Fountain of Youth

I have decided that since it looks like nothing big and exciting is going to happen, I will either have to write about the end of December and all of those big events or detail my pretty low-key life. Or both. But not right now. I will spare you and only do on for now.

As I have said in past posts, I am one of the Young Women leaders in my ward here in Ann Arbor. It is much better than I expected it to be. And I knew it would be, but I am a knee-jerk pessimist about all things teenager. After my first week in the calling, I invited the girls (there are only 5 in all) to come over to the apartment for a girlie/movie night. My two beehives showed up and we ordered pizza and then we watched an old Disney movie The North Avenue Irregulars while we painted our nails. It was fun. At first I had a really difficult time adjusting myself to the twelve year olds, realizing that they won't want to watch fun action movies and I won't want to expose them to movies with any sort of inappropriate content.

After the movie we talked about books and  I led them into the study and pointed out a few of my favorites and then we settled on the floor for a fun little gab session. I had a really hard time not laughing when they talked about how it was so gross that people kissed with their tongues. "It's called French kissing," Emma told Charlotte in a distinctly conspiratorial voice. Like it was a secret or knowledge she wasn't supposed to have yet. "I know what it's called," Charlotte replied, a little defensively. I agreed with them that it was definitely, totally, super gross.

A couple  weekends later I chaperoned a Stake dance. That was pretty hilarious. I sat with my fellow leader, Lauren Bonnie, and we had a good laugh. At the youth. At them. I don't even feel bad admitting it. And I think I have every right to laugh, because I was the exact same as them. The music was so bad though and that cannot be excused. The kids these days are honestly surrounded and exposed to the dumbest music. Almost everything on the radio is just so, so dumb.

Now the yutes are working on their roadshow sketch. There were only two out of a group of about fifteen who were being pills while we were storyboarding the thing. Fifteen year old boys. What are you gonna do? They are gonna be punks, regardless. Their sketch is about Voldemort, since he is nice and topical and a good foil for the theme of their skit, the 13th Article of Faith, living in Utah as an inactive member. Through the sketch he gets visited by people trying to reactivate him and teach him about the 13th AoF. At the end, he decides that he can't take it and so he moves to a less Mormon dense area, like, say, Ann Arbor. He settles in, breathes in real deep, and then his EQP knocks on his door welcoming him to the ward. I think it's a pretty cute idea and they did a good job of trying to incorporate everyone's ideas and making it funny. Good kids.

I like it back in the youth pretty well, but I am not looking forward to girls camp this summer....

I know I have been absent for quite some time, but unlike my last hiatus, it is not because I am too lazy or busy to get on and post; it's because there is nothing of note happening in my life. Don't worry; no news is good news. David and I continue to be happy. We are also still plowing our way through the Wheel of Time. I am now over halfway through with Towers of Midnight. I have a list of books that I am wanting/have been wanting since May to read.

1. The Hunger Games. I still haven't read Mockingjay so I will start at the beginning and take off from there.
2. The House of Leaves. I am very excited and super intimidated by this book.
3. The Amber Chronicles. David says they are really short, so I willl just knock them out in a hurry.
4. Confessions of Lady Nijo. We read part of it in my Japan 350 class and it was amazing! I want it all!
5. The Shining. Love it. Need to reread it. I need David to read it too so I can talk to him about it. 
6. The Road. It has been on my list for over a year now. Maybe now that it is written it shall be done.
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Rachel told me about this one. Plus it's Swedish. Which also means awesome.
8. Special Topics in Calamity Physics. Also a Rachel Recommendation. I think that if Rachel ever blogs again, it should be book recommendations.
9. Dracula. Started it over two years ago and never finished. It's on the list.
10. And the second Maze Runner book. I don't remember what it's called, but I am excited for it. But it means I will read the first Maze Runner also. 

This ought to be a testament of how very chilled out our lives are right now. I am blogging about books I want to read. Because nothing else is going on. 

But all the same, we are happy. And if anyone has any more book ideas, I am very happy to hear suggestions.