I dabble

I used to think that I obsessed over outrageous things more than anyone. But then once I dated a boy who would dive into hobbies and get COMPLETELY obsessed, and he made me realize that maybe I don't get fully invested and obsessed, I just dabble in a ton of different unique hobbies and interests.

But then I reconsidered a second time, and why the heck can't I do both?? I dabble in so many random interests, but I also get so passionately obsessed with each and everyone of them. When I decide I like something, I jump on and and truly LOVE it. I often move on and gather new, weird passions, but I never loose the many loves that I've had in the past.

Here is a list of some things that I have dabbled in and passionately love and will geek out about if you bring them up to me (this list is probably not comprehensive):

• Harry Potter
• watching and playing volleyball nonstop
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
• finding and sitting on good benches
• Lord of the Rings
• Doctor Who
• college football
• social theory of poverty and delinquency
• playing board games
• Star Wars
• Super Smash Brothers
• watching parades
• Weezer
• reading fantasy books
• hiking
• collecting Pez dispensers
• watching the playoffs of any sport
• Arthur
• lemonberry slush with nerds from Sonic
• twitter
• Beyoncé
• quoting Disney movies
• anything Olympic related
• So You Think You Can Dance
• chips and salsa
• dance parties

On October and what not.

Don't worry about it. October is my favorite month of the entire year. Fall colors are in full brilliance. My birthday. Football is just rockin all month long. Social acceptance of wearing costumes for an entire month straight. I always commend dressing like a complete fool. Halloween is one of the greatest holidays. October is just festive and smells good and I just can't handle how wonderful it is.

Oh yeah, and my new favorite color is orange. And orange is the color that epitomizes October.

I am so excited for my birthday and Halloween this year! Mostly Halloween. I have so many solidly good costume ideas; most center around the fact that my hair is huge and curly. I've taken advantage of that and dressed as Professor Trelawny way too many years in a row, and it is now time to expand my costume repertoire. I want some input on which costume I should choose, here's some of my current favorites.

Mrs. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus

Bellatrix Lestrange (I've done this before, but not for Halloween, and it was one of my favorite costumes ever)

Scary Spice - this would definitely be part of a roommate Spice Girl costume 

Pocahontas (I only want this one because she's my favorite. Let's get real, I look nothing like her.)

Any other ideas of what I should be for Halloween this year? Let's be serious here, I will probably end up choosing multiple costumes and hitting up a bunch of different Halloween parties! Work it!

Acceptance.

I'm a nerd. We all know this already. However, my coworkers have not been exposed to exactly how big of a nerd I am. So I've been working at the same place for a year and a half and they still do not fully understand the extent of my nerdiness. It's not that I have been hiding the truth about me, I just tend to not talk too much when I'm at work, because well, I'm working. But this summer was an eye opening experience for them, as I was much louder than usual work Jennie.

But first, one of the best things anyone has ever said to me: "Jennie, I like you. You are just so passionate about some of the most random things. And you're not ashamed. You just love them so much."
My old roommate said this to me. I was thrilled. And I think that describes me perfectly. I find things that I love and then I ship them so hard to everyone around me. I find so much joy in being passionate about my nerdy tv shows, movies, and books. When I find something new to love, I just get so excited. I mostly blame my relatives for this, from the time I was born, my uncles have been exposing me to "culture." We all share the same nerdy love of the same movies and such. We go on quoting sprees and laugh our heads off. Yeah, I blame them for this.

Here's a brief list of some of my favorite things of which I am very passionate: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, my pez dispenser collection, Avatar: The Last Airbender, flannel, The Office, Weezer, ugly sweaters from DI, and most fantasy series' - I love magic, sword fights, castles, mythical creatures, etc. Yes, nerd. And my most recent nerdy addiction: Dr. Who. Oh how I love British humor.

Alright, now that you are fully aware of my complete nerdiness, I can get on with the story.

So I was at work last week and we were closing up the office a few hours early to go set up for our department opening social. Our boss told us to go close the door and tell anyone trying to get through that it is shut. My coworker, who I definitely should have pegged as a LOTR fan started walking toward the door and said: "The way is shut."
My head involuntarily whipped up to grin at him, and I immediately and mostly involuntarily said,
"It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it." 
For those of you uncultured readers out there, this is a quote from the third and final LOTR movie. About half of those in office had no idea what I was saying and the other half just stared open mouthed because they had not expected that from me. I just smiled and kept going about my business like normal... like I hadn't just revealed myself as the biggest LOTR nerd in the world. I was thrilled.

Battle Week.

So I may or may not be in the midst of an epic battle. Yeah, you heard me, epic battle. I'm cool.

You may ask: with whom is this battle? Well, I shall tell you. Otherwise, this blog post would be completely pointless, unless I really just wanted to taunt everyone with mentioning the battle and then not elaborating. This would keep the world in such suspense, hanging on my every word. Actually, that's kind of a brilliant idea. But alas, I can't hold my tongue, because I really do have something to say today.

Epic battle.
In one corner there is me; a college student trying to find the balance between school and the fun I crave at all times. In the other corner we have this vile thing called finals. Don't worry about it, he's just lurking surreptitiously in the corners, ready to pounce at any moment. He truly is a terrible thing. My opponents mere existence causes spontaneous and terribly timed mental breakdowns. He also just enjoys putting the general college populous through pain. Quite the conniving little sucker.

I have taken 2 finals thus far this week. One yesterday (don't worry, I only spent FOUR HOURS on it) and I just finished one. And then there's another tonight.
I am not a fan of evening finals because you go in knowing it's going to be dark when you come out and it's just a horribly sinking feeling. Plus, it's right during dinner. Rude.
Anyway, so tomorrow's goal is to turn in one take home final, trek to the testing center to take my last multiple choice final, and then start and hopefully finish another take home final. Then I will be done! Done with finals by Wednesday. Will this actually happen? Let us hope so.
6 tests in 3 days? I'm a fan. I think that would definitely mean I had defeated, even pummeled, my unworthy opponent.
Secret to my success? Wearing my Ron Weasley t-shirt to every final for the last 3 semesters. Win.
Picture proof? Done.

I'm pretty sure that everyone around me in the library appreciated me taking this pic.

Some thoughts.

I have nothing to say today. And by nothing, I mean that there are a ridiculous number of thoughts swirling about in my head and I don't know how to verbalize/put them in words. 

Life is crazy sometimes. 

I am crazy all the time.

I am wearing flannel today. I love flannel more than most things. It's Flannel Friday.

I want to watch Harry Potter 7.2.

Thanksgiving is next week. I'm a big fan.

Here is something that made me laugh today:

Ok. Seriously. If you didn't laugh at this, then we have a problem. I'm about to start crying, it's so outrageous.

Since I have nothing else to say today, I will now enlighten the world with what is currently on my Christmas wishlist. In case anyone is curious, I want:

The  Lord of the Rings Trilogy (extended editions, naturally)

All of the Harry Potter movies

A cozy BYU sweatshirt

Cool stickers

A new camera

Gouda cheese and salami

A sweet CTR ring

Definitely some new jeans

A pokemon

An increase in my DVD collection

Some fabulous cardigans

Some quality Chinese food

A turtle (ninja or regular, I'm not picky)

A phone call. I love when people randomly call me up just to say hi.

End of an Era

Let me take you back to a very long day in my life.
Last Thursday.

Now you see, I was reading a certain 7th book of the Harry Potter sort in preparation for a certain movie premiere. Well, I finished that book a day earlier than I was planning, which you can't blame me for because once they apparate into Hogsmeade, there is absolutely no point trying to shut the book. Anyway, needless to say, this filled my Thursday with quite a bit of anxiety. You see, at 12:01 that night I was going to be seated watching a movie I've been waiting many months, even years for.

After walking aimlessly around the house, watching ridiculous amounts of interviews with HP cast members, driving to the only party store in Utah that still had Harry Potter glasses in stock, and then attempting to make time pass faster by making playlists... finally 7 o'clock arrived. I was able to forget my listlessness for an hour while I sadly watched Ryan get kicked off of So You Think You Can Dance (I didn't particularly care that Alexander was gone too).

And finally at 8 o'clock arrived. I showered. I made my hair as huge as humanly possible (for the record, this is HUGE). I picked up Kui/Kendra/Cho. And then we prepared our costumes.

I have a bit of problem when I dress up. I am incapable of dressing up quickly or simply. I go all out.
So this is what happened (photo credit to Kendra. I stole off her FB):


Yes, I became Bellatrix Lestrange. It was quite a jump from my usual, and just as outrageous Professor Trelawny costume. I fear I may have frightened a few children, because along with going all out with the costume, I also stay in character. If you know anything about Bellatrix, you know she's terrifying, which is what makes her one of my favorite villains.

So we all got together at the theater and here is our motley crew:
We have a stunning Cho Chang, Bellatrix, super excited Hermione, an eccentric Sybill Trelawny, heroic-looking Neville, Harry Potter himself, and some type of Harry/Ron mix.

All in all, it was a successful pre-movie party.
Even more successful: the actual movie.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was most definitely my favorite HP movie. It was exciting and made me cry. Twice. It was a wonderful way to end that series and bring my childhood to a close. I love everything about Harry Potter. Especially Ron Weasley. And Neville Longbottom was looking quite attractive himself. How wonderful.