As this year comes to an end, I'm going to remember last New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
On New Year's Eve morning, we went to my grandparents' house to return my grandpa's hearing equipment. Then we went to Best Buy to get a few things. I wanted a speaker that could be charged by the computer but didn't go in the USB, but I couldn't find what I was looking for (I didn't exactly know what I was looking for). We looked at vacuums, and I noticed that the signs hanging in the store had both English and Spanish. I was amused that one of the translations was exactly the same, except that they had replaced an ampersand with "y." In the car, my mom's copy of Cherie Call's Gifts came on; I told her to switch the CD after the New Year song, since Christmas was over. I asked if that made me a hypocrite, since I would be listening to some Christmas music that was my 2012 music, and she didn't think so, but she said that she should be able to listen to it because it was a new CD for her in 2012. That day we went to Winegar's grocery store and got lots of unhealthy things because we thought some of my cousins would come over. We got chips, eggnog, New Year cupcakes, gingerbread and eggnog taffy, and gingerbread marshmallows. We also got more. But no one came, so we had an abundance of bad things. I turned on my 2012 music while taking down Christmas and putting up New Year things. My mom was laughing at my Jan Terri music. I finished a memory post while my parents were downstairs; I later joined them. We weren't pleased with any of the options for New Year coverage--what's the point of a tape-delayed New Year?
On New Year's Day, we went to our traditional family dinner at Golden Corral. Afterwards, we went with my aunt Sue to Tai Pan. I got a clearance Christmas tree for $5 and Sue did as well. Then we went to my aunt's house and played Loaded Questions. One of the questions was "What is a headline you don't expect?" and I said, "Ke$ha gets baptized into Mormon church," and when Jesse saw that, he made his, "Ke$ha marries Mark Melville." My mom and I left with Allie, then realized we had forgotten something, so we turned back. We dropped Allie off at her house since she had school the next day. Then we went home and I kept listening to my 2012 music while I disassembled our little Christmas tree. I finished up the last of our eggnog, knowing that the holidays were completely over.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
December 27
Well, Christmas will be over this week, so I'm going to remember what happened two days after Christmas.
2012. This day we were going to Six Flags. My dad was feeling sick, so he didn't go with us, but the rest of us--my brother's whole family, my mom, my grandparents, and I--all loaded up in our Suburban. We had to drop David off at their church so he could ride with some ward members who were going with us. The three boys were in the back, and Franklin was playing with my mom's iPod, using a voice recording app. He was saying some rather R-rated things. I was hoping no one else would notice, but my mom did and told him not to say those things. I told him if he kept saying them I would take the iPod away, and he said, "But it's funny!" Shortly after he and Preston were fighting. Preston had been saying things into the iPod just to annoy Franklin, so Franklin bit Preston, and then they began fighting. I leaned back to break up the fight, and I might have taken away the iPod. Ever-happy Baby was content, and he had given me the water bottle he had been drinking from, which didn't have a lid on it. We went over a bump, and water shot out of the water bottle and hit Franklin right in the face. If I had tried to splash him, I couldn't have done a better job. Franklin thinks that people do mean things to him on purpose, and he became furious. I told him I was sorry, but he didn't accept it and kept kicking the back of my seat. He was crying up a tempest. When we got to Six Flags, he didn't even want to be near me, and was mad that he had to change his shirt. We met up with David and the family he was with. I went on a ride with the six-year-old and worried he might have hurt his teeth on the ride, but he didn't. He became quite comfortable with me the rest of the day.
We went to a dolphin show, and I remember remarking that it had been exactly nineteen years since I had been to another dolphin show. The kids enjoyed playing in artificial snow, and I had to keep telling Preston he couldn't throw it. Franklin wasn't as mad at me later in the day. That night, we were in a gift shop while they lit up the Christmas tree outside. Then we left Six Flags and went to Jack in the Box for dinner. I got a pumpkin milkshake, and the kids got their own shakes after dinner. While we were waiting for dinner, Baby was sitting on our table and my grandpa kept giving him sips of different drinks. Baby pointed to my shake, and Grandpa grabbed it to give to Baby, but my mom stopped him because he couldn't have any until after dinner. (It was mine, anyway.) Then we took my grandparents to their hotel. That night, Franklin once again said that I was mean. I told him that I didn't do it on purpose, that I would never do that to him, and my mom said, "Uncle Mark is actually very nice."
2011. I got off work early, so I went with my parents to go see Arthur Christmas in theaters. We met Susanne there, and after the movie, I gave her my new Black Eyed Peas CD, since I had already copied the clean songs. She asked if I wanted money, but I declined. My dad started driving but had his door open. Susanne saw it and when she drove by she was laughing. I think this was the evening my parents invited me to watch a movie with them, but I didn't like the language, so I grabbed headphones and started my first New Year memory post. When their movie was over, I asked my mom if she wanted to hear the song about hair that I owned, since it was playing on my shuffle playlist.
2010. In the morning we went to a used media store. On our way there, David was playing "I'm thinking of an animal" with Preston and Franklin. Preston's animals included a chigger and a lungfish. When it was Franklin's turn, he said, "I'm thinking of a animal," and Preston said, "Is it an alligator?" Franklin said, "Uh huh." We laughed, and David said that was how Franklin played it. When we got to the store, Franklin wanted to stay with me, more than he wanted to stay with my mom. We looked in the used books section, and Franklin liked all the Spiderman books. I was amused by a book I found called something like "I Can Shine My Light for Jesus on Halloween." My mom wanted to get movies for the kids--for Franklin she got a DVD of various cartoons because it had Batman on it. Preston wanted to get a movie called The Tangerine Bear, but David thought he should get something else. Later, when he found out he had gotten The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, he wished he hadn't said anything.
2009. Various family members started coming to our house to go to my homecoming talk. We were listening to Cherie Call's Beneath These Stars album. Eventually we went to church, and I of course sat on the stand. Our opening hymn was "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and even though Christmas was over, I was actually pleased because I was able to use a line in one of my talks. I saw my old companion Elder Love sitting in the congregation, and when I began talking about Ritzville, I saw him squirm with delight. After sacrament meeting I went to Sunday School, since it seemed weird to me to celebrate a church accomplishment by skipping church. David came back to church and got me out of Sunday School and said, "Let's go." I asked him why, and he got this condescending smile on his face and said, "Because if you don't, it means you didn't learn one thing on your mission." He told me I was being incredibly rude. I was so taken aback by his gruffness and his meanness that there was no way I was going to let him win the argument. If he had been nicer, I might have considered going home, but with the way he was acting, there was no way I was going to. I went back into Sunday School, and it made me a little uncomfortable when people would call me Mark, since my former companion was sitting right next to me, and on my mission I didn't like saying my name. For priesthood opening exercises, we sang "Ring Out, Wild Bells," and at the end Elder Love said, "That's an interesting song," and I said, "I love that song," and Christian Ulmer also said, "I love that song." I came home and talked a little with Elder Love, but I felt I needed to talk to my visiting family members. He left and I talked with some family members, who didn't stay long. That might have been the night that after everyone left, I picked up Franklin and spun him around. Shortly after, he threw up, and I felt really bad that I contributed to him throwing up. Susanne cleaned it up, and David thanked her for cleaning up after his kid.
2008. It was transfer call day, and we were always jumpy on those days. Other missionaries kept calling Elder Love, and whenever we heard the phone ring, we wondered if it would be transfer calls. We had dinner with a family whose last name started with K, and I think they showed us a Wall-E toy they got for Christmas. Elder Love got a phone call while we were there, and he told us that he had talked to someone who said he was being transferred, but he didn't know where. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was somewhat uneventful. Our highlights were the contacts with the Clarks, who want us to return, and a visit with the Andruses. All day we anticipated our transfer calls, and didn't get them until about 9:20. Elder Love will stay in the zone, but not in the district. I will have Elder Wilson, whom I met in Northland Zone. It will be the first time my companion is younger than I."
2007. We had interviews with the mission president that day. The sisters gave us a ride, and we brought our boxes of cherry cordials. One of them fell on the concrete outside the church door, but Elder Chun picked it up and put it back in the box. Then we had to tell President Clark not to eat from that box. Interviews were really long. We watched a pioneer video, but I couldn't stay awake for most of it. President Clark asked me to come in with Elder Chun. That was the only time I ever went in with my companion. Elder Chun talked about how the members kept signing up for dinner appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when we were only supposed to eat with members if they had an investigator present on those days. President Clark was very forceful with Elder Chun that we weren't supposed to eat with members on those days. Then it was time for my individual interview. I told him how I felt bad for Elder Chun because I was always doing lots of stupid things. At the end of the interview, President said to me, "Elder Melville, will you check that your zipper is up? Will you just check?" It wasn't up, and I told him that showed how I was always doing stupid things. That afternoon we visited Sister Stubbs and she asked about evolution, and she asked if we were created in the image of God, does that mean God is in the image of a fish or a monkey? I explained that the Church had no position on evolution. When we left, there was this creepy guy walking around, and Elder Chun said hi to him, and he said, "I'm going to Salt Lake City to pick up some girls." He said, "Do you know what I do for a living? I'm a male prostitute." He said some pretty foul things. I think he had some broken teeth. After he left, Elder Chun thought it was so funny that he called Elder Johnson and told him about it. That night we went tracting, and I think it was the first time I did the door approach. Elder Chun always liked to shake people's hands, and one guy wouldn't shake because he said he didn't want to get the flu. The last people were named Marsh. They were very nice and said they would like to talk to us. The wife said she had read the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and she had a Doctrine and Covenants, to which the husband said, "How did you get a D&C?" We worried they would be wolves in sheep's clothing just wanting to bash with us (which turned out to be mostly correct). This is my journal entry for the day:
"We had interviews today. It was extremely embarrassing when President Clark pointed out that my zipper was down.
"We met with Sister Stubbs who had some irrelevant questions that came from viewing the History Channel. I was able to explain the Church's stance on evolution.
"On our way home we met a self-proclaimed male prostitute. Elder Chun's comment (to me) was that the work must be going pretty slowly for him, since he did not try to keep himself attractive. He had the language of his profession and the coherency of a souse.
"We went tracting tonight. The people were more "We appreciate what you're doing but we're not interested" and quicker to close the door. Our last house was very nice and wanted us to return. They had talked with the missionaries before and seemed eager to talk again. I worry they might be wolves in sheep's clothing, but we shall see.
"We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a less-active teenage girl named Erica"
2005. This might have been the day that I asked Allie if she wanted to watch a show, and I brought down my new DVD with Rudolph's Shiny New Year. She wanted to watch it, but she wanted to make sure we weren't watching my Munsters DVD, and I was impressed she new it was a DVD, since it wasn't packaged like a regular DVD.
2000. This might have been the day that my mom and I went to a Target near my aunt's house and bought this Christmas decoration that had a globe, and when you touched little metal points on the globe with a metal stylus, the globe would give a Christmas greeting from that country. Then we went to my aunt's house, and they gave me a Christmas gift that was Snoopy's doghouse with bone-shaped candy inside.
1999. This might have been the day that we went to the Thompsons' house, and I asked my mom to get Happy New Year, Charlie Brown from Media Play. She did, and I watched it at their house. I think they also bought M&Ms that had MM written on them, since it was almost 2000. This also might have been the time that they had chips and salsa, and Sue bit a chip, then put it in the dip. Jesse said, "You double dipped," and she said, "No, I didn't double dip, because I only dipped once." I think Jesse told me the synopsis of Rudolph's Shiny New Year, since I had never seen it.
1993. I think this was the day we went to Sea World. It also might have been the day that we stopped at a rest stop for a breakfast of little cereal boxes, and Chancey was singing "Must Be Santa," but that might have been the day before. When we showed up at Sea World, I was surprised they still had Christmas decorations up, since the holiday was over. One of the first things we did was go to a dolphin show. They told me I would get wet if I sat up front, so I sat with my grandparents further back, where we wouldn't get wet. I was wearing a blue Sea World visor. Afterwards, everyone laughed about how wet they had gotten, and I was a little sad I didn't sit up close. At another point, we walked through a tunnel with fish all around, and I saw a hammerhead shark. Later that day we saw a walrus show, although I don't remember much about it, except that I liked the fire. We saw Shamu that night, and we sat further away and still got a little wet. I think David sat close and got soaked. Then we went into a gift shop and I wanted to get a turtle stamp.
2012. This day we were going to Six Flags. My dad was feeling sick, so he didn't go with us, but the rest of us--my brother's whole family, my mom, my grandparents, and I--all loaded up in our Suburban. We had to drop David off at their church so he could ride with some ward members who were going with us. The three boys were in the back, and Franklin was playing with my mom's iPod, using a voice recording app. He was saying some rather R-rated things. I was hoping no one else would notice, but my mom did and told him not to say those things. I told him if he kept saying them I would take the iPod away, and he said, "But it's funny!" Shortly after he and Preston were fighting. Preston had been saying things into the iPod just to annoy Franklin, so Franklin bit Preston, and then they began fighting. I leaned back to break up the fight, and I might have taken away the iPod. Ever-happy Baby was content, and he had given me the water bottle he had been drinking from, which didn't have a lid on it. We went over a bump, and water shot out of the water bottle and hit Franklin right in the face. If I had tried to splash him, I couldn't have done a better job. Franklin thinks that people do mean things to him on purpose, and he became furious. I told him I was sorry, but he didn't accept it and kept kicking the back of my seat. He was crying up a tempest. When we got to Six Flags, he didn't even want to be near me, and was mad that he had to change his shirt. We met up with David and the family he was with. I went on a ride with the six-year-old and worried he might have hurt his teeth on the ride, but he didn't. He became quite comfortable with me the rest of the day.
2011. I got off work early, so I went with my parents to go see Arthur Christmas in theaters. We met Susanne there, and after the movie, I gave her my new Black Eyed Peas CD, since I had already copied the clean songs. She asked if I wanted money, but I declined. My dad started driving but had his door open. Susanne saw it and when she drove by she was laughing. I think this was the evening my parents invited me to watch a movie with them, but I didn't like the language, so I grabbed headphones and started my first New Year memory post. When their movie was over, I asked my mom if she wanted to hear the song about hair that I owned, since it was playing on my shuffle playlist.
2010. In the morning we went to a used media store. On our way there, David was playing "I'm thinking of an animal" with Preston and Franklin. Preston's animals included a chigger and a lungfish. When it was Franklin's turn, he said, "I'm thinking of a animal," and Preston said, "Is it an alligator?" Franklin said, "Uh huh." We laughed, and David said that was how Franklin played it. When we got to the store, Franklin wanted to stay with me, more than he wanted to stay with my mom. We looked in the used books section, and Franklin liked all the Spiderman books. I was amused by a book I found called something like "I Can Shine My Light for Jesus on Halloween." My mom wanted to get movies for the kids--for Franklin she got a DVD of various cartoons because it had Batman on it. Preston wanted to get a movie called The Tangerine Bear, but David thought he should get something else. Later, when he found out he had gotten The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars, he wished he hadn't said anything.
2009. Various family members started coming to our house to go to my homecoming talk. We were listening to Cherie Call's Beneath These Stars album. Eventually we went to church, and I of course sat on the stand. Our opening hymn was "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," and even though Christmas was over, I was actually pleased because I was able to use a line in one of my talks. I saw my old companion Elder Love sitting in the congregation, and when I began talking about Ritzville, I saw him squirm with delight. After sacrament meeting I went to Sunday School, since it seemed weird to me to celebrate a church accomplishment by skipping church. David came back to church and got me out of Sunday School and said, "Let's go." I asked him why, and he got this condescending smile on his face and said, "Because if you don't, it means you didn't learn one thing on your mission." He told me I was being incredibly rude. I was so taken aback by his gruffness and his meanness that there was no way I was going to let him win the argument. If he had been nicer, I might have considered going home, but with the way he was acting, there was no way I was going to. I went back into Sunday School, and it made me a little uncomfortable when people would call me Mark, since my former companion was sitting right next to me, and on my mission I didn't like saying my name. For priesthood opening exercises, we sang "Ring Out, Wild Bells," and at the end Elder Love said, "That's an interesting song," and I said, "I love that song," and Christian Ulmer also said, "I love that song." I came home and talked a little with Elder Love, but I felt I needed to talk to my visiting family members. He left and I talked with some family members, who didn't stay long. That might have been the night that after everyone left, I picked up Franklin and spun him around. Shortly after, he threw up, and I felt really bad that I contributed to him throwing up. Susanne cleaned it up, and David thanked her for cleaning up after his kid.
2008. It was transfer call day, and we were always jumpy on those days. Other missionaries kept calling Elder Love, and whenever we heard the phone ring, we wondered if it would be transfer calls. We had dinner with a family whose last name started with K, and I think they showed us a Wall-E toy they got for Christmas. Elder Love got a phone call while we were there, and he told us that he had talked to someone who said he was being transferred, but he didn't know where. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was somewhat uneventful. Our highlights were the contacts with the Clarks, who want us to return, and a visit with the Andruses. All day we anticipated our transfer calls, and didn't get them until about 9:20. Elder Love will stay in the zone, but not in the district. I will have Elder Wilson, whom I met in Northland Zone. It will be the first time my companion is younger than I."
2007. We had interviews with the mission president that day. The sisters gave us a ride, and we brought our boxes of cherry cordials. One of them fell on the concrete outside the church door, but Elder Chun picked it up and put it back in the box. Then we had to tell President Clark not to eat from that box. Interviews were really long. We watched a pioneer video, but I couldn't stay awake for most of it. President Clark asked me to come in with Elder Chun. That was the only time I ever went in with my companion. Elder Chun talked about how the members kept signing up for dinner appointments on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, when we were only supposed to eat with members if they had an investigator present on those days. President Clark was very forceful with Elder Chun that we weren't supposed to eat with members on those days. Then it was time for my individual interview. I told him how I felt bad for Elder Chun because I was always doing lots of stupid things. At the end of the interview, President said to me, "Elder Melville, will you check that your zipper is up? Will you just check?" It wasn't up, and I told him that showed how I was always doing stupid things. That afternoon we visited Sister Stubbs and she asked about evolution, and she asked if we were created in the image of God, does that mean God is in the image of a fish or a monkey? I explained that the Church had no position on evolution. When we left, there was this creepy guy walking around, and Elder Chun said hi to him, and he said, "I'm going to Salt Lake City to pick up some girls." He said, "Do you know what I do for a living? I'm a male prostitute." He said some pretty foul things. I think he had some broken teeth. After he left, Elder Chun thought it was so funny that he called Elder Johnson and told him about it. That night we went tracting, and I think it was the first time I did the door approach. Elder Chun always liked to shake people's hands, and one guy wouldn't shake because he said he didn't want to get the flu. The last people were named Marsh. They were very nice and said they would like to talk to us. The wife said she had read the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price and she had a Doctrine and Covenants, to which the husband said, "How did you get a D&C?" We worried they would be wolves in sheep's clothing just wanting to bash with us (which turned out to be mostly correct). This is my journal entry for the day:
"We had interviews today. It was extremely embarrassing when President Clark pointed out that my zipper was down.
"We met with Sister Stubbs who had some irrelevant questions that came from viewing the History Channel. I was able to explain the Church's stance on evolution.
"On our way home we met a self-proclaimed male prostitute. Elder Chun's comment (to me) was that the work must be going pretty slowly for him, since he did not try to keep himself attractive. He had the language of his profession and the coherency of a souse.
"We went tracting tonight. The people were more "We appreciate what you're doing but we're not interested" and quicker to close the door. Our last house was very nice and wanted us to return. They had talked with the missionaries before and seemed eager to talk again. I worry they might be wolves in sheep's clothing, but we shall see.
"We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a less-active teenage girl named Erica"
2005. This might have been the day that I asked Allie if she wanted to watch a show, and I brought down my new DVD with Rudolph's Shiny New Year. She wanted to watch it, but she wanted to make sure we weren't watching my Munsters DVD, and I was impressed she new it was a DVD, since it wasn't packaged like a regular DVD.
2000. This might have been the day that my mom and I went to a Target near my aunt's house and bought this Christmas decoration that had a globe, and when you touched little metal points on the globe with a metal stylus, the globe would give a Christmas greeting from that country. Then we went to my aunt's house, and they gave me a Christmas gift that was Snoopy's doghouse with bone-shaped candy inside.
1999. This might have been the day that we went to the Thompsons' house, and I asked my mom to get Happy New Year, Charlie Brown from Media Play. She did, and I watched it at their house. I think they also bought M&Ms that had MM written on them, since it was almost 2000. This also might have been the time that they had chips and salsa, and Sue bit a chip, then put it in the dip. Jesse said, "You double dipped," and she said, "No, I didn't double dip, because I only dipped once." I think Jesse told me the synopsis of Rudolph's Shiny New Year, since I had never seen it.
1993. I think this was the day we went to Sea World. It also might have been the day that we stopped at a rest stop for a breakfast of little cereal boxes, and Chancey was singing "Must Be Santa," but that might have been the day before. When we showed up at Sea World, I was surprised they still had Christmas decorations up, since the holiday was over. One of the first things we did was go to a dolphin show. They told me I would get wet if I sat up front, so I sat with my grandparents further back, where we wouldn't get wet. I was wearing a blue Sea World visor. Afterwards, everyone laughed about how wet they had gotten, and I was a little sad I didn't sit up close. At another point, we walked through a tunnel with fish all around, and I saw a hammerhead shark. Later that day we saw a walrus show, although I don't remember much about it, except that I liked the fire. We saw Shamu that night, and we sat further away and still got a little wet. I think David sat close and got soaked. Then we went into a gift shop and I wanted to get a turtle stamp.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
December 21
As we inch ever closer to Christmas, I'm going to remember what I can about four days before the holiday.
2012. I remember wrapping Christmas presents. That night I watched Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the intent of seeing if it could count as a Fourth of July movie. But since they didn't mention the Fourth of July until twenty minutes in, and the last half of the movie takes place July 5 and July 6, I decided not to count it.
2011. We had our work Christmas party in our break room, so all the people from other departments had to go elsewhere for their breaks. They had put strings across the room and hung those plastic candy-filled canes on them. We all got one, and then later we got to get more. I got red and green Sprees and I think one other kind of Christmas candy. They had even brought the radio up into the break room, which annoyed me a little, since radio Christmas music isn't very good. Our supervisor, Nate, thanked us for our work. Then we ate Subways. Then they told a bunch of us we could go home early. So I drove to Shopko in Bountiful to do my shopping, listening to Handel's Messiah on the way. I looked at various stores, and when I went to my car, it wouldn't start! So I called my parents, and while I waited I finished my shopping. My parents came and tried to jumpstart the car, but it wouldn't work. So then they called a tow man, and he tried to jump it, and it still wouldn't work, so he towed it. Then we went to dinner at Burger King, where in the background they played Rachel Platten's "1,000 Ships."
2009. In the morning, my mom and I were going up to Farmington to get me a new driver's license. I put in my He Gives Flowers to Everyone Cherie Call CD. When we got off the freeway in Farmington, I saw a car pull off on the shoulder, and I could tell they were doing a U-turn. I told my mom that, but it was too late and he pulled right in front of us. It was the first time I had been in an accident. The car started spilling liquid all over, and I tried to call 911. My phone was acting weird, but fortunately a police car drove by right then. The guy in the other car was very sorry and admitted it was his fault. I think Susanne came and picked me up to take me to the DMV. That day we discussed how our family home evening would be for the kids to deliver Christmas presents. Allie called it "Hamily Fome Evening." (Maybe that was a different day that month.) But instead of going to our FHE, I went to the singles ward FHE, which was a white elephant party. I grabbed a couple of CDs I no longer wanted, a Monkees compilation and a cheap Halloween CD. I went to the house where the party was being held. I almost went to the wrong house, but then I figured out it was wrong. The Christmas tree was a really fancy designer tree with gaudy candy decorations, and a cover album of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack was playing. They had pizza for dinner, and Peter Moosman, a vegetarian, was disgusted when he found out that what he thought was cheese pizza actually had meat on it. "Who puts toppings under the cheese?!" He said he felt sick. I thought it was funny, though now I would be a bit more sympathetic. Then we went downstairs for our white elephants. At one point I got a Cafe Rio giftcard, and later a Star Wars cup and a watch, but eventually I ended up with an IQ book and a CD of songs written by Orrin Hatch. The Down syndrome Matt Chidester ended up with a typewriter, which he was going to give to his mom. The party went late, and then I still had to come home and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which I did in the kitchen.
2008. It was very snowy in Davenport. We went to church, but a lot of people were snowed in, since they lived in other towns. There were very few of us at church, so we had a short sacrament meeting and went home, even though it was supposed to be the Christmas program. Elder Love and I put our boots on and got shovels and went around shoveling people out. We shoveled Sister Barnett's driveway, and she invited us in and gave us hot chocolate.
(Isn't Google cool? It made a snowy version of my picture without me asking!)
Then we went to shovel the driveway of a woman named Henrietta. We shoveled her car, thinking she could probably make it out the rest of the way. We didn't talk to her; we just did it. (A few weeks later, we went back to her house/trailer, and she asked us if we were the ones who had shoveled her car out. I expected her to thank us, but instead she complained that we had only shoveled one side, as if we had done some terrible, inconsiderate thing! Her entitlement mentality made us never want to help her again.) We did lots of walking and shoveling, but we did that a lot that month, so I can't remember specifics about this particular day.
2007. We went biking around to contact people. We visited a less-active who was the brother of a semi-active family in the ward. Elder Chun talked to him, and he said to me, "I see you're a little green around the ears," and I said, "Completely." Then we tried to see Cindy Neely (whom I had never met), but she wasn't home. We then went home, and I remember being on my bike, thinking, "Don't hit that small pothole on the shoulder," and I did and crashed. I was fine, though. We went home for lunch, and we talked with Sister Welsh, whom we lived with. That evening we went tracting in the Greenbluff Ward, and all the people said we could come back (although none of them were actually serious when we went back). Then we went to an appointment with Ashley Guiler, a less-active teenage girl. Elder Chun missed the road to turn on and ended up in a forested, steep, icy road. It was scary. We simply couldn't make it up the hill. I suggested going to the bottom of the hill to see if there was an outlet to a main road, but Elder Chun wouldn't (because there wasn't one). He told me to pray we would be able to get out. He would have me push, but I would just push myself away from the car on the ice. Eventually he got the idea to go on the side of the road where there were pine needles, and then we were finally able to make it out. Then we visited the Guilers, who gave us Thin Mints and hot chocolate. He told them the story of what had just happened to us, as an illustration of receiving inspiration (the inspiration being to drive on the pine needles). We left late (I was brand new and didn't feel it was my place to say what to do) and as we were driving home, the zone leaders called and asked to talk to Elder Chun. I told them he was driving, and they asked where we were. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was quite an eventful day. This morning we went biking to contact a referral. I had many close calls on my bike. We contacted Sister Cunningham's less-active brother, who has a lot of faith in God but questions much of the deeper doctrine. He agreed to let us come back.
"On our way back home, I completely biffed it, falling directly on the road. Fortunately there were no cars. I am fine, although my knees were scraped through my suit, and I think one of my knees in my pants is a little thinner. A button came off my suit, as did a reflector from my bike. My suit is dusty so I will have to stop at the dry cleaner's on Monday, hopefully. I had debated not wearing my gloves on the way back. Fortunately I did so my hands are fine, not with the scrape that is on my glove.
"Later we went tracting. We went to six or seven houses. Three of those had people answer--all of them agreeing to have us come back next week. The first was interested in our idea of a prophet on the earth.
"After that we drove around looking for houses of referrals. We could not find many of the houses.
"After this unsuccessful drive, we were finished before we had planned. We made an appointment with a less active member. On our way Elder Chun missed the road and we had a scary experience driving on a dark, steep, windy [as in winding], icy road with ditches on either side. Elder Chun tried to turn around but we had a very unsuccessful time driving back up the hill. I suggested driving down to the end of the road but it turned out (according to the sister we taught after) to be a dead end, so I'm glad he didn't listen. After failed attempt after failed attempt, we prayed. Elder Chun had the idea to try driving on the side of the road where it was not icy. Eventually it worked, and we thanked Heavenly Father for the successful serendipity of the situation. The roads here aren't maintained very well--that road was solid ice that when Elder Chung [sic] asked me to push, I was only able to push myself away from the car.
"We taught the family after that and got home after 10. Breaking mission code just a little bit..."
2006. I'm not certain, but this might have been the day that in my Spanish class, we were singing Christmas carols, and some classmates wanted me and a kid named Zach to sing in front of the class. I realized they probably considered us similar, but that bothered me, because I didn't want to be like him.
2005. Again, I'm not sure, but this might have been the night that we bundled the kids up and took them to Temple Square. Then we went inside one museum where there was a play area for kids. I came home and had some pumpkin cheesecake.
2004. We made suckers in my chemistry class, but we had to put the flavoring in before it cooled, and that ruined the flavoring. I got a school newspaper, and I took it home and read it. That night there was a power outage. I read some Edgar Allan Poe by the fireplace. I was going to take a shower and go to bed. Ya-ping and my mom questioned me taking a shower in the dark, but I did that all the time.
2000. We might have had our school Christmas sing-off. We sixth-graders sang "Little St. Nick" and "My Grown-Up Christmas Wish," which I thought was a dumb song. Mr. Williams (my teacher) went around throwing candy to everyone, wearing a poster that said "Sugar Plum Fairy."
1999. I'm not sure, but this might be the day we gave our teacher our gifts in fifth grade, and I gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card. She acted excited when I gave her the envelope, and she said, "Is this what I think it is?" The night before I didn't want to lick the envelope, so I sealed it with water instead, and got the envelope a little wrinkly from water, and I worried Mrs. Call would think I slobbered on the envelope so that it got wrinkly.
1995. This might have been the day that the office ladies called me down so that I could sing to them, and then they gave me a fruit-flavored candy cane. Then I went back to the classroom and got my stuff, since school was over.
1994. This might have been the day that Mrs. Christensen, our kindergarten teacher, gave us little Christmas hard candies. She told us we couldn't talk with candy in our mouth because we might choke. One of my classmates was being silly and put her candy at the front of her nose like Rudolph, and Mrs. Christensen reproved her. I was talking to Ali Snarr, and she took her candy out of her mouth and said to me, "You're not supposed to talk with candy in your mouth."
2012. I remember wrapping Christmas presents. That night I watched Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, with the intent of seeing if it could count as a Fourth of July movie. But since they didn't mention the Fourth of July until twenty minutes in, and the last half of the movie takes place July 5 and July 6, I decided not to count it.
2011. We had our work Christmas party in our break room, so all the people from other departments had to go elsewhere for their breaks. They had put strings across the room and hung those plastic candy-filled canes on them. We all got one, and then later we got to get more. I got red and green Sprees and I think one other kind of Christmas candy. They had even brought the radio up into the break room, which annoyed me a little, since radio Christmas music isn't very good. Our supervisor, Nate, thanked us for our work. Then we ate Subways. Then they told a bunch of us we could go home early. So I drove to Shopko in Bountiful to do my shopping, listening to Handel's Messiah on the way. I looked at various stores, and when I went to my car, it wouldn't start! So I called my parents, and while I waited I finished my shopping. My parents came and tried to jumpstart the car, but it wouldn't work. So then they called a tow man, and he tried to jump it, and it still wouldn't work, so he towed it. Then we went to dinner at Burger King, where in the background they played Rachel Platten's "1,000 Ships."
2009. In the morning, my mom and I were going up to Farmington to get me a new driver's license. I put in my He Gives Flowers to Everyone Cherie Call CD. When we got off the freeway in Farmington, I saw a car pull off on the shoulder, and I could tell they were doing a U-turn. I told my mom that, but it was too late and he pulled right in front of us. It was the first time I had been in an accident. The car started spilling liquid all over, and I tried to call 911. My phone was acting weird, but fortunately a police car drove by right then. The guy in the other car was very sorry and admitted it was his fault. I think Susanne came and picked me up to take me to the DMV. That day we discussed how our family home evening would be for the kids to deliver Christmas presents. Allie called it "Hamily Fome Evening." (Maybe that was a different day that month.) But instead of going to our FHE, I went to the singles ward FHE, which was a white elephant party. I grabbed a couple of CDs I no longer wanted, a Monkees compilation and a cheap Halloween CD. I went to the house where the party was being held. I almost went to the wrong house, but then I figured out it was wrong. The Christmas tree was a really fancy designer tree with gaudy candy decorations, and a cover album of the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack was playing. They had pizza for dinner, and Peter Moosman, a vegetarian, was disgusted when he found out that what he thought was cheese pizza actually had meat on it. "Who puts toppings under the cheese?!" He said he felt sick. I thought it was funny, though now I would be a bit more sympathetic. Then we went downstairs for our white elephants. At one point I got a Cafe Rio giftcard, and later a Star Wars cup and a watch, but eventually I ended up with an IQ book and a CD of songs written by Orrin Hatch. The Down syndrome Matt Chidester ended up with a typewriter, which he was going to give to his mom. The party went late, and then I still had to come home and watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which I did in the kitchen.
2008. It was very snowy in Davenport. We went to church, but a lot of people were snowed in, since they lived in other towns. There were very few of us at church, so we had a short sacrament meeting and went home, even though it was supposed to be the Christmas program. Elder Love and I put our boots on and got shovels and went around shoveling people out. We shoveled Sister Barnett's driveway, and she invited us in and gave us hot chocolate.
2007. We went biking around to contact people. We visited a less-active who was the brother of a semi-active family in the ward. Elder Chun talked to him, and he said to me, "I see you're a little green around the ears," and I said, "Completely." Then we tried to see Cindy Neely (whom I had never met), but she wasn't home. We then went home, and I remember being on my bike, thinking, "Don't hit that small pothole on the shoulder," and I did and crashed. I was fine, though. We went home for lunch, and we talked with Sister Welsh, whom we lived with. That evening we went tracting in the Greenbluff Ward, and all the people said we could come back (although none of them were actually serious when we went back). Then we went to an appointment with Ashley Guiler, a less-active teenage girl. Elder Chun missed the road to turn on and ended up in a forested, steep, icy road. It was scary. We simply couldn't make it up the hill. I suggested going to the bottom of the hill to see if there was an outlet to a main road, but Elder Chun wouldn't (because there wasn't one). He told me to pray we would be able to get out. He would have me push, but I would just push myself away from the car on the ice. Eventually he got the idea to go on the side of the road where there were pine needles, and then we were finally able to make it out. Then we visited the Guilers, who gave us Thin Mints and hot chocolate. He told them the story of what had just happened to us, as an illustration of receiving inspiration (the inspiration being to drive on the pine needles). We left late (I was brand new and didn't feel it was my place to say what to do) and as we were driving home, the zone leaders called and asked to talk to Elder Chun. I told them he was driving, and they asked where we were. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was quite an eventful day. This morning we went biking to contact a referral. I had many close calls on my bike. We contacted Sister Cunningham's less-active brother, who has a lot of faith in God but questions much of the deeper doctrine. He agreed to let us come back.
"On our way back home, I completely biffed it, falling directly on the road. Fortunately there were no cars. I am fine, although my knees were scraped through my suit, and I think one of my knees in my pants is a little thinner. A button came off my suit, as did a reflector from my bike. My suit is dusty so I will have to stop at the dry cleaner's on Monday, hopefully. I had debated not wearing my gloves on the way back. Fortunately I did so my hands are fine, not with the scrape that is on my glove.
"Later we went tracting. We went to six or seven houses. Three of those had people answer--all of them agreeing to have us come back next week. The first was interested in our idea of a prophet on the earth.
"After that we drove around looking for houses of referrals. We could not find many of the houses.
"After this unsuccessful drive, we were finished before we had planned. We made an appointment with a less active member. On our way Elder Chun missed the road and we had a scary experience driving on a dark, steep, windy [as in winding], icy road with ditches on either side. Elder Chun tried to turn around but we had a very unsuccessful time driving back up the hill. I suggested driving down to the end of the road but it turned out (according to the sister we taught after) to be a dead end, so I'm glad he didn't listen. After failed attempt after failed attempt, we prayed. Elder Chun had the idea to try driving on the side of the road where it was not icy. Eventually it worked, and we thanked Heavenly Father for the successful serendipity of the situation. The roads here aren't maintained very well--that road was solid ice that when Elder Chung [sic] asked me to push, I was only able to push myself away from the car.
"We taught the family after that and got home after 10. Breaking mission code just a little bit..."
2006. I'm not certain, but this might have been the day that in my Spanish class, we were singing Christmas carols, and some classmates wanted me and a kid named Zach to sing in front of the class. I realized they probably considered us similar, but that bothered me, because I didn't want to be like him.
2005. Again, I'm not sure, but this might have been the night that we bundled the kids up and took them to Temple Square. Then we went inside one museum where there was a play area for kids. I came home and had some pumpkin cheesecake.
2004. We made suckers in my chemistry class, but we had to put the flavoring in before it cooled, and that ruined the flavoring. I got a school newspaper, and I took it home and read it. That night there was a power outage. I read some Edgar Allan Poe by the fireplace. I was going to take a shower and go to bed. Ya-ping and my mom questioned me taking a shower in the dark, but I did that all the time.
2000. We might have had our school Christmas sing-off. We sixth-graders sang "Little St. Nick" and "My Grown-Up Christmas Wish," which I thought was a dumb song. Mr. Williams (my teacher) went around throwing candy to everyone, wearing a poster that said "Sugar Plum Fairy."
1999. I'm not sure, but this might be the day we gave our teacher our gifts in fifth grade, and I gave her a Barnes and Noble gift card. She acted excited when I gave her the envelope, and she said, "Is this what I think it is?" The night before I didn't want to lick the envelope, so I sealed it with water instead, and got the envelope a little wrinkly from water, and I worried Mrs. Call would think I slobbered on the envelope so that it got wrinkly.
1995. This might have been the day that the office ladies called me down so that I could sing to them, and then they gave me a fruit-flavored candy cane. Then I went back to the classroom and got my stuff, since school was over.
1994. This might have been the day that Mrs. Christensen, our kindergarten teacher, gave us little Christmas hard candies. She told us we couldn't talk with candy in our mouth because we might choke. One of my classmates was being silly and put her candy at the front of her nose like Rudolph, and Mrs. Christensen reproved her. I was talking to Ali Snarr, and she took her candy out of her mouth and said to me, "You're not supposed to talk with candy in your mouth."
Sunday, December 8, 2013
December 22
As Christmas approaches, I'm going to remember what I can--when I can--about what happened three days before Christmas.
2012. It was our day for Christmas. I got the very laptop I'm writing on now, and I gave my parents Mapping Mormonism, which I had worked on. Then we went to Chuck-a-Rama and I got some peppermint hot chocolate, which my mom also did. That night we watched Miracle on 34th Street.
2011. Since the car I usually drove was in the shop, I drove my mom's Rav to work. We had our weekly Thursday meeting, and they told us we would have to come at 6 the next morning, but then one of the leads told me I didn't have to come in the next day, which was rather exciting news. I went with my parents to my grandparents' house, since my uncle Paul was visiting. While we were on our way there, Elvis's "Blue Christmas" came on and my mom said she didn't like it when he sang like that. At my grandparents', she made fun of Paul's ponytail, and wanted his stepson Pat to agree, but he also had long hair. She said that his, though, looked better.
2007. We biked around, contacting. We saw an accident, so we went over to help. It was actually a member of the Church, and she asked for a blessing. I did the anointing, but I had never done it so it was really awkward and I didn't know what to do. We had the Greenbluff ward party. Elder Chun and I went around and talked to people. It wasn't my preferred thing to do, and in fact I think few missionaries would have done so. Elder Chun wanted to take home leftover pies, which I didn't understand, since he didn't end up eating any. We took dinners with us to give to people, and that night we stopped by Kristy Whalen/Doug Turnidge's house to give them a meal. We set up an appointment with Kristy to come back later. When we got home, I remember Sister Welsh asking where we had been, and I said we'd been at the ward party. She said, "There was a ward party?" I specified that it was the Greenbluff Ward--at that time I didn't know whether the Welshes were in the Northpointe or Greenbluff Ward. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we tried to contact some part-member families. We spoke with one member whose family (not members) wasn't home. He agreed for us to come back.
"On our way home we saw where a traffic accident had taken place. We got out to help. A younger girl was all right but a little flustered, obviously. The other was crying and said her head and neck hurt, although she was able to walk and sit on the curb. She actually informed us she was from the Greenbluff ward and asked for a blessing. I did the anointing which was embarrassing since I didn't really know how and I had many pauses. It was a little strange doing a blessing right there on the road with another man present. But we were in the right place at the right time and it was an amazing experience.
"The Greenbluff ward had a ward party. I feel so dumb being a green missionary from Utah. Elder Chun has actually been quite considerate about not letting people know I'm new. Everyone likes him. They only like me to say prayers.
"We taught a lady named Debbie today. Her boyfriend's children agreed to baptism. Debbie has to get married because she is living with her boyfriend. Walt is fine with her baptism but has been listening to some anti-Mormon drivel. It is a delicate situation with her."
1996. I think we got gifts from Primary that were candy canes decorated like reindeer.
Unfortunately, that's all I can remember.
2012. It was our day for Christmas. I got the very laptop I'm writing on now, and I gave my parents Mapping Mormonism, which I had worked on. Then we went to Chuck-a-Rama and I got some peppermint hot chocolate, which my mom also did. That night we watched Miracle on 34th Street.
2011. Since the car I usually drove was in the shop, I drove my mom's Rav to work. We had our weekly Thursday meeting, and they told us we would have to come at 6 the next morning, but then one of the leads told me I didn't have to come in the next day, which was rather exciting news. I went with my parents to my grandparents' house, since my uncle Paul was visiting. While we were on our way there, Elvis's "Blue Christmas" came on and my mom said she didn't like it when he sang like that. At my grandparents', she made fun of Paul's ponytail, and wanted his stepson Pat to agree, but he also had long hair. She said that his, though, looked better.
2007. We biked around, contacting. We saw an accident, so we went over to help. It was actually a member of the Church, and she asked for a blessing. I did the anointing, but I had never done it so it was really awkward and I didn't know what to do. We had the Greenbluff ward party. Elder Chun and I went around and talked to people. It wasn't my preferred thing to do, and in fact I think few missionaries would have done so. Elder Chun wanted to take home leftover pies, which I didn't understand, since he didn't end up eating any. We took dinners with us to give to people, and that night we stopped by Kristy Whalen/Doug Turnidge's house to give them a meal. We set up an appointment with Kristy to come back later. When we got home, I remember Sister Welsh asking where we had been, and I said we'd been at the ward party. She said, "There was a ward party?" I specified that it was the Greenbluff Ward--at that time I didn't know whether the Welshes were in the Northpointe or Greenbluff Ward. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we tried to contact some part-member families. We spoke with one member whose family (not members) wasn't home. He agreed for us to come back.
"On our way home we saw where a traffic accident had taken place. We got out to help. A younger girl was all right but a little flustered, obviously. The other was crying and said her head and neck hurt, although she was able to walk and sit on the curb. She actually informed us she was from the Greenbluff ward and asked for a blessing. I did the anointing which was embarrassing since I didn't really know how and I had many pauses. It was a little strange doing a blessing right there on the road with another man present. But we were in the right place at the right time and it was an amazing experience.
"The Greenbluff ward had a ward party. I feel so dumb being a green missionary from Utah. Elder Chun has actually been quite considerate about not letting people know I'm new. Everyone likes him. They only like me to say prayers.
"We taught a lady named Debbie today. Her boyfriend's children agreed to baptism. Debbie has to get married because she is living with her boyfriend. Walt is fine with her baptism but has been listening to some anti-Mormon drivel. It is a delicate situation with her."
1996. I think we got gifts from Primary that were candy canes decorated like reindeer.
Unfortunately, that's all I can remember.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
December 23-26, 2012
With it now being the Christmas season, I'm going to remember what I can about the goings on of last year.
December 23. We went to sacrament meeting, but then we came home to get ready for our long drive. We heated up microwaveable sandwiches and loaded up the car. We had to drop Allie off at her house, and then we proceeded to drive. My mom wanted to listen to Messiah, so we put the CD in. As we were driving west, I began dozing off. My dad apparently couldn't stand the last song on the CD--ten minutes of a falsetto voice singing "He was despised and rejected of men..."--because he turned it off and turned the radio on. I wanted to listen to religious or semi-religious CDs that day, since it was Sunday. We listened to various MoTab CDs, and we wondered why there was a tunnel in the middle of the desert. My mom liked the Jenny Philips CD (which I find rather *meh*), but my Lower Lights CD wouldn't work. Eventually we stopped in Winnemucca, NV, and found a hotel to check into. My parents have become accustomed to sinning and breaking the sabbath when they're on vacation--we decided to go someplace for dinner. I said I wanted to go to Jack in the Box, because I thought they would have Christmas shakes. We went, and I got an eggnog shake. My dad asked me how I knew that, and I told him it was because I went to Jack in the Box in 2009 in Washington. We went into our hotel room, and I pulled out my laptop and wrote a blog post. I think I had some of the gingerbread cookies I had made that week, and we watched the MoTab/King's Singers concert. I took off my shoes and put them by the bed (and then forgot them in the morning).
December 24. We got up early to keep driving to California. I think there was a dusting of snow on the ground. We passed where someone had slid off the road, and another person tried to flag us down, but my dad didn't see him and kept driving. The man waving us down had a look on his face like "Who do you think you are?" We had to drive over Donner Pass, which was kind of scary because it was snowy. It was very pretty--lots of snow-covered pines--but scary. Lots of people were stopping on the shoulder to install tire chains. Dirty snow got all over the car, and the rear window was so caked with mud that we couldn't see out of it.
We kept listening to Christmas music, and my mom told me that she liked Lady Antebellum but she didn't like the Lower Lights. We eventually got off the mountain and got into California. We cleaned off the rear windshield at a gas station and went to Carl's Jr. for lunch. The cashier was an old lady who asked us where we were from. I got a jalapeño burger, and she intentionally mispronounced it "juh-LAP-uh-no." While we were driving, we got a call from Preston (or maybe I had to call). He seemed surprised to hear me on the phone. Then Baby wanted to talk to me--he told me the ABCs and counted on the phone. He kept talking, and it was hard to understand. My dad said to my mom, "He must be talking to Baby." Eventually we got to Dave and Ya-ping's house. Preston and Baby seemed excited we were there, but Franklin was indifferent. We were sitting in their house with the door open, and their landlord just walked in. It was a little uncomfortable. Later, my mom and Ya-ping and I went shopping at Target. When we got out of the car, I wrote "Merry Christmas" in the mud on the car. We looked at Christmas candy for stockings, and I wanted a box of Christmas Dots for mine. We bought a ham and supplies for funeral potatoes. We got eggnog, since David likes it. I think we got peppermint white chocolate M&Ms and peppermint marshmallows. We went home and had to take Dave to work, so we all piled into the Suburban, because we were going to take the boys to the temple visitors' center. Baby was in the back trying to get my attention, but I didn't know it until David told me. He wanted me to hear him count: "One, two three, four, five, six, leven, eight, nine, ten, leven, eight, nine, ten!" (Apparently he thought seven and eleven were the same.) David asked Preston a math problem, and then he asked Franklin, "What's one plus one?" Preston then said, "What's one times one?" David said to Preston, "What's the square root of four?" "Preston said, "That's college stuff," and David said, "That's what you were doing to Franklin." We dropped David off, and I asked the boys if they wanted Christmas Tic-Tacs. I asked whether they wanted red or green. Then we went to the temple. The visitors' center was really busy, which we hadn't expected. Baby correctly identified the Christus statue as Jesus. The sister missionaries invited us to go on a tour, and one of the sisters said I looked familiar--she had probably seen me at BYU. We looked at some of the lights on the palm trees on the grounds. Then we went back and got David and went home. David showed the boys How the Grinch Stole Christmas! He hadn't realized that Chuck Jones had been involved on the special. I watched White Christmas--David asked why it was what I watched on Christmas Eve, and I said it was because it was longest. I had to turn the volume down for the boys; even Preston came out and said it was too loud. David talked to me during the whole movie. Then we went to bed.
December 25. The boys weren't like I was as a kid, getting up early to open presents. I think they got up after all the other adults (except me, since I like sleeping). I had some breakfast--I can't remember what it was, except there was eggnog. The boys came out and opened their presents. They got electric toothbrushes, but Baby just liked to play with his. He was quite pleased with his Thomas the Train underwear, and my mom was pleased with her Nexus. David turned on a Christmas Pandora station, and as it played Michael Bublé, I said, "I have this album." Baby and Franklin were both really nice and shared their candy with me. I even said to Franklin, "You don't need to share with me, because I have my own candy," but he said he wanted to share anyway. He liked my Rudolph pajamas and called the Abominable Snow Monster a yeti. It was a rainy day (I really hoped it would snow, even though I knew it was unlikely), and my dad went out to wipe off all the mud from the car. We had dinner of ham and funeral potatoes, and David was trying to get Preston to try the potatoes. Preston kept asking what it was, and David kept saying, "It's cheese!" I said, "It's potatoes," and David had a panicked look on his face and motioned to me not to say that. I didn't know that the boys had an aversion to potatoes, and Preston refused to eat them "because they had mashed potatoes in them." I will never forget the way David looked at me. I thought about saying, "There aren't any mashed potatoes in there," but I didn't know if it would work. David set up my new laptop for me. I wrote a memory post and texted my cousin Peter to let him know. I also got a text from Hanna, one of my horse friends. I wanted to see how my speakers worked, but mostly it was an excuse to play Christmas music. I played "Rock and Roll Santa" and "Monsters' Holiday," to which David said, "There's a Christmas version of 'The Monster Mash'?" I looked at funny Santa pictures on Awkward Family Photos, and I showed them to my mom. Baby saw one weird-looking Santa and said, "Is that Jesus?" He kept jumping around on my mom, going "Hi-yah!" I got out my camera to take a video, but this is what happened:
That night I watched It's a Wonderful Life.
December 26. The next morning we took down the Christmas tree, which was a poorly designed tree. Then we needed to go to the airport to pick up my grandparents. Nathaniel always liked to go for rides, so he went with us. When we got to the airport, he was in the backseat, and I'm pretty sure he was saying, "I hate you, Eter!" My mom thought he was saying, "I hear you." Then he said he wanted me to sit by him, so I got in the back. We must have stopped at the house, because my grandma was surprised there wasn't a tree for the boys, and we just explained that we had taken it down. We took my grandparents by the Oakland temple, where a girl was having her Quinceañera. We went to dinner with my grandparents and with Baby. I remember feeling sad looking at all the Christmas trees and knowing Christmas was over for another year. That night I switched my Christmas pillowcase to a New Year pillowcase.
December 23. We went to sacrament meeting, but then we came home to get ready for our long drive. We heated up microwaveable sandwiches and loaded up the car. We had to drop Allie off at her house, and then we proceeded to drive. My mom wanted to listen to Messiah, so we put the CD in. As we were driving west, I began dozing off. My dad apparently couldn't stand the last song on the CD--ten minutes of a falsetto voice singing "He was despised and rejected of men..."--because he turned it off and turned the radio on. I wanted to listen to religious or semi-religious CDs that day, since it was Sunday. We listened to various MoTab CDs, and we wondered why there was a tunnel in the middle of the desert. My mom liked the Jenny Philips CD (which I find rather *meh*), but my Lower Lights CD wouldn't work. Eventually we stopped in Winnemucca, NV, and found a hotel to check into. My parents have become accustomed to sinning and breaking the sabbath when they're on vacation--we decided to go someplace for dinner. I said I wanted to go to Jack in the Box, because I thought they would have Christmas shakes. We went, and I got an eggnog shake. My dad asked me how I knew that, and I told him it was because I went to Jack in the Box in 2009 in Washington. We went into our hotel room, and I pulled out my laptop and wrote a blog post. I think I had some of the gingerbread cookies I had made that week, and we watched the MoTab/King's Singers concert. I took off my shoes and put them by the bed (and then forgot them in the morning).
December 24. We got up early to keep driving to California. I think there was a dusting of snow on the ground. We passed where someone had slid off the road, and another person tried to flag us down, but my dad didn't see him and kept driving. The man waving us down had a look on his face like "Who do you think you are?" We had to drive over Donner Pass, which was kind of scary because it was snowy. It was very pretty--lots of snow-covered pines--but scary. Lots of people were stopping on the shoulder to install tire chains. Dirty snow got all over the car, and the rear window was so caked with mud that we couldn't see out of it.
December 25. The boys weren't like I was as a kid, getting up early to open presents. I think they got up after all the other adults (except me, since I like sleeping). I had some breakfast--I can't remember what it was, except there was eggnog. The boys came out and opened their presents. They got electric toothbrushes, but Baby just liked to play with his. He was quite pleased with his Thomas the Train underwear, and my mom was pleased with her Nexus. David turned on a Christmas Pandora station, and as it played Michael Bublé, I said, "I have this album." Baby and Franklin were both really nice and shared their candy with me. I even said to Franklin, "You don't need to share with me, because I have my own candy," but he said he wanted to share anyway. He liked my Rudolph pajamas and called the Abominable Snow Monster a yeti. It was a rainy day (I really hoped it would snow, even though I knew it was unlikely), and my dad went out to wipe off all the mud from the car. We had dinner of ham and funeral potatoes, and David was trying to get Preston to try the potatoes. Preston kept asking what it was, and David kept saying, "It's cheese!" I said, "It's potatoes," and David had a panicked look on his face and motioned to me not to say that. I didn't know that the boys had an aversion to potatoes, and Preston refused to eat them "because they had mashed potatoes in them." I will never forget the way David looked at me. I thought about saying, "There aren't any mashed potatoes in there," but I didn't know if it would work. David set up my new laptop for me. I wrote a memory post and texted my cousin Peter to let him know. I also got a text from Hanna, one of my horse friends. I wanted to see how my speakers worked, but mostly it was an excuse to play Christmas music. I played "Rock and Roll Santa" and "Monsters' Holiday," to which David said, "There's a Christmas version of 'The Monster Mash'?" I looked at funny Santa pictures on Awkward Family Photos, and I showed them to my mom. Baby saw one weird-looking Santa and said, "Is that Jesus?" He kept jumping around on my mom, going "Hi-yah!" I got out my camera to take a video, but this is what happened:
That night I watched It's a Wonderful Life.
December 26. The next morning we took down the Christmas tree, which was a poorly designed tree. Then we needed to go to the airport to pick up my grandparents. Nathaniel always liked to go for rides, so he went with us. When we got to the airport, he was in the backseat, and I'm pretty sure he was saying, "I hate you, Eter!" My mom thought he was saying, "I hear you." Then he said he wanted me to sit by him, so I got in the back. We must have stopped at the house, because my grandma was surprised there wasn't a tree for the boys, and we just explained that we had taken it down. We took my grandparents by the Oakland temple, where a girl was having her Quinceañera. We went to dinner with my grandparents and with Baby. I remember feeling sad looking at all the Christmas trees and knowing Christmas was over for another year. That night I switched my Christmas pillowcase to a New Year pillowcase.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Two days after Thanksgiving
Last week I wrote about two days before Thanksgiving, so this week I'm writing about two days after the holiday.
2012. I watched the holiday episode of The Munsters at home. I think I was listening to my music, and "Alejandro" finally played itself. I think I added a bunch of Christmas music to my computer. I switched to the green Taurus to take back to Provo, and I listened to the all-Christmas 98.7 radio station on the way. I was pleased with their selection of Christmas music, not all the same old stuff. They played Lady Antebellum and even Cherie Call. When I got into Provo, I stopped at Fresh Market to go grocery shopping. I saw that they had dragon fruit, so I bought one. (It wasn't very good.) I think I bought snowflake Ritz crackers (and later realized the "snowflakes" have eight points instead of six--I don't plan on buying those again). I pulled into my parking lot to unload my car, but then I had to go park on the street because the green car didn't have a parking permit. When I got back in the car, the radio was playing a Michael Bublé interview.
2011. We had to work early that morning. That might have been the day we expected there to be treats, but there weren't any. My blog tells me that I had an unsuccessful run that afternoon. That night I had to write my talk for the next day.
2010. That morning I went with my parents to the temple. As we went there, we listened to my new Wonder of Christmas MoTab CD. Later, I picked up my friend David Christensen to go running up on Bountiful Boulevard. I was wearing blue pants, and David came out in red pants, which he had borrowed from his brother, since it was the day of the BYU/Utah football game, back when it was still in November. I ran farther than he did, and when I turned around I caught up with him. He pointed out the Charlie Brown nativity scene at one house, which I thought was ugly. Later, I went with my parents out to Centerville. We had to pick up missionary plaques. My parents were listening to the game and were quite displeased with it, while I was just sitting in the back eating sugar-coated almonds from my brother-in-law Matt. We went to Walmart, and I wanted to get the special edition of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, so I got a tin that had three Peanuts-themed CDs in it. On the way home, I put in the 40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas CD, and I loved David Benoit's version of "Christmas Is Coming," but I was unimpressed with the rest.
2009. It was my last full day of proselyting. We did a lot of tracting. At one house, the people's last name was Cook, and Elder Tamblyn asked if they were related to Cooks in Moses Lake. I thought it was a stretch, since it was a common name. One guy later in the afternoon was nice and knew some members, the Biglers. Elder Tamblyn periodically needed to rest. At one point we stopped the car so he could make some calls. We were listening to the new Ring Christmas Bells MoTab CD, and he changed the CD because he thought it was ridiculous they were making animal noises. We had dinner with the Christensens, and they had invited a nonmember friend. I can't remember what kind of lesson we gave, but Brother Christensen began talking about Adam and Eve. After dinner, I wanted to stop by an apartment where a less-active named Rebecca Dyer had lived. We knocked on the door, and someone called out asking who it was. We told her, and she said, "No thanks." But I was wanting to ask about someone, so I yelled through the door, asking about the girl who had lived there previously. There was no answer. I was so annoyed that they would ignore our questions and judge our intentions, so I pulled out a pass-along card and wrote a note on it, saying we weren't trying to bother them but were wondering about the Rebecca Dyer. Then we went home.
2008. I believe that we had lunch at the home of some friendly Baptists (maybe they were Pentecostals or non-denominationals).
2007. I would have worked on my farewell talk, although I don't specifically remember doing so. I think I decorated a tree downstairs while watching Christmas episodes of my old TV shows, since I wouldn't be able to watch them for two years.
2005. We went to Target, and I got a dollar DVD of The Beverly Hillbillies that had a Thanksgiving episode on it. That night we watched The Polar Express, since my mom's friend had lent it to us, and we all thought it was dumb.
2002. My sister was listening to the radio, and they played a silly turkey song. The DJ said they'd never play it again that year. I remember turning on my Charlie Brown Christmas CD while putting up decorations.
1998. My friend David called me to see if I could help him work on his Reflections submission. When they picked me up, David said to his mom, "Mark's good and has all his Christmas decorations up." For the contest, they were photographing kids doing adult jobs. We went to the library, and they had me stand behind the counter and pretend to scan books (the librarian had given us permission to do so). We saw a float from the Bountiful Light Parade.
2012. I watched the holiday episode of The Munsters at home. I think I was listening to my music, and "Alejandro" finally played itself. I think I added a bunch of Christmas music to my computer. I switched to the green Taurus to take back to Provo, and I listened to the all-Christmas 98.7 radio station on the way. I was pleased with their selection of Christmas music, not all the same old stuff. They played Lady Antebellum and even Cherie Call. When I got into Provo, I stopped at Fresh Market to go grocery shopping. I saw that they had dragon fruit, so I bought one. (It wasn't very good.) I think I bought snowflake Ritz crackers (and later realized the "snowflakes" have eight points instead of six--I don't plan on buying those again). I pulled into my parking lot to unload my car, but then I had to go park on the street because the green car didn't have a parking permit. When I got back in the car, the radio was playing a Michael Bublé interview.
2011. We had to work early that morning. That might have been the day we expected there to be treats, but there weren't any. My blog tells me that I had an unsuccessful run that afternoon. That night I had to write my talk for the next day.
2010. That morning I went with my parents to the temple. As we went there, we listened to my new Wonder of Christmas MoTab CD. Later, I picked up my friend David Christensen to go running up on Bountiful Boulevard. I was wearing blue pants, and David came out in red pants, which he had borrowed from his brother, since it was the day of the BYU/Utah football game, back when it was still in November. I ran farther than he did, and when I turned around I caught up with him. He pointed out the Charlie Brown nativity scene at one house, which I thought was ugly. Later, I went with my parents out to Centerville. We had to pick up missionary plaques. My parents were listening to the game and were quite displeased with it, while I was just sitting in the back eating sugar-coated almonds from my brother-in-law Matt. We went to Walmart, and I wanted to get the special edition of the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack, so I got a tin that had three Peanuts-themed CDs in it. On the way home, I put in the 40 Years: A Charlie Brown Christmas CD, and I loved David Benoit's version of "Christmas Is Coming," but I was unimpressed with the rest.
2009. It was my last full day of proselyting. We did a lot of tracting. At one house, the people's last name was Cook, and Elder Tamblyn asked if they were related to Cooks in Moses Lake. I thought it was a stretch, since it was a common name. One guy later in the afternoon was nice and knew some members, the Biglers. Elder Tamblyn periodically needed to rest. At one point we stopped the car so he could make some calls. We were listening to the new Ring Christmas Bells MoTab CD, and he changed the CD because he thought it was ridiculous they were making animal noises. We had dinner with the Christensens, and they had invited a nonmember friend. I can't remember what kind of lesson we gave, but Brother Christensen began talking about Adam and Eve. After dinner, I wanted to stop by an apartment where a less-active named Rebecca Dyer had lived. We knocked on the door, and someone called out asking who it was. We told her, and she said, "No thanks." But I was wanting to ask about someone, so I yelled through the door, asking about the girl who had lived there previously. There was no answer. I was so annoyed that they would ignore our questions and judge our intentions, so I pulled out a pass-along card and wrote a note on it, saying we weren't trying to bother them but were wondering about the Rebecca Dyer. Then we went home.
2008. I believe that we had lunch at the home of some friendly Baptists (maybe they were Pentecostals or non-denominationals).
2007. I would have worked on my farewell talk, although I don't specifically remember doing so. I think I decorated a tree downstairs while watching Christmas episodes of my old TV shows, since I wouldn't be able to watch them for two years.
2005. We went to Target, and I got a dollar DVD of The Beverly Hillbillies that had a Thanksgiving episode on it. That night we watched The Polar Express, since my mom's friend had lent it to us, and we all thought it was dumb.
2002. My sister was listening to the radio, and they played a silly turkey song. The DJ said they'd never play it again that year. I remember turning on my Charlie Brown Christmas CD while putting up decorations.
1998. My friend David called me to see if I could help him work on his Reflections submission. When they picked me up, David said to his mom, "Mark's good and has all his Christmas decorations up." For the contest, they were photographing kids doing adult jobs. We went to the library, and they had me stand behind the counter and pretend to scan books (the librarian had given us permission to do so). We saw a float from the Bountiful Light Parade.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Two days before Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is next week! I'm going to remember the things I have done two days before the holiday--namely, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
2012. I met with my editing group in my editing class. Some students were mad that we students had to be there but the professor didn't. After that meeting, I went over to the Cougareat and bought some pumpkin soup. I considered getting a donut with Thanksgiving sprinkles, but I decided against it. Then I got ready to go home. I had offered a ride to a girl in my ward, Larissa, so I went over and helped her put her stuff in my car. She ate leftover pizza while I drove. I went on Center Street to get on the freeway and had problems with lanes ending. Larissa and I talked about classes we were taking that semester and the next, and Larissa said she was taking a family history class for fun. My GPS got me off the freeway in the right place, but I kept getting lost when I took her to her aunt's house. I helped her get her stuff out. Then I drove home, turning on some Thanksgiving songs on my Peanuts CD. I was so happy to be home and share all my Thanksgiving candy.
2010. The news had been telling us all about a great blizzard that would be coming that day. When I got up in the morning, it was extremely windy and bitter cold. I went outside to try to pick up our trash can and the garbage that fell out of it, and I got super cold in just a short time--I remember talking to the guys across the street about how crazy it was. Then I went and got a haircut. I remember saying that I was worried about driving home from work in the snow. After the haircut, I went to Winegar's and got some apple cider to spice. I came home and put my spiced cider on. I was preparing for work when one of my leads, Dave, called and told me that they were sending people home and telling us not to come in. So I got to stay home. My mom and dad later came home and I told them how I had lucked out by not having to go in. I remember watching the storm come in; the clouds were really ominous. It was a good snowstorm, but it wasn't as blizzardy as they had predicted (and as I had expected, with how cold and windy it was that morning). I could only get blurry pictures.
2009. I was on exchanges with Elder Hansen in Pullman. We bundled up that morning--it was freezing, certainly not what I was used to in Lewiston. There was snow all over.
We went around various places that day. For lunch we stopped at Jack in the Box and I got a pumpkin shake with my meal. Later, we were near an apartment complex when Elder Hansen got a call from an Asian girl named Penny. He was telling her how he tries to be Christlike, and I heard her say, "You look like Christ!" We both silently laughed, and after the phone call, I said, "Did she say, 'You look like Christ'?" He told me how she had pasted his face onto the picture of Jesus looking down and holding the lamb that is on the Restoration pamphlet. He said she had made a cartoon drawing with Elder Keddington saying her only options were to get baptized. After the phone call we got out of the car and went to knock some doors, but I don't think anyone answered. Most of the snow had melted at this point. Then we stopped at another apartment complex, where there were signs telling the residents to keep their heaters on for Thanksgiving. We went and had dinner with a married couple. Elder Hansen told them how we had come out at the same time, and they might have known that we were going home in less than a week. I remember thinking that those members must have been thinking that I didn't act like I'd been out that long. Eventually we went back to Lewiston. When we got to our apartment, I said to Elder Hansen, "You look like Christ." Elder Keddington said, "Did you guys see Penny?" Elder Hansen explained that she had called him. Elder Keddington then told us the story how she showed them a PowerPoint with the picture of Jesus and said, "Who is this?" They said, "Jesus...?" She said, "No, who is it really?" and then came the mashup of Elder Hansen on Jesus. The night before, we had coined the term "ferociolicious," and Elder Keddington wrote the word on the picture I had drawn on the whiteboard of various scary things happening to Elder LaPratt, but he spelled it "Froiouslious."
2008. Elder Love called a less-active who lived way out in the boonies to see if we could come visit him. He reluctantly accepted. We drove out to really rural places. We went to a place that was a little gully in the middle of wheat fields where there were some houses. We were amazed at the frost at that location.
We had a potential investigator to check on in that neighborhood, but I think I convinced us not to. (We should have, though, since we rarely went out that way. I think we didn't because it was getting dark and we didn't know where to park and just plain fear.) We checked on a less active someplace, not knowing what to expect, but she was very nice and let us in. She actually told us she went to the Medical Lake ward instead of the Davenport Branch because she didn't feel welcome in Davenport. She told us that her neighbors would probably be mean to us. Then we drove off to our appointment. He was the son of a member in a nursing home. He was nice, and we visited him and his sister. While we were there, I could hear someone watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving in the other room. When we left and went to our car, it was snowing lightly. The man came out and told us that he had been reluctant to have us there because his sister had lost her testimony--but she had been courteous to us as well. We were driving when we encountered a sign that said, "Water over roadway." We were out in the middle of nowhere. We got out and examined the water on the roadway, and this place looked just like a place I had seen in a dream in the MTC, in which my aunt's van got stuck on a muddy road. We were debating whether or not to drive through the river.
2007. Susanne took me to get a splint for my sprained ankle. I think we stopped at Arctic Circle, and while we were there, I saw a bread truck fueling up at the gas station next door. Apparently the driver forgot to put it in park, because suddenly the truck went forward and the driver was running alongside it. It didn't stop until it went over the curb and hit the gas station sign. I might have watched The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas that night (since I had just gotten the DVD), but I can't remember if it was that night or the next.
2005. I can remember sitting in my biology class, wearing a yellow polo shirt with a red tie.
2004. I probably had some apple pie ice cream. I remember studying my chemistry flashcards and finishing all the homework I meant to, which might have been the only time I did so in all of high school. I might have watched the Thanksgiving episode of Bewitched.
2003. I gave the devotional in seminary, although I can't remember what it was. I was wearing my yellow shirt. That night, I went with my parents to Hale Center Theater to see Annie. My mom pointed out a man wearing a toupee. My dad said at least it was better than Annie's, but my mom and I thought he said "better than Allie's," since baby Allie had some hair problems. When we got home, I ate chips and salsa and cheese.
1999. During lunchtime they always showed videos, and on this day they were showing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which I had never seen before. I especially found the cooking scene amusing. There was a display of harvest vegetables, and they were giving them away, so I took some small pumpkins. That night my mom went to Toys R Us and bought VHS tapes of The Iron Giant and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The Iron Giant came with a toy, and I tried to get it out but ended up destroying the plastic on the clamshell case. My friend David Christensen came over for a sleepover, and I think we watched both of those movies.
1996. We were having a Thanksgiving meal in the classroom. We all had paper Pilgrim and Indian hats and headbands and put our desks together like giant tables. The hot lunch people went and got their Thanksgiving meals from the cafeteria, while we paper sack people stayed and started eating. That afternoon we played some kind of game (maybe Bingo) with Reese's Pieces. Miss Slater said she picked that candy because of their fall colors.
2012. I met with my editing group in my editing class. Some students were mad that we students had to be there but the professor didn't. After that meeting, I went over to the Cougareat and bought some pumpkin soup. I considered getting a donut with Thanksgiving sprinkles, but I decided against it. Then I got ready to go home. I had offered a ride to a girl in my ward, Larissa, so I went over and helped her put her stuff in my car. She ate leftover pizza while I drove. I went on Center Street to get on the freeway and had problems with lanes ending. Larissa and I talked about classes we were taking that semester and the next, and Larissa said she was taking a family history class for fun. My GPS got me off the freeway in the right place, but I kept getting lost when I took her to her aunt's house. I helped her get her stuff out. Then I drove home, turning on some Thanksgiving songs on my Peanuts CD. I was so happy to be home and share all my Thanksgiving candy.
2010. The news had been telling us all about a great blizzard that would be coming that day. When I got up in the morning, it was extremely windy and bitter cold. I went outside to try to pick up our trash can and the garbage that fell out of it, and I got super cold in just a short time--I remember talking to the guys across the street about how crazy it was. Then I went and got a haircut. I remember saying that I was worried about driving home from work in the snow. After the haircut, I went to Winegar's and got some apple cider to spice. I came home and put my spiced cider on. I was preparing for work when one of my leads, Dave, called and told me that they were sending people home and telling us not to come in. So I got to stay home. My mom and dad later came home and I told them how I had lucked out by not having to go in. I remember watching the storm come in; the clouds were really ominous. It was a good snowstorm, but it wasn't as blizzardy as they had predicted (and as I had expected, with how cold and windy it was that morning). I could only get blurry pictures.
2009. I was on exchanges with Elder Hansen in Pullman. We bundled up that morning--it was freezing, certainly not what I was used to in Lewiston. There was snow all over.
2008. Elder Love called a less-active who lived way out in the boonies to see if we could come visit him. He reluctantly accepted. We drove out to really rural places. We went to a place that was a little gully in the middle of wheat fields where there were some houses. We were amazed at the frost at that location.
Elder Love worried that the ice in the stream might do some damage, so we turned around and went another way. In our travelings, we were amused by this sign. (We were in farm country, after all.)
2007. Susanne took me to get a splint for my sprained ankle. I think we stopped at Arctic Circle, and while we were there, I saw a bread truck fueling up at the gas station next door. Apparently the driver forgot to put it in park, because suddenly the truck went forward and the driver was running alongside it. It didn't stop until it went over the curb and hit the gas station sign. I might have watched The Munsters' Scary Little Christmas that night (since I had just gotten the DVD), but I can't remember if it was that night or the next.
2005. I can remember sitting in my biology class, wearing a yellow polo shirt with a red tie.
2004. I probably had some apple pie ice cream. I remember studying my chemistry flashcards and finishing all the homework I meant to, which might have been the only time I did so in all of high school. I might have watched the Thanksgiving episode of Bewitched.
2003. I gave the devotional in seminary, although I can't remember what it was. I was wearing my yellow shirt. That night, I went with my parents to Hale Center Theater to see Annie. My mom pointed out a man wearing a toupee. My dad said at least it was better than Annie's, but my mom and I thought he said "better than Allie's," since baby Allie had some hair problems. When we got home, I ate chips and salsa and cheese.
1999. During lunchtime they always showed videos, and on this day they were showing A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, which I had never seen before. I especially found the cooking scene amusing. There was a display of harvest vegetables, and they were giving them away, so I took some small pumpkins. That night my mom went to Toys R Us and bought VHS tapes of The Iron Giant and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The Iron Giant came with a toy, and I tried to get it out but ended up destroying the plastic on the clamshell case. My friend David Christensen came over for a sleepover, and I think we watched both of those movies.
1996. We were having a Thanksgiving meal in the classroom. We all had paper Pilgrim and Indian hats and headbands and put our desks together like giant tables. The hot lunch people went and got their Thanksgiving meals from the cafeteria, while we paper sack people stayed and started eating. That afternoon we played some kind of game (maybe Bingo) with Reese's Pieces. Miss Slater said she picked that candy because of their fall colors.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
November 21-23, 2012
Thanksgiving is in two and a half weeks, so I'm going to remember the goings on off last Thanksgiving.
November 21, 2012. My mom and I went shopping to get a few things for Thanksgiving. We went to Costco, and I said that I wanted to see if Mapping Mormonism was there. It was, and I looked at my name in it. My mom wanted to get it, but I told her I could get it cheaper--and thus gave away what I was getting my parents for Christmas. At Smith's Marketplace, she said she wanted to play games on Thanksgiving, and I mentioned that I thought our family would like Loaded Questions. We passed a display of board games, and Loaded Questions was on there, so she got it. She wanted to get some more glasses, but she couldn't decide what to get, because a lot of the boxes had short glasses, and she didn't want any short glasses. She asked me where I wanted to go for lunch, and I mentioned that it was my last chance to get pumpkin shakes, so we went to Arctic Circle. When we were there, I pointed out the vacant Hostess store across the street, since Hostess had just gone out of business. That afternoon I went running, although I can't remember details. That evening, my dad wanted to go to RC Willey to look at 3D Blu-Ray players. On our way, there was a really weird intersection event, with people in the crosswalk when they shouldn't have been and cars making unwise turns in front of us. When we got to the store, I noticed that the store hours used hyphens instead of en dashes. I was surprised at the price of 3D glasses. There was a set of glasses set up in front of a TV and my dad was looking through it. The salesman said they didn't work because it wasn't a 3D movie. My mom was really annoyed with that salesman. Then we went to my grandparents' house to take a turkey home. They had me carry it to the car, and I was a little bit grossed out by the raw turkey sticking out and touching me. I changed my orange shirt when I got home, and I was a little sad because I wanted to wear it on Thanksgiving. But I washed it. My dad went to bed, and I found a cord so that I could plug my laptop into the stereo and listen to music. I talked about wanting to listen to Thanksgiving music, but I turned on my regular playlist. It played "I Forgive You" by Kelly Clarkson. When it was playing "Trust" by Neon Trees, my mom said, "At first I thought it was saying 'drugs,' and I wondered what it had to do with Thanksgiving." I told her that I wasn't listening to Thanksgiving music. I stayed up a little later and did some cleaning. I also watched a Beverly Hillbillies episode.
November 22, 2012. I remember lying in bed and feeling so happy that I could smell turkey and that it was Thanksgiving. I got up and wanted to go running, but I could tell it wasn't going to happen--there was too much to do. I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist, and my dad seemed doubtful that they were Thanksgiving songs. We brought a table up from downstairs and set up the tables. Susanne and her family came. Then Chancey, Nicole, and "Wallace" came right as my playlist was finishing up, and my mom advised me to put my computer up. Chancey and Nicole showed us the things Wallace knew. If you asked him where his nose was, he would pick it--Peter taught him that. Gradually more and more people came. When my grandparents came, they looked at the cider I had in the Crock Pot and said, "Wassail!" Renee had brought a few friends and some bacon-wrapped water chestnuts. We began eating, and Peter and Jesse wanted me to tell them about what embarrassing thing I had left out of my latest memory post. During dinner, Wallace kept going up to the stereo and turning it on and playing a weird country CD my parents listen to. No one else seemed to care, and I had to go turn it off each time. Peter pointed out that Chancey had spilled water on his shirt and said that he expected that I would remember it the next year for my blog post. (If he hadn't pointed it out, I probably wouldn't have remembered!) They talked about my tarantula roommate and were amazed at all the things he had done. Peter was having Wallace make all the faces he had taught him--his "cute face" where he scrunched up his lips and his "shocked face" where he looked surprised. My roommate Scott texted me and wished me Happy Thanksgiving. After Gildersleeves left, we played Loaded Questions. Quin thought it would be boring, but apparently he had just been playing with boring people. We didn't have enough pieces, so we took some of my Thanksgiving Little People for pieces. I had some apple cider. My grandparents continued to call it wassail, and I said, "I thought wassail had citrus in it," and Sue shook her head. Because I kept drinking it, I had to go to the bathroom and thus missed the reaction everyone had when I answered "What would you least expect to find in a present?" with "Denver, CO." One question was, "If calories and money weren't an object, what two brand names would you have for every meal?" I said Papa John's and Almond Joys, and Lisa also said Papa John's. After everyone left, I went downstairs to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Then I watched the "Low-Cal Munster" episode of The Munsters, asking my mom if I should count it as a Thanksgiving show, and she told me I should, because it was plenty Thanksgiving-y. While I watched these things, I worked on my Rudolph blanket, and I finished it--just in time for the Christmas season.
November 23, 2012. I put on my new Christina Perri Christmas CD. My dad said he didn't want to put up a Christmas tree. I didn't see a need to, since we wouldn't even be there on Christmas, but my mom didn't like the idea. I did some knee exercises downstairs while watching a Christmas episode of Bewitched that I hadn't watched before. I went running, and when I went in the car to go up to Bountiful Boulevard, I turned the station to 98.7, since I remembered that the previous year they occasionally played Christmas songs. I found out that they were an all-Christmas station. I didn't have a successful run. That evening I watched the three-minute Peanuts Christmas clip I have. I got Colbie Caillat's Christmas album, since I had $2 of mp3 credit and Amazon gave me $2. I made the following Facebook status: "
Related Posts:
The Day Before Thanksgiving
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
The Day after Thanksgiving
November 21, 2012. My mom and I went shopping to get a few things for Thanksgiving. We went to Costco, and I said that I wanted to see if Mapping Mormonism was there. It was, and I looked at my name in it. My mom wanted to get it, but I told her I could get it cheaper--and thus gave away what I was getting my parents for Christmas. At Smith's Marketplace, she said she wanted to play games on Thanksgiving, and I mentioned that I thought our family would like Loaded Questions. We passed a display of board games, and Loaded Questions was on there, so she got it. She wanted to get some more glasses, but she couldn't decide what to get, because a lot of the boxes had short glasses, and she didn't want any short glasses. She asked me where I wanted to go for lunch, and I mentioned that it was my last chance to get pumpkin shakes, so we went to Arctic Circle. When we were there, I pointed out the vacant Hostess store across the street, since Hostess had just gone out of business. That afternoon I went running, although I can't remember details. That evening, my dad wanted to go to RC Willey to look at 3D Blu-Ray players. On our way, there was a really weird intersection event, with people in the crosswalk when they shouldn't have been and cars making unwise turns in front of us. When we got to the store, I noticed that the store hours used hyphens instead of en dashes. I was surprised at the price of 3D glasses. There was a set of glasses set up in front of a TV and my dad was looking through it. The salesman said they didn't work because it wasn't a 3D movie. My mom was really annoyed with that salesman. Then we went to my grandparents' house to take a turkey home. They had me carry it to the car, and I was a little bit grossed out by the raw turkey sticking out and touching me. I changed my orange shirt when I got home, and I was a little sad because I wanted to wear it on Thanksgiving. But I washed it. My dad went to bed, and I found a cord so that I could plug my laptop into the stereo and listen to music. I talked about wanting to listen to Thanksgiving music, but I turned on my regular playlist. It played "I Forgive You" by Kelly Clarkson. When it was playing "Trust" by Neon Trees, my mom said, "At first I thought it was saying 'drugs,' and I wondered what it had to do with Thanksgiving." I told her that I wasn't listening to Thanksgiving music. I stayed up a little later and did some cleaning. I also watched a Beverly Hillbillies episode.
November 22, 2012. I remember lying in bed and feeling so happy that I could smell turkey and that it was Thanksgiving. I got up and wanted to go running, but I could tell it wasn't going to happen--there was too much to do. I turned on my Thanksgiving playlist, and my dad seemed doubtful that they were Thanksgiving songs. We brought a table up from downstairs and set up the tables. Susanne and her family came. Then Chancey, Nicole, and "Wallace" came right as my playlist was finishing up, and my mom advised me to put my computer up. Chancey and Nicole showed us the things Wallace knew. If you asked him where his nose was, he would pick it--Peter taught him that. Gradually more and more people came. When my grandparents came, they looked at the cider I had in the Crock Pot and said, "Wassail!" Renee had brought a few friends and some bacon-wrapped water chestnuts. We began eating, and Peter and Jesse wanted me to tell them about what embarrassing thing I had left out of my latest memory post. During dinner, Wallace kept going up to the stereo and turning it on and playing a weird country CD my parents listen to. No one else seemed to care, and I had to go turn it off each time. Peter pointed out that Chancey had spilled water on his shirt and said that he expected that I would remember it the next year for my blog post. (If he hadn't pointed it out, I probably wouldn't have remembered!) They talked about my tarantula roommate and were amazed at all the things he had done. Peter was having Wallace make all the faces he had taught him--his "cute face" where he scrunched up his lips and his "shocked face" where he looked surprised. My roommate Scott texted me and wished me Happy Thanksgiving. After Gildersleeves left, we played Loaded Questions. Quin thought it would be boring, but apparently he had just been playing with boring people. We didn't have enough pieces, so we took some of my Thanksgiving Little People for pieces. I had some apple cider. My grandparents continued to call it wassail, and I said, "I thought wassail had citrus in it," and Sue shook her head. Because I kept drinking it, I had to go to the bathroom and thus missed the reaction everyone had when I answered "What would you least expect to find in a present?" with "Denver, CO." One question was, "If calories and money weren't an object, what two brand names would you have for every meal?" I said Papa John's and Almond Joys, and Lisa also said Papa John's. After everyone left, I went downstairs to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Then I watched the "Low-Cal Munster" episode of The Munsters, asking my mom if I should count it as a Thanksgiving show, and she told me I should, because it was plenty Thanksgiving-y. While I watched these things, I worked on my Rudolph blanket, and I finished it--just in time for the Christmas season.
November 23, 2012. I put on my new Christina Perri Christmas CD. My dad said he didn't want to put up a Christmas tree. I didn't see a need to, since we wouldn't even be there on Christmas, but my mom didn't like the idea. I did some knee exercises downstairs while watching a Christmas episode of Bewitched that I hadn't watched before. I went running, and when I went in the car to go up to Bountiful Boulevard, I turned the station to 98.7, since I remembered that the previous year they occasionally played Christmas songs. I found out that they were an all-Christmas station. I didn't have a successful run. That evening I watched the three-minute Peanuts Christmas clip I have. I got Colbie Caillat's Christmas album, since I had $2 of mp3 credit and Amazon gave me $2. I made the following Facebook status: "
Whoever decided that Christmas "doorbusting" sales should start on Thanksgiving Day should be shot with an Indian's arrow, have their eyes pecked out by a turkey, and be thrown in Plymouth Harbor. What a terrible way to treat employees!
I turned on some of my Christmas music. I played some novelty songs for my mom: "Monsters' Holiday," "Rock and Roll Santa," and "Excuse My Christmas." "Rock and Roll Santa" was my mom's favorite.Related Posts:
The Day Before Thanksgiving
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
The Day after Thanksgiving
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Election Day
Some Election Days are bigger than others, but I'm going to remember as many as I can anyway. Election Day is the first Tuesday of November, unless the first Tuesday is November 1.
2012. I remember I kept checking the election results on KSL. Although I voted for neither Romney nor Obama, I was kind of hoping Romney would win, and I was disappointed when he didn't. But I wasn't as disappointed as my roommate Bryton, who had even gone campaigning for Romney.
2011. OK, so I don't really remember what happened this day. But I want to provide a link to a blog post I made in connection to Election Day that year, because I found a certain candidate's platform hilarious.
2010. I remember I drove down to the North Salt Lake offices to go vote, and I saw the Ulmers there. I said hi to them in the parking lot, but I don't know if they recognized me. People were wearing "I Voted" stickers at work.
2009. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was one of the first days in a long time that Elder Tamblyn was healthy for all of the day. Therefore, we were able to get a lot accomplished, visiting the Heaths and Sister Adair. We did some light tracting in the dark, which I hate. We had dinner with the Larsens and my back tire got flat. We met with the Piquets. Michael told me I should become a professor or a teacher, which surprised me, since I don't feel like I'm too good at teaching over there.
2008. All the things I can remember are accounted for in my journal, except that I remember that I read aloud "The Raven" while Elder Love worked on tiling (which probably wasn't very kosher). At dinner, five-year-old Bailey Christensen asked what we had dressed up as for Halloween. Elder Love said he was a missionary; then I reminded him that he was me (we had worn identical ties and switched name tags). The Christensens commented on my very short hair, and Elder Love confessed that he had done it. Here's the journal entry:
"We helped with the Herrons' tile for most of the day. Not having much experience and fearing messing it up (since I never do anything right), I didn't feel like I was doing much. The times we weren't tiling we were waiting at the church to meet with Wanda but she didn't come. We also had dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the Christensens, and then helped the Stackhouses with a little moving. It was rainy and very cold today. I like my new sweater."
2007. I remember going with my dad to the Eaglewood golf course clubhouse to vote. I voted against the school vouchers, and thankfully they didn't win.
2006. My mom and I went up to the clubhouse to vote. We passed the house that my niece had dubbed "the spider house" because it had a giant spider at Halloween. They had all their Christmas stuff out already. After we came home, I watched the Election Day episodes of The Addams Family and Gilligan's Island. I realized that the Gilligan episode would be more suitable for a presidential election, but I realized I wouldn't be around for a presidential election for six years!
2004. Someone in my history class had some writing on his hands that someone else had written. It said, "Vote No on Proposition 3! Go gayness!" My chemistry teacher, Mrs. Duffin, drew some red and blue stars on the whiteboard with a note that said, "Vote today! If you are 18 (and registered)".
2000. I remember someone asked the janitor if he was voting for Al Gore or George Bush, and he said George Bush.
1996. I remember that our teacher, Miss Slater, gave us little pieces of paper with pictures of Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. She told us not just to vote for the best looking person, but that there should be another reason we voted for the people. I think most of us voted for whoever our parents were voting for. She tallied up the votes, and Bob Dole had the most, followed by Bill Clinton. Ross Perot had two votes. (David Christensen told me years later that he had voted for Ross Perot, because he interpreted "Don't just vote for the most handsome one" as "Vote for the ugliest one.") My mom made Rice-A-Roni for dinner.
1994. I think we kindergarteners wondered why there were all those grownups behind little curtains.
2012. I remember I kept checking the election results on KSL. Although I voted for neither Romney nor Obama, I was kind of hoping Romney would win, and I was disappointed when he didn't. But I wasn't as disappointed as my roommate Bryton, who had even gone campaigning for Romney.
2011. OK, so I don't really remember what happened this day. But I want to provide a link to a blog post I made in connection to Election Day that year, because I found a certain candidate's platform hilarious.
2010. I remember I drove down to the North Salt Lake offices to go vote, and I saw the Ulmers there. I said hi to them in the parking lot, but I don't know if they recognized me. People were wearing "I Voted" stickers at work.
2009. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was one of the first days in a long time that Elder Tamblyn was healthy for all of the day. Therefore, we were able to get a lot accomplished, visiting the Heaths and Sister Adair. We did some light tracting in the dark, which I hate. We had dinner with the Larsens and my back tire got flat. We met with the Piquets. Michael told me I should become a professor or a teacher, which surprised me, since I don't feel like I'm too good at teaching over there.
2008. All the things I can remember are accounted for in my journal, except that I remember that I read aloud "The Raven" while Elder Love worked on tiling (which probably wasn't very kosher). At dinner, five-year-old Bailey Christensen asked what we had dressed up as for Halloween. Elder Love said he was a missionary; then I reminded him that he was me (we had worn identical ties and switched name tags). The Christensens commented on my very short hair, and Elder Love confessed that he had done it. Here's the journal entry:
"We helped with the Herrons' tile for most of the day. Not having much experience and fearing messing it up (since I never do anything right), I didn't feel like I was doing much. The times we weren't tiling we were waiting at the church to meet with Wanda but she didn't come. We also had dinner at a Mexican restaurant with the Christensens, and then helped the Stackhouses with a little moving. It was rainy and very cold today. I like my new sweater."
2007. I remember going with my dad to the Eaglewood golf course clubhouse to vote. I voted against the school vouchers, and thankfully they didn't win.
2006. My mom and I went up to the clubhouse to vote. We passed the house that my niece had dubbed "the spider house" because it had a giant spider at Halloween. They had all their Christmas stuff out already. After we came home, I watched the Election Day episodes of The Addams Family and Gilligan's Island. I realized that the Gilligan episode would be more suitable for a presidential election, but I realized I wouldn't be around for a presidential election for six years!
2004. Someone in my history class had some writing on his hands that someone else had written. It said, "Vote No on Proposition 3! Go gayness!" My chemistry teacher, Mrs. Duffin, drew some red and blue stars on the whiteboard with a note that said, "Vote today! If you are 18 (and registered)".
2000. I remember someone asked the janitor if he was voting for Al Gore or George Bush, and he said George Bush.
1996. I remember that our teacher, Miss Slater, gave us little pieces of paper with pictures of Bob Dole, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot. She told us not just to vote for the best looking person, but that there should be another reason we voted for the people. I think most of us voted for whoever our parents were voting for. She tallied up the votes, and Bob Dole had the most, followed by Bill Clinton. Ross Perot had two votes. (David Christensen told me years later that he had voted for Ross Perot, because he interpreted "Don't just vote for the most handsome one" as "Vote for the ugliest one.") My mom made Rice-A-Roni for dinner.
1994. I think we kindergarteners wondered why there were all those grownups behind little curtains.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Day of the Dead
In Mexico, they celebrate Day of the Dead. We don't in the United States, but that doesn't stop me from remembering November 2.
2012. I got up early in the morning and grabbed my tent and my bag and walked up to the Eyring. It was annoying walking up with all that stuff. I crammed my stuff in one of the geology vans and noticed our professor's Antarctica bag. We eventually loaded into the vans and were on our way. I rode in the van the TA was driving and our professor, Jani Radebaugh, was riding shotgun. She would periodically get on the walkie-talkies to point out things on our drive, such as faceted spurs near Spanish Fork, cinder cones near Delta, and some alluvial fans. I sat in the back near my classmate Cameron. At one point Jani asked if any of us had had field camp. I didn't know that in the geology department, "field camp" means Geology 410; I thought it meant 210, the class that I took just this summer. I started going off on how I wanted to take it but didn't know if I could, when in fact 410 has never been a class I have intended to take. Michael Arnold (the TA's brother) kept asking Jani questions. We got off in St. George to have lunch. While we were driving through St. George, another van put "Call Me Maybe" on the walkie-talkies. We stopped at a stake center across from the St. George temple, and I remember thinking about how it didn't feel like November there. Michael and I went into the temple visitors' center to use the restroom. The volunteers asked about us, so we explained we were from BYU. While we were at the visitors' center, the others had put out our lunch--lots of sandwiches and lots of chips. Then we got back in the vans and continued driving. I think we stopped at a gas station near Vegas. On this trip, my classmate Trevor was playing music from his iPod via a device that "broadcast" to the radio; he played Imagine Dragons, and it was the first time I had heard them. I liked them, and I didn't know they were local until Trevor mentioned it. Eventually we made it to the park. Jani was pointing out desert varnish (I think) and told us how the area had once been used to mine Borax. We drove up a steep hill, and when we got out at the top, Jani said, "Welcome to Death Valley, everyone!" Some people said jokingly, "Oh, is that where we are?" They had never officially told us where we were going, but many of us had heard it from other people. We were at a place called Dante's view.
She pulled out a diagram and told us that the deposits we were seeing had been on one of our assignments. She told us why Death Valley is so hot: It's in the basin and range province, so rising air loses its moisture, then comes down into the valley really hot. We took pictures there, and some classmates were having a conversation with some French tourists (in French, of course). Then we went over to the Stovepipe Wells campground to set up camp. There were lots of tents. I took mine out to go set it up, but I was trying to find a good spot, since we couldn't go past the camp boundary. Trevor invited me to sleep in the tent he was in, so I decided to do that. I brought an enormous tent for nothing. Jani went around to tell the other campers that we were college students, but that we didn't drink, although we might sing (but we didn't). I think one of the TAs asked Jani if we were all geology people; there were also some geography, earth and space science, and, of course, English language. I went over to the nearby gift shop to see if they had any candy corn or anything I cared to buy, but they didn't, at least not for those prices. I wanted to get a new hat (since mine was small), but I didn't like theirs. We had a dinner of hot dogs, and someone had brought J-Dawgs sauce. There was a kangaroo rat scurrying around, and we saw a grasshopper (or something) fly into the firepit and get roasted. One of my classmates, Rachel, asked me if I was a grad student, since she hadn't seen me, but I explained where I sat in class and explained I wasn't a geology major. Then that night some of us went to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, just for fun. I took a flashlight. We all took off our shoes and played in the sand. I didn't want to walk as far as some of the others went, so I just stayed around some others, but I didn't know any of them, so it was like I was by myself. I had my flashlight on lantern mode, but then someone wanted to turn it off, so I did. It was a beautiful evening, lots of stars and a bright moon. It was fun to lie there and look up at the sky, occasionally jumping off the dune. Then we went back to the vans and drove back to camp and went to bed.
2009. Elder Tamblyn and I went to the Families Forever LDS bookstore. I wanted to get another Cherie Call CD. I knew I liked "Somebody Else's Shoes," so I wanted to get The Ocean in Me. When I went to check out, the owner told me she had a new one, if I wanted to listen to it, but I knew what I wanted. (That turned out to be a good choice; I like The Ocean in Me more than Grace, and it's more fitting for missionaries.) I remember thinking that "One Good Woman" seemed kind of fitting for Thanksgiving, and "More Than Enough" was kind of weird. (Now it's my favorite.) I think we went to Dairy Queen, but they didn't have anything in season, so I didn't have anything. Then we went to Lewis-Clark State College for email.
2008. I remember going tracting after church, and no one was home. Someone in a yellow house didn't answer. I think someone mentioned it being football or something that stopped people from answering or being home. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Exactly one year ago I was at the temple for the first time, complete with my slightly black fingernails before going to El Matador with the family.
"Today few people were home. Not a single person answered as we tracted, although we know one person was home. No one had us for dinner, and it got dark early, so we didn't know what to do.
"I bore my testimony today, which is a lot easier in a branch. Elder Love implied he might be leaving and worried everyone. I don't want him to go."
2007. I remember reading Boyd K. Packer's pamphlet "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple" before I had to leave to go to the temple. I eventually got dressed, and we went to the temple. Also getting his endowment that day was Ben Poulsen, whom I knew from high school. In the celestial room, my mom said we would come another time when our fingernails weren't black, since we had polished them for Halloween and not everything had come off. Afterwards, we all went to El Matador for dinner. After dinner, we took my cousins to our house. I was listening to the Corpse Bride soundtrack; Jesse recognized it. We got talking about how I can see sounds and I said I liked the blue songs on the soundtrack more than the orange songs, and Jesse didn't understand why I would like those songs better. When we got to our house, I showed them my Jack Skellington jack-o-lantern. After they left, I talked with my parents about how the next day we would be going to Nevada to help my cousin April pack up some stuff.
2006. I think my parents went down to Fillmore, since my grandma had just died. Sue and her sons came and visited Preston and Ya-ping. As they were leaving, Allie pointed to her rotting jack-o-lantern and said, "My [pumpkin's] mouth's having issues!" Sue found that hilarious.
2004. My chemistry teacher, Mrs. Duffin, drew some red and blue stars on the whiteboard with a note that said, "Vote today! If you are 18 (and registered)".
2002. We woke up in our Taiwan hotel rooms and got ready for the day. We went outside, and I remember looking up at the palm trees and thinking, "Wow, we're really in Taiwan!" We drove somewhere (maybe to get breakfast) with Donna, our tour guide, and we passed David (Elder Melville) and his companion talking to someone by a gas station. Then we went and talked to him. It was the first time we had seen him for two years. He was amazed at how much taller I'd gotten. I think that he invited my parents to go to teaching appointments that night--my dad to his appointment, and my mom with the sisters. My sister and I stayed at our hotel and watched TV.
2012. I got up early in the morning and grabbed my tent and my bag and walked up to the Eyring. It was annoying walking up with all that stuff. I crammed my stuff in one of the geology vans and noticed our professor's Antarctica bag. We eventually loaded into the vans and were on our way. I rode in the van the TA was driving and our professor, Jani Radebaugh, was riding shotgun. She would periodically get on the walkie-talkies to point out things on our drive, such as faceted spurs near Spanish Fork, cinder cones near Delta, and some alluvial fans. I sat in the back near my classmate Cameron. At one point Jani asked if any of us had had field camp. I didn't know that in the geology department, "field camp" means Geology 410; I thought it meant 210, the class that I took just this summer. I started going off on how I wanted to take it but didn't know if I could, when in fact 410 has never been a class I have intended to take. Michael Arnold (the TA's brother) kept asking Jani questions. We got off in St. George to have lunch. While we were driving through St. George, another van put "Call Me Maybe" on the walkie-talkies. We stopped at a stake center across from the St. George temple, and I remember thinking about how it didn't feel like November there. Michael and I went into the temple visitors' center to use the restroom. The volunteers asked about us, so we explained we were from BYU. While we were at the visitors' center, the others had put out our lunch--lots of sandwiches and lots of chips. Then we got back in the vans and continued driving. I think we stopped at a gas station near Vegas. On this trip, my classmate Trevor was playing music from his iPod via a device that "broadcast" to the radio; he played Imagine Dragons, and it was the first time I had heard them. I liked them, and I didn't know they were local until Trevor mentioned it. Eventually we made it to the park. Jani was pointing out desert varnish (I think) and told us how the area had once been used to mine Borax. We drove up a steep hill, and when we got out at the top, Jani said, "Welcome to Death Valley, everyone!" Some people said jokingly, "Oh, is that where we are?" They had never officially told us where we were going, but many of us had heard it from other people. We were at a place called Dante's view.
2009. Elder Tamblyn and I went to the Families Forever LDS bookstore. I wanted to get another Cherie Call CD. I knew I liked "Somebody Else's Shoes," so I wanted to get The Ocean in Me. When I went to check out, the owner told me she had a new one, if I wanted to listen to it, but I knew what I wanted. (That turned out to be a good choice; I like The Ocean in Me more than Grace, and it's more fitting for missionaries.) I remember thinking that "One Good Woman" seemed kind of fitting for Thanksgiving, and "More Than Enough" was kind of weird. (Now it's my favorite.) I think we went to Dairy Queen, but they didn't have anything in season, so I didn't have anything. Then we went to Lewis-Clark State College for email.
2008. I remember going tracting after church, and no one was home. Someone in a yellow house didn't answer. I think someone mentioned it being football or something that stopped people from answering or being home. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Exactly one year ago I was at the temple for the first time, complete with my slightly black fingernails before going to El Matador with the family.
"Today few people were home. Not a single person answered as we tracted, although we know one person was home. No one had us for dinner, and it got dark early, so we didn't know what to do.
"I bore my testimony today, which is a lot easier in a branch. Elder Love implied he might be leaving and worried everyone. I don't want him to go."
2007. I remember reading Boyd K. Packer's pamphlet "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple" before I had to leave to go to the temple. I eventually got dressed, and we went to the temple. Also getting his endowment that day was Ben Poulsen, whom I knew from high school. In the celestial room, my mom said we would come another time when our fingernails weren't black, since we had polished them for Halloween and not everything had come off. Afterwards, we all went to El Matador for dinner. After dinner, we took my cousins to our house. I was listening to the Corpse Bride soundtrack; Jesse recognized it. We got talking about how I can see sounds and I said I liked the blue songs on the soundtrack more than the orange songs, and Jesse didn't understand why I would like those songs better. When we got to our house, I showed them my Jack Skellington jack-o-lantern. After they left, I talked with my parents about how the next day we would be going to Nevada to help my cousin April pack up some stuff.
2006. I think my parents went down to Fillmore, since my grandma had just died. Sue and her sons came and visited Preston and Ya-ping. As they were leaving, Allie pointed to her rotting jack-o-lantern and said, "My [pumpkin's] mouth's having issues!" Sue found that hilarious.
2004. My chemistry teacher, Mrs. Duffin, drew some red and blue stars on the whiteboard with a note that said, "Vote today! If you are 18 (and registered)".
2002. We woke up in our Taiwan hotel rooms and got ready for the day. We went outside, and I remember looking up at the palm trees and thinking, "Wow, we're really in Taiwan!" We drove somewhere (maybe to get breakfast) with Donna, our tour guide, and we passed David (Elder Melville) and his companion talking to someone by a gas station. Then we went and talked to him. It was the first time we had seen him for two years. He was amazed at how much taller I'd gotten. I think that he invited my parents to go to teaching appointments that night--my dad to his appointment, and my mom with the sisters. My sister and I stayed at our hotel and watched TV.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
October 29
This time I'm going to remember what I can about two days before Halloween.
2012. Our ward was having a Halloween party over in Kiwanis park, so I donned my red shorts, black-and-red skull shirt, cape, and vampire teeth. I walked over to Kiwanis, and some people I passed complimented me for my costume. When I thanked them, they saw my teeth and were impressed. When I got to the party, there were few people in costumes. Joel DeVore was making hot dogs. I talked with my home teacher Westin and his friend Lisa. Somehow the term "phonology" came up, and that reminded Westin of "phrenology," and he told me he heard about phrenology being applied to Joseph Smith. Our activities committee announced that they wanted to show Hocus Pocus but couldn't find it, so they were watching Young Frankenstein instead. I didn't want to watch Hocus Pocus, but Young Frankenstein was even worse, so I left. As I was walking home, I noticed that the Mountain West Burrito was having a party--apparently it was their grand opening. I went home and turned on my computer. I was listening to "Alejandro" when our home teachers came by. They visited for a while. I had invited my horse friend Kristen to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas that night, and she came when the home teachers were still there. Eventually they left, and I started the movie. There was something weird with the sound. Another horse, Carissa, knocked on our door, so we invited her in and she watched the movie with us. During "Jack's Lament," my roommate Bryton fixed the sound. After the movie, I asked the three how they liked it (since they hadn't seen it), and they didn't like it as much as I do.
2011. In the morning, I went with my parents first to Winegar's grocery store. They went into America First and made their final house payment. The teller drew confetti and balloons on the receipt. My mom wanted to keep the receipt, but I don't think she did, just leaving it in the Suburban. After that, we went to the new movie theater in Centerville to see Puss in Boots. I waited for the credits because I feel that that's the true end of a movie, I wanted to see if there were any special features, and I wanted to learn who was singing at the end of the movie. Then we went to Walmart. We got Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters and I got caramel-apple-flavored cereal. After that, my parents went to Home Depot (I think to buy a mirror) but Allie and I stayed in the car. Then we went to Dairy Queen for lunch. I asked if I could get a pumpkin pie Blizzard with my meal, but the cashier couldn't understand me and my mom had to "translate."
2010. This might have been the day that "The Monster Mash" played on the country station at work, and my coworker Brandon rejoiced that they played a classic Halloween song. We would have swept up at the end of the shift, and the brooms always made me think of witches, and I may have thought about how the next time I came to work, Halloween would be over.
2009. I remember going to rake leaves at Sister Carter's house. She had Halloween cookies from the store. There were bat cookies, and I found it strange that they were white. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we did some of sacred planning but Elder Tamblyn was feeling out of it. Then we ate at Sister Carter's. Too many leaves stopped the mower so I raked instead. There were a lot and we didn't finish.
"We were late to Deana's appointment so we didn't get to teach her. We tracted a little bit and saw some potentials. It was cold and misty all day. After dinner we tracted some more and such. We visited Tyson next door and found out Kim's being kicked out. Then we stopped at the Coopers' before our lesson with Mallary."
2008. We had spent the night in the house Sister Stackhouse was moving out of. I got up and ate Boo Berry cereal for breakfast. Elder Love noticed beer in the fridge and said that Sister Stackhouse would be mad about that (that might have happened the night before). I think Sister Stackhouse might have come later to move some things out. That day we were moving a pile of dirt for Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active member. While we did so, I played all of The Nightmare Before Christmas in my head, just to see if I could. Sister Coultas made us tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches for lunch. After that, we drove back to Ritzville. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Exactly one year ago today I was buying my temple clothes in a pumpkin shirt. I got up early to go to the store, and bought lots of candy. I can't believe how long it's been.
"We helped Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active, by moving a large pile of dirt underneath her fence. That took a while but she made us lunch. We briefly helped Sister Stackhouse as well.
"Then we came back down to Ritzville. We tried to see a few people. The Carletons talked to us for a while. They're some of those digressing people. Then we saw Crystal--it was Edward's birthday--and went over the branch list with Brother Andrus, whose wife had her name removed."
2007. That morning I got up early and my mom and I went to Target because she wanted to buy my sister a Wii for Christmas. I remember waiting for it to open and discussing with another woman about how we had to wait until Monday since we didn't shop on Sunday. When we went in, all the Wiis were gone, but some other waiting customers were able to get their X-Box Guitar Heros. We looked at the Halloween stuff and I got a jack-o-lantern fleece blanket. We got a white pumpkin so I could carve it as Jack Skellington. I noticed candy cane Kisses, so we got those as well (I was less strict back then about things being in season). Then we went to Shopko. We looked at their clearance Halloween stuff. We got a silly bat decoration that descended on a string and made noises as it did so. Later that day we went to the Distribution Center so I could get fitted for my temple clothes. One of the workers complimented my jack-o-lantern shirt.
2003. I think I was with my mom and we were buying things for me to take the the seminary "extended devotional" (party) the next day.
1999. This was the school Halloween parade. I wore my ridiculous chess piece costume--a white robe and a white face with a cross on my head. Cody Egbert in my class was dressed as the devil. As we passed by the sixth-grade classes, I heard Mrs. MacAdams say I should go by the devil--that was the first time I realized people might misinterpret my costume. We got little trick-or-treat bags, and Hillary Ulmer wanted to use hers to hold her pretend knife. That might have been the night that I remember watching one of the Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons in the kitchen, and then later my mom turned off the lights and screamed. We asked what she was doing, and she said she thought it was Halloweeny.
1994. My mom took my cousins to the hospital so they could see their new brother, Quin. After we got there and they saw the baby, Wayne told my cousins that there were donuts they could have, and Chancey and Jesse were excited. Then they told me I could have one too, and I was excited.
2012. Our ward was having a Halloween party over in Kiwanis park, so I donned my red shorts, black-and-red skull shirt, cape, and vampire teeth. I walked over to Kiwanis, and some people I passed complimented me for my costume. When I thanked them, they saw my teeth and were impressed. When I got to the party, there were few people in costumes. Joel DeVore was making hot dogs. I talked with my home teacher Westin and his friend Lisa. Somehow the term "phonology" came up, and that reminded Westin of "phrenology," and he told me he heard about phrenology being applied to Joseph Smith. Our activities committee announced that they wanted to show Hocus Pocus but couldn't find it, so they were watching Young Frankenstein instead. I didn't want to watch Hocus Pocus, but Young Frankenstein was even worse, so I left. As I was walking home, I noticed that the Mountain West Burrito was having a party--apparently it was their grand opening. I went home and turned on my computer. I was listening to "Alejandro" when our home teachers came by. They visited for a while. I had invited my horse friend Kristen to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas that night, and she came when the home teachers were still there. Eventually they left, and I started the movie. There was something weird with the sound. Another horse, Carissa, knocked on our door, so we invited her in and she watched the movie with us. During "Jack's Lament," my roommate Bryton fixed the sound. After the movie, I asked the three how they liked it (since they hadn't seen it), and they didn't like it as much as I do.
2011. In the morning, I went with my parents first to Winegar's grocery store. They went into America First and made their final house payment. The teller drew confetti and balloons on the receipt. My mom wanted to keep the receipt, but I don't think she did, just leaving it in the Suburban. After that, we went to the new movie theater in Centerville to see Puss in Boots. I waited for the credits because I feel that that's the true end of a movie, I wanted to see if there were any special features, and I wanted to learn who was singing at the end of the movie. Then we went to Walmart. We got Halloween candy for trick-or-treaters and I got caramel-apple-flavored cereal. After that, my parents went to Home Depot (I think to buy a mirror) but Allie and I stayed in the car. Then we went to Dairy Queen for lunch. I asked if I could get a pumpkin pie Blizzard with my meal, but the cashier couldn't understand me and my mom had to "translate."
2010. This might have been the day that "The Monster Mash" played on the country station at work, and my coworker Brandon rejoiced that they played a classic Halloween song. We would have swept up at the end of the shift, and the brooms always made me think of witches, and I may have thought about how the next time I came to work, Halloween would be over.
2009. I remember going to rake leaves at Sister Carter's house. She had Halloween cookies from the store. There were bat cookies, and I found it strange that they were white. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we did some of sacred planning but Elder Tamblyn was feeling out of it. Then we ate at Sister Carter's. Too many leaves stopped the mower so I raked instead. There were a lot and we didn't finish.
"We were late to Deana's appointment so we didn't get to teach her. We tracted a little bit and saw some potentials. It was cold and misty all day. After dinner we tracted some more and such. We visited Tyson next door and found out Kim's being kicked out. Then we stopped at the Coopers' before our lesson with Mallary."
2008. We had spent the night in the house Sister Stackhouse was moving out of. I got up and ate Boo Berry cereal for breakfast. Elder Love noticed beer in the fridge and said that Sister Stackhouse would be mad about that (that might have happened the night before). I think Sister Stackhouse might have come later to move some things out. That day we were moving a pile of dirt for Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active member. While we did so, I played all of The Nightmare Before Christmas in my head, just to see if I could. Sister Coultas made us tomato soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches for lunch. After that, we drove back to Ritzville. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Exactly one year ago today I was buying my temple clothes in a pumpkin shirt. I got up early to go to the store, and bought lots of candy. I can't believe how long it's been.
"We helped Jean Saunders Coultas, a less-active, by moving a large pile of dirt underneath her fence. That took a while but she made us lunch. We briefly helped Sister Stackhouse as well.
"Then we came back down to Ritzville. We tried to see a few people. The Carletons talked to us for a while. They're some of those digressing people. Then we saw Crystal--it was Edward's birthday--and went over the branch list with Brother Andrus, whose wife had her name removed."
2007. That morning I got up early and my mom and I went to Target because she wanted to buy my sister a Wii for Christmas. I remember waiting for it to open and discussing with another woman about how we had to wait until Monday since we didn't shop on Sunday. When we went in, all the Wiis were gone, but some other waiting customers were able to get their X-Box Guitar Heros. We looked at the Halloween stuff and I got a jack-o-lantern fleece blanket. We got a white pumpkin so I could carve it as Jack Skellington. I noticed candy cane Kisses, so we got those as well (I was less strict back then about things being in season). Then we went to Shopko. We looked at their clearance Halloween stuff. We got a silly bat decoration that descended on a string and made noises as it did so. Later that day we went to the Distribution Center so I could get fitted for my temple clothes. One of the workers complimented my jack-o-lantern shirt.
2003. I think I was with my mom and we were buying things for me to take the the seminary "extended devotional" (party) the next day.
1999. This was the school Halloween parade. I wore my ridiculous chess piece costume--a white robe and a white face with a cross on my head. Cody Egbert in my class was dressed as the devil. As we passed by the sixth-grade classes, I heard Mrs. MacAdams say I should go by the devil--that was the first time I realized people might misinterpret my costume. We got little trick-or-treat bags, and Hillary Ulmer wanted to use hers to hold her pretend knife. That might have been the night that I remember watching one of the Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons in the kitchen, and then later my mom turned off the lights and screamed. We asked what she was doing, and she said she thought it was Halloweeny.
1994. My mom took my cousins to the hospital so they could see their new brother, Quin. After we got there and they saw the baby, Wayne told my cousins that there were donuts they could have, and Chancey and Jesse were excited. Then they told me I could have one too, and I was excited.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
October 28
As we get closer to Halloween, it's time for me to remember what happened three days before All Hallows' Eve.
2012. I wore my jack-o-lantern tie to church. As I came home with my roommate Scott, we saw some people putting up lights on the house across the street. I probably had leftover pizza for dinner. That night I wrote a blog post.
2011. I would have watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and I wrote a blog post.
2009. We had to get up at 1:00 a.m. to drive from Clarkston to Spokane in order to go to the temple. An old man from the Clarkston elders' ward worked there, so he was driving us. I tried to sleep in the car, but it didn't work. When we got to the temple, he went in for meetings, while we missionaries slept in the van. That was the only time I was really able to fall asleep. Then we went in. Since we were dependent on riding back with that brother, we were there long enough to do two sessions. After one of them, I talked to some members of my first area, but they didn't really remember me. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories instead of another endowment session, which annoyed the temple workers. I wasn't able to stay awake very well. After we were done, Elder Masten had a conversation with one of the temple workers about wrestling (I won't describe how that one came about). Then the member we were with took us to Denny's. (That's one thing I miss--free meals all the time.) We drove back through Idaho, and the member had to stop at the cabin of his son, or something like that. Elder Critchfield went in with him while the rest of us slept in the car. It took a long time, which annoyed us, because we were losing valuable P-day time. They finally came out, and they had a stinking garbage bag with rotted turkey meat. Elder Critchfield held it out the window while we drove to the nearest Dumpster. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very loong day. Elder Critchfield had told us we would have to leave at 4:00 A.M. But he was wrong. We had to leave at 2:00. If I had known it was going to be that early I probably would have declined. I had a hard time sleeping on the way up. We got to the temple about 4:30, and slept in the car until about 5:30. That was the only time I could actually sleep and it wasn't long enough.
"We did a 6:00 session. President (now Brother) Wells, Brother Jones, and Brother (now President) Grimes from my first area were there. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories while Elder Tamblyn [I meant Masten] and I did another session. I had a harder time focusing in that one as the hunger and fatigue were getting to me. On the way out I saw Ashley Guiler's fellowshipper from the Greenbluff ward (I can't remember his name).
"We went to Denny's, and then headed back. I slept a little better, but we were waylaid because we stopped at our ride's son-in-law's house. Elder Critchfield went in with him and over an hour later they came out with a bag of stinky, rotting meat.
"When we got back we only had time to shop. Then we saw Elijah, then the Hugheses. We put on thermals, and saw a PI named Melissa, then visited the Loves, then met with Bishop.
"I have understandably been tired all day."
2008. We had zone conference up near Deer Park. I think when we got there, Sister Shaw was singing in the chapel, and I thought it was an elder with a tenor voice. When we got in line to greet President Clark, he told me that "Sister Turnbridge got baptized." I didn't know what he was talking about, but eventually I realized he meant Kristi Turnidge, whom we had taught and who got married to the less-active Brother Turnidge right before I transferred out of my first area. There are other things I remember, but my journal describes them pretty well:
"Today is my eleven month mark. Exactly one year ago, I taught nursery for the last time, giving out pumpkin candy to the kids.
"This morning (and afternoon) we drove through Mead. It's mostly as I remembered, except for a few things. The Pehl house, the home of the murder, is now remodeled. A church being built then is now complete. Signs are plastered saying the contract for the big freeway is complete.
"President Clark told me that Kristy Turnidge got baptized in Montana. At first I didn't know whom he meant because he said "Sister Turnbridge." Also he asked for people who know Spanish, so I told him I did. All of our MTC group was there; it was Northland and Spokane zones. Sister Van Noy badly wanted a picture but Elder Maxfield and Elder Hansen both left before we could take it. [We did take a picture of just three of us, but that picture apparently is on the one memory card I haven't been able to find from my mission.]
"Elder Hightower came up to hug me while I was next to President. I didn't hug back and President tried to get me to, but I said I didn't like to hug. Then President lifted his elbow and said touching elbows will be our hug replacement. He can be kind of silly sometimes. I feel a lot less uncomfortable around him.
"Elder Condie tried to hug me, but I blocked him and told him to get his claws off of me.
"On our way back from Airway Heights, where we stayed last night, we saw Joel in Reardan. Then we decided to see some distant potentials near Davenport. We entered a shady gully with lots of trees. It was more like someplace up north of Spokane. It was too dark to determine the house we needed, but now we know where it is.
"Right now we're staying at Sister Stackhouse's old house. It's not the cleanest."
2007. It was my turn to teach nursery. The lesson was "I can be honest," so I decided to test their honesty by giving them candy pumpkins and then asking who didn't get one. Only one kid said they didn't get one, but I think they were too young to really know what they were saying. I also brought jack-o-lantern pictures for them to color, but apparently that was too sacrilegious and some other teachers printed off pictures that said "I can be honest." They let them color the pumpkins at the end of nursery.
2006. My dad had considered going to Fillmore, but my sister convinced him otherwise. My family had made brownies, and I tried to come up with excuses to eat them. There was a Munsters marathon that day, and we also watched Frankenweenie. I think we vacuumed the basement.
1995. I went to Boo at the Zoo with my cousins. I was wearing my mummy costume. They gave us little plastic trick-or-treat bags that had a picture of a witch made out of candy on them. We kids filled our bags, and my brother David got a solitary piece of candy near the butterfly exhibit. I remember talking with Chancey near the fish exhibit, near the place with the fake jail. Later we got our faces painted; I told the woman I wanted a mummy on my face. Then we went to my grandparents' house. They had a fire going, and I remember thinking that we couldn't get the balloons near the fire, because they would pop.
1994. David was having his birthday party with a few friends, playing video games. I remember they had some Doritos that had a Halloween picture on the bag. My cousins were also all there, because their mom was having a baby.
2012. I wore my jack-o-lantern tie to church. As I came home with my roommate Scott, we saw some people putting up lights on the house across the street. I probably had leftover pizza for dinner. That night I wrote a blog post.
2011. I would have watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and I wrote a blog post.
2009. We had to get up at 1:00 a.m. to drive from Clarkston to Spokane in order to go to the temple. An old man from the Clarkston elders' ward worked there, so he was driving us. I tried to sleep in the car, but it didn't work. When we got to the temple, he went in for meetings, while we missionaries slept in the van. That was the only time I was really able to fall asleep. Then we went in. Since we were dependent on riding back with that brother, we were there long enough to do two sessions. After one of them, I talked to some members of my first area, but they didn't really remember me. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories instead of another endowment session, which annoyed the temple workers. I wasn't able to stay awake very well. After we were done, Elder Masten had a conversation with one of the temple workers about wrestling (I won't describe how that one came about). Then the member we were with took us to Denny's. (That's one thing I miss--free meals all the time.) We drove back through Idaho, and the member had to stop at the cabin of his son, or something like that. Elder Critchfield went in with him while the rest of us slept in the car. It took a long time, which annoyed us, because we were losing valuable P-day time. They finally came out, and they had a stinking garbage bag with rotted turkey meat. Elder Critchfield held it out the window while we drove to the nearest Dumpster. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very loong day. Elder Critchfield had told us we would have to leave at 4:00 A.M. But he was wrong. We had to leave at 2:00. If I had known it was going to be that early I probably would have declined. I had a hard time sleeping on the way up. We got to the temple about 4:30, and slept in the car until about 5:30. That was the only time I could actually sleep and it wasn't long enough.
"We did a 6:00 session. President (now Brother) Wells, Brother Jones, and Brother (now President) Grimes from my first area were there. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories while Elder Tamblyn [I meant Masten] and I did another session. I had a harder time focusing in that one as the hunger and fatigue were getting to me. On the way out I saw Ashley Guiler's fellowshipper from the Greenbluff ward (I can't remember his name).
"We went to Denny's, and then headed back. I slept a little better, but we were waylaid because we stopped at our ride's son-in-law's house. Elder Critchfield went in with him and over an hour later they came out with a bag of stinky, rotting meat.
"When we got back we only had time to shop. Then we saw Elijah, then the Hugheses. We put on thermals, and saw a PI named Melissa, then visited the Loves, then met with Bishop.
"I have understandably been tired all day."
2008. We had zone conference up near Deer Park. I think when we got there, Sister Shaw was singing in the chapel, and I thought it was an elder with a tenor voice. When we got in line to greet President Clark, he told me that "Sister Turnbridge got baptized." I didn't know what he was talking about, but eventually I realized he meant Kristi Turnidge, whom we had taught and who got married to the less-active Brother Turnidge right before I transferred out of my first area. There are other things I remember, but my journal describes them pretty well:
"Today is my eleven month mark. Exactly one year ago, I taught nursery for the last time, giving out pumpkin candy to the kids.
"This morning (and afternoon) we drove through Mead. It's mostly as I remembered, except for a few things. The Pehl house, the home of the murder, is now remodeled. A church being built then is now complete. Signs are plastered saying the contract for the big freeway is complete.
"President Clark told me that Kristy Turnidge got baptized in Montana. At first I didn't know whom he meant because he said "Sister Turnbridge." Also he asked for people who know Spanish, so I told him I did. All of our MTC group was there; it was Northland and Spokane zones. Sister Van Noy badly wanted a picture but Elder Maxfield and Elder Hansen both left before we could take it. [We did take a picture of just three of us, but that picture apparently is on the one memory card I haven't been able to find from my mission.]
"Elder Hightower came up to hug me while I was next to President. I didn't hug back and President tried to get me to, but I said I didn't like to hug. Then President lifted his elbow and said touching elbows will be our hug replacement. He can be kind of silly sometimes. I feel a lot less uncomfortable around him.
"Elder Condie tried to hug me, but I blocked him and told him to get his claws off of me.
"On our way back from Airway Heights, where we stayed last night, we saw Joel in Reardan. Then we decided to see some distant potentials near Davenport. We entered a shady gully with lots of trees. It was more like someplace up north of Spokane. It was too dark to determine the house we needed, but now we know where it is.
"Right now we're staying at Sister Stackhouse's old house. It's not the cleanest."
2007. It was my turn to teach nursery. The lesson was "I can be honest," so I decided to test their honesty by giving them candy pumpkins and then asking who didn't get one. Only one kid said they didn't get one, but I think they were too young to really know what they were saying. I also brought jack-o-lantern pictures for them to color, but apparently that was too sacrilegious and some other teachers printed off pictures that said "I can be honest." They let them color the pumpkins at the end of nursery.
2006. My dad had considered going to Fillmore, but my sister convinced him otherwise. My family had made brownies, and I tried to come up with excuses to eat them. There was a Munsters marathon that day, and we also watched Frankenweenie. I think we vacuumed the basement.
1995. I went to Boo at the Zoo with my cousins. I was wearing my mummy costume. They gave us little plastic trick-or-treat bags that had a picture of a witch made out of candy on them. We kids filled our bags, and my brother David got a solitary piece of candy near the butterfly exhibit. I remember talking with Chancey near the fish exhibit, near the place with the fake jail. Later we got our faces painted; I told the woman I wanted a mummy on my face. Then we went to my grandparents' house. They had a fire going, and I remember thinking that we couldn't get the balloons near the fire, because they would pop.
1994. David was having his birthday party with a few friends, playing video games. I remember they had some Doritos that had a Halloween picture on the bag. My cousins were also all there, because their mom was having a baby.
Sunday, October 6, 2013
October 27
October 27 is my brother's birthday, but since he doesn't live in Utah anymore, it's more like four days before Halloween to me. I'm going to remember what I can about it.
2012. In the morning I dressed up in my blue sweater and went up to the Wilk because we were helping out at a Relief Society brunch. When we showed up, a lot of the other elders were already helping. Matt Markham said he had worked catering at BYU-Hawaii. My roommate Bryton and I went with Angie, the Relief Society President, to get some ice from the Cougareat. Somehow we got to talking to Angie about my Halloween shows--I would be watching the original Frankenweenie that day. I mentioned that the previous night's show had been It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Angie said she loved A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bryton and I went back and filled pitchers with pink lemonade. Eventually it was time for the big reveal of who it was who had prepared the food and who was serving the sisters, and we elders all came out. We got to eat the salad after they had been served. There was a lot of salad on the plates, and I didn't care to finish mine once I had finished the chicken in it, since the salad was mostly cabbage. Then we had to go serve the cookies. The only ones I could eat were pumpkin sugar cookies. I ate a lot of them and took one home. Bryton and I walked home with Jenny Stevens. Then that afternoon I changed to go running. After that, I went shopping. I might have gone to K-mart for some reason. I went to Papa Murphy's and got a jack-o-lantern pizza. While I was down in that part of Provo, I saw a car with a license plate from American Samoa. I went to Smith's and bought some chocolates that I could give to potential trick-or-treaters but that would also be suitable for Thanksgiving. I came home and cooked my pizza and offered it to my roommate Cameron and his friend Stephanie (they had bought Taylor Swift's Red album that day). That night I watched Frankenweenie, but I think no one else was home to watch it with me.
2011. I think this might have been the day that there was a chili party at work. Before the time of the party, our leads were going around and telling everyone that they could go clock out and go home after the party. They didn't tell me, but I wondered if they would, and I didn't want to clock out and then have to go back and turn on my headset again just to log out. So I asked the leads if they wanted me to go home too, and they said I could, but they seemed hesitant. At the party, I was in line after my coworker Michelle and our lead Scott; I was telling them how I had a dream about our size-42 boxes. There were Costco cakes with red, orange, and yellow decorations on top. Michelle knew about and was amused by my dessert habits, and I explained that I could have the cake because it had fall colors on it. Later she went back for more cake and I asked her to bring me one. I think I preferred orange, but any color would do.
2009. I remember that we were going to the temple, so we had to go to the Clarkston elders' home. After our day of proselyting, we went there, and when we got there we learned that we had to get up at 1:00 a.m., even though Elder Critchfield had previously told us that we would have to get up at 3:00. I also realized that I hadn't brought a long-sleeve shirt, so one of the elders told me that I could use one of his.
2008. I think I bought Boo Berry cereal from Walmart. We would have gone to Washington State University to email, and I wrote the following letters:
"It is fun to walk the streets through the leaves. They all gather in the curbs and on the edges of sidewalks and they are very fun to kick. I can't believe November is almost here, but November is my second-favorite month.
"We do walk around generally when we are in our towns. Everything is so close together that we don't feel we need our bikes too much, and also we are in a top apartment so we don't feel like taking our bikes up and down the stairs all the time (I don't think there's a place to park our bikes). I actually still have my wheels separate from my bike from the transfer. And it could get annoying to have to transfer our bikes on the bike rack every few days. We do have a full-time car, but we have to use it to get from town to town, not from house to house (although actually we did go farm tracting the other day--knock on one house and drive to the next). Ritzville is about fifty miles from Cheney and Davenport, and Davenport is about forty miles from Cheney. Then it seems all the other small towns are twelve miles from our main small towns. We get 1600 miles a month, and we're doing very well this month. I'm worried for November to come because then we have to be careful again. We're due for a new car sometime soon because the Church likes to sell them before 50,000 miles and we hit that on Saturday, I think. The office missionary in charge of cars says he has some older cars he has to sell first and then he'll get ours.
"Exactly one year ago today was my first day of freedom from Wal-Mart (today at the store I saw all the new 'associates' being trained and my heart went out to them) and my official full-time mission prep, not working just to get ready for my mission. We practiced my bike riding and carved pumpkins. Tomorrow I hit eleven months. It is Zone Conference tomorrow, and to get there we will be driving through Mead. It will be fun to go through my "greenie area" again. Actually all of us English missionaries who came to Spokane from our MTC group will be at the same conference--it's two zones and all five of us are in those two zones--Spokane, which includes Ritzville, Davenport, Cheney, and the main part of Spokane and surrounding areas; and Northland, which includes northern Spokane, Mead, Deer Park, Chewelah, and Colville. (All these cities probably mean nothing to you.) Ah! Memories abound this week. Last year's Halloween was probably my favorite one that I've had.
"I think I will send home my birthday check to you, and write Grandma and Grandpa today. It's weird to think that I'm still expecting a birthday package, because I've completely forgotten about my birthday.
"So I'm confused as to whether Allie's Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. I still think her witch costume when she was two was the best. And I'm kind of missing my fantastic cape.
"I'm going to email Dave today, so I'll close now.
"Love and Happy Halloween,
"Elder Melville"
"I forgot a few little anecdotes about this week.
"Last Monday we got back home and an ambulance was there. Brother Herron, with whom we live, had been vomiting blood quite profusely, and was in the hospital for a few days after. That night we had to have a ten-minute dinner twelve miles away so we could come back and give him a blessing. He's doing better now but still not feeling the greatest.
"The next day we went to Reardan, a small town, and we showed up at an investigator's house just as their dog was dying. We have impeccable timing.
"A lighter--but grosser--dog story has to do with an investigator named Crystal. Her grandma is active; her dad is an active recent convert. Her mom, Lucretia (sp) was ex'ed but still believes the Gospel. Both Lucretia and Crystal like us teaching them, and we were at Crystal's house teaching. She has a very rambunctious son, Edward, who is almost three. Among the three houses of Crystal, Lucretia, and the Calloways, there are many, many, many kittens and dogs (I've seen more kittens in this area than in my entire mission). Edward was playing with a puppy behind Elder Love (we were sitting on a bed used as a couch), hitting it on the head and trying to resist my protective measures for the dog. Suddenly Elder Love stood up, and a yellowish liquid was on the bed. So after visiting with them he changed his pants. But the problem is there are no dry cleaners around here. None in Ritzville, none in Davenport, none in Cheney. So he won't be able to wear those slacks for a while.
"Just thought I'd give you another random note!
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
2007. In the morning we went down to Orchard Elementary so that I could practice biking. It was the first time I was actually able to bike around, so that was an exciting development. Then we went home and I ate some of the mint Oreos I had bought the night before. We carved pumpkins and I think we watched The Blob, which my dad had rented from Top Hat Video.
2002. I remember emailing David for the last time on his mission. I wrote him a happy birthday/coming home poem. I can't remember all of it, but I remember a few cheesy couplets: "Only six days until I will see you again. I cannot wait until then!" "You'll see our new couch, upholstered in leather. You'll see all your friends, Preston, Michael, and Heather." "You missed our cat Dinah, she ran away, but Jenny also likes to play."
I will probably remember more later. I feel bad that I don't remember more about my brother's birthday, especially since most of what I remember doesn't have to do with him.
2012. In the morning I dressed up in my blue sweater and went up to the Wilk because we were helping out at a Relief Society brunch. When we showed up, a lot of the other elders were already helping. Matt Markham said he had worked catering at BYU-Hawaii. My roommate Bryton and I went with Angie, the Relief Society President, to get some ice from the Cougareat. Somehow we got to talking to Angie about my Halloween shows--I would be watching the original Frankenweenie that day. I mentioned that the previous night's show had been It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Angie said she loved A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bryton and I went back and filled pitchers with pink lemonade. Eventually it was time for the big reveal of who it was who had prepared the food and who was serving the sisters, and we elders all came out. We got to eat the salad after they had been served. There was a lot of salad on the plates, and I didn't care to finish mine once I had finished the chicken in it, since the salad was mostly cabbage. Then we had to go serve the cookies. The only ones I could eat were pumpkin sugar cookies. I ate a lot of them and took one home. Bryton and I walked home with Jenny Stevens. Then that afternoon I changed to go running. After that, I went shopping. I might have gone to K-mart for some reason. I went to Papa Murphy's and got a jack-o-lantern pizza. While I was down in that part of Provo, I saw a car with a license plate from American Samoa. I went to Smith's and bought some chocolates that I could give to potential trick-or-treaters but that would also be suitable for Thanksgiving. I came home and cooked my pizza and offered it to my roommate Cameron and his friend Stephanie (they had bought Taylor Swift's Red album that day). That night I watched Frankenweenie, but I think no one else was home to watch it with me.
2011. I think this might have been the day that there was a chili party at work. Before the time of the party, our leads were going around and telling everyone that they could go clock out and go home after the party. They didn't tell me, but I wondered if they would, and I didn't want to clock out and then have to go back and turn on my headset again just to log out. So I asked the leads if they wanted me to go home too, and they said I could, but they seemed hesitant. At the party, I was in line after my coworker Michelle and our lead Scott; I was telling them how I had a dream about our size-42 boxes. There were Costco cakes with red, orange, and yellow decorations on top. Michelle knew about and was amused by my dessert habits, and I explained that I could have the cake because it had fall colors on it. Later she went back for more cake and I asked her to bring me one. I think I preferred orange, but any color would do.
2009. I remember that we were going to the temple, so we had to go to the Clarkston elders' home. After our day of proselyting, we went there, and when we got there we learned that we had to get up at 1:00 a.m., even though Elder Critchfield had previously told us that we would have to get up at 3:00. I also realized that I hadn't brought a long-sleeve shirt, so one of the elders told me that I could use one of his.
2008. I think I bought Boo Berry cereal from Walmart. We would have gone to Washington State University to email, and I wrote the following letters:
"It is fun to walk the streets through the leaves. They all gather in the curbs and on the edges of sidewalks and they are very fun to kick. I can't believe November is almost here, but November is my second-favorite month.
"We do walk around generally when we are in our towns. Everything is so close together that we don't feel we need our bikes too much, and also we are in a top apartment so we don't feel like taking our bikes up and down the stairs all the time (I don't think there's a place to park our bikes). I actually still have my wheels separate from my bike from the transfer. And it could get annoying to have to transfer our bikes on the bike rack every few days. We do have a full-time car, but we have to use it to get from town to town, not from house to house (although actually we did go farm tracting the other day--knock on one house and drive to the next). Ritzville is about fifty miles from Cheney and Davenport, and Davenport is about forty miles from Cheney. Then it seems all the other small towns are twelve miles from our main small towns. We get 1600 miles a month, and we're doing very well this month. I'm worried for November to come because then we have to be careful again. We're due for a new car sometime soon because the Church likes to sell them before 50,000 miles and we hit that on Saturday, I think. The office missionary in charge of cars says he has some older cars he has to sell first and then he'll get ours.
"Exactly one year ago today was my first day of freedom from Wal-Mart (today at the store I saw all the new 'associates' being trained and my heart went out to them) and my official full-time mission prep, not working just to get ready for my mission. We practiced my bike riding and carved pumpkins. Tomorrow I hit eleven months. It is Zone Conference tomorrow, and to get there we will be driving through Mead. It will be fun to go through my "greenie area" again. Actually all of us English missionaries who came to Spokane from our MTC group will be at the same conference--it's two zones and all five of us are in those two zones--Spokane, which includes Ritzville, Davenport, Cheney, and the main part of Spokane and surrounding areas; and Northland, which includes northern Spokane, Mead, Deer Park, Chewelah, and Colville. (All these cities probably mean nothing to you.) Ah! Memories abound this week. Last year's Halloween was probably my favorite one that I've had.
"I think I will send home my birthday check to you, and write Grandma and Grandpa today. It's weird to think that I'm still expecting a birthday package, because I've completely forgotten about my birthday.
"So I'm confused as to whether Allie's Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. I still think her witch costume when she was two was the best. And I'm kind of missing my fantastic cape.
"I'm going to email Dave today, so I'll close now.
"Love and Happy Halloween,
"Elder Melville"
"I forgot a few little anecdotes about this week.
"Last Monday we got back home and an ambulance was there. Brother Herron, with whom we live, had been vomiting blood quite profusely, and was in the hospital for a few days after. That night we had to have a ten-minute dinner twelve miles away so we could come back and give him a blessing. He's doing better now but still not feeling the greatest.
"The next day we went to Reardan, a small town, and we showed up at an investigator's house just as their dog was dying. We have impeccable timing.
"A lighter--but grosser--dog story has to do with an investigator named Crystal. Her grandma is active; her dad is an active recent convert. Her mom, Lucretia (sp) was ex'ed but still believes the Gospel. Both Lucretia and Crystal like us teaching them, and we were at Crystal's house teaching. She has a very rambunctious son, Edward, who is almost three. Among the three houses of Crystal, Lucretia, and the Calloways, there are many, many, many kittens and dogs (I've seen more kittens in this area than in my entire mission). Edward was playing with a puppy behind Elder Love (we were sitting on a bed used as a couch), hitting it on the head and trying to resist my protective measures for the dog. Suddenly Elder Love stood up, and a yellowish liquid was on the bed. So after visiting with them he changed his pants. But the problem is there are no dry cleaners around here. None in Ritzville, none in Davenport, none in Cheney. So he won't be able to wear those slacks for a while.
"Just thought I'd give you another random note!
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
2007. In the morning we went down to Orchard Elementary so that I could practice biking. It was the first time I was actually able to bike around, so that was an exciting development. Then we went home and I ate some of the mint Oreos I had bought the night before. We carved pumpkins and I think we watched The Blob, which my dad had rented from Top Hat Video.
2002. I remember emailing David for the last time on his mission. I wrote him a happy birthday/coming home poem. I can't remember all of it, but I remember a few cheesy couplets: "Only six days until I will see you again. I cannot wait until then!" "You'll see our new couch, upholstered in leather. You'll see all your friends, Preston, Michael, and Heather." "You missed our cat Dinah, she ran away, but Jenny also likes to play."
I will probably remember more later. I feel bad that I don't remember more about my brother's birthday, especially since most of what I remember doesn't have to do with him.
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