CARPE DIEM!

I seem to go through stages with this blog. I go almost entire months without touching it, and then I write everyday for an entire week or so. And so I continue now...
Well, life seems to be slowly settling back into normalcy. Normalcy in and of itself has an ever-changing definition, so I guess I should make this comment clearer by saying that I'm getting used to the changes that have occured the last couple of weeks and those changes are now becoming the norm.
Is anyone else, however, kinda thrown off by Daylight Savings? Or a lot thrown off? I most assuredly am. Granted, my sleep patterns haven't been quite regular this weekend. Let me tell you my adventures...
It all started last night at approximately 11pm. Lexis and Emily and I decided to bake things. It's become sort of a weekend tradition to do that...stay up until the wee small hours of the morning engaged in the most glorious of culinary endeavors. So began one of the funnest nights in the world...

11pm
Lexis and Emily and I made 2 dozen whole-wheat applesauce muffins, several batches each of 2 different kinds of cookies, and 1 pan of Strawberry-banana Jello (which said pan of Jello I ate almost entirely by myself). All of this cooking took place in the upper lounge, and it also involved jamming on the guitars and dancing to big band and latin music. And Savage Garden, too.

2:30am
Lexis and I decide to have a slumber party and watch a movie and sleep in the upper lounge. We clean up baking stuff and gather bedding and get ready for bed. Which was a little bit of a waste of time, because...

3:00am
In making a delivery of healing, comforting cookies to our neighbors in Apt 461, Lex, Emily and I end up staying and talking with Katie and Mattie about everything from medical problems to the challenges and advantages of living in a predominately LDS community.

4:30am
Emily had the inclination to go to bed finally, although I can't imagine why, because me and Lex were still somehow wide-awake and so we decided to watch a movie like we planned anyway. We submitted ourselves to the LDS version of "Pride and Prejudice," which was actually kind of enjoyable in a mindless, 5 o clock in the morning kind of way.

6:30am
The movie gets done and we look out the window to see the very first faint streaks of light coming. Still not tired AT ALL, we decide to climb the hill to the Ricks building and watch the sunrise. Barefoot and wrapped up in our comforters, we hiked up the hill to the Ricks, and on the way had one of the creepiest experiences in the world. Please note that it was only faintly light outside and it was very windy and the entire campus seemed completely deserted. Approximately 2 thirds of the way up, we hear this weird faint yowly howling noise. We looked around, quite perplexed, and thought it was someone calling to us or something. Right then, this enormous crow, cawing menacingly and very loudly, swooped down a few feet away from our heads. A crow was dive-bombing us! Fearing for our lives, Alexis threw her arms around me and we stood huddled together and frozen in fear while the crow circled above us. Alexis asked me something finally, but I didn't answer because I had just seen what was making the weird noise. Alexis said "Liz?" and I just stared ahead and whispered "Cats!" There, about 20 feet in front of us, were 2 cats--2 BLACK cats, I might add--that were on the verge of a fight. Both stood staring eachother down, every hair on their bodies raised and howling at eachother. It was SO CREEPY. Picture it...gray, dim sky, a strong wind bending the trees, a completely deserted campus, 2 black cats fighting in front of us and above us the crow continued to caw and circle and occasionally swoop down near us. *Shiver* We finally decided that the only logical course of action was to turn these creepy creatures' tool against them...use fear to our own advantage. We were creeped out, yes, but little did they know that we held the ace. Little did they expect us to take a deep breath each, start yelling in gibberish, and break into a mad run! Which is what we did. I'm not sure what it was, but it was just bizarre to us that all these weird elements combined to create this Salem Witch Trials atmosphere.
Anyway, things were much calmer after that. We each sat on a rock about 30 feet away from eachother and just watched as it slowly got lighter and the streaks of orange and yellow in the east became stronger, and as the lights in the city turned off a few at a time as the day got nearer. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and we sat there for a good half hour. Not talking, just watching and feeling and thinking. It was a wonderful way to start a Sunday. Walking back, Alexis suggested that we do that every Sunday...wake up and watch the sunrise, to which I replied "We didn't wake up!" But point taken, and we decided it is a lovely way to start the day, but too tiring to do more than once a week.

7:15am
We head back home and talk for a while longer, and although we still weren't really sleepy (and I'm really wondering WHY), we decided we should try and get a little sleep. It was strange, though...it was like "Well, I'm going to see if I can catch 4 winks in the 2 hours before conference starts." And we did.

It was also the night that we lose an hour of sleep due to Daylight Savings, so my poor internal clock said "What the flip are you doing to me!?" and made up for it with a sudden rush of sleepiness at roughly 8:00 this morning. So I slept on and off from 8:00am to 4:30pm today. In between sessions, of course. (Ah heck, who'm I kidding? I woke up at the start of each session with every intention of watching and/or listening attentively, but I didn't make it very far in without dozing off.)
Well, I know that if anything's ever going to make sense to me again, I'd better go to bed now and just look forward to tomorrow. To end on a little bit deeper note, I should like to conclude with the insightful words of Alexis Kragenbrink, for whom a lack of sleep inspires particularly good writing.

"Have you ever had the experience where you stay up all night and into the morning and finally come to the hour at which point you can't determine what you did "yesterday" versus "today"? I certainly have, and I will let you know that it's worth it. This one particular time I did it and had the most epiphanical (yes, made up, but I like it) and majestic experience. I...realized that [this close friend] and I were the experiences of the night personified. We are at the point in our lives where we are trying to determine whether we're still in the realm of "yesterday" or if we've moved on to the time known as "today." To this friend, I say it's "today." I say that she and I let go of last night andopen our hearts and minds to a new and glorious day, full of new opportunities, dreams, loves, and challenges. It is now 8 o'clock in the morning, and I hear this friend snoring, only twenty minutes after our return home from this grand adventure...Don't hesitate. Join with me, now, friend. Let's get out of bed, get dressed, grab some whole-wheat applesauce muffins, and run gregariously into the arms of this new day that are stretched out before us."