Of Pizza and Plastic

Friday night! The start of the weekend.

Tonight Sarah and I bought a large pepperoni pizza at Domino's with a Starving Student Card, so we got a good deal on it. We watched Kung Fu Panda while we ate, since she had never seen it before. What a fun movie. The only problem is, I was still so hungry after we finished the pizza...

A little while ago, I was making some Ramen soup (of course). The cupboards and stove and everything were full of dishes (none of which were mine, believe it or not), so when I finished making the Ramen, the only place I could think to put it was the spot on the stove I had just used to make the soup. When I picked up the pot and put down the cheap plastic bowl on the hot metal grate, it crossed my mind that the bowl could melt a little as it sat there while I poured in the soup. But I went ahead anyway. Then I took the pot to the sink to wash it, still leaving the bowl on the stove. I'm sure you know where this is going. When I went back to pick up my bowl, I couldn't lift it from the grate. I put on a hot mitten thing to pull the grate off while I carefully held up the bowl full of soup. As I did so, I could see the melted parts from the bottom of the bowl stretching from the bowl to the grate, like it was melted cheese. After I pulled it off completely and took off the stringy parts of the bowl, I proceeded the same as usual. I don't care about it much, since I got four of these bowls for really cheap somewhere. The whole ordeal was just very amusing to me. This is what the bowl now looks like. You can see just where it was sitting on the grate.


So now I know in the future, for when I'm dealing with dishes that might actually matter to me - if I think it might melt because I'm putting something plastic and vulnerable on a hot stove that I just barely turned off, maybe I shouldn't do it. And here I thought I had left my "stupid years". :P

Haircut

Today I went and got my hair done with Debbie. I got a few inches trimmed off, a few highlights, and some layers. We went to Dallas Roberts Academy, a hair school... or something like that, so it wasn't as expensive as going somewhere to get it done professionally. And it still turned out lovely.

You can more or less see a bit of the layers in this picture.

You can kind of see the highlights in this one... kind of.

I went in being completely unsure as to what I actually wanted to do, but I really like how it turned out! Nothing too drastic (I'm too afraid... but someday I'd like to do something crazy), but it looks good. If only I were a better picture taker and you could actually tell. :P Regardless, it was a fun experience.

Taken From Rachel

This makes a post two days in a row! I haven't done that in a while. Anyway, a little survey thingy is always interesting to do every once in a while. :) (And for anyone who cares, I did reformat this a little to satisfy my obsessive-compulsiveness. It also makes it a bit more pleasant to read.)

Name: Ashley
Eye Color: Brown
Shoe size: 8, usually
Height: Just about 5'7"
What brands are you wearing right now? Uh... I'm honestly not sure about the brands. Normally I'd be wearing Old Navy jeans, but right now I'm wearing BYU sweatpants instead.
Favorite Number: 13
Favorite Drink: Milk, followed by water
Favorite Month: December - my birthday, Christmas, the holiday spirit... what's not to like?
Favorite Breakfast: Bacon and eggs. And bacon. I also love cereal.
-----------------------------HAVE YOU EVER-----------------------------
Love/Liked someone so much it made you cry? Aside from my family, I don't think so.
Been in a police car: No.
Came close to dying: As a pedestrian in a college town... yes.
Been in a hot tub: Ahh... yeah.
Fallen asleep in school: Yes.
Broken someone's heart: I hope not.
Cried when someone died: Yes.
Fallen off your chair: I'm sure I have.
Saved e-mails: Yes. With Gmail, I keep a lot of my emails.
Ever been cheated on: No, I've never been in a position to be.
--------------------------------WHAT IS--------------------------------
Your room like: Home - Blue walls, awesome blue and brown bed, usually has a lot of stuff that's not mine. School - Messy, cold, but good enough for me.
Last thing you ate: Brownies from an instant brownie mix my mom sent me.
-------------------------------EVER HAD-------------------------------
Chicken pox: Yes. In Second grade.
Sore throat: Yes.
Stitches: Besides the ones in my mouth when I had my wisdom teeth taken out, no.
--------------------------------DO YOU--------------------------------
Believe in love at first sight? Not really.
Like picnics? Yes, depending on the situation.
Like school? Parts of it, yes. Parts of it, no.
-------------------------------QUESTIONS-------------------------------
Who was the last person you danced with? Some boy I don't remember the name of in my country dance class.
Who makes you smile? My family and friends.
----------------------------------WHO---------------------------------
Did you last yell at? I don't know, honestly. I don't yell often.
Do you wear contact lenses or glasses? Contacts. I only wear glasses when I'm on my way to bed and when I get up in the morning, before putting contacts in.
Do you like yourself? Yes. Sometimes I just makes questionable decisions, like everyone else. :P
----------------------------MORE QUESTIONS----------------------------
Favorite song? No way. Too many to choose from.
What did you do today? Had a nice day off... didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly exciting.
--------------------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Hate someone in your family? No. Hate's a very strong word. I've been really upset at someone, but I couldn't hate them.
Good singer? I'd say I'm average.
Diamond or pearl? Diamond, though they're both pretty.
Are you oldest? No - I'm the fourth of six, in the middle with Trevin.
Indoors or outdoors? Depends. I like them both.
-----------------------------TODAY DID YOU-----------------------------
Talk to someone you like? Yes - I don't usually only talk to people I dislike.
Get sick? Not today. Though I think I still have a very slight cough from Christmas break.
Sing? A bit.
Talk to an ex? I don't have an ex.
Miss someone? Of course.
Tell someone you loved them? Of course.
----------------------------LAST PERSON WHO----------------------------
You talked to on the phone? My mom.
Drove in the car with you? I think Sarah and her cousin, when he took us grocery shopping.
Went to the movies with you? Jeffrey and Debbie - we saw Ghost Town.
-------------------------------HAVE YOU-------------------------------
Been to Mexico: No.
Been to Canada: No.
Been to Africa: No.
--------------------------------RANDOM--------------------------------
Do you have a crush on someone? Yes.
What books are you reading right now? Twilight. And I'm still in the middle of Eldest.
Best feeling in the world? I guess spending time and laughing with people I love.
Future kids' names? I really want to use Jacob for my first boy, for my last name Jacobson. And Ann for the middle name of my first girl, as it's my middle name and my mom's middle name.
Do you sleep with a stuffed animal? Yes! :)
What's under your bed? Home - food storage and some random stuff. School - probably some small things I don't realize are there.
Who do you really hate? I know it's cliché, but like I said, hate is a very strong word. I don't hate anyone.
Do you have a job? Yes, as a custodian at a cafeteria here. It's really not a bad job.
Ever liked someone you didn't have a chance with? Yeah, for one thing, I didn't really have a chance with anyone I thought was cute in elementary school. :P
Are you lonely right now? Yes and no. Always both. But I'm happy.

Welcome to 2009

I've been putting off posting a new entry for quite some time now, so I guess now is as good a time to do it as any. (Now that we're over halfway done with the month of January.) I'll try to run through the major points of what's going on in my life:

- BYU lost a very frustrating bowl game against Arizona. Very. Frustrating.
- Allen High made up for that - when I found out (while I was at BYU's bowl game that we were already losing at the time) that Allen won STATE, I was elated. The bowl game didn't really matter to me in that moment. My high school is AWESOME. I'm just super jealous of everyone who got to be there. (Cody was there with the band! Coolest thing ever. And yes Rachel, I'm looking at you. You know. Virtually.)
- Got home the night of the 21st, and slept on the couch. (Which doesn't bother me much - those couches are comfortable!)
- Woke up to realize I was 20. (And suddenly sick, as a matter of fact.) I've been anticipating being 20 for a little while now, but it's still mind-boggling when I really think about it.
- Had an awesome birthday - I got some great presents, but the best part was definitely having the whole family home.
- Had our usual Christmas Eve festivities, which include snacking on delicious foods, watching A Claymation Christmas, reading some stories we always read, and all of the kids playing Christmas tunes on our instruments together. (My horn had a crisis just beforehand, but with some help from Jeffrey, we were able to take care of it.)
- Christmas was great. Everyone gave and received some pretty cool stuff, and we all had a lot of fun together.
- I also had a lot of time to see my two nephews! Ashton is adorable, has grown so much in just a year, and was starting to walk when I was there (he's fully walking now). Knightley... well, let's just say, pictures of him don't do him justice. He's so super cute. I love them. ^_^
- We all got to spend a lot of time together before people starting leaving. It was definitely the best part of the break - being at home with my family, everyone being there at the same. Even though it meant that I slept on the couch and the floor half the time - I would sleep on the kitchen tile if it meant the whole family would be together for the holidays. I absolutely loved it all.
- I also got to spend some time with friends. It was great, though I didn't get as much time as I assumed I would allow for that kind of stuff.
- On the plane ride back, on one of my flights I sat next to the cutest little girl! Her name was Lily, she was two years old, and we played for the whole flight to Albuquerque. (Her dad seemed really nice about it all.)
- I got back to Provo on Sunday night (January 4th), and school started the next morning.
- Classes are all fine so far, and I'm hoping I can handle it all the whole semester.

I'm coming to enjoy being up at here more than I did at the start of my college years. (Not that I necessarily enjoy the actual school, homework, and test part of it.) I really appreciate the opportunity I have to be at BYU, and I love this school. I love every chance I get to be back at home, but I am grateful for the time I have here as well. I hope 2009 has a lot of opportunities, and I'll do my best to make it a great year.

Finals Week

So, Thanksgiving week was amazing. I drove down to Allen, Texas with a couple other people, which was a very long drive (about 19 hours one way). I completely surprised my family at home, though - they had no idea I was coming. At all. They were shocked. It was awesome. I had an amazingly fun time with my family the four days that I was there. We all had tons of fun together, I didn't worry about school or work during the break, the food was delicious. So much fun. The only downside to Thanksgiving break is that I have a really hard time completely coming back to school, mentally. Also, over the break, Jeffrey and Debbie had their baby, Knightley! Knightley Leland Jacobson, born on November 25, 2008 (8 lbs 4 oz, 18.5 in, for anyone who's interested/doesn't know).

Now that I've made it through a couple more weeks of school, I'm in the middle of finals week. Such an unpleasant experience. I only have two finals left to take tomorrow, though, and then I'll be finished. Tomorrow... I have a lot of work to do, though. Blech. Then the marching band leaves on Thursday morning to go to Las Vegas for the bowl game. Which will be fun. Then I get home the night of the 21st, and the following day is my birthday. I am so stoked. I can't wait to get home - everyone in my family, including the married couples, is going to be there for the break. It's going to be one huge awesomefest.

I just have to stay focused for one more day, and then I can let go and enjoy Christmas season the way it was meant to be enjoyed, without the stress of school butting in.

P.S. Is it a bad thing that I'd rather go to Allen High School's State football game than BYU's bowl game? :P

Calm Before The Storm

Well, I'm glad this week is about over. For me, at least. I have marching band this afternoon, and my computer graphics class at 7. Which I enjoy. Then I have marching band tomorrow afternoon, and that's it. So basically, this week is practically done aside from those few things I need to go to. This week wasn't the worst ever, but I've been looking forward to it's conclusion. I had a couple papers to write and a bunch of art stuff to do, and all that jazz. Which, naturally, I put off until I absolutely have to do it. :P

This weekend is The Duel - the game between BYU the U of U. It's always a big deal, and there's a huge rivalry between the two universities. We've won the past two years, and I really hope we win again. BYU spirit all the way!

Next week is Thanksgiving week, which will be really nice. I found out yesterday that two of my classes on Monday aren't meeting, and the other one we're just watching some video. Then on Tuesday is Friday instruction, and since I don't have anything to go to for those Friday classes (we're not even meeting for marching band that day), I have nothing at all on Tuesday. I don't even have work, since it's Friday instruction - they're having the people at the Cannon Center who work on Friday work on that day. My Thanksgiving break starts a day earlier than most other people on campus. Sweet! It's going to be a nice Thanksgiving.

After this week, there's only about two weeks left of school, and then a week of finals. We're almost done! It's unbelievably close! So is it bad if I still feel like I'm catching up in some classes? :P I've reached a relaxed point in my classes - for a moment. Once this is over, I'll have to kick it into gear again (going back to school after Thanksgiving break? Does anyone really completely come back?). We're almost there.

The Good Stuff

Last week I got to sign up for classes. What a joy. In all honesty, I really do enjoy planning out class schedules and signing up for classes and stuff, it's just not as fun to take the classes. That, and it can be a pain to sign up for them, since a whole lot of people at BYU are trying to sign up at the same time, so it kinda makes the website a bit slower. I did get all the classes I wanted, but I'm actually waiting to see if spots open up in different sections of a couple of the classes will open up. I'm sure they will eventually, I just have to keep my eye on them so I can grab it.

This weekend we had a football game against San Diego State University (SDSU), and won 41-12. It was a great game. Not only that, but we had one of the coolest halftime shows I've ever done. We played Tetris, Zelda, Mortal Kombat, Pokémon, and Freebird. Awesomest. Show. Ever. I'm pretty certain I'll get a recording of it from band eventually. It was so sweet.

This weekend Jeffrey was also back in town! So today he, Debbie, Trevin, and I all got together and had a Sunday meal together, after which we played some games together. The food was really good, and much appreciated. Then me, Trevin, and Jeffrey played some little Arthur game that came in a Wendy's Kid's Meal. So you know how much fun that had to be. It was so lame that it was funny... except for the fact that in the three games that we played of it, I got last all three times. No... that was actually funny too. Then all of us played It Came To Pass. In the first round, when people were scoring, I dunno... 20s? 30s? I got a whopping 167 points. And you're supposed to get as few points as possible. 167?! That round was seriously messed up. We ended up playing until someone hit 500, which we all knew after a short while would be me. At the end of it all, I had 504, and the person who came in second to last only had 245. (The rest of the scores were all relatively close.) Undisputed last place. That's right guys... ain't nobody can lose the way I can. But seriously, I had a blast today. I literally laughed so hard so much today that not only did my stomach and face start hurting, like sometimes happens, but I got a serious headache. I still have it. I'm just hoping it's gone by morning. But hey, what better way to get a killer headache than to laugh really hard all day? :)