Pennsylvania at a Glance

This is just a list of everything I've done, just for my own sake.

• Week One- An introduction to the area, and I went to the ghetto mall by my hotel.
• Week Two- The vice-president of my company came, and West Virginia trip.
• Week Three- My mission call! Memorial Day barbecue, and cleaning the girl scout camp.
• Week Four- Break the fast at the New Oxford building, then my New York trip!
• Week Five- Party with Hershey ward ladies, start of my acid degree value testing, Romeo and Juliet in the park, and the Walk for Autism.
• Week Six- Hershey museum, YSA barbecue in the park, and the DC temple.
• Week Seven- The infamous rolls incident at Texas Roadhouse, City Island with Ivan, Drive in movie and the beach.
• Week Eight- Trip to Lancaster County, and Ronnie's house for a pool party.
• Week Nine- John Bankert's birthday party at Ronnie's, RS swim dessert party, and our overnight Palmyra trip.
• Week Ten- Making cookie dough brownies with Beth, I gave away a Book of Mormon, and the Philadelphia trip.
• Week Eleven- Murder in the dark with our super late night, cupcakes with Ethan, and the Gettysburg conference.
• Week Twelve- Frisbee golf, watching the Olympics, book club pool party, pizza with Beth, and more Olympics.
• Week Thirteen- Swimming, my family came to visit me, Hershey Park, skydiving, and the Sister Surprise.
• Week Fourteen- Dinner at Beth's with Ethan, Matt, and Emma, dinner at Ethan's house, my going away swim party, and my flight home!

So this list is kind of crazy. I did a lot of things... A lot. I look back on it and think that it is amazing I fit all of this in. But then, there were some times I was bored and thought about the time I still had left.

All I can say now is that I am so glad for this summer. It was probably the best summer I've ever had. It was so much fun, and I did a lot of things I have wanted to do for awhile. Living in PA has allowed me to do a lot of traveling which is one thing I don't do enough of. It will be interesting at home for the next six weeks without the amount of activities, I will surely get bored. Anyway, that's it!

Week Fourteen

L-R Ethan, Emma, Matt

On Sunday, I gave the Relief Society lesson for my last week. They are just so nice assigning it as my going away present! After a nap, I went to Beth's to make dinner. We were both talking to various friends and decided to invite them over. Ethan, Matt and Emma came over and we had spaghetti. We played Phase 10 and chatted for awhile. Towards the end of the game we were less enthusiastic, nobody knew whose turn it was, and a couple people forgot which phase they were on. The best was when Matt rolled on the ground and said that he forfeited. Luckily we only had one round left and Emma won. We decided that we would hang out until midnight and then make a frosty run. While we waited, we watched youtube videos, especially a lot of Divine Comedy ones. At Wendy’s, we were very disappointed because they ran out of chocolate! How on earth does that happen?

Monday I hung out with Beth. She was sad because she didn’t come the night before for frostys, since it was so late, so I went and got one with her. At least they had chocolate.

On Tuesday, it was my last Institute. It was actually pretty sad because it was also Ivan’s last one as well. He is such a big part of the activities here, it will be quite different without him. There was a group that went to Outback after as a last hurrah. I came a little bit late, and that meant that I got to sit on the outsider table. But it was alright because we had a couple people order their fries which come covered in cheese and bacon, and they were nice enough to share.

Wednesday I went to Ethan’s house and we made dinner—enchiladas and Spanish rice in very huge quantities for his whole family. Then we walked around to work off some of our massive dinner. We made brownies and watched the movie Encino Man.

Thursday was my last day at work. They brought doughnuts in celebration and I got to say goodbye to everyone. After work, I went to Beth’s apartment and we talked for awhile. Then Ethan came, and the three of us headed out to the store to buy food for my going away swim party.  We bought lots of chips, sodas and cookies. We went swimming for a couple hours and generally had a good time. Eventually we got out and talked around the fire pit. There were some funny stories , and we were all laughing. All in all, it was one good last night in Pennsylvania.

On Friday I went to Beth’s house very early in the morning to give back some of her stuff. Then I sat in the airport for a very long time, both before my flight and during my layover. It took longer to fly than it does to drive so that was ridiculous.

IT'S OVER!

Now what? I’m getting ready for my mission, and a couple friends will come see me one weekend! Other than that I don’t have anything else until I go. And this blog will be less exciting for awhile. I may even make a different one for my mission, I'll keep everyone posted if/when that happens.

Week Thirteen

Monday I went swimming with Ethan. Then we went to the park. It was one of those awesome old wooden playgrounds that is awesome to climb on (which I did not do). I also got bitten by approximately a million mosquitoes.

Tuesday we went to Texas Roadhouse once again. I sat with Matt, Spencer Giles, and Cassandra. It was very funny because Spencer and Cassandra are really good friends and they told stories from when they were 12 up until now.

On Wednesday, my family came! My family has not taken pictures together in about four years so we were up for a new one. We will only be in Virginia for one day all together so we got some here. As we were leaving, my dad dropped his phone and it broke. Interestingly enough, the nearest AT&T store was two doors over. So we went to look there for a new one. The one he picked was actually out of stock though so they came back another day. We ate dinner at Cracker Barrel. I had some delicious blueberry pancakes with the cutest bottle with my syrup with actual blueberries in it. At my hotel, we went and got in the hot tub, then watched the Olympics.

On Thursday we went to Hershey Park. We went on a few rides, a roller coaster and log flume and ate lunch. After lunch we went to the water park. They have long lines for the lazy river so we waited a bit for that and went around a few times. Then we went on a water slide and into the wave pool. The wave pool was fun, the waves were coming from all directions so it was a pretty good imitation of the beach. At some point there were some threatening clouds in the distance. We waited it out in the pool until it really looked like they might hit. When the thunder and lightning officially hit we had already gotten out and we beat the rush. We wandered around and found one of those shooting games. My car was pretty awful, I got half our score--mine was 72,000, and we lost to the other team. The storm passed and we went back to the water area (nobody else had changed). I went on a wooden roller coaster. We went on the monorail around the park and the town of Hershey. Then we decided to leave. It was also good timing as another storm came rolling in with no plans on stopping. We went to Wendy's for a late dinner then went home and watched the olympics again.

On Friday I went to work while my family went to Lancaster (Amish) County. We had a nice dinner of chicken alfredo, salad with my dressing, vegetables and one of my cheesecakes.

On Saturday my family headed home. After they left I went tandem skydiving!! We had to wait around for awhile though. We had a short lesson and filled out paperwork then up we went to 10,000 feet. Ethan and his instructor, and me and my instructor were crammed into a tiny plane with our pilot and I got to go first! I kind of forgot what they told me to do with all the adrenaline. When I did jump, we flipped head first a couple of times. Then we went into formation with our legs up and arms out as we free fell. It felt so weird, and it was really overwhelming. After a little bit, we let up our smaller parachute to slow us down a little bit. Then our main parachute went up and we were upright. Then we spun around a few times as we came down. I mainly looked out on the area, it was just amazing. When we landed it was like we were sliding into third base. Or well it was supposed to, according to Beth I landed on my knees and was all bunched up. Overall, skydiving was such a strange sensation, my ears hurt like crazy, and my stomach was doing flips, but it was nothing like I had ever felt before and I'm not sure there's anything else like it. The sad thing was how short it was, only a few minutes with just a fraction of that as free falling.

After skydiving we went to a YSA activity, the Sister Surprise. When we got there, all the girls had to wait to be escorted in. Ethan escorted me in, and we sat with some random people. The entire time, we hardly sat down, we were talking with friends at other tables. After dinner, the dance started. The dance was pretty fun, it started with a lady teaching us some salsa, and a couple of other dances. Then we got frostys at Wendy's. This was my last major activity!! This summer is almost over which is both saddening and very exciting!

Week Twelve

Monday I went to the park with Ethan. We played frisbee golf which was fun. There was a random man with a metal detector there, not sure what was up with that. A few holes in, I almost hit a dog with my frisbee, then I cleanly broke off a tree limb and the frisbee kept going which was entertaining. Later, Ethan lost his frisbee in the woods, meaning that I won by default (my favorite way to win). Then we went to the store and got ice cream and different candy and chocolate things to put on top. Mmm.

Wednesday Ethan and I watched the Olympics. I really wanted to watch the women's team gymnastics final so we watched it on DVR from the night before. It was amazing to watch the women's team take gold! We also had watched some synchronized diving and some swimming. In the diving, the Mexicans and Canadians (?) won silver and bronze. They were visibly excited and were hugging and smiling. The Chinese won gold and it was kind of hilarious because the commentator said, "For the Chinese it is business as usual." They were unsmiling and it looked like they just wanted to leave and go home. Seriously? You just won in your event at the Olympics, show some sort of emotion!

Thursday I went to a pool party with Beth. Not many people were there (five total), so that just meant more fabulous dessert for me. Afterwards, I watched more Olympics, specifically the women's individual all around gymnastics final. Gabby Douglas won gold which was really exciting!

Friday I went to Beth's and we made pizza. It was delicious, with pepperoni, spinach, olives and mushrooms. Then we watched Pride and Prejudice, (the Kiera Knightly version) and went to Wendy's for frostys.

Saturday I went shopping for more mission clothes. Then I watched the Olympics for a few hours. After I couldn't take my hotel room for any longer, I went to Ethan's house. We watched the Olympics, (women's trampoline) and played Stratego. Since he had not had nutella in years and wasn't sure if he liked it, I forced him to try some on peanut butter cookies we made. He is now a fan!!

Two month mark for my mission! And two weeks here in PA. So that means you won't get these obnoxiously long posts anymore, not true actually, wait two months!

Week Eleven

Work was more ADV testing. Also, I booked my flight home! It's almost here!

After institute, a group of us played murder in the dark. It's such a fun game but it was not the best. Everyone teamed up, it was in too big of a space (the whole church building), and you could see most of what was going on due to the exit lights. I had fun regardless because I talked to Matt, and Ethan throughout the game. After the game we kept talking and the three of us ended up staying at the church until 2 am. We had some really insightful conversations. We talked about hugging, facial hair, gaming (not that I participated in that area), love, friends, missions and other topics.

Hugging was the major topic of discussion that night. It came up because I said that I do not usually like hugging, and that surprised Ethan. I just like my personal space. I don't like hugging people I don't know very well, and I also don't like hugging people if they hug me awkwardly or if they don’t like hugging themselves. I like to have somewhat of an emotional connection with people; I don’t like giving them out willy-nilly. Then the three of us went about hugging each other which was funny. I don’t want to make anyone think I’m this closed off weirdo, I really do like being touched/hugged by close friends (Boise weekend anyone?)!

Thursday I went to Ethan's house and we made cupcakes. They were chocolate with raspberry filling and chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was impressive baking with someone who actually knows how to do it! I felt that I was even shown up a bit which never happens.

Over the weekend, there was a YSA conference centered around a trip to Gettysburg. On Friday, Beth and I met up and carpooled to Ethan’s house. Then we drove the hour down to a church building down there. We played Apples to Apples for a little while and ate dinner. The mingle game was after dinner and it got us very comfortable with each other. We had six people stand on a towel and we had to flip the towel to the other side without anyone stepping off. I rode piggy-back which was very fun except for thinking I was going to fall on my head when Denay leaned forward to move the towel. We did not end up winning but when we got it, we were able to do it the quickest, at about thirty seconds.

Then we drove to the girls’ camp to drop people off with their stuff (since we were in a fifteen passenger van) before it got too dark. On the road, the guys behind us were pulled over! Sad day. Then we met up at camp to go on a ghost tour in downtown Gettysburg. On the way to our tour, we had to stop at a sobriety check point. Ethan realized he did not have his wallet and license with him. The cops were nice and let us through, probably because we were there with fifteen mormons for a church activity (and “Ethan didn’t fit the profile”). The ghost tour was very fun, Sam was the guide. She worked as a tour guide for these tours for five summers so it was pretty great. We listened to some ghost stories and then walked around to see if we could find anything. We did not unfortunately. Then we headed back through the sobriety check point to get through the camp. We were very nervous if they would let us through again, but they did. Then we headed to the camp, then the church then home. We were supposed to pass through the checkpoint for a third time but instead we took a detour, through Mummasburg Road (yes it is that ridiculous). It was an hour and a half drive back, which started around 1:30 in the morning. We ended up going to bed a little past three.

Saturday morning we woke up at 6:30 to go to the camp. We met up at camp and went to Gettysburg for a tour. While we were waiting, Beth wanted a picture with the three Spencers. The most hilarious part was when Spencer Sundrud (the one on the left) would not hold her up and we got the funniest picture imaginable. I had to tell him that indeed, “You can touch her!” Poor 18 year old boy. Our group was pretty big, we had fifteen or so people and Beverly was our guide. We went to quite a few places including the Virginia monument and then to Little Round Top where we climbed among huge rocks. The soldiers were able to hide among the rocks and could shoot without being seen and shot themselves. Then we went to lunch. Anna, Spencer, Maddi, Ethan and I went to a diner and we all got burgers which were pretty good. We drove back to Gettysburg to look from the observation tower. Those people up there probably though we were crazy, we had a strange conversation (will be up soon).

We drove back to the camp and hung out while people showered. A group coming back from their pioneer trek came through and we cheered them on. Then we went back to the church and ate dinner. I was so tired at that point I forgot what I was doing a lot of the time. I was in the bathroom and told Brooke I would look for Beth. Interestingly enough, Beth was in the bathroom and tried to tell me. Then I got distracted and started playing the piano…? Then we ate dinner outside, potatoes, BBQ chicken, and mac & cheese. We went into the mother’s room to sit down and talk. We then went to the dance and had lots of fun. Ethan and I did some swing dancing, which was very fun (I am for sure taking a dance class when I'm back, I'm so awful!). The dance was fun but we were exhausted! At that point we were up for fifteen or so hours. At ten we left and we went to McDonalds for ice cream. It was absolutely delicious but we were all saying the most ridiculous things, or at least I was. It was one of the best weekends yet and definitely the best YSA conference I've been to.

Also, there were a lot of sassy things I said this weekend, and the things I said making fun of Ethan as well. Those will be up on a separate post soon. 

Week Ten

First, I am to 100 posts here on my blog! I can't believe it! I didn't even plan on having a blog, it just happened.

So of the first 100 here are a few of my favorites:

• Rompers or Adult Onesies? 
• When Voldemort Falls in Love
• Violence is my Answer?
• Ode to Chicken (for Kara's infamous yelling/noise thing that you just have to hear)
• Sometimes I go by Birdie (the reason behind my name on facebook)

I really just want to go home and get ready for my mission! I have four more weeks of my internship to go. I love the weekends and the fun I'm having but I wish my mission would come faster. Only two and a half months away!

At work one of the best things happened. I talk about my religion with coworkers all the time and today one asked about the Book of Mormon. After talking for awhile he decided he wants to read it!! It just made me so happy. So Friday I gave him one and I marked some specific things for him. I am looking forward to hearing what he has to say.

Beth and I made brownies this week with cookie dough on top.... They were so good. I guess that is one good thing about not having an oven, I don't make baked goods often. Yes this is good for some reasons, we ate half the pan in one sitting (bleh), so it's good that hasn't happened multiple times this summer.

There was more thrift shopping this week! A few shirts and a couple skirts. I also found this huge dress that I'm going to turn into a skirt. That's one good thing about my 6 weeks at home before my mission, I'll be able to sew some skirts to wear.

I got a haircut this week. No picture specifically, just check out the ones from Philly. Guess what? I'm going to donate my hair again (I did my senior year of HS)! I know its counter-intuitive to cut some off if I'm growing it out but it really does make sense. It will grow faster because it is healthier and I want my hair to look nice until that time comes. I'm thinking sometime early next year in CA I'll cut it, so it will be shorter for summertime (wow that is thinking really far ahead).

Saturday the YSAs went to Philadelphia to visit all the historical sites. Beth and I started at the Liberty Bell with a group. During our wait, Beth and I got out of line to take pictures with Independence Hall behind us. We did get some good pictures but our group went into the building and then went on without us. We got back in line and waited to see the Liberty Bell. I learned about the history of the crack. There was a small crack they tried to fix but they accidentally made it bigger. At that point it was unable to make noise anymore and was more of a symbol of independence than anything else.

After that, Beth, Patrick and I went to one of the parks in the city. There are five parks, one on each corner and one in the middle. We went to the one that contained the tomb of the unknown soldier. We then walked down one of the streets and caught up with another YSA group. We all headed to get lunch, Philly Cheesesteaks! It was good and I was starving at that point.

 The three of us then separated again and we went to the portrait gallery. On our way there we took pictures of us imitating statues. I have been doing that since 2008, it is definitely one way to make the historical things more personal, imitate history! There were lots of portraits and people to read about. I took pictures of Beth with Andrew Jackson, and they are really funny to look through.

Then we went to Independence Hall. They have Washington's chair, everything else is a replica. This is where the Declaration of Independence was signed. It is strange to realize that our country is only 236 years old. We are a baby country but we have had much success because it was founded by many who were inspired by God. We had great potential from the beginning and have been able to excel with God overseeing our growth. One of the last things we did was visit the building where both Adams and Washington were inaugrated (I can't remember its name). Then we saw Benjamin Franklin's grave and we went home. I learned so much and we didn't even do everything! I'll just have to visit some other time in the future!

Week Nine

Work: On Monday I had to call companies to get help with using their products. I was transferred a zillion times, because they couldn't get me to the right person on the first try. Then more testing this week.

Went to Ronnie's for a birthday party. Chase was there and he is quite the entertainer once he starts on his stories. One time he took eight melatonin to help him sleep. Apparently one wasn't strong enough for him? He slept for a day and a half straight. There was a piano there so I played some Phantom of the Opera songs. I haven't played for awhile so I was really excited and spent a good 30 minutes to myself.

Thursday was our Relief Society's dessert and swim party. Beth and I made a strawberry kiwi tart. There was also a contest for the best dessert and sadly ours didn't even come close. Ours was pretty average, crescent roll dough with yogurt, strawberries and kiwi topping it. There were some delicious tasting things that also looked impressive. Maybe if I had my usual stash of baking supplies I could have done something amazing but we didn't really try too hard.

One of my coworkers keeps giving me things to entertain me. A month ago he gave me a book by Stephen King called The Stand. It is the original, uncut edition which is a whopping 1141 pages. This version has 500 more pages than the first edition of the book. I wish he had given me that version, this one is a monster! He gave it to me right after I finished The Count of Monte Cristo which is also a long book so I didn't want another long book in a row. Although it is interesting, it is not something I would pick for myself. His writing is very violent and gruesome which I don't appreciate but I'm stuck reading it out of politeness. This week the same coworker gave me all three seasons of Arrested Development. I don't know when I will have time to watch it, I'm too busy doing fun things and getting ready for my mission. It looks hilarious though so at least he gave me something I might like. 

On Friday, Beth and I drove up to Palmyra, New York. I've been before, when I was fifteen, but since it's been a long time I was looking forward to it. We got there about an hour before the pageant. All of the cast walks around to greet people, and to tell people what the pageant is about if they don't know. While we were waiting, one of the actors playing Joseph Smith came by our area so Beth and I got a picture with him! Not too long later, the pageant started. It goes through various stories in the Book of Mormon including Nephi, wicked King Noah and Abinidi, Alma the High Priest, Samuel the Lamanite, the coming of Christ to the Americas, Mormon, Moroni and eventually Joseph Smith and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. It took forever to get out of the parking lot and to get to our hotel. Since it was opening night it was packed and it was standstill traffic trying to leave.

In the bedroom where Joseph saw the angel Moroni.
L-R Amanda, Amy, me and Beth

The next morning we got up and went to some historical sites in Palmyra. First we went to Joseph Smith's home (a replica). It is two floors and very tiny. They had two or three children sleeping on each bed which were about the size of full sized beds. We thought about Joseph seeing the angel Moroni with his brothers in the same room. The spirit must have made sure they were completely out of it. Behind the house, his mother Lucy Mack Smith planted a beautiful garden every year, full of delicious fruits and vegetables. They made the garden look like it would have with her gardening skills. I just wanted to pick some of the broccoli and zucchini and eat it then and there. 

After that, we went to the house Alvin built for his fiancee before he died. It is 85% original which is amazing, and it looked very nice. We got to see a few spots where the plates were hidden in the house. One was under some bricks at the fireplace, another was in a wooden box, and a third was in the bed in between two sleeping girls.

After the tours, we went into the Sacred Grove. This was where Joseph Smith had a vision where he saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. They told him that none of the churches on the earth were true. After this vision, he was prepared in order to translate the Book of Mormon, an ancient record of peoples in the Americas. While I was there I felt a connection to Joseph Smith. In a few months I will be a missionary and I will teach the Restoration of the gospel. I will help people discover the truth which they have been looking for, much like Joseph Smith. I am so excited for this opportunity, and I look forward to teaching this story.

 After the grove, we went to the Palmyra temple. It is a very small temple, I was told you can practically see all the way across the building from anywhere inside. We just sat on the grounds and talked, and had some interesting moments. Beth invited everyone to sit on her lap (not all at once) which was really funny. We were comparing how bony everyone's butts were (no mine was not the boniest). Amanda only briefly sat on her lap and Beth said she couldn't judge by that brief encounter. She didn't fully sit on her lap, it was more of a crouch or what Beth called a "butt touch".

After the temple we headed to Nima's pizzaria. Beth said we had to go because it is the best pizza she's ever had. I'm not sure if it was the best pizza ever (I'll have to try a lot more to make a good judgment call ;) ), but it sure was delicious. Also socially awkward moment: Beth and I ate fries left on the table by the people who sat at the table before us. I felt super weird about it, but they were on their own plate and the customers hadn't eaten any of them and we were starving (it was 2:30 at this point). I guess I've done worse things.

Then I headed to the Grandin Building with Jonathon. The building is where the first few thousand copies of the Book of Mormon were printed. We walked through the process of printing and we got to see one of the original copies. The printing took many months to complete. Each page took a long time, each letter was a separate stamp and they had to compile all the stamps together to make words, sentences and paragraphs. This was done for the entire book. Then they had to turn the printed pages into a book by pressing the pages together, binding them, cutting off extra paper, putting a cover on it and engraving the title on the front. It took a lot of work but was well worth it. After that, we headed home. It was quite a long drive, and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Week Eight

Work: ADV testing and cheesecakes. That's about it.

Beth and I have worked out a bunch this week. It's been great, I definitely want to be in shape for my mission since I'll bike around California. We've also gotten in the hot tub in my hotel a couple times.

After institute we went to Texas Roadhouse of course. This time I adamantly refused to eat rolls because of the zillion I had last week. I also felt really aggressive, as in I really wanted to kick people, however I did not. Pretty sure that was because Katie had gotten set apart as a missionary and I had received her last text until April 2014!!! I'm not sure why aggression was the emotion that came out but whatevs.

For the fourth of July I went to Lancaster County, PA known for the Amish presence there. Beth and I ate shoofly pie which is made from molasses. It was the second time I've had some and it was delicious. We drove through the country for a few miles just to see the farmland. I was driving pretty slow so I could see the farms and that made people mad so they all passed us. I don't get it, we were in Amish country, why were they in a hurry? The Amish are all about taking things slow and enjoying life. More people need to be less serious and enjoy the little things.

I didn't take many pictures because of the Amish presence, they don't allow pictures of themselves. But there's a picture of me and my pie and then the beautiful farmland.


After visiting Lancaster, we came back to my hotel, and exercised and went in the hot tub. Then I made dinner, pancakes. They were absolutely the worst pancakes I've ever made in my life. The pan would not stay the right temperature and did not cook them evenly. One half of the pancake would burn and the other half wouldn't cook at all. There was only one that remotely looked like a normal pancake. [Sidenote: At the beach, Beth and I had a conversation about men in suits. Mmmmm.] At the beach I promised Beth I would I introduce her to the show Suits. We watched a couple episodes and I remembered why I love it so much. They are just so witty and constantly make me laugh.


Saturday I went thrift shopping at a Salvation Army. I found a couple more skirts for my mission, and I found a blazer and a jacket. Then I went to Ronnie's house for a party. We watched She's the Man then we got in the pool. As soon as we got in, it started thundering, lightning and raining. So we got out, well all of us except for the 18 and 19 year old boys. Oh boys (this is where I roll my eyes). After like fifteen minutes it was clear enough that I got in, and soon after the rest of the people joined us. The pool was nice and warm. In the middle of it somewhere, a war started up. Ethan teamed up with me and we were against Ivan and John. We just hit each other with beach balls and pool toys until I decided to get out. Then we played Girl Talk which was hilarious since we were playing with more guys than girls. It is one of those games meant for teenage girls and all their girlfriends. One person gets asked a really girly question and everyone guesses their response. If you guess right, you draw a card which has a boy on it and you have to collect all the boys!! Doesn't that sound exciting? Well guess who won? Me! I was just lucky. After that we played Dance Central 2 (which is majorly ghetto) and when Ethan and I complained enough, they switched it to Just Dance 3 (which is not ghetto). Basically I rocked those games. I even got 5 stars on one of the dances which proves how much I rocked it.

Week Seven

I'm at the halfway point of my internship! At this point, I have something planned just about every weekend so it will probably go by pretty quick!

Work: more chemistry. I have done it 4 of the 5 days this week. Friday I worked on cheesecakes and while they're a little better they still taste gross.

After institute we went to Texas Roadhouse again as a group. There were something like thirteen of us so we were in two different tables across from each other. I sat next to Ivan and he knows I like their rolls so initially he put one on my plate. It was nice, then every time they brought more he would put one on my plate with more of the cinnamon butter. After about four it became not nice, because I did not want anymore but I ate it because it was there. I ended up eating six rolls. One of the guys there, Chase, told some crazy stories and they all started with, "And so I was naked." They were really funny but I think he's scarred me for life. I don't think I'll be able to look at him the same.

Thursday I went to City Island with Ivan. He brought me more rolls from Texas Roadhouse before we left. I have eaten way too many this week now. Then we went to Jimmy John's, which was delicious. At City Island we walked a bridge and looked out onto the Susquehanna River. There were a bunch of random shacks on the side of the river for decoration, like a fake drink shop, schoolhouse and more. Then we went to play mini-golf next to the water, such a pretty view. Mini-golf was pretty fun, I did pretty good at the beginning where I only took a couple of shots to make it. Halfway through I stopped caring as much and did pretty bad. I just started hitting hard and did not aim.

Friday I went to a Drive in movie. We got pizza and drinks beforehand at a shopping center. We were waiting for the pizza and saw this kid limping around with a bloody nose, holding onto his friend who was laughing. There are not any clinics over there so we had no idea where they were going. The few stores included the Verizon store, Great Clips and Chinese food. None of those made sense, so strange. The drive in started pretty late, maybe close to nine so it was dark enough. We watched Brave, the new Pixar/Disney movie. Towards the end of the movie it started to rain so we headed into the cars. Luckily with the rain it was nice and cool, much better than the 90 degree weather plus 100% humidity.

Saturday we went to Ocean's City, Maryland to the beach. It was just lovely. The waves were kind of small early on but towards the end, with the tide, they actually were strong and knocked me over a few times. I stayed out in the water for quite a few hours with a small break in between to reapply sunscreen. The reapplication did not work completely since I sunburned my face and shoulders. It was nice to just stay in the ocean for those few hours, talking and jumping in the waves with my friends. Afterwards, we got pizza at a restaurant on the boardwalk. The boardwalk was super crowded, so many people walked by, and there were tons of restaurants jam packed in as close as they could get. On the boardwalk, I watched some people flying kites which was really cool.

Favorite picture of Beth ever. It took way too long to get a picture where we were both in the air so this was what we ended up with.

The drive back to PA was very exciting. We drove a fifteen passenger van so that all eleven of us could fit in one car. Ethan, and Ivan were in the front with Beth and me right behind them.  It all started when some girl decided to pass us, much to our dismay. Someone suggested we play leap frog and get in front of her, so we did. Then we went into a no passing zone so the poor girl had to follow, so we went slower (the speed limit). She had to follow us for quite awhile before she could pass us. Somewhere in there, Ronnie looked back and said, "But she is hot!!" It was hilarious but I'm still not really sure why he said it. After the leap frog incident, I was really giggly (sounds familiar) so I decided we should share funny stories. Ivan and I were able to keep them coming but Ethan and Beth could only come up with a couple each. My favorite was Ivan unknowingly taking Midol and feeling amazing afterwards. During our drive, What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction came on. Beth and I noticed that Ethan and Ivan both flipped their hair when they sing "The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed." They were even inadvertently synchronized. We just laughed and let it happen a couple times before telling them.

Week Six

Wow it's already been six weeks! I'm writing less (or so I hope) because my work life is getting less exciting and because I bet nobody reads these whole things.

Work: I'm doing Acid Degree Value testing. I hopefully will get it down a lot better. It involves extracting the fat and then doing a titration. I have had a lot of issues with the buret I'm using. Good equipment is a necessity! I'll work on my cheesecakes at some point this summer. I will have something presentable by August or so I hope.


Beth and I went to Hershey, PA which is like 15 minutes away. Beth and I went to the museum and then to ice cream and one of the rides. Ice cream was ridiculous. We didn't realize how much they were giving us and we got a lot. Beth's came first and the immediate thought for both of us was that we should have shared. After awhile, I just couldn't eat any more. Beth suggested that I drink it and because I'm crazy I did. I am really giggly and giddy like a little girl when I'm with Beth. I was laughing the whole time so I'm not sure how I managed to drink any of the ice cream sloop without spilling it.

A couple weeks back I brought in apples because my coworkers decided they wanted to take advantage of my hotel breakfast. They keep joking I need to bring in other things so I brought in dish soap for the lab.

Anyone who has dined at my apartment knows Anna and I use garlic or garlic powder a lot and love garlic flavored things. Awhile ago I moved the decimal place over in one of my dressings so I added 2% garlic powder instead of .2%. It turned out pretty nasty.

Studying Spanish for my mission. One flashcard set I found online has "la música de Justin Bieber" on there. I was so confused why, but whatever, hilarious.

I quit facebook for a second time... I'm not sure for how long though. I think I really could go awhile, maybe the rest of the summer. I guess we'll see what I want to do. My quitting honestly went like this: "Self, it's 11 at night. Why are you on facebook? Get off, in fact you should quit so you don't get on late again."

There were a couple of long car rides this weekend. Friday we went to a picnic in the park but sadly very few people came. Later one of the guys sprained his ankle and was too stressed to drive. Beth and I volunteered to drive his car back with me following. In the middle of the drive we hit a huge storm. He lives about an hour away so we had to take the free way and just go slowly so we wouldn't hit anyone. I drove with my hazards on going 35mph, and even with my wipers up the entire way it wasn't enough. One thing about me is that I don't like driving unless I have to, so this was quite interesting. I've never been in a storm that bad but as long as I went slow it wasn't awful.

Saturday Beth and I went to the temple. On our way there we went to... Cafe Rio! It was delicious, I just love that there is one in DC. We even saw sister missionaries there which made me laugh. That was one of our whims, we were on the way then decided to go so we had to call my mom to get the address. As I went in to do baptisms I saw familiar faces, Sarah Andrew's parents! They went with the YSA branch, but Sarah wasn't there which made me sad. This same exact thing happened last summer so it was a funny coincidence. After baptisms I went to the visitor's center to wait for Beth. I ended up reading some of the Book of Mormon in Spanish. I was surprised, I remember a lot of Spanish from high school when I see it which is good news. I'll just have to learn to speak it better, since I can't say exactly what I want to yet, plus I need to relearn conjugating... that makes my brain hurt.

We took a detour to a creepy mall to get Chic-fil-a. We were driving when Beth said she wanted their lemonade so I found one on her GPS. When we got there, we were confused as we didn't realize it was in a mall. It had few store entrances on the outside and we were so confused whether it was open or not. Beth wanted to just drive home but I was bound and determined to get food there since we came out for it. It was less creepy inside the mall though so the delicious food was worth it.


Notice in the picture the creepy man reflected in the glass. It really was creepy.


It seems like whenever Beth and I drive anywhere with food nobody eats the food at the party so we eat like half of whatever we brought in the car. It happened with chips and cookies a few weeks back, this week it was lemon cookies!

Week Five

Sunday
New York!

Monday
Work was really busy. I had to pull a ton of samples from storage, move them to smaller containers and then ship them. One sample request had nine samples that each weighed five pounds.
Beth invited me to a party of some ladies in her last ward. There is a medical school around here and one of the girls finished her third year and took a crazy hard exam, so we celebrated. The ladies there were really hilarious. So here's a couple conversation topics.
Two knew each other from BYU-ID (one is married and one is not) and they kept bringing up people from their old ward. They mentioned a guy who owns a pork bbq place in Portland (they joked it should be named Pork in Portland or Porkland). They decided the girl should date him, because this group is apparently into matchmaking. Later I mentioned I was 21, and one of the ladies said her son is my age and a recent RM. They all gasped and looked at me excitedly. That's just a super awkward position to be in. At least I had a response ready, I mentioned my mission call, which is in fact a great way to ward off boys (although I already do that on my own).
We talked about smart phones because one of the ladies got a new phone. Her son was the one who just got off a mission, and he needed a smart phone so she got the one he had before his mission. I thought that was a little strange but apparently she hadn't updated her phone since 2003. She was so mad her family made her update it because she was convinced it was much better than any other phone out there. The other ladies were trying to console her, telling her it was time for her to get a new one, it was hilarious.

Tuesday
I got my cheesecake stuff ready to go! I'm starting on that first thing tomorrow!
Institute was fun, nothing too exciting. There's a mission prep class starting next week, so that will be good.

Wednesday
I started my cheesecakes! The normal version was delicious but the two I made with a concentrate were nasty. Luckily I was not using a recipe I made up so nobody could blame me! I'll have to tweak them a lot to get them right.
I haven't thoroughly explained what the concentrates are used for so I'll explain now. We take a regular product like salad dressing or cheesecake and make up a control. The control is the typical version of that product. My job is to add in our super concentrated cheeses to replace some of the actual cheese in the product since it is expensive. The companies are able to fill in the difference with cheaper ingredients like water, or oil. The end result should hopefully taste exactly the same as the control so you can't tell there is a difference in anything: taste, color, texture etc.

Thursday
I started some testing of our enzyme modified products, the technical name is the Acid Degree Value test. Basically I spend time extracting the fat, then I take the fat and add some alcohol and do a titration. I never thought I would need to do one outside of chemistry class but here I am.

Friday
Today was a very slow day. I ended up doing the test from yesterday again. I had help from the chemist in our office yesterday so today I tried it on my own. I am not so good at it but I think I just need more practice. My data was at least reasonable, even though it wasn't what we got yesterday. I'll probably do it again next week and see if I can get it down.
Beth and I went to see Romeo and Juliet for free outside in a park. It was really fun. We brought chipotle and sat on a blanket. I only got one mosquito bite!

Saturday
I went to a Walk for Autism in the morning with Beth. It was really fun. There was a raffle so we got tickets and put them into the Kindle Fire drawing. There were booths advertising services. We happened to know the guy doing massages so we got some for free. It was so nice to get a professional massage! The DJ put on Boyfriend by Justin Bieber because a little girl requested it. There was a boy over by us who ran off screaming "NOOO!!!" the second it started. It was hilarious!!
After the walk we went and saw The Hunger Games in the discount theater. This was the second time I saw it and I thought it was great. I even cried when Rue died... again.

Week Four

Are you tired of these weekly things? They're really long but if people read them I'll keep writing!

Sunday
I went to BtheF (break the fast), and it was about an hour away. There were some crazy hills on the way there and it was raining so it made for an interesting drive. We didn't even stay that long but the chicken was delicious and worth it.

Monday
I crunched lots of numbers today to see the money saved on my dressings. It saves a lot but I kind of want to do more with it to save more money.
I made a blue cheese concentrate today, it smelled really strong. In case you don't know, cheddar cheese is dyed orange. I had to add some dye to the velveeta type cheese on Friday. Well today I found some of the dye on the counter... whoops! Luckily it cleaned up pretty easily.
I finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo for the second time! It's definitely one of my favorite books, unabridged of course. It only took me three weeks. The last time I took close to three months. Crazy.

Tuesday
I made a cream cheese concentrate today and it was so thick it would not heat up. I spent all morning standing over it and then left to do other things, even then it took forever.
Institute was pretty fun we started going over talks from the last general conference. Afterwards we went to Texas Road House. So delicious. It was 9 at night so I just got some fries and of course a few rolls with cinnamon butter. We talked about missions which was awesome. It was me and five rm's (only one girl) which was an interesting ratio. It meant they all told me stories from their missions. I couldn't tell if they were trying to scare me or get excite me though... They started off telling me their horror stories and stated mine wouldn't be as bad as theirs, just different. That was... encouraging? There was some good advice in there though. The girl, Liz I think, said that if you are called you have the ability to get through it period. That means there is no need to worry or fear which is good advice for a worrier like me.

Wednesday
Talked about religion with a co-worker. It was such a good conversation. He made the comment that he wished other religions had missions like we do. He specifically wishes that for the guys it would be expected to go on a long term service mission just so more people in the world would have an understanding of their place in the world in relation to other people. It's all about service, it really is.
Beth and I went out to get ice cream again. This time we went to Wendy's and I got a frosty and fries. Love that place.

Thursday
My coworker who is leaving showed me how to use the salt analyzer. I got the salt concentrations for all of the samples from the week then took their pH. Exciting stuff. I made a really stinky blue cheese concentrate it was ridiculous how bad the room smelled.
I am packing for my next trip... New York!!! I'm taking a train tomorrow morning. I'm looking forward to it!

Friday-Sunday
New York trip, separate post coming!

Week Three

Sunday
Mission call to Arcadia, California Spanish speaking. There will be a full post about this....

Monday
Pool party for Memorial Day!! I went at around two, and it lasted all day. Apparently the ysa has all day crazy parties. I'm up for it, except when I have to sleep for work... We had barbecue early on and watched a movie. Later on we got in the pool and swam. It is a circular pool so my first thought was to have a whirlpool, and I convinced them to do it. It was awesome. When we were going around we started throwing the balls around. It was kind of hilarious since we were going in circles, and we were all pretty bad at aiming at moving targets.
After the whirlpool we went inside and played on the Kinect. There were a couple dance games we played for most of the time-- Just Dance 3 and Dance Central. Those are the games on the wii or Kinect I like doing at parties. At one point I did like five songs in a row and was exhausted. Then we ate pizza and I left. I don't know how some of these people party all day it was tiring!

Tuesday
More salad dressings!
Institute. I was going to stay for volleyball but they didn't start until late so I left. Basically not much happened.

Wednesday
My coworker's birthday was yesterday but he took the day off (he had a four day weekend jealous!) so we partied today. We ate a cake and Mississippi mud pie. They were both delicious. He received some candy for his birthday from his relatives and shared with us. I ate one and later that day he was talking about them. There were two varieties bacon caramel and chocolate stout. I had the chocolate one and apparently it was made with some type of alcohol! Hahaha! I guess that's what you get when you leave Provo, people think everyone drinks alcohol. Apparently chocolate stout is a type of alcohol and he assumed I knew. I guess it's not any worse than using cooking wine, the alcohol content is reduced somewhat but does not dissipate completely. Anyway, it was funny yet sad, so I hope this doesn't happen again.
I got gelati at Rita's with a girl in my ward. Rita's is an east coast Italian ice/gelati place that somehow missed my area of Virginia so I haven't had it before. I got a fudge brownie gelati with vanilla ice cream. I definitely want to go back! We spent the time planning things to do this summer. She studied history in school so she will go to any historical site no matter how many times she's been. So that means.... road trip!! I'm really excited to go anywhere and everywhere!

Thursday
I had an upset stomach so I didn't do salad dressings today. Instead I made up some velveeta type cheese. I already thought the stuff was disgusting and after making it I don't want to eat it ever again. It's cheese melted with a bunch of oil and other stuff. The oil does not go in very well and it just looked like a greasy mess.
I looked into some applications of our products. That meant I got to browse recipes online. Basically it was awesome.

Friday
One of the QA people just got a new job in Pittsburgh... That means that from the time she leaves until they find someone new I can help out with her job.
Yesterday I only made a similar product to processed cheese (velveeta) but today I actually made it. I even poured it into a loaf pan to make it all rectangular. Ewww, how does anyone eat that stuff??
There were thunderstorms all afternoon followed by a tornado warning. It was awesome. I don't like rain except on two conditions. 1. It is either raining but the sun is still out. 2. It is crazy raining like you can barely see and get drenched in a second and thunder is involved. It was exciting.
I got chinese food for dinner with my new friend Beth. It was delicious and it was in a really cute area. After dinner we went to a game night which was fun. The best part? When playing Loaded Questions the person reading accidentally read the wrong answer but it totally fit and was hilarious. Q: What are you most likely to go to jail for? A: Body odor. It was so hilarious I don't even remember the real answer.

Saturday:
I was sitting around and decided to go out to a thrift store I've passed. It was really awesome and much more vintage-esque of a thrift store than DI or goodwill. Almost everything was dated at least twenty years. I found some things for my mission, two skirts and a button down shirt. The guy at the counter was super nice. The machine for their cards wasn't working so I had to pay cash. I had $9 in ones and I could scrounge up the remaining two dollars in quarters and dimes but he didn't care, he just let me take my stuff for less. I tried pulling out more change but he really insisted, such a nice guy!
A few stakes around here bought a camp for boy scout camp and girls camp. I went to help clean it up and get it ready for the summer. Beth and I stopped at an out of the way grocery store to get chips and cookies to eat with dinner. We had a fire and we cooked hot dogs and ate lots of food. We made smores using Reeses instead of chocolate and they are totally the best! I was so happy to see the Reeses and that someone else knows that trick. Although it was small, only four people it was still fun.

Random additions:
My car here in PA has a couple programmed radio stations. The two on there are country and I was too lazy to find new ones... There's Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift which I'm used to mixed in with everything else, but I find I like most of it. That is kind of a new idea for me. I have always been against country but now I see that it was more my lack of getting used to it and actually listening for more than two seconds. Of course there are songs that I listen to that I don't like but I see most of them aren't as awful as I made them out to be. In fact a lot of them are hilarious , or not so serious and they tell stories much better than normal stuff on the radio. It is actually nice to understand 95% of the lyrics and I haven't heard many that swear either which is awesome.
The organist forgot to play the last verse of a song last week or maybe the week before. It was really funny, the director stopped and everyone turned to look at the organist. She had changed the stops after she finished playing so she had to readjust and it took a couple minutes before we starting singing again. It was pretty entertaining.

I used an eye make up remover with the warning: keep out of eye. I realized that when it got in and stung my eye. Why did I even buy it!?!?  It's not like I put it in my eye on purpose but if it happens I don't want it to hurt.

Week Two

Sunday
Well, I went to church and  I accidentally showed up an hour early so I got to talk to some old ladies. They were cute and they knew everyone because they have lived in the area forever so they introduced me to some people. There were only three people my age so I just hung out with the moms. Kara called me the mom of our apartment (since I cook, clean, check up on everyone etc) so it makes sense that I fit in with them.

Monday
More salad dressings. Nothing new there.
I found out I live within a couple miles of a prison. Pretty exciting. One of my coworkers told me that it is part of the reason the mall I live by is so ghetto. I live by thugs.

Tuesday
The vice president came today. It was interesting. I showed off my salad dressings which he liked. At some point during my presentation of the dressings he criticized my choice in shoes... I was a little confused why he even cared but I guess I won't wear those shoes to work again.
Went to institute. It was pretty fun, I met a bunch of people which was exciting. Turns out there's a bunch of things planned for the weekend. I just hope I can actually get to those places...

Wednesday
Had the worst night's sleep ever out of anticipation for my call. It didn't come. Hopefully I don't drive myself crazy.
I randomly hiccuped at work and I realized that I hadn't for awhile. I figured out the last time I did was about two weeks ago. Then I hiccuped about once every hour and it is still continuing.
An old man told me I looked nice at wal-mart today. That was exciting.
My salad dressings are finished! I made larger batches of the tests and they're going to be sent off to be taste tested. I am pretty proud of them, they taste great. They could save a company a whole lot of money (maybe a million dollars over a year!!) so I am pretty excited.

Thursday
I am not done with salad dressings apparently! My other dressing was a creamy one that is not shelf stable (needs to be refrigerated) so I'm making one that is shelf stable. It's more of a vinegar and oil based dressing.
For lunch I brought salad so I could use my dressing. It was absolutely delicious. One of my coworkers wants to take some home to keep in her fridge which means I did a good job.
I have learned all about brand name products this week. Some of the things I bought generic, and they do not have the same taste as name brand (which I knew). However generic products sometimes don't have the quality either meaning they go bad faster or become stale faster. Even for things where you wouldn't expect the quality to change it probably does. I bought some grated Parmesan cheese and just got the generic brand. We tasted it and decided there was a lot of filler. Compared to the Kraft brand, you could taste the difference, although Kraft still has some filler in there.

Friday
More work on salad dressings. I went to the store and bought a few so I could see what is out there. Mine tastes different from the few I bought. Although, the ones I bought all tasted quite different from each other. It will be interesting trying to figure out what I need to do.
I have also learned about the deteriorating levels of consumer acceptance. We now have much lower standards as consumers for almost all products. We accept things just because it's name brand or it's convenient not because it tastes good. A great example is Kraft mac 'n cheese or shells and cheese with velveeta. If you have ever had homemade mac 'n cheese it is about 1000x better. The Kraft stuff does not even taste like cheese to me. Everyone is sucked into the "blue box" and that's what we think of when talking about mac 'n cheese, our ideal is skewed.

Saturday
Surprise trip to West Virginia? Heck yes!! There was a tri-stake ysa spring festival down there. Someone had mentioned the festival at institute but I didn't realize it was so far away. I ended up talking to someone who knew about a carpool just a couple hours before it was leaving, so pretty spontaneous. The trip was good, a two hour drive that was fun. It was supposed to be a major ysa all day event but only twenty or so people were there. We played games and had dinner. With the few people it was nice, we got to know each other and I learned most everyone's names. The games were perfect with only a few people but when it got to the dance it was weird, even worse than a stake dance! If we had moved to a smaller room it could have worked but there was too much space in the gym for too few people. It made me miss the dance parties at sparks!!

Week One

First, I should have put this in my last post but I didn't so it's going here.

New glasses!  Also, you can see a small portion of my room. I'll get real pictures sometime...

Here is my car, a 1999 Ford Taurus. I decided to name him Magellan.

Monday
I don't have an oven! That means no baking and limited cooking which makes for a sad Laura. The thought crossed my mind I should get an easy bake oven (I've never owned one) but I don't think that will happen.
I ate out at a sit down place by myself for the first time. It was a sandwich and soup place although I thought the sit down part was unnecessary. Basically all they did was put it on a nice plate and I had to pay a tip for it.

Tuesday
Roads here are ridiculous. There is one intersection where I have to turn left at an angle that is practically a u-turn. The intersection was made up of about 8 roads coming together. I have no idea who approved that, not a good idea.
My first day at work. It wasn't much only because it was all paperwork. We went out to eat for lunch. I got a chicken bacon ranch stromboli and it was really delicious.

Wednesday
I did cheese tasting! I tried some of the normal cheeses and then some concentrated cheeses. They purposefully made me taste some nasty ones.
I made up a few concentrated cheese samples from blocks of cheese and various ingredients. Concentrated cheeses are very strong smelling. If you accidentally pour some on your hand or if you work with it too long you smell like cheese. Sometimes rancid cheese.
I saw my first Amish or Mennonite people. They looked exactly like polygamists with the long hair in braids and long dresses. They live close by so I'm sure I will see more. One of my coworkers promised to bring me some of the baked goods they sell on the side of the road.

Thursday
I made up sloppy joe mix and put in various concentrated cheeses. This was my first time working with our products in other goods.
I went grocery shopping and I accidentally bought stuff I need an oven for! Luckily I can do some baking at work.

Friday
I made up some salad dressings to try with one of the cheese concentrates. I used a recipe but I had to add in a few ingredients and change amounts of ones I already had. So this was my first real product development! It's just an introduction for now, I'll get to pick something I want to work on later when I get the hang of it. I'm thinking cheesecake and adding a cream cheese concentrate to it. I could definitely do various types of cheesecake all summer. That would be awesome.

Saturday
I went to my hotel pool and hot tub (I know surprising it took me a week to go). A horde of 12-14 year old boys greeted me with stares for the first couple minutes I was there. Awkward. They had a game of marco polo going and were rough housing. At one point a couple of them almost ran into me but one of them told the other, "Watch out for the lady!" At least they had some sort of manners. I was in the hot tub and some 14 year old girls came and sat with me and we talked a little about how the boys were being awful with their noise and games. This goes to show that I'm pretty popular with the middle school crowd.
I ventured to the mall by my hotel. It's kind of ghetto. There was a store called Rainbow and it was pretty colorful. In the display there were striped rainbow leggings with stars on them. It was insane. One of the major stores at the mall is Bass Pro Shop. Right outside of it there is a huge display so I took pictures. You're welcome.

Hodge Podge

Caution: random post up ahead.

It's not entirely a secret but I haven't really told too many people. So here it goes, I'm going on a mission!! My call comes in hopefully one week. It will be interesting as to where I go. The other night I had a dream that I got sent to Washington DC and my start date was in June, the middle of my internship which was a sad mistake. In my dream, I was upset about being called to the east coast, I mean I live about 2 hours away and I've been there quite a few times. Although somewhere along the east coast could happen. Interestingly enough the next night I had another dream about my call. I got my call to Finland same as my friend Sarah but it was to another Finland mission (there isn't a second Finland mission). Then I just dreamed about the MTC. I am not sure what these two dreams mean, probably just that I worry too much.

I have avoided it for the better part of three years and it has come to the point where I can't postpone any longer. I have a skype.... I realized it's necessary so my family can videochat when I get my call so I am giving in. I assume that if you are reading this, you are one of the people I would give it to myself, but it's just easier this way. laurakjohnson100

In other news, I got a splinter from my piano bench. I don't know if that means that I'm a hard core pianist (not) or if I'm just a wimp.

On my birthday my sister slammed the car door on my leg. I now have a bruise, awesome. I guess it could have been my hand or finger which would have broken/fractured so it could be worse.

Our poor white van was broken into. Whoever those thieves were, well they're not smart. They didn't check to see if there was anything of value in there before breaking in and they didn't even take the radio! Seriously, they were not smart thieves. At least when Anna went looking through the van she found some stuff that we had lost in there including a pancake turner.

And I am at my internship! It's pretty exciting. I'll update at the end of the week when I have more to say.

I looked up the town I'm living at. As I was browsing I noticed the Susquehanna River is located near me and it passes through Three Mile Island. I recognized the name but didn't know from where. I realized that I learned about it this semester in physics when we talked about radiation. There was the largest nuclear waste accident in US history in the area by the island. So that's kind of cool.

Also, I named this Modge Podge??? I meant Hodge Podge... Crafting on the brain I guess. I really should get more sleep or something. Just forget about this if you didn't notice.

Internship Details

For anyone who doesn't know, I'm going to Pennsylvania for an internship! It will be sweet! The deal is I live in a long stay hotel by myself though. I'm living in a hotel!! No roommates for the first time ever! That is also somewhat of a problem. I move in on a Monday and will only know people at work for the first week until I go to church. That means I will have a lot of time my first week to do anything. I'll probably end up writing a lot on here and probably even after my first week. I highly doubt I will be doing things on a daily basis.

My internship is in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania which is actually ten minutes from Hershey, so yes I will go there and eat chocolate all the time. I will also hopefully travel to different sites around the north east. I really want to go to NYC again, I haven't been since eighth grade. Possibly I'll go to church history sites like Palmyra for the Pageant and the Sacred Grove. I'll be sure to put all the fun things I do on here. It's bound to be a fun exciting summer with lots of things going on! But we'll get to that ;) There's definitely a lot in store and I'm looking forward to it!

A few highlights for my internship:

• I will be working with a company named Dairiconcepts--check it out
• They make cheese products that other companies use
• The facility I'll be at makes super concentrated cheese powders
• Did I mention I will live in a hotel?
• They are paying for me to fly out, my hotel room, a rental car and I get $12/hour

I kind of feel like this is showing off a little but seriously, people have asked and I want people to know!