Today was a special day in that I didn't have my normal church schedule. Usually I have 2 pm (2 PM!!) church out in West Richland and I have to drive 15-20 minutes to get there and then we don't get done with church until 5. And most weeks I have meetings before that. But today I had a blessed reprieve and had a special stake conference at my old stake center which is 4 blocks from my house and it was at 10 am and I was home before I am even showered for church on some Sundays. So I walked.
As I walked I starting thinking how much I missed doing even that-walking. In college you have to walk everywhere. And I didn't have a car for most of my time so I walked even more. (Although I don't miss biking to the grocery store with my backpack and bags hanging off the handles..) Now I sit on my bum all day at work and drive wherever I need to go. Sedentary life. Meh.
Then I got nostalgic for the old days. I miss how my Sundays went in college. Getting ready in the morning with roommates available to ask advice on how to dress, dashing out the door to get to early meetings, cold walks up the hill or south stairs, or cramming into a nice person's car to get a ride. Church was backwards (RS first, Sacrament meeting last) in most of my wards there. And I liked it because of the togetherness you feel at the end, plus I felt more prepared to take the Sacrament. Never at BYU do you meet in an actual church building-classrooms and auditoriums are the norm.Hymns are sung to the player on the computer and people used the internet to show clips during their lessons. And then after church I had time to have a delicious Sunday nap, visit with roommates, call home, make dinner, ward stare, more antics with roommates, game nights, etc, etc. I learned quickly that no homework gets done on Sunday so you may as well not try. So I wanted to write some of those memories down for blogsterity.
Freshman year-I lived in Hinckley Hall and we had church at the University Parkway chapel (building where they teach English) in the afternoon, backwards, Sacrament meeting was in the gym where they had to put down rugs so it wouldn't be too loud. Monica would always be making scrapbooking sketches on her program and the Ukranian/Russian kid would be knitting. We were assigned Sunday school classes because we had small classrooms and each floor was it's own Relief Society. Our bishop was a new bishop and was so scared to give the Chastity lesson that he had his wife do it-I still remember they titled it "Birds and Bees do it, why can't I?"...Still my favorite Sunday of the year/semester. We'd race home for dinner after church because it was usually the only meal we got all day from the Cannon center. Every other Sunday was chicken cordon bleu with creamery ice cream-those were the good Sundays. And visiting hours, the time where boys could come over to the dorms. Eventually we'd make our way up to May Hall for ward stare and usually finish off the night with chatting or a movie watched on one of our lap tops sitting on our bed. Some weeks we had a CES fireside which we usually went to because none of us had living rooms or TVs and the Marriott Center was so close. Jenn came up with the term "Sunday Prude" which is someone who wears their church clothes all day to look righteous. (which a lot of people do down in P-town)
Sophomore year-I lived in Liberty Square with Jenn, Jenna, Jules, Monica and Marissa and we had church in the Marb, backwards, and early in the morning. More people would be at church at the end than at the beginning. This was the first year with RMs in the ward and so I had the first dose of "On my mission" stories. Monica had the van and we'd drive some weeks. My favorite was the time it snowed and the van got stuck and Eric/Lyle and another boy (probably Jeff) tried to help push us out. As an apartment we started having Sunday dinners and had people over. I claimed "ambiance" as my job (I really had no cooking skills) and would light candles, make flower arrangements etc to have a classy dinner. And we started an apartment tradition of always playing Barry White "Can't Get Enough of Your Love" to start the meal off. This is the year I learned how to make homemade Cafe Rio. We had ward stare in the clubhouse at the Lib and the first week we were told to wear fun hats. I think Jenna got asked on a date to the CES fireside like the first week and I learned that that counted as an actual "date". Monica made texas sheet cake a few times and we often had people over for chatting. Benji was often there to help with dinner and DK too probably. One Sunday, after ward stare, we had a snowball fight in the parking lot and Bishop Larson was playing in his Sunday suit. I got beaned in the back by Eric/Lyle (who was a baseball pitcher) and it wasn't fun after that. One of the first Sundays we had an epic game of "signs" in our apartment where a lot of people got to know each other. Also, a kid named Russ taught sunday school and liked to tell stories with the phrase "'cause I'm Mormon", it was funny. And then there was the time we got a lesson at church from Bishop Larson on how us girls needed to dress nice and wear makeup so the boys would think we were cute and ask us out. Yep. That was a good one too.
Junior year-I lived in Chattsworth with Monica, Jenn and Marissa. We had backwards church in the morning in the SWKT. Ward stare was in between the other two rows of condos and it was a good time to spy on people. We walked or drove to church. Although it really sucked being out of breath when you got to church. One time, our interesting home teachers gave us a ride and then proceeded to drive up Rape Hill. I was so sure we would get caught and we were laughing so hard the entire time. It was also interesting to ride up and down elevators for church and one time we overloaded with people, the elevator beeped until a few got off. We had a few fancy dinners this year too and Monica had a roasting pan where she made her famous roast chicken with fennel. We didn't go to the Marriott Center as much for firesides because it was so far away. But I do remember living in this apartment and hearing President Foust say that "Meetings do not need to be endless to be eternal." We had a great Easter dinner with family and friends and also an Easter egg hunt between me and Matt LaRose that got quite competitive.
Senior year part 1-I lived in Moon apartments, we had backwards church in the morning in the JFSB basement. I didn't really enjoy this year for a lot of reasons, but I didn't really get to know my ward that well and we didn't have company for dinner. Ward stare was harder and I had a lot of consternation that Marissa had to listen to ;) But I did make some friends. We had ward break the fast and I was on the committee. Someone had a connection to the hospital so we ate in a conference room there which meant we had to drive all the way over there. Our stake boundaries were weird and our stake center was all the way on 500 West even though I could see the Manavu chapel from my bedroom window.
Senior year part 2-I lived in Devonshire with Jenny, Audrey and Rachell, we had backwards church and I think I had it both morning and midday. I was back in the SWKT again. I had Bishop Lawler and I really enjoyed this ward and had great roommates. (First time living without one of my original peeps). I lived here the longest and knew a lot of people. I first moved in during the summer and we had game nights pretty much every Sunday. I learned the "Fun Game" where you put names of characters in a bowl and do different rounds of guessing the same things-explaining it without saying the name like in Taboo, charades, one word, and one action. It was pretty fun and hilarious. It was also the only ward (I think) that had friendship notes. We had ward stare out on the lawn if it was warm or in the parking garage it it was cold. I still remember when Dusty crawled out of the sewer in his Ninja Turtles costume with a pizza box and just walked away without saying anything to anyone. I missed the Sunday my roommates filled garbage bags with leaves and then dumped them from the windows on top of everyone. I still remember meeting Brent and Jason Molen at one of the first game nights of the school year at someone's apartment. They were hilarious and I remember thinking that I was going to like them. Also, Jason was sporting a creeper mustache and I enjoyed that too. The second summer I was there I had to hand out the friendship notes which was awkward because I felt like I was interrupting all the make out sessions. We had a few Cranium battles in my apartment that got quite heated because we were so competitive. Audrey had us over for dinner at her parents' house a few times and one time "Aunt Sheri" came over too. (She scares me.) One of my favorite memories is when my apartment was doing introductions and we did a "Lawrence Welk" SNL skit where I was Judice and had baby arms. It was hilarious and it was one of my favorite memories. It was also the only ward where I gave a talk at BYU, Brother ____ forgot to ask the speakers and so I skipped church to write my talk (the beauty of backwards church). And our other bishopric counselor was known for making strange but hilarious comments during ward council and I started to write them down. (I'll add them if I can find them).
Anyway, that's me getting really nostalgic. Sundays were kinda party days if you think about it. But those were the days when everyone was around, no one had work or school so it kinda had to happen then or no other time. My Sundays are still good, but much less going on. I'd really like to have church earlier in the day, but oh well.
