Elephants Freakishly Yawn

On Wednesday, EFY could have stood for "Especially For Yum" because I ate the yummiest food ever on that day. The cafeteria workers at Xavier could not have been more welcoming and sweet to us the whole time we were there. They called us "baby" and "honey bun" and heaped gourmet food onto our plates as we scooted on through the lines.

On Wednesday, I was on Variety Show tryouts duty with counselors Chris and James. I loved this job because

- I got to see everyone try out. 

- The youth were all so cute and confident, all ready to go with their talents. 

- I got to be Paula, leaving Chris to be Randy and James to be Simon. 

I hated this job because

- There were like 45 acts that tried out and only 15 spots. 

- In my role as Paula Because I am an elementary school teacher, I hated the thought of rejecting any of these acts. Besides this one really bizarre act that just made me uncomfortable. It didn't hurt my feelings too bad when they didn't make it. 

- We were trying people out from the beginning of free time to the end of dinnertime. That is four hours, my friend. 

Thankfully, the cafeteria workers were so nice and let us come eat dinner there anyway. 

The next part of "Yum" happened at Pizza Night. I ordered pizza, but I forgot to get soda. Actually I didn't forget. I just got flustered. Dalin was on the phone and put it down for a second and said, "Do you need soda?" And I hadn't asked my girls if they wanted soda, and I knew if I said yes then he would ask what kind, and I just didn't think I could handle that, so I said no. 

Then, of course, my girls had to ask if I had gotten soda. I told them no. They had a riot. I ran to the boys' floor, hoping Dalin would rescue us. He wasn't there yet, so I stood in the hallway, talking to the boys in my company. Our conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hi! Did you guys get soda?

Them: We don't know, Dalin's not back yet. 

Me: Oh, hmmm. That's okay. 

Them: .....Did you get soda?

Me: No! It's all my fault, I forgot to order it. 

Them: Oh man! 

Me: Yeah. My girls are about to stage a mutiny. 

Them: ......

Me: .....Yeppp. 

Them: Oh man. 

Me: I think Dalin did get soda. 

Them: Hmmm, maybe he did. 

Me: Oh that's so cool!

Them: ......

Me: Okay to be honest, I'm just hoping that if I stand here long enough, and tell that story enough times, then you will offer my girls some of your soda....

Them: Oh! You can have our soda! 

Me: Oh my gosh, really?? That is so nice! Okay maybe like, if he got 3 things of soda, we can have one. 

Them: Okay no how about, if he got 3 things, you can have two of them. 

Um?! Are these boys not the sweetest ever? They only requested hugs from all the girls. I enthusiastically promised them this. 

Pizza Night is fun because you get to talk about COW's (Crush Of the Week) and sing girly songs and there are no boys allowed. Unless they are dropping off soda for you :) Then they are totally allowed. And it's fun because pizza is delicious and girl talk is fun and sometimes your girls accidentally all start singing, as loudly as they can, a song about two specific counselors sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G, and as we all know, that is the sign of a good party. 

Friendship

Sometimes, friendship means making late-night runs to the grocery store and winding up at the hospital cafe. Where you wind up playing Bingo with the staff. And then you end up winning Bingo, and it ends up being a great night.

Sometimes, it means listening for 20 minutes instead of hanging up when your friend accidentally butt-dials (or booty-calls, whichever you prefer to call it) you. Which sometimes turns into you recording the conversation she has with herself in her car. Which sometimes winds up on your Facebook.

Sometimes, it means going to Little Caesar's for your second dinner in one night.

Sometimes, it means that you are suddenly overcome with the need to eat said second dinner anywhere but at the table. 

Sometimes, it means eating toast and jam for dinner with your roommate and bonding by talking about boys.

Sometimes, friendship is falling asleep on a couch in an apartment that is not your own 3+ days a week. Sometimes, friendship is spending more time at this apartment than the actual residents spend there. 

Sometimes, friendship means that you talk about your feelings a LOT. You also talk about how you're feeling about how you're feeling. 

  

And sometimes, friendship means Temple Tuesdays. At 6 in the morning. Which means I have to be getting to bed in like, negative five hours. 

All I'm saying is, I am super lucky to have the friends that I have :) 

Minions and Muppets

Now that Nicole is visiting again, it seems that I should probably be finished blogging about the last time she visited by now. So, as promised, here is Part 2 of the Visit d' Nicole: Minions and Muppets.

When we left of, the three sisters were happily lounging on the couch in my apartment, watching Surf's Up on a Friday night. Saturday dawned with bright new adventures, beginning with a trip to the Pizza Pie Cafe with some really awesome and attractive people. Let me tell you, that was a good choice. If I didn't get a free meal at Tucano's every year for my birthday, I might have to go to PPC instead. The dessert pizza alone is enough to get me in the door and $7 poorer. Also I made some delicious pasta sauce.

Those in attendance: Kelly and Dahl, Nicool and I, Philipe, Jared, Troy Toy, Winnifred, Christine, the infamous MP, Steve Johnson.

In case you're wondering, Steve and I randomly match on a regular basis. It's weird, and neither of us has an explanation.

We ate for about 2 hrs. It's times like that, when I'm sitting at a table in the Pizza Pie Cafe with 12 slices of pizza on 3 plates in front of me, that I feel like I really live a charmed life. And a fat one. But whatever.

After PPC, Kelly, Nicole and I had some girl time! We went to the dolla theater and watched The Muppets. We felt a little disappointed. We encouraged all the people, via our blogs, not to watch it. We cheered up because it had, after all, only been a dollar for each of us.

Then we walked all over Provo. It was such a beautiful day and we were happy to spend so much time walking and talking with each other.

It seems like all day, we just walked from meal to meal. We hung out at my apartment for a minute, made an amazing video for an amazing sister, and then walked to the Creamery on 9th for kids meals.

Here is the video:

Based off of this video:

For this girl:

Christine joined us for both the movie-making and the kids meal eating. We had a great system for eating our kids ice creams at the Creamery, called everyone took a bite and then passed their ice cream to the right. Try it sometime if you are not afraid of germs and love a variety of ice creams :)

The fry sauce was a cause of great frustration.

The next day, Sunday, we went to Lindon for Jordan Lee's mission homecoming. She was Kelly's roommate freshman year and is so sweet. We love her and it's happy to have her back in Utah!

And then, Nicole left. (I am not that sad about it right now because she is meeting me for lunch in 5 minutes, so it's not like she left forever.) It was so fun to have her! She is hilarious and of good report and praiseworthy. If you don't already have a testimony of that, you should probably get to know her better :)

Why I Like the Daily Universe

Today, I was working on a group project in a random classroom in the MKB and a reporter for the Daily Universe came in and asked if he could interview us. He asked what we would want the school to improve on.

I said, "Free food." Because you know that is my favorite thing.

Less than an hour later, I went to the Writing Center to work. I discovered that I had to do a class visit. These are sometimes fun but sometimes not. I went downstairs and gave the class visit, a little bit nervous.

As I was leaving the classroom, two older men walked past me, holding an empty pizza box. They looked giddy and you know that I knew that that was because of the pizza box. I watched as they pointed another girl back to the room they had just left. Then I heard them say, "It's Brick Oven! And we're going to get more!"

When they got closer, I said, "What's the pizza for?"

They said, "It's Brick Oven! It's in there. We're going to get more."

I took that as an invitation. I went and helped myself to a delicious slice.

Well done, Daily Universe guy. That was very prompt.

Sticky Smile

I have some more Disney definitions I would like to share.

magical: some little girls who come in first thing in the morning and get to sit in the window seat but they refuse to talk to you at all and don't even smile when they get turned around to see themselves and you find yourself wondering why you like your job at all because of them.

morning meeting: the memory that you cling to when little girls like this are a sad reality in your morning. It was at this meeting which happens every day before the boutique opens that Rob announced that we would be getting a pizza party today!

pizza party: Heather doesn't have to eat the lunch she brought and instead gets fed. Hollllllerr, I love being fed!

cheesecake: apparently, something that Marjorie just had sitting around, so she brought it in to share with us. Aka, the most delicious thing ever. Aka, the thing that was moved from the office downstairs to the fridge in the breakroom without my knowledge, causing me to run up and down the stairs 5 times during my break, asking around as to its whereabouts, searching in freezers and cabinets and the refrigerator until I finally found it.

OSHA-reportable injury: something that would ruin everyone's life if it were to happen in World of Disney or the Boutique, but it does not ruin my life because it did not happen to me or any of the lovely people I work with. In fact, one hasn't happened in 60 days. Which is why we got a pizza party!

parade: this really wonderful thing that I haven't been on in like 2 weeks, but I went on it today, and the sun was shining, and I waved at some boy who waved back at me, and then I got nervous and went back to the Boutique without talking to him, and then he came to the World of Disney store during his lunch break to see me....

podium: where I am thrust by my FGIT friends when he comes into the World of Disney store and I spend a half-hour checking guests in and answering other miscellaneous questions while Prince Charming walks around the store, looking at merchandise and talking to the other managers.

smile: something really sticky and clingy, when your life is as happy as mine :)