November 3

Since I've already remembered things that went on November 1 and November 2, it's time to move on to November 3. This date had some surprisingly significant memories--Death Valley, Taiwan, and a funeral.

2013. After church, I showed my roommates all the Thanksgiving candy I had bought. Scott said I was going to get diabetes. I was on Facebook when my roommate Jordan invited me to like the Provo YSA 2nd Stake Digital Mission page, so I did, and I was the very first one to like it, he said--I liked it even before he did. My roommates left, and I turned on the CES broadcast while eating a candy corn Blo-Pop. I think I also made spiced cider; it was a cold, rainy day.

2012. In the morning, we all piled into the geology department vans in Death Valley for our day's adventure. While we were sitting in the van getting gas, one of my classmates (whose name I can't remember, but I will call her Megan) said she learned from our classmate Rachel that I was an English language major, which she didn't know before. She said two of her roommates were ELang majors and told me her names. I told her I knew that Courtney Clarkson had been in one of my classes, because I remember our professor asking if she was related to "American Idol winner" (Kelly Clarkson). We stopped at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, then broke up into groups and went around analyzing the dunes. It was a warm day. I remember my classmate Trevor picking up a pile of sand and saying, "It has lithics in it." I wrote that down in my notes, since I was collecting speech characteristics of the geology department. I also wrote down "Did you drop acid on it?" since putting hydrochloric acid is one way to determine rock types. We saw scorpion tracks and an animal burrow.

In one of the interdune areas, we licked the ground to determine the texture. We climbed to the top of the biggest sand dune, where we sat down as a class and heard a lecture. I had a hard time paying attention. I asked "Megan" to take my picture, and then we headed down the dunes, back to the vans. We saw another class out on the dunes. While we were having a bathroom break, we ate some little oranges. As we drove along the road, Dr. Radebaugh pointed out to us some clay textures. We later pulled off on a side of the road and ate lunch, where the ground was made of volcanic ash and crumbled easily. After lunch, we drove out on a rough gravel road to visit the Racetrack Playa. I ate a pumpkin Kashi bar on the way. There was a sign instructing people not to move the rocks, which had been moved naturally along the ground. We looked at the rocks and their tracks, and someone estimated how heavy one of the rocks was.

Dr. Radebaugh apologized to a guy out taking photographs, and he said he wanted us in his picture because he worked with a BYU grad. We climbed up to where the rocks came from; we were at a limestone outcrop with a sharp "rip your pants" texture. She explained the theories about what made the rocks move, the most likely one being wind pushing them along ice. (This was before they knew the real explanation.) When we went back to the vans, some other tourists were unable to start their car, so they rode back in one of the other vans. We drove to the Ubehebe (yoo-bee-hee-bee) Crater; one classmate was saying it gave him the "heebee geebies." We got there a little later than planned, so we didn't have much time. Dr. Radebaugh asked me if I had ever seen a volcano before; I don't remember what I told her.

When we got back in the vans, Dr. Radebaugh played her iPod. It had songs like "Just the Two of Us" (which took me back to third grade) and the unedited version of John Mayer's "Heartbreak Warfare." When "Shut Up and Let Me Go" came on, "Megan" said it was an interesting song and I said, "Good old Ting Tings"; she didn't know who the Ting Tings were. When we got back to camp, we ate fajitas, and a nomadic man from the next camp over ate with us. "Megan" asked him if he had read the Book of Mormon; he said he was Buddhist. I asked him if he had read the Dhammapada; he said he hadn't.

2011. It was a very long day. I remember working with my coworker Michelle, talking about how it was dark outside, and we had arrived at work when it was dark. She said we could say something like, "When I was young, I used to go to work before the sun rose and got home after it went down." I also was talking about how music from the previous year took me back to that year; she told me I could change the radio station to one that was like the music of the previous year. After I got home, I went to Winegar's. There was a "Happy Thanksgiving" sign out front, but lots of Christmas stuff inside. I bought some clearance candy corn Dots (which they don't make anymore) and a bag of bulk candy corn taffy. I had gone to the store to get tortillas for a work party the next day. It's possible this was the day  that when I got to the store, a lady and her daughter asked if I could pretend to be the daughter's boyfriend for some reason, but I declined.

2010. I was delighted to learn that I unexpectedly got a scholarship for when I returned to BYU in January. If I had been in school that fall, I wouldn't have had a scholarship for fall or winter, but because I took fall off, I got one for winter.

2009. I don't really remember this day, but this is what my journal says:
"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 because I'm a great teacher, which surprised me, since I don't feel like I'm too good at teaching over there."

2008. I remember going to Walmart and looking at their clearance Halloween stuff. I think I got some decorative gourds. I remember wondering out loud if there was any chocolate left, and another customer said it was all gone at that point. I got lots of candy corn: regular, Indian, and chocolate caramel, and I think I got candy corn taffy as well. Elder Love got a big bag of sugar-based candy. At the elders' house in Cheney, Elder Love cut his hair before cutting mine. He forgot to put the right size comb thing on the end of the clippers, so he started before he realized what he had done. At that point, it was too late, so he gave me a super short haircut. He told me I was going to be mad. I looked in the mirror and had to look away in shock. I remembered the episode of Gilligan's Island where Gilligan proclaimed, "I'm bald!" As we were getting in the car, I found a giant leaf and put it on my head to cover my baldness. I vaguely remember dinner with the Moores--the wife was active but the husband wasn't. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today Elder Love helped a lot with the Herrons' tile while I studied and such. We went up to our typical P-day places. I bought a huge amount of Thanksgiving stuff, including four bags of candy. And the Moores gave us candy. Between what we bought, the Herrons' candy, the Moores' candy, and Amber's candy, I am going to get so fat.
 "We bowled briefly. Then Elder Love cut his hair, then mine. But he put the wrong comb on the clippers, and my hair is the shortest it's ever been in my life."

2006. We drove down to Fillmore for my Grandma Judy's viewing. Around this time, my mom's friend Jackie's son's wife's mom had died from falling down stairs, so Susanne told me that the third person (since they always happen in threes) was one of Ya-ping's friends' baby. At the viewing, Susanne held up three-year-old Allie to view Grandma Judy and said, "Pretty, huh." Ya-ping told Preston (not quite two) she was sleeping, so he waved "Night night!"

2003. I think I was watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while doing my homework, and I didn't focus well, so I vowed that I could no longer watch TV while doing homework. My mom was kind of frustrated with me with me not taking my homework seriously.

2002. It was a Sunday in Taiwan. It was "Elder Melville's" last Sunday there, so they had him speak. They asked my dad to bear his testimony, but he mostly just told about our family, with David translating. When talking about me, he said I liked to put lots of lights up, and David clearly said something that wasn't what he said--it sounded like explosions. At one point when he was speaking, he said, "Frankfurt, stand up," and all the Taiwanese were surprised I was fourteen--since I was both fat and taller than they were. Another speaker talked about him in her talk and talked about the way he did Taiwanese signs with both hands. I went to the youth Sunday School, where a youth translated for me (I think they had lived in Colorado). It was awkward for him, because the teacher was talking about the world's standards on chastity and how wrong they were. After church, I remember Susanne saying she wished we knew what David was really saying. I remember a few different gatherings, and at least one of them occurred on a Sunday. There was one with a large supply of food, including Domino's seafood pizza, fried squid tentacles, and duck. I didn't like the duck and didn't try the others. At another gathering with the deaf branch, there was an American-style chocolate cake, which wasn't overly sweet, but the Taiwanese didn't touch it, except for one guy who kept going back to it.