Whether I Need It Or Not

Welcome to the most terribly boring week of my life. Although next week, I'm sure I will wish for similar quantities of leisure time.

Two other first year AT students are joining me on the track staff for this semester. We had our first day last Monday and are already rolling in the swag. Brad Nye, of the France Lyon mission, is a member of the team.

Emarie Swenson, my MTC comp and roommate, allowed me to illegally occupy my apartment a week early. She didn't get home until midnight and woke me up and jumped on my bed and talked to me for two hours before she left again for the week the following morning. (On Emarie: She's majoring in PDBio with plans of graduate school, is a ballroom dancer, her mom's on the general RS board, and she's dating Steven Covey's grandson. In the words of Lauren: How is her life perfect.)

All the family RMs in one picture. Plus Ammie.

Rachel May and I caught up over Thai food. Ask me how many times I've eaten Thai food in the past month. You don't want to know. Rachel is still working in real estate for one of the most delightful South African men ever.

Hannibal and I reconnected over clothes-selling and froyo. She got married over the summer and I missed it, but they're doing good and Hannah is going to help me get a research job in knee pain and ankle stability! Chouette.

Hunter, I mean, Elder Schenewark, came to visit before he made his fashionably late MTC entrance. We had a delightful family dinner at Zupas with all the cousins in Provo. I will miss you on the water polo field and adventuring and people thinking we're dating and your roommates trying to date me and everything else that has been the last year. It's been a good one.

Lauren came and chilled and we were incredibly boring and just talked for a long time. I missed my BFF this summer, even though we went on a crazy road trip across the country and did amazing and life changing things all summer. (On Lauren: She graduated in Church History, can name every temple in the world, has worked on the JS papers and at Ancestry and as a substitute teacher and at 31 sessions of EFY and will be doing humanitarian work in Italy for 5 weeks. In the words of Emarie: Why is her life perfect.)

Hand and Foot: where we lay down together, no spooning allowed.

Brandon Herring, of my MTC district, moved into the Elms! So I helped him move and unpack and get his books and we hung out all day and talked about how Provo is the worst and the best all at once. We celebrated a day of hard work with Jamba Juice and some old friends.

Emarie returned Friday so we ate pancakes and chatted. For lunch we got tacos with her old HS friends, Austin and Brent, and then we cracked open my Office trivia game that my last roommates bought for me. Then I met her BF, Christian Covey (who has my approval) before never seeing her again for the weekend.

Friday and Saturday night were game nights with my old chums. We played so many games of Hand and Foot, which I love both for its complicating rules and for all the dirty jokes that are accidentally made. And for sentimental value. Quote of the night: I shower once every three months. Whether I need it or not. -Lauren B, specified.

My mission friends in Derek's ward!

The cousins reunited to visit a rope swing in Mona, UT. I hate heights, did I ever tell you that? That being said, I swung and fell in a graceful motion that will heretofore be referred to as the "Beached Whale". Which is only second to Derek's "Shrieking Dragon".

I returned only 45min late to a frisbee adventure that I organized. It was fun, as per usual. It killed my knees, as per usual. It was so hot and so dry and so little oxygen in the air, as per usual, that I could barely breathe. Long live UT. The worst.