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."
I don't remember you telling me about singing to the office staff. Why did they ask you? What did you sing?
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