Episode 36: In Which Jessica Writes Another Ridiculously Long Entry About Life...and Math.

Wow! 36 entries! Crazy! My titles are getting longer. 'And Leon's getting larrrrrrrrrrrrger!" (10 points if you can name that movie)

My mom told me once that I have a movie quote for almost every situation in life. I've come to believe that it's true...which is really funny because I don't watch that many movies and very few do I watch more than once.

Oh well, its a talent. :)

So my life lately. It's been pretty good. Midterms are starting again. I have my anatomy lab midterm. 50 questions of things I'll never be able to identify. I'm used to the cadavers though and I actually think its really neat. I got to hold a brain the other week and then this last monday I totally touched a human eyeball. They're really not that amazing because the retina degrades quickly after death and then the lens and the iris fall out so really you just have a roundy thing with a hole in it.

I did pretty well on my other midterms though. Ok...actually I just did well on my family finance exam. I got 100 percent! This actually led to my contemplation of something that I have never contemplated before...but life is always full of those little surprises.

Growing up, I was good at English,Photography, and Japanese...but ironically, I hated English, so I decided to major in photography. Later on down the road, I realized that Photography was a pretty hard field to break into so I shifted my focus to Japanese. Before I could decided that as my major, I decided to do something completely random...I decided I wanted to be a Nurse.

I was never super good at math or science...in fact, it took a lot of application to get through pretty much any science for me. I was relatively good at Geography, and I liked it too...but to my mother's dismay, I chose nursing.

Flash forward, now I'm headed for excercise science which is MORE science than nursing!

You probably all think I'm insane. It's probably true. I promised my mom I would try Geography next semester.

So I went on with my life and then I took that midterm. Suddenly, my life plan shifted in an entirely different direction and I feel pretty good about it. Next semester, I'm taking Accounting 101.

Yep. Accounting. You know...numbers and math and all that good stuff. MATH!? How did we jump from photography to MATH!?!?! I'm not really sure but I know I like figuring taxes.

Yes...again you heard me. I like taxes. I don't like taxes themselves...but I sure like punching all the numbers into my spiffy financial calculator and figuring out how much people owe or how much they are owed. It's fun!

Now you all think I'm sick. But I'm loving my Family Finance class and I'm doing really well in it. A career test once told me I should be an accountant but I brushed it off. Now I'm excited to test the waters and take Accounting 101.

So that's my hilarious story of how I'm totally disregarding my self-formed paradigm for myself. Maybe someday, I'll be doing your taxes. :) It's also the story of one of the things I've defeated recently...stupid BYU testing center.

In other things I've defeated, I've defeated our oven. It seems to run too high and burn everything. I haven't quite figured out all the little gimmicks involved in the stupid appliance but today I discovered the the upper coil doesn't actually work...so if you put your food higher up in the oven, you can kind of control how fast the bottom of your food cooks and your cookies won't turn black.

Now, this doesn't explain how the tops of our pies, quiches, lasagnas, and shepherd's pies have been burning...that's still a mystery. But I have a bit more cookie dough left so I think I'll run a few experiments and see if I can't find a scientific adjustment for running the oven at a truer temperature. Maybe setting it 10 degrees lower than what it calls for or something. I'll have to sacrifice my cookie dough, but it will be worth it in the long run...with the whole 8 or 9 weeks I have left in this apartment.

That's right! I'm getting married in less than 10 weeks! I'm so excited!!! But I'm also very tired. Wedding planning is PRETTY much over, thank goodness. Just a few more details to work through, then we just have the fine details left.

We're into the logistical stuff now, like apartment hunting. Now this stuff, I enjoy. It's more of that mathematical/monetary stuff that leads me to look at Accounting. =P

Not that looking for apartments is necessarily FUN...but I'm more motivated to do that than design my wedding cake. It's actually really stressful cuz we're poor and housing is expensive. Also...my car broke down...like badly. So I have no car. Sad day. That of course didn't stop Bridger Harris from SHAVING CREAMING it the other week...but I digress. We're figuring it out. :)

It's kind of relaxing to peruse craigslist day in and day out, trying to find something that opens in december instead of just being available now. We're going to look at a place on Friday. It's cute...we'll see if it works.

Andrew and I alternate our stressed out about housing days...so luckily someone is always in a sound state of mind and can remind the other about the role of Faith and Prayer in our lives. :)

In other logical stuff, I've begun thinking about things like 72 hour kits, food storage, and being self reliant. We talked about temporal preparation today in marriage prep and I'm doing pretty good. I'm learning slowly how to manage finances, I can make more than a few healthy meals for my family and I'm learning more every day. I can clean a house (as long as I have a FUNCTIONAL vacuum cleaner BYU housing!) I can change a tire and my oil as well as an air filter and I know how to check the fluids in my car.

I'm lacking in handy skills around the house, like fixing basic plumbing and electrical issues, but I CAN change a lightbulb. :)

Ali and I decided that for a double date sometime, we're going to learn stuff like fixing basic garbage disposal issues and whatever. It'll be fun.

This all leads me to my recent opinions on wedding registries.

They're useless.

Well not really USELESS but more like FRIVOLOUS. Don't get me wrong...I've put nearly every nifty kitchen gadget I can find on my registry, its great. But what does a newlywed REALLY need?

Food.

Food would be good. I've been thinking it would be particularly fantastic if I could register for food storage. And while I'm at it, maybe some basic first aid supplies, well...I guess I can put that on my registry actually.

But what about a basic tool kit? Don't see those on registries often. (Does target even CARRY reliable tools?) Sure, you might be marrying a handyman and he'll bring all those things to the marriage...but lets be honest, boys these days spend more time on video games than they do on anything that would merit getting tools for christmas.

I think that when people get married they should invite as many people who have extensive marriage experience as possible. They know what's useful and what isn't...they can give you gifts you'll need. :)

Not that its not nice to get gifts you don't necessarily need. I just got an electric griddle for my bridal shower last Saturday. I'm so excited!!!! Would a pan work just as well? Yes...but you can't make bacon, eggs, AND pancakes in just a pan! =P

I also got granny panties. But that's a story for another day. :)