Non-Contest Winner: Catherine

We Can Laugh About it Now

Casebolt, Kotter, Me, Meyers

I was going to give a lot of pointless back story to this edition of my Non-Contest winner.  But that really has nothing to do with her, so I'll get right to the point. I met Catherine (or as I knew her then, Sister Meyers) my first day in New Jersey.  She was asked to be the trainer of my MTC companion, Sis Casebolt.

We called her the Dancing Frog.  I never really did get the whole story behind that. I guess she'll have to tell that story on her own blog.  But what I do remember about her is that she was... let's say dedicated.  I couldn't believe some of the stories the pair of them would come home with at the end of the day.  I still have visions of a drunk guy yelling at them about reading the book! the blue book and going to Church on Sip! Sip Avenue!

I can't recall the particulars, but Sister Meyers drove me crazy- and she wasn't even my companion.  I was overjoyed the day she got transferred.  Then, six weeks later I got a phone call that I was to be transferred- to be her companion for the last six weeks of her mission.  I was really nervous- to put it mildly.

She was a go-getter. She was all about pounding the pavement and getting work done. One thing that- to this day- makes me laugh when I think of it, was her eating and exercise habits.  She would eat a can of tuna fish and a glass of milk for breakfast.  Or she would make a batch of rice crispy or cornflake treats and eat those for breakfast or a snack in the car.  She had a pepper plant that she grew in a pot on our apartment fire escape.  We were not allowed to have exercise equipment as missionaries so she fashioned herself a barbell by tying gallon milk jugs filled with water to the ends of a broomstick.  She would lift weights in the morning with it.  Except for tuna she was trying her hand at vegetarianism.  There was one time we went to Hermione's (an investigator- pronounced Her-me-Own) house for a dinner appointment.  Hermione was from Jamaica so she served some meat sauce thing and boiled plantains.  I could not stomach the plantains and Catherine would not eat the meat, so when Hermione had left the room, we hurried and traded. She ate my boiled plantains and I ate her meat concoction (which, by the way, was really good).

We didn't always get along. One time during an argument she tried to kick me out of the car. We had very clashing personalities.  I think the one thing that can be attributed to keeping us from killing each other is Harry Potter. Well, Harry Potter and a few movies.

Sis Meyers had never read the books (neither had I if you want to be technical, I'd listened to them as audio books).  I started at the beginning and re-told them in sickeningly perfect detail.  It took about a week to retell one book.  At that time only the first four books were out.  So for four weeks, while we drove, while we walked, during lunch breaks, whenever there was a free minute, I was telling her the stories. Looking back, I honestly think (of all the lame things) that it was inspiration. There is no way I could recall them now in such detail. She even called me after she'd gone home to Utah.  She said she read the books and was surprised that I had remembered them and left absolutely nothing out.

There were also a few movies that we would quote and laugh about together.  The one that springs most vividly to mind is The Princess Bride.  We would spend hours quoting that movie.  There was even one time we had our roommates in the car with us, Sis Meyers and I were quoting the scene where Buttercup pushes Wesley down the hill. We were bouncing around in the car making the sound effects of them rolling down the side of the hill.  I'm pretty sure Sisters Casebolt and Kotter thought were were certifiably insane.

The last few days before she was to go home, Sister Meyers decided she wanted to get her hair braided with extensions. Hermione was a hair dresser so we spent the day at her house.  Catherine's hair was so fine that it took hours and hours and Hermione was still only able to get half of her hair done.  That night we took a few pictures of it. I think she slept with it like that and then the next morning, it was already fraying so badly that she just took them out. It was very frizzy.

Oh well, it was a valiant effort.