Let the Wookie Win

Sunday was crazy. It was our last day of church and it was a little too much like the last day of seventh grade for my liking. But hey. We had a birthday party for everyone this week (because it literally was everyone's birthdays). I couldn't stay too long, because Derek and I had to get over to Hunter's place for some delicious burgers and great company. Even if Tanner still refuses to give me his pull-up bar. Then I had to rush home for a ward prayer of epic proportions. Our singing was accompanied by viola. Our prayer was by our very own Bishop Turley. We set up projectors and speakers. We watched the ward video, which was a hit. My co-captain provided a special musical number. After which many nice notes were written and shared.

The Birthday Party.

Conversation in response to
 the photo on the left. 

Finals finished this week. I tackled StDev 170, French, and Physics. Physics was the worst not only because it's my least favorite but also because they made me take it on a basketball court with no snacks. I did some visiting teaching. I did some teaching of finance. I worked, earning $6 worth of food, plus a shake from Jamba Juice, plus waffle from my adorably Asian boss, Ronnie. He's funny. Our bishopric finished their "Feed the Starving Students" campaign by feeding us dinner Monday and Tuesday. Other than birthdays and exams, I packed. I set my life in order. I did laundry. I played basketball. I made new friends and reconnected with old. I watched Star Wars on a projector in my house. Twice. And I prepared in general for the road trip of a life time. This is a short news update, but there it is. My life. Up next in The Book of Naomi: All the juicy road trip details. Prepare yourselves. And enjoy the following:

This is how I contacted in France. My companion sent this to me as soon as she saw it.

This is just funny.

This face reminds me of Kev.

I'll Cry If I Want To

It is finished. -Naomi, after spending countless hours working on this film. This is the biggest project I've worked on and I'm glad to have seen the end of it. Here's part one if you missed it. And here's part two: a sequel in which each of us is a Scooby Doo character, set in Provo, where the villain is a play off the Claw from Inspector Gadget.

I feel like the Bishop always needs to be included 
in these things.  Plus, he's our best actor. 

Now that's over, I can get back to studying. Jokes. Who do you think I am, my roommates? We had our last two days of school Monday/Tuesday. I went to the ending ward social at a park, involving free food, volleyball, and baseball. I always knew my t-ball years would come in handy.
Pfizer called! I got my internship in CT for the summer! Still not sure if this is ruining or making my life. Money and family and New England vs. friends and Mission President and EFY.  I bought a plane ticket. Then I found out the friend of a friend's brother needs someone to drive his car out to Boston. Lauren and I jumped at the offer and we're doing it. We're terrified. (Southwest lets me alter my flight plans, so we're solid.) The journey includes stops at Uncle Zach's, Nauvoo, Harrisburg, and home. We'll send pictures every hour we're still alive.

Can someone say "bad idea"? We're gonna die for sure. 

This is the birthday extravaganza. My goal was to do at least one thing cool every day. Tuesday, we had a small gathering of people and brownies and presents from my roommates. And I thought back to one year ago...when President Roney transferred me literally across the country and I took the longest train ride of my life with people who kept eating my food and then I was reunited with Soeur Jones who made a scene out of a macaroon in the Bordeaux train station and the electricity in our apartment was out because she and Soeur Hulme thought it was a good idea to smash our light fixture with a hammer. Good times? Eh. Maybe.

Bordeaux. I know it all too well. 

I tried to make French Bread again. Still a work in progress. I only set the fire alarm off three times. It tasted good (it was chocolate coconut, how could it not?), but it's not rising like it should. Crack out the dutch oven, parents.

This is the future. The current bread is not 
quite so...picturesque. Yet. 

Waterpolo team "Naomi Hutchins" came over for Brick Oven pizza and rootbeer floats to celebrate our victory in a casual environment. It began and ended with me talking about my mission. Go figure.
Derek and I celebrated my birthday at Tucanos, the Brazilian grill that serves nearly unlimited meat. My favorite was the sirloin. Also grilled pineapple and lemonade. Also anything that was meat. Why have I not been there before? Note to self: never become a vegetarian. You'd miss out. Sam, my visiting teachee, and I went to the temple for a session. She just got endowed so she had a few questions and so we spent a good chunk of time in the celestial room just talking. It was wonderful.

Tucanos: we ate meat and talked about fight club.

This is the first year that new AT students were invited to the end-of-year banquet, so Lauren and I went and purposely sat with Rob Ramos, AT for the men's basketball team. That's what I want to do. I'm starting with track thought, which will be fun and get me familiar with all the different modalities and such. (Basketball season doesn't really start until next semester anyways....) We almost won a gatorade shirt, but not quite.

Already friends with this kid. Hit me up, Rob. 

Friday morning, aced my microbiology test. Cake. I got my French results back from the test that lets me skip 16 credits of classes. I got straight As. Except for the first class. First semester French- B+. Go figure. I went to a study group for my finance class with Tyson, from my ward, and his moderately attractive friend, Blake. After basically teaching them about investing, I did pretty well on my test. My ward does "Feed the Starving Students" nights during finals. Basically every other day our bishopric makes us delicious food. The other day was a cookout and did I mention how much I love hamburgers? Derek and I went to see the play And Then There Were None, based on the mystery by Agatha Christie. I love that book. I like the movie. I mostly loved the play. Et voila, my cultural event of the year.

Note: the actual Lambert isn't nearly 
as attractive as this poster. 

Saturday, Lauren and I went to the temple to do baptisms for family names (thanks Mimi!). I have actually started finding my own family names, thanks to Lauren, genealogy pro. We were only there for two and a half hours due to delays from a large hispanic family. Rachel May and I relived the good old days via havardi and turkey paninis. I forgot how good they were and how much I appreciate Rachel May's tastes in music. Also I was locked out of my apartment, so it was perfect timing.

Yeah, family. 

As per tradition, we went country swing dancing in Hawaiian shirts. Lauren and I met on my birthday three years ago in those circumstances. There was a small Asian man doing a very intricate line dance  (check it out at 3:00) and it was hilarious. The man who launched a million laughs: we owe it to you, big guy.

Ok, how do we look? Terrifying. 

Finished off the night with a visit to the Malt Shoppe, my old stomping grounds. That short visit was about as much as I could handle.

Thanks Susie. 

Man of the Week

Bread Selfie. Look at it tho. 

Obviously the highlight of my week was that I made some dang good French bread. PSYCH. (Although it was dang good). After many years of planning and preparation, I am an Intramural Champion. Team Naomi Hutchins brought it all together in the final battle for the gold. (And yes, that is our team name. That's what happens when no one can think of an alternative). We already played the team we beat in the first round and they were much improved. Was it, perhaps, due to their coach, who came dressed up in a suit holding a clip board? Maybe. Anyhow, we won and all our greatest fans were there to celebrate with us. And my French teacher got to see me wearing our championship t shirt. Check that off the bucket list.

Tryouts are already in progress for next year. In other news, I officially got in to the Athletic Training program at BYU and am just waiting to hear back about where I'll be interning in the fall. This year will mark the first time they will let 2 first years do football, but I haven't decided whether or not I want to be one of those.
I also had an interview for a Pfizer summer internship this week. At this point, I'm less concerned with the outcome and more concerned with them getting back to me quickly, seeing as how I will have to move in about ten days. (Across Provo or to CT-it makes a difference, ya know?)
During my soccer game this week, I was a real contributor. Mainly, I just run around to no avail
because I have the agility of a beached whale. I kicked the ball in numerous times and all to my teammates. Even stopped it from going out of bounds once. And only my left knee hurt when I went running this week. I also got to practice some more taping because our goalie broke his toe.
This week I also conquered four exams and four papers, finding myself surprisingly free this weekend. I also had the best physics class of my life this week. I enjoyed and understood everything. I attended the French Club's cheese night. It was divine. You could smell it for miles around. As soon as I got on campus, I was like Yep. There it is. Enjoy it while you can, Frenchies.

Took this AFTER they got to safety.

Lauren and I went on a Commemorative Walk by the Duck Pond. Much to our chagrin, there were no flowers to be seen, despite the warm weather, and the ducks were practically suicidal, charging across the street into oncoming traffic. Excuse me, Mr. Ducks?
Other than that, I did a LOT of filming and editing. The only problem is that everyone else is super excited about our sequel film as well, so when anyone new walks in the apartment, I have to show them the whole thing all over again. Which is only a hassle because it's ten minutes long and I have to watch it way more than anyone else while I'm editing it. But I still enjoy it. (What really gets old is that we're still playing the old film for anyone that walks in).

And here's what you get to look forward to in our upcoming film.
Me as Fred Jones, of Scooby Doo. You say obsessed, I say to-mah-to. 

And this all brings me to my final point. In PH every week, the men vote on the Man of the Week. They are nominated for doing awesome, manly things. Andrea Mann, who is a girl, was once nominated for having the last name of man. If you ever get engaged, you're pretty much a sure shot to win the trophy for the week. It's also on my bucket list to win, so I've been campaigning. Some boys are trying to ruin my life and keep saying it's only for actual men, but I think it's more of a symbolic thing. TBC-

Conference Time

Photo cred to Tanner Schenewark.
Beloved cousin, teammate, friend. 

The week was a blur. Not because it passed really fast, but because I was sick and I probably didn't wear my glasses ever. And half of my memories were encompassed by a feverish fog. FHE Flashback to my childhood- we played big base kickball. It was fun except people freaked out about the rules and my teammates forgot you can have multiple people on the base at once. We killed in water polo, but it was our hardest game yet. One more to go, so long as we win it. I skipped some of my classes this week in order to sleep it off. By Friday, I was feeling a little better, so I went on a 4.5 mile run. NBD. Last time I ran, my roommates mixed up which temple I ran by, so I had to show them that I could run all the way to the far one if I wanted. May or may not have been my best idea.
Then I helped our ward do an easter egg hunt and make Hawaiian haystacks. Sam Wright kindly brought me all the rest of the cream of chicken soup. And by that I mean at least four gallons. Lauren and I chilled and she slept over (good thing I bought the family pack of toothbrushes!). We watched Back to the Future, a classic. And we brought my mattress out into the living room, which turned out to be an excellent choice when conference rolled around the next day. In other news, I randomly just got a bloody nose and almost drowned in my own blood.

I woke up Saturday to a lovely breakfast made by my roommates: eggs, pancakes, strawberries, cream, donuts, and I made OJ, of course. Frothy, just how I like my alcoholic beverages. Chris said.

-Boyd K: All you need is a cookie and a kiss to get married.




Carolyn Carter + family +Toky (from Lyon) + homemade burgers +singing = Love.

-David A: Knowledge of the Savior enables us to hush our own fears.
-Wilfred Anderson: I can teach you to dance, but you must hear the music.
-Dale G: 'Twas I, but 'tis not I.



Sunday morning we used my mattress again for our pajama church.

-Wixom: Don't condemn people for the light they may or may not have, but nourish what they do have.
-Nielson: Watch, wait, love, be patient.
-Jeffrey R: We celebrate the gift of victory.
-Uchtdorf: Don't be Simon, confident and impatient with others.

We booked it up to SLC for a live session with Lauren, Jeff, and Canute (a bizarro version of myself).

-Pearson: I made these covenants as a 19 year old boy and I've built my life around them. I intend to keep them now.
-Neil L: We marvel as we watch Him open doors we cannot open and perform miracles we can scarcely imagine.

Look. We're best friends. We're together. And we're righteous.

I never did see Bryce the bald, morbidly obese midget, but we still had a good time.

Then my roommates and I (plus a few extras) enjoyed Easter dinner, an egg hunt, egg dying, and cake. Although they tried really hard to postpone the cake. I kept chanting, CAKE CAKE CAKE CAKE, until they finally acquiesced to my request. Sage was also grateful. Bishop Turley came and hung out too.

And I emceed this: