2004 Year in Review

JANUARY. Back in Provo, I met Ammon Hepworth, a friend of Nate and Jjulia’s who had recently returned from a mission. Sarah my Nemelka called me one evening to say that Brandon had just proposed. School started and I enjoyed my classes: Hist 400 (Family and Law in American History), Hist 378 (History of the American Family), Hum 202 (Arts in Western Culture), RelC 261 (Introduction to LDS Family History), and Hist 421 (England Language Handwriting and Documents). The first round of tests went well, and I got above 90% in all subjects. Family history was, as you can see, my main focus and passion; I made a lot of discoveries and met a lot of new people because of it. Ammon helped me build my first snowman; he taught me how to tie my shoes; and he took me on a thoroughly enjoyable lunch date. While cooking dinner one night I turned on the wrong burner, and melted a spatula. Despite what seemed to be developing with Ammon (we even had a DTR—Ammon started it), I began falling in love with Jarom.

FEBRUARY. Ryan came back from Australia! At his request I found an apartment for him, which turned out to be a great place. Jarom sent me a Valentine’s Day letter, mostly in Korean. I took a road trip to San Diego with Julia, Nate, Ammon, Tracy, and Julia’s roommates; it was incredibly fun, although Sunday night I got quite a fever. After returning to Provo my condition worsened, and I soon figured out I had the flu. It turned into bronchitis. Just when I thought things were clearing up, I was brilliant enough to hyperventilate … though I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. We all kind of panicked at the time, and Julia and Kim took me to the emergency room. The doctor gave me a paper bag to breathe into.

MARCH. Whether it was my waning interest in family history or something else altogether, I decided to switch to an English major. Now I realize that’s where I should have been all along. The weather was gorgeous for a lot of March, and Nate let me borrow his sister’s bike. We went on several lovely rides. Ryan and I started plotting how to take over the world, he made his famous steaks for me, and he and Stephanie and I wrote the first edition of The Fresco Daily Report. After the New Year’s Eve incident had made enough stir, I had my hair bleached. The stylist also gave me highlights and lowlights, thus entering a new term into my vocabulary. Lowlights? I didn’t know. One of my cousins was going through the temple, so I went with some other relatives to be there for the weekend in Twin Falls. Nate and I went to a Peter Brineholt concert with Kim and Tracy for Preference.

APRIL. Kim’s cousin Alicia invited us to go marshmallow slingshotting with her friend Paul. He said that it worked better if the marshmallows weren’t fresh—but he had let them dry out for several weeks, and they shattered when you fired them at the ground. It led to some welts and long-lasting bruises. Another nephew was born: David Brian Lewis. Ryan became my official storyteller, entertaining me for hours. I spent Easter at my aunt’s house in Salt Lake. My cousin Jennifer came to visit BYU with some of her friends who planned on attending the following fall semester; it was great fun to get to know her a bit, and I looked forward to spending time with her once she moved to Provo. My dad drove out to Utah at the end of the month, and, like always, we went back to California together.

MAY. I started working full-time (right away) at MHA Associates, a digital imaging company here in Fairfield. The hours were rough: the workday began at 6am. Since it wasn’t too far away, and I didn’t have a car, I got a nice red bike (with a basket) to ride to and from work. Being at home, where there were so many pieces of the past I had with Jarom, I was full of regret for the way I had handled things. And full of tenderhearted feelings towards him. Other than sending off his one-year package, I have no idea what else happened.

JUNE. I went to visit Brother and Sister Hillery. It wasn’t a bad visit, but I left feeling somewhat less than optimistic about a relationship developing between Jarom and me. Ryan and I spent hours (literally) talking on the phone, at all hours of the day. We started writing the Falconer tangent story (it’s my turn right now), which tests my writing skills to the limit. It is, however, one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in terms of writing. My brother Geoffrey found out that he might get a position as a teacher at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey. Kimberlee and I planned a trip for me to come visit her in July.

JULY. Well, I said we planned it, and lo and behold, it happened. I spent a week with Kim in Tennessee, and we did a lot of fun stuff. The humidity, though! Definitely a different way of living altogether. Nothing much exciting happened for my birthday. Kimberlee bought me a pair of genuine cowboy boots and Ryan wrote a perfectly lovely story for me. He also offered to fly out to California at the end of August so i wouldn’t have to drive back to Utah alone. Sarah finally accepted Brandon’s proposal, and they set their wedding date for October.

AUGUST. Finally bought a car! A 1991 Dodge Shadow, turquoise, name of Gabe. Trying to fit all my stuff in it was a challenge. Ryan and I had a fairly safe drive to Utah, if you ignore the fact that I got pulled over in Nevada. Oops. I spent a few days in Salt Lake before heading down to Provo, and dragging all my stuff from the car up to my new apartment. My new roommates, other than Kimberlee, were Beth Chon (from Baltimore) and Melissa Morgan (from the D.C. area). Ryan got accepted to Utah State, and we all had a night filled with card games and some sort of food and late-night television before he moved up to Logan.

SEPTEMBER. Again, I loved my classes: Rel C 351 (The Gospel & World Religions), Engl 364 (Literature of the American West), Phscs 100 (Fundamentals of Physics, not my favorite), Engl 293 (American Literature), and Engl 251 (Fundamentals of Interpretation & Criticism). Jennifer was living in DT, and we had a jolly good time getting to be friends. I started my dinner parties. Kim’s cousin Alicia’s friend Paul invited us to spend a weekend at his cabin; the colors of the trees in fall and the glory of the star-filled sky at night was absolutely breathtaking. Quentin, ah, remember Quentin? he lived about two blocks away, and Kim and I got to be great friends with him. Those random ice cream runs were the best. I also met Aubrey Ferrin, who had been a long-time friend of Sarah Nemelka; we were kindred spirits from the start.

OCTOBER. I started working for a woman named Ann Gonzales in Mapleton. She has twin daughters, Kay and Karen, who are 28 and have cerebral palsy. Since the time they were 12 she’s had “trainers” who work with the girls during the day: take them out to go bowling or see a movie, do activities at home, feed them lunch, etc. Ann needed someone in the evenings to feed the girls dinner so she could get other things done. I positively adored this job, as the girls were the sweetest I had ever known (though Karen could be a real pill), and Ann was wonderful. Aubrey and I went to Sarah’s wedding, which was gorgeously beautiful. I started having problems with my right ear. Towards the end of the month I got a letter from Jarom in which he made somewhat clearer his feelings towards me, and I floated through the rest of October.

NOVEMBER. More ear trouble, which escalated until I ended up in the emergency room early one morning. With the stress of health and school combined I felt overwhelmed; I made the decision mid-month to withdraw from my classes and come home at the end of the semester. Everyone was very supportive. Kimberlee came to Fairfield with me at Thanksgiving; we got to see Brian’s family, as well as Geoffrey and Garrett, who were visiting from Hawaii. Kim and I went to a movie with Quentin and then the three of us took a trip to San Francisco the next day. Quentin was our tour guide. I had mentioned to Kimberlee that I thought Quentin might be interested in her, and that sure started something!

DECEMBER. By the end of the week after Thanksgiving, Kim and Quentin were “an item.” I attended my first volleyball tournament when Ryan came to play at UVSC. Interesting stuff. The following weekend was a Ballet West performance of Nutcracker that I went to with Quentin, Kimberlee, and Daniel, who knew the Aten family because he’d served his mission in the Fairfield stake. Before the ballet we had a steak dinner, with asparagus and Egypt potatoes (ask me the story). The next day I hosted an open house, sort of a goodbye to Mika, at which there were approximately 100 dozen cookies, plus fudge, mints, and caramels (all homemade). It was good to see friends before I left. Back in California, I resumed my job at MHA, tried to get back on a normal sleeping schedule, and decided to write a book. Ryan and I made a deal that we’d both finish our books by my birthday next year (and he’d better keep his word!). Geoffrey’s family moved to California at the very end of 2004. Happy New Year’s!

Previous: 2003

2003 Year in Review

JANUARY. new year’s stake dance kicked things off; i looked rather nice (as i recall) from head to toes, with my hair done up and a pretty necklace to complement my outfit. back in utah i saw the importance of being earnest for the first time and was introduced to the four sinners. among other movies, i also saw two weeks notice, funny face, ice age, treasure planet, and singles ward. jarom and i had thousands upon millions of fights; at the end of the month he walked away from things. (that’s what i thought at the time, though it was probably more like letting me go, from his point of view.) kimberlee moved in at the beginning of the semester as my new neighbor. oh! january also brought my first encounter with [virgin] strawberry daiquiris from olive garden. mmm.

FEBRUARY. a lot of things changed at the beginning of the month. ryan and i broke up, and i tried starting anew with jarom. however, i think both of us got stubborn and offended or any number of undesirable qualities, and it didn’t go very well. for valentine’s day ryan and i went to see daredevil in our formals. i really enjoyed our stake conference. in the realm of schoolwork, geology was the subject that gave me the most trouble. why should i believe that the earth’s core is molten, just because the book says so? oddly enough, no other science tends to make me question things as much, nor does any subject. interesting. anyhow, jarom said he didn’t have the time or energy to keep trying to fix things, so at his request we had a “last” conversation out in the snow by the bell tower. even more odd than my geology disbelief is the fact that jarom talked to me again the following day.

MARCH. i had already planned on staying for spring term, and extended that to live in utah all summer, most likely in salt lake. sarah and i talked about getting an apartment up there. for an american heritage service project, i volunteered a couple times at the monte l. bean life science museum (what a name!), helping with their saturday safaris. my hair got many inches shorter one friday morning, as i’d been thinking about a haircut for a few weeks and wanted something different. there’s no denying it was cute, although i honestly prefer my hair long. the mountains to the south (do they have a name?) became the subject of several paintings and the inspiration for an essay about utah. out of the blue, jarom asked me to go to the dt formal dance with him, and i accepted—but later withdrew my acceptance. instead, i went with kimberlee and julia (who i met through kimberlee) to nate’s house (who was a friend of julia’s), where we watched mst3k till the cows came home. sarah blew herself up. er, i mean, she got dropped on her head, and we had a fun ride to the emergency room—in an ambulance! there’s a first time for everything. (hopefully that’s also my last ambulance ride.) i had the amazing experience of seeing the prophet when he came to a byu devotional. we got to the marriott center two and a half hours early to get good seats, and boy, did we ever! it was wonderful. skeet sent me timmy the jewish pineapple, m.d., and i got a good laugh out of that. jarom got his mission call, to the korea seoul west mission. while waiting for ryan to come one evening i wrote a piece about pirates, which i regard as one of my best pieces.

APRIL. somebody else took our idea of stealing the bathroom stall doors on april fools day! curse their black hearts. (thanks to nate for that phrase.) i watched general conference at ryan’s house—well, part of it at his brother jesse’s house, where i got my own cd of handpicked jt songs. the weather was really, really pleasant for most of april, except for the snow at the beginning of the month. i was rearranging my room one afternoon when i tried to cut a plastic tie off an ethernet cable, and the scissors slipped… leaving a gaping gushing gash in my finger. (whoa! was that fun alliteration or what?) a few days later i was writing a letter and suddenly realized that i wanted to go home for the summer, so i called home and over the next two weeks things were arranged for my dad to come collect me and my belongings. you should see the lists i made of all the things i was looking forward to about home and california! they’re intense. on the last day of classes, jarom had a yellow and pink rose delivered to me. quite beautiful. sarah, kimberlee, and i stayed up all night long the last night kimberlee was here—oh! i almost forgot. we played some great pranks on her: hiding her door on the 7th floor, turning her computer into something from homestar runner, filling her bed with gummi worms. ah, what memories! va yee invited me to see catch me if you can with him; i really liked that movie. somehow or other sarah and i managed to get our room cleaned and our things packed, and i headed home.

MAY. hooray for jobs, even at sears! apart from working, i don’t recall much of the summer. i went to jarom’s once when i first got back because i felt like i needed to, but there was a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding, and we didn’t make any progress—in fact, i asked him to never speak to me again. on a happier note, my family and i went to see x-men 2 one weekend, and then had a belated easter dinner at my grandma’s house. i tried going to visit my old high school teachers, but the administration said “no former students during school hours.” yeah right! i just went in through a different entrance. thanks to technological things like the internet, email, and instant messaging, i stayed in close touch with most of my friends. julia and i decided to start a club called the “holy crumbs we’re awesome club,” mostly dedicated to strong bad and homestar runner but also to pulling capers and eating food (i think nate helped come up with those last two purposes).

JUNE. kendy and i went to see finding nemo, a very good movie. especially the seagulls! “mine?” i gave a talk in church on father’s day, about—what else?—fathers. i know even less about june than about may; sorry.

JULY. at work, one of the mcas randomly asked me if i was mormon. he said you can just tell, which i took as a compliment—whether he meant it as one or not. for almost four weeks straight, i worked only three hours a day, giving lunches and breaks. that meant i had a lot of time at home, and i used it to re-read the latest harry potter book… timed. it took me 6 hours 39 minutes. not bad for how long it was! my favorite section was this, after harry had just kissed cho, and tells ron that it was “wet” because she was crying:

“oh,” said ron, his smile fading slightly. “are you that bad at kissing?”
“dunno,” said harry, who hadn’t considered this, and immediately felt rather worried. “maybe i am.”
“of course you’re not,” said hermione absently, still scribbling away at her letter.
“how do you know?” said ron very sharply.

i also read all of the chronicles of narnia; very good books. one weekend i got the stomach flu or something, and lemme tell you, it was awful. i absolutely hate throwing up. it’s on my list of top three biggest fears. don’t know why, but it just scares me to death and makes me cry. on a happier note, nate and i started planning a homestar runner viewing for when everyone got back to utah, put on by the hcwa club. i commented how “hcwa” made me think of jicama, so the club is now referred to as the hicawa club. (speaking of which, we need to sponsor something soon!) we also decided to be daring and try moxie soda after we got settled back into provo. my birthday popped up on the 20th, just like it always does, and i got some fun presents. sarah got me the original le
s miserables soundtrack in french. kimberlee got me a teen girl squad t-shirt. ryan got me an adventure bag and copies of the first two volumes of ryan’s relax. my parents got me an mp3 stereo, quite a few books i wanted, and dora the explorer party decorations! it was great fun. nate pulled the rachel-caper, with, i’d like to think, my encouragement. he helped me out by suggesting family history as a major, which is the direction i’m heading in now.

AUGUST. kendy went to girls’ camp and came back with a camp name (sphinx). there was that really, really unpleasant incident at work with the old guy. ewwww. my get-me-through-the-horridness-of-working-at-sears was the upcoming james taylor concert, for which i planned to return to utah a week early. i made some awesome h*r viewing invitations, and they looked like this:

hicawa proudly presents the first homestar runner viewing!!
when: sat. 8/30, 1 pm-sometime
where: nate’s house… ask for directions or a ride!
why: mostly ‘cause we’re awesome
what else: there’ll be lots of fabulous stuff, hopefully including you! even bring a friend! please rsvp by 8/20 to mika@byu.edu. thanks!

the return address on the back of the homemade envelopes read “official hcwa club, c/o mika lewis.” it was pretty cool. i found out who my roommates were going to be, got hit on by a guy trying to pull a scam at sears, turned in my two weeks’ notice (unconnected to being hit on!), continued watching 3/4 of an episode of charmed in the morning before i left for work, bought kitchen supplies, had a belated birthday lunch with my dad, got new glasses and contacts, watched puma man with kendy, went to the james taylor concert (awesome), met my new roommates, and had a baking fest/h*r viewing at nate’s place. oh yeah, and saw sarah my nemelka again!

SEPTEMBER. like every year before, school started. i discovered that ryan and i had american heritage together. my cousin bethany set me up on my first blind date, and it was enough of a bad experience to turn me away from blind dates for a long, long time. kimberlee and i spent so much time together (and still do) that we often say the same thing, or finish each other’s sentences, etc. we went to quite a few outdoor movies, and that was fun. i made a cd of relaxing songs, which my dad later dubbed “mika’s mellow moods.” julia, kimberlee and i had a “sleepover” of sorts at julia’s apartment one evening, because they had to watch a movie (the mission) for their history class, and it was late by the time the movie ended. for a humanities project, i wrote a mini-epic about the story of ammon and king lamoni. the first round of tests came and went, with me scoring above 90 on all of them! it was a good time.

OCTOBER. ah, the california recall election. my absentee vote didn’t do much, and arnold schwarzenegger became our new governor. “what a world, what a world!” for my dad’s birthday i bought him a copy of harry potter and the philosopher’s stone in latin, and he gave me an amazon.com gift certificate—i used it to buy the jt october road cd. i learned all about the uta bus system, with which i took some trips to the provo towne centre mall, salt lake (mainly temple square), and sandy (to visit sarah). a fancy for cowboys struck me somehow—no one is really sure about the details—and i wrote a piece of prose about them, sort of akin to the pirates piece. kimberlee and i went to a dixieland jazz concert in the hfac, and a few days later were invited to go see the italian job with her friend brian and his roommates. it was pretty fun, and i invited them over for dinner two weeks later. one of the roommates, adam, was a huge jazz fan, so we ended up going to a few concerts over the next couple of weeks. we got our first snowfall of the year at the end of the month. on halloween i was talking to my dad and decided to come home for a weekend in november.

NOVEMBER. after reading one of jarom’s friends-and-family e-mails, i sat down and wrote him a letter; it takes a while for mail to travel back and forth between korea and utah, but i heard back from him about three weeks later. my weekend at home was fabulous. we got to eat great food; i did laundry for free; there was tons of family history material; i went to a stake youth dance with kendy; my dad bought me a real cowboy hat (which i absolutely love). thanksgiving was an adventure, to say the least, as my plans snowballed from feeding one person to two people to ten people. it was the first time i ever cooked a turkey or a carrot cake. one of the high points was winning a contest sponsored by the awesome man’s club (headed by a guys’ apartment in my ward), in which contestants entered turkey drawings. my prize was a date, a rather fun date.

DECEMBER. for some reason it’s hard to pick out the most important events of a month so recently ended. i decided to take next fall semester off, staying at home all summer and through till the beginning of the winter 2005 semester. we got a lot of snow here in provo, compared to last year. thanks to the amazing discoveries of ryan, i was able to begin an austin collection, which will hopefully grow over the coming months. somehow i survived finals and the end of the semester, getting a b in american heritage! in our apartment gift exchange, i got a copy of where the wild things are… in french. crystal and i stayed up way too late watching anne of green gables on kbyu, and i got the urge to read the books. i read the first two books during the first weekend of vacation, while i was at sarah’s in sandy. my family came out to utah for christmas, and our suite had a fabulous fireplace. we went to see return of the king on christmas day, amidst the endless snow in salt lake. i got a laptop, watercolors in tubes, “diamond” earrings, and mini springform cake pans (with which i made a mini california chocolate cream cake). and, of course, there was the new year’s eve catastrophe, which i’ve decided i’ll tell anyone who’s interested on whichever of the following comes first: my marriage day, my missionary sendoff, or my twenty-and-a-halfth birthday (next january 20).