What happens when the weather turns nice...

There was a cool vibe on campus yesterday. Don't know if it was because of the perfect weather, or maybe it was just the fact that I looked super cute. Either way, it was an awesome day.

Mostly because of this:

What the heck? Someone tried to tell me that they do this on campus every year, but I must be blind, because I've never seen it before.

There were people doing totally legit paintings--I was amazed!

I wondered all day why they hadn't used blue cans...? Do they know what our colors are?

The tiger girl.

X-men!

Trogdor! This might have been my favorite.

 Because there are so many thugs at BYU...

I have my doubts as to whether it really is the world's largest cardboard castle, but whatever.

I wonder where this kid got the ladder?

Some people think they're so creative...

The entrance:

 

So, yeah. I was fairly impressed by it. It just made the day so much more fun! 

The rest of my day was spent hanging out with the Cosmo bench, trying to get people to sit on it and be included in BYU Magazine's time lapse film. I recruited these two:

Don't know how we both happened to be wearing the perfect colors as well.

I also randomly ran into one of the missionaries that I used to tutor in the MTC. He and his wife just got home from their mission in Paris!

 

Anyway. I sure love springtime on campus. Though it does decrease any lingering desire I have of actually going to my classes. Oh well. Graduating in 26 days, btw!

Who says I need a man?

As long as that Cosmo bench is there, I'm good.

On repeat

Also, can someone explain to me why this song just touches my soul? 

I cannot get enough of it.

It is good for us to be here

We finally did it--Megan and I moved in together! The thing we've been talking about doing ever since we finally got our own rooms in our parents' house... Okay, it probably wasn't that soon, but at least since we've both been out of high school, we have talked and dreamed of living together. And it has finally happened! The plan was to move the beginning of March, but we felt pressed to get a move on (hahaha, get it? punny!), and ended up moving in the middle of February. Still don't quite know how we did it, since we are basically broke, but somehow it worked out (knock on wood!).

Moving ALL of our stuff out of our parents' house was quite the ordeal. I have more stuff than I could've ever imagined. Every time I went into the basement I'd come up with another box labeled  "Mindy's stuff." There were probably at least 5 boxes down there that I had no idea existed. I blame my mom for my hoarding tendencies.

How Megan felt after moving:

In my empty room--so weird!

Anyway, we really love our new apartment. My top reason?

 My old closet (first time it's ever been empty)

 Ahhhhhhhhh! 

Yes, that was a choir of angels celebrating my NEW closet:

Yeah. So pretty much, my life is complete now. All I really needed, it turns out, was this closet, and I'm set. 

Anyway, moving has been good. We've made some awesome new friends, and I feel like I have already learned so much from a lot of them. A french-speaking friend for me, a teacher-friend for Megan. Fellow Seinfeld-lovers. And people who are teaching me the importance of having fun and not taking life (read: dating) too seriously. It's awe-inspiring, sometimes, to see the evidence of the Lord's hand in my life. He always knows exactly what I need, even when I have no idea.

 The scripture that has been stuck in my mind the whole time is Matthew 17:4. This is when Peter, James, and John are with the Savior on the Mount of Transfiguration. Isn't it just the biggest understatement ever that Peter, after witnessing such a miraculous event, would say, "Lord, it is good for us to be here"? Well, they were there because the Savior brought them there. There was a reason for it. And I am officially adding this move to the list of places Heavenly Father has led me to. 

Oh, pictures to come. Once I finish decorating the place, you know. :)

Bibliophile

noun : a lover of books especially for qualities of format; also : a book collector.

I admit it. I love books. Sometimes I buy books just for the sheer pleasure of having more books. Knowing full well that I will probably never get around to reading them. It's so awful!

(by the way, today in my History of the Book class, we went to the special collections in the library to look at examples of the next thing we're studying: "the beautiful book." Obsessed!)

While moving, I realized that 1) I own way too many books,
(case in point--*some* of my books:)

The sad, bookshelf-less ones:

(so, yeah, you get the idea)

and to my chagrin,  that 2) I haven't read probably 1/3 of them. Lame. One of my life goals is to actually read all the books I own (I tell myself as I keep buying more and more of them...), but I haven't been doing a very good job of it.

So the other day I was reading a good friend's blog, and she had posted her reading goals. She is ambitious enough to try and read 3 books each month, which seems insane because she's also a master's student and I don't know where she finds the time. After seeing this and also hearing one of my professors (the one who teaches History of the Book) say that he reads one book per week(!), I started beating myself up on how little I read these days and how, at the rate I'm going, I'm never going to achieve my life goal. But then I realized--I'm in two literature classes this semester! And even though I couldn't care less about one of the classes (sorry, comparative lit, poor little last general of mine), I've still managed to read, since January: 

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (in French, Notre-Dame de Paris), Victor Hugo

Liaisons Dangereuses, Laclos

Candide, Voltaire

The Winter's Tale, Shakespeare

King Lear, Shakespeare

So what if I spark-noted my way through Don Quixote and Faust . . . I'm choosing my battles here. And I just started on Madame Bovary, by Flaubert.

Anyway, I'd say that I haven't done too bad. But school's almost over, and then I'll have no reason to ever pick up a book again (...), so here's the plan.

The goal is to read:

1. a classic (I'm going to start with all of those that I started and never finished)

2. a nonfiction (I particularly want to start reading biographies)
every month.

Two books? That's totally doable, right? I might one day get as ambitious as my friend and add a third book to the mix (a fiction option?! Don't know how strict I'll stay on the categories), but we'll see how this goes first. So if you have any suggestions (especially in the nonfiction genre, though I have this book in mind), please let me know!! 

Also, I'm signing up for goodreads, so if you're on there too, help me out!

Lu'au recap

For the past two years, my best friend and I have participated in BYU's annual Lu'au (2011 & 2012). This year, I was all signed up and ready to go, and even went to 3 or 4 practices, but then my Saturdays just got too busy to keep it up. It's okay, though, because that meant I actually got to watch the show this time! And let me just say, boy those Samoans are loud! And fun :) We loved it!

Our sneaky picture. We just love those dresses that remind us so much of Wallisian/Futunians.

Fiji men:

Tahiti:

Skinny white boys dancing Tahitian-style:

The Samoa section playing leap-frog

My friend Alyssa tearing it up to introduce the Maori section:

Maori pukanas!

I took this picture of the Tonga section to show how people were bringing their little kids up on stage to put dollar bills on people's costumes, but I didn't realize that my friend Jessica was there on the left!

Um... maybe the Tonga section? Some cool drumming...

Tonga cheats to make everyone love their section the most by recruiting adorable little kids to be in their dances. And it totally works!

The Maori section, however, recruited BYU's rugby team to perform the Haka. It was pretty intense. 

Hawaii section with my friend Haliaka (who I danced with in the Fiji section last year) right in the middle:

Tonga section again--check out this girl's dollar bill lei! Legit.

The Samoa "princess." She had to be so rich by the end of that dance!

At least there was one of our New Cal sisters who performed in the Tahiti section! Way to represent, Lynzee!

Someone's mom made all these headpieces! What the heck. 

We love the Lu'au! I'll have to find some excuse to go again next year. :)