A Story!

So earlier today I was told I was slacking on my blog. Which I was. Mostly I have just been going to school and doing homework so I haven't felt like I've had much to say. But I know that's not an acceptable excuse for not blogging. I decided I would think about what to blog about while I was running today. While I was running along trying to think of ways to make the last couple of weeks more exciting than they really have been, an exciting thing actually happened! Okay, not like extremely exciting, but you get to hear about it anyway. I was running the long route of the flood wall which is about 2 miles one way, and then you have to turn around and go back. I had gotten to the end and turned around and was probably about a mile from my car when I saw a puppy standing on the little pathway. (Please note: puppy is Cassie's word for a dog of any age....he wasn't technically a puppy) I LOVE dogs, but I got a little nervous seeing a dog right on my path without an owner anywhere around. Dogs have the potential to be scary and aggressive (those of you who know Fitz know what I am talking about). I decided I would just be confident (dogs can smell fear) and just keep running by. So that's what I did. Fortunately, the puppy didn't eat me when I ran by. Unfortunately, he didn't just sit there and let me pass. He decided to follow me. He had a long chain dragging behind him, so he obviously belonged to someone. From the end of his chain, it looked like he had broken loose from somewhere that he had been tied up. There's not really any houses super close to where we were though so I couldn't know where he came from. So I just kept running. And he kept following me. He ran along beside me, and stopped to wait for me when he got ahead of me. At one point, he stopped to be pet and loved by some girls running the opposite direction from us. I'm sure they were confused why I was letting my dog run around with his leash dragging behind him, and why I kept running when he stopped to say hi to them. Mostly I hoped he would start following them instead of me if I just kept running. No such luck. He caught right up with me. By the time I got back to my truck, I was in love. And he obviously loved me. I wanted nothing more than to put him in the back of my truck and head home, but I knew a little kid would get home from school soon and wonder where his puppy was. My conscience wouldn't let me leave him there so far from home, but I didn't know what else to do. So I called Mom. While I was talking to her, puppy wandered across the railroad tracks and the street to some factory worker men. They stood out there petting him for a while and then the Animal Control truck pulled up. That was probably the best thing to happen, but I felt like I was watching them kidnap my puppy. I wanted to run over there and tell them he was mine. But hopefully now when little Jimmy gets home he and his mom can go to the animal shelter and find their puppy. They better get him within the next 24 hours or I will go get him. I miss him so bad! Ha wow I'm super pathetic. It was just so fun to have a puppy to run alongside me and just love me unconditionally after knowing me for 30 seconds. We bonded. I love dogs. I wish I could have one here. So bad. Good news though: I get to see my puppy in 18 days! Whooo! So excited to go home for Spring Break. 

Love this little guy

On another note: Dallin is moments away from having a girlfriend. This is making his "single ladies" (that's what he calls us) resent the fact that we are single a little more than we used to. Dang happy people. Also the fact that tomorrow is Valentine's Day rubs a little more salt in that wound. I hate to be a hater, but I really don't love that holiday. Because I'm lonely and bitter and loveless? Well yeah. That's probably the biggest reason. I feel like if I was in a relationship I would probably still think it was pretty silly though. And that's all I am saying on that holiday because no one loves people who hate people who are in love. Bleh. We are trying to work out a group date for this weekend though so hopefully that goes well. I like dates.

There's probably more I could tell you about, but I think I have put off my homework for long enough. TTFN!

The Sun Will Come Out......Today!

So, I don't want to brag or anything, but I have some good news for you. Apparently Virginia got sick of winter as quickly as I did this year. I don't want to jinx it, but it appears that we are going to slide smoothly over that whole long, bitter cold winter thing. It has been cold this first part of the year, but nothing too severe. And now it is just warming up nicely. It was sunny and 68 today. In January. It's safe to say that that made me a happy kid. I have diagnosed myself with seasonal depression and it looks like I might not have to deal with that this year. Good weather really puts me in the best mood. I was glad it was nice today because oversleeping an hour for the second time in a row is definitely a good stage setter for a terrible day. The weather saved me from that mostly. Of course I couldn't sit in the library and read today, so I took my homework outside where I could watch people and enjoy the weather. As I was sitting there, Melissa walked by and said "I thought you would be out here today." I can pretty much always be found studying outside if the weather is nice. I really hope this continues. So there's your post about the weather. Fascinating stuff, yeah? I feel like it's okay to talk about the weather sometimes. It's a big part of our lives. 

Sidenote: I thought I should share with you the lovely cake that I made for Dallin's birthday. It's a caramel cake with chocolate frosting, mini chocolate chips, and homemade-ish caramel sauce. Best friend award definitely goes to me for that one. 

I don't bake often, but I like to think I do an okay job when I do...

Other sidenote: I got a missionary letter from my best friend today. Those make me super happy. The end.

Just Chill

So Friday night was probably the most fun I have had all semester. Imari, Kenzy, Dallin, and I had game night with Elder and Sister Crowther (the senior missionary couple that I absolutely adore and that we have kind of adopted as our grandparents/best friends). We had sooo much fun! Sister Crowther made some delicious soup and rolls and Kenz baked some brownies. After we ate, we played a zillion rounds of Scum and Boggle. I was terrible at both of them and I definitely got made fun of for that. After a few rounds of me getting my butt kicked at Scum, Elder Crowther looked at me and said, "Cassie, are you understanding how to play this game?" He didn't say it to be mean, he just knew that I had been confused about the rules initially. Everyone else thought it was a pretty hilarious way of telling me how terrible I was doing though. We laughed pretty hard about that. Mostly we just had the best time. It was so much fun to hang out with the Crowthers in that candid setting. We learned a lot about them. Plus it's just fun to watch them together, they are adorable. We decided that we are making this a monthly thing and have already set the date for the next game night. So excited!

Yesterday was less exciting, but still good. I ran, went to Walmart, cleaned, did homework, ate scones, did homework, went to a violin recital, and did homework. Not too exciting, but that works for me. I am pretty content with just sitting around in my sweats doing homework with my friends. Granted, those times that we are sitting around and not doing homework are even better. But you gotta do what you gotta do. Also, Kenzy and Imari have decided they love puzzles. We may have stayed up until 2 last night working on one. That's how cool we are. While the neighbors were having some crazy loud dance party, we were sitting quietly working on puzzles and homework. That really just works for us. It's nice to take a break from the crazy.

Well there's my exciting life for ya. I do homework instead of dance parties, and play with the senior missionaries instead of going to SVU's Honor Ball. But I really couldn't be happier.

That's What's Up

Hey. So, life is pretty crazy (hence the sporadic blog posts). I never have a minute when there isn't something I should be doing. However, in the spirit of procrastination, I decided it's time for a little update. I mostly have super random thoughts, etc that I am going to share and, since I don't love making clear transitions, I shall write this in the form of short, completely unrelated paragraphs (not an English major).

I am sick of reading. Mostly that is all my days consist of. My attention span for reading 30 pages per class per day is just nonexistent. Ugh.

I hate doing things halfway. I like to be thorough and do my very best on everything that I do. I have discovered that taking 7 classes is going to make that impossible this semester. It's only week 2 and I am already feeling like a slacker in every class. I do my reading and my assignments, but it's never as well as I feel like I should be doing it. Pretty much everything in my life is getting done halfway right now. What can you do?

Despite having no free time and a ridiculous amount of homework all the time, I am a pretty happy kid. Things are going well, and I don't feel totally stressed and miserable (yet). It helps to have great people around to help me focus when I need to and help me take a break when I don't. Good company makes everything more bearable. Also, laughing is my favorite thing in the world.

I got a letter today. That was a happy thing.

I love people who can laugh at themselves, and that I am one of those people. This last week I have been brutally made fun of for everything from the holes in my socks, to my laptop, to my Blackberry (it's not an iphone), to my fake Spanish accent, to a number of stupid things that I have said, to the fact that I have been completely relationshipless my entire life.....and I have never laughed harder.

I am slowly discovering a love for healthy food. I have been doing great at eating real, healthy food and I feel so good! It's fun to get to the end of a day and realize that you have only eaten 900 calories and not feel deprived or hungry. Also, I have my personal trainer back so I really am feeling great.

I am also slowly discovering a love  like for a little math. The last year and a half has consisted of zero math and a WHOLE lot of reading. This semester I am taking Accounting and Economics. I have always passionately hated math so I was nervous for these classes. However, I have discovered that just a little bit of number play is really refreshing. Accounting and Econ aren't really math classes but they are much more so than any of my FCD classes that I have been taking. I almost got excited when we had a little teeny easy Algebra problem in Accounting the other day. Did I just say "excited" and "Algebra" in the same sentence? What a freak!

For my Intermediate Strength Training class, we had to find our max on bench press and squats and then work to improve them over the semester. I had never done either of these in my life. Luckily, I have Kenz to help me out with stuff like that. My max for bench was 100 lbs and for squats was 140 lbs. I don't know how much that is relative to other people, but I felt pretty good about it.

On Sunday, Kenzy was wearing her Yankees sweats. Yesterday, I wore my Red Sox shirt. This made me realize how ridiculously excited I am for baseball season to start. I love it a lot. And, even though she cheers for the wrong team, I finally have someone who will want to watch baseball with me. That's super exciting. Also Chaz is a Yankees fan and Colter is a Red Sox fan (Dallin's housemates/our new friends-ish) so I am really excited for that first Boston/Yankees game. (They better win!)

I saw the tennis team out on the courts having their first practice today. I hate that they have to do that right in the middle of everything where everyone can see. Mostly my heart aches a teeny bit every time I see them practicing. I miss tennis sooo much. When it warms up Imari and I will start playing more though....and hopefully finally get to play with Elder and Sister Crowther!

One of the classes that I am taking this semester is an Intro to Law class. Why? Well, for some reason it counts as an elective for FCD. I don't know why. It's all about preparing to take the LSAT and get into Law school. At first, I thought this class would be completely irrelevant for me since I'm not planning on going to law school. However, it has definitely piqued my interest in the whole law thing. I had never even considered law school before. I might be now. I really don't think I am cut out for it and I don't know what I would do with a law degree, but I don't know what I'm doing with my FCD major/Business minor either. I'm really not saying anything here except that law school is now in my mind, and that there is a very small chance that I will have drastically changed the direction that I'm headed by the end of the semester.

Wow. Okay. I'm sure there's two bazillion more things that I could talk about right now. Unfortunately, I have procrastinated for far too long now. So that has to be the end. I will try to be more consistent now. We'll see how that goes.

Oh P.S. Willard survived 3 weeks on his own! Imari left him in the bathtub with lots of water and crackers and somehow he pulled through. I'm a little embarrassed to say how happy I was to learn he was still alive. We were pretty sure Christmas break would be the death of him (literally). He is such a trooper!

Thoughts....

Do you know what I don't love? Those times that humble you and make you realize how blessed you really are. While it's good to recognize how much we have and how fortunate we are, the really good reminders usually come as the result of a less-than-ideal circumstance. I have a friend who lost his mom to cancer yesterday. I can think of nothing worse. I have experienced loss in my life, but nothing that devastating. While thinking about what that family is going through breaks my heart and makes me cry, it also helps me to more fully appreciate what I have. I would be nowhere without my mom. Or any of my family members. I can't imagine losing one of my incredible friends either. I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. I am also lucky to know that when I do lose someone that I love, I will see them again. The Plan of Salvation is a wonderful thing and I am so glad that I have a knowledge of it. It helps me through so many things, and I know that it is helping my friend and his family deal with their loss right now. I guess the point of this post is to say thank you to those of you who impact my life in more ways than you know. I love  you. If you don't feel like you do it enough, tell someone how much they mean to you and how much you love them. Life is too short not to.

Oh Boy

So I was pretty much in class from 8:00-4:30 today. Let me tell you, that is entirely too long. After class number two I thought I was going to go crazy. What's worse is that it's only day one which means 1) We were just doing introductions and talking about the syllabus mostly 2) I still have soooo many more days like this. Probably it's going to be best to avoid Cassie on Thursdays. This semester has already exhausted me. After my last class got out today, I was planning on going to the library to start working on the tons of homework that I already have. I decided I was allowed to take a break though so I went for a run instead. A much better idea. It wasn't a very long one, but some fresh air and endorphins were definitely needed. The rest of the evening has been, and will be, spent just taking it easy. I got through my incredibly boring Accounting chapter and did a little Rosetta Stone before deciding that that was enough for tonight. Now I am sitting in my comfy, cozy, warm (I have been FREEZING all day) footie jammies. They make me happy. I think I will watch a little TV or finish reading "The Christmas Sweater" now. Or both. Those things sound fun. Then I will go to bed at a reasonable hour again because I have to be on campus at 8 again tomorrow. Ugh! I don't love that. Also, if I have to say, "I'm Cassie Crane. I'm from Burley, Idaho. I'm an FCD major and a Business minor, and I *enter random fact that the professor asked for here*" one more time I may freak out. I feel like all the kids in my classes already know all this information about me (welcome to SVU).

Okay, on a lighter note, I saw this quote on someone's status on Facebook today and I really loved it. I couldn't put it as my status right after she did because that would be weird. So I am sharing it here instead:

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."

-Guillane Apollinaire

Love it!

Back At It

So I hadn't actually planned on taking a break from blogging while I was home for Christmas, but what can you do? I can't use the excuse of not having time, or not having anything to say. I had both of those. I was just lacking desire. So here I am back in my little room, in my little house, in my little town of Buena Vista ready to get back on top of this. Probably I am going to keep this brief today though because I have been up since 3 a.m. and I really want to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Rather than give every detail of the last couple of weeks, can I just tell you that it was amazing? Seriously. Everything about it was wonderful. We didn't do any crazy exciting things and I didn't get a new sports car for Christmas, but it was just perfect in every way. I absolutely love absolutely everything about being home....especially the people. I had the best Christmas/Birthday/New Years. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little reluctant to get on that airplane this morning. I definitely could have used a little more time at home. It made it even harder to leave when my plane got in the air and I got a great view of how beautiful my home state is. The sun was just starting to rise on the horizon and between the clouds and colors, it looked absolutely amazing. That sunrise mixed with the huge mountains and winding rivers below made a picture perfect scene that I really hated to leave. Luckily, my second home state is beautiful too. I have mixed emotions about being back. Mostly I am not looking forward to the semester from....you know where....that I am about to begin. The thought of 18 credits of core classes almost makes me nauseous. Especially when the most that I have had before now has been maybe 14. It's going to be rough. I have hope that it will be fun too though.

On another, less related note, I said something on my birthday about being two decades old. My mom then said something like "Just think what's coming in this next decade." Holy scary! I never realized how huge your 20's are. They are kind of the defining years of your life. If all goes according to plan, in the next ten years I will: graduate from college, go on a mission (maybe), get my Master's degree, figure out a career path and start on it, get married, maybe even have a child (or two), and much more. Wow. That freaks me out a little bit. I'm just a kid! Growing up is really scary and stressful and exciting. Most important decade of my life....here I come!

Other random thought: I hate goodbyes. They are not the least bit fun. They have become a pretty common occurrence for me and I just really don't love that. I am much better at them now than I was a year and a half ago, but I still hate them. A lot.

Okay, that's going to be all for tonight. Ha remember how I said it was going to be brief? What a joke.