i bought my first pair of scrubs today

i put them on after work and then never wanted to take them off again. where have i been the last nine months and why did no one let me in on the biggest secret to comfort?
sometimes my job is a funny place. being summer and all, i tend to be there a lot, so consider this the first post of many on the subject.
this story is based on actual events.

the more i work, the more i learn about people and their strange quirks/ ideas about disease/ and general paranoia. when people come to my desk to check in their child, and i click on their name and often times a flasher will come up, telling me they have a credit, balance, special instructions for scheduling, etc etc. basically we know more about people than they think, and sometimes i wonder what my face does when i find some of the more interesting notifications. like this one.

"SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: Do NOT give out any information to mother if she calls. She is not to know any of child's information. If any records are to be given out, caller must use code word. The code word is 'rumplestilskin'"

upon reading this i had to make a conscious effort not to fall off my chair or laugh hysterically. just when you think you've seen it all...

one year ago today.

last year today i was touching down in madrid, spain, wandering off a plane drowsy and disoriented, sitting in an airport with 28 americans, who were more or less strangers, and was basically without an inkling of knowledge as to how much all the things i was about to experience would change my life, or how much i would miss it and all my friends from there today.
en cada cosita, en cada momentito siempre estoy pensando en mi país.

what am i doing a year later? nothing as interesting as losing my passport or eating albóndigas, but alas its a good life in provo. these days my life is just filled with good runs in prep for my red rock relay in moab with my family the 14th of may, (so excited!) covering shifts at work, and strawberries. i just completed my sixth move in two years, so no more good times at mansion 34. my new apartment is bigger, cleaner, and better but if i said i didn't miss sam, jordan, and kelsey i would be lying. however, living with some of my best friends from boise is pretty enjoyable, i must say.

it is somewhat strange to have no more school- i can honestly say i haven't have this little to do, well, since last summer. its funny how in a matter of days your thoughts can turn from finding time to study for five finals to debating which book you should read next, or if dinner should be pasta or stir fry. the break is much needed! now if only it would stop snowing in the mountains and act like spring, life would be even more wonderful. until then, however, i will be keeping the heat on.

this one's for all the marbles

one more final! if only physiology didn't require so much memorization i would just hop right up that testing center and pound it out. alas. this test is semi important and i don't think i can fake digestive enzymes. finals week this time around has been a breeze for the most part. solution to all your finals week blues? only take 13.5 creds. it works like a charm.

this weekend was fabulous. i took no pictures, which is very uncharacteristic of me, but i just never pulled out the ol lumix. next time! all you need to know though is that elder eric roisum is just as charming as ever, and he says we'll "be in contact", so if someone has a translator that will decipher that from missionary language to english, i would be pretty happy. i headed up to logan on monday after saying farewell to the windiest city known to idaho. or man. who knows. i'd never taken that scenic highway up through logan and down to slc, and man oh man it was a pretty sight. when coming through preston i did my best to look for napoleon dynamite. no luck.
a girl can dream.
seeing makel michael in logan was like a breath of fresh air on a springtime morning. she is hilarious and gave me a utah state air freshener. it smells great. sorry byu it's hanging in my car for the time being.

this week marks my 4 year anniversary of vegetarian, so naturally kelsey and i celebrated this yesterday with a trip to cafe rio.
actually we went there because neither of us have any food besides condiments, but hey. i just need a good reason to justify 7.27 on a bunch of lettuce. sweet, succulent lettuce with all the trimmings. i played fat kid and ate the whole thing.

also, lately it's been showering a lot, and not just the kind you learned about in 3rd grade studying the water cycle. all my friends are engaged or going on missions, so naturally it's been shower season. in the last 2 weeks i have been to three bridal/mission showers. (yep, they have those in ut) it's so weird to see all my friends grow up and get their marriage on, but the food is always so great and the company even better. as long as no one asks me to make a duct tape wedding dress i am a happy camper while i eat your cheesecake and ooh and aw at your lacy lingerie.

i definitely give the best gifts.

hannah looking quite posh in her new apron

yep, thats a box of lucky charms wearing a thong

it's a wrap. time to hit the books.

the loser in the library

is ME.

you have gotta love finals week and all it entails, especially when your first final is on a saturday.
at 8 PM. sooooooo wrong!

so i am sitting here, in for the long haul. the lib is open til 2 AM tonight/this morning. hopefully i won't be here that long (shudder)

today at work there were only two doctors, which is great because that means less patients, but also a tad bit tricky because neither of them spoke spanish, and hey... when your office in located in a part of town where some of the billboards are in spanish before they are in english, you've got a problem on your hands.  what did that mean for me? lots and lots of spanish. i did three doctor's visit translations! three! i haven't done that many in my entire experience at uvp. it made me sweat, but it was great.

i can't wait for this weekend post test- one of my best friends, eric roisum, is hot off his mission in argentina, and its time for an idaho falls reunion! i can hardly wait to see all my friends and kick it just like the old days minus about 20 friends who are on missions. the 10 pm drive may or may not suck but i have a feeling with a bag of candbury eggs or coconut m&ms (or both) and pandora/this american life i will make it through.
the end is near!

reading days daze

reading days are byu's version of spring break where we get 2 days off to study our brains out before finals start. on a saturday, mind you. they they go again, crackin that good ol' byu whip.
mostly i never study on reading days, but today went as follows:
8a- wake up. watch modern family. eat oatmeal with best blueberries in provo
930a- library with kelsey. 4th floor. tried to get excited about studying viruses, but could only think about spain and summer. curse you finals
11a- go to a scheduled physiology review, but seems like the joke was on me. i was the only one who showed up. not even the ta came! i perfected my resume instead.
1215p- head to the widtsoe to copy down all the microbiology tests to study off of. uuuuuuuuugh. sigh. choking sounds. i can't wait til saturday at 10 pm when mmbio 221 will be out of my life. FOREVER.
1p- lunch time. cottage cheese and asparagus pasta with ample salt and pepper.
2p- back to campus for another physiology review. this time i actually got some studying done.
4p- time to do laundry/borrow grandma's vacuum to clean out my disgusting car. one load of laundry takes 4 hours, seeing as I forget to: a. turn the dryer on and come down an hour later to still wet clothes and: b. turn it on and come down another hour later to find the dryer off and my clothes still wet. oh well, grandma made some killer peanut butter cookies and will farrell was hilarious on the office.
10p- gym time. i was supposed to go this morning at 630 to train with a roving trainer that tracked me down yesterday and said i, "looked like i'd worked out with a trainer before" good try, novice trainer guy. right after i agreed to a session (mainly to just make him go away so i could get back to looking like an idiot as i jumped up and down on a bench 20 more times) i realized there was no way in this world or the next i was getting up that early on a reading day. maybe if he would have been cuter.
maybe.
i came home to boxes and bags strewn about the apartment. everyone is starting to move their stuff out and its weird to see so many blank walls.  mansion 34, your days are numbered.

just another tuesday for the books.

i smelled that stinky spring smell today- the one from those gross flowering trees, but guess what. i loved it. i secretly was cheering because even though we had a characteristic spring snowstorm, they were troopers and spouted with the uttermost pungency.
i heard a lawnmower, too. that made me get so exceedingly happy.

i saw professor williams and mabel while i was turning in my spanish final paper and it made me so. happy. and then as i was walking out i saw stallings, my other favorite spanish professor and i seriously could not stop smiling thinking about how great his class was. i am so obsessed with spanish, and that is how the cookie crumbles.

i listened to more this american life as i worked today. another obsession as of late.

anita and i are cooking this quiche for tuesday meal time and it is bringing me back to the days of childhood when we would read this barney alphabet book to lindsay, and make her say "quiche" when we got to q because it was the cutest thing. i should call her up and make her say it for me again.
i am done with all my classes for the term, all i have to do in the next nine days is study for the finals, cram in 48 hour trip to idaho falls, and work more than i probably should be scheduled for. money money money money.

lindsay and i doing a glasses switch last weekend. 

also, spain is all that is on my mind, and the possibility i've got to head back over to my favorite place sooner than i was expecting. so many decisions to be made in the next few weeks, i cannot concentrate on a single thing.

two firsts and many endings

first number one:
i finally went to general conference. i can't believe in the 40 ish general conferences i've been around for, i'd never been before. i used to be a proponent of "watch it on the couch with a stomach full of pancakes and usually fall asleep during hymn" but maaaan my tune has changed.
one of my work friends and i made the trek to slc to see the sunday afternoon session because she scored some really great seats down on the floor from a friend who got tickets from virginia. the people around us were from ny and canada, so i think my observations are correct, and church members outside of utah are favored at these types of events.
anyways, the precedings were fantastic. my favorite part? when the prophet came out and everyone stood and fell silent. silent! not one word! not one cough! the opening prayer was noisier, i tell you. it was the coolest experience, sitting in that conference center with so many important people.
i shall be returning.

first number two:
yesterday i journeyed down into the special collections section of the library to do some research for a paper. boy did i feel a. stupid because i didn't know one thing about finding things in the library and then b. pretty legit when i found out my book was rare and important. basically special collections is where they keep all the old and important rare works that byu has collected over the years, and they live behind closed doors and glass walls. i felt like nicolas cage in the national archives national treasure style. or harry in the restricted section of hogwarts.
i had to show proof i was a student, lock up my bag, and take off my jacket. i could only use the pencils and paper in the special room where i gingerly flipped through the pages of "el torero- the art of bullfighting". i had to have an interview with a curator and swear on my grave i wouldn't write on the book. it was really funny. and really awesome.

as for the endings, well, yesterday i realized that i only have one week of school left. one measly week to tie up the loose ends of the semester and buckle down for those finals... of which actually won't be too bad this semester, seeing as i only have 2 finals and 1 paper. also, i think the snow might stop. i hope so. the grass is turning green. i like it.
i would be a liar if i didn't say i am getting a little anxious for school to end, though. what am i going to do until i can start working full time at the end of may?
if anyone knows of any more jobs or suggestions or free plane tickets abroad, let me know.

in a nutshell

behold, kourtni at jcw's. all candid, all great. 

honestly, when my little sis comes to town there is never a dull moment