Update

As a follow-up to my tagging, I have started to change. I actually asked two different people for help! I could find neither the interfacing at Joann's nor the corn syrup at the grocery store. Of course, it probably helped that I didn't actually have to go looking for people. Anyway, aren't you proud of me? :-) Sorry this is short, but I'm kind of buried in work at the moment. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I've been tagged. . .

Okay, since Amy has tagged me, here are my six things about me:

1) I really, really, really hate having to ask for help or favors of any kind. And when I say hate, I mean hate. This dislike includes things as simple as getting a ride when my car breaks down or asking a professor for a letter of recommendation. If any else is seeing the irony of this dislike in light of my recent car experiences and my further graduate studies, please feel free to laugh. I certainly have been! I also really don't like to ask for help from salespeople of any kind. I'd rather just find it myself, to the point that if I can't find it after looking for a while, I'm actually likely to just go back for it later. I'm slowly getting better at asking salespeople for help or for answers. However, I still have to remind myself that they're getting paid to help me and that their answering of questions is, in fact, part of their job descriptions. It's okay to bother them. They are getting paid to be bothered. I don't know why I have this dislike; I guess I always just feel like I'm inconveniencing and/or bother people when I ask for assistance. Or maybe it's the result of too many snarky comments or irritated sighs when I have asked for help in the past. What can I say? I like being independent, and I'm used to doing most things myself. I guess that might be a remnant of Mom making me make my phone calls (for doctors appointments and so forth) so that I could learn how to "be brave." Well, Mom, I think it worked. :-)

2) I am easily entertained and will be the person laughing when nobody else thinks anything is funny. Case in point: I got the giggles today when my roommate told her boyfriend as he was leaving for an interview, "have fun, get a job, be safe" I think it was her voice tone or something, but I really was the only one laughing. Andrew always took advantage of this tendency and would spend many occasions in the car or the dinner table entertaining me. He can make me laugh hysterically when he just looks at me a certain way. I think it's in his eyebrows, but I can't say for certain. I think we feed off of each other, which is probably why my parents worried that one or both of us was going to choke when we were all eating dinner together. At any rate, I am the one laughing at stupid jokes, falling on the floor at overheard conversations, and the one having to bite her lip many times when out in public. If I ever start laughing at nothing, I promise, I'm not laughing at you. I'm probably laughing at myself.

3) Another dislike of mine is being the center of attention. I of course have my moments, but they're usually only in the proximity of close family and friends. In the same vein, I don't have large numbers of friends, but the friends I do have are really good ones, and they're ones I'm going to keep for life (be scared. . . ). Anyway, I would much rather be the person on the sidelines, in the shadows, and in the audience than the person on-stage performing. I don't like to perform, which makes teaching doubly challenging for me. I'm not the person who draws energy from being in front of the crowd; I'm the one who's absolutely exhausted after being put front and center. On almost every personality test I've taken, I've scored pretty much evenly on the extrovert/introvert dimensions. In real-life terms, that basically means that while I do enjoy people and being around them, I also find it incredibly draining and tiring. I need to have my own space, away from other people, as well as my own "me-time" to maintain my own sanity (and the question of my sanity is not up for discussion!). I really don't like to be graded or evaluated (sorry, Amy!), and I'd much rather do something for the fun of it rather than for the feedback. I think that's probably why I enjoy music when listening to it or playing on my own. Heck, I'm even uncomfortable praying in front of other people. That's probably why people at church as me if I "will" do something, rather than if I'd "like" to do something. I'm okay conducting the music, but then again, who really looks at the chorister (sorry, Caitlin, but it's true!)?

4) I'm embarrassed to admit that most of my hobbies equate to being a "girly-girl." I like to cook, sew, quilt, and, dare I say, scrapbook? (Gasp!) I have to say, though, that I liked scrapbooking better before it took off to something that everyone else does. When I was making jam this summer, my dad questioned me as to whether or not my mom was going to disown me for being too domestic. Or, as my friend Kelsi would say, "being domesticated." I still don't like to iron, but I will do it when sewing something to help with the quality of the finished product. However, on the positive side, these likes can have benefits for my family and friends, as evident in Caitlin's Halloween costumes, Christmas stockings, Easter dresses, Christmas and birthday presents, and so forth. I would much rather spend the day sewing than doing my actual graduate work, which makes it all the more important that my sewing machine and serger are stored under my bed behind several boxes of stuff. I am constantly fighting the desire to get more fabric and more supplies to create stuff. I'm proud to say that I haven't spent more than $5 at JoAnn's fabric in over three or four months. And, even better, that $5 was to buy the elastic and more bias tape for Caitlin's dress. I'm currently in project remission, but whether it's by choice or just by circumstance, I can't tell. Come Thanksgiving, thought, things might be different when I finally have the sewing machine time I need.

5) I have a very limited sense of direction. I can get lost so quickly it's almost unbelievable. As many of you know, I can even lose my car in the parking lot several times a day. I have even gotten lost in Oronoco, Minnesota, which is a very small town with very few roads. I'm probably reinforcing the male/female stereotype here, but I'd rather someone give me directions involving landmarks and counting of stoplights, rather than a "go five miles and turn east." In Provo, I can tell which way is east thanks to the mountains, but in a new terrain, I have almost no sense of orientation. I know up, down, left, right, but spin me around, and compass directions carry no meaning.

6) For all of my genetic medical heritage, I'm really a squeamish person. I can handle my own injuries, barely, but seeing anyone else's injuries always makes me queasy. I can't even handle fake blood and guts. When my roommates are watching medical shows, crime shows, or something similar, I always have to change the channel or look away. They're greatly amused by my discomfort, but all I can say is that I chose social science for a very good reason. I have even have a hard time with surface injuries. I can handle putting on the band-aid; I just can't handle seeing or cleaning an open wound. My reactions are kind of funny given that the weirdest job I ever had was working for the pathology lab at the hospital where I'd go to the operating rooms, pick up specimens, and then bring them back. The only conclusion I can make is that I'm okay when the specimen is disconnected from the body, but once there's a person connected to the injury, I'm going to get sick.

Okay, Clara, you're it. Sorry, I'm not sure whom else to tag. :-)

Help, please

I was called last week to be a Family Home Evening group leader for my ward, and I would greatly appreciate it if any of you had activity ideas for me. At the moment, I don't have a counterpart, so I'm doing this all on my own. We made and decorated sugar cookies tonight, so I've already done that. I'm afraid, though, that I'm all out of brilliant, good, decent, or even mediocre ideas. Help, please?

Earning my keep

This has been a very hectic week, as you can probably tell by my lack of blogging. I've been trying to get ready for the regular GRE, doing graduate applications again, working on my thesis, and generally trying to keep my head above water. Plus, I've been getting ready to teach two classes for the professor for whom I TA; she had a death in the family and I'm covering. Did I also mention that our apartment has cleaning checks tomorrow morning at 9 am? I'm a little annoyed that they thought I'd have nothing better to do on a Thursday night, after teaching all day, than to clean my house. Blah.

Did I mention that I found out I lost my keys soon after I posted this message? Lovely thing, to be stranded on campus. I shall keep you all updated as to the excitement.

Caitlin's Costume

Since you've seen my scary Halloween antics, here are some nice ones of Caitlin as Miss Elizabeth Bennett. I'm very proud of how the dress turned out. I made the necklace and earrings, too. Doesn't she look "accomplished" (Yes, I borrowed your photos, Caitlin. Hope you don't mind, but I want to show off my hard work. :-) )?

A crazy day

I can't believe that it's already November. Wasn't Andrew driving out with me to Provo only a few weeks ago? Sheesh. Anyway, yesterday, November 1, was a day worthy of its own blog entry, courtesy of my car. Now, a car is a lovely thing to have, but when it acts up, it's really annoying. I apologize if this entry is a little snarky; I'm still kind of annoyed at the whole thing.


I left my house in the early afternoon to go mail a package to Andrew before I went up to campus for my office hours. I got to the UPS store near my house, only to be informed that if I went to the other UPS store, about a mile away, I could get free same-day delivery to the MTC. Now, being the nice cheapskate that I am, I took them up on the offer. The package was delivered, and I stopped at the gas station down the road to fill up my almost empty tank. I had to be at school in twenty minutes to meet with a student, so I thought I had plenty of time. However, as I went to restart my car, I found the key would not turn. Now, this occurence has happened before, two or three times; apparently, it's a really common problem in the Ford Focus. Realizing what was going on, I called a locksmithing company to come fix it and was informed that the locksmith would call me in 10 to 15 minutes. Of course, no one I knew was home or near a computer, so I called the psychology department and left a message asking them to tell my meeting I wasn't going to make it. I later found out that it didn't work, but that's another issue.

Anyway, 20 minutes passed, so I called the company back. They again promised I would hear from the locksmith in 10-15 minutes and that they were sending him a "call the customer ASAP" message. I waited 10 minutes, then realized that I had to get up to campus to teach my evening class at 4. My roommate was fortunately available and kind enough to come get me and drop me off at school, and I managed to do a credible job of teaching my class. Did I mention that my car stalled at the gas pump? Yep, no pressure whatsoever for leaving it unattended for a few hours. Eek.

After class, I called another friend who dropped me back off at the gas station. By now, it was about six-thirty, and I still hadn't heard from the locksmith. Thinking it was a lost cause, I started calling other companies in the phone book. After one "I don't have anything here that could fix that" and a "so what is it that you want me to do," I called the original company AGAIN because they at least knew how to fix this car thing. I'm kind of still annoyed at the other companies; I mean, honestly, I knew what the problem was and explained it several times. Do I sound like a ditzy teenage girl who just locked her keys in the car? I have done that before, but it was not the problem this time around. Grr. Anyway, so I called the company, only to find that they had no information on me at all. I was nicely assertive and quickly gave my information again. They promised to call (do you detect a theme here?), and I then called my mom to give her an update (read: rant like crazy!).

Fortunately, the locksmith called within 10 minutes and I gave my information again, including my location. Now, I think I spoke to 4 or 5 people and gave my location every single beeping time, but all the locksmith had was that I was somewhere on University Avenue. Given that University Avenue runs through the entire city, yeah, that's really specific information for the company to pass on. He told me he would be about an hour, so I got to spend a whole lot of time in my car introspecting. I had come from class, so all I had was a copy of the Daily Universe (school newspaper) and my psychology textbook. I was sick of the book after teaching from it that evening, and I finished the paper in about 5 minutes. It was really, really, really boring, and the irony was that before I left home, I had a prompting to bring a book that I ignored. That'll teach me to ignore promptings, won't it? :-)

Anyway, after an hour and a half, the locksmith finally arrived and started to look at the problem. After a few minutes of pushing and pulling, his reaction was, "wow, this is really stuck." Hmm, you think? Anyway, he finally managed to get the stupid thing out, only to find out that it was damaged and worn enough to need a complete replacement. But, it got fixed, and I'm happy to say that my car is running again. I'm also really glad that it didn't happen on Saturday; I have to go up to Salt Lake and take a big psychology exam for future graduate school. I just hope that they don't choose mostly neuroscience questions; there's a reason I chose a developmental emphasis!

Just a little Halloween fun.

This is a fun game to try to beat. There's some cool sound effects, so make sure you turn up the volume. Thanks to Dennis and Jenna for introducing it to me!

More photos of Andrew

Since I didn't dress up for Halloween this year (I made Caitlin's costume and didn't want to bother with one for myself), I shall leave you with more pictures of my missionary brother.