I'm going to remember all the Halloween costumes I've worn through the years. Usually I start from most recent and work back to the oldest, but this time I will do the opposite.
1989. Family pictures indicate that I was a panda bear. But obviously I don't remember that, since I was only one.
1990. Again, family pictures indicate that I was a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, but I don't remember what one. Just today, I was thinking how TMNT was a sizeable part of my childhood, even though I remember hardly anything about it now.
1991. My mom insists that I was a green butterfly, but I don't remember it.
1992 or 1993. One of these years, I was a ladybug. I remember one kid saying, "A little ladybug!" and I was offended because I thought he was making fun of me. My mom told me he wasn't.
1994. I was Santa Claus, but my beard didn't look good. I had pillows to make me fat. I had a purple arm cast, so some kids told me I should say that I fell out of my sleigh and broke my arm. I loved to wear that costume again at Christmas.
1995. I was a mummy, so when we went to Boo at the Zoo, I wanted my face painted with a mummy on it. During my school's costume parade, I held my arms out in front of me the whole time, so when we went outside and no one was watching us, I was relieved to put my arms down.
1996. I was a grim reaper in a felt costume my mom had made. I think my face was painted white; my robe was black with red trim. I carried around a little plastic scythe. I don't know how I managed that in elementary school; they probably wouldn't allow that today.
1997. I was a jack-o-lantern, with leaves on my shoulders and orange and black curly vine things. I put pillows in the orange shirt to round it out. I remember my cousin Peter walking around in it, and the pillows dragged the shirt down and stretched it out.
1998. I was obsessed with the Wallace and Gromit shows, so I was Wallace, with a bald cap, a green sweater vest and red tie, and a stuffed dog that I carried around with me. Seeing the bald and the dog, someone thought I was Charlie Brown, but Ann Palmer, who was standing next to her, recognized me as Wallace. A few people knew who I was.
1999. Oh boy. I've always been a nerd, and in fifth grade I was especially nerdy, having a fascination with chess, even though I was horrible at it. I decided I wanted to be a chess piece, so I decided on a white king--a white robe, white face paint, and a white cross on my head. I doubt anyone knew I was a chess piece. They either thought I was a religious nut or a member of the KKK. I'm glad I didn't get arrested.
2000. Taking the idea from someone mistaking my costume two years earlier, and with my fairly new-found interest in Peanuts, it was only natural that I be Charlie Brown. I wore a baseball cap (because I didn't want a bald cap) and his shirt (which my mom had made), and carried around Snoopy, who had been Gromit two years earlier. (He really looked more like Snoopy than like Gromit.)
2001. Since I no longer went trick-or-treating, and my school had uniforms, there was no point in dressing up.
2002. Since my family was going to be out of the country on Halloween night, I decided not to celebrate Halloween that year, which was probably a bit silly.
2003. I didn't have much opportunity to wear it, but I wore a Charlie Brown ghost costume. You know, with all the holes in it.
2004. During the spring, during South Davis Junior High's spirit week, my mom had constructed a Fred Flintstone costume for decade day, so I wore that for Halloween.
2005. I think I wore the Flintstone costume to the mutual party, but when I took Allie trick-or-treating, I was a traditional ghost (with only two eyeholes).
2006. I was a vampire, with a suit, a medallion, and a beautiful cape.
2007. I was a vampire again, but I think I had some enhancements. I painted my nails black, and I had a red and black bowtie.
2008. Elder Love and I wore identical ties, and I switched our name tags, so we were each other for Halloween. Only at district meeting, though.
2009. Nothing.
2010. I was a vampire yet again--but this time, I had teeth to go with the costume.
2011. A vampire again, but this time I was younger. I first wore my costume to a Halloween 5k, with red athletic shorts and a scary red-and-black skull shirt, with a cheaper red and black cape. I wore red shoes on Halloween.
2012. I only dressed up one day, and I wore the same simple vampire costume, but with red regular shorts instead of athletic shorts.
2013. You guessed it. A vampire, but with no cape. At a Halloween party, I got my face painted rather scarily.
I like my vampire costume, but it's time to move on.
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Elementary school Halloween projects
As Halloween creeps ever nearer, I think back on some of the memories of the holiday from my childhood. So, in remembrance, I will think of some of the projects we did in elementary school, as well as some other similar memories.
One of my earliest Halloween memories is getting a bunch of Halloween stuff from our basement. We had some plastic Halloween leaf bags and a plastic decoration you put over doors. I was super excited about them, and I put them on top of me. My aunt Sue and cousins were visiting, and Sue took the plastic off of me because she didn't want me to suffocate. I cried, because I wanted to lie underneath them and I could breathe just fine.
In kindergarten, we were given paper skeletons to cut out and assemble. Some kids colored theirs, but I thought that was dumb, because skeletons are white. I started mine, but then it got lost. Mrs. Christensen gave me the last one she had, where someone had started coloring one of the bones (a vertebra, or maybe the pelvis). It was red and blue, and I thought that was fitting, as they were colors of blood (I had heard about blood sometimes being blue). On Halloween, we made brown pom-pom spiders.
In first grade, we made jack-o-lantern construction paper "lanterns." I thought Dennis Jones's looked funny, so I laughed, and he told the teacher, who made me apologize. We also assembled skeletons on construction paper and gave them clothes--I gave mine a yellow baseball shirt.
In second grade, we put glue on strings and put them on tissue paper to make ghosts. I added a bat to my ghost. Another time, we drew a picture and then painted black/gray over it with watercolors. I drew a ghost with orange eyes. Of course, drawing with white crayon was difficult, but I was glad to see when I painted that I had colored the ghost pretty well. I had this picture until I cleaned things out in 2005.
On October 1, 1997, in third grade, we all got different Halloween art projects, depending on the table we were sitting at. One of the tables got to make haunted houses with math problems. Hillary Ulmer had a fit because she wanted to do one of those. One night during cub scouts at the Brenay house, we made Halloween treats with other treats. I used a Hostess Sno-Ball to make a spider, with licorice as the legs. After we made things, I asked if I could eat a Sno-Ball, and the other scouts seemed to judge me for it. Then we went downstairs and Sister Brenay played Halloween songs from the Picture Book of Songs while we went around in the dark making Halloween noises. We were recording a Halloween tape. My screams were audible on the tape, but my ghost sounds weren't. Mark Millard and Mark Brenay made more violent noises, and Mark Brenay made his mom stop playing and said, "I think I killed the piano teacher." When we played the tape at a monthly scout meeting, Mark Brenay liked rewinding the tape, as it sounded like rats.
In the summer between third and fourth grade, I learned that a primary or scout requirement had an option to make Halloween decorations. Since the Fourth of July was over, I wanted to make Halloween decorations. I made a small black pom-pom spider with only six pipe-cleaner legs. I took orange and black pom-poms and put eyes on them, calling them critters. My mom made a jack-o-lantern thing with plastic canvas in which you can put Hershey's Kisses.
In fourth grade, we were making pumpkins with orange construction paper. We had to use multiple colors to make patterns, and I wondered how others' pumpkins were more orange than mine. We made 3D bats out of one piece of paper. I remember having scouts at my house after I made mine, and Mark Millard and Mark Brenay told me that we would make similar bunnies at Easter. We had Halloween activity books. One of the activities was to write a limerick epitaph; this was mine:
"Here lies Castleberry, Paul,
Who walked down the hall,
When down came a knife to take away his life
And this is where he happened to fall."
We also had one that required us to think of ingredients for a witches' brew, one from each letter. "X-ray soup" was all I could think of for x. I remember this song from fourth grade:
In fifth grade, we had to tear paper to make pictures. I made a hearse for my picture, but it was ugly.
In sixth grade, Mr. Williams had us make bats again. It became a bit of a fad--lots of us made more bats and other things with the same idea, such as owls and ghosts. Someone made one with a witch-face, which I thought was dumb, as witches aren't shaped like that.
I'm sure there were other things as well, but I can't think of them right now.
One of my earliest Halloween memories is getting a bunch of Halloween stuff from our basement. We had some plastic Halloween leaf bags and a plastic decoration you put over doors. I was super excited about them, and I put them on top of me. My aunt Sue and cousins were visiting, and Sue took the plastic off of me because she didn't want me to suffocate. I cried, because I wanted to lie underneath them and I could breathe just fine.
In kindergarten, we were given paper skeletons to cut out and assemble. Some kids colored theirs, but I thought that was dumb, because skeletons are white. I started mine, but then it got lost. Mrs. Christensen gave me the last one she had, where someone had started coloring one of the bones (a vertebra, or maybe the pelvis). It was red and blue, and I thought that was fitting, as they were colors of blood (I had heard about blood sometimes being blue). On Halloween, we made brown pom-pom spiders.
In first grade, we made jack-o-lantern construction paper "lanterns." I thought Dennis Jones's looked funny, so I laughed, and he told the teacher, who made me apologize. We also assembled skeletons on construction paper and gave them clothes--I gave mine a yellow baseball shirt.
In second grade, we put glue on strings and put them on tissue paper to make ghosts. I added a bat to my ghost. Another time, we drew a picture and then painted black/gray over it with watercolors. I drew a ghost with orange eyes. Of course, drawing with white crayon was difficult, but I was glad to see when I painted that I had colored the ghost pretty well. I had this picture until I cleaned things out in 2005.
On October 1, 1997, in third grade, we all got different Halloween art projects, depending on the table we were sitting at. One of the tables got to make haunted houses with math problems. Hillary Ulmer had a fit because she wanted to do one of those. One night during cub scouts at the Brenay house, we made Halloween treats with other treats. I used a Hostess Sno-Ball to make a spider, with licorice as the legs. After we made things, I asked if I could eat a Sno-Ball, and the other scouts seemed to judge me for it. Then we went downstairs and Sister Brenay played Halloween songs from the Picture Book of Songs while we went around in the dark making Halloween noises. We were recording a Halloween tape. My screams were audible on the tape, but my ghost sounds weren't. Mark Millard and Mark Brenay made more violent noises, and Mark Brenay made his mom stop playing and said, "I think I killed the piano teacher." When we played the tape at a monthly scout meeting, Mark Brenay liked rewinding the tape, as it sounded like rats.
In the summer between third and fourth grade, I learned that a primary or scout requirement had an option to make Halloween decorations. Since the Fourth of July was over, I wanted to make Halloween decorations. I made a small black pom-pom spider with only six pipe-cleaner legs. I took orange and black pom-poms and put eyes on them, calling them critters. My mom made a jack-o-lantern thing with plastic canvas in which you can put Hershey's Kisses.
In fourth grade, we were making pumpkins with orange construction paper. We had to use multiple colors to make patterns, and I wondered how others' pumpkins were more orange than mine. We made 3D bats out of one piece of paper. I remember having scouts at my house after I made mine, and Mark Millard and Mark Brenay told me that we would make similar bunnies at Easter. We had Halloween activity books. One of the activities was to write a limerick epitaph; this was mine:
"Here lies Castleberry, Paul,
Who walked down the hall,
When down came a knife to take away his life
And this is where he happened to fall."
We also had one that required us to think of ingredients for a witches' brew, one from each letter. "X-ray soup" was all I could think of for x. I remember this song from fourth grade:
In fifth grade, we had to tear paper to make pictures. I made a hearse for my picture, but it was ugly.
In sixth grade, Mr. Williams had us make bats again. It became a bit of a fad--lots of us made more bats and other things with the same idea, such as owls and ghosts. Someone made one with a witch-face, which I thought was dumb, as witches aren't shaped like that.
I'm sure there were other things as well, but I can't think of them right now.
Sunday, October 12, 2014
October 26
I have now remembered the last five days of October--so now it's time for October 26.
2013. My roommate Jordan had a girl over to watch a movie. He asked if I was going to watch a Halloween movie, and indeed I was watching the original Frankenweenie. After Sparky got run over, the girl said, "That's terrible!"
2012. This might have been the time I went running and ended up getting caught in post-game pedestrian traffic, but it might have been a different day. I was in my apartment that night when my friends Alex, Kristen, and someone else (maybe Carissa) stopped by. They wanted to see if I wanted to go get ice cream with them (someplace was giving it for free). I didn't. I asked them if they wanted to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but they didn't. I showed them my new copy of Mapping Mormonism, which had my name in it.
2010. I'm sure I would have been working, and at the end of our shift we would have swept the floor.
2008. I don't really remember the day, except that I liked the Zellers' Halloween decorations, but here is my journal entry:
"Think of me, thou ransomed one,
Think what I for thee havedone.
"I like sacrament songs.
"At branch council they gave us the home teaching list, and want us to see a lot of them, so that may increase our work in this branch. At church Bailey Christensen talked to me, glad that I didn't tease her, saying other missionaries tease her because she's cute.
"After church we met with Donna Tysz, a less-active who wants to do right. Before her we met Jeanne Saunders, who is married to a Baptist, and has a very anti daughter. We're doing service for her this week.
"We had dinner with the Zellers, an active PMF, and talked to the Divineys."
2007. This was my last day working at Walmart. At one point in the day, I prepared rotisserie chickens (by smearing spices all over the raw chickens), and when I wrote the date on the plastic covering over the chicken cart, I think I wrote something like "goodbye," since I wouldn't be there anymore. My coworkers bought me a cake and wrote on it with frosting. I found some plastic silverware and cut the cake with a plastic knife, making a very messy cut. They also got me a very nice farewell card. After I was done with work, I was doing shopping. I got a pumpkin and some mint Oreos. I walked near the bakery to get the rest of my cake, and my coworker Alice saw my cart and said, "Are you having a party?" While I was out shopping, my coworker Ursula came up to me because she hadn't gotten any cake. I wanted to tell that Sea Witch she couldn't have any because she was mean, but I let her have some. When I was checking out, I told the cashier that the cake was already paid for (it had the receipt on it), and she asked if it was my birthday. I told her it was my last day working there. When I got home, my family had rented The Blob and High School Musical by Top Hat Video.
2005. This might have been the day I went to our school's Trunk-or-Treat, but I didn't dress up. I sat with my French classmates. Nate Dopp had his old VW beetle, and we gave the candy out of the "trunk," and one girl was kind of freaked out: "What happened to the car's engine?!"
2004. I know this was a Trunk-or-Treat day. I was wearing my Fred Flintstone costume with a flesh-colored shirt underneath. I was wearing shorts underneath as well, and Susanne said David wouldn't have worn shorts underneath.
1996. I would have been at Boo at the Zoo in my Grim Reaper costume. I think we saw a woman with a barn owl--I recognized it as such before she told us. We kids got most of the candy, but David got a chocolate licorice rope that he started eating immediately. Then I realized that I didn't have to wait to eat my candy, since he wasn't waiting. This was probably the day where we went to my grandparents' house afterwards. It was a little cold--there had been snow at the zoo--so they had a fire going, and we talked about how the balloon couldn't get near the fire, or it would pop.
1993. I think this was the time David was getting his birthday presents, and he got one of those hanging ghosts that wails and shakes when it is touched or hears noise.
2013. My roommate Jordan had a girl over to watch a movie. He asked if I was going to watch a Halloween movie, and indeed I was watching the original Frankenweenie. After Sparky got run over, the girl said, "That's terrible!"
2012. This might have been the time I went running and ended up getting caught in post-game pedestrian traffic, but it might have been a different day. I was in my apartment that night when my friends Alex, Kristen, and someone else (maybe Carissa) stopped by. They wanted to see if I wanted to go get ice cream with them (someplace was giving it for free). I didn't. I asked them if they wanted to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, but they didn't. I showed them my new copy of Mapping Mormonism, which had my name in it.
2010. I'm sure I would have been working, and at the end of our shift we would have swept the floor.
2008. I don't really remember the day, except that I liked the Zellers' Halloween decorations, but here is my journal entry:
"Think of me, thou ransomed one,
Think what I for thee havedone.
"I like sacrament songs.
"At branch council they gave us the home teaching list, and want us to see a lot of them, so that may increase our work in this branch. At church Bailey Christensen talked to me, glad that I didn't tease her, saying other missionaries tease her because she's cute.
"After church we met with Donna Tysz, a less-active who wants to do right. Before her we met Jeanne Saunders, who is married to a Baptist, and has a very anti daughter. We're doing service for her this week.
"We had dinner with the Zellers, an active PMF, and talked to the Divineys."
2007. This was my last day working at Walmart. At one point in the day, I prepared rotisserie chickens (by smearing spices all over the raw chickens), and when I wrote the date on the plastic covering over the chicken cart, I think I wrote something like "goodbye," since I wouldn't be there anymore. My coworkers bought me a cake and wrote on it with frosting. I found some plastic silverware and cut the cake with a plastic knife, making a very messy cut. They also got me a very nice farewell card. After I was done with work, I was doing shopping. I got a pumpkin and some mint Oreos. I walked near the bakery to get the rest of my cake, and my coworker Alice saw my cart and said, "Are you having a party?" While I was out shopping, my coworker Ursula came up to me because she hadn't gotten any cake. I wanted to tell that Sea Witch she couldn't have any because she was mean, but I let her have some. When I was checking out, I told the cashier that the cake was already paid for (it had the receipt on it), and she asked if it was my birthday. I told her it was my last day working there. When I got home, my family had rented The Blob and High School Musical by Top Hat Video.
2005. This might have been the day I went to our school's Trunk-or-Treat, but I didn't dress up. I sat with my French classmates. Nate Dopp had his old VW beetle, and we gave the candy out of the "trunk," and one girl was kind of freaked out: "What happened to the car's engine?!"
2004. I know this was a Trunk-or-Treat day. I was wearing my Fred Flintstone costume with a flesh-colored shirt underneath. I was wearing shorts underneath as well, and Susanne said David wouldn't have worn shorts underneath.
1996. I would have been at Boo at the Zoo in my Grim Reaper costume. I think we saw a woman with a barn owl--I recognized it as such before she told us. We kids got most of the candy, but David got a chocolate licorice rope that he started eating immediately. Then I realized that I didn't have to wait to eat my candy, since he wasn't waiting. This was probably the day where we went to my grandparents' house afterwards. It was a little cold--there had been snow at the zoo--so they had a fire going, and we talked about how the balloon couldn't get near the fire, or it would pop.
1993. I think this was the time David was getting his birthday presents, and he got one of those hanging ghosts that wails and shakes when it is touched or hears noise.
Saturday, October 11, 2014
October 27-November 2, 2013
I'm going to remember what I can of the days surrounding last year's Halloween--an entire week, Sunday through Saturday.
October 27. I wrote a blog post about overrated hymns, and as I was doing so, I was sitting in our living room. I asked my roommate Scott what hymns he thought were overrated. He felt bad saying so, but he got sick of singing "I Am a Child of God" at FHE-type settings. I think Scott was watching the World Series when my home teachers, Zach and Scott, came over. I told them the list I had made of overrated hymns, and Zach said he only disagreed with "Come Thou Fount." He said it's not in the hymnbook because Catholics forbade it, but I don't believe that. I showed my home teacher Scott the pictures on Facebook of my nephews in their improvised Halloween costumes; he was impressed with the "Santa." I think I told Zach that I was going to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and Frankenweenie that week, and he seemed interested in watching them.
October 28. I went to my FHE, and our "dad," Eric, said we were going to have a pumpkin-carving contest, but we needed to go to a store to get pumpkins. I said that I had a pumpkin that I wanted to carve, which meant they would only need to buy one pumpkin. We drove to Smith's, and as we were walking in, I saw a lady at the RedBox, on the phone asking if Oz the Great and Powerful was good. (I wanted to tell her it wasn't.) I went and picked out a carving kit, but the only one I found had some extra things with it. As we were walking out, Eric was loudly playing Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." I was a little embarrassed. One of the group remembered that I had previously mentioned I had a Halloween playlist, so I went and got my laptop to play it on Eric's fancy sound system. There was a little problem at first with the volume. Of course, I started off with "Get Down Goblin." I wanted to do a Jack Skellington pumpkin, so I had my group members clean out the pumpkin for me to carve it. When "My Mechanical Friend" came on my playlist, my roommate Chad (who had come later, along with my other roommate, Jordan) asked, "Is this song about Frankenstein?" When Frankenweenie music was playing, they asked where it was from. As the incredibly annoying "Jack's Obsession" cover was playing, Eric said it seemed too laid back for Halloween. It was around then that the pumpkin contest ended, so Eric posted a picture on our ward Facebook page for people to vote for the better one.
I think the cat pumpkin was green--so there was a green pumpkin and a white one. My Halloween show for the day was The Nightmare Before Christmas, and so I went to Zach's apartment and told him I was about to watch it. He said he would come up after he was done cleaning up after his FHE, so I went up to my apartment and started watching it. My roommate Scott was watching it with me at first, but then he went to bed. Zach never came, so I assumed he decided not to--but he came up right when it was almost over. After it ended, I had to show him the "This Is Halloween" and "What's This?" songs--I think he made a remark about it being suitable for both Christmas and Halloween. Then Jordan came out and said he had a really bad headache and wanted a blessing. I asked whether he wanted the light turned on; he didn't, so we gave it by the light of the TV.
October 29. We weren't having Groundwater class this day, but I went into the classroom to work on a massive project we had--probably our flow chart. One of my classmates liked my Nightmare Before Christmas shirt. I had invited a friend, Carrie, to watch Frankenweenie that night, but she couldn't come. I went down to tell Zach that I was going to start the movie. His roommate Joel was there with his fiancée, Andee, and Andee said her nephews had watched the movie. Zach told me to start the movie and he would come up soon. Scott started watching with me and said Sparky was ugly even when he was alive. He went to the store to get some snacks, and then Zach came up. There was some commentary by Scott, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. Afterward, Zach was trying to identify the different voice actors, and Scott seemed to know a lot about actors. (All this was happening when Scott was still a decent person.)
October 30. At some point in the day, I got some pumpkin ice cream in the Cougareat and was eating it while the radio system was playing "Jack's Lament" from Nightmare Revisited. In the evening, I was in the geology computer lab working on my Groundwater project when I came across a news story about a woman fat-shaming trick-or-treaters. Someone had put posters in the room about a Geology Club Halloween party where they were showing Jurassic Park at the Museum of Paleontology. For "BYU," they used a stylized blue Y, and I thought it was a poor design, because the Y blended in and it just looked like "B U." Then I went home, and Scott was watching the last of the World Series. I remember thinking that it didn't seem right for a MLB player to win a free car. After the game, I put in Mad Monster Party?. In the opening sequence, when a crow started cawing, Jordan said his catch phrase, "Oh my word!" Jordan and Scott went home teaching, and they got back during the scene when all the monsters were arriving. I told Scott that the previous year, my roommates had gone home teaching on the same day and came back during the same scene. He was making origami Christmas ornaments while watching. After the movie, he said it was the strangest movie ever created, and he said it didn't need the musical numbers.
October 31. I went to my Groundwater class, and Dr. Carling was back. He went over our project with us (I think we were working on a flow chart). My classmate Chelsea was dressed in a homemade costume as Darkwing Duck. I went down to the RB for my swimming class, and there was a girl walking down the hall on a knee scooter. A guy sitting on a bench said, "I know what you're dressed as, a gimp!" After swimming, I went to work, and they were talking about all the costumes they had seen on campus. I told them about the "gimp" comment I had heard. My coworker Caitlin was leaving, so the office manager, Annette, said we should have a lunch for her. I said I would bring fruit. Annette made a vampire-themed flyer for the party, even though it was just for us in the office. I think the computer lady, Eden, said she had pumpkin bread, but I didn't have any, since she wasn't my boss. I looked at Halloween Pandora stations and settled on one called "Hipster Halloween." That afternoon, I went to LoLo's to buy a pineapple and strawberries. I also bought a donut with sprinkles on it. Then I went over to Shopko, where I got some small Jack Skellington pajama pants (there were no mediums) and some candy corn Jelly Bellys. Then I went home (listening to the Nightmare Revisited CD) and had Count Chocula in my Jack Skellington mug. While I was doing so, our neighbor Rory came by to ask how our home teaching was going. I think we had a discussion about Christmas music and Thanksgiving music. I was worried about my cereal getting soggy. I can't remember whether I cleaned the kitchen before or after I ate dinner. That evening, I went to a multi-stake Halloween party, and I got lost and had to turn around in a FrontRunner parking lot. I was wearing a simple vampire costume--sharp teeth, a black shirt with red skulls, red shorts, and red shoes, with skull socks. There weren't many people there yet, and it was too noisy, so I didn't stay long. Someone stopped me and asked if I wanted my face painted, so they did. The guy said he was a professional who had been flown in from Vegas. I was a little uncomfortable with them working around my eyes. Then I went to a party hosted by some friends, Katria and Larissa. There were several people who came that I didn't know. One of them was dressed as Adam Lambert; another was wearing a child-size Ironman costume (he had to cut it up to get it on). There was a donut-bobbing game, but I didn't eat glazed donuts, so I ate the Halloween donuts from the Krispy Kreme box. There was a game where we had to guess foods without looking, and I did worse than I expected. Then they were discussing watching a Halloween show, and I left. When I got home, Scott was watching Wait Until Dark on TV. I asked him to take a picture of my face paint:
When Scott's movie was over, I put in The Munsters' Revenge. Scott had to leave at some point, and when he came back, he asked what he missed. When I told him they had escaped from jail, he said, "Oh, they're fugitives now." When the movie was over he said, "That's the movie you save for Halloween?" The only reason is because it is the longest. Then I got in my new pajamas, washed my face off a little bit, and went to bed.
November 1. I got up early because I had some things I needed to do. I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist (which was smaller then) while I cut up the pineapple and strawberries for my work lunch. Then I needed to do some editing for my group project, but cutting fruit took longer than expected. I think I got it done, though. I was wearing my roast turkey socks and I think my yellow shoes. Then I took my bowl of fruit to work before going to class; I also threw in some leftover candy. After my Old English class, I had to meet with my group in the library. Then I went to my work lunch--I thought I would be late, but they were just starting. Caitlin had brought small apples. There was some discussion about auto-correct--Eden was laughing at some that she was reading on her phone, but she couldn't tell us because they weren't appropriate. I reminded them of the time our editor-in-chief meant to write an email that said, "How do you like our about-face?" and it came out "How do you like our snout face?" That afternoon, I drove home--but first, I stopped at a few places to find clearance Halloween/Thanksgiving candy. Allen's grocery store had lots, but it was expensive still. Then I went to Fresh Market, but I think it was all gone already. When I got to North Salt Lake, I stopped at Winegar's and got some candy corn M&Ms and Starburst candy corn. Then I went home, where my parents told me that Free Birds had bad reviews. That night, I went downstairs and watched a YouTube video of The Mouse on the Mayflower on the big TV.
November 2. My family all went out to Centerville to see Free Birds. It was better than we expected. After the movie, we went to lunch at Chuck-A-Rama, since the next day was Fast Sunday. In Centerville, we went to the Sprint store to look at a smartphone for me. They were out of stock of the free one I wanted. I had talked to David to see what he recommended, but those were too expensive. We talked about our opinions of the movie; my dad said he didn't like how our ancestor (Myles Standish) was portrayed as a villain. I ate brownies with fall sprinkles on them. Then I went back to our house and brought out Thanksgiving decorations while I listened to my regular playlist, to which I had added my Thanksgiving music. Then I drove back to Provo, and I went to Rite Aid and Macey's to look at their clearance fall candy. And then I went to Walgreen's as well for the same purpose, even though I was tired and wanted to get back to my apartment.
Related:
October 27
October 28
October 29
All Hallows' Eve Eve
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-Treat Memories
All Saints' Day
Day of the Dead
October 30-November 1, 2012
October 27. I wrote a blog post about overrated hymns, and as I was doing so, I was sitting in our living room. I asked my roommate Scott what hymns he thought were overrated. He felt bad saying so, but he got sick of singing "I Am a Child of God" at FHE-type settings. I think Scott was watching the World Series when my home teachers, Zach and Scott, came over. I told them the list I had made of overrated hymns, and Zach said he only disagreed with "Come Thou Fount." He said it's not in the hymnbook because Catholics forbade it, but I don't believe that. I showed my home teacher Scott the pictures on Facebook of my nephews in their improvised Halloween costumes; he was impressed with the "Santa." I think I told Zach that I was going to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas and Frankenweenie that week, and he seemed interested in watching them.
October 28. I went to my FHE, and our "dad," Eric, said we were going to have a pumpkin-carving contest, but we needed to go to a store to get pumpkins. I said that I had a pumpkin that I wanted to carve, which meant they would only need to buy one pumpkin. We drove to Smith's, and as we were walking in, I saw a lady at the RedBox, on the phone asking if Oz the Great and Powerful was good. (I wanted to tell her it wasn't.) I went and picked out a carving kit, but the only one I found had some extra things with it. As we were walking out, Eric was loudly playing Stevie Wonder's "Superstition." I was a little embarrassed. One of the group remembered that I had previously mentioned I had a Halloween playlist, so I went and got my laptop to play it on Eric's fancy sound system. There was a little problem at first with the volume. Of course, I started off with "Get Down Goblin." I wanted to do a Jack Skellington pumpkin, so I had my group members clean out the pumpkin for me to carve it. When "My Mechanical Friend" came on my playlist, my roommate Chad (who had come later, along with my other roommate, Jordan) asked, "Is this song about Frankenstein?" When Frankenweenie music was playing, they asked where it was from. As the incredibly annoying "Jack's Obsession" cover was playing, Eric said it seemed too laid back for Halloween. It was around then that the pumpkin contest ended, so Eric posted a picture on our ward Facebook page for people to vote for the better one.
October 29. We weren't having Groundwater class this day, but I went into the classroom to work on a massive project we had--probably our flow chart. One of my classmates liked my Nightmare Before Christmas shirt. I had invited a friend, Carrie, to watch Frankenweenie that night, but she couldn't come. I went down to tell Zach that I was going to start the movie. His roommate Joel was there with his fiancée, Andee, and Andee said her nephews had watched the movie. Zach told me to start the movie and he would come up soon. Scott started watching with me and said Sparky was ugly even when he was alive. He went to the store to get some snacks, and then Zach came up. There was some commentary by Scott, but I don't want to give away any spoilers. Afterward, Zach was trying to identify the different voice actors, and Scott seemed to know a lot about actors. (All this was happening when Scott was still a decent person.)
October 30. At some point in the day, I got some pumpkin ice cream in the Cougareat and was eating it while the radio system was playing "Jack's Lament" from Nightmare Revisited. In the evening, I was in the geology computer lab working on my Groundwater project when I came across a news story about a woman fat-shaming trick-or-treaters. Someone had put posters in the room about a Geology Club Halloween party where they were showing Jurassic Park at the Museum of Paleontology. For "BYU," they used a stylized blue Y, and I thought it was a poor design, because the Y blended in and it just looked like "B U." Then I went home, and Scott was watching the last of the World Series. I remember thinking that it didn't seem right for a MLB player to win a free car. After the game, I put in Mad Monster Party?. In the opening sequence, when a crow started cawing, Jordan said his catch phrase, "Oh my word!" Jordan and Scott went home teaching, and they got back during the scene when all the monsters were arriving. I told Scott that the previous year, my roommates had gone home teaching on the same day and came back during the same scene. He was making origami Christmas ornaments while watching. After the movie, he said it was the strangest movie ever created, and he said it didn't need the musical numbers.
October 31. I went to my Groundwater class, and Dr. Carling was back. He went over our project with us (I think we were working on a flow chart). My classmate Chelsea was dressed in a homemade costume as Darkwing Duck. I went down to the RB for my swimming class, and there was a girl walking down the hall on a knee scooter. A guy sitting on a bench said, "I know what you're dressed as, a gimp!" After swimming, I went to work, and they were talking about all the costumes they had seen on campus. I told them about the "gimp" comment I had heard. My coworker Caitlin was leaving, so the office manager, Annette, said we should have a lunch for her. I said I would bring fruit. Annette made a vampire-themed flyer for the party, even though it was just for us in the office. I think the computer lady, Eden, said she had pumpkin bread, but I didn't have any, since she wasn't my boss. I looked at Halloween Pandora stations and settled on one called "Hipster Halloween." That afternoon, I went to LoLo's to buy a pineapple and strawberries. I also bought a donut with sprinkles on it. Then I went over to Shopko, where I got some small Jack Skellington pajama pants (there were no mediums) and some candy corn Jelly Bellys. Then I went home (listening to the Nightmare Revisited CD) and had Count Chocula in my Jack Skellington mug. While I was doing so, our neighbor Rory came by to ask how our home teaching was going. I think we had a discussion about Christmas music and Thanksgiving music. I was worried about my cereal getting soggy. I can't remember whether I cleaned the kitchen before or after I ate dinner. That evening, I went to a multi-stake Halloween party, and I got lost and had to turn around in a FrontRunner parking lot. I was wearing a simple vampire costume--sharp teeth, a black shirt with red skulls, red shorts, and red shoes, with skull socks. There weren't many people there yet, and it was too noisy, so I didn't stay long. Someone stopped me and asked if I wanted my face painted, so they did. The guy said he was a professional who had been flown in from Vegas. I was a little uncomfortable with them working around my eyes. Then I went to a party hosted by some friends, Katria and Larissa. There were several people who came that I didn't know. One of them was dressed as Adam Lambert; another was wearing a child-size Ironman costume (he had to cut it up to get it on). There was a donut-bobbing game, but I didn't eat glazed donuts, so I ate the Halloween donuts from the Krispy Kreme box. There was a game where we had to guess foods without looking, and I did worse than I expected. Then they were discussing watching a Halloween show, and I left. When I got home, Scott was watching Wait Until Dark on TV. I asked him to take a picture of my face paint:
November 1. I got up early because I had some things I needed to do. I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist (which was smaller then) while I cut up the pineapple and strawberries for my work lunch. Then I needed to do some editing for my group project, but cutting fruit took longer than expected. I think I got it done, though. I was wearing my roast turkey socks and I think my yellow shoes. Then I took my bowl of fruit to work before going to class; I also threw in some leftover candy. After my Old English class, I had to meet with my group in the library. Then I went to my work lunch--I thought I would be late, but they were just starting. Caitlin had brought small apples. There was some discussion about auto-correct--Eden was laughing at some that she was reading on her phone, but she couldn't tell us because they weren't appropriate. I reminded them of the time our editor-in-chief meant to write an email that said, "How do you like our about-face?" and it came out "How do you like our snout face?" That afternoon, I drove home--but first, I stopped at a few places to find clearance Halloween/Thanksgiving candy. Allen's grocery store had lots, but it was expensive still. Then I went to Fresh Market, but I think it was all gone already. When I got to North Salt Lake, I stopped at Winegar's and got some candy corn M&Ms and Starburst candy corn. Then I went home, where my parents told me that Free Birds had bad reviews. That night, I went downstairs and watched a YouTube video of The Mouse on the Mayflower on the big TV.
November 2. My family all went out to Centerville to see Free Birds. It was better than we expected. After the movie, we went to lunch at Chuck-A-Rama, since the next day was Fast Sunday. In Centerville, we went to the Sprint store to look at a smartphone for me. They were out of stock of the free one I wanted. I had talked to David to see what he recommended, but those were too expensive. We talked about our opinions of the movie; my dad said he didn't like how our ancestor (Myles Standish) was portrayed as a villain. I ate brownies with fall sprinkles on them. Then I went back to our house and brought out Thanksgiving decorations while I listened to my regular playlist, to which I had added my Thanksgiving music. Then I drove back to Provo, and I went to Rite Aid and Macey's to look at their clearance fall candy. And then I went to Walgreen's as well for the same purpose, even though I was tired and wanted to get back to my apartment.
Related:
October 27
October 28
October 29
All Hallows' Eve Eve
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-Treat Memories
All Saints' Day
Day of the Dead
October 30-November 1, 2012
Saturday, October 4, 2014
Dogfish dinosaur
One summer in 1996, I'm pretty sure, my family went to a dinosaur exhibit at Hogle Zoo. There were lots of displays of animatronic dinosaurs in a large tent area.
A few months later, after I was in school, I had a dream that I was at a display of dinosaurs--only they were real dinosaurs. One of them was called a dogfish dinosaur. The "dog" in its name came from the fact that it was brown and had floppy ears. I'm not sure where the "fish" came from, but it was probably related to catfish. This dinosaur was very tall, but it was kind of more like a giraffe--a long neck but not a long body. Its head was a typical dinosaur head, except for the floppy ears.
A few days later, in school, we were learning about compound words, where two words combine to make one word. The examples they showed us were houseboat (which I had never heard of before) and catfish.
For our assignment, we had to come up with four compound words and draw them. I couldn't think of them. I put down houseboat and catfish. Then I put down dog-fish-dinosaur (that was how I hyphenated it then, but now I would do it as dogfish dinosaur, which means that dogfish would be a compound but dinosaur wouldn't be part of it). When Miss Slater saw my paper, she asked me what a dog-fish-dinosaur was. I told her I had a dream about it--and she made me erase it because it wasn't real. I was really disappointed, because I couldn't think of anything else. And it was a compound word, even if it didn't exist.
On my mission, in Ritzville, WA, we would pass a street called Dogwood. That reminded me of the dogfish dinosaur, so when I told one of my companions about it, he said that my teacher should have accepted dog-fish-dinosaur--because even if it didn't exist, it showed that I understood what a compound word was.
A few months later, after I was in school, I had a dream that I was at a display of dinosaurs--only they were real dinosaurs. One of them was called a dogfish dinosaur. The "dog" in its name came from the fact that it was brown and had floppy ears. I'm not sure where the "fish" came from, but it was probably related to catfish. This dinosaur was very tall, but it was kind of more like a giraffe--a long neck but not a long body. Its head was a typical dinosaur head, except for the floppy ears.
A few days later, in school, we were learning about compound words, where two words combine to make one word. The examples they showed us were houseboat (which I had never heard of before) and catfish.
For our assignment, we had to come up with four compound words and draw them. I couldn't think of them. I put down houseboat and catfish. Then I put down dog-fish-dinosaur (that was how I hyphenated it then, but now I would do it as dogfish dinosaur, which means that dogfish would be a compound but dinosaur wouldn't be part of it). When Miss Slater saw my paper, she asked me what a dog-fish-dinosaur was. I told her I had a dream about it--and she made me erase it because it wasn't real. I was really disappointed, because I couldn't think of anything else. And it was a compound word, even if it didn't exist.
On my mission, in Ritzville, WA, we would pass a street called Dogwood. That reminded me of the dogfish dinosaur, so when I told one of my companions about it, he said that my teacher should have accepted dog-fish-dinosaur--because even if it didn't exist, it showed that I understood what a compound word was.
Friday, September 26, 2014
September 28-30, 2013
With my birthday coming up in a few days, I'm going to remember the days surrounding last year's birthday.
On September 28, I woke up completely freezing in my tent in Great Basin National Park. I hadn't slept well because it was so cold, and only in the last little bit had I slept well, and it was time to get up. So I got up and ate a cold apple and my pumpkin pie Pop-Tarts. I put away my tent. I found the campsite's bathroom, and we loaded up in the van to go to Lehman's Cave.
We got there, and a park ranger talked to us before we went in the cave. Upon learning that we were geology students, she said that we probably knew more about cave formation than she did, as she wasn't a geologist. (She might have been a biologist.)
At some point, I asked one of my classmates to take a picture of me:
We marveled at some of the practices of early explorers, such as writing their names on the walls and breaking off stalactites to use in building a wall.
When we got done, I looked briefly in both of the gift shops, not realizing that one was run by my sister's then-mother-in-law. We were all standing outside the visitors center, watching a little stinkbug on the ground. One girl obliviously stepped backwards onto it, and it was obviously injured. Realizing that it wasn't going to survive anyway, I went ahead and smashed it, with some of my classmates going "eww!" One person, who might have been a park employee, said somewhat facetiously, "Did you just kill a bug in a national park?" I explained that I hadn't been the first to step on it and that I was just putting it out of its misery.
We met up with a PhD student in biology from BYU who knew some things about the groundwater of the area. We went to different places and looked at the wells, which were basically PVC pipes that went really deep in the ground. They used some measuring instruments. We went to a little stream that had some watercress growing in it; there we measured the oxygen in the water. We also drove past some Indian drawings, and we might have stopped at some other places.
Then we drove back into Utah to an area known as Snake Valley. We stopped to look at a place where the Utah Geological Survey had installed a meter, but it was on private property and we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get there. There were two horses, a black one and a white one, that followed us around. The white one was friendlier. I didn't want to be at the edge of people, because I worried about the horses hurting us, particularly the black one, who was more skittish. One of the horses bit one of the plastic boxes that held measuring equipment. We stopped at a spring on the property, then we walked up a small hill to see the UGS meter. The horses stayed back at the spring for a bit before they followed us up to the meter. Then we had to climb under barbed wire again to leave the property, and the horses watched us, seemingly sad to see us leave. We walked across the road to another spring where the ground was so saturated that it felt like an earthquake when someone jumped on it. I think we saw some ducks on the little lake that resulted from the spring. Then we drove to a little stream and looked at the mudcracks. We took measurements at one place, then walked downstream and took more measurements. We went back to the van, but before we got in, some of us began playing catch with a mudcrack.
Then we drove to a gas station before we drove up a road to some hot springs. I think we got a little lost on our way there, but we found it. As we pulled up, we saw some people going up to the spring, and some people were worried they might be naked, but they had swimsuits. We got to a stream we had to cross, so we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. My classmate Geoff complained about tapered pants being hard to roll up. There was a little stream carrying water from the hot spring down to the regular stream, and I asked our professor if all the rock in that stream was tufa. He confirmed that it was, and I was happy I knew it. We had to climb up the mountain stepping on reeds and tufa, and one of them cut my foot. We stepped briefly in the hot spring before coming down again. One of my classmates, who I think was named Jeff (not Geoff), was saying he didn't want to listen to Jeremiah's iPod with Bon Jovi, so I said that when we got in the car I wanted to listen to mine, since we hadn't listened to mine and I was the one who had brought the auxiliary cord. He sarcastically said, "I don't think that entitles you," and then he asked what kind of music I liked. I said the Mamas and the Papas and Lady Gaga, and he said he liked Gaga's first album. Geoff asked whether I preferred Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, and he might have also asked about Kesha. Jeff said he thought Gaga was a better songwriter than Katy. When we got in the van, I realized this group might be hostile to some of my music, so I settled on my new Mideau album. As the first song, "Hejduk," was playing, my classmate Matt got in and said, "This sounds very familiar," and I told him it was Mideau, since he had been to their album release show like I had. Jeff hadn't heard Mideau, but he knew that one of them had been with the band Fictionist. Matt asked me what my favorite song was. I said I liked "Benny" and "Way with Words"; when "Feet to the Sun" was playing, Matt said it was his favorite. My album lasted just long enough for us to get back to the gas station, where we briefly stopped.
When we got back in the car, the grad student driving our van plugged in her iPod again. At some point on our drive, Geoff asked me how old I was, and I said, "I'll be twenty-five tomorrow." We stopped at Subway in Delta for dinner, where one of the workers gave us their apple slices, since she was going to have to throw them away and she thought college kids could use them.
When we left again, Jeremiah plugged in his iPod again with some standup comedy that wasn't funny and was vulgar. So then Jeff wanted to play his comedy, after I had said I didn't want to listen to more standup. Jeff's was funnier, but it was inappropriate. It seemed I was riding in the sinful van, and I feared man more than I feared God and didn't say how uncomfortable I was. I asked if they could hand me back my MP3 player from the front, at which point I turned on Lady Gaga the loudest I could get it to try to block out the foul comedy.
We arrived on campus, and Matt said he had left his bike in one of the rooms, but they were locked. I told him my ID card had access to the stream table room, so I gave him my card so he could get in. There was discussion about another geology student (who wasn't with us) that they didn't like.
Then I walked home.
On my birthday, I went to church in the Varsity Theater. This might have been the day that there were some heavy topics discussed in the combined third hour. I came home, and I think I ended a few-day Facebook fast by posting a video of moving wind-powered sculptures, and my mom used the link as a means to wish me a happy birthday, and my bishop then wished me happy birthday. I wrote my blog post of the week.
That night I went to a ward event where there were lots of cookies, and since I could eat them, I ate too many of them. While I was there, David called me, so I walked away and answered the phone. He asked me about what I thought of marriage, and he tried to get his boys to talk to me. I got a somewhat sarcastic "Happy Birthday" song from Preston, but that was all. While I was talking, I saw my friend Carrie walk by.
Then I walked up to the stake fireside in the Marriott Center. After it was over, I ate too many brownies and talked to some girls, Katria and Larissa. When I got home, my roommate Scott had made some cake or something, but he never told me I could have some, and I was sick from all the cookies and brownies I'd eaten.
Then Monday the 30th might have been the day I bought some cookies 'n' cream milk from a vending machine and was astounded at all the sugar and calories in one little bottle. That day, I was excited to see that both Cherie Call and the Lower Lights were working on new albums.
That takes care of last year's birthday. But although I have done a few birthday memory posts, I never wrote about my birthday in 2012, even though I wrote about September 28 and 30 of that year. So here is September 29, 2012:
I got up early to go help out with a service project, but I was very tired. I got dressed to help, but I couldn't find the place in my GPS, and I knew I would get lost, and since it was my birthday and I was very tired, I went back to bed. Eventually, I got up and drove home while eating a yellow Caramel Apple Pop. I think I was listening to my Owl City Midsummer Station CD, and then I switched to the radio. Lady Gaga's "You and I" came on. When I got home, I got various gifts from my parents: fall-colored M&Ms, a giant spider decoration, a Hogan's Heroes DVD set, a Michael Vey book, and a cup with a skull on it. Then something reminded my mom that she had two other gifts for me, a Lower Lights CD and the Tabernacle Choir's latest Christmas album. I remarked that I did think it was funny that I wanted CDs most for my birthday and didn't get any. Then we went to Chili's for lunch, and then we went to Walmart. I wanted mint ice cream and pumpkin ice cream, which I could use after my birthday. I saw some pumpkin-shaped Reese's ice cream bars, but we didn't get any.
Then we went home and had cake and ice cream. I wanted to show my parents Mad Monster Party?, but Allie didn't want to watch it because it had monsters in it. Because the Relief Society broadcast would be starting, I skipped some less important scenes. The movie ended right in time for the broadcast to start. I gathered up my stuff to leave to go back to Provo, and I think I looked for my copy of Corpse Bride to take with me.
I listened to my new Lower Lights CD on my drive back to Provo. When I got home, my roommate Scott had rearranged the living room.
On September 28, I woke up completely freezing in my tent in Great Basin National Park. I hadn't slept well because it was so cold, and only in the last little bit had I slept well, and it was time to get up. So I got up and ate a cold apple and my pumpkin pie Pop-Tarts. I put away my tent. I found the campsite's bathroom, and we loaded up in the van to go to Lehman's Cave.
We got there, and a park ranger talked to us before we went in the cave. Upon learning that we were geology students, she said that we probably knew more about cave formation than she did, as she wasn't a geologist. (She might have been a biologist.)
At some point, I asked one of my classmates to take a picture of me:
We marveled at some of the practices of early explorers, such as writing their names on the walls and breaking off stalactites to use in building a wall.
When we got done, I looked briefly in both of the gift shops, not realizing that one was run by my sister's then-mother-in-law. We were all standing outside the visitors center, watching a little stinkbug on the ground. One girl obliviously stepped backwards onto it, and it was obviously injured. Realizing that it wasn't going to survive anyway, I went ahead and smashed it, with some of my classmates going "eww!" One person, who might have been a park employee, said somewhat facetiously, "Did you just kill a bug in a national park?" I explained that I hadn't been the first to step on it and that I was just putting it out of its misery.
We met up with a PhD student in biology from BYU who knew some things about the groundwater of the area. We went to different places and looked at the wells, which were basically PVC pipes that went really deep in the ground. They used some measuring instruments. We went to a little stream that had some watercress growing in it; there we measured the oxygen in the water. We also drove past some Indian drawings, and we might have stopped at some other places.
Then we drove back into Utah to an area known as Snake Valley. We stopped to look at a place where the Utah Geological Survey had installed a meter, but it was on private property and we had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get there. There were two horses, a black one and a white one, that followed us around. The white one was friendlier. I didn't want to be at the edge of people, because I worried about the horses hurting us, particularly the black one, who was more skittish. One of the horses bit one of the plastic boxes that held measuring equipment. We stopped at a spring on the property, then we walked up a small hill to see the UGS meter. The horses stayed back at the spring for a bit before they followed us up to the meter. Then we had to climb under barbed wire again to leave the property, and the horses watched us, seemingly sad to see us leave. We walked across the road to another spring where the ground was so saturated that it felt like an earthquake when someone jumped on it. I think we saw some ducks on the little lake that resulted from the spring. Then we drove to a little stream and looked at the mudcracks. We took measurements at one place, then walked downstream and took more measurements. We went back to the van, but before we got in, some of us began playing catch with a mudcrack.
Then we drove to a gas station before we drove up a road to some hot springs. I think we got a little lost on our way there, but we found it. As we pulled up, we saw some people going up to the spring, and some people were worried they might be naked, but they had swimsuits. We got to a stream we had to cross, so we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. My classmate Geoff complained about tapered pants being hard to roll up. There was a little stream carrying water from the hot spring down to the regular stream, and I asked our professor if all the rock in that stream was tufa. He confirmed that it was, and I was happy I knew it. We had to climb up the mountain stepping on reeds and tufa, and one of them cut my foot. We stepped briefly in the hot spring before coming down again. One of my classmates, who I think was named Jeff (not Geoff), was saying he didn't want to listen to Jeremiah's iPod with Bon Jovi, so I said that when we got in the car I wanted to listen to mine, since we hadn't listened to mine and I was the one who had brought the auxiliary cord. He sarcastically said, "I don't think that entitles you," and then he asked what kind of music I liked. I said the Mamas and the Papas and Lady Gaga, and he said he liked Gaga's first album. Geoff asked whether I preferred Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, and he might have also asked about Kesha. Jeff said he thought Gaga was a better songwriter than Katy. When we got in the van, I realized this group might be hostile to some of my music, so I settled on my new Mideau album. As the first song, "Hejduk," was playing, my classmate Matt got in and said, "This sounds very familiar," and I told him it was Mideau, since he had been to their album release show like I had. Jeff hadn't heard Mideau, but he knew that one of them had been with the band Fictionist. Matt asked me what my favorite song was. I said I liked "Benny" and "Way with Words"; when "Feet to the Sun" was playing, Matt said it was his favorite. My album lasted just long enough for us to get back to the gas station, where we briefly stopped.
When we got back in the car, the grad student driving our van plugged in her iPod again. At some point on our drive, Geoff asked me how old I was, and I said, "I'll be twenty-five tomorrow." We stopped at Subway in Delta for dinner, where one of the workers gave us their apple slices, since she was going to have to throw them away and she thought college kids could use them.
When we left again, Jeremiah plugged in his iPod again with some standup comedy that wasn't funny and was vulgar. So then Jeff wanted to play his comedy, after I had said I didn't want to listen to more standup. Jeff's was funnier, but it was inappropriate. It seemed I was riding in the sinful van, and I feared man more than I feared God and didn't say how uncomfortable I was. I asked if they could hand me back my MP3 player from the front, at which point I turned on Lady Gaga the loudest I could get it to try to block out the foul comedy.
We arrived on campus, and Matt said he had left his bike in one of the rooms, but they were locked. I told him my ID card had access to the stream table room, so I gave him my card so he could get in. There was discussion about another geology student (who wasn't with us) that they didn't like.
Then I walked home.
On my birthday, I went to church in the Varsity Theater. This might have been the day that there were some heavy topics discussed in the combined third hour. I came home, and I think I ended a few-day Facebook fast by posting a video of moving wind-powered sculptures, and my mom used the link as a means to wish me a happy birthday, and my bishop then wished me happy birthday. I wrote my blog post of the week.
That night I went to a ward event where there were lots of cookies, and since I could eat them, I ate too many of them. While I was there, David called me, so I walked away and answered the phone. He asked me about what I thought of marriage, and he tried to get his boys to talk to me. I got a somewhat sarcastic "Happy Birthday" song from Preston, but that was all. While I was talking, I saw my friend Carrie walk by.
Then I walked up to the stake fireside in the Marriott Center. After it was over, I ate too many brownies and talked to some girls, Katria and Larissa. When I got home, my roommate Scott had made some cake or something, but he never told me I could have some, and I was sick from all the cookies and brownies I'd eaten.
Then Monday the 30th might have been the day I bought some cookies 'n' cream milk from a vending machine and was astounded at all the sugar and calories in one little bottle. That day, I was excited to see that both Cherie Call and the Lower Lights were working on new albums.
That takes care of last year's birthday. But although I have done a few birthday memory posts, I never wrote about my birthday in 2012, even though I wrote about September 28 and 30 of that year. So here is September 29, 2012:
I got up early to go help out with a service project, but I was very tired. I got dressed to help, but I couldn't find the place in my GPS, and I knew I would get lost, and since it was my birthday and I was very tired, I went back to bed. Eventually, I got up and drove home while eating a yellow Caramel Apple Pop. I think I was listening to my Owl City Midsummer Station CD, and then I switched to the radio. Lady Gaga's "You and I" came on. When I got home, I got various gifts from my parents: fall-colored M&Ms, a giant spider decoration, a Hogan's Heroes DVD set, a Michael Vey book, and a cup with a skull on it. Then something reminded my mom that she had two other gifts for me, a Lower Lights CD and the Tabernacle Choir's latest Christmas album. I remarked that I did think it was funny that I wanted CDs most for my birthday and didn't get any. Then we went to Chili's for lunch, and then we went to Walmart. I wanted mint ice cream and pumpkin ice cream, which I could use after my birthday. I saw some pumpkin-shaped Reese's ice cream bars, but we didn't get any.
Then we went home and had cake and ice cream. I wanted to show my parents Mad Monster Party?, but Allie didn't want to watch it because it had monsters in it. Because the Relief Society broadcast would be starting, I skipped some less important scenes. The movie ended right in time for the broadcast to start. I gathered up my stuff to leave to go back to Provo, and I think I looked for my copy of Corpse Bride to take with me.
I listened to my new Lower Lights CD on my drive back to Provo. When I got home, my roommate Scott had rearranged the living room.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
September 14
Today, I am going to remember what I can about today's date, September 14. Not because it's a significant date, but just because I can remember some things about it.
2013. In the morning, I had to walk down the street to my car, which was parked far away. I took my new Mideau CD to listen to in the car. At the grocery store, I bought some Halloween fruit snacks to put in my lunch the next week. That night, I was on the computer while my assistant clerk was helping out with membership records, asking me questions via email as needed.
2012. I drove home, and after everyone had gone to bed, I watched the sixth-season Halloween episode of Bewitched, since I hadn't watched it and I wanted to make sure it worked for Halloween. After midnight, I ate one of the caramel apple Milky Ways in my bed cupboard.
2011. It was a long day at work, and I remember telling my coworkers that I wouldn't be able to stay late the next day (since I was going to see Mary Poppins). I remember this incident, but I think the blog post I made explains it the best:
"When we send off envelopes, we put them in different color totes, depending on the kind of order it is--distribution store and urgent orders in red totes, international orders in blue totes, and normal orders in yellow totes. One of my coworkers, Michelle, went to get a tote. When she came back, she said, "We're sendin' 'em in blue." I misheard her, and thought she said "synonym," but then I realized that didn't make sense, so I determined she must have said "We're cinnamon and blue," cinnamon meaning red. Since many of my coworkers were decked out all week for the rivalry, I thought she was referring to our shirts--she was wearing a red SUU shirt, and I was wearing--wait, I was wearing a black shirt. Then she said, "'Cause I couldn't find any yellow totes." Then I realized she was talking about the totes. I didn't actually see her bring the tote over, so I thought she had a blue one and a red one. After a minute I said, "Why did you say cinnamon instead of red?" She was really confused, and asked if I was talking to her, or the other coworker, Cameron. When I realized what happened, I couldn't stop laughing to explain myself."
When I did explain it, Michelle thought it was hilarious.
2009. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a typical P-day. We did go and get the oil changed. But it wasn't all typical. We went to the Robinson's [sic] and played Bang!, but after that Elder Tamblyn was sick so we didn't do anything else." [I have decided not to write down the second paragraph.]
I think this was the first time we went to the Robinsons', since Elder Robinson, who was related to them, was newly transferred to the adjoining area. This might have been the time he drank horse milk.
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"The point of September was for it to cool down, but even though leaves lie on lawns, it is very warm.
"We tracted a little bit but only one person was home. We really want more people. But the Raabs might help with Glenda Lee, a potential investigator."
2002. In the morning, I noticed that the Reeds across the street had a little decoration of a pumpkin with a face, so I decided that I would bump up my Halloween starting-time to September 14 rather than the 15th. (At one point it was bumped as early as September 11, but I have bumped it back to the 15th, and now I'm going to ease into it.) Then we went to my sister's new apartment to help her. I remember sitting in a parking lot outside a store that advertised Halloween decorations, but I wasn't celebrating Halloween that year. Then I waited in her apartment and watched Roughing It, which I had rented from Top Hat Video.
2013. In the morning, I had to walk down the street to my car, which was parked far away. I took my new Mideau CD to listen to in the car. At the grocery store, I bought some Halloween fruit snacks to put in my lunch the next week. That night, I was on the computer while my assistant clerk was helping out with membership records, asking me questions via email as needed.
2012. I drove home, and after everyone had gone to bed, I watched the sixth-season Halloween episode of Bewitched, since I hadn't watched it and I wanted to make sure it worked for Halloween. After midnight, I ate one of the caramel apple Milky Ways in my bed cupboard.
2011. It was a long day at work, and I remember telling my coworkers that I wouldn't be able to stay late the next day (since I was going to see Mary Poppins). I remember this incident, but I think the blog post I made explains it the best:
"When we send off envelopes, we put them in different color totes, depending on the kind of order it is--distribution store and urgent orders in red totes, international orders in blue totes, and normal orders in yellow totes. One of my coworkers, Michelle, went to get a tote. When she came back, she said, "We're sendin' 'em in blue." I misheard her, and thought she said "synonym," but then I realized that didn't make sense, so I determined she must have said "We're cinnamon and blue," cinnamon meaning red. Since many of my coworkers were decked out all week for the rivalry, I thought she was referring to our shirts--she was wearing a red SUU shirt, and I was wearing--wait, I was wearing a black shirt. Then she said, "'Cause I couldn't find any yellow totes." Then I realized she was talking about the totes. I didn't actually see her bring the tote over, so I thought she had a blue one and a red one. After a minute I said, "Why did you say cinnamon instead of red?" She was really confused, and asked if I was talking to her, or the other coworker, Cameron. When I realized what happened, I couldn't stop laughing to explain myself."
When I did explain it, Michelle thought it was hilarious.
2009. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a typical P-day. We did go and get the oil changed. But it wasn't all typical. We went to the Robinson's [sic] and played Bang!, but after that Elder Tamblyn was sick so we didn't do anything else." [I have decided not to write down the second paragraph.]
I think this was the first time we went to the Robinsons', since Elder Robinson, who was related to them, was newly transferred to the adjoining area. This might have been the time he drank horse milk.
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"The point of September was for it to cool down, but even though leaves lie on lawns, it is very warm.
"We tracted a little bit but only one person was home. We really want more people. But the Raabs might help with Glenda Lee, a potential investigator."
2002. In the morning, I noticed that the Reeds across the street had a little decoration of a pumpkin with a face, so I decided that I would bump up my Halloween starting-time to September 14 rather than the 15th. (At one point it was bumped as early as September 11, but I have bumped it back to the 15th, and now I'm going to ease into it.) Then we went to my sister's new apartment to help her. I remember sitting in a parking lot outside a store that advertised Halloween decorations, but I wasn't celebrating Halloween that year. Then I waited in her apartment and watched Roughing It, which I had rented from Top Hat Video.
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