Misfortune Cookies

Last weekend my roommates threw a Chinese party.  I don't remember where we got the idea from but we did it and it was a lot of fun.  I think the point of it was to show that three conservative returned sister missionaries who work at the MTC know how to have a good time and a good time we had.

We ate fried rice and pot stickers, played chopstick games, and made MISfortune cookies.  Yes, from scratch.  Not only were the fortune cookies the most delicious we have ever eaten, but the misfortunes were hilarious.  These were some of my favorites:

"Surprise!  You're pregnant!"

"Unfortunately your liposuction surgery went array and all your fat will now relocate in your left thigh."

"It will be a party every day when Miley Cyrus moves in next door."

That's all I can remember right now and I'm thinking that maybe you had to be there.  In any case, it was a fun activity and I recommend it if you need a good make-you-laugh-so-hard-you-cry laugh.

Here is a picture of the fortune cookies.  Apparently they are quite difficult to make but we did it!  Here is the recipe if you want to try it.

And then there was light!

The light/ceiling fan above our kitchen table has been broken ever since we moved in. But not anymore! One night last week we were feeling ambitious and decided to install a new one (this is just after finishing painting our apartment). Our land lady brought over a new one about a month ago and told us that someone would come by to install it. They never came and we were tired of it being dark. So we did it! All by ourselves. Not a single boy helped us.

It took a lot longer than we had anticipated and, as you can see in the picture, it took quite a few of us to do it-there were a lot of screws and it's hard to work with your hands when all the blood has settled in your shoulders. Well, after a couple of hours of us reading the directions which kept warning us about getting electrocuted we turned on the breaker. Luckily I waited until after Melissa wasn't touching it anymore because when I flipped the switch there was a minor explosion. At that point I understood why there were so many warnings. :) My roommates thought it was hilarious and I tried to laugh, but deep down inside I was devastated. So much time and we ruined our ceiling.

I was so devasted that I couldn't sleep. While I was going in and out of consciousness I realized we had forgotten to pull the switches on the fan and it turns out that we didn't ruin anything! The light and fan both worked and we haven't any explosions since.

The moral of this story: Don't let the fear of being electrocuted stop you from doing anything.

Early Morning Runs

Today I woke up at 5:45 am to go running with Natalie, my running partner. It's not always easy prying my eyes open and leaving my warm bed (we haven't started using our heat yet). I just remind myself that 1. I will feel better when it's over 2. I'm getting a head-start on the day and, therefore, will be ahead of everyone else (since life is a competition, you know) and 3. This is the only way that I will ever have nice legs.

So, I leave my apartment reveling in my insanity, knowing that it takes a unique person to go running at 6 am on a cold November morning. I am unique...well except for Natalie... and all those other people we pass....

We love talking about negative splits and running hill repeats and running up stairs. I can't just talk to anyone about that. We also love talking about life, in particular our most recent breakups and how we are coping. We talk about graduating, being alone, and not knowing what we are going to do or where we are going to go.

We pass people because we keep a pretty good pace. Did I mention that Natalie was on the cross country team the last 3 years? I feel honored to be her running partner.

The reality of it is that I think I enjoy talking to Natalie more than I do running. We finish, tired, yet refreshed. And that's how I start my day.

The Problem of Pain

"My own happiness is something like this. I am progressing along the path of life in my ordinary contentedly fallen and godless condition absorbed in a merry meeting with my friends for the morrow or a bit of work that tickles my vanity today, a holiday or a new book, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain that threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers that threatens us all with destruction, sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to posses my heart, that my true good is in another world and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing its strength from the right sources. But the moment the treat is withdrawn, my whole nature leaps back to the toys: I am even anxious, God forgive me, to banish from my mind the only thing that supported me under the threat because it is now associated with the misery of those few days. Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for moment and I behave like a puppy when the heated bath is over-I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless."

C.S. Lewis
The Problem of Pain

My name is Kuh-Risssseee

I've just moved to a new ward. Any of you who are familiar with BYU know that it is somewhat custom to change wards at least once in a 12-month period. This is my third ward this year and seventh here at BYU.

I want to first say that I really enjoy people and making friends. However, to get to the point where I can be myself with someone and feel like there is some substance to the relationship requires time. I really struggle with introductory conversations, which usually go something like this...potential new friend (pnf):"Hi, what's your name?" me: "Hi, I'm Krissy" pnf: "Kristy?" (The latest misunderstanding of my name is "Kissy") me: "No, Krissy...no "t" pnf: "Ah. What's your major?" me: "Dietetics" pnf: "Diuh...what?" me: "diatetics...it's like nutrition" "Oh, cool. Where are you from?".....and then it goes on. I think I've had this conversation at least 2o times today and heard everyone else around me having it too.

I suppose I see some necessity in getting to know the basic information about people, but it is such a tedious process for me sometimes. I long to be able to get to the point in a relationship with someone so that I can share all of my insides and they can do the same with me. I LOVE that. I hate holding it all in. I don't feel real when I do that.

In conclusion, I'm wondering how to make these intro-converstations more meaningful. Do I just need to change my attitude? Do I need to ask better questions? Any ideas (to the two of you that read my blog)?