A Strange Fire Dancing, Ear Piercing Birthday Party

It sounds like I have been to some weird parties throughout the years, which is true. That with the fact that I have weird friends (in a good way) makes for some of the most unusual parties ever.

In sixth grade, I went to party of a girl, Hannah, I had known for a few years. We were in some of the same elementary school classes. Then we were on the same team in middle school meaning all the students were the same but we just switched teachers for various classes. I pretty much knew the whole time that she was a little crazy but it didn't ever bother me. I didn't realize until her party just how crazy she was though.

The party started out normal, everyone came ate food and talked. Somewhere in there they said that they had some water balloons already filled up for us to use. They had not told us there would be a water balloon fight so I just got wet in my normal clothes. We were on two sides and took up much of the front yard and driveway to play. I think some kids even hid in trees to get better places to aim from. The unexpected water balloon fight was fun, but a little strange for normal parties.

Hannah had one gift in mind for her 12th birthday. She was in the same boat as me, we both had to wait until we turned 12 to get our ears pierced. While I went to a kiosk at the mall, for her gift, she had her ears pierced at her party.

I remember they gathered everyone into a circle in the living room (I'm not sure why you would want a crowd watching this activity, it's kind of personal and some people even cry during it. It was a little more than just weird). We all sat while they readied everything to pierce her ears. They put sharpie on her ears to get it straight and pulled out the type of ear piercer that you just squeeze and they go in. They had one person do each side, one at a time while everyone watched.

It's one of those moments that you just cringe because you imagine their pain. And just because I keep thinking about it, it was not like The Parent Trap or the Full House episode when Stephanie pierces her ears. This was slightly more professional, because an adult did it, but not by much.

The last weird thing that happened was a firedance demonstration (similar to picture below). Apparently she learned to dance from some friends that (not kidding) worked for the circus so she showed off for us. After her routine, the real party was over and her circus friends performed for fun. My friends all sat in the living room and we played the bongos while watching the firedancing from the window.

I'm not sure where Hannah is now, but I'm sure she's a hipster. This was definitely in my top 5 weirdest parties.

February Quotes

"Green or argyle [socks]?" -Anna

"Argyle. Was that really even a question?" -Laura

"I was testing to see if we were related!" -Anna

"This may sound shallow but any girl who can cook becomes 500,000,000x hotter." -Dustin

"A guy who can wash dishes...." -Laura (this was cut off due to the overwhelming laughter)

"What would you say about this situation? A girl is radiating heat and a guy is ice cold." -Anna

"They should cuddle." -Laura (granted this is right after our Boise, Idaho weekend).

"Ummm, what else?" -Anna

"Oh it's like Twilight!!" -Laura

"This apple has a squish..." -Laura

"You have a squish!" -Anna

"Thanks I require at least five insults per day." -Anna

"Don't worry about her being a hipster. It won't get her anywhere in life." -Anna

Sorry I Just Licked My Hand!

This week I went to a birthday party. I knew some people there, but there were a ton of people I had never met before. One of them was someone Anna knows from her old FHE group. Anna went to say hi, and then introduced me. At the same time, I was at the food table and took out of piece of cheesecake to put on my plate. I had a little on the end of my finger and licked it. Right then he went to shake my hand. I am nice enough to not make someone shake my nasty finger, so I blurted, "Sorry, I just licked my hand!" Embarrassed, I put my hand behind my back so he wouldn't accidentally shake it.

Since I had made it really awkward, I turned instead to get a paper towel to clean off my hand. I'm pretty sure that Aaron Dees heard my conversation because he tried to do the same thing. He held out his hand for me to shake but I again blurted out, "Sorry, I just licked my hand!" Instead of just giving up he decided we should try other things. We tried to do a back handed high five (which according to urban dictionary is the new fist bump).  I never do those ever, and I'm not sure that anyone does because neither of us were any good. It was one of those awkward times where we tried like five times and none of them were good. We didn't want to end on that weird note so he decided we should do an elbow tickle instead. That wasn't weird at all. I usually don't tickle anyone's elbows, and didn't realize it was a general sort of greeting. So I tickled his elbow which was at least better than our back handed high fives.

After our greeting, I was finally able to grab a paper towel. I cleaned off my hand and then was finally able to shake hands with Anna's friend.

Now if you don't want to shake someone's hand, this is an idea to get out of it!

Skateboarding Experiment

When I lived in Texas, I had some awesome teachers! All from elementary school until middle school they really wanted us to learn and have fun. One of those teachers was my 7th grade science teacher, Mr. Hall. He was so great, everything in class was made to be fun and to make sure everyone learned what we needed to.

One of my favorite lessons was when we were studying basic physics. We were just studying the association between mass, time, velocity and acceleration. He decided that it would be a good idea to do a physical example of this. We went outside onto the blacktop and rode skateboards to get data to calculate with. Someone would push the person sitting on a skateboard and yell start. Another person with a timer would start the timer and wait for the person to cross a line 20 feet down then stop it.

As I child I was never proficient using a skateboard. My friends and I would try to do this on the sidewalk between our houses. I was always terrible. At some point during our fun, I would fall off and skin my knee or get my fingers run over.

That being said, you can see where this went during our experiment. I got on the skateboard and was pushed forward. I went the whole distance, but the stopping part didn't work out so well. I tried to put my foot out to stop my momentum, it was a nice idea but not in practice. Instead of just stopping, my flip flop took all the force and broke. Not only was I stupid enough to wear flip flops during a skateboard experiment but they were not allowed at school, and they broke. I ended up calling my mom and having her bring another pair of shoes. I was just an awesome middle schooler.

I make a Fool of Myself

Sophomore year I started taking food science classes for my major. Fall semester I took the intro class with other beginning food science majors and other similar majors. Winter semester I took the first one that was more specified for food science majors, called Food Analysis (which stunk). I was in the class the whole semester, and really only skipped once or twice.

The last day of the semester I went home to my apartment where another food science major sat on my couch. First of all, it was super weird seeing him at my apartment. Second, he was apparently on a date with my roommate (although I didn't make that connection at the time). Since we knew each other I thought it would be awkward if I didn't acknowledge him. As it turns out, I was wrong.

I said hi to him and said something like, "Aren't you a food science major?" He looked at me like I was crazy and creepy for knowing that. I tried to make it sound better, "We're both in Food Analysis with Dr. Lloyd, remember?"

Luckily that sparked some memory. "Oh yeah." But that realization was only that we had to be in the same class for me to have known that, not that he recognized me. We chatted for a little bit and then I awkwardly ran into my room to grab a few needed things.

I went to my neighbors' house because we were doing a sleepover. Katie did my hair, and it turned out super curly.

Notice that I am sitting in a closet. Also, this set of pictures never made it to facebook, so this is the most anyone's going to get.


After doing our hair, we all chose coordinating outfits except that I had to change into a shirt I didn't have with me. I tried walking past saw my roommate and her date but my hair confused them and they asked me about it. Then I had to explain that we were just doing a fun girls night for the last day. Although they were less confused, I'm sure that didn't make it any less weird.

We were also going to take pictures but I was the only one with a camera that had charged batteries. The problem? My camera was in my room. I grudgingly went back to my apartment again and saw my roommate and the boy again. This time I did not make eye contact and went into my room to get my camera. I'm pretty sure I just looked ridiculous and my cheeks were bright red until I left for good.

Meaning of the story? If you aren't sure if you know someone well enough (or at all) to have a short couple minute chat, then don't assume anything. You will just make a fool of yourself and they will think that you are a creeper.

BYU Bucket List

This year we have decided to start a BYU Bucket list for random things we want to do here. This is in part because my friends Kara and Hannah are leaving! Kara is graduating at the end of this semester and Hannah is leaving for France next school year (probably). Even though I still have another year, I thought it would be fun to be apart of this because many of the things I still have yet to do.

A couple of weeks ago we did our first thing on the list! We went to Shirley's Bakery and got some of their rolls. We got a dozen, where half were raspberry rolls and the other half were orange rolls. They were deliciously amazing!

This past weekend we did some a few things on the list.

Firstly, we ate King Kong Kones at Maceys. In one sitting!! It took Kaitlyn about 30 minutes, and everyone was surprised at that speed. Kara probably took about an hour, then Hannah and I finished within minutes of each other at about an hour and twenty minutes. Last was Anna at around two hours, granted she did drive from Maceys to our friends and got hers last.

Look at the size of those!! It was something like 12 swirls. Completely ridiculous!

I tackled (or tickled if you're Kara) the ice cream!

The gang. L-R Anna, Kara, me, Kaitlyn and Hannah. 

Secondly we took Hannah to Ikea! Hannah is from Alaska and they don't have all the same stores as we do on the mainland. We decided that going to Ikea is a must, even if it isn't a BYU thing.

Looking at the Ikea map.

Thirdly we took Hannah to Chic-fil-a. Again, not exactly a BYU thing but it needed to happen. I mean she had never been to Chic-fil-a! It's a favorite fast food place for most people. Sadly no pictures for that one, but you can imagine what that looked like.

My official Provo list includes:

• Going to Jump on it
• Sammy's for pie shakes (Anna has never been)
• Eating at Pita Pit
• Dumpster diving for Krispie Kreme doughnuts
• Comedysportz--I've been but I want to take my friends
• Sparks for mocktails--just because everyone thinks of the restaurant when I say I visit my friends at Sparks II
• Diet coke and mentos--I have always wanted to do this and why not at BYU
• Shakes from the Malt Shoppe

Kara has some things she wants to do that I would put on here but facebook isn't working... stupid facebook and I can't remember them. Hopefully we can get these all done before my friends leave!! I'll probably add more posts with the pictures I take.

My official BYU list

• Get a note at the Testing Center
• Throw pennies from the top of the SWKT stairs, make it a race
• Run into Cecil O. Samuelson, shake his hand
• Look at the liger in the Bean Museum, find Hedwig
• Find a train ticket, join the Flash mob on campus
• Try and pet the feral cats on campus
• Find the fish tank in the WIDB
• Go tunnel singing
• Get published in the Daily Universe
• Roll down the hill by the library
• Stay in the library until midnight
• Grill chicken in the library

Edit: I'm sorry if this was not what you were expecting, but it's just my personal list (I also never intended for it to be shared). Half of these are inside jokes but take what you will from it! Just some fun stuff to do when bored around Provo! I gave more commentary here since it was shared.

And here's a great bucket list from the 100 hour board. 

January Quotes

"What a pooper! Did I tell you that is my favorite insult because nobody can deny it." -Kara

"I don't like you but you have the key to my survival." -Laura talking how the cat thinks

"He looks much better with a nose!" -Anna

"My bum does not play footsie!" -Kara

"Look, people more important than me!" -Anna

"Kiss it better!" -Kara
"Piece of butter?" -Laura
"Piece of fire?" -Kara

"You know the lady who swallowed the fly and horse and all that jazz? I'm pretty sure this guy ate her." -Kaitlyn

"Snuggin' like a nugget." -Kara

"I have five heads and I'm a boy!" -Cindy

After water was spilled on Kara's pants: "I needed to wash my legs anyways..." -Kara