Ice Cream

Many moons ago, when I was at BYU, there was a list of perks you got when your roommate started dating someone. The list varied a bit, but it was essentially the following:

Holding hands: M&M's

Kissing: Ice Cream

Engagement: Dinner

Over the many moons that I lived in Provo, I received many M&M's, and my fair share of ice cream. Last night, had I had roommates, they would have gotten some ice cream out of me.


Alas, I don't have any roommates, so I served myself a big bowl of ice cream and relished in losing yet another finger in my 5 finger rule**.


**When I was 16 or so, I gave myself a rule. The rule is that I am only allowed to kiss 5 boys before I get married. (Now, at that point I was anticipating getting married by 19 or 20 years old, ha!, so these things may need to be adjusted).

The Lost Boys to my Wendy

One of the things I really like about my life in Portales is my social life. It was completely unexpected. After attending the ward, I saw my options for single female friends were either 18 or 29 and bitter. I became fast friends with RayMike, a 19 year old convert of about a year. He is quite like my little brother.

A couple of months into last semester I was at Institute and was talking to Mike and Matt and they invited me out to eat afterwards. That was the beginning. We started hanging out every weekend, which led to hanging out every couple of nights, which led to hanging out every night. The first or second Sunday we all hung out Matt had to do home teaching before we hung out, and along came Justin.

And thus it began. Emily and her lost boys. Each so different. There have been some love triangles :/ and some fights, and a fair amount of drama, and a boyfriend mixed in there. There have been occasional interlopers, people who add into our group periodically in and out. And we like it. But when it comes down to it, when it's me and the three boys I'm happy. They make my crazy school life bearable. A night without them makes me lonely.

I'm so glad I have my group of lost boys to take care of and to let them take care of me.

A big deal.

After lunch on Monday I was at my practicum Elementary School and in the hall way I ran into one of the girls from my program who'd gone home and checked her email during lunch. Remediation plans from Dr. Swift's class had come through. 

I asked how bad it was and her face went stressed, bad. It was bad. She told me she'd done badly on the final, but wouldn't qualify that until I told her that'd I'd gotten a 77% on my final. (FYI, a 77% on a Swift test is kind of AMAZING). Anyway. So I was super stressed. I went home and with trepidation checked my email. 

My inbox showed the following email: 

I am a rockstar!

Incentive

Upon returning home at my appointed curfew time tonight I checked my email before bed (as per usual). Shockingly my favorite teacher, Swift, changed the due-time for our assignment tomorrow from 11:55 pm to 11:00 AM, and class is from 9:00-10:40. Oi Vey! So here I am, up at 2:30 am, taking a quick break from homework because I now have incentive to finish my homework. Because if I get it done tonight...

A boy is bringing me breakfast. 

That's right. A boy is bringing me breakfast!!He likes me. And we cuddle. And he initiated. And he likes me. And we have a third date on Saturday night. I LURVE my life right now. (Okay, not so much the homework bit, but the boy is a nice perk). 

The shape of a heart

I have this theory. We live our lives in basic shapes. Squares, circles, triangles, etc. Especially now, when I live in small town New Mexico, and I don't really leave town, or deviate from my 5 places.

But because of my small town life, my life has a 4 mile diameter. It isn't shaped like a triangle, my life is shaped more like a heart. (Ok, you have to kind of use your imagination and flip it upside down, but see!)

A/F: My house! Next time I fine a house I probably won't choose one on the main street (read my last post to find out why not), but I love it. 

B: Eastern New Mexico University. I spend a LOT of time here. (Obviously.) 

C: Church-- Sunday, Monday and Wednesday you'll find me there. Maybe somewhere else. 

D: James Elementary School-- The location of my practicum. 8-4:30 Monday and Wednesdays. 

E: Matt's house. Where we get together to watch TV and play backgammon, and where maybe there was something akin to cuddling.... maybe. :)

Happenings

This week I seriously considered moving.

Reason #1:

Let me set the scene.

Saturday night at about 10:00 I get a text from the sister missionaries: "Hey, can you pick one of our investigators up for church tomorrow, her name is Felicia?" Me: "sure, meet me there in the morning?"

Sunday morning I drove up, parked next to the sisters' car and game them a ring. The sisters walk out with a hispanic girl in a track suit. (I'm not sure if they told her how we usually dress for church, but whatever!)

The whole way to church Felicia raves about MY CAR... MY CAR, folks! Remember what I drive?

Betsy. 1985 Volvo 740... 340,000+ miles on her. Looks just like this, just imagine her with more dust on her.

So the whole way to church I hear "This is a cool car" "I like this car" Then, it gets worse: "I need to figure out how to use this car so I know what to do when it's mine" and "I'm going to take your car." 

I laughed it off, till after church, when the sister missionaries came over for lunch. We're sitting on my bed, eating enchiladas, and they divulge some things about Felicia. 

Turns out, Felicia signs all of her texts "$lil lokita$" And has some... suspicious tattoos. Like gang tattoos. 

AND SHE WANTS TO STEAL MY CAR. 

Needless to say I was perturbed. 

Reason #2

Again setting the scene. 

It's about 2 pm, I'm sitting in the laundromat, minding my own Language text book (let me tell you how dry that book is!) Waiting for my laundry to dry so that I can get into work. 

It was not like this: 

Enter a man. 6 food, red head, big-ish. He looks at me and says (and I kid you not)

"Are you worried about not being able to get into your driveway?"

Me: "I'm sorry?"

Man: "You live just over there, right?" (Gestures in the direction of my house, 3 blocks away) 

        "The road construction is on hold till March"

 *Note: Portales is in a constant state of construction, I live just off the highway that goes through town. They're currently re-doing the other side of the two lane, one way road. At some point they'll switch sides and I'll have to park around the corner or something...ok, back to the story...*

Me: "Oh, yeah, I was worried I'd get back from Christmas break and not be able to get to my house"

Him: "You rent from _______ (I don't remember his name), right?"

Me: "Yeah, I think that's his name..." (turns back to book, hoping that it will make my point).

Him: "And your house has a washer/dryer hook up, doesn't it"

Me "yeah"

Him: "What utilities do you pay?"

The conversation continued. My attempts to concentrate on my reading was impossible. And, as I left he said:

"Well, see you around." (BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHERE I LIVE!!)

Needless to say I am a little freaked out!



All week I have lived in fear of coming out in the morning and having my car gone. Or opening the door at night to find the tall ginger standing on my step.


Perhaps, next time I am house shopping, I'll think through things. Things like, the frat house that is across the street from me. Or the fact that I'm on the MAIN road, and I have a recognizable car in Portales, NM. (There is a super cute baby blue Mercedes from about the same era as Betsy). Also, backing out onto the one-way street during busy traffic times can sometimes be... interesting.

So, here's the deal. If my car disappears, I'll be checking up on $lil lokita$ and if I disappear, you're going to want to go to the Happy Wash Laundromat and find their employee, tall, red head, big-ish guy. He'll probably know where to find me.

And, someday. I'm going to get a garage.

Drama Emily doesn't need in her life, part 1

Ok, so it is4:30 am, and when my parents read this, they will wonder why on earth I am up at this time. I didn't plan on being awake. In fact, I was prepared to go to bed 90 minutes ago, when I got home... But then, stuff happened.

1: I pull into my driveway, and inside the gate I see some movement on my front porch. Skeptical, I watch for a minute, and low and behold, it's a SKUNK! Te was no way I was going to risk disturbing that guy (ps, who even knew there were skunks in nm? I thought they lived in swamps!) anyway, I had to wait for the skunk to get around the house, then make lots of noise while going in quickly so I didn't get sprayed. So I was a little worked up after that.

2: I ate dinner at about 5 pm. I was starving. So naturally, I made myself some delicious guacamole and a cup of tea.

3: and this ones the kicker. I got home, and one of my friends who I went to the movie with texted me. So we've been texting for a while, and out of the blue he says "while we are on this subject, next time the four of us go out, let's make it an official double date." This kid says all of 3 words to me every time we hang out, a conversation is like pulling teeth, and he asked me out, via text message... The funny thing is that I was hanging out with his sister last week, and she asked me if he liked me. I just asked her right back, I guess the answer was yes...and because it's 4:45 am, I have nobody to tell but my poor neglected blog.

The thing is, of the boys I hang out with, Justin is probably the most righteous of the group. (Begging the question of why he'd ask me out)... But... I mean... It's Justin. A double date with mike and Kirsten will probably mean mike and I will talk, and Justin will sit quietly... Oi vey. This'll be a fun one. Stay tuned for "drama emily doesn't need in her life, part 2".

Good night and good luck.