Buffer Week

As I have said before, there needs to be a buffer week in between spring break and school to adjust from the partying to the studying. Since there is no such thing (even if there were I would treat that week like another spring break) last week was a train wreck... well that's exaggerating, but it was definitely hard to adjust back to school.

On Monday I got back a test grade in my international relations class that I was confident that I did REALLY well on... well I ended up with a D... I was so shocked and so disappointed that I couldn't pay attention for the rest of my class. Then at night there was FHE and everyone was watching Big Hero 6, but I just wasn't feeling it so I just sat in the kitchen and chatted with Annabeth, Andrew and Tessa.

On Tuesday I met with my TA from International Relations so I could look at my test and figure out why I got such a bad grade. Well it was totes embarrassing because I was holding back tears the entire time (I don't take bad grades very well) and I couldn't even think or speak when we were discussing them, it was awful. And he kept asking if I was okay... let me just side step for a second and tell you that my least favorite thing when I am crying is asking if I am okay, for some reason those words trigger my tears and make me cry even more, so the lesson here is that if you ever see me crying, don't talk to me or else you will make me cry more. Back to the point... luckily I was able to discuss enough with my TA in order to bump my grade up to a 78% and then I later did some extra credit to get it to an 81% so I am feeling much better about it.

On Wednesday I learned all about hashtags in my reporting the news class so Wednesday wasn't all that bad. Oh and my international relations class was cancelled to make the day even better.

On Thursday, Arizona played in the sweet 16. Rory, Dakota, Kaitlyn, Tori, Adela (Rory's friend) came over to watch the game with Steph, Annabeth and myself. Arizona won so that was a very happy day, and Annabeth though Rory's maté was guacamole so that was really hilarious.

On Friday for dollar lunch we had ham and cheese sliders and they were actually really good, but we everyone only got one so I was left hungry afterwards. Friday night, I photographed the softball game against ASU. It was really hot, I was wearing pants, I didn't have a water bottle and I almost passed out, oh and U of A lost... but on the bright side I got some really nice shots.... which were not chosen for the newspaper. After the game Rory came over and I ordered a pizza because I was starving and he wanted a redbull that the lovely red bull girls gave to me after the game.

Saturday morning I got to sleep in, so I was very happy. I had to give a telephoto lens that I used for the softball game to a girl who was shooting the tennis match that day. She planned to pick it up from my house at 11:15 because I had to walk to a meeting that started at 12. She didn't get to my house until 11:50. My meeting was exactly 1.3 miles from my house, but don't worry everyone I was only a few minutes late but I was sweating profusely... yay Arizona spring time... My meeting was to talk about a test in my Law class, I got a 76% on it (which was one of the best in the class) and I got it up to an A. But the best part was that I did not cry at all!
After my meeting it was the Elite Eight basketball game, Arizona vs. Wisconsin... the exact same match up as last year, except this year we were hoping for a better turn out. Kaitlyn, Rory, Caroline Dakota and Matt came over with snacks to share and I was feeling confident in the game. Well as most of you know the game did not turn out the way we wanted it to, we were all very angry... there was even some wrestling between Matt and Dakota to release the rage. When the game ended there was a solid 5 minutes of silence. The saddest part of all was watching TJ McConnell cry and hug Sean Miller... broke my heart to pieces.

Sunday was actually a very good day and the rough week was finally over. Since general conference is next week, we had fast and testimony meeting this Sunday. I actually almost got up and bore my testimony. I had a plan to go up after this one guy finished, but I guess that is a common plan for as he completed his testimony literally ten people got up and sat on the stands. I had missed my chance. But who knows maybe I will get up next month... probably not. Anyway I thought I would share some of my thoughts on here.
I came across a scripture during institute the other week (I am not sure which one specifically since there are a handful of scriptures that share the same principle) that said all good things come from God. Over these few weeks and especially over this past week where I have been having a tough time just with life, I have been working on noticing the good things, and acknowledging Heavenly Father for putting all these good things in my life. Then I was thinking that Heavenly Father really does put numerous good things in my life  (things that I often would not acknowledge as something good put into my life) and he puts these things in my life because he loves me, and the more I pray to Him and acknowledge Him for everything He does for me the more abundantly and clearly I can feel his love. And that just all came together for me on Sunday when the first counselor in the Bishopric was talking about Heavenly Father's love for everyone. So even though I took to long to stand up and I missed my chance to share that with people, I am very grateful for the little experience I had during the meeting to piece everything together that I have been doing and thinking these past few weeks.

After church and later in the afternoon, Steph and I went to Roland/Josh/Austin/Alec's house because they were feeding the missionaries. We ate star wars mac and cheese and chicken and drum sticks for dessert, it was fantastic! After dinner Steph and I went straight to the institute for the Easter choir concert, Steph was singing in it, and Sister Stout asked me to take some pictures for them. It was an awesome concert and really made me excited for Easter and General Conference.

Yesterday I had the strangest experience happen to me. I was walking from my International Relations class to my Photojournalism class when this guy runs up to me and asks if he could tell me story (I thought he was one of those survey people on campus that try to suck you into their church so I almost said no, but he made a different approach rather than "can I ask you to take a survey" so I said yes). So he tells me this story about this girl he saw last school year with these blue shoes, and how he saw her again last semester in the same blue shoes and missed his opportunity to talk to her. Then he tells me that this girl with the blue shoes is in his international relations and he finally got the nerve to talk to her that day (spoiler alert he thinks this girl with the blue shoes is me). So I asked him what kind of blue shoes they were and he says blue slip ons.... here's the thing people I don't have blue slip on shoes... in fact the two pairs of blue shoes that I have, I got this semester so there's no way that this mysterious girl is me. Anyway, he was like I finally got the nerve to approach you about your shoes, so can I sit next to you in class? I was like oh cool new friend why not I hate this class and I cry because of it so sure. It later hit me as I was telling my boyfriend about this experience that this guy was hitting on me, so when he sits next to me tomorrow I should probably let him know his girl with the blue shoes is still out there waiting for him to tell her that story. BUT you want to know that funniest part of this story? HIS NAME IS ZACH! So now I have 4 Zach's to talk about to confuse my roommates with 1: boyfriend Zach 2: student Zack 3: "ex" Zac and now 4: blue shoes Zach (I really hope he spells his name differently than the other three).

For FHE Steph planned an easter egg hunt at the institute and AB and I helped her hide the eggs, and we were pro. We had some at the bottom of trash cans, on top of basketball hoops, in closets, on TVs, in gutters, it was the real deal. While everyone was looking for them I helped give some clues to the poor souls who are not good finders and I had a lot of candy. It was a good night.

So now I am back into the school groove.
I'm sorry I have a lack of pictures in this post!