Zach is home!

Monday October 24

I feel like 2016 can be defined as the year of car struggles. You might recall that in my last blog I wrote about how my car overheated and how that was just a good old fun time. Well I finally got back into town and had enough time to take my car into the shop. I am surprised the lovely men at Brake Masters didn't remember me from all my visits during the summer. So yeah, car was in the shop and I didn't get to figure out what was wrong until Tuesday, so you will have to wait if that's what you came to this blog to read about.

Thus started my week without a car. Reminded me of the days of my freshman year when I walked pretty much everywhere I went and asked for rides from Steph for anything that was not in walking distance. The good news about walking so much is that it's good for my Pokemon game (yes my friends I do still play this game religiously, and I just can't stop). 

The rest of my Monday was pretty regular, work, class, work, my photographers trying to quit on me, the usual, and then more class. The usual. But something unusual did happen in my design class on Monday night. I usually get out really early because I get my work done really early, but we didn't have any work to do on Monday. Instead we watched a documentary. Any guesses on what it was about? It was about the font HELVETICA ahhahahah yes I am talking an entire documentary on a font. It was pretty interesting though. I mostly loved it because of how passionate some of the interviewees were about a freaking font, I highly recommend just for a good laugh.

Tuesday October 25

My RPA class was finally not cancelled for once! It was a miracle. The amount of times that we don't have this class actually makes going to class pretty unbearable. The class also kind of just cracks me up a little bit because I was supposed to do a presentation on TUSD about three weeks ago and I magically still have not presented yet. I thought for sure I would have presented on Tuesday, but I lucked out once again.

After class I went in to work at the Wildcat. It was a fairly easy day. Courtney and I had a couple more interviews and subsequently hired a couple new photographers to the desk. We had a training meeting with the new baby photographers and then the usual biweekly photo staff meeting. I can't believe that we are well into the final third of the semester at the Wildcat, my days in that newsroom are quickly coming to an end... part of me is actually pretty sad about it. But then I spent 45 minutes on a very complicated cut out and I think, eh maybe I won't miss this place hahaha. 

I did get a call from Brake Master on Tuesday that my car needed a new radiator and radiator cap and all sorts of other things, and they said the total would come out to nearly $900. I just was not about that life, and neither was my Dad, so he suggested that I take it to the place that Darin Z (the nice man who helped me and Kenzie on the side of the road) had recommended. I was pretty busy on Tuesday with work, so I was only able to pick my car up and have that awkward conversation with my Brake Master homies that I didn't want them to work on my car... it was a good time.

Wednesday October 26

Chase had his third exam for his weather class on Wednesday. For the past two exams we have been told to make the test even harder because he finished the others ones too quickly and knew everything too well. Well we certainly did make it harder, and it definitely took a lot longer but he still got 100%, Chase just can't be stopped. 

I finally got my fire article finished for ASN on Wednesday... well I had it done on Friday but it's been getting edited because I am just a piece of work, and it finally got finished on Wednesday. It was quite the relief for a solid ten seconds and then I realized I now have to move on to my next article. FUN.

After class I went to go take my car into the Darin Z's recommended car place. I had originally organized for Steph to pick me up after I dropped off the car, but I needed to go in earlier than she could pick me up so I could hopefully find the guy that Darin Z wanted me to find. I did indeed find the guy, so that was good but I was then without a ride back to my house. Thanks to find my friends I can figure out where my friends are and then deduct whether or not they would be able to pick me up. Kenzie and Deezy were both at my house, but neither of them were responding so they were a no-go. Rory was at work so he was a no-go. But I saw that Kara and Brittany were at the institute so I asked if one of them could pick me up, and sure enough Kara could because she's just the greatest person ever. And yeah, it was a little creepy stalking them, but you know I was able to find a ride, so the app is not just for stalking purposes.

I started making my proton pack on Wednesday for my ghostbusters costume. Kenzie and Steph bought a bunch of stuff for all the roommates to use on our packs, so they're the best. They all made theirs while I was working on Tuesday so I had to play some catch up. I am really happy with how they all turned out... I completely failed to take a picture, but I promise you they were cool.

I had my first Wednesday EBoard since it got changed from Friday. I completely forgot about the first one two weeks ago (nobody noticed but Chastity apparently though hahah), and then last week it was cancelled because of the debate and so many people were out of town. It was actually kind of an exciting Eboard because all the editors there, which just could not happen when it was on Fridays.

After the meeting I walked home and then went pokemon hunting with Deezy and Jenny at Reid Park. Most of you probably know that Pokemon Go has pretty much died, and that not many people really play it anymore. But there's this new halloween special going on right now and that brought SO MANY people back. Reid Park was poppin', and it really hasn't been in such a long time.

Thursday October 27

I had work in the morning on Thursday and then I spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon at the Superior Court.... as many of you know I got into some trouble with the law recently and..... haha just kidding. For my RPA class we are covering court cases right now, so I have to go and watch some trials and write some articles about them. I was there for about four hours researching a court case and listening to some crazy testimonies and some mediocre lawyers... I know I should not judge lawyers as I am not one... but man the ones on this case just did not seem like the brightest crayons in the crayon box, you know. Tessa and I got quite the kick out of it though. 

After I went to the courts I worked on my Ghostbusters costume some more, and I am SO happy with how they all turned out. It took us awhile to get the ball rolling on these costumes, but it all worked out for the better because we seriously looked amazing.

In the evening it was time for Terror in the Corn ROUND FOUR. Most of you probably know that it is tradition for me to go to Terror In The Corn at Buckelew Farms every year in college. This was my final year to go, and it was kind of very sad to think about, but still such a great time. 

The brave people of the corn this year included: Steph, Jacob, Rory, Andy, Abby, Queston, Mandy, Dillon, Megan, McKenzie, Jenny, Derrick and myself. 

It was amazing as usual. It was also just so entertaining seeing how scared people got especially Derrick. With Steph and Kenzie I know they both get so scared so easily, so it's no surprise there, but it was quite the surprise with Derrick which made it all the more entertaining. I think my favorite part of the night was all the trust falls that were happening at the most random times, toooo funny.

After everyone made it out of the regular corn maze we went to IHOP as per tradition for some late night pancakes. I swear I can't go to IHOP without someone commenting on how AMAZING I am at ordering. I always know exactly what I want and I know how to say it so the waiter doesn't have to ask me any questions.

Friday October 28

Friday was quite the crazy day.

Friday was the day that Zach was coming home! For those of you who aren't friends with him on Facebook, his mom made the perfect post about him coming home. 

I figure there's probably a hand full of you who were too uncomfortable to ask why he was coming home, so there's your answer haha. And in case you were wondering how I felt about it... I was SO PSYCHED to see him. I was sad about the circumstances that lead him to coming home, but I was not sad or mad or disappointed or anything, just soooo excited haha.

So yeah, he was supposed to land in Phoenix around 6 pm but he missed his first flight to Trinidad so his arrival time changed to 10 pm. Originally when he was coming home at 6 I was going to just show up at his house after he got released, but when his flight changed to 10 I decided I would go to the YSA halloween dance for a little bit and then Derrick would drive me to the valley after we made our appearance and I would see Zach then.

OKAY that's just a little prelude to what's going to happen later. What you need to know: he was landing at 10, I was going to be there after I made an appearance at the dance. 

So back to my usual Friday.

After free lunch Kara took me to go pick up my car from the shop. It was a little bit cheaper than what Brake Masters was charging but it was still expensive, so not my favorite moment of the day that's for sure. Afterwards we went to my house to watch the new Grey's episode. Rudy and Brittany both came over while we were watching to join in on the party. Turns out Brittany ended up coming a little bit late because she had to drive a woman at Walmart to the hospital because she was in labor, how crazy! Brittany is the best. My Dad also made a quick appearance before he had to head out to do fraternity stuff.

Then I just chilled with a sleeping Rudy and sleeping McKenzie, while Brittany, Kara and Travy went shopping for costume stuff. Then Kara and Travy came back over and experimented with his Bert Macklin costume for the dance. It was a trial and error process but the final product looked pretty grand! I also added the final touches to my proton pack and jumpsuit while they were working on Travy's costume.

Then my mom and Avery arrived in Tucson and Kenzie, Rory, my mother and I went to the ATO dinner. I was kind of freaking out the whole time because I knew I was going to see Zach that night and that's all I could think about, so I was a little distracted, but I was able to get a couple good conversations with the guys that help pay for my school.

After the dinner I went back to my house AND LAUREN STAHLE WAS THERE! I knew she was going to be there, but I was still so excited. I quickly threw on my ghostbusters costume and then we left for the dance.

The game plan was that I would drive with Lauren, and that Derrick would drive Jenny and McKenzie shortly after we left. Then leaving the dance I would go with Derrick to the valley and then Jenny and Kenzie could get a ride with either Lauren or Steph.

So Lauren and I get to the dance and we find some friends and dance for awhile. The dance was actually really awesome because it was in an airplane hangar in Marana. The directions were kind of confusing but we did indeed make it there (this is important to the story that I am about to tell). So after some dancing we realized that McJeezy hadn't arrived yet and that I was getting really sweaty so we needed to get in line for pictures before I started to look completely horrendous. So we got some photos:

Then Lauren gets a notification on her fancy apple watch that Derrick was calling her (do recall that Lauren and Derrick are cousins). So once we were done taking the photos we went to Lauren's phone to answer the call. Turns out McJeezy was got stuck 5 miles past the Hangar on a road that wasn't really a road more like a wash. So Lauren, Steph, Jacob and I went to go save them. Thank goodness Jenny and Kenzie were wearing their ghostbuster costumes with the reflective tape so we could see where they were. 

It was quite the adventure getting his truck out. We successfully got the back tire out of the first hole it dug itself into, but subsequently got the front tire stuck in that hold as well as another one. So we ended up calling some people at the dance to come and help us tow the car out. The towing worked great until the truck got stuck in a tree and the tree started to pull off the trucks front bumper.

It was all just a mess and as much of a mess that was I was even more of a mess because we were there for a total of two hours trying to get the truck out, when Derrick and I were originally only planning on staying at the dance for like thirty minutes. So I wasn't able to pick Zach up from the airport, but Pam being the great mom that she is sent me pictures of him when he landed and found them. I only cried for a little bit that I wasn't there, but I got my act together for most of the time. Everyone was very nice to me though and either gave me the space I needed or offered to drive me to Mesa if we weren't able to get the problem fixed. But we were finally able to get the truck out of the crummy situation with not a lot of damage and then went back to the dance for a solid ten minutes to get a photo of all the beezies and to transfer my stuff from Lauren's car to Derrick's car and then we were on our way to the valley.

Some photos:

I decided that it was probably too late for me to see Zach that night so I told Derrick to take me to my house instead, but Zach did call me while we were driving so that made me feel a whole lot better. When I got to my house I pretty much went straight to sleep because Zach was getting released the next morning at 8 am.

Saturday October 29

 I woke up bright and early and then Pam picked me up to take me to the Stake Center. I was honestly so awkward when I first saw Zach. Had I have gone to the airport I totally would have hugged him, I don't even care that he wouldn't have technically been released yet. But since I saw him in the Stake President's office with the Stake President in the room I thought it would be smarter to just shake his hand haha... so awkward. And then after he was released everyone was telling us to hug which just made me feel really awkward, so I freaked out a little bit. You'll just have to imagine the situation through these photos:

hahaha sooo awkward. But as soon as we were out of the church it felt just like old times, like not time had passed at all. When we got to his house, his mom took a few more photos of us together with the cute signs she made for him for the airport

Afterwards we went to lunch with his family at Cane's then Pam, Zach and I did some shopping. Zach is now obsessed with fashion hahaha so he needs an entire new wardrobe. We were able to get that wardrobe started, but he already has a list of things he needs to buy asap hahah.

In the afternoon we went to hang out with Sadie, Parker and Trevor at Pardie's cute little townhouse. I unfortunately had some Wildcat work that I had to do, so I wasn't completely in the moment with them, but once I got done it was a total party. It's nice knowing that from here on out the Fam is only going to add members back in instead of saying goodbye to them for stinkin' missions.  

We played some games, we went and did more shopping for Pardie's halloween costumes (they are going to be Jim and Pam AMAZING), and then we went to Zach's house for a pizza party and to play some Codenames. 

It seriously just felt like a normal day and like no time had passed at all. It's the absolute best having Zach home especially because of all of his new quirks he picked up in Curaçao. It's like he's the exact same but even better now, Zachary 2.0.

Sunday October 30

I went to church with Zach and his family and Trevor on Sunday, it was a party time. Everyone was very excited to see Zach and they welcomed him home with lots and lots of hugs. I was honestly quite nervous about how people would react especially for the first little bit, but everyone was very kind and excited to see Zach. Sometimes people just don't suck as much as I assume they do in my head.

For the rest of the day that I was in Mesa I just hung out with Zach and his family at his house and of course introduced Zach to Pokemon Go! He wasn't getting his new phone until Monday so he couldn't really dive into the game quite yet. 

I wish I could have stayed forever in Mesa but I did actually have to go back to Tucson to take some graduation photos. Zach drove me to Derrick's around 4 and then we said our temporary goodbyes (which are a thousand time better than the last goodbye we had) and I was on my way back to Tucson.

I am kind of just an idiot sometimes. I scheduled to take Ciara's grad photos at 6 pm thinking that it's not quite winter yet so the sun definitely wouldn't be going down by then... but of course... it was set. So we had to do some inside photos and then I rescheduled to take the photos another day at an earlier time. Ciara was very nice about it though even though I still feel completely awful.

Afterward Steph and I made an appearance at Dakota's farewell surprise party and then an appearance at Abby's pumpkin carving birthday party. It was the Sunday of parties and friendship. 

I also found out that even though I just got called as Gospel Doctrine teacher for church I literally only have to teach one more time before the end of the semester, WHAT A LOAD LIFTED! Tender mercies people. It's all happy-ville with me now. Zach is home, I teach less, I have great friends who love to party. The good life... that is until school starts getting crazy again haha.