Rise and Shout, the Decorations are Out

So by this time, the fact that BYU trounced Utah is old news, but this is my official celebration of it, so YAY!!! Go Cougs! I didn't actually get to watch the game, but I'm still pretty pumped. I'm really glad we won again, and this time at home, too! But come on, seriously? 3-0 for the first half? Give me a break. (break me off a piece of that . . . fancy feast--gatorade . . .)

I have finally figured out the secret to making canned Chicken Noodle soup at least a little more palatable, and maybe this was an obvious secret, but I just discovered it last night, so I don't really care. Just add a little cream of chicken soup! What a big fat duh! But really, it made it taste LOTS better. Yeeha.

I love this time of year. I took a walk a couple nights ago, and there are lots of little houses nearby where I live, and there were some of them that were all decorated, and it just made me happy. Honestly, Christmas decorations make houses happy! For the other eleven months of the year, houses look dreary and uninteresting and unapproachable (with maybe the exception of halloween, but those are supposed to be "scary" decorations, right?). But to see the lights and the cute wreaths and people decorating their trees gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling in the middle of all this cold. It just unites all of us for a time, and I really like that feeling, that we're all really looking for peace on earth, goodwill toward men and all that jazz. So decorate your houses and make people happy!

Oh, It's a Jolly Holiday with Megan

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Wow! I haven't eaten so much at Thanksgiving in a few years, that's for sure. I was definitely missing the hot tomato this year, as it is always excellent. But that's all right. I survived. This year Thanksgiving was spent at my friend Esther's home in Stansbury Park, and it was pretty dang good. Becky and her sister Rachael were also there, so we had quite the girls' week going on. Watched "North and South" by request of Esther's sister and were just extremely lazy while Esther's mom fed us . . . and fed us . . . and fed us! Good times. Lots of sleepiness. And of course, as soon as I woke up this morning, I could hear the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas music going. Has anybody really ever lived without hearing Mannheim Steamroller? I'm not sure that it's possible! Anyway, that just means that it is now legal for Christmas music to be played, which makes me pretty excited, especially now that I have my own Nativity set going, so I set that up when I got back from SP a couple hours ago. Woohoo! It's a good time of year.

I've also been brushing up on my "performance" skills. Well, we had a talent show for my ward and I sang with Hayley and Jenna accompanied us. We sang "For Good" from "Wicked", and it went pretty well, so that's a plus. Yay! We were originally going to go all out for it and somehow paint my skin green (seeing as how i was the lucky one to sing elphaba's part) and Hayley would wear a blonde wig and whatnot, but we decided that might be a little too much, so we opted to just dress in black and white. Jenna even joined in the fun at this point and dressed all in green, to represent the Emerald City (and a couple people understood that, too!). No microphones, but when did that ever stop me? -wink- Although, I was highly amused when Tyler, who doesn't know "Wicked" at all, thought that Hayley was someone who had just died and was an angel (since she was wearing white) and I was mourning her at her funeral (wearing black). Some people really need to get some culture. Just kidding. Kind of.

Life is a Song Worth Singing

Life has some odd quirks about it, doesn't it? It's amazing how your day can change to be something you did not expect at all within an instant. That's not to say that it changes to be something really, really significant that changes your whole life, but just your whole day. For example, on Friday around 1:30, after doing my usual job-hunt-in-the-morning gig, I went up to BYU campus to run an errand and saw my friend Bethany, who pleaded with me to go to her philosophy class with her so she would not fall asleep. Well, I went along with it (and no kidding, she would have fallen asleep without me) and proceeded to spend the next twelve hours hanging out with her! Which is totally fine with me because I love and adore Bethany, but completely unexpected!

Similarly, on Thursday night, I sauntered over to Esther/Becky/Whitney's place for a quick visit, and when I got there, Esther informed me that my friend Kelly got hit by a car the day before and had a broken leg! He ended up dropping by their place not too long after I arrived, so I got to see him in all his gimpy glory, and we all were there until about midnight. Not what I was expecting or planning to do that night (and i doubt kelly was expecting to be hit by a car the previous night, so yet another curve ball, but a longer-lasting one for him).

So yes, these are all pretty inconsequential things in my life currently, but life is full of those moments that catch you off-guard like that, be they significant or surprising or practically common-place. How do you deal with them when they aren't altogether pleasant (i.e. kelly breaking his leg)? Do you treasure them when they're good (i.e. getting to see one of my best friends i wasn't expecting to)? After all, it's those moments that bring some spice to life and brighten up, or at least diversify, an otherwise ordinary and routine life. I guess we should be grateful for those moments. And when I say "we", I mean "I".