I have to. She's TOO good.

I adore her.
Seriously, if you're not converted, just give her a chance. Start with The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill-every song is incredible. If you still need convincing after listening to "Doo Wop (That Thing)...I have nothing to say to you. If you're an unbeliever after "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"...well, you have bigger problems than Lauryn Hill or I can treat. And the runs she does on Tell Him-they're still boggling my mind and I've heard them no less than a thousand times, so that should say a little something. She is so deep and wise and real and passionate-and her vocal chords are constructed from the same material as the clouds in heaven. That is cold hard fact. After The Miseducation, move on to MTV Unplugged...I am still grasping it. AGHDFASDH! Stop reading this and listen! She blows my mind. On a consistent basis.

mmm. Lauryn. I'm convinced we met in the Pre-existence.

Lessons from Linus and Lucy

Lucy:Linus, you've got to get rid of that stupid blanket, and here, memorize these lines.
Linus: I can't memorize these lines. This is ridiculous.
Lucy: Memorize it and be ready to recite when your cue comes.
Linus: I can't memorize something like this so quickly. Why should I be put through such agony? Give me one good reason why I should memorize this.
Lucy: I'll give you five good reasons.
[proceeds to make a fist out of her fingers]
Lucy: One, two, three, four, FIVE!
Linus: [begins shaking his head emphatically] Those are good reasons. Christmas is not only getting too commercial, it's getting too dangerous.
Lucy: And get rid of that stupid blanket! What's a Christmas shepherd gonna look like holding a stupid blanket like that?
Linus: Well, this is one Christmas shepherd who's going to keep his trusty blanket with him.
[Lucy raises her fist to strike Linus; Linus puts his blanket over his head like a headdress]
Linus: See? You wouldn't hurt an innocent shepherd, would you?

Christmas is getting too dangerous-I'm beginning to approach it with more and more caution every time: 3 years in a row, sick as a dog. I guess I should invest in a trusty blanket.

He Knows What's Up.

Some favorite Brennonisms as of late:

• Playing UNO, as he looks at the pile: "What are the options?
• After sticking a tissue entirely up his left nostril: "The tissue catches it when the stuff falls out of this pipe."
• About Mom's clam chowder: "Remember the last time I tried this? I did not like it, Mom." Dad insisted he try it again-he put a dribble up to his mouth and was already gagging. When Dad yelped, "Put that whole big bite in your mouth!", little obedient Brennon put it in-but didn't make it much farther. The poor child regurgitated it back into his bowl and Dad determined that he could be done. I guess he knows what he's talking about.


• He led the songs for FHE tonight-with a KNEX stick. He's headed straight for the symphony, seriously-he pointed to everyone with different flourishes on "Here We Are Together" and bobbled to the beat of "O Come All Ye Faithful." I wish you could see it.


• "I'm just going to play some lovely Christmas music on the piano." He then proceeded to play and sing moving renditions of "Jingle Bells" and "Picture A Christmas"- I went in the piano room and he was swaying in the dark. Music is in his blood and guts, I guess-a boy after my own heart.

*I'm going to be better about remembering and recording these. Many more to come, I'm sure.

• When some people came to bring us Christmas treats last night: "You're letting all the cold air in!"
• The last seconds on the Christmas phone call with Garrett: "Garrett, I'm sorry. I have bad news. It's bad. I'm sick. (coughs) I have a cold." (This is totally made up, by the way.) Other made up injuries include a "leg that was kind of having a problem" for which he constructed a crutch from a wrapping paper tube, and a "cast" made from folded knee pad and rope. "Brooke. I can't move this arm." Me: "Why not?" Brennon: "Ummmmmm...it's broken."
  
• Singing "Deck the Halls" to Garrett on the phone: "Bon feshow our day of herald..." (don we now our gay apparel)
• Dad: "What are you going to do if Santa can't bring you your Star Wars ship?" Brennon: "Try not to bawl." Dad: "What if you can't?" Brennon (thinks for a minute): "I'll just try not to whine."

Only the Beechers Can Manage Choking and Giggling in the Same Five Minutes.

Family: isn't it about time?

Yeah baby.

The less likely things to love about BYU.
Everyone already knows I love all the child brides and creepy RMs. These are the less likely things to love about BYU:

1. The booths in the Wilk. All the people handing me flyers and free candy, I feel like a celebrity! Yesterday I walked out of that place with vitamin water, an apple, and two mini Twix. Serious.
But those booths are good for more than complimentary teeth rotting and tree killing. They make me feel in the know. I let everyone give me their spiel-I know all about summer camp counseling, divine comedy this weekend, and supporting art education with little handmade Christmas cards. People are doing cool stuff at this place-I love learning about it. If I could only snag a free t-shrit...

2. The library-and its many functions. Where else can you sleep, scope, and study all in one stop? I've positively mastered the art of sleeping in the library. Periodicals, first chair to the right-I lay my head down and emerge exactly twenty minutes later every time, a new woman. I need to get me one of those chairs! I hear all the best scoping happens in Periodicals, too-I mean, really-I can't even count the times boys have left their numbers by my drooling mouth in hopes that I might consider them when I awake.
Also-the library is pretty. The Christmas decorations, glass ceilings-I remember the first time I went in there and how I felt about it. I think that's when I first starting believing in love at first sight...
I love to peruse the positively ENDLESS collection of books. One time I went there for a book on Jane Austen and the body. Not Jane Austen-Jane Austen and the body. They had rows and rows and rows!! Although I was less than giddy about having to sift through all of them-not to mention the fact that it's ridiculous that so many authors have so much to say about Jane Austen and the body-it makes me giddy to think that there's THAT much there. I wish I had a million years just to read every work in that place. Ahhh, I'm salivating.
However, I'm just realizing that this is kind of oxymoronic-here I am writing about how much I love and adore the library and it's finals week and what am I doing? Not studying in the library-blogging about the library. I guess it's a step in the right direction.

3. Making fun of the smell of the MARB. Not the actual smell of the MARB-no, that is a ghastly topic I prefer not to discuss-making fun of it. That stench seriously almost kept me from taking Brother Bott's mission prep class. When I saw that it was in the MARB I tried to honestly and objectively ask myself: "Is it worth it? Will you really be able to ignore that terrifyingly horrific aroma of old people for two whole hours every week?" I'll never get over it. I avoid that building like the plague! Probably because there is an actual plague IN that place. Freak.

4. The fashion range. You got your zoobies and your fashionistas, your to-the-ankle velvet numbers and your leggings with...wait, a shirt? Wait, when did pants become unnecessary? Don't get me on a modesty soapbox. Best of all is when these two meet up-for a second they both consider adopting an element of the other's style (Velvet leggings? So fetch) and then look each other up and down with that "poor unfortunate soul" kind of glance. I stop to watch every time.

Oh, there are so many more-I want to hear your favorites. GO!

Autumn Leaves (yes, it inevitably does)

I don't know what to do when the leaves haven't fallen by December 9th.
They were so fun to crunch in October, and I was so happy that the snow hadn't taken them away yet in November, because I wanted to keep jumping and crunching and watching them swirl in wind.
They're supposed to be long shriveled up by now, gone away-to make room for whatever snow/slush junk is deciding to fall from the sky this winter. Instead, they're just there, oddly amid the Christmas lights on University Avenue and not quite stuck to the sidewalk, caked in ice-but no longer fit for crunching. They can even make you slip, if you're not careful.
Autumn leaves.
It's inevitable-I was so thrilled when I got what I thought I wanted, thought it was staying-but really, it's been gone for a good while now.

I feel like those leaves.

i'm just now discovering this??

freak, where does time go?
my 9 o' clock = canceled. such a pleasant surprise! i planned to spend it studying.
er whatever...and then ended up on facebook and blogger.
now it's..9:50. WHAT?


i feel like i never have time for anything. this, surprisingly, includes eating.
i think that means something is amiss in my life. who doesn't have time to eat? what could you POSSIBLY be doing that is more important than eating? maybe i need to do things that are essential to my survival and take facebook off that list.
oy.