I am very slightly incensed.

One of the most frequent things that get complained about at BYU is the high standard. When I lived in singles' wards, it was quite a common occurence to hear some guy whining about not being able to take a test in the testing center because he didn't feel like shaving, or we hear stories about the girl with pink hair who was denied service by the library employees, or the girl whose female professor told her to change into a less revealing shirt (if a male professor had done it, she'd cry "harrassment"). All of these cases? covered in the HONOR CODE. You signed it when you came, so you have absolutely no right to complain.
But this particular action is a genuinely bad move for the University, as far as I know. You see, effective January 2010, the Women's Research Institute here on campus will be dissolved, the funding for the Institute will be given to individual research projects (mainly ORCA grants, which means science--not humanities--students) and the Women's Studies minor will now be under the jurisdiction of the School of Family Life. Excuse me while I go gag for a minute.
Not that I have anything against the good 'ole SFL. There are great things that happen there, like child development and psychology and family counseling. But as an English major who is familiar with the horrible things that have happened because of unjust inequality and classifying of the feminine ideal, not to mention as a self-proclaimed feminist, I cannot stand for the message that this sends.
You see, BYU has kind of a bad rep as far as gender equality. I mean, who hasn't heard the stereotype about girls coming to get their 'MRS' degree? Heck, I'm married. Doesn't that say something?
The Women's Research Institute was created to promote Gender Studies and equality, and to help give women - LDS women in particular - a voice in the world. I mean, I believe as much as the rest of the church that a wife and mother's place is in the home, but what about as a woman? She has just as much intellectual potential as any man, and the WRI wasn't studying how to be better wives and mothers. It was studying the place of woman in the world, trying to help her find it. That's history, political science, sociology--NOT family life.
The university keeps saying things like, "this will not diminish the strength of our women's studies program" and "we are trying to strengthen the program, not save money" but even without my feminist rantings, this is a horrible PR move. Scholars all over the country have noticed, and dissolving the WRI is particularly bad in a year when race and gender issues have been boiling back to the surface again. Probably just because they want to give the money to "useful" projects like my husband's research on Osteoarthritis. Not that they're not useful, but aren't we?
There's a meeting tonight of the gender equality club on campus, called "Parity," (at 7 in 270 SWKT if anybody in Provo is reading this!) and they're going to discuss respectful protests and petitions to take to the University. I would go, but maybe it would be more in accordance with the new Women's Studies program if I went home and cleaned the bathroom. Seriously.
Sorry this sounds so angry. I'm just a little bit upset. What they're doing doesn't sound to me like "strengthening the program." They're just creating more angry feminists.

Halloween . . . more like Influenzaween . . .

We didn't exactly have Halloween at our house. We were GOING to be puzzle pieces and put a pumpkin in the window so we'd get trick-or-treaters and whatnot, but Mike was still sick. So instead, I made pizza and went to my temple shift by myself, and we ended up watching Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Addams Family (the early 90's version with Angelica Huston and Raul Julia). It was quite fun.
Sunday I went to church by myself . . . but then I got to be the pianist for the primary program rehearsal. It was fun. All two of our primary kids were there, and they were so cute! There is another one, but he's been home for fear of the swine flu for the last few weeks (he's legit, not just paranoid).
Then I went home and made Chicken Divan and it was delicious. Mike's been asking for it for a few weeks now and I finally got around to making it. While we were eating, he was like, "If my mom knew that I'd been asking for broccoli, she might keel over!" But I think after he put tomatoes on his salad when we were in Seattle, there is no shock his family can't handle. :)
Probably the most amazing part of this weekend: I tried to wake up early this morning to do a bunch of homework that I remembered on Saturday but didn't want to do because a) I had a sick husband to spend time with and b) it was Halloween (that wasn't the best part). The best part was when I got up this morning and looked at my syllabi and realized the annotated bib for my 365 class is due NEXT monday, not today! I almost jumped for joy, but it was cold and I was huddling under a blanket. Life is good when your homework isn't due yet. :)
I was thinking about having a contest and having you all comment and tell me about your costumes/send pictures of them, and offering a prize for the most AWESOME costume ever, but I can't think of a prize. If you still want to send pictures or something, I might make the prize be a cameo on my next blog post or something. Maybe. I 'm just needing some Halloween entertainment. :)

Flu-Like Symptoms and Pumpkin-Flavored Candles

All this week Mike has been feeling not very well, and yesterday I finally convinced him to be sick and stay home. When I got home he was totally conked out, and he didn't wake up for two more hours. (Needless to say, I got a lot done.)

Unfortunately, while I was making him be sick so he could get better, I was ignoring the fact that I was getting a sore throat and feeling kinda shaky too. So I shouldn't have been surprised when I woke up this morning completely gross. My throat hurts, my body aches, and I have on-and-off headaches and dizziness. Mike still wasn't better, so we're having a sick day today.

On another note, I ran into a candle sale, and bought a couple more so I have options (until now I've lived with apple and vanilla, which are good, but getting old). So I bought one called "cotton" that smells like fresh laundry and deliciousness, and another one that's pumpkin spice. It smells like Christmas. :) I like it lots. :) It's the one burning right now so our apartment smells really nice.

I hate being sick. The thermostat is set to like, 69 or 70 degrees, and I'm still freezing. Good thing we decided to stay in bed all day. :)

Somebody forgot to tell me to keep my contact prescription.

I realized this morning that I threw away my very last contacts yesterday. So I don't even remember what my prescription is.

So now I have to go to the optometrist. Bleh.

Just felt like complaining. I was even talking to Noelle today about how she forgot her contact prescription when she came to school, but she doesn't like wearing her glasses, so she usually just goes around a little blind. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to get away with that? I calmly explained to her that when I don't have my glasses on, the only way I can tell she's there is the difference in color. She's just a Noelle-colored blob. So she tried on my glasses and gave herself an instant migraine.

Mike says Noelle and I are perfect to work together. Sometimes I agree. :)

BYU vs. Utah State, or, How my beloved husband scared the bejeebers out of two poor little Honduran women

Mike is loud at football games. This is a known fact among those who have been with him to any kind of sports event.

Well, last night we went to the football game against Utah State (they were nice enough to play us on Friday night because today was conference). We didn't get all-sports passes this year, so Mike bought tickets in the section full of old people (and let me tell you, alumni who still come to football games are crazier fans than students could EVER be).

Half way through the game, some people came who had just been to their mission reunion, and they had two friends with them from Honduras (hence, they were all speaking Spanish the whole time). Those two girls seemed very quiet and didn't know anything about football, so their friends were trying to explain it.

Then, there was a touchdown or something. And my husband exploded. And they both turned around with terrified looks on their faces, shocked at his volubility. It was quite impressive. It's okay, I laughed embarrassedly and they all thought it was funny after the initial shock.

Mike had to sing an octave below bass during the hymns in conference today. :)

The Blog Post to End All Blog Posts

*Note: this blog post, when I began writing it, was originally titled "Oh, September. Will you ever end?" As it took me several weeks to finish it, September has ended. Thus the title change.

Okay friends. I did promise. I suppose a month into the semester is long enough for an update, yes? Now we'll see if you have the patience to endure the novel that is doubtless to follow. The great thing is, this is my blog, and I can write whatever I want. Muaha. :)

I suppose I shall begin with the end of the summer. :(

My last day of work coincided with August graduation, and luckily, our department had four (count 'em!) graduates, so we held a reception after commencement on Friday morning, August 15. You know what that means? I got to serve (and later eat) delicious food while wearing a beautiful new pencil skirt which I had recently bought, then go home ridiculously early. (Like, noon). So OF COURSE I went home and scoured my apartment. Thus, when Mike came home, it was officially time to go to Boise. We spent the weekend there, flew to Seattle early Monday morning, stayed there for a week and a half, then flew back to Boise on Wednesday, August 26, and stayed there until Sunday, because School (ugh.) started on Monday, the 31.

Some Things I learned on my Summer Vacation:

1. Never expect the weather to be typical of where you live. Always bring a coat or jacket, and then bring some shorts just in case the places that you are used to seeing through drizzling rain become suddenly scorching. Seriously! It was all cold in Boise! Who does that? It's okay, it was all worth it anyways. :)


2. When all the siblings are going to visit at the same time, BE THE FIRST ONES THERE. Bret and Kliss got there a couple days before we did and claimed the back bedroom, and then we had to move out of the front one so Amy and Jared and Spencer could have the room with the crib, then moved back into the back room after Kliss and Bret left. Translation: we slept in two different bedrooms and on the living room floor during the week and a half in Seattle. I like to think we are now connaisseurs of different mattresses, after all the places we've slept. :P


3. THERE IS A REASON MODESTY IS A COMMANDMENT. While in Seattle, we all went to Wild Waves, a water/amusement park. We spent the morning on the dry side, doing roller coasters and whatnot and NOT getting motion sick (I never have in my life!) and then, after lunch, going over to the wet side. Seriously, people are constantly bringing up the problems with obesity we have in this country, then they DON'T sell one-piece swim suits? Whose idea was that? Obviously NOT somebody who goes to amusement parks. :) It was still really fun. It was a perfect way to spend the hottest day of the week. There were all kinds of crazy slides (I didn't go down the not so crazy ones :) and raft slides and Mike and I spent the last hour there floating around the lazy river. It was so nice and relaxing after a crazy day of fun. And we only got minorly sunburned! It was great!


4. My husband is a Monopoly FIEND. I thought I was good at that game, until he drove me into bankruptcy and got into several different bidding wars with my multi-billionaire brother over everybody else's property. It was crazy. Later, when I played it again at the Morgan's, he didn't do quite as well. He still held out longer than me against everybody else though. But seriously! Sidenote to this one: my in-laws are MUCH cooler than my family when it comes to wanting to play games together. Seriously, I think my siblings all have ADD several times over. NO attention span. Thanks, Morgans, for being cool and playing board games with me. :)


5. Mike and I are better at baseball than we each thought the other was. One of the last days we were in Seattle, after all the other siblings left, Mike and I went and found a park by the river and went for a walk and then played catch. I like to think he was pleasantly surprised by my intense baseball-throwin' skills. That's right. I said baseball-throwin'. None of this girly-like softball stuff. :) Then, when we were in Boise, the whole fam went down to the park and had a big baseball game, boys vs. girls. The girls totally rocked them. Totally. Even when we had to put Sarah in the outfield because she just wasn't paying any attention, and then got completely distracted by several screaming girls that happened to walk through the park and see her. :)


6. Sometimes it's just more fun to have a bunch of girls to hang out with. I think I spent more time hanging out with mom- and sisters-in-law when we were in Seattle than I did with my husband, and he spent a LOT of time playing video games, between the Wii in Seattle and the PS2 in Boise. Silly Mike. :)


7. The Boise River is colder than it used to be. Or maybe I was just really cold and tired when we flew into Boise and discovered we were going rafting/tubing down the river. It was cold. But it was really relaxing whenever the cousins weren't screaming their lungs out on purpose. :S I liked it. Then we went home and crashed. :)


8. After two weeks of total vacation and absolutely no schedule or responsibility, school hurts. Like, literally. I think I got sick the first couple of weeks just because I wasn't used to it. Not to mention it gets lonely when Mike and I get home from school/work, eat dinner together, then go to separate piles of books to study and write papers. Gross.

Well, that's vacation. My classes are alright for this semester. My favorite one so far (I think) is actually my linguistics class, where we had to memorize the International Phonetic Alphabet and we learn about all the specific sounds in different languages, but mostly English. It's kind of awesome. My friend (with whom I took French 101 and she's also an Editing minor) doesn't like the memorization and doesn't see how it's related to editing, but I kind of enjoy it. Then again, languages have always kind of been my thing. Ask my mom, I can imitate any accent or dialect I've heard enough of. So this class is totally fascinating to me. It's awesome! I even know all the tricks to practice to be a ventriloquist! Maybe someday I will be! Muahahaha!

My other favorite is Doctrine and Covenants, which I'm taking with Mike. Our class is awesome. I love it when I have a fabulous religion teacher, because even when it's hard, I love the class and I'm willing to actually do the homework, which for my other classes usually isn't the case.

Oh, and one other thing. Our last weekend of vacation, my mom made me a white eyelet dress, just exactly like the one I've wanted since I was like 12. It's perfect and beautiful. And it has a long, full skirt, so it makes me want to twirl all the time. Well, I wore it our first sunday back with a red ribbon around the middle. I guess a lot of people noticed my dress when I went up to bear my testimony that week, because I got a lot of comments. One of my friends even said I looked like Maria from West Side Story. Hee hee, that was the goal! Thanks, mom! You're the best ever!

And now some pictures. :)

This is Nonny. Yes, she made this face on purpose. Thus, it is her fault that this picture came into existence and ended up on my blog. She also cut a deal with Dad that she wouldn't have to pay for gas if she washed all the cars, so Dad picked a day when she would have to wash our car and Kliss and Bret's car along with the rest. :) Muaha.

So, Parker volunteered to help Nonny with said car-washing venture. Or he got volunteered by an adult. Either way, I don't think he was much help.

This is what my hair has looked like for a few months, in varying lengths. Never too short, and never long enough to touch my shoulders. Is it good? :)

Here are all the boys at the Boise Hawks baseball game. I'm pretty sure none of them are in their element until they're at a baseball game. Oh! I forgot to mention earlier. My parents and brothers took me and Mike to a baseball game. Which means Mom and I giggled and talked and the boys got COMPLETELY absorbed in the game. It was pretty fun. :)

This is Mike's kid sister Emily. She's a world-class gymnast and pretty much the silliest thing ever if you get her late at night. In this case, we were driving down the highway to go mini-golfing for family home evening, and Mike (in front of her) had his window open. Yes, she was already doing this. I did not ask her to pose.

Besides this one, I didn't get any good pictures in Seattle, even though we spent the bulk of our vacation there, probably because I kept forgetting that I had my camera. Next time I'll be more proactive. :P

Did I mention I have the cutest brothers ever? Not to mention the phantom of the dining room there . . .

Mike got volunteered to hold the back-to-school pencil cake, probably because he had more self-control about sticking his fingers in it. Ain't he cute? :)

There. Now none of you can complain about me not keeping you informed. :)

GAH!!! SCHOOL!!!!!

I apologize. School has fangoriously devoured my life. I will write about some stuff soon. And it will talk about . . . stuff. Including the last bits of our summer (WORK WORK WORK) and vacation (PARTY PARTY PARTY) and then coming back to Provo. (SCHOOL SCHOOL . . .. *sigh* . . . SCHOOL!)

I promise, it will happen. Soon. I hope . . .