Saxophone class

I finally got in touch with my saxophone teacher fifteen days ago or so and had my first lesson last Tuesday at 6. My teacher's name is Jory. He's a graduate student, he's a really good player and he's really nice. My first impression was a positive one.

This week, I accidentally wrote down the wrong time for my class and missed it altogether. I showed up about two minutes after it ended thinking it was due to start. When Jory found out I hadn't intentionally blown him off, he rescheduled the lesson and arranged for a substitute teacher. And so my second private sax lesson ever was yesterday at 5, with another amazingly kind, patient grad student named Ben who seemed worried I was getting bored with playing scales. (Jory taught me one last week; Ben added two more.)

"I'm happy to play scales," I told him. "It's more than I walked in here knowing."

"Well, I'd recommend finding a recording of a sax player you like and using it as a reward for playing your scales," Ben said. "Try to figure out the songs; try to figure out some other scales on your own. You'll learn so fast if you do."

It's so exciting to hold a saxophone in my hands again and actually begin to feel I know what I'm doing.

Chain of ignorance

Last night Mara and I and three boys from our ward went to the BYU hockey game. Our presence was a tribute to how much Mara loves hockey; the Cougars got killed by the Aggies, 2-12.

We started talking about the big rivalry football game today against Utah and how none of us had tickets, but we'd probably be able to hear it from our "backyards," considering the stadium is right across the street from Alta.

"A bunch of people in the lounge usually watch games together," Josh said.

"We could watch it on TV and hear it live at the same time," I quipped.

"We should do it," Mara said. She turned to me and asked, "what time is the game?"

I turned to Josh and asked, "What time is the game?"

Josh turned to Tanner and asked, "What time is the game?"

Tanner looked at him and said, "I don't know."

Josh looked at me and said, "I don't know."

I looked at Mara and answered, "I don't know."

On the other side of Mara, Chris started laughing. But he didn't know the answer either.

Sara's proposal

"I have a proposal for you," Sara said last night to Mara and me as we stood in the kitchen watching her wash her dinner dishes. Mara's face lit up with a devil-innocent grin.

"Oh Sara, the answer is yes!"

There are few things more satisfying than work well done

... Actually, there's probably a lot of things more satisfying than working, but here's what I've been up to the past few days...

The computer network was down at work for three days in a row (Monday through Wednesday), which was frustrating but fun when I discovered ways to get work done without My Documents. (Hooray for my flash drive and e-mail, which I used heavily as places to save and transport the work I did!)

Article #1: PhD student takes third in new ACS symposium, published Monday
Article #2: Lots of fun and food at annual department picnic, published Wednesday with pictures

When I wasn't sorting through 165 pictures (I got a little trigger-happy at the department picnic), revising articles, or finding creative ways to update the digital signage, I was catching up or getting ahead on school assignments... All told, a productive couple of days even though the odds were stacked against me!

Even so, I was very glad when I arrived for work today to find the network up and running once again.

10 years ago today

The morning began like any other. I awoke, dressed, ate breakfast, and was on my way out the door to go to school when my dad called to tell my mom to turn on the TV news. Always a television magnet, I hung back to see what was going on before leaving. The reporters were recapping the story of the first plane when their guy on scene said, "Wait- there's another plane! There's a second plane!" and the video immediately cut to a live feed of the Twin Towers in NY, NY, just in time to capture the second crash. I was transfixed. I could tell my mom and the reporters were stunned.

My mom stared at the screen for a minute, then remembered I was still in the house and turned to usher me out. I walked to my elementary school, which is right next to our house, not fully comprehending what I had seen or the scope of the tragedy that had just occurred. When I got to school, my fourth grade teacher Mrs. Evans asked how many children had heard the news. Quite a few had. We talked about it for a little bit. I don't remember specifics of what was said, but I recall that was the moment I realized these two crashes were more serious than I thought.

In the years that have passed since then, I keep realizing more and more what a shocking, terrible thing this was to happen, the incredible heroics of the emergency personnel that were called to the scene, and the phenomenal feelings of unity and patriotism as our nation rallied around the tragedy.

Timp hike

Sara invited Mara and I to hike Mount Timpanagos with her family yesterday. We spent Friday night at the Djurich house so we could all get up at a whopping 3:30 a.m. (so we weren't hiking in the hot part of the day).

Sara read us a bedtime story, "Where is My Cow?" by Terry Pratchett

(This is Rachel's room, where Mara and I slept. We were excited and very entertained by the wide expanse of glow-in-the-dark stars covering the ceiling. Also she has a super comfortable bed. "We pretty much died in that bed," as Mara said.)

Sara on the trail at 5 a.m.

Mary and her friend Savannah- 5 a.m.

Mara. 5 a.m. I had to take a picture of this.

Sunrise from the mountain

Sunup

Hiking- Mr. Djurich, David, Mara, Mary

One of the many waterfalls :)

Pretending to eat moss at Emerald Lake (Sara)

Emerald Lake

Mara, Mary, Sara, David, Savannah

Mara

Small waterfalls (to the side of a big one, which is not pictured)

Everyone was pretty tired on the way back down

Mary surveying the waterfall

Mara and I were super sore when we finally got back to the Djurich house. Everyone was tired. Mr. Djurich fed us fried chicken, which we devoured. Everyone showered and then Mara and I crashed while Sara and Mary veged playing Legend of Zelda. We woke up in time to go back to Provo with David, and Sara crashed while Mara and I did laundry and swam for a bit. (We needed the weightlessness to give our muscles a rest.)

After church today, we went and visited Jill at Wyview. She serenaded us on the guitar outside for a little while, and we talked a little bit. It was nice.

How I became a human anthill... and the first day of class

I was rightly nervous about the workload in store when I signed up for three writing classes and Spanish (although I think the knowledge gained will be very helpful long-term). I'm excited about basketball, which I acquired as kind of a creativity/sanity booster (just forget about writing for an hour) and saxophone class of course. I also really like all my teachers and classes except one, but there's still hope for that class to be awesome.

I also keep running into people who know my name and I only vaguely remember theirs, and where I know them from. The latest example occurred last night with a girl named Katarina (or was it Catalina?). Who knows...

At least the girl I ran into about four times today was familiar to me. Her name is Melissa and I know her from my Wyview ward last year. I saw her for the second time right before noon. I was just setting my stuff down on a nice grassy hill in the shade of a tree, excited to eat and read while taking advantage of the good weather, when she walked by and stopped to say, "Jessica, you're crawling with ants!"

"What?" I jumped up quickly and looked down. Sure enough, there were black and red ants swarming all over me and my stuff. (Luckily I hadn't gotten my food out yet.) There was no warning- I hadn't even felt the slight tickling sensation of dozens of little legs crawling all over you- but in the five seconds I had been sitting in the grass, about thirty ants were all up and down my legs, shorts, and shirt. Thirty more were exploring my backpack. "Oh, thanks!" I said to Melissa while furiously trying to brush myself off. They were very stubborn ants. Some may even have been trained in the secret ninja arts of Avoiding the Hand.

"No problem," Melissa said, watching with no small amusement. "Well, I'm on my way somewhere- see you."

I moved inside after she left. And killed three more of the ninja ants I found crawling on my backpack or on me before I felt safe taking out my sandwich.