An Apartment Odor-deal

Since the beginning of this semester my roommate Kylie and Ihave been trying to move out of our teeny-tiny-dorm room into the basement apartment we had been promised last semester. The day I had arrived on campus, we were told that the current resident, commonly referred to as "the Asian man," (because he isn't a student here none of the students know his name and have simply resorted to calling him that) would be moving out that night and once the room had been cleaned we could move in the following evening.
The next evening, when we had the resident RA open the door for us to our new place, both us and the Asian man were unpleasantly surprised to see eacho ther there. According to what he had told Kylie he wasn't moving out until the weekend. So we were sadly required to stay another few nights in our dorm room.
Eventually, as in last Tuesday, we were able to move in. For whatever reason though, there was a  smell in here that was more than we could bear. So we set to work on what became known as the Deoderizng Oder-deal.
First off, and maybe even most importantly, we wiped down every flat surface with our lovely smelling melon and cucumber soapy water. When we were finished and the smell still continued to linger in the room, we vacuumed, washed curtains, wiped even more stuff down, washed floors with bleach water, burned multiple sented candels, and left the windows open 24/7 in order to attempt to distinguish the smell.
Although the smell of the apartment had imporved dramatically, odors from the previous resident (and possibley residents) still lingered. So we did the only thing that one can do in a situation like this: cover every square inch of the carpet and couch in baking soda. The key to using baking soda to remove oders, as Google has so willingly informed me, is that one must leave it on the odor filled surface for as long as possible. So for 24 hours or so the apartment was lightl dusted with fake snow (I feel this is a better visual than it looking like we had a bag of cocaine explode all over the place).
After vacuuming it up the following day, an amazing smell filled the room; the smell of nothing!

Lovely Christmas Break

Okay, so I may have forgotten to blog when I was at home. Or maybe, more accurately, I chose not to blog while I was at home. You see, I was just having too much fun being at home and didn't really feel up to sitting down and being on my computer. In fact, I sort of avoided the computer at all costs. It reminded me too much of papers, research, and hours wasted avoiding homework. But, I am writing now, so that makes it all okay, right?
My Christmas break was definitely needed. I loved the fact that there was no nipping wind blowing in my face while I walked outside and that I didn't have to trudge through the snow to get out to our newly installed hot tub. It was perfectly delightful.
I enjoyed some well deserved rest in my beautiful bed, read through Jew and Improved (which I would strongly recommend reading), cooked delicious meals, visited with my family, took the first set of professional family photos we've had done in years, baked some Christmas baking, engaged on an epic snowshoeing hike up Mount Washington, talked about news, the world, the 2010 Olympics, and so much more with my family, visited with missed friends, visited my church family, and did some very rushed Christmas shopping due to the fact that I arrived only a few short days before Christmas. There was so much more that happened in that time, but those highlights were certainly wonderful!
Here are a few photos that Agnes Mitchell Photography took of my family and I thought you might enjoy!

Sorry

I here by promise to update once I get home for Christmas break. Until then you will simply have to make due with the fact that I'm studying for my four exams that are in the next four days. Sorry!

Papers

For the life of me I cannot write this paper!
As a music student I spend most of my time practicing music, improving my musical skills (not very much like nunchuck skills), and completing theory assignments. Thus I hardly ever write papers. Except for the occasional one, like the one that I'm desperately trying to write now.
I've been blaming my lack of proper research skills on the fact that this is only the fourth paper I've written all semester and the other three were merely reflection papers on classes I had attended.

So why is it so hard for me to write papers? I pumped out a kajillion papers while in TREAD and now all the sudden an eight page research paper (a.k.a a paper where you are given all the information already you just need to reorganize it in order to present others research [supposedly it's a good learning experience]) is staring me in the face and I want to run and hide in a wardrobe that will take me far, far away.
In the time that it has taken me to write the less than 100 words I have put together as an intro, I'm almost certain we could have solved 63 Rubik's cubes, made a pie that looks like a UFO, preformed a reenactment of every episode of Friends (it was the only TV show I could think of that's been on the air for more years then man has been on the moon), and found a way to create an anti virus program that would show you a little monster eating the evil viruses that infect our computer (and I have no idea how you would even begin to create a program). Oh dear me.
So there you have it. If anyone has a great way for me to stay focused and accomplish this paper before it's due on Tuesday, please let me know!

Lack of Update

The reason I haven't updated in two weeks is due to the fact that I haven't been alive. Whatever I caught seemed to have sucked most of the life out of me.

I had been living in the schools quarantine room for a week (I was most thankful for the privacy of my own bathroom) where I spent my time sleeping, watching movies, drinking plenty of liquids (thanks Kylie), sleeping, talking to my mommy on the phone, visiting friends from a distance, sleeping, attempting to do homework, and some more sleeping. Which is why there hasn't been an update.
Unfortunately there is nothing new to report about my life because of the fact that I have either been sick in bed or at the Urgent Care Clinic waiting to see a doctor or attempting to catch up on my homework...my life is so thrilling!