November 1st

Wow, October went out with a bang. 

So many good things happened last week.
First experience features James "Jim" Eplett.
At least that is what the nametag he puts out during class says.
He is what I like to refer to as a nontrad.
[short for nontraditional student]
He is constantly oversharing his personal experiences during class, including his time spent in solitary confinement while in prison.
Well last week he really topped himself.
Our teacher was talking about memory and how sometimes people falsely recall things, thinking they had seen something they hadn't. Our teacher asked if anyone could define this kind of false alarm and nobody in the class answered.
Then all of the sudden Jim falls off of his walker that he sits on and is curled up on the floor grabbing his chest making wheezing noises.
Our teacher flipped on the lights and immediately went to his aid while the rest of the class was silently watching wondering what to do.
Then Jim pops up with a big smile on his face and says "FALSE ALARM!"
Yeah, I laughed about it after class, but nobody was laughing then.
The whole class was dead silent and our teacher was pissed.
After a few snark comments between the teacher and Jim we continued on with the lecture in the most uncomfortable classroom setting ever.

Conveniently I spotted Jim later that afternoon napping in the lobby of the General Classrooms building.
Yes, that is his walker he sits on during class.
Yes, that is his oxygen tank he sets on his desk everyday.
And yes, he is a smoker.

So it's hard to top Jim, but here is a great video of Eric Jones at our post-kayak clinic pool hang out.

Friday night my favorite cousin came and visited me here in Cedar with his family.
Is he my favorite cousin just because he visited? Yeah.
Let me just share a few pictures of his adorable children with you so you can have a taste of the goodness seeing them brought to my life.

This is Micah. His eyelashes are the longest most beautiful things I've ever seen. And paired with his footy pajamas it was too good to be true.

This is Alessia. Appropriate that I chose the picture with swim goggles because we went swimming together? I think so.

This is Curtis. The oldest and therefore the best at communicating which made for some great "kids say the darndest things" type conversation.

 After I got my fill of children for the evening I headed over to a Halloween dance.
I wasn't too keen on going because typically I don't like Halloween, but I wasn't about to sit home alone.
This lumberjack costume made it worth going.

 Look at that nerdy kid doing squats with that nerdy girl on his shoulders.
I want to make some inappropriate jokes, but they are two of my most faithful blog readers so I don't want to risk losing that.

Saturday after putting in some long hours at the library I met up with Laura & Loryn at the football game.

Except I put in a few too many hours at the library and missed the whole game.
Am I sad? No.
Why not? Because I still got to see the UC Davis marching band perform.
INCREDIBLE!
Our team won the game, but their band changed my life.
I got a couple videos of their post-game performance.

Finally. Halloween night.
Possibly the best Halloween of my life.
I dressed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with two of my roommates.
It was so good.
We won the costume contest at our ward FHE.

 Later that same night I found myself piled into a giant box with my fellow turtle and Seth in his all spandex costume. I bailed pretty quick when body parts started going numb. Then I got the bright idea to tape them in. Did I think about their lack of air circulation? No. Was I a little bit worried they would suffocate in there and I would be held responsible? Yeah.

 BUT before I had a chance to set them free, Seth pulled a pocket knife out from somewhere inside his spandex. You wouldn't think it was his brightest idea to carry a knife inside his spandex pants so close to his waistline...but it may have saved his life.

Now for one final tale.
My roommate Staci, our neighbor Seth, and random other friend who was there Susan were all casually hanging out in the basement of the [climber] house down the street.
Susan pointed out an incredibly lifelike dog in the corner of the room.

As she drew attention to it I thought to myself, "I have seen that lifelike dog before."
Then I realized that it haunted our house all summer long because Staci toted it everywhere we lived.
So I called Staci out saying, "Isn't that yours?"
Only to have Seth burst his bubble screaming, "THAT'S YOURS?! We've been working so hard to solve this mystery!"
Oops, I definitely dropped the bomb on that one.
Oh well. I had no idea.
Come to find out Staci had left in on their porch a week or so earlier with a note saying something like: "Let's get ruff!"
Had our neighbors been taking handwriting samples? Yeah.
Did they almost confront the wrong culprits? Yeah.
So much laughter when this story unraveled itself.
Sorry if it's one of those things you had to be there for.

Anyways.

Here's to hoping November has as many good experiences to offer as October did.