What haven't I done in the last four weeks?

This past month has been by far the busiest, most bizarre, most adventurous, most surprising, most almost-every-adjective-you-can-think-of in my entire life. Just as a little recap:

I embarked on my last official year as a teenager--the big (or not so big) 1-9. Two of my roommates, Emily and Mallory, had a birthday within two weeks of mine as well; it was a crazy couple of weeks of presents, chocolate molten cake, door decor, and celebrations!

Here's my belated birthday wish to myself! Cheers wawa.


(FYI-that's Martinelli's Cran-Apple Cider..not to worry)

Out of everything, even the ridiculously cute clothes from mom and dad, this was my favorite present by far...


It's still in my fridge....I guess that sign is really working!

Also in the last few weeks, summer turned into fall..



Pretty, huh? It's unfortunate that it only lasted two weeks. Now it's snowing, which was fun for the first twenty minutes.....but I think I'm going to have a hard time coping with this till spring. I'm buckling my seat-belt everyone, it's going to be a long, cold winter.

So I realize I'm not exactly going in chronological order...life has been one big blur so I'm not exactly sure I could even if I tried.

There's been some great (some not so great) football games..


Totem poles..


Trips to the ghetto of Salt Lake, the train station.


Reunions with friends I haven't seen in years!


(Travis Williams aka T-Dawg- my freshmen boyfriend who moved to Idaho & then Hawaii)


Cat fights...



Not pictured: I ran into a deer.....not a live one of course, it had already been hit, but nevertheless very scary. Even after being assured that no harm was done, mom didn't find it very funny.




One too many laughs with these lovely girls..


And now that my cd player AND auxiliary outlet are on the fritz (I swear I think my life is almost over) due to jammed pennies (don't ask) and other technical problems.....we've had to listen to Miley Cyrus' "Party in the USA" & Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" non-stop.


**Side note: my new mission: get Utah radio stations to find new songs to overplay!

Hope your last month has been just as eventful!!

And so it begins...

I LOVE FOOTBALL SEASON. Why?

Well first...because school puts on stuff like this:





They call it True Blue.









We made such a mess when we came home to shower....it was the cleaning room-check night too with our RA. Let's just say we didn't pass the first time around... :]


Second. Football season also brings good tidings of:

*Highly caloric & processed foods. (cotton candy, slurpees, hawaiian popcorn, and the like..)
*Crazed crowds
*School spirit
*Mascots!!
*THE wave
*Cheers
*The best of all? Being able to wear FALL clothes.

You know you feel the same.



Andrew is grey-shirting for the team this year and invited Trav and I on the field for warm-ups and the player tunnel. It was SOOO cool.








I got to be so up close and personal! We were standing on the sidelines as they did their thing and then all of a sudden they were charging at us! Before we knew it we were in the cracks of their HUGE formation. It was quite silly.

I nearly had a heart-attack when I turned to my left and saw Bronco standing less than ten feet away from me...and then a few minutes later cosmo came by. BYU has the best mascot. I've never seen any other of his kind do standing tucks and aerials.

Let's go Cougs!

This aint exactly easy.

What is this institution called college? Am I going to get through it? It's eight o' clock in the morning already? Another essay? Will I live till Christmas (also the end of the semester)? And people say this is the most fun you have in your entire life?!

These are the questions I ask myself about ten times a day. How come this is so much harder than before? Between classes, homework, and more classes....I find little time to do much else! I have to write about four essays in a week, something I'm not yet quite accustomed to. (Oh, and congrats to those of you who are....!)

Anyways. These are the things that are getting me through these long, LONG weeks.

Subject 1:


Even though it's always much earlier than I would like it to be, I get to wake up to THIS every morning, as it is on my roommate's wall. It's marvelous. Aren't you jealous you don't have him to come home to?

Subject 2:


Ya, that's my fridge. This is the only thing that prevents me from stuffing my face with sugar when I'm brain-fried from studying and am about to go insane. Course, I can't say it's worked everytime....

(As evident by) Subject 3:


Sharing an entire pan of white chocolate/caramelized brownies with your roommate at midnight? My sister suggested it. Lauren, my consequent Freshmen Fifteen and I thank you.

Subject 4:


My roommate has a few of these tucked in odd places around our humble abode too. And you all thought I was obsessed?

Subject 5:


The beginning of crisp Fall weather! Ah, it's honestly the best....and I wish you could all see the beauty of this campus with the lush greenery and encompassing mountains with it.

Subject 6:


For those of you curious, this is my current relationship. DJ i writes me a song for whatever my mood calls for, is a loyal companion, and even sleeps with me. (In an appropriate way, you weirdos!) Oh, but the best part? We never fight. Well, that is except when he runs out of battery..but he says that's my fault, not his...

Subject 7:


Thanks to the attractive English guy that gave this to me in class! Daisies are my favorite; don't they just make you happy? This one has lasted over a week!

Subject 8:


My eye mask. I know, it should have some cute bows on it or something to make it more visually appealing...but it does the job just fine. Allows me to fall asleep when my roommate still needs light for homework. (Remind me to thank whoever invented these in the next life!)

Subject 9:


The very best of all of them. Turning IN the essay. Ah, such a sigh of relief.

This reminds me, I got another one. Toodles! I hope you all have these blessed miracles in your life!

Blink!

...Blink 182 that is.

For Labor Day I wanted to do something FUN! Something different...

...so I ventured where this pop princess has NEVER been before.



An actual rock band concert. It wasn't the typical J.T.-Britney Spears-kind of concert I'm used to with loads of sexy background dancers and elaborate stage frills. Nope. They kept it simple and let the music do all the entertaining.



I went with my roommate Emily & my best friend Travis from back home.

We had way too much fun getting our inner rocker on.



Taking Back Sunday was good too :]

Stolen Identity.

There is nothing like the BYU campus during its regular semester sessions to make you feel more ordinary and insignificant. Everyone seems to have been a cheerleader. Everyone seems to have been student body president. Everyone plays the piano and has more musical talent than Jessica Simpson. And worse, you are reminded of it every minute...as there as lines and lines of these clones EVERYWHERE you go.

I'm making my way to my first classes...




Who am I again?



Kidding.

My summer started 2 weeks ago.

I went about my entire homesick Summer term (I confess. It was baaaddd), with the reassuring thought that I'd come home shortly on the anticipated 14th of Auguest to a flood/parade of "Welcome Back" parties and sobbing hugs, the effect of every Temecula inhabitant direly missing me in my two month absence.......ha.

It's this very image that I had embarrassingly enough, contrived in my head that made me completely take for granted the last week of the term. Everyone began to get all nostalgic.....but me? I began packing up my room a week beforehand. I couldn't wait to be in the warm embrace of my mom and friends who would all say something along the lines of, "Haley, Temecula changed when you first got here, and now it's changed again because you are gone..." It would be then that I'd be 150% positive that I was missed and much as I was missing them. You see, my life took a one-eighty when I left home, it's now sooo different, as everyone soon discovers when they leave the nest. I now refer to myself in the mirror as Holly Walker, not Haley. I fend for my own meals, buy my own shampoo, do my own laundry, and have to worry about BUYING "thank-you" cards, as I no longer have my mother's Willa-Wonka factory-like craft room to make them (Lu, Mom--please don't disown me). For those of you wondering, ya......I may have slept a few HSM script inspired lines in there... :]

I didn't sleep the night before my flight. I was too excited! I had a super early flight and couldn't fall asleep thousands of feet above ground either. I made friends with the couple next to me and pretended to know all about the last season of the Bachelor to sustain a conversation, read through an entire trashy gossip magazine from cover to cover, AND watched JetBlue's complimentary television set--all in a flight of an hour and fifteen minutes. And then, I'm sitting on the curb of the airport for nearly an hour waiting to be picked up.

Turns out life marched on without me. My friends made new memories and were in anticipation of THEIR departure...not my arrival. I don't know where I went wrong and became so selfish as to believe they would. "Life sucks and then you die." That's not a line from HSM. HSM would never be so pessimistic. I know, I'm ashamed!

After a few days of moping around the house, Mom decided I HAD to snap out it. So we decided to go see Julie & Julia. But that wasn't enough, so we had to see Post Grad & 500 Days of Summer-twice. The realistic perspective of the latter sobered me up, because even though it admits that life sucks sometimes, there is ALWAYS something coming up in the works that's even better! Autumn follows Summer. I LOVE THAT MOVIE. Go see it. NOW.

So with only one week left of my two week vacay at home and probably five hundred too many words blogging about it, Haley Walker has appeared in the mirror again. I miss my summer buddies.....even if they did get me in get me in trouble for being creepers at my window.



Adam & Porter are both leaving on their missions in the coming two months. So, they will no longer make guest appearances on my blog....so sad. I'm even worried I wont have anymore "Utah" typical dates!

Wait, WAIT. What was my big epiphany?! Autumn follows Summer. Keep telling myself that!


With the remaining week I had left, I took full advantage of unlimited bowling...





I'll tell you upfront that I'm terrible....but I did get my very own, very FIRST, strike! Woooo!!! Go, go Haley (not Holly). That optimism really does something for you. I even tied for first!.....in a game of trying to knock down the LEAST amount of pins. Yaaaa. That's how we do!

I also was a dancing queen at a friend's 80's birthday bash..



And wake surfed my way across Vail Lake.





I'm heading back up to P-town in the morning for a brand new semester full with the promise of BYU football season, a darling new roommate named Emily, a fun floral design class, the Brutschs, new boys!, a new season of So You Think You Can Dance, and a TON of new Cougars on campus.

Thanks Mom & Dad for a GREAT, AMAZING, WONDERFUL, FUN-FILLED, and $$$ spent visit home. It's no wonder I got so homesick! Love you so much.

Over and out till the next post y'all. Promise it wont take so long...and remember: Autumn always follows Summer.

:]

G.I. Joe- the premiere.

Boys. I got stuck riding with these little ninjas......I didn't even dress up for the HSM3 premiere...that means these kids REALLY are dorks.

Adam kept trying to snuggle. But dude. The mustache was SICK. And not the cool kind of sick....I would have said DANK instead....I'm saying real disgusting sick. I wouldn't go within five feet of him. #1 mistake: that's bear fur....not facial hair. #2 mistake: it's a STICKER. (I'm shuddering right now.)

He guilted me in ONE picture. No harm, no fowl.



AND THEN. OF COURSE....



UGHHH!!! Eww!!! SICK, SICK, SICK. I nearly vomited.