Right to Bear Arms

Last Sunday I had to stay up late to sign up for my classes, despite not knowing what my clinicals would be next semester. I got Aaron to tell me Sunday and I'm staying at football! I'm really okay with it because I love the guys and the PT aspect and everything, but that did mean I had to change most of my classes so that I could have my mornings free. Then I took a physics test, so kind of a rough day.

Tuesday night I had my last season basketball game and I was ready to take some kids out. There was one guy, who was pretty good, but was treating it like game 7. Also like he'd never played co-ed basketball before. And some girl kept driving past her defenders, so I'd step up to stop her layup and she should purposely would drive her knee into my thigh.

Then Westes was eating waffles, so he wanted to keep postponing our poetry night later and later, so I ended up only attending for a few minutes before it was my bed time. I was already tired and cranky.
After class on Wednesday, Hannah and I went to a medieval torture lecture in French costume. She was already dolled up like a skeleton, so she painted me up fast to be the Joker and we had some French flair to our costumes. Our favorite method was called the saw - where they hang you upside down and saw you in half between the legs until you're dead.

Oui, oui, mon ami, je m'appelle...Hannah.

Thursday was pretty relaxed in the training room, so Steve had me do a restricted blood flow workout. Basically, I put these bands on my arms and blew them up to cut off my circulation just a little bit. Then you've got 20min to do low-weight weight lifting. So I did 3x30 biceps with 8lbs, 3x30 triceps pulldowns with 40lbs, 3x10 pushups, and 1x30s abs. My left arm was dead after the first biceps set, so I had to rely a lot on my right arm to get me through. I thought it was just weaker, but turns out it was blown up too much. I had a lot of burst capillaries and couldn't really move my arm until today.

I did go to Institute with Hannah, where we had a really good lesson on leadership and the importance of focusing on only one thing at a time. Which tied into a visiting teaching lesson that I gave on Saturday.

Friday night I helped set up a Just Dance on projector for the ward Halloween Party. Then I left for a sec to grab an extension cord and some chick moved it into a really cramped side room in the back and I was a titch upset, but didn't want to make a scene. Whatever. Then, as Kuzco, I deejayed the dance party, while eating endless donuts and chili.

I woke up at 5:40 Saturday to tape Cam's ankle before is half marathon and Hannah was still awake after getting in late from work. Crazy. Good thing we got to sleep in. We got to go out later with the boys to see Magnificent Seven - great movie. Obviously we assigned each member of our family a character in the show. I'm the Mexican, Derek's the sharpshooter, Hannah's the fat guy, and Greg claims to be the head guy, but none of us really agree with that. He'd probably be the preacher or something.

New Goal: GORK Derek as much as possible.

And today we woke up early to take family pictures, since our family excluded us. More on that when the results come in. But get excited. Natalie is a great photographer.

All the Feels via Similes and No Images

Taco Bell gives you diarrhea for a week, but it's worth it: I took the GRE last week. I passed.

That one time you actually have fun doing a school assignment and then get a really bad grade: I spent all day Monday shadowing an orthopedic doctor, which was wayyy fun. But also while chatting about various tests for a shoulder evaluation, we discovered that I have a torn labrum from last week's ward basketball when it subluxed.

Watching someone trip and not knowing if you should help or just pretend for their sake that it didn't happen: I actually went to FHE because it was in our house. We played Mafia, which is always fun, but some of our sisters are so flirty with the guys that it's just kind of sad to watch.

Colonel Mustard in the Lounge with the Revolver: There was a series of miscommunications and poorly handled conversations that I took the brunt of. I've since handled it, but I was rather upset at the time. It's a really good thing that I learned to refrain from my annoyingly logical comments when someone else is raging.

John Ramsey's standup about Unicorns: There were no clinicals and most of my classes were cancelled randomly, so I totally forgot about my one morning class until later...

Getting into bed with cold sheets and freshly shaved legs: I templed on Thursday and saw my favorite Satan. It was a cleansing experience, as usual, and I got to catch up with my friend Cam.

I shot the sheriff, but not the deputy news: I watched the game while eating some homemade banana bread. Fred had a KILLER run, but we eventually lost by one point.

The initial drop of a roller coaster: My friend invited me to his poetry/music night and then asked me to perform in it. So I agreed, reading the classic "Manny the Plumber" from sixth grade along with a first attempt at slam poetry that I wrote last week entitled, "Halloween: A Political Narrative". Both were instant successes.

Christmas Break in HS, when you still have HW you should be doing: Lauren slept over. We made a Wendy's run and saw Hannah. We ate chicken tacos. We said ridiculous things.

Your friend starts dating this guy who's old, bald, and weird, but very nice: PJ owed me $5 for betting that we'd pole dance at Lyndsie's bachelorette party. This week, he paid up. And also painted his hair tan. We were all confused on that one.

When your teacher pushes the due date back a week: Greg helped drive us to the store and sell some of our old clothes. Our room is much cleaner.

Season Finale of Season 1 of Doctor Who: The End.

Someone's Gotta Do It

La Galare continues. And by that I mean a variety of "midterms", aka stage one exams and projects. Give it another six days and we'll be into stage 2. Monday, after I finished five hours worth of normal HW, I studied for my Ortho exam and got a small break to play some bball with my ward and my old wardies. And I learned that one of the regulars is not, and has never been, in our ward. His sisters are though, so it's cool.

If you were unsure who to vote for. 

Tuesday, after six hours of classes (plus several hours of clinicals, obv), I took the Ortho exam and didn't do too badly. I also turned in a five page French paper and did some more HW.

President Greggy. Holding family reunions at the White House. 

Wednesday I finished a major group project for my Admin class. Then I was mostly done.

A less good choice, which is why he's VP. 

Thursday I got the best basketball group - we were playing fours and I got Seth, Jason, and another kid whose name I forgot but is really fast. It was lovely because we're all decent shots / layuppers, and we actually work as a team - passing and picks and the like. Delightful.

Got this on my email. Couldn't resist. 

Hannah and I went to Institute and the teacher asked us for story topic recommendations. We offered up knights and poop. And he delivered. MVP. The ice cream afterwards was good too.

My guy Kay with his candy necklaces. 

Friday was a day of preparation. By that I mean, I was doing a lot of HW in advance, knowing that I will have little time to get it done in the future. Oh, also good news - I aced the French essay section of my exam 100%. Holla back.

My friend Joshie Boy sends me snaps of myself.
One day, I'll be smiling. 

The game. That took the entire day Friday. But even though the game was agonizing, the players and I had fun on the sidelines - dancing and pushing each other around and yelling in each others' ears. After a lack of football exposure for a majority of my life, I've decided I quite enjoy it. Although the field is a much better place to watch than the stands.

Post-field storming. #Gottacatchjamaal 

Saturday, after studying for the GRE, which I took Sunday morning. Aced it. Well, medium aced it. I could have done better, but comparatively I did very well. Didn't even finish the math section all the way.

Me, pre-GRE this morning. This is as good as it gets. 

Come At Me, Bro

Happy removal day to one son of a nugget. We had the biggest celebration since his kindergarten birthday party - balloons, cake-shoving, and all. Plus we all got to watch conference together and steal Derek's old stuff. It was a good day.

Our ward reserves a court to play basketball every Monday. This week, we started off by playing the winning team of the ward before us with the first five that showed up, including two kids I'd never played with before. I hate them. They never passed me the ball, no matter how open I was, so I got pretty heated....Then I played against them and crushed heads. Hard.

Later, Hannah and I were talking about how sometimes people set screens on us and we just lower our shoulders and plow through them like they don't exist. Which is fun, just not necessarily basketball. Then we realized we learned to play from the Chin, who played football in college. Go figure.

My team lost our intramural game by 2, after one of our teammates subluxed her patella and tore her ACL and both menisci. Yikes.

I always joke with the teacher of my Wednesday night class that it's either canceled or that he's bringing snacks. He said, if you start the snacks, we can do it. So I brought a couple dozen donuts (half-off, thanks to Pocket Points) and the fun began.

Thursday was Milktoberfest, where the library gives out free chocolate milk at select times. But apparently it's only a total of 200 milks, which is ridiculous in a school of 40K. I was 10 short of my chocolate milk, but I did get a cookie and to hang out with my friend Weston.

Also found this bug in my room.

This is the week when all my classes are freaking out. Luckily, the football game was away, so it gave me some free time. But still, the end of the week was crazy, trying to get ahead so I actually have time for stuff. Thursday, I took an online French test that took the entire allotted 2 hours (because my essay was so good). Then ran to a review for Orthopedic Impairments. Friday I spent all morning writing the first half of my French paper, getting it edited, and going to another useless guidance appointment. Then I kept writing and studying for various tests and taking online quizzes until 6, when I met up with Greg for Divine Comedy's "Hill-or-Trump" parody of Hamilton.

In his natural habitat.

We played an hour of Uno with a strange girl, a mission friend, and some crazy kids that kept calling Greg a macaroni brain while we were in line. The show was okay. Highlights: A tribute to Harambe. The fat guy and anything he did. Quote: You're like a frog. That's a compliment! They have very powerful legs and large eyes! And, obviously the finale is why I went. And the fat guy played Trump and was excellent and the black guy did a great Obama impression.

Dream Tree House. Found while running.

Saturday I woke up early so I could run 9 miles, which was surprisingly fun, although my knees were hurty. Then we had a birthday celebration at Tucanos with some flavorless waiters. Tom was the best one and after we told him that, we got some excellent service. I finished my French paper during the football game that we won. I studied for Ortho and took a test and tried to stay motivated. I cleaned my room and did laundry.

HBD, DJ Saggy Booty!

A Spoopy Start

Have you ever heard of iceblocking? My FHE went Monday and it was pretty fun. Apparently you go to the gas station and get ice blocks a little smaller than a cinder block for pretty cheap. You put a towel on top, sit on it, and slide down the hill. It’s way fun. (FHE followed, per usual, by some ward bball that was way fun.)

I felt like this week was super crammed – mainly because I’m trying to figure out my life and grad school and HW and football and study for tests and not end up on a motorcycle pulling a trailer of my belongings with nothing but the open road in front of me. We’ll see what happens.

The French club voted for our t-shirt design. I actually entered. And lost by one vote. Guess who didn’t vote? Derek. Greg. Hannah. My own siblings betrayed me.

At the mission reunion, I had at least 3 fake husbands: two for comic relief and one to get our food faster. I’m just glad PRoney didn’t call us out on it. I forgot how much I liked him. And all of my mission friends. Although there were a lot of babies I didn’t recognize.

Mission Mom & Sisters.

Friday is my one free day, so every exam I have, I hope it’s open on Fridays. I took a “Problems in Exercise Prescription” exam this week and it wasn’t bad at all. I also feel like I know way too much already from my Ex Phys class.

The game Friday night was super fun. We were fed delicious food and I got to hang out with some delightful players on the sideline while we were waiting for warmups to start. Then I got to hang out with them all when the game started. I really do like my job. If only ESPN gave us better TV times, then I could go to bed earlier.

Saturday I had to wake up for conference and maple bars. Then I immediately took advantage of Greg’s new car and we all drove to my friend Carolyn’s house in Highland. Her wonderful family fed us, the apostles took care of spiritual hunger, and we laughed and wrestled all the day long.

The Kevmeister hisself.

During PH, I hung out with my Elms BFFS – Emarie, Lyndsie, Sarah, and India. Remember them? We ate sushi as recommended by a knowledgeable bearded man, grabbed some ice cream, and hooked some free swag from a dress store. We talked and talked and talked until I was so tired. (So, like, 8 o’clock.)

Sunday I watched conference again. In between, we all collaborated to finish up our first edition of Guilt. (Like indoor plumbing-it’s gonna be good.) Joy kept us nice and fed, we kept each other plenty distracted, and Hannah helped hit Derek’s chin super hard on the cake platter when he was taking THE BITE. We wished the scruffy nugmuffin a happy removal anniversary and stole all his stuff.