Oh look, it's 4 a.m. again...

So, today will be my 8th day of school (it already feels like I've been in school much longer...uh-oh) and I can confidently say that it is going quite well. I really love all of my classes. I was a bit worried about my French class because I am now in INTERMEDIATE french (ooh la la) but I talked to my teacher and he seemed to think I am in a good position to do well in the class and I seem to think that I'm in a good position to do well in the class so it must be so. I LOVE having late classes! I am never taking morning classes again! Here are the things I love about my classes: I took AP stats in high school, so my statistics class is a cinch! Which is awesome. My french class is small and the people seem to be really great. I am currently working on reading the Book of Mormon in french. My sociology class - current social problems - is wonderful. I am a nerd and I love discussing the root causes of problems like racism, sexism, classism...every -ism you could possibly name. love it. My art history class is great! I remember a lot of the works from when I took AP art history in high school, and my teacher is a little dry but from what I hear his class is the easiest art history class. My LDS marriage and family class is pretty cool too. I like learning about doctrine in regards to marriage in the LDS church... since I grew up in a non-lds home, a lot of the things taught are new and exciting concepts to me! i can't wait to get married! (just kidding. if anything the class makes me feel woefully inadequate/like i am never going to get married.)

let's see, let's see. I officially am obsessed with online shopping. I need to quit. Also I need a job to support this awful habit of mine. I'm a sucker for the deals, what can I say.

Oh! I made a recent large purchase. It's a ... wait for it... NETBOOK. What is a netbook, you might ask? Well, let me tell you. It is the cutest computer in the history of mankind! It is teeny tiny and lightweight and PERFECT for taking notes in class! I adore my netbook. It's the best purchase I've ever purchased ever. I bought a HP mini. It's great. Seriously great.

Okay well, I don't know if I've formally introduced you, my readers, to my new roommates. So here goes:

Brittany #1, also called Taylor Swift: Brittany is a junior at BYU, is tall, beautiful, and SINGLE (if you are a boy reading this you should definitely get on that) and obsessed with Disney. She worked at Disneyworld this past summer and she also has a crush on Zac Efron.

Nadine: Nadine is British. She's from Preston, England and I love her a lot. I imitate her accent on the daily and our apartment has dubbed Mondays as "Nadine day" where we all talk in British accents all day when we're around her. She pretends to hate it but she actually loves it. Nadine spent her summer in Ghana volunteering at an orphanage. Nadine is waiting on a hottie missionary who only has 11 months left on his mission! Yay!

Laura: Laura is really cool! She's artsy and dresses in a bohemian-inspired style. Laura is a returned missionary and served her mission in San Fernando, California Spanish Speaking. She is super sweet and loves to give hugs. She just transferred to BYU from Utah State.

Brittany #2, also called Butters: Butters is petite and sweet and funny. Her laugh is out of this world and she is the most precious human being on the planet. Butters also served a mission, in the same mission as Laura! They were never companions, but they lived together for a transfer. Butters is adorable and has many friends.

Nicole: Nicole is my room roommate and she has incredible amounts of stuff. She loves animals (current pet count: 2 fishbowls, 1 aquarium, a turtle, and 2 rats) and she is obsessed with Star Wars. She even has a real live lightsaber! She also loves music and has a keyboard and four guitars.

So basically I have the coolest roommates ever, you should all be jealous, etc. I've been super busy but I am truly happy and excited for what's to come this semester. I'll make sure to update if anything important happens.... haha.

Catch ya on the flipside...

LJ

Baby I Like It

Okay so apparently I only make blog posts at 4 am. Why am I awake? No idea. So today was my first day of classes. They were great. I am excited about all of them, although I can already tell that this is going to be my hardest semester thus far and I'm gonna have to work my tail off. It's worth it though. Straight As this semester? Oh heck yeah. Aaaaanyways. Last week, I really wanted some southern food. The kind that warms your heart. The kind that is so bad for you it's good. So my old roommate Rosalia (she's from Louisiana) and I decided to make a sunday dinner together of some good old fashioned southern home cooking. And it was a complete success. Everyone's plates were completely cleared by the end of it...and there were nine people there. Yeah, if that's not a success I don't know what is. This experience helped me in my domestic goddess-ship. I can do anything. Anyways, if you can't tell, my life is wonderful right now. The southern food hit the spot, I'm taking awesome classes, my ward is the best, I have great friends, etc. Oh and I lost 12 pounds in a week, despite the Southern food. Can I get a heck yeah? HECK YEAHHHHH!

On to the picture portion of this post:

3 lbs of fresh green beans. It took me like an hour, no seriously, an HOUR to snap the ends off of all those babies.

Cooked the right way. Bacon and onions and chicken stock. so delicious. they smelled like home and made me a little homesick, I can't lie.

Fried okra. a.k.a. my favorite food in the whole universe. The universe is a pretty large place, ya know.

Homemade mashed potatoes. The kind with two sticks of butter and real cream. Paula Deen would be proud. This picture sucks but I assure you, they were great.

In addition to these three wonderful meal items, Rose made homemade baked beans and also sausage. Delicious. I didn't get pictures of those though unfortunately.

This is my roommate Brittany. She enjoys wearing footie pajamas and licking lollipops.

This is me, 12 pounds lighter.

and this is the biggest zucchini I've ever seen.

OH and I forgot. I decided to go by LJ this year. It's been a success switching over. I got tired of people saying, "Oh, your name is Linda? You know, Linda means pretty in Spanish." Okay cool story I've heard it a million times go away. I harbor a certain vitriol for people who tell me. Obviously I'm not stupid, I took four years of Spanish in high school and my mom has been telling me SINCE I WAS BORN what my name means. Seriously shut up. So anyways, to avoid that drama, I decided to start going by LJ. Also Linda is a boring and old-fashioned name and I am neither of those things. Plus this year is my new beginning as a sane person. I mean, new beginnings, a new camera, and a new name. You can't beat that.

Until next time,
LJ

You really got a hold on me

Okay, I admit it. I. love. going back to school. I am so excited. I feel like I've had my mental refreshment period and now it's time to get back to business. In order to prepare for said business, I covered some notebooks in fabulous scrapbooking paper to give them a unique look:

I'm pretty proud actually. I'm taking five classes this semester: Current Social Problems, the first half of Art History, Statistics, LDS Marriage and Family, and French. I am most excited about Current Social Problems and most worried about French. At least I have that cool French notebook up there to take notes in.
I got a new camera. It's a Nikon D70 and it is already my child. I won't let it out of my sight. Seriously. I'm still learning how to use it but I've taken a few good pictures with it thus far.

This fish. I don't know it's name but I'm sure it has one.


Our turtle Aayla.

My new roommate Brittany

Anyways, those are just a few of the pictures because I'm too lazy to put them all here. But I am pretty pleased. So yeah. Oh! The other day I got to go to a She & Him concert...FOR FREE! It was so great! Best concert EVER. Except I forgot my camera so I have to wait for my old roommate Sydni to upload the pics of us.

Adieu!

You don't even want to know what time it is

So, it is late. like 4:41 am late. The kind of late where it's so late it's early. I hate being up this late. Unfortunately I am the most productive at this hour. For instance, tonight I did the dishes, I watched Man vs. Wild (a shirtless man surviving in the wilderness with nothing but his backpack and his own two hands is so hot for some reason), and I moved some of my stuff into THE BIG BEDROOM. This is in all caps because it's been a long time coming, this event. I have been envious of THE BIG BEDROOM since I moved into Centennial Apartments, and now it is mine! I feel so triumphant. However, just like every time I move, I find myself wondering why I have so much CRAP. Seriously what is my problem, I can't throw away anything. Everything is sentimental. I guess I'm just a sentimental person, and that's okay. What is not okay are the boxes and boxes of junk that I have accumulated. I have dubbed tomorrow "throw everything away" day. I am going to go through my junk and keep the good stuff and throw away everything else. I need to stop holding onto those pants from three years ago that I keep around on the off chance that I will lose weight and fit into them again. Seriously Linda. It's okay to let go. Honestly the more I think of it, I have a hard time letting go of anything. If I do say so myself, I'm pretty good at forgiving and forgetting. But when it comes to letting go of people in my life, or letting go of sentimental items, I fail horribly. And you know, maybe that isn't such a bad thing (the people part). Sometimes though, it's exhausting. It's hard when you never stop caring about this person that you met once that time you were at that party and you hit it off. It's even harder when it's someone you were close to once and you grew apart. What's hardest is when the other person has let go of you completely, so it's just you and your heart full of care thinking about that person who couldn't care less about you. But sometimes it pays off to care so much. Because there are people who appreciate this gift (and curse) that you have. There are people who love you because you put your whole heart into everything you do, into all of your friendships. These people are the ones who make caring worth it.

la vie en rose

i like singing in french.

Kathy's Fabulous Bachelorette Party

So, last Sunday, my roommate Tippe and I were talking to Kathy, a girl in our ward who is very sweet but a little shy, very eloquent, intelligent, and sometimes a little awkward. We knew Kathy was getting married, so we asked her the obligatory questions -- how excited are you? are you nervous? did you have a bridal shower? did you have a bachelorette party?
What?! NO BACHELORETTE PARTY?! WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO. So then we crafted a brilliant plan.

The first part of our plan was to call Kathy and say we are taking her out to a celebratory dinner on Thursday night -- this was so she wouldn't make plans for that night. Then, we went shopping and found some fabulous accessories - a sash that said BACHELORETTE and had pink sparklies on it and a kid's dress up bridal veil. We found decorations -- caution tape that said "caution: bachelorette party. danger: wild women.", and a big banner that said BACHELORETTE PARTY. We called the bishop's wife and asked if we could have it at their house. We called around and found people who were willing to come and bring snacks. We made a super secret facebook invitation. We photoshopped Nathan (Kathy's fiance) and Kathy's faces onto Disney Princess coloring pages for a fun activity to do while at the party. We bought margarita mix and pina colada mix and daiquiri mix, with sprite and ginger ale to mix into it. We were ready.

So on Thursday, we showed up at Kathy's apartment. We drove around a little bit, stopped to get gas, and I received a very interesting phone call from the "bishop" (actually Sydni) saying I had left something at his house. "Oh, Kathy, do you mind if we stop at the Bishop's house? I accidentally left some of my work stuff there and I need it before tomorrow." "No problem!" So we headed to the bishop's house and I said, "Oh Kathy, do you want to come inside with me? You can say goodbye to the bishop for the very last time." "Oh, that's a good idea," she said.

SURPRISE! Happy bachelorette-ness, Kathy! The whole plan went off without a hitch. Kathy had scheduled her cleaning check for that night, so a bunch of us went to her apartment to help her pass the check, then came back and partied. We colored pictures, we talked, we chatted, we heard about Cinder-Edna and we drank our "mocktails". In short, a good time was had by all .

AND I TOOK PICTURES, OF COURSE:

the banner and caution tape


some of the coloring pages (Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Mickie and Minnie)


the blushing bachelorette in veil and sash


the awesome party planners! (tippe and I)

second post in one day, just because...

today i feel pretty. and that is a rare feeling (my fellow girls can sympathize)! but i wanted to make a post so i can say "i was pretty that day" or "today might not be my day, but there are days when i'm pretty." i apologize for being a little vain.