Yay?

I had a meeting with my boss this morning. He informed me that, being the great worker that I am, I was promoted to Crew Supervisor. Fantastic! I was pretty darn excited, and even more when I discovered that this promotion came with a 50 cent pay raise.
I went into work at 11, then started to black out around 1:30. I intended to sit out a minute, grab some water, and then go back to work until 7. That...didn't happen. I ended up having to go home. It appears I have the flu. Which is a serious blow. Plus, I feel like I betrayed my boss by abandoning him my first day as a supervisor. Sigh. I really hope I recover quickly and by my next work day I'll be fit as a fiddle and ready to prove myself.
But hey. I got promoted. I love my job, my coworkers, and my new brick-red uniform. I just hate the flu.

Derp a derp

This blog is so sad. So so sad. I admit I have no writing talent. This post is basically because I feel like I need to start the new year with a blog post.

2011 was a good year. I discovered a lot about myself, and changed some things I didn't like. I hope to improve even more in 2012.

So, winter semester starts in a couple of days.
I'm taking intermediate tap. I'm excited, but a little nervous. I know that I'm going to struggle, but if I can learn to release my anxiety and not care about perfecting the steps, I might actually enjoy the class.
I've (hopefully) decided on Latin as my language for my major, so I start that up next semester. Probably going to be my hardest class. 5 credits... accelerated...a BYU language class...wish me luck!

Writing 150...ew. Stupid class required for freshmen; so far I have not heard of anyone enjoying it or learning from it.

Book of Mormon is...Book of Mormon. Yep.
Humanities! Yay! Super excited for this class.

I'll also be working 8-hour days Tuesday/Thursday. It'll be hard, but fulfilling.

I'm looking forward to this year. I know it's going to be a good one; I can feel it.

Attempted Murder

Oh November...
Today I am grateful that the semester is almost over.
Last week was simply too busy. I averaged four hours of sleep each night...my body functions on 8. It was not a good week. Friday night, I turned in four essays, worked, went to a Hall Activity, took my exam, and collapsed. For eleven hours. ELEVEN. That's a ridiculous amount of time to sleep. But it felt oh so good. I am so grateful for sleep.

In angry college rebellion, I did absolutely no homework over the weekend. Pure relaxation time. I went to a Vocal Point concert with my sister, then to dinner with her and Jordan plus posse, and finally to BYU's White Christmas. I am grateful for music and family. And my major, which I absolutely adore.
On Sunday night, I stayed up bonding with my roommates. As in till 3:00 or 3:30 Monday morning. I have no regrets. Grateful for my roommates, even if they may drive me crazy sometimes :)
Basically Monday and Tuesday classes were a joke - most of my classmates had already taken off, and the teachers didn't want to put too much work on us that we would forget by the end of Thanksgiving break. Win.
I did have to work before I could take off though. And being the wonderful and charitable human that I am, I volunteered to cover two other shifts so those employees could leave early. Consequently, I worked from 11am to 9:30pm. Gross. But now I'm home, and I don't have to work for five more days. And I am very grateful for that.
On the other hand, I'm very thankful for my job. My 8th hour into work on Tuesday, I looked up at the Cougareat mottos and just felt an overwhelming love for my soft-spoken boss, coworkers, and customers that really don't care how perfect of a job you do, as long as it tastes fairly good. I just love where I work.

For November Cometh With a Vengeance

Today I enjoyed walking across campus in a T-shirt, eating ice cream, as snow gently fell to the ground. I got my fair share of odd looks for sure. But I got to give back those looks to all the freshman boys staring up into the sky, trying to catch snowflakes on their tongue. So many Texans here.

I started off the great month of November with two exams! One, in Humanities, I feel very good about. My acoustics...not so much. Both were exact opposite of the expected results. It's going to be a very test and paper filled month. But that's ok!

I also got to work for a really long time today. However, I got to take a break during that time to go and hear the prophet of the church speak at BYU devotional :) Yeah. It was cool. And his message was one I needed to hear.

The Silence

Yesterday morning as I walked to class, I became aware of a frightening level of silence. It was that silence so loud it seemed to reach the threshold of feeling. Only quiet footsteps and the occasional bicyclist broke through the awful stillness.

This morning I decided that, rather than face that complete quiet, I would listen to my iPod. Oh cruel iPod. The song that's been haunting me all morning is Christina Perri's The Lonely.

"The silent sound of loneliness wants to follow me to bed"

Casseroles, pictures, and Pappy

Today, I made the first real, more-than-three-ingredients, honest-to-goodness, home cooked meal since I got here. Twas hamburger rice casserole, which has been one of my favorite dishes since I was a child (it was pretty much the only way my poor mother got me to eat veggies). I wasn't sure how well it was going to work- I was using brown rice instead of white, it began to burn as soon as I put it in pan with butter, the shredded carrot idea was not working for me, the smell of garlic and raw meat were making my hyper-sensitive gag reflex very unhappy, etc...In the end I just threw it in the oven and hoped. After a while, it smelled extremely delicious...and then it started looking extremely delicious...and then I took it out and fed it to my roommates and they all said it was extremely delicious :) Success! It was a little saltier than I'm used to, but still quite good. So...I guess the point of this is...I *can* cook real food.

This is just something completely random I really wanted to post.

This is my grandmother. And she is just absolutely gorgeous. I was looking at her wedding pictures around midnight last night, and I just had to point out how beautiful she is.

Third section of this post: My dad is a pretty cool guy. I think one thing I really like about him is how clearly and honestly he looks at life...he sees things as they are, not letting covers and "decorations" deceive him at all. And that's cool. It also might be why he's such a pessimist, but if it helps him have one of the most brilliant minds I know, then hey! No big deal if the glass is half empty. Well, he actually doesn't see the glass, but...that's another story.

I'm a Survivor

Somehow, I managed to make it through the first week of college classes! It's been pretty exciting...Mondays and Wednesdays I go to Book of Mormon, Descriptive Acoustics of Music and Speech (this class is going to kill me!), Biology, and American Heritage, go to my apartment and do as much homework as I can, and then go back for my tap dance class. Tuesday, Thursday I have an 8am Humanities class and then work till 5:30 :P Pretty fun...

My Friday's were supposed to be great- 3 classes, first one at 10, done by 3, booyah. And then all my classes decided to have their labs that day...so now it's just as busy as MW, plus I work after I'm done with classes. Hooray? It's ok though, school and work are still quite fun :)

On Friday I had the wonderful opportunity to see Lea Salonga perform here at BYU. That woman is absolutely beautiful.

This is my somewhat failed attempt to take a picture of the program...that is her beautiful 40-year-old face. I hope I look that good when I'm 40. And I hope I sound that good when I'm 40! Goodness! She was fantastic! She sang quite a variety of music...opened with Feeling Good (Michael Buble style), sang a variety of Les Mis and Miss Saigon (Yum!), a Filipino song, the extended Disney's Reflection...she invited a college student to come and sing a Whole New World with her- how cool would that be?!? And he sounded dang good too. Just for fun, she sang Pokerface, which was awesome/hilarious.

She has the most perfect vibrato I've ever encountered- I was singing all day today, wishing I could sound like her :) Someday...

I found out today that my high school choir teacher accidentally called someone Hannah Thomas the other day. Ah, I feel missed.

One last thing- my theme for this semester of college is "Look up, like a little child." Before I started classes, my dad gave me a father's blessing and said those words. Then my bishop talked about it at ward prayer. And then it was mentioned in my Book of Mormon class. So I decided I should probably pay attention :) I put the two phrases on post-its and stuck them on my mirror to see every day. I only hope I will remember.