Surprise Guest

One morning as I was heading off to school, I noticed that our next-door neighbors had left a full garbage bag outside their door. Not that this is unusual (nobody likes to take the trash to the dumpster when it's below 20 degrees outside). What caught my attention on this particular occasion was the small trail of trash leading from a fist-sized hole in the bottom of the bag towards the stairs. I soon forgot about the incident, however, as I skipped my way down the stairs and speed-walked to the bus stop.

When I returned from work that night, the mysterious trash bag had been removed and the stray litter picked up. Again, I gave it little thought as I began tallying up all the homework that would be facing me once I walked through my front door.

Later that night, I sat on the kitchen counter as roommate Ali was leaving to hang out with her friend Greg. I honestly don't remember what she was saying over her shoulder as she opened the door, because at that moment I saw a small dark shape skitter away from our neighbors' front door.

"Kitty!" I squealed.

Ali turned and immediately began yelling incomprehensibly. Carly and Kylee screamed before they'd even seen the feline and ran to the door. All three of them ran to the edge of the landing, squawking like hens, pointing after the poor thing as it ran down the stairs.

I still sat bemused on the counter, thinking, Geez, it's just a cat.

Ali ran back inside. "IT WAS A RACCOON!" she shouted.

That explains it, I thought.

Then all four of us collapsed in a fit of giggles.

We are currently trying to decide on a name for our rabid friend. Any suggestions?

A New Year

Forgive me, friends, for I have sinned against Blogdom. It has been almost two whole months...woops. And apparently some people would actually like to hear more about the strange experience that is my life.

Well. All I can say is that I fell off the bandwagon somewhere...probably right about the time I was up to my armpits in homework and finals...and now I must redeem myself.

So, the holidays have passed all too quickly and I find myself once again steeped in textbooks and papers and quizzes and all other assignments and duties which are, sometimes, the quagmire of school. It's not all bad, of course. My roommates and I seem to find a way to make things interesting, though it usually involves lying on the floor, kicking our legs in the air, and laughing until we snort. Not to mention squealing as we chase raccoons away from our front door, or as we discover unrecognizable food items hiding in the dark recesses of our fridge, or as we wax each others' armpits.

I got a job. Well, a new one. I was working from 9pm to 12:30am Monday through Friday in the campus library as a custodian. Inexplicably, I would find myself sleeping through my alarm in the morning or struggling to concentrate in class. Go figure. So, after a year and a half of scrubbing toilets, I set off into the world to find a new way—relatively speaking. BYU is rather a world of its own. And what do you know! There is a whole plethora of other custodial jobs out there, free for the taking! I now work with a cool guy named Brad in several of the buildings in the southwest corner of campus. It is definitely the easiest job I have ever had. If I'm not careful, I'll be left with no work ethic whatsoever. Our duties include:

-making sure the relatively few restrooms have toilet paper and paper towels

-picking up little pieces of paper left by students who don't seem to be able to read the directions on the paper towel dispensor and pull with two hands, thereby ripping off little pieces of towel and leaving them lovingly on the floor by the tens and hundreds for custodians like myself to pick up. These were affectionately called "chunkies" by us custodians at the library

-going back to Milt's office and chatting for half and hour while we eat cheetohs and Farley's fruit snacks (Milt is our supervisor)

-twiddling our thumbs while we think of what else we can do for the next two hours

-maybe wiping down some windows or cleaning drinking fountains

-vacuuming a couple hallways in the Joseph Smith building...maybe

-and I'm not sure what else...I've only had the job for a week. A couple nights ago we spent about 45 minutes torturing Milt with riddles

I work from 4-8pm, Monday through Friday, leaving plenty of time to study or chase raccoons with my roommates before going to bed.

I. Love. It.

And now for school. I'm taking six classes if you include the lab:

BIO 220A + lab (animal diversity—my lecture professor speaks like he's half asleep, and my lab teacher speaks like he's Chinese, which he is)
BIO 270 (animal restraint—we get to wrestle with pigs and cows and I know not what—SO excited)
PWS 270 (animal husbandry—I don't know what I was expecting, but we basically learn how to become ranchers)
German 201 (one semester of German left after this—ach, fröhlicher Tag!)
REL C327 (Pearl of Great Price—a book of scripture for those of you not familiar with it)

So that is Holly's Life 2009 so far. How quickly it will pass.

Jetzt muss ich meine Hausaufgaben machen, oder die Klasse Montags meinen Hintern kicken werden (now I must do my homework, or Monday's class will kick my butt).

Auf Wiedersehen!