My mom and my grandpa have birthdays on Saturday this week. They might resent it if I told their age, so I won't. When I was thinking about remembering my mom's birthday, I could only specifically remember three birthdays. I'm only counting June 30 (I remember buying black decorations for my mom when she turned 40, but that was the day before), and I'm only counting years when I actually saw her. The last two years she was on vacation, and the two before that I was on my mission. In 2004, she was at Girls' Camp.
2007. I worked on this day. It was a Saturday, so I think my shift ended at 7. I wanted to get my mom a cake, but I had only a few measly dollars in my wallet, and I underestimated the price of cakes, so I couldn't get her one. But I was able to buy her some ice cream. I think it was some minty kind, but it wasn't mint chocolate chip. My mom was very glad I got it for her because I was the only one who did anything for her birthday.
2006. We (my mom, Nan, Allie, and me) went to Lagoon this day; I'm not sure why. I rode on the Spider and then on the Cliffhanger. I had worn my prescription sunglasses to the park, but I took them off for the Cliffhanger and left them with my mom because I didn't want to lose them. I wondered if I had sat unscrupulously because there were a lot of empty seats to my right but people directly next to each other on the left. I was wearing a Peanuts fireworks shirt. Then we went up further north in Davis County because my aunt Debbie had a visiting relative. We were meeting at a park. I met Jesse and Peter there and Jesse said my glasses made me like a jazz musician. Jesse and Peter found it funny that Allie said "Jesse" like "Jeshe." Nan asked me to watch Allie around Rhys. There was a playground at the park, and I went over to it with Allie. I pushed her on the swing and Rhys talked about how she was too young for more intense swinging. Jesse and Peter asked me how you would pluralize "Whopper Junior." I said "Whopper Juniors" but they told me it was "Whoppers Junior." (Today I don't think any of us actually care.) There were lots of elements to the playground, and I went on all of them. One of the playground elements was like a giant funnel thing; I think it was orange. I didn't know what to do with it, but I wanted to do everything on the playground, so I sat on it. Peter told me he beat me to doing everything on the playground, but I asked him if he had sat on the funnel. He hadn't, but he did and thought it was ridiculous. There was a second playground he went to. He told me he beat me to doing everything because I hadn't been to the other playground. I told him he won for that playground but I won for the bigger one. He reluctantly accepted, but he thought it was ridiculous I counted sitting on the funnel. We took pictures with the whole family and Debbie's visiting relative, but I purposely didn't smile in the picture because I wanted to be emo, but then I felt bad afterward because it looked bad. All throughout the day I kept telling my mom that I felt bad for her that we didn't do anything (such as black decorations) for her 50th birthday, but she kept saying it was OK. It turns out she actually wasn't OK with it. (And now I've revealed her age.)
2002. We (my mom, me, and my grandparents) were visiting my cousin Tammy and her family in Bettendorf, Iowa. It was a Sunday. At this point in time, I had a strange habit of gradually changing out of my church clothes throughout the day. One of the things I did in my gradual changing was pop my collar up. Tammy told me I looked like I was trying to be cool (like an 80s star or something). At one point I was looking out the window when Tammy and Greg were sitting in the living room talking. I wondered if they didn't want me in there. She made a Mexican chocolate cake for my mom and my grandpa and it might also have been a late cake for Greg. Her son, Adam, was three, and asked her about why we were having chocolate if it isn't good for you, and she told him it's OK sometimes.
I'm sorry this was a lackluster memory post. :(
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Independence Eve
The Fourth of July is in less than two weeks. A lot of Independence Day activities actually occur on July 3--so I'm going to remember as many details as I can about the night before Independence Day.
2011. I drove down from North Salt Lake in the morning before church. I wore my flag tie to church. There was another person there who was wearing a patriotic tie that said "USA," which he had gotten on his mission somewhere in Latin America. I remember people asking him about it and he talked about how he only wears it once a year and how a woman had made it for him. I sat by myself during Sunday School. I made it home just as Michael Barlow was. I think I had mentioned to him how my air conditioning was out. He offered to give me the key to his apartment so I could go there in the AC. I was reluctant, but he later knocked on my door and gave me the key, since he was leaving for a time. So I took my laptop downstairs to his apartment and wrote a blog post. I was able to use my own router. Later that night I went to see if there was ward prayer. There were a few girls who went over as well, but there wasn't ward prayer, so we talked some about how we were going to run the Freedom Run the next morning. A girl who lived in Regency 109 had her mom and brother visiting, and her mom was saying--I can't remember if it was from the balcony or on the ground--that they would be watching all the runners in the morning. I went back to my apartment and made sure my timing chip was fastened to my shoes for the race the next morning. My air conditioner didn't blow cold air, but it did blow some air, so I thought maybe that there was just a little bit of coldness to it, so I decided to sleep on the floor in the hall next to the vent. There wasn't any coldness to that air, so it was a very long night.
2010. I got up early and went over to Lori McKee's apartment because we were going to go see the hot air balloons in our pajamas. When I went over there, she was just coming out, so we talked outside her apartment while we waited for others to show up. Lori said she liked my pajamas; I was wearing my Barney Fife pajamas. Other people showed up, and I felt embarrassed because I was the only guy wearing pajamas like that. I rode in Ross Adamson's car, I think with Preston Wittwer and Brock Dehlin. We went to Provo High School, where they were blowing up the balloons, including a giant Coke bottle-shaped one. On several occasions they were getting ready to release them, but it was too windy. We eventually got sick of nothing happening, so we left. On the way back Ross was talking about going on a field trip in his geology class; I asked him what geology class he was in, since I was in 100 (Dinosaurs!). He was in 101. Then I went back to bed. I changed into my red Snoopy and Woodstock Uncle Sam t-shirt. I was doing my grocery shopping when my roommate Alex texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to the temple with him. I told him I was going to do my shopping but then I'd be interested. The Provo Temple was closed, so we drove up to American Fork. We just took State Street all the way up. When we got to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, the parking lot was empty. We got out and asked a grounds worker if the temple was closed; it was. Alex wanted to see if the Draper Temple would be open, but I suggested that he look at the temple schedule on his phone before we went there (since I don't get the internet on my phone). He looked, and indeed all temples were closed. On our way back, Alex asked me if it was all right if he stopped at Canyon Terrace apartments, where he would be living in the fall. I said yes, and I told him that the parking lot reminded me of an apartment complex on my mission, where we taught an investigator named Teddie Hunter. Then I went to campus to start doing research for the paper I had to write for my Dinosaurs! class. I was on the bottom level doing research on Dinosaur National Monument when I heard an announcement. I was surprised the library was closing early that night, but it made sense. Someone in the ward had talked about going to downtown Provo and then watching the fireworks. I can't remember her name, but I remember that she was really short. I went to her apartment and I was the first one there. She complimented me on my shirt. I was texting my roommate Jeff Anderson about what was going on; he was wanting to meet us that night. More people came, including Marinda Quist, the Relief Society president (whom the hosting girl made look at my shirt), and Jacob Anderson, who was just 18. We went down to the underground parking lot and got into the hosting girl's van. I got into the back and Marinda sat next to me, but then it was discovered that not many people were riding with us, so Marinda scooted away from me, since we didn't need to conserve space. I wasn't offended. Jacob had taken shotgun, which I viewed as a bit unscrupulous. Then we drove and parked and walked to Center Street. We walked past a house with a Christus statue in the front yard. We saw a bunch of stuff at the downtown festival. There were some balloons that were caught in trees. Jacob bought a Sno-Cone, but you had to put the flavors on yourself, and he didn't realize that, so he wondered what he was going to do with plain ice, but the others pointed out where he would get the flavors. There was a booth of Disney princesses. There were many booths of art. There was a tie booth, where Jacob was very excited at the tie he got, but I found it rather bland. Eventually we walked back to our cars and tried to figure out where we wanted to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We drove up 900 East and there were missionaries standing at a crosswalk. We eventually settled on parking at our apartments and walking up to the Heritage Fields. I texted Jeff Anderson about what we were doing, but I think he eventually settled on going to Rock Canyon with some other people. I remember watching a woman wave an orange pedestrian flag emphatically at a car that didn't yield to pedestrians. We sat on the grass and talked. People offered candy, including gummy frogs, but I didn't want any because I was fasting and because they were out of season anyway. Marinda asked Ryan Taylor where Jacob was (since they were roommates), and Ryan said that he thought Jacob realized he didn't fit in with the older kids. Marinda said, "I don't mind," and Ryan said, "Nobody minds," but Jacob truly was different from the rest of us. I think there was talk about the helicopter taking Carrie Underwood away. After the fireworks, we walked back and I was talking to Marinda, how Jeff Anderson ended up going elsewhere and Jeff Clegg was in Salt Lake, which she already knew. We talked about being editing minors. I expressed my frustration that English majors don't tend to care about spelling and grammar, and she was mildly offended (since she was an English major), but I didn't intend the offense to her, since she was an editing minor. I told her about how my New Testament professor was an English major, yet she spelled "Pilate" as "Pilot" on an exam. We cut through a parking lot to get back to our apartments, which I was a bit uncomfortable with.
2009. We had district meeting in the morning. Elder Warren gave a training about how saying "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" sets you up for failure. I think I was carrying a red, white, and blue-striped pen in my pocket that day. After eating lunch at Jeffrey's, I went with Elder Keddington up to Pullman. All the college students were gone, so it was hard to find people out. We saw a man sitting in the middle of a field, so we parked at the park's parking lot and went up and talked to him. He was foreign, Christian, and nice. While we were talking to him, some people driving down the road were yelling at us. I think we had an appointment with a middle-aged student, but that might have been a different occasion. Later we went to an apartment complex to go tracting. There were only two cars in the parking lot. It was a massive complex, and the apartments went significantly underground, so much that it really cooled down as we went down the stairs (it was a hot July day). One balcony had an inappropriate inflatable doll. We tracted the entire complex, and not one person responded. Then we went to a row of frat houses. Elder Keddington said they weren't allowed to knock on frat houses, but there was one that he didn't know if it was a fraternity, so we knocked it. A girl answered the door and she recognized us as elders. She was a member but had drifted away; she was living there with her boyfriend (it was a music fraternity) but she wasn't supposed to be (either morally or contractually). She said she still had a quad of scriptures, but she seemed hesitant to get it out. We had a lesson with two Christian black men. Then we went tracting to non-college students. There was an old lady and and old man. Then we met a very friendly Druid--he wasn't interested, but he was very nice. I can't remember if he gave us water and apples or if he only offered them. Then we went and talked to a man who was helping his son move in. Elder Keddington said "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" and later said that that was a terrible thing to say, but I said I thought the circumstance made it more appropriate than usual.
2008. I was on exchange with Elder Brimhall; we were exchanging back at our interviews with the mission president. We had our district meeting in the Relief Society room, which was unusual; I think it was because the Spanish district was in the High Council room. President Clark was interviewing Elder Bramall when we were giving accountings, so I had to give my accounting alone. I talked about how we had taught a lesson to a Vickie Bennett, a Baptist who had said she would come to church but didn't, so I had called her and she said she didn't come because she learned we were Mormons, and I explained to her that we really were Christians. In my interview, President asked me if I was ready to take over the area; I said I wasn't, but I actually was more ready than I let on; I wanted to seem humble. President said that Elder Bramall had told him about the conversation I had had with Vickie. At some point that day President told me that the Coulters from my previous area had moved into the Franklin Park Ward, so he was hoping those missionaries could baptize them. (I've since Facebook stalked them; they never did get baptized...sigh.) That night Elder Bramall and I played checkers after we did our planning. I lost the game, and then after that, while Elder Bramall was on the other side of the wall (he was in the bedroom and I was in the study area), I sang my own version to "Failure Face" from A Boy Named Charlie Brown:
"I never do anything right, I never put anything in its place.
It's a wonder nobody calls me
Failure Face.
I'm so impossibly dumb; in history books my name they'll erase,
Or else they're bound to call me
Failure Face.
And in the race to be stupid, I've set a brand new kind of pace.
They ought to christen me Elder
Failure Face."
There was an awkward silence from the other side of the wall.
2007. I had to work, and my family had gone down to Delta. I think I bought some patriotic cupcakes after my shift and then drove to my grandparents', where I was spending the night. I didn't get there until after midnight.
2006. Nine of us went down to Fillmore: my parents; my sister and Allie; David, Ya-ping, and Preston; Shu-hua, Ya-ping's sister; and me. We visited with Grandma Judy. There was a Twilight Zone marathon going on. We watched the episode about the beautiful girl who was ugly in her society (Grandma Judy thought the ugly people were fish people and thought they were villains), and Ya-ping realized it was like the episode of The Munsters called "Another Pretty Face." We watched the "To Serve Man" episode and the Christmas episode about five characters. Then we went to Fillmore's single-theater movie theater; some of us walked and some of us drove. We saw Cars. Allie (who was almost 3) fell asleep during the movie, but Preston (one and a half) stayed awake, and when the movie was over, David told us that Preston had said, "Car?" because he didn't know where all the cars went. Nan laughed really hard at the end with the cars watching all the Pixar movies; other family members liked the hippie van. When we returned to Grandma Judy's, my mom said she was disappointed in the swearing, and I was too. Nan put Allie on a seat, and Preston was quite amused that she was asleep; we worried he would wake her up.
I wanted to take a shower (in part because it was very hot in the house), but my dad didn't want me to because he worried it would wake up his mother.
2005. My parents, Nan and Allie, and I went down to Fillmore. Allie was wearing an orange bucket hat with a flower. Grandma Judy wore it for a time. A sprinkler was on, and Allie was trying to catch the water in her hat. My dad took Nan and me on a ride in the red Jeep. We rode out in the desert--I think near a dump--and I remember thinking it would be a good place to film a movie. At one point we passed a really bad smell, like something had died.
2004. I remember going to Target, where we bought a big container of red, white, and blue Goldfish crackers. Then we went up to watch the fireworks. The Moosmans were projecting Spongebob onto a screen. A kid was lighting bottle rockets. I remember having a conversation with Peter and Jesse about narwhals, that they're like aquatic unicorns. After the fireworks we walked home; I think Jesse and Peter got lost. When they arrived, I remember talking to them about Mister Ed and The Flying Nun. We didn't want our cat, Jenny, to go outside, so Wayne made a mean sound at her when she tried to go out. We thought that was cruel (since she was already spooked), but he said that it worked to keep her inside. (It's possible this happened in 2003 with our cat Dinah.)
2003. [I think on this year, Sue brought her friend Susan and her two boys, Nathan and Brian, to see the fireworks. Quin or someone had brought an orange plastic Slinky. I remember jumping on the tramp and talking about the dream I had had about going on a family vacation to the moon. Nathan said, referring to being on the moon, "Could you pass the floating butter?" I talked about playing soccer on the moon, how you would run and you could become airborne. I suppose it's possible this happened in 2002.] Ya-ping didn't care to come with us to see the fireworks, but some of her Taiwanese friends came with us, and we were surprised by all the "oohs and ahhs" they emitted, since they were from Taiwan.
2002. I probably did my typical rolling down and up the hill. I don't remember specifics.
2001. We were in New York, but I don't remember what happened.
2000. I remember going to the Golden Dragon firework stand by Winegar's and I didn't know what fireworks to get; I was relying on David. David told me I should pick some because he didn't have many Fourth of Julys still at home; I said that this was his last one because he was going on his mission. I'm thinking this was the year that the Thompsons and I were saying, "Ooh, ahh," at the fireworks, and Sue was quite annoyed. I think we also recited the Lucky Charms theme: "Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers and blue moons, pots of gold and rainbows, and the red balloons," since the fireworks included stars, hearts, and hamburgers (which were probably actually planets). I think this was a year when Peter and Quin were playing with the glow necklaces like they were lightsabers.
1999-1998. I get the years mixed up. I know one year we bought glow necklaces and I was throwing them like a frisbee.
1997. This was the first year (I think) North Salt Lake put on their fireworks. We went and looked at the booths beforehand.
I have some other random memories of fireworks, but I can't assign them to a year, such as seeing policemen on bikes, thinking people's illegal Wyoming fireworks were the start of the real fireworks program, eating Twizzlers, David running into his friend Nathan Bean, and driving our white station wagon to park nearer to the event.
If you're interested in seeing my Fourth of July memories, see these posts on my main blog:
A year of holiday memories
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
2011. I drove down from North Salt Lake in the morning before church. I wore my flag tie to church. There was another person there who was wearing a patriotic tie that said "USA," which he had gotten on his mission somewhere in Latin America. I remember people asking him about it and he talked about how he only wears it once a year and how a woman had made it for him. I sat by myself during Sunday School. I made it home just as Michael Barlow was. I think I had mentioned to him how my air conditioning was out. He offered to give me the key to his apartment so I could go there in the AC. I was reluctant, but he later knocked on my door and gave me the key, since he was leaving for a time. So I took my laptop downstairs to his apartment and wrote a blog post. I was able to use my own router. Later that night I went to see if there was ward prayer. There were a few girls who went over as well, but there wasn't ward prayer, so we talked some about how we were going to run the Freedom Run the next morning. A girl who lived in Regency 109 had her mom and brother visiting, and her mom was saying--I can't remember if it was from the balcony or on the ground--that they would be watching all the runners in the morning. I went back to my apartment and made sure my timing chip was fastened to my shoes for the race the next morning. My air conditioner didn't blow cold air, but it did blow some air, so I thought maybe that there was just a little bit of coldness to it, so I decided to sleep on the floor in the hall next to the vent. There wasn't any coldness to that air, so it was a very long night.
2010. I got up early and went over to Lori McKee's apartment because we were going to go see the hot air balloons in our pajamas. When I went over there, she was just coming out, so we talked outside her apartment while we waited for others to show up. Lori said she liked my pajamas; I was wearing my Barney Fife pajamas. Other people showed up, and I felt embarrassed because I was the only guy wearing pajamas like that. I rode in Ross Adamson's car, I think with Preston Wittwer and Brock Dehlin. We went to Provo High School, where they were blowing up the balloons, including a giant Coke bottle-shaped one. On several occasions they were getting ready to release them, but it was too windy. We eventually got sick of nothing happening, so we left. On the way back Ross was talking about going on a field trip in his geology class; I asked him what geology class he was in, since I was in 100 (Dinosaurs!). He was in 101. Then I went back to bed. I changed into my red Snoopy and Woodstock Uncle Sam t-shirt. I was doing my grocery shopping when my roommate Alex texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to the temple with him. I told him I was going to do my shopping but then I'd be interested. The Provo Temple was closed, so we drove up to American Fork. We just took State Street all the way up. When we got to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple, the parking lot was empty. We got out and asked a grounds worker if the temple was closed; it was. Alex wanted to see if the Draper Temple would be open, but I suggested that he look at the temple schedule on his phone before we went there (since I don't get the internet on my phone). He looked, and indeed all temples were closed. On our way back, Alex asked me if it was all right if he stopped at Canyon Terrace apartments, where he would be living in the fall. I said yes, and I told him that the parking lot reminded me of an apartment complex on my mission, where we taught an investigator named Teddie Hunter. Then I went to campus to start doing research for the paper I had to write for my Dinosaurs! class. I was on the bottom level doing research on Dinosaur National Monument when I heard an announcement. I was surprised the library was closing early that night, but it made sense. Someone in the ward had talked about going to downtown Provo and then watching the fireworks. I can't remember her name, but I remember that she was really short. I went to her apartment and I was the first one there. She complimented me on my shirt. I was texting my roommate Jeff Anderson about what was going on; he was wanting to meet us that night. More people came, including Marinda Quist, the Relief Society president (whom the hosting girl made look at my shirt), and Jacob Anderson, who was just 18. We went down to the underground parking lot and got into the hosting girl's van. I got into the back and Marinda sat next to me, but then it was discovered that not many people were riding with us, so Marinda scooted away from me, since we didn't need to conserve space. I wasn't offended. Jacob had taken shotgun, which I viewed as a bit unscrupulous. Then we drove and parked and walked to Center Street. We walked past a house with a Christus statue in the front yard. We saw a bunch of stuff at the downtown festival. There were some balloons that were caught in trees. Jacob bought a Sno-Cone, but you had to put the flavors on yourself, and he didn't realize that, so he wondered what he was going to do with plain ice, but the others pointed out where he would get the flavors. There was a booth of Disney princesses. There were many booths of art. There was a tie booth, where Jacob was very excited at the tie he got, but I found it rather bland. Eventually we walked back to our cars and tried to figure out where we wanted to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We drove up 900 East and there were missionaries standing at a crosswalk. We eventually settled on parking at our apartments and walking up to the Heritage Fields. I texted Jeff Anderson about what we were doing, but I think he eventually settled on going to Rock Canyon with some other people. I remember watching a woman wave an orange pedestrian flag emphatically at a car that didn't yield to pedestrians. We sat on the grass and talked. People offered candy, including gummy frogs, but I didn't want any because I was fasting and because they were out of season anyway. Marinda asked Ryan Taylor where Jacob was (since they were roommates), and Ryan said that he thought Jacob realized he didn't fit in with the older kids. Marinda said, "I don't mind," and Ryan said, "Nobody minds," but Jacob truly was different from the rest of us. I think there was talk about the helicopter taking Carrie Underwood away. After the fireworks, we walked back and I was talking to Marinda, how Jeff Anderson ended up going elsewhere and Jeff Clegg was in Salt Lake, which she already knew. We talked about being editing minors. I expressed my frustration that English majors don't tend to care about spelling and grammar, and she was mildly offended (since she was an English major), but I didn't intend the offense to her, since she was an editing minor. I told her about how my New Testament professor was an English major, yet she spelled "Pilate" as "Pilot" on an exam. We cut through a parking lot to get back to our apartments, which I was a bit uncomfortable with.
2009. We had district meeting in the morning. Elder Warren gave a training about how saying "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" sets you up for failure. I think I was carrying a red, white, and blue-striped pen in my pocket that day. After eating lunch at Jeffrey's, I went with Elder Keddington up to Pullman. All the college students were gone, so it was hard to find people out. We saw a man sitting in the middle of a field, so we parked at the park's parking lot and went up and talked to him. He was foreign, Christian, and nice. While we were talking to him, some people driving down the road were yelling at us. I think we had an appointment with a middle-aged student, but that might have been a different occasion. Later we went to an apartment complex to go tracting. There were only two cars in the parking lot. It was a massive complex, and the apartments went significantly underground, so much that it really cooled down as we went down the stairs (it was a hot July day). One balcony had an inappropriate inflatable doll. We tracted the entire complex, and not one person responded. Then we went to a row of frat houses. Elder Keddington said they weren't allowed to knock on frat houses, but there was one that he didn't know if it was a fraternity, so we knocked it. A girl answered the door and she recognized us as elders. She was a member but had drifted away; she was living there with her boyfriend (it was a music fraternity) but she wasn't supposed to be (either morally or contractually). She said she still had a quad of scriptures, but she seemed hesitant to get it out. We had a lesson with two Christian black men. Then we went tracting to non-college students. There was an old lady and and old man. Then we met a very friendly Druid--he wasn't interested, but he was very nice. I can't remember if he gave us water and apples or if he only offered them. Then we went and talked to a man who was helping his son move in. Elder Keddington said "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" and later said that that was a terrible thing to say, but I said I thought the circumstance made it more appropriate than usual.
2008. I was on exchange with Elder Brimhall; we were exchanging back at our interviews with the mission president. We had our district meeting in the Relief Society room, which was unusual; I think it was because the Spanish district was in the High Council room. President Clark was interviewing Elder Bramall when we were giving accountings, so I had to give my accounting alone. I talked about how we had taught a lesson to a Vickie Bennett, a Baptist who had said she would come to church but didn't, so I had called her and she said she didn't come because she learned we were Mormons, and I explained to her that we really were Christians. In my interview, President asked me if I was ready to take over the area; I said I wasn't, but I actually was more ready than I let on; I wanted to seem humble. President said that Elder Bramall had told him about the conversation I had had with Vickie. At some point that day President told me that the Coulters from my previous area had moved into the Franklin Park Ward, so he was hoping those missionaries could baptize them. (I've since Facebook stalked them; they never did get baptized...sigh.) That night Elder Bramall and I played checkers after we did our planning. I lost the game, and then after that, while Elder Bramall was on the other side of the wall (he was in the bedroom and I was in the study area), I sang my own version to "Failure Face" from A Boy Named Charlie Brown:
"I never do anything right, I never put anything in its place.
It's a wonder nobody calls me
Failure Face.
I'm so impossibly dumb; in history books my name they'll erase,
Or else they're bound to call me
Failure Face.
And in the race to be stupid, I've set a brand new kind of pace.
They ought to christen me Elder
Failure Face."
There was an awkward silence from the other side of the wall.
2007. I had to work, and my family had gone down to Delta. I think I bought some patriotic cupcakes after my shift and then drove to my grandparents', where I was spending the night. I didn't get there until after midnight.
2006. Nine of us went down to Fillmore: my parents; my sister and Allie; David, Ya-ping, and Preston; Shu-hua, Ya-ping's sister; and me. We visited with Grandma Judy. There was a Twilight Zone marathon going on. We watched the episode about the beautiful girl who was ugly in her society (Grandma Judy thought the ugly people were fish people and thought they were villains), and Ya-ping realized it was like the episode of The Munsters called "Another Pretty Face." We watched the "To Serve Man" episode and the Christmas episode about five characters. Then we went to Fillmore's single-theater movie theater; some of us walked and some of us drove. We saw Cars. Allie (who was almost 3) fell asleep during the movie, but Preston (one and a half) stayed awake, and when the movie was over, David told us that Preston had said, "Car?" because he didn't know where all the cars went. Nan laughed really hard at the end with the cars watching all the Pixar movies; other family members liked the hippie van. When we returned to Grandma Judy's, my mom said she was disappointed in the swearing, and I was too. Nan put Allie on a seat, and Preston was quite amused that she was asleep; we worried he would wake her up.
I wanted to take a shower (in part because it was very hot in the house), but my dad didn't want me to because he worried it would wake up his mother.
2005. My parents, Nan and Allie, and I went down to Fillmore. Allie was wearing an orange bucket hat with a flower. Grandma Judy wore it for a time. A sprinkler was on, and Allie was trying to catch the water in her hat. My dad took Nan and me on a ride in the red Jeep. We rode out in the desert--I think near a dump--and I remember thinking it would be a good place to film a movie. At one point we passed a really bad smell, like something had died.
2004. I remember going to Target, where we bought a big container of red, white, and blue Goldfish crackers. Then we went up to watch the fireworks. The Moosmans were projecting Spongebob onto a screen. A kid was lighting bottle rockets. I remember having a conversation with Peter and Jesse about narwhals, that they're like aquatic unicorns. After the fireworks we walked home; I think Jesse and Peter got lost. When they arrived, I remember talking to them about Mister Ed and The Flying Nun. We didn't want our cat, Jenny, to go outside, so Wayne made a mean sound at her when she tried to go out. We thought that was cruel (since she was already spooked), but he said that it worked to keep her inside. (It's possible this happened in 2003 with our cat Dinah.)
2003. [I think on this year, Sue brought her friend Susan and her two boys, Nathan and Brian, to see the fireworks. Quin or someone had brought an orange plastic Slinky. I remember jumping on the tramp and talking about the dream I had had about going on a family vacation to the moon. Nathan said, referring to being on the moon, "Could you pass the floating butter?" I talked about playing soccer on the moon, how you would run and you could become airborne. I suppose it's possible this happened in 2002.] Ya-ping didn't care to come with us to see the fireworks, but some of her Taiwanese friends came with us, and we were surprised by all the "oohs and ahhs" they emitted, since they were from Taiwan.
2002. I probably did my typical rolling down and up the hill. I don't remember specifics.
2001. We were in New York, but I don't remember what happened.
2000. I remember going to the Golden Dragon firework stand by Winegar's and I didn't know what fireworks to get; I was relying on David. David told me I should pick some because he didn't have many Fourth of Julys still at home; I said that this was his last one because he was going on his mission. I'm thinking this was the year that the Thompsons and I were saying, "Ooh, ahh," at the fireworks, and Sue was quite annoyed. I think we also recited the Lucky Charms theme: "Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers and blue moons, pots of gold and rainbows, and the red balloons," since the fireworks included stars, hearts, and hamburgers (which were probably actually planets). I think this was a year when Peter and Quin were playing with the glow necklaces like they were lightsabers.
1999-1998. I get the years mixed up. I know one year we bought glow necklaces and I was throwing them like a frisbee.
1997. This was the first year (I think) North Salt Lake put on their fireworks. We went and looked at the booths beforehand.
I have some other random memories of fireworks, but I can't assign them to a year, such as seeing policemen on bikes, thinking people's illegal Wyoming fireworks were the start of the real fireworks program, eating Twizzlers, David running into his friend Nathan Bean, and driving our white station wagon to park nearer to the event.
If you're interested in seeing my Fourth of July memories, see these posts on my main blog:
A year of holiday memories
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Father's Day
With Father's Day being this weekend, I am going to try to remember as many details as possible about the Father's Days of my life. (I don't care if the apostrophe is in the right place.) But Father's Day isn't one of my designated eight holidays, which means there's less I remember about it than regular holidays.
2011. I think this was the time we were sitting on the left side of the chapel, which was unusual. There was a new family in front of us. During the sacrament, my niece Allie (not quite eight) was whispering, but she was whispering quite animatedly and loudly. I motioned for her to be quiet. That did not sit well with her, so she started making faces at me. Her first was an imitation of her mom's reproving face, having a serious expression and tilting her head down. Then she started scowling. My mom just silently laughed. I'm sure one of the hymns we sang was "O My Father"--not because I remember it specifically, but because my ward is predictable like that (as are wards in general). I think we had Sunday school, but the block was cut short because there had been record-breaking rain during church and someone's driveway was flooded. Allie was a bit panicky, and when we went home my mom had to explain that the flooding wasn't going to hit our house, and that if it did, it would just be a lot of mud. I changed into some ugly jeans, a big BYU shirt, and some shoes I had bought for running but didn't like running in. It seems like my dad and I were going to drive down, but Marialana Way was blocked off, so we had to walk anyway. My dad left the shovel in the trunk. I know we saw Mike Taylor at one point. Then we went to the house, which was on Lacey Way. They had sandbags set up so that the mud wouldn't go to another house. There was a lot of mud. There was a boat trailer, and the mud was up several inches on the tire. There were lots of people helping. I think we were shoveling mud from the driveway into wheelbarrows. I was standing around doing nothing, and our neighbor, Jeff Pay, lent me a shovel. Eventually my dad decided there wasn't much we could do, so we left by climbing up through the gully where the mud came down. We looked at the sidewalk on Marialana where dirt had been washed away from underneath the sidewalk and into the gully. A woman who was in the 9th Ward came out and remarked how it was the 11th Ward doing all the helping, even though the house was in 9th Ward boundaries (the homeowners weren't Church members). It was said that all the 9th Ward members had already gone off to Father's Day dinners. There were some emergency and city trucks, and a news reporter was also there. Then my dad and I went back home to get ready to go to my grandparents' house. I was going down to Provo after dinner, so my mom and Allie rode in one car and my dad rode with me in my car. I put in my Spirit of America MoTab CD, and before I put it in, the radio was playing "until you love me, papa, paparazzi," which I had never heard before, but I had heard of it. I had to ask my dad to help direct me to my grandparents'. After dinner, I drove down to Provo. I put my neon American flag light in the window and a patriotic garland on the living room bookshelf. I probably went to ward prayer. I filled out a new planner and wrote a blog post, A week in a paragraph, while I watched the news to see if our helping efforts made it on the news.The talked about the record-breaking rainstorm, but they said nothing of our helping.
2010. All I remember was that I was at church with my dad (since my mom was in Nashville) and they brought around chocolates to the fathers. They actually announced that they were giving them to all the men, but I am definitely not a father, and I don't like the idea of having to have the responsibilities of a man, so I didn't stand up when they were giving them out. My dad tried to get me to stand up, and when I didn't he took an extra chocolate for me, but it wasn't in season, so I refused to eat it. I think he felt bad he took one for me.
2009. It was Elder Warren's first Sunday in Lewiston. I think we sat on the left side of the chapel for the Lewiston 2nd Ward. I think they had the primary kids sing Father's Day songs before the meeting began. I thought that was an interesting approach to getting their singing in without interrupting the flow of the meeting. Then for the Lewis-Clark Singles Branch, there was a high councilor speaking. He decided to talk about the founding fathers (that was his connection to Father's Day) and had that Mormon picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (Maybe it's the Constitution.) Brock Ball was sitting in front of us and asked us what he was talking about. That night I remember that Elder Warren was talking on the phone with Elder Hinebaugh about church, how the high council speaker used a visual aid to talk about the founding fathers, and how someone in the branch asked us what was going on. Elder Warren didn't quite understand at that point that Brock Ball is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal."
2008. My journal entry for June 15, 2008, reads: "Today we only had Jess at church. He's doing great. We did half-time at a baptism and that went well. We had dinner at the house of Bishop White in East Wenatchee 2nd. It's a huge house. My bike was flat again so we walked. An ornery person drove by and honked three times. We gave away a Book of Mormon to a lady. It was a great conversation." Aided by this journal entry, this is what I remember. After church, they gave away Father's Day gifts to the men, including the young men in the ward; the gifts were large cookies and the pamphlet Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple. I think there was some discussion that we couldn't eat the cookies at church because the little Hill girl had a peanut allergy. The baptism where we performed half time (sharing the first lesson while the wet people change) was for a lady associated with the Pedersen family in the East Wenatchee 2nd Ward; I think her name was Pam, and she bore her testimony after the baptism. Elder Hansen had to help Brother Pedersen get the baptizee under the water. The reason we had dinner at Bishop White's house was because the members we were supposed to have dinner with in our ward, I think their name started with a W, were having dinner there. Elder Bramall told me that I couldn't say anything about it being Father's Day because of a family situation. One of the sons of the family drove us to the bishop's house. I think Elder Bramall told me how the rocks could play music, although that might have happened on the Fourth of July. While we were there, we shared my member visit of Book of Mormon fortifications to a huge group of people. After dinner, we were walking down 9th when a white (I think) car drove by and held down the horn. This villain turned around and did it two more times! Elder Bramall told me that he lived in the apartments where we were heading, that he was friends with the people who lived below Brian Latimer and that he had previously had a bad conversation with them. We went to the apartments on 9th and there was a lady who was trying to manually remove studs from her tires. We talked to her, and Elder Bramall mentioned that Jesus came to the American continent after his resurrection. She said, "Really?" and seemed quite surprised and intrigued. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. I think her name was Trina.
2007. Allie was a Sunbeam and she got up with all the primary kids to sing "Fathers Are So Special." It was very cute. In her primary class she made two orange Father's Day cards, one for my dad that said, "I like to watch Monster House with Pops," and one for me that said, "I like to play Mario with my Uncle Mark." We went to my grandparents' house, and after dinner, my cousins Jesse and Peter and I took Allie to the duck pond. We crossed a small bridge and Allie asked if there was an elf under it. So Jesse stood threateningly in front of us and said, "You shall not pass!" Allie shrieked excitedly and walked right around him. She made him do it over and over, each time squealing and walking right past him. At one point he pretended he didn't know what she was talking about, so she told him what to say: "You sill not pass." It took a long time to get back to my grandparents' that way. I carried her for part of the way back, and she started singing the song she had sung in sacrament meeting: "Back to my home above." It was very cute. Then she said she sang "a tale of it." I thought she was saying tail, meaning the end. But then later that night in the car she said something about how she was telling a tale, which my mom and sister found quite hilarious. Then I knew she had earlier been saying she was telling a tale of the song, not the tail. My cousin Quin for some reason wanted to spend the night at our house; my mom told him that he would be bored. In the car Allie was telling him about a girl named Chessie, but Quin thought she was talking about Jesse. I think that was the tale she was talking about.
2000. I believe that this was the first (and therefore only) time I ever sang on Father's Day in sacrament meeting (previously it had only been on Mother's Day). The Thompsons came over to our house and my then-uncle Wayne brought the duck tie he got. I remember turning on the Father's Day slide in my holiday projector.
1996. I remember that in my Primary class we were making cards with candy for our dads. We used a Tootsie Roll Pop for it to say, "Dear Pop," with the pop substituting for the word Pop. I told my teacher, Caroline Weight, that I called him Dad, but she said that for the card it would say pop. The next thing we said was, "You are a [SweeTart]." I think I hoped my dad would share the candy with me, but he didn't.
1995. I know for sure we were on vacation, and I know I gave my dad a card with teddy bears on it, and we gave him a travel jigsaw puzzle of a picture of an elk. But I remember this more from buying those things, not from giving them to him. I remember seeing the puzzle at my great-grandma's house, "the Pond," in New York, but I don't know if we gave it to him there. If we did in fact give it to him there, it would mean that we were at the Pond for a very long time, because I know we were there on the Fourth of July.
2011. I think this was the time we were sitting on the left side of the chapel, which was unusual. There was a new family in front of us. During the sacrament, my niece Allie (not quite eight) was whispering, but she was whispering quite animatedly and loudly. I motioned for her to be quiet. That did not sit well with her, so she started making faces at me. Her first was an imitation of her mom's reproving face, having a serious expression and tilting her head down. Then she started scowling. My mom just silently laughed. I'm sure one of the hymns we sang was "O My Father"--not because I remember it specifically, but because my ward is predictable like that (as are wards in general). I think we had Sunday school, but the block was cut short because there had been record-breaking rain during church and someone's driveway was flooded. Allie was a bit panicky, and when we went home my mom had to explain that the flooding wasn't going to hit our house, and that if it did, it would just be a lot of mud. I changed into some ugly jeans, a big BYU shirt, and some shoes I had bought for running but didn't like running in. It seems like my dad and I were going to drive down, but Marialana Way was blocked off, so we had to walk anyway. My dad left the shovel in the trunk. I know we saw Mike Taylor at one point. Then we went to the house, which was on Lacey Way. They had sandbags set up so that the mud wouldn't go to another house. There was a lot of mud. There was a boat trailer, and the mud was up several inches on the tire. There were lots of people helping. I think we were shoveling mud from the driveway into wheelbarrows. I was standing around doing nothing, and our neighbor, Jeff Pay, lent me a shovel. Eventually my dad decided there wasn't much we could do, so we left by climbing up through the gully where the mud came down. We looked at the sidewalk on Marialana where dirt had been washed away from underneath the sidewalk and into the gully. A woman who was in the 9th Ward came out and remarked how it was the 11th Ward doing all the helping, even though the house was in 9th Ward boundaries (the homeowners weren't Church members). It was said that all the 9th Ward members had already gone off to Father's Day dinners. There were some emergency and city trucks, and a news reporter was also there. Then my dad and I went back home to get ready to go to my grandparents' house. I was going down to Provo after dinner, so my mom and Allie rode in one car and my dad rode with me in my car. I put in my Spirit of America MoTab CD, and before I put it in, the radio was playing "until you love me, papa, paparazzi," which I had never heard before, but I had heard of it. I had to ask my dad to help direct me to my grandparents'. After dinner, I drove down to Provo. I put my neon American flag light in the window and a patriotic garland on the living room bookshelf. I probably went to ward prayer. I filled out a new planner and wrote a blog post, A week in a paragraph, while I watched the news to see if our helping efforts made it on the news.The talked about the record-breaking rainstorm, but they said nothing of our helping.
2010. All I remember was that I was at church with my dad (since my mom was in Nashville) and they brought around chocolates to the fathers. They actually announced that they were giving them to all the men, but I am definitely not a father, and I don't like the idea of having to have the responsibilities of a man, so I didn't stand up when they were giving them out. My dad tried to get me to stand up, and when I didn't he took an extra chocolate for me, but it wasn't in season, so I refused to eat it. I think he felt bad he took one for me.
2009. It was Elder Warren's first Sunday in Lewiston. I think we sat on the left side of the chapel for the Lewiston 2nd Ward. I think they had the primary kids sing Father's Day songs before the meeting began. I thought that was an interesting approach to getting their singing in without interrupting the flow of the meeting. Then for the Lewis-Clark Singles Branch, there was a high councilor speaking. He decided to talk about the founding fathers (that was his connection to Father's Day) and had that Mormon picture of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. (Maybe it's the Constitution.) Brock Ball was sitting in front of us and asked us what he was talking about. That night I remember that Elder Warren was talking on the phone with Elder Hinebaugh about church, how the high council speaker used a visual aid to talk about the founding fathers, and how someone in the branch asked us what was going on. Elder Warren didn't quite understand at that point that Brock Ball is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal."
2008. My journal entry for June 15, 2008, reads: "Today we only had Jess at church. He's doing great. We did half-time at a baptism and that went well. We had dinner at the house of Bishop White in East Wenatchee 2nd. It's a huge house. My bike was flat again so we walked. An ornery person drove by and honked three times. We gave away a Book of Mormon to a lady. It was a great conversation." Aided by this journal entry, this is what I remember. After church, they gave away Father's Day gifts to the men, including the young men in the ward; the gifts were large cookies and the pamphlet Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple. I think there was some discussion that we couldn't eat the cookies at church because the little Hill girl had a peanut allergy. The baptism where we performed half time (sharing the first lesson while the wet people change) was for a lady associated with the Pedersen family in the East Wenatchee 2nd Ward; I think her name was Pam, and she bore her testimony after the baptism. Elder Hansen had to help Brother Pedersen get the baptizee under the water. The reason we had dinner at Bishop White's house was because the members we were supposed to have dinner with in our ward, I think their name started with a W, were having dinner there. Elder Bramall told me that I couldn't say anything about it being Father's Day because of a family situation. One of the sons of the family drove us to the bishop's house. I think Elder Bramall told me how the rocks could play music, although that might have happened on the Fourth of July. While we were there, we shared my member visit of Book of Mormon fortifications to a huge group of people. After dinner, we were walking down 9th when a white (I think) car drove by and held down the horn. This villain turned around and did it two more times! Elder Bramall told me that he lived in the apartments where we were heading, that he was friends with the people who lived below Brian Latimer and that he had previously had a bad conversation with them. We went to the apartments on 9th and there was a lady who was trying to manually remove studs from her tires. We talked to her, and Elder Bramall mentioned that Jesus came to the American continent after his resurrection. She said, "Really?" and seemed quite surprised and intrigued. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. I think her name was Trina.
2007. Allie was a Sunbeam and she got up with all the primary kids to sing "Fathers Are So Special." It was very cute. In her primary class she made two orange Father's Day cards, one for my dad that said, "I like to watch Monster House with Pops," and one for me that said, "I like to play Mario with my Uncle Mark." We went to my grandparents' house, and after dinner, my cousins Jesse and Peter and I took Allie to the duck pond. We crossed a small bridge and Allie asked if there was an elf under it. So Jesse stood threateningly in front of us and said, "You shall not pass!" Allie shrieked excitedly and walked right around him. She made him do it over and over, each time squealing and walking right past him. At one point he pretended he didn't know what she was talking about, so she told him what to say: "You sill not pass." It took a long time to get back to my grandparents' that way. I carried her for part of the way back, and she started singing the song she had sung in sacrament meeting: "Back to my home above." It was very cute. Then she said she sang "a tale of it." I thought she was saying tail, meaning the end. But then later that night in the car she said something about how she was telling a tale, which my mom and sister found quite hilarious. Then I knew she had earlier been saying she was telling a tale of the song, not the tail. My cousin Quin for some reason wanted to spend the night at our house; my mom told him that he would be bored. In the car Allie was telling him about a girl named Chessie, but Quin thought she was talking about Jesse. I think that was the tale she was talking about.
2000. I believe that this was the first (and therefore only) time I ever sang on Father's Day in sacrament meeting (previously it had only been on Mother's Day). The Thompsons came over to our house and my then-uncle Wayne brought the duck tie he got. I remember turning on the Father's Day slide in my holiday projector.
1996. I remember that in my Primary class we were making cards with candy for our dads. We used a Tootsie Roll Pop for it to say, "Dear Pop," with the pop substituting for the word Pop. I told my teacher, Caroline Weight, that I called him Dad, but she said that for the card it would say pop. The next thing we said was, "You are a [SweeTart]." I think I hoped my dad would share the candy with me, but he didn't.
1995. I know for sure we were on vacation, and I know I gave my dad a card with teddy bears on it, and we gave him a travel jigsaw puzzle of a picture of an elk. But I remember this more from buying those things, not from giving them to him. I remember seeing the puzzle at my great-grandma's house, "the Pond," in New York, but I don't know if we gave it to him there. If we did in fact give it to him there, it would mean that we were at the Pond for a very long time, because I know we were there on the Fourth of July.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
A cousin's birthday party
My cousin Jesse's birthday is June 14--which is this month! In honor of his impending 24th birthday, I'm going to remember one particular birthday party for him. I believe it was 2000, which would have made it June 16 and 17, but it could have been 1999, which would make it June 18 or 19 (or maybe 11 and 12).
My mom and I and a bunch of Jesse's friends were there. There was a pinata shaped like an ice cream cone, which they hung on the swing set in the backyard. When the pinata was broken, I noticed the cherry part on the ground, so I excitedly picked it up, expecting to find a treasure trove of candy, but in fact it was just a piece of pinata. Since I looked at that piece, I lost valuable candy-picking time and was able to collect only a few pieces. Afterward, Jesse saw my lack of candy and took pity on me and gave me some of his. Quin would have been 6 (maybe 5) and he really wanted the blue Tootsie Roll Pop I had. I offered him the red one (I wanted the blue one too), but he was only interested in blue.
Jesse was having a sleepover. I wasn't planning on staying for the sleepover, but was eventually convinced to stay when they said they had blankets I could borrow.
This was the era of ABC's TGIF, and we were all downstairs watching this programming. Boy Meets World was on, and I was saying that I didn't really like that show, because it was more like a soap opera. My then-uncle Wayne said enthusiastically, "Well, that's what it is, it's a soap opera!" At this, one of Jesse's friends said, "Actually, the early episodes were a comedy," and Wayne said quite seriously and rudely, "Well, no one asked your opinion." Jesse's friend had a shocked look on his face.
Later, Jesse and his friends wanted to play war games, and they found some face paint to put on their faces. They were all in the bathroom applying the paint; Peter was caking it on really thick, and he was putting it all over his face, while the other boys were just making marks with it. I was standing outside the bathroom because I needed to use it; I had no interest in playing war games or wearing makeup. Wayne discovered what was going on and told them that the makeup was "for Halloween and Halloween only." The boys then started washing off the paint. However, there was one boy who had been out of the room when Wayne gave his commandment, and he walked came around the corner a little bit later and Wayne, in his ornery voice, said, "What did I say? That's for Halloween and Halloween only." The boy was surprised. I knew he had not heard Wayne's lecture, but I didn't dare say anything for fear that Wayne would lash out at me.
Then we slept in the backyard. I was sleeping in a tent with Quin (who had his stuffed lion named Mario) and I think some other people. Some of the boys slept outside and there was a lot of talking going on. Sue was sleeping on the trampoline next door, and she kept telling everyone to go to sleep, saying, "It's called a sleepover, not a wakeover." One boy then said quite loudly, "Ah-choo!" and another boy said, "Cough, cough." I thought that was kind of dumb, because "ah-choo" does sound like a sneeze, but "cough" sounds just like a word. (I actually just looked up cough in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it appears that cough is actually of onomatopoeic origin.)
The next day we went to my house (since I needed to be dropped off). Sue told my mom that her back hurt, that she was too old to be sleeping on trampolines. Later (I don't know if it was that day or another) I told my mom about the Boy Meets World incident, and she told my grandma about it over the phone.
My mom and I and a bunch of Jesse's friends were there. There was a pinata shaped like an ice cream cone, which they hung on the swing set in the backyard. When the pinata was broken, I noticed the cherry part on the ground, so I excitedly picked it up, expecting to find a treasure trove of candy, but in fact it was just a piece of pinata. Since I looked at that piece, I lost valuable candy-picking time and was able to collect only a few pieces. Afterward, Jesse saw my lack of candy and took pity on me and gave me some of his. Quin would have been 6 (maybe 5) and he really wanted the blue Tootsie Roll Pop I had. I offered him the red one (I wanted the blue one too), but he was only interested in blue.
Jesse was having a sleepover. I wasn't planning on staying for the sleepover, but was eventually convinced to stay when they said they had blankets I could borrow.
This was the era of ABC's TGIF, and we were all downstairs watching this programming. Boy Meets World was on, and I was saying that I didn't really like that show, because it was more like a soap opera. My then-uncle Wayne said enthusiastically, "Well, that's what it is, it's a soap opera!" At this, one of Jesse's friends said, "Actually, the early episodes were a comedy," and Wayne said quite seriously and rudely, "Well, no one asked your opinion." Jesse's friend had a shocked look on his face.
Later, Jesse and his friends wanted to play war games, and they found some face paint to put on their faces. They were all in the bathroom applying the paint; Peter was caking it on really thick, and he was putting it all over his face, while the other boys were just making marks with it. I was standing outside the bathroom because I needed to use it; I had no interest in playing war games or wearing makeup. Wayne discovered what was going on and told them that the makeup was "for Halloween and Halloween only." The boys then started washing off the paint. However, there was one boy who had been out of the room when Wayne gave his commandment, and he walked came around the corner a little bit later and Wayne, in his ornery voice, said, "What did I say? That's for Halloween and Halloween only." The boy was surprised. I knew he had not heard Wayne's lecture, but I didn't dare say anything for fear that Wayne would lash out at me.
Then we slept in the backyard. I was sleeping in a tent with Quin (who had his stuffed lion named Mario) and I think some other people. Some of the boys slept outside and there was a lot of talking going on. Sue was sleeping on the trampoline next door, and she kept telling everyone to go to sleep, saying, "It's called a sleepover, not a wakeover." One boy then said quite loudly, "Ah-choo!" and another boy said, "Cough, cough." I thought that was kind of dumb, because "ah-choo" does sound like a sneeze, but "cough" sounds just like a word. (I actually just looked up cough in the Oxford English Dictionary, and it appears that cough is actually of onomatopoeic origin.)
The next day we went to my house (since I needed to be dropped off). Sue told my mom that her back hurt, that she was too old to be sleeping on trampolines. Later (I don't know if it was that day or another) I told my mom about the Boy Meets World incident, and she told my grandma about it over the phone.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
My dad's birthday
Today is my dad's birthday. Ricky Boyd Melville was born May 27, 1951. While today is not yet over and I am still making memories of it, I can remember things about his birthday on some previous years. I can remember less about his birthday than I can about mine, of course.
2011. Before my 12:00 class, I downloaded "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and "The Star Spangled Banner" from lds.org. When I came home from classes, I was talking to my roommate Chase and I think we were looking at pictures of eight-legged creatures. I was people watching out the window and saw a barefoot guy with short shorts and a funny gait. (I can't remember if his shorts were salmon-colored or if his legs were.) Then our roommate Zach came home and we put our stuff in the car to carpool up to North Salt Lake. We had to stop at the Wilk to pick up Shannon Kelly. Zach made an illegal left turn to get out of the Wilk. As we were driving down University Parkway, there was a car in front of us with a peculiar accessory on the back--it looked like a TV screen. We wanted to figure out what it was, but the car got away from us. As we got on the freeway, Zach and Shannon talked about a time when they almost crashed getting on the freeway because of a crazy lady driver. Zach was a fairly aggressive driver and said why he wondered why some of the people were going slow. I said, "Maybe they believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." Zach was listening to his music on his iPod and Chase started dancing to "Viva la Vida." When Zach pulled up to my house, he was surprised to see the green Taurus in the driveway--he had ridden in that car before, but he didn't know I had switched cars. My dad wasn't too happy about turning 60. My mom made him a cake with blue frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles. The sprinkles were for my sake, so I could eat the cake. She sent me to the store for something. I went with Allie, and we looked to see if there was such a thing as Fourth of July ice cream, since my mom said she had seen some. There wasn't. As we left the store, we saw Devan Gubler. Zach texted me to see if I wanted to play card games with him and some friends, but I declined.
2005. I remember that my dad picked me up from school and we had to stop at a gas station to buy special ice to go camping. I guess our freezer ice wasn't good enough.
2004. I'm not sure, but I think this was the night when I had a junior high choir concert. We all went to Woods Cross High's auditorium. Nicole Nutter sang a song from Annie and wore an old-fashioned hat and got on her knees to sing dramatically. After the concert, my family said that they were surprised at the quality of the concert. My dad said that when the eighth-grade boys sang, he thought it would be a long night, but then it got better. He asked about the girl with the hat.
2001. My dad wasn't happy to turn 50. We were at Shingle Mill campground in Fillmore Canyon. That day we went to my grandparents' house in Fillmore before and after church; my dad said that it was fifty years ago to the day that he first entered the doorway to the kitchen (when he was born, the kitchen door was the front door of the house). Grandpa Boyd told my dad that he remembered when he came into the world. We went back up to the canyon, and my aunt Sarena brought my dad a cake that had "Over the Hill" decorations and black frosting on the edges. My cousin Steven got some all over his face and we discovered that the black frosting was blue when it was diluted. Then my uncle Mike invited me to go adventuring in the red Jeep with him and my cousins Krishelle and Terrill. We went up the canyon, and I think we saw a place for cattle to drink. Then we looked out over Fillmore from the canyon; Mike pointed out the Maverik station. Krishelle pointed out tiny Flowell. We went to the "M" for "Millard" on the mountain; there were tin can lanterns all over the M for them to light up. I was immature and I thought it would be funny to make some weird noises by vibrating my cheeks. It really annoyed Krishelle, who kept saying "Stop that!" Then we went to a place known colloquially in Fillmore as Pink Elephant Lane; my uncle said that my dad had once crashed there. He told some silly jokes: Why do pink elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees and Why do they paint their toenails green? So they can hide in lime trees. Then we went and filled up the Jeep at the Maverik station; I was surprised my uncle was buying gas on Sunday and I was especially surprised that he was also buying drinks. A snake had hitched a ride on the Jeep and fell off at the gas station. Mike asked a girl at another pump if she wanted a snake; she saw it and was a bit grossed out. Then we went back up to the canyon and our trailer's porch light was on. It was about 10:30 and everyone was going to bed; I was sad I missed a night of campfire business.
1994. If I am not mistaken, this was the last day of my preschool. They gave us pictures of our class and pencils that had pictures of the earth. They also gave us bags of clothes. These were clothes that our parents had given to the teachers in case we ever peed our pants, but a lot of us thought they were just giving us clothes. I can't remember whether or not I recognized the clothes as my own, but I do remember that I didn't recognize the Mario underwear as my own. (In fact, I think that underwear might have originally belonged to a friend named Keith, or else he had some that was the same. Underwear has a way of changing houses among children who are scared to use strangers' bathrooms.) One boy in my class was tearing off pieces from his plastic bag and eating them, saying, "I love plastic." I thought how I liked it too, but my mom and brother had told me it wasn't good to eat. (It's possible this last part was a dream; sometimes it's hard to distinguish old memories from dreams--but I always thought it really happened.) Then I think I played with my friend David Christensen while my parents were getting ready for camping. It was an overcast day.
Happy Birthday Pops!
2011. Before my 12:00 class, I downloaded "America the Beautiful," "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and "The Star Spangled Banner" from lds.org. When I came home from classes, I was talking to my roommate Chase and I think we were looking at pictures of eight-legged creatures. I was people watching out the window and saw a barefoot guy with short shorts and a funny gait. (I can't remember if his shorts were salmon-colored or if his legs were.) Then our roommate Zach came home and we put our stuff in the car to carpool up to North Salt Lake. We had to stop at the Wilk to pick up Shannon Kelly. Zach made an illegal left turn to get out of the Wilk. As we were driving down University Parkway, there was a car in front of us with a peculiar accessory on the back--it looked like a TV screen. We wanted to figure out what it was, but the car got away from us. As we got on the freeway, Zach and Shannon talked about a time when they almost crashed getting on the freeway because of a crazy lady driver. Zach was a fairly aggressive driver and said why he wondered why some of the people were going slow. I said, "Maybe they believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." Zach was listening to his music on his iPod and Chase started dancing to "Viva la Vida." When Zach pulled up to my house, he was surprised to see the green Taurus in the driveway--he had ridden in that car before, but he didn't know I had switched cars. My dad wasn't too happy about turning 60. My mom made him a cake with blue frosting and red, white, and blue sprinkles. The sprinkles were for my sake, so I could eat the cake. She sent me to the store for something. I went with Allie, and we looked to see if there was such a thing as Fourth of July ice cream, since my mom said she had seen some. There wasn't. As we left the store, we saw Devan Gubler. Zach texted me to see if I wanted to play card games with him and some friends, but I declined.
2005. I remember that my dad picked me up from school and we had to stop at a gas station to buy special ice to go camping. I guess our freezer ice wasn't good enough.
2004. I'm not sure, but I think this was the night when I had a junior high choir concert. We all went to Woods Cross High's auditorium. Nicole Nutter sang a song from Annie and wore an old-fashioned hat and got on her knees to sing dramatically. After the concert, my family said that they were surprised at the quality of the concert. My dad said that when the eighth-grade boys sang, he thought it would be a long night, but then it got better. He asked about the girl with the hat.
2001. My dad wasn't happy to turn 50. We were at Shingle Mill campground in Fillmore Canyon. That day we went to my grandparents' house in Fillmore before and after church; my dad said that it was fifty years ago to the day that he first entered the doorway to the kitchen (when he was born, the kitchen door was the front door of the house). Grandpa Boyd told my dad that he remembered when he came into the world. We went back up to the canyon, and my aunt Sarena brought my dad a cake that had "Over the Hill" decorations and black frosting on the edges. My cousin Steven got some all over his face and we discovered that the black frosting was blue when it was diluted. Then my uncle Mike invited me to go adventuring in the red Jeep with him and my cousins Krishelle and Terrill. We went up the canyon, and I think we saw a place for cattle to drink. Then we looked out over Fillmore from the canyon; Mike pointed out the Maverik station. Krishelle pointed out tiny Flowell. We went to the "M" for "Millard" on the mountain; there were tin can lanterns all over the M for them to light up. I was immature and I thought it would be funny to make some weird noises by vibrating my cheeks. It really annoyed Krishelle, who kept saying "Stop that!" Then we went to a place known colloquially in Fillmore as Pink Elephant Lane; my uncle said that my dad had once crashed there. He told some silly jokes: Why do pink elephants paint their toenails red? So they can hide in cherry trees and Why do they paint their toenails green? So they can hide in lime trees. Then we went and filled up the Jeep at the Maverik station; I was surprised my uncle was buying gas on Sunday and I was especially surprised that he was also buying drinks. A snake had hitched a ride on the Jeep and fell off at the gas station. Mike asked a girl at another pump if she wanted a snake; she saw it and was a bit grossed out. Then we went back up to the canyon and our trailer's porch light was on. It was about 10:30 and everyone was going to bed; I was sad I missed a night of campfire business.
1994. If I am not mistaken, this was the last day of my preschool. They gave us pictures of our class and pencils that had pictures of the earth. They also gave us bags of clothes. These were clothes that our parents had given to the teachers in case we ever peed our pants, but a lot of us thought they were just giving us clothes. I can't remember whether or not I recognized the clothes as my own, but I do remember that I didn't recognize the Mario underwear as my own. (In fact, I think that underwear might have originally belonged to a friend named Keith, or else he had some that was the same. Underwear has a way of changing houses among children who are scared to use strangers' bathrooms.) One boy in my class was tearing off pieces from his plastic bag and eating them, saying, "I love plastic." I thought how I liked it too, but my mom and brother had told me it wasn't good to eat. (It's possible this last part was a dream; sometimes it's hard to distinguish old memories from dreams--but I always thought it really happened.) Then I think I played with my friend David Christensen while my parents were getting ready for camping. It was an overcast day.
Happy Birthday Pops!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Memorial Days
With Memorial Day coming up this weekend, I am going to remember as many details as possible about Memorial Days of my life. However, since I don't fully consider Memorial Day a true holiday--it's more of a gateway into the Fourth of July season--I don't remember as much about it as I do about other holidays.
2011. I woke up to my niece Allie coming into my room and saying "Snow!" because I had asked my family to wake me up if it snowed. I was delighted to come out of my bedroom and see snow on the roofs and the grass. That morning we--my parents, Allie, and I--went to the zoo. They had all their dinosaur models all over the zoo. My niece wanted to see some animal show, so we went to it. We had to find strategic places to sit because rain and melting snow was dripping through holes in the tarp above the benches. They were playing hokey '60s music before the show. I was surprised when they played Beatles songs because the rest of it was so hokey. They had two college-age females conduct the animal show. One of them was a much better actress than the other. At one point they had a little girl come up as a volunteer. The zoo girl was holding a tortoise, and the little girl tried to touch it, but the zoo girl forbade her, telling her she could touch it later. After the show they let the kids touch the animals as long as they only used two fingers, but I don't think Allie wanted to touch them. We went around to the various animal exhibits. I had never seen the new bat exhibit and I was thoroughly impressed. We assumed these bunnies were hiding from the rain; the goats were hiding as well. (When I went to the zoo on a sunny June day, the bunnies were still hiding under that little shelter.)
We went to the "Living Links" exhibit in the greenhouse. I was sad I had missed the previous exhibit, "Nature's Nightmares," but there were a lot of animals that were the same, so much that Allie kept saying, "This really is Nature's Nightmares!" I was sad that they no longer had free-flying bats, and the Goliath spider was smaller and less impressive than I had hoped. I tried to take some pictures of the hibiscus flowers. Outside the exit of the greenhouse they had gifts for sale, and my mom debated buying the animals that were on exhibit that are dried up and you can bring them back to life (not brine shrimp--way cooler than that, with red on the bottom). When we were at one of the playgrounds, I asked my mom to take a picture of me on the giant spider so I could use it for a Facebook profile picture.
Allie wasn't dressed very warmly, so she wanted to go to the car with my mom. My dad and I stayed and tried to find all the dinosaurs. The T-rex was the only big one that was life-sized.
We went to the car and left. There was a man in short shorts and no shirt who was running across the road as we were leaving the zoo. My mom said, "He's crazy," probably because it was cold, but maybe because he was in the road. Later I texted my roommate Zach Zimmerman to see when he was going to pick me up. I also asked him if he wanted me to bring the Coldplay Viva la Vida album because I knew he hadn't heard it but liked Coldplay. He was quite late when he finally showed up. I was surprised to see Sarah Edwards in the car, because she hadn't ridden up with us. I put my stuff in the trunk and Zach put my CD in. Then we picked up Chase Elwood; it was tough getting everyone's stuff in the trunk. Shannon Kelly talked about the editing minor. Sarah said she had had to take an ELang class. At one point, Zach asked if I could hear the music, and I said I could. One of the girls asked if I liked Coldplay--I said yes but wasn't wildly enthusiastic. One of them said she liked the song "Lovers in Japan." At one point I mentioned disc two, but when disc one was over, Zach turned his own music on. I zoned out--as I often do--when they were talking about speeding tickets. They said, "Mark's never had a ticket," but since I hadn't been paying attention, I thought they were talking about concert or theater tickets. We dropped Sarah off at her apartment when a Beatles song was playing. Then we dropped off Shannon and came home and parked in our parking lot. Zach ejected the CD and then realized that he'd forgotten about disc two and apologized. I didn't mind--I brought the CD because I thought he might like it but it seemed he didn't really care. He read the title, Viva la Vida, or, Death and All His Friends, and commented on the irony of the title. I put my stuff away and put my Peanuts Fourth of July pillowcase on my pillow.
2010. All I remember is going to dinner group. It was a combined dinner group that night. I was wearing a T-shirt that had all the names of the 50 states arranged as an American flag. One guy there told me he liked my shirt because it was "fashionable" and because it had New Mexico on the top. There was some mild ridicule about that, because a few other states, including Utah, were also at the top.
2009. All I remember is sending emails from the Family History Center in the Lewiston Idaho stake center. But thanks to the miracle of the internet (and knowing my mom's email password), I was able to find the very email that I sent that day:
"Wednesday is Pops's birthday, and Thursday I hit the dreaded eighteen-month mark. I've been having all sorts of depressing dreams about going home lately.
"Next week we will be having a baptism in the singles branch. Her mom's not too keen on it, so yesterday Kim (that's the investigator) asked us to go talk with her mom, so we're going to go over tonight. Hopefully that will go well.
"Another investigator who was supposed to be baptized in June dropped us. We don't know if she talked to her parents and they strongly opposed, or if she was just too scared to talk with them. Her dad is against the Church because when he was in Boy Scouts he blew up some flower holders on the church grounds and they kicked him out of Scouts. We visit his bedridden mother often and their whole family is very nice, just not active and some of them against the Church.
"Also, we cover Lapwai, an Indian reservation. The Indians are on the war path (as everyone says) because of a recent event. A couple of the natives were being chased by a state patrolman and would not pull over. Eventually they stopped and he shot them. Here's where some details become conflicting. One version said they were running away; another said they were approaching him to fight. Supposedly he heard a gun shot and thought they had guns, but it was another, unrelated shot nearby. This all happened on tribal lands so the injuns are all up in arms. I guess the FBI has to investigate because state policeman don't have authority over the Indians. I guess if a policeman not of the tribe pulls over a Lamanite (I couldn't resist) he can't arrest them or give them a ticket; he can only tell them to wait until an Indian officer comes, and if they drive off, there's nothing he can do. But it does go the other way; if an Indian pulls someone over, he has to call someone who is a regular officer.
"It got decently warm this week. I'm starting to acquire a "bring it on" attitude for heat, because I know it's only going to get warmer and there's nothing I can do about it. They say it gets about 110 degrees in the summer here.
"This week we had an interesting service experience. It probably wasn't the most kosher and if it hadn't been established earlier I probably would have not done it. A member took us to several cemeteries out of our area to put flowers on the stones of his relatives. They weren't members, but they recently had their temple work done, so we dedicated the graves. It was fun being in the cemeteries. I wouldn't mind working in one.
"I don't know why he didn't dedicate them; he's an elder, but he is kind of a questionable member, so maybe he's not worthy. He's engaged and his fiancée lives with him. We don't know if anything's going on but they still shouldn't live in the same house. They have both been married several times. He is weird, but she is weirder. Her nickname is Elf (she's short), but I only think of another one-syllable name ending in f--waif. The reason for this comes because we were talking with another member who was saying she thinks he's marrying her because she's a waif--no one else wants her. It will be funny when they're married and she's his wife the waif. It could be funny if I accidentally let slip something like, 'How's your waif--I mean, wife?' In one of the cemeteries he has a plot and his waif was talking about being buried there, but Elder LaPratt and I both agree she won't be buried there. We've heard he's already been married eight times.
"Yes, north Idaho is an interesting place. Lots of members talk about guns and sometimes show them to us. I feel sick when I handle a gun.
"Our landlord has a stupid blue heeler who barks at us all the time. He's on a big line in the backyard, and he runs around until he wraps himself around a pole. If you leave him alone he barks and whines. If you release him he gets excited and pees on you. Our neighbor is a member and he wants to shoot him. I wouldn't mind that.
"I can't think of anything else I want to add. I could add more but I don't know how much time I have.
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
(An update on some of the things in the letter--Kim never got baptized, but Katelyn [the one who dropped us on this week] ended up getting baptized about two months later. Brother Jones never married Elf.)
2008. That morning Elder Condie and I went to help a member move in. Brother Longhurst had ridden his bike there. There were a lot of members there helping. This was a workday, despite it being a Monday (which were generally P-days), but due to an abominable companionship, we didn't really work. Elder Condie did about a triple no-no by writing up a story about a past transgression and typing it up on the Welshes' computer (the Welshes were the old couple we lived with). I don't know what I did when he was doing that; I probably did some paperwork. I had to call one Sister Kearl in the Greenbluff Ward to tell her that we couldn't come to her family barbecue. We cancelled that appointment so we could go to the Northpointe Ward barbecue, but we didn't tell Sister Kearl that was the reason. Sister Kearl said, "I thought you could do whatever you wanted on Mondays." When I told Elder Condie she had said that, he said that even if we didn't have the other barbecue, why would we want to give up our P-day to have dinner with members? Then we went to the Northpointe ward party, which was at the park next to Brentwood Elementary and across the street from the "Regina Building," the Spokane North stake center. We were pleased with the turnout; Cindy Neely, an eternal investigator, and her friends came. We and Brother Palmer, our ward mission leader, counted ten nonmembers there, thanks to our efforts and some of the youths' friends. The ward played Capture the Flag; we elders did as well. Elder Condie changed into his shorts and Superhero t-shirt, but I stayed in "pross," although I might have taken my tie off. Elder Condie was pretty good. Some young girls (11 or 12 years old), a Sant and a Johnson, cheered for us, but they gave us silly nicknames: I think mine was Elder Melon and Elder Condie was Elder Condog. After Capture the Flag, the ward played football, but since I don't play football, I got my ladybug kite out and flew it in the school's field. A member who was visiting from Idaho came and talked to me. There was an annoying dog that kept chasing my kite. I got green pollen all over my black shoes; I thought it looked cool. After the party, I insisted on going to the Peone Cemetery. There, I reasoned, if anyone wanted to talk about life after death, we could talk to them. But when we got there I said it would probably be in poor taste to go up to talk to people, so we would be there if they wanted to approach us. There were many tombstones that said things like "Families Are Forever." We even saw one Turnidge stone with the Provo Temple on it; we were well-acquainted with the Turnidges; most (or all) of them were less active. We saw lots of Bible verses on the stones; Elder Condie speculated they weren't allowed to put Book of Mormon scriptures on the stones, but I found that unlikely. We saw the tombstone of the Welshes' son, whose death nearly five months earlier was announced to Sister Welsh while I was holding her hand. I wanted to take a picture, but Elder Condie forbade me.
2007. All I remember is that we had spent the weekend in Fillmore, in my late grandparents' backyard. I think this might have been the time we looked at Christmas lights in one of the sheds and I wanted to take some home. I was wearing my red t-shirt with Snoopy and Woodstock in Uncle Sam costumes; it was my first time wearing it. On the drive home, I sat in the front seat and my mom sat in the middle seat with Allie, who watched The Little Mermaid on a portable DVD player.
2006-2000. So it has always been a family tradition that we go camping on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Since there are so many years that are the same, and since we camped over the course of a few days, and since it happened twice a year, I don't know exactly what happened on Memorial Days. But then, out of the blue, I remember something from
1999. After we came home, I remember going to get dinner at Gringo's Mexican restaurant. I also got some Tic-Tacs from a gas station. And I remember something about the movie Antz; either we rented it or it was on TV. I don't think I watched it.
1998-before. Same story as 2000-2006 :(
That's it! Like always, I'll probably remember something after I post...
2011. I woke up to my niece Allie coming into my room and saying "Snow!" because I had asked my family to wake me up if it snowed. I was delighted to come out of my bedroom and see snow on the roofs and the grass. That morning we--my parents, Allie, and I--went to the zoo. They had all their dinosaur models all over the zoo. My niece wanted to see some animal show, so we went to it. We had to find strategic places to sit because rain and melting snow was dripping through holes in the tarp above the benches. They were playing hokey '60s music before the show. I was surprised when they played Beatles songs because the rest of it was so hokey. They had two college-age females conduct the animal show. One of them was a much better actress than the other. At one point they had a little girl come up as a volunteer. The zoo girl was holding a tortoise, and the little girl tried to touch it, but the zoo girl forbade her, telling her she could touch it later. After the show they let the kids touch the animals as long as they only used two fingers, but I don't think Allie wanted to touch them. We went around to the various animal exhibits. I had never seen the new bat exhibit and I was thoroughly impressed. We assumed these bunnies were hiding from the rain; the goats were hiding as well. (When I went to the zoo on a sunny June day, the bunnies were still hiding under that little shelter.)
I was sad that the sauropods weren't life-sized. Shrinking the dinosaurs kind of made me think, "What's the point?"
2010. All I remember is going to dinner group. It was a combined dinner group that night. I was wearing a T-shirt that had all the names of the 50 states arranged as an American flag. One guy there told me he liked my shirt because it was "fashionable" and because it had New Mexico on the top. There was some mild ridicule about that, because a few other states, including Utah, were also at the top.
2009. All I remember is sending emails from the Family History Center in the Lewiston Idaho stake center. But thanks to the miracle of the internet (and knowing my mom's email password), I was able to find the very email that I sent that day:
"Wednesday is Pops's birthday, and Thursday I hit the dreaded eighteen-month mark. I've been having all sorts of depressing dreams about going home lately.
"Next week we will be having a baptism in the singles branch. Her mom's not too keen on it, so yesterday Kim (that's the investigator) asked us to go talk with her mom, so we're going to go over tonight. Hopefully that will go well.
"Another investigator who was supposed to be baptized in June dropped us. We don't know if she talked to her parents and they strongly opposed, or if she was just too scared to talk with them. Her dad is against the Church because when he was in Boy Scouts he blew up some flower holders on the church grounds and they kicked him out of Scouts. We visit his bedridden mother often and their whole family is very nice, just not active and some of them against the Church.
"Also, we cover Lapwai, an Indian reservation. The Indians are on the war path (as everyone says) because of a recent event. A couple of the natives were being chased by a state patrolman and would not pull over. Eventually they stopped and he shot them. Here's where some details become conflicting. One version said they were running away; another said they were approaching him to fight. Supposedly he heard a gun shot and thought they had guns, but it was another, unrelated shot nearby. This all happened on tribal lands so the injuns are all up in arms. I guess the FBI has to investigate because state policeman don't have authority over the Indians. I guess if a policeman not of the tribe pulls over a Lamanite (I couldn't resist) he can't arrest them or give them a ticket; he can only tell them to wait until an Indian officer comes, and if they drive off, there's nothing he can do. But it does go the other way; if an Indian pulls someone over, he has to call someone who is a regular officer.
"It got decently warm this week. I'm starting to acquire a "bring it on" attitude for heat, because I know it's only going to get warmer and there's nothing I can do about it. They say it gets about 110 degrees in the summer here.
"This week we had an interesting service experience. It probably wasn't the most kosher and if it hadn't been established earlier I probably would have not done it. A member took us to several cemeteries out of our area to put flowers on the stones of his relatives. They weren't members, but they recently had their temple work done, so we dedicated the graves. It was fun being in the cemeteries. I wouldn't mind working in one.
"I don't know why he didn't dedicate them; he's an elder, but he is kind of a questionable member, so maybe he's not worthy. He's engaged and his fiancée lives with him. We don't know if anything's going on but they still shouldn't live in the same house. They have both been married several times. He is weird, but she is weirder. Her nickname is Elf (she's short), but I only think of another one-syllable name ending in f--waif. The reason for this comes because we were talking with another member who was saying she thinks he's marrying her because she's a waif--no one else wants her. It will be funny when they're married and she's his wife the waif. It could be funny if I accidentally let slip something like, 'How's your waif--I mean, wife?' In one of the cemeteries he has a plot and his waif was talking about being buried there, but Elder LaPratt and I both agree she won't be buried there. We've heard he's already been married eight times.
"Yes, north Idaho is an interesting place. Lots of members talk about guns and sometimes show them to us. I feel sick when I handle a gun.
"Our landlord has a stupid blue heeler who barks at us all the time. He's on a big line in the backyard, and he runs around until he wraps himself around a pole. If you leave him alone he barks and whines. If you release him he gets excited and pees on you. Our neighbor is a member and he wants to shoot him. I wouldn't mind that.
"I can't think of anything else I want to add. I could add more but I don't know how much time I have.
"Love,
"Elder Melville"
(An update on some of the things in the letter--Kim never got baptized, but Katelyn [the one who dropped us on this week] ended up getting baptized about two months later. Brother Jones never married Elf.)
2008. That morning Elder Condie and I went to help a member move in. Brother Longhurst had ridden his bike there. There were a lot of members there helping. This was a workday, despite it being a Monday (which were generally P-days), but due to an abominable companionship, we didn't really work. Elder Condie did about a triple no-no by writing up a story about a past transgression and typing it up on the Welshes' computer (the Welshes were the old couple we lived with). I don't know what I did when he was doing that; I probably did some paperwork. I had to call one Sister Kearl in the Greenbluff Ward to tell her that we couldn't come to her family barbecue. We cancelled that appointment so we could go to the Northpointe Ward barbecue, but we didn't tell Sister Kearl that was the reason. Sister Kearl said, "I thought you could do whatever you wanted on Mondays." When I told Elder Condie she had said that, he said that even if we didn't have the other barbecue, why would we want to give up our P-day to have dinner with members? Then we went to the Northpointe ward party, which was at the park next to Brentwood Elementary and across the street from the "Regina Building," the Spokane North stake center. We were pleased with the turnout; Cindy Neely, an eternal investigator, and her friends came. We and Brother Palmer, our ward mission leader, counted ten nonmembers there, thanks to our efforts and some of the youths' friends. The ward played Capture the Flag; we elders did as well. Elder Condie changed into his shorts and Superhero t-shirt, but I stayed in "pross," although I might have taken my tie off. Elder Condie was pretty good. Some young girls (11 or 12 years old), a Sant and a Johnson, cheered for us, but they gave us silly nicknames: I think mine was Elder Melon and Elder Condie was Elder Condog. After Capture the Flag, the ward played football, but since I don't play football, I got my ladybug kite out and flew it in the school's field. A member who was visiting from Idaho came and talked to me. There was an annoying dog that kept chasing my kite. I got green pollen all over my black shoes; I thought it looked cool. After the party, I insisted on going to the Peone Cemetery. There, I reasoned, if anyone wanted to talk about life after death, we could talk to them. But when we got there I said it would probably be in poor taste to go up to talk to people, so we would be there if they wanted to approach us. There were many tombstones that said things like "Families Are Forever." We even saw one Turnidge stone with the Provo Temple on it; we were well-acquainted with the Turnidges; most (or all) of them were less active. We saw lots of Bible verses on the stones; Elder Condie speculated they weren't allowed to put Book of Mormon scriptures on the stones, but I found that unlikely. We saw the tombstone of the Welshes' son, whose death nearly five months earlier was announced to Sister Welsh while I was holding her hand. I wanted to take a picture, but Elder Condie forbade me.
2007. All I remember is that we had spent the weekend in Fillmore, in my late grandparents' backyard. I think this might have been the time we looked at Christmas lights in one of the sheds and I wanted to take some home. I was wearing my red t-shirt with Snoopy and Woodstock in Uncle Sam costumes; it was my first time wearing it. On the drive home, I sat in the front seat and my mom sat in the middle seat with Allie, who watched The Little Mermaid on a portable DVD player.
2006-2000. So it has always been a family tradition that we go camping on Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. Since there are so many years that are the same, and since we camped over the course of a few days, and since it happened twice a year, I don't know exactly what happened on Memorial Days. But then, out of the blue, I remember something from
1999. After we came home, I remember going to get dinner at Gringo's Mexican restaurant. I also got some Tic-Tacs from a gas station. And I remember something about the movie Antz; either we rented it or it was on TV. I don't think I watched it.
1998-before. Same story as 2000-2006 :(
That's it! Like always, I'll probably remember something after I post...
Friday, May 18, 2012
Remembering
If you've read my other blog, you know that I like to do posts in which I remember things.
Whether or not it's true, I have a perception that most people don't really like to read those, and therefore that those posts might jeopardize my readership. But I like to write them, and I know that some family members (and maybe some others) like to read them. My friend David Christensen sent me a link to an article about memory. He said he thought of my memory posts when he read it. The article says that once you start remembering things, it can help you remember more. So that's part of why I'm starting this blog.
My hope is to write on this blog at least once in a week. If I don't make a commitment, I'll never do it. So that's my commitment. Once in a week--a week consisting of Sunday through Saturday. So if I did Sunday of one week but Saturday of the next, it would be almost two weeks, but it would still be once in a week.
Some of them might resemble my memory posts on my main blog, but some may not. Some may just be short, random memories. Some of them may follow a particular theme. And I may use supplementary materials--journals, newspapers, calendars, etc.--to supplement my memories and to remind me of things.
To start off this blog, I'm going to remember times when people told me I had a good memory. This isn't all such incidents, but some noteworthy ones.
Above I mentioned David Christensen sending me a message about that article. He told me he thought I might be the thirteenth person with that kind of memory. I messaged him back saying I didn't think so, but I thanked him for the article. This week I saw him at church (we were both up for Mother's Day) and he brought it up again. He said he was amazed at all the details I remember, especially how far back they go. Then he started telling me about learning about an ancient Greek technique about memory. When I mentioned the possibility of starting this blog on my other blog, a mission companion, "Elder" Bramall, gave me a URL to a video about that very technique. I started watching it, but I don't have the attention span to watch the whole thing. I probably will eventually.
Later that day, my cousins were over for Mother's Day. Jesse asked me what my blog topic was going to be, and I said I didn't know. I mentioned the possibility of starting this blog, and Peter and Jesse both seemed to like the idea. Peter said he wanted to know how far back I remember and wondered if I remember my birth, saying I might say, "There was a cord attached to me..." Jesse referred to my post about the holidays of the past year. He said he was impressed that not only did I remember the Facebook status I posted on the Fourth of July, I remembered the ads that came up and the name of my Facebook friend who liked them. I tend not to think my memory is really that great, so I said, "It was less than a year ago." So Peter and Jesse tried to remember what they did on the Fourth of July. They said they remembered they were in Wisconsin--but then they realized that wasn't true. After some discussion, they determined they were in Utah on the Fourth of July, and they said they were glad they finally figured out what state they were in. My aunt Sue went outside where my parents and grandparents were sitting and relayed the funny conversation that had just occurred among us.
Another comment about my memory came in response to the same post mentioned above. It was April 29. I was at church and had just finished setting up chairs for sacrament meeting. I was standing by the hymn cart when someone in my ward, Krista Roy, told me she had read my blog and it blew her mind. I was kind of surprised she read my blog, since I'm not Facebook friends with her. I thought maybe she was referring to my writing style (because I'm conceited like that), but then she said she was surprised at all the details I remembered. She thanked me for remembering so much.
Some girls have told me I had a good memory when I remembered when one of them was entering the MTC and when I remembered that the other one had a British convert who was in love with her.
My roommate Bryton has told me on a few occasions that I have a good memory. He came home one day and I was wearing my blue plaid shorts. He told me he liked my shorts and said he needed to get some fashionable shorts. I told him that my shorts were the first shorts I got after being home from my mission. I did a quick calculation and told him I got them on April 2, 2010. That's when he told me I have a good memory. I told him I just remembered that it was the Friday before general conference.
Another instance occurred on February 6. That was the night that I went to Shopko and bought some heart LED lights and some red, pink, and white Jujyfruits (on my way to and from the store, the radio played Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain," Colbie Caillat's "Brighter than the Sun," and Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years"). It was also the same day we got a new used oven. At around 9:30 p.m., Bryton asked me if I wanted to go running with him. I hadn't gone that day (and wasn't planning on it), so I said yes. I checked the temperature. It was in the low 30s, so I decided to wear pants (instead of shorts) but not a jacket over my green shirt. Just before we were leaving, my roommate Ammon had to ask Bryton something. We left and Bryton told me I could set the pace, but shortly he told me I was too fast. We were running south on 900 East when I told him that I hadn't gone running with someone else since November 27, 2010. He said, "2010? Wow, you have a good memory." We ran past some guy who seemed scared by us, we talked about Josh Powell and another murder, and we dropped off something at Bryton's cousin's mailbox. On our run back Bryton saw suspicious activity in a car and he talked about how he had to exercise for cheaper insurance. We went by an apartment complex and I told Bryton that I had to park there once the previous year, and that on April 1 (2011) I had to carry a bottle of Gatorade from my apartment all the way to my car, and that I passed an apartment where they were playing Rebecca Black's "Friday." I was shocked when he said he didn't know what that was, but I did determine he did actually know what it was.
I think it was fall of 2010 when my parents decided to get a new mirror for my bathroom. We had two mirrors in there, and they were getting rid of the second one because it was in bad shape. I said that I remembered when they put up the second mirror. My mom said that we had both mirrors up in the bathroom when we moved in when I was two. I said that was not the case because I was in third grade when we put it up; it was the same night that there was a school event where they had a telescope to look at the comet. My mom seemed unconvinced but said she had learned not to doubt my memory. (I actually think that we didn't look at the comet in the telescope--we were supposed to but we looked at the moon instead.)
On my mission, after my nephew Franklin was born, I sent an email to my brother saying that I remembered that Allie first spun in circles on December 3, 2004, and that Preston first spun in circles on November 27, 2005, so I wanted to keep track of when Franklin would spin. David responded and said, "Ya-ping wants one third of your memory."
One summer day when I was six, my family went river rafting with my uncle Paul and left me with my aunt Sue. I think this was the time that my cousin Joey and I put water in the sandbox and convinced ourselves we were in quicksand. After we got cleaned up, we were in my aunt's van with a young girl, Whitney, from across the street. Whitney looked at the sky and said excitedly, "An airplane!" and my cousin Chancey said sarcastically, "Wow." There was also a box of Chicken in a Biskit crackers in the van, but at that time I thought they were called Chicken in a Basket. After all these adventures, it was quite late--it was after 9:00 and it was getting dark, and my family still wasn't there. I started saying things like they had forgotten me or that they had died. I knew that wasn't true, but Sue kind of acted like I thought they were. After my family finally arrived, they started talking all about their trip and their funny river guide named Hilary. Months (or years) later, my brother was recalling that trip and that river guide. He said, "I think her name was Tiffany." I said, "It was Hilary." My mom said, "He's right," and ever after that, David used that as evidence of my memory. Once he was telling his friend Heather that I had a good memory, that I remembered the name of the river guide and I wasn't even there. On another occasion he asked me the river guide's name as an illustration of my memory.
So, yeah. This is the kind of thing I'm going to be writing on this blog.
Whether or not it's true, I have a perception that most people don't really like to read those, and therefore that those posts might jeopardize my readership. But I like to write them, and I know that some family members (and maybe some others) like to read them. My friend David Christensen sent me a link to an article about memory. He said he thought of my memory posts when he read it. The article says that once you start remembering things, it can help you remember more. So that's part of why I'm starting this blog.
My hope is to write on this blog at least once in a week. If I don't make a commitment, I'll never do it. So that's my commitment. Once in a week--a week consisting of Sunday through Saturday. So if I did Sunday of one week but Saturday of the next, it would be almost two weeks, but it would still be once in a week.
Some of them might resemble my memory posts on my main blog, but some may not. Some may just be short, random memories. Some of them may follow a particular theme. And I may use supplementary materials--journals, newspapers, calendars, etc.--to supplement my memories and to remind me of things.
To start off this blog, I'm going to remember times when people told me I had a good memory. This isn't all such incidents, but some noteworthy ones.
Above I mentioned David Christensen sending me a message about that article. He told me he thought I might be the thirteenth person with that kind of memory. I messaged him back saying I didn't think so, but I thanked him for the article. This week I saw him at church (we were both up for Mother's Day) and he brought it up again. He said he was amazed at all the details I remember, especially how far back they go. Then he started telling me about learning about an ancient Greek technique about memory. When I mentioned the possibility of starting this blog on my other blog, a mission companion, "Elder" Bramall, gave me a URL to a video about that very technique. I started watching it, but I don't have the attention span to watch the whole thing. I probably will eventually.
Later that day, my cousins were over for Mother's Day. Jesse asked me what my blog topic was going to be, and I said I didn't know. I mentioned the possibility of starting this blog, and Peter and Jesse both seemed to like the idea. Peter said he wanted to know how far back I remember and wondered if I remember my birth, saying I might say, "There was a cord attached to me..." Jesse referred to my post about the holidays of the past year. He said he was impressed that not only did I remember the Facebook status I posted on the Fourth of July, I remembered the ads that came up and the name of my Facebook friend who liked them. I tend not to think my memory is really that great, so I said, "It was less than a year ago." So Peter and Jesse tried to remember what they did on the Fourth of July. They said they remembered they were in Wisconsin--but then they realized that wasn't true. After some discussion, they determined they were in Utah on the Fourth of July, and they said they were glad they finally figured out what state they were in. My aunt Sue went outside where my parents and grandparents were sitting and relayed the funny conversation that had just occurred among us.
Another comment about my memory came in response to the same post mentioned above. It was April 29. I was at church and had just finished setting up chairs for sacrament meeting. I was standing by the hymn cart when someone in my ward, Krista Roy, told me she had read my blog and it blew her mind. I was kind of surprised she read my blog, since I'm not Facebook friends with her. I thought maybe she was referring to my writing style (because I'm conceited like that), but then she said she was surprised at all the details I remembered. She thanked me for remembering so much.
Some girls have told me I had a good memory when I remembered when one of them was entering the MTC and when I remembered that the other one had a British convert who was in love with her.
My roommate Bryton has told me on a few occasions that I have a good memory. He came home one day and I was wearing my blue plaid shorts. He told me he liked my shorts and said he needed to get some fashionable shorts. I told him that my shorts were the first shorts I got after being home from my mission. I did a quick calculation and told him I got them on April 2, 2010. That's when he told me I have a good memory. I told him I just remembered that it was the Friday before general conference.
Another instance occurred on February 6. That was the night that I went to Shopko and bought some heart LED lights and some red, pink, and white Jujyfruits (on my way to and from the store, the radio played Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain," Colbie Caillat's "Brighter than the Sun," and Christina Perri's "A Thousand Years"). It was also the same day we got a new used oven. At around 9:30 p.m., Bryton asked me if I wanted to go running with him. I hadn't gone that day (and wasn't planning on it), so I said yes. I checked the temperature. It was in the low 30s, so I decided to wear pants (instead of shorts) but not a jacket over my green shirt. Just before we were leaving, my roommate Ammon had to ask Bryton something. We left and Bryton told me I could set the pace, but shortly he told me I was too fast. We were running south on 900 East when I told him that I hadn't gone running with someone else since November 27, 2010. He said, "2010? Wow, you have a good memory." We ran past some guy who seemed scared by us, we talked about Josh Powell and another murder, and we dropped off something at Bryton's cousin's mailbox. On our run back Bryton saw suspicious activity in a car and he talked about how he had to exercise for cheaper insurance. We went by an apartment complex and I told Bryton that I had to park there once the previous year, and that on April 1 (2011) I had to carry a bottle of Gatorade from my apartment all the way to my car, and that I passed an apartment where they were playing Rebecca Black's "Friday." I was shocked when he said he didn't know what that was, but I did determine he did actually know what it was.
I think it was fall of 2010 when my parents decided to get a new mirror for my bathroom. We had two mirrors in there, and they were getting rid of the second one because it was in bad shape. I said that I remembered when they put up the second mirror. My mom said that we had both mirrors up in the bathroom when we moved in when I was two. I said that was not the case because I was in third grade when we put it up; it was the same night that there was a school event where they had a telescope to look at the comet. My mom seemed unconvinced but said she had learned not to doubt my memory. (I actually think that we didn't look at the comet in the telescope--we were supposed to but we looked at the moon instead.)
On my mission, after my nephew Franklin was born, I sent an email to my brother saying that I remembered that Allie first spun in circles on December 3, 2004, and that Preston first spun in circles on November 27, 2005, so I wanted to keep track of when Franklin would spin. David responded and said, "Ya-ping wants one third of your memory."
One summer day when I was six, my family went river rafting with my uncle Paul and left me with my aunt Sue. I think this was the time that my cousin Joey and I put water in the sandbox and convinced ourselves we were in quicksand. After we got cleaned up, we were in my aunt's van with a young girl, Whitney, from across the street. Whitney looked at the sky and said excitedly, "An airplane!" and my cousin Chancey said sarcastically, "Wow." There was also a box of Chicken in a Biskit crackers in the van, but at that time I thought they were called Chicken in a Basket. After all these adventures, it was quite late--it was after 9:00 and it was getting dark, and my family still wasn't there. I started saying things like they had forgotten me or that they had died. I knew that wasn't true, but Sue kind of acted like I thought they were. After my family finally arrived, they started talking all about their trip and their funny river guide named Hilary. Months (or years) later, my brother was recalling that trip and that river guide. He said, "I think her name was Tiffany." I said, "It was Hilary." My mom said, "He's right," and ever after that, David used that as evidence of my memory. Once he was telling his friend Heather that I had a good memory, that I remembered the name of the river guide and I wasn't even there. On another occasion he asked me the river guide's name as an illustration of my memory.
So, yeah. This is the kind of thing I'm going to be writing on this blog.
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