NCAA

i just filled out a bracket for the first time. what a momentous occasion. i bet my three minutes of time spent on filling out that bracket will beat many people's hours of deliberating and debating. sadly enough.

all i can say is, i only gave byu two rounds of winning. you KNOW they're not going to go any farther than that (if they even get that far).

(and don't worry, all you busbys out there, i think unlv will win at least one game.)

go cougars

probably at least once a week, when tommy and i get dressed to go exercise, we both end up wearing one of our hundreds of $5 byu football t-shirts. (on accident. we usually try not to match . . . but we have so many byu t-shirts it's really hard not to coincide a lot.)

and then once we're actually walking out the door, i always double up and put on my byu zip-up hoodie on our way over to the gym.

yeah, it's ridiculous. but we're not ashamed. (especially because the only thing 90% of the people here know about byu is jimmer.)

i don't care how good he is at basketball...

i still think that jimmer's a weird name.

i laughed a LOT.

it's funny cuz you hate that it's true.

taken right before we left provo.

i mean, i HAD to. because it is SO RIDICULOUS. and i love it.


i didn't even mean to be wearing my byu alumni shirt--it just happened that way. makes it even better.

i saw sarah!

last week, i left provo for four glorious days and got to visit my BFF sarah. sarah and i met our first day in the dorms almost exactly 4 years ago and have been friends ever since. we've taken classes together (e.g. danceaerobics), shared a room, toothpaste, and clothes, and had two fights that we can remember. she claims full responsibility for tommy and i getting married (you'll have to talk to her to get the reasoning behind that one) although heavens knows she did her best to prevent it (the cougar hand-holding song. seriously?). and her going on a mission was probably the most traumatic thing that happened to me in my college experience. that's our relationship in a nutshell. she's also the funniest person you'll ever meet and super spiritchal too.

thankfully, she recently returned from said mission in the philippines. people have been asking me for months when i was going to see her, because it's pretty well known that we are incapable of living separate lives? i don't know. but aside from the fact that she couldn't refer to herself as sarah but only as sister fairweather and she thought the fridge was called "the ref", she was entirely normal. we spent a day and a half in new york city and did some really fun things.

we:

went to the met and were AVID admirers of the art there.

met up with my favorite first cousin once removed and had pizza and an adventure.

visited the ny public library, because sarah knows how i like libraries.

accidentally ran into the philippines consulate. oh, the irony.

ate cupcakes.

um, don't really know. just appreciate it.

went to the manhattan temple.

and talked. a lot. sarah said that we basically held a four-day long conversation with sleeping and a few other activities in between--which was exactly what i needed. it was the. best. and i was sad to leave.


on the other hand, tommy and i have discovered that we can't really leave each other at home alone for extended periods of time. we both just fall into this pit of neverending tv and fast food without the other one there . . . but it was so worth it. sorry, t.

byu by the numbers

a few interesting facts to ponder about my time at byu:

• time span: september 2006-june 2010
• semesters: 8 (plus 3 spring terms)
• study abroads: 1
• classes taken: 64
• total credit hours: 176.5
• final gpa: 3.xx (still undecided. and i'm not going to share it anyways)
• majors: 1
• minors: 3 (yeah, i have a problem)
• tests taken*: 89
• papers written*: 42
• hours spent in the testing center*: hundreds
• nights spent at the library until the music started playing*: 63
• jobs held: 1
• money made over the last 4 years: not very much
• money paid over the last 4 years: a lot
• roommates: 13 (including tommy, of course)
• places i've lived in provo: 3

*educated estimates

wait. what does this mean? i took my last final this morning? i'm done at byu?

how anti-climactic. tommy and i are going to eat an entire pint of ben and jerry's to celebrate and then go to ogden for the weekend.

thanks for the good times, cougars.

graduation

i highly suggest that you watch this video as you look at this post. it will get you into the right mood:



here are the facts:
-tommy and i may or may not have graduated in the last few days. (actually, not. but we sure fooled everyone else.)
-my parents came and so did tommy's family = party.
-the guy who presented all the graduates at the convocation for the college of physical and mathematical sciences (the college of PMS for those of you with acronymic leanings) made it sound like i got a master's of statistics. grandpa murphy is proud.
-we were sure to take tons of pictures, particularly cheesy ones with the Y in the background and with brother brigham.
-we didn't get a picture with the "enter to learn, go forth to serve" sign, though.
-i'm still starting spring classes in 4 days.

RISE AND SHOUT, THE COUGARS ARE OUT!

cougar 4 life.

sometimes i see people on campus who were in a class with me 3.5 years ago and i wonder, "what are they still DOING here?"

and then i remember, I'M still here. right.


but i'm walking in t-10 days. so not much longer.

i don't know if i'll even get to that point. i've reached the point of utter apathy. i used to want to excel. now all i want to do is finish. what if i don't pass? i really will be a cougar for life.

i don't even think i would care. all i know is that i don't want to look at this research paper, or any other research paper, ever again.

there are no words.

i'm used to being young--the last few years, all of my friends were born anywhere from a few months to five years before me. i'm the youngest of all of my old roommates and tommy is (almost) four years older than me (what a creeper, right?).

but last night, in my cooking class, i made a comment to my kitchenmates about being born in the late eighties. no big deal, right? i'm used to people around me saying, "late eighties! i was born in 1984! you're a baby!" i assumed everyone in the room was born in the eighties, or at least 1990, which isn't even that far from the eighties. (i've at least come to accept the fact that my sister is a college-aged student.)

at least, that was until this girl across the room turned to me and said, with COMPLETE AND UTTER ASTONISHMENT: "you were born in the eighties?"

i didn't know what to do. i said, "um. yes." what? along with the rest of byu students, right?

she said, "i was born in '92!"

NINETEEN NINETY-TWO, people. my little brother was born in 1992 and he's a junior in high school. what's going on here? and SHE was the one making ME feel out of place. there were no words.

so this was the only response i could come up with: "what the heck are you doing in college?"

choir people

yesterday, while sitting with university chorale in the marriott center before the devotional, the girl next to me turned to me and asked,

"do they ever play any sports in here?"

yes, she did. annddd she was serious.

junk email

here's a confession: i HATE junk email. junk email meaning any email that isn't actually meant for me; it's a forward or an ad. whether it comes from payless shoes or a relative. i just don't like having random things unnecessarily cluttering up my inbox. and it makes me a mean and horrible person, like i'm about to prove to you.

the worst offender at sending out junk email is the editing department. i get at least six emails a day from them with worthless unpaid editing internships and offers from random ladies who wrote their own "pseudo-electro-psycho-fantasy vampire novel" and will offer "experience" to any student who will edit it for free. phyllis daniel, the editing department secretary, whose name appears as the sender of all of these emails, has long been on my "delete immediately" list.

but today was the last straw. phyllis got a bit email trigger happy this morning. she sent out her average three or four morning internship emails, accompanied by another email advertising a random indian man who is coming to speak on campus. an event that has nothing to do with editing, just a random lecture by a random, probably very intelligent and nice but not-interesting-to-me guy.

that was it.

so i responded saying this (it's unedited, so you can see how spiteful i am over such unimportant things):

"Why are we receiving this information? This has nothing to do with the editing minor and therefore should not be sent to us by the editing department. I feel like this is an abuse of power to be able to send out so many unimportant emails."

a few minutes later, she emailed me this back:

"I am sorry, I thought it would be something that might be interesting to you. I can take you off the email list if you would like."

whoa--phyllis is actually a person! and she was reasonable! i immediately felt like a bad and horrible person for questioning her authority to send out useless, unimportant emails to all the editing minors. i just said back:

"That would actually be great. Thank you."


and then six minutes later she sent me another two emails about more useless editing internships. i stopped feeling bad.

and, wow.

okay, another post in the same day, but.

i just went and applied for graduation (!!) and do you know what they told me?

i have to pay $15 to receive my diploma.

are you SERIOUS? i mean, it's only $15, but AFTER FOUR YEARS AND OVER 150 CREDITS AND THOUSANDS OF HOURS AND DOLLARS I DON'T GET THAT STINKING PIECE OF PAPER FOR FREE? BYU, are you serious? couldn't they have taken those $15 out of one of the our tuition payments? that's just the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard.

i can't believe that. i am appalled, and almost tempted not to pay it in protest. but yeah, after four years and almost 150 credits and thousands of hours and dollars i want that stinking piece of paper.

the daily universe

in following the example of barret d. lybbert, i decided to protest something published in the daily universe. in fact, a plethora of somethings.

for example:
-this front-page article about twilight, of all things, which was published today.
-this front-page article about finding a hot date in the library, from earlier this week.
-this front-page article about whether or not you should wait for your missionary, also from earlier this week.

i am well aware that the daily universe publishes many well-written, informed articles about campus activities. i am also well aware that students are responsible for writing the articles. but why on EARTH do they write such ridiculous, practically offensive articles about such shallow, unimportant topics? and then have them be on the front page?

this is the letter i sent to the daily universe. they may or may not publish it. but i am just sick and tired of reading stories about things like this, and knowing that others who read this judge the BYU community by what they see on the front page. not all of us are concerned with such infantile issues as those.

Dear Daily Universe,

This semester's front page articles have been absolutely insulting, and today's article about the opening of New Moon is the final straw. Earlier this week, there was an article about whether or not girls should consider waiting for their missionary. And another article about romantic encounters in the library. How much can you insult the intelligence of the BYU community? Unfortunately, The Daily Universe is the only news source for the majority of BYU students. Even more unfortunately, they don't actually get any news from reading it. Would it hurt to actually cover national and global events instead of giving a two-paragraph snippet on the back page? What about actual events that are happening in Utah, Provo, and BYU? I understand that The Daily Universe is mainly a student-run newspaper and that obviously, it is difficult to come up with topics to cover, but there are opportunities all around us that would be must more informative than these topics. Isn't BYU's motto "Enter to learn, go forth to serve"? How are we to do that if our own newspaper only gives us stories about the most ridiculous popular trilogy of this year? I fail to see how these main stories are in any way newsworthy or of any interest to a somewhat educated audience (which, ostensibly, a university of students should be). Don't talk down to us and underestimate our intelligence, and don't continue to represent the BYU community in such a shallow, naive way. I for one am ready to see some articles about real stories and real issues.


i know it's not really a big deal. and even if nothing happens, it feels good to get some steam off after this long and stressful week and make a statement. alec, tanner, and annalise, at least, all agree with me. it would help if the daily universe invested in some truly competent editors, too (who will ever forget the "Twelve Apostates" incident of winter semester?) . . . but i didn't think i needed to go that far.