I bless the rains down in Africa

I think that everyone needs a bit of excitement on the everyday level, and I think one of the most effective ways to do this is to make certain days special. Yesterday, as deemed by Katelyn and me, was Safari Day.

Safari Day started with a trip up to Salt Lake to visit the Hogle Zoo. So, my whole apartment (pictured below: me, Jenica, Emily, and Katelyn), and Katelyn's man friend Alex, all drove up to Salt Lake and spent the afternoon exploring the Hogle Zoo. It was the perfect weather for such an excursion, and we felt very comfortable temperature-wise walking around the zoo. Some of the animals were particularly active: the elephants were eating hay they stashed in their tusks, and we got to see the elephants take water through their noses and redeposit it in their mouths. I hadn't actually ever seen that before! There were way cute baby giraffes, and I steered clear of the chimpanzees (reference chimpanzee post). I started getting a headache about mid-afternoon, but it wasn't too bad.


It was such a fun day! I spent time reading a bunch of the animal plaques, which were pretty interesting, but because of my refined editing skills, I noticed several editorial errors. There was the inconsistent use of the serial (or Oxford) comma (that's the comma placed before the conjunction at the end of a list. It's usually optional, but I like it), incorrect usages of the colon, and inconsistency in capitalization and other sorts of punctuation errors. Alex commented, "Charlotte, if they had you working for them, they'd avoid people like you." So true, so true.


We headed home from the zoo about 5:30, dropped Emily at her house in Salt Lake, and stopped by Chipotle for dinner. I dozed on the way home, and then when we got back to Provo, we got our blankets and pillows and headed up to campus for the Indoor-Outdoor movie in the Wilkinson Center ballroom. The picture below features Katelyn and I waiting for the movie to start. (The people at the desk told me when I bought the tickets that the movie started at 7, when really the doors opened at 7 and the movie started at 8. Oh well.) This year they showed "The Lion King," (hence the Safari Day--this was all inspired by this movie showing). Tickets were only a dollar, and we brought our blankets and pillows to make ourselves comfortable on the ballroom floor. They had free pizza and popcorn, and we saw a bunch of new movie previews (including "Walle," "Indiana Jones," and--my most looked forward to--"Twilight"), and then they turned down the house lights, turned up the volume really loud, and the "Ahhhhhhhh sven yaaaaaa wada heeeee seda mohhhhh" began "The Lion King," one of my favorite Disney movies. It was so much fun to see that movie again and to laugh at all the clever Disney wit (hahahahaha). I laughed the whole time, plus I could easily quote most of the script and could sing along with all the songs--it was amazing.


So, Safari Day was a huge success. On a beautiful Saturday afternoon and evening, what more relaxing, enjoyable, and nostalgic experience could you have?? You should have a Safari Day sometime--it's just great!

you're killin' me Smalls!

So, if you've seen "The Sandlot," you know it's pretty much a kids' classic, and last Saturday (I know I'm posting about this a week late . . . ) my apartment went to the baseball field where they were showing "The Sandlot" on a screen on the field. It was so much fun! It's always funny and I think every girl who's seen that movie has a crush on Benny.

ps--the two girls besides Katelyn and me are our new, socially ept roommates, Emily and Jenica. from left to right: Emily, me, Katelyn, Jenica.

PSA: Chimpanzees

Next time you're out in your backyard playing with your children, just keep an eye out for unseen chimpanzees in your trees (especially if your home happens to be in Uganda or Tanzania). Chimpanzees are fast and they are heartless. Don't underestimate their blood-thirst. They may be cute in a creepy kind of way, but just say no. And run really fast.

I didn't believe it until I read it. See for yourself.

They're taking the offensive. Could this be a true battle for survival of the fittest??

peeve

I hate it when people don't bring their books to class, and then you, who lugged your required texts down to the basement of the JFSB, have to share with the people who didn't bring anything. One of the whole reasons I bring my textbooks to class is so I won't have to share with anyone else. It's awkward having to tilt the book just right and make sure that the slacker over there can read. Why can't students just bring the books they're supposed to bring? I just don't understand. I bring my Chicago Manual of Style every day to class--why can't you?

something just doesn't belong

Is this what May should look like? Probably not. On my way up to campus this morning, I could see my breath and there was frost on the grass. News flash: it's May 1.

okay, i overreacted

So, I overreacted to the prospect of new roommates. We have two new roommates, they're really nice and normal and I'm not feeling compelled to label the silverware. Their names are Emily and Jenika, who both just finished their freshman year. They're socially ept (which is a bit of a change from my last pair of roommates) and I don't think either pair of roommates cares enough to be best friends, but we'll definitely get along and not have major problems.

So, class yesterday was good. I'm going to give it a couple more class periods to officially decide whether or not I like it; the first day of class is always kind of blah because you just go over the syllabus and everything. With spring though, you go over the syllabus, and get started into the actual material. Last week, I got an email from my professor asking us to read 32 of Shakespeare's sonnets before class yesterday, because we need to hit the ground running. So yesterday was a weird conglomeration of boring syllabus talk and actual material. I have Shakespeare every Tuesday and Thursday for two and a half hours--that's a long time . . .

I just came back from editing and I'm actually really excited about it! The material is pretty compacted and the work load will be intense, but it will be good. This class focuses mainly on copyediting, and then the next class I'll be taking hones in on substantive editing. I'm feeling reinvigorated in my career choice as an editor, and I think I'll really learn a lot in this class. I had to buy $150 in books for this one class, but at least I'll be using them all. I have my first test beginning on Monday (?!@#%*@$) and hardcore intense from there on out.

Yesterday in general was just a weird day. The weather was weird (the impending storm feel without any actual storm or rain and it felt like the same time all day), campus was super quiet and empty, Provo in general is super quiet and empty, class was kind of weird, my schedule was kind of weird, and I basically felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode all day (sans any extraterrestrials). Last night got better though: Katelyn and I went out to Guru's to eat (it's delicious), went to the gym to swim, went to Dairy Queen for Blizzards, and watched the pilot episode of "Prison Break." Last night though, it was unusually hot in the apartment, and we didn't really realize how hot it was until we were both awake at 2:30 in the morning mad because we couldn't sleep. It's been a long time since I haven't been able to sleep because it's too hot. Gross. Once I turned on the A/C and it cooled down a bit, I slept great; I was freezing when I had to get out of bed, but at least I slept soundly from 2:30 to 6:30.

just dump and leave it all behind

This past weekend, I just dumped everything and left it all behind, and went to home to Denver! I finished my finals last Tuesday, hung out on Wednesday, worked on Thursday and Friday, and flew home Friday afternoon. Being home was just great and I wish I could have had a longer break, but alas, classes start today, and in about an hour, I'll be headed up to campus to start the whole school thing all over again. But before I have to delve completely back into reality, here are some weekend pictures for your enjoyment!

John dancing in the kitchen.

John singing American Idol Karaoke (I think this one was "You and Me" by Lifehouse)

Emily's totally sweet kitchen dance moves--this is one of my favorite pictures!

A way cute one of Mom and Sarah on donut night

One of my favorites of my mom and dad :)

The best donuts ever on the celebrated Donut Night

Sarah licking donut glaze off her fingers

Sarah playing with my hair Sunday afternoon

John exhibiting his sa-weet guitar skills

Buddies :)

Rachelle and me on Donut Night!

John and Dad giving me silly looks while we get ready to play American Idol Karaoke

I love home :)

ideas anyone?

So, Katelyn and I are staying in our apartment for spring term, and our other roommates are moving out. We are desperately hoping that we won't get new roommates for the next 7 weeks. We have so many fun plans that would be best if it were just the two of us in the apartment. I'll honestly be surprised if we get new roommates, but not wanting to count our chickens before they hatch, we're devising plans to chase our hypothetical new roommates out of the apartment. Here's what we've come up with so far:

• For one day, we get work off and spend the entire day in our grubby clothes watching soap operas, eating gallons of ice cream, and crying over boys. Emotional dysfunctionality might be enough to chase some away.
• Be really, really loud late at night and early in the morning. A forced lack of sleep could really do the job.
• Never take out the trash. We could accumulate a few bags and place them strategically around the apartment to greet hypothetical new roommates. They wouldn't be actually full of garbage--just look it.
  
• A sign on our door with skulls on it saying KEEP OUT.
  

And my personal favorite:

• Label ALL of our stuff in the apartment.
  
• "These are mine and Katelyn's kitchen chairs--you can't sit in them."
• "This is Katelyn's TV--you can't watch it."
• "This is our couch--you have to sit in that one."
• "This is my mirror--you can't look in it."
• "This is my lamp--you can't use it."

Seriously, what more do you need to drive out unwanted spring roommates?

Any ideas??

personality-less

Last day of class was Tuesday, reading days Wednesday and Thursday, final yesterday, final today, finals Monday, final Tuesday. Two down, three to go. I'm kind of lacking a personality.

racquetball??

Only a few people could convince me to play racquet ball for two hours . . . Josh and his roommates are some of them. No surprise, my skill is nil. Josh spent most of the many games we played hitting everything and scoring all the points. I was really good at staying out of the way for the most part--except when the ball hit my head. I became somewhat proficient at serving. The boys we played with were nice and patient--I didn't feel like as much of a racquet ball moron. Me and racquetball??? Figure that one out. Tyler said I should come play with them again, and then I'll get better. We'll see.