Bewitched, Bewitched, you've got me in your spell

It seems like it could have been several holidays this week!

I was really excited to see it snow for the first time this season! That made it kind of like Christmas. It also seemed like Christmas because there were already Christmas lights on some of the trees on campus (I certainly hope they light them no earlier than November 23), and coming home from church I saw some people across the street putting lights up. (Come on...even if you don't turn them on, don't you think it's a little early?) But there wasn't a lot of snow, and it didn't last too long. Some of the chilly weather with the half-naked trees and leaves around made it seem like November. But honestly, our monthly designations are quite arbitrary and it is almost November.

It kind of seemed like St. Patrick's Day because I had to write a report on Irish English. That's how I spent my "free" time on Monday and Tuesday, writing about how they speak in Ireland. One feature I found particularly interesting is that the Irish use ye as a second person plural pronoun. I used to use that because I knew it was used in Early Modern English, but I didn't think any present-day speakers used it. Well, in Ireland they do! I think I want to start using ye more often.

But of course it seemed much like it's supposed to, with all the Halloween things that went on this week. I started wearing my Halloween clothes. And I've been watching my Halloween shows. I have five Halloween episodes of Bewitched, and I actually got all of my roommates to watch Bewitched, although not all at the same time. It's a rare thing to get three college-age guys sitting together watching Bewitched. (I actually remember an episode of The Simpsons in which Bart saw the future, where he was grown up and loved watching Bewitched.) One of my roommates works at the MTC (well, two do but the other one is irrelevant to this story) and he said that he talked about Bewitched with a missionary. He said something like, "You can't just disappear, like on Bewitched," and the missionary said, "I don't know what Bewitched is." Of all the silly 60s shows I watch, I think Bewitched is the most sophisticated and, despite all its primitive special effects, the most timeless. How else could you explain that all four of us wanted to watch it? (The roommate who mentioned it to a missionary actually asked me when I was going to be watching it.)

This week I registered for classes. It's possible it could change, but probably not. I'm taking Phonetics and Phonology, Early Modern English, Historical Geology, Geology of Planets, and Old Testament. This will actually finish up my geology minor, although I might want to take some more geology classes later. I will have three professors I've previously had: Cynthia Hallen taught my History of the English Language class and I will have her for EME, Brooks Britt taught my Dinosaurs! class (which is what made me decide to do the geology minor) and I will have the historical class from him, and Jani Radebaugh is my current Geomorphology professor and I will have her for the planets class. (I know she really loves other planets, especially Titan, Saturn's moon.)

Speaking of Geomorphology, I have a field trip for that class this weekend. And I have two tests this week. And it's Halloween. I actually went ahead and planned the next few days to make sure I'll be able to get everything done. Halloween's supposed to be a time just to have fun--why does everything have to happen at the same time?

Yesterday my ward's Relief Society had a brunch thing, and they asked us elders to be servers. So I helped out with that. And then I ran for an hour. Other runners often baffle me. It was in the upper 50s, so it was good running weather. If anything, it was too warm. But I saw some runners in hoodies or long sleeves or pants. I was sweating in my shorts and (jack-o-lantern) t-shirt! I wouldn't need to wear those warm clothes even if I were just walking! But if people like getting hot and sweating, whatever.

This week I got my copy of Mapping Mormonism. It's a book that is for sale at Deseret Book and I think even Costco. And my name is in it! Yes siree, there is a PDF of the front matter that proves it. So my name is available for sale at Costco. I think it was my favorite thing I've worked on for BYU Studies. But when I look at the pages, they are so familiar to me that I can't help thinking, "Did we change all the hyphens to en dashes? Did we catch all the typos?"

Happy  Halloween!