Bassons, Basketball, and Black Mambas

I am going to start with the fun and sweet, then move into the freakin hilarious, and nothing will be in chronological order; just whatever comes to mind first. Friday, after orchestra, I was tracked down by Dr. Jorgensen, the lady who organizes the wind quintets, and she asked if I was doing private lessons, for I had crossed my name off the list, and I said that I don't have much time and I probably couldn't afford it. I was honest on both- I really don't have much time (I probably would if I didn't mess around so much... ha ha ha ha ha) and it costs about $200 a semester for lessons. Being the push over that I tend to be, I gave in and agreed to come to the session on Saturday. At 9:30, I met the two other bassoonists in the Eccles building and waited for our teacher to come. I was told that he was a full time dentist that played in the ballet up north. He wasn't what I pictured, not that it was a bad thing. The four of us met together in a practice room and we were divided into half hour incremets. I was second, so I moved into a different practice room and practiced my orchestra and wind symphony music. When the time expired, I packed my things into the foreordained room, and started my practice. He is a really nice guy. I really like him. He asked what I was doing with music, and I said I do it for fun. I recited the ever quoted excuse, "I couldn't ever be a music major. It makes work out of music, and I don't want to have to work to do music. I just do it for fun." He said I had a very respectable opinion, and that he was advised the same thing. Then I mentioned that after this year, I was going on a mission. We talked vaguely about the Gospel for a little, and it was cool. I really loved playing with him. He said that I needed to take lessons (and I would love them), and that I should talk to Vance or somebody to try and see if I can work my way around the fee. My half hour ended, I put my things away, and I took off towards the apartment. When I was crossing the road just outside the music building, I noticed the Elders on their bikes riding down the street. I slackened my pace to say hi to them when they passed. The first two passed with a wave, but the last one, who was a few yards shy of the rest, pulled over and started talking to me. After a decent conversation, which taught me very much, they took off and I knew the Lord was with me. It was really cool, and it emphasized what Elder Holland said in his talk (in retrospect). When Bradan got back from his trip to the umbilical cord, he played 7 hours of non-stop blood and gore in the form of Resident Evil 4. No joke, non stop. Til the wee hours of the morning. Well... there was a stop. The neighbors Melissa and Kelsey dropped by and asked if we wanted to play basketball. It was 11 at night, and the court is not lit up, so it was very entertaining. It was boys against girls, and we got slaughtered, but we let them cheat... and we only played with our left hands.... ha ha. It was really fun though. The first try on a reverse lay up, I made it. And nobody else came close. :) I rock. There was a stray dog that kept bugging us. We tried to scare it away, but it just thought we were playing with it. We faked throwing things, and even tried to get it to not like that ball, but it just AirBudded that idea. It was a good time. Sunday came, and church was pretty good. They called all the major presidents and representatives, which was a half relief because I had money on me being Elder's Quorum president. Preisthood was cool, Sunday school was funny because the teacher just got back from his mission, he didn't say where, but I would pay money he went to Mexico because he talked just like a Mexican. And he kept saying and writing Spanish... ha ha. Then it was fast and testimony meeting. I really enjoy listening to testimonies. I can always feel the Spirit very strong. An area 70 "spoke" to us, just saying he was on assignment and that he just wanted to bear his testimony. When I got home, Jake was back from his football game in Arizona. Because he was told to dress this week, he got to travel down to Mesa with the team, but he didn't get to play because it was such a close game, but we pulled out ahead. Bradan and I listened to the game on 650 AM right after we made a trip to Wal-mart... ha ha good times. He went to church with one of his buddies because he missed our ward. I decided I was going to cook dinner tonight for our traditional Sunday dinner. I started after the fireside, which started at six and ended an hour later, and I slaved away for TWO HOURS getting dinner ready. I made homemade chicken noodle soup, and it took forever. I had to made the noodles, prep the corn on the cob, cut the veggies (after Chelcy suggested we put some in), and cook everything. Doesn't seem like a lot, didn't seem like it would take that long, but we didn't have dinner til after 9. But it turned out really good and I am really proud of it. During dinner, Luke and Bird came back and it suddenly got really loud. Ha ha which reminds me... earlier the newly ordained Elder's president and ward mission leader knocked at our door to come visit and drop off a flyer for a fireside next week. I was napping on my bed, and Bradan came and woke me up. The Elder's president was saying how he lived just next door, then asked, "Who is the loud one?" ha ha ha ha LUKE... Anyway, after dinner we just started messing around playing a little Guitar Hero (Bird FINALLY remembered it), Mario Kart 64, and Goldeneye. Good times reminiscing in retroville. After, Luke pulled out his Black Mamba, which is a sock with eyes on it that, when placed on the hand, turns into a slithering, face-smacking machine. Luke hit Snow while he was sleeping with it, and got it on video, and that is pretty good. Snow didn't even remember him doing it. Jake had this brilliant idea that someone should hop in bed and act like he is sleeping, then have Luke come in and try and hit them, but the sleeping beauty reaching up and smacking him out of no where. I was chosen to be the beauty (for obvious reasons... ha ha ha ha ha) and I got in my bed and waited. I put one of my Sunday socks on, hiding it under my pillow. We organized the whole thing. Bird, Jake, and Bradan would tell Luke how to do it, getting close to my face and pausing to say, "Black Mamba," just before striking. Well, my job was that when he said the cue, and when Bradan tapped the wall, I would pull my hand out from behind the pillow and hit him. Oh my gosh did it work!!! and we have it on video. It was so hard to keep a straight face and to try and not have my cover blown, but I did it. I hit him square on the face, knocking him back with the blow from space. Perfect 10s for amazingness. Luke had some random face paint and made another Black Mamba, Mama Mamba. We decided that we are going to make a family of Mambas: Albino Mamba, Flour Mamba (guess what happens when your hit...), Stoner Mamba, Baby Mamba, and so many others. It was so funny. I am almost afraid to go to sleep because I don't want to get black mamba-ed during the night, because Luke said I am on his hit list. Oh man... good times. Then, after a little clean up from dinner, we had the brilliant idea to go take the left over corn cobs and place them on everyone's door. We ran up to the top of C building and dropped a cob of corn on the doorknob of every person's door. Luke and Bradan hucked some up on the balcony too. It was basically amazing. I love my roommates. They are Crazy!!! which is why we have such good times. After all this writing, I think its time for bed. Its almost 3 in the morning and I have to get up in 4 hours.

College is going great. I am having such a great time and I am loving every second of it. Now, for some more college experiences. Last night, there was a big rain storm. It was raining and lightening and it was awesome. It was only Bradan and myself home at the time, and I was watching the storm through our patio window. A flash of lightening lit the northern sky, and I said, "I hope the power goes out," because I love it when the power goes out. Right when I was placing the period on the sentence, the lights dim and the TV shuts off. It immediately came back up, but Bradan was right in the middle of a game on his PS3 and it was cut short. It took me a couple seconds to realize exactly what happened, with my impeccable timing and the frustration of a lost game, but I laughed really hard when everything clicked. Bradan and I didn't go to bed til four, and slept til 11. Today, I finished my homework in spurts, a little here and a little there, while playing some Super Mario Brothers on the Super Nintendo. I kinda suck, and Bradan just laughed the whole time. Skipping a few hours til early evening, after the FHE BBQ, Luke decided to use his free RedBox rental, and Bradan, Luke, and I drove to Wal-mart to redeem the coupon. The drive was the best part; we put on the ping pong song- or "Do You Know What it Feels Like" by Enrique Iglasius- and were singing to it at the top of our lungs. But, the RedBox at Wal-mart was disfunctional and not working, so we had to drive to McDonalds to the other RedBox. Down Main Street, we sang "Sweetness" by Jimmy Eat World. We got "21" and drove back to our apartment. We used Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" to keep our vocal cords fresh. When we got back, Jake was eating his hamburgers he had made on the George Foreman (he had football practice and couldn't make it to the BBQ for FHE). The four of us were talking- Snow Bird hadn't gotten back yet- and Luke's phone goes off. His ring tone is the Power Ranger beeping call. It brought up many childhood memories. Jake was pro at the Power Rangers. He remembered all their names and all their animals, and even remembered the seasons. Bradan propped up his computer, and we searched up Power Rangers on YouTube and watched the first episode of Power Rangers. It was awesomely lame. 90's hair and cloths, cheap acting, and awful punch lines, but it was great to remember the classics. Skipping a few more hours til late evening, we were just sitting around, talking about whatever came up, and it reminded me of a time, merely days before, when we were sitting around, playing catch phrase. It was mainly Bradan, Jake, myself, and sometimes Luke. An earlier word was tennis, and Luke had Jake answer by saying, "Its a game we played earlier today." On my turn, the word was tennis racket, or something related to tennis, and I looked at Jake and said, "Its a game you played earlier," for the first word. He then said, "Spin the bottle?" Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I dropped the game- I was only sitting on the love sac- and asked him what did he say? He blushed and got embarrassed and insisted he hadn't played that game. I guess we will take his word for it. Back to the present.... While we were having our random conversation, Bradan jumped off the kitchen chair and jumped Luke, starting another UFC fight. They were all over, and in so many awkward positions. Bradan rammed Luke into the couch, Luke ripped the stretchy band off of Bradan's underwear and pulled it around his head, and Luke punched Bradan in the... ha ha ha. Bradan wants me to clarify, that out of the three rounds, he won the first and third one. The second one was lost by the torn undies... The funniest thing was that during the third round, Luke had secretly taken off his underwear, so when Bradan went for revenge, he got a face full of Luke butt. And that was when Luke reared back and punched Bradan in the... ha ha ha. Bradan, holding on to reality because of the adrenaline, grabbed the fleeing Luke's ankle, tripping Luke into the couch and holding onto the arm for dear life. The brawl exited the front door, where Bradan's adrenaline ran out, and he collapsed in front of the soda machine. Finally, they made peace... for the night. We sat around talking about other fights we had been in/seen/heard of. Bed time finally came, and Luke decided to take a midnight (well... one-o'clock) shower. Bradan hid his pillows, and Bird put a football under his mattress. Bradan locked our bedroom door, and, as expected, Luke pounded on it after he had gotten out of the shower. He finally found all his pillows, and was laying in his bed, when it started to roll around because of the ball. He came back into our room, football drawn and ready to strike. He assumed it was Bradan, and they got into another scrimmage, but smaller in size. Luke's butt was in Bradan's face, and Bradan reached around and hit Luke in the... ha ha ha. Luke ran over to Bradan's bed and tore it apart. The upset, revenge-struck Luke walked back into his room, with Jake yelling at him to go to bed. After reviewing the events of the day, and the memorable times from previous, I decided to blog. Here ya go.