The Hunger Games

Ever since the official movie trailer was released this week, everyone has been talking about this book. People in class talk about it. People at work ask about it. I've never felt so out of the loop. I've been used to this the last 4-5 months since I was out of the loop for a few months. (24 to be exact.) So yesterday after class, I decided to officially start my Thanksgiving break. No homework. But that's usually what I spend my time doing every Friday in WSC 1111 for six hours. What would I do at work?? Such a dilemma. I decided to head to Barnes and Noble and buy a REAL book. I haven't read a REAL book since the last installment of the Harry Potter series back in high school. I bought The Hunger Games so I could finally add something to the conversations that continue to come up. I got to work and started reading. And I couldn't stop. The storyline? Gruesome. The plot? Addicting. I had forgotten how much I really do like reading a good book. At the end of my shift, I had already read 250 pages. I came home and had nothing to do, so I kept reading for another hour. This morning I woke up and finished it. I can finally say I read a whole book in less than 24 hours.

Today was painfully vanilla. (That's a phrase I picked up in Virginia. It means boring, but the only time I heard it was from black people in reference to boring white people.) I had NOTHING to do. So I headed back to Barnes and Noble to get the second book in the series. They didn't have a paperback copy, and the hardback was $17.99. Ouch. But what else was I going to do all day? I had already checked the libraries in town and the books were checked out. It seemed worth it to me. I'm about one third of the way done so far. There was a football game tonight, the last home game of the season I think. I decided that staying home and reading a book in the warmth of my apartment was more appealing than freezing to death at at the game. You know it's cold when even my roommates, who are huge fans, come home at halftime.

Anyway, for those of you who haven't read these books, I recommend it. I know they are about kids having to kill other kids, but there is much more to the story than that. I'll probably read the third one soon as well. And then the wait for the movie to come out next year, March 23rd!

I'm going to go read some more.

Smorgasbord.

Ok, first of all, I can never think of anything creative or catchy to put for a title. Not my forte.

Here are some highlights of the week.

For those of you who may not know, BYU gives out free Bridal Guides. They are everywhere. And they are hilarious. On my Wednesday shift I work with some pretty funny people. So as I was leaving lunch to go to work, I saw the stand with the guides, so I grabbed one and headed off. I walked into the lab, held up my Bridal Guide proudly, and we all burst out laughing. I'm sure everyone in JKB 1005 thinks we are the most immature people. So we spent that hour flipping through and criticizing everything. Little did I know a Bridal Guide could make for hours of wholesome entertainment.

Every Thursday night me and some friends get together for dinner. It's always a fun time. Last night, we started talking about shows we used to watching growing up. Before we knew it, we had Youtube up and we were looking up the theme songs of all our favorites. The list included, but was not limited to, Arthur, Zoom, Duck Tales, Recess, The Magic School Bus, Animaniacs, and The Pinkie and the Brain. Yes, we could still sing to most of the songs. Yes, we still had our favorite episodes. And yes, we can even still recall the schedule of when they came on TV. Why don't they make shows like these anymore? I would still watch them faithfully.

After dinner last night, some of us decided to go check out the line at Wal-Mart for the release of the latest Harry Potter movie. I expected a huge line, I mean there are two large universities here and what else do college kids do for fun? We got there and there was no line.


But there was a small crowd off to the side watching the movie and eating cake. I won't make any judgment calls, but it was totally the type of crowd that would be in a place where there was free cake. We stood around and debated what to do, and then one of the employees paused the movie for a quick trivia question. "What was the first horcrux to be destroyed?" Annoying little girl: "The locket!" Me: "NO! It was TOM RIDDLE'S DIARY!!" You bet I was right. Prize? A free poster. Of Hermione. I can check that off my bucket list! They turned the movie back on and we watched until the end (15 more minutes) and then waited for more questions. If I could have answered more than one, I would have won so many prizes. Obviously this crowd did not know their stuff. My friend won a poster and then we were out of there by 11 o'clock. Success? I would say so.
Oh, and happy 11/11/11.