At least I'm not as sad as I used to be... no, wait, yes I am.

Sometimes the early bird just gets shot by hunters.

I decided to be proactive today and go buy textbooks for Dria and me while she stayed in bed to recover from a sore throat she's had for the last few days. I put on some pants and shoes, threw on my coat, and started the long journey to the BYU Bookstore.

First off, it was negative infinity degrees outside this morning. (Believe me, I checked Weather.com and it definitely said it was negative infinity degrees in Provo.) I used to consider myself a cold-weather person, but every winter I've spent in Utah has worked hard to convince me otherwise. Uh... I guess cold weather in California isn't really cold, anyway, so... there you go.

After a few minutes of slow-motion snow driving, I arrived at the base of Mt. South End of BYU Campus. Now that I don't live ridiculously close to campus, it has become painfully clear to me that no matter where I park, I'll have to walk at least fifteen minutes to get to my classes next semester. Just my luck that parking couldn't be closer to the north end of the school, which is where all of my morning classes are. In fact, they're in the JKB, which is pretty much the farthest north you can have a class (unless you go to the Salt Lake Center, I guess, but that's beside the point).

*cough* Little tangent there... Anyway, I trudged my way through the BYU-flavored snow cone, finally arriving at the bookstore, only to find all outward entrances blocked by giant CLOSED signs. My hope wavered, but my frozen body begged for warmth, so I found the closest entrance to a building I could find. Fortunately, that led me to the indoor entrance to the bookstore, where I was finally able to locate a sign with bookstore hours during the holidays. Now, don't go thinking that I was an idiot for not looking up the hours ahead of time; I tried. I really did! Unfortunately for me, the bookstore's website was down for routine maintenance (who does "routine maintenance" the day before New Years' Eve?), and I doubt they would have had the holiday hours up even if the site were working properly. BYU is, after all, notorious for having terribly unhelpful websites (which I'm helping to fix, by the way, but that's another story).

So there I was, trapped outside the bookstore by a sign that said, "Holiday Hours: ... December 27th to December 30th: 10am to 6pm" at 8:40am. I was left with a dilemma: if I trudged back out of the icy death trap of BYU, I would have just about enough time to turn around and trudge back, arriving at the bookstore just in time for it to open. Alternatively, I could find a bench and an old newspaper and take a nap in the warmth of the heated Wilkinson Center, but I thought Dria might think I had frozen to death. Also, I hadn't shaved in about two weeks by now, so security might throw me out and not let me buy any books anyway. I finally decided just to risk the arduous journey and head home to my sleepy wife.

There is good news, however.

Firstly, I survived both the trudge home and the later trip I made with Dria to buy our textbooks together. Secondly, we were able to buy all of our textbooks except for one of my Spanish books, which was completely out of stock. We were also able to get some shopping done at Bed Bath & Beyond, which is always a satisfying experience. Our apartment is just a little more organized now, and it's really feeling like home at last.

Despite BYU's best efforts at offing me this morning, today actually ended up being a pretty good day.

I have opinions! (Too!)

Dear ladies and gentledudes,

I am Dria's husband. I say that because most of the readers of this blog probably came from her previous blog rather than mine, so I need to introduce myself. I'm an avid watcher of Psych and the Office, which I discovered after being deprived for far too long, and I am almost as entertaining as Dria is. Or at least I think I am.

We've made some progress in the apartment-organizing project. Our kitchen now looks like it's no longer a permanent storage unit for pack rats (and mice, too). We just had our first home-cooked breakfast as a married couple; I made some adorable heart-shaped melt-in-your-mouth pancakes (that's what the box called the recipe anyway) with chocolate chips. Obviously, this was also the most healthy breakfast we've ever had as a couple, too.

Being married is like an endless sleepover. It's so fun to get into our jammies, cuddle up on the couch or on the bed, and watch movies until we fall asleep. Last night, we watched The Sandlot; it was my first time seeing it, believe it or not, and oh how I missed out as a youth! Now I FINALLY understand what my friends were referring to when they would say, "You're KILLING me, Smalls!" and what my professor was quoting when he would talk about things lasting "FOREEEEE-VER!" I feel like I have grown as a person. I'm lucky to have such a wonderful wife who cares enough about my well-being to make sure I see these classic movies that I somehow missed out on as a kid.

I blame video games.

I love you; my responsibility has found a place

You know what's awesome? Getting married, honeymooning in Cancun, and then spending the holidays with family.

You know what else is awesome? All the wonderful people who helped us get there; my family, Jordan's family, and countless others. Guys, you are seriously amazing, and there's no way we could have survived last semester without your selfless service. I don't think I can thank you enough.

This week, we've been working on organizing our lives, which involves a lot more trips into town than it sounds. Luckily, we've gotten the most boring things taken care of now, and our living room no longer looks like a tornado hit it. So that's nice.

Jordan and I had our first real home-cooked dinner in our apartment this evening. We made coconut chicken and baked potatoes, and threw in some salad for good measure. I'm happy that it turned out well, especially considering our kitchen is roughly the size of a closet, and the oven disturbingly resembles an Easy-Bake Oven.

I look forward to lots of not-burned meals cooked in this oven this semester.