A few people told me that the month of March goes by slower than tar because while everyone else in the world is having fun on Spring Break, BYU students are stuck on campus studying their brains out. I found, however, that this is not necessarily the case. March went by in the blink of an eye for me, much in the same fashion as this entire semester. While studying can be very daunting and time consuming, I have definitely been able to make time for plenty of fun. How? Well, most things happen spontaneously, off the cuff, no planning needed.
April, thus far, has not been a disappointment whatsoever. Of course it helps that the first day of the month is April Fools. We found ourselves being pranked left and right, beginning with Kaylee waking up in the morning to find Megan Hatch sleeping in Alyse's bed, claiming to be Alyse. Little did we know that Alyse was doing the same thing over at Megan's dorm, claiming to be Megan. Other pranks played on us included plastic sacks being taped across our front door, pudding snack packs being placed on our doorknobs, and coming home to find the milk in our fridge dyed pink and green (shown above). Tim put his roommate's fishbowl (complete with live goldfish, also shown above) in Jell-O and kept it in our fridge for the afternoon. It was quite the day!
Friday I woke up, went to class, threw it down on my Physical and Developmental Biology test, and then met Jennie back at the dorm. We ate lunch and headed down to the Smith Fieldhouse for the BYU Football Alumni celebration. I met Jennie's most amazing family as we took our seats for the Q & A with Bronco Mendenhall. After Coach Mendenhall's presentation, we trekked up to the Hinckley Center for a quick look around and then headed down to the practice football field at four for spring practice with the current team. It was crazy how close we were. There were multiple times that I thought we were going to get run over. We were seriously right behind the team, all of their words easily heard. My favorite? Harvey Unga: "This is ridiculous. I'm hungry and it smells like burgers."
After practice, we headed back to the Fieldhouse for a barbecue. I was starving, and it had been a really long time since I'd had a burger, so I stuffed myself with a huge burger and salad. Why I did this is beyond me, seeing as how my good friends Forrest and Matt had invited me over to their place for Thai food that night. Jennie, her brother Adam, and I moseyed our way back to Heritage Halls to grab a pitcher and then hoofed it over to Kimball Hall to eat again.
First time ever eating Thai food, I'd say it was a success. It was super good, even though it was a Korean and a white boy who made it. I was seriously stuffed to the rafters, but they kept piling it on. I was in the middle of doing dishes when Matt suggested we go play Ultimate with a light-up frisbee. I warned them that I'd probably puke in the process because I was so full, but I ran home and changed anyway. It was sprinkling and windy when I finally made my way up to the dark field, and by the time we were done it was pretty much snowing.
I ran home, changed, and then met Daniel at my car. We fulfilled a long-ago planned excursion as we made our way to the 7-Eleven on University Avenue for Slurpees. Yes, I was eating once again. We finished up at the gas station, made a quick stop at the Creamery, and then headed back to A. Richards 106 to watch a movie with Kaylee, Alyse, Amber, and Tim. Playing that night? Singles Ward.
I eventually got to bed around two. I woke up Saturday morning to watch the morning session of General Conference until Matt came and picked me up at 11. We decided that we were going to wait in the standby line at Temple Square and try to get tickets for Saturday's afternoon session. We met Forrest at his car and made the drive up to Salt Lake.
We got to Salt Lake a little before noon and parked in a parking garage a few blocks away from Temple Square. Equipped with bagels, cream cheese, and oranges, we made our way to the Conference Center. I knew immediately that it was a bad idea to wear heels. After searching for twenty minutes, we finally found the standby line. We kept walking as we saw the line going on all the way around the west and south sides of the temple until we claimed our spot in the back. Eventually Sarah, one of Forrest's FHE sisters, joined us as we waited.
Around 1:30 pm we decided to call it quits and headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to find a spot in the theater. We wandered around in the foyer until they finally opened the doors, only to discover that there weren't any spots with four seats in a row. We gave up there and headed to the Tabernacle, confident we'd be able to find seats inside. There was plenty of room, so we chose to sit on the left side.
It was a great session. My favorite talk was by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. Luckily I only fell asleep for a few minutes during the whole session; unfortunately, when I woke up I had forgotten that my notebook was on my lap, so naturally it fell on the floor and made a huge noise. Embarrassing? Quite.
The Salt Lake City Temple
Eventually the session came to a close and we were back on the road. Although we didn't get into the actual Conference Center, it was still fun just to be at Temple Square during the session. The Spirit there was so amazing; everyone was so happy, despite the crowds and long lines. It's definitely a day I will never forget.
