Sometimes funny moments come when you least expect them.  Sometimes they occur in the last couple minutes of your Visual Literacy class.  That's what happened this week.

We were supposed to look at an object, view it in a different way, and present our ideas.  Most everyone had gone when a girl stepped forward holding a pepper.  Side note... in almost every class period, this girl has been eating a large cucumber or pepper.  So when she presented, she started by saying "As many of you may have noticed... I really liked vegetables."  We all nodded.  We've noticed.

She continued, "I have made it my personal goal to eat as many vegetables as possible." I would say she is succeeding. "I decided that vegetables represent life.  So that's why I brought this pepper.  I decided that this pepper represents a uterus."  Yes everyone, a uterus.  That caught everyone's attention and we all looked to see if she was serious.  She was.

It got even more surprising when we realized that there was more than to the object.  She surprised us all by saying, "Last night, my roommate and I filled the pepper with red jello... And put a baby in it. I haven't opened it since last night so I don't know what it looks like, but I am going to open it now." The whole class stared in amazement and disgust as she proceeded to break open the pepper and red jello poured out.  Because of the visual she had given us, it was gross.  There is no other way to describe it.  And sure enough, there was a plastic baby doll, covered in red jello.

We didn't know whether to laugh or barf.  So we laughed.  It honestly was so funny!  It was very unexpected in a Visual Literacy class (actually, probably any class).  But we all thought it was hilarious, and props to the girl for having so much confidence and creativity.

But I don't know if I will ever look at peppers in the same way again!

When four out of six roommates have dates on the same night, timing of picking up and dropping off can be kind of tricky. But after a couple years... I think we are starting to get the hang of it.  Dates at our apartment are always a funny experience. Guys always get a different perspective when they happen to be hanging out with the rest of us when someone gets picked up. I am going to share a sneak-peak of what it is like in our apartment.

Yesterday, Jess's date was the first to show up. Knock on the door.  The suspicion that he would be shorter than her was confirmed.  She takes off.  Ten minutes later, a phone call. Elizabeth's date was outside in a car, wondering which apartment was hers.  She goes on the porch, waving.  All the girls whisper loudly at her to come back inside. "He has to pick you up!"  She stands awkwardly half-in and half-out of the door.  She finally just goes outside where he has parked in the very middle of the street.  The four girls run to the window. Relief is visibly shown when we see that he at least opened her door. Robert laughs at us as he watches this whole encounter, remarking that he is seldom on this side of it. Date number three comes to the door.  This is a blind-date for Kirsten.  He walks in and we all sum him up in about five seconds. We look around quietly at each other, confirming that yes, he is actually quite cute.  Kirsten walks down the stairs and they meet. Love at first sight. Okay, not really.  But they introduced themselves and we all stayed on the couch, watching intently.  They leave.  I get ready for my date. Nerves are calmed, I feel validated as they assure me that I look "cute." (Being roommates with a bunch of girls is the best-just by the way).  My date comes and picks me up. 

Fast forward three or four hours....

Elizabeth is dropped off.  Five minutes later... I am dropped off. But as I am walking to the door with my date, my FHE brother Brock is walking towards our apartment at the same time. Not wanting to ruin anything, he doesn't even look at me and I can see him hastening his steps as he rushes to get to the door before we do. I tried so hard not to laugh as I watched him skip the step of knocking on our door and he walked right in. I then gave my date a hug with 20 people watching on the two stoops opposite my apartment. Definitely not out of the ordinary. I walk inside and laugh with Brock about are race to the door and he hears about both of our dates. Kirsten walks in the door literally two minutes later. We could not believe the timing. Doorstep scenes are awkward enough at the "Fish-Bowl," (the Colony) without four people trying to be dropped off at the same spot. We decided we are becoming quite pro at this. 

All week people have been talking about seeing the "Northern Lights." Did I know what they were before? No, not really.  I still don't really know what they are. It was all over Facebook, groups were planned, and everyone was pumped. Friday night came, I was tired, it was cold, and I was not about to go up the canyon to where it was even colder and bedtime was postponed even longer. Nothing was convincing me to go until Matt pulled out the peanut butter pretzel card. He had a HUGE container filled with them and promised to bring the whole thing. How could I pass those up? Needless to say, we dressed warm, packed the car with blankets, and drove up past Vivian Park. 

We got up there a little past midnight and it was even colder than we had anticipated. The grass was wet and we avoided the fires because Ashlyn didn't want to smell like smoke (not sure if that was the best idea we had). We sat down on the wet ground and tried to create what some like to call... a "cuddle-puddle." I have never liked that phrase. It's always just sounded gross to me. But that night it was necessary. We kept shivering and readjusting positions as we tried to get comfortable. We glanced often at the sky and as beautiful as the stars are in the mountains... the purpose of being there... the norther lights... were no where to be seen. We waited there for an hour, and we saw absolutely no variation of color in the sky. Surprisingly, we weren't that disappointed. We told stories, laughed a lot, and ate A TON of pretzels. 

We were about to get ready to go when I heard someone call, "Jessica?" I turned and said, "Yes?" and this guy walked up to us. Not to be racist, but as soon as he started talking... we knew he was black. 

He said, "Where you been girl? I have been texting you all day and wanted to see you. I have been looking for you girl!" 

It was hilarious. No, I had not been texting him and no, I did not even know him. But that night Makiki and I became friends. Apparently we already were... I just didn't know it. His two friends came up, Adam and Luke, and said, "Is this Jessica? The girl you have been telling us about?" Makiki responded and said "Yeah man, this is J-Smooth." 

So yes we did freeze, and no we did not see the northern lights... BUT, we did to see millions of stars, we created a successful cuddle-puddle for warmth, made a new friend with the cool name of Makiki, and I now have a new nickname... J-Smooth. 

I would say it was a successful night. And it's all thanks to those peanut butter pretzels.

What we were supposed to see...

What we saw... (still pretty cool)

One of my favorite authors is L.M. Montgomery. Her books were a big part of my childhood.  My favorite was the all-time classic series "Anne of Green Gables." I learned a lot from Anne Shirley and the eight books about her life. One thing that she really knew how to do was laugh.  And I'm assuming that meant that L.M. Montgomery had a great sense of humor.  She once said..

"Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it."

That is how I feel about life. I have always loved telling funny stories. Nothing seems to difficult, too overwhelming, or too much to handle as long as you can laugh. That is what has gotten me through a lot of stressful times. In junior high and high school I would come home and tell my mom all the funny stories from my day. I still call her with those same types of stories. She has always encouraged me to write them down and I never have. But now I'm going to. So this blog is dedicated to my mom. I don't know who else will benefit from it but I know that for me, life gets busy, and sometimes it's a little hard. As a result, this blog is to help me recognize and remember those funny moments that make life worth living.