Mummy's the word

My fourth winter semester has come and gone. Now I have to decide whether I'm going to have a fifth or just leave it at four.

I had to take finals for Phonetics and Phonology and Geology of Planets on Monday and Tuesday. I think I did OK. Then on Wednesday I had the most interesting final I've ever had. Because the Bible is written in Early Modern English, and because at that time the hymn tradition was popular, we had to write hymns based on scriptures. Our final consisted of us getting together and singing everyone's hymns. I did mine from Psalm 119:97-104, to the tune of "Come O Thou King of Kings." I got some good accolades from my professor. She especially liked the line "Thy words are sweeter unto me/ than honey from the honeybee."

And then I was done! I went home to spend a few days in frivolity--playing Super Mario Brothers All-Stars, watching Bewitched and Frankenweenie, and otherwise wasting time.

The most unusual thing I did was yesterday when I went with my parents to the Leonardo museum to see their Mummies of the World exhibition. It was kind of creepily fascinating to look at the gaping holes and think "There once were eyes there, and they looked around and observed the world," or think "That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once" (thanks Hamlet!). The mummies ranged from more than 6,000 years old to only a few hundred (unless you count the animal mummies; some of those were pretty young). Apparently a few hundred years ago, some people figured that since the mummies were so well preserved, there must be something in them that preserved them, so they thought mummies must be healthy! So they used powdered mummies as medicine! Medicinal cannibalism. Creepy.

Then I had to come back to Provo for meetings. Lots of people will be moving in, and I have to get their records pulled in. Hopefully they will do what they're supposed to and create a profile on a helpful website someone in the stake created.

My roommates (or flatmates) in the other bedroom moved out. One of them hated us because he was too good for us. The other was a tarantula--a kind tarantula, but a tarantula that had an insatiable need to rearrange things, that took up 75% of the apartment space and 90% of the fridge space, that got rid of some of our dishes before even moving in yet used tons of dishes, that was particular about cleaning yet made the most messes, that put stuff in our bedroom without asking, that gave away things that didn't belong to him, that owned more stuff than anyone I have ever known.

Most of the stuff in these pictures belongs to him, except for the furniture--and even some of that belongs to him. And this isn't even all of it.

My new roommate Jordan seems to be a good guy. My room roommate Bryton is staying, but he went to Hawaii this week. He had invited me to go several months ago, but I didn't know when I'd be done with finals and I wanted to be back in time for spring. And then I find out he's not seeing any volcanoes, and that makes me feel better about not going. Why on earth would you go to Hawaii and not visit any volcanoes!?