The sunshine state

11/19/2010

Departure time: 1730:00

Destination: Provo, Utah. Corona, California.

many times my friends and I have argued which is better Chicago or California, so I agreed to visit this so called rival over Thanksgiving break. Although the beaches were gorgeous and it was great to go swimming in November, Chicago will always be number one in my heart. I must admit California was a good rival.

Day 1 and 1/2: Rexburg. Provo.

We leave Friday night to began the long trip to California, we arrive in Utah to pick up Max's friend around 10. We were exhausted after about 5 hours, after Provo I was demoted to the back row for the remaining 11 hours. Unfortunately I think I slept for maybe 4 hours, but hey I didn't have to walk to California so I guess I have no right to complain.

Day 2: Corona.

Makaal is already at Tanner's house when we get there, Tanner heads straight to bed while Makaal and I get to know his family. After a little girl time with his mom and sisters we chatted with the remainder of his family over breakfast. At about 12 Tanner wakes up, we realize we left Makaals luggage in Max's car. We drive up to San Diego and were told we were going to eat authentic burritos, although the burrito I must admit I was hoping for a little shack who does not abide by health codes so well. But it was still sooo delicious. San Diego was gorgeous, I aboslutely loved the roads and how they curved with the land and you could see the ocean almost constantly. After an extremely long day I finally got some sleep.

Day 3: Cornona.

Kendra and Emile arrived early in the morning, and still went to church with us! Emile and I are still in denial of our old age and so we snuck into Young Women's instead of Relief Society. Tanner was ordained an Elder, he invited us to be there it was really cool. It is the strangest thing, everyone my age is growing up, except me.

Day 4: Los Angeles.

We went to go see the L.A. temple (we couldn't go in because it was closed) and went in the visitors center. The Sister Missionary at the front desk sang at Lauren and Rory's wedding, it was crazy! such a small world. After looking around for a while we went out in search of some real Mexican food. After driving through some very ghetto neighborhoods(by ghetto I mean every window was gated) we parked in downtown L.A. We searched far and wide but I have suspicion that Johnny's authentic mexican restaurant was made up. We ended up choosing a true and extremely authentic restaurant, so authentic they even prove it by putting the name of the state in the title California Pizza Kitchen. We wanted to make sure we would eat something we couldn't find anywhere else in the country. And because we were at a pizza kitchen I had the obvious choice, lettuce wraps. Later that night we drove to Max's and stayed the night at his condo.

Day 5: Encinitas. La Jolla. San Diego.

Went to the Potato Shack for breakfast, finally a real California restaurant. It had such a laid back vibe and had pancakes the size of a manhole! We bet Johnny originally 5 dollars to eat a stick of butter, but we lowered that to 4 dollars to two sticks of butter. It probably one of the most unappetizing things I have ever seen, but so hilarious, I still cannot believe he did it. After the Potato Shack we went to the beach, it was that I can recall my first time ever in the ocean! The waves in comparison to Lake Michigan were HUGE!!! It was so much fun, and luckily Lake Michigan is freezing so the water felt just right. It was funny to look around and see all of the Californians wearing coats and scarves and the ones in the water were wearing wetsuits! It was about 70 degrees, in November! perfect swimming weather as far as we were concerned. I absolutely loved California beaches, they seemed to stretch on forever and the cliffs around them frame them perfectly. Makaal and I were exploring the beach and found a mangled seaweed bulb. Because both of us are from the mid-west we had no idea what it was. we determined it was Howard, the jellyfish (don't worry we knew it wasn't a jellyfish). It took us about ten minutes just to muster up the courage to touch it! We told everyone else about the crazy thing we found and they just looked at it and then us and shook their heads. And then tragically Johnny smashed Howard's head in, and that was the last of our jellyfish friend. We then headed to downtown La Jolla for the legendary Burger Lounge. First off, I love La Jolla (the AMAZING burger from Burger Lounge might have influenced it) the downtown was so polished and pretty. And Burger lounge well, I don't know how to even go about describing it. Just think of the most succulent burger you have ever eaten and then time that by ten and then you might understand how good it was! We walked down to the beach afterand went to this beach and there were seals everywhere! it was the most random thing ever. That night we stopped by at the San Diego temple, it was so incredible! It looks like a castle, hands down one of the most gorgeous buildings I have ever seen. I guess California is alright.

*The answer is Chicago.

Prank Wars

Day 1: Manwaring Center.

It all started toward the end of October on that one fateful day in the MC (Manwaring Center). We were Makaal, Jesse, and I were enjoying a nice lunch when Jesse decided to grab dessert and thus leave his labtop unattended. This small seemingly innocuous act lead to his imminent destruction*. Because his laptop was crying for tampering I graciously changed his settings so that I was simply the admin and he was a standard user. A rather harmless prank however, giving me complete access to his laptop whenever I wanted. Jesse came back just in time to complete the act, but after quite a struggle I managed to escape. Unfortunately, other parties present gave into Jesse's "despair" and revealed to him the password to my account.

Day 2: MC.
I was walking through the MC dreaming about, probably sleep, when a horrendous man snatched my laptop out of my hands and ran away. After a brief moment of shock I spotted the clefto. jesse. After sneaking around to the other side I cleverly managed to gain repossession of my laptop when I discovered my battery was missing. Trying my best to remain calm, I looked at jesse and he stretched out his palm but quickly pulled it back when I reached for it. So instead of playing his games I logically, or I suppose rather illogically, I left the premise without my battery. Luckily for me I my laptop was still of use as long as I remained plugged into the wall.

Day 2.78: Hart gym.
During my yoga class that evening my thoughts I must admit strayed from ocean breaths. I knew I could not admit defeat, however I needed my laptop back. After much meditation I came up with the most logical idea, I would steal his mattress. Unfortunately for Jesse my experience in covert operations was immense, I knew his apartment and complex like the back of my hand, more importantly I knew they left their door unlocked. At a time when I knew Jesse was out I had a friend assist in moving Jesse's mattress into the next apartment over. One occupant of the apartment would be out of town for the week and Jesse never made an attempt to become their friends. Luckily for me they were my FHE (family home evening) brothers and as a result were sworn into secrecy. When Jesse later that night searched the apartment complex the residents of apartment 310 simply give a blank stare and Jesse continued on his way.

Day 3-5: apartment 311.
After a couple days Jesse's back was beginning to hurt from the stiff floor. He wanted a truce. I obliged, he was rather upset when he found his mattress to be four feet from his door. Although I knew that Jesse would not keep this truce for long, I retaliated. All though for confidential reasons I will not reveal the time when this next act happened, know that it was before could dream of his "revenge". At some point I managed to find Jesse's laptop battery, laptop charger, deodorant, and several other items and misplace them in his apartment. Thus making his battery unusable and his game, slightly less confident.

Day 6: Chapman. MC. Chapman.
Sunday morning I wake up and head to church, immediately upon my arrival I hear stories of windows with my name on them in Chapman halls. Quite confused I continue about my Sunday, not a word from jesse concerning his belongings**. When I returned to the dorms I found my name not adorning just a few windows but every window in the apartment complex. Instead of offense I found the whole ordeal very funny, many of the windows said things such as Shannon is a communist, Shannon doesn't flush!, etc. However there were mixed feelings from other girls. Some felt that I was a victim, others found it terribly tacky, others thought that I had written those things about myself. Fortunately for me a group of girls went around and cleaned every single window. And now I was a celebrity, and apparently a communist as well.



Day 6.5: 311.
That night I received several disgruntled text messages from Jesse. At first ignored them and then I began messing with his head. After about an hour of torturing jesse he finally admitted defeat. I never thought the day would come, everyone told me he was unbeatable. I gave jesse a couple of puzzles revealing where various things were and he again was a bit upset to find them all within his apartment. He vowed we would not attempt to prank me back and I had earned major street-cred.

So to all of you out there who are now in the mood to prank your sleeping roommate remember the wise words of my father "it is one thing to do it, it is another to get caught."



* It is well known throughout the byui campus that never under ANY circumstance do you leave your labtop unattended. This is not to say that it will be stolen but, that you will surely be hacked and public humiliation is guaranteed.
** It quite concerned me why he did not notice the absence of his deodorant, however I must not judge.

challenge: build the world's tallest snowman

12/08/10
Objective: World's tallest snowman.

Day 1: Spori Quad.
In Chicago the average date for the first big snowfall is December 2, so you can imagine my....excitement, when the first snow came on November 8 in Rexburg. Because many of my close friends are from California naturally they have never built a snowman before. So armed with very poor snow gear we trekked through the blizzard conditions and foot of snow to the Spori quad. From their we began our goal to build the world's tallest snowman. Although the task, and the stream of complaints about cold fingers were great; we carried on. After about an hour of work, and a strenuous quest for an arm we completed our masterpiece: GIGANTOR!(the snowman on the right was someone's ugly snowman, we built our next to it to make ours seem bigger.) Tragically before the world record keepers could come measure GIGANTOR, we was tragically destroyed. Our suspicions remain that either Al-queda saw him as a threat or the people of Bethel, Maine (who made the worlds tallest snowman originally) had something to do with it. The world's tallest snowman was 113' 7" tall, and didn't melt for nine years. I think GIGANTOR had a good shot on him (plus between us I think GIGANTOR was much better looking, I mean the other guy had full grown pine trees as arms for pete's sake!)