The problem is, I liked all my classes too much and therefore want to take them all.

I want to flip open my text book and find a handwritten message.
I want to look up and see a plane writing it in the sky.
I want to trip over a rock and find it in sidewalk chalk.

"You need to take [insert class here]. It will be the most beneficial to you and make you happiest this semester.

-God"

I hope that's not too sacrilegious of me...

Alas, I fear this is one of those take-a-step-into-the-dark-and-then-figure-out-whether-you've-made-the-right-choice type of deals. Ugh. Help.

triple necklace with eiffel tower charm...i think yes.

I can't believe that classes start tomorrow. Ever since I can remember I've anticipated the first day of school, starting to get myself mentally prepared weeks in advance. This time around it feels like it snuck up on me. I'm pretty sure I'm only taking physics 220 and chem 462 for my major classes this semester....but....I would really, really, really, really like to take 455. And maybe I still will...haven't dropped it yet...but probably will...I'm planning on auditioning for dance classes during the class time tomorrow. I've a million things running around in my head: what to wear (yeah, I still do the whole lay-out-your-back-to-school-outfit-the-night-before thing), what colored notebooks I want to use for which classes (I just really like color coordination), whether to shower tonight or tomorrow morning, what to pack for a lunch, what shirt to wear for dance auditions, what time to get up, how to do my hair (just as important as the back-to-school-first-day-outfit), what to take (!!!), etc etc etc.......

tehe.
I get a little silly about back to schoolness. I just like everything to go well...it's a good omen for the rest of the semester, ya know?

Fingers crossed it'll be awesome. I have a good feeling about Fall '09....

IKEA follow up

If you would like to join me for another IKEA run (I went with my mom, sisters, and Amanda yesterday and managed to shatter the frame I got, so I've got to go back), here is the plan:

Be at my apartment (if you need my address, facebook message me) at 3:00 on Friday to carpool up there, or meet us at IKEA by 3:30-3:45 ish.

I'm thinking we could skip the showroom and go straight for the marketplace.

Thoughts?

455? 462? 220? 391? 481? 120? 340? 361?

Seeing as there is less than a week until classes start, I should probably figure out what I want to take (and major in).

Hmmm...

nah.

IKEA...IKEA...all we ask of you...*

....is a whole lot of really awesome house stuff for very cheap.

So.
A lot of people have been wanting to make an IKEA run. I propose the following:

Tuesday afternoon, Friday afternoon, or Saturday after boating.

Afternoon = 4:00 ish

Thoughts?

*to be sung to the tune of Aida :)

firefly (aka I do enjoy post titles that have nothing to do with the post itself.)

I have moved.
Many thanks to Jeff, Josh, and my parents for helping carry my stuff across the parking lot from one building to the next. I'm really liking my new apartment. Why might you ask? For the benefit of Kellie and Laura who will in the future be joining me there let me elaborate.
Nicer flooring (the fake stone vinyl that's in A building)
Prettier (sort of) cabinets (off white instead of cocoa brown)
Black leather couches
Air conditioning
Bigger closets
TWO desks in every room instead of one (however, there's only one dresser...go figure...I'm going to get plastic drawers to stick under my bed for my excessive amount of clothing)

And this week I splurged a little bit at Target and bought a new 12" skillet (stainless steel with copper bottom, very pretty), and white bird salt and pepper shakers (so Martha Stewart) at the suggestion of Josh. I'm looking forward to an IKEA run sometime in the next week to get a kitchen shelving unit with hooks for pots and pans, a coat rack, and a couple of yards of fabric to sew some pillow coverings (I'm seriously on a domestic roll here).

I told my mom I knew I was an adult since I got so excited about pans.
Yep, I'm that awesome.

P.S. During the school year I want to do a foreign film night every so often since Laura and I are going in on a Netflix account/the International Cinema is just so darn accessible and fun.
You are all invited. :)

How to Wax Your Floors: A Tutorial by the Not-So-Domestic Goddess Katya

Step 1. Cover floor in floor stripper without a plan to avoid kneeling in it.
Step 2. Freak out while wondering how corrosive floor stripper is.
Step 3. Forget about freaking out when you discover how fun it is to skate around on soaked floor on your knees.
Step 4. Scrape wax off.
Step 5. Flood floor with water in an attempt to "rinse" it.
Step 6. Attempt to rid floor of excessive water by flicking it out your front door with a paper plate (for this tutorial you don't have access to a mop), coating your front porch with liquid wax/floor stripper combo.
Step 7. Destroy bathroom towels after step 6 fails.
Step 8. Coat floor with wax and trap yourself in the back of your apartment for 35 minutes until it dries.
Step 9. Decide your floors were never worth waxing in the first place and feel slightly resentful toward your apartment complex.

Goalage!!

I've been thinking a bit here and there, and I've come up with some goals for the back to school season. There's nothing too life changing, but little things here and there to make for a more successful semester.

Spiritual:
1. Morning scripture study before I go to class. Now, I have class at 7:00 AM almost every morning, and I love, love, love my sleep so this is going to be particularly difficult. However, I feel that if I make scripture study a bigger priority by doing it first thing in the morning I'll be blessed in other areas in my life where I desperately need some divine help.
2. Weekly temple attendance. I think once the semester starts, and I get a regular schedule going I'll be able to find mornings or late afternoons where this will be possible.

Physical:
1. Running (or some other form of exercise I can stand) twice a week. Yeah, I know that's not really enough to do much for me, but combined with all of my dancing, I think I'll be okay.
2. Practice twice a week for dance. This is cutting back hugely compared to years past, but I think it's all I can handle. I really want to focus on...

Academic:
1. Study at least an hour a day on my own for both Physics 220 and Chem 462. I want to make the Dean's List this semester (which means I have to get straight A's), and I did awful on studying last semester, so....yeah.
2. Work in the lab ten hours a week. Last semester I was working maybe two. Every two weeks. I'd like to up that a bit to earn some money and real life experience!

Social:
1. Know the names of all my neighbors (hahaha, so I'm not the most social person) and go to all the church activities I can. Freshman year I was really bad at this. Sophomore year was improved (anything would've been an improvement), but...I can still do more. I want to know everyone in my ward and make a lot of friends there.
2. Do something for someone else every day. It doesn't have to be big, but just some small act of service. I get busy and stressed and then I spiral down into a busy-stressed-self-pitying vortex, so I'm going to try to avoid that this time around. :)

Random:
1. Keep track of money. I am so, so awful at this. I did however, make up an excel spreadsheet a little while ago to keep track of expenditures. Have I been using it? Well....that's something to work on.

So there you have it. Anyone else have back to school goals?

I think I'm wearing the Slytherin locket horcrux.

Life is awesome.

But today all I want to do is crawl into bed, listen to the rain, and read Harry Potter.
And fall asleep and not wake up until tomorrow.
Shirk all responsibility.
Escape.

vous ne risquez pas d'être un légume

Sometimes it feels like French is a private club for members who are either from there or served missions there, and I will never gain membership. I take the classes, I read the Book of Mormon in French, I talk with my mom, but this is not enough. This will not make me fluent. And I keep ignoring that and pushing it aside, but one day it will become very embarrassing for me to say I was a French minor and yet can't carry on a thoughtful conversation with someone. (I mean, I could carry on a conversation about food, or airports, or families, or school subjects, or house-related things "la chaise est verte!", but anything that actually matters? describing situations and events? politics? religion? okay, actually I've upped my gospel vocab a lot by reading scriptures in French, but I couldn't bear my testimony or anything. Maybe. Have yet to try.)

Usually I assuage my concerns with the desperate hope that one day I will get to France and I will stay there for a while and I will become fluent if it kills me! And usually I'm fine after I think that to myself.

But every so often reality is shoved in my face in my inability to understand French tourists in San Francisco and I want to cry. It's impractical, it's expensive, and what exactly would I do? I don't think my language skills are where they should be for an internship, I travel with the ballroom team at the same time as all the French study abroads, and I really don't have anyplace to go.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean for this post to be one long whiny rant. I'm a little discouraged.
Don't take me too seriously. After all is said and done I still believe it will all happen. Somehow.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

mmmm wheat thins

Couple more things:

1. It is so uncomfortable to eat while half your mouth is numb.

2. I think I'm going to go back to being blonde before school starts.

"Did you give an angry Cuban my home number?"

Well...I was going to post about the Shakespeare Festival, but it's been too long and Jody wrote up a lovely post detailing all of our adventures including, but not limited to, dance parties broken up by sketchy 40 year old men in church parking lots, fun with glue sticks, late night ice cream runs, fake crushes on actors, and fabulous plays. Read all about it here.

In other news...

I forgot how much I love "House" until Josh and I started watching it again, and wow, I love "House". I was so incredibly upset when everyone quit/got fired, and now I can't wait for Chase and Foreman and Cameron to be back (we just started season four). And can I just say that I absolutely love House and Wilson's relationship? And also that I love Wilson? I am almost inspired to be a doctor....almost...except for the whole needles, blood, death, trauma, an excessive amount of schooling, etc. I think I'll stick to chemistry.

Also, all of a sudden I'm very curious about what's going on when I'm at the dentist (got a cavity filled today). What exactly is that big gun thing they stick in your mouth after you've gotten a cavity filled? I'm sure it's supposed to dry/set/whatever the cavity filler, but by what means? What does it do? And what exactly is it in the molding that makes it go from pink to white when it dries? What chemical is that? And how exactly does anesthesia work? How do the chemicals knock out your nerves? And why does your lip feel fat and your face swollen? Anyone secretly a dental hygienist or in dental school who can satisfy my curiosity?

And another thing, after reading this post (thanks Bob!), I am re-inspired to make goals. I found the paper on which I'd written down my goals from last fall (or maybe end of fall semester?), and it turns out I did pretty well. No US national semi-final for ballroom this year, but we were the next couple in for amateur standard. And I pretty much did awful with my financial goals, but I didn't actually try on those ones...anyway, classes start in less than a month, I'm moving into a new apartment (same complex, different building), and I think it would be smart to use this time of change to make new goals for the next year. What those will be I have not yet decided. I'll post something later this week.

Last thing: can we please please please know which numbers we're in next year for team? I'm dying to know if I got any of my requested numbers, and we were supposed to get an email last week telling us and I've been checking my email every few hours just in case it got sent and waiting is making me type sentences with far too many clauses and not enough commas...

Happy Monday everyone :)