My Name Is: No.

Welcome to yet another week in the life of Naomi Hutchins. If I ever write an autobiography, I think I would include both "Master of General Championism" and "I do what I want" in the title. At least for now. Maybe later my life course will be altered and it'll be something more like "A Guide to Getting Translated" or something like that and my current titles will be demoted to mere chapter headings. 

Also this song is funny:

March 14. You know what that means. Pi Day. And how better to celebrate Pi day than with a 1/3 pi slice of chocolate mousse pie from Kneaders and some chums. The experience was both fulfilling and filling. I even got to sit by the electric fire eating bread and lemon custard samples until my pie was ready.

India, Christina, et moi.

It was also the first day of Lent, an ancient Christian tradition designed to prepare believers via prayer, repentance, and self-denial. I think it mimics Jesus' 40-day fast in the wilderness and culminates on Easter Sunday. That's about what I've gathered from my Catholics friends. There aren't really many of those to chat with, here in the social center of Mormonism, so corrections are welcome. 

Without a day off of school to anticipate, this is where I'm at.

In celebration of such an illustrious holiday, my ward held a traditional Jewish Seder for FHE, which has zilch to do with the Catholics. I was randomly selected to play the part of the unruly child, fittingly. At the beginning, a patriarch passes a piece of saltless saltine-type bread around, and someone keeps it hidden. Later, he has to barter for it back. Our table's patriarch now owes a girl a pie for each of her roommates. 

Look, my bishop's wearing a yamaka.

I did get to eat some yummy food, including some leavened bread that isn't actually part of the ceremony, or even allowed. I even brought an extra loaf of it home. Ask and ye shall receive. (That might also be a hefty chapter in my autobiography.) 

One of these cups is full of the tastiest grape drank ever.

 Other fun notes: one of the traditional songs they sing is called "Dayenu", which means "it would have been enough". It details several miracles the Lord has performed for His people. The people thank Him, saying it would have been enough, but then He did this other miracle too. I liked the idea of that. More humorously, the Jews go through extra cleaning procedures and cover up all their food so as not to expose them to the yeast spores in the air. In Provo, UT, however, we're more afraid of the hormones floating in the air.

I was voted "Permanent 3rd Wheel" due to my stellar wingmanship.
Another worthy chapter title, I think.

For Benson's birthday on Wednesday, a group of us went to Guru's for dinner (and so he could get some extra credit by attending his guitar teacher's performance there). We also went next door to get some gelato because he served in Italy and I appreciated because: France. Also the multitude of mints that I snatched as we were leaving. Then, in keeping with the religions-that-aren't-ours theme, we watched Fiddler on the Roof. Remember that weird nightmare scene? Always creeped me out as a kid. Now I find it rather comical.

Also, Tevye is my guy.

Unfortunately I had to terminate this part of my evening early in order to perform my wingman duties by gently illustrating the lack of interest my friend Alexis had in her pursuer. She also fed me a lot of strawberries and crepes, so I'm not mad.

Another chapter: SassMaster

I aced a test. Did decently on another. I did a lot of HW and let my Korean teacher draw the innervations of the ulnar and median nerves on my gloved hand. I also went to Institute and discussed Bender's talk on hushing our fears. There, I met a French man, David, and I loved talking to him so much (because I love speaking French, NOT because I love him) that I was giddy for the rest of the night. Benson and Matt talked missions with me and then helped me study for anatomy by drawing muscles on my ankles (Matt) and saying Italian words that sound like anatomy terms (Benson). 

The Thug Life chose me.

Water Polo on Friday was a delight. (Especially in comparison to my prior Friday activities: clinicals, then biking while watching all my March Madness picks lose in overtime by a buzzer beater.) The team we played was very nice and also no match for my killer flip shot. We won by a landslide and I had fun "smack talking" the three guys that were guarding me. 

Lauren hung out with me all night and I loved it. I need her sometimes. All the time, really. After the game, we brought Swig beverages, Lauren Rigby, and several decks of face cards to visit Ho'o and Mandy with a beat down in Hand and Foot, our favorite card game. Lauren and I are still undefeated. 

Life Goal #37: Have a picnic on a hot air balloon.
(Not sure why that's appealing. I'm scared of heights).

I had to wake up early to get to clinicals for the track meet so Lauren slept in my bed. As I predicted, our certified AT forgot what time she planned for us to come in. She has been out of town for several days, so it was reasonable. There's this one girl who wipes out on the hurdles every time and she did it again. That was the biggest injury we had. Nothing too crazy.

This is David. He speaks Spanish and belongs to one of the coaches.
We ate pretzels and pretended to stab each other for hours.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Patty let me go early so I could get to my basketball game. Which was good, because we only had 4 people show up, which is the minimum to play. Luckily, it was our four best players, and even though Ho'o was pretty sick, she still played like a champ. Surprisingly, even 4-on-5, we still held our own. We were up by a few until they smarted up and started playing a zone. Then we figured out how to beat it and got up again. 

Two minutes into the second half, our point guard sprained her ankle pretty bad. The officials said that technically we were allowed to play with 3 if we wanted. We all kind of looked at each other like is it worth it? and then decided we might as well try it, see how it goes, and we could stop at any time. We were having fun. 

Here's the crazy thing. Somehow, we were still holding our own. We were just playing hard and driving and passing and screening. The officials on the scoreboard were incredulously saying: How is she open? Nobody should EVER be open! And Lauren was on the sidelines assuring that they remembered to put all our points on the board. It was fun and crazy and super tiring and we were doing great up until we called a time out with 6 minutes left.

Exhausted and surprised, whenever the other team's subs came in and asked Who needs a sub? we all raised our hands. Unfortunately, this mediocre team decided to do a few things differently. First, they decided to press us. Which really was a jerk move to tire us out further, because my left handed dribbling skills could break right through it every time. Second, was that they started cherry picking. Which isn't even real basketball and just isn't a fun way to play. Third, their sideline teammates and fans decided they were going to go crazy cheering every time they scored. 

We ended up losing by 15 (60-45), but it was a great game until 6 minutes. I was not impressed with their sportsmanship. But the rest of it was super fun. And crazy.

Champions.

Lauren and I went out to lunch at the Creamery. I took the longest shower of my life and helped my roommate gather tools to fix her bike tire. Matt and I worked on an assignment. At night, Christina and I got Little Caesar's and watched Cinderella Man as I iced my knees. 

Instead of normal church, this morning I attended the dedication of the Provo City Center temple. Isn't it lovely? I like this one a lot. Other questions I have: Will I ever have normal church again? (After stake conference, mission homecomings, etc., we're not sure.) Does Thomas S. Monson wear dentures? (Boris, from the internet, is 100% sure that he might). How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop? (Apparently somewhere in the ballpark of 250.)