"Release de Weegles"

The custom lines on the carpet to direct students to their doom at the BYU Testing Center.

At BYU, you have a special building for taking tests. It's called the Grant Building, but everyone on campus actually calls it The Testing Center. Dread and doom accompany any mention of the place. You go in with your sharpened No. 2s and student I.D., wait in line just long enough to doubt your knowledge of the tested material but not quite long enough to actually study any of it again (except during finals week--then you have PLENTY of time to study in line), ask the workers for your test and testing sheeet, and enter the eerily silent football field sized room filled with hundreds of other students scribbling, calculating, pleading with the ceiling for an answer, and filling in those bubbles frantically. When you finish, you pick up your belongings and what's left of your brain and exit, dropping off your test to be scanned. Then you trudge downstairs and decide if you want to wait two minutes to see your score pop up on the TV screen, or if you want to run for the hills immediately. Some people leave notes of consolation for you to pick up at the bottom of the stairs, but the only thing that seems to help Michael after a test, whether he did good or bad, is to strap on his backpack, check for his wallet. phone. keys. and SPRINT across campus. I adopted the practice once and I have to say, there's something to it. It feels so good to just, in the words of Nacho, "release de weegles" after all the hype of taking a test in the testing center.

The Boards exams Michael takes for med school are significantly more intense than any he took at the Testing Center. He still goes to a Testing Center, but that is the only name for the place. And he has to check in with his fingerprints. And the tests are 8 hours long. And he had TWO of them last month. Two. Ick.

The last one was in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, Philly cheesesteaks, and the Rocky stairs.

Can you see where this is going?

Music credits to Michael. Video and photo credits to Andrew, who commented, "You're a nerd," and then, after seeing the other guy nearby doing the same thing, said, "But at least you're not alone."

@ Toni Luke's having a post-test Philly Cheesesteak "with Wiz"
(as in Cheese Wiz. That's how they do in Philly.)

Hurricane Irene shut this town down, it seemed. It was technically still visiting hours for the Liberty Bell, but she was all locked up due to the weather.

In addition to Michael's flight being cancelled and scrambling for two stressful hours to get him another flight, when he and Andrew drove to the second hotel we had reserved, the parking lot was flooded and the building looked like there had been a fire. The lights were out and no one was home, so they went in search of a new hotel. They found one, but I don't think either of them will ever look at Philly the same way.

We believe food is a great way to say Congratulations!/Consolations! after a big event like Michael's two Boards exams. And we believe Red Robin is one of the best places to get this kind of food.

Another good way to say Congratulations! is to fill up the door with cute notes and drawings. Lulu and Scooter had been working on this all day while Michael was taking his written test in Washington and I think it made his day. :)

After he got "home" to their house, he cranked up the Foo Fighters, did as many push ups as possible, and then put on his running shoes and sprinted down the street until he couldn't sprint anymore. He was sore for days. I think it was the first time that Lulu couldn't keep up because she said, "I didn't know he could run that fast!"