April 17-21, 2014

Time to remember last year's Easter!

Thursday, April 17. In the morning I went up to the JFSB for the French Language Fair. I went into the foreign language lounge area, and one of the French professors assigned me and two others to be in charge of Le gare, the "railroad station." We set up a table and set up some maps and signs next to it. I talked to my "coworkers"; one was a master's student in English who had studied a lot of French, while the other girl was in a lower level than I was. We sat at the table and all the kids would come up and try to talk to us in French; we were to pretend they were buying tickets, and I somewhat felt it was a little silly to write a price on a piece of paper. I would ask them "aller simple ou aller retour," and many of them would repeat, "aller recour." I would ask "fumeur ou non-fumeur," and when they didn't understand, I would imitate smoking. Some of them said fumeur, not realizing what they were saying; but one student deliberately said it, so I said, "C'est mauvais pour la sainté!" I had never heard the pronunciation of the city Reims, but the master's student helping out pronounced it, and later one of the teachers did as well. Upon finding out that one student wasn't from a high school, the master's student said, "Quel collège?" The kid thought "collège" meant college, so she had to say in English, "What middle school?" Eventually, one Drew Bringhurst came by. He recognized me as being from the same ward, but he didn't immediately say so. I asked if Mrs. Jamison still taught French, but he said she didn't, and I thought he said it was Mrs. Gregg. Eventually, it was time to clean up. I was walking around in my red-orange pants, Eddie Munster shirt, and blue Converse. I didn't have any of the French pastries they were offering us, since they weren't Eastery. I wanted to see if I could find the WXHS French teacher, so I walked around, but didn't find anyone, but some of the kids remembered me from my booth. I even walked around outside to try to find someone from Woods Cross. Then I went to my apartment to work. Later, Mom called me to meet them at the Old Spaghetti Factory, so I drove up there. In the restaurant, they talked about how Mom had forgotten her credit cards, so Susanne had to pay for everything. After dinner, I got in my car, but it didn't start, so I called Mom and asked them to return. They did, and then they came over to my car--and then it started just fine. I drove back to my apartment, listening to my new Mamas and the Papas CD, and the song "String Man" came on. Then I met my friend Megan and we walked up to the Eyring Science Center so I could show her the stream table. I even brought with me a tiny piece of the plastic sand that I had accidentally taken home on a previous occasion. On our way there, I told her about participating in the French Language Fair, and she said her sister did that once. While we were looking at the table, one of my Geology 210 comrades, Hannah Checketts, looked in the room. Then we went down to Spoon It Up, and I had a bowl of cereal while she had frozen yogurt, and we talked about me only eating seasonal things, so I could have Easter M&Ms. Then she said that her friend Natausha had texted her. I went back to my apartment and watched The Easter Bunny Is Comin' to Town; my roommate Jordan was in the kitchen with this then-girlfriend Laura, and they seemed slightly amused by the show; Jordan half-heartedly sang along with the song "If You Do," and Laura went "aww" when it was over. This is a portion of my journal entry for the day:
"Today I helped out at the French Language Fair. It was funner than I expected, just saying, 'Bonjour, où est-ce que vous voudriez aller? Fumeur ou non-fumeur? Première classe ou deuxième classe? Aller simple ou aller retour?' I saw Drew Bringhurst from the 11th Ward, and he said the teacher was no longer Mrs. Jamison--maybe Mrs. Gregg?
"I worked, and then Mom, Nan, and Allie took me to the Old Spaghetti Factory. My car didn't want to start, but then it did."

Friday, April 18. We went up to our final for French 322. We got the prompts we could write about, and I chose one on gun control, since I had written a blog post about that. I cited examples of the Florida theater/popcorn incident and the Sandy Hook and Aurora tragedies. I expressed disdain that Obama's neutral plan was so widely opposed. During the final, Mme Petelo's son came in. Then I went to my apartment and prepared to go home. I got my remaining Easter stuff and drove home, and on my way home I saw a billboard for Ken Garff with chocolate bunnies, and I was excited that I would be getting some (but I didn't). When I got home, I showed Mom my Easter treats. I was going to share my carrot cake M&Ms, but she thought they were jelly beans and said "I don't want that." She wanted one of the egg-shaped Reese's ice cream bars instead.

Saturday, April 19. We probably had our egg hunt that morning, but I can't quite remember. I went to Famous Footwear and got some red Sperry shoes, and I think the cashier liked my Peeps shirt. That evening we colored eggs, and I couldn't resist drawing shamrocks on one and dyeing it green. My family was surprised I would do that, but shamrocks aren't exclusively for St. Patrick's Day. My family showed me the nutcracker M&M dispensers they bought in Vegas and let me choose one, so I chose the orange one, and I put the carrot cake M&Ms in it. Susanne had some, but Matt didn't want any. That night, sister missionaries came to our house to share a lesson. We talked about how I was finishing up at BYU, and one of the sisters had been there before her mission. They asked Allie about what we celebrate at Easter, and she was very shy in responding. At one point, my dad said that I had never done anything wrong.

Sunday, April 20. After church, I wrote on my blog. We went to my grandparents' house for dinner (my grandpa really liked my blog), and I was pleased with the basket they had full of candy. I was excited to eat it, and Peter was a bit surprised, but it was Easter candy so I could. (I couldn't, however, have dessert.) I was wearing orange striped socks, and he asked if they were Easter socks or just regular socks. Then I went home and wrote on my memory blog. I got an email with a special prize for helping out at the French Language Fair, but the prize was the text of Handel's Messiah so we could look at it while listening to the MoTab's Messiah concert, which I thought was a pretty lousy prize. But while writing my blog, I did listen to the concert to see if it was better than the MoTab recording I have from the 90s. The 2014 performance wasn't really that great, because the soloists were terrible and operatic. I wouldn't say they were an improvement over the earlier counter tenors.

Monday, April 21. I worked on the couch when there was a knock at the door. It was a guy my parents hired to redo our basement walls and ceiling, and he had come much earlier than anticipated. I let him in, and he began taking down the ceiling. He opened the door to let the dust out because he didn't know how to open our downstairs windows. I showed him how to take the storm windows out to open the real windows, and he said he had never seen that. Then my parents came home and were glad I was there to let the repair guy in. Then I played some video games before I drove back to Provo. I put on my new shoes and they seemed a little big, so I was debating whether I should try to return them for a smaller size, but I decided not to. (I think they had been clearance anyway.) Then I returned to Provo. This is my journal entry:
"Today I worked at home home, being there for Easter.  The folks are remodeling a lot, and the drywall guy came while I was there. It was a good thing I was home. I finished working, and he was still there, so I played a lot of video games (and finally got to World 8 on Mario 3). Then I eventually left, and tonight I went running."