Ok but like, no really.

Let's all just stop and think about Halloween for a moment.

.....

Ok now, don't you think this holiday is utterly nutso? 
Seriously guys, it makes NO SENSE.
"Let's all dress up like crazy people, award those who are craziest, run around in the dark, and eat junk food til we pass out. Together."
Said no one, ever.

...oh wait. 
Correction: 
Says everyone, every year.


What?!
I don't get it.




That is all.

This is what I use my phone for:

Calculus of Multiple Variables

Because I am a lost cause when it comes to 3D drawings (or drawings of any D for that matter), I choose to sit on the front row and take creeper pictures whenever a visual in this class is beyond my ability to copy. It's really an excellent tactic because he's really mastered the art of these things. He draws them near perfection, first try, every time. And I just sit and wonder, HOW?? You need to click on that picture and zoom in and snoop around because it truly is impressive. 

Ladies and gentlemen, this is one of the grandest uses of technology. I just wanted you to know that. 

The end.

In which math doesn't matter for once

Tonight I had the opportunity to share a thought at ward prayer. It's something I've been really trying to focus on improving lately. 

President Uchtdorf spoke in the most recent General Conference about regrets and resolutions. He said, 

Isn't it true that we often get so busy? And, sad to say, we even wear our busyness as a badge of honor, as though being busy, by itself, was a sign of a superior life. 

Is it?

This semester has been, quite frankly, ridiculously hard and insanely busy. In the last few weeks, I haven't fully understood a single one of my math assignments or lectures. That means 6 credit hours are slowly slipping down the drain, dragging my GPA with them, and it's stressful! Sometimes (all the time), I feel like the only way I'll survive is if I leave all the other things I care about behind for a couple months until I can just finish these two classes. Wouldn't that be a great solution?

But the kicker is this: that sort of busyness doesn't end, like, ever. When I finish these two classes, I'll have two more after that. And then I'll have more difficult major classes (project-based, ew). And then I'll be getting married or something. And then I'll graduate and think I'm free, but no, I have to go to work. And then children come and life really kicks into gear, and then where did my young and free and easy days go?

Yikes, life sounds rather daunting when you put it that way. I don't particularly care to stick around to see the ending of that. [Edit: that was not suicidal. Calm down.]

Since all that busyness never ends, we must each find ways to work around it. Rather than being a badge of honor, that inability to focus on things of greatest importance is a major downer on life in general. There's gotta be a way to avoid that negative cycle where all the things that don't matter much in the end take up all the time that could have been spent with things that matter eternally. And this is why I love Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. He lays it out nice and easy for us:

Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spend meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.  

Discipleship is the pursuit of holiness and happiness. It is the path to our best and happiest self. Let us resolve to follow the Savior and work with diligence to become the person we were designed to become. 

Let us resolve to be happy, regardless of our circumstances.

So here I resolve on my blog yet another resolution: I resolve to refuse to let the busyness of everyday life take away at all from the joys that can be found in spending time with those I love and spending effort becoming more like my Savior. These are the things that matter most. These are the things that will keep me happy and able to press onward, yea, even to the end of Abstract Algebra. And ultimately, these are the things that will determine the value and weight of my life whenever I reach the end of it. 

(You're welcome to join me if you wish, as always. I am, apparently, all about making sweeping resolutions and dragging people with me, so I'd love to have you along.)

First snow: October 25

Why I loved today:

Temple/breakfast with Kathy.
93 on a test.
Snowfall of all snowfalls to start the snowy season.
Favorite day of the week.
Friends and birthdays and friends' birthdays.
Ended with brownies and cupcakes and chili and class registration.
One day closer to the second craziest week of the semester (finals gets #1 spot) being OVER.

This was my school today:

And that was from a milder weather moment. 

[And now I'm off to go do two more math assignments and finish preparing a presentation for tomorrow morning. Yes that's right, I never sleep. Thanks for asking.]

Tests and money and cats

What I'm thinking about tonight:

1) Do you think of spaces as going after words or before words? Or are they simply in the middle of two words? I think of them as after words unless I am texting someone because my phone, apparently, thinks of spaces as a pre-word activity. Maybe my phone is left-handed?

2) Tonight I took my first test in the music room of the testing center. Fun fact #44: they don't actually stick to classical music very well at all in the music room. Anyone who tells you they play classical music clearly has never considered the difference between a Beethoven sonata and the Sound of Music soundtrack. 

3) That test didn't go very well, and can we just skip to winter semester now please?

4) Maybe I'll get a job someday so I can have money so I buy cool software before my student status is gone with all the pretty discounts that come with it.

5) All my lists that I post on my blog follow essentially the same format: 2 things I actually came here to say, 1 thing that relates to the #2 thing, and 2-3 things that I kind of just scrounge around for so I can pretend I actually thought about them that day when really they were topics from my brain last week that never made it onto paper/internet/permanence. And then I add a picture (usually irrelevant): 

And that is how I write my go-to blog post. 

I like this stuff

...but it might bore you to death (or you might hate listening to her), and that's ok. I'm determined to learn how to make one of these because HELLO ENTERTAINMENT FOR MY CHILDREN. Maybs if I figure it out, I'll post a little how-to so you all can join my in math nerdiness. Happy hexaflexagon month!

(If you want to watch just one, stick with the first one.)

Asleep at BYU

I have a new favorite blog. 
You should go check it out. 

And then I need you to tell me something if you are not a BYU student. 
Does this happen at your school??
The blog makes it sound like it is a novelty for people to be asleep all over campus.
I feel like it is actually just normal college student activity. 
But I have never attended a different university, so I could be wrong. 
My sister said that at her school, people hide before they sleep. They find somewhere separate and quiet to nap, as a general rule. And I thought to myself, Why bother? What a waste of nap-time.

Let it be known that I am not ashamed to nap in public. 
I fell asleep sitting in the HFAC just yesterday, actually. 
(Yes, I was sitting up. Yes, it was an awful nap. Yes, this commentary is truth.)
But let it also be known that my new life goal is this: 

DO NOT be seen on the "Asleep at BYU" blog,

for you will never live it down.

Happy October to you and me and everyone

Evidences of fall from my Instagram:

1 :: decorating pumpkins with my mama

2 :: a blurry mountain of red

3 :: my favorite row of trees, found on University Avenue

4 :: concord grape jelly, comin right up

Oh what a lovely time of year! We usually have such a quick autumn that it basically seems nonexistent. For example, I'm fairly certain it had already snowed at this time last year. Which is great for people who love having three seasons, but I'm personally a fan of four full seasons a year. Anyway, I am so in love with this year's decision to let fall stick around a while. I wore a scarf  today to celebrate. 

Wahoo!

How's your fall season this year? 

Fun Fact #27

I like the way that one missionary points to things.

I know that's vague. 

Here, have a demonstration:

Look at his hand!

And then explain to me why I love that.

Cuz gosh darn it, I haven't a clue. Except that I don't know a single other person who does that the same way he does. 

Something about the...crook of his finger? Is that even a thing?

I dunno. I love it.

Oh heavens. 

Less than 8 months, 

just in case you were wondering.

Thank you, Hercules, for interrupting my focus.

Tonight, my math homework is mostly making sense, and I am just really happy about that. Because nobody told me that when they said "abstract algebra" they really meant "boatload of stuff you'll never fully grasp." But I suppose I should have heard that in the "abstract" bit. Anyway, all my usual complaints are invalid tonight because this stuff is actually working out! Woot. 

A couple days ago, I was asked to accompany a few songs (anywhere from 3 to 10) for my friend's choirs. She teaches junior high choir classes, and apparently those accompanists don't always come through, which is a shame, but hey, it takes me right back to my glory days, so I'm happy with it. If you're not busy next Wednesday evening, holler at me and you can come to my choir concert! Woot.

I haven't mentioned on here how much I loved general conference this last weekend, so I shall do so now. I LOVED CONFERENCE SO MUCH. Not only did I receive answers to the questions I had prepared, I got answers to questions I didn't plan on having for a couple years or so. Favorite talks: Elder Uchtdorf, Elder Ballard, Sister Burton. And one that's kicking me in gear with some serious goal-making: Elder Scott's. God really does speak to us today; this I know to be true.

Something I found cute: 

And a video that has me laughing my fool head off/changing my response to any and all things "disappointing" forever:

HERE. 

Read the description, then watch. Or vice versa. Just make sure you do both. And it's only 13 seconds long, so you're welcome for that. (Does anyone else completely ignore any YouTube videos that are longer than a minute? Anyone??)

Ok back to mathematics now. DISAPPOINTED!

Up the Timpanogos Trail

These are some pictures from a hike we took for FHE a while back: 

I live in a beautiful place with beautiful people.

The end.

Cuz the last ones were a hit

This weekend we have my uncle Keith, aunt Susan, and cousin Kim staying with us. They are here in celebration of General Conference and D.I. (can I get a woot woot?), and it's been a seriously fun weekend. I have been awful at taking pictures (like I don't even have a single one), but we went on a walk tonight and lil sister Mariah brought her camera and we made a lovely group GIF. So...enjoy!

PS to Kim: you are definitely my favorite one to watch. You win the "pose variety" award.

PS to the general public: Mariah gets all the credit for the heavy lifting again. Don't we all think she should get a blog? 

Yes, yes we do.

What are the odds?

Last night I was looking through pictures from this summer on my computer, and I found this:

We definitely didn't know each other yet. This was taken at NSO, when I was a Y group leader and she was a participating freshman. We met on the first official day of choir, which was about a week later. Little did we know that WE ALREADY HAD PICTURES TOGETHER.

We are no longer folder partners, but we do still sit next to each other. When I saw this last night, I was all, "What the heck?? That's Lauren!" And then I laughed to myself because everyone else had already gone to bed. Today I [of course] friended her on Facebook (goodness knows why we didn't take care of that already), and posted this picture to her wall so we could both marvel at the coincidence. 

Tell me that's not a nifty story. Just try.

The end.