City Science Fun

PICTURES!!!

(Funny cone head people in a store at Rockefeller center)

(The proposal at the ice rink in Rockefeller Center...so cute.)

(Beautiful decorations... this is the building that does the cool light show...)

I took lots of pictures but there just isn't enough time or space to upload them all. We went as a family to the Liberty Science Center which was really fun. It brought me back to my elementary school days when we would go once a year. Good times. This picture will excite some...namely Scott, Dan, and Sarah....

(Yeah I did)

NYC Adventures

We went into the city today for our annual Christmas visit. Though it was after Christmas it was still wonderful and we got to see everything all decked out for the holidays. I absolutely love the smell of the city, well okay most of it. No one like the smell of vomit or feces, but the roasting nuts, pretzels, and hot dogs, combined with the wonderfully toxic car fumes....it's like heaven or at least definitely worth the hour and a half wait to get through the Lincoln Tunnel!

Our most exciting part of the adventure was to witness someone get proposed to on the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center!! I think it's a good thing she said yes...

We got curious enough today, as to what exactly chestnuts taste like, to try some. In case you haven't ever tried them they're not really worth it. They taste almost like potatoes, no matter how sweet and candy like the vendor tells you they are!!

Tomorrow I might go see Twilight again, probably eat homemade ice cream, and will put up some pictures from our jaunt into NYC today!!

Yes Sizzli List

I got to hang out with my BFF on Friday night which was insanely fun. We stayed up late chatting and then went to Wawa for pancake sizzli's in the morning which was even more fun. Then I got to go to the church to play basketball with my family which was fun beyond fun!! What a fun weekend!!

I was watching David Letterman's Top Ten Lists from this last week and was inspired to write my own similar to the "Top Ten Things Jim Carrey will Always say Yes to" (Yes Man, was a funny movie btw)

Top Ten Things Emily Will Always Say Yes To:
10. Pancake Sizzli's for breakfast
9. Hanging out with friends
8. A real live puppy
7. Stitches finally falling out
6. Several large vats of Western Family strawberry yogurt
5. Hugs and kisses...from people I know resonably well and can trust to stop at hugs and kisses!!
4. An engagement to Jim Carrey
3. Any sort of monetary suppliments or college funding
2. A few million dates with Batman in full Batman get-up
1. On a related note, my very own bat wings preferably actually made out of memory cloth so as to become rigid upon any rapid desent.

Video Giving Joe

Christmas was fantastic. I got a lot of great stuff and got to eat ham for dinner!! Some of the things I got, that I am most grateful for receiving!!
- 3 pans of different sizes
- The Dark Knight DVD
- Batman gloves
- A cutting board
- Hot pads
- Jim Brickman Greatest Hits CD
- "100 Years" by Five for Fighting sheet music
- A sleeve for my lappy
- Batman action figure
- Flarping silly puddy
- Flubber DVD
- And tons of super cute clothes from Santa

My favorite part was giving presents though. I was paired up with Scott and Cassie to buy presents for Sarah and Ben. We got Sarah a "Job Hunting Survival Kit" and a few other things. We got Ben the complete recording of Miss Saigon (he will be playing the part of John in his schools performance), some fun cereal, and hot cocoa mix. I had already gotten my mom and dad the tickets to see Garrison Keillor and Prairie Home Companion in New York a few weeks ago. My very favorite gift though was for Jeff. Alex and I got him a PET FISH!!! He named it Joe.

(Joe in his wonderful home...created lovingly my Alex and myself)

Speaking of Christmas and family and fun you should check out this awesome video my family made about our wonderful thoughts and traditions of Christmas. I dare say it is pretty amazing. You can also get to the video through our family website. There is a link for that on the left side of this page!! Enjoy...

Keeping Me In Stitches

I had quite a scare last night. As yesterday was the first time I could brush and be rough with my stitches, I was feeling around in my mouth and could not find any evidence whatsoever that they had removed my upper two wisdom teeth. So naturally I freaked out and had my mom look in my mouth and she couldn't see anything either.

This morning she called the oral surgeon, who of course had a perfectly good explanation, but not one that could have been explained to me in my previous two visits. Apparently the upper extractions are quite different from the bottom ones. The incision is smaller, the gums are softer, they only have internal dissolving stitches, and can apparently heal completely in a week and a half.

Well I'm off to await Santa's arrival and to lay out my final presents now that certain people have gone to bed....::grins wickedly::

Hearty Holidays

I have just purchased in one day, two of the greatest Christmas gifts ever!! (minus the one we got my mom and dad) It feels great! I promise to tell you all about them after they have been heartily received by their new and grateful owners.

I also sat in traffic for an hour ice was being cleared off of power lines. That did not feel great.

There's no place like New Jersey for the holidays!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!!

Dissolvable Goodbyes

I had a very busy out of the house day today.

In the morning I went with my mother and father to Kaye Cale's' funeral. I sung "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing", a song she requested, with a very small ward choir. It was a very moving service and I could feel her there with us. RIP Kaye...

After the services we drove my dad to the train, then went to Somerville for my follow up appointment with the oral surgeon. There I found out that my stitches are the dissolvable kind and I am now supposed to brush them to help the the tops loosen and fall out. For some reason they decided that tonight they would be more sore than ever, so I think I will wait to try and brush them until tomorrow.

After my appointment I went to the mall with my mom for some Christmas shopping, and was pretty successful. I have thought of the greatest present for little Jeff....I am very excited. It probably won't top our present to my mom and dad though!! (Tickets to see Garrison Keillor live!!)

Highlight Shopping Fail

As my brothers said this morning, "It looks like you got in a fight with a highlighter and lost!" I did not think my bruises could get any brighter but they did! I also never knew how many moles I had on that side of my face...ew.

Today I finally began tackling my Christmas shopping, right after I realized that it was December 20th. I spent four hours running from store to store only to buy one thing for one person. Epic fail. Alex and Ben were with me though so it was a blast. I'll just have to work harder next week.

Best of luck in your holiday shopping and you've been warned about those highlighters!!

My Terrorist Sleep Spot

I'm sure you are all tired of hearing me complain about how much my face hurts, and my fluorescent bruises, and how even though it has been five days it still hurts, and how I have to try hard to keep food down, so I won't complain...don't worry.

Instead I will discuss the most amazing sleeping spot on m parents couch. It pretty much is where I have spent this entire week. I sit there and in less than fifteen minutes I am asleep. It is simply incredible. At first I thought it was the pain killers, but Alex sat down a while ago and has been knocked out for a good hour. Unless that is where they went!!!

I found today that kids are sponges even after they aren't really kids anymore. I absolutely love Jeff Dunham the ventriloquist, and I have spent a lot of time watching him on youtube since I have been home. Except now my ten year old brother and thirteen year old sister walk around saying things like, "I kill you" and "on a stiiick" and pretending to be Achmed the dead terrorist. What have I done?!? Perhaps I need to alter my means of entertainment...I kill you.

Bruised Jowls And Such

Besides the other grossness on my face you can see that I now am sporting nice green bruising. Dad keeps teasing me about pinching my jowls, maybe he really has been, given their current state.

Today I slept. And that was all I could do, I was all shaky, and nauseous, and drugged up. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, because I promised to babysit at 7. And Christmas is in less than a week and I need to get some shopping done! Hmmm...I also really need to brush my teeth.

Ouch, Ouch, and Ouch

This was me this morning. Yes, I am rather swollen, and yes, it hurts. My teeth ache, the stitches hurt, and everything I eat tastes like poo given the necessary after every meal salt-water mouth rinses. It even managed to ruin a wonderful strawberry milkshake that my mother so lovingly brought home for me. I am in great need of hugs...lot and lots of hugs.

Well I just popped two more vicodin and will be falling asleep in a few minutes as a result...goodnight!!

Wisdom Revealing The Truth

Wow what a day I had yesterday.
- I went in to the oral surgeon at 9:30am.
- The nurse hooked me up to the laughing gas and IV. Then took me off again to wait for the doctor to be finished with another patient.
- Doctor came in and started me again on the laughing gas. After at least a minute I started to feel floaty. It felt like I was fainting. I could feel myself not being able to control my breathing anymore and I could still hear voices. I felt fingers on my arm and heard the nurse say she was putting stuff into my IV to knock me out and I was able to respond. Then she asked me to open my mouth as wide as I could and put Vaseline on my lips and a plastic thing to hold my mouth open.
- My brain did a lot of thinking while I was under. I remember the weirdest loopiest dreamish thing was hearing the doctor say something and having it repeat 5 or 6 times, then the nurse reply (repeating 5 or 6 times), me needing to swallow and starting to (repeating 5 or 6 times), beginning to feel nauseous (repeating 5 or 6 times), me realizing that everything was repeating and starting to laugh only to have it repeat 5 or 6 times.
- I think it was after that craziness that I decided I was thinking too much and really just wanted to sleep. So I stopped thinking and relaxed. And it felt like my body was spinning, like I felt it, it was pretty cool.
- Then the next thing I remember is feeling the nurse touching my arm saying she was putting in more medication to help with the swelling and asking me how I was doing. I could hear myself respond, but couldn't feel my face yet. It was pretty cool as I slowly felt the feeling come back to all the parts of my body.
- After that I was pretty awake...I remember the ride home and chatting with my mom and all...no super loopy revealing of all my deepest darkest secrets or anything.

So after not being able to eat anything all morning, I was finally able to eat some yogurt at 1ish, and ate more for dinner along with some ice cream. Eating was fun since I couldn't feel my bottom lip all day. I wouldn't even feel that there was food on my lip until it dripped all over. Mom then fashioned me a bib out of paper towels. Today I was able to chew food, and spent an hour and a half consuming a bowl of macaroni. It really hurts to swallow, or touch the outside of my face, or chew on my back molars. But the Vicodin helps with the constant pain and also makes me super sleepy.

This is me right after I got home. I hadn't yet gotten around to removing the sticky things that they hooked up to the heart rate monitor. I'm really not very swollen any puffiness is because there is still gauze in my mouth. My lips are still a little bloody too.

My first icing...its only on one side so I could take a picture. I had to ice every half hour for an hour. I think I looked a little silly. But the cold felt so good!

This was taken last night before I went to bed. I was already starting to get a little swollen.

This morning. Not only is my hair a complete mess, but I am pretty swelled up! What makes me sad is that it hurts so much to laugh. Ben says that extraordinarily square jaw line makes me look like John McCain.

Jersey Plane Slicing

I'M IN NEW JERSEY!!!

Wow it's great to be home. I like hugs and I get lots of them here!!

The lack of postage on Friday was due to my being excruciatingly busy. I didn't get a chance to sleep Friday night and was on the shuttle headed to Utah by 3:30am on Saturday. It was snowing pretty heavily and the shuttle ended up an hour late. I managed to still make it to my plane just as they were boarding. My plane got de-iced and into the air, pretty quickly (my plane was probably one of the last few to make it out on time). When my plane got to Newark we were stuck in the air for a good 30min. I then found the train to New Brunswick and met my dad there. Then I went to our ward Christmas party. I was pretty much dead when we got home.

Tomorrow morning I'll go in at 9:30 to get my wisdom removed. I might be a little nervous. I don't very much like the idea of being cut open. We shall see how it goes...you will be updated.

Leaving Christmas Wisdom

I leave tonight/tomorrow morning to head home!! I'm super excited to see the family and give every one big hugs (my hug quota has not been met for about 3 months). Then I get to have my wisdom ripped out on Monday. My first time ever being given anything more than local anesthesia...this should be fun!

On Wednesday my Statistics professor recited "The Night Before Christmas" in Spanglish. It was hilarious, so I am going to share it with you....may it help to ring the Christmas spirit into tú corazon.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring - ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?

Los niños were tucked away in their camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas,
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado,
In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado,
To bring all children, both buenos and malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.

Outside in the yard there arose un gran grito,
and I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?

Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero,
Came dashing along like a loco bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados,
Were eight little burros approaching volando.

I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre,
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
"Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto,
ay Chato, ay Chopo, Maruco, y Nieto!"

Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho,
He flew to the top of our very own techo,
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chiminea.

Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala,
He filled all the stockings with lively regalos,
None for the ninos that had been very malos.

Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone como el viento,
And I heard him exclaim, y ¡esto es verdad!

Merry Christmas to all, ¡y Feliz Navidad!

A Thunderous Thursday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!

No time to type anything, so here is another Cyanide and Happiness cartoon. ::smiles::

Cyanide Blanket Books

I couldn't decide which one I liked the best...

Warm like a blanket
Cuddly like a story
You jump up and down
in all of your glory
You whine till we're dead
Then the thought pops in your head
"Where is the nearest crematory"

or...

A blanket sat anxiously upon the grass
Wishing with all its might that it
Could jump up and escape these feet
Even in all its glory it could not get hurt
But it was left to whine about
The ketchup spurt

I have no interesting/exciting news for today other than I am one day closer to being home/getting my wisdom teeth out. I had thought that selling back the books for my friends would be simple but it turns out the off campus buy-backs wont buy back half of the books they left with me. I'll figure out some way to fix this.

Snowy Poetics

I came across the funniest thing today on my computer. In my creative writing class we would do this a lot to get our creative juices running. He would give us random words and ask us to compose a piece of poetry from them. I now do this on my own with hilarious results (usually works best if you ask someone randomly for the words).

Word list- china, gymnastics, unprofessionally, stupid, ungrateful

She was ungrateful
If anyone could be
She practiced her gymnastics
But always ignored me
China was her goal
But all her tricks were stupid
And she danced unprofessionally
While the air was putrid

Word List- poo, chunky, carefully, squeeze, pen, hard

The pen lays across the chunky paper
Which reads "squeeze here"
Picking it up carefully
I feel its hard back against my fingers
As the ink slides slowly onto the paper like poo

Please note that I am not responsible for the immature nature of the word lists as it was others who came up with them. Feel free to give me a word list and see what kind of a poem I come up with!!

Oh, and it snowed today!!

Odd Telepathy Weekend

Wow...the weekend went way too fast.

Odd Realizations:
- When I am walking outside in the bitter cold I sometimes forget to breathe.
- Next semester I won't be woken up in the middle of the night my my roomie laughing in her sleep.
- I weigh as much now as I did in the sixth grade (I have lost 25lbs, since graduating high school).
- Saying X-mas is not as sacrilegious as I thought (the X coming from the greek letter "chi" symbolizing the first letters of Christ's name.
- I'm home in less than a week.
- Freud had a really good relationship with his mother
- An article entitled "Telepathy, Physical Research, and Modern Psychology" can have absolutely nothing to do with telepathy.
- I am updating my blog to put off doing home work on Sunday...one more hour to go!!

**UPDATE...antibiotics started working and I shant be stuck with a dead roommate finals week!!

The Infection Continued

UPDATE!!

I got home from working on a Stat project yesterday to find my roommate sitting in our kitchen with a tube coming out of her arm and black sharpie dots up and down her arm. Her doctor had apparently sent her to the hospital, where they did not try to drain the infection, but put her on an IV with a much stronger dose of antibiotic. They sent her home with a portable IV that would continue to pump the antibiotic into her all night. The sharpie up and down her arm was outlining where the infection had spread at that point in time.

A few hours after I got home she started noticing that there was more red up past her elbow and spreading outside of the doctors lines. After a frantic call to her doctor (who said to wait it out), we remembered that we were in the middle of mormonville and should probably get her a blessing. Our home teachers, and FHE brothers were not answering their phones, but we did finally get some friends of an old roommate to come over. After the blessing and a quick photo shoot (for her mother), I sent her to bed.

The infection has spread a little more this morning, but we shall see what the doctors say, as she has an appointment at the hospital in a few hours. Since this is the most exciting thing that has happened in my life since Thanksgiving and since she said I could...here are some pictures.

(the red spot on the end of her finger is where it all began.)

(The black sharpie is where the infection had spread when she was at the hospital, the red sharpie is where it had spread after more than 6hrs on the IV.)

(A nice shot of her antibiotic grenade/liahona/christmas ornament...it looks so silly. They even gave her a fanny pack)

**Disclaimer...yes I know that this is a serious situation she is in, but for her sake and mine I am trying to make everything funny and keep her happy and not worried sick. Please keep her in your prayers!!

Statistically Infected Grossness

The weekend is here!!

Only one more week to go and I will be home! I could not be more excited...seriously.

My roommate got this really gross infection on her finger. It looked like in ingrown fingernail, except it didn't go away. It grew until her whole hand hurt and she couldn't bend her finger all the way. She went to the doctor yesterday and it turns out the infection had progressed to the point that it was close to spreading through her blood stream. They gave her a shot in the tush and a prescription as well. She went in today to have it drained. I think that is the most disgusting thing ever, and that would be the reason I shared it with you!

I shall also share a statistics joke. Did you hear about the statistician who got thrown in jail? He has zero degrees of freedom!!

Ah man, I am such a dork....

Caroling Work Embarrassment

A rough outline of all the work I have to do before heading home:
- Finish Stat project due tm
- Psychology annotation due by midnight tm
- Take Communications Exam
- Write Presentation Memo for English
- Write note sheet for Psychology test
- Study for English Final
- Revise Psychology paper
- Start and finish Communications paper
- Come up with 20 service hours
- Find article for other Stat project
- Write paper about the article
- Work on Psychology take home final
- Work on Sociology take home final
-Not to mention packing and cleaning

A most embarrassing thing happened to me the other day, and I fear my being raised in New Jersey had a lot to do with it. I was going caroling with a small group from my communications class and in between houses we were singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. I, and a few others, had chosen to sing the echo lines. All went well until we got to the line "Then one foggy Christmas eve, Santa came say..." I loudly sang as I had been taught, "IN HIS UNDERWEAR" while the others sang, "HO HO HO." Then they all stopped and looked at me like I was stupid. "What?!? Didn't you guys learn it that way?" Indeed they had not...it's a good thing we got that worked out before singing it at anyone's front door.

A nice lady gave us all Reece's Peanut butter cups. YUM!

Statistics: The Musical

Things my Statistics class has taught me that I probably will never need to know again:
- How to find the P-value of a given population distribution
- That Dilbert really is the stupidest cartoon ever created (no offense Dilbert fans)
- How to use my calculator to find Chi Squared
- That Chrysler had the most air-bag related deaths in minivans because it was producing the most minivans
- Y1? Because that's where we told the calculator to store it.
- Performing a 1-PropZtest on your calculator will get you not only the z-score but also the P-value
- That no mere man can withstand the powers of weapons of math instruction

Things my Statistics class has taught me that I probably use again in the near future:
- Never take another math class...ever

I saw a funny video today online entitled Prop 8: The Musical. It was funny, but my disclaimer is that it is not in support of the proposition and has Jack Black playing the role of Jesus, still funny though. (And Barney from the show How I met your Mother is in it too.)

Awesome Tails Lived

Today's post is for all the awesome things in the world...cue list...

Things That Are Awesome In Emily's World:
- Nissin Chicken flavored Chow Mein
- Gummy bears with unexpected tails

- Caroling on the December 2nd
- A rapidly approaching Christmas break
- Discovering the perfect gift
- Florescent cherry pie pictures

- Promised life long friendships
- Knowing a life has been lived well

***Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, perfect example of a life lived well, and a personal inspiration. My prayers go out to his family.

Mashed Worry Potatoes

Sorry about the lack of posts, I have either been on the road or a little busy in some other way.

I feel like these next two weeks are going to be crazy busy. I sat in each of my classes today and kept remembering all of the assignment I have to finish before embarking on my wonderful journey home. As I wittingly remarked during our wonderful Thanksgiving feast, "I wish life was like today, when all you have to worry about is whether or not to have seconds of mashed potatoes." Forget homework and jobs and whether or not you will get to see family at Christmas. Forget about graduation and money and finding a guy who chews with his mouth closed. Just worry about one thing...

...mashed potatoes...

...just mashed potatoes.

(If you haven't looked at my last few posts you definitely should, because they are full of wonderful pictures of Vegas and turkey and fun.)