Happy NWCFYTWD!!

Today is a national holiday established by me and David. It's National Watch Comic Frenzy on You Tube from Work Day!

ENJOY!!




For those who didn't attend BYU-Idaho, Comic Frenzy is BYUI's improv comedy troupe. Kinda like Who's Line Is It Anyway? but cleaner. And it's awesome that half of these guys were my family home evening brothers and a few more were in some of my classes. One even went to my high school! Any Bonnevillians recognize someone?

I like to laugh ...

Life is so unsure and frustrating that it's awesome to be able to find things to laugh about. Here's what's been making me laugh the last couple of days:

Cammie thinks her son's going to become a serial killer because he refuses to open his mouth at the doctor's office. This same son is convinced that the Dr. is going to cut his throat out. (he's getting his tonsils removed.)

Cammie got the hiccups and tried to talk to me like normal, pretending nothing was going on. Are you kidding me?! I had to interrupt her in mid-sentence "are you going to be okay?" Hilarious!

Cammie's class met in the library today. When she got back, I asked, "How was the library?" Cammie: "It was fine." Brooke " ... what did you do ...?" Cammie: "ya know ... I just looked up stuff. Like porn and stuff ..."

There are a few specific students that we deal with who always have issues. We're familiar with a handful of names and we tend to groan whenever those names come up again. This morning, one of these students came to the window to talk to one of our student employees. Molli brought the student's I-card to Cammie to help with the issue. Cammie says, "This is Brooke's favorite person!" and hold the I-card out to me. I take it from her, take one look at it, and then chucked the card back onto her counter.

Sometimes I tell Cammie to "Come here" when I want her to lean forward and talk to me through the hole between our cubicles. But sometimes she misunderstands and she comes all the way around into my cubicle, only to see me with my back to her, looking for her through the hole! "Get out of my cubicle and come around!"

My phone plays the Lion King's "Mufasa" lines from the hyenas every time I get a text message. At work, I always tell it to "ssh" and Cammie starts laughing. "I heard that!"

Cammie and I can't answer our phones in unison. When we both say, "Records and Registration, this is Brooke/Cammie" together, we start laughing and forget our own names. I've answered, "This is Brammie" before. That's our nickname anyway, so I guess it works!

Hillary has a very strong personal space bubble. We were talking about it at FHE on Monday night when Willie decided to test it. He tried to step into her space and ended up following her around the kitchen as she stepped away each time. It turned into a chase! Then he tried to do it with me, and I just stood my ground. I don't mind bubble invasion!

Last night, mom and I were fighting over who got to take a bath/shower first and use up all the hot water. I called out, "First one naked wins!" And ran down the hallway ripping off my belt. My dad could not stop laughing!

Mom spilled milkshake down the front of herself last night. "I have problems!"

A few days ago, I was getting a glass out of the cupboard and putting a little too much weight on the cupboard door. I was also expressing my disgust (making gagging noises) to my mom about fried potatoes. My hand slipped from the cupboard and I got a little jolted. Mom was laughing so hard, and then she asked me if I needed a helmet! Then, last night, mom made the same gagging noise over something and I said, "Last time I made that noise, I fell out of the cupboard!" Dad could not understand what I was doing in the cupboard.

After a good, emotionally rejuvinating conversation with Kimball the other day, she said, "We're good for each other! We're like medicine with voices!"

Kimball and I have a thing for snow angels. We'd plop down at random ALL the time just to make one. While she was on her mission in Australia, I sent her a few snow angel pictures. Apparently Spokane got some snow last week, and I get this email from her:

"wait...HEY....where ARE you?!"

My response: "Ahh! Wait! Hey!!! I'm right HHHERRREEE!!"

I got to watch a few minute of Scrubs yesterday. One of those cheesy scenes came on where everyone was tapping pencils, feet, stapling papers, etc. in unison. All hospitally stuff combined created a good rhythm. The janitor was sitting in the hallway with bongos in his lap, adding to the beat. The rhythm all stops and J.D. turns to the janitor, "Why are you playing bongoes?" Janitor's matter-of-fact response: "It's Monday. Monday is bongo day."

DUH!

Daylight Savings?

Daylight savings is something I can't grasp. I don't get it. I've never understood it. Spring forward? Fall back? Which way's forward and which way's back? And what's the point? Whenever it comes time to change my clocks, I have to ask the same question:

If I just forget to change my clocks, what time does church start?

No matter how people try to explain the forward/back process, my tiny brain just can't seem to grasp it. And it doesn't help that this year, Lisa had it backwards and had be believing we'd GAIN an hour of sleep! WRONG-O!! Now I'm even more tired because of my lost false hope.

And can someone tell me the purpose? Are we really "saving" daylight? And what about when we change it the other direction? Shouldn't that be called "daylight spending"?

I've just grown up to expect dark nights in the winter and lighter nights in the summer. How much of this is natural because of the earth's rotation, and how much of that has to do with time changing? Are we saving daylight so kids can play night games at 9:00 p.m. in July?

And what's the deal with Arizona? Why are they immune from all this confusion? And who can keep track of that? We're in the same time zone for half the year?! I mean, c'mon!! Let's at least be consistent! Either we ALL need to participate in this time shuffle, or nobody does. I'm advocating GLOBAL confusion!!

Then there's leap year. Seriously? What's the point? What does that do? Because we've added an extra day every 4 years, I have gained 6 days thus far. But then I don't get that either. Because if we didn't have leap year, I would still be 9774 days old. Today would just be March 15th.

And I understand that maybe we're trying to keep seasons consistent, but how does that work? Maybe it affects other places, but I live in Idaho and I've never known winter to be over on March 20th. And if it balances things out in the long run, who is really going to be around long enough to notice? 7,000 years from now, is Christmas going to be in the summer? "Back in my day, it used to snow on Christmas!" "No way, Great great great great great great great great grandma! That's just silly!" Nobody will ever know.

And then there's the International Date Line. HUH?! I'm seriously so confused about that one. You're in an airpline and you fly over the International Date Line and you lose a whole day? Or you gain a day? I've heard of people missing their 21st birthdays! I don't even remember my 21st birthday.

International Date Line baffles me. I like my cousin Sydney's definition. "Isn't that where you line up to go out with the European guys?" Now THAT's what I'm talking about.

Random Things

So, there was a "25 Random Things About Me" thing going around on facebook awhile ago. I did it, but I opted to do 16. Then everyone else did 25, and I felt gypped. I've since completed my 25 list. Aren't you all lucky?!

1. I'm an only child. I think a lot about that. My cousins are some of the most important people in my life. Close friends mean the world to me. I try to adopt siblings wherever I can, and I want to hold on to them forever! I love getting to know other people's families and have friends know mine. Those sibling/friends are the some of the important people in my life and I want to keep them close!

2. I have a favorite literary element. I'm an English nerd, and I LOVE parallel structure. I see it everywhere. It's beautiful. I underline it in books, talks, everything. It's all over in my patriarchal blessing. Heavenly Father knows how I learn. I love being able to break thoughts, ideas, concepts all into parallels. I also write a lot with them. Once, I considered getting a tattoo of just two parallel lines. Then I figured it'd look too much like a bar code.

3. Again, I'm an English nerd. My bedroom is FULL of bookshelves. I'm always looking for something new to read. But, since I've been out of school (which has been over a year) I've read VERY little. I crave it. I miss it. Why can't I make time for it again? I just can't decide what to read next! I have a list of suggestions but there are a few that I just haven't been in the mood for. That, and I'm kind of rebelling against the whole Twilight craze. I am a self-proclaimed Twilight hater!!

4. I'm obsessed with water. NATURAL water. I think it comes from being named Brooke. Creeks, streams, rivers, lakes ... you name it, I'm there. I'm not much of a swimmer. But I LOVE to climb around in creeks and on the rocks and canoe down rivers. Whenever I go exploring, my destination is always a body of water. I've even "wandered" away from Rexburg before and made it to the ocean! I'm also a big fan of skinny dipping. :) I've always wanted to name a daughter "Creek" but my dad said he'd call her "Crick." Stinkin' Idahoans.

5. I can memorize. This really should have come in handy while I was studying for tests, but I rarely put this talent to anything useful. But, I can basically sing along to most songs on the radio word for word, I have random quotes and monologues and poems swimming around in my head. I could probably just recite stuff for days on end, there's that much in there. Anyone want me to rattle off the list of prepositions I learned in eighth grade? About, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at ...

6. On Wednesdays, we wear pink. My best friend, Desirae and I saw the movie Mean Girls right after we got back from Mexico in June of 2004. We thought that quote was SO FUNNY that we've been wearing pink every Wednesday since then. Actually, Desirae's on her mission now, so I don't know how strictly she's abiding by that one, but I can honestly say that I have not missed a Wednesday in 4 1/2 years!

7. I bite things. I don't chew them. I think that's gross. But, I often claim that I'm oral retentive. Sometimes I just have to bite stuff. It's not hard, I'm not violent, but I'll bite roommates, friends, my own thumb, pillows, snowboards (careful. tongue stuck) ...

8. I don't like to match. With my new job, I have to wear pants suits fairly often. But, I'll throw in a crazy hippie necklace or something to spice things up. Not just with colors, either. I can't match styles. I have a pink fuzzy sweater that I can only wear with my army green cargo pants cuz I can't risk being too classy, girly, or put together. I have to mix it up.

9. I can't sleep in sheets. I have a quilt on top of my mattress with a bed cover over that. I sleep on top of it all with a couple blankets. I can't have them just laid over me and tucked in. I have to hold the blanket and let it move with me.

10. I ALWAYS have a song stuck in my head. My roommates used to call me the human jukebox and just ask and random "What song's playing?" and I'd be able to tell them because it was always something. For the last 7 years or so, "I've got a golden ticket" from Willy Wonka has been the most frequently played song. Don't ask me why, it just keeps coming back!

11. I love to play. I love hiking, canoeing, climbing on rocks, exploring, going for walks, playing volleyball, trying new things ... I love being active. But the key word is: "play." When it comes to "working out" I'm lazy. That involves "work." Once friends are involved, it becomes play again and I'm alright. But I don't enjoy "working out" unless I can make it into play! Which only means that I'm not very disciplined at it ...

12. I sign all the time. I learned sign language so I could talk to my cousin's daughter who's deaf and is now sixteen. I don't even see her very often, but I still sign a lot. I think I just assume that everyone knows what I'm talking about. It's seriously a much easier form of conversation for me. I'll even sign to myself. I know what I'm saying, and that's what's important. Ya just gotta be careful what you're signing as you're walking in public places. Some things you don't want to have "overheard."

13. I name stuff. My Blazer is "Captain" named after Pa Grape's Cap'n Crunch character from Veggie Tales' Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. My dad's Bonneville is "Minerva" named after Professor Minerva McGonagal in Harry Potter. My canoes are "Larry" (after Larry the Cucumber) and "Elmer" (after Elmer Fudd "be vewy vewy quiet. we'we hunting wabbits!" My camera is "Stella" just so I can yell it like they do in "Streetcar Named Desire" which I've never seen. My MP3 player is "Bucket" because I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but my Bucket carries all my tunes. My old MP3 player is "Shiny" because Kimball blinded herself with the sun's reflection on it and yelled "Ah! Shiny!" My phone is "fishy, fishy, fishy" because I'm always having to call it while I'm fishing around in my bag. My roommates named my hair "Mufasa" because it's big and looks like a lion's mane. My laptop didn't get named. I didn't come up with anything good when I got it, and now the moment's over. I usually just call it "Puter"

14. I like to be cold. I love snow and I don't mind playing in it until my whole body's numb as long as I know I can warm up and dry off later. I love making snow angels and building snow forts. I love snow boarding and opening my window at night. I love long bike rides, even in the wind! I love going for long walks until I'm crazy numb. This explains why I had frostbite in all my toes and fingers before I was four. I've always loved the cold!

15. I collect women at the well. My dad got me the picture by Simon Dewey one year for my birthday. Then, I went to Mexico, Belize and Guatemala and saw depictions of that story everywhere. We visited so many cathedrals and that one always spoke to me. I bought a black pottery statue of a woman with a pot over her shoulder in Oaxaca, Mexico. I got a fabric stuffed chunky black woman with a wooden shell pot on her shoulder in Belize. I found a paper mache old woman with a pot in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. And Lisa John just brought me a carved wooden woman at the well statue from ... Cozumel? My favorite was a three foot tall statue at a fountain in Villahermosa, Mexico where we went to see the Olmec heads. She was holding a pot that was actually pouring the water into the statue. I couldn't take her home, but I took a picture, and I LOVE it!

16. I usually don't love video games, TV, or movies unless I can share them with good friends. Video games are still way rough for me and I usually just end up watching. I don't enjoy them at all. Actually, I've recently come to detest them. Really. I'm not a gamer. I have my handful of favorite movies that I'll watch on my own, but I usually don't like to spend that time unless it's with people. I do, however LOVE the shows NCIS, Scrubs and So You Think You Can Dance. Those, I would be totally sad if I missed, but they're always more fun with friends!

17. I can't write within the lines on paper. When I fill out a message to my boss on the little message pad, he always laughs at me. My devotional/fireside/spiritual thought notebook is crazy. I think I try to fit 3 rows of writing in only 2 lines. I have zero reasoning behind this. I just can't stay in the lines. Indentation's a mess, too.

18. I hate fingernails. Long fingernails are disgusting. I had a roommate who always grew hers out, and I couldn't handle it when she touched me ... or drummed them on the table ... or just clicked on anything as she did day-to-day things! I LOVE the feeling of my own freshly cut fingernails. Seriously, one of the best things in the world. I also like to hold my own fingers up to the high-pressured shower head to clean them out.

19. In many things, I barely qualify as a girl. I've never dyed my hair (nor do I have the desire) I think manicures/pedicures are ridiculous. I'd die in high heels, I don't like to be "classy." My aunt, grandma and mom had to go in together to PAY me to start wearing makeup when I was 17. I thought I had no choice, because that's just what people do ... but now I'm realizing that out of most of the friends I've grown up with: Lindsay, Andrea, Desirae, Lauralynn, Carolyn, Kimball, Rachel ... I am now the ONLY one that really wears makeup! And I'm pretty much the most high-maintenance girly-girl out of all of you! How'd that happen?

20. I like to be physical. I don't know who started the dog-piling concept, but I love it. In some of my apartments, when anyone was down, we'd all pile on top of them. I like sitting on laps and linking arms and having friends to hug and lean on. There are a few of us who'd all rather share one chair then spread out on the couch clear across the room. We like to be cozy.

21. I like words. I often get impressed when my friends use big words. (Usually it's more of a mocking tone) and I often count the syllables of their big words and commend them for it. My dad always tried to use bigger words while I was growing up. Now that I'm older, I'm realizing that those words don't mean what he thinks they mean. He doesn't use them so much anymore, now that I can call him on it.

22. I have some weird fettish with putting things on my head. I like to walk around balancing books or water bottles or pomellos on top of my head. And when I do this, I MUST sing "I must go and fetch the water 'til the day that I am grown" from Disney's Jungle Book. It's required. Often, I'll catch my self just lounging with my arms resting on top of my head. Is that natural?

23. I love bikes and hiking sandals and canoes and paddles and snowboards. I love playing outdoors. But, I love that ALL of my equipment is old and ghetto. I got my Teva sandals on clearance and then lived in them for a month straight hiking and climbing all over Central America. They're my favorites. Fuzzy, dirty, falling apart. Love them. My bike is the same Outlook Diamondback I got when I was fifteen. I've put a LOT of miles on that baby, and she's still going strong! My canoes ... I don't even know where they came from. They're both hand-me-downs. They sit in the grass/snow/gravel in the back lot of my uncle's RV park until I take them out on the river, each time hoping they'll hold up for one more run! I need to upgrade a few things, but I'm intimidated by fancy stuff. Maybe i'll get my new canoe from a garage sale ...

24. I'm all about hypertexting. When we read the scriptures, it's called scripture chains or footnotes. I build my own. I underline as I read and write in the margins, not just with scriptures, but other books as well. I'll write in links to personal experiences or stories from other people. I like to document the application of what I read and I love establishing those connections. This occurs when I talk and type as well. Tangents go all over the place, but there's always some crazy trail back to the original topic!

25. I LOVE to be a drama queen. I love to act and have taken several acting classes. I'm really not very good at it, and I kinda freak out at auditions. For some reason, I always get the "freaking out" roles. Apparently I can yell and cry on stage. Those were always my favorite parts to play! I've played: the aunt/nanny in The Heiress who encourages then comforts/consoles her niece when her fiancee doesn't show up to elope; Martha in A Children's Hour who's been accused of an inappropriate relationship with her old college roommate which instigates huge controversy and closes the girls' school they run together; Clara in A Christmas Carol who tells Scrooge that his love for money has overtaken his love for her and that she's done waiting for him; Mrs. Faulty in Faulty Towers who owns a hotel and has to deal with an ornery, snobbish, elderly woman who's renting a room; Henrietta in Suppressed Desires who is obsessed with psychoanalysis and tries to analyze her husband and sister until it backfires and she flips out and takes it all back. I love flipping out on stage.

Why I've always had a shopping problem ...

Did anyone else watch this show? Nobody ever talks about it, but I remember the names of the characters AND the theme song! I even remember that dream I had when Jeff and Jodie pushed me out of my grandparents' treehouse.

Maybe I'm a little afraid of mannequins.

Rebuttals

I have a headache. A big fat headache that's threatening nausea at any moment. I should have stayed home in bed, but I'm down to the wire. I have a week and a half of my job left, and I've vowed to make the most of it. That includes NOT staying in bed with a headache.

Last Saturday, Lisa woke up with a migraine, so I gave her a head and shoulder rub while she laid in bed. It's my turn. I'm going to just lie on the floor under my desk and someone needs to come give me a head rub and make the headache go away. I'll wait here.

Next week Jessica comes back and I'm supposed to stick around with her M-F. What are BOTH of us going to do here? Share a cubicle? Share a computer? Isn't that going to be awkward rubbing shoulders with the girl who's displacing me? Cammie and I are struggling. Cammie is my sidekick at work. We do the same job and we've been working really well together. Our boss has even started calling us "Brammie." When I leave, it will be Cammie and Jessica. There's a bit of a personality difference there. I'm scared to leave, and Cammie's scared to lose me. We're still friends though. We've promised.

I just caught wind of a girl in our department leaving in April? I don't know what that means with the hiring freeze, though. AND when I asked my boss about the possibility of coming back if a position opens up, he said I'd definitely be in the running. Then, he proceded to tell me a story about a temp they had a couple of years back. Her position opened up to be permanent, so they accepted applications. The temp made it to the finals picks, but they ended up hiring someone else. I'm still not sure of the reason for this little anecdote, but I didn't appreciate hearing it.

I'm grumbling. I just read some blog posts and emails about more job scares and family pets dying. What is going on?! Then I read Gina's post about why her joy is complete (which apparently is what she thought when I walked into the room at FHE and she was excited to see me.) So I'm going to follow her lead. I need some reminders right now.

Monday was kind of a rough day. I needed something good after the funk I was in. I had every intention of going to my own Family Home Evening with the new branch that I still have no attachment to. But, I drove around the parking lot, and didn't see any familiar cars. Nevermind. I couldn't go in. I drove to President Welker's house and crashed FHE with the 19th branch instead. I was late. Didn't want to cause a scene, so I walked in quietly and took a seat without looking around. But, as I walked into the doorway, Gina and Brooke were the first and only faces I saw. They were both lit up and grinning. All I could think was, "I'm home. This is where I want to be! These are my people and I love them!" I talked to Lisa later about how good it feels to have people who are actually excited to see you. These are people I love so much and it really was just like coming home. I don't know what that means for the new branch. It's still hard. But I love that these friends are still in my life.

Last night we played wallyball for two hours. Man, it rocked! Some really good friends all came and we had fun laughing and playing together. We had a good play going. The ball kept moving and the teams were pretty well-matched. Nobody was too competitive to make it uncomfortable, but most of us could hold our own and keep the action up. Good game. Also, Willie and I had a hilarious text exchange before the game that just kept going while we played. I realize I'm pretty bold via texting, but then don't know how to follow through in person! Oh well. It was fun to harrass and play around.

After wallyball, Lisa and I got ice cream and talked. I love that girl. I really really love that girl. We do stuff like that all the time. Sometimes I think that I monopolize too much of her time and that she's too busy. So, I decide to hang back, but then she calls me. I love that about us. Too much is okay. And when we're both busy, we're okay then, too. We just enjoy each other and have been really good friends for one another.

I need to get back to work. This list wasn't very extensive, but it's all I can muster through this headache right now. Now, I'm going to see if I can put my aching brain to use at entering in this transcript from Brigham Young University-Provo. Why wasn't this one posted electronically? Guess I'll check that out first.

Because I Can