Adventures in Stowe-land

This weekend I got my wisdom teeth out. I absolutely abhorred the idea of getting them out away from the safety and comfort of home –abhorred the idea enough to schedule the extraction for the last few days of Christmas break, just when I was supposed to be enjoying myself the most. However, my mom (inspired by the vast difference in oral surgery prices between North Carolina and Utah) had other ideas. Luckily for both of us—but mostly me—my wonderful Aunt Andra lives in Genola, which is but 25 minutes from BYU campus, and was able and willing to nurse me back to health post-surgery. Also, the title of this blog post was her idea.

And so getting my wisdom teeth out became a not-too-traumatic experience. Highlights.

I don't get loopy on drugs. It's quite sad, actually—though I have now had two opportunities to be hilariously intoxicated, I tend to, instead, become stupid and slow. As I apparently said soon after surgery, though I'm taking this on faith since I don't remember it at all, “I'm like me. Only retarded.”

However, I do become incredibly forgetful. I call it anesthesia amnesia. Yesterday while leafing through my wallet to pay for groceries, I found that my drivers license was missing. Frantically I searched my pockets, wracked my memory, and texted my mother, praying for the best and dreading the worst. I turned to my Aunt Andra with a feeble hope, asking, “Do you think any of the little kids could have grabbed something out of my wallet? I'm missing my license!” To my utter perplexion, she laughed. Then she pulled it out of her purse and handed it back to me. “You gave it to me a few days ago so that I could fill a prescription. You don't remember that???”

Nuh-uh. Not at all.

(On an unrelated note, dictionary.com says that 'perplexion' isn't a word. But I like it. So I'm keeping it.)

After we got home from the oral surgeon—more accurately, after I woke up from a four hour semi-coma—my life gained a kind of routine. For 2-3 days, I

-watched movies

-did crossword puzzles

-ate ice cream

-periodically retied ice-filled socks to my face

-told the mirror that “I just look chubby, not swollen!”

The aforementioned amazing Aunt Andra assisted in the sock-tying and self-image-reaffirming when needed.

Every Word, Every Line, Everything

1/8/11

I am amazed, awed, thrilled, surprised, fascinated, overjoyed—I really can't describe the feeling.

I am amazed by life.

I couldn't tell you what inspired me to say this. Actually, yes, I can. It's everything.

This morning I made waffles. They were delicious.

An hour ago I got to see my friend from China get baptized. The spirit I felt there was so pure, so sweet, so real that it almost brought tears to my eyes.

I just finished eating dinner. It wasn't anything special, but while I ate I drank hot chocolate, read “The Fellowship of the Ring,” and swayed in time to my Michael Buble station on Pandora.

Does life get any better than this?

Added on 1/10/11

I believe it does! Yesterday was Sunday. The Sabbath at BYU is one of my favorite things, ever. Church was fantastic—and it made me excited to prepare for going on a mission.

Elder Christofferson gave an excellent devotional on taking it one day at a time. I definitely needed it.

Tunnel singing probably got close to 0 degrees (that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius), but it was so amazing I really didn't mind.

Life. Is. Awesome.  

Tales of a Locker Owner

This semester I got a locker.

There were some days last semester when I would come in at the end of a long day, throw my backpack on the floor, and curse chemistry and math for being complicated enough to merit 10 pound textbooks. I'm fairly sure I had headaches during finals week because my backpack was so heavy.

So yeah, my textbooks were literally a headache.

A friend gave me the solution one day when I was complaining about my plight. “Jason, get a locker or I'll buy one for you!” So I did. And my back has been loving it. I now have to haul around campus only a teeny tiny little computer, a few notebooks, a calculator, an iClicker, and a few other incidentals. My backpack is so light I can almost forget it's there!

Now my textbooks are all in a locker in the library (it's number 5NW26 for anyone who wants to slip in death threats, love notes, or gift certificates). Since I usually spend 3+ hours in the library every day, this is a great setup! Except for right now, during a 1 hour break between classes (American Heritage and Chem 112). These classes are in buildings that are right next to each other, on the other side of campus from the library. Really, it seems kind of foolish to go all the way to the library, get my books out of my locker, study for 10 minutes, put my books back in my locker, then trek back across campus for chem.

So here I am. Blogging. At 9:30 on a Friday morning.

Not that I'm complaining. I haven't blogged in about a week, so it's about time I started writing something again.

Related news: I'm pretty psyched for my classes this semester. Some quotes from some of my teachers to give you a taste of what I've got coming.

“If you get to the pearly gates and find yourself a little short on worthiness, you might try trivia. Just don't give them my name.” -Brother Livingstone.

“I'm like the Jimmer of American Heritage!” -Dallin Henrie. (For those of you who don't go to BYU, Jimmer is the star of the BYU basketball team. He is also universally hated by Maeser Hall, but that's a different story).

“I DARE you to get more excited than I am!!!” -Professor Woodfield. I think he had just been talking about single component phase equillibrium.

Live. Gotta love it.