Petri Dishes.

Hey, I'm just getting ready to head up to class and I thought I'd send a quick hello. I'm doing well despite the fact BYU's PR representative came to my Teachings of the Living Prophet's class to say our entire class has been exposed to whooping cough. Then, our professor said we have two people in our class with confirmed swine flu cases.

So... I'm a ticking time bomb basically.

I love you all, whether or not I contract one or all of the diseas

es flying through campus and die. (More likely I'll die from my two exams and two papers) I can't wait to come home to San Jose this weekend! I love you all!

And Dad, in response to your email from my last post:

"what is the deal with the center alignment? i had to copy it into a word document and L align it be be able to read it comfortably"

Haha, you would. The man who edited Philip's emails from Brasil. (Did you notice I left it L aligned for you this time?)

The reason I put it in the center is because it is more aesthetically pleasing. Yup.

All my love and none of my sicknesses to all of you!

P.S.

I found this sweet photography blog. Check it out.

chromasia.com

There are some awesome portraits of kids, like the one here,

as well as some amazing scenery shots from

wherever they live in Europe. Love it!

I am my mother's daughter

The past three weeks that I've been up at school I've been sustaining life.

Meaning? Peanut butter and crackers.

I'm glad I'm an obedient child and

took my mother's warning to heart at the tender age of 18 months.

"Listen kid. If you're going to survive in this family then you better learn to like peanut butter."

It's just helped me survive, period.

But that's changing. I bought some stuff to make fun food so no worries. I won't be mal-nourished or anything like that. Lots of veggies and fruit and cheese. Mmmm... : )

In class today people kept asking me about my weekend and I honestly had a hard time remembering everything I did. (By the way, I wore my cameo to class today and it's amazing.) Besides BYU's devastating loss to FSU it was a fun weekend! The most interesting thing was visiting Mark and his boyfriend Mike up in Salt Lake.

Thursday after class I drove up to SLC to visit my long-time friend Mark and meet his boyfriend of a year, Mike. It was a big deal that I was meeting the boyfriend, but it all went very smoothly. Honestly, the entire experience was fabulous and Mike is so very pleasant.

For dinner they made me curry and cheesecake and then we went to a gay bar.

Yes, a gay bar.

Now, I know the stereotypes that immediately pop to mind, and this place was nothing like that. I think the fact it's a private bar, so you have to be a member to go there, helped make it less sleezy. The entire night I felt neither uncomfortable or compromised. We played pool and darts and sat out on the patio and talked. It was definitely something weird, but at the same time very low-key.

How can I best describe my emotions from the evening? Happy.

Being with and talking to Mark has always, ever since we met at EFY, set my head strait. And then Mike has such a happy feeling about him that I was immediately enveloped in his caring love. I wish I could accurately capture the fabulousness of what most people would find to be an uncomfortable situation.

Saturday morning McKenzie, her roommate Britteny and I went with Austin Hyde to ride his grandpa's horses. Now, knowing that I was the biggest horse nut growing up, it won't surprise you to know it was blissful for me. Getting out at 8 am up in the hills near Springville where I could ride up and look out over the newly emerging fall colors of the valley I was so relaxed and free. I know I got past the horse-nut stage, but I still do want a horse. I'll be honest.

School's crazy but I love it.

My New Testament class blows my mind. My professor, Camille Fronk Olsen, has so much knowledge and explains things perfectly so that I wish I could just soak in every word she says! Plus, I'm blessed to take the class with Kyle and Ashlan and their comments and insights are always inspiring. I have the best friends in the world, hands down.

My Teachings of the Living Prophets brings back truths that the spirit reaffirms and it's a pleasure basking in the passion of my professor Sister Wyne. Accounting is tough but I understand it. English is frustrating because I feel like the information could be so interestingly presented but my professor just kind of Blahs it all up. And Business Management is full of friends and so directly relates to public relations.

I love learning. And reading. And I'm going to learn a Rachmaninov piece this year in my piano class. I can't wait!

Crimson and Gold

Saturday, after watching BYU destroy Tulane, was the USC vs. Ohio game. So we drove up to Eagle Mountain to watch the game at Kyle's friend's house.

"We" =

Hilary

Kevin

Naomi

Kyle

Ashlan

Jessi

Trevor

Zack

Ashton

Nick

Anthony

"Eagle Mountain" =

USC won the game, bookended with a fabulous start and tense ending. I obsessed with McKenzie's camera, taking pictures. The following pictures are a taste of our fun.

Ashton and Kevin celebrating USC's touchdown.

Kyle consuming. Of course we had food.

Ashton and Zack.

I love this picture. Just because.

Reunions and Scrabble Night

Sunday marked the official, "I'm back at BYU" point with the revival of Sunday night Scrabble. We weren't able to finish because our Home Teachers showed up and then I had to leave for dinner with Chip&Debbie but it was a good warm up.

Here are my friends whom I love dearly.

Kinsi

(not living with us this year)

She drew all the Scrabble Girls on her fingers.

Trevor & Jessi

[SherKahn & Andaconda]

(He's from St. Louis. Served in Russia. Knows the Hannah Montana characters.)

(She's from Springfield, VA. Public Relations major. Looses backs to left earring constantly.)

Ashlan

(From Dos Palos, CA. Theatre Ed Major. The Scrabble Queen.)

Kyle

[Kobra]

(From Los Alamitos, CA. Served in Pennsylvania. BFFL.)

Kevin

(From Agoura Hills, CA. Served in Brasil. Loves USC.)

Nick

(From Phoenix, AZ. Served in Iceland. Refreshingly realistic.)

Disclaimer: These are NOT all of my friends.

These are all the pictures I could post so I

have to wait until later to introduce the rest.

We're involved.

Hello all.

I'm in the Library. We're obsessed with each other. Haha, no but really.

I'm back at BYU and I'm feeling really good about this year. All my boys (except Ron) from freshman year are back from their missions and I couldn't be happier about it! Having friends who will allow me to just sit on their couch as they do homework is too good to be true. Also, I don't know how Kevin and I weren't friends before, but that's okay. We're making up for lost time.

Last night I went to "hot yoga" (Not Bikram Yoga. Yoga in a mediocre-ly warm room) with Manuel (if you can't say it right, aka like a Mexican, call him Manny). That was an adventure! I really liked it! Bikram yoga was harder, but this yoga definitely helps with flexibility. We'll see if I can find a class here at BYU to go to. I need something, because I really do miss yoga-r-ing if you will. (I totally just created that word. Start with yoga. Add -r to make it a Spanish verb, to do yoga, then add -ing to make it the action of doing yoga. Word.)

Anyway, I have to go read some, finish a paper, then go to class times two.

LOVE.

The Tupperware Tale

Three Molinengos and a Hurst sit around a square card table playing Scrabble.

Jessi: I need to order that Tupperware from Sister --.

Hank: Don't pay all that money for Tupperware! You don't need it! Just order take-out Chinese food and save the boxes. Use those!

Jessi: I don't want to buy a lot of Tupperware, just those collapsable ones!

Hank: It doesn't make sense.

Fran: Hank, she's buying a few so she can take lunch up on campus, store food, that kind of thing. It makes sense.

Hank: Oh ok, fine. Buy all the Tupperware you want! Get it! we'll get you all the Tupperware!

Jessi/Fran: No Hank! Don't buy all the Tupperware! She just needs one or two containers.

Hilary: * Extreme bursts of laughter. *

I love the Molinengos.

P.S. I got my glasses.

"Just Stopping By" Redefined

Realizing, a week ago, I had only one weekend left with no definite plan threw me for a loop. How is my summer almost over? What have I not done that I'll regret missing later? Every weekend adventure I participated in has been planned by Jessi and/or the other West Springfield High-school graduates so I pulled my own plan into action.

I've wanted to head down to Newport News (a town just south of Williamsburg) to visit Taylor who's currently stationed at Fort Eustis so I knew this was my one chance so I took it.

The plan was solid.

I called Avis and made sure that renting a car at 21 wouldn't be a problem and then reserved one online (because my research discovered it's cheaper that way). I was to pick up the car at Reagan National Airport because that location opened at 7am and closed at 12:30, thereby allowing me to skip weekend traffic and maximize my time partying. So Saturday morning I got up, got ready and got Jessi to drop me off at the airport with my driving directions and mix-tape in hand.

From the moment I entered the airport until 2:30 pm, NOTHING went down the way it was supposed to and the only way I could deal with it was to just throw everything out the window and just enjoy the moment.

7am-9:30am

-Learned that Avis sucks at Customer Service. They gave me bad information and wouldn't give me options. Just told me, NO. The airport wouldn't rent me a car because I'm not 25 (Apparently it's a DC law, but no one bothered explaining that to me. All I ever wanted was a little bit of kindness.)

- Rode the majorly delayed Metro to a Virginia based Avis. This one didn't open until 9 (even though Ma'am at the airport said it opened at 8. When I called to see if she could help me at all from her end I felt like she put the blame on me.)

-Battled hurt pride, ruined plans and strained nerves.

-Called and woke up Philip to complain. Thank goodness he's amazing and could chill me out.

-Successfully obtained a car.

9:30-2:30

-Drove to Newport News. (It should only take 3 hours)

I'll spare the details of weekend-traffic-induced frustration but I will say this: The last leg of the journey is a 60 mile stretch on highway 64 East. Reaching the ramp onto 64 I hit molasses-like bumper to bumper traffic. Pulling out my iPhone (best phone ever. You can quote me on that) I saw that the entire 60 miles were like that. 

Screw that.

I also noticed a traffic-less highway that ran the direction I was headed so I pulled off the ramp and took the path less traveled. Definitely worth it. Even if it didn't save me time, it saved my sanity. The quaint back-roads were spotted with interesting architecture and even random memorials of civil war battles marked with signs and cannons. I am a California girl through and through but I am able to appreciate the lost southern culture, even if it's simply by enjoying the differences.

Playing in Newport News was amazing. Taylor, his battle buddy Albrecht and I just explored. We bought wings for lunch/dinner (not as good as Wingers but more interesting in that we could pick an array of sauces) and then just went exploring. We drove to then walked around historic Yorktown and then this tiny little place called Dandy. 

Historic Yorktown was interesting because of the people. Lots of my peers were at the beach just kicking it. In my frame of reference though, it didn't look like fun. the beach was shallow, the water was full of jellyfish and there were lots of tourists walking around, leaving the awkward impression that the beach goers were as much on display as the naval ships in the distance. The fisherpeople on the peer were more fun to watch and the Old Man of the Sea drove by in his beat-up van complete with stogie and cap. As always the general atmosphere was worth a stroll and catching little crabs in the rocks reminded me of what Philip, McKenzie and I use to do all growing up.

What word do I use to describe Dandy? Not a town; too small. Not a housing community; too formal. Dandy is the kind of community that is created on a small island. Small, white, closely-knit community where everyone rides between houses on their golf carts, every driveway sports a Ford Truck of some sort and pretty much every house has direct access to the water. I definitely felt like an intruder, even though the "Welcome to Dandy" sign also welcomed me to a Dandy Newsletter.

My drive home was pretty uneventful except for the fact I was inexplicably wired and that I stopped by to see Richard at W&M. It's fun to be familiar enough with my surroundings that I know I'm close enough to stop by Richard's place simply to give him a hug. He's the kind of guy who makes you feel like the most important person in the world. What a gift and he uses it to the maximum. 

The opportunity to be in Virginia and have this kind of experience can be summed up by Jessi: The friend who will stay awake simply to make sure you had a good trip and get home safely.