Well now I've done it!!!!

Today ended up being just an "okay" soup day at the Skyroom. Asian-Pork-something soup just wasn't my favorite, but I did enjoy the broth due to the itch in my throat I woke up with. You better believe I skipped Accounting and didn't wake up until 11:00 AM. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices so you don't break out with a full fledge cold.

As Logan and I were paying I decided to ask the hostess about playing the piano and what the qualifications were. She said you have to audition, but that's only because they've had a few people who have thought they could play the piano, but really can't. We all laughed at the awkwardness of that and I explained that I've been playing the piano for 13 years. She showed me their schedule and offered to let me take over one of the open hour shifts. I wrote down the openings and told her I'd get back to her. She said I could even come this Thursday and play. I told her I would think about it and then I began to walk away.

THEN the little voice inside my head said, "Brent, if you don't say yes now you never will. Every time you come up for lunch you'll bring it up in conversation about how one day you're going to play the piano here...but really it will become one of those things that you can do at any time if you REALLY felt like it." (All that in the space of 2 seconds)

So I turned around went back up the one stair I had stepped down and said, "You know what? Put me down for Thursday!" She said, "Okay, and just so you know if there happens to be a problem and we would prefer you not to play again, I'll just come over to you and offer you your free meal for that day and that will be it."

So this Thursday from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM I will be the pianist in the Skyroom. you're all invited to come and celebrate the accomplishment of one of my goals for this semester. I am a little freaked out....not to play necessarily, but for the length. Do I even have an hour worth of repertoire?!?! And if I am allowed to come back I'll hold the hour shift for the rest of the semester. If not....that will be a funny, embarrassing blog post. I'll let you know how it goes.

One more thing...

I have some funny additions that must be added to the events of this last week. On Friday I got asked by my friend Katy (from High School) to the Institute Girl's Choice Valentine's Dance. It was a lot of fun and brought back some funny memories of Sr. Cotillion our junior year. The most disgusting thing happened while we were there though. The closing prayer was said, the last song had been danced too, and THEN someone proposed!!! How tacky! I really wanted to throw up everywhere...I was that grossed out that someone would ACTUALLY propose at the Institute Dance. I even tried to justify it by saying, "Well, maybe they met at Institute so this building is kind of special..." But to no avail I was still very much grieved to the level our Mormon sub-culture had dropped. I thought it could go no further after a movie based on Home Teaching....I was wrong.

BUT THEN....I was at work the next day and this girl I work with was telling me this hilarious thing that her friend did at the Institute Dance. Her friend FAKED an engagement at the end of the institute dance! HALLELUJAH!!! IT WAS ALL FAKE!!! THANK YOU!!! I told her how happy I was that it wasn't real and described the disgust I had felt. She laughed and told me that it was actually the couple's first date!! They had met at a mutual friend's house the previous Sunday and their first date ended up being the Institute Valentine's Dance...and their first kiss! Can you believe that?!?! That's just funny...

Another story needs telling from this last weekend. In my huge synopsis of Mardi Gras I completely forgot one of the funniest things. One of the girls we went with had a really funny moment. At the table where you bought a ticket to get into Mardi Gras the students selling the tickets were checking School ID's. And unlike the basketball game where you can get in with anyone's ID, they were being strict that the picture ID matched. So this girl (Who I'll leave unnamed) gave the volunteer at the table her ID. The girl volunteer then replied, "This is a boy's ID! You can't get in with this!" To which the girl replied, "No! That's MY student ID and my hair is just pulled back!" To which the volunteer replied, "Oh...Oh yeah! I'm SOO sorry! I just didn't look at it closely...You're a gorgeous girl!! I'm so sorry!" Poor little volunteer girl! haha! Logan and I died laughing, and even the unnamed girl thought it was pretty funny! And it was only funny too because the unnamed girl is a very cute girl.

Zac S. from Weber High ended up winning the plasma screen TV at Mardi Gras with around $250,000! Rumor has it that he got a bunch of people together that weren't going to gamble and just had them give away their 3 tickets. Either way... kudos Zac. He also happens to be my FHE Dad! Small world!

Today I also was the drawn as the winner for the Skyroom's weekly FREE BUFFET. I was super excited! Sorry Logan...better luck next time! :)

What a weekend! Today has been fun too! I went down to Salt Lake to pick up a girl from the Airport who flew in from California to interview for the Ambassador Scholarship. She was really nice and we had lunch on Temple Square (She's a member) at the Nauvoo Cafe. VERY GOOD FOOD! We were there a few minutes before lunch started so we walked around Temple Square. We got cornered in the Tabernacle by 2 sister missionaries seeking referrals. :) I haven't completely forgot those days. haha! Well, I'm headed off to get my laundry, go to Dinner Party Group, and then to FHE to go Ice Skating. (Combined Wards Activity) Who knows...maybe I'll even come back engaged!!! I can't decide which is worse...FHE or the Institute Dance....either way...both are just awful!

The Reason I Don't Gamble...

Tonight I attended the annual Utah State Mardi Gras Party. It's a huge party at the Student Center the Student Government puts on every year with a giant dance party, hypnotist, fortune teller, fake tattoo parlor, and CASINO!!! [Basically all the things Mormon wish they could do, but don't :)]

My gambling adventures began when we arrived fashionably late because of a prior engagement. (The USU Basketball game vs. Nevada...we won...of course...) The Sunburst and International Lounge on the second floor of the student center had been transformed into a high stakes Casino. Upon arrival to the Casino everyone is given a ticket that gets you $1,000 in chips. There was at least 20 black jack tables, several poker games, craps, and my personal favorite...Roulette. If you gambled all your money away you could go back two more times for tickets. They marked your hand so once you reached the max you were out of luck.

My evening began with a rousing round of black jack. My friend Logan, a girl named Robin, and I happened to find a table with a dealer who didn't really care too much about taking our chips...and she was free with giving them back to us. She also allowed us to break the "Max Bet Rule" of $500. In one round I won $1,500! I was quite proud. After awhile of playing Black Jack it got boring so we decided we'd take all of our winning to the Roulette table.

Let me just say this...If gambling was my thing Roulette is where I'd always be found! Most of the time it's win big or lose big. I arrived to the table with my friend Logan and I luckily found someone I knew who was already at the table who explained how Roulette really works and the different ways to get more chips other than just picking a number. The first spin I put chips on "black", and "odd" and balanced out with the marble landing on a red/odd. Still with no clue what I was really doing, I put $100 on Red-16. As luck would have it the marble landed on Red-16...I won!!! $3,500 all in one fell swoop. I was really proud and pretended that I won because I knew what I was doing. Everyone at the table was all impressed and I landed myself 3 gold chips. Who knew that an hour later...in the end...I would end up losing all of it to that darn Roulette table. Oh, well! The only real point to getting chips anyway was that if you cashed out your chips at the end of the night and you had the most they had a flat screen TV you could win. And trust me I'm sure whoever took it home had a LOT of chips. I witnessed someone winning $17,000 in one spin at the Roulette table.

I wasn't out to win the TV anyway, but to just have fun pretending to gamble. The dressed up waitresses walking around with soda drinks made for a nice touch and there was a huge stage set up with entertainment for all the gamblers. Moral of the story...I don't think I'll be headed to Vegas anytime soon....at least not to gamble. I will be going down in March for my cousin's Wedding....maybe I'll have to throw in a few bucks at the Roulette table while I'm in town. I'm just kidding! Before my Mom (Who is from Vegas) gets worried about me I need to share the very important lesson that I learned from my fake gambling experience:

Me: "Put it all on Red-16! I have a good feeling daddy's going home with a new Beamer!"

Coupier: "Black-5"

Oh well, better luck next year!!!

This is the roulette table I was at most of the night. If you look closely at the bottom you can see my lucky number Red-16.

Moving Up in the World...

I recently found my new favorite spot on campus. Previously it was the 3rd Floor bridge in the Library. It's a great place to study with comfy chairs and a sweet view of the library lobby through the glass railing. So you might ask, "How could anything replace the Merrill-Caizer 3rd Floor?!?" Well it's really quite simple...food is naturally involved. My new favorite place on campus is the illustrious Utah State University Skyroom Restaurant. Found on the top floor of our Student Center, (or "Centre" if you're Canadian) the Skyroom offers a sweet all you can eat soup and rolls meal. ("Buns" if you're Canadian) All for only $3.50! It's a sit down restaurant, at the top of the building, and has a live pianist...so naturally you feel pretty classy every time you eat there. The soup changes daily and they always have two kinds. I'm most often found there with Logan and Sarah on Tuesdays or Thursdays around lunchtime. It's a good incentive for me to go to Institute too...instead of heading home after my morning class gets out. The Skyroom has also introduced a riveting challenge into my life. My goal for this semester is to play the piano at the Skyroom. It's all volunteer, and anyone can do it. I assume there is some sort of audition, but I don't think they are too picky. I figure if I tell everyone this goal it commits me to follow through on it. Then again...who REALLY reads this?!?!

While on the topic of food I must announce that I have recently joined a really exclusive dinner party group. Okay, so it isn't THAT exclusive and it was set up through my ward, but it's still great! There are 15 people in the group (All from my ward) and the dinners are Sunday through Thursday. On those nights you show up to the apartment that's scheduled for dinner at 6:30 PM with your own plate, flatware, and cup. You can either stay and eat, quickly eat and take off, or get your plate to go. It's really quite fun and has been great getting to know some people in the ward. I've even been pleasantly surprised with the nice meals that the guys in the group have come up with. I was scheduled last Wednesday and with 3 Exams on Thursday I opted to just pick up some pizzas. (There was salad and AMAZING cookies my mom made) By "picking up pizzas" I mean...I decided to have it all catered...that's just how I do things now...all since I started having lunch at the Skyroom. CHECK PLEASE!

THE SKYROOM

CLIMATE CHANGE

I love college. I have this random honors life science class called "Climate Change" every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The class only has 13 people in it and because it's an honors course the teacher is way more relaxed. No busy homework...usually something to read before the class and then a fun discussion on it during class. Well today my teacher Dr. Hipps (Best described as Bill Nye the Science Guy meets "Granola"...in a good way) wanted to make sure there were some primary principles of science that we understood. After all it is a science class.

Principle 1: You can't prove something true...which is true...ironic. The only way to prove something true is to prove other things false...scientifically speaking. I don't know if that makes any sense, but in class today it did. Anyway, in any normal college class the teacher would lecture for the entire class about the how "you can't really prove something true, and that science has shown us by evidence that such princples can no longer......" and so on....

Well, not in Dr. Hipps' Class. He brings a meter stick to class and asks for a volunteer that wouldn't mind the entire class measuring their height. Some kid named Max volunteers. We get put into groups of two and I'm paired up with Lauren...the true "Granola" (She's a really nice girl, but has the khaki shorts, the fleece "Columbia" jacket, the natural look, her hair is only a few conscientious steps away from dreads, and she is concerned about "humanity's effect on the atmosphere").

So everyone gets a chance to measure Max taking up a good 20 minutes of the 50 minute class. I love college. Some groups even made him lay on the ground. Lauren and I came to the conclusion that he is 68 and 7/8" tall. We all compared our different answers and discussed how no one could REALLY prove how tall Max was. Cool object lesson and I determined if you can't REALLY prove how tall Max is the same must be true for me and that's when I decided I am ACTUALLY 6 feet tall not 5'8 3/4". The more I thought about this, it seemed to apply to everything! I didn't really get my one and only C+ in STATS 2300 my Freshman year...I REALLY got an "A". I like science now....who knew.

It's much better than the awful Accounting Assignment my friend Caleb and I started at 10 PM last night. We thought we'd breeze through it and he'd be on his way to see someone a few doors down and I'd be out on a run. 3 HOURS LATER....we finally finished...and by finished I mean we determined we had worked too long on this stupid assignment and made the most educated guesses we could for the few problems we couldn't get the accounts to balance. Trust me...accounting problems become quite funny at 1 AM. The only plus side was this morning when the professor said we'd only be graded on effort and if it looked like we had actually made an attempt to answer the problems we would get credit right or wrong. Then again how can he REALLY prove those are the right answers?!?!

THE SCOTSMAN

SHOW ME A SCOTSMAN WHO DOESN'T LOVE A THISTLE,
SHOW ME AN ENGLISHMAN WHO DOESN'T LOVE A ROSE,
SHOW ME A TRUE BLOODED AGGIE FROM UTAH,
WHO DOESN'T LOVE THE SPOT...

[clap, clap]

WHERE THE SAGE BRUSH GROWS!!!!!!
[Utah State University's School Fight Song...THE SCOTSMAN]

I'm happy to announce the wonderful beginning of a great semester. So far I'm all moved in, I've attended all my classes, signed up for institute (and went...which is sometimes the hardest part), and have managed to fill my week full of work, frozen yogurt, office reruns, American Idol, Ambassador fun, and an awesome free outdoor Dashboard Confessional Concert...just to name to a few things.






Winter time in Logan can be bleak sometimes with the low temperatures, the "great" inversion, and all the snow, but something that makes it all worth it is the Utah State Boys Basketball Games. Notoriously known for our LOYAL fans, the Aggies have one the best home winning records in the nation at The Spectrum...which is why BYU refused to come to Logan for the last few years and finally in December had the cougar courage to come back.

Now what does all this have to do with anything?

Nothing really...except for one of my favorite things that happens at the Utah State Basketball games...THE SCOTSMAN. (words printed above) Picture this: half of a basketball arena with crazy loud fans, add the words from above, and (my favorite part) great actions! The first round through singing The Scotsman you wave your arms from side to side, but the second time through you get to "milk the cow"! [In lieu of the university's agricultural heritage] Imagine your arms if you are intensely running and combine that with milking a cow...and you've got it....

Now, The Scotsman is a sight that truly needs to be experienced in person to fully feel the Aggie Spirit, but this short video clip below will have to do:





Everything else this semester is falling right into place. Great classes, great professors, great ward, (51st Ward of the University 3rd Stake...I was in the 7th Stake Freshman year) and best of all, great roommates! All RM's and really nice. (Kyle, Mike, and Andrew) The only problem so far has been our leaky dishwasher that had to be fixed the other day.

I'm also proud to announce that every Wednesday at 10:30 AM on campus, yours truly will be leading some prospective students around Utah State's Campus. USU students: If by chance you happen to see us...a loud outburst of "GO AGGIES!!!" is always welcomed. For those of you interested in taking the tour you can sign up online...or if you're interested in your own private one on one tour I'm more than happy to oblige. :) I'll even finagle some free Aggie Ice Cream Coupons! (wink, wink)

Moving Out

There is something liberating about moving out...Especially during your college years. Three months living at home has made me realize I just could never live at home for four years while attending university...and NOT because of my parents whom I love dearly, but because of the huge lack of human socialization. College is about late night fast food runs, going to haunted nunneries, basketball games, midnight crape parties, going to bed way too late, True Aggie night...not one yet...for the record...

College is more than an educational experience...it's a LIFE experience.

Having to deal with crazy roommates sometimes (hopefully not this year), running to catch the Aggie Shuttle, fun apartment neighbors, living on the third floor and staying up way too late having a war with the apartment across the little courtyard...ending in your windows being covered in some sort of cheese sauce/gravy and theirs being covered in wet flour covered paper towel balls...all in the dead of a Logan winter.

Now everyone can't afford this luxury, but if you can...take it and run or all of the college memories you tell your kids will begin with, "So this one night Grandma, Grandpa, and I were bored and we decided to..."

I've already got WAY too many of those memories from my childhood! :)