E.M. Forster and the Trouble with Essays

That kinda sounds like a Harry Potter title...no?

Anyhow, I read "A Room With a View" the other day. I didn't get it at all. So I watched the movie. Still don't get it.

According to Amazon reviews, the version I watched is super lame. (The director did take some serious liberties with it...which is too bad because all the other Andrew Davies adaptations I've watched have been superb...)

So I have another copy of the movie on reserve at the library. This will be the story's last chance...but I'm really convinced I'm not cut out for E.M. Forster. Which is too bad, because I wanted to read "Howard's End" as well...

Has anyone else read Forster? What did you think?

In other news, I've discovered the problem with essays. They just LEND themselves to procrastination. I sat down an hour ago to try and start my essay that is due on Wednesday. My experience can be summed up like this:

"That awkward moment when you try to write your essay that is due next week and you have writer's block until an hour before it is due."

Oh brain, why can't you just go along with my ambitions?

Vacation Part 1

VACATION!!!! YAY!

So our vacation starts with Jessica furiously trying to make sure everything is together and ready to go the night before we leave. In the end, I scrapped all my hopes and dreams and stuck with packing. No homemade granola bars for our hike, no...other stuff I wanted to do. Oh yeah, make dinner. I didn't do that. We went to Cafe Rio.

Where was Andrew this whole time you ask? Furiously trying to finish all the homework for the remaining part of the course since he was going to miss the last 2 days of classes. Long story short, his efforts went pretty much the same as mine. He finished about as much as his brain could handle.

When everything was packed and ready to go, we went to bed. It wasn't TERRIBLY late, but since we had wanted to get up at 4, it was still too late, whatever time it was. We DID get up at 4 and we managed to get out of town by 5. We picked up some ice at Wal-Mart, grabbed Krispy Kremes for breakfast, filled up the tank and got on our way. Of course we only made it past the Idaho border before deciding to pull out at a rest stop and take a nap. I think we slept for about an hour and that kept us for the rest of the drive.

The drive up was uneventful. There was the time that I pulled the cherries out of the cooler, noticed that the label said "Yakima, WA" on it and exclaimed, "You're going home little guys!" After which, I was hit with a wave of guilt for eating them and became a temporary Meat-itarian and Andrew had to eat them instead. I got over it eventually. =P

We switched drivers around the Blue Mountain Pass. I drove and Andrew slept. Lucky him because there was annoying road construction. I passed the time playing Oregon Trail in my head. Andrew got bitten by many a rattle snake while changing tires because there was no one to trade with.

We continued on through Yakima and stopped at a fruit stand in Fruitvale (an aptly named town given the number of fruit stands). We picked up some fresh Washington cherries (and I didn't call them "little guys" this time) and headed out on the last leg of our trip to Rainier. The canyon we went through outside Fruitvale was gorgeous with column like volcanic formations everywhere and a clear river running alongside the car. Andrew and I both agreed that we really wouldn't mind just stopping there.

We finally arrived in Rainier National Park at about 6pm Pacific time. That means there was still plenty of sunlight left. We came in the Ohanapecosh entrance though and apparently, they close that booth at like 5...so we just entered the park without paying. I felt guilty the whole time but we paid on the way out so it's ok. That was just the beginning of the guilt trip though.

Inside the park! In the distance, you can see part of the road we'd already been on. 

We had about another hour drive through the park and around the mountain (which was hiding in the clouds so we couldn't see it) before we got to the campground. This is where I learned that Yosemite is not a standard for all National Parks.

Originally, my plan was to plan dinner and breakfast and pack them in the cooler before we left. Andrew said he wouldn't mind just eating out for dinner, and we could just have instant oatmeal for breakfast. Remember how I told you I ended up just sticking to packing? That means I figured we'd grab dinner in the park.

Well as it turns out, the Longmire lodge, which had the gift shop and I wanted a magnet so we went there instead of to Paradise, only has the hotel restaurant. I didn't want to pay 10-15 dollars a plate for dinner. We bought the magnet, and decided to go to the deli at Paradise. Luckily, before we drove there, we asked the ranger at the campground where to eat. Turns out the deli was already closed. Why did everything close so early!?! I swear Yosemite general stores and stuff are open later than 6!

We went to the campsite and tried to figure out where to go from there. This is where the guilt tripping got REALLY bad. I was having a bit of a panic since I didn't know what to do. And what about the general store! In Yosemite you can buy practically anything you want! There hadn't been much in the general store at all! We could eat the sandwiches I had packed for our hike the next day...but then what would we eat on the hike? We could have oatmeal, we did have 12 packages of it...

Finally we decided to try the general store one more time.With 15 minutes to spare before closing, we went back to the general store and discovered all the food that we had skipped before because I was focused on magnets. It was still a VERY small section of the store compared to Yosemite but we managed to procure hot dogs, buns, condiments, and firewood. (Another lesson learned, always carry cash, because at the campground, firewood was cash only).

Speedy Andrew builds a fire!

Remember how I said plenty of sun left? Umm...it was twilight when we were done with all this. We still had plenty of light to set up the tent, but we ate in the dark. Oh well. Andrew built a fire while I made myself not helpful at all because I was playing with my camera, we ate, we went to bed. Everyone was happy. Oh, that was after my OTHER panic moment...

"WHERE'S THE BEAR BOX!?!" After asking Andrew several times "Bears must not be a problem here...because in Yosemite they have boxes everywhere. If they were a problem we'd have a bear box, right?", I was finally content with the answer...kind of. I'm surprised the park didn't yell "I'M NOT YOSEMITE!!!" at me. I didn't end up asking Andrew to use our 100 feet of paracord to hang our food from a tree but it really didn't stop me from packing EVERYTHING smelly into the cooler which we kept in the car. For about an hour afterwards I had horrible visions of bears tearing the roof off our car to get our beef jerky.

No bear box

I have issues. But I slept well and we had a wonderful day the next day in Rainier National Park! (which is not Yosemite).

It's a Good Thing Andrew is a Good Person...

Because I'm not. I'm ready to go wring the necks of everyone in the financial aid department or at the very least, demand that they are all fired for incompetency.

I realize that the couple weeks before school are busy and they probably have a million requests pending, but that is why I started this whole process back in May. They're not even listening to my request. I had some issues on my own account earlier because BYU wanted some kind of verification of my taxes. Either I could order a tax transcript from the IRS, or I could link directly to them through my FAFSA. I had already linked to the IRS when I filed, yet BYU had no indication of that. It was easily cleared up with one phone call.

Now it is Andrew's turn. First, he went to student services and explained that his situation was similar to mine. The girl at the window didn't know what she was talking about and told him the only way was to order his tax transcripts. When Andrew told me, I stormed in there and told the girl firmly (and probably not very nicely)my own situation and that she needed to check on it. I think I scared her because she told me the FA office was closed and to deal with them through e-mail. I kinda felt bad for her, even though it was still 10 minutes before closing time, so I sent off an e-mail on behalf of Andrew.

He's been handling it since then, and like I said. It's a good thing...because I want to kill them. They can't even send a grammatically correct message void of spelling errors. No wonder they can't keep track of anything, they can't even be depended upon to edit their e-mails.

But more aggravating than that, is the fact that they are only half listening to the problem. I told them explicitly that their records were not reflecting that I had used the IRS data retrieval tool when I filed. They seem to have it stuck in their heads (several emails later) that I think BYU has no record that Andrew filed a FAFSA.

To appease them, we followed their instructions to use the IRS data retrieval tool on the FAFSA and since we already had, Andrew's FAFSA is stuck somewhere in limbo because he's made changes but hasn't made changes to his FAFSA.

Thanks BYU financial aid. You idiots. You should just waive our tuition. It would be easier on all parties.

Want Thai Food

I really want Thai food. I feel like I deserve it because I haven't had it for like...2 months! That means I deserve it right? I am entitled to Thai food.

I need to stop talking about Thai food. I'm drooling like Pavlov's dogs.

Still no vacation post. ...come to think of it...where is my camera? I'll find it soon and then we'll see what I can do.

And The World Keeps Spinning

I go on vacation, and the entire world turns upside down. Our ward got rearranged and now we're in a new ward (which means I'm not RS pianist anymore), my sister got her mission call to Ukraine something or other that I can in no way pronounce. Russian speaking. What the crap!? Where did that come from!? Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd...that's pretty much it. We got into Provo this morning at 5:30am. That's all you're getting out of me right now. Any longer and my head will the the hyujnlsafjoasfksfhhs...keyboard. *yawn*

Yay Olympics and Yay Interwebs

NBC has ridiculous broadcasting rights to the olympics. It basically alienates everyone in college town unless you live in a big complex that has cable included in your rent. We don't.

What I do have though, is the ability to disguise my computer as one located in London...and stream the olympics there. :)

Is that what I was doing last night instead of packing for our trip tomorrow? Maybe...