So I am hoping most people know by now, but I am engaged! I have met the most amazing man, Kekoa Michael Bay, and I was lucky enough to convince him to marry me! And yes, he knows about the Tourette Syndrome. It's hard not to, right? :) He is so good about it too. We have so much fun with it. At first he didn't really say much about it, he was afraid I would get offended or something. The more time we spent together, the more he realized I had a good attitude about it and he could open up. Anytime I start going off, he has started to "talk back." He will repeat the noises I make and we pretend we are having conversations. We look around at all the different faces that people make and laugh at them and use all we can to make a good joke about it (which is fairly easy to do, I have AWESOME timing!). Tonight we were at a social activity that involved food (the best kind!) and he had gone to throw the plates away. He then crossed to the other side of the room to talk to someone, when I suddenly let out a loud squeal (slight echo, good tone). A few of the usual giggles from friends, then all of a sudden I hear Kekoa calling back, "Coming!" I laughed so hard, I almost didn't hear the comments of, "You have him trained so well, " and "He knows who is in charge!" And I get to spend an eternity with this guy!!! My life couldn't get much better if I tried, and I can't help it!

Professional...

I love the networking that goes on at BYU Hawaii. We have the opportunity to meet a lot of different professionals in order to get us integrated into the work force. Just this week, I met three pretty big names in their chosen field. We had a guest speaker in one of my classes named Erica Chenowith (not to be confused with Kristen, sorry). She has written numerous articles and traveled the world speaking on terrorism and non-violence movements. Very interesting class, and I enjoyed learning from her. One of the best parts of the class, however, was the Tourette yell in the middle of her discourse. It was a fairly laid back atmosphere, and open for questions, so she looked my direction and asked what was said. I replied that I had Tourette's, nothing to say (at least not on her topic with any kind of intelligence) so she continued and that was that. It got a few giggles from my classmates though.

Then on Friday night, "the Piano Guys" came and performed. Composer and pianist Jon Schmidt and cellist Steven Sharp Nelson gave an amazing performance. No, I made no noise during the concert. However, afterwards during the meet and greet, there were a couple of loud (and when I say loud, there was an echo) screams. Now they may not be rock stars, so they were not thronged with screaming teenage girls or anything, but they did have a pretty large crowd, and the sea of heads that turned as they looked in shock at what had just happened was quite entertaining. When I got to meet them, they were very nice guys, neither said anything about the yells. It was a bit sad to get so little reaction, but I guess that is what you get when dealing with professionals. It was fun though, as my life always is. And I can't help it. :)

Christmas Songs

I love to sing. I studied music for three years while at Snow College. One day, I will have to go back and write those stories, once I catch up on current ones. :) While I don't often squeak while I sing, my evolving Tourette's has started to sing along when I wasn't planning on it. I have been known to "sing along" with "Carol of the Bells" and others. I don't try, but as I said, these things have a mind of their own!

Just as entertaining about the Christmas Songs were during church. One week it was announced that the opening song would be "Silent Night." Cue Squeaks. Someone turned around and in a loving, joking manner, responded with, "SILENT Night! Shhh!" However, announcing the closing song to be "Joy to the World" the squeaks seemed a bit more appropriate here, so I just got giggles instead of the reprimand. I can't help it! :)

Vacation

Sorry I have taken so long to post, school got kind of crazy, but it made for some awesome stories! Now I am on Christmas vacation, so I will hopefully get all of my stories in. Let's start with the start of my vacation and the plane ride home...

There were a couple of good stories from the plane ride. What better way to entertain yourself than to scream at random intervals when no one can run away? I was lucky enough to be sitting next to a friend on the plane ride to Vegas, and everytime I let one out (which there were many), we had ourselves a nice giggle, wondering if anyone even heard. Once they started getting louder, we didn't have to wonder if anyone heard or not. There were two that stuck out.

The first funny story was the first loud one as the flight attendants were doing beverages. They were still a couple rows in front of us when the first loud one came. The flight attendent was so surprised she looked like she was about to fall over. She saw me and Carlos giggle and asked if that was me. I said it was, but explained that I had Tourette's. She said, "Yeah, that's going to be my excuse when I am older, too." As they got closer, this particular flight attendant told the other that she wanted to serve us. She asked for my card (to prove I had tourette's). I do have a card from the school that says I am entitled to special services (I get my own room intstead of having to go to the testing center, I love it!), but she said she was joking. She explained that she often gets in trouble because she is the type to say what is on her mind, and she is saving the Tourette's excuse for when she gets older so she doesn't wear it out. I had to explain that those really are the noises I make from my tourette's, and she just thought that was adorable! I like being called adorable! :)

There were a few other loud ones, and I saw a few heads turn, but then I quieted down for most of the trip. About a half hour before we were supposed to land, I let out another one. This time the 6 year old across the aisle was awake. He didn't know what it was, but his dad kept laughing as his son kept imitating my noises. I only did one, but this kid kept going! He was pretty cute, and I made a new friend.

As we got off the plane, I gave a final squeak of farewell to my flight attendant friend, and made it home to my awesome family. They are adjusting well to the evolution, some better than others. My sister still prefers the pterydactyl, but my brother quite enjoys them and mom keeps telling everyone I make these cute noises. I make so many new friends with this introduction, and I can't help it.

Scary Movie

So Halloween was pretty awesome this year. Our ward had a party at Wes Johnson's house. I'm kind of surprised we all fit, because the turnout was amazing! After a few games we settled down to watch a movie. We had chosen to watch Wait Until Dark, an old classic with Audrey Hepburn. At some point, about half way through the movie, the creepy music comes on, and you have that feeling that you KNOW something scary is about to happen... Cue Tourette's. Not the small quiet kind either. The kind that sounds like someone screaming at the top of their lungs, and I watch the crowd jump at least a foot in the air! I'm pretty awesome to watch scary movies with, who knew? Halloween was pretty epic, and I just can't help it. :D

Intel Inside

So the other day, I was in the living room with my housemates talking story. The TV was on and an Intel Inside commercial came on. I wasn't really paying much attention to it, but I knew it was there. All of a sudden, I let out a new sound... The sound of the logo. Hopefully the video works that will share the sound... but I happened to do it at the same time as the TV did as well. Maybe it was me, maybe you had to be there, but I am now mimicking the jingle of a computer company. Awesome. And I can't help it!

Quiet Time

So this past Sunday, our ward had a fast and testimony meeting. At church, the members of the congregation are given the time to stand and bear witness of principles they know to be true. There happened to be a long period of silence yesterday, and when it was finally broken, a few people mentioned how they felt uncomfortable in the silence. There is a new member of our bishopric named Brother Galeai (Nah- lee- eye). He stood up and shared how much he enjoyed the silence and started to expound on that when the silence was broken again... by me. I had half of the congregation giggling like school girls as Br. Galeai tried to regain his train of thought... I love my timing. I can't help it!