Networking and Reconnetworking

We had a day off Monday. We need more of these, I think. HBD, Washington, et al. It was a good day, especially since I worked really hard to finish my HW so I wouldn't have to worry about it. Instead, I got  to go unburdened to QD practice - which was so much more fun now that I know spinning on people is NOT, in fact, illegal, and I got to be on Trey's team. Finally. Our scrimmages were way more fun for me because I didn't have this kid getting me out every two seconds and we crushed it.

I made muffins, upon Hannah's request, although I was lacking some ingredients, so they turned out very dry. But Hannah liked them, so we kept them. Cam, my sound engineer, came over and helped me figure out how to make Garageband tunes actually sound good. I learned a lot and we only finished one verse together, so now I have some work to do. (I also introduced him to Injustice, which he now loves.)

They look pretty good though, right??

I finished it off with a movie night at Trey's place. Turns out I already know some of his friends, so that's cool. We watched Hacksaw Ridge, which is a great movie - although not for the faint of heart, since there's lots of war and blood. Mals and a French girl came over halfway through, at her insistence. Haha. It was a fun time with lots of snacks :)

Tuesday was so warm. I long boarded to my CPR class. Which, thank the heavens, did not take the entire four hours. And I am still CPR certified, if you were wondering.

I called my (hopefully) future employer Scott this week to ask a few questions and set up a meeting with him at the conference in March. He also asked for my résumé, which I updated and sent a day later. He read it and within half an hour, shot me a text that said, Quidditch? Seriously? Haha. Because, yes, I have a line for current personal interests. Well, turns out he's a fan, because he sent me this picture:

This is Scott's wedding ring, FYI.

Lauren Rigby and I planned to meet up, hopefully with the rest of the motley crew, but they're the worst. We talked all about our lives and funny stories and it was really good. And she's dating a boy, if you were wondering.

Speaking of reuniting with old friends, I had a lunch date with Hannibal this week! I touched her baby, Ben, for at least ten minutes. Let me tell you, this lady is just as wonderful as ever and rocking the Mom look.

I've been promising I'd go to QD conditioning, so I finally went on Thursday. Unfortunately, I also had to be on a conference call with the RMATA Student Senate I got tricked into joining. And I had to leave early to play ball with Hannah's friend's boyfriend's ward's team. Got all that?

During conditioning, this kid stopped me right before I was about to sprint to ask directions to the RB via secret tunnel. I happily obliged a fellow baller in court shoes and thought little of it. Until he came late to our basketball game and apparently is the best player on our team. Small world? Turns out he's also a certified massage therapist, amateur rapper, and transferring to BYU for the AT program. Yisss, connections. He also offered to shovel our driveway. Nice kid.

This is Brady. We hate him. But love him bc he's so funny.

Brady told everyone to get to FB at 6am Friday, so I actually listened. First mistake. Like four people came in before warmups at 7. Those lasted ten minutes before Sitake came in announcing that everyone was going paint balling. We were all invited, but wouldn't get back until noon, and unfortunately, I had class. (Which, much to my chagrin, was not entirely essential as it turns out.) But it was good because I had a lot of HW to get done.

I also brought in donuts for Austin the PT student's last day. And they were the good kind - Krispy Kreme sour cream cake donuts. Mmm. None survived.

I studied chem with the FB players. Then I studied chem on my own so I could make a study guide. Meanwhile, I crashed my roommate Emily's coworker party. They made food and watched Pride and Prejudice.

Why is this little cheerleader the cutest? I almost cried.

Saturday I drove up with the QD gang to our main fundraising event. We volunteered at a cheerleading competition, telling people when they could get on the warmup mats, throwing out free sunglasses, and distributing awards. (Those were my jobs, anyways.) One of our team leads, Alexis, has some crazy connection to those people, because they pay us way too much - $150 a day/person, +$20 lunch, +parking + a free t shirt. What.

I was reading a bunch of articles for a paper I'm writing on marijuana, and one employee kept coming over to tell me more stories about his experiences with it. They were funny and would have been helpful if it had been an actual paper and not just a literature review.

Can we get Moriah to do something cool, too?
No. Because her "heart is bleeding". Haha. 

I drove home with Brennan, a kid on the team. He loves filmmaking and did a year at NYU for that. He loves entrepreneurship and wants to go to China for that. And he just got back from his mission in Thailand, where he spent a lot of time among the people of Laos. And he rode an ostrich. I was like listen - all of these things I love, plus I have 3 brothers you need to be friends with. Man, people are cool.

I went to Greggy's house for some games, the BYU game (which we won, yay), and to watch the short version of their documentary. We did play a new game that I liked - Quiplash. Everyone is given 2 topics, for which you need to type in a witty response. Then everyone votes for the funniest. I was top 2 both times (because people put down something super lame and the other person won all the votes - which is mad points. NOT because I'm second funniest). And Greg's roommate made me a pizza when I said I was hungry. He's my favorite.

Thanks For That. I'll Log THAT Away.

Sunday Greg, Hannah, and I drove up to Clearfield for cousin Brooklyn's farewell talk, which was very well done. We met up at Amy's after church for tacos and fruit and ice cream. (Don't worry - I broke the ice by getting food first.) And I realized I have TWO grandfathers who only love ice cream. But, hey, if you could die at any moment, might as well have a good taste in your mouth!

One of my new favorite pickup lines since my introduction to Avatar.

Hannah then went to Ben's for dinner with the rest of the Utah crowd while Greg and I met our teammate Marissa to film our introductory rap and work on our presentation to SINGA, the European organization helping refugees integrate. That's also how we spent our Monday night from 6pm to midnight, with only chips, salsa, and Oreos to sustain us.

On another note, I'm in charge of the programs for Sacrament meeting (which I did during church in Clearfield). We decided the announcements should be funny to make people want to read them. They were funny. Apparently also inappropriate. So when I sent them to my council head to print, she censored them a bit. But also forgot that they're printed on half sheets, so she had to edit them twice. Which means half the ward got the unedited version. There was some complaints in person and on FB that got me heated. I volunteered to apologize J. Golden Kimball style in front of the ward, but it was rapidly denied. My secondary offer was to cash me ousside, how bout dat?

Dink posted this on FB conveniently 30min ago.

Sunday was also the day that a pothole the size of Lavinia's booty appeared outside our house. During the day, we heard 2-3 people pop tires per hour. As it got darker, more and more people were losing wheels. As a good city member, I tried to contact the proper authorities. Unfortunately this is Provo and all authorities are off on Sunday. 

Maybe you can read this email I sent. (In addition to calling several numbers.)

I hurt my knee again. It's still pretty sore, but getting more manageable each day.

Because you make me uncomfortable and also I don't want to kiss you.

Physics. In my 108 lab, one of my TAs quit, to be replaced by the most useless human ever. My favorite TA is still there, so I sent him an email thanking him for keeping me sane, then got reprimanded by our head professor for using the email system improperly. I don't even care. In my 107 lab, I have a friend now - Taylor, from my Quidditch team. We cranked it out. And she even let me watch Trevor's game during our lab.

Just what I always wanted.

After I cranked out some quality HW on Thursday , my old mission companion Alisa Hulme and I caught up via temple trip. She's been in Jerusalem for the past semester and now her sister lives in Greg's ward, so they are both well-acquainted with my bitter enemy and friend-stealer, David Monson. No worries though, she has since re-sworn allegiance to me.

Apparently almost-swears are not allowed on church programs either.
Even if they're great puns.

Friday, I went to the first half of my basketball game. The other team forfeited, but we played the same team as last week and were winning when I left at half time. Greg drove me down to the Marriott Hotel for a Quidditch demonstration. There was a conference for fiction writers going on and it was one of the breakout sessions. It was way fun until somebody broke a light. (Our bad.) But afterwards I met a kid name Peter who did NOT give me a piece of pizza, but DID tell me about some novellas he's produced, so I'm gonna check them out.

My group in WRTG is actually good. Also my teacher Rob
did a pretty good talk on muscle adaptations with aging.

Saturday, I did HW at 730am. (Wow, dedication!) I ran to my QD practice at 1130. Greg came and tackled some people. He's almost as strong as me and infinity times more agile. It was fun having him there. Greggy even took me to the store quick. I showered, took a nap. Did some archery, which only hurt my shoulder a little bit. There was a nice crack in between sections of foam targets and I got at least one shot right in the crack every time. It really takes a skilled archer to accomplish such a feat.

Elephant Skull at the archery range.

Then I was experimental and tried some PINEAPPLE curry. Yes, thank you. My allergies have all but abated. I did some more HW and played catch-up with HanNip-Nip Cheerio until my QD reunion. Trey graciously drove me there, although turns out Taylor only lives a block away... My b. Taylor made us some Cafe Rio and Trey brought a tray of leftover cookies from his VDay dance (and also his crusty socks to wash at Tay's house). We talked strategy and reviewed pictures for our trading cards we have to make for Regionals.

I looked at my kingdom - Finally on pitch - To bring you all down
in a game called Quidditch. #HalfBloodPrinceofBelAir #Swagrid

I don't have any QD pictures, so this will have to do. One day when I have real muscles on my arms, this will be more intimidating. We're getting there. Anyways, afterwards, it was nice to just chill and get to know the team better. We played a fun game, told stories, and did Physics HW. And it was delightful.

Snapchat to the Chin and HD Booty.

I'm taking History of Creativity and this is the first history class I've ever enjoyed - all about the stories, leave the numbers out. (Ask me about Sir Francis Drake sometime.) Anyhow, post-Renaissance England was going through a change from absolute monarchy to more of a democracy. Meanwhile in France, Voltaire made some people mad and was banished to England, where he loved all their humanistic ideas and brought them back to France, spurring the French Revolution. At some point, he wrote a letter to his friend, King Frederick of Prussia, about the existence of God. So all the way from 1700s Europe is your spiritual thought of the week:

"If God did not exist, he would have to be invented. But all nature cries aloud that He does exist, that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it." -Voltaire

And Everything Worked Out OK

School: I'm taking 18 credits rn. That's the easy part. My writing teacher loves me. Chemistry is a piece of cake. Physics makes me want to die, but only because my teammates are booty and the organization is terrible. Thanks to Pfizer, I have a background in Pharmacology, so that's not too bad. And my history test was even reasonable! I had 3 tests this week and after the last one, the strangest thought occurred to me: it literally does not matter if I get an A or a B on these tests for my future success. Weird.

Me, though. 

Sports: Wednesday morning basketball is always a delight. I also had an intramural game and this is the best girls basketball team I have ever played on. We played against my ward's team and crushed them using a strategy called everyone stand far away so Naomi only has to post up on one, maybe two, people down low.

Okay here's a weird moment: I posted up, made it, got the foul called. I joked around with the girl who fouled me and went to the free throw line with this unreal sensation in my head - like I couldn't even remember if it was really me that just shot the ball. But I knew I had. It went a little far, and bounced right back to me. I jumped into the paint, grabbed it, and nobody moved. After a short pause,  I confirmed that the ball was indeed in play, I walked down to the hoop for an easy layup. Easiest four-point play. Surreal though.

Um, I joined a Quidditch Team. I'm a chaser. Tackling is allowed. We're going to regionals in a few weeks in Washington. This sport is almost as good as inner tube water polo.

Same, same.

Services: All of my spare time has been spent working on a presentation for Singa, a French refugee-integration organization. I love working on stuff like this because it's fun, challenging, and makes ya feel all fuzzy inside. Also because I'm good at it. It's surprisingly easy to contact really important and experienced people and I think a lot of people miss out on that because they think they're too unimportant or something. Not I. In addition to great resources like PRoney, I also got in contact with Joseph Grenny (co-author of Crucial Conversations, and admin for The Other Side Moving Co) as well as the Singa chapter head for Germany. I love networking.

Speaking of networking. Part of my goals in response to the Summit Leadership Conference I attended, was to get back in contact with several people from my mission, especially the Tonal family. When I moved to Cannes, we were starting fresh and I became fast friends with these guys, who lived in the same complex as us. They are a delightful family of four, who can cook a mean steak, and aren't super interested in the church, but are like family. Just seeing messages from them makes my heart happy.

Me flirting with my future husband.

Success: Here's my testimonial for the week. I've been a tad concerned about mula leading into this year. I had to cut my summer job short by a month and can't really work during football season. BUT. For some reason, God really likes me because that guy is really hooking a sister up. I got a half scholarship from some random dude. Then I discovered a website that will let pay me for posting my study guides and sharing them with my class. Then my boss offered me a research job with him for 8h/week, good pay, and extremely flexible hours. Then three athletes asked me to tutor them in a few classes, which BYU will pay me to do. On top of that, my guy Tim, hooked me up with a great job opportunity in AZ in June, which hopefully will all pan out. #blessed

Can't even tell it's almond bark.

Yum. We almost made it 7 years. So close.

Side Notes: I made a custom mouth guard for myself. Now I just have to force myself to wear it. (These are NOT the boil n bites - these are nice, light, non-intrusive works of art.)

I made it to Waffle Wednesday this week. It's always rough because it depends on how fast I can finish my Physics lab and if they'll actually let me go.

Galentines Traditions. It was nice to have Lauren over because I love her and needed a break from it all. We got Chick Fil A and all the supplies necessary to make a George Randall (red mountain dew, lime juice, and vanilla). We made chocolate covered strawberries and a music video that is being held hostage by Lauren until I give her the rest of her birthday poem. I gave her a massage and we talked about my crazy life and her crazy stalker who is there literal worst.

Our new album is coming out featuring new hits like "Becoming Sherri"
and "Dew Me A Favor" and even "Sherri a Moment With Me".

McCall Me Up

Okay who wants to know about my life? Ready, GO.

My new favorite meme.

I finished my VT a little last minute, much to the chagrin of Chelsea Rencher. Kelsey is delightful and  camped out for the Gonzaga game five days in advance. Taylor is a new friend and we have the same birthday, except hers is six years after mine. Yikes.

This is in Ashby's brother's closet. Um, can we be friends?

After classes on Monday, I went to a meeting about a case competition to improve the near-nonexistent infrastructure of SINGA, an increasingly international organization that helps refugees, aka "new citizens" become integrated in their societies. Greg and I joined a team and had a long meeting discussing a few ideas with our other teammate, Marissa.

Squadding it up in McCall, ID.

I got some job potential this week. My friend Ho'o is moving to AZ after this semester and wanted a roommate and I wanted O-U-T of UT after I graduate in June, so my guy Tim (an AT/PT in NM) hooked me up with this guy Scott who runs a PT clinic out of a gym in Phoenix and has an AT leaving to go to PT school in May, so he said the timing would be perfect. He told me to come visit whenever and we planned to meet up at a conference in the end of March. Did you follow that?

No, we don't want you to take our picture. We GOT this.

The second job offer came from my boss, Brett, who is working on his PhD right now and needs 8h of research help for this and spring semester, which he recently got permission to fund from the department.

A buncha dorkbutts.

The bad news comes along with my physics classes. My 108 lab is usually fun - good experiments, wonderful TAs, and we get out pretty early each time. This week, some of our equipment was faulty and it took us and both TAs about 50 minutes to figure out what was wrong. Right in the middle of that mess, I found out that our water polo team had to forfeit its second match, meaning we are disqualified from the rest of the season and tournament. Then I had my 107 lab which majorly sucked, as expected, and was only made a little better by several weed puns from our lab mate.

First picture of the day. This is as good as it gets, folks.

The good news about that disqualification is that it made my decision to go to Idaho this weekend a lot simpler. I finished as much HW as possible on Thursday. I registered for spring semester and got permission to exceed the credit maximum. I've also been reading a chapter in Miracle of Forgiveness per day so I can finally finish it.

In front of a frozen lake. 

Anyways, we left after classes for Ashby's house in Eagle, ID. All five of us squished into the care with a huge bag of popcorn and seats that slanted so one cheek was higher than the other. We got back, at some waffles, watched some Modern Family, and ACon and I snoozed in Talmage's bed.
Mama Clark made us cornbread for breakfast before she and Papa Clark left for AZ, dropping Mia off at her volleyball tournament en route to the airport. Eventually, the squad left on a 2h drive to the Winter Festival in McCall, taking us through the European foothills on the way.

Winner of the Festival.
Which was graded both on quality and durability.

The snow sculptures were a tad disappointing because most had melted or fallen by this point. But it was still fun to see a few that remained. We walked around, explored some stores, and at some delicious burgers at My Father's Place. Then we found out Mia was in the hospital and got back just as she was being released. I did some HW and watched the Breakfast Club. Then talked to Lex for several hours before hitting the hay. Which I will hit again on the way home.

Elephant or mammoth?