Words

I love words! In my creative writing class we're doing a unit on poetry. And I'll be honest, I often struggle trying to interpret and analyze poetry. But I love it because of the way the words sound when they are put together in a crafty and imaginative way. We watched this video in one of my English classes, and I loved it. I'm not sure how to upload a video, so this may be old school. Don't judge!



Do you get how one word goes into the next, first play and then blow, etc? It's from NPR. Cool, right? Well, that is all . . .

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

So the title of this blog comes from a poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called "Ulysses." It's the last line of the poem. Funny I should choose this poem, because it's definitely not my favorite from Tennyson. Eh, it just sounded profound.

I don't really know what to blog about. I just thought to myself, "Why do I have a blog if I never update it?"

School is good. Normal. I really like most of my classes. I just finished "Hard Times" by Dickens and really enjoyed that. I love Dickens. I think that he is really funny and clever. I am taking a creative writing class and had to write a creative non-fiction piece. I wrote about my fear and dislike of cats. I'd like to say it is entertaining and kind of funny, even if it's lacking in some profound underlying meaning. When I work-shopped it with other students in the class, one of them said, "I like it. But what does it mean?" And I replied, "I have no idea." Does it have to mean something? Another classmate said, "Wow, I love the recurring images of dangling and hanging. That's deep." And I was like, "Yep, I totally meant to do that." But I really didn't. I thought that maybe I was a good writer, but this class is helping me see that I am not. It's fun though. My professor is insane! I would say that a good majority of the English teachers I have had (EVER!) have been insane. So what does it say about me that I chose this major?

My friend Kathryn and I got passes to Gold's gym. I know what you're thinking: WHY ARE YOU SPENDING YOUR MONEY ON A GYM PASS WHEN YOU CAN WORK OUT AT BYU FOR FREE? First off, the BYU gym kind of sucks. Second, I want to be able to add variety to my workouts (I just get so bored). And third, if I don't go with someone, I'm not likely to go. So signing up with Kat (who is not a BYU student) is going to help me be motivated to go. It's Wednesday and I've worked out every day this week. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays Kat and I go to the gym at six in the morning. It's kicking my tushy, but I already feel like I have more energy.

Finally, Eric Robert Fullmer II (my new nephew) is the cutest little boy in the world, I don't care who you are. He has Nina's nose, but he really looks like Tanner. He also has the Fullmer brow bone.



















This is me holding Eric the day he was born, 3 February 2011. He is sticking his tongue out!














This is at Nina's and Tanner's apartment. He was really alert. I love cuddling with him.














Eric is jaundice so he has to be in these lights to get his bilirubin to go down. He's doing really well though, and hopefully he will be off them for good very soon.

Well, that is all. Oh, I have recently watched two movies. The first is The Young Victoria, which is about Queen Victoria. I LOVED it! The second is called Bright Star, about John Keats, the romantic poet, and it's really sad. But I liked it.

I had the most embarrassing experience of my life last Sunday. I thought I sent a text about a boy I like to my friend, but I accidentally sent it to him. So now he knows I like him. It was funny, but I was mortified.

Little Eric

I have a new nephew! He was 6 pounds and 9 ounces, and his name is Eric Robert Fullmer II. Way to go Nina and Tanner! I'm so excited to see him!

Pride and Prejudice

It's been a while since I've posted. Nothing too terribly exciting is happening right now in my life. I got a 3.8 gpa my first semester at BYU, and my first since the mission. On New Years Eve I rear-ended a van, and my dad said a couple swear words when I told him. (A few choice words may have escaped from my mouth as well.) Classes have started up again and being in a creative writing class has really made me realize how badly I suck at writing creatively. Oh well, it's fun. My sister-in-law is going to have a baby soon (shout out to NINA and Lil' Eric!). And my sister is also pregnant again. I went and saw True Grit over the break and loved it! Last weekend my sisters and my mom drove down to Provo. We saw BYU's production of Peter Pan, then we went out to dinner. At Olive Garden I met a woman from Madrid (our lovely, old server) named Julia, and I loved speaking Spain Spanish with her.

As for the title of this post, I have started reading Pride and Prejudice. I have read it several times before, and each time I read it I love it more. I love Jane Austen, I think she is funny and witty. One of my favorite lines from the book is when Eliza says, "Stupid men are the only ones worth knowing, after all." We're reading it for my Brit Lit class, but I am getting a head start. While it's certainly not in my top three favorite books, it may be somewhere in the top ten! I think I will read Persuasion next, just for fun. I have never read it. Opinions on that one? Anybody?

English Major?

I do stupid things all the time, and then I have to ask myself, "Why are you an English major?" For example, below I put Jeffrey Chaucer. Come on, we all know it's not Jeffrey (the modern spelling of the name) but GEOFFREY Chaucer. Duh! I make stupid mistakes like that all the time, but it's just because I act without thinking. Another example of my stupidity is that I don't pronounce poem right. I say pome. Like Rome. Some friends made fun of me for that the other day. I know how it's pronounced, I've just formed a bad habit of saying pome. I'm silly sometimes.

Also, I think pilot whales are so cool. Here's a pic.
I highly suggest getting to SeaWorld at your earliest convenience. So cool!

Not too shabby

Besides having two roommates who don't want to share toilet paper anymore, it's been a good week. So that paper that I wrote about in my last post, I stayed up till 4 in the morning on Sunday (well, I guess it was Monday) finishing it. I got up at 6:45 (I guess I only took a nap) to be able to get ready, print it, take it to the writing center and revise it before my class at 9. I felt OK about it, but I didn't love it. As the professor was handing the papers back he said, "Would you like to know who scored the highest in the class? It was Emily, Sarah, and Alyson." I aced the paper. In that same class, I worked really hard on another paper and got a B. He's a tough grader, but somehow I did well on this paper that I didn't really get a good start on till the night before at like 11pm. Even though it stresses me out, I somehow make procrastination work for me. Hmmm...gift of the spirit? Haha!

Also, I got the results back for the Spanish test I took (you know, the one all the RM's take to test out of lower level classes) and I got four A's. Not too shabby, eh? I went and saw Romeo and Juliet last night. Even though the actual production was mediocre at best, I very much enjoyed myself because I love Shakespeare! I never loved reading Romeo and Juliet (it was just always over done and over the top), but seeing it live really helped me appreciate it. I have a paper that I need to write where I have to translate some Middle English and analyze how it functions in the Canterbury Tales by Jeffrey Chaucer, and Anglo-Saxon texts are going to be the death of me, but for some reason I'm even optimistic about all that. My aerobics class kicks my butt, and it feels so good. I haven't had to work as much lately, so that's been nice. (I do love my job, but it's nice having a few days off.) I am reading Night by Elie Wiesel and, even though it's sad, I love it. The guys in my life are just frustrating, and I'm considering going cold turkey for a while, just to clean out my system if you know what I mean.

Tonight I'm going to be hanging with my frister, tomorrow I'll be eating sushi with some friends, and then I'll be watching Harry Potter 7.

Thanksgiving is next week (my first since 2007) and I feel pretty good.

Oh, and I just got paid. Woot!

Muy estresada

Last Friday I wasn't feeling too hot so I missed my first class. It's a literary criticism class. It was my first time missing, I figured it wasn't a big deal. Today I was looking over the syllabus and I saw that we have an essay due on Monday. I thought to myself, "He [the professor] hasn't given us the assignment sheet, he hasn't even mentioned the essay in class or in email, he's for sure going to push it back a class or two." I come to class today and find out that he introduced the assignment the Friday I missed class. I should have just sucked it up and gone to class, I would have had all this time to work on it. So I'm FREAKING stressed because it's worth quite a bit and I haven't even started thinking about it. One of the worst feelings is going to class and having people ask you, "So how's your paper going?" and then having to respond, "What paper?" SICK. Not to mention that I have to find time to bring it to the writing center and get some help. Madre mia de mi vida! And now I'm writing in my blog instead of working on the paper . . . I have some serious prioritizing to do. Pray for me?