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.

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.

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: "

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.