I've already remembered July 3 and 4, so the next thing to remember is July 2.
2012. I woke up with "Merry Christmas Darling" stuck in my head for some reason, so I told my roommate Bryton about it. I put on my t-shirt that has an American flag with all the states written on it. I went to my French class, where a girl was wearing a turkey (as in bowling) t-shirt. Our professor talked about how she had a dindon t-shirt, then he looked over at mine, and once he figured it out, he said, "Les états en drapeau." I said it was "pour le quatre juillet." Then that night I went to Dairy Queen for dinner and got a red, white, and blue Starkiss popsicle. I was driving to our ward FHE at Kiwanis park when I saw my roommate Bryton walking over. I stopped and picked him up and drove us over.
2011. I was at home. We went to Smith's Marketplace to buy goodies for North Salt Lake's fireworks. We bought some patriotic brownies and patriotic animal cookies. My overly indulgent parents bought my niece Allie a container of mini Oreos, which she started eating in the car. We went to Village Inn for dinner. Then my grandparents and aunt Sue came up to go to the fireworks. It was a lot busier than I had remembered (since I hadn't been for seven years), and Sue said it had definitely gotten busier. Allie went and sat by Cindy Knuth and talked to her. We heard a distant singer singing "Firework," and I said it was appropriate for the night. After the fireworks, we walked down the gravel path to get home. Sue was saying that the city should keep it up, but my mom pointed out that it wasn't an official path. Then my parents needed to go to the airport. I wasn't comfortable driving there, so my mom drove. I had to quiet down the radio for Bruno Mars's inappropriate "Lazy Song." I needed gas, so she stopped and filled up the tank herself because they were in a hurry. After they were dropped off, I drove home. A Kelly Clarkson song came on (probably "Since U Been Gone"), so when I got home, I looked up the lyrics. I was intrigued that she had a song called "Thankful," so I wondered if it was a Thanksgiving song, but I looked at the lyrics and it wasn't. (My mom thought along the same lines just a few months later when she got me the Thankful album for my birthday, thinking it might have Thanksgiving songs.)
2010. I don't particularly remember this day, but I might have eaten some of the Cool Whip/pudding mixture I had made for a cake the day before.
2009. We went over the baptismal questions with Nick Montez, who was baptized a week later, but some of the details are a little personal, so I won't share them here. We were at the Wynns' house, but Brother Keane was there. I think he offered us breath mints, acting as though they were chewing tobacco (the container was shaped the same). This is my journal entry for the day: "So we've been getting in a little later since we've been teaching Nick Montez and getting him ready for baptism. I've also been really tired, as I am tonight."
2008. In the morning, Elder Bramall and I boarded a bus to go up to Chelan, where we were meeting the Omak elders to go on exchanges. Elder Brimhall came back with me to East Wenatchee, and on the bus I was reading Daniel in the Old Testament; Elder Brimhall later commented on that. We went out and did work. We tracted a complex where an old lady told us not to come back. We stopped at the Adamses' apartment, since Elder Brimhall needed some more water. Then we went home for dinner, but we didn't eat anything. I was too hot to care. I looked at some PIs (potential investigators) we could go see. We stopped at one who wasn't interested and had Fourth of July lights set up. We walked by a house where a mean dog was chained up; it almost got Elder Brimhall. We went to another house to check on a name, but that person had moved, but we talked to the woman there, and she said we could come back. Her name was Glenda, and Elder Brimhall said, "Oh, like The Wizard of Oz." He took down her number. Then we were walking by a house and there was a woman working in her garden. I was really bad at talking to people outside, so Elder Brimhall started talking to her. She was a member (Sister Krueger), and she invited us in, where she was canning peaches. Elder Brimhall learned that she was related to someone he had baptized when he served in Wenatchee, so he called that person up. Then I wanted to go check up on a house we had tracted into a week or so earlier. We had talked to the husband, who said his wife's family were all Mormons, and he said they might have to have us over for dinner sometime. Since they seemed friendly, I went back with Elder Brimhall. This time the wife answered. She let us in and we talked with her. She had gone inactive after a divorce, but her kids in Bremerton, WA, were still active. Her present husband (whom we had met) wasn't a member. She was making dinner and asked if we wanted some, and we declined. But then her husband came home, and they offered again, so we accepted. They gave us spaghetti with sausage. They were very kind, and after dinner they let Elder Brimhall share a spiritual thought. I thought it was miraculous that we had decided not to eat dinner, not knowing that we would get to eat it with them and thus have a good conversation. Then we went home, and Jess, who was the grandson of Sister Knighten (the woman we lived with) and whom we were preparing for baptism, was in and out. He came in and said something terrible happened, that Sister Knighten's cousin had fallen down the stairs in the other part of the duplex (where Jess's dad and uncle lived). We went over, but the man was fine. Then that night Sister Knighten came into our study area to return a chair she had borrowed. I was in the bedroom, the next room over. The door was open, and I was changing my pants. Sister Knighten left rather hastily, so I worried she had seen me with my pants off. Here is my journal entry for the day, which mostly reiterates everything I just said:
"Today I once again had the task of taking over the area. Today was sort of an anecdotal day. We rode the bus to Chelan so I could bring Elder Brimhall home here. We tried to see some potentials. We were able to drop a few, but most weren't home. We came home for dinner, but Sister Knighten's relatives were upstairs, so we got water and went downstairs. I was looking at the potentials sheets, enjoying the cool and resting, so I didn't eat dinner.
"Then we walked to see some more PIs. At one was a vicious dog that almost got Elder Brimhall, but it was tied up. The next PI had moved, but the current resident is now a PI. Then walking back[,] Sister Krueger was working in her yard [Editor's note: dangling participle], so Elder Brimhall said hi to her, both of us not knowing her. She gave us water, and then learned Elder Brimhall had met her and worked with her relatives in Wenatchee.
"Then we saw Dan and Shawna, a PMF we tracted into, and they fed us dinner. She doesn't want her records here. We'll probably ask the members at the end of the street to work casually with them.
"Then we came home and Jess popped in and out, then came back in and told us Sister Knighten's cousin had fallen down her sons' stairs. He was fine, though. Then tonight Sister Knighten borrowed a chair, and when she came back down I wasn't wearing pants. I hope she didn't notice."
2007. This might have been the day I wore my blue glasses to work, but I don't know.
2002. I'm not sure, but this might have been the time that my mom and I and my grandparents came home from Iowa. While we had been gone, my Fourth of July window clings had arrived in the mail, so I put them up in the windows.
Related Posts:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
Independence Eve
A year of holiday memories
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
July 3-4, 2012
Since it will soon be the Fourth of July, I am going to remember what I can about last year's July 3 and July 4.
On July 3, I went to work, and I was excited that after work I would be able to head home to see North Salt Lake's fireworks. I drove home and decided to stop at Smith's to get some Fourth of July cookies. Gotye's "Somebody I Used to Know" was on the radio. Susanne texted me about treats, and I told her I was getting some right then. I got patriotic Oreos and patriotic Keebler rainbow cookies--they don't have either of those this year, sadly. I looked at the drinks and was intrigued by a cucumber/lime Gatorade, so I got it. I paid for my stuff using the Smith's gift card my mom had given me. Then I drove home. I went inside the house (which was empty, since my parents were on vacation) and I found my Andy Griffith Show DVDs to take back to Provo, in case I wanted to watch them since Andy Griffith had just died. Susanne, Matt, and Allie arrived, and we got some blankets and walked up to the Eaglewood golf course to see the fireworks. We passed the Andersons, who said hi to us. It was really busy, and the fireworks were closer to us than usual. We munched on both my cookies and the ones that Susanne had brought (those soft sugar cookies). I told them how I used to eat those cookies a lot when I worked at Walmart, and I kind of got sick of them. Matt said he used to get the big pink ones out of the vending machine all the time, so he got sick of them. Nan tried my cucumber Gatorade. I think I talked about how I was going to drive back to Provo that night, and that I had my Jan Terri CDs to listen to. Susanne said that Jan Terri was similar to someone we knew, and I talked about some of their parallels, how I wondered if Jan Terri was for real, but then I remembered this individual, and I realized that Jan Terri very likely could be for real, since the individual we know is very much for real. Nan had glowsticks for us to put on. A distant singer started singing Katy Perry's "Firework," and I said that the previous year they had played that right before they started the fireworks. Allie said that she might see a movie with that song--the new Katy Perry movie. I said I didn't think that was a good movie for a little girl. I then asked everyone who they thought was more talented, Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, because I think Gaga is much more talented. Susanne brought up the issue of "Born This Way" copying that Madonna song, and Matt said the songs weren't very similar. After the fireworks, we walked back to the house. We passed the Andersons, who said that Susanne should move into the Christensens' house behind them, but they would see their autistic son Ty with no clothes on. I was worried about our cat Jenny, since I hadn't seen her at all while I was home. I took my Gatorade and cookies in the car and put in Jan Terri's Baby Blues CD. I was still wearing my glowstick. After Jan Terri was done, I listened to the radio. It was an enjoyable drive. When I walked into my apartment, my roommate Bryton had a Hispanic friend over. I finished up my Gatorade and went to bed.
The next morning I was awakened by the sounds of the Freedom Festival. I couldn't fall asleep again, so I got up and got ready and put on my red patriotic Snoopy and Woodstock shirt. Our roommate Cameron left to go with some of our horse friends to the parade. Bryton and I walked over later, having heard where to meet those friends. As we were walking down the street, a man with no shirt and short shorts was running by, and Bryton asked, "Is that a Speedo?" I said they were just short shorts, and he said it was ugly. For some reason we were talking about the hymn "The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close"; Bryton said the BYU Singers had a beautiful version. We walked along a side road and I was surprised at an abandoned house. We went to 960 N and University, where our friends were supposed to be, but we didn't see them (they were on the other side of the street). Bryton was more patriotic and less cynical than I, so he did a lot more clapping and saluting. He was going home to Farmington, so he wanted to leave, so I left with him. We walked near the Smith Fieldhouse and hopped over a little fence. We were impressed with the serenity and grounds behind the Fieldhouse, where we had never been before. We walked along the trail along the campus stream. For some reason I was talking about the movie Beetlejuice; I said it was a movie that I wouldn't watch anymore. Then we went back to our apartment, and I turned on my Fourth of July playlist. Somehow I got on YouTube. I found a video by these people who claimed to have patriotic alligators that really liked the song "I'm Proud to Be an American"; it was funny only because of how seriously the gator owners took it.
I saw a Brad Paisley video with Andy Griffith and I found a Fourth of July country music playlist, so I watched a Lady Antebellum video. Then I wanted to go out and find something fun to do, since I didn't want to be alone in my apartment all day. I walked around and saw Cameron and Carissa sitting underneath a tree across the street from Regency apartments. I sat by them, but they mostly ignored me (Carissa was psychoanalyzing Cameron), so I pulled out my planner and filled in the calendar in the back and doodled month images. Some other friends, including Hanna, came by and said they had gone to get Slurpees, but they didn't know where Carissa had gone. They said they were going to get in the pool and invited me. So I went home and got in my swimsuit and went back over to Regency. I hung out with Kristen and Hanna in the deep end; I held on to the edge. I told them about how I had two songs in my head, "Leanne" by Jan Terri and "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha, since I remembered the previous year when that song was playing when I crossed the finish line at the Freedom Run. Hanna talked about how I called them horses (Kristen had not yet read that blog post). We talked about how Carissa was interested in Cameron. Some more people came to the pool, and Kristen wanted to get more people to come play a toothpick game in the pool. I went to my apartment to get some toothpicks, even though I wasn't going to play. Kristen came with me and invited Alex across the hall to go to the pool as well. A bunch of people came for the toothpick game; they were a little annoyed that I had brought colored toothpicks. I didn't play because I can't swim and I can't see without my glasses. Michelle Sutterfield came over to the pool, but she didn't get in. She was wearing blue jeans, a white shirt with dogs on it, and a red bow in her hair. Another ward came to the Regency pool, so I left. Carissa came over to our apartment before Cameron had to leave for work. I offered them my cookies. I had a glass of milk while finishing off my Oreos and watching the "Independence Day" clip of the Peanuts Motion Comics Collection. I might have done some homework, but I can't remember. I was Facebook fasting that day, but I did keep checking our ward's Facebook page (looking only at that one page) to see if the ward was doing anything fun. They said they were going to have a bring-your-own-meat barbecue, but I didn't feel like buying any meat. I boiled some corn on the cob that I had grabbed from home and ate it for dinner. Then I went over to Pickup Place (the house across the street from my complex, named after the owners, the Pickups). Francisco had made some artichoke. Russell Ochoa had never heard of artichoke before, and asked what it was in Spanish. I was glad that I knew it was alcachofa, but it was Francisco who answered him. Someone told Nestor Romero that he was mean for making people work in his store on the Fourth of July. I grabbed my water bottle from my apartment, and then eventually we all left to go up to see the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We encountered a fruit tree and ate some of the fruits from it. Kara Mangum said they were cherries, but we recognized that they were small plums. We picked a bunch of them and ate them on our way I ended up walking with Michelle, Ellie, and Francisco. At one point I saw some goathead plants growing, so I stopped to try to pull them up. Michelle asked what I was doing. Then I educated them about goatheads, how evil they are. Francisco said they must serve some purpose, and I said they are used as aphrodisiacs, which Ellie found funny. There were some spraypainted letters on the ground (the kind that water people use) that said "ELI"; Michelle said they almost said "Ellie." We passed the Deseret Towers field, where a bunch of EFY kids were doing some kind of activity. We made it up to the MTC field. We sat with our ward and watched some unattended little Asian kids ride a skateboard down the sidewalk in the field. Some of us played some kind of game, but I can't remember what it was. We took ward pictures, and it just so happened that all of us in the back row were wearing red shirts. A woman came around selling cupcakes. I regretted not buying one, since it was my last opportunity to eat baked goods until Halloween. I asked Michelle whether she was wearing her dog shirt because of the dogs or because it was white; she said it was because it was white. Then we decided to move to a different spot on the fields. I remember telling Chris that his Facebook profile picture made him look like Gilligan. I think Scott Boyce talked about how much he liked the Fourth of July. I remember talking about how the Beach Boys were performing, and someone said they would have to sing "Salt Lake City." Someone who wasn't from Utah thought she meant just changing the words to "California Girls," not realizing that "Salt Lake City" was actually a song. After the fireworks were over, we walked back home. I told Michelle about the patriotic gator video. We met at Pickup Place to watch fireworks some people had brought. I stood on two posts in the parking lot. Some out-of-towners came to watch. They had a tiny baby, and I was surprised they were watching more fireworks with such a little baby. Their car was packed with stuff, not only in the car but also on top. Someone took a picture because it was so ridiculous. Then I went to my apartment and Cameron came home from work. It was after midnight, and I was sad that the Fourth of July was over. I turned off my flag neon light and went to bed in a Peanuts Fourth of July shirt.
I know I will remember more things after I post this.
Related posts:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
Independence Eve
A Year of Holiday Memories
On July 3, I went to work, and I was excited that after work I would be able to head home to see North Salt Lake's fireworks. I drove home and decided to stop at Smith's to get some Fourth of July cookies. Gotye's "Somebody I Used to Know" was on the radio. Susanne texted me about treats, and I told her I was getting some right then. I got patriotic Oreos and patriotic Keebler rainbow cookies--they don't have either of those this year, sadly. I looked at the drinks and was intrigued by a cucumber/lime Gatorade, so I got it. I paid for my stuff using the Smith's gift card my mom had given me. Then I drove home. I went inside the house (which was empty, since my parents were on vacation) and I found my Andy Griffith Show DVDs to take back to Provo, in case I wanted to watch them since Andy Griffith had just died. Susanne, Matt, and Allie arrived, and we got some blankets and walked up to the Eaglewood golf course to see the fireworks. We passed the Andersons, who said hi to us. It was really busy, and the fireworks were closer to us than usual. We munched on both my cookies and the ones that Susanne had brought (those soft sugar cookies). I told them how I used to eat those cookies a lot when I worked at Walmart, and I kind of got sick of them. Matt said he used to get the big pink ones out of the vending machine all the time, so he got sick of them. Nan tried my cucumber Gatorade. I think I talked about how I was going to drive back to Provo that night, and that I had my Jan Terri CDs to listen to. Susanne said that Jan Terri was similar to someone we knew, and I talked about some of their parallels, how I wondered if Jan Terri was for real, but then I remembered this individual, and I realized that Jan Terri very likely could be for real, since the individual we know is very much for real. Nan had glowsticks for us to put on. A distant singer started singing Katy Perry's "Firework," and I said that the previous year they had played that right before they started the fireworks. Allie said that she might see a movie with that song--the new Katy Perry movie. I said I didn't think that was a good movie for a little girl. I then asked everyone who they thought was more talented, Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, because I think Gaga is much more talented. Susanne brought up the issue of "Born This Way" copying that Madonna song, and Matt said the songs weren't very similar. After the fireworks, we walked back to the house. We passed the Andersons, who said that Susanne should move into the Christensens' house behind them, but they would see their autistic son Ty with no clothes on. I was worried about our cat Jenny, since I hadn't seen her at all while I was home. I took my Gatorade and cookies in the car and put in Jan Terri's Baby Blues CD. I was still wearing my glowstick. After Jan Terri was done, I listened to the radio. It was an enjoyable drive. When I walked into my apartment, my roommate Bryton had a Hispanic friend over. I finished up my Gatorade and went to bed.
The next morning I was awakened by the sounds of the Freedom Festival. I couldn't fall asleep again, so I got up and got ready and put on my red patriotic Snoopy and Woodstock shirt. Our roommate Cameron left to go with some of our horse friends to the parade. Bryton and I walked over later, having heard where to meet those friends. As we were walking down the street, a man with no shirt and short shorts was running by, and Bryton asked, "Is that a Speedo?" I said they were just short shorts, and he said it was ugly. For some reason we were talking about the hymn "The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close"; Bryton said the BYU Singers had a beautiful version. We walked along a side road and I was surprised at an abandoned house. We went to 960 N and University, where our friends were supposed to be, but we didn't see them (they were on the other side of the street). Bryton was more patriotic and less cynical than I, so he did a lot more clapping and saluting. He was going home to Farmington, so he wanted to leave, so I left with him. We walked near the Smith Fieldhouse and hopped over a little fence. We were impressed with the serenity and grounds behind the Fieldhouse, where we had never been before. We walked along the trail along the campus stream. For some reason I was talking about the movie Beetlejuice; I said it was a movie that I wouldn't watch anymore. Then we went back to our apartment, and I turned on my Fourth of July playlist. Somehow I got on YouTube. I found a video by these people who claimed to have patriotic alligators that really liked the song "I'm Proud to Be an American"; it was funny only because of how seriously the gator owners took it.
I saw a Brad Paisley video with Andy Griffith and I found a Fourth of July country music playlist, so I watched a Lady Antebellum video. Then I wanted to go out and find something fun to do, since I didn't want to be alone in my apartment all day. I walked around and saw Cameron and Carissa sitting underneath a tree across the street from Regency apartments. I sat by them, but they mostly ignored me (Carissa was psychoanalyzing Cameron), so I pulled out my planner and filled in the calendar in the back and doodled month images. Some other friends, including Hanna, came by and said they had gone to get Slurpees, but they didn't know where Carissa had gone. They said they were going to get in the pool and invited me. So I went home and got in my swimsuit and went back over to Regency. I hung out with Kristen and Hanna in the deep end; I held on to the edge. I told them about how I had two songs in my head, "Leanne" by Jan Terri and "Tik Tok" by Ke$ha, since I remembered the previous year when that song was playing when I crossed the finish line at the Freedom Run. Hanna talked about how I called them horses (Kristen had not yet read that blog post). We talked about how Carissa was interested in Cameron. Some more people came to the pool, and Kristen wanted to get more people to come play a toothpick game in the pool. I went to my apartment to get some toothpicks, even though I wasn't going to play. Kristen came with me and invited Alex across the hall to go to the pool as well. A bunch of people came for the toothpick game; they were a little annoyed that I had brought colored toothpicks. I didn't play because I can't swim and I can't see without my glasses. Michelle Sutterfield came over to the pool, but she didn't get in. She was wearing blue jeans, a white shirt with dogs on it, and a red bow in her hair. Another ward came to the Regency pool, so I left. Carissa came over to our apartment before Cameron had to leave for work. I offered them my cookies. I had a glass of milk while finishing off my Oreos and watching the "Independence Day" clip of the Peanuts Motion Comics Collection. I might have done some homework, but I can't remember. I was Facebook fasting that day, but I did keep checking our ward's Facebook page (looking only at that one page) to see if the ward was doing anything fun. They said they were going to have a bring-your-own-meat barbecue, but I didn't feel like buying any meat. I boiled some corn on the cob that I had grabbed from home and ate it for dinner. Then I went over to Pickup Place (the house across the street from my complex, named after the owners, the Pickups). Francisco had made some artichoke. Russell Ochoa had never heard of artichoke before, and asked what it was in Spanish. I was glad that I knew it was alcachofa, but it was Francisco who answered him. Someone told Nestor Romero that he was mean for making people work in his store on the Fourth of July. I grabbed my water bottle from my apartment, and then eventually we all left to go up to see the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We encountered a fruit tree and ate some of the fruits from it. Kara Mangum said they were cherries, but we recognized that they were small plums. We picked a bunch of them and ate them on our way I ended up walking with Michelle, Ellie, and Francisco. At one point I saw some goathead plants growing, so I stopped to try to pull them up. Michelle asked what I was doing. Then I educated them about goatheads, how evil they are. Francisco said they must serve some purpose, and I said they are used as aphrodisiacs, which Ellie found funny. There were some spraypainted letters on the ground (the kind that water people use) that said "ELI"; Michelle said they almost said "Ellie." We passed the Deseret Towers field, where a bunch of EFY kids were doing some kind of activity. We made it up to the MTC field. We sat with our ward and watched some unattended little Asian kids ride a skateboard down the sidewalk in the field. Some of us played some kind of game, but I can't remember what it was. We took ward pictures, and it just so happened that all of us in the back row were wearing red shirts. A woman came around selling cupcakes. I regretted not buying one, since it was my last opportunity to eat baked goods until Halloween. I asked Michelle whether she was wearing her dog shirt because of the dogs or because it was white; she said it was because it was white. Then we decided to move to a different spot on the fields. I remember telling Chris that his Facebook profile picture made him look like Gilligan. I think Scott Boyce talked about how much he liked the Fourth of July. I remember talking about how the Beach Boys were performing, and someone said they would have to sing "Salt Lake City." Someone who wasn't from Utah thought she meant just changing the words to "California Girls," not realizing that "Salt Lake City" was actually a song. After the fireworks were over, we walked back home. I told Michelle about the patriotic gator video. We met at Pickup Place to watch fireworks some people had brought. I stood on two posts in the parking lot. Some out-of-towners came to watch. They had a tiny baby, and I was surprised they were watching more fireworks with such a little baby. Their car was packed with stuff, not only in the car but also on top. Someone took a picture because it was so ridiculous. Then I went to my apartment and Cameron came home from work. It was after midnight, and I was sad that the Fourth of July was over. I turned off my flag neon light and went to bed in a Peanuts Fourth of July shirt.
I know I will remember more things after I post this.
Related posts:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
Independence Eve
A Year of Holiday Memories
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Day before Father's Day
It's almost Father's Day, so I'm going to remember what I can about the day before this paternal holiday.
2012. In the morning I went to Winegar's grocery store and bought a box of Whoppers, one of my dad's favorite candies, and some tortilla chips for my mission reunion. I went home and wrote a note and wrapped up the Whoppers. My sister and I had bought my dad something online, but it hadn't come yet, and I was going back to Provo that day, since I had a mission reunion in Draper. I went to the Draper Temple, where we did a session. Afterward, we went to President Clark's house. I can't remember too much about what distinguished this reunion from others, but I do remember some things. I took a picture of my transfer board picture:
I was in the Clarks' backyard. They had bear decorations, and I noticed some mushrooms growing in their garden, so I facetiously asked if the mushrooms were decorations too. I remember talking to Elder Ellsworth about his companion Elder Draney, who became a transvestite. I talked to one Elder Harris, who had served in Lewiston before I was there. I asked him about his experiences in Lewiston; he didn't remember much, but he did remember an old man named Joe; he actually meant George. Someone had bought a box of Krispy Kremes; I was able to eat parts of the one with red, white, and blue sprinkles. Then it was time for me to return to Provo. President Clark noted how everyone had gathered there because of me, since I had made the Facebook event page. When I got back in Provo, I stopped at Smith's to go grocery shopping, since my mom had given me a Smith's gift card. As I was going in, Michael Barlow and Tek Fish (and maybe Jimmy Murphy) saw me and said hi. They asked why I was dressed up, and they wondered why I had a mission reunion in June. Then I went back to my apartment. I brought in my stuff, and my roommate Cameron had some friends over. I went downstairs and got the mail. I was so excited to find a giant envelope addressed from J. Terri. I excitedly came in and showed Cameron. He got excited too, so I opened it up and pulled out three burned CDs and an autographed picture of Jan Terri. Cameron looked at the stuff and said, "This is her handwriting!" Then he had to explain to his friends what this was all about. He showed her the "Losing You" and "Get Down Goblin" music videos.
Cameron's friend said, "I'm really excited for you." But she said it rather unenthusiastically.
2011. My cousin Jesse was having his birthday celebration at Hogle Zoo, so I had invited a friend from a previous ward, Lori, to go. My mom suggested going with so that she could get us in for free. I met up with Lori and she liked my Eddie Munster t-shirt. I introduced her to my mom and Allie. Lori asked Allie how old she was, and then told her that she would soon be baptized. My mom insisted on going on the train. So we did. Then my mom left and Lori and I sat in some shade and we talked about various things. Eventually Jesse and Lisa came, and so did one of their friends. I borrowed some sunscreen from their friend. Then we proceeded to look at the animals. But Lori didn't care to stay with Jesse and co., and we went ahead. She had never been to Hogle Zoo before. We went to the exhibit that was a remnant of Nature's Nightmares, and she couldn't stand to look at the mouse, and she told me she was glad I hadn't taken her to see the bats. When we were at the ostriches and giraffes, she talked about people from our ward. Then she told me she needed to leave because she needed to go babysitting. I walked her to the entrance. At one place Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" was playing, and Lori said she wondered if she would ever sing about anything different. As she left, I said, "We should do this again," and she said, "Yeah," but it sounded insincere, and I haven't talked to her since then. Then I went and found Jesse and Lisa. Lisa asked me where my friend was. We almost got some Slurpees or something at the zoo, but they were expensive, so we left. I rode with Jesse and Lisa so they could take me to my mom at their mom's house. As we were approaching their car, I saw a bumper sticker that was horribly faded that said "These colors don't run." I found it ironic. Lisa wanted to get Slurpees, but then she wanted shaved ice, and then we didn't get anything. Both my grandma and my mom were at Sue's house, and we visited. We talked about when Peter hacked Jesse's Facebook, saying he was gay. Grandma said she was sick because she thought it was real. Lisa was mad that people had believed it. We had a conversation about our cousin Tammy's blog post about their kid Jacob, who claimed he had once been an adult. In another conversation, my mom said to the Thompsons, "There was a time when we even liked your dad," and they didn't believe that.
2010. My mom was on vacation, so it was just me and my dad at home. I gave my dad the present I got him, the new Alice in Wonderland movie. We went out to dinner at Chuck-A-Rama. It was a very quiet dinner. I remember getting their Slurpee-like drink. Then we went home. I think we might have watched the end of Munster, Go Home! which we had started watching the night before. We also watched Alice in Wonderland. I was on the elliptical machine for the movies. After Alice in Wonderland we watched the special features. Then he went to bed, and I went on Facebook and "liked" the Munster, Go Home! page.
2009. I think this was the day that we went to the Lewiston stake center to meet our mission president, President Clark, who was leaving. He shined our shoes for us. When he shined mine (which were quite ugly, by the way), he said, "These shoes have tracted many a street," since I was the oldest there (I think for some reason the Clarkston elders weren't there). Sister Clark was giving us M&Ms because we were "Missionaries with a Message." There were some that were mini M&Ms, and he said they should give them to Elder Hightower (who was quite short) and I said "and Sister Bruner."
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This morning we fixed my bike and made a lot of good contacts with less-actives. In one complex there must be one righteous person, otherwise fire and brimstone would have rained on it. We saw three potentials and one less-active, all of whom were the spawn of Satan. We did tract a mostly nice street, but the people weren't interested. We had dinner with the Sanchezes as well."
The less-active man in the apartment complex was quite rude to us, even though he said he believed. I can only really remember one other person there. Elder Bramall told me that he had previously talked to a man there, who seemed deeply touched by our message, but when he went back, the man's girlfriend or wife was really rude. So we went back this day and she answered the door again. She was quite rude. Elder Bramall said something about how he hoped she wasn't angry, and she said, "I am angry." I don't mind so much if people aren't interested; they just shouldn't be rude about it. At the Sanchezes' that night, we had fried chicken and fried fish, but there wasn't much chicken, and I felt guilty eating chicken if there wasn't much of it. So I ate the fish, and I didn't really care for it.
2007. I know we were at the Music to the Maxx store in Bountiful so I could get something for my dad. I know I bought him a double feature of The Addams Family/Addams Family Values, but I can't remember if I got it there or at Smith's Marketplace, where we went next. I know that at Smith's Marketplace I got the second season of The Flying Nun.
2012. In the morning I went to Winegar's grocery store and bought a box of Whoppers, one of my dad's favorite candies, and some tortilla chips for my mission reunion. I went home and wrote a note and wrapped up the Whoppers. My sister and I had bought my dad something online, but it hadn't come yet, and I was going back to Provo that day, since I had a mission reunion in Draper. I went to the Draper Temple, where we did a session. Afterward, we went to President Clark's house. I can't remember too much about what distinguished this reunion from others, but I do remember some things. I took a picture of my transfer board picture:
Cameron's friend said, "I'm really excited for you." But she said it rather unenthusiastically.
2011. My cousin Jesse was having his birthday celebration at Hogle Zoo, so I had invited a friend from a previous ward, Lori, to go. My mom suggested going with so that she could get us in for free. I met up with Lori and she liked my Eddie Munster t-shirt. I introduced her to my mom and Allie. Lori asked Allie how old she was, and then told her that she would soon be baptized. My mom insisted on going on the train. So we did. Then my mom left and Lori and I sat in some shade and we talked about various things. Eventually Jesse and Lisa came, and so did one of their friends. I borrowed some sunscreen from their friend. Then we proceeded to look at the animals. But Lori didn't care to stay with Jesse and co., and we went ahead. She had never been to Hogle Zoo before. We went to the exhibit that was a remnant of Nature's Nightmares, and she couldn't stand to look at the mouse, and she told me she was glad I hadn't taken her to see the bats. When we were at the ostriches and giraffes, she talked about people from our ward. Then she told me she needed to leave because she needed to go babysitting. I walked her to the entrance. At one place Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me" was playing, and Lori said she wondered if she would ever sing about anything different. As she left, I said, "We should do this again," and she said, "Yeah," but it sounded insincere, and I haven't talked to her since then. Then I went and found Jesse and Lisa. Lisa asked me where my friend was. We almost got some Slurpees or something at the zoo, but they were expensive, so we left. I rode with Jesse and Lisa so they could take me to my mom at their mom's house. As we were approaching their car, I saw a bumper sticker that was horribly faded that said "These colors don't run." I found it ironic. Lisa wanted to get Slurpees, but then she wanted shaved ice, and then we didn't get anything. Both my grandma and my mom were at Sue's house, and we visited. We talked about when Peter hacked Jesse's Facebook, saying he was gay. Grandma said she was sick because she thought it was real. Lisa was mad that people had believed it. We had a conversation about our cousin Tammy's blog post about their kid Jacob, who claimed he had once been an adult. In another conversation, my mom said to the Thompsons, "There was a time when we even liked your dad," and they didn't believe that.
2010. My mom was on vacation, so it was just me and my dad at home. I gave my dad the present I got him, the new Alice in Wonderland movie. We went out to dinner at Chuck-A-Rama. It was a very quiet dinner. I remember getting their Slurpee-like drink. Then we went home. I think we might have watched the end of Munster, Go Home! which we had started watching the night before. We also watched Alice in Wonderland. I was on the elliptical machine for the movies. After Alice in Wonderland we watched the special features. Then he went to bed, and I went on Facebook and "liked" the Munster, Go Home! page.
2009. I think this was the day that we went to the Lewiston stake center to meet our mission president, President Clark, who was leaving. He shined our shoes for us. When he shined mine (which were quite ugly, by the way), he said, "These shoes have tracted many a street," since I was the oldest there (I think for some reason the Clarkston elders weren't there). Sister Clark was giving us M&Ms because we were "Missionaries with a Message." There were some that were mini M&Ms, and he said they should give them to Elder Hightower (who was quite short) and I said "and Sister Bruner."
2008. This is my journal entry for the day:
"This morning we fixed my bike and made a lot of good contacts with less-actives. In one complex there must be one righteous person, otherwise fire and brimstone would have rained on it. We saw three potentials and one less-active, all of whom were the spawn of Satan. We did tract a mostly nice street, but the people weren't interested. We had dinner with the Sanchezes as well."
The less-active man in the apartment complex was quite rude to us, even though he said he believed. I can only really remember one other person there. Elder Bramall told me that he had previously talked to a man there, who seemed deeply touched by our message, but when he went back, the man's girlfriend or wife was really rude. So we went back this day and she answered the door again. She was quite rude. Elder Bramall said something about how he hoped she wasn't angry, and she said, "I am angry." I don't mind so much if people aren't interested; they just shouldn't be rude about it. At the Sanchezes' that night, we had fried chicken and fried fish, but there wasn't much chicken, and I felt guilty eating chicken if there wasn't much of it. So I ate the fish, and I didn't really care for it.
2007. I know we were at the Music to the Maxx store in Bountiful so I could get something for my dad. I know I bought him a double feature of The Addams Family/Addams Family Values, but I can't remember if I got it there or at Smith's Marketplace, where we went next. I know that at Smith's Marketplace I got the second season of The Flying Nun.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Last day of school
Public schools either just got out for the summer or are about to get out. That doesn't apply to me anymore. But I'm going to remember when it did--that precious last day of school. Now, I would be able to remember more if I had my yearbooks with me, but I don't, so I will have to go on what I can remember. I know I will remember more things after I post this.
2007. Both of my parents were gone that morning, and we had recently sold our "pink" car, so both the Subaru and the Taurus were gone, which meant I had to drive the Suburban to school. I was a little nervous to drive it to school, and I think I even had Susanne back it out of the garage for me. Then I drove to school and parked in the back parking lot. I got signatures from various people. I remember a discussion about how impersonal the "Hags" acronym was. I got a signing from Mrs. Jamison, who had been my French teacher. After she signed mine, she told me that she almost said she hoped I would get called to a French-speaking mission, but then she realized that she wished I would learn a harder language than French. (And then I got English.) She said that she wanted to know where I got called, so I should make sure it was announced in the Clipper. (That never happened either, neither when I left nor when I came home.) Eventually it was time for me to go home to get ready for graduation. I got in my grad garb and we took pictures of me in front of the fireplace. Then we went over to the "Turtle Building" for commencement exercises. People seemed impressed by all my honor cords. I had a light green one for science, a gold one for High Honors, and two light yellow ones for foreign language (one for Spanish and one for French). While we were standing waiting to go in, I remember someone saying they had asked Brian Mann if he was gay, and he had said, "No, but I support my brother," and they said that thought Brian just wasn't brave enough to admit it. Then we went in and sat down. We all had to fill out little cards with our names on them that the senior officers would read as we pretended to get our diplomas. I filled mine out as "R. Mark Melville" because I was in the habit of doing so (now I usually leave the R. off). They announced that there was going to be an opening remark by Jenelyn Perry, and when she got up she announced that it was a prayer for anyone who wanted to participate. I took off my graduation cap with others, hoping that I would put it on right again. When it was time to go up, I was surprised at all the cheers I got when they announced my name. But my cheers were nothing compared to Jacob Merrill's, the special needs kid who was after me. Then we had to wait in long lines to get our real diplomas. Then afterward I talked with my friend Houston Rowe. My family took pictures with me:
Then we went home and had pizza. The Thompsons also came over. Everyone had fun looking at my yearbook. Jesse read my emo poem, "I Am a Corpse," which was published in the back. He was surprised at how depressing it was and said, "It gets better." Allie looked at my picture. Of course, I was wearing that little fake tux in my picture, and there was a girl's photo next to mine. Allie pointed to her picture and said, "Who's that lady? Did you marry her?" Chancey, Jesse, and I all thought that was quite funny, so we laughed, and we were reproved by our parents, because apparently our laughter had interrupted Grandpa. After Grandpa told his story, we told them why we had been laughing. Since I was completely friendless, my graduation celebration consisted of watching episodes of The Flying Nun. One of the episodes made Sue tear up. After everyone left, I went online and wrote a blog post on my TV.com profile. (Apparently TV.com doesn't have blogs anymore, so I have to link to it on my Gamespot account, which you get automatically with a TV.com account.) I chatted with Jesse on Messenger. The title of my blog, "The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things," was a line from Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter." I couldn't get quotation marks in the title, but Jesse told me that it was fine. He told me that the poem was about religions leading people astray before eating them up, with the carpenter being Jesus and the walrus being Buddha (because he's fat), but I didn't buy it.
2006. I wore my "Woods Cross Juniors" shirt, since it was the last time I would be a junior. I remember seeing seniors at school and thinking it must be sad for them, and I knew I would be in the same position the following year. At the moment I can't remember what else happened that day.
2005. The administration for some reason thought it would be funny to turn on the fire alarms that day, but it was mostly just annoying. (We had had real arson fires in February of that year.) I remember Natalie Cook was videoing people and videoed me and asked me to share something. So I shared words of "advice" from all the old TV shows I watched, such as "You cannot judge a doctor by the way he carves a turkey" and "Every silver lining has its cloud." (Yeah. I was really weird.)
2004. I remember encouraging my friend Houston to come up to the seminary building to get signatures. He did, but he left shortly after. I signed weird things in yearbooks--of all my school years, I think I was weirdest in ninth grade. Special-needs kids Jacob Merrill and Andrew Church had stickers they put in yearbooks. Brad Byington signed my yearbook saying he hoped I would go on the scout trip that summer. (I didn't.) Houston and Josh Ferrer wanted to go to Mrs. Birdsall's classroom to play Scrabble. I told Mrs. Birdsall that I was going to take French the next year. There were some former students visiting her.
2003. The administration had had the brilliant idea that we should still report to all our classes that day, but there would be fifteen minutes between classes for yearbook signing. It only took a few periods for them to realize that was a terrible idea. During the science class, we got our cement boats we had made back (mine didn't float). During the choir class, Dennis Jones was really amused at what I wrote in his yearbook: "Witches--or is that Hags?" I rode the bus home, but when I got to the church/bus stop, no one was there, so I had to walk home. I remember my brother saying, "Well, that was anticlimactic."
2002. This was the only year that school ever got out in May for me (it was May 31). I can't seem to recall what happened at school, but I think that night Jesse had a sleepover at our house, although maybe he only came over but didn't spend the night. There was a Powerpuff Girls marathon in which they counted down the best episodes. I was disappointed in their choice of the best one (the one where all the characters switched bodies).
2001. I brought my Niagara Falls four-color pen to sign yearbooks with. There was a fifth-grader who would talk to me because he liked my Charlie Brown shirt. He asked me to sign his yearbook, so I signed it with my attempt at a Charlie Brown drawing. Kari Fox had brought some Otter Pops, so she took them to the cafeteria freezer so they would freeze. We all signed yearbooks, and I lent my pen to someone, and it ended up missing. I was really sad. Montess Vilchez was crying, and someone said to her, "Don't cry!" But I was sad too, although I didn't cry. When it was time to leave for the day, the Otter Pops still weren't frozen. I had mine open in Laura Ulmer's car on the way home, and right by Walker's gas station, Shantel Cornejo and another girl jumped out into traffic, and Laura slammed on the brakes, making my liquid Otter Pop splash all over me and my yearbook. Laura apologized, and I wondered what made Shantel think she could dart into traffic like that. When they dropped me off, I dowsed myself with the hose, since I was sticky and I thought it was a good way to start off summer.
2000. We had to do a quiz on the states, and I was pretty annoyed. We also had to write a letter to ourselves. I can't remember what else happened.
1999. I remember Mr. Williams showing us a Looney Tunes summer vacation TV special. Then my mom and I went to the building where our eye doctor was; it was very rainy. Then it was time for David's graduation. When everyone was graduated, people threw their caps up, and one cap got stuck on a ledge. After his graduation, David had pictures taken with his friends Michael, Preston, and Heather. They were silly and moved their tassels back as though they hadn't graduated, and my mom had to tell them to put them back. Then we went to China Platter with Preston's family. Sara Hawkes (Preston's younger sister) asked David if he still had his Mad Hatter hat. Preston had a brother with blond splotches dyed in his hair.
1998. I think this was the day my dad had packed my lunch with cookies in it, even though I was going without sugar for a month to earn $20. I ate the cookies, but my mom later told me that I didn't get the $20 because I had cheated too much that month. It was raining while it was sunny, and Jacob Duggar said he didn't like that because it bugged him. Our teacher Mrs. Slagowski gave us some nuts in their shells. We had no way of cracking them. My friend Brian tried to break one open with a spade, but when he struck it, it just shot it across the room and didn't open it. I thought they would be good to use as Thanksgiving decorations, and when I got home I even glued strings to two of them (and put glitter on one) to use as Christmas ornaments. That night I had a sleepover at my house with David Christensen. I asked my mom to buy some peanuts, because I thought that would be a good snack, but then I learned David didn't like them. My brother David was watching The Simpsons; he said it was one of his favorite episodes (the one with all the short stories about Springfield). So I tried to come up with an activity to do with my friend David, so I came up with sledding down the stairs on pillows. But the bottom set of stars had the carpet pulled up, with tacks sticking out, so we could only sled down the top set. We watched The Pagemaster that night. David thought that the name of a literary figure in the movie was a swear word (I won't repeat it here because it will put bad thoughts in your head, since I just said he thought it was bad--even though on its own it isn't bad).
1997. Miss Slater cried when she read the poem she wrote about our class. My grandparents gave my sister a stereo for her graduation. (I don't think they ever got me anything, not that I really wanted anything at the time.)
1996. We signed yearbooks, and I think I might have been annoyed when administrative people signed near their pictures instead of in the autographs section.
1995. All of us clueless kindergarteners thought it was so cool to get a book that had our pictures in it! We didn't know why we got them. I got a slip of paper that said my teacher for the next year was Miss Penman (who would marry over the summer and become Mrs. Taylor). I remember Hillary Ulmer telling her mom excitedly that she got a book with her William Boy in it (oh, kindergarten crushes, if you can call them that...).
2007. Both of my parents were gone that morning, and we had recently sold our "pink" car, so both the Subaru and the Taurus were gone, which meant I had to drive the Suburban to school. I was a little nervous to drive it to school, and I think I even had Susanne back it out of the garage for me. Then I drove to school and parked in the back parking lot. I got signatures from various people. I remember a discussion about how impersonal the "Hags" acronym was. I got a signing from Mrs. Jamison, who had been my French teacher. After she signed mine, she told me that she almost said she hoped I would get called to a French-speaking mission, but then she realized that she wished I would learn a harder language than French. (And then I got English.) She said that she wanted to know where I got called, so I should make sure it was announced in the Clipper. (That never happened either, neither when I left nor when I came home.) Eventually it was time for me to go home to get ready for graduation. I got in my grad garb and we took pictures of me in front of the fireplace. Then we went over to the "Turtle Building" for commencement exercises. People seemed impressed by all my honor cords. I had a light green one for science, a gold one for High Honors, and two light yellow ones for foreign language (one for Spanish and one for French). While we were standing waiting to go in, I remember someone saying they had asked Brian Mann if he was gay, and he had said, "No, but I support my brother," and they said that thought Brian just wasn't brave enough to admit it. Then we went in and sat down. We all had to fill out little cards with our names on them that the senior officers would read as we pretended to get our diplomas. I filled mine out as "R. Mark Melville" because I was in the habit of doing so (now I usually leave the R. off). They announced that there was going to be an opening remark by Jenelyn Perry, and when she got up she announced that it was a prayer for anyone who wanted to participate. I took off my graduation cap with others, hoping that I would put it on right again. When it was time to go up, I was surprised at all the cheers I got when they announced my name. But my cheers were nothing compared to Jacob Merrill's, the special needs kid who was after me. Then we had to wait in long lines to get our real diplomas. Then afterward I talked with my friend Houston Rowe. My family took pictures with me:
Then we went home and had pizza. The Thompsons also came over. Everyone had fun looking at my yearbook. Jesse read my emo poem, "I Am a Corpse," which was published in the back. He was surprised at how depressing it was and said, "It gets better." Allie looked at my picture. Of course, I was wearing that little fake tux in my picture, and there was a girl's photo next to mine. Allie pointed to her picture and said, "Who's that lady? Did you marry her?" Chancey, Jesse, and I all thought that was quite funny, so we laughed, and we were reproved by our parents, because apparently our laughter had interrupted Grandpa. After Grandpa told his story, we told them why we had been laughing. Since I was completely friendless, my graduation celebration consisted of watching episodes of The Flying Nun. One of the episodes made Sue tear up. After everyone left, I went online and wrote a blog post on my TV.com profile. (Apparently TV.com doesn't have blogs anymore, so I have to link to it on my Gamespot account, which you get automatically with a TV.com account.) I chatted with Jesse on Messenger. The title of my blog, "The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things," was a line from Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter." I couldn't get quotation marks in the title, but Jesse told me that it was fine. He told me that the poem was about religions leading people astray before eating them up, with the carpenter being Jesus and the walrus being Buddha (because he's fat), but I didn't buy it.
2006. I wore my "Woods Cross Juniors" shirt, since it was the last time I would be a junior. I remember seeing seniors at school and thinking it must be sad for them, and I knew I would be in the same position the following year. At the moment I can't remember what else happened that day.
2005. The administration for some reason thought it would be funny to turn on the fire alarms that day, but it was mostly just annoying. (We had had real arson fires in February of that year.) I remember Natalie Cook was videoing people and videoed me and asked me to share something. So I shared words of "advice" from all the old TV shows I watched, such as "You cannot judge a doctor by the way he carves a turkey" and "Every silver lining has its cloud." (Yeah. I was really weird.)
2004. I remember encouraging my friend Houston to come up to the seminary building to get signatures. He did, but he left shortly after. I signed weird things in yearbooks--of all my school years, I think I was weirdest in ninth grade. Special-needs kids Jacob Merrill and Andrew Church had stickers they put in yearbooks. Brad Byington signed my yearbook saying he hoped I would go on the scout trip that summer. (I didn't.) Houston and Josh Ferrer wanted to go to Mrs. Birdsall's classroom to play Scrabble. I told Mrs. Birdsall that I was going to take French the next year. There were some former students visiting her.
2003. The administration had had the brilliant idea that we should still report to all our classes that day, but there would be fifteen minutes between classes for yearbook signing. It only took a few periods for them to realize that was a terrible idea. During the science class, we got our cement boats we had made back (mine didn't float). During the choir class, Dennis Jones was really amused at what I wrote in his yearbook: "Witches--or is that Hags?" I rode the bus home, but when I got to the church/bus stop, no one was there, so I had to walk home. I remember my brother saying, "Well, that was anticlimactic."
2002. This was the only year that school ever got out in May for me (it was May 31). I can't seem to recall what happened at school, but I think that night Jesse had a sleepover at our house, although maybe he only came over but didn't spend the night. There was a Powerpuff Girls marathon in which they counted down the best episodes. I was disappointed in their choice of the best one (the one where all the characters switched bodies).
2001. I brought my Niagara Falls four-color pen to sign yearbooks with. There was a fifth-grader who would talk to me because he liked my Charlie Brown shirt. He asked me to sign his yearbook, so I signed it with my attempt at a Charlie Brown drawing. Kari Fox had brought some Otter Pops, so she took them to the cafeteria freezer so they would freeze. We all signed yearbooks, and I lent my pen to someone, and it ended up missing. I was really sad. Montess Vilchez was crying, and someone said to her, "Don't cry!" But I was sad too, although I didn't cry. When it was time to leave for the day, the Otter Pops still weren't frozen. I had mine open in Laura Ulmer's car on the way home, and right by Walker's gas station, Shantel Cornejo and another girl jumped out into traffic, and Laura slammed on the brakes, making my liquid Otter Pop splash all over me and my yearbook. Laura apologized, and I wondered what made Shantel think she could dart into traffic like that. When they dropped me off, I dowsed myself with the hose, since I was sticky and I thought it was a good way to start off summer.
2000. We had to do a quiz on the states, and I was pretty annoyed. We also had to write a letter to ourselves. I can't remember what else happened.
1999. I remember Mr. Williams showing us a Looney Tunes summer vacation TV special. Then my mom and I went to the building where our eye doctor was; it was very rainy. Then it was time for David's graduation. When everyone was graduated, people threw their caps up, and one cap got stuck on a ledge. After his graduation, David had pictures taken with his friends Michael, Preston, and Heather. They were silly and moved their tassels back as though they hadn't graduated, and my mom had to tell them to put them back. Then we went to China Platter with Preston's family. Sara Hawkes (Preston's younger sister) asked David if he still had his Mad Hatter hat. Preston had a brother with blond splotches dyed in his hair.
1998. I think this was the day my dad had packed my lunch with cookies in it, even though I was going without sugar for a month to earn $20. I ate the cookies, but my mom later told me that I didn't get the $20 because I had cheated too much that month. It was raining while it was sunny, and Jacob Duggar said he didn't like that because it bugged him. Our teacher Mrs. Slagowski gave us some nuts in their shells. We had no way of cracking them. My friend Brian tried to break one open with a spade, but when he struck it, it just shot it across the room and didn't open it. I thought they would be good to use as Thanksgiving decorations, and when I got home I even glued strings to two of them (and put glitter on one) to use as Christmas ornaments. That night I had a sleepover at my house with David Christensen. I asked my mom to buy some peanuts, because I thought that would be a good snack, but then I learned David didn't like them. My brother David was watching The Simpsons; he said it was one of his favorite episodes (the one with all the short stories about Springfield). So I tried to come up with an activity to do with my friend David, so I came up with sledding down the stairs on pillows. But the bottom set of stars had the carpet pulled up, with tacks sticking out, so we could only sled down the top set. We watched The Pagemaster that night. David thought that the name of a literary figure in the movie was a swear word (I won't repeat it here because it will put bad thoughts in your head, since I just said he thought it was bad--even though on its own it isn't bad).
1997. Miss Slater cried when she read the poem she wrote about our class. My grandparents gave my sister a stereo for her graduation. (I don't think they ever got me anything, not that I really wanted anything at the time.)
1996. We signed yearbooks, and I think I might have been annoyed when administrative people signed near their pictures instead of in the autographs section.
1995. All of us clueless kindergarteners thought it was so cool to get a book that had our pictures in it! We didn't know why we got them. I got a slip of paper that said my teacher for the next year was Miss Penman (who would marry over the summer and become Mrs. Taylor). I remember Hillary Ulmer telling her mom excitedly that she got a book with her William Boy in it (oh, kindergarten crushes, if you can call them that...).
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Memorial Day 2012
Last year I did a post about the Memorial Days of my life, which meant that I've never done one about what went on last year on Memorial Day. So here it is.
I remember my parents talking about what we wanted to do for the day. My mom suggested going to Gilgal Gardens. My dad wanted to see a movie, but my mom and I didn't like that idea. So I said we could go to Gilgal Gardens, as my mom suggested.
On our way there, we listened to Adele's 21 album. My mom said that she said "risk" funny in "He Won't Go"; it sounded like "reesk." She also said that she didn't think Adele looked the way she sounded. I said she did sound black, and my mom said she sounded fat. We got to Gilgal Gardens, which is a very interesting place. It has lots of strange Mormon-themed art, such as a sphinx with Joseph Smith's face. I was mostly interested in identifying all the different rocks.
I can't remember if we went to K-Mart, or if that was closer to Father's Day. If it was Memorial Day, then we looked at their patriotic stuff and bought large "Starmallows." It could have happened before Gilgal Gardens.
Then we went home. Somehow we got Allie; I can't remember if we picked her up, or if Matt dropped her off. My mom had to go somewhere, and Allie wanted to go with her. I asked Allie if she would rather go with my mom or stay home and roast s'mores with me on our little fire pit on our patio. She opted to stay home. I took s'more stuff out (using Starmallows, but I don't know if they were the little ones we had bought two weeks before or the big ones we bought at K-Mart). I was surprised at how fast the chocolate bar melted; it was a warm day.
Then it was time for me to return to Provo. When I got back, I put up patriotic decorations in my apartment. I put my neon light flag in the living room window, the flag light sculpture in the kitchen window, and the red, white, and blue light string over the living room shelf. Later my roommate Cameron came home and said, "I like all the patriotism!"
Then that night we got a knock in the door. It was some ward members inviting us to go up to Vivian Park with them. I remember Bryan Clark saying he liked our Christmas lights, and Cameron said "No!" Bryan said, "I know they're red, white, and blue." After some deliberation, I agreed to go, and Cameron did too. Cameron said he was disappointed in me because he was hoping I would say no, and then he wouldn't feel obligated to go either.
We went with Hanna and Carissa over to Hanna's car. Hanna was listening to a mix CD someone had made for her. It included "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + the Machine. They asked Cameron what music he liked; he said Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay. Carissa said that everyone liked Coldplay at some point. Cameron told them I liked Katy Perry. I clarified that I only had one song ("Part of Me") but that I liked Christina Perri. We made it to Vivian Park, but we weren't sure where to meet the others. As we got there, the CD was playing "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, and I was talking about how it reminded me of driving to work in the morning during the fall. We parked near a puddle and met our ward members. We walked over to a fire pit, and our ward members started a fire.
It was said that we should tell ghost stories, so Bryan Clark started one about a girl named Janey Jane. He kept getting distracted, so I continued the story, making it up but trying to base it on the "Ghost a Go Go" episode of Gilligan's Island. Michelle said, "I think this is the most I've ever heard Mark talk!" But I don't think I got to finish my story. Then we went back home.
I remember my parents talking about what we wanted to do for the day. My mom suggested going to Gilgal Gardens. My dad wanted to see a movie, but my mom and I didn't like that idea. So I said we could go to Gilgal Gardens, as my mom suggested.
On our way there, we listened to Adele's 21 album. My mom said that she said "risk" funny in "He Won't Go"; it sounded like "reesk." She also said that she didn't think Adele looked the way she sounded. I said she did sound black, and my mom said she sounded fat. We got to Gilgal Gardens, which is a very interesting place. It has lots of strange Mormon-themed art, such as a sphinx with Joseph Smith's face. I was mostly interested in identifying all the different rocks.
I can't remember if we went to K-Mart, or if that was closer to Father's Day. If it was Memorial Day, then we looked at their patriotic stuff and bought large "Starmallows." It could have happened before Gilgal Gardens.
Then we went home. Somehow we got Allie; I can't remember if we picked her up, or if Matt dropped her off. My mom had to go somewhere, and Allie wanted to go with her. I asked Allie if she would rather go with my mom or stay home and roast s'mores with me on our little fire pit on our patio. She opted to stay home. I took s'more stuff out (using Starmallows, but I don't know if they were the little ones we had bought two weeks before or the big ones we bought at K-Mart). I was surprised at how fast the chocolate bar melted; it was a warm day.
Then it was time for me to return to Provo. When I got back, I put up patriotic decorations in my apartment. I put my neon light flag in the living room window, the flag light sculpture in the kitchen window, and the red, white, and blue light string over the living room shelf. Later my roommate Cameron came home and said, "I like all the patriotism!"
Then that night we got a knock in the door. It was some ward members inviting us to go up to Vivian Park with them. I remember Bryan Clark saying he liked our Christmas lights, and Cameron said "No!" Bryan said, "I know they're red, white, and blue." After some deliberation, I agreed to go, and Cameron did too. Cameron said he was disappointed in me because he was hoping I would say no, and then he wouldn't feel obligated to go either.
We went with Hanna and Carissa over to Hanna's car. Hanna was listening to a mix CD someone had made for her. It included "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + the Machine. They asked Cameron what music he liked; he said Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay. Carissa said that everyone liked Coldplay at some point. Cameron told them I liked Katy Perry. I clarified that I only had one song ("Part of Me") but that I liked Christina Perri. We made it to Vivian Park, but we weren't sure where to meet the others. As we got there, the CD was playing "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, and I was talking about how it reminded me of driving to work in the morning during the fall. We parked near a puddle and met our ward members. We walked over to a fire pit, and our ward members started a fire.
It was said that we should tell ghost stories, so Bryan Clark started one about a girl named Janey Jane. He kept getting distracted, so I continued the story, making it up but trying to base it on the "Ghost a Go Go" episode of Gilligan's Island. Michelle said, "I think this is the most I've ever heard Mark talk!" But I don't think I got to finish my story. Then we went back home.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
The Friday before Memorial Day
In recent years, the Friday before Memorial Day has been kind of an exciting day because it's one of my arbitrary days when I start a holiday season. On the Friday before Memorial Day I start the patriotic season that includes Memorial Day and Flag Day but is really all about the Fourth of July. However, this hasn't always been the case. This is my attempt at remembering what I can about the Friday before Memorial Day in the past.
2012. I went to my stupid history class in the morning and doodled patriotic things in the margins of my notes. Then that afternoon my parents came to town and picked me up. They wanted to try J-Dawgs, so they pulled into the parking lot. But I didn't warn them that the parking lot was really small, so my dad had to do some difficult maneuvering to back the Suburban into a parking spot. My dad ate his before we headed out. Allie was annoyed about turning the car off because it would make her start her movie over on her portable DVD player. Allie eventually said she didn't want to finish hers, so she gave it to my mom, but all that was left was the bun. My family had gone to Cabela's before picking me up and bought some Tootsie Rolls. I said that if they had bought patriotic-wrapped candies, I could have had them. I asked them if they remembered to bring the patriotic marshmallows. Allie was watching Matilda, and I didn't care for the language contained therein. I wanted to listen to Adele, and we eventually did. We drove out to see the lava tubes near Flowell; I think we saw a dust devil in a Flowell field. There was a cinder cone volcano that was half destroyed by some business. We drove on a road surrounded by basalt. There were lots of rocks in the road and I worried we would get a flat tire, which got Allie worrying as well. Then we got to the lava tubes. I went down into one. It was really cool! There were lots of grasshoppers and even some lizards. My dad told me about how he and some friends once set a fire in the open area of the lava tube, so he may have been responsible for the relative lack of vegetation down there. Then my dad took me and Allie into another lava tube, one that went far into the earth and out of the daylight. We had to use flashlights. My dad told me how he would go camping in the dark tube. I would be a little creeped out to sleep there. Then I hiked up nearby Tabernacle Hill while my mom and Allie waited in the car. I started on one side, but the path led to a steeper path on the other side. It was extraordinarily windy and I worried my glasses would blow off. My dad also climbed up. I tried to take pictures from the top, but my camera was out of battery. I wanted to walk over to a nearby alcove down in the lava tube, but it was so windy I decided not to. When we were driving back, my parents took a wrong turn (even though I told them it was wrong). We saw a sand dune with some cows on it; I said, "Look at that barchan sand dune!" My mom asked what barchan meant; she thought it was some slang expression. Then we drove up to Fillmore Canyon. I noticed all the arkose rocks. Then we met all of the Christensens, my dad's sister's family. We set up our tent, and then that night we roasted marshmallows for s'mores. I used red, white, and blue marshmallows so that I could have them. We talked about how good a man my Grandpa Boyd was. Sarena said that Judy was a good grandma, considering her circumstances.
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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
2010. My roommate Alex Vincent sent a mass text to all of his friends about his friend Nik Day who was performing at Sammy's restaurant in honor of his EP release. I asked Alex what an EP was, and he said it was a short CD. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I went to the EP release and met a girl from our ward, Joyce Porter. The first performer that night was one Amy Whitcomb. Next up was Jarrett Burns, who was quite enthusiastic, and I found his music fun. He didn't have live music; he just played the minus tracks from his laptop. Sammy's passed around a menu of their food, and Jarrett Burns's parents were in attendance. Then there was a girl who sang, accompanied by Aaron Edson. She was singing a song and she kept amending the lyrics. One of lyrics was "We could make out," and she added, "in a totally appropriate way." She mentioned something about talking to a bishop. In the middle of the song she apologized and said she was being too silly. My thought was, if you're going to have to clean up the lyrics, why don't you just choose another song? She also sang, "Or we could make love...after going to the temple!" Then Nik Day got on. Alex was his mandolin player. He said he was going to sing "People Will Be People," and there were some cheers. He pointed out that obviously his family members were there. Some people were watching from the parking balcony of the adjacent hotel; the MC thanked them for not complaining about the noise. That night I bought Jarrett Burns's CD, and then I bought Nik Day's EP out of sympathy. (Well, sympathy's not the right word; I bought it because I felt bad not buying it, since it was his concert.) Joyce Porter bought the deal that included some extra songs and a Sammy's pie shake, but she tried to give the shake away. I drove Joyce home while listening to my Michelle Tumes CD. When I got to the Stratford Court parking lot, I told her she could get out because I was embarrassed to back into a parking spot with someone in the car, since I'm not a very good backer.
2009. At combined district meeting, our zone leaders told us they weren't going to give us a training on how to contact people but instead would have us go out and contact people. We all paired up with other missionaries and drove someplace to contact people. Elder Cluff drove us to the Walmart parking lot; he and his "companion" claimed the people who were standing underneath a tree outside of the parking lot. I thought the parking lot was a terrible idea. But before I could tell my temporary companion that it was a bad idea to talk to people in the parking lot, he went up and started talking to people. I changed the approach and just offered to take people's carts back for them, since that seemed more legal. That afternoon we went to Lapwai, and then we came back for the Lewiston 2nd Ward party. I commented on the springlike colors of the table cloths. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today the zone leaders had us leave in district meeting to go talk to people, and the other missionaries foolishly had us go to the Wal-Mart parking lot. That was bad and I didn't think it was an appropriate place to contact people.
"Jeffrey's was really slow. Then we went out to Lapwai. A bunch of the Indians are unhappy because a policeman shot an Indian who wouldn't pull over.
"Then we went to the ward party. It was kind of boring and had a poor turnout.
"I'm feeling like the days here are unfulfilling. On Wednesday I'll take over the area on exchanges, and I'm excited. I want to do some good work that will help me learn the area. I am pretty annoyed that Elder Lamb didn't update anything of former investigators."
2008. This is what my journal entry says:
"Today Elder Condie decided to sleep in [which was nothing new for him]. Then Teddie cancelled but still wanted a map to church. We stopped by a few people around her, then we came home. We had to usher for the stake play--they started it early for some reason. There was no organization. Then Kristy wasn't home when we showed up. We tried to call her but she got a new cell phone."
I seem to remember thinking it was dumb to start the play early, since lots of people were still showing up. I think this was the time we were standing outside the room of the performance, and we heard silence on stage (it was written as part of the play). Sister Shaw said that it was bad to have silence on stage for so long, whether it was intentional or not.
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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
2002. I was home sick from school. I was taking some medicine for the sickness. I told my mom I couldn't breathe, so she took me to Instacare. They examined me and told me that my throat was closed up; I had anaphylaxis from the medicine. They did what they could for me, but then it was time for them to close, so I was transported by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital. I think I could see my mom's car following the ambulance. I had to stay the night. They gave me an IV and I had to go to the bathroom all night, which annoyed my mom.
2001. We went up to Fillmore Canyon, where we were surprised to see a new outhouse near the gate of the parking area. It was nice and clean, but we didn't know how long it would stay that way. My mom had bought some twirly helicopter toys--you know, the ones that you spin with your hands and let go into the air. I thought about how the red and blue one could be a Fourth of July one, and the orange and purple one could be a Halloween one.
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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
2012. I went to my stupid history class in the morning and doodled patriotic things in the margins of my notes. Then that afternoon my parents came to town and picked me up. They wanted to try J-Dawgs, so they pulled into the parking lot. But I didn't warn them that the parking lot was really small, so my dad had to do some difficult maneuvering to back the Suburban into a parking spot. My dad ate his before we headed out. Allie was annoyed about turning the car off because it would make her start her movie over on her portable DVD player. Allie eventually said she didn't want to finish hers, so she gave it to my mom, but all that was left was the bun. My family had gone to Cabela's before picking me up and bought some Tootsie Rolls. I said that if they had bought patriotic-wrapped candies, I could have had them. I asked them if they remembered to bring the patriotic marshmallows. Allie was watching Matilda, and I didn't care for the language contained therein. I wanted to listen to Adele, and we eventually did. We drove out to see the lava tubes near Flowell; I think we saw a dust devil in a Flowell field. There was a cinder cone volcano that was half destroyed by some business. We drove on a road surrounded by basalt. There were lots of rocks in the road and I worried we would get a flat tire, which got Allie worrying as well. Then we got to the lava tubes. I went down into one. It was really cool! There were lots of grasshoppers and even some lizards. My dad told me about how he and some friends once set a fire in the open area of the lava tube, so he may have been responsible for the relative lack of vegetation down there. Then my dad took me and Allie into another lava tube, one that went far into the earth and out of the daylight. We had to use flashlights. My dad told me how he would go camping in the dark tube. I would be a little creeped out to sleep there. Then I hiked up nearby Tabernacle Hill while my mom and Allie waited in the car. I started on one side, but the path led to a steeper path on the other side. It was extraordinarily windy and I worried my glasses would blow off. My dad also climbed up. I tried to take pictures from the top, but my camera was out of battery. I wanted to walk over to a nearby alcove down in the lava tube, but it was so windy I decided not to. When we were driving back, my parents took a wrong turn (even though I told them it was wrong). We saw a sand dune with some cows on it; I said, "Look at that barchan sand dune!" My mom asked what barchan meant; she thought it was some slang expression. Then we drove up to Fillmore Canyon. I noticed all the arkose rocks. Then we met all of the Christensens, my dad's sister's family. We set up our tent, and then that night we roasted marshmallows for s'mores. I used red, white, and blue marshmallows so that I could have them. We talked about how good a man my Grandpa Boyd was. Sarena said that Judy was a good grandma, considering her circumstances.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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
2010. My roommate Alex Vincent sent a mass text to all of his friends about his friend Nik Day who was performing at Sammy's restaurant in honor of his EP release. I asked Alex what an EP was, and he said it was a short CD. Since I didn't have anything better to do, I went to the EP release and met a girl from our ward, Joyce Porter. The first performer that night was one Amy Whitcomb. Next up was Jarrett Burns, who was quite enthusiastic, and I found his music fun. He didn't have live music; he just played the minus tracks from his laptop. Sammy's passed around a menu of their food, and Jarrett Burns's parents were in attendance. Then there was a girl who sang, accompanied by Aaron Edson. She was singing a song and she kept amending the lyrics. One of lyrics was "We could make out," and she added, "in a totally appropriate way." She mentioned something about talking to a bishop. In the middle of the song she apologized and said she was being too silly. My thought was, if you're going to have to clean up the lyrics, why don't you just choose another song? She also sang, "Or we could make love...after going to the temple!" Then Nik Day got on. Alex was his mandolin player. He said he was going to sing "People Will Be People," and there were some cheers. He pointed out that obviously his family members were there. Some people were watching from the parking balcony of the adjacent hotel; the MC thanked them for not complaining about the noise. That night I bought Jarrett Burns's CD, and then I bought Nik Day's EP out of sympathy. (Well, sympathy's not the right word; I bought it because I felt bad not buying it, since it was his concert.) Joyce Porter bought the deal that included some extra songs and a Sammy's pie shake, but she tried to give the shake away. I drove Joyce home while listening to my Michelle Tumes CD. When I got to the Stratford Court parking lot, I told her she could get out because I was embarrassed to back into a parking spot with someone in the car, since I'm not a very good backer.
2009. At combined district meeting, our zone leaders told us they weren't going to give us a training on how to contact people but instead would have us go out and contact people. We all paired up with other missionaries and drove someplace to contact people. Elder Cluff drove us to the Walmart parking lot; he and his "companion" claimed the people who were standing underneath a tree outside of the parking lot. I thought the parking lot was a terrible idea. But before I could tell my temporary companion that it was a bad idea to talk to people in the parking lot, he went up and started talking to people. I changed the approach and just offered to take people's carts back for them, since that seemed more legal. That afternoon we went to Lapwai, and then we came back for the Lewiston 2nd Ward party. I commented on the springlike colors of the table cloths. Here is my journal entry for the day:
"Today the zone leaders had us leave in district meeting to go talk to people, and the other missionaries foolishly had us go to the Wal-Mart parking lot. That was bad and I didn't think it was an appropriate place to contact people.
"Jeffrey's was really slow. Then we went out to Lapwai. A bunch of the Indians are unhappy because a policeman shot an Indian who wouldn't pull over.
"Then we went to the ward party. It was kind of boring and had a poor turnout.
"I'm feeling like the days here are unfulfilling. On Wednesday I'll take over the area on exchanges, and I'm excited. I want to do some good work that will help me learn the area. I am pretty annoyed that Elder Lamb didn't update anything of former investigators."
2008. This is what my journal entry says:
"Today Elder Condie decided to sleep in [which was nothing new for him]. Then Teddie cancelled but still wanted a map to church. We stopped by a few people around her, then we came home. We had to usher for the stake play--they started it early for some reason. There was no organization. Then Kristy wasn't home when we showed up. We tried to call her but she got a new cell phone."
I seem to remember thinking it was dumb to start the play early, since lots of people were still showing up. I think this was the time we were standing outside the room of the performance, and we heard silence on stage (it was written as part of the play). Sister Shaw said that it was bad to have silence on stage for so long, whether it was intentional or not.
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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
2002. I was home sick from school. I was taking some medicine for the sickness. I told my mom I couldn't breathe, so she took me to Instacare. They examined me and told me that my throat was closed up; I had anaphylaxis from the medicine. They did what they could for me, but then it was time for them to close, so I was transported by ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital. I think I could see my mom's car following the ambulance. I had to stay the night. They gave me an IV and I had to go to the bathroom all night, which annoyed my mom.
2001. We went up to Fillmore Canyon, where we were surprised to see a new outhouse near the gate of the parking area. It was nice and clean, but we didn't know how long it would stay that way. My mom had bought some twirly helicopter toys--you know, the ones that you spin with your hands and let go into the air. I thought about how the red and blue one could be a Fourth of July one, and the orange and purple one could be a Halloween one.
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. (Taken from the post about my dad's birthday.)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
When elementary school teachers were wrong
When I attended Orchard Elementary School, I thought that my teachers were smart people. But there were occasions when they were wrong.
Like when my third grade teacher said that Cinco de Mayo is the equivalent of the Fourth of July in Mexico. But that's false. Cinco de Mayo commemorates one small victory of the Mexicans over the French. Mexico's Independence Day is September 16, not May 5.
My fourth-grade teacher Mr. Williams was kind of a know-it-all. I remember once at Christmastime he gave us a bunch of Christmas words. One of the words was "manger." He told us that a manger is a barn, and he said that "Away in a Manger" could be called "Away in a Barn." But a manger is not a barn. That's a stable. A manger is a feedbox. The French word manger means "to eat."
It was Mr. Williams who taught me a stupid prescriptive rule, one that I followed for a long time. I wrote an Easter story that started off, "The funnest Easter I can remember," and he told me funnest wasn't a word. I had never heard that. He asked me to look in a dictionary to see if funner was in it. But now I know where that rule came from, and it's pure nonsense. Originally, fun was a noun. But if you say, "That was fun," it's hard to know whether fun is a noun or an adjective. But fun has now become an adjective, as in "That was a fun party." But stupid prescriptivists say you can't say "funner" because fun was a noun, and you can't add -est or -er to a noun. But today, fun is more of an adjective than it is a verb, and almost all (and maybe all!) other single-syllable adjectives take the -er or -est suffixes. If you're going to say funner is wrong, then you technically should say that more fun is also wrong. So take that!
In fifth grade, we used to rotate teachers. Mrs. Cowan was in charge of English stuff. And once she had to write the word business on the board. She wrote it as buisness. We corrected her, but she apparently had never considered the etymology or morphology of the word, and after writing it the right way, she said, "No!" and "corrected" it back to buisness.
I remember learning about the core, mantle, and crust in second grade. Then in fifth grade, the science teacher, Mrs. (or Miss?) Belnap, told us about more layers. There was the crust, the lithosphere, the outer core, and the inner core. I never fully understood what the lithosphere was, especially in relation to the core. But now I know that you can't talk about the core and the lithosphere at the same time. The crust relates to chemical properties (composition), and the lithosphere relates to physical properties.
The lithosphere and the crust are almost the same, except that the lithosphere is slightly thicker. The lithosphere is made of all of the crust and a little bit of the mantle. My teacher made it seem that the lithosphere was below the crust, but they're actually almost the same thing.
Then I had Mr. Williams again in sixth grade. Now, he was my favorite elementary school teacher, but sometimes, looking back, I question his ethics. He decided one day that our book that we would read as a class was the first Harry Potter book. But he hadn't read it, and he just played the book on tape, which meant that he didn't have to read it. Then one day he gave us a test on the book. But since he hadn't read it, he couldn't make one, so he Googled one. And he couldn't know how accurate the test was. And this was a terrible test. First of all, it had elements from the first three books, not just the first, so those who hadn't read all of them were at a disadvantage. But not only that, the test was WRONG! One of the questions asked which character had wizard parents. The options were Ron, Harry, Hermione, and maybe someone else. Of course, both Harry and Ron had wizard parents, even though Harry was raised by muggles. But the test said that Ron was the only one with wizard parents. So we challenged Mr. Williams about it. But instead of listening to us, he actually defended the test, even though he didn't know what he was talking about! Someone brought up that Harry's parents attended Hogwarts, and Mr. Williams said, "They were muggles who attended a wizard school." Um, no. That is completely false. It was obvious that he was making things up because he didn't want the quiz to be wrong.
People who are unteachable shouldn't be teachers.
Like when my third grade teacher said that Cinco de Mayo is the equivalent of the Fourth of July in Mexico. But that's false. Cinco de Mayo commemorates one small victory of the Mexicans over the French. Mexico's Independence Day is September 16, not May 5.
My fourth-grade teacher Mr. Williams was kind of a know-it-all. I remember once at Christmastime he gave us a bunch of Christmas words. One of the words was "manger." He told us that a manger is a barn, and he said that "Away in a Manger" could be called "Away in a Barn." But a manger is not a barn. That's a stable. A manger is a feedbox. The French word manger means "to eat."
It was Mr. Williams who taught me a stupid prescriptive rule, one that I followed for a long time. I wrote an Easter story that started off, "The funnest Easter I can remember," and he told me funnest wasn't a word. I had never heard that. He asked me to look in a dictionary to see if funner was in it. But now I know where that rule came from, and it's pure nonsense. Originally, fun was a noun. But if you say, "That was fun," it's hard to know whether fun is a noun or an adjective. But fun has now become an adjective, as in "That was a fun party." But stupid prescriptivists say you can't say "funner" because fun was a noun, and you can't add -est or -er to a noun. But today, fun is more of an adjective than it is a verb, and almost all (and maybe all!) other single-syllable adjectives take the -er or -est suffixes. If you're going to say funner is wrong, then you technically should say that more fun is also wrong. So take that!
In fifth grade, we used to rotate teachers. Mrs. Cowan was in charge of English stuff. And once she had to write the word business on the board. She wrote it as buisness. We corrected her, but she apparently had never considered the etymology or morphology of the word, and after writing it the right way, she said, "No!" and "corrected" it back to buisness.
I remember learning about the core, mantle, and crust in second grade. Then in fifth grade, the science teacher, Mrs. (or Miss?) Belnap, told us about more layers. There was the crust, the lithosphere, the outer core, and the inner core. I never fully understood what the lithosphere was, especially in relation to the core. But now I know that you can't talk about the core and the lithosphere at the same time. The crust relates to chemical properties (composition), and the lithosphere relates to physical properties.
Then I had Mr. Williams again in sixth grade. Now, he was my favorite elementary school teacher, but sometimes, looking back, I question his ethics. He decided one day that our book that we would read as a class was the first Harry Potter book. But he hadn't read it, and he just played the book on tape, which meant that he didn't have to read it. Then one day he gave us a test on the book. But since he hadn't read it, he couldn't make one, so he Googled one. And he couldn't know how accurate the test was. And this was a terrible test. First of all, it had elements from the first three books, not just the first, so those who hadn't read all of them were at a disadvantage. But not only that, the test was WRONG! One of the questions asked which character had wizard parents. The options were Ron, Harry, Hermione, and maybe someone else. Of course, both Harry and Ron had wizard parents, even though Harry was raised by muggles. But the test said that Ron was the only one with wizard parents. So we challenged Mr. Williams about it. But instead of listening to us, he actually defended the test, even though he didn't know what he was talking about! Someone brought up that Harry's parents attended Hogwarts, and Mr. Williams said, "They were muggles who attended a wizard school." Um, no. That is completely false. It was obvious that he was making things up because he didn't want the quiz to be wrong.
People who are unteachable shouldn't be teachers.
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