November 28, 2007, and November 30, 2009

Can you believe I've been home from my mission for three years!?

Wednesday, November 28, 2007. I remember getting the last of my stuff packed into my suitcase before we left the house. I remember thinking how crazy it was that I wouldn't be seeing the house again for two years! You know those little toys that are plastic screens that you write on and they stick to the surface underneath so you can draw on it? Well, I had a keychain of those that came with a small yellow piece of plastic to write with. Allie put the yellow thing in my suitcase. I almost told her not to do that, but then I realized it didn't really matter. I thought it was funny she thought it was something I should take with me. Then we went to Great Clips so I could get a haircut. I was all dressed up, of course, so the girl cutting my hair asked me where I was going. I told her I was going on a mission. Then we drove down to Provo. I think we played "I Spy" with Allie. We stopped at a restaurant--Winger's or something--for lunch. I remember sitting next to Allie and thinking that at four years old, she was still really cute, and I was going to miss her a lot. Then we went to the MTC. I went with my dad to drop off my luggage. I overheard one missionary tell another that he was so excited. I felt bad I didn't have those same feelings. Then we went in the meeting room. They showed the Mormon family commercials. I was a bit weepy. Allie needed to go to the bathroom. Then later she told her mom she wanted to leave. Susanne told her that they couldn't leave because they weren't going to see me for a long time. Eventually it came time to say our goodbyes. I was crying all over the place. Then I had to go get some shots. I was standing in line and an elder asked me where I was going and where I was from. He was going to the Salt Lake City North Mission, Spanish speaking. I thought of how lucky he was to be called foreign speaking. (I've still not completely gotten over that.) Then I got my luggage and lugged it up the stairs in the Dan Jones building. I went to my room and met the other missionaries, who were already there. My companion, Elder Hightower, had staked his claim on the bottom bunk, but I asked if I could have the bottom since I had a sprained ankle. He obliged, although I don't think he was too happy about it. I find it funny that we were companions, for we were exact opposites. Our zone leaders came in. One of them was Daniel Bitner from my home stake. He saw me and said excitedly, "Mark! I mean, Elder Melville!" I didn't mind him using my first name, but later in my mission I would have definitely minded. The other zone leader was from Australia. That evening, our zone leaders took us on a tour of all the places we needed to know at the MTC, and they told us we could move the stickers ("dork dots," I would later learn) from the front of our tags to the back.

Monday, November 30, 2009. We woke up at the Palmers' house and had breakfast before we left for the airport. I rode with Elder Hansen and the AP whose name I have forgotten. He told me I could pick a CD to listen to. I flipped through his CDs and picked a Hilary Weeks Christmas CD; he told me, "Good choice." I noticed he had a burned CD that was "The Best of Michelle Tumes." I asked him where he got it; he had gotten it from one Elder Jarman who had gone home earlier that year. Early in my mission I had bought a CD, The Very Best of Michelle Tumes, which I let my companion at the time burn. I wondered if that CD had spread through the mission as a result of me buying it. I was surprised that an AP would have some of the music he did. Then we got to the airport and we went through security. I saw one Brother Mears from my first area getting his shoes from security. He saw us, but I didn't know if he would recognize me, which was good, because he didn't like me. We saw the incoming missionaries. One of them told the other missionaries that they needed to make sure their suits were buttoned up; I had to laugh at all the rules that the MTC teaches you that aren't enforced in the field. I was wearing a sweater, but I thought it wise to take it off before the plane ride so I wouldn't be too hot. Elder Hansen told me that a lady was watching me take off my sweater. We got on the plane and the stewardesses told us there had been a bunch of us on the previous flight. I sat next to Elder Maxfield; he was getting my personal info and asked for my first name, but I wouldn't tell him. Then he remembered my name was Richard. I kept looking out the window, trying to guess where we were. I wondered if we had passed Lewiston. We flew over snow, but when we were in the Salt Lake Valley, I didn't see snow. I took some pictures of the Great Salt Lake. Then we landed. As we walked through the airport, people kept saying, "Hi elders." I remember standing on the moving walkway and a guy turned around and said something about how it must be nice to have everyone know you. I said it was better than the alternative, thinking of all the times people yelled at me on my mission. We got to escalators; I was going to get on last but Elder Maxfield told me to get on before him. As we descended, we heard cheers as we saw all our families waiting for us. My mom was rubbing her hands with excitement. My grandparents, my aunt, and some of my cousins were there as well. I thought it was excessive to have that many people there. I made my requisite hug rounds. I asked Allie how she was; she seemed shy around me. They had bought some balloons for me. One of them was a black pirate-themed balloon; they told me they bought it because I was "their treasure" and because it had a skull on it and I was known in the mission for having a skull pillowcase. One Elder Dickerson had come to welcome his buddy Elder Hightower home. I said goodbye to the other missionaries while we waited for my bags to come to the baggage claim. We wondered where they would be; Allie said she saw a sign that said Spokane, and I was surprised she could read that. We got my bags and we went to the Suburban. I pulled my Cherie Call The Ocean in Me CD out of my suitcase and asked if we could listen to it in the car. As the title track played, Nan said she didn't like the ringing sound in the background. My mom said they were bells, and Allie backed her up. I think in the car they told me that my nephews were going to come visit; they would be arriving Saturday. Allie told me that Preston would wake up with a frowny face. As we got up the hill, Allie told me I needed to look out the window. At the intersection of Lacey and Marialana, I saw the banner that said, "Welcome Home Elder Mark." I said I was disappointed it didn't say "Letter Mark," as Allie had long misinterpreted "Elder," but my mom and sister said Allie had insisted on "Elder" for the sign instead of "Letter." We all got home and I brought my stuff inside. I was surprised to see our new "granite" countertops. (Now I know they're actually gabbro; you can even see the olivine in them.) Jesse and Peter were going out to get Little Caesars. They asked me if I remembered Bountiful, but I didn't really want to go with them. My mom said she would cook dinner later. There were a lot of conversations that happened that day. I remember Sue mentioning something about the baby David and Ya-ping were having. I said, "They're having another one?" and my mom was shocked that she hadn't told me yet. I later talked to Ya-ping on the phone. I talked to Franklin; he didn't respond to anything I said. I talked to Preston, but I couldn't understand a lot of what he said. He did say that he wanted to talk to my mom, but I wanted him to talk to me. He sang the song about the ants marching out of the rain. At one point Peter said that his school had played the Green Acres theme over the intercom and said that even they were celebrating that I was coming home that week. I remember sitting on the floor with Jesse and Peter and showing them the Ocean in Me CD, pointing out Antelope Island in the pictures of the "ocean." Jesse asked me if Cherie Call was good; I said that I liked her, but some of my companions didn't. My grandpa took a picture of us three as if we were three wise monkeys. The womenfolk went into the kitchen to make Hawaiian haystacks; while they were doing so, my grandpa talked about missionaries in his ward tracting out "losers" (his word, not mine) who just wanted to see what the Church could do for them. I showed him pictures of the Michael Piquet family and told him their story. I remember reading funny scriptures, like Jeremiah 24:2 and Jeremiah 5:8, and I heard my mom laughing in the kitchen. My grandpa said now he knew what scriptures he could share for his Sunday meetings. Eventually everyone left. That evening I talked to David. I was surprised he talked so much about movies. He asked me if Corpse Bride had come out before my mission; I was surprised he didn't remember me loving it before my mission. He told me I would really like Coraline, that it was gothic and right up my alley. (I watched part of it a few weeks later, but it didn't fit my standards.) Then Dana Clark, a member of the stake president who had been bishop when I left, came over to release me. Allie was wearing her pajamas, including a tank top. President Clark said he was selfish but he wanted to release me (instead of the stake president releasing me) since he had sent me out. He said he would go around the room and ask my family to bear their testimonies, and then it would be my turn, and when I was done, I would be released. I was super sad and nervous. When it was my dad's turn, he said, "We're glad to have you back," which wasn't a testimony. When it was my turn, I said that it was the saddest day of my life, but I didn't know why, because I didn't like knocking on doors or having people yell at me and things like that, and therefore I knew the only reason I would be so sad was because I was doing God's will. Then he left and I went to bed. It sure was weird going to sleep in a room by myself.

The Day after Thanksgiving

I don't like the term "Black Friday" because of the commercial and negative connotations, although I still use it sometimes. But I do really like the day after Thanksgiving.

2011. I went to work, very early in the morning, wearing a Christmassy Peanuts shirt. I remember stuffing envelopes with my middle-aged coworker Arlene; she was saying that they didn't usually have to work on the day after Thanksgiving, but I pointed out that the year before we had to. Someone had turned on a Christmas radio station, and my coworker Kayleigh said, annoyed, "Why are we listening to this?" But I remember at another point she said she couldn't be depressed because of my shirt. In the afternoon, I asked if they needed me. They said I could go home, but I could stay if I wanted. I went home to go to the temple with my parents. It seems like my dad had talk radio on in the car we drove to the temple, and then my parents changed it to FM 100. I think I started talking about how the people who decided it's a good idea to play "Christmas Canon" should be slowly tortured. My mom told me it wasn't good to be talking about torturing people on the way to the temple, but I said it wasn't good to be listening to songs about hippopotamuses for Christmas on the way to the temple. After the temple, we went to a boutique by Kmart (we couldn't justify going to Arctic Circle since we had gone the day before Thanksgiving). While we were driving there, the radio played Cherie Call's version of  "The First Noel," and I was annoyed that of all the songs she has on her Christmas album, they chose one of the few songs that wasn't an original song, especially since Cherie Call's not as good when she sings songs that aren't her own. I remember them playing "Christmas Canon" when we went inside, and I was annoyed. We found a Ty beanie baby walrus, which was the only thing we ended up buying. Then we went home and I think my mom made the fall-shaped noodles we had bought the previous Saturday and we had spaghetti with vegetarian "meat"balls. I put my Christmas music in my playlist, downloaded some Spanish Christmas songs from LDS.org, and ripped the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer soundtrack to my computer. Then I went downstairs to work on my talk for Sunday.

2010. In the morning I drove to Winegar's grocery store to buy something for the barbecue at work. I bought a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. I also bought some Christmas Tic-Tacs. I took my chips to my locker at work, but when it was time for our barbecue, I didn't feel like walking all the way to my locker, especially since there were already the same kind of Doritos on the table. I remember my lead Skyler saying he wanted us to be done early because he wanted to buy a Christmas tree with his wife. We finished pretty early. I stopped in the Distribution store and bought some things, such as a New Testament manual for my mom and some MoTab CDs (The Wonder of Christmas and Spirit of America, one for Christmas and one for the Fourth of July). I took my Doritos home.

2009. The other Lewiston elders picked us up in the morning. Elder Robinson gave me a jar of ashes that said "Elder Melville's Mission"; he also had one for our zone leader, Elder Hansen, who had come out with me. We took a bunch of pictures after district meeting. I was wearing a tie I had traded from Elder Masten because of its Christmas colors, and he commented on it.

Then we went to Jeffrey's for lunch, and then Elder Critchfield wanted me to watch Labor of Love, but the stake center didn't have it, so we went to our building. Elder Masten and Elder Tamblyn didn't want to come inside, so they waited in the car and listened to Christmas music while Elder Critchfield and I watched Labor of Love in the library. I told him that I didn't see the thumbs up everyone talked about, but he said it was in there. Elder Tamblyn would later tell me that he didn't realize we were watching the video there; he thought we were just checking it out and would watch it at the stake center. I think we gave Elder Masten back his bike. We listened to the Ring Christmas Bells MoTab album as we drove out to Lapwai for my last time (after having a lesson with Shaun). It seems like we might have seen the LaMere family in Lapwai and they had a Christmas tree up. Eventually we met George Sabin to head out to the Sanfords' for dinner. Word had already gotten to them that I was going home in a few days. They were reheating Thanksgiving leftovers on their special stove that didn't get hot; it only heated the pans (and then the pans would make the stove hot).

2008.  After our alarm went off, Elder Love started humming "Jingle Bells" because I had been so insistent that Christmas didn't start until after Thanksgiving, and he was excited for it. For personal study, I erased my Thanksgiving scripture from the whiteboard and wrote this instead:

It took the full hour of personal study, which probably wasn't a good use of my time. That morning we went and visited Lucrecia, who was watching her grandson Edward. We were shocked at how much calmer Edward was than when he was with his mom. We went and saw our investigator Amber, who lived on Broadway Ave. When we were walking from her house, we heard some cats fighting. We looked up and saw two cats on a roof. One cat approached the other, and the other backed up, backing right off the edge of the roof! Most houses on the street only had one story, but that one had two. Elder Love and I started laughing, shocked, but we were concerned about the welfare of that cat. The people who lived in that house were Jewish and were good friends of Amber's. Elder Love had met them before, so we knocked on the door and told the lady what had happened and asked if we could look in her side yard. There was no sign of the cat, so we assumed (and hoped) that the cat was unharmed. It was a hilarious experience. Then we went home for lunch. During lunch break I took down the orange lights and put up Christmas lights that we had in the closet. I plugged in one set and noticed the lights flickering. I found the problematic bulb and saw that it had had some electric failure and got so hot that it melted the plastic. I was glad I had noticed the problem before it caught on fire. After that we went to Lind; I think we listened to Christmas CDs, trying to get in the spirit. We visited the less-active member who was married to a member of the former RLDS Church. It was rainy, which wasn't the best way to make it feel Christmassy. When we were driving back to Ritzville, Elder Hansen called us and told us to park the car. I told him we couldn't, because we were driving back to Ritzville and we were on the freeway. He was mostly kidding; he was just passing on word from the mission president that we should be careful about driving in snow. I asked him if it was snowing in Cheney; he said it was (it was only raining where we were). We went home and then decided to walk to Zip's for dinner. It was my year mark, so I wanted to celebrate, but I also wanted to get an eggnog shake, since I had seen that the Zip's in Cheney was advertising eggnog shakes. But Ritzville didn't have any, so I couldn't get one. We ate there and were, as usual, disappointed with the quality of the food. We walked home, talking about how we didn't understand how Zip's stayed in business. That night I wanted to talk to Elder Hansen when we made our nightly call. I told him that I had met him exactly one year before, and he said, "It was love at first sight."

2007. I remember hobbling around on my sprained ankle, putting up Christmas window clings. This might have been the time I put up the downstairs Christmas tree while watching Christmas episodes of The Flying Nun and The Andy Griffith Show, but that might have been Saturday.

2006. We were in Fillmore and my niece Allie and my cousin Alex were watching stuff on the portable DVD player; I was a little sad I hadn't brought any Christmas DVDs to get in the spirit. Then we drove home. I think we turned on a Christmas radio station when we could. When we finally arrived home, it was dusk, and my inflatable turkey was on and up. I remember thinking that it was great that usually Christmas intrudes on Thanksgiving's territory, but with the turkey being up, it was Thanksgiving intruding on Christmas's territory for a change. I put a Christmas tree nightlight in the bathroom and took a bath (instead of a shower) with nothing but the nightlight on.

2005. I can remember some things, but I think they happened on the Saturday, not the Friday, after Thanksgiving. If it was the Friday, we went to Target and I bought a dollar DVD of The Beverly Hillbillies because it had a Thanksgiving episode ("Elly's First Date").

2004. For my designated naptime that day, I decided to watch I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown, since I had only watched it once. My family had done Black Friday shopping and I think my mom bought Clay Aiken's new Christmas album. Later that day we went to Target. I got a t-shirt that had Snoopy dressed as Santa with a comic strip behind it, and I think I also bought some Snoopy Christmas pajamas. We also bought Christmas mint Skittles. That night we went to the theater by Shopko to see The Incredibles; I didn't like the language in it so I started calling it The Incredibly Evils. My brother David looked at my new shirt and he said he initially thought the comic strip was dollar bills. 

2003. This might have been the day my dad and brother went to the store in the evening and bought some eggnog. It had a picture of a cow in a Santa hat, but I looked at it wrong and thought the cow's nostrils were eyes, and I thought it was some weird Nightmare Before Christmas-esque creature.

2002. There's something I can remember, but it might embarrass some people, so I don't think I should share it. This might have been the time my mom and sister had to stop at Inkley's, but I waited in the car, looking at my Charlie Brown Christmas CD, but maybe that was 2003. I watched a woman at a stoplight or a bus stop or something pull a new Santa hat out of a bag and put it on. This also might have been the time my parents and I went test driving SUVs. We drove to our house and talked to David but he didn't want to come with us; my mom told the dealer employee that he had just come home from a mission, and we learned that the employee had also served in Taiwan before missionary work took off.

2001. I remember driving home from Fillmore in our white Subaru, munching on the little Thanksgiving candies I had made two days before. My mom found a tape that had lots of old Christmas music on it, like "There's No Place like Home for the Holidays" and Julie Andrews singing "I Saw Three Ships." I think that later that day we went to Cancun Cafe with my cousin April and her boyfriend. They usually had peppermints, but this time they had candy canes, which I thought was fitting.

2000. I remember some tiny snowflakes falling as I was outside changing our porch lights to red and green. I remember putting out our wooden carolers and Mary and Joseph while whistling the theme song to The Brady Bunch. Later my aunt and cousins came; Chancey seemed very concerned about the small patches of ice on our driveway, since he had had surgery a few weeks earlier. We went to Shopko and I think we bought candy canes. I remember sitting outside Chuck-A-Rama for some reason. They had paintings on the windows about "Happy Thanksgiving" and Joey was saying they shouldn't have them because Thanksgiving was over. I pointed out that Thanksgiving was only the day before, but he didn't seem to think that was a valid reason. Then we went home and I turned on the TV in the kitchen to watch Bewitched; it was the episode when Sarena brings Tabatha's toys to life.

1999. I remember getting up and taking down Thanksgiving decorations; I put the gourds outside. That morning we went to the theater by Shopko to see Toy Story 2. The employees were wearing Santa hats. There was one kid who was very animated when he watched the movie; he kept gasping and yelling and cheering. There was a gawky girl with glasses who was staring at him. After that we went to Winegar's; on our way there, I remember seeing the inhabitant of an apartment putting white Christmas window clings in her window. I wanted to get mint M&Ms, and when David was putting them from the cart to the checkout, he held them by the corner like it was something nasty, I think to make a point.Then I remember David and my dad pulling up our Christmas tree.

1998. I had had a sleepover with my cousin Jesse. He got up and ate breakfast while I slept in. Our moms went to RC Willey, where they were giving out free nutcrackers. They gave one to each of us. The rest of the Thompsons came that day and I was putting up a Christmas garland on our stairs, and Quin saw it and said excitedly, "They have Christmas stuff!" My mom told me that night that when my cousins went home, they pulled out their Christmas stuff.

1997. I remember getting up in the morning and seeing that my parents had left a note for me on the hallway mirror. The mirror had a "Turn off the violence" window cling, which is what they used to secure the note to the mirror. I went to the living room and turned on the Carpenters Christmas CD while taking down Thanksgiving stuff. I think this was also the day that I was walking up to the Gublers' with my mom because they had asked me to feed their cats. We saw my sister's friend Shan putting up Christmas window clings in her window. I asked my mom what déjà vu meant.Then I made a little rhyme, "Déjà vu, I love you." I laughed because I thought I was funny, but I really wasn't. I think I wanted to play with my friend David Christensen.

1996. This year I also turned on the Carpenters' Christmas Portrait album to undecorate.

1994. I remember my aunt and cousins coming over. My aunt asked why we had Halloween stuff up. I just hadn't realized that we had left one decoration (one of those ghosts that goes "Ooooo") in the window and forgot about it because it was behind the blinds. I think we had three holidays up--that forgotten Halloween decoration, Thanksgiving decorations, and the Christmas decorations I had started putting up the night before. I remember putting up a little wooden tree our neighbors had used to give us cookies the year before, and I think I put a Santa hat on it.

1993. It's very possible this wasn't the day after Thanksgiving, but I remember playing with the next door neighbor Taryn Pay, and then we came to my house, where we were decorating for Christmas. Taryn found some wreaths and suggested we put them around our faces. I resented the fact that she took the soft cloth one and I had to use the poky wicker one.

Related posts: 
Remember Every Detail, Volume Three: Thanksgiving
A Year of Holiday Memories

The Day Before Thanksgiving

I'm going to try to remember as much as I can about Thanksgiving Eves as I can.

2011. When I went on my break in the morning, I was happy to see that there were pumpkin cookies in the vending machine, so I bought one. Then during my lunch break, I went to Port of Subs and got a Pilgrim Griller sandwich. I took it back to our break room, and I remember telling my coworkers about all the overtime I was working, which was why I could afford a ten-dollar sandwich. When I got back to work, the radio was playing a Kohl's Black Friday commercial that was a parody of Rebecca Black's "Friday." Some of my coworkers, including Jose, starting singing "Friday." Then I went home, listening to the terrible Hymns CD on the way. I got home and my dad told me I shouldn't see what my mom had done. She had found a recipe on Pinterest for Rice Krispies turkeys that used candy corn. But she was unable to find regular candy corn, so she bought Christmas-colored candy corn instead. Then we talked about what we should have for dinner--should we have our fall-shaped noodles, or should we go to Arctic Circle and get pumpkin shakes (plus dinner)? We decided on Arctic Circle. I was dismayed to see a house with a lit Christmas tree outside. After Arctic Circle, the radio was playing "Bulletproof" by La Roux, and I told my mom about how when that song would come on Pandora, the sounds would alternate in each of my earbuds. We might have stopped at Winegar's; I was skeptical that there was no candy corn, but that was in fact the case.

2010. I remember driving to work with there being snow on the freeway. I was going to work a little early, and we thought there would be a lot of work, since the snow had cancelled work the previous day, but we actually ended relatively early. I think my coworker Stephanie was saying, "How on earth are we done?" I think this was the day my coworker Brittany came just as I was finishing up some boxes; I told her she could finish up what I was doing so she could get some hours--or minutes--in. Then I went home and we watched the "Turkey Day" episode of The Beverly Hillbillies; I think my mom said she liked it more than the "Elly's First Date" episode we watched the day before.

2009. In the morning, we went and helped Sister Carter, an elderly sister in our ward, as we did every week. But she had forgotten about us. She let us rake leaves, and she made some canned soup for us. She was conducting piano lessons. I left a note thanking her for the last time. That evening we went around seeing different people. We stopped at a potential investigator's house who had seemed nice when I saw her in May or June; on this night, she was less friendly and said that it seemed like missionaries stopped by every three months. I knew that wasn't true, because it had been at least five months since I had been there before. We stopped at another potential, whom we had tried to contact ever since I had been there. We actually found them both home that night, and they let us in briefly. The man asked how much longer we had before we went home. I told him about five days. Then we went to the Coopers', a struggling family whose daughters were getting baptized. One of the daughters (Katelyn) wasn't there, but another was. We watched The Testaments, and the daughter who was there (Megan) had seen it from the missionaries in California. The movie started with the "great-with-child" Mary riding a donkey, and one of the five-year-old boys knew exactly what was going on. After seeing the Coopers, we had a lesson with Britt Beck, a less-active who was getting active again. He was baking pies and we talked with him in his kitchen. I think he told us that a pastor told him about reading Proverbs every month because there are thirty-one of them.

2008. In the morning we drove out from Davenport up to the stake center near Cheney. I brought out all my Thanksgiving candy and put it on the table in the Relief Society room where we were having district meeting. Elder Maurer was excited because he liked candy corn. Elder Hansen announced that we were singing hymn 140, "Did You Think to Pray?," but I said, "We sang that last week!" I said I wanted to sing a Thanksgiving song (as I had requested to Elder Hansen the night before), and he said we would at the end. But then some dummy said, "Let's sing a Christmas song." I strongly objected, but they went ahead with singing "Angels We Have Heard on High." But I refused to sing it, so instead I was singing "Father Thy Children to Thee Now Raise." Our zone leader, Elder Payne, was playing the piano, and he stopped and was busting out laughing because I was singing something different. Sister Tervola, a visiting Hawaiian sister from Temple Square, said, "What are you singing?" Then we sang "Come Ye Thankful People" for the closing hymn. Then we went back to Ritzville by way of Edwall. I remember having a lesson with Lucrecia, the excommunicated member who had used a little too much meth in her life. We talked about the Word of Wisdom, and I used President Packer's thought that a drunkard can't feel the still, small voice. While we were visiting, our phone vibrated. Elder Love checked it and said it was a text from Christol (Lucrecia's daughter), talking about Thanksgiving. (I looked at it later and it was one of those mass pass-it-on texts). As we were walking home, I remember improvising a poem: "'Twas the night before Thanksgiving, and through the apartment, all the creatures were in every compartment." (Or something like that.) I turned on my orange lights and I kept them on, but Elder Love turned them off after we were in bed because he couldn't sleep. This is my journal entry for that night: "Today at district meeting I was hoping both of our songs would be Thanksgiving songs. None of us were happy when Elder Hansen announced 140, 'Did You Think to Pray,' because we sang that last week. Some corrupt person suggested a Christmas song, and Elder Payne suggested 'Angels We Have Heard on High.' I said if we sang that I would throw the hymnbook at him, because I was still vying for a Thanksgiving song. I didn't throw the book, but while they sang the Christmas song, I sang 'Father Thy Children to Thee Now Raise" and "For the Beauty of the Earth." It caused Elder Payne to stop playing and Sister Tervola to ask what I was singing. I was glad when our closing song was 'Come Ye Thankful People.'

"It was a blah day. Our only QGI was the wife of Bruce, a less-active we found in Edwall. We came here, saw Adriana briefly, had dinner at Sharon's [I'm sure this means I had a pumpkin shake], saw the Johnsons for dinner tomorrow, then had a lesson with Lucrecia and Wanda. We talked about the Word of Wisdom and I presented it in a way I hadn't before, using 1 Kings 19:11-12, to show that we have to be able to hear the still small voice, and 1 Nephi 3:7."

2007. My memories of the Tuesday and Wednesday that week kind of run together. I'm pretty sure I was watching a lot of Green Acres (since I had a sprained ankle), and my mom had bought some Christmas chocolates, including Cadbury balls (like the mini eggs). It's possible this was the day I watched a bread delivery guy not put his truck in park and it went and crashed into a sign, but I think that was on Tuesday.

2006. I know my parents went to Fillmore this day, but I actually can't really remember anything about this day. :(

2005. During the day I spent a lot of time cleaning my room. I remember my mom and Ya-ping being impressed with what I had done. I did it for the purposes of an assignment, but I was glad to have it done. We had cinnamon- and wintergreen-flavored Christmas nougats, which I put on my dresser. That night we watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, having recently watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory several times. I remember asking which was better; my sister said they were too different to compare.

2004. I'm fairly certain I was wearing an orange polo and a red tie. We would have headed to Fillmore, but I can't remember much about that trip. I think we stopped in Provo to say hi to David and his family. My mom and I might have gone to the Legion Hall that night to start setting up, but maybe not.

2003. Since I couldn't find brown socks (!), I wanted to get some red socks to wear for Thanksgiving. I asked my dad if he had some. He pulled out some Christmassy ones, and I told him that those were Christmas socks. He said he thought that was why I wanted them. I remember sitting in my room, drawing little Thanksgiving pictures and labeling them with Spanish words. When we left to go to Fillmore, I took my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD in the car, as well as a plastic bag so that I could clean papers out of my binders. I think this was the time we were listening to my sister's radio station of choice, and someone called in and requested a song. This song had some very inappropriate content that I was surprised was allowed on the radio, and my mom said it was time to change the station. (Maybe that was 2004.) We picked up David and Ya-ping. We were listening to my CD; I knew we had to skip the atrocious sixth track, and I said we could also skip the fifth track, so David skipped both. Then at another place, we had to stop the car, I think so that Nan could feed Allie. I remember saying that if I could see, I'm sure it would be beautiful outside. My mom said it wouldn't be, because it was the middle of nowhere with only sagebrush, but I said that was beautiful.

2001. While my mom was in the kitchen making pies, I was making red and yellow (and maybe orange) Thanksgiving candies with my Thanksgiving mold while watching I Love Lucy.

2000. We went to Shopko in the day and bought the new VHS of Chicken Run. I was dismayed at Bountiful's Christmas decorations. The four of us--me, my parents, and Susanne--all went down to Fillmore. We stopped at Duane's grocery store. I was impressed that this store actually had Thanksgiving decorations up, instead of jumping straight to Christmas, and I wondered why all stores couldn't be that way. But despite my aversion to Christmas decorations, at that time I didn't mind eating Christmas things (a strange difference from today), so we bought Christmas tree brownies, along with some beef jerky and other snacks. Then we went back to my grandparents' to watch Chicken Run. I ate some snacks, and at one point I was going for the snack bag. My mom told me I'd eaten too much bad stuff, but I told her I just wanted some jerky, and she was fine with that.

1999. The night before I had had a sleepover with my friend David Christensen. In the morning we yet again watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and pretended to be the characters, performing the same actions they did. We even did that when we were rewinding it. I remember playing in the snow and looking at all the little seed-leaf things. Then we went to David's house for lunch. While there, David said the "Little Birdie" song on A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was his favorite song. His brother Caleb was excited to tell him that he had finished buying his Christmas presents. That night, I wanted to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving again. My brother David objected. He said I should watch The Nightmare Before Christmas because it was more Thanksgiving-y because it was between Halloween and Christmas. I think I thought of an elaborate analogy using colored water to explain how wrong he was, but I didn't tell it to him. He had friends over, and they watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, but I only know that because I found the box the next morning.

Related posts:

A Year of Holiday Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving

November 15

November 15 is my nephew Preston's birthday, but there are things that happened on that day even before he was born that I remember.

2011. I remember my mom calling my brother to wish Preston a happy birthday. Preston was playing Wii or something, so my mom told David not to bother getting him, because she knew he wasn't the kind of kid who would like talking on the phone.

2008. It was transfer call day, a day that makes missionaries pretty jumpy. We knew if we got our call from the mission president, one of us would be transferred, and neither of us wanted that. We were doing our personal study and the phone rang; Elder Love smiled when he saw it was the zone leaders, because that meant neither of us was being transferred. Later that day we were going to have dinner with our branch mission leader, Brother Keane. Elder Love told me that if I needed to go to the bathroom, I should go before we left, because it wasn't good at the Keanes'. It was also prudent for us not to wear our proselyting clothes, since we would be eating outside. So we changed and headed out of Ritzville to the Keanes' property. On our way we saw a large bird of prey hovering and swooping--there was a cat walking through a field. Elder Love started laughing--we didn't know how long that cat would last. Then we got to the Keanes' place. They just lived in an RV parked on a giant rural lot. Brother Keane was an interesting man, but he was very proactive about missionary work, and he had invited some people of other faiths to dinner. I think there was a family with two kids and then another woman. The kids were riding on Brother Keanes' horses; I think someone was giving apples to the horses. We as missionaries weren't allowed to ride. One of the kids I think almost ended up in the sheep pen; Brother Keane yelled about that--not because he was mad at the kid but because he didn't want him to get hurt. There was an odd conversation about neutering sheep and dogs. Brother Keane asked us to share a spiritual thought before dinner, but he wanted it to be relatively innocuous since the family were strong Christians. I asked Elder Love about sharing Jeremiah 1:5 (about how God knew us before we were formed in the womb); he seemed to not know what it was, which surprised me because it's a pretty common missionary scripture. We did end up sharing that one, and after we did the wife of the family mentioned that was a good scripture to use against abortion. Brother Keane later complimented us for using that scripture but not going too far; I think he said it was a perfect scripture to use. That family left, but we stayed for a bit and talked with the Keanes and the other woman. I saw inside the Keanes' RV; they slept in sleeping bags on little couches. They had a permanent structure set up outside the door of the RV (connected to the RV to expand it); it was there that they had a fireplace and an outhouse-style toilet. I remember something about a macaroni salad. Then we headed home. After our nightly planning, Elder Duncan called me. He said, "Hey, I'm going to be with Elder Dunn!" He told me that a lot of the good potentials in East Wenatchee had moved, and that the nice lady who seemed open to the idea of Joseph Smith became unresponsive. We also talked to Brother Keane on the phone that night; he told us that the family at dinner lived in a yellow house in Ritzville, and Elder Love deduced that they were ones who looked out the peephole at us when we tracted into them (on November 2) but didn't answer. This is what I wrote in my journal that night: "Today we were delighted to receive our transfer call from Elder Payne and not from President Clark. This evening Elder Duncan called  and said that Leslie's thought about being baptized. He and Elder Barwick are swapping places, so I wonder how things worked with Elder Hobbs. Elder Killpack is killing off Elder Reynolds, so maybe I'll kill off Elder Love.

"Cassandra was the only lesson that went through today. It was not the best lesson and I didn't think I was teaching well at all.

"We went up to the Keanes' place out in the middle of nowhere, and they had their friends there who didn't answer the door when we tracted into them." 

2007. I was fortunate enough to be in Nashville for Preston's birthday. This might have been the day Ya-ping was hosting preschool at their apartment but it might have been the day they went someplace else and I stayed home. When David came home, we gave Preston some presents. My mom had sent him a stuffed dinosaur and a bug cage. We went out to search for bugs, but since it was November they were a bit hard to find. We found a cricket, and Preston got really excited. Then we went out and got pizza. We went to a Ross store, where I got Preston a shark toy. We went to a chain pet store to look at the animals; Preston liked looking at the kittens through the glass. I don't think this was the time we went to the mall and went in the arcade but didn't play anything and Preston played on a playground and said "Die!" to a kid who was playing where he wanted to play, but it could have been.

2005. We had people over for Preston's birthday. I was surprised that Ya-ping wouldn't let Preston have any cake on his own birthday. Someone gave him a gift of a toy that shuffled balls through a tube by blowing air.

2004. My mom, my sister, and Allie all drove down to Provo to see the new baby. We went to the hospital to the nursery window, where David showed us the new baby. Susanne and my mom both said, "Awww!" David talked to one of the nurses in the nursery. We couldn't hear him, but we knew exactly what he was saying because of the way he put his hand at one height and then raised it. He was obviously telling her about my height before and after his mission. We went and saw Ya-ping, who was shaking. Then we left to go get some dinner. On our way out, my mom motioned to David that he needed to put the baby down and go see Ya-ping. We got food at a Wendy's. We also stopped at a Food 4 Less (I can't quite remember when) and I stayed in the car and did my chemistry homework, but I wanted my mom to buy some candy corn (I don't remember what we were there for, but I'm sure it was for Dave and Ya-ping). We went back to the hospital; I think David had brought Preston up to Ya-ping. Also there were their friends Jesse and his Taiwanese wife. My mom asked what the Chinese term for Allie's relationship to the new baby was, and Jesse, who was not known for his smarts, gave a term. Then his wife (and I think another Taiwanese girl) corrected him (and mildly laughed at him) because he had erroneously believed the new baby was a girl! Then we drove home; as we drove out, I remember seeing Melville Stables. As we got closer to Salt Lake, my mom had me call my grandparents and ask them if they wanted to see pictures of Preston. They did, so we stopped by. It was after 9:00 at that point. My mom and sister were saying that Preston got his looks entirely from Ya-ping, but I said I thought he looked a lot like a Chinese David.

2002. I was out on the roof putting up Christmas lights. I asked David to come out and supervise me so I wouldn't fall off, but he went inside because he was cold, having just spent the last two years in Taiwan. I eventually came inside too because my fingers were cold, and I made some hot chocolate.

2000. To the disapproval of my family, I went to school in the morning--dressed up, I believe--before my parents would pick me up so we could take David to the MTC. We met my maternal grandparents and my sister, and all seven of us carpooled down in my grandparents' van. It was snowy that day, and my mom said, "Wouldn't it be cool if we came out of the MTC and it was sunny?" But then it got sunny on the drive, and my mom said, "See? It's sunny because we're doing the right thing." I thought it was a stretch. We met my dad's family at a Chuck-a-Rama in Provo because my grandpa Boyd wanted to eat there. A "waitress" asked my uncle John what he wanted for drinks for him and his kids; he wanted root beer. I had never had anyone ask what drinks we wanted at Chuck-a-Rama before. I remember talking to my maternal grandparents about the bad special effects on I Dream of Jeannie. Then we went to the MTC, and it was snowing again. I remember thinking that the "coming out when it was sunny" thing wasn't working for those who were presently coming out. My mom needed to use the bathroom, so we waited for her, but some senior missionaries moved us along to the meeting room. At the end of their little intro, it was time for all missionaries to say goodbye. While most missionaries said their final goodbyes and hugged, David looked back at us and took off, moving a chair to get out of there faster. All of us family members were a little teary-eyed as we left. I remember when we got home, my mom was talking to Linda Larson about school stuff. Or maybe she was talking to someone else and Linda Larson had just dropped off a bunch of notes from her schoolkids sympathizing about her broken leg. I wanted to use the computer to make a Christmas list.

1999. I think I made up my Christmas list using a snowman clipart picture in Word; I also used the Frostbitten font in alternating red and green colors.

All Saints' Day

Call it what you may--All Saints' Day, the day after Halloween, All Hallows' Day, November 1, Day of the Dead Eve--it's what I'm going to remember in this post.

2011. I turned on the TV while I was eating breakfast before work, and they were showing an IHOP commercial with Arthur Christmas. I was sad that they were already starting Christmas commercials. I listened to my Peanuts Portraits CD in the car on the way to work so that I could listen to the songs from A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. During my lunch break, I went to a nearby place called Port of Subs and bought a sandwich called a Pilgrim Griller; it had turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I think I ate the sandwich there. As I was driving back to work, my CD was playing the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving songs and the mountain ahead of me was covered in freshly fallen snow. It was so wonderful. Then I went home around 5 or so. I read the newspaper and finished up the pumpkin milkshake my parents had bought me the day before. I went on my computer and traded the Halloween music in my playlist for Thanksgiving music, and posted a Facebook status: "Hooray for November! Boo for premature Christmas commercials..." Then I went to institute at the Woods Cross seminary building. Some high-schooler had written "Happy Thanksgiving" on one of the white boards, and I was kind of comforted that someone else recognized it as the beginning of the Thanksgiving season. After institute I went to Kmart. I looked at the things they had for sale, and I debated getting my mom some Thanksgiving salt and pepper shakers, but I didn't. Then I went home and went to bed.

2010. I think that this was perhaps the day when I went running in the morning and I saw the remnants of smashed pumpkins and dropped trick-or-treat goodies, including the Disney playing card sets that Costco sold. Then I went to work and I was dismayed when I walked past the envelope-filling station to hear that Nate Sevy was listening to Christmas music. How dare anyone, either radio station owners or radio station listeners, think that the demise of Halloween means the beginning of Christmas!

2009. I remember getting up in the morning and going to the Ripon church building. I think it was kind of chilly that morning. I remember thinking about how it was November, the month in which I (sadly) would be going home! During the singles branch, we were delighted when Mallary, who would be baptized later that week, got up and bore her testimony. (Oh, if only she had kept that testimony.) My journal entry probably best describes what happened that day:
"I love November. It occurred to me today that I need to be happy I still have a month left, not sad I only have a month. We had to teach Sunday School today on family responsibilities. Michael Piquet and Barbie both teared up during the lessons, I think because they both know they're not totally keeping the commandments. 

"Mallary bore her testimony today, and Brit Beck came to church. Katelyn stayed for Mallary's lesson. We lightly tracted before dinner with the Duncans. We stopped by Renee's, and then the Robisons." 

2008. We had spent the night in Airway Heights, due to insufficient miles. I think we had companion study with Elders Colton and Smith; I told them about how I had read about circumcision in the Book of Acts. But they had to get going to a service project. I heard the member they lived with, Sister Drees, remarking about how the missionaries had eaten a lot of candy from the box she had by the door. After the other elders had left, she called up, "Who's up there?" I said, "Elder Melville and Elder Love." She asked if we were going to the service project; I told her we had to go back to Ritzville. She asked about the candy and I kind of felt bad. We finally left, and we wanted to stop at the Christensens', who lived just outside of Edwall. But they weren't home. Then we went to Edwall proper; Elder Love asked me to call the Smithpeters to see if we could visit. I talked to a son or something, but I don't think the Smithpeters in the branch were home. We tracted in Edwall. I think we parked near the tiny library that was only open twice a month. We tracted most of the main street. Next door to the Smithpeters we met a man who was an inactive member of the Church. On the south end of town we met a woman who was friendly but not interested; she told us she knew some members in Edwall. (The only active members in Edwall proper were the Smithpeters.)I remember standing at one door and looking at the Halloween decoration and thinking about how I was excited that it was now November. I remember looking at the CDs Elder Love had to put in the CD player. I found one burned CD called "A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns." Because it had Thanksgiving in the title (and in fact I think it is marketed for Thanksgiving), I put it in. I remember Elder Love saying "I'm Runnin' On" was a weird song. Then in Ritzville we saw our investigator Amber; she gave us a whole box of full-size Baby Ruths and told us about how she didn't have many trick-or-treaters. Then we were walking by Ritzville's park and I think I tried the restroom and also ate a candy bar. We tracted a small street and a lady answered the door but closed it immediately after seeing us. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we went to Edwall and tracted there. I was thinking about how less-actives can be found. And we found one named Bruce, who was baptized at fourteen. Two years ago missionaries gave his kids blessings, but he doesn't want his records sent. He said we can stop by if we drive through again. 

"People weren't all too friendly today--closing the door without saying anything, completely ignoring us, and the like--but Amber gave us lots of leftover Halloween candy, we got a comeback, and had a lesson with Lucrecia, and Wanda, another less-active, was also there and receptive."

2007. In the morning I had an eye appointment. After that, I wanted to stop by the Distribution store to pick up my engraved scriptures. I drove around in Centerville but I kind of got lost. Eventually I decided I needed to turn left to get back to where I needed to be to get home; I would worry about going to Distribution another day. And it just so happened that the road where I decided to turn left was the street that Distribution was on! So I went in and got my scriptures. Then I went home. I was putting the inflatable turkey in the yard when my dad came home. Later in the afternoon I went to Walmart to get my paycheck.  When I got off the freeway, the "Check Engine" light came on. While I was at Walmart I also did some shopping.I looked at the clearance Halloween candy to see what could work for Thanksgiving. I might have bought some pumpkin eggnog. I do know that I stopped at the deli and got sundried tomato turkey. I was wearing my blue glasses. My former supervisor Kat said that she recognized me even though I was "incognito." There were some new girls working in the deli already. I think that night I attempted to clean the black polish off of my fingernails.

2006. I came home, excited to see my nephew, Preston, who was not quite two. I went downstairs, and there he and Allie (and by extension Susanne and Ya-ping) were watching a Barbie movie (The Princess and the Pauper?). Allie said to me, "This is my cousin!" as if I didn't know. Preston laughed at something in the movie and Nan said something like, "Is that funny, Buddy?" Later that night Allie and Preston were playing together. She was playing her "pounce, pounce, scurry" routine from some silly Cinderella dancing show. Preston and I played too--Preston didn't really know what was going on, but he was content to run around in circles with us.

Then my mom came home. I think she was the one who took this picture of Allie, who decided to wear the empty Halloween bucket as a hat.


2004. I remember putting out my inflatable turkey for the very first time. I think there was snow on the ground.

2002. I actually didn't exist for a large part of November 1.  At some point our airplane crossed over the International Dateline and it became November 1. It was dark out when we flew into Taipei. I remember stopping in one of the Taiwanese airport bathrooms and seeing the little trash bin next to the toilets, which I had been warned about. My armpits got really sore as I walked around with my backpack, because I had put on deodorant that gave me a rash. A girl named Donna, who had stayed with us at general conference, picked us up in a Saab; it might have been her mother's, who was impressed that someone would give up two years of their life for their religion, even though she was a Buddhist or something. (And writing this makes me realize I never mentioned Donna in my general conference memory post.) I think as we were driving we passed some lights that were meant to look like fireworks (like they have at Fat Cats in Provo). We checked into our hotel room and I think I took a shower after my parents went to bed. We were surprised to find that the bathroom had a window into the bedroom. It was opaque, but still. I think Donna showed us how to control the temperature of the room.

2000. Before school, I remember seeing some young kids on the playground sharing their Halloween candy. That day we went to the computer lab, and the board outside the classroom across from the computer lab said something like "It's turkey tieme" and they had a turkey that had neckties as its feathers.

1998. I remember getting a jack-o-lantern gumball from my yellow pillowcase while I was taking Halloween stuff down and putting Thanksgiving stuff up.

Related posts: A Year of Holiday Memories
A pillowcase full of trick-or-treat memories

UEA weekend

Because it was just barely UEA weekend, I'm going to remember as many details as I can about the UEA weekends I've experienced.

2010. Perhaps this doesn't count, because I wasn't in school. But since my mom is a teacher and I got to go on vacation with my parents, I'll count it. On Wednesday before we left, I took a job application in to Top Hat Video. My mom came home from school and got a call from a diabolical parent. Two kids in her class had come to her telling her their arms hurt (because they had been purposely hitting them against bars that connect the stair rail to the wall). After one kid's arm kept hurting, she asked him if he wanted to call home, but he wanted to play a game they were going to play. After the game he told her he wanted to call home, but since the day was almost over and he hadn't been hurting enough to not play the game, she didn't let him. But then these parents called my mom and asked her about it and she told her side of the story and the nefarious dad said,"Well, I guess it's your word against his." My mom was really mad. I said she should ask my brother to find some flesh-eating acid she could use to coat the papers that the student takes home to his parents. We got in our Rav and drove down to Kanab, Utah. We stopped at Arby's in one small town, and there was a grocery store across the street. Eventually we got to our hotel in Kanab. One of the books in the room was Gordon B. Hinckley's book Standing for Something. I think I read the introduction of it. We got up very early the next morning (Thursday) to go to Lake Powell. We were sitting in a parking lot before it was time to get on our boat. We munched on the snacks in our car and watched all the people at this place. Everyone was old and the building had jack-o-lanterns in their gardens. Then we got on our boat to go to Rainbow Bridge. A foreign woman sat next to me; she was one of the few people on the top of the boat (besides us) who weren't senior citizens. They told us that there were lemonade and water down below, and that the people who had seats on top could go down, but those who had seats below couldn't go on top. They had narration on our headsets about the history of the area, describing early explorers and Indian artifacts, and I remember thinking what a shame it was that all that beauty and history was covered with water. Eventually we got to Rainbow Bridge. We made it to a dock with floating restrooms. We walked up to see Rainbow Bridge; they encouraged people not to go directly to it because it was sacred to Indians. I remember seeing some plants that you wouldn't expect in a desert. Then we got back on the boat; as we did so, we watched the ravens sitting in people's boats. Then we got back to the parking lot; I remember thinking that the boat ride was way too long for what you got. Then we drove down to the Grand Canyon. I think we ate at a Burger King and I wanted to listen to the Nightmare Before Christmas soundtrack. We made it into Arizona and I was impressed by the yellow leaves of the aspen trees. We were driving down the road when a police car was coming the other way. He turned his lights on and turned and followed us. We got pulled over, and the cop came to my mom's side of the car (presumably so it would be safer for him). He said that the speed limit was only 50 (maybe 55) and we were going more like 70. He told us that people hit buffalo on the road, which surprised my parents. Then we made it to the Upper Rim of the Grand Canyon. I thought it was amazingly beautiful. We looked at a sign with the whole geologic column on it, but I didn't really know the meaning of all the rock layers. I took lots of pictures but was a little disappointed at how hazy it was.
We watched people getting served food at the lodge there.We went into a gift shop and I debated between two colors of t-shirts, but I think I had to get the grey one instead of the tan one because of the sizes available. Then we drove back to our hotel in Kanab, where I wrote in my journal. The next morning, we drove to a ghost town called Pariah. We didn't know if it was pronounced "puh-RYE-uh" or "puh-REE-uh," but one pamphlet said that one lady said her father pronounced it "puh-REAR." Some people were camping out there. There was supposed to be a movie set, but it had been burned down. We saw a little cemetery, and then we saw the site of Pariah. Pariah was abandoned because it flooded too often, and Brigham Young had told them that it would. It looked like there was a water heater on the opposite side of the river, and I was confused why there would be one there, if it was a pioneer ghost town. I liked the curled mud:

My mom took a picture of my dad and me:

I wanted to listen to Vince Guaraldi and Coldplay; my mom didn't know Coldplay was a band, and she expected instrumental music. We were worried about getting out of the dirt roads and all the dips. But we did get out, and we drove to Zions National Park. We went and checked into our hotel just outside the park. While we were in the parking lot, our car decided not to work. We were glad that it died there instead of in Pariah! While we were waiting for AAA to come, we hung out in our hotel room and I took a nap. My mom was taking a picture of my dad. I was surprised that not only did he not smile (which he never does), he actually stuck his lips out, I guess because he had a painful canker sore. But I still found it weird he would stick them out in a picture. Then eventually we took shuttles up to different sites at Zions, but maybe that was only in the evening. We saw the Weeping Rock (I can never remember if it's Weeping Rock or Weeping Wall). I was amazed at the age of the water seeping through the sandstone. At one location, my mom saw one of her students. At dusk, we were riding the shuttle and they stopped to show us the turkeys flying up to nest for the night in the trees. We didn't even know turkeys did that! I think we had dinner near our hotel. Then we watched something on TV; I think it was a documentary on penguins or Antarctica or something like that. The next morning we went to a visitor's center and I liked the red flowers on a nearby cactus. We took a shuttle and the driver stopped because there was a tarantula in the road. I was so excited; I had wanted to see a tarantula, and there I did! She got out and stopped the traffic from the other direction so she could try to get it on a newspaper and move it. The spider went into defense mode:

Eventually, it did get onto the newspaper, and the driver moved the paper and the spider to the shoulder. It was crawling up the paper and almost got onto her arm, so she was being quick about getting to the shoulder and shaking it off, and all of us on the bus didn't blame her. A woman had jogged past while the driver was trying to get the spider on the newspaper. Eventually we left. We stopped at a restaurant in a small town. They had a little gift shop there, and my mom ended up buying some educational pamphlets. The tables had decorations of cornucopias with different fruits and vegetables; I remarked that all of the fruits and vegetables were things you could grow in your backyard, except for the bananas. A local radio station was on and they played Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" and they might have played some Nickelback. Then we left. In the car, my mom called my aunt Terri to see if we could stop by in Cedar City. We got there and we admired some of my uncle Terry's artwork that we hadn't seen before. We talked to their grandson Brennan (I think) and he said he seems like a calm person but he really isn't; my mom said that described me. My cousin Kim was there and had her kids there. Terri was telling her grandkids about how my dad was called the Hulk by his Army buddies, something my mom and I had never heard. At one point Kim's young daughter said to me, "When the Hulk leaves, I will miss the Hulk." Terri gave us apples, as well as caramel to dip them in. My cousin Kadee came with her new husband, whom I hadn't met yet. I think we talked a little about missions. My dad and I talked with Terri in the backyard; she told us about the nefarious practices of her kids' ex-spouses. Later Kim and her kids came out. The daughter went to the tetherball and had the ball sticking out behind her and said, "That was like The Princess and the Frog." Kim started laughing and explained to us that her daughter was thinking of Raymond the firefly--she equated the ball to a firefly's light. Eventually we left; in the car my mom told us about how Kadee's husband had told a story of a German woman who wanted to see Zions but died before she could. Then we came home.

2006. I had been invited to attend Y Weekend, and I chose UEA so I wouldn't have to miss any school. On Thursday, my parents took me to Provo. We went to the dinosaur museum and we ate at McDonald's so Allie could get a Little Mermaid toy. I checked into my hotel room and then went and waited in the room where we were all meeting. I met one James and we talked about splitting infinitives (at that point I still erroneously believed you shouldn't split them, even though it's the most ridiculous of all prescriptive rules). While we waited for people to come, we played a game where you had to switch seats according to your response to a particular question. One of the questions was about getting traffic tickets and I misunderstood it so I got up to move before I realized it didn't apply to me. As more people came, the game got wilder, and at one point my glasses got knocked off. I was sure they'd get trampled, but fortunately they didn't. One of my schoolmates, Rachel Cope, was there; I said, "Hi Rachel!" Later we played a more organized game and we had to pick team names. One girl said she had been at an event where their team picked the name "Earthquakes in divers places." That turned into "Earthquake divers." The Y Weekend leaders taught us a cheesy "Y Weekend" chant. Then we went to dinner and we all introduced ourselves. One Candace Bellows introduced herself as being from Bettendorf, IA, a small town. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I said, "There's nothing interesting about me, but I have to say that this is a small world, because my cousin's husband was just made bishop of the Bettendorf ward." Candace excitedly said, "Bishop Finch?" Then we got BYU hoodies. They gave us campus maps and told us about the different places on campus. We went to the Planetarium and saw a show that talked about galaxies. I remember talking with Rachel by the giant crystal on the second floor of the ESC and telling her that I had been to a place that displayed hairy crystals. Then we walked back to our hotel on Canyon Road. I stopped to try to let a car turn left into a parking lot, but one of the leaders told me not to worry about it. Then we played games at the hotel; one girl was wearing Mutts pajamas. The next day we had breakfast and then we went to the top of the SWKT. (By the way, if I weren't presently a BYU student, I wouldn't know what all these buildings were called or where they are.) In the elevator I was talking to Rachel about how I think it would be fun to be a zombie. She said it wouldn't. We met Cosmo at the top of the SWKT. I overheard some guys talking about how to be Cosmo you couldn't just be some fat lazy person. We took a group picture, but I hated having my picture taken so I hid behind everyone else. Then we had a religious class in the JSB, a class in the Maeser building, and a class in the building across the bridge from the Wilk. Then we had a professional lunch; Rachel said she wanted to study Italian. Then we went on a tour of the Brimhall Building. I think we went back to our hotel before coming back to campus. My roommate said he hadn't gone on the tour and instead talked to science professors. Eventually we headed back to campus and walked past Helaman Halls. A girl called out to us from her window, "Is this a Y Weekend?" I looked up and nodded and she said, "Aww, cute." (Not like being a freshman is that much different...) We went to see a play called The Foreigner. Some guys were trying to raise funds to buy a blue plastic anime wig. Of course, the play started off with a prayer. We all found it entertaining and we would often quote "Bees come down" afterward. When the play was over, I talked with Candace on the stairs about what a coincidence it was that we were at the same Y Weekend, and she said, "Yeah, that's really wild." (Six months later I learned that she had walked out of the play.) I followed a group of people back to our hotel. They were singing that old "Breakfast at Tiffany's" song. I felt lonely, so I pulled the drawstring on my hoodie as tight as I could so that I could barely see. I was hoping someone would ask me why I was doing that so I could tell them that I was a werewolf and I didn't want any stray moonlight to hit me. But instead of making people talk to me I think it made them avoid me. My roommate was watching Wild Wild West on TV and asked me if I had seen it and told me it was funny, but I didn't care to watch it. The next morning a lot of the group had gone to hike to the Y but I didn't want to. (I still have never hiked to the Y.) But I wasn't sure how to get to where we needed to be (probably the Cannon Center). I got lost, but I eventually found it. Then my aunt came into the hotel to get me; she had come down with my mom. We went to lunch at Brick Oven. I got chicken noodle soup with my meal, and I started quoting an approximation of a Green Acres episode:
"There you go. Hot water soup."
"Hot water soup? I thought we were having chicken noodle soup."
"Well, when I went out to the chickens, none of them had any noodles on them."
"No one in their right mind would eat hot water soup!"
"Oh boy, hot water soup!"
"And there's your living proof, if you can call that living." (I know this quote is inaccurate from the original, but I'm trying to quote it closer to how I quoted it.)
I told my family about having met Candace Bellows from Iowa.

2005. My parents, my sister, my niece and nephew, and I all went down to Fillmore. We took Grandma Judy to the "Garden of Eat'n" restaurant at the north end of town. I had an open face hot turkey sandwich. We went back to my grandma's house. I felt bad for my mom that she had to watch Preston that night (David and Ya-ping were celebrating their anniversary or something). I remember showing my mom the really creepy picture of John Calhoun in my history textbook.

The next day we went home. I think Allie was watching Cinderella in the car. We had cinnamon-scented pinecones in the back. We stopped at a McDonald's somewhere along the way. I remember something about a Kmart Halloween commercial. There was a toddler with a long mullet at McDonald's; my dad said, "When you look at him, you know he was born in a trailer." Then we went to Cabela's, taxidermy central, where my dad held the door open for Warren Jeffs's brother, although we didn't realize it at the time. I remember playing some shooting arcade game.

2003. My brother got married this UEA, so in preparation we had a gaggle of Asian girls staying at our house. Ya-ping's friend Tory talked about seeing a girl in Salt Lake flashing herself at cars. Once I noticed some bowls in the drying rack instead of the dishwasher, so I used one. My sister later said that she had seen the girls washing the bowls with their fingers and no soap. My mom made Hawaiian haystacks, but the Asians all thought the gravy was the main part, not the rice, so they put rice in the gravy and ate the gravy. Ya-ping's sister Shu-li said, "Mutti, that soup was really good!" I remember later saying to my mom, "Talk about a heart attack in a bowl!" My mom told David about the pornographic pictures his friend Mike Bishop had taken of himself as a substitute for a bachelor party, warning him it might not be a wise thing to look at on the way to the temple. Those of us who couldn't go to the wedding stayed at our house; Joey was listening to the recordings on the toy TV that went with my "Lucy at the Halloween party" playset. He understood what they were saying better than I did. Then we went to the temple grounds; I saw our stake president leaving the temple. Then we all had pictures taken outside the temple. I remember talking with my cousin Martha about my Halloween tie and her Halloween nails. Then we went to the Joy Luck restaurant. I went out with my cousins to decorate the newlyweds' car. But the newlyweds didn't have a car, so we decorated our own car (which they would be using). Since we never decorated the car at my cousin April's wedding, we decorated hers then. We had markers to write on windows. On April's car we wrote things like "Just married a few months ago." Once I wrote April's name but I accidentally wrote Brandon, which was the name of her previous boyfriend. My step-cousin Pat pointed out that it was the wrong name and I felt stupid. So I scribbled the name out and put "Cameron" above it. Then, to make it less suspicious, I also put a scribble under April's name. Then we went back inside where the jar of fortune cookies had reached the bottom. That Sunday, we had stake conference and we saw our decorated white car leaving the parking lot (my brother's honeymoon was just a hotel in Salt Lake).

2002. I remember turning on TV Land and catching the last few minutes of Mayberry R.F.D. but I had never seen it before so I didn't really know what was going on. I think I did, though, recognize the theme music as being from The Andy Griffith Show. For extra credit in my Spanish class, we could paint a skull and take it to class. I had a ceramic skull that I painted yellow and put what I thought were Aztec-like designs on it.

2001. I think during this year UEA was in September. Since it was just shortly after 9/11, there wasn't anything good on TV, especially during the day. I was downstairs making Halloween window clings, and I was watching some animated math program on channel 9 while I made them. The characters were different mathematical signs; the plus sign was named Addison.

1999. This was the year the Orchard 11th Ward had a Halloween talent show. I remember playing with my friends David Christensen and Brad Rogers and we were making up a play we would perform for it. It involved using bouillon cubes in red wrappers to represent chopped up flesh. But of course our play never materialized. I had signed up to recite "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll. The night of the show, I looked at the list of people who were performing. Wayne Christensen was going to do a poem, but they weren't there because they had gone deer hunting. I was wearing a tan polo shirt with my Halloween tie. Courtney Brown sang a song she sang at the second grade Christmas program. One lady simply displayed ceramics she had made, including one of Santa soaking his feet. Then we went to Provo to pick up my brother David. After we picked him up, we went to Hogi Yogi. I bought a drink in a yard glass. The girl at the counter at Hogi Yogi told me she liked my tie (which I still had on).

1997. Since there wasn't school, my soccer coach had us have a two-hour practice instead of just one. I rode down to North Salt Lake Park with the Christensens. But Chantelle apparently didn't want David at practice for two hours, so after an hour she took him home. I didn't get the memo that I could stay the whole two hours and my parents would pick me up, so when they left, I said I needed to leave too. My coach gave me a pumpkin-shaped Reese's. But when I went up to get my ride, they had already left. And the way my third-grade brain worked told me I needed to walk home. So walk I did, eating my Reese's on the way and putting the wrapper in my pocket. I was almost home when my parents drove by. I can't remember if they gave me a ride the rest of the way or if I was close enough that it didn't matter. I think they had been to Smith's and bought donuts and groceries. They said they had stopped to pick me up from practice but my coach told them I had gone home with the Christensens. They told me I could have stayed and they would have picked me up. My brother seemed impressed that I had walked so far. I was a chubby little nine year old.

A sad day: October 23, 2004

On this Saturday morning (it happened to be Mol day, as I learned in chemistry class), we all piled into the Suburban and drove down to Fillmore.

When we got there, my dad's dad, Grandpa Boyd, was lying on his bed, on oxygen. There was discussion that my uncles had given him a blessing, not that he would be healed but that he would pass away peacefully. They had also lowered his oxygen supply. My brother and I hadn't seen him in that condition, although the rest of the family had. David started crying as soon as he saw them. Since I don't show emotion, I wasn't going to cry, but David's tears made mine flow. Everyone kept telling us that although Grandpa couldn't talk, he could hear us. I said to him, "We love you." My brother said, "I remember when I wouldn't eat sugar, it was always Grandpa Boyd who was the one person who could get me to eat it." (Well, those weren't his exact words, but it was something like that.) I think my mom might have brought up that Ya-ping was soon having a baby, who would be born in November just like my grandparents were. We left the room. I remember Ya-ping crying, even though she and Dave had only been married a year.

I remember doing my algebra homework on the couch in the living room, and my cousin Cannon offered his help (I might have been having calculator trouble). On the TV the family was watching a video of Grandpa Boyd earlier that week, when he had just received his grim diagnosis. Cannon was saying, "I can't believe he was like this just this week." He had gone downhill fast. I remember my dad walking around with a sad look on his face. He was carrying Allie, who was asleep on his shoulder (she was 1).

After some time, my cousin Amory came out and said to everyone, "You might want to go in there." Grandpa had apparently opened his eyes--I can't remember if they said he had breathed or said something or what. But I remember thinking that I didn't want to go in if he was dying. But them my mom went in, so I went in too. They said my grandpa had opened his eyes and had a peaceful look on his face. My cousin Mary proceeded to take wet rags and put them at his wrists and things and my sister had to leave the room. Later my cousin Kim came with their funeral home hearse, and my sister said she couldn't watch as they took my grandpa's body to the car.

I remember sitting on the couch, probably doing homework, when the bishop came by. I remember thinking I was veritably in a small town, for he was a true cowboy and even had cowboy boots.

Then we drove home. When we got home, my mom called her sister. I think Sue asked her if Grandpa had
passed away, and my mom starting crying and said yes. I remember her saying that my grandma had asked her to stay in the room with my grandpa's body, and that my mom had said, "Thanks Boyd," and at that moment the clouds broke for just a second and sunlight lit the room before it got dark again.

It was a sad day.