Nocturnal 'Nanigans

For some reason I just felt very strongly that this post needed an alliterative title, but I could not think of a good "N" word that could express the idea of "very unexpected happenings that were quite entertaining and not exactly in accordance with the Miss Manner's expectations placed upon a young lady" or something like that. So I figured "Shenanigans" was the closest I would get so I could just use the lovely "put an ' before it trick."

And when I said "For some reason" I REALLY meant: "For the very specific reason that I love a poem by Anne Finch called 'Nocturnal Reverie' and I do realize that the title is not alliterative, but I still wanted MY title to be." So there.

Now for the shenanigans part.

It all started Monday night. I went to FHE (for the first time in maybe longer than I should admit- don't tell!) and we were having a little White Elephant Exchange. I just realized that I don't know how to say "elephant" in italian and that is a serious travesty. Anyway, using my "feminine wiles" which roughly translated means, "Using my skills of treachery, deceit, and extortion" I managed to secure myself a snuggie. Oh baby. It was actually kind of ironic because the day before I was reading and my arms were really cold and I thought about how nice it would be to have a snuggie and BOOM. Snuggie for Tara. Actually, am I even typing with my snuggie right now? I wish I could answer that in the affirmative, but I just got out of the shower and I am pretty toasty, so a snuggie is not needed at present. But I will keep you updated. It is sitting by me though, hand reach away, just in case.

After FHE, like the dutiful students we sometimes pretend to be, Kathryn and I trudged (Yes, we TRUDGED. A slow, weary, yet determined walk... Name that movie!) to the library and after suffering through a few hours of the writing process, we decided it was break time.

Now an explanation is required here, a little background info, so you can be "in the know." Kat and I encountered an individual this year (who will remain nameless, genderless, indiscriminate etc so as to prevent this individual from being shunned or from feeling sheepish), and this genderless guy is just really hard to talk to. Like really. I like to think that I am not too boring, but this unidentified, and still genderless for the purposes of the story, dude always seemed like he was undergoing some form of the Chinese water torture every single time I tried to talk to him. Kathryn, and a few other select females, felt exactly the same. So we devised a little competition. Ice cream was owed to whichever individual could get this fellow (ok yeah, I am going to quit with the pretense of keeping the gender a secret) to talk with them for more than eight minutes. Harder than you might think. But I found an opportunity and found out a lot more about this person's background than I ever wanted and thus, I earned the ice cream. Clocked in at twelve minutes, just in case you were wondering. Above and beyond the call of duty.

So Kat and I decided that this break should be an ice cream break, but the only ice cream in the vicinity was at the Creamery and it was due to close at eleven and it was, at the time, just a little before eleven. We started shoving our school junk into our backpacks and made like freshmen back to the Heritage area and the mothership (Creamery) and we got our ice cream.

As if we could even HANDLE anymore excitement for the night, we took a "shortcut" home and ended up in a fenced-in construction site with one option before us. Ok, we could have come back the way we came, but it was so far, so we had one viable option. That involved hopping a fence. With backpacks and stuff. Kat was also maybe in a skirt, but that might not be the truth. We owned that sucker. With backpacks on.

Which brings us to TUESDAY night. I was once again, spending a late night at the library. It was 11:19 when I left the library and it was dark and cold and the weight of my backpack was even more burdensome because I couldn't quite finish off my paper. I was one crosswalk away from my apartment and there were no cars in the vicinity so I started to cross when all of a sudden this car appears suddenly. They were still a little bit away, but they were going wayyyy faster than the speed limit and they were not slowing down even though I was very clearly still going to be in their way when they got to my crosswalk. Though my initial instinct might have been to just let the car take me (just kidding- geez!) I scurried (and yes, I literally had to scurry) out of the way and offered the boy scout salute. The three fingers that could also be read as "Read between the lines." But in the dark and in a quick motion it might have just looked more like one, big, loud, finger. Tehehehe. For this action, I got honked at. It was worth it.

Are you even ready for Wednesday night?! Most exciting night yet. In Siena, Italy there is this glorious and grand horse race called the Palio. Look it up. There are some awesome youtube videos on the subject. But it is basically Italy's version of the running of the bulls. But obviously cooler. I am part of the Istrice contrada. We ARE the porcupines! Instead of real horses, we have classmates masquerade as horses with other classmates on their backs. It is great fun. There are many fun traditions also associated with the Palio, like the parade of contrade beforehand and such, and there are awesome italian dishes etc. Naturally, we had matching "Istrice" shirts and such and all of our practicing paid off (and yes, we really did devote some time during class to practice) and we are the victors for this semester's Palio. Did I mention we also won last semester?? Yep. I believe MC Hammer actually wrote a song about us entitled "Too legit to Quit" or something like that.

I also finished my third to last paper of the semester. No laughing matter. And yes, I am currently procrastinating the writing of the other two (even though one of them I really am almost done with, just can't quite finish it off). Thanks for asking.

A London Day

As I was thinking about my day and all of the awesomeness that it was, I had the realization that it was a "London Day." Why is that, you ask? Well, let me explain.

When I was in London, every single day was filled with adventure after adventure and I got to hang out with really awesome people all the time and I had fun and learned. That is a London day. Awesome people. Awesome activities. No time to think about how tired you are. No desire to think about the things that you "really should be doing." No desire to actually DO the things that you "really should be doing." So, basically, just a fun-filled day.

(Also, I would just like to say that it is pretty late and I didn't write a paper that I should have and because of that I am suffering when it comes to proper usage of the English language, so I apologize if there are any sentences that contain egregious errors).

The surprising thing about THE day, the infamous day (and in this instance we are going with the definition provided by Ned Nederlander that infamous means "more than famous"), is that it started out as an ordinary day, one might even use the term boring to describe the projected outcome for the day. I only had one set activity for the day and then a very lengthy list of things that I ought to do.

I started off decently on the things I should be doing list. I went to the temple and it was nice, a little crowded even for a Saturday. Then I went to the gym. That is when I should have maybe started picking up on the hint that the day was going to be good because the movie "Life As We Know It" was on. And that movie is funny. I like funny.

A little after the whole sweating and panting thing, I went home and showered like some people sometimes do after gym time. Then I received a phone call from a dear friend inviting Kathryn (my roommate) and I to a Vocal Point concert. We happily, cluelesslly for me, accepted the invitation and prepared ourselves.

I will confess I have never heard Vocal Point and if I am being perfectly honest, I just figured they were overhyped, overrated, whatever singers. I sat next to a guy in my New Testament class who was in the group and I never thought too much about it.

Um.... I was wrong. They were brilliant. Beyond brilliant really. I was amazed. And wildly entertained. Desperately swooning. I know the short, clipped phrases are probably starting to get old, but honestly, I was so blown away that I feel they adequately express (and perhaps mirror) my heart as it continuously stopped because it was so amazing. I want to marry Vocal Point. (Note: You might have noticed that I did not narrow out a specific singer from the group and that is because I would marry any of them. I would say all, but we LDS people already have a hard time disassociating ourselves with the whole polygamy thing...).

The only bad part about the concert was that it made me late to my LATIN DANCING LESSON. Yes, just in case you couldn't quite see the bolded type, let me reiterate. LATIN DANCING LESSON. What?! Yeah, baby.

Just a little background to this... recently in my singles ward we had a Service Auction. People donated cans of food and the grams of protein in the cans gave them a certain amount of points. People also donated "services" and other things and with their can points, people could bid on services. So people donated things like, "Do two loads of laundry" or "Make dinner for an apartment" or other such cute things. One of the services donated was "Two latin dancing lessons." Luckily, I was the auctioneer person (Vanna-style of course!) and so when this treasure of a service item appeared I made sure to speed up the whole process of "going-going-gone... SOLD!" to the lady in the sequins. (I was wearing sequins at the time).

So I go over to my latin dance instructor's apartment and we cleared the dance space. (*giggle* *tehehehehe*). He taught me four basic latin dances and then we worked on them. It was so much fun and though I might have been appallingly bad, he was very kind and encouraging. And it was pretty much just like the best thing ever. Heaven.

You are probably thinking by now that I have had so much fun that I should probably save some for other people. Or perhaps crawl into my bed to recover? Or maybe even actually buckle down and do those things on that dratted to-do list. But did I? NO! No I didn't.

I went to Timpview High School and saw "Thoroughly Modern Millie." And it was delightful. Also really fitting with the whole "London day" thing because the best way to end your day in London was to go see a play! Millie was incredible and it was really fun to see all of the people from my home ward in the play. They were all wonderful. I also always love seeing my old choir teacher and drama teacher (Mr. Larson and Mr. Brower, respectively), they are very talented men and I was quite lucky to get to work with them in my past. Kathryn had to put up with my reminsicings about ol' times and popping out of the trapdoor and such. Good times.

Then. If you can even handle it, I will tell you what happened next. We got in the car and Adele's "Someone Like You" was on the radio. Not just once, but twice. One right after the other. Different stations, of course, but the perfect song to pour-our-souls-out-in-song-to. And oh did we ever. Both times.

In the London days, when we went to see a play we always went and got some gelato or ice cream or something to end with (who am i kidding- we did that not just when we saw plays...oopsie). So to keep with the tradition, I went with a friend in the ward to get some ice cream. Or I guess technically it was a "malt" from the Malt Shoppe. Peanut Butter. Yummy.

Did I do write my paper? Maybe not... Did I learn the new Italian tense I intended to? Maybe not so much... Did I have a ridiculously awesome day that reminded me of my London days? YES. Did I do anything that wasn't at a high level of awesome? NOPE. That is what I'm talking about. A little taste of London in Provo. It can happen.