Hooray!

I woke up this morning, well almost afternoon, to find that roommate 3 had put our chore chart back up, with a note on the hallway mirror reminding us to do our chores. Roommate 1, who regularly refused to do her chores before, did hers already.

Yesterday Roommate 3 and I were in the kitchen and she made a comment about how everybody was cleaning up after themselves and I just laughed. I told her that I come in the kitchen every night and clean it a ton and that from there it's pretty easy to make it stay clean... nobody wants to be the one to put a bowl in the sink if nothing else is sitting in there. She didn't believe me, but then Roommate 1 came in and said it was true. I love that my roommates don't believe that I clean our apartment, since I was the one that asked for us to have a chore chart, with the excuse that I didn't want to be the only one cleaning our apartment.

Last post for the night....

I just want to add a big, sarcastic thank you to my visiting teachers who on Sunday asked if they could come tonight. I asked "yes, I get out of class at 3 and we eat at 6, when would you like to come?". They responded "sometime after 3 will be good" and then walked away. Are you aware that sometime after 3 on Wednesday leaves 9 hours in which you could come? Could we be a little more specific next time?

It's now 9:40. Are you coming, or can I really dive into my stats homework that I have been putting off so you wouldn't interupt it?

This just makes me thankful for my home teachers, who on the last Sunday of the month find me at ward prayer and ask if they can come visit me in the next hour. I at least have them written on my calendar now because they are consistant.

Also, I'm not really in a bad mood right now... I promise. Sometimes freshmen are just kind of frustrating. I basically work 24/7 for these girls, could they be nice enough to give me a better time frame than a 9 hour span? For Pete's sake!

A Brief Guide to Roommates...

Since I am now referring to my roommates based off the order we are in the picture to the right, I figure I should maybe give some sort of brief guide to them... and I need to vent about them some more.

Roommate 1: most recently from Utah. cooks dinner on Thursdays. "plays" the guitar. regularly sleeps on the kitchen couch. teaches Sunday School. used to be a physics major but currently has no major. likes to make big plans but never do any of them (i.e. going to concerts, meeting new people, having people over for dinner, etc.). works too much as a receptionist. sleeps too little. drives a jeep. recently writing 1 missionary.

Roommate 2: aka, Favorite. from Virginia. cooks dinner on Tuesdays. sings. works early morning custodial. activities committee co-chair. majoring in recreational management and minoring in travel/tourism/hospitality. waaaay good at planning activities/events. has a car. likes things to be clean just like i do. best friend got baptized in october and goes to byu. she's super short but so cute that it doesn't even matter. 1 missionary just got home, still writing 1.

Me: from Washington. cooks dinner on Monday. is majoring in home and family living. almost single-handedly keeps our apartment clean. is responsible for the safety and welfare of 58 darling college freshmen girls. likes to make to-do lists and cross things off with a black sharpie. has a big calendar on her desk with all homework assignments, tests, quizzes, work nights and meetings. plays the piano for the practice song in relief society (woot woot!). currently writing 6 missionaries.

Roommate 3: from Arizona. cooks dinner on Wednesday. never has an opinion about anything. breaks lots of dishes. has no major or general idea in what she wants to do. is a telemarketer. was the one that brought the flu into our apartment. leads a rather sheltered life. is learning spanish. leads the practice song in relief society every other week, is on the compassionate service committee. writing 1 missionary.

Roommate 4: from Wyoming. cooks dinner on Sunday. is into visual arts-wants to major in animation. draws all the time. is learning arabic. most of her classes are honors classes so she basically lives in the library. tells it like it is. is honest when we discuss keeping our apartment clean and tells us that she probably won't change her cleaning habits(we don't like that, but hey... at least she's honest). is on the service committee. has no job but she is on a scholarship. doesn't write missionaries.

Our dinner nights are a big deal... I for sure eat real dinner 5 nights a week now! I tried to keep within the same ideas for each roommate (where they are from, if they have a job, calling at church {not because we are defined by them, but they are something we all have}, and majors.

Should've done this months ago. This is more for me to vent about them than for you to REALLY get to know them.

I feel like unlike last March/April when I realized I didn't want to have to say goodbye to my roommates, leaving this apartment will not be a sad day.

I'm glad they realize...

This semester we've talked multiple times as an apartment about cleaning up after ourselves in the kitchen: doing your own dishes, putting your own dishes away, wiping up the messes you make, emptying the trash if you are the one to make it full... etc. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter WHO initiates the conversation and who says "that's a good idea" there continue to be two of us that keep the kitchen not looking disgusting.

As you saw with my room, I kind of have this obsession with having my living space be clean. As I hope mom can testify from Christmas, when I'm done eating, I go do my dishes, and if there are other dishes in the sink, I'll do them too. I just... like to be clean.

The other night I spent like 1/2 hour doing dishes, wiping down counters, sweeping, wiping spots from the floor, and cleaning the stove. Roommate #1 was in the kitchen doing homework at the time said "thanks for cleaning the kitchen" to which I responded "it's disgusting. and nobody else is doing it. BTWs, you used my george foreman two days ago and haven't cleaned it yet. Clean him tonight or george stays in my room" (that's a rule with george... if you use him, you clean him same day or he disappears and you have to ask permission to use him, so I was going soft on her). She didn't respond so I finished cleaning and left the kitchen.

Five minutes ago Roommate #3 broke a 9x13 glass pan (probably mine... we'll see) and started picking it up. Roommate #1 went to help her clean up. Roommate #2 said something like "I was just trying to put away the dishes I used. We've been doing such a good job at having everyone clean up after themselves, so I didn't want to have mine left out..." to which the Roommate #1 said "well, Marci did spend a lot of time cleaning the other day. I think she's the only one that is cleaning, we all just look cleaner because of her."

I guess I'm glad that she at least recognizes that the reason that our kitchen, bathroom and hallway (all the shared spaces in our apartment) are clean because I keep them clean, not because of them.

Have I ruined my roommates? Have I taught them that if they don't do their dishes I'll do them? Probably. But... they're disgusting. I couldn't handle the pan that sat in the sink from Sunday-Thursday. It did need to soak, but not for that long...

P.S. Roommate #4, you get water all over the bathroom counter whe you get ready in the morning. Clean it up.

Believe it or not....

This is what my room looks like... on a regular basis. Like, daily. Except when I'm doing my homework and have textbooks on my desk.






Anyone who has ever lived with me would be shocked, especially Mom. Best part... I didn't clean it like this because of a cleaning check or anything, I did it because I'm trying to study at home more, but if my room is a mess I put off my homework and clean my room. I actual like my space to be clean now (surprise!). Next week I have 3 midterms and two papers due, so I figured if I was going to be spending a lot of time studying and writing papers, I couldn't have my room be a mess otherwise I would stop studying to clean.

I took it a bit extreme too... I vacuumed the edges of my room, I vacuumed out the bottom of my closet, I went through my clothes and put a bunch in our D.I. box, I dusted everything... it's fabulous. AND, it's lasted a week so far. GO ME!

Why Being Sick is Awful...

-I couldn't go to class and now I'm behind, in at least 2 of my classes. Those classes both have tests next week.

-I couldn't eat, so I didn't buy food, so when I woke up Sunday morning and could eat again, I had no food to eat. I was so hungry.

-My roommates went out twice and had a great time, with ugly sweaters and ice skating, dinner, and another night it was to see a movie at the dollar theatre. I, stayed home and layed in my bed watching classic movies from the 80s, like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Don't get me wrong, it's a great movie, but it's not quite like a night out with the roommies to celebrate a birthday.

-Even though I'm pretty much better, I still feel kinda queasy (I'm not sure if that is spelled right, but hopefully you can figure out what it's supposed to say).

-I just have a lot of things to do, but I don't really want to do it.

Next week is the worst week of the semester for me (with tests, quizzes, papers due and such) so I really should be studying for tests or in TA labs trying to learn how to do the things that I'm going to be tested on. Instead, I blog. I guess I'll just shrink my hour of "me time" to 5 minutes today and count this post as my "me time". YAY LIFE.

On a positive note. When I woke up this morning, someone had already shoveled my stairs and such, so I didn't have to. Oh yeah, did I mention it snowed yesterday? And today? And that it is supposed to snow a few times in the next 10 days? YAY SNOW. JK. BOOOOOO*.

*Boo is not my attempt at scaring you, but rather me complaining. Like the booing you do when a ref makes a bad call. Yes. That kind of boo.

In a Nutshell...

This weekend has been not so great, especially when compared to last weekend. A post about last weekend's getaway is still coming, no worries my friends.

Earlier this week one of my roommates had the flu. Then a few days later another one had the flu. Yesterday, I had the flu. I spent all day either in bed or in the bathroom throwing up. It was really annoying. I hadn't thrown up since I was about 14or so, and that was food poisoning that made it so I couldn't go visit Val.

My roommates took good care of me though... they went to the bookstore and rented movies for me (that was the girl that brought the flu to our apartment, she felt way bad) and they answered the door a bajillion times.

Some of my girls brought me homemade chicken noodle soup, and it was way good. A guy from Kimball Hall brought me over some Santa Fe Chicken, which I haven't eaten yet, but will hopefully get to tomorrow! Trevor Smart (from Redmond) brought me some cookies, which I also hope to get to tomorrow.

Today is my roommate Courtney (the bringer of the flu)'s birthday. So right now all of my roommates are at Costa Vida for dinner, DI to buy ridiculous clothes, and then Ice Skating. Then they were going to go restaurant hopping to get some sweet desserts. When they get home (which I hope is soon) we're going to watch a movie. That's our bday tradition now. We let the birthday girl pick a movie that she wants, we buy it for her, and then we watch it together. So I'm hoping they get back soon, I'm tired of being home alone. I did shower and do my laundry- 3 whole batches, so it has been a productive night. YAY!

Picture the Following...

You (the RA) just got out of class. As you're walking home you see 3 of your girls right in front of you, so you catch up with them and you all walk home together. One of the girls says "oh good, I'm glad you're here. I left my key at home and my room is locked" to which you respond "alright, let me go into my room and grab my master keys". After an extensive search through your backpack, you realize that you do not have a key with you... so you have your resident wait in the lobby while you run to the Central Building and shamefully ask for a loaner key. The office manager laughs when you ask for it, but tells you that as funny as it is for the RA to get locked out, it's funnier when the HA gets locked out. As you're talking to the office manager, Dan (I'm not sure what his title is... but he's a big manager of some sort) hears your voice and walks out of his office laughing at you. You get your loaner key, get back to your apartment, let yourself in, find your keys sitting on the desk next to your computer, grab your other keys, let your resident in and take your loaner key back, only to have them laugh at you some more.

This is the last 10 minutes of my life. And I loved it! My girls laughed at me when they found out I was locked out, but thought it was nice to see that they aren't the only ones that get locked out sometimes.

I personally cannot wait for the day that the HA is locked out and asks me to use my master keys to let her back into her apartment. That would make me feel a little better about being locked out.

And on that note... I do homework.

Last Week...

Last week was pretty much awesome! President Monson came on Sunday for the CES Fireside. It was fabulous, and everyone should try to listen to/read it. Elder Nelson was there as well on the stand with him. It was cool to be in the same room as the two of them.

Tuesday, Elder Holland was the speaker for Devotional. AWESOME devotional. In a few days look for it on speeches.byu.edu. It was a way good devotional!

And on Sunday... when I was away for the long weekend, we ended up in President Packer's ward. When we walked in it was really cool to see him sitting up on the stand.

In one weeks time, I was in the same room as the prophet and three members of The Quorum of the Twelve! I love being so close to them all and having the opportunity to see and hear them speak!

And last week the mouse died, could last week have gotten much better? I submit that it could not.

YAY UTAH!

Avoiding RA Burnout

In Staff Meeting this week we talked about how during Winter Semester a lot of the RAs experience "RA Burnout". They recommended that we take time each day to have "me time" and spend that time completely unavailable to our residents. My dilemna now... what should I do in that "me time"? Homework is not an option, that isn't something I do just for me. I'm considering the piano, but I'm kind of limited to the music I have. Perhaps reading? But I don't even know what books to read (hint hint, I'm taking suggestions. my bff Harold B. Lee has quite the collection of books). But I'm not sure what else to do.

If you were told to have "me time" each day, what would you do?

Crazy Fact

I was just looking through my old posts and found a fun fact. Each post I have written since I came out to school last year has gotten at least one comment. The only post in there from recently that has not gotten a comment is because it is a draft of a post that will show up December 31st(I decided to write my Year in Review as the year happens so I remember what happened in January when December rolls around).

I decided that was a cool fact and wanted to share that with you, since you are the people who comment on it. I always feel like I wrote a great post when I get a comment or two.

Other random things:

I haven't told many people about this, but I applied to be an EFY counselor over the summer for the two weeks that are in Nauvoo. I have my interview on the 29th. I'm not sure what will happen, but the thought of being an EFY counselor makes me really happy.

While I'm on interviews, I have my RA interview on Friday (this Friday). They scheduled it today, and it's a lot less intense than my interview last year. I don't have to role play a Hall Meeting this time, I guess they decided that for returning RAs that wasn't a big deal. I might prepare a little one anyway and save it for the "do you have any questions" at the end and then ask if I can role play. Haha.

Academic Week is over for me! This week in all of On-Campus-Housing we have had Back to School Week (aka Academic Week). We provide flyers on reducing test anxiety, how to mark textbooks, how to take notes in class, how to study, how to manage time, and other similar things. We had a hall meeting on Sunday about academics where I shared the fact that Fall Semester, 76 freshman students had a GPA lower than 1.0 which shocked my girls. Tonight was our "Smarty Party" which I take full credit for the name (it was a phrase that came up in my RA interview last year, and when we were planning this activity I remembered it.). We had a Spelling Bee and a General Knowledge Bee as well as some academic-ish games (Cranium and a ton of other games I don't remember). I was in charge of the General Knowledge Bee with Dustin, and it kind of sucked my life away over the last few days. I feel so good knowing it's over.

Also, 5 of the RAs are running away to Mindy's grandparents house for the long weekend, and I am so excited!!! We're not sure yet which 5 for sure, but we've got at least Me, Mindy and Allison. I think that Kelly and Ashley will end up being the other two, but they're not sure yet because of their roving schedules. I'm WAY excited to get far away from campus. I don't even know where her grandparents live, but it's over 30 minutes away which puts us far enough!!! Friday afternoon-Monday afternoon. I'm debating keeping my phone turned off while I'm gone... mostly just to make sure I have no contact with anyone on campus. What do you all think of that? No phone. No computer. That implies no Facebook. And no blogging. There will be many pictures taken I am sure, and then there will be extensive blogging afterwards.

The Final Encounter

Piece of Crap is dead. But how did Piece of Crap die? Where did Piece of Crap die? Good story.

Last night we were all minding our own business when Kourt calls me from her cell phone. I laugh, we're in the same apartment, not too far away. I can't hear anything she says, but then I hear "snapped" and "stuck". Piece of Crap had gotten one foot caught in the trap that was by our back door. She quickly put a big "That's a Bowl" over it, with a ream of paper over that, so the mouse couldn't get out. In the meantime, I had called our brave boys, Jacob and Braedon to see if they would come dispose of the mouse. They were more than willing, so they came over, we gave them some cardboard (they wanted to slide it under the bowl, get the mouse and the trap in the bowl, and then slide the cardboard off and put the lid on), but when they did, the stupid Piece of Crap wiggled its foot out of the trap, slipped under the blanket that was covering the whole under the back door, and ran into our next-door-neighbors apartment. There was quickly much screaming from them, so we all ran over there with our mouse chasing supplies (our garbage can, dowel, and that's a bowl, and peanut butter). It had run into one of their bedrooms, so we stationed some of our people next to the door so that we would know if that stupid creature ran out of the room and where it went. Luckily (or unluckily?) the mouse didn't leave the room while anyone was there, or probably ever again. We found mouse poop in a bed (who knows how long it had been there though) and that was enough to get the girls in that room to sleep in a different room for the night. We searched high and low for that mouse but we couldn't find it. We gave them one of our traps, since they didn't have any traps that worked. And guess what. This morning when I woke up I got a phone call from the girl next door saying that the mouse was dead, in the one trap we gave them... with our garbage can covering it for the time being. I really don't want to dispose of it myself, but oh man! I am so glad that beast is dead now.

Now the question... is what do you do with 17 loaded (or sticky) mouse traps?

Also. Now that the mouse is dead, what do I blog about?

Because I Can

Well... since Thursday, we have only seen our mouse once, and only briefly. Kelly saw it under Courtney's bed, but when we pulled everything out we couldn't find it. We're really getting sick of this mouse. Maintenance won't do anything to help us either. They think traps are enough. All we want is for a guy to come and figure out if there is a whole behind the stove/fridge that is letting the mouse in. We'd really like for him to check that out in all 4 apartments on the floor, since they all have had a mouse problem. It does no good to get rid of our mouse if the neighbors have one. It's so easy for it to get from their apartment to ours. Stupid mouse. I hope we catch it soon.

It hasn't really snowed much in the last week which makes me really happy. I spent a BUNCH of time last Tuesday shoveling the snow in front of my building and helping Mindy (my favorite other RA) with her building. It took forever and a half! I'm glad the snow isn't so heavy right now, it's quite awful when it snows here. I hate being cold and wet when I get to my classes.

My classes seem to be pretty good this semester. I was really dreading Statistics at the beginning, but my professor seems to be pretty good, and it's not been too bad yet. I'm more anxious about my Family Finance class now, it involves way more math than Stats does. Family Finance is still going to be amazing though, I absolutely LOVE it. My teacher there is fabulous and my friend Aislynn, from my ASL 102 class is in that class with me. We have a great time catching up with each other and helping each other figure out what the heck we're doing in class. There are so many different formulas and equations, it can be overwhelming sometimes.

My roommates are all a lot better this semester. Last Friday, 4 of us watched a movie together (Kelly went to bed early because she didn't feel very good) and then Court left to do something else and Ki, Kourt and I watched 2 more movies. It was great that the two of them were willing to be in the same room, and on the same couch for so long. We had a blast, and it might just become a common thing. This Friday we're watching a movie with a guy in our ward, Cameron. It should be hilarious. I'm way stoked to watch Zoolander with him, we talk about it all the time, so I finally invited him over to watch it with us. Already my roommates are so much more social than they were last semester, so they're not complaining. Once we get rid of the mouse and can get rid of all the traps and move our stuff back into our rooms (a lot of our stuff from under our beds is in the hallway) we'll invite more people over... but until then we limit the number of guests in our apartment. We don't need more people to see/hear how we react to the stupid piece of crap.

My Stats class is about to start, everyone is filing into the classroom now... so I should probably stop blogging, just wanted to let everyone know that school is going pretty well. Work is kind of a nightmare right now--between my girls having issues and it being Academic Week it's been pretty stressful. I'm creating a game for our "Smarty Party" that is Wednesday night. Dustin, Kelly and I haven't worked on the game too much, so it's kind of killing me. We'll see how it turns out.

OH! Saturday night we had a decades dance on campus. Allison (another RA) and I went together... from the 80s. We crimped my hair, and oh my gosh. It was HUGE. She took pictures, so once I get them I'll show you how big my hair was. I left it big for church on Sunday.

Oh... Sunday. President Monson came to the Marriott Center to speak at the CES Fireside. It was amazing, I loved it. We got there 2 hours early and the lines were huge. We had pretty good seats though. Also, tomorrow, Elder Holland is coming for the campus devotional. I'm so glad that I'm here where we have the opportunity to hear from so many of the Brethren.

Alright... stats will start soon... so later!

By popular demand...

Mom asked for the new story of my apartments newest roommate, Piece of Crap, the mouse. I think I left off at we were screaming at the mouse while it was in Kourtney's room. We finally found it, in Kiley's closet, which was locked. So Kourt climbed up the shelves next to the closet, and used a dowel to poke around. The mouse ran out the bottom of the door, and we almost caught it. But then it escaped. We headed off to Walmart to buy some traps, and then went and spent the night off campus. My roommates couldn't handle sleeping in our apartment because they didn't know if there was a mouse.

That was Saturday.

Tuesday night for a late FHE we watched the movie Mouse Hunt. We thought it was appropriate. We laughed, we laughed some more, and then we laughed even more.

Thursday is where we meet up with the stupid rodent again. Kourt is in the kitchen, eating dinner, minding her own business and then she SCREAMED. Court, Kiley and I all ran into the kitchen, and by the time we got in there we knew it was the mouse. She watched it run out from under the stove, and under the couch. While she screamed she wasn't sure where the mouse went. This was when I named the mouse, Piece of Crap. We yelled at it, told it to come out, and looked everywhere we could in the kitchen. We finally gave up the search in the kitchen and went to look in our bedrooms. Court went back to the kitchen and saw the mouse running out of the kitchen and down the hallway. She screamed, and then the mouse went back in the kitchen. We all screamed some more, looked around the kitchen, felt under the stove with our dowel, and screamed some more. It seems like screaming is our favorite new activity, as well as yelling "come out stupid Piece of Crap".

In our hall, we have a Love Bucket where we write notes to each other. I wrote a few notes to some of my girls, mostly the ones who have helped me shovel the snow this week. I also wrote one to Piece of Crap. I can't wait for Sunday when I hand the notes out, and give the note to my roommates. It says: "Please leave. We do not like finding you in our kitchen, hallway or bedrooms. You do not like our screaming, so just get caught in one of our many traps and die already. It would put all of us out of misery. Love always, (my name)."

And we haven't seen the mouse since. Hopefully we don't see it again, but I'm not sure. We'll find out...

There. is. a. mouse. in. my. apartment.

We chased it out of bedroom 2. Thought we had it trapped in bedroom 3. And then we lost it. We poked it out of Kiley's cloest (she wasn't home yet, and she locked her closet). We don't know where it went. But we're freaking out.

There. is. a. mouse. in. my. apartment. EWWW!