April 23

I'm going to remember as much as I can about April 23. What is significant about April 23, you ask? Well, nothing really, except that I happen to remember things from the last few years about it.

2012. During the day, I gathered my stuff to go back to Provo for spring term. I pulled my bike out of the garage and rode it around the driveway. Then I took the front wheel off so that I could load it into the car. I loaded up and headed out while listening to Taylor Swift's Speak Now album. When I got back into Provo, I stopped at In-N-Out for dinner, since my Distribution job had given me a gift card there for my birthday seven months previously. I kept a close eye on my car, since I didn't want anyone to steal my bike. Then I went back to my apartment and unloaded everything. That night our ward was doing a ward Capture the Flag game, and we were meeting in our parking lot. It was my first time playing Capture the Flag since September 15, 2006 (I think). While we were in the parking lot, we were talking about how warm it was, and I said that that year was the first time that Salt Lake City ever hit 80 degrees during the month of March. We walked up to campus for our game, and on the way my roommate Cameron was talking with Krista Roy about marathons. At first we played near the library, but Bryan Clark and some others were cheating, so we moved the location. TJ Maxwell was wearing a light blue shirt. He was on my team, but there was one point when I was running after him and he had to remind me we were on the same team. I'm a slow runner, so I was unable to get some people, but I did get some. One was easy because he was trying to climb over a wall, and I was able to get him when he came down. Then we went home. I wanted to go running, and I didn't want to drink too much water because I didn't want to have to pee the whole time I was running. It was around 9:00 and I was getting ready to go running when Kat knocked on the door. She invited me to go watch What's Up Doc? with her and some ward members. I really wanted to go running, and after some research I determined that the movie probably didn't fit my standards, so I went running. It was shortly before 10:00. I think I first ran up by the Eyring to see if I could use the restroom there; I can't remember whether it was open. My plan was to run for an hour, and near the end of my run I went down 700 North before coming to my apartment to lengthen my time. I ran past Pickup Place (the house in my ward across from my complex) and Chris Rostrom and some others were standing outside. I didn't feel well, but I looked at my watch and I only needed two more minutes to hit my hour, so I ran past my complex for the final two minutes. But at 59 minutes, I felt even worse, and I knew I had to stop. So I stopped and I wanted to lean against a sign until I felt better. The next thing I knew I could feel my skin breaking, but I didn't care because it felt good to be lying down, taking deep breaths. Then I came out of my less-than-conscious state and thought, "Why am I on the ground?" Then I opened my eyes and thought, "I've got to get out of the middle of the road!" I was glad no cars were around to run me over, and I wondered how I got there, since I was so far from the sign I wanted to lean against. I wondered if anyone had seen me. I walked up to my apartment and got a drink. Instead of doing my usual post-run pushups and situps, I decided to watch Green Acres instead, since I was all scraped up, and I didn't know why I fainted. I made a Facebook status about what happened to me. I was sitting on the couch watching Green Acres when my roommate Cameron came home. He saw me all scraped up and asked me what happened, so I explained. A little later Bryton came home. As he opened the door, he said, "Is someone bleeding?" I said, "Oh, did I get blood on the door?" My hands were bleeding, but I didn't realize that I got blood on the doorknob. I felt kind of bad, but at least I don't have AIDS. I didn't have any bandages of any kind, so I tried to tape some paper towels around my knees. They didn't end up working too well, but maybe it was better than nothing.

2011. This is taken directly from my Day Before Easter post: I actually don't remember much about this day. We got our Easter baskets and Allie got some Disney Princess Squinkies. I suspect this was the time that my aunt and cousins came to our house. My mom gave my cousin Quin the toy sword he had asked her to buy at Disneyland; he began playing with it. We showed them all the Nightmare Before Christmas paraphernalia I got; Quin said, "Best deck of cards ever." This might be the year that when I was watching Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Susanne said that Grandma Judy always let them watch it on TV and she hated it.

2010. It was a rainy Arbor Day. I sat on the couch in the living room and wrote an episode recap for It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown on TV.com. I might have watched that special as well, but I can't remember. I was wearing jeans and a red t-shirt with black collar and sleeves. That evening we had a get-together in honor of my sister's marriage, since she had had an exclusive wedding. When the Thompsons came over, we played Apples to Apples, and then I think we started a game of "ethnic" rummy. A little later my grandparents came over, and so did the Gildersleeves. They had brought Ryan's son Brennon, and I kept asking, "Is this Ryan's kid?" but no one answered me. Allie had fun playing with Brennon, and at some point he tried to kiss her. She was a little weirded out, and Rick Gildersleeve said that Brennon wasn't used to having his kisses rejected. They had been there for some time when my grandparents turned the conversation to how my cousin Tammy's kids had had a lockdown at their school; she had written about it on her blog. My mom asked me to get my laptop. At the mention of my name, Debbie said, "Where is Mark?" since she hadn't seen me since I'd been home from my mission. I stood up and Debbie was surprised. I had been in the room the whole time, but she just thought I was another Thompson. She said, "Well, look at you!" since I was so much thinner than the last time she had seen me. I went upstairs and got my laptop and brought it downstairs. I looked at Tammy's blog and I think I might have looked at some other stuff online. Rhys showed me the burned CD he had brought with him and told me he liked to listen to Marilyn Manson. Later that night, after the Gildersleeves had left, we were all upstairs in the kitchen and talked about Rhys. My mom also mentioned that she thought it was hilarious that Debbie didn't recognize me even though she'd been in the room for so long.

2009. This is what my journal says about the day:
"Today we had cold weather and rain and sleet/hail. We just walked around and most people weren't home. We had a good lesson with the Williamses. I think we'll really be able to help them progress. Their dad basically taught them the law of chastity, and he wants to quit smoking and take the sacrament." 
Ah yes, the Williamses. The Williamses were an inactive family; the parents had been baptized a few years earlier. We were teaching Michael and Travis, who were 9 and 8 respectively; neither of them had been baptized. Our lessons with them were hilarious; they always had fun insights. Brother Williams was a very nice but kind of odd fellow. I vaguely remember this particular lesson. He brought up the story of the woman taken in adultery. He then explained what adultery was; I can't remember whether the kids had asked or if he just decided to explain it to them. Later Elder Kitchen and I talked about how we were glad that he had the chastity talk with them so that we didn't have to.

2008. This is what my journal says about the day:
"We had district meeting this morning. Then we had a long visit with Cindy. She gave us food from Zip's. Then we contacted a referral and hopefully he'll be a new gator tomorrow.

"We taught the Davises and Sister Davis had a seizure while we taught." 
 Oh yes, a bunch of interesting people. Cindy Neely was what we call an eternal investigator. She had been taking lessons off an on for more than ten years but never got baptized. She was an incredibly lazy person and could never give up smoking or leave her low-paying job (which consisted of her doing nothing most of the time, quite literally). My second companion was a bad companion, and we spent way too much time with Cindy. On this occasion, she had just gotten paid, so she asked us if we wanted food from Zip's (a gross, overrated fast food joint in Washington). We went with her there and I kind of felt bad, since Zip's was overpriced and she didn't have a lot of money. But she was very kind. I think that the referral I'm talking about was a man named Jeremiah. He was married to a less-active member. They lived in the massive apartment complex at the southeast corner of our area, and when we knocked on the door, Jeremiah was very nice and invited us in. Then the Davises were an interesting family. The mom had a lot of health problems and had two teenage daughters. Her caretaker, Shane, also lived with them...but we think he may have been more than a caretaker. I can't remember whether this seizure incident was unique or not. I imagine that what happened was that the fourteen-year-old daughter was a little concerned, but the seventeen-year-old daughter and the caretaker weren't too concerned, since she frequently had seizures.

2000. This is taken from my Easter post: Easter dinner was at our house this year. It was supposed to be at 5:00. My mom told me and David she wanted to have a discussion on the true meaning of Easter before everyone came. But before it was even 4:00, the Thompsons all pulled up in their van. I said, "What are they doing here!?" I think I remember wondering why Sue was driving instead of Wayne, because my dad was always the one to drive in my family. Because they arrived early, we didn't get to have our Easter discussion.