What's in a Name?

A name can reveal multiple things about a person. Nicknames can show how spunky, creative, or personal a person is. I once had an FHE brother named Snugz, which makes no sense to me, but it totally fit his teddy-bear personality. Most importantly though, it can in varying aspects disclose a status of relationship between one person and another. For example, my nickname circle goes as follows. People who hardly know me, or are trying to sell me something call me Jocelyn (I'd also like to add this is a name my mother calls me when in trouble). For closer friends who actually know me it's Jocie. Then we have the select few of 3ish people who actually call me Jay or some variation thereof. Simple right? It's an easy way to distinguish whom is trying to contact me. I know how to present myself solely based on the way someone addresses me.

I thought this concept was foolproof. No one could ever destroy my system. I was not expecting anyone to ever mess up the system. That was until Melissa Munafo came into the picture. Melissa is a former roommate that I lived with for about 3 months in Fall Semester. After living together we even took 3 classes together (more classes I've had with any roommate or friend while up at college I might add). In class, she could never pronounce my name correctly. She butchered my name by saying it Josie (like Josie and the Pussycat Dolls). GAG! I never made the correction, I just gave her the benefit of the doubt and hoped that one day it would be amended. I was wrong. It got worse.  Last semester while grocery shopping I see Melissa, and she sees me. She excitedly exclaims "JODI!" What the... I think to myself. At least with Josie it was relatively close to Jocie. Now I am a completely new person?! Who does this. I mean we LIVED together, we were in classes together. You heard my name on a daily basis and now you can't even remember my name! I remember yours. In fact, I remember your new name after you were married. I know your husband's name as well and you can't for the life of you remember my name.

So I guess I'll have to install a new circle in my relation-name-calling circle. My relatives call me Jay. My close friends call me Jocie. Telemarketers call me Jocelyn. Finally, people who want to drive me up the walls call me Jodi.

Classical Conditioning

Eons ago, when I was taking my first General Psychology class I learned about Pavlov's dog experiment. For those of you who don't know this story allow me to condense it for you. Basically Pavlov noticed that whenever his caged dogs heard footsteps of those who feed them they began to salivate. He took this one step further and had the feeders ring a bell before giving the dogs food. After a while, they were able to remove the food and just ring a bell to trigger the salivating response.

Now when I had learned of this principle in Psychology, my mind began to wander. I started thinking of extravagant experiments I could conduct. One of them roamed my mind quite frequently. My question was what if I could condition my roommates to "go to the bathroom" by using a song that only played while they were going. It would be hard to pick out a song, and no doubt it would require lots of time and effort to follow them around; however this thought has amused me for the past couple of years. One folly to this experiment is what if I mess them up for life? If I pick a popular song that suddenly appears on the radio they will have no where to go! A law suit would be inevitable. I guess this is the main reason why I should never be a psychologist and just stick to dissecting animals.

Bless Their Heart...

Having been surrounded in "Mormon culture" for the past 3 years I have made a very astute observation. It's not uncommon to find the phrase "bless their heart" thrown around in day-to-day conversation. However, while observing this phrase's patterns I have realized that the full expression goes something like this: "Bless (insert name)'s heart, but ____________________ (start dissing them, their family,their dog, their honor, etc.). I don't know how we rationalize this bashing. I think we must think if we at least say something nice about this person I'm permitted to open a can a worms and start dishing on them.

Some examples I've construed are as follows.

1) Bless Kimmy's heart, but she cannot sing for the life of her.

2) Bless Jacob's heart, but he reeks.

3) Bless Sammy's heart, but she will never get a boyfriend.

It's a sad, sad bubble I live in.

"Go Read Job"

Not too long ago (okay perhaps half my college career ago), my roommate and I were conversing about her worst day that she had ever had in her life (very dramatic). She began by telling me how she had awoken very late one school morning in winter and realized it was about 15 minutes before her first class. She hurried and put on her dress, because she was delivering a presentation in this class, she also had to bake some cookies (that turned out looking like garbage). She sprinted to her class only to have one of her heels give out. Luckily, a guy driving by saw this and offered her a ride to her class. She arrived only a few minutes late and was able to give her presentation. She then concluded there, which kind of left me hanging cause I surely thought there had to be a death of a pet or loved one coming up (because everyone's worst day should center around DEATH). I sat there a moment confused about how this was her dreadful, terrible, utmost worst day she had ever experienced. I then told her, "go read Job." See I had learned from Doctrine and Covenants 121 that if you think your having it rough you should compare yourself to Job. D&C 121:7-10 reads,

" 7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

 8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

 9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.

 10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job."

Whenever you think your day is horrible just remember that Job had it worst. Just sayin'. 

Job being chastised by his "friends"

The Baby Food Diet

Intro to the Challenge

The Baby Food diet Montage

I'd Rather Shoot Myself or Marry a Wealthy Man

My brother and I had a discussion about things I wouldn't like to do and would rather shoot myself or marry a wealthy man. The list is as follows:

1) Work at McDonald's again.
2) Become a podiatrist.
3) Have my hair permed.
4) Work for my dad (in becoming a dental hygienist)
5) Live in Utah past being graduated from college.

This list could go on and on, and probably will but it has to end at some point and I choose now. 

The smell you just can't get away from because it's emanating from your head.

The barren wasteland of the soul.

Your work on crack.

My fire and brimstone.

Did you really just do that?

We are now finished with the month-long blog challenge. That was just supposed to serve as an opener if you wanted to get to know me a little better.

So one day, this semester, I was using the restroom. Apparently another girl was too, because I could hear her whiz. Suddenly I hear a popping of a bag, and munching. Am I the only one who thinks this is disgusting? I mean seriously, we are in the bathroom! I thought it was interesting to note it was a means to an end. The eating will eventually lead to the wasting. It was so shocking.