Message on a fridge.

As of late I have had a lot of time to seriously reflect on my future. It is a source of anxiety for me; not knowing. And even though I have a countdown to graduation (3 months, 4 days), the same countdown reminds me that I am leaving the protective bubble of BYU for an unknown world. What am I going to do? 
Today I was with some friends visiting their old roommates. On the roommate's fridge was the following poem. For a brief moment, though God's plan for me remains unclear at present, I found comfort in the following:

When the time was right,

the sea parted,

the walls fell down,

the lions went hungry,

the sun stood still,

the waves were calm,

the stone was rolled away,

the clouds were parted,

the Lord ascended...

And when the time is right,

the King of Kings will return.

God is never early and He's never late--

He's always right on time and His plan for you is good.

Good Idea/ Bad Idea: A week's worth of experiences

*Dinner Group starting again! (I didn't realize how spoiled I'd gotten till I had a whole week where I had to do the cooking!)

*Going to the Springville Museum of Art. I had no idea. No idea how great it was. I felt like I was not in Springville, Utah, but in some big city. The art was beautiful, the ambiance was peaceful, at the risk of sounding cheesy, it was a renewing experience. I'll be going back. And... it's FREE! 

*Getting a nativity at 50% off! (and it's a cute one, even if I'll have to add the Holy Family next year). It's still up in my apartment (till the chreche comes in the mail) along with all our other decorations.

*Getting up (at 6:30am)and exercising 2 days this week, and one day after school. I guess it's true what Elle woods says; "exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy." Also, it makes me go to bed early (think 10:00ish) and kinda makes me feel like I'm on the mission again. 

*Taking a Cooking class; it's awesome! My group rocked out some gingersnaps yesterday, and I was the most popular girl in my next class (when I shared the leftovers.)

*Having super great warm socks when you live in Utah in the winter. My feet are mostly chronically cold, except I have this one pair of socks, they're Columbia brand socks for snow sports (I think.) I got them on clearance because they were tall to wear with my boots, and they are Ah-Mazing! 

*The Tangled soundtrack! Oh my goodness! It's amazing! just see for yourself, I listen to this at least once a day. It's beautiful!

Ok, onto: 

* Ticking off Taylor Swift. She will write a song about you and put your name in it. Seriously, I would avoid making her mad/ breaking her heart. (See her new album a song called 'Dear John' dedicated to John Mayer)

*Living in Utah. Ok, this isn't an all bad idea... it just is so cold! My little 25 year old car is not super happy about the current temperatures, though she did start this morning pretty easily, but I think it's three times as warm today as it has been recently. (which means it's 22* instead of 7*-- for a weather wimp like me that is just SICK!)

*Living in Utah in the winter, pt 2. My whole life I've had dry skin, but holy cow-- I put lotion on multiple times a DAY and I am just dry and itchy. Dry and itchy all the time.

* Taking medicine without eating. BAD IDEA-- you'd think I would have learned this one by now... but no. It's a very bad idea. 

This has been a Thursday edition of

No dinner group=quick and easy comfort food for emily

So dinner group has not yet begun for the semester, and life without it has been a tad, well the food has not been good this week. So after a few days of eating crackers, cheese and apples for every meal (and a few thawed leftovers) I decided that I needed to actually cook. On Wednesday I sat in my class that doesn't get out till almost 5pm, and as my stomach growled, I thought of things that I had supplies for, that I could make myself for dinner before my stomach ate a hole in itself. After much thought, I decided on Tuna Bake. I know, tuna has a bad rap. It is fish, it's a little smelly, and is the main ingredient of tuna casserole, which, can be delicious, or nasty.

So here's what you need:

1 can cream of
1 can tuna
1 can milk (maybe a little less even)
one onion chopped up (or how ever much you like.)
some garlic/pepper/something green (as mom would say)

1 1/2 cups bisquick
1/2 cup milk
cheddar cheese, grated

Mix the cream of, milk, and spices. Add the tuna and onions. (different recipes say you can do this on the stove before baking... I'd just as soon not have to wash the pan). Pour into the bottom of a 9" square baking dish.

Mix up the bisquick and the milk like you're making biscuits. then plop it on the counter and make a rectangle about 1/4" thick. Then you'll grate the cheese on top, as much as you'd like, then roll it up like a cinnamon roll. Cut into 9 pieces and place on top of the soup mixture.

Bake at 350 for 30ish minutes, or till the rolls are golden brown. Then enjoy! Warm, yummy, and they reheat pretty well (as I well know, after eating them for the past 3 days!).
Probably serves 4 moderately hungry people, but can be easily doubled :)

And... no picture for you. So sorry :)

Making the bed.

This week I have worked almost half again as much as I worked last semester. I won't complain, I LOVE my job! (Plus money is always a positive thing, right?) My boss is quite possibly the sweetest lady ever. 

Yesterday I showed up to work and she said "I believe today might feel like you're back at the inn today. She was right. I didn't clean, but I stripped and made up 3 beds in very short order.

I enjoy making beds. It's clean work, it allows me to stretch and use muscles usually left unused, and even though you start with an unruly pile of sheets, blankets and pillows in the end you have a beautiful bed (or at least the way I make them is beautiful).

Every time I finish a bed I have the same thought. I am transported back to Ms Reichl's senior AP English class. I loved that class, I loved reading and analyzing and writing about it. I loved looking for interesting parallels, and she was a phenomenal teacher. 

One unit we covered was poetry, and as a part of that we had a segment on poetry performance. They apparently make poetry videos; like music videos, but with poetry rather than music. It was... interesting. There was one though that has stuck with me. 

There was a woman who was a maid or a housekeeper or something like that. She performed the poem while she was making a bed, it was something about how boss lady say do this, boss lady say that. But her closing line is the one that has stuck with me. She said "Mama said if you make your bed, you have to lie in it. Lucky for me, I make a [darn] fine bed." 

And so, after making beds all summer, and having occasional days of bed making at my current job, in addition to my own bed, I can echo her words. 

"Lucky for me, I make a darn fine bed."

Good Idea/ Bad Idea: Dating Etiquette

My brother and I used to watch Anamaniacs on WB (when it was channel 28 (I think.)). They had a section called:

Today I thought I'd go over some of what I had assumed to be basic dating etiquette. After years at BYU, and since I was 18 or so, I've been on what I feel like is an adequate number of dates, a plethora, even, to have a pretty good idea of what is acceptable or not. Perhaps you'll even remember this blog post from a year ago where I listed some things that were for sure BAD ideas of things to do on a date, specifically one of the first dates. 

Tonight I went out with a friend. Honestly, I'm not sure if it was a date, or if we were just out as friends; and mostly, I don't really care which it was. But it made me wonder why I put up with terrible awkward dates! It was much better than the last handful of actual 'dates' I've been on. So, Good idea, Bad Idea (maybe this should become a weekly blog... we'll see)

Good Idea: Introducing your self to your date. And remembering their name. 

Bad Idea: Introducing yourself to every person in the room except your date

Good Idea: Having plans. Set plans. Some spontaneity is fun, but youtube/excessive video gaming should be reserved till a relationship has ensued. 

Bad Idea: Not having a planned agenda. "Um, let's watch youtube videos for the next hour..."

Good Idea: Put a time limit on dates! Hello lunch dates, Ice Cream dates, smoothie dates. Mini golf, Even a movie... seriously, anything less than 6 hours. 

Bad Idea: Marathon dating. I'm done with it. You get 2 hours, tops, if I don't know you. And even if I do... more than that is getting long. The last two blind dates I went on were 6 hours long EACH! It is exhausting! 

Good Idea: When playing a game choosing your date to be on your team. In fact, you should pretend like your date is the most important person in the room. (Hopefully you won't have to pretend.)

Bad Idea: When playing a partner game not choosing your date to be your partner. Even going out of your way to choose someone other than your date.

This has been another edition of

:)

PS: Enjoy!

Happy Happy New Year!

A lesson from 6th grade, remembered.

I remember 6th grade science class. Mr. Valenta with the glass eye was our teacher, his class was the last room on the left in the 6th grade hallway. That year, we learned about water, (I don't really remember him teaching us much, he would actually leave the answer book out for us to 'check' our answers before we turned in our homework). But I do remember having this conversation about ice. Wikipedia sums it up nicely:

An unusual property of ice frozen at atmospheric pressure is that the solid is approximately 9% less dense than liquid water. Ice is the only known non-metallic substance to expand when it freezes.^{[citation needed]} The density of ice is 0.9167 g/cm³ at 0°C, whereas water has a density of 0.9998 g/cm³ at the same temperature. Liquid water is densest, essentially 1.00 g/cm³, at 4°C and becomes less dense as the water molecules begin to form the hexagonal crystals^[2] of ice as the freezing point is reached. This is due to hydrogen bonding dominating the intermolecular forces, which results in a packing of molecules less compact in the solid. Density of ice increases slightly with decreasing temperature and has a value of 0.9340 g/cm³ at −180 °C (93 K).^[3]

Ok, so that's probably deeper than we went in science class in middle school, but bear with me. So, basically we learned that ice expands when it freezes, you notice this when you fill an ice cube tray with water it comes out more full than it was when you put it in initially see exibit A:

Now, what does this have to do with the price of rice in china? (though if you were wondering, pay attention to the next figure). 

Absolutely nothing. EXCEPT today I learned how this 6th grade lesson is applicable in real life. 

Today was the first day of school, it was also the first day of my new work schedule. So, I made sure everything was all ready. I got up early, ate some breakfast, and drove to campus, where I parked at the Marriott Center (formerly known as the 'big MAC') and walked to my class in the Museum of Art (yes, I have a class in there, it's pretty chill.) By the time I got out of class it was pretty warm, I was too hot with my coat and my scarf on. So I drove to my boss' house in Orem. Would you believe that her road is, I am almost certain, the only road in Orem still covered in ice. (Ok, probably not, but it's the only road in Orem that I have to drive on!) So I try to figure out where to park, I hesitated, it looked like this:

except that there was TONS and TONS of you know what (SNOW, silly!) piled up anywhere that wasn't driveway. So, I looked for the smallest pile of snow, drove over it, and parked my car. 

6 hours later Betsy wasn't going anywhere. So, I pulled out my trusty girl scout cell phone and called my dad. I tried very hard to be successful and resourceful, assuming that I was simply stuck in a rut. I tried branches and kitty litter, I tried rocking, I almost tried my chains, till we figured it out (DAD figured it out). Had I thought back 12 years (12 YEARS!) to my science class (or to the last time I filled up an ice cube tray), I might have remembered that Ice expands leaving me in this kind of situation:

(please note, I have a 1985 volvo sedan, not a jacked up jeep, but the idea is the same). Apparently this is called "high centering" and this is what happened to Betsy. 

Try as I might, by myself there was no way that I could get her out on my own. 

I wish I could tell you that at that moment a prince charming type figure came to my rescue and with one powerful, muscular arm saved me. I wouldn't mind if he looked like this:

(the one on the left, actually, being saved by the one in the back would be impressive too.)

Alas, the day was saved by my boss who called her hometeacher's wife, who said she would "send vincent right over." So Vincent came from 3 doors down, hooked betsy up to his little SUV thing and 2 minutes later (probably less) I was home free. 

I feel like I ought to write sentences: 

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again.

I will never park there again. 

And I will remember that ice expands when things cool down for the evening. And get some ice melt, and some tow straps. 

Thank you Mr. Valenta