mission story # 639

yay for mission stories!

today i was checking out msn and saw a headline about theives being caught stealing while trying to stuff 12 stolen pigs into a minivan. i, of course, failed to act immediately on this post, so i don't have a link for you to read. you don't have to say it. i know you're all sad. especially laura.

i know you're all probably wondering how this could possibly remind me of my mission. it should remind me of the time when i was in high school that we crammed 21 screaming teenagers into the bed of a farm truck and then spent the better part of an hour dragging main. or all of those stories about seeing how many people you can cram into a phone booth or a volkswagen beetle. but no.

it's really the transporting of pigs that set off this particular memory. and it's a short one, so i've filled the rest of this post with idle comments in an attempt to entertain the whole world. so the story is that one day when i was in my first area, which was a really rural area, we were on the bus on our way to district meetings. we had to pass through the bus station there in quevedo, and in doing so, passed many other buses being loaded with people and whatever else. the "whatever else" this particular day was a pig. there were 3 men trying to put a pig on top of the bus, because apparently only chickens are allowed to ride as passengers. pigs fall strictly under the "luggage" catergory, thus being relegated to the top of the bus. oh, for a camera at that very moment. i, being the only north american in the bunch, was the only person to find any humor at all in this situation. sad, i know. that's why i'm sharing the story with you now so that you can laugh out loud and maybe even start rolling on the floor at the visual imagery i've just created for you.

(for more fun with visual imagery, see this post from last february.)

eeeewwww!!!

that's the first thing i said this morning when i looked out my bathroom window and saw it was snowing. it's also the first thing i said last night when i saw the channel 5 weatherman wearing his white blazer. it's been snowing all day, which means that i also have to start wearing appropriate footwear.

one more thing that snow means is footwear that make me say "eeeewww". here are some examples.

i saw some like this (only with more fur) on one of my students today. they were the inspiration for this post.

these ones are especially bad, i think. it looks like someone turned that pesky neighborhood porcupine into a fancy pair of leg warmers. which if fine, i guess, since the terrible fashion trends of the 80s are making a raging comeback. with a horrendous 21st century twist, that is.

then there's these ones by a company called UGG, which in my book is just short for ugg-ly. they're from australia, and i've tried to blame my australian roommate for them, but she hates them as much as i do. i'm so glad she has some fashion sense and is not sucked into the world of icky winter footwear.

for better or worse, it looks like winter is here to stay. for today at least.

halloween movie

here's a little video of my halloween escapades. if you're wondering who all of my fabulous friends are, hang tight til the end of the video for the credits.

space debris

i was just reading a little article from my desktop news feed and this one struck me as quite funny. really, it's the last line that's the kicker. i laughed out loud. you'll just have to read it to see what i mean.

early voting

i voted today. it's funny to think about it, but this is only the second time that i've been able to vote for president. i was on the mish in 2004, so i missed that whole thing. still couldn't tell you what happened. except that bush won. anyway, i just went to the early voting station they had set up here on campus, which was nice and convenient. i didn't know what the hours of operation were, so i ventured over to the union just before 11am. on the way there i noticed the signs saying that they were open from 12-5. i decided to just go back to my office to wait until noon. and then i changed my mind. i had a book with me because i heard that the lines were long, so i figured i could wait at the union just as easily as in my office, so i just went and got in line an hour before the polling started. and boy am i glad i did. there were already about 5 people waiting in line on nice hard folding chairs. so i joined them and began reading all about islam and the secular state. it wouldn't be bad if the author weren't so darn repetitive. anyway. soon, my hour had passed and they started taking us in to vote. then, and only then, i looked back at the line. i had heard it was long, but wow, it was really really long. i looked all the way down the long hallway and couldn't see the end of the line because it wrapped around the corner and out into the cafeteria area. so it turned out that my initial decision to sit in the hallway on a hard, cold chair was a really good one. not only was i headed back to my office at 12:10, but i also got to spend my hour-long wait seated rather than standing. i feel all warm and fuzzy now that i've done my civic duty and put my two cents in on this one.

in other bigger, potentially more exciting news, today is halloween, and i promise to post some pics this weekend of the fun times i've had this week in my most fabulous costume. it just keeps getting better and better. two more parties tonight, so it'll be a good time, i tell ya what.

ode to my office

from time to time, as my readers may know, i like to write odes to things that i really like. like slurpees and tide to go pens. today is the ode to my office, in which i've been passing much time for the past couple of months.

This is the horizontal view of the office. or at least my half of it. it's not very wide. the opposite wall is just past the door jamb.

this is the vertical view. i like how i have books on the bookshelves now, even if i borrowed all of them from the library. but not for the photo shoot. i'm actually reading them. also seen here is my black wheeled office chair which is in serious need of some extra padding on the seat.

these are my office magnets. this is not all of them, but it's all that would fit in the picture. of course, i could have moved them to all fit in the shot, but that would have been too hard.

this here is the only decoration i have on the wall. it's a university directory from 1972. it was found last fall when huseyin's desk wouldn't open, so someone from the shop came and broke the lock off and then found a bunch of really old stuff in the very back of the desk. also found were some interoffice envelopes last used in 1964. not even kidding.

this is the view from our window. it's fabulous i know. our side of the building faces full west, so it gets a little toasty in the afternoons, even in the winter. this is the beginning of the panorama that i took for your benefit. this is looking northwest. on a less air-poluted day, you can kinda see downtown SLC between the two trees there.

a little less north west. if the trees weren't there, you could see the marriott library, which is the 23rd largest library in the US, just in case you care.

a little more south west-ish. if these trees weren't there, you could see the social and behavioral science building, which is the tallest building on campus. not taller than these trees, though.

this is mostly the roof, as you can see, and the view off the the south. if not for the trees, you could see the business building. i've often been tempted to crawl out onto the roof, but never have. i've heard that it's nice. there is always the question of actually being able to fit out the window. . . best not try it. too many questions if i have to call for help.

these are all the things that i like about my office. and i also like my new officemate Monica. she's from the czech republic, and has offered me a job painting houses with her and her husband next summer if i can't find a job and move away from utah. she has her masters, a partially finished mba, and is working on her phd. her husband has 2 master's degrees. between the three of us, we could very well be the most educated house painters ever. anyway. my office is nice because i can treat school like a job and feel all important because i have some private place down a very dim and narrow hallway where i can study and get important school stuff done. sometimes. regardless of my level of productivity on any given day, i love my office.

drunken pumpkins

a few weeks ago my mom sent me an email with the following picture, encouraging all to drink responsibly during the holidays. although if it had been more than just a forward it would have said something like, "see what happens when you drink. you shouldn't drink at all." now that's some good motherly advice.


anyway, i told julia about the email and decided that we should take it upon ourselves to recreate this lovely pumpkin scene. one lovely thursday night before the office came on, we had a little carving party in my dining room, which resulted in these lovely creations. they are faces only a mother could love, i'm sure.

jon came over and wouldn't carve pumpkins with us (jerk) but instead was the artistic direction for the evening. and rightfully so. he did a pretty good job and was kind enough to help fix our screw ups after telling us that we really shouldn't carve specific designs freehand.

so to show our appreciation, we arranged our new creations on his front porch, along with some root beer bottles since the real beer bottles i'd been hoarding since my roommate's last party somehow made their way out to the recycling bin before we could carve the pumpkins. anyhow, jon loved his new little friends, or so he said. it's always so hard to know with him.