"i missed the camping extravaganza for THIS" or "funny how some things never change"

for this post, i've taken to naming it a la rocky and bullwinkle. every new segment has 2 titles. i'm really sorry if you've never watched rocky and bullwinkle and don't get it. just know that both titles are very appropriate.

so, my high school reunion. i really don't have anything good to say about it. the food was good and well organized, so way to go, chad, on that one. there was a very poor turnout, only 13 classmates total. and it was pretty much just like eating high school lunch again. same cliques, same topics, just 10 years old. i agonized for years over whether or not i should go at all, and it turns out that my gut instinct was right. i should not go to high school reunions. my dad's been right about this for many years now. i haven't kept in touch with anyone (which, initially, was not for lack of trying) and i really feel very little remorse for that. as it turns out, i didn't even talk to half of the other 12 people who were there. and i also discovered in retrospect that still tend to go unnoticed by many of my classmates (for that story, ask me. it's much better in person). with that lovely insight in mind, i have now vowed to never attend another class reunion. ever. really, if people cared that much, they'd actually try to keep in touch. i don't really try, so take that for what it's worth. no more reunions for me. i'll just find out about people from my mom, the news examiner, and those random reunions in the grocery store at christmas time. and facebook. maybe.

so, like i said, i can't believe i missed the camping extravaganza for this. and somethings never change.

i don't drink beer

now, this is a life statement if i've ever heard one. thanks jules!

kids rock

my friend julia showed me this the other night. i think it's really funny, especially if you know the real words to the songs. i'm sorry if you're not laughing. it's unfortunate that you don't share my sense of humor.

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1...

okay, so right now i have a lot of countdowns going on. for some reason it makes me feel better knowing exactly how far away the light at the end of the tunnel is. here are some of my countdowns:

56 minutes until lunch
5 hours 45 minutes until work is over
3 days until i get to go home for the weekend
11 days until the ani difranco concert (yay!)
3 weeks until i get a week of vacation
8 more weeks until i don't have a job any more (which also means. . . )
8 more weeks until breaking dawn comes out
11 months minus two days until i graduate. again.

once school starts, i'll have more things to count down. stuff like "days until this paper is due" and "weeks until fall break" and "days until christmas break" or "days until i'm done grading all of these stupid papers." you know, things to look forward to.

the livingroom

for fhe on monday, we went on a little hike to a place called the living room. basically, it's just straight up the mountain that is behind campus. it was so freaking hard, made even harder by my recently discovered respiratory ailment (which i like to blame on the freaking dirty air that i'm forced to inhale just because i happen to live in salt lake.) anyway, this is me and my friend julia up at the livingroom. it's a change from her livingroom, which is where we both spend a lot of time.

this is looking out toward the south end of the valley. like i said, freaking dirty air. the camera really captures it well. we could actually see the jordan river temple pretty good from where we were.

this is a pretty good view of campus. you can see the huntsman center above and a little to the left of jake's head, so that may give you an idea of how far up we were. jake is julia's awesome home teacher that pretty much encouraged me to make it the last 5 minutes to the top. i was about ready to die and he helped me up the rest of the way.

and this is the treat we got on the way down. of course, my picture doesn't nearly do it justice. it was an amazing sunset, though.

this is what happens when you leave your camera unattended at the sunday pot luck

i think that pretty much says it all.

ode to the perfect slurpee

yesterday i decided that it had finally gotten hot enough to warrant a slurpee. so i went to the 7-eleven on 3300 south by the REI, which is quite possible the closest one to my house. i had to sample all of the flavors first because some of them were new and sounded a little weird. i finally settled on the classic coke slurpee, and can i tell you, it was perfect. it wasn't too grainy, which is always good. i had just the perfect amount of separation (only an inch or so by the time i was half way done with the 28 ouncer). when it was being dispensed, it had just the right amount of grow to it. if it grows too much, of course you end up with a very airy slurpee and then you have to go through the process of getting rid of the air bubbles before you go so that you can top it off a time or two to make sure you maximize the amount of slurpee you're getting in your cup. if only all slurpees could be so perfect as this one. but i know very well that this was just a lucky break and that i will consume many far inferior slurpees before the end of the summer. i was just really glad that the first one of the season was a perfect one :)