My thoughts on stress and a funny story from work

Today I was planning to go back to the original purpose of this blog, which was to express my thoughts about life (ha), and write about how I cope with stress but then Sara came along with a great idea to share a funny story from work which I alluded to but did not disclose in my conversation with her. So I've decided I will do both, beginning with the one you'll be most likely to read.

"It looks like a worm!" - Funny story from work

I work in the same office as Alexis, who is the graphic designer for the chemistry department. When we got the new digital signs over Christmas break, she was given the added responsibility of creating templates and slides to put on them. I use her templates to make most of the slides while she is in charge of doing the special ones, including the ACS Molecule of the Week.

This week's molecule is Methyl Isocyanate, a long, clumpy-looking molecule. Alexis' friend brought her lunch while she was making it and stayed a little while to talk and eat. When Alexis put the picture of Methyl I.'s molecular structure on the slide, she (Alexis) commented, "It looks like a worm," and her friend laughed.

"Do you even know what the description is talking about?" Alexis' friend asked.

Alexis didn't mind being teased. "I have no idea. It's all beyond me. If I had to write the description, it would probably go something like this: This molecule looks like a worm. Worms live in the earth and eat dirt. This one is colored gray, blue, black and red."

Her friend joined in. "I had a dream about a worm once," she said, and they both laughed. (So did I.)

Alexis' friend stayed for about another 45 minutes, providing good conversation the entire time. Every so often, I would laugh or interject something just to remind them I was listening, but mostly I just stuck to eavesdropping. They didn't talk about anything personal.

Then today, Sara came by so I could go over her essay really fast before she turned it in and she took a minute to read the descriptions on the Discovery of the Day and the Molecule of the Week slides while I read her essay. When I was finished, I looked over and saw her reading about Methyl Isocyanate. Alexis was working quietly at her own computer on the other side of the room, and I just had to say it for her benefit: "That molecule looks like a worm."

Sara looked at it and said, "Yeah, it does," while Alexis laughed softly.

"There's a good story behind that," I said, conscious that Alexis had stopped laughing and gone back to her work.

"You could blog about it," Sara suggested. And then we went on with her essay.

My thoughts on stress

The end of the semester is near, and everyone is stressed.

One thing that really helps me deal with stress is breaking down what I have to do into small parts so it looks more manageable. I can do it if it's in steps. But sometimes that doesn't work. Sometimes it's better I write a more general to do list so it looks like I really don't have that much to do and then I can trick myself into thinking No problem, I've got plenty of time to get all this done (which is funny because you'd think I'd procrastinate more if I thought I had lots of time. Not so. In this case, even though I'm "tricking" myself, I'm really not because I know exactly how much I have to do, it just looks like I have to do less when I write a general list).

When neither of those things work, it's time to take a break and rejuvenate myself with something- ice cream, a book, piano (but I have to be careful, or my "break" will stretch for hours) and/or look ahead to life after finals. I will have taken my last final and turned in my last assignment by April 22, and then I have three full days of no class before spring term. (Mom and Dad, can Jill and I and maybe Sara come over on one of those days and make s'mores while burning all our papers from winter semester?) I'll get to live with my grandparents for spring (is that still okay, Grandma? I talked to you about it a few weeks ago) and take my first-ever college Spanish class (wish me luck) and hopefully set up regular lessons with my piano teacher again. After spring, I'll have about a month of just work to worry about before I leave for California (I still haven't figured out how I'm getting there...), the Draper family, and 10 piano!

As John Bytheway says, "This too shall pass." A month from now, I'll be able to look back on this unfun time and say, "I'm so glad that's over."

Spring?

I took these pictures last Friday on the walk home with Sara. She pointed out the new buds growing on the ivy and suggested a picture. She's always looking for new things I can put on my blog (so am I) and I obliged. :)

We got some sunshine today. Can we get our hopes up yet?

It's Monday, and I have no pictures

Happy Monday. I thought about blogging something I had pictures for (such as our ward party Saturday night or walking home with Sara on Friday) but I wasn't feeling it. You can look forward to those posts later this week. In the meantime, I still wanted to put something up and so here it is. :)

Thanks for picking me up yesterday for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's, Mom. Love you, family. And friends who read this blog.

Holy snow

Brrr...

Women's basketball sadness

The final score was 62-50, and it was in favor of the Trojans.

BYU has come back in countless games to win despite an earlier deficit. The women's basketball team have had an amazing season. They were regular season champions for 2010-11 and routed their last game, 102-63. But in the second half of the game last night, they couldn't hit a shot. It was sad to watch a team I've become invested in through countless hours spent talking to them and covering their games perform so badly when I knew they were better than that. There's more to life than basketball, but nothing bites more than knowing the winner could easily have been you- you were just off that day.

Something I read today

Mr. Williamson, the Space Center director, often writes some very entertaining blog posts. At the end of his story or thought of the day, he likes to put pictures or videos he found that are either funny or inspirational. Today, this was my favorite:

Hahahaha

Again I quote Jill: "The mark of true maturity is knowing when you can be immature."

Sara

I just realized I haven't used one of my older pictures yet. The picture is of Sara, so I decided, rather than write about a single event that happened a month ago, I would dedicate this post to a plethora of Sara-ness! (Sara, that word was for you.) I do this without asking Sara first, but I confess that won't stop me from highlighting one of my oldest friends.

I first met Sara in fifth grade at Sego Lily Elementary. I was new to the school and pretty nervous about going there. The very first person I remember seeing is K.T., whom I'd met through my new piano teacher only a week or two before. The very next person was Sara. She greeted me with a happy smile I desperately needed, and I stuck to her like glue for the rest of the day. (Or most of it; Sara was a morning student so I stayed a little longer than her in the afternoon.) I even walked next to her in the school lunch line (I didn't buy a lunch because I brought my lunch from home), though she was a little surprised when I asked if I could.

Although I developed other friendships at school (mainly with K.T. and Mikayla), I still loved talking to and hanging out with Sara and I count myself lucky to still be her friend today. She is (and this adjective is self-proclaimed) weird, quirky (I'm accountable for that one and all that follow), thoughtful and happy. She's also a great cook.

Sara laughs while holding a box of cooking ingredients, leftover pizza, a loaf of bread and her scriptures against the wall, figuring out how to carry it all back to her apartment. This was last month when Sara and K.T. used K.T.'s kitchen to cook up a delicious storm. We (me, K.T. and Jill) offered to help her carry stuff, but she refused. "I can manage."

Sara shows us prancing during one of her very hyper moods. We were actually kind of on a date at the time. :)

Sara poses for me as I attempt to document our trip to Temple Square last November. This is a typical Sara face.

Sooo Tyler

Dear little brother,

Sometimes you make me laugh so hard tears come out of my eyes.

Tyler, Saturday evening

And to prove he could comb his hair flat again...

Sunday morning

Back to elementary school

Clifford the Big Red Bowl is piled high with tater tots and chicken nuggets in preparation for the walk to the elementary school on Sunday afternoon.

Like Jill always says, "the mark of true maturity is knowing when you can be immature."

Mara was planning to have a chicken nugget/tater tot night yesterday and bought family size bags of tater tots and chicken nuggets Saturday evening to prepare for it. The day was so nice I convinced her we should take them to the elementary school nearby because it has a swing set and a rope "spiderweb" you can climb. (It's like the Spider at Meadow Elementary except it's not made up of metal bars.) It's only three or four blocks from Wyview- a nice walk in weather like yesterday's.

It didn't turn out exactly like we planned because there were a ton of little kids with some adults already running around when we got there and we couldn't swing or even climb to the top of the spiderweb because there were too many kids. Mostly we just sat on the grass eating our chicken nuggets and tater tots and watched the little kids play, climb, swing and run. There was one little boy wearing a striped shirt that was showing off for us on the spiderweb that we affectionately named "Stripe Boy."

We probably stayed at the school for about an hour until I got a little cold in my shorts and T-shirt and begged everyone (aka Jill, Mara and Zach) to leave. Jill, who had long pants and a sweatshirt (AND a dog) on, said, "You should've brought a jacket." To which Mara, in her capris and short-sleeved shirt but curled up next to Zach, added, "I'M not complaining." Zach, in his long pants and long-sleeved shirt, said nothing.

I eventually won the argument when I laid my hand on Mara's arm to prove how cold I was and she jumped up and said, "Guys, she's not kidding. Let's go."

Go Mara. :)

Mara dips a chicken nugget in fry sauce (notice we brought two bottles) while Jill studies next to her. See the Spiderweb in the background? And Sugar, lying in front of Jill? And the back of Zach's head and ear? Yep, this is a quality picture, all right.

The contents of Clifford the Big Red Bowl are reduced by half after about 15 minutes of determined eating. The tater tots were my favorite.

WE KNOW WHERE YOU PARK. WE'VE BEEN WATCHING.

I saw this in the front of my apartment building Saturday morning and just had to take a picture of it. Good thing I did, because the note was gone by Sunday.

Mis amigos

Space Center with Stina, Kenzie and Zach this morning.

"Tangled" with K.T., Mikayla and Sara this evening.

Everyday life with Mara and Jill.

It's been a good day.

My rejoicings about a beautiful day!

This is EXACTLY how I felt coming to school to find class canceled and an opportunity to turn around and go right back outside to study in the glorious sunshine!

I love the sun, the sun loves me. We are a happy family!

GRAMA crippled: New law casts a shadow on the Sunshine

GRAMA is the Freedom of Information law specific to Utah, and Governor Herbert just signed a bill that will cripple it! The new law excludes all electronic documents and communications between the public officials we elected into office from being subject to a GRAMA request. The bill whipped through the House and Senate and landed on the governor's desk. The only reason he hesitated to sign it was because journalists everywhere were furious and started an uproar against it. Now, "despite petitions, rallies, letters, phone calls, social media campaigns, media editorials and personal outreach asking him not to do it," Herbert has signed it anyway.

Our public officials were elected by us. We chose them to represent and serve us. How can we keep them honest if we're no longer allowed to see their records? What does our government have to hide?

Photographing Mr. Maeser

Meet Karl, the statue that hangs out in front of the honors building. He cuts a poetic image with a book tucked under one arm and the other held modestly behind him as he stares off to the east.

Students from Comms 321 practice their photographing skills on the best of subjects- someone who can't go anywhere. Students were required to take several practice photos.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Dinner at my place

My life and sanity are saved once again by copy and paste!

Whoever implemented copy and paste should be knighted.

I've made about 20 new pages for the chem website so far today, just moving stuff that was on the old site to the new one, and I LOVE COPY AND PASTE.

Side notes:

• Joseph's concert (and Chili's after) last night was fantastic.
• Mom, I got my box. Thank you.
• Looking forward to spending time with Sara this afternoon. Sad that my plans for tomorrow had to be moved to next week.
• Mara's mother is here on a surprise visit from New York. She only decided to come for sure on Wednesday morning.
• Jill needs a break. I hope this weekend is more relaxing for her than last weekend. She needs a moment (more like a week, really) to herself.

Tengo mucho hambre

Dear Life.

Thanks to Jill and Mara for sharing their food so willingly.

Thanks for a tender mercy- the women's basketball game being last night instead of tonight.

Thanks to Dad for dropping off mail.

Thanks to Mara and Sara for the plans tomorrow night to see Joseph (Sara's brother)'s concert.

Thanks to Mikayla, Sara and KT for the plans Saturday night.

Amazing how much you can get done in 2 1/2 hours. And how much more there is still to do.

Love, Jess