Dear History Paper,

Why are you so mean and difficult? You sucked away so many hours of my life! Hours I can never get back. But this is the last time. I'm done with you. We're through! You're finished. I'm over you. I can move on now to bigger papers. Papers that... who am I kidding, papers that I hate just as much as you! I don't want to think about you ever again.

Sincerely,

Lana

Stress bender

I told Paige that my next post was going to be about the wonderful day I had yesterday. I will post about that at a later date. Right now I'm just STRESSING out. University is very difficult. I feel stretched to my limit, plus I work, not a lot, but I'm still working and it severely cuts up my homework time. Stress, stress, stress. Thats all I feel. And I feel it from every corner. What am I stressed about right now? Well let's see. Tomorrow I present in my European Geography class, not a big deal but I need to wake up early and make 4 dozen Fattigman (Norwegian cookies). Then I need to work on my History paper that I haven't read all the books for, then at 4 I need to go to a test review for my European Geography class. At 6 I work until after 10. Then I get to sleep, lucky me, for in the morning at 7.30 I have to take a General Social Sciences Test for licensure in my program. And I have to take it tomorrow or it will cost me $130. Also it's Paige's birthday on Saturday, and I want to be able to spend time with her, but guess what I have to finish my History paper. (Same one, books still not read...) And then I work again Saturday night. Plus I'll have to read another History book, Anthropology book, study for my European Geography test, oh yes and do a research paper and an anthropology paper! And I have to make more desserts for my class for next wednesday. Plus other odd stupid assignments. When am I supposed to have time to even attend class?! Stress stress stress

Poetic Cowboys

Tonight my classmate Matt and I went to see Cowboy Poetry in Heber City, UT. It was such fun. Luckily he knew some people so we got in for free and got to go backstage after the show. For those of you who dont know, Cowboy Poetry is this convention where cowboys from all over the states congregate and tell stories, jokes, sing songs, and recite poetry that they've written. It was so fun. We had watched a documentary about this in my folklore class so it was so great to go see it in person.

Check out these get-ups:

Great Moustache

I was too embarrassed to ask, but I did end up getting a photo with real cowboys

Pre-show, Matt being weird

Glaring cowfolk from over my shoulder

Auctioneer

I look exactly like my father...

I made a moustached cowboy on my hand

Matt's fake moustache freaks me out

We saw this guy in the documentary. He told great jokes.

Me with the live members of the Woody's Roundup band. Yes, the guys who won the Oscar.

Also, I made Madeleines in the shape of roses today. (And a few loaves of pumpkin bread.)My roommates have indefinitely revoked my baking privileges...

House Photos for You Mom

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I did not like this book. I read it today and it made me feel funny inside. It is the story of a young seagull who doesn't fit in with his flock. He is less occupied by trying to obtain food and just live, and more occupied with learning as much as he can about flying and testing the limits of his bodily strength. He is rejected by his own people and goes to a sort of "heaven" were he communes with a greater seagull named Chiang. Chiang teaches him that the physical body is no more than the thought and perception that it is there. He learns until his flight in itself is perfected. As a perfected gull he returns to his own flock to teach those who feel they do not fit in with the other gulls and who have more meaningful things to think about. He teaches a young gull Fletcher until this gull becomes perfected and then Jonathan Livingston Seagull leaves Fletcher to take care of the flock and teach those who are in need of teaching. There is a predominant theme of learning things, line upon line, precept upon precept. Starting to see the allusion?

Painting Jonathan as Christ wouldn't bother me if this book wasn't riddled with 1970s ideas about transcendental out of body ideas and the phrase "Hey, man..." I talked to Nicole about this and pondered why this bothered me so much. She concluded that it was the way in which they presented the information. They took the most important story to ever have occurred and twisted it. She says that in so doing they lessened the importance of Christ and his role here on earth. Especially when Fletcher "comes to realize that Jonathan was no more divine than he himself is." The Flock even calls Jonathan "Son of the Great Gull." When Jonathan ascends into heaven he pleads with Fletcher to not let the other gulls think he is a god.

Apparently people in the 70s related to this. Just as everyone will when presented with a little truth. The truth pulls at our Spirits to remember and then things that attempt to diminish Christ, like this, will twist them into something "rational" or "conceivable." When in reality, the Atonement, and Christ's mission on this world is something that is rational and conceivable to our spirits but not necessarily our thoughts as the world has shaped them.

My mom wanted me to share this book with everyone I know. I refuse. She says I'll never look at a seagull the same way again, I submit that it has only served to strengthen my testimony of the truth and diminished my liking for people who attempt to distort the Lord's mission to fit temporal understanding and standards.

Sorry Mom, I absolutely did not like this book.

Two Posts in One Day? It's a real treat. A Real treat.

I've literally been living off of pumpkin. I don't know how much more I can stomach. And we've still got 5 more. I can't throw them away, I haven't money for food, and I would feel so wasteful. I intend to make another pie and more pumpkin bread, but in the mean time, I have all this savory pumpkin puree. It's all I have to eat. And I just found a butternut squash. I've eaten entirely too much squash this season. And yams, oh great...

What culinary concoctions have I made this past week? Well let me tell you.

First, Lasagna. Delicious, wonderful, amazing lasagna. And this isn't your mother's lasagna -unless she's from Tuscany... Apparently only the Sicilians put ricotta cheese in their lasagna. Everyone else uses Bechemel sauce. Imagine that! And it is so good. WAY better than the "traditional" kind. My mom made it as well, and she and John say it's THE Best lasagna they've ever had. All this time, we could have been eating this type of lasagna. Oh those Sicilians. I'm starting to pick up the prejudice my great-great-grandfather had for them. He was on to something.



Then I started making things with pumpkin. We had so many pumpkins that I felt we had to use.
I made pumpkin juice for our Harry Potter Party. Eh, ok.

I made toasted pumpkin seeds. Delicious.

I made pumpkin pasties. Also good. Like mini pumpkin pies.

I made pumpkin yam mashed potatoes. They were good with a side of Old Bay grilled Chicken.



I made a rustic pumpkin tart. I didn't use a pie pan. I rolled out the dough and in the middle I packed the thick pumpkin puree (with one egg, a handful of brown sugar, and respective pumpkin pie spices) and folded the edge of the dough up onto the pumpkin all the way around. I left most of the middle showing and baked until it was cooked through. Topped with whipped cream it was wonderful.



On Sunday I made Pumpkin bread. It was the best bread I've ever had. When I took it out of the oven I topped it with honey and it formed a wonderful honey crust. I sliced it and put some butter between each slice and we had a feast. It was the best.



Then I made baked stuffed pumpkin. I browned some ground beef with onion, ginger, and garlic, added some vegetables and cooked rice. I stuffed this into a pumpkin and baked it until it was soft. It was marvelous.



Today I had left over baked pumpkin. I'm getting real sick of pumpkin now. But I feel like I should eat the food I had. So I took some of my pumpkin puree and added some sharp white cheddar and milk and made cheesy pumpkin soup. It was pretty good. But i am done with pumpkin. I can't take it.... no more. No more.



Oh Halloween?

Olive Oyl, Kiki, and Coraline

For work I was Olive Oyl, because everyone is convinced that I look just like her...
When I got home I changed into my Pokemon Trainer Ash Ketchum costume. Ash never looked so good. I hit up a couple parties with some friends and then my roommates and I watched "Let the Right One in." It was a very creepy Swedish Vampire film.



Yeah that's a ferret. I wanted to pretend it was my Pokemon, but it smelled like pee, so I didn't want it near me.



3 more weeks until I leave for Tennessee for Thanksgiving! Hilary tells me to stretch out my stomach, and I will as long as it's nothing with pumpkin.

UPDATE II

This morning the prowler was caught. The girls next door have been dealing with him for a while as well. Apparently he's pretty belligerent and has been tapping on their windows and removing their screens. *shudder* But this morning they had a friend of theirs, Uruk-Hai sized, laying in wait. They turned on a light and opened the blinds and sure enough the prowler came right to the window. Luckily someone across the street saw his running car and called the police. And the girls called the police and their ambusher chased him down. The police caught him and took his information. He's thirty, married, and lives in this neighborhood! He has a court date in January. It's not over, but boy are we grateful that he was caught and that the police have his info now. Thank you so much to the boys across the street who called, and everyone's hero Steve St. Pierre who chased him down. We are safer than we were yesterday, and so much lighter of heart.