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?