Stick it to the man--- but not really

I had a great idea while in the loo today. As I sat down I saw a newspaper, on the ground, and I read it. And I realized, there should be newspapers in every bathroom stall. The Daily Universe has a super low readership, but I think this would get people's attention. Except, asking the Daily Universe to install newspaper holders in every stall is ridiculous, I still think it is possible.

It's a grassroots movement. BYU students love doing things that seem somewhat "contraband" and we would just be leaving newspapers under the bathroom stalls and then passing it on. Now for a witty name...

Biting in the middle of the night

My room mate, Cami, recently pulled me into our room in order to show me some creepy crawlies on her bed. I have never had bed bugs before and I'm not sure if they have infested my half of the room yet, but I know that once upon a time Juan had them. Poor Juan. He had little red buggies crawling all over the place and they didn't even pay their half the of the rent. His landlords changed the mattresses, but since they didn't actually spray everything then there were still creepies crawling inconspicuously all over the place.

This reoccurring event makes me think on the topic of cohabitation in general. The art of living with others. I am in a microbiology class right now and we talk endless of microorganisms which are everywhere, but we can't see them. I once had a friend like that, his name was Carlos and he would sleep on everyone's couch, except he was quit visible and audible.

Generally speaking, I enjoy living with others. I come from a family of nine children (there have since been additions, but I haven't ever lived with them, so for the purposes of emphasizing my point, we won't discuss them). I remember growing up and never being alone. Even if there weren't any siblings around (a rare occurrence) there were neighborhood children or friends roaming about. I never ran out of playmates and I never avoided being constantly teased. I had a friend who was an only child and I never understood what that would be like. If you didn't have siblings you would actually have to make an effort to make friends.

We were also a very touchy lot, which is good, because I think that is how I feel love. According to the "Languages of Love" I receive love through touch and time. So my family was perfect for me, we gave massages, we slept together, even just sitting around on the couch we were usually touching. This is why I one day want to have children and lots of them. I miss having my family around and having people to hold all the time.

Cohabitation, count me in.

Edible Flowers

While I was in my floral design class, I watched my teacher put together an arrangement with flowers, floral foam, and food. I was really excited to try this on my own, however, I don't have many occasions that would really call for it. So as soon as I saw veggie tray sign ups for my work party, I jumped on the idea and began planning. And the result was:

This piece of art required very little work and only:

• one head of red cabbage
• serving platter (I borrowed a nice porcelain one from my sister, chances are you wont be seeing it, so you don't have to worry too much about appearance)
  
• dip dish (I used a neat brown glass bowl I found in my house)
  
• various chopped vegetables/fruit of your choosing
• flowers (I cut some from the BYU gardens and after washing them in warm water I refrigerated them up until I arranged them. This helps for freshness and to kill any small bugs)

Once you have everything, tear off cabbage leaves and try to keep them intact as much as possible as these will be the basis of your veggie holders and to help separate flowers from the food itself. Next place your dip bowl, leaves, and vegetables onto the tray in whatever arrangement you like. Finally, cut the stems on your flowers and arrange them between cabbage and plate. Voila, you have a masterpiece.

Garden Fresh

In my floral design class we talked a little bit about preparing flowers fresh from your garden. Using these principles, I went out early yesterday morning and picked some fresh roses for a simple cube design. To kill the aphids, I filled a sink with warm soapy water and immersed the flower heads. I then cut the stems and placed them in flower food:

Flower food is important because it contains sugar, citric acid, and a biocide which all help to feed the plant and keep the water clean from harmful bacteria. In case you don't have any pre-made flower food, you can always use a little bit of listerine or lemon lime soda as a substitute.

Once you have all your roses, you can arrange and enjoy. One great thing about home grown roses is that they are much more fragrant than the roses you purchase from a store. I was absolutely intoxicated by this arrangement, even though it didn't last near as long.

Ears are ringing

I have always had an avid love of earrings and I was reminded of this the other day when looking through my earring cemetery. What, you ask, is an earring cemetery? Throughout the course of my life I have gone through a lot of earrings, which usually get lost. Except, like socks, you rarely lose a pair, instead you will lose one earring and just have to find a new match. It is a graveyard of the missing, mismatched, and broken:

I also have an interesting philosophy on matching, I have never been too observant on the rule that in order to match you need to have two identical items. Instead, in socks and earrings, I have always held the belief that you match things with the most similar item you have. I.e. if you have two socks that are similar material and design (they are both solid colored) and sometimes even if they are the same cut, then they obviously match. Others feel this is a little off, but in the end, I have more character in my socks and their socks go completely unnoticed.

With earrings I have a similar matching technique and I have no qualms modifying my earrings, removing backs, re-attaching backs or switching backs from earring to earring. This is another reason why I keep all of my old earrings.

I also like my earrings because all of them have a story. I have a green pair from Croatia, a yellow pair from San Jose California, a mismatched white pair that I found on the side walk, a pair from DI that are constantly debated as being either eggplants, aliens, or weird Christmas decorations and many more. Some of my more favorite earrings recently have been:

Daejeon, South Korea

While in class this afternoon I called my mom to have her check her mail (where my call was being sent) and found out that I am going to.

Drum roll please.

Daejeon, South Korea!

I thought it was a very random assignment, I have no connection with anywhere in Asia. And then I started thinking about something someone told me how the first presidency matches up missionaries with the mission presidents more than the location. So I googled it and found out the the mission president's wife actually keeps a blog. Serves me right I suppose for putting blogging on my hobby list.

If you have any words of advice on how I am supposed to learn Korean, they would be greatly appreciated. I enter the MTC on September 23, 2009 so anytime before then would be great.

I'm going, going, GONE

This morning after thinking about things, I got really excited. I am going on a mission. A Mission.
My papers are in. My call has been assigned and should arrive some time this week, hopefully on Wednesday. So currently I am taking bets on where people think I will go. Since I think facebook groups are obnoxious, I just asked all my co-workers and a couple of friends for guesses and received the following answers:

• Venezuela
  
• Great Britain
• Armenia
• State side, south west, possibly Texas
  
• Iberian peninsula
• Norway
• Guatemala
• Brazil
• Colorado Denver South
• Canada
• Portland, OR
• Argentina, Buenos Aires South
• Czech Republic
• Eastern Europe
• Germany
• Japan
• Ireland
  

If you'd like to make a guess, feel free.