Mountain Rains

To start off, I just want to say that I love the rain. I really do. There are a lot of people out there who become upset at cloud cover and absolutely depressed once they detect heaven's blessing of rain; I am not one of them! In fact, cloud cover brightens my day, and rain makes it. While others are walking around gloomy-faced, my eyes are bright with enthusiasm. Warm rains are my absolute favorite.
Now, in Rexburg, Idaho, there is no such thing as "warm rain". If there is rain here, the temperature drops with the water, which is just fine. This whole week has been rainy. Yesterday, I was tempted to go run around in a brief downpour, but remembered that I still had a couple of classes left in the day. Rats. Today, I walked to my 7:45am Bio. 265 lab in a mild drizzle and walked back to my apartment at 9:45am in sheets of half snow, half rain. My mood, aided by the usual sleep-deprivation, has need for improvement. I'm really not that upset, I just don't want the snow here yet. It can wait until late November/early December and that will be just fine with me. Obviously the Snow Demons either have itchy trigger fingers, small bladders and too much "snow juice", or whatever you want to see it as.
Amid the atmospheric higgeldy-piggeldy, there is life marching on like battle-ready ants.
Anatomy and Physiology II is really digging into the endocrine system, and for good reason. It plays such a large role in making sure your body functions properly, that the slightest upset can have serious consequences. This morning, in my lab, we went through a case study that had us diagnose a lady with particular symptoms, like weight-loss, loss of lateral vision, throbbing headaches, warm and moist skin, etc. With two hours' worth of looking at blood test results and research, my group and I determined that she had tumors on her thyroid and pituitary glands. Needless to say, it wasn't easy. Eventually we're going to be busting two case studies in lab; that will be fun. Fortunately, we're going over hormones and the endocrine system in my Exercise Physiology class right now as well, so that will help get this stuff down.
With the Christmas season closing in slowly but steadily (faster than expected, if the weather had anything to say about it), there's a doin' a-transpirin' between yours truly and two musically-talented friends. We had decided last year to get together at the Christmas season, go down to Idaho Falls or somewhere, and play Christmas songs. Brianna and me on the trumpet and Kristilynn on the trombone. It didn't exactly happen last year, but this year, so far, is more promising. We have obtained some sheet music yesterday and tried it out. So far, so good. Maybe that's why there's snow falling right now: we appealed to the snow demons with our premature Christmas melodies. If that is the case, than I am truly sorry.


 http://daviderl.com/CalvinAndSnowGoon.html
http://media.photobucket.com/image/calvin%20and%20hobbes%20praying/laurasnow75/CalvinSnowDance.gif

Full Weekend

I've decided to add a little blog post that talks about some happier things; things like the weekend.
The weekend was full of fun. It started out Friday evening with a date to the Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband concert. I would recommend looking them up and checking out their music. One of my favorite songs of theirs is Dream Big. What you are looking at in this picture is good fortune. The bottom tickets are the ones that I bought. Notice the seats are in the bleachers. We were sitting all the way in the back when a lady who was working the ticket office asked us if we were satisfied with our seats with a small wink. When we replied in the negative, she gave us the tickets you see at the top. Notice they are front row tickets. We were within 20 feet of the Rubberband at all times. It was quite a trip. When it comes to movie theaters, I'm not one for the front row. Concerts, on the other hand, I don't mind in the least. Anyway, they are an extremely entertaining band to watch; with the way they jump around and play with each other. They also have a great sense of clean humor, which makes them that much better. It is well worth it to go and see them in concert. The only downside of the concert was that we were sitting next to the cameramen who were operating a camera on a big boom. Every now and then they would encroach on my space, but they weren't really any trouble.
The next day started at 6:00am with the promise of a trip to Yellowstone. That promise held true and by 7:30am I, along with 6 friends, had embarked on the 2-hour trip to the national park. I didn't take my camera because my roommate (Ronnie Cooper), who has a much better camera than I, took his and was deemed trip photographer. He's posted quite a few on Facebook, so you can see our adventures there. All in all it was a lot of fun, beautiful scenery, and good company. We even made it back in time for the girls who were with us to make it to the Relief Society Broadcast.
Sunday began for me at 7:30am due to my new calling as Ward Executive Secretary (refer to my last post). I was at church from 8:30am until about 5:45pm, at which point I headed over to a Stake Auxiliary Training Meeting that went from 6:00-7:00pm. After that I made my way to take care of some ward business at a few other apartments. I returned to my apartment at roughly 7:45 for a about 5 minutes before heading across the complex to a pizza dinner I promised to attend. That was welcomed indeed. The pizza was amazing and I hardly had to lift a finger. By the end of the day I was beat. Yes-sir, I was ready for bedtime when it finally came around.

Song of Doom

I thought the word doom would be sufficient to describe the recent goings-on. It may be a bit of an exaggeration, but whatever.
So what you are looking at right here are the signs of Rexburg being a small town with little revenue. If you have to ask, the answer is yes, they are enforcing these laws and every officer is alert for threats to the extreme danger of people walking in the street. I happen to agree with both signs to the point that people should pay attention when crossing the street anywhere. It has been my experience that any miscreants crossing a street at a non-designated "safe zone", also known as a crosswalk, tend to be more alert to what is going on around them. Of course, no matter where you go, you get the person that, for some reason, decides one day that they don't need their brain and happily leave it in bed, at school, in a jar, wherever. Interesting little factoid: all instances of people being hit by cars (the 3 this past week alone) with the possible exception of maybe one every year or so (again, maybe an exaggeration) have occurred while the pedestrian or bicyclist was in a crosswalk. Nevertheless, the rulers of our little town have decreed that the only place acceptable to cross a street, under penalty of fiscal gouging for disobeying orders, is a crosswalk.
Anyway, onto other matters. First thing's first. I have been deemed capable and therefore been made the Executive Secretary for my ward up here at BYU-Idaho. In case you're wondering what in the world an Executive Secretary is, it's similar to being a secretary for a very busy business man. I set up appointments, attend meetings and take necessary notes, and basically whatever the bishopric needs to help run the ward smoothly. Needless to say, I'm almost as busy as the Bishop himself. It's going all right so far; I'm a little shaky and still searching for my running legs. Thankfully, I will be getting two assistants to help me.
As for school, I seem to be floundering a bit in that area as well. My homework is reading, reading, reading, writing, practice, attending "fine arts" events (like art displays, concerts, plays, etc.), and reading. I'll have Student's Myopia in no time! It hasn't really helped my studies that I went with a group of my friends to Yellowstone National Park today. It was fun, Yellowstone is gorgeous, and I wouldn't trade it for sitting around and pouring over page after page of homework. Besides, that's what the car-ride was for. It also helps that I didn't have as much as I have been having.
Good news is that all the troubles I've been having get better with time and hard work. So the key is to never give up, never surrender!