Happy St. Patrick's Day (3/16/09)

Yes, it is all right for you to send my package straight to our house, because it will probably arrive this week.[1] Transfers are next week, but I don't expect to be transferred, since Elder B.'s already been here four months and I'm his third companion here. There's a good possibility he's leaving, but we would be very surprised if I left. The last package you sent arrived just in time. It arrived on Saturday. If it hadn't, it wouldn't have come on Sunday, of course, and Sunday night was when I left Ritzville, since we had to go be with a missionary whose companion went home.

Yesterday I spoke in sacrament meeting as well. It's only the second time I've spoken on my mission. I thought it was one of the most boring talks I've given--the information was good but it didn't have much personality.

I was assigned to speak on the Book of Mormon. Perhaps it was the broad topic that caused it to be boring.

I started off talking about the first four books of the New Testament. The closing verses of Matthew[2] and Mark[3] talk about missionary work, and Luke ends talking about the temple.[4] I read the last verse of John, which talks about how if everything Jesus did were written there wouldn't be room for all the books that should be written.[5]

I transitioned to how the Book of Mormon accomplishes many tasks, but the one it specifically sets out to do is given in the title page, to convince Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ. I gave examples from all fifteen books of the BoM on how they fulfill this purpose.

Then I talked about what Preach My Gospel says about the Book of Mormon--it supports the Bible (and read about Jesus' baptism and in 2 Nephi 31 where it explains about "to fulfill all righteousness," and explained that the BoM identifies the brazen serpent as a type of Christ), it answers great questions of the soul, it draws people nearer to God, and we are to use it in handling objections to the Church.

I mentioned converts of about nine years from my first area. The wife knew Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet because she knew the Book of Mormon was true. The husband knew the BoM was true because he knew Gordon B. Hinckley was a prophet. Then I bore my testimony I know it's true because I know Joseph Smith was a prophet.

I got a lot of compliments, but as I said, I felt it was pretty boring.

This week was really cold. It got into the single digits. It did warm up for the end of the week, though, but then it rained. Last night was really windy.

On Wednesday Elder B. felt a little under the weather, so he just slept during dinner time. I ate minimally for some reason. But it worked out just fine. We went to go see a less-active who let us in, and she was just making dinner, so she invited us to stay. She's not interested in the Gospel (the first thing she said to us was, "We're fornicators"), but she's fine with us as missionaries. She was raised FLDS but left it at 15, then joined the LDS. That's the second time on my mission that's happened--that we didn't eat dinner and then the people we see invite us for it. In fact, I think the only times I've had people other than active members invite us for dinner when we just show up were those two times when we hadn't eaten.

I liked your inspiration story.[6]

Um...I can't think of anything else right now.

Love,

Elder Melville

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[1] My mom’s email had asked if she could send a package direct to where we lived.

[2] “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

[3] “And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.”

[4] “And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.”

[5] “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.”

[6] My mom’s email had an inspiringa story where she acted on a prompting.

(no subject) (3/17/08)

[1]So my new companion is another white nerdy Utah boy with glasses who worked at Wal-Mart[2] so it makes the Church seem less diverse than when I was with Elder Ch., a Hawaiian Californian Renaissance Man. It will definitely be a different experience with Elder Co. He looks like Chicken Little. He is kind of what happens if you cross me and Elder Ch. as far as various interests go.

I'm officially no longer a greenie but the wards don't tend to think so and they don't really trust me.[3] Oh, well. It's not my permanent ward.

Sorry I didn't send a paper letter this week. There wasn't anything else I really needed to say and I didn't have time. I might try to write you a little less so I can catch up on writing back the other people who've written me.

So our new district consists of Elder Melville and Elder Co.; Elder C. J., district leader, and his greenie, Elder D. (I listed them in our phone as My Two Sons,[4] and whenever I see it the <i>My Three Sons</i> theme pops into my head, so I might have to change that); Elder Cly. and Elder B., the latter of whom is sort of notorious for being an apostate;[5] Elder G. and Elder Cla., zone leaders; and Sister Sha. and Sister Shi., the latter of whom had an anxiety attack during district meeting.

Yesterday Duane, our investigator, showed up at church and participated in classes. They are so completely golden. There is a scary possibility with them with a funny story behind it. When he was on the wrong track Duane stole a computer from Wal-Mart then fell asleep in the car in the parking lot. He also tried to load thirty lawnmowers on a truck and steal the truck. He was caught with both crimes but they were going to let the lawnmower charge go since he was going to jail for the computer. Now, four years later, the lawnmowers have come back so he has a court hearing in a few weeks. We hope they'll let him off.

Speaking of jail, our drunk investigator (who was sober when we saw him this week) might go to jail because he was charged with indecent exposure and then failed to go to court. He wants to go to jail so he can quit smoking and drinking but he worries without medication he'll die in jail. I've never met someone who wanted to go to jail before.

Well, the Welshes[6] are going to take us to Costco and Elder Co. is waiting for me even though I have a while left on the computer. If I think of anything else important I'll write you a snail mail.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Easter. The 22nd or the 23rd (I can't remember which) is the earliest Easter can be so this is an unusual year.[7] My tie isn't terribly green but no one wants to pinch missionaries, as far as I know....[8]

--Elder Melville

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[1] I don’t know whether I forgot to give the email a subject, or if I consciously typed “(no subject).”

[2] I worked in the Walmart deli from June to October 2007.

[3] I’m so quiet that people thought I was green even in my last area.

[4] Both their names ended in “son” (I edited the names out for the internet).

[5] “Apostate” in mission lingo means disobedient. This elder toned it down by the time I met him.

[6] The couple we lived with.

[7] Easter was on March 23, 2008, the earliest I can remember.

[8] I had asked my family to send me a tie that was unquestionably green, so what did they do? They sent me a tie and said, “I’m not sure this is green enough for you.” Exactly what I wanted them not to do. They said they wanted it to match the suit. :/

March 14-19, 2016

I have a few extra moments to actually update this thing, so I'm going to return to the tradition of returning to last year's holiday. (Just this time, though. Don't expect more regular posts.)

Monday, March 14. I went to Kneaders for lunch, and I think I had a mint chocolate cupcake. I went to FHE, and Bishop Allen did a presentation with a March Madness theme. Bishop said he wanted to find this meme with a basketball theme but couldn't find one.

Brother Bailey and his children sat in front of me, and his older daughter kept kissing their baby. I leaned up and said, "You look like you're a really good sister," and she said, "I am." On the way home from FHE, I really considered stopping at Village Inn to get a mint pie for Pi Day (since I only eat green pies at that time of year), but I decided against it because it wouldn't be good for my family. I think my niece was annoyed that I didn't. I wrote in my journal:
"Today I went to Kneaders for lunch because I threw away the old sandwiches I had packed. It was rainy and snowy today. Home evening was bracketology by Bishop Allen. Brother Bailey's daughter was kissing their baby; I told her, 'You look like a really great big sister,' and she said, 'I am.' I painted more of my wooden shamrock tonight. I considered buying a mint pie, but I didn't feel like it...."

Tuesday, March 15. I used an informally published book called Ship Brooklyn Saints for the research described in my journal: 
"It was rainy and snowy today. I did some Chauncey West bios (Quartus Sparks and Orrin Smith) when I needed a break. I went to central hub institute for the last time, since we'll probably use a different building next time. Tonight I finished painting my shamrock. Now to let it dry."

Wednesday, March 16. I was able to test out my new trail running shoes on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, and it was also the first time I did a trail run with my Fitbit. I was surprised how fast I was on that trail (since the first part of it is flat, and I only had time for a short run). That night I watched Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I wrote in my journal:
"Tonight I ran two miles on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail for the first time since November! I went slower going downhill. It was my first time with my trail running shoes and my Fitbit. Tonight I watched Darby O'Gill."

Thursday, March 17. I wore my green pants, white shirt, orange belt, green glasses, and green socks to work. I stopped at a gas station on Beck Street and went inside the convenience store to see if they had sweetened condensed milk. They didn't, and I considered buying a king-size Lucky Charms bar, but I didn't. During the lunch hour, several employees were playing Irish music in a conference room, so many of us went down to listen. The Darowskis (whom I hadn't really met yet) commented on how much I got into it. Jenny Reeder sat next to Charlotte Terry and brought her laptop to work. Most of the music was instrumental, but Korben McBride sang "Danny Boy," and I didn't get why everyone was so enamored before he sang it (I don't get why it's so popular). After work, I stopped at Neighbor's Market to get sweetened condensed milk. I changed into my green shoes and "Irishish" shirt to go to tutoring. When I showed up at Camille's house, she said her boss had the same (or a similar) shirt. Doug and Ellie also came for tutoring, and on the way to tutoring, Ellie pointed out that the sign on the freeway had a holiday theme: "A designated driver is your lucky charm." I think I helped out a student in the separate computer room, and when I went back in, Camille wasn't riding home with us, and in the car Doug and Ellie were talking about how awkward it was, because apparently Camille was really mad at Doug. Doug said he wondered where I had gone, because he didn't see all my green. I went home and made avocado milkshakes (out of avocado, milk, sweetened condensed milk, and ice) and went downstairs to watch The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold. I wrote in my journal:
"Everyone liked my shamrock tie, green pants, and green glasses. During lunch hour, I attended a department Irish music concert. When I came home, I made Hawaiian Haystacks with green rice. Then I went to tutoring and helped Myles with vocab. When I came home (Camille didn't ride with us because she was mad at Doug), I made avocado shakes, using the sweetened condensed milk I got from Neighbor's Market on my way home from work. Then I watched The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold." 

Friday, March 18. After work, I drove to Wild Rose Park for my first-ever Fitbit trial on my favorite (at the time) trail. I did both the Wild Rose and Chukar Loops, 2.5 miles, which was a little less than I had expected. When I got home, our old neighbors, the Reeds, were visiting. They talked about lots of things: they were freaked out by the rattlesnake in our window, but Randy said it was a little less scary because of its "cowboy" hat (my Mom said it was a St. Patrick's Day hat, so that would be coming down). They talked about their son-in-law who would jump on their bed between them. They talked about their spoiled grandchild, and they attributed her behavior to not being spanked. They said she went to Olive Garden with her aunt, Nicole, and expected to get her own serving of something, while Nicole insisted they share it. They talked about how their son bought a house before he got a job and then got a job really far from their house. We talked about how four YSA wards meet in my church building. They talked about the Peterson family in the neighborhood, the wife of which had early-onset Alzheimer's or something. The Reeds talked about how sad it was, that they were at a funeral or something and she stared at the floor the whole time. Our cat, Jenny, started meowing because she wanted outside, so Rosa started meowing, and Jenny came up to her foot to be "petted," and Rosa tried to get her to go away. I wrote in my journal:
"Today I went to Nauvoo Cafe for lunch (for carrot cake, of course). When I came home, I drove to the Wild Rose and Chukar Loops and ran them with my new shoes and my Fitbit. And when I got home, Randy and Rosa Reed were visiting. I haven't seen them in a decade."

Saturday, March 19. I ran up to Wild Rose again, and I even went on the lower portion of the trail that had always been closed. It was really muddy, and part of the trail had me going through overgrown branches, right below the North Salt Lake landslide. I wasn't impressed with that portion of the trail, because it was surrounded by houses, muddy, steep, and full of litter. I had to take my shoes off outside when I got home because of all the mud. Then I went with my mom to pick up Allie, and as we were driving down 500 South, my mom was talking about what she could make for Easter dessert, either carrot cake or a cake like my Grandma Judy used to make, with jelly beans and colored coconut on top. I said I preferred carrot cake, because in my treat categories, that's category 1, whereas a decorated cake is only category 3. We went to At Home because I wanted an Easter decoration. I thought about an egg tree, but I got a little fake sugar egg. That night, we went to a musical performance, The Lamb of God, which was interdenominational, and my grandparents joined us. One of the prayers, from a woman preacher of another religion, prayed to God as "Father and Mother," which was interesting. We looked at some of the paintings on display, and we were a bit underwhelmed by the performance. After we went home, I pulled out the box of Easter decorations to put up. While I was decorating, I randomly had the laughable Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons rendition of "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" pop in my head, and I told my mom about how it had their signature style: "You better watch out, you better not cry-y bay-ay-by," and my mom laughed at the way I sang. I had to pull it up on my phone to play, even though it was out of season, since it so randomly popped into my head.
I decided that I would only put up what decorations I could get up that night before 9, since Easter was early that year. I wrote in my journal:
"This morning I ran up to Wild Rose, and I also ran on the portion of the trail near the landslide, which has always been closed. I went six miles and climbed 1,200 feet. Then this afternoon we went to At Home and Smith's Marketplace. Then Mom and I met G'ma and G'pa at a musical production of The Lamb of God. It was OK."

March 14-19, 2015

Time to remember last year's St. Patrick's Day!

Saturday, March 14. It was Pi Day, so I tried to look at my watch when it was 9:26 and 53 seconds, but I knew my watch was a little fast. Then I went running, first on the Wild Rose Trail, then on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. At Tunnel Springs Park, there are two dirt paths--one is a road leading to a parking area, and the other is simply a trail. Well, some truck was parked on the trail, not on the dirt road, and I was very annoyed with them. They might have been associated with a group of scouts climbing the hill, although that might have been a different day. There were also people in wedding attire on the trail, taking wedding pictures, and I thought that was a strange location. That afternoon I went shopping with my parents. We went to Barnes and Noble, where my dad got some clearance National Geographic books about national parks and state parks. Then we went out to Walmart. I went and picked out a corned beef and a cabbage, and some onions and potatoes as well. I also picked up some Lucky Charms treat bars, which I had looked all over for but couldn't find. On our way home we picked up Allie and went to Subway for dinner. Then we took our sandwiches downstairs to watch my St. Patrick's Day show for the day, the "If the Shoe Pinches" episode of Bewitched. When it was over Allie wanted to watch another episode, so we did. Then we went to Devan Gubler's wedding reception. We were standing in line behind Bishop and Sister Eyring, and they turned around and said hi to me and met my parents. Sister Eyring asked Allie how old she was. Then we went and sat on a table. I had a sugar cookie with green frosting, although it was more of a teal color, and then I had another and put some pineapple on it, which I thought was a strange topping. Allie pointed out that Jacob Gubler was sporting a man-bun, which my mom said she hated. Peter Moosman talked to us, and introduced himself to Allie, and my mom said she already knew him because she was a Facebook stalker, which somewhat offended her. I wrote in my journal:
"This morning I went running on the Wild Rose. Someone had parked on the wrong trail leading to the Bonneville Trail, and some people were having their wedding pictures taken there! 
"We went to Barnes and Noble, Walmart, and Subway, and I came home and started cooking corned beef and cabbage. We watched two Bewitched episodes and went to Devan Gubler's reception. Then I did some indexing and Hulu.

Sunday, March 15. In the morning, I had my laptop on a table in the living room, and Allie was looking for something on the table, so she put it on the arm of the rocking chair, and then she accidentally knocked it off and seemed a little embarrassed. The charging cord was broken--it kind of worked, but I obviously needed a new one, so I looked to order a new one. The reviews weren't the most positive for the one I was getting, but it was much cheaper than getting a name-brand charger. I put corned beef and its associated vegetables in the slow cooker. I went to church in my shamrock tie, and Boyd Tschaggeny commented on it, saying he would have to eat corned beef and cabbage that week. I told him I had some cooking at home, and he said, "In a Crockpot? That's the best." When I got home from church, we ate dinner, and my parents liked it more than I did. I wrote in my journal:
"Today Allie knocked over my laptop, ruining the charging cord, so I had to order a new one. To get free shipping, I also ordered Get Smart. I finished preparing corned beef and cabbage for dinner, and we ate after church. I was able to get all my blogs done.


Monday, March 16. I was a bit overwhelmed by the enormous amount of frosting on my Kneaders cupcake. I was working in the public portion of the library, and I had to keep adjusting my computer charger to make sure it would charge. That night I drove out to FHE in the Foxboro neighborhood, and I think I parked at a nearby church and walked over. Seth Wood was the first one there, and indeed most of the people who came were from our ward, even though there were supposed to be people from four wards. The bishopric counselor from the Legacy Ward was watching a basketball game, and he and Seth laughed at a commercial of a man in his underwear. Then the counselor showed us The Lamb of God, which I had seen many times, and before the lesson he said that some classical art depicted Christ as emaciated, but he was probably stronger since he was a carpenter. I didn't think it was the best planned activity. Then I went home and did indexing and was listening to my music, and I specifically remember a Taylor Swift song playing. I remember feeling weird that it was as late as it was, because daylight savings time had just happened. I went downstairs to watch Bewitched. I wrote in my journal:
"Today I did a lot on the Andrew Jenson autobiography and the Willie and Martin companies. For lunch I went to Kneaders and got Irish stew and a cupcake with a huge mint glob on top. I mostly worked down in the library. 
"I went to FHE, which was at the same place it was on January 19. The Legacy Ward counselor just showed The Lamb of God. Then I came home and indexed while Nan was here, and while Mom was doing taxes with Jackie, I watched "The Leprechaun" episode of Bewitched.

Tuesday, March 17. I wanted to get up and dressed early so that Allie and Mom could see what I was wearing--green glasses, green pants, white shirt, orange belt, green socks. At work, my boss called me up to his office to give me a "prize," and he was impressed with my outfit, saying I looked like a leprechaun. He asked if I was a holiday guy, and I said I was, and he said some people were and some people weren't. He gave me a copy of the book The Map Thief, which was the department book. His assistant Jo Lyn said green was her favorite color. When I got home, all the corned beef and cabbage was gone, so I decided to make green rice and have Hawaiian haystacks. My dad seemed to think it was unhealthy, but my mom was happy for it when she got home. I changed my clothes into a t-shirt and green shoes and green belt, and I went to institute. As I was putting chairs away, the teacher (who might have been a substitute) commented on my shoes. Then we went into the cultural hall for refreshments, where there were shamrock cookies and a green drink, which apparently had Sprite in it. I talked with Shannon Kelly, and then I went home. When Mom came home from something, we watched The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold. She agreed that it was suitable for St. Patrick's Day, and I think she said it was "pretty cute." I said I didn't like the story but thought the animation was charming, and she wouldn't go that far. I wrote in my journal:
"I was able to say goodbye to Mom and Allie before they left for school. I wore green pants, green shamrock socks, my Snoopy shamrock tie, green glasses, a white shirt, and an orange belt. Reid called me up to his office to give me a "prize," and he said I looked like a leprechaun and asked if I was a holiday guy. He gave me a copy of The Map Thief, the department book. I told him how I finished going over the Jenson autobiography.
"Since I got home early, I made Hawaiian haystacks with green rice. Then I went to institute in a green belt, green shoes, and Snoopy "Erin Go Beagle" shirt. I didn't get as many comments as I'd hoped. They had green Sprite and shamrock cookies. Then I came home and watched The Leprechauns' Christmas Gold with Mom.

Wednesday, March 18. In the morning I needed to fill out insurance stuff for my new contingent position, and I was on the slow home computer while I also had my laptop open. I was listening to my Easter music on my laptop, and I discovered that my laptop charger wouldn't charge at all anymore. I journalized as follows:
"I wasn't overly productive at work today--in the morning I looked at insurance stuff at home, I went to a Lunch and Learn about library services, and my laptop charger quit working altogether. Amazon tells me it won't arrive for a week.
"Tonight I ran further on the Bonneville Trail, but my stomach was a little off. After lifting weights, I took down St. Patrick's Day stuff and put up a few Easter things.

Thursday, March 19. I was reading the last chapter of Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism at work. I went to tutoring, and the kid named Zion (Sione) was very chatty. I thought it was funny that a sixth-grader was giving me life advice. On the way home from tutoring, Camille asked me what I learned about at work, so I told them about the circumstances leading to the murder of Parley P. Pratt, and Camille was surprised he was a polygamist. I wrote in my journal:
"My laptop wouldn't charge, so I worked from my cubicle all day, including reading about the death of Parley P. Pratt. Then tonight I went to tutoring. I helped a middle schooler with grammar, and another one, Siane (sp?) talked my ear off as a distraction from doing his work. He told me not to do online dating and that I should stay at home to help my parents.

Aaron, go brag

This is another one of those throw-away posts where I try to make sure I get my weekly post in, but I don't have a lot of time, so it's short and not very meaningful.

Anyway, I've been remembering that when I was six years old, we had little leprechaun cut outs. One of them had a shamrock that said "Erin Go Bragh" on it. Since I was only in kindergarten, I figured that was him telling a boy named Aaron to go brag. Even at six, I think I realized such a thing didn't make sense, especially coming from a leprechaun.

My mom told me it meant "Ireland Forever." I'm not sure how she knew that, because this was before the Internet was a thing.

(I was excited and confused when we went into a fabric store and it had very similar leprechauns in the windows.)

March 19

I'm going to remember what I can about March 19 from years past.

2014. I think I went home after my weight training class so I could change for the Linguistics and English Language graduation banquet. I put on a button-up shirt, a tie, tan pants, and grey and blue shoes. Then I walked up to the Hinckley Center, where I had never been. I went and got a drink before I went into the banquet room. I sat down at a table, and soon other people came in and sat at my table. One person was a master's student who had been in my corpus linguistics class; I think Olivia Corey might also have sat at my table. I didn't care for the dinner; I thought it was too fancy. There were desserts next to every plate, and they told us we could choose what one we wanted. One of them was a round thing covered in chocolate; another had little pink round things on top. Some of the people at the table knew I only eat seasonal desserts, so they asked if I could have it. I told them I was trying to decide whether the pink candies made that dessert suitable for Easter; they said it was, and they also tried to convince me the chocolate dessert was egg shaped, but that was too much. They announced different awards for people with good GPAs. The only recognition I got was when Dr. Cynthia Hallen read off my name for participating on the student journal Schwa. The entertainment for the evening was a gamelan performance, since Dr. Elzinga was part of BYU's gamelan group. After the banquet was over, I went and talked to Dr. Mel Thorne because I was running out of mandatory hours for the student journal class. He told me not to worry about it and to send him an email reminding him I had talked to him. Then I walked back to my apartment, and I seem to remember seeing my roommate Scott, but he was becoming weird at that point in time.

2013. That afternoon I had a field trip at the Museum of Paleontology, so before it happened, I walked near the museum. I sat on the lawn by the football stadium and ate my lunch, which included an Easter marshmallow 3 Musketeers mini, while reading my geology textbook. Then I went over to the museum and waited for my classmates to show up. We went inside and had the tour from Dr. Britt. He criticized the mural of the Jurassic animals. He told us what the definition of a dinosaur was; he pointed to the humerus crest that was the diagnostic feature of dinosaurs, and he told us that if you take Triceratops and birds and find their common ancestor, then that dinosaur and all its descendants are dinosaurs. We went in the back where volunteers and geology students were working with fossils. A geology major named Josie told us something about "Quarternary rocks," and I was surprised she would use the outdated "Quarternary" instead of the more modern "Neogene." The "mature student" in our class was asking a lot of questions when we were being shown a turtle fossil. The tour lasted late, so I asked my classmate, Michael Arnold, if he could drive me up to the JFSB, since I would be late to class. He agreed, so I got in his van, and a shirtless guy was running along Canyon Road. I felt bad for Michael dropping me off, because it was awkward for him to turn around. I went down in the basement to go to class, and I saw Geoffrey Palmer, the son of my second mission president. He recognized me and talked to me, and I think he asked if I was going to the upcoming reunion. When I went to the classroom, there was a sign on the door saying that class was cancelled, so I didn't need to have Michael take me after all!

2012. That evening I went to Smith's so that I could get some Easter candy to put in my Easter jar. In the parking lot, I saw a guy named Andrew who had worked at the Distribution Center where I worked. I wanted to talk to him, but I didn't get a chance and I didn't think he would really know me, since we hadn't worked together too much. I got Hershey's cookies 'n' cream eggs.

2011. I went to Famous Footwear because I needed new Sunday shoes and new running shoes. I remember running down the aisles in the store to see how the shoes felt, and I felt really foolish doing so. My shoes total cost over $100. I thought that Famous did buy one, get one half off, but now I know that's only sometimes. I got all signed up in their system. That evening, my roommate Derek saw my new green and silver K-Swiss Tubes shoes and said it was hard for him to imagine me wearing something that looked that crazy.

2010. I drove home from Provo for the weekend. I had just gotten a DVD of the Peanuts Motion Comics Collection, so we watched them that night, I think while eating pizza. Each clip was three minutes long, so by the time we had watched the twentieth, we had the theme music memorized.

2009. I'm pretty sure this was the day when in the morning I got a package from my mom. It had mint Oreos, which I could no longer eat because St. Patrick's Day was over. It had Noah's Ark Easter eggs, each egg looking like an animal with cheap candy inside. It had two CDs, the MoTab's Consider the Lilies (since my mom had an extra copy) and Cherie Call's He Gives Flowers to Everyone. Thus it was this day that began my continual adoration of Cherie Call. I looked at the lyric booklet and really liked how "When I Sang" incorporated lyrics from hymns. During our lunch break, Elder Betenson turned on the Cherie Call CD in the Dans' stereo upstairs (the Dans were the members we lived with). He turned it up really loud, and Sister Dan asked if he could turn it down. He was embarrassed because he didn't know she was home. That afternoon we went to a members' home, the Jameses', to help them with a service project, and then they were going to feed us dinner. When we were done with the service project, there was still a long time before dinner, so I think we biked home and changed out of our service clothes. Then we went back to the Jameses'. Their sixteen-year-old daughter was pregnant, and the nonmember "F.O.B.," as Sister James said, "father of baby," was coming over. While we were waiting, we played Farkle with the teenage kids, including the F.O.B. Dinner took a very long time. Finally the corned beef and cabbage was done, and Sister James explained to her kids that corned beef and cabbage was a traditional Irish dish, so it went on sale at St. Patrick's Day. I had never had it before, but Elder Betenson was really excited to have it. At some point we had a conversation about scriptures and Elder Betenson shared one from the Law of Moses that had to do with bodily functions. We were there a long time, and we felt bad that we didn't do anything else that night. Looking back, however, I think our time there was very well spent, because that was a very difficult area to work in, and we helped forge a good relationship with the F.O.B. (he later gave us a ride one rainy evening). Then we had to go back to our house, where Elders Nixon and Bobo met us for an exchange.

Leprechaun stories

When I was a little kid, I believed that all holidays are created equal, and subsequently I didn't realize that St. Patrick's Day is the most pointless of all popular holidays. Come March, my mind was turned to leprechauns, and I would invent stories.

In kindergarten, I decided to create a play that I would perform for my family. My mom had bought me a plastic leprechaun hat (and my aunt rescued it from blowing away outside the store on a windy day), so I would don it for my plays. My friend Hillary Ulmer had a gold-colored shiny cheerleader pom-pom, and I asked her if I could have it. I put it in a glass jar and that was my pot of gold, the stringy gold parts hanging over the jar. (I actually can't remember if I had that in time for the leprechaun plays, but I know I used that as a decoration for years. Sometimes I put the plastic hat on top of it, and one time our home teacher asked if it was Cousin Itt!)

Anyway, one day after school, I was planning on my leprechaun play, and my brother David, who was thirteen, wanted to help me out, and he wore the hat he got for Christmas. We went around improvising this play, but after a while it was too violent (with shooting) and un-leprechauny that I didn't want his help anymore. In the evening I gathered my family around while I performed my leprechaun play in front of our fireplace. It was kind of a day in the life of a leprechaun, and I would narrate things like "Now I'm asleep. Now I'm eating breakfast." And so on. When I was "sleeping," I would use a yellow crocheted blanket we had. I think I performed the play several times, and I tried to make sure I was wearing green every time, but soon I realized that if I did that, I wouldn't have any green to wear for St. Patrick's Day.

In first grade, we got some leprechaun window clings that really piqued my interest, and I even made a song based on them. One day in class, I raised my hand and mentioned that I had a song about leprechauns, so I sang my hokey little song. I think I mostly made it up as I went along, but I know the first line was, "I'm a little leprechaun a-sitting on a clover." I think I meant "toadstool," but for some reason it came out clover.

We also needed to write a leprechaun story for class. My copy of this story might be floating around the house somewhere. The only thing I remember is that it started out with a leprechaun going around collecting "horseshoes and brimstones." And by "brimstones" I meant "Blarney stones," not realizing there's only one Blarney Stone.

In second grade we were instructed to write a leprechaun story. Fortunately, I know where that is, so here is my transcription (there are some capitalization marks in it, but I don't know whether they were put there by me or someone else. I'm going to incorporate those edits):

My Leprechaun
One day I went outside to get the mail. When I looked down, there was a leprechaun on our door step. His back Was to my feet. I Caught it by the stomach. "Let Me go! Let me go! Me have to go to Ireland in 10 years! let me go! Let me go!"
I brought the leprechaun in. "I'm hungry," said the leprechaun. "So let me go and get food! let me go!"
"Wait a minute," I said. I will get you some food." I made him some Soup. He duck his head in the soup. His hat plopped up. 
"Ow," complained the leprechaun. "Me face Is burning!"
"You were'nt supposed to do that," I said. "You were supposed to do that when It cooled. And stop saying me instead of My. It's not proper english."
"But it is proper Irish," said the leprechaun. "Where's your pot of gold? Give me your pot of gold! And stay with me when you give it to me!"
"Okay," said the leprechaun. He didn't eat his soup, he Just went outside. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it. There Was the leprechaun.
"Hi," he said. "Here's a pot of gold and a pot of silver. Bye." And as quick as a wink, he ran off. "That foolish leprechaun," I said "He's mean too, but I do have gold and silver." The end.

(I must say that I'm impressed that at eight years old, my only misspelling was the placement of the apostrophe in "weren't.")

Then in fourth grade, I didn't really have a story per se, but I took on a leprechaun persona. I was tired of Easter stuff before St. Patrick's Day, so as a leprechaun I said I hated Easter. On St. Patrick's Day, my friend Cody Zesiger and I played some game where I think he was trying to catch me. Before he went home, I gave him some mashed up shiny pipecleaners--gold, silver, and blue and silver (which I said was a mushed-up mushroom).

March 14-18

It's time for me to remember the days surrounding St. Patrick's Day last year.

March 14. In the morning, I went over to Cougar Dental to get my wisdom teeth out. They gave me laughing gas, and it was a very uneventful operation. The dentist gave me a little bag of gauze and some fluid I was told to rinse with. He told me not to eat chips or other things that might get caught in my gums. I remember being confused because the instructions said to rinse with a capful of the liquid, but the cap was tiny. I was also instructed that I no longer needed to bite on gauze when it was white. I went up to my French lab. I was the only one in the room, so the TA was talking exclusively to me, and then when he asked me to speak, I said, "Je préfère ne pas parler," at which point he kind of gasped when he saw the gauze, "car le dentiste a enlevé mes dents de sagesse." He seemed sorry for me. Other people in the class later showed up, and as I was leaving, I think I was explaining why I hadn't had them removed before my mission. I think I changed out my gauze, and it was still pink, and I was running low on gauze, so I went into the Twilight Zone (like a convenience store on campus) to try to find some gauze. My friend Carrie saw me there and said hi; I pointed to my mouth and said "wisdom teeth" to let her know why I couldn't talk. There wasn't any gauze in that store, so I walked down to South End Market right by my apartment to look for gauze there. They didn't have any either, so it was back across the street to Cougar Dental to ask for more gauze. The hygienists took me back and bundled up some gauze for me, and the dentist came and asked to see in my mouth. I let him look, and he told me I didn't need to bite the gauze anymore, even as he gave me the gauze the nurses prepared. I felt confused and a little bad for taking it. What was I going to do with gauze if I wasn't supposed to bite on it? I went back in my apartment and had lunch. It seems that sometime in the ensuing days, my roommate Chad and his fiancée Sierra were surprised I was up and about after the operation, since she had recently had hers taken out and it was very painful for her. After napping and eating, I went back up to campus to work, since my computer didn't have Microsoft Word yet. I called my boss, Reid, and when he answered, he said, "I'm just getting in my car." It was a little later than usual. I just had a quick question for him. Then I worked in the library. Then I went to South End Market again and got some mint chocolate chip ice cream and went to my apartment and watched the "May the Wind Be Always at Your Back" episode of The Flying Nun. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I talked to Reid before I went to get my wisdom teeth out. It was a very simple procedure--they numbed me up, and gave me laughing gas, and I didn't even know when the teeth came out. I had to have gauze in my mouth, so I went to French lab with it being hard to speak. I was going to work, but I needed more gauze and lunch, so I came back home. I asked the dentist for more gauze, but he said I didn't need it, even though they gave me some. I made lunch and took a nap, and then I went back to campus for hours to work. I came home and ate mint ice cream while watching the St. Patrick's Day-ish Flying Nun episode."

March 15.  In the morning, Carrie texted me and invited me to go on a hike with some friends. I thanked her for the offer but thought it might be best if I not exert myself because of my gums. I went and did some errands. First I got lunch at Kneaders because I wanted to get a key lime tart with my meal. They had Easter cupcakes, and I made a mental note that I would have to return to get one when it was Easter time. Then I went up to Eliane French Bakery, where I awkwardly tried to speak French with the owner. I asked for a macaron à pistachio, and he corrected me pistache. I also got a green shamrock-shaped meringue. Then I went to Lolo's grocery store, where I got a small package of Rolos to put in my little pots of gold for the next few days. I was feeling a little bad about all the sugar I was eating. Then that evening, my roommate Jordan and I went up to the evening session of our stake conference. I think I had been asked to make sure people sat in the middle of rows so that people wouldn't have to climb over them. I don't like talking to people, but I was glad to have an excuse to make people sit in the middle, since that's one of my pet peeves. But there was only one person I had to tell to sit in the middle. After the conference, they had brownies, so I had my share of mint ones. My former home teachee Autumn was there with her fiancé, Scott, and she knew about my rules and noted that I got the green ones. Then we went back to our apartment. and I watched the "Leprechaun" episode of Bewitched. Jordan watched it too, at least part of it, and later his girlfriend Laura came over and Jordan said, "You missed Bewitched."

March 16. In the morning I had to go to a priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of Relief Society presidents from the various wards so we could ask them about home teaching. One of the RS presidents was Leanna from our ward; another was on the staff of Schwa, the student journal I was working on. Someone asked about whether it was acceptable to date those you home teach; they said you could but you would need to deal with the consequences if it didn't work out. The overall answer for the various questions seemed to be "It depends." Leanna said that guys should be nice to their girlfriends' roommates, because they might end up home teaching them--she said that experience had happened to her. After that meeting, I walked to stake conference on 900 East. I was wearing my shamrock tie, and when Megan Ward saw me in the halls, she complimented me for my tie. One of the speakers was a bishop who told a story of a guy who got married fast and was expecting a kid. Then he said, "Go, and do thou likewise." Then he sat down. Everyone was in an uproar (mostly laughing) that he had done that. There was debate as to whether he had sat down without closing ("In the name...") or if he had closed his talk but no one could hear him. I wrote my two blogs. I journalized as follows:
"This morning I had to go to a Priesthood leadership meeting. They had a panel of RS presidents answering questions about home teaching. I think President Stratton is out of touch with us college kids--who can go on two dates a week?
"In the later session, one speaker told about someone who got married and was expecting a kid in six months time, and said "Go, do thou likewise." Then he sat down. It was really weird.
"Then we went home teaching. That's always a little awkward. Then I've been blogging and such."

March 17. I think I finished up my Lucky Charms for breakfast; and they were special Lucky Charms that only had clover marshmallows. I was super excited to be able to wear my brand-new neon green Vans, my green pants, my St. Patrick's Day Snoopy shirt, my green socks, and my old green glasses. I went up to campus to work, and I tried to find some St. Patrick's Day music on my free trial of Google Play. During my break my phone informed me that Nate Garlock sent me a Facebook friend request. (Then he unfriended me at Christmas.) When I was done with working, I went to the BYU Bookstore to pick up my order of Microsoft Word, which work had paid for. There were also booths for the Choose 2 Give campaign, where you donate money that goes into scholarships and stuff. They were giving out yellow-green cotton candy, but I didn't get any, because they were having it outside and it was extremely windy, so they stopped. I donated some money, so I should have gotten a free t-shirt, but they only had kid sizes available at the time. Then I braved the wind to go over to BYU Studies, the job I had left three weeks earlier, to pick up the latest issue of the journal. Everyone in the office asked me what I was working on, and they were impressed with my outfit, that I was literally head to toe in green. The web developer lady Eden had apparently given people a hard time for not wearing green. She wasn't in, but Rosalyn, her assistant, took a picture of me to show her. After that, I went down to my weightlifting class. I had brought a green shirt to work out in, and as I looked out the window before class, I saw a guy also all in green, including light green slim-fit pants and green running shoes. I of course was wearing my green shirt and green socks (I can't remember whether I had kept on my green glasses). When I was doing some ab workouts, my spotting partner, Ryan, said something like, "You're the Hulk, since it's St. Patrick's Day and you're wearing green!" as a motivation. I didn't go running because it was so windy, and I also didn't know if I would have time. I went home, and for my "scripture" study, I watched a seminary video about an Irish convert. Then I went out and did some shopping. I went to Shopko and got some St. Patrick's Day pajamas, which of course I could only wear that night, and I got some Trix Easter fruit snacks which I could start eating the next day. I saw some mint chocolate cookies, which I couldn't justify buying because I couldn't eat them all in a day. Then I went over to Lolo's, where I bought a potato for dinner and an Idaho Spud candy. (Since potatoes are stereotypically Irish, I could eat it, especially since some potato candies are made specifically for St. Patrick's Day.) Then I went home and baked my potato in the microwave. That evening I went over to FHE, where they had asked me to share the spiritual thought. I printed off copies of the hymn I wrote based on Psalm 119. I explained to everyone that I had written it for my Early Modern English class, and they all seemed impressed with it, even saying we should sing it at church. Jared in my group even looked at the verses in Psalm 119 that it was based on. We sang the hymn, and people seemed a little unfamiliar with the tune, "Come O Thou King of Kings," which surprised me. Our activity that night was indexing, and some people hadn't done it before. One such person was Dani Robinson, who was sitting next to me. She didn't know her record number and didn't know if she had an LDS account; I pulled her number up but then she found her login information. Then she said to me, "Wait, why do you have my record number?" I said it was only because I was ward clerk. There were green cookies, which I could eat. The indexing batches we were working on were Philippine census records from the 1800s, so they were in cursive, and they were Spanish names, so they were murder to fill out. While we were indexing, everyone was playing music; when someone played Pharrell's "Happy," Jessica Andelin said, "I love this song!" I asked everyone if they wanted to hear the one St. Patrick's Day song I had, so I played Jan Terri's "Luck of the Irish," but my speakers aren't very good. Someone's playlist started playing Michael Bublé's "Cold December Night," and I said, "Wrong holiday." Eventually I went home and finished up the indexing batches I had downloaded, and since they were so hard, I vowed not to index for a while. Then I watched the "If the Shoe Pinches" episode of Bewitched, and then before I went to bed I had to look up what a shillelagh was.

March 18. At French class in the morning, Mme Petelo asked if we had done anything fun on the weekend. I said that I had had my wisdom teeth taken out and that it wasn't painful. She said, "Est-ce que vos dents sont déjà sortis?" "Oui." That evening, I picked up my friend Natausha because I had invited her to go to Cherie Call's CD release concert. As we walked to my parking lot, I told her about the experience I had recently had where a girl refused to get in the car until I opened her door. I asked Natausha whether she liked guys opening doors or whether she found it demeaning. She said it was nice but not necessary. In light of that conversation, I opened her door, but I don't think I did the rest of the night. On the way to the venue, I missed the turn, and I ended up having to turn around at the Trax station. Then I went back and parked. We went in and my name was on a list because I had already ordered the CD; Natausha turned in her ticket and got the CD. I told her we could get some lime popcorn, but she didn't want any, and I didn't feel like making my way over there. We talked about her shoes, because she had drawn on them. I talked about my sock collection and how I had socks for every holiday except for New Year's and Easter. I told her how much I liked Cherie Call (she seemed impressed when she learned that the cardstock sleeve she just received was a CD) and I said that I had been listening to her in the car on the way; she said she reminded her of our mutual friend Sariah's music. Cherie Call sang most of the songs from her new Homeless Songs album and some of her other standbys. One of the backup singers was Debra Fotheringham, and I was sad to see she had a wedding ring on. Before Cherie sang "Sweet Sweet Dreams," she said that she had songs about her daughters but wanted one about her little boy. I heard a mom behind me say to her little boy, "This is a little boy song!" I think her encore song was "It Passes All My Understanding." As we left, we talked about how it was hard to hear her voice above all the music. Natausha said she loved the songs that were from previous albums, saying she adored "Love makes me invisible." I told her "Memphis" was one of my absolute favorites. Then we talked about where she was living in the future. I mentioned something about both of the "Ward sisters," and she thought I was talking about sister missionaries, but I was talking about Cami and Megan Ward. When that was cleared up, she said, "It amazes me how different they are."

February 16

I've already considered the other days around Valentine's Day, so now I'm going to remember what happened two days after it.

2014. In the morning, I called my mom at her hospital room to see if she wanted us to come or if we should go to church. She told us she was feeling fine, so we didn't need to see her immediately. So my dad and I went to sacrament meeting together. I didn't want to talk to many people so that we could get to the hospital sooner and so that people wouldn't think we were jerks for going to church without Mom. I drove to the hospital because my car is lower to the ground and would be easier for my mom to get into. I tried to listen to my Lower Lights Hymn Revival Volume 1 CD, but the CD player kept spitting that finicky CD out, so I asked my dad to put in Volume 2 (it was in the little compartment between the front seats). He found Imagine Dragons first, but then he found Lower Lights. We went up to her room, and my mom was told she could leave soon. But it took four or five more hours. My mom said that some other family had visited and had brought a sick two-year-old, and she found it inappropriate to bring a sick kid into a hospital. The nurses seemed a bit incompetent, as they kept coming in with conflicting reports. Sometimes she was informed she could take home a knee scooter but not crutches. Sometimes it was the other way around. But she had originally been told she could have both. While we were waiting, my mom watched the Olympics while I looked up St. Patrick's Day topics on Wikipedia on my phone. At one point, my dad and I went down to the cafeteria and got food. We didn't know what was going on, but we figured it out eventually. I wanted to see if there were any green desserts I could have, but there weren't at the à la carte. There was some green ice cream at an ice cream stand, but I couldn't justify that. Susanne texted me at one point and asked me to take a picture of the head nurse's office near the elevator, since she wanted to report the incompetence of the nurses. Eventually my mom was allowed to leave, so I went out in the parking lot and drove my car up to the door of the hospital. My mom got into the seat, not without some difficulty, and I think my dad rode with Susanne, who had come a little later. I think we were driving up Marialana Way when mom asked if Cherie Call was one of the people singing. When we got home, I think we helped my mom go down the garage stairs backwards and then into the family room. Right as we got her home, Laura Anderson came by, and I think she had cards from the primary kids. I may have asked my mom if she wanted to get revenge on the pizza by eating it, as we still had some.

2013. I remember going to Smith Marketplace with my family, and I got some Werther's candies to put in little pots of gold. Then I drove back to Provo and put out my St. Patrick's Day things. My roommate Cameron made a Facebook status about it.

2009. [Copied and pasted from a Presidents' Day post:] Our district went to Kohl's for P-day because there were supposed to be some good sales. I bought a white-and-green-striped tie for St. Patrick's Day. I looked at the St. Patrick's Day t-shirts but I didn't care to pay the price to buy them. Elder Canova admired the Snoopy "Party Like a Rockstar" shirt. We looked at a shelf with clearance stuff on it; the perverted Elder Stafford talked about the "man thong." I found an orange beanie. I thought it would be good to have, since we frequently had to walk along unlit roads with no sidewalks at night. Then we did our grocery shopping. That year, M&Ms made green candies for Valentine's Day (stupid idea), but since no one liked that idea, there was plenty of clearance candy, so I bought a bag. Then we went to the Days', where Elder Lestarge and Elder Kitchen lived, and played the typical missionary game Bang! Elder Dunn liked the M&Ms. While we were waiting for a ride back to our house, I put on my new hat, and Elder Stafford commented on it. When we got home, I looked in the mirror, and realized how ridiculous my orange hat looked. It looked like a bathing cap. Elder Betenson said that he wasn't going to say anything, but that he agreed it looked terrible. He said that his previous companion, Elder Torrance, had cut up a hat and used it as a neck warmer. I mostly cared about the orange for the visibility, so I cut it up. But he said it still looked dumb, so I threw it away. Then we went and tried to visit a Sister Locarni, who lived close to us. We found out she was an active member, but her husband wasn't a member. We learned that Brother Wilhelm, the ward mission leader, visited them, which was a scary thought, since he was notorious for teaching false doctrine. After 9:00, Elder Wilson called me and said, "I have sad news," and told me that Brother Martin from the Davenport Branch had died unexpectedly. They announced it at stake conference. I think I might have called Elder Love and relayed the info. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was my first P-day in the district. It was a hassle with all the people; we had Elder Stafford in the trunk. I bought an orange hat to be more visible at night, but it looked ridiculous, so I threw it away. I also bought a green tie (and green M&Ms) for St. Patrick's Day. We also played Bang.

"Then this evening we met Sister Locarni, who is active, but her husband is not a member. We tried to see others, but they weren't home, and we came back.

"Elder Wilson called me and told me Brother Martin from the Davenport branch died unexpectedly."

2008. This is my journal entry for the day, which I don't really remember. For some reason, I decorated the date with spiders and spiderwebs:
"So since the last time I wrote in here I had sacrament meeting, P-day, a reunion with Elder Chun, Zone conference on Valentine's Day, and the exciting news of a family to teach. The reason for the lull in writing is due to the long exchange [my companion had been sick for a week] and trying to read sixteen Psalms a day.
"Today Elder Chun slept in and then had a three-hour nap after comp study. We tried to contact some people before we came home because Elder Chun was still tired and he slept at his desk for about an hour, while I read and practiced the piano.
"Then we went with Brother Palmer to try to contact some people. It was quite an uneventful evening."

2004. We went down to Provo and saw Dave and Ya-ping. My family was seeing a movie that I didn't want to see, so I was going to watch my new Gilligan's Island DVD at their apartment. As David was going through channels to get the right one, I discovered that Hallmark Channel was having a Gilligan's Island marathon, so I watched that instead of my DVDs. I was working on a seminary assignment where we had to make valentines for our parents. The holiday was over, of course, but it was still an assignment I needed to do. (I had a horrible seminary teacher that year.) My family came back from the movie and had bought lunch at Beto's. Then we went to Old Navy, and I remember seeing they had a lot of St. Patrick's Day clothing, including board shorts. My intuition tells me this was a day we went to the Target in American Fork where I got a Snoopy St. Patrick's Day shirt, and my sister wanted to get Toffifay, and we got some Easter candy--but I can't make sense of why we would have had Dave and Ya-ping with us, because I know we were coming back from Provo, so it wouldn't make sense for us to take them home with us. It could have been a different weekend. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This weekend was Valentine's Day. I got the entire first season of Gilligan's Island on DVD. But it has a scratch on it that causes it to skip, so we need to exchange it. The Hallmark Channel is having a Gilligan's Island marathon today. My family went to Provo, got David and Ya-Ping and went to Big Fish, but I didn't want to see it because it is PG-13 and has sexuality and nudity in it. I stayed at the apartment and watched Gilligan's Island."

March 15-18, 2013

Now that Valentine's Day is over, I'm going to remember last year's St. Patrick's Day and surrounding days.

March 15 was a Friday. That evening, I went to a historical geology test review. There was a problem with the review, because the TA had one answer on her key that was wrong. One girl had gone to take the test immediately after the review, and she told us of the problem. That night I walked home, talking to one of my classmates, Cameron, and as I got home, I told him I would see him in the morning, since we were going on a field trip.

We met at the ESC early on March 16. We loaded up in vans and drove off to go to Spanish Fork Canyon. One of my classmates, Chris, was driving, but he was nervous to do so, and he put his iPod in. We drove through Springville, and one of my classmates said we had passed his house--he could have slept in and just been picked up, rather than him having to drive to campus. We stopped by the windmills of Spanish Fork, and a freezing wind was blowing. A memorial cross was on the hill, and Dr. Britt joked, "Once there was a BYU student who froze to death on this field trip, and she is buried under that cross." Before we left that place, I asked Dr. Britt, "Are those faceted spurs?" and he confirmed that they were. Some vans took off, but they were driving in the wrong direction. Dr. Britt motioned for them to turn around, but they kept going in that direction. We drove to our next stop on the side of the road, where we looked at red shale with a few fossils in it. When we left, my van's driver was annoyed with Dr. Britt for driving fast onto the highway around a curve. We stopped at another place nearby, and we walked along looking at red, gray, and green shale. (I realized I couldn't see the green shale because I'm a little colorblind.) They showed us how to use geologic compasses; our TA said, "Is anyone here not a geology major?" I said I was just a minor, and she said, "I think geology minors need to take 210." I said they didn't, but I was going to take it anyway, so she said that everyone there needed to learn to use the compasses. Then we left and kept going to different places. oAt We went to a place with Triassic limestone, and we got out to find fossils. During a bathroom break, some girls brought back a toilet they had found at an abandoned house nearby. Finding fossils was a little rough. I found a small shell fossil, and when someone said they couldn't find any fossils, I told them I found a shell, but they thought I was talking about a snail shell that was not a fossil. I showed my findings to Dr. Britt, but not all of them were fossils. We were on a steep mountain near a pond that smelled like sulfur, and it was a very nice day. I found some very nice ripple marks, but I decided not to take the rock, so someone else did. That made me feel better. Eventually we had to stop someplace where we had to climb through a barbed wire fence to look at a tufa deposit--I had never heard of tufa before. I found a nice leaf fossil in the tufa, but the rock was too big for me to want to take it with me, especially since tufa is sharp. There was a fault across the road. Closer to Price, we saw some coal. We even stopped at a place where they had a bunch of salt for salting roads, and being geologists we licked some. Near the coal, my classmate Bart complimented me on my St. Patrick's Day shirt--he asked if it was St. Patrick's Day and if I was Irish. We looked at a formation in Price, and I thought it was wasteful for us to drive that far when we hardly did anything. On our way back to campus, I wrote my writeup for the field trip.

When I got home, I was sunburned and dirty, so I was glad to take a shower. I think I went grocery shopping. At one point, there was a knock on the door, and there was this black guy there. He was really nice, and I invited him in. He had some broken teeth, and he explained that he was trying to raise money to go to college. I decided to buy a children's dictionary to donate to charity. He explained that some girls he had been talking to arranged an appointment with him with missionaries. He saw the picture of the First Presidency on our wall, and I explained who they were. He said that many years before, he had met President Hinckley, who had given him a Book of Mormon, and he said that he afterwards learned that he was the Mormon equivalent of the Pope.

That night, I asked my roommates if they wanted to get mint Blizzards from Dairy Queen, since it would be my last time to have a milkshake until Halloween time, since I've never heard of Easter or Fourth of July shakes. They seemed keen on the idea. However, later, some girls came by with food from Sammy's to thank Scott for something. So Bryton and I went out, barely making it to Dairy Queen before they closed. "Some Nights" by fun. was playing on the radio, and Bryton said, "These are edgy lyrics," but it turned out he had misheard the lyrics. (It's still edgy, though.) We both got medium mint brownie Blizzards. When I got my change from the drive-thru window, they dropped it and I had to pick it up off the ground. Then Bryton and I went home, and we watched the "Leprechaun" episode of Bewitched. Scott came in too, and he said he could tell the actor wasn't Irish.

The next day, St. Patrick's Day, Scott was playing Handel music because he thought one song sounded jig-like. I put on my green pants and green socks, my orange belt, and my shamrock tie, and we went to church. Scott wanted to walk one particular way, but then he ended up talking with other girls, so I left him behind. I was looking at the ground, and my former home teachee Emily (who had moved out of the ward) said she loved me when she saw my outfit. I think I gave an inappropriate response. (Maybe that's why she unfriended me.) As I was walking up to church, David Jones complimented me on my pants, and then again on my socks. As I got up to our church room, Bishop saw me and said I was his hero for my outfit. When I was counting attendance, my horse friend Kristen gestured to my glasses and said she liked all my green. After sacrament meeting, a girl named Hannah said she liked that I was wearing orange as well, and she said St. Patrick's Day was one of her favorite holidays, and I said it was my least favorite. I had to go do something at some of the other Sunday School classes, so when I went to them, the teachers liked my outfit, and as I was walking in the Wilk, I heard someone say, "I think we have a winner," and I only assumed she was talking about me. When I left church, I was walking home and some people were yelling from a car. I couldn't hear them, but I assumed they were yelling at me. My elitist roommate Cameron was making green minty cookies for a party, but he couldn't find his food coloring (since Scott had used it to color milk and orange juice green), so I lent him mine. He told me that he liked that I had made everything in the fridge green, but I told him it wasn't me, so he said he would have to untag me from the picture on Facebook. Later I made dinner, and I listened to the Lower Lights while I did so. I had some trouble getting Scott's stereo to work, but I got it, and Cameron came home and told me he liked the music. I made a blog post about my day before.

The next day, I remember getting on Facebook at the library, since I had been fasting from it for a few days. After school, I pulled out my Easter decorations and put them out, and then I went to Smith's to get some Easter candy to put in my Easter jar. I think Cameron asked me if I was going to put out Easter stuff, not realizing that I had already done so.

March 18

I'm going to remember what I can about the day after St. Patrick's Day.

2012. It was a rainy day. I remember I was making an image to use for the background of my blog for Easter. I tried to make egg shapes, but I couldn't very well. I asked my roommate Bryton if the image looked dumb; he said it looked like it was made with old technology. So I decided not to use it. I made a blog post about St. Patrick's Day; this blog post got some of the best critical reception I've ever had. I found out that Peter Moosman from my home ward was in one of the pictures and I didn't even know it.

2011. I made a Facebook status about my roommate Zach not realizing that I wore glasses. I remember more about March 19 and 20 in 2011 than I do about this day.

2010. I walked slowly to school and lots of people passed me because I sprained my knee the day before. That night I went to my dinner group at Collin Allan's apartment; we were having a ward movie festival that night, so he bought Little Caesar's and then we drove up to the Wilk. I had brought a plate with me and I had to keep it in the car. We went to the Varsity Theater, and I sat on the right side by myself. Sara Cushing told me I could sit by them, but I told her that I had a sprained knee and I wanted to be able to spread it out without people walking past me. Collin Allan came and sat by me. There were some great videos: One about a search for Waldo who emerged from a book, one that parodied popular YouTube videos, one about Batman, one remaking country videos, etc. Not one but three videos featured Miley Cyrus's "Party in the USA." My FHE group's little video was pretty terrible. In our credits, I identified myself as the prop supervisor. Collin asked me about that; I told him that I carried the bucket.

2009. It's possible this was the day I got a package from my mom, but I actually think that was March 19.

2004. I remember coming home from tutoring Melissa, the girl I tutored in Spanish, and putting Easter eggs on top of the buffet in the living room.

2000. It was a nice spring morning, and I had to go to a practice for singing in stake conference. Evan Stewart's mom drove me home. I mentioned that I was going to put up Easter decorations. She told me how whenever they decorated for Easter they always found pine needles and when they decorated for Christmas they always found Easter grass.

1999. I remember telling my classmates that I was going to go home and decorate for Easter. My classmate Eric said, "I thought you hated Easter," and I told him that I only hated Easter before St. Patrick's Day. (Now I don't get mad about Easter before St. Patrick's Day, because Easter's a meaningful holiday but St. Patrick's Day is not. But I do get mad when Thanksgiving is overlooked, because it has meaning.)

1998. I came home from school and my cousin Jesse was there for some reason. I was getting ready to decorate for Easter, and Jesse was telling me about how they had bought a bunch of Easter stuff just a few days earlier. I remember putting our Easter wreath on our door. Then the rest of my cousins came and we jumped on the tramp and played some egg-themed games. 

The Ides of March

The subject of today's post is March 15, two days before St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, there's not much to remember.

2012. I was wearing my t-shirt with Snoopy and Woodstock with Irish hats and clovers. I was walking to my Doctrine and Covenants class when I saw Hillary Ulmer. I said hi. She said she didn't notice it was me because she was staring at my shirt, but then when I said hi she said it made sense that it was me. That afternoon, I stopped at J-Dawgs on my way home. In line was a Nathaniel Johnson from the first area of my mission. He had left on a mission while I was in that area. I was going to say hi to him, but he was ahead of me and was with some people, and I didn't think he would remember me, much less recognize me. When I walked in to my apartment, Alyssa Kekauoha was talking to my roommate Cameron Haas. They saw my J-Dawgs and I told them it was my first time getting it that semester. Alyssa saw my shirt and asked if it was St. Patrick's Day. I ended up getting J-Dawgs sauce on my shirt. At some point that afternoon, Cameron told Alyssa that I said we weren't friends. I confirmed that, saying that I don't make friends.

2009. I had to speak in the Hayden 4th Ward. I spoke about the Book of Mormon, and I think I talked about how all fifteen books testify of Christ. I used a quote by President Benson from Preach My Gospel about how the Book of Mormon can be used to respond to objections. After sacrament meeting, the McLuskies, an older Scottish couple, told me that I did a good job. There had been a Sunday School lesson a few weeks earlier in which the teacher asked everyone what their talents were, and I said I didn't have any, so on this occasion the McLuskies told me that I could have said I had a talent for knowing the scriptures. During Priesthood opening exercises, we practiced an idea we had heard of. We stood up and said, "We have a Book of Mormon here, and we want someone to give it away." We were pleased when Wayne Timonen, who had only recently started coming back to church, volunteered to give it away. My journal tells me we ate at the bishop's house. I suspect this was the time that some other ward members came over and we shared our object lesson about fortifying our families. The bishop's son was a little hyper, and he got a little carried away rearranging the pieces. I asked Elder Betenson if my talk was boring. He said it was informative, but when I pressed him he said it was a little dry. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today I spoke in sacrament meeting. It was probably the most boring talk I've given for a while. It had a lot of good information, but no personality. We also had to teach in Sunday School. We had dinner with the Bishop and his family. During Priesthood meeting we asked who was going to give out a Book of Mormon, and Wayne Timonen accepted the task. 

2008. In the morning we went to give a blessing to some people that the zone leaders had told us about. They were actually in the sisters' area. We drove over there and the mom wanted her kids to get blessings, but the kids didn't seem too interested. After we left there, we told the sisters about them and told them they should stop by sometime. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today we gave a blessing to some nonmembers, Larry and Claudia. They each got one and were very appreciative. They weren't in our area but the sisters can't give blessings.

"Then we taught Duane and Vickie. They want to fast and give tithing and all that good stuff. Malheureusement, Duane has some legal complications. He stole a computer from Wal-Mart and fell asleep in the car, so he was caught. He was also caught trying to steal thirty lawnmowers. They let the mowers go because he was going to jail for the computer but now they have come back up and he has a court hearing. We hope that goes well so he can get baptized." 

 2003. My mom bought balloons and black stuff for my uncle's birthday the next day.

1996. It was a day to wear a green hat to school. A boy in my class was wearing a hat with pin/buttons on it, one of which said, "Let's Party at the Top O' the Morning." Our teacher, Mrs. Taylor, picked someone with the best hat and sent them to get their picture taken with the other green-hat people in the school. Mrs. Taylor told us that the rest of our hats were cool too, but she picked the one that was homemade and had a lot of work put into it. The school also had a contest where they put a picture of a leprechaun in different places in the school and if you found it you got a prize. I went searching for it with my friend Kelsey Bodily. She found a shiny thing that she said would help her find the leprechaun. I said it wouldn't, and she acknowledged she was just pretending. I didn't want to play with her because of that silliness and because she was playing with a kindergartener.