miss DT

at byu freshman year, i lived in helaman halls. bex lived in deseret towers, also known as DT. one day, in the bathrooms lf her dorm, there was a flyer on the bathroom stall door. it said "1st annual miss DT contest" on it and gave the details of an upcoming opportunity to compete for the title of miss DT.

was it a pageant? was it a joke? was it serious? we didn't know, but one thing was certain. bex would try out for miss DT.

it became apparent that there would be some obstacles to winning the title. there were not one but two rounds to the competition. the first consisted of an interview. bex went to the interview with her hair fashioned in a questionable manner by cicada. she answered questions such as, "what is your favorite ice cream?" and she managed to pass the first test.

having qualified for the second round, bex had to prepare for the contest itself. she needed a costume, a talent, and to be able to answer an interview question in front of everyone. there were about 9 other girls competing. not only that but there were guys competing for the title of mr. DT. it was quite a production in the lobby of deseret towers.

bex wore for her outfit: a coon skin cap, red long underwear with tie-died regular underwear over, rainbow moon boots, and a cape.

for her talent, she recruited a friend of hers whom we'll call crazy. crazy was very adept at imitating unusual things; among them, a parade float balloon, and spiderman.

when it came time for her to demonstrate her talent, she announced she would be performing hypnosis and called from a volunteer from the audience. many people raised their hands, but she of course chose crazy. she hypnotized him into becoming spiderman, and then a parade float balloon. for the grand finale she hypnotized him into becoming a bandersnatch warbeling through the something or other. and he did that very well also.

the interview question was this: "what was your most embarrassing moment." you would have thought they would have realized the danger in asking bex this question. she chose to go the mild route, and stated that when she was in kindergarten she peed her pants. had she been more honest, she would have been able to tell a more recent story about peeing her pants only a few months before.

despite the smattering of people trying out for the title of miss DT (including some very earnest participants, some of which played the piano, danced, and sang), bex won. it was announced at a dance held especially for the occasion. she wore a red, green, and white frock, and some bowling shoes. they graced her head with a rhinestone tiara and the honor of carrying the title for a year.

i'm quite certain that bex set a precedent for the first annual miss DT contest that otherwise would not have been set...and will likely influence the miss DTs for years to come...

the sorority

i went to byu, and there are no sororities at byu. unless you count the relief society, which is also very important. but as for real sororities, there is none.

but that didn't stop us. cicada, bex and i decided to create a sorority our freshman year. it was called "kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa phi." and we were the tri-presidency. in order to recruit members, we took turns sitting at a bench/table near the quad with a sign-up sheet. after getting their contact information, we then sent out informative emails introducing ourselves. well, not so much introducing ourselves as creating completely false biographies with very questionable details. then we asked them to tell us a little about themselves.

we then proceeded to reject every person who responded. and then recruited more people to reject the next day.

this was going along fine, until one day my roommate whom we'll call slug, found out what we had been doing. she was delighted, but then decided to play a little trick on cicada. she submitted an email explaining a little about herself to the tri-presidency of kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa kappa phi. she detailed her pathetic life as a friendless student at byu struggling with cancer. she expressed her heartfelt gratitude for finally being able to find some new friends.

cicada was distraught. she didn't know what to do. she thought maybe we should let this one slide under the wire. bex and i, knowing the truth, were ruthless in our rejection. we told cicada to cut this one loose. we couldn't be suffering charity cases to ruin our sorority.

then we told her it was only slug.

and the sorority continued on its merry way for a time...

summer cd

if you want a good mix to listen to this summer, this is the one i made for a lot of my friends. i can't make it for everyone, but i would like to. (and it must be done in this order for the best results. also, you can only listen to it when it's super nice outside.)

1. big john shaft - belle and sebastian

2. foux du fafa - flight of the conchords

3. electric feel - MGMT

4. time of the season - the zombies

5. close to me (closet remix) - the cure

6. my moon my man - feist

7. it's summertime - the flaming lips

8. she's not there - the zombies

9. kokomo - the beach boys

10. boracay - the little ones

11. the girl from ipanema - getz and gilberto

12. andy warhol - david bowie

13. lemonade - rivers cuomo

14. foxes mate for life - born ruffians

15. young folks - peter bjorn and john

16. this charming man - the smiths

17. under my thumb - the rolling stones

18. girl - beck

19. summer - modest mouse

20. tonight she comes - the cars

21. death of a party - blur

56 days

that's right. that's how many days bex wore a solitary outfit of clothing. 

it all started when our friend told us about a fellow who wore his sweats for an extended period of time just to see if someone would say something. if you think about it, it's an excellent way to test people's integrity. or something. in any case, it makes good people uncomfortable because it forces them to pit their manners against their desire to make the world a more hygenic place. this is what appealed to bex.

so she wore a yellow cardigan sweater over a grey t-shirt with some plaid pants and some velcro shoes. i believe this outfit also consisted of some sort of choker necklace. she wore the outfit for 56 days in a row. for church, she would remove the pants and replace them with a pillow-case skirt, even still retaining the velcro shoes. i wonder if she changed her socks? i can't remember. but i do remember that she only washed "the outfit" once.

this was at byu, and everyone proved to be much more polite than they were concerned about hygenics. i think part of it was that many classes bex attended were every other day, so the people she encountered had at least the hope that she changed her clothes every OTHER day.

there were, however, a few comments that seem pretty telling to me. one day, bex changed her choker necklace because she had gotten a new one that she wanted to wear. a girl in one of her classes said, "hey! you got a new necklace! i notice these things..." hopefully, this was just tact, and not complete irony. 

also, the day bex voted, she was of course given a "i voted today" sticker. once the sticker was slapped to her mustard-yellow cardigan, it did not budge. it had officially become part of the outfit. and i believe one of her classmates did say at one point, "voted again today, huh?"

hahahaha.