0411a

I have two late evening finals scheduled for Friday and Saturday. I am not looking forward to that. Friday is my Six-months-time anniversary and I thought that April 20 was a stat. holiday. Why can’t finals just be during class time? Does anyone really need more than an hour to eek knowledge out of students? I get super restless after about 1.5 hours anything after that and I’m just filling space so I can get a change of scenery. I’m still trying to figure out how I can possibly fill ten minutes talking about my “special project.” I could easily get everything out in three minutes and get everyone an extra seven minutes of sleep. For my special project, I read two books which exhibited distinctly different writing styles. I did this in hopes that broadening my reading repertoire would in turn enhance my writing ability. It did. Okay maybe three minutes is too much time too. I’ll try and expound on that a little. 

0411

What happened this semester? That is what I’ve been wondering all week. I just got in a little too far over my head and everything fell apart – myself included – and now I’m trying to piece things together before I get to finals week. I now know that I can’t work full time and expect to maintain any semblance of a decent GPA. I finally quit my job but it’s way too late to salvage this semester. So now I just have to hope I can get on top of things over summer ‘cause I know this isn’t getting any easier. This was my first semester at BYU and I thought I was ready to dive in but for some reason I wasn’t. I think the main thing was the fact that there were a lot of changes that really bothered me that I had a difficult time overlooking and the terrible part is that they’re all things that everyone here loves (I’m a real advocate for the whole separation of church and state thing and the prospect of a religion course influencing my grade really bothered me no matter how easy anyone says those classes are). Another issue I had was budgeting my time. I didn’t put enough in my planner and it cost me.

0408

I ended up having to work both mornings on general conference weekend so the only full session that I saw was priesthood session and I saw the last half hour of Sunday afternoon. I had conference playing in the hearth room at the hotel I work at so whenever I wasn’t busy at the front desk, I would go, stand in the door way, and watch. This did make it difficult to actually follow what was being said but it was nice to feel the spirit during work.

My family was in town for conference so my dad, brother, and I all got to go to priesthood together.  This wonderful opportunity reminded me of the blessing of the priesthood. Since I have gotten married it has been a new responsibility of mine to be a priesthood leader in my home. Having this new responsibility has made me even more grateful for the opportunity I had to be raised in a home where there was a good priesthood bearer leading the family. 

0401

The only time I write these posts seems to be when I have given up on doing productive things so It’s probably a good thing that I have been way under quota. Then again, looking at my history, It’s not good that this is my fourth post this weekend (which entirely supports my earlier statement). This was a rough weekend and still is. Fortunately my wife returns tonight so some things will be better. I’ve just been putting a lot of thought into what I have been doing lately and what I need to change and while I still haven’t entirely reached a conclusion, I’ve realized that I’m going to have to change a lot. I’ll be starting with my job. I have finally concluded that not only is it entirely inconvenient, it is costing me way more time and emotional wellness than I can afford to sacrifice at this point. I’m sure changing jobs right now probably will upend a lot of things but I feel I need to do it if I want to excel in school. So I’m putting my feelers out now (if anyone has an in) I technically am still employed at two other places and one of those jobs will give me 12 hours per week I just would want one more shift if I could get it so hopefully I can get my fallback arranged before I take my plunge.

My sister just posted a hilarious picture of my niece on facebook. She has on bunny ears and is making a series of very expressive faces. I love expressive people. Maybe it’s from my background in sign language.  So much of ASL and really any language is based on facial expression so I always pay very close attention to faces.  When people are very expressive I feel like I connect with them more. My sister is super good with her facial expressions so of course her smallish child is as well. This picture has to be one of my favourite baby pictures of Hannah thus far. It’s my sister’s first baby so she is taking tons of pictures. But then who wouldn’t. Hannah’s blessing is tomorrow. Too bad I can’t be there. My sister made all the plans so that I could make it then my manager decided not to give me the days off. I should stop complaining about that.

0330a

My family is coming up next weekend because they’re on spring break. I saw their reservation in the computer at my place of work (I work at a hotel) and I wrote in a requests for their room. Typically when guests come in they have requests on their reservation asking for a high floor room or extra pillows etc. so I put in a request that said “please have bathtub filled for pet sea slug.” I’m not sure if I’m allowed to do that but I did. I just want to know what my manager does when he is looking at the list of arrivals next week and that one comes up. I’m sure it will be hilarious. I am still trying to decide what I want the other reservation to say. I was thinking about putting a request in to “have all light bulbs removed guest will be bringing their own energy efficient bulbs.” I was in a really creative mood yesterday. I must have spent a good hour thinking of random things I could request. My family comes in on Wednesday so I’ll see what happens then.  I have to think of ways to entertain them. Fortunately I’m not going to be working too much when they’re here.

0330

Wow I don’t know what number post this is but it certainly isn’t number twelve. I’ve been flyin’ solo this weekend and it has been terrible. I don’t know how I lived for so long without having someone to share a bed with. It’s so cold and lonely. I went to the volleyball game tonight, alone. It was a pretty exciting game. Before that I went to my aunt’s place. All her kids were over with their kids so I was kind of the odd man out but my aunt is awesome so she was good about including me. I did get a kiss from my niece her mouth was covered in chocolate but it was sill great. She just started walking a few months ago. Her dad is Chilean so when you say besitos, she comes over and kisses you on the cheek. It is nice having some family here to visit with. Hopefully I find somewhere to go tomorrow. My wife will be really sad if I am alone on easter.

0329

I made an interesting observation while driving to Bountiful yesterday; “traffic” in Utah is not the same as traffic in California…at all. It is basically the complete opposite. I noticed while driving that I was regularly gravitating toward the farthest right lane. When I drive I take what I like to call the path of least resistance. Basically I change lanes every time I see a faster lane. Sometimes I may pretend to be a NASCAR driver looking for the best pocket to drop into, but most of the time, I find the best lane by choosing several cars ahead of me then figuring which one is moving the fastest. It startled me that I kept finding myself in the 3^rd or 4^th lane because those are supposed to be the slow lanes. When there is traffic on a California freeway, it is a result of the fact that so many cars are leaving the freeway that the off ramps can’t handle them so they backup onto the freeway. When this occurs, there is a slowing from the farthest right lane (lane 6 or 10 depending on where on the freeway you are) and gradually slows the other lanes making 1 the fastest lane. In Utah however, the exact opposite occurs which means that the slowing isn’t a result of overpopulated freeways but is instead a result of the fact that no one actually is in a hurry to get anywhere. 

I skyped with my sister and my niece today. I was in the “fish bowl” in the Chem building so I didn’t want to be noisy and distract anyone so instead I put ear buds in and signed my responses to my sister. It was pretty great. People kept randomly looking over at me because I was signing to my computer. My sister had her baby six weeks ago and she (baby) is super cute. She was asleep most of the time and she kept waving her hands around like she was trying to sign as well. I hope I get to actually see her soon. I find out at the end of the week what my chances are of going home for Easter. Hannah (my niece) is going to be blessed on Easter Sunday down in LA so I’m really hoping I have at least one day off. My mom is thinking about flying me down if I can’t make it on the drive down with my wife and brother in law. Hopefully it all works out. 

0314

I have so many things I could/should be doing right now. I guess this is somewhat productive. I have sort of put my writing work on hold for the past few weeks. It is by far my favorite class this semester but I have been doing poorly in my other classes so I have been forced to quit paying attention to this class in order to actually pass my other classes. Hopefully I can get back on track quickly. My last essay was probably the worst essay I have ever written and I still got a passing grade so I think I’ll survive. That’s probably not the best way of looking at things but that’s what it has come to. At work, two of the front desk clerks have quit and the manager is refusing to hire another clerk so I’ve gone from 24hr/week to 40hr/week so I am super busy now. And, also because of our need for more employees, I won’t be able to go home for Easter most likely. There’s a lot going on Easter weekend back home for both my family and my wife’s family (we’re both from Irvine, CA) so my wife will be going down either way which means I’ll be home alone for Easter weekend…lame. 

Would I rather be deaf or blind? I am super biased on this one because throughout high school and the beginning of my college career, I was pretty well immersed in deaf culture. I have several deaf friends and my older sister (who now is an interpreter for the deaf) even dated a hard of hearing guy for a while. I’m certainly not fluent in Sign Language but I know enough of it to know that if I were to become profoundly deaf, I would be able to cope a lot better than I would be if I were to lose my sight.  I really do love the deaf culture. It is a very open and welcoming culture. My high school had a deaf school as part of the school and I used to always hang out in the deaf quad so I got to know a lot of the deaf students. I am a very visual person so if I were to lose my eyesight I would have a really rough time coping. I love driving and biking and running all of which require me to see where I’m going. Also I really don’t like being blindfolded (even for games).

0304-2

I almost got hit by a deer today. It was running right down 700 east right in the middle of the road at rush hour. I was stopped at the light and two deer came running straight towards my car. One almost hit me then weaved past my car and on down the road. It was a great start to the day.

All last week my car sounded like a colony of crickets had moved into the engine block but yesterday the noise went away. I think it’s because I finally scheduled an appointment with a mechanic. It seems that cars are always afraid of mechanic shops kind of like people and doctor’s offices. They just get stage fright.

I have decided that cars are allergic to Utah. In the last year I have brought three different cars to the Utah valley and every time after a few weeks of being here in P-Town, the cars have just started sounding terrible. I had my parent’s van for a while and it was making a horrible noise but as soon as it got back to California, it began to run perfectly. I have some of the same problem myself but I’m working on overcoming that.

0304

I had a fantastic weekend. I somehow managed to do absolutely nothing. I’m including sixteen hours of work in that “nothing” but it really felt so relaxing. On Friday after I got off work at eleven, my wife and I stayed up ‘till two watching Psych in bed. Then we slept in and had sourdough pancakes for breakfast (they’re amazing). It was a beautiful day on Saturday so I biked to work. Then on Sunday we went to my cousin’s son’s baby blessing. Our church starts at one so we had some time after the blessing to relax. My wife and I both teach nursery so Sundays are always fun. After church we went up to my aunt’s place for dinner. She makes some of the most amazing I have ever had. We had “Café Rio” and it was perfect. Then she brought out her pie. I had a few slices of strawberry pie which was heavenly then followed it up with some triple chocolate pie.  It was great. My aunt lives up in the mountains so it was quite a drive going there and back. I personally love more technical roads but none of my passengers did. My brother in law was a little queasy by the time we got to the main road. My car was filthy as well. A good portion of the road was not paved and it had been raining so there was a lot of mud.

0226

I have had the worst case of writers block ever on my rhetorical analysis paper thing. It really doesn’t make sense to me. I have a difficult time contriving an analysis of something using someone else’s thinking or writing pattern. I don’t think like other people and that has been a challenge for me since my first day of school.

I have been in the worst mood all day from working on this essay. I have been trying to shake it but I just can’t. I wrote a draft the other day and the only thing I want to do with it is throw it away I just can’t figure out where to go with it. That was my second full essay too. Now I’m to the point where I don’t have time to start over and I really think I’ll be wasting my – and whoever reviews my paper’s –  time if I go to the writing lab but I have to if I want a grade so I’ll just bite the bullet there.

I’m going to try and rehash my paper now hopefully this time I’ll have some idea of what to do with it.

0221

First time working overnight on a school day, this is going to be rough. I woke up yesterday at seven and I won’t get to go back to sleep until about eight this morning. Fortunately my evening class was cancelled. I still have to take a quiz today though. I’m skipping my morning class because I am way too tired to go to class after working overnight. Hopefully I don’t miss anything too important. Man I’m already having a rough time thinking straight. I guess I’m not officially a college student unless I pull an all-nighter. I have worked overnight many times but right in the middle of the week is a little much. I have tried to tell my boss that I prefer weekends but he keeps putting me on the schedule. I never understood why people would stay up all night to do an assignment. I know that when I’m up all night, I’m completely useless after about three. Then by nine, I start shaking. I have always been a promoter of going to bed at a reasonable time and then waking up super early. That’s what I do on road trips. When I got my license, I started taking the morning shift on long trips. It always is fun to watch all of my siblings somnambulate to the car and then fall asleep.

0213

For today’s post, I have decided not only to make as long a sentence as possible but also to compose a list of things that make me happy. I feel like a lot of my previous posts have been a little off so I decided to make this post a little happier.

 What makes me happy? My wife, babies (I didn’t think those two would be in the same sentence so soon), free stuff, green lights, music – especially when my wife is making it, people watching (the guy across from me just made a rose – stem included – out of tissue paper then mysteriously left it on a piano…that’s awesome), driving with a purpose (ie. to the Emergency Room. It’s a rush), biking, writing, eating, being a nursery leader (though getting sick after Sophie sneezed in my face was not cool), hanging out with my family, being home in California, vans shoes, trying to start conversations with strangers (I’ll include flirting with waitresses in this category), words (some people like big words but really I think small words are the best (especially when playing Banana Grams)), snow, smiling, action movies, noticing details, critiquing people’s writing, strawberries, BBQ sauce, stories, people, chickadees.

0207-9

I probably shouldn’t write about what I think about when I have nothing to think about but this prompt is too fun to pass up.  I hope this doesn’t come across as being too mean. I think about people; more specifically their appearance, and on occasion what they’re thinking or doing. This habit began when I was in high school. My older sister and I both dabbled in sign language for a while. My sister went on to major in deaf studies and I took a few years in college so I can sign to some degree (I am very good at “listening” which can be dangerous because my facial cues make deaf people think I understand way more than I really do).  My sister and I would practice signing all the time. Especially in public because it is so funny to see how people respond when they see people signing. Our practicing generally consisted of picking a person as a subject and then analyzing them (the great part of signing our comments was that we could be in close proximity to our subject and they would never know). This was great fun so we continued to do it and might I add got pretty good at it.

My theory is that people dress up to impress others (this seems to be more true in California than here (until I went to the university mall, I had never seen someone in camouflage at a mall)).when they go outside so reviewing their style choice is not at all wrong because they set themselves up for it. And I’ll add that I don’t place any final judgments on one’s character based on their choice of habit.

0207

Going over the word of wisdom is always an interesting topic because everyone has differing opinions on how it should be interpreted. I have always wondered how the “caffeine battle” came to be. There is nothing written in the word of wisdom which points either way and yet it has somehow been amended and revoked from so many people’s interpretation of the word of wisdom. It really bothers me that so many students are trying to make themselves martyrs for the cause by encouraging BYU to sell caffeinated beverages when there is no explicit doctrinal support for either side of the claim. BYU simply does not want to sell caffeinated drinks and to bring religion into the argument is a complete misapplication of doctrine even if this is a “religious” school.

If anyone wants to counter BYU’s decision they should do so without in any way appealing to religion and then they actually might have a leg to stand on.

0205-#8

The Italian job made an impact on me. My driving has never been the same since. I remember watching it when I had my permit and thinking about how fun they made those mini coopers look. I never actually took drivers education so I always tell people that I learned to drive by watching the Italian job. Those who have been passengers when I’m driving realize that I’m not completely joking.

I drive to get places. No matter what the weather or traffic conditions are (and I have experienced severes in both), I do everything I can to maintain my usual traveling speed. This is something that frightens some people but I thoroughly enjoy it.

Man I had to leave half way and forgot where I was going with this. Now I just have to write until I meet a word requirement. How great is that. I still have fifty words left  but this is just lame so I’m going to stop now before I really start wasting time. 

0201

It has been a while since I heard a car horn that wasn’t mine. I don’t get it. For some reason a car’s horn seems to be the least utilized part of a car around here (blinkers are a close second but I won’t rant about that right now).  It honestly is super weird to me to drive in silence everywhere. Cars still have horns for a reason. That reason is to get people’s attention. Why is it that around here, there is such a stigma against horn honking?

The other day I was behind a car at a red light. When the light turned green, I counted to three then honked. I thought this was a perfectly normal response but as I made my left turn, there was a college student standing on the corner glaring at me as if had just committed some awful crime. I being a slightly more assertive driver than most, laid on my horn for the rest of the turn then waved at the guy as I drove past him. That moment got me thinking about horns and how their message is so often mistaken as rude or aggressive.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am biased on this subject but I will make one thing clear; horns are for getting people’s attention. The person texting at a stoplight that has just turned green, the car that is -careening towards a not-so-visible pedestrian, or the two cars that - by some terrible timing on both their parts - have both begun to back into each other at the same time, or the weaver on the highway, you’ve seen all of these (unless you’ve been all of these in which case there is a severe awareness problem going on that needs to be addressed). My horn has saved me, and others, from many close calls. So why is it that so many people fear their horns?

The main reason I’ve heard is the general public’s acute fear of road rage. Sure there are occasional issues with this but from my perspective that fear is way over-exaggerated. I’ve had my fair share of honking spats (including several in LA) and my car does not have a single bullet hole.

Honking for me is a safety thing just like using my blinker or turning my flashers on when I am going slow. Hearing a horn honk should be a welcome sound to people because it means that they could have been kept from a dangerous situation that someone else saw and they might not have.

When I hear someone honk at me I typically wave (with all my fingers) and respond accordingly. I’m not saying I’m the perfect role model but I’m saying that I appreciate horns and hope everyone can learn to do that as well. 

0125

Why do writing assignments have a page minimum?

To encourage students to write more than they typically would…to stretch their writing muscles.

To give: bibliophilic professors an evening reprieve, masochistic professors another way to punish their students, and correction crazed professors another excuse to experience the intoxicating power pulsating through their red pens.  (Not to debunk more commonly presented reasons)

Why shouldn’t they?

Results in inefficient space filling to meet requirements. (Promotes circumloquience)

Not contemporary with today’s form of accelerated communication (passé )

Promotes poor word choice is it mauve or a light purplish color (which has more words)

Makes students dread writing (daunting)

Makes reading the essay less interesting even if it’s good because there’s too much (blasé)

Waste of everyone’s time: writer, reader, grader.

Takes the fun out of writing.

Poetry is the compression of language expansion of meaning (note the inverse relationship)

0126

Dear weekends,

I have missed you so much.  On Monday everyone will be talking about how fun their weekend was: all of the exciting adventures they went on , the TV shows they caught up on, the dates, the movies , the parties, the restaurants, the hanging out.  And then there will be me. The only way I know it’s a weekend is that I don’t have class. I still have work though. I work as a clerk at a hotel so on the weekends, I get the overnight shifts. Fridays are always the longest. I wake up at 7 am and am off to school. Then I spend the entire time a school listening to all of the weekend plans. Hearing everyone excitedly proclaim the advent of another weekend…if only they knew.  Once I’m done with school time (I’m usually home by 5p) it’s homework and dinner time. Then I’m off to work ‘til 7am on Saturday morning. Then I get to sleep  while everyone goes out to wherever people go for lunch on weekends then by the time I wake up it’s time for more homework then off to work again ‘til Sunday. Then before I get a chance to take that weekend nap, it’s Monday back to school time.

0122

Not in much of a creative mood today. It’s interesting how much my mood can fluctuate. Sometimes I can’t escape an idea that is playing through my mind and other days, it takes hours just to get to the point where I can begin to formulate an idea. Currently I am at a loss. I’m just sitting on a couch in the Wilk (location X as my wife and I call it) people watching. I’ve found that when I’m out of ideas sometimes my best source is the interactions and the styles I see.

One guy just woke up his sick friend – the sleeping guy is actually carrying a bottle of dayquill with him… it’s okay to take a sick day buddy. And dayquill is a waste of money but I won’t judge. They’re talking now. The sick guy was feeling a little ill for a while then he was late to class and ran up to campus. That made his illness even worse so he decided to take a nap on a weird bench thing which seemed the most precarious option available but I’m sure the dayquill made it look more hospitable. The guy who woke him is from Norway. And sick guy is from somewhere where country music is acceptable for use as a ringtone (so maybe he’s a local).

Someone walked by wearing running shoes with their jeans. Perhaps to some this is an acceptable thing but really…when does that combo actually work? I’m sure if I made a list of most uncomfortable things to wear while running, Jeans would be on the list. So who are they trying to fool by wearing footwear designated only for running while wearing something that they clearly don’t go running in. Unless, they’re running in the cold in which case they should talk to sick guy and perhaps reconsider their running habits. 

0118

Welcome to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center’s Emergency Department. Here we provide medical assistance twenty-four hours a day seven days a week for acute medical and trauma conditions. In order to be admitted for treatment by any of our several qualified healthcare professionals, please choose from one of the following prompts and write a response that is between three and five pages double spaced. Your response must be turned in to one of the front desk secretaries before any evaluation of medical condition can be made.

1)      Please describe the pain you are feeling. Include such things as: specific anatomical location (for a list of common body parts and their location see reference chart 3.2 in your clipboard’s quick reference guide.), potential causes of said pain, a numeric rating of the level of pain you are currently experiencing and, most importantly, your body’s response to the pain you are feeling.

2)      Describe your medical history. Any previous hospitalizations, allergies, chronic diseases, pa-/maternal medical conditions which are known to be hereditary (i.e. Cancer). Try to avoid simply creating a list (the quality of your responses may affect the time it takes for you to be admitted)

As always remember to use proper MLA format when drafting your responses.

We look forward to working with you to provide our state of the art equipment and superior staff support to help you recover from your life threatening ailment.

0115

My mom is a freelance writer who often contributes articles (and the occasional poem) to newspapers and magazines. Much of my writing history comes from her love of the art. She always found ways to integrate her writing and rhyming abilities into daily activities. Even our Saturday morning chore list rhymed (this tactic did not make the chores any more enjoyable). Many of the games we played as a family focused around words. My mom in her love of competition has never let my dad beat her at boggle or more recently, Bananagrams (she always gets him with the short words).

My dad loves the English language as well. Growing up he was never the most social so instead he busied himself perusing the dictionary or world books. He is the one who wins at scrabble when uses polysyllabic words which far surpassed everyone else’s lexical abilities.

I somehow ended up with a medley of my parents English abilities. My mom’s writing and rhyming abilities coupled with my dad’s awesome grasp of both the words and rules comprising to the English language have helped me on numerous occasions throughout my school experience.

One of the lessons that I learned from

0111

“I love school.” When my alarm goes off at 7am I have to repeat that phrase several times to counter the gravitational forces of my bed which always appear stronger when even the sun knows better than to be awake. I can’t argue with the fact that I have learned valuable information and skills as a result of being whisked through the California state education system but I will make the observation that I learned a lot from my non-institutionalized pursuits as well. The new media article promotes this type of extra-institutional learning and self-development which I feel is far more essential to one’s development than memorization of dates associated with momentous events in history or the study of ancient Chinese dogmata.

I agree strongly with the encouragement given in the article to not wait for the educational system’s daily doling of knowledge. Instead it is important for each of us to seek opportunities to expand our knowledge through multiple sources including (and yes grudgingly at times) school.  

0109

Today’s lecture and readings got me thinking about how I treat the reading that I do. I’ll admit I felt a little out of place sitting silent in lecture as everyone pontificated on the proper methods of critical reading. Critical reading has always been difficult for me. My mom writes a lot and I was typically the one who proofed her manuscripts but doing that just trained me to focus on writing techniques, word choice and grammar without paying much attention to themes or biases which were rooted beneath the readily seen layer of the writing. As a result of this (and I’m sure there are some personality elements contributing to this as well) when I read I typically do so envisioning a red pen in my hand. Sometimes I’m able to get past this mind set and actually glean ideas and feel the emotion of different pieces of literature but most of the time I simply read for errors or particularly well formulated sentences and then put the piece down. Delving further into the meaning of someone’s writing is something that has always been a challenge for me. The thing I learned in lecture today was how important the ability to find meaning in writing is. 

Attn World:

In the grand scheme of things my residence just north of down town Provo – a one bedroom apartment with a small living room (which at present is dreadfully cluttered) – might not seem important to you; And even smaller and less important would be me one of the two inhabitants of the aforementioned residence.

That said however, I’ll humor myself by offering a formal introduction though I’m sure that at some time in my twenty two year stint on this planet I must have done something to gain at least some recognition.

It’s important that you know that I did not begin my stay on earth here in Provo. I’m sitting on my couch right now which according to the layout of Provo’s infrastructure means I am facing west. If I were to turn a little more to my left and maintain that direction for about seven hundred miles I would wind up in what will always be my home town. Irvine, California. Southern California (only those from there refuse to use any of its various monikers).  My dad was the reason my family wound up there. Years before my birth, He studied at the University of California in Irvine. Following graduation my parents made the decision to stay because of the wealth of opportunities for my father – a Mechanical Engineer – to progress in his field.

Those from Irvine’s neighboring cities refer to Irvine as “the Bubble.” It is a planned city with thousands of cookie-cutter houses and perfectly kept yards. A city without any dollar stores, Wal-Marts, or homeless people simply because the residents wouldn’t stand for anything of lower class than themselves. A city voted “most fashionable” because of the Irvineite’s intrinsic need to shop at the nicest stores.

It was in Irvine that I met my Rebecca, my wife. Her family moved to my side of Irvine when we were fourteen. I met her on her first Sunday at church and we have been best friends ever since.

Ten days after my nineteenth birthday, I left the beautiful bubble to serve as a missionary in Winnipeg Canada I’ll admit it took some getting used to when the mission car I was driving was the only brand new car at an intersection or when I went to the mall and there was no valet. But with those changes came some more welcomed adjustments as well. The people weren’t plastic. Though I did miss seeing the occasional exotic car or sprawling ocean-front mansion, I did appreciate the added measure of sincerity given to those who by circumstance or choice realized that there was more to life than those things which eventually fall prey to the corrosive ocean spray.

Following my return from the great north, I began courting Rebecca. She had been one of my primary correspondents during my time in Canada so I decided to peruse a relationship. She was at the time living in Provo, Utah. After a few weeks of nightly phone calls, I decided to fully define the relationship.  I called her and asked her out on a date for the following night then hopped in my car and drove the seven hundred miles and as Rebecca and I now say, officlified things. I didn’t realize how terrible this officialification would be until I was heading south on I-15. After a semester at home – alone – I moved to Provo and Rebecca and I got engaged shortly thereafter and were married in October.

We now live just north of the small down town district in Provo in a small one bedroom apartment. We still haven’t invested in a desk so I sit on the couch to do my homework.