One of These Things is Not Like the Other.

I remember the first time all of my roommates sat around together to eat. I looked at my roommates and thought, "One of these things is not like the other. One of these things just does not belong." I live in an apartment with a lot of, well lets say, Mexican influence.

Andy is a Mexican citizen and loves Mexico. When I'm talking to her, she will say things like, "That is what I don't get about Americans," or "You Americans are so, well I'm not going to say." She isn't antagoistic or anything, she is just patriotic. Andy is my psychiatrist. She is a Pychology major and loves to analyze people. When I come to her with a problem, she will come at my with something like, "You know you are very competative, so maybe you should remember that when you talk to her."

(Sorry Andy I only had pictures of you sticking out your tongue!)

Deborah described andy as the perfect latin woman. Whenever we have a cooking question we deffer to Andy. Today for example, she cut the watermellon, becasue I didn't know how. She is the one who knows when the meat is done and gets my zipper unstuck when I'm ready to cut my skirt off with scissors, more than any of us. I love Andy.

Nelva is from Chicago. Her parents are from Mexico, and she went to high school in Mexico with Andy. Nelva is logical. She likes understanding how and why thing work. Her major is mechanical engineering. Whenever she tells someone her major they always give her a look. That is a boy major, and you don't see many girls inthe Austen building. No she is not in that major to get a husband. She just likes understanding how things work.

The funny thing is, as much as Nelva like to be logical, she loves superheros. When she is one with her homework she treats herself to an episode of X-Men. Nelva has given us all super powers and evne made mock-ups of our super hero costumes. My super power is the power of persuasion. She is sad I can't blow anything up, but I like it alot, and I love Nelva.

Vicky is from Arizona, but her parents are from Mexico. She goes down there on vacation. Vicky is the girl to go to if you need any suggestions on hair, make-up, or outfits. Not only can she make a great outfit out of nothing, she has the ability to kindly tell you your outfit stinks. That is a true skill. Vicky and I are both the fourth kid in a fmily of five. We will sit and talk about the joys of sisters, and sibling ettiquite.

I love having Vicky in the apartment. If she wasn't there then we would talk a lot about hanging out with people, but we probably wouldn't do nearly as much of it. I love Vicky.

(I love this picture. After we took it, We looked at it and I was sad becasue you couldn't see my face. Nelva said, "Yeah tressa, your just to white." She misunderstood. I was talking about the hair in my face.)

Sometimes I feel like the minority in this apartment, and that I just don't know anythng. Here are some things I never knew: You can serve tortillas with just about any meal. You can curl your eye lashes with a spoon, but be careful, because suddenly you might not have any lashes. Some dysney songs are better in spanish. Finally my personal favorite, a woman is ready to get married, only when she knows how to cook rice. I am not ready to get married.

The funny thing is, while it's always noticable when my hair in particular, is caught in the drain, I don't feel like the odd man out. I feel very incuded, and cared for. I mean, if I ever feel completly awful, they sit me down nad comfort me with love and food.

I love my roommates

It Finally Happened

Well it finally happened. I didn't think it would happen so soon but it did. I have... A boyfriend. I know! Crazy!

His name is Shane, He was in a class with one of my roommates, and all of a sudden he started showing up at our apartment. It wasn't long before we would expect him and be a little disappointed if he didn't show up that day. He doesn't have a cell phone, adn is never near his apartment phone, so I used to call him our Phantom Friend. I also call him the apartment pet, but that's for a different reason. Just as a reference point, he was the boy who told me he loved me and then burst into laughter. Anyway I loved him coming over after that, because he just became an incredible friend. I thought it was so easy to talk to him.

One of the best things about our relationship, was that I did not feel threatened by him at all. We were just friends, and I never questioned his motives for a moment! Apparently I was out of the loop. I mean really out of the loop. While I never questioned his motives, every one else did. Everybody, including Deborah, knew he liked me, but knew that I just thought of him as a friend, so nothing was going to happen.

Anyway to make a very long story short, about a week and a half ago, I made some realizations about Shane. I started thinking that holding his hand didn't sound that bad. In fact I really liked the idea. Then I really started hating the idea of him liking and dating other girls.

Then to push me over the edge, he came to our apartment really frustrated. He said he felt like he shouldn't come over anymore. My roommates seemed to see this coming, but I was completely shocked by it. That idea put a huge pit in my stomach. That night Andy, my roommate/psychiatrist told me I needed to stop flirting with Shane because I wasn't being fair to him.

Faced with the idea of liking a boy, I began freaking out. I developed a stomach ulcer. When Shane finally showed up at my apartment after a few days, my imaginary stomach ulcer got bigger. Shane seemed defensive, and prickly, but once he warmed up he told me the reason he didn't want to come by anymore was because he liked me and he knew he didn't have a chance.

He was much more eloquent then I was. I said something like, "Well I have a confession to make. I started to feel... you know... It's like I, well even since Tuesday... Wow this is hard. I guess I'm trying to say, I like you. I like, like you in the way that holding your hand isn't a bad idea."

Shane is so sweet. He is so considerate, and patient when I have trouble expressing my feeling in a coherent sentence. Above all I feel so safe with him. It is so easy to be myself around him, and the best thing is he brings out my best self.

Anyway, I don't know what will happen next week or even next month when I go home, but right now I'm just enjoying spending time with my umm boyfriend.

We Just Want Some Food!!

Today we had one of those college adventures that everybody remembers. We just wanted to get some food. Today Vicky got a text that said Craigo's (an amazing pizza restaurant) had an all you can eat buffet for five dollars! This past week and a half we have all gone through phases of wanting to eat everything in sight. We thought this would be a good opportunity to fulfill the fansticy. (Vicky brought a big purse and zip lock bags. she was going to eat Craigo's for the rest of the week.)



Well we finally got into the car at around 9pm. All buckled up and ready to go, Vicky turned to the key, and nothing. Her car wouldn't start! The weird thing was her lights started flashing and the car made a clicking noise.



Still with a strong desire for Craigo's we changed our nice shoes for tennis shoes and started walking. It really is a short walk, but we are all starving and craving pizza. Andy thought about hitch hiking but nobody seemed to want to pick us up. Finally we saw the beautiful sign. We rushed to the door and just as we got to the door the open sign turned off!



We stared at the sign and the people inside the restaurant eating the pizza that was meant for us. Is was heartbreaking. By this time we were in some serious need of food, so we crossed the street to subway. The lights were off. It closed at 10pm. That was depressing.

Well how about Jack in the box? We went down the street, almost to the edge of town, towards Jack in the box. As we got to the parking lot, the woman behind the counter ran towards the door, and locked it. Jack in the box closes at 10pm.

Finally in desperation we went to McDonald's. We were so afraid that McDonald's would be closed. We were running out of restaurants in rexburg. Desperation set in when we saw that McDonald's was empty and a boy was sweeping up the play area. But we tried the door and it was a miracle. It opened. We lined up and all ordered off of the dollar menu.

We loved our food.