September 30

With it almost being my birthday, I found it fitting to remember the various things that have happened on the day after my birthday.

2012. At church, Michael Wyatt was talking to me about something after sacrament meeting. While he was talking to me, Shayli Simmons came up to me and wished me happy birthday. So then when Michael was done talking to me, he also told me happy birthday. After church, I made a blog post.

2011. That night we went to El Matador for my birthday dinner. When we got at the restaurant, I noticed a terrible goathead patch, and Allie was standing in it. I said, "Don't stand on those plants." She said, "Sorry." She probably thought it was because she wasn't supposed to step on them, but I just didn't want her to get them stuck to her shoes. While we were waiting for food, I mentioned that I had the stupid "I Wanna Go" Britney Spears song stuck in my head. Then my mom told Susanne that they had got me Lady Antebellum and Kelly "Clarkston" for my birthday. I said to my mom, "What did you call her?" since she had inserted a t.

2010. I think this was the time my mom and I went down to the Legacy Parkway trail so I could use my new bicycle. I was wearing my Snoopy "Party like a Rockstar" shirt. I think I brought a Gatorade in the car. My mom just walked on the trail while I biked. I was annoyed when I came across some bikers stopped and having a conversation in both lanes of traffic. Another woman alerted me when she was passing me, but I stayed in my lane, although I might have slightly swerved and made it look like I was switching lanes. Then I came home and ate some Jelly Bellys and I think I turned on the TV for some reason. I think I started making pillowcases from the holiday material my mom had bought me.

2008. Elder Duncan and I waited to get the car from the other elders. We were dressed in our suits to go to district meeting, but when the other elders arrived, they asked why we were wearing our suit coats. They told us that district meeting had been moved to Wednesday, but we had missed the memo. Those elders informed us that we still had more than a hundred miles we could use and it was the last day of the month. We worried that if we didn't use our monthly allotment of miles, they would take miles away from us, so we considered going to Waterville, a small town twenty-five miles north. Elder Duncan and I went home and changed our plans for the day. We went through the area book and looked up people we could see in Waterville. Elder Duncan started having second thoughts, but I persuaded him that it was a good idea, since we had never worked in Waterville. Before we left, we fueled up at 7-11 and bought candy for the ride. I got peach rings. It was a nice drive, but I think I was driving slow. We were at a place where the road was curving, and I began singing "The Long and Winding Road." When we got to Waterville, we stopped at a Shell station to see if they had maps of the town. They didn't have any for sale, but they gave us a paper one that wasn't very good. We parked in front of the house of a part-member family. Apparently the wife was semi-active, but I didn't know her. We walked around to try to find people, but we had a hard time figuring out where we were. We wanted to see one less-active who was a mortician, but we could only find the funeral home, and we didn't know how appropriate it was to knock on a funeral home. We looked for one former investigator, but we couldn't find the house. (I later realized what we did wrong.) Later we got back in the car. We went to one house to try to see if they were the right people, but the guy either slammed his door shut when we got out of our car or else was very short when we knocked on the door. That surprised me, since I had this perception that small towns would be more receptive since they didn't have missionaries there as often. (Odessa, WA, and Winchester, ID, later proved to me that that wasn't true.) We stopped at the house of Billy Byington's father, and there were lots of little annoying dogs, but no one was home. Like all small towns, Waterville had its abandoned buildings.

Eventually we left, not having had a terribly productive time in Waterville. But I figured that it would be a good way for us to be familiar with the town for the next time we went up there (but I was transferred the next week and never went back until I drove through the town after my mission). I was driving when I realized I hadn't put on my prescription sunglasses, so Elder Duncan opened them for me so I could trade glasses while I was driving. While we were driving back, Elder Bates, the district leader, called us. He told us that district meeting the next day was cancelled because President Clark wanted to have a special meeting with us on Friday. We didn't know why he would be visiting us, since it was the week that he would be planning transfers, so it would be really busy for him, and we had already had interviews. We began speculating about what crazy things could be happening for this meeting to happen. When we got back to East Wenatchee, we had fried chicken from the elderly Schoenmakers, and we got a call from a less-active, Brian Latimer, who wanted us to help him move across the river to Wenatchee. We were glad he called us, and we were more than happy to help him move, since it would help us ratchet up miles on the car. We were only sad that he was moving out of our area. When we got to his new house, they had problems getting the couch through the door and didn't think it would work. But Elder Duncan had served in the college town of Pullman, so he was used to moving things, and he was able to get it through the door. I think we drove over to Wenatchee twice that night. When we did our miles that night, our daily miles turned out to be 77.7. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very weird day. Firstly we thought we had district meeting so we were surprised when we didn't. So we did our mission survey. Then we mowed the Schonemakers' lawn. We had over 100 miles to use, so we went up to Waterville. We couldn't find many addresses, and the few we found weren't home. One address was a 210, but it wasn't there, so we knocked on 201, but we don't know if it was right because he just closed the door on us. On our way back we received a call that President is unexpectedly meeting with the mission.

"We had dinner with the Schoenmakers--Bill is sadly almost gone--and helped Brian Latimer move. We went over to Wenatchee twice, and in total we went 77.7 miles.

2006. I think this was the evening that I watched The Munsters' Revenge with my dad. While we were watching, there was a knock on the door, and my dad and sister made me get it. It was an old guy telling us about something, but I don't remember what. He was there a long time.

2005. It was the night before I was singing in general conference. I believe this was the time I went to Great Clips to get a haircut, thus beginning a pattern of getting professional cuts instead of having my mom cut it. I went home and tried to catch what I could of the I Dream of Jeannie mini-marathon, and for some reason my aunt was there. The only thing that makes me unsure about this is that I don't know why I would have gotten a haircut the night before singing in conference, but I think this is what happened.

2004. I remember going to my theater class in the morning and burping up the flavor of Mexican chocolate cake. It made me remember the weird Munsters pilot I had watched the previous night while eating cake.

2003. When I showed up to gym class, Coach Hyde showed me that my binder that had gone missing the day before was in the garbage can. I was relieved to have it back, but I wondered what kind of evil person would do that.

2000. I think we went to my sister's house and she gave me a birthday present of the soundtrack to Chicken Run, which I had seen the night before for my birthday. I thought it was a strange present, but I went home and listened to the Flip, Flop, and Fly song. (I think I still have that CD, but I never listen to it.)

1998. I think David took me to Winegar's to get my birthday present of a Veggie Friend Seedie. He gave me exact change to get it, and he sent me inside to get it myself. I got "Ima Farmer Corn," the one that had overalls. I went to pay for it, but David had miscalculated the tax, and I was a few cents too short. I informed the cashier that I had to go get some more money. She seemed both amused and annoyed. I ran to the car and got some more coins from David, then went back in and bought it (the cashier had kept it at her register).

1994. It was my birthday party. I (more likely my mom) had invited a bunch of my kindergarten friends over.  We took my friend Wesley (I think that was his name) home with us. I really liked Wesley, but I think I just liked him for his mullet. While we were waiting for more kids to show up, I got on the fireplace and put one of the pumpkin lights in my hand and said, "I, Jack, the pumpkin king." Hillary Ulmer was there, and she really liked The Lion King, which came out that year. She imitated me, but said, "I, Nala, the pumpkin queen," which didn't make sense. After the kids all got there, I got my various presents. I think I got a Lion King puzzle. I got a candy bar with a gold wrapper, so I started singing, "I got a golden ticket!" We had lots of Halloween party favors. Then it was time for Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I went first, and everyone laughed when I got the tail far from the donkey. That didn't bother me--but it bothered me that they didn't laugh as much at the other kids, even when they got the tail even further than I did. Looking back, I realize that they thought mine was funny, since I was the first one, but as more kids did it, they realized it wasn't really funny. But I took it as a personal offense, and I had a fit and went and hid under my bed. The kids kept coming to my room to try to get me to come out, but I would just yell at them. Except when Wesley, came, I nicely asked him to leave. Eventually I was coaxed out, but I don't remember what happened. We had to take Wesley home, and there was a broken sprinkler shooting water everywhere on the apartment complex lawn. This might have been the night that the Thompsons stayed longer to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the "What's This?" sequence, when Jack runs into the Christmas Town sign, Wayne said to two-year-old Peter, "Did Jack fall down?"

September 28

With my birthday coming up in two weeks, I'm going to remember what I can about the day before my birthday.

2012. I was at work listening to Pandora, and Lady Gaga's "Marry the Night" came on. Then I went to go running, but I got caught in post-game traffic. I had to walk for a lot of the time because there were too many people. It was a bad idea to go by the stadium. Then I came home and there was a knock on the door. Hanna Dunn, one of my "horse" friends from the previous summer, was down in Provo visiting. I changed out of my running clothes and went across the hall to Alex Masterson's apartment, where they were visiting. It was Hanna, Kristen Jensen, and Olivia Mayer. Hanna said that she was glad she had made cinnamon rolls the previous May, because that was how she learned that I only ate seasonal desserts. Kristen pointed out that I could have Halloween treats, and I mentioned that I could have anything I wanted that week, since it was my birthday. I mentioned that I had gone to the French bakery, and Olivia was excited to learn there was a French bakery in Orem. The girls were excited it was my birthday, so they made birthday cards for me. Hanna's said she wished Jan Terri were here to wish me happy birthday. There was a running joke that Hanna and I should get married (simply for the fact that we both go by our middle names), so Kristen wrote about all the kids Hanna and I would have. Then we discussed getting some kind of dessert for me. We left, and as we were leaving, Kristen and Hanna called Alex "Alejandro" and began singing, "Ale, Alejandro." Alex said he loved Lady Gaga. We went to South End Market, but they were closed. Then Carissa (who had come over at some point) drove us to Smith's. I think it turned to midnight, so they talked about it being my birthday. Alex started singing the "Happy Happy Birthday" song from The Emperor's New Groove, and Carissa said, "Heh heh, it's your birthday?" like Kronk says. I went through the ice cream aisle and found some birthday cake "ice cream," which Hanna bought (I later learned it was a "frozen dairy dessert," not ice cream). Carissa found some clearance flower-shaped cookies, which weren't that great. Kristen bought me a sticker from a little vending machine; it was that Domo character. Then we parked across from the duck pond and went and ate by the stream on campus. At one point, for some reason Alex was singing the "Monster Mash," so I sang the relevant lyrics from "Get Down Goblin." Then we all went home and I went to bed.

2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a mediocre day. We did have some good QGIs. We talked with a friendly Pentecostal woman named Alma. She married a minister, but we might be able to talk to them sometime. 

"I can't believe I'm ten today [in mission years; I was out ten months] and twenty tomorrow!"

2005. I know that we juniors had to go to school early for testing, but I don't remember what else happened.

1999. My mom gave me one early present after school; it was the Moy Mushroom from the Vegetable Friends collection. (I had the spinoff collection, the Veggie Friend Seedies, but not the Vegetable Friends.) I was excited to take my new toy to my Webelos meeting. Chantelle Christensen later called my mom and asked where she got it to see if she could get me something like that for my birthday, but my mom had already ordered the rest of them for me (I got them the next day).

1997. I asked if I could have my birthday presents that night, since it was right before my birthday. My dad said, "Should we break tradition?" My mom pointed out that we had always gotten our presents the night before our birthday. I think this was the time they brought out my Magnadoodle keychain, and I told them that I had sneaked and already seen it. I thought it was funny, but they were shocked that I did such a thing, and said that no one else in the family had ever done that. I got a turkey magnet that gobbled.

1996. I got my various presents: a purple Koosh ball witch keychain, the Warioland GameBoy game, and The Sound of Music on VHS. My mom told me she wanted me to start singing the songs from the movie again. David started playing my game. We went downstairs to watch the movie, and David told me that he had gotten to Lake Asparagus in my game (I was enthralled by the map in the instruction manual).

1994. I got my presents, but the only one I remember is the VHS of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was surprised I got it. I remembered seeing the trailers on TV the previous year, but I figured it was too violent for my parents to let me see it, and here they got it for me. We went downstairs and watched it. That may have been the most influential birthday present I ever got.

Bats

This week I was at the devotional in the Marriott Center, and there were two bats flying around the entire auditorium. They would fly near the rafters, fly above various levels of the audience, and sometimes even fly near the stand where the speakers and all the officials sit. I was surprised that no one speaking said anything about them, because we could all see them. People were pointing at them; even someone sitting on the stand pointed at them. I found it hilarious.

It got me thinking about the other times in my life when I have seen bats in the wild (by "in the wild," I mean "not at a zoo.")

The earliest I can remember is at "The Pond," where my great-grandma used to live in upstate New York, in 2001. It was evening, and there were some bats flying in the sky.

The next time was in November 2002 in Taiwan. I think it was our last night there. We were in a park and there were bats flying above us during the evening. On that same trip my dad bought a bat figurine, since bats are considered good luck. I thought it was fitting, therefore, to see bats on that trip.

The next time I can remember didn't happen clear until September 2006. I was standing near the back door of Woods Cross High School, waiting for my carpool buddy, David Christensen. I was standing there when I saw something flying down the hall. You don't usually see flying things in buildings, so I thought it was funny. I thought it was a bird, but as it got close I realized it was a bat. It was so surprising that many of us were laughing. One girl pulled out her phone to snap pictures. Someone tried to swat it. The bat seemed kind of confused. When David came, I told him about it (I can't remember if he had seen it) and I was laughing. As we walked out to my car, I kept laughing. David told me he worried I wouldn't be able to drive because I was laughing so much. I even wrote about it on my family's blog.

The next bat incident I remember was June 26, 2009 (my journal helps me remember that). My companion and I went to visit a family, the Denisons, in Lapwai, ID, every week. They were quite poor (as was everyone in Lapwai) and lived in a single-wide trailer with lots of cats. We would visit them in their bedroom. On that day, James was wearing a glove with a bat on it. It had flown into a window at his work and knocked itself out, so he picked it up and took it home. It was just sitting on his hand, barely living. Bloody things were coming out of it. He said we could touch it, so I did (it was soft), but Elder Warren didn't. Soon, however, the bat began reviving. Then it began flying around the room. It brushed against Elder Warren as it flew. Then it would occasionally stop and hang on the wall. All the cats in the house were very attentive and interested in it. Since it was flying again, James caught it and took it outside. He told us that it flew off.

Then during the summer of 2010, I had come home from running when I noticed a bat hanging above the door of another apartment in my complex. I was so surprised that I ran up to my apartment, threw open the door, grabbed my camera, and told my roommate Alex about the bat. He and the girl he was with came down with me to look. I took pictures, but apparently they're on my home computer. Alex had some popcorn in his hand, so he put it on the door ledge near the bat, as a food offering.  The next afternoon it was still there; it may have been there for two or three days.

One night in the summer of 2011, I went running. I saw something flying above me, but it seemed to be flying a little erratically, and it suddenly changed direction. Although I wasn't sure, I assumed it was a bat, since it was late in the evening and birds don't usually fly like that.

Then last summer, I had opened the door of my apartment to go do some knee exercises on the stairs. It was probably 10 or 11 at night. I was so surprised to see a bat flying toward me (in the little hallway connecting apartments) that I jumped back into the apartment, slamming the door against the wall. The bat went on its way, but I was glad to have seen it, even if it had freaked me out.

And that brings me up to the present!

Southern Utah, 2002

Since I just visited Bryce Canyon this week, I thought I would blog about the vacation the last time I went there.

If I recall correctly, it was June of 2002, a month or so before I got my tonsils taken out.

We set up our tent trailer at Ruby's Inn Campground and hooked it up to the electrical outlets. I can't remember if we took a TV or if I just thought about how we could have had a TV. I do think we had a TV, but we couldn't get any channels on it.

We had bathrooms with plumbing and lights. I remember one time when I was washing my hands. I had wet my hands with water and left the water running while I rubbed soap on my hands. This guy told me that I shouldn't waste water because we were in a drought. I just ignored him. One morning, there was a middle-aged mustachioed man wearing a shirt and a Speedo walking into the bathroom.

I was an awkward thirteen-year-old and liked show tunes. I remember once singing "Shipoopi" from The Music Man outside our trailer; my mom and sister said they didn't like that song.

There was a little store near our campground. My parents wanted to ride a little train-like shuttle to get to it, but Susanne and I just walked over there, thinking the shuttle was dumb. But we rode the shuttle back to our campsite. At some point in that gift shop, we bought a night light made with a polished rock.

We were able to take showers at our campsite. I remember one night my dad and I were walking to the showers. I overheard some teenagers yelling some very profane words, and I said, "Watch your phraseology"--a quote from The Music Man.

One day, my dad and I (and I think Susanne) hiked from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point in Bryce. It was very hot and steep coming out of the canyon. Our hike led us to sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof.

We spent a day in Zion. We visited the Weeping Rock. My dad and sister and I started on a hike near the Narrows (not planning to go in them, of course), but I got really hot, so we stopped. (In addition to being awkward and liking show tunes, I was also quite chubby.) We bought a Narrows magnet in a gift shop, and I think we also bought Zion playing cards.

When we were driving home after the trip, I was sleeping in the car. I was snoring, and once I snored so loud I woke myself up. Susanne thought that was really funny.

My more recent trip was more interesting than this one was. And my more recent trip was surely more interesting to read about.