Favorites about Logan in the Summer

In order of favoriteness:

1. Summer Citizens. I'm not kidding, I love them sooooooo much, they make me so happy. Hoards of elderly couples walking around campus, holding hands? What is NOT to love?

2. The great outdoors. Fishing, camping, hiking, fishing, kayaking, fishing, lawn sitting, mountain lake sitting.

3. The relative desertedness. I swear the population goes from one million during the school year to 100 during the summer. Which leads to my next three favorite things...

4. Less traffic.

5. Better parking on campus.

6. I'm more willing to go into Walmart, though I still avoid it at all costs.

7. It's hot, but not as hot as other places.

8. The Sno Cone Shack by Hastings.

Hali Proof

Little sister has a knack for destroying electronics...many a phone and camera have met their doom at the hands of Hali, who is leaving for her mission to Russia in a month. The Papa, a techno-nerd expert is preparing her well.

Me: Did you see the camera Dad got her? Water proof, shock proof...probably fire proof, too.

Harmony: Water proof to what depth of the ocean?

Me: Ha...well, 10 meters.

Harmony: Shock proof to what voltage? Hali does like to push the limits.

Me: Agreed.

 Unfortunately, I think the only thing durable enough to be Hali Proof is military grade and top secret.

Facts

I have to write this thing. It's totally unrelated to anything here, but I'm struggling with it. So I think I need to write something easy, something factual:

My name is Hannah. My home is Utah. My favorite color is orange. My favorite food is Grandma's Stew w/bread sticks. My grandmother died eight months ago, just three weeks after my other grandmother. I have officially lived away from home for almost six years. I have a college degree. Go me.

My dog's name is Kona. Kona is technically not my dog, she belongs to my sister and her husband, who are happily pregnant after five years of waiting and hoping. My little sister leaves on an LDS mission to Russia in about a month...she'll be gone for 18 months. My big brother did two tours in Iraq and is now safely home.

I work at the Bookstore. Sometimes my office smells like onions because it's below the dining hall. My office is blazing hot in the winter and freezing cold in the summer. I sing "Piano Man" to my office mates on almost a daily basis and love to tease the mustached I.T. guy.

Since I was little, I have always wanted to see England. In 2009, I lived there for five months in a place called Hastings House, on a street named Stoughton Drive South, in a city called Leicester. I have been back once since then. I backpacked Europe alone for 5 weeks. I was pick-pocketed in Pisa, Italy...I will never go back to Pisa. I discovered myself during those many months abroad.

I play the piano and wish I hadn't given up lessons as early as I did. I play the guitar, but only enough to make it look like I know what I'm doing. I can't sing very well, but I do it anyway...especially in the car, with the music blaring. Sometimes I lose my voice because of it.

I love history. That is why I majored in it. My favorite book is The Killer Angels. I love books and I have way too many of them. I love the smell of new books and I love the smell of old books. I love to see bookshelves so full that they verge on the point of being disorganized.

I love to read while fishing. I love to fish with my sisters. I love to go camping and cliff jumping and kayaking and  fishing with the fam. I love the mountains...I love the sound of the wind moving through the tree tops...I love the sound of the cicadas and the smell of the pines. I love to write while in the mountains, in the silence and the smells...

Crazed Lunatic Searches for Unimportant Object

You know what drives me crazy? When you can't find something that you know should be easy to find. And after a while of looking, you start going crazy, determined to find it...

I can't find it.

I'm going insane. It's a stupid thing, really, something I could do without, but for the love! And it's just sitting there. I mean, it's just SITTING there, doing nothin'...just sitting there -- existing. Not doing anything except thinking to its inanimate self, "Ha, yeah, flip the mattress over, you're never going to find me."

And then I flip the mattress over, like a maniac, because WHAT THE HECK, I might have been sleeping on a lump for 6 months and not realized it. I'm just THAT awesome...my mom told me so.

Hurray!

Talk about patience and long suffering....THIS makes me happy. Sooooo happy for my sister and her husband.

Found On My Phone

That time we were driving and Kona was extremely distressed about something.

That time my sisters and I made a turkey all by ourselves without The Mama's supervision. It only turned out a little bit dry. The bigger disaster is the apron I am wearing.

The last dinner we made as a trio...and now one is gone far away and every time I think about it I sing the line from the Lion King in my head, "Our trio's down to TWO!"

That time we were shopping when she saw this and exclaimed, "[gasp] A birdcage! Kona could fit in that. I need it."

 All the times Julia comes to visit me at work...

That time my mom put loofahs in the boys' Easter baskets. They love loofahs (something about how they are good to use when you're living in a desert like Iraq) and get very concerned when they think someone has used or moved their loofah. They were really excited....seriously, they were.

Going

People come and people go. Happens all the time. Seems like I'm hardly ever the one doing the coming and going. Though, I suppose I've done my share of it.

I have troubles with the comings and goings of others I'm close to. I'm one of those that mate for life, ya know? The kind that won't go away. The kind that you're stuck with for life, whether you like it or not. Tell me your favorite color, the name of your first pet, or where you got that gnarly scar on your knee from and I'll never forget. Makes letting go of other rather difficult, though.

So here I am, at the going of another. This one is particularly hard to handle, so I'm consciously choosing to ignore it. It's going great...that is until my brain forgets that it's supposed to be ignoring something. And then there's the sudden gut twisting remembrance. It's like my innards are shaking its proverbial fist at me for daring to remember.

It's not how I usually cope -- denial -- but this time it is, and it's working for now, so I'm going with it.