Too Cool For School

Monday, September 26

I woke up bright and early to drive with Chastity to the Rowley Ranch near Arivaca, Arizona for a fun journalism party they were hosting for my capstone class and the border reporting class (which Chastity is in). We could have been normal people and driven in the school busses with the rest of the students, but we decided to have our own little party in my good ol’ Buick. Turns out even though my entire class was invited to this event only one other student and my professor showed up, some people just weren’t about the drive I guess. But it was a good time. We had a couple people speak to us about ranching near the border and some of the ups and downs of working in the territory. Joe (my professor) assigned me to be the border bureau chief after this visit, so I will be spending the rest of my semester reporting on the border and putting lots and lots of miles on my car. But it’s a good time, and I’m excited.

After the speakers we had some lunch and then we went out on the ranch to take some photos for the border class. Since Amber and I were the only students present who weren’t part of the border class, they let us in their picture anyway, so we are kind of a big deal. Mike Christy from the Star was there as well and was the official photographer of the event. He snapped this pretty awesome shot of me looking a whole lot cooler than I actually am. He is the coolest, and that’s why he is Arizona’s state photographer of the year. Too cool.

After the whole event and taking lots and lots of photos, Chastity and I made our way back to Tucson.  Since I went to this event I didn’t have to go to the actual class that day, so I had a few hours to relax before I had to go to my publication design class in the evening. The class was really bearable this week because we watched the presidential debate while we did our in-class assignment. I also finished my assignment super quick so I was able to leave early and go to FHE for the scavenger hunt. I was a little bit late so I just joined in on a team with Steph and Deezus. As soon as everyone started running a lot the three of us just gave up and went to the institute to hang out until the rest of the kids got back. While at the institute we timed ourselves to see how many sit ups and push ups we can do in a minute for Deezus’ mom for some reason. I did pretty good at the sit ups (I got the same amount as Deezus) but I failed quite miserably at the push ups. I think it’s time to get to the gym and start lifting weights… ha ha ha.

Tuesday, September 27

Honestly can’t remember much of Tuesday, besides it being a regular day. I worked in the morning with Chase, then went to Dollar Lunch (they were serving lasagna, which comes second to pizza in my mind), then had my RPA class (we got out much earlier than usual, so no complaints here), and then went to the Wildcat to spend the rest of my life there. Work actually went quite swimmingly that night. A bunch of people went and mobbed Pei Wei because we like to travel in packs at the Wildcat. I also had another photo desk meeting on Tuesday night, which was much lighter and not so cruel as the last couple ones have been.  

I came home after work and found Derrick partying at my house with my roommates. I didn’t stay up too late to party with them, but I woke up the next morning with this hanging on my door (so it must have been a really poppin’ night):

In case you were confused, they forged Steph and mine’s signatures because we were not present.

Wednesday, September 28

Wednesday was suuuper exciting because Sadie got all her wedding pictures back so I am just going to post a few of my favorites. If I ever sell out and become a wedding photographer then my selling point is going to be getting the photos to the customers within two weeks, because I have no idea how Sadie waited 6 weeks for these photos without going completely crazy, but they sure are beautiful.

The regular day was pretty normal, I worked then I went to class and then I went home. Deezus came over after school too and we watched Zoolander to celebrate the anniversary of it being released to theatres. I had to cut the movie short to go conduct an interview at the Wildcat. All the photographers are dropping like flies now that the semester is starting to drown all the students, so Courtney and I are starting to hire more people so our desk doesn’t start drowning.

In the evening Abby and Kara came over to watch Once Upon A Time but we honestly paid like zero attention to the show and just talked for a long time.  Abby and Kara are seriously so great, and I love that they are my TV show buddies. Now we watch Grey’s Anatomy and Once Upon A Time together. Maybe with the next episode we will actually watch it. They ended up staying until like one in the morning just chatting about all our lives (mostly their lives because mine is not very exciting)

Thursday, September 29

Thursday was a really chill day. Since I don’t work on Thursdays anymore I was able to sleep in, before I went to the Wildcat to work on some homework. After reading some readings and transcribing some interviews I went to the institute to hang out for a little bit. Caroline pointed out to me that it was free coffee day at Krispy Kreme (they give away a free small coffee and a free doughnut). She invited me to go with her that evening, but I was going out with Deezus so I decided to get a crew together at the institute and head over to KK. The crew consisted of me, Jenny, Brittany, Kenzie and Jacob. Since we all don’t drink coffee, I suggested to everyone to ask if they could swap out the coffee for another doughnut (when I worked at KK I did this a lot). I was the first one up to the register and the man agreed to my deal, but I also wanted to pay for a third pumpkin spice doughnut… he was really confused by what I was saying and he ended up just giving me all three doughnuts for free (total score). Unfortunately McKenzie’s register lady didn’t let her swap out the coffee for the doughnut, but it worked for everyone else.

Around 5 it was my time turn for Deezus’ series of Beezie dates. It was such a great time. We went to Rocco’s for dinner (as suggested by Andy & Queston). If you live in Tucson and enjoy deep-dish pizza, I HIGHLY recommend going to Rocco’s, it’s so delicious but it definitely needs to be eaten with a knife and fork.

After dinner we went to Reid Park to play some games. Our first game was Uno and he schooled me hardcore. But then we played Slap Jack and I am the QUEEN of slap jack so I destroyed him.

Leading up to the date he made a GIANT list of questions for us to ask each other on the date, so we started diving into the questions of the games. He came up with so many questions, and they ranged from really simple questions like what’s your favorite band allll the way to what would you do if someone broke into your house. We didn’t even make it through probably half the questions because there were so many. Afterward we walked around Reid Park playing Pokemon Go and then we went to U Swirl for some sorbet.

Honestly (leans in) such a fun date, Deezus is the coolest. But I think that I am most excited about Steph’s date with him this week because they are making voodoo dolls (how does he come up with these things?)

Friday, September 30

Chase was in a super awesome mood on Friday, which made my Friday so amazing. He just couldn’t stop smiling and kept hugging me, which is a very rare thing with Chase and me.

Since some people at the Wildcat went to a conference in Oregon our weekly EBoard was cancelled so I was able to go to Devotional for the first time in a couple weeks. We watched the devotional talk that President Monson did a few years back about his experiences with all the Prophets he has known in his life. It’s a really cool talk, I suggest you look it up, but I have no idea what it’s called so I can’t link it to you.

After devotional it was free lunch (my favorite). Abby and Kara came over afterward to watch the Grey’s Anatomy episode from the night before. This show stresses me out so much, I just want everyone to be happy together and have no drama… but I guess that doesn’t make for a good tv show.

Trevor came down from Mesa for a date that night, so I got to hang out with him for a little bit before he went out. We watched every Mean Tweets videos on Jimmy Kimmel that have ever been created.

When he left, Kenzie and I went on a little sister date to Cane’s. We don’t get a lot of just sister-sister time because we are always out doing things with a lot of other people, so it was nice to have some one on one catch up time.

Travis came over a little bit later to watch Hot Rod with Steph, Kenzie and I. Steph and Kenzie hadn’t seen the entire movie full through, which is really just a sin, so it was a good thing Travis suggested watching it. We also started planning the events for Travy’s Wife Olympics to figure out who Travy’s ultimate wife will be (out of the six he currently has). Travy also introduced us to a few new bands, honestly this guy has the greatest taste in music. I am going to stalk his Spotify for the rest of time to keep up to date.

Saturday, October 1

General Conference weekend! A great weekend filled with good words and pajamas and very minimal makeup. The best weekend arguably.

Andy came over and watched the Saturday morning session with the beezies. I did a pretty good job paying attention for the most part (besides when Andy was updating us on his super exciting life right now). I really loved Carol F McConkie’s talk that morning about the Godheads role in your prayers. It related to a lot of my questions that I have had recently, which always makes talks so much cooler.

After the first session Steph, Andy and I went to Kneaders for lunch, then went back to our house and Andy’s super cool sister Marissa came over all the way from Mesa. Besides my own siblings, they are my favorite group of siblings; they’re too cool for school.

Then we watched the Sunday afternoon session, but we did not do as good of a job of paying attention. We all fell asleep one by one and then by the end of the session we were all knocked out. But the one part of the session that we were all wide awake for was when the missionary choir performed Called To Serve and Jenny got SO HYPED about it. I have never seen Jenny so hyped about anything, especially anything church related. It was just too funny. Even though I failed at staying awake I did really like W Mark Basset’s talk from this session.

After the afternoon session Rudy came over and then Jenny, Andy, Marissa, Rudy and I went to In N Out for some after conference energy. We discovered that Marissa and Rudy both hadn’t seen the HSM BLR (honestly with how much we watch it you would think we would have shown it to the whole world by now), so we went back to my house to introduce them to that. Then Kara came over (so many friends) and we watched Jenny’s weird cow video that is honestly just so weird, you all have to watch it.

Then Kara, Rudy, Kenzie and I drove Jenny up to north Tucson to her Grandmas house so she could spend more time with her mom before she went back to California. On the way back we took a pit stop to the Tucson Temple. I don’t like to go and visit it all the time because then it seems like the construction is moving really slow. Luckily I hadn’t gone to see it since the summer so it seemed like the construction has just flown by. I am so ready for this temple to be finished.

Then we made our way back to Tucson and Rudy and Kara parted ways with us. Then Marissa and Andrew came back over and we went to Kneaders (the second time for me and Andy that day) for their half priced desserts. McKenzie is addicted to Kneaders and got TWO desserts plus all the samples. The rest of us just stuck with one dessert like normal people.

After hanging out at Kneaders for a bit, Kenzie and I went to Taylor and Natalie’s house to watch the UA vs UCLA football game. We didn’t do too good and just keep getting injured so it was hard to pay attention. But Taylor made it all alright by buying us all taco bell. Yay married people.

Sunday, October 2

Steph, Jenny and I decided to watch the conference sessions on Sunday at the institute because we are so #spiritual. Almost all the Naked Strippers decided to watch at the institute so it was a real party. I really loved Russel M Nelsons talk (honestly probably my favorite talk from all of conference). He talked about how to have joy in this life, and it was just so beautiful and applicable to everyone. I also liked Dean M Davies’ and Lynn G. Robbins’ talks from that session as well.

80% of the reason I wanted to watch conference at the institute was because they serve lunch in between the sessions and I have zero food at home, so it made sense to watch it at the institute. Lunch was honestly so entertaining. I don’t know how it started but everyone sitting at our table (pretty much the Naked Strippers + Marissa) were stuffing grapes under our upper lip to make us all look like cats. It was soooo hilarious, just look at all these photos:

Then the grapes under the upper lip transitioned to seeing how many grapes people could stuff into their mouth. Andy won with 17 grapes, but Travy won for generating the most spit with a bunch of grapes in his mouth. I know I’ve said it before, but we are all just so normal.

Sunday afternoon session was quite a struggle, what is it about the afternoon sessions that just put you right to sleep? But I was awake long enough to enjoy Rasband’s and Nattress’ talks. I had to keep chowing down on the snacks in order to stay awake, and I probably only slept for 20 minutes.

After the session was over we went back home and Rudy and our old Friend Daniel/Dan/Franklin came over to hang out. Daniel/Dan/Franklin was just in town for the weekend and wanted to say hi, Rudy was just bored and knows we are just the bees knees to hang out with. We watched Mamma Mia, ate pizza, caught up on life and had a grand old time.

Tonight is Gam3 Night: the Third at the Quandy household with the featured game being giant jenga (because they failed and didn’t buy twister), it’s gonna be a party.