Today...

Today, I ate an apple and a bagel for breakfast, trying to be healthy. I then ate 2 handfuls of peanut m&m's at work to keep myself from falling asleep at my desk.

Today, I decided I was in need of a haircut so I went to Salon Salon. High-end. My hair stylist's name was Rosemary. Just like mine.

Today, my family flew to California for our cousin's wedding. Stephen and I are at home. School. Work. Adulthood. Thbbb.

Today, Holly is supposed to give her two weeks notice. I texted her two hours ago to see if she had done it yet. She said no. I bet you a cup of Spoon Me ice cream she chickens out. Again.

Today, my friend Chelsea who is doing an internship in Washington D.C. sent me a picture of Georgetown University. Probably sent it to Holly, too. We miss her. And we're jealous.

Today, I just got a text from Holly: "I did it!" I guess I owe someone Spoon Me.

Today, I interviewed the associate dean of one of the colleges at the U for a story for the newspaper. I'm proud of myself for asking intelligent questions.

Today, I am tired and it's only the first week of school.

Today, I was listening to people on NPR talk about how multi-tasking doesn't help people be more productive and actually inhibits their productiveness and how much they learn. Then I remembered how one of the cliche differences between men and women is that women can multi-task and men can't.

Today, I was really hot walking around campus. I'm glad it's cloudy now.

Today, I woke up after pushing snooze only 4 times. First thought of the day: "Do I have time to take a nap today?"

Today, I wondered if it would be selfish of me to ask Holly to not move down to Provo tomorrow, but just commute to BYU everyday. I'll chip in a couple bucks for gas...

Today, I thought about going for a run. Nice thought.

Today, the man at the station in the parking garage gave me a tootsie roll. I like Fridays.

Today, I have no more thoughts.

Chau.

This post was inspired by mylifeisaverage.com. Call me a nerd, but come talk to me after you haven't spent an hour and a half reading what people post on the website.

Purple blood?

Yes, I think my blood turned a bit purpley blue this summer. I spent it hanging out with some awesome U of U kidoodles and the move down to P-town at the end of this week is going to be very bitter sweet. I don't think I'm ready for a 45 minute separation. So I think the most logical solution to this problem would be to move the BYU campus up to Salt Lake. I'll let Cecil know. Salt Lake is just much cooler than Provo and it'd be nice to have all my friends in one spot. For the last two years, I've felt like I've been living a double life. Week days with Provo friends and weekends in Salt Lake. It's not cheap, lots of gas is involved. So unless someone can actually invent a way to say "Energize!" and be transported to another place at warp speed, we are going to have to find a way to fix this.

Talk about an upset

My name is Rosemary. My name has been Rosemary for the past 20 years of my life. Surprising, I know.

Last night, Holly and I and our awesome friends went to the Taste of Sandy at the SouthTown Expo Center to taste food from the best restaurants around the valley. Um...I would do that every night if I could. I really would. Texas Roadhouse rolls, sushi (which I did not eat), Chocolate Cottage chocolate covered grapes, Market Street Grill shrimp salad goodness, Mike's Pizza pizza, Sweet Tomatoes real strawberry lemonade (it really was real). Best dinner I've ever had for $5. Just pure luck that I happened upon it while surfing the World Wide Web.

While jaunting around testing the deliciousness, we naturally began discussing food. The Chipotle barbacoa meat was quite spicy and as I jumped up and down trying to calm the explosion in my mouth, someone asked, "Rose, you're not a spice girl?" There was laughter from everyone because of the obvious pun, but since I never really listened to the Spice Girls I was laughing because of a less obvious pun: the rosemary plant is a spice. My name is Rosemary (point of clarification).

As I'm laughing and explaining that rosemary is indeed a spice and how funny is that that he just asked me if I'm a spice girl, my other friend Eric says, "Rosemary is an herb, not a spice."

Okay, what now?

Eric: "Rosemary is an herb."

Me: "Um...no no, rosemary is a spice."

Eric: "No, I promise it's an herb because blah blah blah..."

We continue to argue, my reasonable point being that Rosemary has been my name for 20 years and wouldn't I know by now if my name were really not a spice when I've been telling people for 20 years that I'm a spice, and his point being that rosemary is an herb because it comes from the green parts of a plant like the leaves and stem, whereas a spice comes from the roots, bark and seeds of a plant. Completely illogical, I know. The nerve of some people.

Needless to say, we didn't settle the argument and agreed to disagree, although nearly everyone else sided with me on the issue. So just now I remembered the altercation and decided to use the wonderful World Wide Web to my advantage again. You'll never guess what I found. Type rosemary into the Google search engine. First thing that comes up - Wikipedia: Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves.

An HERB.

I feel like my whole life has been a lie. I feel cheated. And to all of you who have known me my whole life, why have you never told me the truth about my name? Why? Herbs are not as cool as spices. For one thing, they just sound wussier. For another thing...I've got nothing. But I'm upset, people. UPSET.

I for one don't think the rosemary plant smells all that great. But that was okay when it was a spice. It did it's own thing. You don't question a spice. An herb though...herbs are like those kids in school that you respect a lot, but don't hang out with cause they're too nerdy and they smell funny (Holly). But I can embrace it. As I've read up on the rosemary herb, I have discovered new vistas of wisdom. Shall I enlighten you? Okay.

Characteristics of the rosemary herb:

• native to Portugal and Spain, Mediterranean region
• known as the herb of remembrance
• symbolizes loyalty and friendship
• associated with weddings and funerals
• ancient medicine for rheumatism and gout
• pest control
• "Holy Herb" as dubbed by Christians
• historically used to treat flatulence, colds, headaches and gastrointestinal upsets
• been known to cause comas, spasms, vomiting, and pulmonary edema if too much is ingested
• believed to repel nightmares if placed under a pillow at night
• also repels witches

I guess those qualities are honorable enough. If you're ever having any, uh, bodily issues, just give me a call and I'll come beat away your headache. Also, I can protect you from witches, but that would be due to my prowess with a wand, not my herbness.

Anyway, my life has changed drastically in the last few minutes and I have doubts that it will ever be the same again. Discovering you're not who you thought you were is oddly unsettling. I now know what Harry felt when he found out he was magical. Except he got to go on and be a wizard. I get to go on and be an herb.

At least it's photogenic.

...

Is it possible to live at Lake Powell whilst going to school in Salt Lake?

Let me know if you ever find out how and Holly will be glad to make you giant pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Sincerely, Rose

Never, never again

This summer has just been amazing. The best summer of my life, probably. Why, you ask? Well, let me just TELL you why right now. There is one reason and one reason only: summer school. That's right, I took summer school. Be impressed. Three beautifully educational classes that have increased my intellectual knowledge so much so that I feel like an entirely new person than I was even three months ago. I mean, who doesn't love reading the philosophical theories of Plato (Play-doh), Aristotle (Air-is-tottle), Saussure (Seh-sss-u-r-e), Freud (Fr-oi-d), Derrida (Dare-i-dah), Lacan (Luh-cawn), Marx (Mar-ks), Althusser (All-thoos-sss-air), Foucault (Foo-koh), Fanon (Fuh-non), Benjamin (Ben-ya-meen) and Jameson (Jame-es-son)? Not me, that's for sure. I love reading the essays of men who think they know everything there is to know about everything. And I love writing essays about the flawlessness of those theories, theories that I, of course, understood perfectly the first time I skimmed through them. Of course.

I finished these classes this past week and I am so sad. Depressed, even. I have to hang out with friends and do fun stuff instead of studying and doing the homework I always finished on time. I stay out late instead of going to bed early like I did every night when I had class. And I no longer get to look forward to sitting in class every Tuesday and Thursday acing quizzes and listening to the very interesting lectures of my professor that would enlighten my mind so much that I could barely keep from singing.

However, I find comfort in knowing that this leisurely time of my life must only torment me for two more weeks, because fall semester starts in just two weeks and I couldn't be more excited to start school all over again. In two weeks.

I can barely contain myself.

Happy Birthday Rosemary Grace!

Twenty years old, wow. I will now reciprocate Rose's kind remarks she made for my birthday by writing some of my favorite memories of Rosemary.

- At age 8, she vowed she would never eat chocolate ever again. Ha.

- Once, while in Lake Powell, we were catching lizards and the one Rose was holding decided to jump on her, crawl under her life jacket, and scare the living daylights out of her. I've never seen anyone strip off their life jacket that fast or seen her that scared in my entire life.

- We were always extremely productive when we had homework/study sessions together. There were never times that we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe. ;)

- We never fight. We really don't. But one time we did. While on a double date. We both thought we were right and the other was wrong about the driving directions. We stopped at a gas station, Rose and I went in the bathroom and laughed our heads off about how stupid we were being. Our dates, on the other hand, who were still in the car, were probably contemplating if it was their chance to make a run for it.

- Skiing with Rose. Heard a scream. Turned around. Saw her sprawled like a flying squirrel in the snow, head faced downhill. She started shaking. Pretty sure she was laughing at herself. May have been the best fall I've seen Rose have.

- Tubed down a run at Snowbird at 11 pm, went way too fast for our own good, thought we were going to lose our lives, screamed bloody murder the whole way down, had a good laugh afterwards.

Rosemary has been the best friend anyone could ask for. Extremely loyal, loves you no matter what, patient, good listener, fun, sarcastic, talented, intelligent, athletic, best ski buddy, strong in the gospel, she has made me a better person. So thank you Rose, I'm looking forward to the future, it's going to be a blast!

Love,
Holly