And That's A Wrap!

Well, over the past week I've marked 90 essays and 90 exams. I finished the last of them today. I started off the marking on Thursday, last week. So it was a full week of marking! Except that I didn't actually mark that entire time. I marked all the essays on Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday. I gave my first exam on Saturday at 7.00 am. Ooofta. Then I marked their exams Sunday. And gave my other two exams at 7.00 am and 11.00 am on Monday. And marked all the 1st class on Wednesday and all the second class today. I kind of missed out Tuesday due to exhaustion (and not being home). So I finished the marking, and entered the grades! Yeay! Hooray!! That's all I have to do for my teaching responsibilities for BYU. My TA is doing the grade calculations and submitting the marks. They have to be in by the 29th of April, so I'm doing really well having everything done by the 22nd!

Oh? The exhaustion? I was out with The Boy. Yeah, he's still around. I didn't get home until very late Monday night. Or, more accurately, very early Tuesday morning.

V-Day

Well, normally I celebrate Singles Awareness Day on 14 February. This year, however, I had a Victory! A date for Valentine's Day! Around 2.30 in the afternoon I got a text from him saying 'Be dressed and ready to go at 6.30.' Umm.... ok. 'Dressed how? Ready for what?' The reply, 'Dressed . . . and ready.' Ok. 'Skirt or Trousers?' 'Skirt.' Well, that's a t least a little more information. 'Dance or Warm?' 'Classy.' Ooooh. Ok. So I wore my charcoal grey tailored skirt, white blouse and long wool jumper. Black and white. And where did we go? To a production of Romeo and Juliette up at the University of Utah! A very lovely Valentine's Day treat. He actually really likes Shakespeare. The night before we'd watched Much Adu About Nothing. And his favourite is King Leare. A fabulous dancer, academic and Shakespeare fan?!? Wow! How lucky can one girl get? It was almost more fun watching him laugh at the jokes than it was watching the show. And I like Shakespeare! Anyway, it was a great Valentine's Day.

Distracted!

Ok, I know. I've been pretty pathetic in the photo posting arena. My excuse? I think it's a pretty good one. I've been dating! Yeah. Me. And it's wonderful. Funnily enough, it's not the same as the guy I posted about last week. It's a different guy. Guy #1? Haven't even thought about him since Wednesday. Guy #2? I've seen him every day since Wednesday. And in fact, I saw him last Monday, too! So, the only day last week I didn't see him was Tuesday. He's also a swing dancer. Yeah, you can sort of see the trend. Met him back over the Exchange weekend. He got my number then, and had given me the details about a couple of different dance nights (mostly blues nights) that I hadn't been able to attend... until last Monday. The reason I didn't go to the Saturday one? Yeah... out on that other date. Apparently I ought to have gone to the dance night! Never mind. It was good for me to get a date from guy #1. Anyway, unbeknownst to guy #2 (Sorry, for now I'm not giving out names. We'll see later.) his neighbour is one of my good friends from back when I was dancing at BYU. The neighbour was also at the dance night on Monday. And the neighbour told me (Friday) that the whole way home all he heard about was how awesome I was. How wonderful it was to have a really good dancer in the area. Especially such a hot one! (Wow! Me? Hot? *blush* Thanks! And a good dancer?!? *double blush* Well, I try! Some days are better than others.) After the dance on Monday we'd stood around in the freezing cold car park and chatted for . . . an hour? Something like that! And before we went our separate ways I was told, 'Next time you're up in Salt Lake, let me know, and we'll go do something.' Ummm.... Ok! :-D That was Monday. And in actual fact, I was up in SLC on Tuesday, but I thought I'd best leave it a day. So I was back up on Wednesday night, and sent him a text to the effect of 'Hey, I'm up in Salt Lake tonight.' To which I got the reply of 'Ok... want to go get dinner?' Yes. I definitely wanted to go get dinner! Then he had the unfortunate problem of having lost his keys (on Sunday!) so could I possibly drive?!? Umm... sure. No problem. So he gave me his address.

{Interjection. I've got to tell you this story to be able to tell you the next part of that story.}

I went to the Young Single Adult Ward in PG, where I'm living. And it was horrible! Everyone was really young. Like 18-25. Yeah, I kept thinking, 'I'm teaching you lot!' So I arranged with my very good friend Brittany to attend her ward up in Holladay (part of Salt Lake). It's part of this cool pilot programme where there are 3 wards who all have their own organisation, but things like Family Home Evening Groups and Activities are all organised between all 3 wards. So you get to interact with a wider pool of YSAs. And, every 2nd Sunday of the month all 3 wards are combined into one large unit. It's pretty awesome.

{Interjection over.}

So he gave me his address. And I was looking at it thinking, that's got to be out by Brittany's house. I'm sure it's near her! And when I arrived at the address??? Not only was it near Brittany's flat, it was in the same complex! He's actually in one of the other wards that's part of that big YSA Ward thing! Anyway, that was funny.

We went to dinner, and it was really good (Indian! Yeay!! I love Indian.) and we had a ball. And we just sort of chatted for a couple hours. It was possibly the best first date I've ever been on. Actually, I may just revise that statement. It was the best first date I've ever been on. Nothing awkward or difficult. Just fun and light hearted. Definitely full of laughter. You ask him a question, and you're not going to get the 'right' answer first. He's really quick with coming up with a random (and very ridiculous) answer. Like when I asked him where he worked, he said 'The Magic 8 Ball factory. I write the little messages that pop up,' without even blinking. *Insert Eye-Roll Here* Yeah, I didn't believe him! (He's an archeology student, and he works at the museum up at the Uni, getting exhibits ready to display.)

Anyway, let's just say that the date went well. As did the next night. And the night after that. And the night after that. And last night.... (for those of you counting, yes, that's every night since Wednesday!) And I have high hopes for tonight. *grin*

Right. So that's my excuse for why I haven't gotten a photo taken of that blue dress! I've been just a bit preoccupied with other things. But I will get a photo, I promise! (I wore it again on Friday. To a very appreciative audience!)

Surprise!

Couple of surprises happened this week.

One: Whilst Steve was out of town on a business trip, Lois and I had planned to clear out the spare bedroom/sewing room in Lois' house, and get it all organised. But once we'd accomplished the clearing, we though . . . wouldn't it make more sense to paint it now rather than having to do this all over again later? So we went down to Lowes and bought a bunch of white paint, and one tin of bright green paint. So, one wall is green, and the others are all white. Looks fabulous (photos coming. I'm sorry I've been such a slacker!) Steve knew nothing about it. Hee hee hee. But he loves it, or at least claims to. Good thing, too.

Two: I went dancing this weekend. (No, that's not the surprise.) Friday at the Golden Skillet. It was good fun, as expected. I wore that cute blue dress again (don't worry, photos are coming. I promise!!) which must have worked its magic, because I got asked out on a date! Yes! Me on a real date! Saturday! And it was fun!! Who knew? (Ok, all you married people, obviously. But hey, how come no one ever told me dating was fun?!? I mean, share the love! Literally!) Ok, that's the surprise. And the other half? He asked me out for a second date.