Two years ago, when I was packing up all my stuff to move back home for fall semester, I made a Facebook status that said, "Well, Provo, it's been fun." My cousin April commented and said, "Provo's never fun!"
I think she was just trying to start a fight about the BYU/Utah rivalry. But I don't buy into that. Rivalries are dumb, deplorable, and diabolical and should be flushed down the toilet.
But she's wrong. Provo is a pretty fun place. I don't see Salt Lake City putting on monthly free concerts or getting Google Fiber.
Anyway, this week was pretty fun. I only have two weeks until my Geology 210 class and four weeks until fall semester officially starts. I hope I'm all prepared for it when it comes.
On Monday my ward went to the Museum of Paleontology. Compared to the similar museums at the U and the former College of Eastern Utah, BYU's paleontology museum is pretty pitiful. But it is still enjoyable, and it saddens me that it is one of the least known buildings on campus. Every fall, thousands of people clog up roads and sidewalks so they can go watch grown men playing with toys in a giant stadium, yet so few people care or realize that directly across the street you can see animals that lived hundreds of millions of years ago!
Before we went over there, many people were saying they'd never been there, but I said I'd been there several times. So someone casually mentioned I should be the tour guide. When we got there, there was another group having a tour from a student who works there, but most of us didn't join that group. Someone once again said I should be the tour guide (after the other group moved on), and I said, "Well, I guess I am the resident geologist of our group." So I was able to talk about how dimetrodons, crocodilians, and pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs; recognize crinoid columnals in a piece of fossiliferous limestone (there were bryozoans in there too, but I didn't remember what they were called until later); point out the humerus crest that is the diagnostic feature of dinosaurs; and provide mind-boggling scales of time. Someone said that if I knew that much from my minor, he wondered how much I know about English.
On Wednesday I got a new roommate. Kind of. I had heard that our new roommate was supposed to move in Tuesday or Wednesday. I was getting ready for bed on Wednesday night when the doorbell rang. I wondered who was coming by at midnight. It turned out to be the new roommate, Chad. He had met my roommate Jordan and talked to him, but he'd never met me. Jordan was in his room asleep, so Chad put his stuff in my room and said he'd decide later which room he'd choose. (My room's better--we have a bathroom, and I'm generally cleaner, AND I'm just plain awesome.) But we haven't seen him since then--although I know he came in today, because when I got home from church his tub was open and some of his clothes were out. So I don't even know this roommate's full name, his age, his major, his hometown, or anything.
On Friday was the Provo Rooftop Concert series. This was the third time I've been, and it was much busier than I expected. I guess people prefer outdoor concerts in August to outdoor concerts in May and October. I went by myself. I was hoping people from my ward would go, so I posted on our ward Facebook page, but no one was going, so I went by myself. That made it a little awkward, especially since there were all those hipsters around. I was probably wearing an outfit that's as close to hipster as I get (tapered, slim-fit khakis with blue Chuck Taylors), and I still felt out of place. However, there were still plenty of normal people there. I wasn't too enthusiastic about the first guy that played.
The second group was called Mideau (MID-oh). I actually quite liked them; the female singer sounds remarkably similar to the female lead of Of Monsters and Men. I was sitting there enjoying them when they said, "Who likes the Mamas and the Papas?" It has only been the past month that I have come to appreciate the Mamas and the Papas. (What kind of deranged individual wouldn't like "Monday, Monday"?) That sealed it for me, and that night I bought tickets for their CD release concert next month. (You can hear one of their songs on their Bandcamp page.) Both Neon Trees ("Animal," "Everybody Talks") and Imagine Dragons ("It's Time," "Radioactive") came out of Provo and have become quite popular, so I think it would be cool if Mideau did too and I liked them before they got big.
The main/final act was Mindy Gledhill. I knew some of her stuff from my mission (her Sum of All Grace album), and while I liked it on my mission, I didn't find her spectacular enough to continue to listen to now (unlike Cherie Call). I was therefore surprised with how popular she was. I was pleasantly surprised when I heard her sing and I liked her more than I had previously. I think she has transitioned from religious to mainstream music (probably more lucrative that way). I liked her enough to buy one of her CDs, which was the fourth album I've bought in the last two weeks (the others being by the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, and Lady Antebellum).
Then Saturday I had to get serious again, since I only have two more weeks of summer. There were three things I wanted to focus on this summer: looking for jobs, doing things for my calling, and preparing for my Geology 210 class. I haven't done too well on the job search. Yesterday I was going to go get some stuff printed for my editing portfolio, but I need to modify the PDF of my book file first. I did, however, successfully do clerk things. I cleaned out our ward closet of old finance records from 2004 to 2009--we only need to keep back to 2010. Then last night I hit the books and read about the geology of Little Cottonwood Canyon and started the open-book take-home test. While I am nervous for this class, the homework made me excited for it. I have heard from others that it is their favorite class ever, and I have heard that you learn the most from it. I'm excited for that!
When I was at the grocery store yesterday, they already had boxes of bags of Halloween candy out. Sometimes people think I'm crazy for starting Halloween in mid-September--but even I think it's too early now for Halloween.
But what puzzles me most, and it happens every year, is that the trick-or-treat candy is the first Halloween thing to go on sale. I think that most people put up Halloween decorations and prepare costumes before they give candy to trick-or-treaters, so I think those things should appear in stores before the candy. Not to mention that decorations and costumes don't have expiration dates (although candy doesn't have much of an expiration date either).
Now, you may wonder why I think that, since I can't have candy until Halloween candy, and I certainly want to get Halloween candy early in the Halloween season. But the thing is that I don't really eat trick-or-treat candy. I don't consider it to be Halloween candy simply because you give it to trick-or-treaters; it has to have some Halloween connection (like Halloween flavors, colors, or shapes). But even of the trick-or-treat candies that I consider to be real Halloween candy, I'm more likely to consume them in other ways, especially early on in the Halloween season. For example, consider the caramel apple Sugar Babies (which are really good, by the way). They come in theater-size boxes and in individual trick-or-treat packages. (By theater-size, I mean the size of the candy boxes you would buy in a movie theater. Although a box of candy as big as a theater would be amazing.) At the store yesterday they had the trick-or-treat packages, but not the theater boxes. I just don't get it.
Then today I finally had my financial audit for my ward. I've learned a lot from the process, and I finally feel like I know what I'm doing in this calling. I'm glad it's over.
Then tonight I went up to a baby blessing of my cousin's newest baby. Most of these cousins I haven't seen since before my mission. Due to construction and GPS problems, I got into the chapel literally right when they were about to start the blessing. I found it funny that as soon as I went in I was invited to help with the blessing, even though I'd never even seen either the baby or three of his four siblings.
I hope to sleep well tonight, because I certainly didn't last night. (I slept in late yesterday morning because I was having a dream about potty training a little boy to use the litterbox.)
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