Gotta Catch Em All

Monday, July 4

On the Fourth of July I learned the benefit of being willing to work on holidays. I got to go the KISS concert as Casino Del Sol for the Star! It was quite the adventure.

I arrived there really early so I just walked around and looked at all the people all decked out in their costumes. I was surprised to see lots of kids attended the event... but I guess I really shouldn't be because I too was raised by parents that are quite the 80s music fans. 

Eventually the reporter showed up and we went over to the golf course for a secret music video shooting. So this KISS tour is called the Wings of Freedom tour, and it's pretty much dedicated to Veteran's. So in each city they go to they are going to invite a bunch of veteran's to be a part of this new music video they are shooting. Since Tucson was the opening city, the veterans unfurled a football field sized flag in front of KISS. The shooting of the video was supposed to start at 7. But those poor veterans and their families had to arrive as early as 5. So they were carrying this massive flag for nearly two hours. And then when 7 pm arrived as the sun was beginning to set.... KISS hadn't shown up. Of course Gene Simmons, being the diva that he is, took too long putting on his makeup which made the whole shabang late. Luckily they did make it to the flag with about 2 minutes of sun left in the sky. The veteran's were getting pretty angry up until KISS arrived and then they quickly forgave them.

After the shabang I walked over with the reporter to the AVA amphitheater for the show. With my photo pass I am allowed to shoot the first two songs of KISS up in the barricades. It was pretty awesome. I consider myself a KISS fan, like Beth makes me want to cry and Rock n Roll All Night is a good pump up jam, but KISS also really terrifies... like no kidding they were the source of many nightmares as a child. And they are even creepier now that they are old. There was one point where Gene Simmons had a bunch of fake blood shooting out of his mouth with his unnaturally long tongue sticking out... it kind of made me want to cry... but it was still cool to be up close at a concert!

When the officials told me I was allowed to shoot the first two songs, I thought that meant only in the barricade. Turns out they meant shooting in general. But I didn't find that out until like 15 minutes in to taking pictures of the audience. By the time they caught me I had gotten enough photos that I felt satisfied with the work I had done. I knew I needed to leave to get my photos edited and turn them in before deadline but I kept holding out that Beth would play.... it didn't. So I was on my way.

I came back to my house to edit the photos and transfer them in. Then Ty came home and I was no longer all by my lonesome!

Tuesday, July 5

Here is a picture Laurel took of me while I was working. I am an exciting person.

Wildcat work day. It was a very easy day for me, and I finished really early. I am one of the weird people of the newsroom staff that does not enjoy living in the newsroom, so when I am done with my work I like to go home lol. Not that I don't love all my co-workers because I totally do, they rock... but y'know sometimes I just want to sit on my couch and watch How To Get Away With Murder in silence.... which is what I did with Ty when I got home after work. I know I live a very exciting life... and I do it by choice haha.

Ty and I were also productive though and we bought toilet paper for the house because we were running low... go us!

The worst thing of my life happened on Tuesday too. So you may recall from previous blogs how I had a grant for the summer but then I lost it because I wasn't enrolled in 6 units, and since I wouldn't be able to get my grant back if I enrolled in another class, I just took out a loan to cover the cost. The loan hadn't disbursed to my account, and I thought I just had to wait for the next payment date for it to do so. So July came and the payment date came and I still didn't have the loan. So I emailed Financial Aid over the weekend, and they emailed me back on Tuesday informing me that I would not be getting my loan until I enrolled in 6 units....... ugh.... I really need to read the fine print on these things. SO I wanted to give in and just enroll in another class so I could get my dang money. But when I went to enroll in this crappy journalism gen-ed class I am told that I cannot because THERE IS A HOLD ON MY ACCOUNT BECAUSE I HAVENT PAID FOR MY OTHER CLASS!!! But I didn't have a thousand bucks just in my butt ready to pay for the class. I was bawling. I called my parents and they said that my Dad still had time to turn in the tuition waiver and that he would do it the next day. With the tuition waiver my class would go from roughly $1300 to $450. Luckily, I do have enough to pay for the $450... I would just be living on ramen for the rest of the summer, but I figured that was better than having to drop out of my apprenticeship class. I was just going to really rely on the Lord to help me make it through this time.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Jenny came home in the middle of the night and I thought someone was breaking in.... but I wasn't scared enough to actually get out of bed to see if it was her or not... I just trusted it would be. Thank goodness it was her.

Wednesday, July 6

Update on the money story: My dad turned in the waiver. I also remembered that at the end of the semester the journalism school gave me a random $300 grant, and that money went to paying for my class in the first place. So I thought, oh maybe that money would go to the amount that was left after the waiver. But I didn't want to rely on that idea because I have fooled myself too many times with financial aid.

During the day I didn't really do much. I did print off a bunch of sudoku games (and started a couple of them) to mail to Zach so he could have some entertainment while he was traveling to Trinidad on Monday. I also got a good head start on the talk I was assigned to give for this Sunday, so that was productive.

Steph came home on Wednesday after three long weeks being in California... too bad she's leaving again tomorrow for Texas until Friday... what does she think she's doing, having a really summer vacation during summer?

There was a crazy weird storm happening on Wednesday, it was still really bright outside with lots of blue sky but it was down pouring to the point that it almost started flooding... it was very strange. After that weird storm, Steph, Ty and myself went to the mall so Steph could go swimsuit shopping. I was in the mindset that I would be poor for the rest of the summer so I decided I would not give in to temptation to buy all the clothed in Forever 21, and I came out bag-less so happy day.

Thursday, July 7

I had the most applicable class to my life on Thursday. We talked about life after graduation. How to find jobs, how to figure out a good desired salary, goals, tips, etc. The fact that I am graduating in December will only continue to freak me out more and more until I solidify a job. So let the job hunting begin.

On Sunday the missionary couple told me that the angel Moroni was going to be placed on the Tucson temple sometime this week, but they didn't have an official day because the people wanted it to be hush hush. When the Gilbert temple was being built it definitely wasn't very hush hush. Thousands of mo mo's gathered around the temple... it honestly looked like we were worshipping a gold statue, which is pretty bad but I thought it was funny. Turns out it was being placed on Thursday morning! I wish the Star would have sent me, that would have been amazing haha. But later in the day Steph and I drove by the temple to go take a look at the Moroni. It wasn't pointing east when we were there... I have no idea as to why, so if you shine light on that for me that would be appreciated.

Here is a crappy cell phone pic of the temple 

At night I went to the Screening Room for Odyssey Storytelling for an assignment I was given for the Star. The theme for the stories of the night was "play." One of the girls stories was about how much she loves to play scrabble and how she loves words and how competitive she gets when she plays with other people. The whole time I was thinking of the Walton's and their family friend the Reese's and how crazy they can get playing speed scrabble. It's very entertaining... but also a little terrifying when you aren't on their level haha. 

Friday, July 8

Update on the money story: While I was at my apprenticeship I checked my UAccess and the waiver went through! AND GUESS THE FREAK WHAT! I ONLY HAD TO PAY $75!!!! What a blessing, I wanted to cry from pure happiness. This was seriously better than any scenario I could have come up with! I was so so so happy. It finally all worked out. 

It wasn't the most exciting work day for the apprenticeship. I had three assignments. 

The first was to take pictures of the construction that is currently happening on Stone Avenue. The construction workers were all really nice and kept wanting to take selfies with me as a form of payment for me taking so many pictures of them.

My second assignment was to take pictures of an empty lot. The lot itself is very boring right now. But it's going to turn into an entertainment venue made entirely of cargo containers. It should be really cool... but for now it's just an empty lot.

My third assignment was actually exciting because of what I was doing. I was assigned to shoot video at the Tucson Police Department press conference concerning the shooting that happened in Dallas on Thursday (which was totally heart breaking, along with all the other shootings this week). There was one part of my video where I touched the lens and the shot got all shaky, I figured I would be okay because I got a lot of other footage... turns out the shaky part was the perfect soundbite, so it made it's way into the video. I also didn't have a mic on me and the room was very echo-y so the sound is not very good. BUT that was my first video for the Star and I was thrilled besides all the bad stuff haha.

Friday was also when finally got the Pokemon Go app. If you don't have this app already you have to get it. I love geocaching, if you didn't already catch on to that, and this app is pretty much geocaching but with pokemon! It's amazing. So Steph and I went on campus in the afternoon to catch pokemon. It was very hilarious seeing so many other people on campus playing too. Whoever invented this game is genius because it forces people to get out of their house, and SO many people are playing... pure genius.

If you look closely in this picture you will see fellow pokemon trainers catching Pokemon at the lure at Old Main

At night Brandi and I went to dinner at Kneaders and got each other caught up on our lives. Then we went to Target to get some supplies to make smores. Brandi was really craving smores but we didn't know how/where to have a bonfire, so we settled on making smores over my stove. It was a good time, Brandi is a genius.

Saturday, July 9

Steph, Jenny and I went pokemon hunting on campus. Steph made me pull over at one point because there was a pikachu nearby... she didn't even get it... but I knew the importance of catching pikachu so I was willing to pull over. 

Why we decided to go and catch pokemon in Arizona in the middle of the day... I don't know (like I said, the game is genius). We rewarded our self sacrifice by sneaking into Mountain Plaza and going swimming.

 I rewarded myself again by taking a little nap and preparing my talk.

At night, Jenny and I went to target so I could buy contact solution and so we both could buy Sunday snacks. I also tried to catch some pokemon while we were there AND I RAN OUT OF POKEBALLS! Life is hard.

It was also Zach's last p-day in the MTC on Saturday, and since the temple was closed again this week he had lots of free time to email. It was amazing, as usual.

Sunday, July 10

I got dry mouth right before I stood up at the podium, but I made it through my talk! Hallelujah. In my talk I mentioned my blog, so we will see how many people sing praises to me ;) haha just kidding everyone that listened to my talk, don't do it. I don't deserve it, I did no community service this week.

The rest of church was talking about temples, which I really just love when everything revolves around temples because it just seems so applicable to life right now, and I love it. 

Rob came over after church to hang out with Jenny and we played some games. I learned how to play bananagrams (which is very similar to speed scrabble) and I taught everyone how to play Codenames (my favorite game ever, shout out to the Walton's for letting me have it).

Now I am spending the rest of my Sunday bonding with my roommates by catching pokemon, as normal people do.