turn and face the strange

I saw a moose today. I'd say it was my first but my first moose was a small calf (?) (when I say small I mean the size of an elk) while in transit between Sherbrooke and Drummondville, two city-sized towns in the Eastern Townships in the fine province of Quebec, Canada. Anyway, Billy and I (Billy's my roommate) saw the moose at the start of tonight's impromptu fishing expedition, right as we were pulling up to our fishing spot. The moose hurried into the brush before I could whip out my phone for a pic. Oh, and we didn't catch anything.

Besides running into awesome wildlife, my first week back at school has been marked by a few other milestones:

*I don't eat sugar. I've tried for years and years and years to cut back. It's never worked. I'm the kind guy that can't eat just one cookie; I have to eat them till they're gone. Limiting myself has always been easier said than done. So instead of limiting, I'm eliminating. I had two bouts of no sugar over the summer, each lasting two weeks or more, and it was surprisingly easy. What I like about it most is how amazing fruit tastes; grapes, apples, peaches, and pineapple never tasted so good.

*I changed my name. My roommate Dan, er, I mean Alan, and I decided to go by our middle names (mine's Lewis). We're in a brand new apartment complex and, therefore, in a brand new ward, so why not? It's something I pulled every now and then in high school and lately I've been wanting to give it a try. On Sunday, Alan and I went out to meet some of the girls in our ward . . . it's was pretty funny because we kept forgetting we had changed our names . . . but it's no big deal because most of them probably forgot them anyway.

*I can make bread. When I was home in AZ for a bit during the summer I had my madre show me how to make bread. I've always enjoyed baking, but I had never tried bread. It's pretty fun, if you're into that sort of thing. Nowadays I guess people have their fancy mixers (we have one at home) that knead the dough, but it's actually quite enjoyable and therapeutic to do it yourself by hand. Plus, homemade bread is at least a million times better than anything store-bought and probably healthier (no preservatives).

*I study. OK, so it might be a little early to claim this one but I'm off to a good start, or at least a better start than most semesters. Today I stayed in the library for about three hours to work on tax homework. I rarely do that for routine homework. To study for a test or work on a project, maybe, but rarely for the day-in, day-out stuff.

*I'm running again. This isn't that big of a deal because running is always something I come back to. I ran periodically when I was home in the summer because it's just too hot to do it consistently, especially when it would have been the only thing getting me up in the morning. My goal now is to not take a break--I won't have to "come back" to it because I won't have stopped doing it.