I've never been so excited to take an anatomy test as when I knew that, the second I finished, I could leave for California.  I took the exam the very minute of the first day it open so that I could enjoy every second of our trip.  UVU had a volleyball tournament, so I offered my car to take Dallin and I and the couple we doubled with the week before for the ten hour drive to the coast.  Maybe it's all in my head, but I swear one can smell the difference in the air-- California is just gorgeous.  In the morning, I jogged a mile from the Air B-n-B to the beach {just like the good ole times in Hawaii} and then we spent several hours at the beautiful white campus for the tournament.
 The next morning, Dal and I snatched a bird scooter off the sidewalk for a dollar and rode back to the beach together.  I thought that since we had left Provo it would be warm enough to swim; it was a little too windy for that, but luckily we found a cozy breakfast restaurant {thanks to another kind cafe owner who suggested it!}.  The boys played even harder for this next tournament.  I was freaking out a little because, back home, Rachel had to go to urgent care due to a corneal ulcer with a bacterial infection, and Adam was gone as well.


UVU fought to the end, but lost to a Cali team, so we hit the road and agreed to all take turns driving in order to keep each other awake.  Events included an alien spaceship shop, pumpkin milkshakes, a man grabbing Dallin and demanding him give $230 so he could catch a Greyhound to the midwest, us four all saying "just kidding!" every couple minutes {like the little kindergartener who would say that with every non-funny or startling comment she made}, telling nasty stories and reverting to kid insults, blasting our eardrums and screaming nineties tunes at the top of our lungs, and almost dying.

To explain, it was 3 in the morning and we were out driving around 90 MPH in BFE.  Dallin was at the wheel and I was on the phone with poor Rachel when suddenly I shouted "DEER!" In action swifter than anything I could have accomplished, Dallin swerved the car in between the two deer that stood in the middle of the road.  However, the deer on the left panicked and tried to run back to its buddy on the right side of us.  Dallin gunned it just in time, locking eyes with the creature which was taller than our car and only inches away from obliterating our vehicle. Glad we're alive, to say the least.
I made it home at 4:30 in the morning and made it successfully to class by 9.

    Halloween is just another reason why college is 100x better than high school.  We all pretend that leaving the nest means growing up, but in actuality it means there is nothing to hold back the kid inside.  I played it mild with a fifties dress from my mission, but many kids on BYU campus were decked out in wild costumes, from Darth Vaders blaring the Star Wars theme from a stereo to a giant Yeti on stilts. Dallin and I joined some friends of his at a house party, and then after realizing that we needed physical IDs to get in to the UVU dance party, we chilled at his house.  Now that Dallin's driving the Bricklin, it's funny to see people stare as we drive past, especially when his face was painted like a skull. One guy even told him it was like watching a scene from a movie.
     On Friday, Dallin watched me over-stress at the chaos of having a long shopping list at Walmart {I'm working on calmness}. Later Rach and I got froyo with our old roommates, and then we finished watching our scary show that we had become recently obsessed with.  I'm a great studier until you get me hooked on something with a mind-blowing plot; Rachel, our psychology major, is great at psychoanalyzing every twist.
     Saturday, Katie and I did initiatories, which are one of my favorite temple ordinances to participate in. After a day of studying, Dallin took me on a date with his friends McKay and Brittany {who had thrown the Halloween party}. We went out to dinner at Noodle&Co, and then we went rockwall climbing! I learned how to belay.
   Sunday, we as a Relief Society presidency led a discussion on mental health, which went perfectly. All the girls had fantastic input, the time slipped away too fast! My favorite thing, though, was seeing in second hour how many boys are in the class Rachel teaches, haha. In the evening, I made pumpkin pancakes with buttermilk syrup for a big group of my high school friends and their spouses. Two of the boys served in Berlin, so I always get a kick out of talking Europe with them.
   Speaking of, I found out that Lina, one of the girls close to our age whom Sister Harwood and I were really good friends with in my last couple transfers, got baptized! Words can't express my joy.