As we get closer to Halloween, it's time for me to remember what happened three days before All Hallows' Eve.
2012. I wore my jack-o-lantern tie to church. As I came home with my roommate Scott, we saw some people putting up lights on the house across the street. I probably had leftover pizza for dinner. That night I wrote a blog post.
2011. I would have watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and I wrote a blog post.
2009. We had to get up at 1:00 a.m. to drive from Clarkston to Spokane in order to go to the temple. An old man from the Clarkston elders' ward worked there, so he was driving us. I tried to sleep in the car, but it didn't work. When we got to the temple, he went in for meetings, while we missionaries slept in the van. That was the only time I was really able to fall asleep. Then we went in. Since we were dependent on riding back with that brother, we were there long enough to do two sessions. After one of them, I talked to some members of my first area, but they didn't really remember me. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories instead of another endowment session, which annoyed the temple workers. I wasn't able to stay awake very well. After we were done, Elder Masten had a conversation with one of the temple workers about wrestling (I won't describe how that one came about). Then the member we were with took us to Denny's. (That's one thing I miss--free meals all the time.) We drove back through Idaho, and the member had to stop at the cabin of his son, or something like that. Elder Critchfield went in with him while the rest of us slept in the car. It took a long time, which annoyed us, because we were losing valuable P-day time. They finally came out, and they had a stinking garbage bag with rotted turkey meat. Elder Critchfield held it out the window while we drove to the nearest Dumpster. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very loong day. Elder Critchfield had told us we would have to leave at 4:00 A.M. But he was wrong. We had to leave at 2:00. If I had known it was going to be that early I probably would have declined. I had a hard time sleeping on the way up. We got to the temple about 4:30, and slept in the car until about 5:30. That was the only time I could actually sleep and it wasn't long enough.
"We did a 6:00 session. President (now Brother) Wells, Brother Jones, and Brother (now President) Grimes from my first area were there. Elder Tamblyn and Elder Critchfield did initiatories while Elder Tamblyn [I meant Masten] and I did another session. I had a harder time focusing in that one as the hunger and fatigue were getting to me. On the way out I saw Ashley Guiler's fellowshipper from the Greenbluff ward (I can't remember his name).
"We went to Denny's, and then headed back. I slept a little better, but we were waylaid because we stopped at our ride's son-in-law's house. Elder Critchfield went in with him and over an hour later they came out with a bag of stinky, rotting meat.
"When we got back we only had time to shop. Then we saw Elijah, then the Hugheses. We put on thermals, and saw a PI named Melissa, then visited the Loves, then met with Bishop.
"I have understandably been tired all day."
2008. We had zone conference up near Deer Park. I think when we got there, Sister Shaw was singing in the chapel, and I thought it was an elder with a tenor voice. When we got in line to greet President Clark, he told me that "Sister Turnbridge got baptized." I didn't know what he was talking about, but eventually I realized he meant Kristi Turnidge, whom we had taught and who got married to the less-active Brother Turnidge right before I transferred out of my first area. There are other things I remember, but my journal describes them pretty well:
"Today is my eleven month mark. Exactly one year ago, I taught nursery for the last time, giving out pumpkin candy to the kids.
"This morning (and afternoon) we drove through Mead. It's mostly as I remembered, except for a few things. The Pehl house, the home of the murder, is now remodeled. A church being built then is now complete. Signs are plastered saying the contract for the big freeway is complete.
"President Clark told me that Kristy Turnidge got baptized in Montana. At first I didn't know whom he meant because he said "Sister Turnbridge." Also he asked for people who know Spanish, so I told him I did. All of our MTC group was there; it was Northland and Spokane zones. Sister Van Noy badly wanted a picture but Elder Maxfield and Elder Hansen both left before we could take it. [We did take a picture of just three of us, but that picture apparently is on the one memory card I haven't been able to find from my mission.]
"Elder Hightower came up to hug me while I was next to President. I didn't hug back and President tried to get me to, but I said I didn't like to hug. Then President lifted his elbow and said touching elbows will be our hug replacement. He can be kind of silly sometimes. I feel a lot less uncomfortable around him.
"Elder Condie tried to hug me, but I blocked him and told him to get his claws off of me.
"On our way back from Airway Heights, where we stayed last night, we saw Joel in Reardan. Then we decided to see some distant potentials near Davenport. We entered a shady gully with lots of trees. It was more like someplace up north of Spokane. It was too dark to determine the house we needed, but now we know where it is.
"Right now we're staying at Sister Stackhouse's old house. It's not the cleanest."
2007. It was my turn to teach nursery. The lesson was "I can be honest," so I decided to test their honesty by giving them candy pumpkins and then asking who didn't get one. Only one kid said they didn't get one, but I think they were too young to really know what they were saying. I also brought jack-o-lantern pictures for them to color, but apparently that was too sacrilegious and some other teachers printed off pictures that said "I can be honest." They let them color the pumpkins at the end of nursery.
2006. My dad had considered going to Fillmore, but my sister convinced him otherwise. My family had made brownies, and I tried to come up with excuses to eat them. There was a Munsters marathon that day, and we also watched Frankenweenie. I think we vacuumed the basement.
1995. I went to Boo at the Zoo with my cousins. I was wearing my mummy costume. They gave us little plastic trick-or-treat bags that had a picture of a witch made out of candy on them. We kids filled our bags, and my brother David got a solitary piece of candy near the butterfly exhibit. I remember talking with Chancey near the fish exhibit, near the place with the fake jail. Later we got our faces painted; I told the woman I wanted a mummy on my face. Then we went to my grandparents' house. They had a fire going, and I remember thinking that we couldn't get the balloons near the fire, because they would pop.
1994. David was having his birthday party with a few friends, playing video games. I remember they had some Doritos that had a Halloween picture on the bag. My cousins were also all there, because their mom was having a baby.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Sunday, October 6, 2013
October 27
October 27 is my brother's birthday, but since he doesn't live in Utah anymore, it's more like four days before Halloween to me. I'm going to remember what I can about it.
2012. In the morning I dressed up in my blue sweater and went up to the Wilk because we were helping out at a Relief Society brunch. When we showed up, a lot of the other elders were already helping. Matt Markham said he had worked catering at BYU-Hawaii. My roommate Bryton and I went with Angie, the Relief Society President, to get some ice from the Cougareat. Somehow we got to talking to Angie about my Halloween shows--I would be watching the original Frankenweenie that day. I mentioned that the previous night's show had been It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Angie said she loved A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bryton and I went back and filled pitchers with pink lemonade. Eventually it was time for the big reveal of who it was who had prepared the food and who was serving the sisters, and we elders all came out. We got to eat the salad after they had been served. There was a lot of salad on the plates, and I didn't care to finish mine once I had finished the chicken in it, since the salad was mostly cabbage. Then we had to go serve the cookies. The only ones I could eat were pumpkin sugar cookies. I ate a lot of them and took one home. Bryton and I walked home with Jenny Stevens. Then that afternoon I changed to go running. After that, I went shopping. I might have gone to K-mart for some reason. I went to Papa Murphy's and got a jack-o-lantern pizza. While I was down in that part of Provo, I saw a car with a license plate from American Samoa. I went to Smith's and bought some chocolates that I could give to potential trick-or-treaters but that would also be suitable for Thanksgiving. I came home and cooked my pizza and offered it to my roommate Cameron and his friend Stephanie (they had bought Taylor Swift's Red album that day). That night I watched Frankenweenie, but I think no one else was home to watch it with me.
2011. I think this might have been the day that there was a chili party at work. Before the time of the party, our leads were going around and telling everyone that they could go clock out and go home after the party. They didn't tell me, but I wondered if they would, and I didn't want to clock out and then have to go back and turn on my headset again just to log out. So I asked the leads if they wanted me to go home too, and they said I could, but they seemed hesitant. At the party, I was in line after my coworker Michelle and our lead Scott; I was telling them how I had a dream about our size-42 boxes. There were Costco cakes with red, orange, and yellow decorations on top. Michelle knew about and was amused by my dessert habits, and I explained that I could have the cake because it had fall colors on it. Later she went back for more cake and I asked her to bring me one. I think I preferred orange, but any color would do.
2009. I remember that we were going to the temple, so we had to go to the Clarkston elders' home. After our day of proselyting, we went there, and when we got there we learned that we had to get up at 1:00 a.m., even though Elder Critchfield had previously told us that we would have to get up at 3:00. I also realized that I hadn't brought a long-sleeve shirt, so one of the elders told me that I could use one of his.
2008. I think I bought Boo Berry cereal from Walmart. We would have gone to Washington State University to email, and I wrote the following letters:
"It is fun to walk the streets through the leaves. They all gather in the curbs and on the edges of sidewalks and they are very fun to kick. I can't believe November is almost here, but November is my second-favorite month.
"We do walk around generally when we are in our towns. Everything is so close together that we don't feel we need our bikes too much, and also we are in a top apartment so we don't feel like taking our bikes up and down the stairs all the time (I don't think there's a place to park our bikes). I actually still have my wheels separate from my bike from the transfer. And it could get annoying to have to transfer our bikes on the bike rack every few days. We do have a full-time car, but we have to use it to get from town to town, not from house to house (although actually we did go farm tracting the other day--knock on one house and drive to the next). Ritzville is about fifty miles from Cheney and Davenport, and Davenport is about forty miles from Cheney. Then it seems all the other small towns are twelve miles from our main small towns. We get 1600 miles a month, and we're doing very well this month. I'm worried for November to come because then we have to be careful again. We're due for a new car sometime soon because the Church likes to sell them before 50,000 miles and we hit that on Saturday, I think. The office missionary in charge of cars says he has some older cars he has to sell first and then he'll get ours.
"Exactly one year ago today was my first day of freedom from Wal-Mart (today at the store I saw all the new 'associates' being trained and my heart went out to them) and my official full-time mission prep, not working just to get ready for my mission. We practiced my bike riding and carved pumpkins. Tomorrow I hit eleven months. It is Zone Conference tomorrow, and to get there we will be driving through Mead. It will be fun to go through my "greenie area" again. Actually all of us English missionaries who came to Spokane from our MTC group will be at the same conference--it's two zones and all five of us are in those two zones--Spokane, which includes Ritzville, Davenport, Cheney, and the main part of Spokane and surrounding areas; and Northland, which includes northern Spokane, Mead, Deer Park, Chewelah, and Colville. (All these cities probably mean nothing to you.) Ah! Memories abound this week. Last year's Halloween was probably my favorite one that I've had.
"I think I will send home my birthday check to you, and write Grandma and Grandpa today. It's weird to think that I'm still expecting a birthday package, because I've completely forgotten about my birthday.
"So I'm confused as to whether Allie's Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. I still think her witch costume when she was two was the best. And I'm kind of missing my fantastic cape.
"I'm going to email Dave today, so I'll close now.
"Love and Happy Halloween,
"Elder Melville"
"I forgot a few little anecdotes about this week.
"Last Monday we got back home and an ambulance was there. Brother Herron, with whom we live, had been vomiting blood quite profusely, and was in the hospital for a few days after. That night we had to have a ten-minute dinner twelve miles away so we could come back and give him a blessing. He's doing better now but still not feeling the greatest.
"The next day we went to Reardan, a small town, and we showed up at an investigator's house just as their dog was dying. We have impeccable timing.
"A lighter--but grosser--dog story has to do with an investigator named Crystal. Her grandma is active; her dad is an active recent convert. Her mom, Lucretia (sp) was ex'ed but still believes the Gospel. Both Lucretia and Crystal like us teaching them, and we were at Crystal's house teaching. She has a very rambunctious son, Edward, who is almost three. Among the three houses of Crystal, Lucretia, and the Calloways, there are many, many, many kittens and dogs (I've seen more kittens in this area than in my entire mission). Edward was playing with a puppy behind Elder Love (we were sitting on a bed used as a couch), hitting it on the head and trying to resist my protective measures for the dog. Suddenly Elder Love stood up, and a yellowish liquid was on the bed. So after visiting with them he changed his pants. But the problem is there are no dry cleaners around here. None in Ritzville, none in Davenport, none in Cheney. So he won't be able to wear those slacks for a while.
"Just thought I'd give you another random note!
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
2007. In the morning we went down to Orchard Elementary so that I could practice biking. It was the first time I was actually able to bike around, so that was an exciting development. Then we went home and I ate some of the mint Oreos I had bought the night before. We carved pumpkins and I think we watched The Blob, which my dad had rented from Top Hat Video.
2002. I remember emailing David for the last time on his mission. I wrote him a happy birthday/coming home poem. I can't remember all of it, but I remember a few cheesy couplets: "Only six days until I will see you again. I cannot wait until then!" "You'll see our new couch, upholstered in leather. You'll see all your friends, Preston, Michael, and Heather." "You missed our cat Dinah, she ran away, but Jenny also likes to play."
I will probably remember more later. I feel bad that I don't remember more about my brother's birthday, especially since most of what I remember doesn't have to do with him.
2012. In the morning I dressed up in my blue sweater and went up to the Wilk because we were helping out at a Relief Society brunch. When we showed up, a lot of the other elders were already helping. Matt Markham said he had worked catering at BYU-Hawaii. My roommate Bryton and I went with Angie, the Relief Society President, to get some ice from the Cougareat. Somehow we got to talking to Angie about my Halloween shows--I would be watching the original Frankenweenie that day. I mentioned that the previous night's show had been It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and Angie said she loved A Charlie Brown Christmas. Bryton and I went back and filled pitchers with pink lemonade. Eventually it was time for the big reveal of who it was who had prepared the food and who was serving the sisters, and we elders all came out. We got to eat the salad after they had been served. There was a lot of salad on the plates, and I didn't care to finish mine once I had finished the chicken in it, since the salad was mostly cabbage. Then we had to go serve the cookies. The only ones I could eat were pumpkin sugar cookies. I ate a lot of them and took one home. Bryton and I walked home with Jenny Stevens. Then that afternoon I changed to go running. After that, I went shopping. I might have gone to K-mart for some reason. I went to Papa Murphy's and got a jack-o-lantern pizza. While I was down in that part of Provo, I saw a car with a license plate from American Samoa. I went to Smith's and bought some chocolates that I could give to potential trick-or-treaters but that would also be suitable for Thanksgiving. I came home and cooked my pizza and offered it to my roommate Cameron and his friend Stephanie (they had bought Taylor Swift's Red album that day). That night I watched Frankenweenie, but I think no one else was home to watch it with me.
2011. I think this might have been the day that there was a chili party at work. Before the time of the party, our leads were going around and telling everyone that they could go clock out and go home after the party. They didn't tell me, but I wondered if they would, and I didn't want to clock out and then have to go back and turn on my headset again just to log out. So I asked the leads if they wanted me to go home too, and they said I could, but they seemed hesitant. At the party, I was in line after my coworker Michelle and our lead Scott; I was telling them how I had a dream about our size-42 boxes. There were Costco cakes with red, orange, and yellow decorations on top. Michelle knew about and was amused by my dessert habits, and I explained that I could have the cake because it had fall colors on it. Later she went back for more cake and I asked her to bring me one. I think I preferred orange, but any color would do.
2009. I remember that we were going to the temple, so we had to go to the Clarkston elders' home. After our day of proselyting, we went there, and when we got there we learned that we had to get up at 1:00 a.m., even though Elder Critchfield had previously told us that we would have to get up at 3:00. I also realized that I hadn't brought a long-sleeve shirt, so one of the elders told me that I could use one of his.
2008. I think I bought Boo Berry cereal from Walmart. We would have gone to Washington State University to email, and I wrote the following letters:
"It is fun to walk the streets through the leaves. They all gather in the curbs and on the edges of sidewalks and they are very fun to kick. I can't believe November is almost here, but November is my second-favorite month.
"We do walk around generally when we are in our towns. Everything is so close together that we don't feel we need our bikes too much, and also we are in a top apartment so we don't feel like taking our bikes up and down the stairs all the time (I don't think there's a place to park our bikes). I actually still have my wheels separate from my bike from the transfer. And it could get annoying to have to transfer our bikes on the bike rack every few days. We do have a full-time car, but we have to use it to get from town to town, not from house to house (although actually we did go farm tracting the other day--knock on one house and drive to the next). Ritzville is about fifty miles from Cheney and Davenport, and Davenport is about forty miles from Cheney. Then it seems all the other small towns are twelve miles from our main small towns. We get 1600 miles a month, and we're doing very well this month. I'm worried for November to come because then we have to be careful again. We're due for a new car sometime soon because the Church likes to sell them before 50,000 miles and we hit that on Saturday, I think. The office missionary in charge of cars says he has some older cars he has to sell first and then he'll get ours.
"Exactly one year ago today was my first day of freedom from Wal-Mart (today at the store I saw all the new 'associates' being trained and my heart went out to them) and my official full-time mission prep, not working just to get ready for my mission. We practiced my bike riding and carved pumpkins. Tomorrow I hit eleven months. It is Zone Conference tomorrow, and to get there we will be driving through Mead. It will be fun to go through my "greenie area" again. Actually all of us English missionaries who came to Spokane from our MTC group will be at the same conference--it's two zones and all five of us are in those two zones--Spokane, which includes Ritzville, Davenport, Cheney, and the main part of Spokane and surrounding areas; and Northland, which includes northern Spokane, Mead, Deer Park, Chewelah, and Colville. (All these cities probably mean nothing to you.) Ah! Memories abound this week. Last year's Halloween was probably my favorite one that I've had.
"I think I will send home my birthday check to you, and write Grandma and Grandpa today. It's weird to think that I'm still expecting a birthday package, because I've completely forgotten about my birthday.
"So I'm confused as to whether Allie's Sleeping Beauty or Snow White. I still think her witch costume when she was two was the best. And I'm kind of missing my fantastic cape.
"I'm going to email Dave today, so I'll close now.
"Love and Happy Halloween,
"Elder Melville"
"I forgot a few little anecdotes about this week.
"Last Monday we got back home and an ambulance was there. Brother Herron, with whom we live, had been vomiting blood quite profusely, and was in the hospital for a few days after. That night we had to have a ten-minute dinner twelve miles away so we could come back and give him a blessing. He's doing better now but still not feeling the greatest.
"The next day we went to Reardan, a small town, and we showed up at an investigator's house just as their dog was dying. We have impeccable timing.
"A lighter--but grosser--dog story has to do with an investigator named Crystal. Her grandma is active; her dad is an active recent convert. Her mom, Lucretia (sp) was ex'ed but still believes the Gospel. Both Lucretia and Crystal like us teaching them, and we were at Crystal's house teaching. She has a very rambunctious son, Edward, who is almost three. Among the three houses of Crystal, Lucretia, and the Calloways, there are many, many, many kittens and dogs (I've seen more kittens in this area than in my entire mission). Edward was playing with a puppy behind Elder Love (we were sitting on a bed used as a couch), hitting it on the head and trying to resist my protective measures for the dog. Suddenly Elder Love stood up, and a yellowish liquid was on the bed. So after visiting with them he changed his pants. But the problem is there are no dry cleaners around here. None in Ritzville, none in Davenport, none in Cheney. So he won't be able to wear those slacks for a while.
"Just thought I'd give you another random note!
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
2007. In the morning we went down to Orchard Elementary so that I could practice biking. It was the first time I was actually able to bike around, so that was an exciting development. Then we went home and I ate some of the mint Oreos I had bought the night before. We carved pumpkins and I think we watched The Blob, which my dad had rented from Top Hat Video.
2002. I remember emailing David for the last time on his mission. I wrote him a happy birthday/coming home poem. I can't remember all of it, but I remember a few cheesy couplets: "Only six days until I will see you again. I cannot wait until then!" "You'll see our new couch, upholstered in leather. You'll see all your friends, Preston, Michael, and Heather." "You missed our cat Dinah, she ran away, but Jenny also likes to play."
I will probably remember more later. I feel bad that I don't remember more about my brother's birthday, especially since most of what I remember doesn't have to do with him.
Friday, October 4, 2013
October 30-November 1, 2012
With it being Halloween time, I'm going to recall the things that went on on and around Halloween last year.
October 30, 2012. While I was getting ready to go to my jogging class, I was listening to my music, and my newly bought "Bad Romance" came on. But I heard something in the song I hadn't noticed before, and I looked up and found out it was swearing, so I deleted the song from my computer. (I later reinstated the song when I learned it was edited.) I believe that I wore the jack-o-lantern t-shirt that I got from a Halloween 5k to my jogging class. After jogging, I came home and probably watched the devotional. I showered and changed into the jack-o-lantern t-shirt I got from Walmart before my mission. I think I wore my yellow shoes. I went to the newly opened Mountain West Burrito across the street, since they just opened the day before and I wanted to try them. I got a chicken burrito, and the hot sauce was really hot. Russell Ochoa, who had previously been in my ward, walked by and said hi. That afternoon, I walked up to the JFSB (my geomorphology class was cancelled for the day). Near the MARB I saw Taylor Bean, who was working grounds crew. He told me that I should be wearing my shirt the next day, but I told him I would be wearing a different shirt. Then I went into the kindergarten observation booth to observe the kids' language for my Empirical Methods in English Linguistics class (ELang 273). I think I wanted to observe the preschool, but there were too many people in that observation room, so I moved to kindergarten. At first it was recess, so the kids were just playing. They were pretending to make a present for their teacher. She offered to help, but they said no, "because then you'll know what we're getting you!" (Never mind that it was just pretend.) At one point I remember a teacher asked the kids, "Is the sun blue?" "No! The sun is yellow!" After recess, all the teachers came in, and they sang a wiggle song. Then they settled down for storytime. The teacher (Mr. "Bwad," as some kids called him) asked whether they wanted a Halloween story or another story. At one point a girl said something irrelevant, and the teacher said, "You already told me that." When I went into work, Annette the secretary commented on my yellow shoes (if that was the day I wore them). That night after I came home, my roommate Scott asked me if I could take him to University Mall so he could exchange some shoes and then to D.I. so he could drop off some stuff. I agreed to it, but worried about my time schedule that night. I looked at the box of things Scott wanted to take to D.I., and while he was in the other room I took out the measuring spoons and put them back in the kitchen, since he had a real need to get rid of things that were useful and keep things that weren't. We got in the car and he sang along to "Go Down Moses" on my Lower Lights CD. We got to the mall, and he went into his shoe store, saying it wouldn't take long. While he was in there, I went and looked through a Halloween store (which was busy, since it was Halloween Eve). Then I walked past some other stores and at one point I looked in the Disney store but didn't find anything interesting. Scott took a lot longer than he said. Once I walked through a boutique store, not knowing that Scott was following me. I walked in one door and out the other, and he told me that he expected I would stop and he would alert me that he was done, but I just kept walking. As we were leaving the parking lot, he told me to go one way, but I knew there was a lawn barrier, so I couldn't. He told me I should go out to the light to get on State Street to D.I., but I already knew that. While we were in the car, for some reason it came up that I really like Cherie Call. He said that he knew her songs "Where Faith Lives" and "It Passes All My Understanding." We dropped off stuff at D.I. and then drove home. I drove on Bulldog until it went down past the Wilk. Scott said, "Look at that!" and pointed out the lit Christmas trees at the front of the Wilk. I said, "I didn't know Satan was at BYU!" Then I said, "That was going too far," since I realized it was a little much to say that Satan was responsible for Christmas trees, and Scott said something like, "I didn't know he was responsible for that." Then I watched Mad Monster Party? My roommates Cameron and Bryton came home from home teaching while I was watching it, and Bryton said, "Oh, entertainment!" Both of them joined me in watching it; they came in at the part when all the monsters arrive on the island. They were amused when the chef pinched Yetch the zombie. Bryton asked if it was a kid's movie, because it had some more adult themes. Cameron didn't stay for the rest of the movie, but Bryton did. He laughed at the special effects at the end of the movie. (Mad Monster Party? is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen.) Then I went to bed, and when I woke up, it was
October 31. I put on my Peanuts "Happy Halloween" shirt and my skull socks and went up to my first class, Empirical Methods in English Linguistics. Our professor complimented the people who had costumes. For some reason, she had some of us stand up for some demonstration, and when she did, she realized that I did have a Halloween shirt on. After class I went towards the library and there were people giving out candy, but I didn't consider it Halloween candy so I didn't take any. I went to my environmental biology class. There was this awkward kid who always sat at the front of the class, and he was wearing a homemade dog or wolf costume. He had a baseball cap with ears on it, and he had a dog snout mask, and gloves with claws. It was obvious he wanted to show off his costume, because he held the door open for the previous class and waved his hand up at everyone, showing off his claws. Some people remarked about his claws, but some ignored him. He asked a question during class and kept his snout mask on when he asked it. I overheard some people by me talking about his mask. I went to work and was just working away when suddenly Annette exclaimed. There was a man in a grim reaper costume just staring in our office window. Once she finally realized it and looked up, he left. Then she looked out the door and saw that he was doing the same thing to the other offices in our hall.Then I went home. At some point that day, Scott was making something out of construction paper. Scott and I hadn't finished home teaching, so we went and visited Nestor at South End Market. It was kind of awkward. I wanted to carve my pumpkin, and I set up my Halloween playlist on the stereo. At first I had it on shuffle, but I meant to just play it through. I began carving my pumpkin. Cameron came home when one of the versions of "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" was playing. I saved the pumpkin seeds and asked Cameron if he thought they would be good with spices like nutmeg and cinnamon; he said yes. I told Cameron that I was going to carve a pumpkin that said Obama, since I resented the Romney sign someone put up at our complex. He told me he also resented it. I asked whether I should make a modified flag under Obama or say "2012"; he said I should put a flag design. I messed up the "m" in Obama. At one point Scott came into the room, and he seemed shocked that I was doing something like making an Obama pumpkin (I learned his political opinions shortly before then while watching a presidential debate). As my playlist got to the Original Monster Mash album, it started skipping, so I had to restart my computer. I finished my pumpkin and took it outside in front of the Romney sign.
After that, I went to my room and listened to my playlist (which had to be started over after restarting the computer) while working on geomorphology homework. At some point our friend Amberly knocked on the door; I hadn't seen her for a while. They came in and looked at my Halloween stuff. They noticed my fall-wrapped chocolates and had some. Cameron mentioned that we had already eaten all the Caramel Apple Pops and taffy. Amberly was surprised we ate those before the chocolate, so I had to clarify that I didn't buy the chocolate until the other candy was gone. Since I had my Jan Terri picture up, the conversation turned to her. I went and got my laptop so that I could show Amberly's friend "Get Down Goblin." Afterwards, her friend said, "I love how serious she is." Amberly agreed, and said that she was even more serious in "the one with the motorcycle" ("Losing You"). I think Amberly was the only person to notice that my socks had skulls. While I was doing homework, my friend Kristen texted me and told me that I should go over to the Halloween party that Shayli was having. I was going to have to be late. I went there and ate a little Halloween brownie, one of the few Halloween treats there. Mackenzie Gregerson was wearing an Energizer Bunny costume; I asked her if she borrowed it from her roommate Leilani. I saw Scott's costume; the thing he had made was a little tag that said "To: Women, From: God." I was surprised that he would wear such a costume, because it seemed a little irreverent and vain, not what I expected from him. They took a picture, but I didn't join in because I wasn't wearing a costume. (It wasn't worth putting on my costume since I wouldn't be long at the party.) Then I came home and watched The Munsters' Revenge. Cameron came out and watched it for a few minutes. Then I went to bed (Bryton had gone home that day) and wrote in my journal:
"A mediocre Halloween. Scott and I 'home' taught Nestor at the store. I made an Obama pumpkin while listening to Halloween music. Amberly York and her friend stopped by and then I finished geology homework. I made a brief appearance at Shayli's party; then I watched The Munsters' Revenge."
November 1. This was a crazy day. I remember that in geomorph, I was doodling some Thanksgiving images on my notes. Our professor asked if people could go to Costco with them that afternoon to get food for our field trip that weekend. But there was no way I would be able to. That evening I took a test for my editing class--the first time I had been in the testing center that semester. There's a small whiteboard in the testing center that always has some message and drawing on it; there was some kind of Thanksgiving message on it. I called my parents and asked if they could bring me some stuff for my trip. I think they brought me a tent, a bag, and a flashlight. I gave them a big bag of some of my Halloween stuff to take home. I was really grateful to them for coming all the way to Provo for me. The bag they brought was bulkier than I had hoped, so I asked Cameron if he had a bag I could borrow. He did, and he was nice enough to let me borrow it. I wanted to go the grocery store to get some things. I went out to Fresh Market and was shocked to see that almost all of their Halloween candy was already sold out, meaning that I couldn't get Thanksgiving candy. I bought some Kashi pumpkin spice granola bars. I picked out a BYU hat, and when I went to the self-checkout, the barcode on the hat didn't work. The worker helped me, but the price on the tag was much more expensive than the price the sign said, so I told her it was cheaper. I told her a lower price and she put it in, but I think that even that was more expensive than what it really was. After that I stopped at Smith's to see their clearance candy selection. All the leftover candy they had was only Halloween candy; it couldn't be used for Thanksgiving. When I got home, there weren't any parking spaces, so I had to park far away. Then later I remembered that I had my sleeping bag in my car, so I had to run over to the car (I was wearing my Converse shoes) and retrieve the sleeping bag. At one point that night I saw my former roommate, Zach Zimmerman, on the stairs. I told him how I had a field trip in the morning. The conversation went like this:
"Where to?"
"I'm actually not sure. The rumor is Death Valley."
"In California!?"
He also complimented me on my Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds shirt. That night I also had to fill out my absentee ballot. There was no way I was voting either Republican or Democrat, so I asked Bryton what he knew about the other parties. I just picked one--maybe Gary Johnson?--and stuck with that. Our bipartisan culture is destroying our country, so I want to make third parties a viable option. I asked Bryton if he could drop off my ballot for me the next morning (since I didn't know then that my complex had an outgoing mailbox). I might have been listening to my Thanksgiving playlist while I did the voting. I think I also had to finish a take-home midterm for ELang 273. Then I went to bed, knowing I would have to get up early the next morning.
October 30, 2012. While I was getting ready to go to my jogging class, I was listening to my music, and my newly bought "Bad Romance" came on. But I heard something in the song I hadn't noticed before, and I looked up and found out it was swearing, so I deleted the song from my computer. (I later reinstated the song when I learned it was edited.) I believe that I wore the jack-o-lantern t-shirt that I got from a Halloween 5k to my jogging class. After jogging, I came home and probably watched the devotional. I showered and changed into the jack-o-lantern t-shirt I got from Walmart before my mission. I think I wore my yellow shoes. I went to the newly opened Mountain West Burrito across the street, since they just opened the day before and I wanted to try them. I got a chicken burrito, and the hot sauce was really hot. Russell Ochoa, who had previously been in my ward, walked by and said hi. That afternoon, I walked up to the JFSB (my geomorphology class was cancelled for the day). Near the MARB I saw Taylor Bean, who was working grounds crew. He told me that I should be wearing my shirt the next day, but I told him I would be wearing a different shirt. Then I went into the kindergarten observation booth to observe the kids' language for my Empirical Methods in English Linguistics class (ELang 273). I think I wanted to observe the preschool, but there were too many people in that observation room, so I moved to kindergarten. At first it was recess, so the kids were just playing. They were pretending to make a present for their teacher. She offered to help, but they said no, "because then you'll know what we're getting you!" (Never mind that it was just pretend.) At one point I remember a teacher asked the kids, "Is the sun blue?" "No! The sun is yellow!" After recess, all the teachers came in, and they sang a wiggle song. Then they settled down for storytime. The teacher (Mr. "Bwad," as some kids called him) asked whether they wanted a Halloween story or another story. At one point a girl said something irrelevant, and the teacher said, "You already told me that." When I went into work, Annette the secretary commented on my yellow shoes (if that was the day I wore them). That night after I came home, my roommate Scott asked me if I could take him to University Mall so he could exchange some shoes and then to D.I. so he could drop off some stuff. I agreed to it, but worried about my time schedule that night. I looked at the box of things Scott wanted to take to D.I., and while he was in the other room I took out the measuring spoons and put them back in the kitchen, since he had a real need to get rid of things that were useful and keep things that weren't. We got in the car and he sang along to "Go Down Moses" on my Lower Lights CD. We got to the mall, and he went into his shoe store, saying it wouldn't take long. While he was in there, I went and looked through a Halloween store (which was busy, since it was Halloween Eve). Then I walked past some other stores and at one point I looked in the Disney store but didn't find anything interesting. Scott took a lot longer than he said. Once I walked through a boutique store, not knowing that Scott was following me. I walked in one door and out the other, and he told me that he expected I would stop and he would alert me that he was done, but I just kept walking. As we were leaving the parking lot, he told me to go one way, but I knew there was a lawn barrier, so I couldn't. He told me I should go out to the light to get on State Street to D.I., but I already knew that. While we were in the car, for some reason it came up that I really like Cherie Call. He said that he knew her songs "Where Faith Lives" and "It Passes All My Understanding." We dropped off stuff at D.I. and then drove home. I drove on Bulldog until it went down past the Wilk. Scott said, "Look at that!" and pointed out the lit Christmas trees at the front of the Wilk. I said, "I didn't know Satan was at BYU!" Then I said, "That was going too far," since I realized it was a little much to say that Satan was responsible for Christmas trees, and Scott said something like, "I didn't know he was responsible for that." Then I watched Mad Monster Party? My roommates Cameron and Bryton came home from home teaching while I was watching it, and Bryton said, "Oh, entertainment!" Both of them joined me in watching it; they came in at the part when all the monsters arrive on the island. They were amused when the chef pinched Yetch the zombie. Bryton asked if it was a kid's movie, because it had some more adult themes. Cameron didn't stay for the rest of the movie, but Bryton did. He laughed at the special effects at the end of the movie. (Mad Monster Party? is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen.) Then I went to bed, and when I woke up, it was
October 31. I put on my Peanuts "Happy Halloween" shirt and my skull socks and went up to my first class, Empirical Methods in English Linguistics. Our professor complimented the people who had costumes. For some reason, she had some of us stand up for some demonstration, and when she did, she realized that I did have a Halloween shirt on. After class I went towards the library and there were people giving out candy, but I didn't consider it Halloween candy so I didn't take any. I went to my environmental biology class. There was this awkward kid who always sat at the front of the class, and he was wearing a homemade dog or wolf costume. He had a baseball cap with ears on it, and he had a dog snout mask, and gloves with claws. It was obvious he wanted to show off his costume, because he held the door open for the previous class and waved his hand up at everyone, showing off his claws. Some people remarked about his claws, but some ignored him. He asked a question during class and kept his snout mask on when he asked it. I overheard some people by me talking about his mask. I went to work and was just working away when suddenly Annette exclaimed. There was a man in a grim reaper costume just staring in our office window. Once she finally realized it and looked up, he left. Then she looked out the door and saw that he was doing the same thing to the other offices in our hall.Then I went home. At some point that day, Scott was making something out of construction paper. Scott and I hadn't finished home teaching, so we went and visited Nestor at South End Market. It was kind of awkward. I wanted to carve my pumpkin, and I set up my Halloween playlist on the stereo. At first I had it on shuffle, but I meant to just play it through. I began carving my pumpkin. Cameron came home when one of the versions of "The Great Pumpkin Waltz" was playing. I saved the pumpkin seeds and asked Cameron if he thought they would be good with spices like nutmeg and cinnamon; he said yes. I told Cameron that I was going to carve a pumpkin that said Obama, since I resented the Romney sign someone put up at our complex. He told me he also resented it. I asked whether I should make a modified flag under Obama or say "2012"; he said I should put a flag design. I messed up the "m" in Obama. At one point Scott came into the room, and he seemed shocked that I was doing something like making an Obama pumpkin (I learned his political opinions shortly before then while watching a presidential debate). As my playlist got to the Original Monster Mash album, it started skipping, so I had to restart my computer. I finished my pumpkin and took it outside in front of the Romney sign.
"A mediocre Halloween. Scott and I 'home' taught Nestor at the store. I made an Obama pumpkin while listening to Halloween music. Amberly York and her friend stopped by and then I finished geology homework. I made a brief appearance at Shayli's party; then I watched The Munsters' Revenge."
November 1. This was a crazy day. I remember that in geomorph, I was doodling some Thanksgiving images on my notes. Our professor asked if people could go to Costco with them that afternoon to get food for our field trip that weekend. But there was no way I would be able to. That evening I took a test for my editing class--the first time I had been in the testing center that semester. There's a small whiteboard in the testing center that always has some message and drawing on it; there was some kind of Thanksgiving message on it. I called my parents and asked if they could bring me some stuff for my trip. I think they brought me a tent, a bag, and a flashlight. I gave them a big bag of some of my Halloween stuff to take home. I was really grateful to them for coming all the way to Provo for me. The bag they brought was bulkier than I had hoped, so I asked Cameron if he had a bag I could borrow. He did, and he was nice enough to let me borrow it. I wanted to go the grocery store to get some things. I went out to Fresh Market and was shocked to see that almost all of their Halloween candy was already sold out, meaning that I couldn't get Thanksgiving candy. I bought some Kashi pumpkin spice granola bars. I picked out a BYU hat, and when I went to the self-checkout, the barcode on the hat didn't work. The worker helped me, but the price on the tag was much more expensive than the price the sign said, so I told her it was cheaper. I told her a lower price and she put it in, but I think that even that was more expensive than what it really was. After that I stopped at Smith's to see their clearance candy selection. All the leftover candy they had was only Halloween candy; it couldn't be used for Thanksgiving. When I got home, there weren't any parking spaces, so I had to park far away. Then later I remembered that I had my sleeping bag in my car, so I had to run over to the car (I was wearing my Converse shoes) and retrieve the sleeping bag. At one point that night I saw my former roommate, Zach Zimmerman, on the stairs. I told him how I had a field trip in the morning. The conversation went like this:
"Where to?"
"I'm actually not sure. The rumor is Death Valley."
"In California!?"
He also complimented me on my Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds shirt. That night I also had to fill out my absentee ballot. There was no way I was voting either Republican or Democrat, so I asked Bryton what he knew about the other parties. I just picked one--maybe Gary Johnson?--and stuck with that. Our bipartisan culture is destroying our country, so I want to make third parties a viable option. I asked Bryton if he could drop off my ballot for me the next morning (since I didn't know then that my complex had an outgoing mailbox). I might have been listening to my Thanksgiving playlist while I did the voting. I think I also had to finish a take-home midterm for ELang 273. Then I went to bed, knowing I would have to get up early the next morning.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
September 30
With it almost being my birthday, I found it fitting to remember the various things that have happened on the day after my birthday.
2012. At church, Michael Wyatt was talking to me about something after sacrament meeting. While he was talking to me, Shayli Simmons came up to me and wished me happy birthday. So then when Michael was done talking to me, he also told me happy birthday. After church, I made a blog post.
2011. That night we went to El Matador for my birthday dinner. When we got at the restaurant, I noticed a terrible goathead patch, and Allie was standing in it. I said, "Don't stand on those plants." She said, "Sorry." She probably thought it was because she wasn't supposed to step on them, but I just didn't want her to get them stuck to her shoes. While we were waiting for food, I mentioned that I had the stupid "I Wanna Go" Britney Spears song stuck in my head. Then my mom told Susanne that they had got me Lady Antebellum and Kelly "Clarkston" for my birthday. I said to my mom, "What did you call her?" since she had inserted a t.
2010. I think this was the time my mom and I went down to the Legacy Parkway trail so I could use my new bicycle. I was wearing my Snoopy "Party like a Rockstar" shirt. I think I brought a Gatorade in the car. My mom just walked on the trail while I biked. I was annoyed when I came across some bikers stopped and having a conversation in both lanes of traffic. Another woman alerted me when she was passing me, but I stayed in my lane, although I might have slightly swerved and made it look like I was switching lanes. Then I came home and ate some Jelly Bellys and I think I turned on the TV for some reason. I think I started making pillowcases from the holiday material my mom had bought me.
2008. Elder Duncan and I waited to get the car from the other elders. We were dressed in our suits to go to district meeting, but when the other elders arrived, they asked why we were wearing our suit coats. They told us that district meeting had been moved to Wednesday, but we had missed the memo. Those elders informed us that we still had more than a hundred miles we could use and it was the last day of the month. We worried that if we didn't use our monthly allotment of miles, they would take miles away from us, so we considered going to Waterville, a small town twenty-five miles north. Elder Duncan and I went home and changed our plans for the day. We went through the area book and looked up people we could see in Waterville. Elder Duncan started having second thoughts, but I persuaded him that it was a good idea, since we had never worked in Waterville. Before we left, we fueled up at 7-11 and bought candy for the ride. I got peach rings. It was a nice drive, but I think I was driving slow. We were at a place where the road was curving, and I began singing "The Long and Winding Road." When we got to Waterville, we stopped at a Shell station to see if they had maps of the town. They didn't have any for sale, but they gave us a paper one that wasn't very good. We parked in front of the house of a part-member family. Apparently the wife was semi-active, but I didn't know her. We walked around to try to find people, but we had a hard time figuring out where we were. We wanted to see one less-active who was a mortician, but we could only find the funeral home, and we didn't know how appropriate it was to knock on a funeral home. We looked for one former investigator, but we couldn't find the house. (I later realized what we did wrong.) Later we got back in the car. We went to one house to try to see if they were the right people, but the guy either slammed his door shut when we got out of our car or else was very short when we knocked on the door. That surprised me, since I had this perception that small towns would be more receptive since they didn't have missionaries there as often. (Odessa, WA, and Winchester, ID, later proved to me that that wasn't true.) We stopped at the house of Billy Byington's father, and there were lots of little annoying dogs, but no one was home. Like all small towns, Waterville had its abandoned buildings.
Eventually we left, not having had a terribly productive time in Waterville. But I figured that it would be a good way for us to be familiar with the town for the next time we went up there (but I was transferred the next week and never went back until I drove through the town after my mission). I was driving when I realized I hadn't put on my prescription sunglasses, so Elder Duncan opened them for me so I could trade glasses while I was driving. While we were driving back, Elder Bates, the district leader, called us. He told us that district meeting the next day was cancelled because President Clark wanted to have a special meeting with us on Friday. We didn't know why he would be visiting us, since it was the week that he would be planning transfers, so it would be really busy for him, and we had already had interviews. We began speculating about what crazy things could be happening for this meeting to happen. When we got back to East Wenatchee, we had fried chicken from the elderly Schoenmakers, and we got a call from a less-active, Brian Latimer, who wanted us to help him move across the river to Wenatchee. We were glad he called us, and we were more than happy to help him move, since it would help us ratchet up miles on the car. We were only sad that he was moving out of our area. When we got to his new house, they had problems getting the couch through the door and didn't think it would work. But Elder Duncan had served in the college town of Pullman, so he was used to moving things, and he was able to get it through the door. I think we drove over to Wenatchee twice that night. When we did our miles that night, our daily miles turned out to be 77.7. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a very weird day. Firstly we thought we had district meeting so we were surprised when we didn't. So we did our mission survey. Then we mowed the Schonemakers' lawn. We had over 100 miles to use, so we went up to Waterville. We couldn't find many addresses, and the few we found weren't home. One address was a 210, but it wasn't there, so we knocked on 201, but we don't know if it was right because he just closed the door on us. On our way back we received a call that President is unexpectedly meeting with the mission.
"We had dinner with the Schoenmakers--Bill is sadly almost gone--and helped Brian Latimer move. We went over to Wenatchee twice, and in total we went 77.7 miles.
2006. I think this was the evening that I watched The Munsters' Revenge with my dad. While we were watching, there was a knock on the door, and my dad and sister made me get it. It was an old guy telling us about something, but I don't remember what. He was there a long time.
2005. It was the night before I was singing in general conference. I believe this was the time I went to Great Clips to get a haircut, thus beginning a pattern of getting professional cuts instead of having my mom cut it. I went home and tried to catch what I could of the I Dream of Jeannie mini-marathon, and for some reason my aunt was there. The only thing that makes me unsure about this is that I don't know why I would have gotten a haircut the night before singing in conference, but I think this is what happened.
2004. I remember going to my theater class in the morning and burping up the flavor of Mexican chocolate cake. It made me remember the weird Munsters pilot I had watched the previous night while eating cake.
2003. When I showed up to gym class, Coach Hyde showed me that my binder that had gone missing the day before was in the garbage can. I was relieved to have it back, but I wondered what kind of evil person would do that.
2000. I think we went to my sister's house and she gave me a birthday present of the soundtrack to Chicken Run, which I had seen the night before for my birthday. I thought it was a strange present, but I went home and listened to the Flip, Flop, and Fly song. (I think I still have that CD, but I never listen to it.)
1998. I think David took me to Winegar's to get my birthday present of a Veggie Friend Seedie. He gave me exact change to get it, and he sent me inside to get it myself. I got "Ima Farmer Corn," the one that had overalls. I went to pay for it, but David had miscalculated the tax, and I was a few cents too short. I informed the cashier that I had to go get some more money. She seemed both amused and annoyed. I ran to the car and got some more coins from David, then went back in and bought it (the cashier had kept it at her register).
1994. It was my birthday party. I (more likely my mom) had invited a bunch of my kindergarten friends over. We took my friend Wesley (I think that was his name) home with us. I really liked Wesley, but I think I just liked him for his mullet. While we were waiting for more kids to show up, I got on the fireplace and put one of the pumpkin lights in my hand and said, "I, Jack, the pumpkin king." Hillary Ulmer was there, and she really liked The Lion King, which came out that year. She imitated me, but said, "I, Nala, the pumpkin queen," which didn't make sense. After the kids all got there, I got my various presents. I think I got a Lion King puzzle. I got a candy bar with a gold wrapper, so I started singing, "I got a golden ticket!" We had lots of Halloween party favors. Then it was time for Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I went first, and everyone laughed when I got the tail far from the donkey. That didn't bother me--but it bothered me that they didn't laugh as much at the other kids, even when they got the tail even further than I did. Looking back, I realize that they thought mine was funny, since I was the first one, but as more kids did it, they realized it wasn't really funny. But I took it as a personal offense, and I had a fit and went and hid under my bed. The kids kept coming to my room to try to get me to come out, but I would just yell at them. Except when Wesley, came, I nicely asked him to leave. Eventually I was coaxed out, but I don't remember what happened. We had to take Wesley home, and there was a broken sprinkler shooting water everywhere on the apartment complex lawn. This might have been the night that the Thompsons stayed longer to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the "What's This?" sequence, when Jack runs into the Christmas Town sign, Wayne said to two-year-old Peter, "Did Jack fall down?"
2012. At church, Michael Wyatt was talking to me about something after sacrament meeting. While he was talking to me, Shayli Simmons came up to me and wished me happy birthday. So then when Michael was done talking to me, he also told me happy birthday. After church, I made a blog post.
2011. That night we went to El Matador for my birthday dinner. When we got at the restaurant, I noticed a terrible goathead patch, and Allie was standing in it. I said, "Don't stand on those plants." She said, "Sorry." She probably thought it was because she wasn't supposed to step on them, but I just didn't want her to get them stuck to her shoes. While we were waiting for food, I mentioned that I had the stupid "I Wanna Go" Britney Spears song stuck in my head. Then my mom told Susanne that they had got me Lady Antebellum and Kelly "Clarkston" for my birthday. I said to my mom, "What did you call her?" since she had inserted a t.
2010. I think this was the time my mom and I went down to the Legacy Parkway trail so I could use my new bicycle. I was wearing my Snoopy "Party like a Rockstar" shirt. I think I brought a Gatorade in the car. My mom just walked on the trail while I biked. I was annoyed when I came across some bikers stopped and having a conversation in both lanes of traffic. Another woman alerted me when she was passing me, but I stayed in my lane, although I might have slightly swerved and made it look like I was switching lanes. Then I came home and ate some Jelly Bellys and I think I turned on the TV for some reason. I think I started making pillowcases from the holiday material my mom had bought me.
2008. Elder Duncan and I waited to get the car from the other elders. We were dressed in our suits to go to district meeting, but when the other elders arrived, they asked why we were wearing our suit coats. They told us that district meeting had been moved to Wednesday, but we had missed the memo. Those elders informed us that we still had more than a hundred miles we could use and it was the last day of the month. We worried that if we didn't use our monthly allotment of miles, they would take miles away from us, so we considered going to Waterville, a small town twenty-five miles north. Elder Duncan and I went home and changed our plans for the day. We went through the area book and looked up people we could see in Waterville. Elder Duncan started having second thoughts, but I persuaded him that it was a good idea, since we had never worked in Waterville. Before we left, we fueled up at 7-11 and bought candy for the ride. I got peach rings. It was a nice drive, but I think I was driving slow. We were at a place where the road was curving, and I began singing "The Long and Winding Road." When we got to Waterville, we stopped at a Shell station to see if they had maps of the town. They didn't have any for sale, but they gave us a paper one that wasn't very good. We parked in front of the house of a part-member family. Apparently the wife was semi-active, but I didn't know her. We walked around to try to find people, but we had a hard time figuring out where we were. We wanted to see one less-active who was a mortician, but we could only find the funeral home, and we didn't know how appropriate it was to knock on a funeral home. We looked for one former investigator, but we couldn't find the house. (I later realized what we did wrong.) Later we got back in the car. We went to one house to try to see if they were the right people, but the guy either slammed his door shut when we got out of our car or else was very short when we knocked on the door. That surprised me, since I had this perception that small towns would be more receptive since they didn't have missionaries there as often. (Odessa, WA, and Winchester, ID, later proved to me that that wasn't true.) We stopped at the house of Billy Byington's father, and there were lots of little annoying dogs, but no one was home. Like all small towns, Waterville had its abandoned buildings.
"Today was a very weird day. Firstly we thought we had district meeting so we were surprised when we didn't. So we did our mission survey. Then we mowed the Schonemakers' lawn. We had over 100 miles to use, so we went up to Waterville. We couldn't find many addresses, and the few we found weren't home. One address was a 210, but it wasn't there, so we knocked on 201, but we don't know if it was right because he just closed the door on us. On our way back we received a call that President is unexpectedly meeting with the mission.
"We had dinner with the Schoenmakers--Bill is sadly almost gone--and helped Brian Latimer move. We went over to Wenatchee twice, and in total we went 77.7 miles.
2006. I think this was the evening that I watched The Munsters' Revenge with my dad. While we were watching, there was a knock on the door, and my dad and sister made me get it. It was an old guy telling us about something, but I don't remember what. He was there a long time.
2005. It was the night before I was singing in general conference. I believe this was the time I went to Great Clips to get a haircut, thus beginning a pattern of getting professional cuts instead of having my mom cut it. I went home and tried to catch what I could of the I Dream of Jeannie mini-marathon, and for some reason my aunt was there. The only thing that makes me unsure about this is that I don't know why I would have gotten a haircut the night before singing in conference, but I think this is what happened.
2004. I remember going to my theater class in the morning and burping up the flavor of Mexican chocolate cake. It made me remember the weird Munsters pilot I had watched the previous night while eating cake.
2003. When I showed up to gym class, Coach Hyde showed me that my binder that had gone missing the day before was in the garbage can. I was relieved to have it back, but I wondered what kind of evil person would do that.
2000. I think we went to my sister's house and she gave me a birthday present of the soundtrack to Chicken Run, which I had seen the night before for my birthday. I thought it was a strange present, but I went home and listened to the Flip, Flop, and Fly song. (I think I still have that CD, but I never listen to it.)
1998. I think David took me to Winegar's to get my birthday present of a Veggie Friend Seedie. He gave me exact change to get it, and he sent me inside to get it myself. I got "Ima Farmer Corn," the one that had overalls. I went to pay for it, but David had miscalculated the tax, and I was a few cents too short. I informed the cashier that I had to go get some more money. She seemed both amused and annoyed. I ran to the car and got some more coins from David, then went back in and bought it (the cashier had kept it at her register).
1994. It was my birthday party. I (more likely my mom) had invited a bunch of my kindergarten friends over. We took my friend Wesley (I think that was his name) home with us. I really liked Wesley, but I think I just liked him for his mullet. While we were waiting for more kids to show up, I got on the fireplace and put one of the pumpkin lights in my hand and said, "I, Jack, the pumpkin king." Hillary Ulmer was there, and she really liked The Lion King, which came out that year. She imitated me, but said, "I, Nala, the pumpkin queen," which didn't make sense. After the kids all got there, I got my various presents. I think I got a Lion King puzzle. I got a candy bar with a gold wrapper, so I started singing, "I got a golden ticket!" We had lots of Halloween party favors. Then it was time for Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I went first, and everyone laughed when I got the tail far from the donkey. That didn't bother me--but it bothered me that they didn't laugh as much at the other kids, even when they got the tail even further than I did. Looking back, I realize that they thought mine was funny, since I was the first one, but as more kids did it, they realized it wasn't really funny. But I took it as a personal offense, and I had a fit and went and hid under my bed. The kids kept coming to my room to try to get me to come out, but I would just yell at them. Except when Wesley, came, I nicely asked him to leave. Eventually I was coaxed out, but I don't remember what happened. We had to take Wesley home, and there was a broken sprinkler shooting water everywhere on the apartment complex lawn. This might have been the night that the Thompsons stayed longer to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the "What's This?" sequence, when Jack runs into the Christmas Town sign, Wayne said to two-year-old Peter, "Did Jack fall down?"
Sunday, September 15, 2013
September 28
With my birthday coming up in two weeks, I'm going to remember what I can about the day before my birthday.
2012. I was at work listening to Pandora, and Lady Gaga's "Marry the Night" came on. Then I went to go running, but I got caught in post-game traffic. I had to walk for a lot of the time because there were too many people. It was a bad idea to go by the stadium. Then I came home and there was a knock on the door. Hanna Dunn, one of my "horse" friends from the previous summer, was down in Provo visiting. I changed out of my running clothes and went across the hall to Alex Masterson's apartment, where they were visiting. It was Hanna, Kristen Jensen, and Olivia Mayer. Hanna said that she was glad she had made cinnamon rolls the previous May, because that was how she learned that I only ate seasonal desserts. Kristen pointed out that I could have Halloween treats, and I mentioned that I could have anything I wanted that week, since it was my birthday. I mentioned that I had gone to the French bakery, and Olivia was excited to learn there was a French bakery in Orem. The girls were excited it was my birthday, so they made birthday cards for me. Hanna's said she wished Jan Terri were here to wish me happy birthday. There was a running joke that Hanna and I should get married (simply for the fact that we both go by our middle names), so Kristen wrote about all the kids Hanna and I would have. Then we discussed getting some kind of dessert for me. We left, and as we were leaving, Kristen and Hanna called Alex "Alejandro" and began singing, "Ale, Alejandro." Alex said he loved Lady Gaga. We went to South End Market, but they were closed. Then Carissa (who had come over at some point) drove us to Smith's. I think it turned to midnight, so they talked about it being my birthday. Alex started singing the "Happy Happy Birthday" song from The Emperor's New Groove, and Carissa said, "Heh heh, it's your birthday?" like Kronk says. I went through the ice cream aisle and found some birthday cake "ice cream," which Hanna bought (I later learned it was a "frozen dairy dessert," not ice cream). Carissa found some clearance flower-shaped cookies, which weren't that great. Kristen bought me a sticker from a little vending machine; it was that Domo character. Then we parked across from the duck pond and went and ate by the stream on campus. At one point, for some reason Alex was singing the "Monster Mash," so I sang the relevant lyrics from "Get Down Goblin." Then we all went home and I went to bed.
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a mediocre day. We did have some good QGIs. We talked with a friendly Pentecostal woman named Alma. She married a minister, but we might be able to talk to them sometime.
"I can't believe I'm ten today [in mission years; I was out ten months] and twenty tomorrow!"
2005. I know that we juniors had to go to school early for testing, but I don't remember what else happened.
1999. My mom gave me one early present after school; it was the Moy Mushroom from the Vegetable Friends collection. (I had the spinoff collection, the Veggie Friend Seedies, but not the Vegetable Friends.) I was excited to take my new toy to my Webelos meeting. Chantelle Christensen later called my mom and asked where she got it to see if she could get me something like that for my birthday, but my mom had already ordered the rest of them for me (I got them the next day).
1997. I asked if I could have my birthday presents that night, since it was right before my birthday. My dad said, "Should we break tradition?" My mom pointed out that we had always gotten our presents the night before our birthday. I think this was the time they brought out my Magnadoodle keychain, and I told them that I had sneaked and already seen it. I thought it was funny, but they were shocked that I did such a thing, and said that no one else in the family had ever done that. I got a turkey magnet that gobbled.
1996. I got my various presents: a purple Koosh ball witch keychain, the Warioland GameBoy game, and The Sound of Music on VHS. My mom told me she wanted me to start singing the songs from the movie again. David started playing my game. We went downstairs to watch the movie, and David told me that he had gotten to Lake Asparagus in my game (I was enthralled by the map in the instruction manual).
1994. I got my presents, but the only one I remember is the VHS of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was surprised I got it. I remembered seeing the trailers on TV the previous year, but I figured it was too violent for my parents to let me see it, and here they got it for me. We went downstairs and watched it. That may have been the most influential birthday present I ever got.
2012. I was at work listening to Pandora, and Lady Gaga's "Marry the Night" came on. Then I went to go running, but I got caught in post-game traffic. I had to walk for a lot of the time because there were too many people. It was a bad idea to go by the stadium. Then I came home and there was a knock on the door. Hanna Dunn, one of my "horse" friends from the previous summer, was down in Provo visiting. I changed out of my running clothes and went across the hall to Alex Masterson's apartment, where they were visiting. It was Hanna, Kristen Jensen, and Olivia Mayer. Hanna said that she was glad she had made cinnamon rolls the previous May, because that was how she learned that I only ate seasonal desserts. Kristen pointed out that I could have Halloween treats, and I mentioned that I could have anything I wanted that week, since it was my birthday. I mentioned that I had gone to the French bakery, and Olivia was excited to learn there was a French bakery in Orem. The girls were excited it was my birthday, so they made birthday cards for me. Hanna's said she wished Jan Terri were here to wish me happy birthday. There was a running joke that Hanna and I should get married (simply for the fact that we both go by our middle names), so Kristen wrote about all the kids Hanna and I would have. Then we discussed getting some kind of dessert for me. We left, and as we were leaving, Kristen and Hanna called Alex "Alejandro" and began singing, "Ale, Alejandro." Alex said he loved Lady Gaga. We went to South End Market, but they were closed. Then Carissa (who had come over at some point) drove us to Smith's. I think it turned to midnight, so they talked about it being my birthday. Alex started singing the "Happy Happy Birthday" song from The Emperor's New Groove, and Carissa said, "Heh heh, it's your birthday?" like Kronk says. I went through the ice cream aisle and found some birthday cake "ice cream," which Hanna bought (I later learned it was a "frozen dairy dessert," not ice cream). Carissa found some clearance flower-shaped cookies, which weren't that great. Kristen bought me a sticker from a little vending machine; it was that Domo character. Then we parked across from the duck pond and went and ate by the stream on campus. At one point, for some reason Alex was singing the "Monster Mash," so I sang the relevant lyrics from "Get Down Goblin." Then we all went home and I went to bed.
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"Today was a mediocre day. We did have some good QGIs. We talked with a friendly Pentecostal woman named Alma. She married a minister, but we might be able to talk to them sometime.
"I can't believe I'm ten today [in mission years; I was out ten months] and twenty tomorrow!"
2005. I know that we juniors had to go to school early for testing, but I don't remember what else happened.
1999. My mom gave me one early present after school; it was the Moy Mushroom from the Vegetable Friends collection. (I had the spinoff collection, the Veggie Friend Seedies, but not the Vegetable Friends.) I was excited to take my new toy to my Webelos meeting. Chantelle Christensen later called my mom and asked where she got it to see if she could get me something like that for my birthday, but my mom had already ordered the rest of them for me (I got them the next day).
1997. I asked if I could have my birthday presents that night, since it was right before my birthday. My dad said, "Should we break tradition?" My mom pointed out that we had always gotten our presents the night before our birthday. I think this was the time they brought out my Magnadoodle keychain, and I told them that I had sneaked and already seen it. I thought it was funny, but they were shocked that I did such a thing, and said that no one else in the family had ever done that. I got a turkey magnet that gobbled.
1996. I got my various presents: a purple Koosh ball witch keychain, the Warioland GameBoy game, and The Sound of Music on VHS. My mom told me she wanted me to start singing the songs from the movie again. David started playing my game. We went downstairs to watch the movie, and David told me that he had gotten to Lake Asparagus in my game (I was enthralled by the map in the instruction manual).
1994. I got my presents, but the only one I remember is the VHS of The Nightmare Before Christmas. I was surprised I got it. I remembered seeing the trailers on TV the previous year, but I figured it was too violent for my parents to let me see it, and here they got it for me. We went downstairs and watched it. That may have been the most influential birthday present I ever got.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Bats
This week I was at the devotional in the Marriott Center, and there were two bats flying around the entire auditorium. They would fly near the rafters, fly above various levels of the audience, and sometimes even fly near the stand where the speakers and all the officials sit. I was surprised that no one speaking said anything about them, because we could all see them. People were pointing at them; even someone sitting on the stand pointed at them. I found it hilarious.
It got me thinking about the other times in my life when I have seen bats in the wild (by "in the wild," I mean "not at a zoo.")
The earliest I can remember is at "The Pond," where my great-grandma used to live in upstate New York, in 2001. It was evening, and there were some bats flying in the sky.
The next time was in November 2002 in Taiwan. I think it was our last night there. We were in a park and there were bats flying above us during the evening. On that same trip my dad bought a bat figurine, since bats are considered good luck. I thought it was fitting, therefore, to see bats on that trip.
The next time I can remember didn't happen clear until September 2006. I was standing near the back door of Woods Cross High School, waiting for my carpool buddy, David Christensen. I was standing there when I saw something flying down the hall. You don't usually see flying things in buildings, so I thought it was funny. I thought it was a bird, but as it got close I realized it was a bat. It was so surprising that many of us were laughing. One girl pulled out her phone to snap pictures. Someone tried to swat it. The bat seemed kind of confused. When David came, I told him about it (I can't remember if he had seen it) and I was laughing. As we walked out to my car, I kept laughing. David told me he worried I wouldn't be able to drive because I was laughing so much. I even wrote about it on my family's blog.
The next bat incident I remember was June 26, 2009 (my journal helps me remember that). My companion and I went to visit a family, the Denisons, in Lapwai, ID, every week. They were quite poor (as was everyone in Lapwai) and lived in a single-wide trailer with lots of cats. We would visit them in their bedroom. On that day, James was wearing a glove with a bat on it. It had flown into a window at his work and knocked itself out, so he picked it up and took it home. It was just sitting on his hand, barely living. Bloody things were coming out of it. He said we could touch it, so I did (it was soft), but Elder Warren didn't. Soon, however, the bat began reviving. Then it began flying around the room. It brushed against Elder Warren as it flew. Then it would occasionally stop and hang on the wall. All the cats in the house were very attentive and interested in it. Since it was flying again, James caught it and took it outside. He told us that it flew off.
Then during the summer of 2010, I had come home from running when I noticed a bat hanging above the door of another apartment in my complex. I was so surprised that I ran up to my apartment, threw open the door, grabbed my camera, and told my roommate Alex about the bat. He and the girl he was with came down with me to look. I took pictures, but apparently they're on my home computer. Alex had some popcorn in his hand, so he put it on the door ledge near the bat, as a food offering. The next afternoon it was still there; it may have been there for two or three days.
One night in the summer of 2011, I went running. I saw something flying above me, but it seemed to be flying a little erratically, and it suddenly changed direction. Although I wasn't sure, I assumed it was a bat, since it was late in the evening and birds don't usually fly like that.
Then last summer, I had opened the door of my apartment to go do some knee exercises on the stairs. It was probably 10 or 11 at night. I was so surprised to see a bat flying toward me (in the little hallway connecting apartments) that I jumped back into the apartment, slamming the door against the wall. The bat went on its way, but I was glad to have seen it, even if it had freaked me out.
And that brings me up to the present!
It got me thinking about the other times in my life when I have seen bats in the wild (by "in the wild," I mean "not at a zoo.")
The earliest I can remember is at "The Pond," where my great-grandma used to live in upstate New York, in 2001. It was evening, and there were some bats flying in the sky.
The next time was in November 2002 in Taiwan. I think it was our last night there. We were in a park and there were bats flying above us during the evening. On that same trip my dad bought a bat figurine, since bats are considered good luck. I thought it was fitting, therefore, to see bats on that trip.
The next time I can remember didn't happen clear until September 2006. I was standing near the back door of Woods Cross High School, waiting for my carpool buddy, David Christensen. I was standing there when I saw something flying down the hall. You don't usually see flying things in buildings, so I thought it was funny. I thought it was a bird, but as it got close I realized it was a bat. It was so surprising that many of us were laughing. One girl pulled out her phone to snap pictures. Someone tried to swat it. The bat seemed kind of confused. When David came, I told him about it (I can't remember if he had seen it) and I was laughing. As we walked out to my car, I kept laughing. David told me he worried I wouldn't be able to drive because I was laughing so much. I even wrote about it on my family's blog.
The next bat incident I remember was June 26, 2009 (my journal helps me remember that). My companion and I went to visit a family, the Denisons, in Lapwai, ID, every week. They were quite poor (as was everyone in Lapwai) and lived in a single-wide trailer with lots of cats. We would visit them in their bedroom. On that day, James was wearing a glove with a bat on it. It had flown into a window at his work and knocked itself out, so he picked it up and took it home. It was just sitting on his hand, barely living. Bloody things were coming out of it. He said we could touch it, so I did (it was soft), but Elder Warren didn't. Soon, however, the bat began reviving. Then it began flying around the room. It brushed against Elder Warren as it flew. Then it would occasionally stop and hang on the wall. All the cats in the house were very attentive and interested in it. Since it was flying again, James caught it and took it outside. He told us that it flew off.
Then during the summer of 2010, I had come home from running when I noticed a bat hanging above the door of another apartment in my complex. I was so surprised that I ran up to my apartment, threw open the door, grabbed my camera, and told my roommate Alex about the bat. He and the girl he was with came down with me to look. I took pictures, but apparently they're on my home computer. Alex had some popcorn in his hand, so he put it on the door ledge near the bat, as a food offering. The next afternoon it was still there; it may have been there for two or three days.
One night in the summer of 2011, I went running. I saw something flying above me, but it seemed to be flying a little erratically, and it suddenly changed direction. Although I wasn't sure, I assumed it was a bat, since it was late in the evening and birds don't usually fly like that.
Then last summer, I had opened the door of my apartment to go do some knee exercises on the stairs. It was probably 10 or 11 at night. I was so surprised to see a bat flying toward me (in the little hallway connecting apartments) that I jumped back into the apartment, slamming the door against the wall. The bat went on its way, but I was glad to have seen it, even if it had freaked me out.
And that brings me up to the present!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Southern Utah, 2002
Since I just visited Bryce Canyon this week, I thought I would blog about the vacation the last time I went there.
If I recall correctly, it was June of 2002, a month or so before I got my tonsils taken out.
We set up our tent trailer at Ruby's Inn Campground and hooked it up to the electrical outlets. I can't remember if we took a TV or if I just thought about how we could have had a TV. I do think we had a TV, but we couldn't get any channels on it.
We had bathrooms with plumbing and lights. I remember one time when I was washing my hands. I had wet my hands with water and left the water running while I rubbed soap on my hands. This guy told me that I shouldn't waste water because we were in a drought. I just ignored him. One morning, there was a middle-aged mustachioed man wearing a shirt and a Speedo walking into the bathroom.
I was an awkward thirteen-year-old and liked show tunes. I remember once singing "Shipoopi" from The Music Man outside our trailer; my mom and sister said they didn't like that song.
There was a little store near our campground. My parents wanted to ride a little train-like shuttle to get to it, but Susanne and I just walked over there, thinking the shuttle was dumb. But we rode the shuttle back to our campsite. At some point in that gift shop, we bought a night light made with a polished rock.
We were able to take showers at our campsite. I remember one night my dad and I were walking to the showers. I overheard some teenagers yelling some very profane words, and I said, "Watch your phraseology"--a quote from The Music Man.
One day, my dad and I (and I think Susanne) hiked from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point in Bryce. It was very hot and steep coming out of the canyon. Our hike led us to sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof.
We spent a day in Zion. We visited the Weeping Rock. My dad and sister and I started on a hike near the Narrows (not planning to go in them, of course), but I got really hot, so we stopped. (In addition to being awkward and liking show tunes, I was also quite chubby.) We bought a Narrows magnet in a gift shop, and I think we also bought Zion playing cards.
When we were driving home after the trip, I was sleeping in the car. I was snoring, and once I snored so loud I woke myself up. Susanne thought that was really funny.
My more recent trip was more interesting than this one was. And my more recent trip was surely more interesting to read about.
If I recall correctly, it was June of 2002, a month or so before I got my tonsils taken out.
We set up our tent trailer at Ruby's Inn Campground and hooked it up to the electrical outlets. I can't remember if we took a TV or if I just thought about how we could have had a TV. I do think we had a TV, but we couldn't get any channels on it.
We had bathrooms with plumbing and lights. I remember one time when I was washing my hands. I had wet my hands with water and left the water running while I rubbed soap on my hands. This guy told me that I shouldn't waste water because we were in a drought. I just ignored him. One morning, there was a middle-aged mustachioed man wearing a shirt and a Speedo walking into the bathroom.
I was an awkward thirteen-year-old and liked show tunes. I remember once singing "Shipoopi" from The Music Man outside our trailer; my mom and sister said they didn't like that song.
There was a little store near our campground. My parents wanted to ride a little train-like shuttle to get to it, but Susanne and I just walked over there, thinking the shuttle was dumb. But we rode the shuttle back to our campsite. At some point in that gift shop, we bought a night light made with a polished rock.
We were able to take showers at our campsite. I remember one night my dad and I were walking to the showers. I overheard some teenagers yelling some very profane words, and I said, "Watch your phraseology"--a quote from The Music Man.
One day, my dad and I (and I think Susanne) hiked from Sunrise Point to Sunset Point in Bryce. It was very hot and steep coming out of the canyon. Our hike led us to sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof.
We spent a day in Zion. We visited the Weeping Rock. My dad and sister and I started on a hike near the Narrows (not planning to go in them, of course), but I got really hot, so we stopped. (In addition to being awkward and liking show tunes, I was also quite chubby.) We bought a Narrows magnet in a gift shop, and I think we also bought Zion playing cards.
When we were driving home after the trip, I was sleeping in the car. I was snoring, and once I snored so loud I woke myself up. Susanne thought that was really funny.
My more recent trip was more interesting than this one was. And my more recent trip was surely more interesting to read about.
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