Il me manque

When I think too much about this boy...

I miss him so much I look up prices on airfare to Ireland.

RESS, EFY, and other accronyms

So I submitted a paper to BYU's Religious Education Student Symposium back in January, and it got accepted. So I'll be presenting it on the 19th and, hopefully, getting some money out of it. I wrote the paper for my Mormon Women's History class last semester, and it's on the influence of the Relief Society Magazine on the standardization of American LDS female culture. And my mom's coming up to Utah that weekend, so that's way exciting.

I also found out yesterday that I got hired to work three sessions of EFY in San Antonio this summer!! I'm so excited. I'll be home for a few days after spring term, then I'll be in San Antonio for two weeks, then again for another week in August. And I'll be doing my mission papers over spring term, so I should be expecting my mission call sometime in June/July. I'll probably work at Purple Cow the other weeks up until I leave.

Oh, and this has been an unusually warm winter for Provo.

Everything is kind of a little really awesome right now.

Happiness is...

-"Classy" dinner parties with friends. (Classy in quotation marks because, well, how classy can you get with mismatching plates.) Last night I invited some friends over for dinner. I made vegetable lasagna and French bread with homemade garlic butter. The bread wasn't homemade. Well, it was Smith's-made, if that counts.

-Having the best job on campus working for the best professor on campus. This is my third semester TAing for Phil 205 and 305 (deductive and predicate logic), and I love it. I love how much better I understand logic after teaching it so much, and the weird things to which I connect it in my life.

-Loving all my classes. I'm taking a full class load this semester: six three-credit-hour classes. But it's a good thing I love all of them. I'm taking:

1. Epistemology. Episteme is Greek for knowledge, logy is Greek of study of (roughly). I'm taking this from one of my favorite professors in the philosophy department; one of my favorites because I feel like I do more philosophy in his classes than I do worrying about grades.
2. Metalogic. Can anyone say hard? 99% of this class is way over my head, but as of now, I'm at least treading water in it. Luckily I work for the professor who teaches it, and he understands how difficult the class is (it was originally taught as a 400-level class in the math department, they didn't want to teach it anymore, so philosophy teaches it by historical precedent). So I imagine if I work as hard as I can, I can get away with an A.
3. Philosophy of Language. So far, so good. We haven't studied language so much as we've talked about what philosophy is, but I'm looking forward to the material.
4. Philosophy of Theology/Reading Scripture. Probably my favorite class this semester. We spent the entire class on Wednesday just talking about Genesis 2:1-3.
5. Media Law and Ethics. I love studying the First Amendment, and I have a soft spot for law and government (thanks to my AP government teacher in high school). The professor is awesome, as well. She has law experience and used to teach at BYU's law school, and she's a lot of fun to listen to.
6. Research Methods for Journalism. I'll be honest, one of the most intimidating things about being a journalist to me is how overwhelming it is to get accurate, well-cited information. I think this will be a great class to learn about more resources. Also, it's supposed to be a 2 and a half hour class, but the professor said he'll usually cut it short. I won't complain.

-Realizing that I could bring my GPA up to a 3.7 if I make this another straight-A semester and retake a few classes in which I made less-than-desirable grades my freshman year. I've really been interested in good graduate schools for journalism (Columbia, Northwestern, and UC Berkley), and if I can get my grades up high enough, I have a shot at grant money and scholarships.

-Looking forward to the future. I'm spending spring in Provo, and I'm going on a mission this fall. It's weird to think that I've wanted to serve a mission for as long as I can remember, and this is the year.

A Christmas break in Haikus

I'm home for Christmas;

Working at the Purple Cow;

Hey, I need the cash.

Waiting for my grades;

Hoping for straight A's again;

Professors are slow.

Looking forward to

Another semester of

Good philosophy.

Life lesson #45819567

Owning mistakes and self-deprecation are not mutually inclusive.

It would have been nice to figure this out sooner.

Babies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCZUb_dUGA&feature=popt00us14

Doesn't this look adorable?! And it looks so well-made too. I can't wait for it to come out.

I've been thinking a lot lately about babies. I wrote my term paper for my Philosophical Writing class on the medicalization of childbirth, and a few of my friends/family have recently had babies/are pregnant. I also think that being in Provo has definitely heightened my maternal instinct. I was once very anti-having babies. But it seems now that there are so many resources available for women to have kids and be good moms and go to graduate school and have a career. Honestly, I'm kind of looking forward to it.

Worth causing a stir?

So when I need to go to the Wilk and I'm south of it, I usually shortcut through the bookstore. I usually walk a little slower past the books just to see if anything will catch my eye, and there's one book that, every time I pass by it, makes me kind of uncomfortable.

It's written by an LDS author, and (put most simply) it's about a woman in an abusive relationship. But the cover is what gets me. This book is being sold by glorifying a scared woman with a man's hand covering her mouth. Perhaps I'm oversensitive, and perhaps maybe the publishers of this book aren't sensitive enough. I would like to think that a story about a woman in a violent relationship would employ a more empowering cover--representing her freeing herself from that relationship. But no. This publishers use the actual violent aspect of the relationship as the "good" part, the part that will sell books.

But here's the thing. I'm all about spreading awareness about domestic violence. I think women in bad situations can connect with characters, even fictional characters, in similar situations and find empowerment. I'm sure reading this book may help some woman find a way out of her violent relationship. But the cover. The cover.

So I'm considering writing a letter to the BYU Bookstore and the publishers of the book. To the bookstore: pull the book. To the publishers: consider printing it with a different cover.

What do you think?