleepover that I've had, and this weekend I got two! The first one was with about 8 or 10 girls from church. One of the local leaders and his wife let us come to their house and use their basement, which is practically a guest home itself!

Our group came in a few different cars, and my roommates and I were in the first wave. We had the address of the home where we were going, but it was dark and snowing so we couldn't find it very easily. Jenny and I made our best guess and dragged Averill and Rachel with us up to this door:



Though I may just have been mesmerized  by the enchanted quality of the home (doesn't it look like a cottage from a fairly tale?). We knocked on the door while holding all our bags/blankets/pillows as we disagreed about whether or not this was the right house. It wasn't. My story would be 10x better if some stranger had actually answered the door and found us on the porch ready to stay the night at their house, but fortunately no one was home...

And so we wandered next door to the RIGHT house--another dreamlike home surrounded by a white blanket of untouched snow (one of my favorite things in the world).




Our sleepover consisted of snacking on fruit and candy, telling worst-date stories, and pampering ourselves with green masks while watching the oh-so-charming Amanda Bynes in What a Girl Wants.




 To keep myself awake during the late-night movie, I creatively braided my roommates' hair. The whole night was great bonding time :)



Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Fifty Sint en Snoep Pietje Piet

I heard this gem on a Sinterklaas CD of mine and almost died laughing. Jami, you'll probably enjoy it most :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGSjryVdmE

Bangs

I woke up on Sunday thinking about bangs, so I decided to cut my own. 


I'm pretty sure I've become a lot nicer since cutting bangs. I mean, I'm always nice, but somehow having bangs makes it easier to want to be nice. I think it's because it makes me feel like the girl-next-door, and girls next door are always nice, especially when they have bangs.  

Striving for an A

Last week was a stressful one. At one point I had to meet with my Literature and Film teacher to discuss my ideas for the upcoming 10-12 page paper (really, who has that much to say??). Despite my frenzied state, I managed to come up with what I thought to be a few decent ideas.

Hmm, he said when I met with him. Interesting. That could work. Tell me, have you thought about this? Or this? And you probably want to take a look at this. Why don't you take a look at those and get back to me later.

So my dilemma the last little while has been, do I go with my idea because it's decent and I'm excited about it because it's my own idea and therefore I would be more interested in writing the paper? Or do I go with his idea because the point of the class is for me to get an A and the best way to do that is to please the teacher, even if I'm not as excited about the topic?

I thought about this again last night and realized, Hey, I can just blend the two ideas! That way maybe I'll have enough to write 10 pages about!

I talked with him for a few minutes today after class, and told him about my adjusted idea. Yeah, he said. You could do that. I especially like that second idea (originally his). That would be really interesting.

Right. The second idea it is.