Monday, March 27, 2006

Claiming a Title

So, we have some very close friends that live in Biddulph Dormatory. (It's a guy's dorm.) Their names are Stew, Josh, and Chris. They're (for the most part) inseperable. Two of them, Stew and Josh are my brother's from other mothers. Really. Especially Josh. He reminds me soooo much of my cousin Dickon. Not only his personality, but his physique as well.

Anyway, Josh told me and my friend Angela that they have made up some nicknames for us and the rest of our roommates. We were really interested in finding them out. But, Josh says that whatever is said between him and the guys stays there. Boo. He stinks. Eventually though, I thought I had noogied it out of him. He said, "Okay well, I'll only tell you yours and Angela's. We sometimes call you Crazy Russian Girl. Angela we call Crazy Woman." I thought they were a little generic especially for these guys, but hey... whatever, right? So last night Angela was texting to Josh trying to get the name out of him. (He had made me promise not to tell her. But he never said I couldn't encourage her to find out herself!) This had been going on for an hour or so when I decided I would go to bed.

The room was dark except for Amber's book light shining from accross the room. I was still wide awake, but for the moment it was pretty quiet. I was laying on my back with my arms behind my head, when all of a sudden, the door swings wide open and Angela walks in in her pajamas and with her phone. "Super Hotness?" she said. I waited a second, slightly puzzled, and after Amber didn't say anything, I figured, Hey! I might as well claim the name given, right? "Yes?" I replied. Yeah, we had a good laugh about that until Ang explained she was just asking if that was the nickname they gave her. Obviously Josh was sucking up. I replied in the negative and we laughed a little longer.

We found out today that Josh had lied to me so that I would stop asking him. We've decided to make up little names for them in return. Losers. Not fair!

Oh, just as a side note, Chris had lied to us about his roomie, Todd. Andrea and Emily got pictures of him eating egg at breakfast. We confronted Chris about it later, and he was like, "Yeah, actually, it exploded! Now I have to clean it up!" Yuck! It's been in there a week! Blake said the same thing happened in his microwave. Hahahaha.

Friday, March 24, 2006

Quoting the Music...

In my Music and the Hummanities with an Emphasis on Jazz - yes that is the full name - I hear the coolest things. Honestly, I didn't realize how many funny and also profound things have been said in there until today. I write them down in the margins of my notes. They're partly from my professor, Brother Dr. Mark Watkins. He's a great teacher, very funny, rather sarcastic. He's probably 6'2" or so, dark hair which he always wears slicked back, and the second thickest glasses I have ever seen in my life. (The first belonged to brother Chris Tenbrink in Maine.) Anyway, yeah, he plays some mean saxophone I'll tell ya!

Most of them though are from a guest speaker we had today that was trying for a possition as the trumpet teacher here in BYU-I. I don't know his name, I'll try to find it out. I'm pretty sure it's a Brother Neilson, so that's what I'll call him for now. Others are from different video clips and such:

**"People are people, they'll do whatever they want to do. We're just looking for the commonalities." - Dr. Watkins. (In a lesson about racism and it's effect on jazz.)
**"We all know what it's like to be tempted by self-pity; and we all know the necessity of picking ourselves back up again." - Bro. Neilson (In a lesson about Miles Davis.)
**"Can we allow people to find their freedom as we pursue our own?" - Bro. Neilson (Lesson about Miles Davis.)
**"The suggestion of the solo [in jazz] is that diversity in unity is not only coherent, but also a dazzling human achievement.... [It] reveals the possibility of delight involved in musical resolutions of intricate tensions, as well as the possibility of a liberated individual presence subtly cooperating with a distinct ensemble." -Kathleen Marie Higgins
**"The man with a real sense of humor is the man who can put himself in the place of the spectator, and laugh at his own misfortunes." - Bert Williams (Comedian)
**"[Jazz] is the aural representation of everything this country stands for." - Bro. Neilson (Lesson about Miles Davis.)
**"First of all, ya can't get over how hard that grooves!" - Bro. Neilson (After listening to a demonstration of a Miles Davis tune. He was right.)

Monday, March 20, 2006

A Prank Gone Wrong

So yesterday we were allowed in the guy's rooms for a special occasion from 12 to 2. We're only ever allowed in the downstairs lounge usually. It was so funny. Angela and I went after breakfast. Our friend, Glenn loves to eat hardboiled eggs at breakfast, but he leaves the yolks. We took three of them and snuck them into the guys rooms in a napkin in my pocket. In PIP's room we put it under his pillow, then we put on in Chris's microwave, and one in Blake microwave. Just think, when they turn those on, those eggs are gonna stink like there's no tomorrow. PIP's friend layed on his bed and found it right away. We thought it was pretty funny, until at lunch today Chris comes in and says, "Guys, did you hear about what happened to Todd [his roommate] last night? He put a piece of pizza in the microwave and somehow this egg yolk that was in there melted with it and he was rushed to the hospital." Yeah, turns out Todd is allergic to egg. Pretty badly too. Ang and I thought he had found out it was us and was just trying to scare us, but it looks like he's telling the truth. Todd is okay now, and back in the dorms, but man... way to make me feel crappy about that prank. Oh well, at least PIP's and probably Blake's will turn out. But I still feel like an idiot about Todd.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

My Life as a Seinfeld Parallel

So Angela and I were talking the other day at lunch about how our life here in BYU-I is like something out of Seinfeld. Really... you could just walk around with us for a couple of days video-taping everything we do and you'd have a very funny show primarily about nothing. We could even draw comparisons between all five of us ("us" being the initial group we formed when we first met and became friends) and the characters in the show.

-- Angela and I share the role of Jerry... kind of the ones who're out there in the spotlight. We're the ones who make most of the decisions and whip out the most one-liners.
-- Andrea is Elaine... you could easily picture her saying "Get out!" while shoving the person with both hands. She doesn't want to draw any extra attention to herself, but she's wicked funny and rolls-with-it like no one else. A New Yorker through and through.
-- Amber would be George. She's nice and not selfish like he is, but she can ramble on for minutes and then finally someone will say, "Amb, what are you talking about?!"
-- Emily is most definatly Cramer. First of all, we often call her Fajen, which is her last name. Secondly, she's the neighbor that randomly enters (not uncommonly at uncomfortable moments) and, if there were an audience, would get an applause everytime. Thirdly, and by far most significant, she's ADHD. It is amazing what the outcome is when you combine "Hyperactive" with "Attention Deficit". That "H" makes all the difference! This girl is off the walls!

We have all the little inside jokes, hand signals, and obsessions that are so key to the show. For example, in Angela and Andrea's American Heritage class (which is at 9am), they sit in the same seats everyday. Until one day there was a kid with bright red hair sitting in their place. They now leave at about 8:15 (they really only need to leave at 8:50) in order to beat the kid there. Angela saw him in front of her one day and she actually sped up in order to get in class before him. Oh, and his name is officially "The Red-Haired Kid".

Things like that run ramped through my life right now. It's ridiculous, funny, and in many ways kind of sad... but hey, it makes for a good lunch conversation.