Monday, June 18, 2012

Happy Father's Day!



Hey there internet, sorry for not writing last week but I was pretty busy with church and the seminary graduation. After that I didn't feel well and then I said that I'd write it "later" and I'm sure you all know how that goes. Last week didn't consist of anything particularly interesting, a lot of work. On Wednesday though Riley and I went to Costco to get stuff for refreshments. We got all of the stuff together and were going to check out, but since I had my mom’s Costco card instead of one of my own they wouldn't let us buy the stuff. Apparently, Costco cards are "like drivers licenses and are not interchangeable". The seminary graduation went pretty well I think. We got there early and set up chairs and stuff and then afterwards we served up the cake and stuff. Derek Russell was speaking as well and so I had good company up on the stand.

Tuesday evening Riley, Cherish, Halden and I got together. We were originally planning on watching Uncle Buck since Halden and I have been joking about peanut butter and sleeping bags for a while now and I haven't seen it, but he couldn't find it so we ended  up watching the first few episodes of My Little Pony. Only after of course going to IGA to get milk for instant pudding, a cardboard pizza, and smore stuff. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about My Little Pony. It's, well, ok I guess. That reminds me though, I always think it's funny when you re-watch movies you saw as a kid or watch kid shows and you notice the clever stuff that they put in that you never got as a kid. I think some kid show creator and get pretty creative.  

Saturday night on my way home the main road was blocked for the Strawberry Festival so I decided to wait it out instead of driving around. I was able to track down Hillary and her family and watch the parade with them. On the way home I also didn't hit any traffic, which was pretty awesome.

I've been spending my free time making a dent in the giant pile of books I want to read. Just recently I finished Jurassic Park. It was similar to the movie in a lot of ways but let's just say that if the movie ended the same way there couldn't have been a Jurassic Park 2. Now I'm reading The Help. I like it pretty well. It reminds me somewhat of To Kill a Mockingbird in its themes but I don't think many books can really compare with that one, it's one of my favorites. The Help is a little sadder than I was expecting. I just read a part where *warning, very mild spoiler* the little girl that one of the main characters takes care for told her that she was her real mom and that she loved her more than her biological mom. 

Oh and somewhat exciting news, I now have the upper body strength to do half of a pull up. Not that impressive I know, but two weeks ago I couldn't even lift myself off the ground, so I'll take what I can get. I also finally got a schedule for work so now I don't have to find out a week at a time. While that was ridiculously frustrating, I'll admit that it did give me a greater appreciation for Sundays. I'll confess that in the past Sundays have sometimes been a bummer and I viewed it as a day when I went to church and then could hardly do anything else, especially if there was an extra meeting. My attitude improved a good amount over the past few years, but this lack of consistency in schedule helped as well. I always knew that Sunday was the one day that I didn't have to work, and I moved from a perspective of "the day that you have a bunch of restrictions" to a perspective of "thank heavens it's Sunday tomorrow where I know I won't have to work". A much more day of rest like attitude.

Well, I hope everyone had a good father's day and that you all told your dad's that they're awesome. See you next week!

Monday, June 4, 2012

Don't shirk your work

When I was in Provo I didn't have a car and had to walk everywhere. I also lived a little over a mile from campus and the campus itself was huge. It wasn't unusual for me to walk 5 or 7 miles a day. That and probably the fact that I didn't have extra money to buy candy and junk a lot and I just naturally got in better shape. But now that I've been home for about a month and my job requires me to sit and watch people, I've been much less active. I was trying the running thing but, I really didn't like it, and I got blister so forget running to Canada. I'm thinking instead of doing p90x. I took the requirement test and passed it so I shouldn't die. Anyway, I guess I'll see how that goes.

Most of this week was occupied by work. I work a 10 hour day and talking to a friend today I realized that it isn't the fact that it's 10 hours that is a bummer, after all when I was doing drama and seminary I'd be gone for longer than 10 hours, but it's the fact that the hours are from 10:30-8:30 so I have to leave home at 10:00 and I don't get home until 9:00. So you really can't do anything else all day. That's a little frustrating but aside from that the job isn't bad and certainly isn't difficult. Especially when no one shows up.

Thursday I intended to go to work but there was a big accident closing off the whole road so I wasn't able to go in. That night after everyone else had gone to bed my dad and I watched Psycho. I hadn't seen it before and even though I knew the general story line it was pretty good. It wasn't really that scary but I always think it's interesting how scary movies can act as a catalysis for your imagination. If you ever want to know if you still have an imagination, wait until it's good and dark and you're either alone or everyone is asleep, go downstairs if you can so that later you'll have to walk up them alone, put in a movie that actually is scary, and then after it's over, all you have to do is walk upstairs and go to bed without turning on any lights. Good luck!

Friday evening we watched the new Mission Impossible, which I hadn't seen before. It was pretty good, especially considering that it had been so long in between the other movies. I'm pretty sure the first one came out in 1996 or some time around there.

Saturday I got certified in CPR and went to a first aid class. I guess now some people are doing chest compression only CPR because they don't want to put their mouth on someone else's and it's better than nothing. I think that's kind of weird though because personally I'd rather give someone rescue breaths than chest compressions. The person isn't going to throw up on you unless you do it wrong and and all you have to do is tilt the head back, plug the nose and blow into the mouth gently. Trust me, as a person that's been both kissed and received a rescue breath, they're totally different. Chest compressions are a lot easier to mess up on my opinion and assuming that you are doing it right, you're going to hear the cartilage in the person's chest cracking and breaking. That sounds kind of horrifying.  

The manikins that were were using to practice had this blank open stare and open mouths of course. They kind of reminded me of those creepy mannequin soldiers things in FMA that come to life with the philosopher's stone.

Saturday I was also asked to speak at Seminary graduation. My second year in a row. Last year it was to represent the graduating class but this year its on behalf of the institute to tell everyone how awesome it is and such. I've only been 3 or 4 times, but it is pretty cool and hey, apparently it only took a few times for them to see that I would make a fantastic spokesperson. I would have been going anyway as a ward missionary to talk to the new graduates about the single's ward. Riley was sitting next to me when they told me about going and he got roped into going too. I told him later that even though he had to go, he should be glad I was around because I'm a blessing in his life. He told me I was blessing him by teaching him the gift of patience. Well... he'll need it some day I'm sure.