the butterflies fly away

After listening to "Party in the USA" three times to get myself pumped up Tuesday morning, I went and did my oral candidacy exam, and now I'm an official PhD candidate! Yay!

We celebrated by eating lasagna for the third night in a row and watching an episode of The West Wing. We know how to party.

hey, guess what

Aaron likes it so he put a ring on it.

And we are getting married in T = 3 months - 2 days.

As in December 20th, in the Salt Lake Temple.

(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

(And I don't have a picture of the ring because my camera charger cord is MIA! :( )

This is like the biggest occasion of my life, so I feel like it deserves this awesomely expressive eloquent post. Hence the reason for it being Wednesday and us getting engaged last Saturday. And yet, I am still without something...pretty? to say.

Can I just say, this year has got to be the most emotionally challenging, crazy-directionally-changing of my whole life? Aaron and I started dating officially last winter semester, my grandma passed away in April, I accomplished two major life goals by winning in Blackpool and living in France, I quit the ballroom team, and I got engaged.

So there you go. I suppose if I don't have anything to say it's because I'm still processing.

Wow. wow. wow. 

Lyrics by Train have been running through my head (thanks to Amanda, hehe):

My feet have been on the floor
Flat like an idle singer
Remember winger
I digress
I confess you are the best thing in my life

But I'm afraid when I hear stories
About a husband and wife
There's no happy endings
No Henry Lee
But you are the greatest thing about me

[Chorus]
If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, Love
That's enough for me

Took a loan on a house I own
Can't be a queen bee without a bee throne
I wanna buy ya everything
Except cologne
'cause it's poison
We can travel to Spain where the rain falls
Mainly on the plain side and sing
'cause it is we can laugh we can sing
Have ten kids and give them everything
Hold our cell phones up in the air
And just be glad we made it here alive
On a spinning ball in the middle of space
I love you from your toes to your face

[Chorus]

You can move in
I won't ask where you've been
'cause everybody has a past
When we're older
We'll do it all over again

When everybody else is getting out of bed
I'm usually getting in it
I'm not in it to win it
I'm in it for you

If it's love
And we're two birds of a feather
Then the rest is just whenever
Then the rest is just whenever

If it's love
And we decide that it's forever
No one else could do it better
And if I'm addicted to loving you
And you're addicted to my love too
We can be them two birds of a feather
That flock together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
Got to have something to keep us together
Love, love
That's enough for me

the only exception

Today I decided that I do not wish to attend graduate school alone.

I also decided that either:

a. my French professor forgot about my plan to take an extra year to graduate and the fact that I always fell asleep in his class, actually does like me, and was merciful

or,

b. I rocked my oral final

because I got an A- in that class (French civ)! Yeah!

I know right, A- is not something I would normally brag about (unless it was in o chem...) but this was the [uncurved] class where I turned in my second midterm a day late because I was in San Fran and ended up getting minus 10% on my already not particularly good score. I was expecting a B at best, let's just put it that way.

I also decided that apparently I should've been an English major, because I am much better at verbal reasoning on the MCAT* than on the physical sciences section. Ridiculous. Why I am so drawn to a subject that seems so determined to kill me I will never understand.**

Oh, and I also decided that maybe it would be sort of fun/seemingly good idea/potentially horrible idea, I don't know, to take a computer programming class. Not next semester, because somehow I'm already up to my neck in credit hours, but maybe next winter or sometime next next year.


*Not that I'm applying to med school...my boyfriend is. Sometimes we do verbal reasoning practice tests together, because we are just so darn cool like that. And a little nerdy.

**Not that I would ever change my major, nor have I ever regretted choosing it in the first place...except maybe once when I woke up at 5:00 AM in the Benson and had rehearsal at 8:00.

They say it's your birthday...

Soo....as of March 3rd, I am officially 21! (and officially without a valid driver's license...uh oh.)

Many thanks for all of the texts, calls, facebook messages, etc. You guys are great!
My roommate Natalie, photographer extraordinaire, took a bunch of photos from our roommate trip to Spark that fully captured the essence of what a birthday is supposed to be about:

Laura made me a chocolate cake from scratch! It won the best-chocolate-cake-I've-ever-had-hands-down award.

Tastes as good as it looks...mmm....

I also went out to lunch at India Palace (chicken tikka masala, heavenly) with my mom and Becky. From my family I received all three seasons of "Avatar: the Last Airbender". You know what this means, right? Weekly marathons. I think yes.
Perhaps the best present though, was getting that dang thermometer fixed! That's what working in the lab on your birthday does for you! :D

Oh, and, I have a little announcement.
That I've known for a while, but was so scared someone was going to email me and say, "Just kidding, we really don't want you," but this week was the first prep class and no one's changed their mind yet, so:

I'm doing an internship in France this summer!!!!! AHHH!!! I get to spend May 28th through the end of August in Europe!!!! AHHHH!!!! So excited!

Anyway. There's the update on life.
You should all come play lasertag with me tonight at 8:00, for a triple celebration of my birthday, my fixing skills, and my future summer in France. :)

neon

Surprises of all surprises...
I got A's in both American Christianity and French Lit!

In fact, I got A's in every class except physics (A-) and my favorite class, quantum mechanics (B+), making my Fall '09 semester my third best gpa yet.

Universe, I know you keep telling me to major in French but guess what. You can't make me.
And I am going to rock my second half of physical chemistry class because guess what else. It is my subject of research, and I am not going down without a fight.

So there! :P

(You know what's uber depressing though? I already have homework I could be doing for both my quantum mechanics lab and my thermodynamics class...what the heck?? Where did my break go??) Edit/Confession: I've been working on my thermo homework while waiting for an experiment to go through, and I've sort of been enjoying myself. Nerd I am indeed.

run, run...fast, fast...cha, cha, chachi!

Today I love:

picnics
"Arrested Development"
Rockband
study parties
daffodils blooming by the ramp
getting good test scores for the first time in a long time
rocking Dashboard songs

We toasted with apple mocktinis yesterday:
"May we be lucky all year long!"

So far, so good.

I believe what it says on that sign on the Alamo, we are all winners!

I WON AN iPOD!!!
Brand new nano in the color of my choice from this dance competition at the student center this week!

This is especially fortunate because I have washed my current ipod twice. Two times I have opened up the washing machine to find my earphones tangled in among the denim...not good. Luckily my ipod seems to be pretty hardy because after pretending to be dead for a while (it even had a little dead ipod with x's for eyes come up on the screen) it bounced right back. No water stains or anything. It might be a little slow sometimes, but it's been all right...

But now I get to start over with a whole new one! This begs the question of course, which color should I choose? Take the poll friends. :)

What the festive?

Two photos for you:

My major purchase I mentioned forever ago: a '96 Honda Accord!!! Woot!!!

The view from my front porch. I'm snowed in. I don't dare drive anywhere today, and I think it just might make me crazy. Meh.

Apathetic way to be.

I. do. not. want. to. study.
And I really really really do not want to go back and do ALL of the oral exercises for my French class...........meeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I just spent all morning doing the written ones....and I just want to get everything over with...but I really do need to study, but I just don't feel like it....all I feel like doing is overusing ellipses and whining on my blog....

On a happier note, I got my parking ticket reduced from $30 to $10. Thank goodness for online appeals. :P

Good luck on finals everyone!

Colds, chemistry, and the College Board

My high school chemistry teacher Mrs. Snow swore you could talk yourself out of any sickness. She was always telling us, "You are NOT allowed to get sick and miss class! You are NOT getting a cold!" And you know what, by the end of the year, I believed her. I don't think I was ever sick.
I could feel a sore throat coming on yesterday and this morning I was whining in my head about it when all of a sudden I could hear her voice...."anyone can talk themselves out of getting sick! It's all about willpower!".....so, everyone, I. do. not. have. a. cold. :P

I miss Mrs. Snow. She was great.
In fact, I miss all of my AP teachers...

You know what job I think would be kinda fun? One of those counselors who grooms students to be accepted into Ivy League schools. It'd probably be good idea to have actually attended one though...I also think it'd be fun to be a tutor to get kids to pass AP tests. I really love the College Board, haha. They kept sending me good news in the mail. Now no one sends you an envelope showing your midterm exam score, and you don't get to be a scholar of distinction if you pass more than 5 of them (or whatever the requirement is).

Good news though: I only missed 3 questions on the multiple choice section of my latest o chem test!

Take That, Calculus!

So I think most of you readers read my blog about my 37% on my math test...

I checked my grades today online and in math, I received a(n)

A FREAKING MINUS! muhahahahahahhhahahaha!

It's been a week full of good things. Just wanted to share. :)

Very Merry Happy

I, Katherine Willo Andrus the first, am now officially a member of the Brigham Young University Ballroom Dance Touring Team!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I am so, so, so excited! I have been dreaming of being on the tour team since I was in 5th grade. I've been going to the concert since they performed the Beatles and Russia medleys (which was four medleys ago, which means 12 years). This has been a major life goal of mine for so long, gah, I am just so happy.

haha, I've been checking my email almost every hour now for the past two days. When I finally got it and saw that I'd made it, I screamed and jumped around, and cried and hugged Melissa, and called my mom and jumped around some more. It was like opening my scores from the first time I took the ACT, only better. :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

May all your dreams come true like mine. heheh loves!