Cruel and Unusual Punishment

My laptop in front of me, hands poised and ready, mental lists gone over again and again, the clock strikes midnight of my "priority registration date" (of course midnight, what other time could it possibly be with that preface) and I begin the process of registering for classes.

Have you ever seen a kid in a candy shop? Or perhaps, have you ever BEEN a kid in a candy shop? I really want to put this on your level so think of whatever it is that makes you act like that cliche, Nordstroms, Godiva, or Auto Universe. Got it in mind? Alright. Back to my analogy (translate into your analogy in your head) That's me. The dorky kid with the socks up to the knobbly knees and the grin of sheer and utter contentment. But slowly, that grin fades as the kid realizes that all the candy is out of reach and there is no step ladder and noone tall enough to reach for them. Poor kid.

Poor me. I had my classes planned out so carefully in my head. I'm STILL a planner, after all these years, if you can believe it (for those of you who don't "get" the irony in that, please refer to The Life of Brynn chapter 19...har har). Being the voracious reader that I am, and having gotten English 251 "the prerequisite" out of the way, I was more than ready to sign up for British Literature from 1800-1850, Masterpieces of World Literature, The American Novel, Shakespeare, in fact, anything that would involve reading classics, analyzing them, discussing them, I would sign up for. Alas for my priority registration date being that of a sophomore, ALL, and I mean ALL the classes were already full. You may think I exaggerate. I spent literally hours scouring the entire section of possible English classes. No such luck.

And the silver lining. I am signed up for what sound like fabulous classes. Civilization: Literature 2, and Western Humanities 201. My other classes are American Heritage and Aerobic Dance. I decided not to sign up for a religion class on campus, I'll go to an institute class of course, but my mom and I decided that maybe I shouldn't add so much all at once. I will probably be doing a lot of reading this next semester, but that is just fine with me!

The end of the story is that I got through signing up, and I am still breathing, two very important things to note. The other problem that I did not mention however, is that yet again, I have changed my mind about my major. ACK! Will the indecision never end? Welcoming all suggestions now.

Perhaps I'll just be a phlebotomist. According to a billboard I saw, I can become on in just ten easy classes.....

Last night I went to the BYU/TCU game and I left my keys at home, thinking "my roommates never, ever lock the door, I'll be fine!"

I get home and it's locked.

So I give Jess a leg-up and she manages to get onto the balcony. The glass doors are also locked. AND on top of that, she can't get down.

I call Tyson, and am laughing so hard I can barely make myself coherent. He says something like "wait, you're locked out, and Jess is stuck...on the third floor?" I say "no, the second." Long pause. "Okay are you laughing or crying?" Which makes me laugh even harder. "No, I'm just laughing," I reply. "Alright just wanted to assess the seriousness of the situation." Is his response.

He arrives but Jessica refuses to be helped down (she's never been the dramatic-damsel-in-distress kind). Tyson climbs up all our balconies (we have five) and all but the very last doors are locked, so we finally get in, and by this time, Jessica has gotten herself down from the balcony with no more than a bruised knee.

Hopefully that came out as humorously as it was supposed to, but since I've never been very good at telling, or even retelling jokes, I wouldn't be surprised if you thought it was meant to be a tragedy!

Happy Friday!!!

Wow can you say CRUNCH time. So I am going home for Thanksgiving and leaving in one week and two days. In that time I have to write six papers. One eight page, the rest two pagers. Two of them are extra credit papers. No, I have definitely not been procrastinating. I'm the kind who finishes papers (usually) at least a week in advance. It's just been crazy lately. Bon chance pour moi!

Have I mentioned the Malt Shoppe before? Probably. Well, my mom was just here for two days (FABULOUS!) and we went there TWICE. That's how good it is. Today I had an m&m, carmel, chocolate, and pecan shake. GOOD-NESS! Loved it.

Aaaand I'm on steroids this week, it hasn't started out that great, last night alone I was up three times in the night. At least I have a lot of cheerios for my 2 am cravings.

It was so good to have my mom here. She deserves another paragraph to herself. She bought my cleaning supplies (more of them). I didn't know I needed something other than Ajax to scrub the bathroom, so I learned something new today. She vacuumed as well, and helped me rearrange my room. It looks so much better, I just love it! I get to see her again in just a week and a half so that's amazing too. Aren't mothers just the best invention ever?

I'm so excited--my mom is coming to Utah for my next chemo appointment which happens to be an LP (lumbar puncture) so it will be especially nice. Aren't mothers great?

Opera. The new love of my life. I just saw Mozart's Il Nozze de Figaro and oh-my-heck is all I can say. Wow. And that's just from a relatively small fry performance. I can't begin to imagine Opera at the Met in New York... Just...wow. There are no more words. Go see an opera. Go. Stop reading. Just go.

For my Anthropology class midterm, I get to write a paper on inner and outer beauty and how they relate to each other. Tonight some awesome guys to whom I will be forever in debt, came over and we had a nice little powow. I think I have enough material to write five midterms, but I think I'll probably just write one ;0)

And so obviously, I've been thinking a lot on this topic lately. What is beauty? How is it that a person can literally evolve from being absolutely beautiful, and within five seconds of speaking become so unattractive, or vice versa? What do you think of the "world's" concept of beauty vs your own? What is your standard?

I have gained a completely new perspective on this just over the past two years. My concepts of beauty have radically changed and I feel like an entirely new person. It's not often that people get a chance to change so wholly, but I'm one of those. Being bald was hard. My hair was such a security blanket to me. I lavished hours of time washing, drying, straightening (not because it was curly), to make it "perfect." All gone in less than five weeks.

The funny thing is that "before," I received compliment after compliment on my hair each day. Now, it's the same. In fact, I believe people tell me even more than they used to that they love my hair. But it's not because of the $100 and two hours I spent at a salon. It's just curly, fun, natural and ME! Before now I never would have thought that curly and short could go together and be beautiful.

Yes, eventually when my hair is long enough I will try straightening it some days and leaving it curly the next. I'm not going to neglect my hair just because I know it is temporary. It's just my obsession with it that has changed. My beauty or lack thereof no longer revolves around my hair. I'm happy with it short. I'm happy with it not California blonde (although it may get back to that stage naturally...if only it were summer!!!). I'm happy with me.

A while ago I decided to stop reading the news. Instead of feeling informed and enlightened after "catching up" on the world, I would just feel depressed and helpless. Well, that was a bit selfish of me. What if I was living, well, pretty much anywhere else in the world? For starters, I probably would not even still be alive. What a great thing is modern medicine...and the insurance to pay for it!

To illustrate better what I am trying to say, click here: http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/hunger-facts-international.html; http://www.wfp.org/english/.

I'm sure you are wondering what exactly propagated this little rant? I'm sure you've heard about the crisis in Burma. If not, look it up on BBC news. It is hard to think that somewhere in the world such atrocious things are happening (Darfur, for example), but they are. Please, pray, fast, light a candle, donate money to a reputable institution, sign a petition, there are so many ways to "make the world a better place." Let's all do our best to help in whatever capacity we can, and whomever we can most effectively reach out to, whether that be the oppressed in Burma, the hungry in our own nation, or even "just" the lonely grandmother down the street.