This week I got a call from my mom. She told me I got a letter in the mail from R. Mark Melville, 5th grade. We wrote these letters on the last day of school in 2000, and my teacher, Mrs. Call, was supposed to send them out when we graduated from high school--which was almost five years ago! I think Mrs. Call's idea was that we would forget about it and then one day it would come as a surprise and it would remind us of things we had forgotten. But this did not happen to me; I remembered most of the contents of the letter (although perhaps I don't actually remember putting them in the letter), and I remember that we were supposed to get it. I just assumed Mrs. Call had forgotten, and now that she's retired, I'd never see it again.
But I did see it again. Actually, I haven't seen it yet. My mom just read it to me over the phone. So I don't have it in my possession, but I will try to remember the things I said.
First of all, I asked what things were like in 2007. That is a difficult question to answer, because it's not like I can hop in a time machine and tell my eleven-year-old self. But if I could, what would I tell him?
Things that changed between 2000 and 2007. The internet is a lot faster now. Email addresses ending in @aol.com are an endangered species, being dominated by @gmail.com. Cell phones play actual (or almost actual) music instead of beeping sounds. A lot of people listen to music on mp3 players instead of CDs. The iPhone is just coming out. DVDs are mainstream now; new VHS tapes are hard to find. Airport security is a lot tighter and you can only go past the gate if you have a flight--not just to pick someone up. People use MySpace (I never did) and write their feelings on blogs. You can find all sorts of fun video clips on YouTube. Many light bulbs are curly, expensive, energy efficient, and take forever to light up. LED Christmas lights are more energy efficient but more expensive and have piercing blue lights.
Things that changed between 2000 and 2012. Not only are DVDs mainstream, they're on their way out, being replaced (gradually) by Blu-ray discs that are high picture quality (that's debatable) and have a wide picture. New TV and computer monitors are all flat and wide. A lot of movies, especially animated ones, are in 3D. (It's not that great.) Most animated movies are CGI (in the same style as Toy Story). Stores' CD sections are small, and straight-CD stores are hard to find, since most people download music instead. (I still buy CDs, but I download songs, too, even though I don't use an mp3 player.) You can listen to music, watch movies, and surf the internet on your phone. (But I can't.) Usually you don't need any wires to go online. Google, and a lot of other sites, predict what you're looking for. People stay in touch via Facebook, and nearly every website has buttons connected to Facebook and Twitter. (I still don't know what Twitter is...) Global warming has somehow morphed into a political issue. Job applications are often submitted electronically.
In my letter I complained about having to do actual class work on the last day of school, writing the letter and taking a states test. That is a little ridiculous. Even high school wasn't like that. College doesn't really have "last days" in that sense--you have last days of class but then you have test days.
I mentioned some music traits. I expressed disdain at the popularity of 'NSync (however they're spelled) and Britney Spears. I said my favorite piece of music was "Linus and Lucy," that I was growing a taste for classical music, that I liked the Beatles, and that my favorite CD was Snoopy's Beatles.
I will go through these backwards so that I can clear my name. Snoopy's Beatles was a silly CD where they put some kids in a studio, had them pretend to be Peanuts characters, and had them sing Beatles songs while someone played the songs on toy instruments. This was a little young, even for an eleven-year-old. Yet I loved it, and even had some other CDs in the series, Snoopy's Country and Snoopy's Classical. (I think I got the classical one in sixth grade for Easter. It wasn't too bad since there was no singing.) I don't know why I liked it so much.
I still like the Beatles, although I get a little bored with them, probably because I've been listening to the same twenty-six songs since high school. If I had some fresh tunes, I'm sure I'd appreciate them more.
I like and appreciate classical music when I hear it, but I seldom listen to it.
I don't think I actually had any Peanuts music at the time, but today I have seven Vince Guaraldi albums (three of them original albums, four of them compilations). He's one of the underappreciated gems of the twentieth century.
I'm trying to figure out why I disliked the boy bands and Britney Spears so much. In my letter I said I wasn't hip. I'm not sure if I disliked them because I wanted to distance myself from "hip" things, or if I genuinely didn't like them. Today I usually don't hate what I hear on the radio. I may find songs overrated ("If I Die Young") or overplayed ("Moves Like Jagger") or immoral ("Last Friday Night"), but I usually don't hate them. This may be the opposite from fifth grade: I don't know if I like today's music because I genuinely like it, or if I like it because I want to be "normal" so I listen to "normal" music. I think some of all of these factors may be involved, but I think some of my fifth-grade disdain may have been legitimate. My preferred radio station is My 99.5, "the best of the '90s to now," and I don't think I've ever heard them play boy band music (last week they played Justin Timberlake, but he was solo). This would indicate to me that the boy bands were just a passing phase without good quality, and that those of us who disliked them were right to do so. In the fall Britney had a song that kept playing on the radio and getting stuck in my head, "I Wanna Go." I thought the song was kind of catchy, but it was obvious Britney herself didn't really have much in the way of musical talent. But I might have thought this because of my preconceived notions lasting all the way from fifth grade. However, I haven't heard any of her songs lately, so that also seems to indicate that she's not good enough to be worth playing again.
I mentioned that my favorite book was The Phantom Tollbooth. I read this book so many times, and loved it. I thought it was a great and underappreciated book. Looking back, I realize it wasn't the greatest literature, although it was entertaining. I was actually thinking about the book this week, because in geology we were learning about minerals, and some mineral crystals were described as dodecahedral. A character in The Phantom Tollbooth is a dodecahedron, having twelve faces of different emotions. Now I'd probably say my favorite book is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
I said that my favorite movie was Snoopy Come Home. Today I really don't know what my favorite movie is. My standards are so high that the movies I usually watch are family friendly, G or PG, and often animated. In high school I said my favorite movie was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I haven't watched it (or Snoopy Come Home, for that matter) since I've been home from my mission.
I said that in addition to the pop stars previously mentioned, falling in love was popular. I don't know why elementary school kids think they're in love when clearly they're not. I said I didn't love anyone, but that I had loved a certain individual. I actually never had a crush on her. I simply admired her, and I hopped on the fifth-grade bandwagon of being in love. I thought I liked her again in eighth grade, but that was a false alarm as well. As a matter of fact, I think this concept of young children thinking they're in love is quite damaging. Because I thought I had a crush on this girl, I couldn't admire her and be friends with her in an appropriate way.
The older I get, the more I think I am incapable of falling in love, since I'm so full of hate and selfishness. For Valentine's Day, I have a Jar of Hearts on my desk. It's a jar with hearts painted on it, and I put candy conversation hearts in it. It's to symbolize that I'm going to catch a cold from the ice inside my soul.
In my letter I asked where David went on his mission. (Taiwan.) I asked if he was married (yes, to Ya-ping), and mentioned that he was currently dating one Andrea Campbell. I pointed out that I would soon be going on a mission. This would have been true if I had received the letter when I was supposed to.
I mentioned I pretended I was married to someone named Nobody. This was the only part of the letter I specifically remembered writing. I always regretted having put it there because it was a short-lived phase. Five-year-olds have imaginary friends. This eleven-year-old had an imaginary wife. (Hey, since I can't fall in love, that's not a bad idea...)
In closing the letter, I gave myself hugs, and said I couldn't kiss my own face. Just the thought of kissing makes me cringe! I also hate hugs. Really. I only like hugs involving small children, like my nephews. A handshake is about all the physical contact I can handle.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Commas, hyphens, parentheses, semicolons, and geologic periods.
Here at school, and even outside of school, everyone always asks me what my major is. This is just a little annoying for me. If I saw say "English Language," people think of English, and I get a few customary questions: "So, do you like to read a lot?" or "What do you want to do with that, teach?" I'm not an English major. I'm an English Language major. If I tell people the abbreviation, "ELang," they often don't understand; once someone thought I said I was a "healing" major. I've considered responding with "English linguistics," but I haven't yet.
But rarely does anyone ask about someone's minor, so I'm going to talk about mine--both of them!
My first minor is Editing. I've wanted to be an editor since high school. (Previous to that, I wanted to be a dentist--a very bad idea indeed.) I hate to be conceited, but I'm pretty good at English-related stuff, and it's fairly intuitive to me. In high school I was always top of my class and got a 36 on the English portion of the ACT.
The Editing minor is very common, especially among ELang and English majors. I can't decide if my past experience with this kind of thing is exceptional or not. Sometimes I think if people have made it to BYU and want to do the Editing minor, they must have been the tops of their classes and also received 36s. But sometimes I think that's not quite the case. Last year I got 100% on all of the tests for my grammar class, but most people didn't. Sometimes people will ask questions, the answers to which seem so obvious to me.
One of my classes this semester is ELang 350, Basic Editing Skills. This is a crucial class. Most postings I see for jobs or internships require 350. Basically, 350 is what will actually make me qualified for certain editing positions. The class is crucial--but annoying.
If it were not for this class, my semester would be pretty easy. So it's better that I have this hard class when the rest are easy, instead of having multiple hard ones. But it's so much work! It's a three-credit class but it's more work than my four-credit geology class! We have a test every couple of weeks. I took one yesterday. There was one question I'm pretty sure we didn't talk about. So I wrote that I've done all the reading and been to all the classes and I'd never heard that term, and then I spent three paragraphs guessing about what it could possibly be. I just hope the grader (either the professor or the TA) has a sense of humor. We have several projects we have to do for the class. AND we have to do tons of reading, most of which seems unnecessary to me. (We have to READ the Chicago Manual of Style? Really?) I've heard that my professor gives more work than other professors teaching this same class. But others have survived, so I guess I will too.
I enrolled in 14 credits for the semester, but this week I added another one. I'm on the staff for a student journal called Schwa, a linguistic journal. You can be on a student journal just for experience, or you can get credit for it. I always hate doing stuff when I know it's not contributing to my study hours, so the remedy was to make my time on the student journal count for credit! I think it makes a little more work for me, because I have to have a total of 45 hours working for the journal by the end of the semester. But all of it's for credit, instead of doing less work for no credit.
One of the papers I edited this week was written by a professor--an ELang professor who, I think, even taught some editing classes. The irony is that his paper was riddled with errors! I can't expect anyone to be perfect; recently I went through my old posts and found a fair amount. But there are lots of times when he's missing a comma that seems so obvious to me, and he's overly colon happy. This makes me think that maybe I am more exceptional, if someone like this can make it all the way to become a professor!
The Editing minor is super common, especially among English and ELang majors, as I mentioned before. It's also decently common among people with other majors. I decided I didn't want to be just like all those other people. I also didn't want to be stuck in a narrow education, since the Editing minor is housed under the ELang department. I decided to do a second minor.
This minor is Geology. In summer of 2010, I took Geology 100, a class called "Dinosaurs!" The exclamation mark is actually part of the course name. I even got to go with my professor on his professional fossil excavation. After this I found my ears perking up whenever I heard geology mentioned. I remember being sad I probably wouldn't take any more geology classes, but one night at dinner, my mom mentioned I could do a double minor. I looked at options for minors that might interest me, and it just so happened that Geology was the shortest one.
Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of myself as a Geology minor, since I don't know much about it yet. But I'm in a geology class this semester, and I'm only taking it because of the minor.
The class is Geology 111, Introduction to Physical Geology. I'm loving it! When I saw topics like "igneous rocks" and "sedimentary rocks" on the syllabus, I thought it would be boring. But it's actually quite interesting! Our most boring subject so far has been minerals, but that wasn't even too bad.
This week I started the chapter about sedimentary rocks. It started off talking about the Grand Canyon. In fall of 2010, I took a trip to southern Utah with my parents. (One of these years I'm going to go to school in the fall...) We took a side trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Before I'd been there, I wondered what was so great about it--you just look at a giant hole. But when I saw it myself--well, the adjective "Grand" doesn't do it justice.
The textbook showed a diagram about the different sediments, each dating to a different time period. The bottom layer (of the canyon) dates to the Precambrian Age. That's as old as it gets! Geology is so fascinating to me. Millions and millions of years ago, the giant formations we see were not even there, or else were very different. And the rocks we see come from different places. Some were once in a liquid state and cooled. Some were once little pieces that got cemented or squished together. Chalk (not the blackboard kind) is made of the skeletal remains of tiny organisms! And then some traces of past life get stuck in the rocks and millions of years later we see that the animals that once walked the earth are entirely different from those we have today--and yet very much the same. The whole discipline is mind-boggling!
Editing and Geology don't usually overlap. But for my editing class we have to find errors. My geology textbook is online for free; the publisher quit publishing it. That's good for me, because I get a free textbook. But I wonder if it was quit being published because there are so many errors. I could get all of my required bloopers from this book, but I'll have to ask the professor if that's OK. The biggest error I've encountered so far was in the chapter about igneous rocks. It said that mafic magma ranges in temperatures from 100 degrees to 1200 degrees Celsius. It was supposed to say 1000 instead of 100! Not only is that a difference of 900 degrees, it is saying that molten rocks are the same temperature as boiling water!
But rarely does anyone ask about someone's minor, so I'm going to talk about mine--both of them!
My first minor is Editing. I've wanted to be an editor since high school. (Previous to that, I wanted to be a dentist--a very bad idea indeed.) I hate to be conceited, but I'm pretty good at English-related stuff, and it's fairly intuitive to me. In high school I was always top of my class and got a 36 on the English portion of the ACT.
The Editing minor is very common, especially among ELang and English majors. I can't decide if my past experience with this kind of thing is exceptional or not. Sometimes I think if people have made it to BYU and want to do the Editing minor, they must have been the tops of their classes and also received 36s. But sometimes I think that's not quite the case. Last year I got 100% on all of the tests for my grammar class, but most people didn't. Sometimes people will ask questions, the answers to which seem so obvious to me.
One of my classes this semester is ELang 350, Basic Editing Skills. This is a crucial class. Most postings I see for jobs or internships require 350. Basically, 350 is what will actually make me qualified for certain editing positions. The class is crucial--but annoying.
If it were not for this class, my semester would be pretty easy. So it's better that I have this hard class when the rest are easy, instead of having multiple hard ones. But it's so much work! It's a three-credit class but it's more work than my four-credit geology class! We have a test every couple of weeks. I took one yesterday. There was one question I'm pretty sure we didn't talk about. So I wrote that I've done all the reading and been to all the classes and I'd never heard that term, and then I spent three paragraphs guessing about what it could possibly be. I just hope the grader (either the professor or the TA) has a sense of humor. We have several projects we have to do for the class. AND we have to do tons of reading, most of which seems unnecessary to me. (We have to READ the Chicago Manual of Style? Really?) I've heard that my professor gives more work than other professors teaching this same class. But others have survived, so I guess I will too.
I enrolled in 14 credits for the semester, but this week I added another one. I'm on the staff for a student journal called Schwa, a linguistic journal. You can be on a student journal just for experience, or you can get credit for it. I always hate doing stuff when I know it's not contributing to my study hours, so the remedy was to make my time on the student journal count for credit! I think it makes a little more work for me, because I have to have a total of 45 hours working for the journal by the end of the semester. But all of it's for credit, instead of doing less work for no credit.
One of the papers I edited this week was written by a professor--an ELang professor who, I think, even taught some editing classes. The irony is that his paper was riddled with errors! I can't expect anyone to be perfect; recently I went through my old posts and found a fair amount. But there are lots of times when he's missing a comma that seems so obvious to me, and he's overly colon happy. This makes me think that maybe I am more exceptional, if someone like this can make it all the way to become a professor!
The Editing minor is super common, especially among English and ELang majors, as I mentioned before. It's also decently common among people with other majors. I decided I didn't want to be just like all those other people. I also didn't want to be stuck in a narrow education, since the Editing minor is housed under the ELang department. I decided to do a second minor.
This minor is Geology. In summer of 2010, I took Geology 100, a class called "Dinosaurs!" The exclamation mark is actually part of the course name. I even got to go with my professor on his professional fossil excavation. After this I found my ears perking up whenever I heard geology mentioned. I remember being sad I probably wouldn't take any more geology classes, but one night at dinner, my mom mentioned I could do a double minor. I looked at options for minors that might interest me, and it just so happened that Geology was the shortest one.
Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of myself as a Geology minor, since I don't know much about it yet. But I'm in a geology class this semester, and I'm only taking it because of the minor.
The class is Geology 111, Introduction to Physical Geology. I'm loving it! When I saw topics like "igneous rocks" and "sedimentary rocks" on the syllabus, I thought it would be boring. But it's actually quite interesting! Our most boring subject so far has been minerals, but that wasn't even too bad.
This week I started the chapter about sedimentary rocks. It started off talking about the Grand Canyon. In fall of 2010, I took a trip to southern Utah with my parents. (One of these years I'm going to go to school in the fall...) We took a side trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Before I'd been there, I wondered what was so great about it--you just look at a giant hole. But when I saw it myself--well, the adjective "Grand" doesn't do it justice.
The textbook showed a diagram about the different sediments, each dating to a different time period. The bottom layer (of the canyon) dates to the Precambrian Age. That's as old as it gets! Geology is so fascinating to me. Millions and millions of years ago, the giant formations we see were not even there, or else were very different. And the rocks we see come from different places. Some were once in a liquid state and cooled. Some were once little pieces that got cemented or squished together. Chalk (not the blackboard kind) is made of the skeletal remains of tiny organisms! And then some traces of past life get stuck in the rocks and millions of years later we see that the animals that once walked the earth are entirely different from those we have today--and yet very much the same. The whole discipline is mind-boggling!
Editing and Geology don't usually overlap. But for my editing class we have to find errors. My geology textbook is online for free; the publisher quit publishing it. That's good for me, because I get a free textbook. But I wonder if it was quit being published because there are so many errors. I could get all of my required bloopers from this book, but I'll have to ask the professor if that's OK. The biggest error I've encountered so far was in the chapter about igneous rocks. It said that mafic magma ranges in temperatures from 100 degrees to 1200 degrees Celsius. It was supposed to say 1000 instead of 100! Not only is that a difference of 900 degrees, it is saying that molten rocks are the same temperature as boiling water!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Remember Every Detail, Volume 6: Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is just a month away--so with that in mind, it's time for another memory post! But since this day is rather mediocre, especially for someone like me, I don't remember as many details, which means this will be shorter than my other memory posts.
2011--I went to my astronomy class. Our professor always showed us some YouTube video before class, related to some degree to astronomy. On this day it was some old love song by Frank Sinatra or Elvis or someone about either the moon or the stars. Between classes, I was leaving the library and saw my old roommate Alex. I started talking to him as we left the library, but he got a phone call. I started walking really slow so I could talk to him but he said he'd talk to me later, and went to the HFAC. I for some reason went in the Wilk, where there were tables set up by the Sugar and Spice store. They had Valentine cookies, but there were lots of kids around so I didn't feel like getting one. After my piano class, I walked home and it was an unusually warm day. I went home and dropped off my backpack and my hoodie, and then walked the ~fifty feet to South End Market, where I bought a small bottle of strawberry milk. This might have been the time I also bought some Doritos because we were supposed to take something to FHE that night but that may have been a different week. I drank my strawberry milk and ate a lot of conversation hearts because I wanted to finish all of them that day so I wouldn't have any left. I made a Facebook status about how that year Valentine's Day felt more like St. Patrick's Day. I watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown on my computer and my roommate Derek looked at my DVD set of the Peanuts 1970s Collection, Vol. 2. Then we went to FHE at an apartment in the Elite complex. Derek and I were early. Other girls in our group arrived. I asked Kaitlin Cooper where she was from to see if I knew her from someplace else. Some commented on my Valentine shirt. One of the girls had inflatable lips. One of the party games was a variation on "Pin the tail on the donkey," but the girls had drawn a picture of a large marshmallow with a face, and they put lipstick on and were kissing it. The girls tried to get us guys to do it, but we all declined. My roommate Tristram told the girls they should pretend they were kissing Jimmer. Derek had to leave to go to work. After FHE I walked back home with Tristram and we talked about Valentine candy. He told me he didn't get to have any conversation hearts (he didn't call them that), and I told him I wished I had known that earlier so I could have shared mine with him. I called my mom and she told me that that day's Pickles strip had Earl pinching his wife and she got violently mad and he said he confused St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, which made my mom think my status was especially funny. I went running in my orange running shirt, and I remember being by the Smith Fieldhouse and thinking about how the next day I could think about St. Patrick's Day.
2010--I had gone home for the weekend, and I wore my gaudy Valentine tie to church. In Elders Quorum there was discussion that the Elders Quorum president, Ryan Bott, had sung high at the karaoke party the previous night. He said that he had found out that karaoke songs are transposed in higher keys because most karaoke singers are women. That evening we had Black Forest cake with whipped cream and we watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. After everyone went to bed, I went on Amazon to redeem three free downloads we got as a result of some purchases. I looked for artists I thought I would like but who mostly released clean songs. (Now I'm kind of the opposite--if I search for a single to download, I'll probably pick a clean song by a dirty artist, reserving clean artists for whole albums.) I downloaded "Feel" by Michelle Tumes, which I liked from my mission. I looked for John Mayer, and was excited to see a song called "St. Patrick's Day," since the next day would start that holiday's season. The lyrics didn't really have too much to do with the holiday, but talked about holidays in general, so I got it. I looked at Smashmouth, but saw they had explicit songs so I didn't want anything they had. I looked for Coldplay, and downloaded "Things I Don't Understand."
2009--Elder Betenson and I walked to the house of our Elders Quorum president. When we knocked on the door he said he heard an expletive from the garage, and didn't think it was fitting of the EQP. It turned out to be the EQP's wife's brother, who was not a member, but who was nice to us. He was the only one home. That evening some members, the Maurers, took us to dinner at KFC. We discovered that there was a name we had found new on the ward list, and this woman (probably a mother) lived with the Maurers and came to dinner with us. I wasn't as talkative as I should have been; Elder Betenson did most of the talking.
2008--We had zone conference in the Regina building, our own stake center. Elder Chun and I drove there, and I remember being around Market Street and I turned on the "Heartburn Waltz" song on my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD. Elder Chun seemed a bit uneasy about this, even though he was the one who had told me the CD was OK and in fact led me to ask my family to send it. But maybe he just didn't like it. Now I realize this was inappropriate, not necessarily because of the song, but because it was from a TV special I couldn't watch, and it made me think about it. I had been on a week-long exchange with the Elder Rand (since Elder Chun and Elder Gammon had been sick), which ended (I think) the day before. I had left my toiletry kit, including my retainer, at the zone leaders' apartment, so I had asked them to bring it, and I got it out of their car at the church. We all went up to greet our mission president, President Clark, as was customary, and he told Elder Chun he had called his mom. President got up with Sister Clark and told us how much he loved her. We broke into smaller meetings, and we all had to get up and introduce our companions, describing them like a candy bar. Elder Rand said Elder Gammon was a Rolo, referring to his rolls (because Elder Gammon was obsessed with the weight he had gained). Sister Clark was in there without President, and she said he was her Sugar Daddy, and she was his Tootsie Roll in the same way Elder Gammon was a Rolo. Elder Chun introduced me and told them I was from North Salt Lake, which was its own city, and Elder Johnson, from Bountiful, said, "Hardly." Elder Chun couldn't think of a candy bar that existed to describe me. I described him as a chocolate-covered macadamia nut, because he is "dark and Hawaiian." Later Sister Clark told me she loved my description. That evening we went with Brother Smith, a ward missionary from the Greenbluff Ward, to our appointments in the Northpointe Ward, including Shane and the Davises. Brother Smith didn't mind teaching with us because his wife was out of town. She called him and told him how she had either run out of gas or else broke down and was at a bar for bikers with an, um, unusual name for either the bar or some event at the bar. I won't tell you the name since I'm trying to keep this rated G, but Elder Chun asked if it was a gay bar.
2007--All I can remember is sitting on the swing on our patio with the patio light on, doing my homework and listening to the MP3 player I got for Christmas. The only music I had added to it was some of the Corpse Bride soundtrack, so I listened to a lot of the sample songs, including an alcohol warning with a swear word in it. Our home teacher had brought us a chocolate pie from Marie Callendar's. But it's possible my sitting on the patio actually happened a day or two before Valentine's Day.
2006--I was wearing my Snoopy Valentine shirt. I had to go to the dentist, and members of my theater class seemed sad when I had to leave. As I was leaving the dentist, I didn't stop or look as I was pulling out of one parking row and there was a car coming, so we both had to slam on our brakes. I felt dumb and sheepishly pulled out and left, and learned that I always needed to stop and look.
2005--In my world history class, there was a girl who had received black fake roses, and our teacher, Mr. Bell, remarked about that being wrong. (I can't figure out how to word it--he wasn't mad; it was more like he was sad.) When I went home, I went downstairs, and my sister had turned on Full House, and it was a Valentine show and one of the uncles told a teacher that her boyfriend was outside in a thong. Allie was holding my DVD of A Charlie Brown Valentine, and my mom said she might like to watch it. I asked Allie if I could watch the other one--not like she cared, since she was only one and a half. So I turned on my VHS copy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. The closed captioning was on, and my mom thought it was funny when Lucy said, "No, I can't say that I have," but the CC said, "No, I haven't."
2004--It was a Saturday. In the morning I watched A Charlie Brown Valentine and Gilligan's Island on our computer while eating the Valentine candy my mom got from her class, including a chocolate apple with a worm. That night I wanted heart-shaped pizza with white cheese, pink ham, and red pepperoni. My dad and I went to Winegar's to get some ingredients, and on the way I had my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD and I kept playing the "Heartburn Waltz."
2003--I wore a red shirt and my gaudy Valentine tie. There were lots of kids at school wearing ties for the Valentine dance after school, but I wasn't going to that since my cousin Lacey was having her reception. On the bus I gave handfuls of conversation hearts to Katie Clark and Ali Snarr as they walked by. (Later, either that day or much later, I second guessed myself because it's kind of gross I gave them cheap candy out of my hand.) In the car my mom had a bag of the Valentine candy she got from her class, including a heart-shaped Altoids tin with peppermint Altoids, some of which were heart shaped themselves. My sister had bought Easter candy. We had to pick up David in Provo, and for some reason we had to pick him up at the Creamery Outlet. We stopped at his apartment, which had been "heart attacked," i.e. some girls had put paper hearts all over the walls. [In the car after we left Provo, I was thinking it would be cool to make a CD of Valentine-like music. I even thought of the theme to The Love Boat.] Then we went out to Flowell (Fillmore) for Lacey's reception. When we went through the line Sarena saw "Hug Me" on my tie so she hugged me. They had lights strung across the church gym, and dry ice in heart-shaped bowls on the tables. My aunt Michelle was wearing what I think is called a dog collar shirt. After the reception we helped clean up, and my sister thought I was acting awkwardly and unhelpful toward a girl who was also cleaning up. Then we drove to my grandparents' house in Fillmore to spend the night.
2002--My school had given a bunch of us tickets to the Olympics, and this Thursday was the day I got to go. I wore a red shirt. Those of us who were going were in the commons area, waiting, and there was a conversation about Chewy Gobstoppers. Then we loaded the bus. We parked at a parking lot and then rode shuttles up to the event. I was by myself. Tyler Brklacich invited me to sit with a bunch of them but I declined. There were people there wearing American flags as capes. I don't remember what the event was; I think it was women's slalom. At one point I bought a very expensive hot dog. Later I felt dumb that I bought a hot dog when for nearly the same price I could have bought a mascot item that I could keep forever. I saw some men drinking beer and they had spilled some drops on the railing. Somehow I touched the beer drops, which made my glove smell terrible. I already knew alcohol was bad because of the Word of Wisdom and because of Red Ribbon Week and DARE, but the smell further convinced me beer was no good. When the event was over, I was worried. I couldn't find anyone from school, and I hoped that the bus wouldn't leave without me. We were all walking out and there was a bluegrass musician playing stuff over the loudspeaker, and he invited everyone to sing along to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." This excited me, and after the regular lyrics he said, "The Beverly Hillbillies" just like they do on the show and continued playing the intro. I got on the shuttle and was still worried about the bus. Would I have to walk until I found a gas station and then call my mom and tell her I was stranded? I sat by a window and a foreign woman asked, "May I join you?" It sounded like "May otoño?" I nodded but didn't say anything because I didn't know if she'd understand and I was so worried about the bus. When we got off the shuttle I was so relieved that the bus was still there and I ran to it so it wouldn't leave. When I got home, I told my mom about my experience and she was mad at the teachers that I was alone. We had heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and I was excited to watch and record the new Peanuts special debuting that night, A Charlie Brown Valentine.
2001--Ah, the sixth-grade Valentine dance--what a weird tradition. One kid in my class, Jesús, came wearing a tux, and I thought the ruffled shirt was ridiculous. I was wearing a splint because my arm might have been broken. (It was just sprained, but I didn't know that yet.) One of our early dances was to Will Smith's "Men in Black" and I was frustrated because everyone was doing it wrong. One Andreia Dixon had to dance with me and I kind of inferred that she wanted to get it over with, but I could be wrong. I was confused at why I was dancing with her. We submitted names to the teachers of people we wanted to dance with, and Andreia was the only one who didn't get all of her choices. I didn't put down that I wanted to dance with her, and I found it unlikely she wanted to dance with me, so I was confused at why the teachers put us together. We danced the Twist twice--once was supposed to be to an old song and one was supposed to be to the "Peppermint Twist," but they played the same Twist song, which I thought defeated the purpose of doing it twice. One of my Twist partners was Hillary Ulmer. One of my slow partners was Latecia Pope. When I had a break in my dancing, I went outside and squeezed a lot of sweat out of my foamy splint. They had little gummy hamburgers and fake fries for us as snacks--they tried to make it a little 50s-ish, including cutouts of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. They had giant balloons with little balloons on the side, and I got fake mesmerized by pulling it down and watching it bounce up. After the dance, some girls in my class exchanged valentines. They had little tiny heart stickers, and somehow I got some and put them on my glasses. That night I went to mutual with the stickers on my glasses. My parents gave me a land-line phone that resembled a cell phone for my room, but that might have been the night before.
2000--We all brought our own homemade valentine boxes. Mine was a decorated shoe box with a slot in the top. We went around putting our valentines in the others' boxes, and Cory Sheley told me he opened my box instead of using the slot because the slot was too narrow. His slot was fat. Indeed, when I got back to my desk, I discovered that many people just put the valentines next to the box because the slot was too narrow. Mrs. Call gave out prizes to the best boxes, one of whom was Kelsey Butters, whose box was wood and plastic. I resented this, because she obviously didn't make it herself like I had. Kelsey seemed pleased and surprised she won. Mrs. Call went around taking pictures and when she came to me I put my box lid in front of my face but Andreia Dixon pulled it away. That night, we went to Media Play and I got Snoopy Come Home and then we went home and I watched it and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and had conversation hearts. Before going to bed I cried that Charles Schulz had died the day before. (Now I think, Really? You didn't even know him!)
1999, 1998--Because Valentine's Day in elementary school is all about the school parties, and the holiday was on a weekend these years, I don't remember anything. :(
1997--All I remember is that we had receptacles for our valentines made out of gallon milk jugs. Mine was a bear, with some terrible "beary" pun, and others were dinosaurs, with "dino-mite" puns, and there was some other thing I can't remember. That night I watched a Valentine episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
1996--[Before school I was standing outside, waiting for carpool, and my teacher, Sister Weight, brought me a small red bear in a bag.] We had valentine receptacles shaped like mail trucks and I got a cheap little Valentine game where you try to get the tiny ball in the holes. That came from Kelsey Butters; she gave necklaces to the girls. I remember playing outside at recess and it was sunny but there was a lot of snow and slush on the ground.
1995--All I know is we got valentines in paper hearts we made, but I only remember the heart because I remember making it. My parents got me a Valentine bear that I loved.
1994--My parents gave me a card with a caterpillar that said "I love you THIS MUCH!" with the caterpillar holding his arms wide. They got my brother a card too but I can't remember what it was.
Other posts in this series:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-treat Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
Auld Lang Syne
2011--I went to my astronomy class. Our professor always showed us some YouTube video before class, related to some degree to astronomy. On this day it was some old love song by Frank Sinatra or Elvis or someone about either the moon or the stars. Between classes, I was leaving the library and saw my old roommate Alex. I started talking to him as we left the library, but he got a phone call. I started walking really slow so I could talk to him but he said he'd talk to me later, and went to the HFAC. I for some reason went in the Wilk, where there were tables set up by the Sugar and Spice store. They had Valentine cookies, but there were lots of kids around so I didn't feel like getting one. After my piano class, I walked home and it was an unusually warm day. I went home and dropped off my backpack and my hoodie, and then walked the ~fifty feet to South End Market, where I bought a small bottle of strawberry milk. This might have been the time I also bought some Doritos because we were supposed to take something to FHE that night but that may have been a different week. I drank my strawberry milk and ate a lot of conversation hearts because I wanted to finish all of them that day so I wouldn't have any left. I made a Facebook status about how that year Valentine's Day felt more like St. Patrick's Day. I watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown on my computer and my roommate Derek looked at my DVD set of the Peanuts 1970s Collection, Vol. 2. Then we went to FHE at an apartment in the Elite complex. Derek and I were early. Other girls in our group arrived. I asked Kaitlin Cooper where she was from to see if I knew her from someplace else. Some commented on my Valentine shirt. One of the girls had inflatable lips. One of the party games was a variation on "Pin the tail on the donkey," but the girls had drawn a picture of a large marshmallow with a face, and they put lipstick on and were kissing it. The girls tried to get us guys to do it, but we all declined. My roommate Tristram told the girls they should pretend they were kissing Jimmer. Derek had to leave to go to work. After FHE I walked back home with Tristram and we talked about Valentine candy. He told me he didn't get to have any conversation hearts (he didn't call them that), and I told him I wished I had known that earlier so I could have shared mine with him. I called my mom and she told me that that day's Pickles strip had Earl pinching his wife and she got violently mad and he said he confused St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day, which made my mom think my status was especially funny. I went running in my orange running shirt, and I remember being by the Smith Fieldhouse and thinking about how the next day I could think about St. Patrick's Day.
2010--I had gone home for the weekend, and I wore my gaudy Valentine tie to church. In Elders Quorum there was discussion that the Elders Quorum president, Ryan Bott, had sung high at the karaoke party the previous night. He said that he had found out that karaoke songs are transposed in higher keys because most karaoke singers are women. That evening we had Black Forest cake with whipped cream and we watched Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. After everyone went to bed, I went on Amazon to redeem three free downloads we got as a result of some purchases. I looked for artists I thought I would like but who mostly released clean songs. (Now I'm kind of the opposite--if I search for a single to download, I'll probably pick a clean song by a dirty artist, reserving clean artists for whole albums.) I downloaded "Feel" by Michelle Tumes, which I liked from my mission. I looked for John Mayer, and was excited to see a song called "St. Patrick's Day," since the next day would start that holiday's season. The lyrics didn't really have too much to do with the holiday, but talked about holidays in general, so I got it. I looked at Smashmouth, but saw they had explicit songs so I didn't want anything they had. I looked for Coldplay, and downloaded "Things I Don't Understand."
2009--Elder Betenson and I walked to the house of our Elders Quorum president. When we knocked on the door he said he heard an expletive from the garage, and didn't think it was fitting of the EQP. It turned out to be the EQP's wife's brother, who was not a member, but who was nice to us. He was the only one home. That evening some members, the Maurers, took us to dinner at KFC. We discovered that there was a name we had found new on the ward list, and this woman (probably a mother) lived with the Maurers and came to dinner with us. I wasn't as talkative as I should have been; Elder Betenson did most of the talking.
2008--We had zone conference in the Regina building, our own stake center. Elder Chun and I drove there, and I remember being around Market Street and I turned on the "Heartburn Waltz" song on my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD. Elder Chun seemed a bit uneasy about this, even though he was the one who had told me the CD was OK and in fact led me to ask my family to send it. But maybe he just didn't like it. Now I realize this was inappropriate, not necessarily because of the song, but because it was from a TV special I couldn't watch, and it made me think about it. I had been on a week-long exchange with the Elder Rand (since Elder Chun and Elder Gammon had been sick), which ended (I think) the day before. I had left my toiletry kit, including my retainer, at the zone leaders' apartment, so I had asked them to bring it, and I got it out of their car at the church. We all went up to greet our mission president, President Clark, as was customary, and he told Elder Chun he had called his mom. President got up with Sister Clark and told us how much he loved her. We broke into smaller meetings, and we all had to get up and introduce our companions, describing them like a candy bar. Elder Rand said Elder Gammon was a Rolo, referring to his rolls (because Elder Gammon was obsessed with the weight he had gained). Sister Clark was in there without President, and she said he was her Sugar Daddy, and she was his Tootsie Roll in the same way Elder Gammon was a Rolo. Elder Chun introduced me and told them I was from North Salt Lake, which was its own city, and Elder Johnson, from Bountiful, said, "Hardly." Elder Chun couldn't think of a candy bar that existed to describe me. I described him as a chocolate-covered macadamia nut, because he is "dark and Hawaiian." Later Sister Clark told me she loved my description. That evening we went with Brother Smith, a ward missionary from the Greenbluff Ward, to our appointments in the Northpointe Ward, including Shane and the Davises. Brother Smith didn't mind teaching with us because his wife was out of town. She called him and told him how she had either run out of gas or else broke down and was at a bar for bikers with an, um, unusual name for either the bar or some event at the bar. I won't tell you the name since I'm trying to keep this rated G, but Elder Chun asked if it was a gay bar.
2007--All I can remember is sitting on the swing on our patio with the patio light on, doing my homework and listening to the MP3 player I got for Christmas. The only music I had added to it was some of the Corpse Bride soundtrack, so I listened to a lot of the sample songs, including an alcohol warning with a swear word in it. Our home teacher had brought us a chocolate pie from Marie Callendar's. But it's possible my sitting on the patio actually happened a day or two before Valentine's Day.
2006--I was wearing my Snoopy Valentine shirt. I had to go to the dentist, and members of my theater class seemed sad when I had to leave. As I was leaving the dentist, I didn't stop or look as I was pulling out of one parking row and there was a car coming, so we both had to slam on our brakes. I felt dumb and sheepishly pulled out and left, and learned that I always needed to stop and look.
2005--In my world history class, there was a girl who had received black fake roses, and our teacher, Mr. Bell, remarked about that being wrong. (I can't figure out how to word it--he wasn't mad; it was more like he was sad.) When I went home, I went downstairs, and my sister had turned on Full House, and it was a Valentine show and one of the uncles told a teacher that her boyfriend was outside in a thong. Allie was holding my DVD of A Charlie Brown Valentine, and my mom said she might like to watch it. I asked Allie if I could watch the other one--not like she cared, since she was only one and a half. So I turned on my VHS copy of Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. The closed captioning was on, and my mom thought it was funny when Lucy said, "No, I can't say that I have," but the CC said, "No, I haven't."
2004--It was a Saturday. In the morning I watched A Charlie Brown Valentine and Gilligan's Island on our computer while eating the Valentine candy my mom got from her class, including a chocolate apple with a worm. That night I wanted heart-shaped pizza with white cheese, pink ham, and red pepperoni. My dad and I went to Winegar's to get some ingredients, and on the way I had my Charlie Brown's Holiday Hits CD and I kept playing the "Heartburn Waltz."
2003--I wore a red shirt and my gaudy Valentine tie. There were lots of kids at school wearing ties for the Valentine dance after school, but I wasn't going to that since my cousin Lacey was having her reception. On the bus I gave handfuls of conversation hearts to Katie Clark and Ali Snarr as they walked by. (Later, either that day or much later, I second guessed myself because it's kind of gross I gave them cheap candy out of my hand.) In the car my mom had a bag of the Valentine candy she got from her class, including a heart-shaped Altoids tin with peppermint Altoids, some of which were heart shaped themselves. My sister had bought Easter candy. We had to pick up David in Provo, and for some reason we had to pick him up at the Creamery Outlet. We stopped at his apartment, which had been "heart attacked," i.e. some girls had put paper hearts all over the walls. [In the car after we left Provo, I was thinking it would be cool to make a CD of Valentine-like music. I even thought of the theme to The Love Boat.] Then we went out to Flowell (Fillmore) for Lacey's reception. When we went through the line Sarena saw "Hug Me" on my tie so she hugged me. They had lights strung across the church gym, and dry ice in heart-shaped bowls on the tables. My aunt Michelle was wearing what I think is called a dog collar shirt. After the reception we helped clean up, and my sister thought I was acting awkwardly and unhelpful toward a girl who was also cleaning up. Then we drove to my grandparents' house in Fillmore to spend the night.
2002--My school had given a bunch of us tickets to the Olympics, and this Thursday was the day I got to go. I wore a red shirt. Those of us who were going were in the commons area, waiting, and there was a conversation about Chewy Gobstoppers. Then we loaded the bus. We parked at a parking lot and then rode shuttles up to the event. I was by myself. Tyler Brklacich invited me to sit with a bunch of them but I declined. There were people there wearing American flags as capes. I don't remember what the event was; I think it was women's slalom. At one point I bought a very expensive hot dog. Later I felt dumb that I bought a hot dog when for nearly the same price I could have bought a mascot item that I could keep forever. I saw some men drinking beer and they had spilled some drops on the railing. Somehow I touched the beer drops, which made my glove smell terrible. I already knew alcohol was bad because of the Word of Wisdom and because of Red Ribbon Week and DARE, but the smell further convinced me beer was no good. When the event was over, I was worried. I couldn't find anyone from school, and I hoped that the bus wouldn't leave without me. We were all walking out and there was a bluegrass musician playing stuff over the loudspeaker, and he invited everyone to sing along to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." This excited me, and after the regular lyrics he said, "The Beverly Hillbillies" just like they do on the show and continued playing the intro. I got on the shuttle and was still worried about the bus. Would I have to walk until I found a gas station and then call my mom and tell her I was stranded? I sat by a window and a foreign woman asked, "May I join you?" It sounded like "May otoño?" I nodded but didn't say anything because I didn't know if she'd understand and I was so worried about the bus. When we got off the shuttle I was so relieved that the bus was still there and I ran to it so it wouldn't leave. When I got home, I told my mom about my experience and she was mad at the teachers that I was alone. We had heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's and I was excited to watch and record the new Peanuts special debuting that night, A Charlie Brown Valentine.
2001--Ah, the sixth-grade Valentine dance--what a weird tradition. One kid in my class, Jesús, came wearing a tux, and I thought the ruffled shirt was ridiculous. I was wearing a splint because my arm might have been broken. (It was just sprained, but I didn't know that yet.) One of our early dances was to Will Smith's "Men in Black" and I was frustrated because everyone was doing it wrong. One Andreia Dixon had to dance with me and I kind of inferred that she wanted to get it over with, but I could be wrong. I was confused at why I was dancing with her. We submitted names to the teachers of people we wanted to dance with, and Andreia was the only one who didn't get all of her choices. I didn't put down that I wanted to dance with her, and I found it unlikely she wanted to dance with me, so I was confused at why the teachers put us together. We danced the Twist twice--once was supposed to be to an old song and one was supposed to be to the "Peppermint Twist," but they played the same Twist song, which I thought defeated the purpose of doing it twice. One of my Twist partners was Hillary Ulmer. One of my slow partners was Latecia Pope. When I had a break in my dancing, I went outside and squeezed a lot of sweat out of my foamy splint. They had little gummy hamburgers and fake fries for us as snacks--they tried to make it a little 50s-ish, including cutouts of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. They had giant balloons with little balloons on the side, and I got fake mesmerized by pulling it down and watching it bounce up. After the dance, some girls in my class exchanged valentines. They had little tiny heart stickers, and somehow I got some and put them on my glasses. That night I went to mutual with the stickers on my glasses. My parents gave me a land-line phone that resembled a cell phone for my room, but that might have been the night before.
2000--We all brought our own homemade valentine boxes. Mine was a decorated shoe box with a slot in the top. We went around putting our valentines in the others' boxes, and Cory Sheley told me he opened my box instead of using the slot because the slot was too narrow. His slot was fat. Indeed, when I got back to my desk, I discovered that many people just put the valentines next to the box because the slot was too narrow. Mrs. Call gave out prizes to the best boxes, one of whom was Kelsey Butters, whose box was wood and plastic. I resented this, because she obviously didn't make it herself like I had. Kelsey seemed pleased and surprised she won. Mrs. Call went around taking pictures and when she came to me I put my box lid in front of my face but Andreia Dixon pulled it away. That night, we went to Media Play and I got Snoopy Come Home and then we went home and I watched it and Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown and had conversation hearts. Before going to bed I cried that Charles Schulz had died the day before. (Now I think, Really? You didn't even know him!)
1999, 1998--Because Valentine's Day in elementary school is all about the school parties, and the holiday was on a weekend these years, I don't remember anything. :(
1997--All I remember is that we had receptacles for our valentines made out of gallon milk jugs. Mine was a bear, with some terrible "beary" pun, and others were dinosaurs, with "dino-mite" puns, and there was some other thing I can't remember. That night I watched a Valentine episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
1996--[Before school I was standing outside, waiting for carpool, and my teacher, Sister Weight, brought me a small red bear in a bag.] We had valentine receptacles shaped like mail trucks and I got a cheap little Valentine game where you try to get the tiny ball in the holes. That came from Kelsey Butters; she gave necklaces to the girls. I remember playing outside at recess and it was sunny but there was a lot of snow and slush on the ground.
1995--All I know is we got valentines in paper hearts we made, but I only remember the heart because I remember making it. My parents got me a Valentine bear that I loved.
1994--My parents gave me a card with a caterpillar that said "I love you THIS MUCH!" with the caterpillar holding his arms wide. They got my brother a card too but I can't remember what it was.
Other posts in this series:
The Ghost of Independence Days Past
A Pillowcase Full of Trick-or-treat Memories
Remember Every Detail, Volume 3: Thanksgiving
Yuletide by the Fireside, and Joyful Memories There
Auld Lang Syne
Sunday, January 8, 2012
You say goodbye, I say hello
This week I spent time with my three visiting nephews before moving down to Provo. Because I started working so quickly, I didn't get to see them back in August. We were making plans for me to go visit them in Tennessee, but I didn't need to because they were able to come out here for the New Year.
I'm bad at taking pictures, and I have a relatively cheap camera, and I hate using flash in public, so I have few good pictures. This makes me sad.
On Tuesday I was riding with these Melvilles from my sister's house, and my brother said, referring to his boys, "I have one drama king, one bipolar, and one stubborn."
Preston is seven. He is the drama king, and has been since he was a baby. He is quick to tears and anything slightly amiss is tragic. He lived with us from the time he was about three months old until he was about twenty-one months. He was absolutely adorable as a baby. I forget how cute he is even now until I see him. He likes learning and asks lots of questions. His dad is very good at answering his questions, because I don't know how I'd know how to answer them.
Franklin will turn four on January 24. He is the bipolar one--he is either very sweet, or positively terrible. This time around he was considerably shy around us and generally only liked to be with his dad. This was enigmatic to me, since last time I saw him--at the end of 2010--he immediately attached himself to me, and the time before that, Christmastime of 2009, he warmed up to me quickly as well. He didn't want me to hug him when I left. I hope I can get closer to him on my next visit with them.
Nathaniel is better known by his nickname, "Baby." Baby will turn two a week from today, on January 15. He is the stubborn one. Once he's attached to something, he doesn't want to become unattached. For example, if someone is holding him, he doesn't want that person to quit holding him. He is positively adorable and a great charmer. Last time I saw him he was sick and didn't want anything to do with anyone but his parents. This time was very different. I held him when we got them from the airport, and then that night at home, I held out my arms and he came running to me. The next day we went to the Natural History Museum of Utah. I held him for a good portion of that time. He loved the museum. He pointed at all the dinosaur skeletons and told me all about them--"Wehhhhh, wehhhhh, wehhhhh." There was a wall of ceratopsian skulls. He pointed to each of them--"Wehhh, wehhhh, wehhh." Even in parts that I thought he couldn't possibly be interested in, such as photographs about Utah archaeology, he happily told me, "wehhh, wehhh." One thing I resent is his attachment to my cousin Peter. Because Peter was being a loser and not doing anything with his life, namely neither working nor going to school, Peter got to go to Taiwan with my nephews, so Baby has a big fondness for Peter. But I couldn't create this relationship because I was responsible, being in school and for a time working as well. (And yes, Peter, I know you read this blog, and yes, I know you got a job and are now going back to school. Good for you--I mean it!)
Tuesday was my last day with them before I came down here to Provo for another winter semester. I live in the same complex I lived in last year, but a different apartment. My apartment is ten dollars cheaper a month, but not nearly as nice. Our door is difficult to lock and unlock. It requires a lot of jiggle action, and it is backwards--instead of lefty-loosey righty-tighty, it's lefty-tighty righty-loosey. Our oven beeps every ten seconds (I timed it). This is actually not as annoying as you might think; it's not too loud. My room roommate is very nice. My only problem with him is his very loud snoring.
I have a semantics/pragmatics class MWF at 9:00. Oddly this class meets in the RB, an athletic building. I look over the swimming pool on my way to class. On Friday I got out of my class and met an old companion who has a class immediately after mine in the same room. But his is for his dance minor, and he was surprised I had such a class in the RB.
On MW at 10:00 I have my piano class. I have to book it from the RB to the HFAC. Our instructor is a grad student. The only other grad student experience I have is not a good one, but this guy seems like he knows what he's doing. But it's been a year since I had my last piano class so I'm a little rusty.
On MWF at 2:00 I have Basic Editing Skills. This will be an intense class. I heard this professor gave a lot of work, and it appears to be true. But if it doesn't kill me it'll only make me stronger, right? I just worry about the possibility of it killing me. On Friday night I went "running" and I didn't take my key and my roommate left while I was gone, so I was locked out. I went to the library for a time, then sat outside my apartment. A guy who lives across from me--I live in #12 and he lives in #11--invited me in and we found out we were in the same editing class, and in fact he had sat in front of me in class that very day!
On TTh at 12:00 I have a D&C class. Our instructor seems very interested in students; she had already studied our pictures. I got a new picture Wednesday, so she must have been looking at pictures before then, because she told me I didn't look like my picture.
On TTh at 1:30 I have my geology class. It's a four-credit class, which tend to be harder, and it's required for the geology major and minor, so I thought it would be mostly geology majors. But the professor had the geology majors raise their hands, and there were only a handful. He said they had a lot of missionary work to do, i.e. converting people to the geology major. (Sorry, Professor Nelson, I hope the minor will do.) I think this will be easier than my editing class, which really isn't fair since the editing class is only three credits. I have a lab for this class Tuesdays at 9:00 but I haven't had this yet.
I think this will suffice for my blog post.
I'm bad at taking pictures, and I have a relatively cheap camera, and I hate using flash in public, so I have few good pictures. This makes me sad.
On Tuesday I was riding with these Melvilles from my sister's house, and my brother said, referring to his boys, "I have one drama king, one bipolar, and one stubborn."
Preston is seven. He is the drama king, and has been since he was a baby. He is quick to tears and anything slightly amiss is tragic. He lived with us from the time he was about three months old until he was about twenty-one months. He was absolutely adorable as a baby. I forget how cute he is even now until I see him. He likes learning and asks lots of questions. His dad is very good at answering his questions, because I don't know how I'd know how to answer them.
Franklin will turn four on January 24. He is the bipolar one--he is either very sweet, or positively terrible. This time around he was considerably shy around us and generally only liked to be with his dad. This was enigmatic to me, since last time I saw him--at the end of 2010--he immediately attached himself to me, and the time before that, Christmastime of 2009, he warmed up to me quickly as well. He didn't want me to hug him when I left. I hope I can get closer to him on my next visit with them.
Nathaniel is better known by his nickname, "Baby." Baby will turn two a week from today, on January 15. He is the stubborn one. Once he's attached to something, he doesn't want to become unattached. For example, if someone is holding him, he doesn't want that person to quit holding him. He is positively adorable and a great charmer. Last time I saw him he was sick and didn't want anything to do with anyone but his parents. This time was very different. I held him when we got them from the airport, and then that night at home, I held out my arms and he came running to me. The next day we went to the Natural History Museum of Utah. I held him for a good portion of that time. He loved the museum. He pointed at all the dinosaur skeletons and told me all about them--"Wehhhhh, wehhhhh, wehhhhh." There was a wall of ceratopsian skulls. He pointed to each of them--"Wehhh, wehhhh, wehhh." Even in parts that I thought he couldn't possibly be interested in, such as photographs about Utah archaeology, he happily told me, "wehhh, wehhh." One thing I resent is his attachment to my cousin Peter. Because Peter was being a loser and not doing anything with his life, namely neither working nor going to school, Peter got to go to Taiwan with my nephews, so Baby has a big fondness for Peter. But I couldn't create this relationship because I was responsible, being in school and for a time working as well. (And yes, Peter, I know you read this blog, and yes, I know you got a job and are now going back to school. Good for you--I mean it!)Tuesday was my last day with them before I came down here to Provo for another winter semester. I live in the same complex I lived in last year, but a different apartment. My apartment is ten dollars cheaper a month, but not nearly as nice. Our door is difficult to lock and unlock. It requires a lot of jiggle action, and it is backwards--instead of lefty-loosey righty-tighty, it's lefty-tighty righty-loosey. Our oven beeps every ten seconds (I timed it). This is actually not as annoying as you might think; it's not too loud. My room roommate is very nice. My only problem with him is his very loud snoring.
I have a semantics/pragmatics class MWF at 9:00. Oddly this class meets in the RB, an athletic building. I look over the swimming pool on my way to class. On Friday I got out of my class and met an old companion who has a class immediately after mine in the same room. But his is for his dance minor, and he was surprised I had such a class in the RB.
On MW at 10:00 I have my piano class. I have to book it from the RB to the HFAC. Our instructor is a grad student. The only other grad student experience I have is not a good one, but this guy seems like he knows what he's doing. But it's been a year since I had my last piano class so I'm a little rusty.
On MWF at 2:00 I have Basic Editing Skills. This will be an intense class. I heard this professor gave a lot of work, and it appears to be true. But if it doesn't kill me it'll only make me stronger, right? I just worry about the possibility of it killing me. On Friday night I went "running" and I didn't take my key and my roommate left while I was gone, so I was locked out. I went to the library for a time, then sat outside my apartment. A guy who lives across from me--I live in #12 and he lives in #11--invited me in and we found out we were in the same editing class, and in fact he had sat in front of me in class that very day!
On TTh at 12:00 I have a D&C class. Our instructor seems very interested in students; she had already studied our pictures. I got a new picture Wednesday, so she must have been looking at pictures before then, because she told me I didn't look like my picture.
On TTh at 1:30 I have my geology class. It's a four-credit class, which tend to be harder, and it's required for the geology major and minor, so I thought it would be mostly geology majors. But the professor had the geology majors raise their hands, and there were only a handful. He said they had a lot of missionary work to do, i.e. converting people to the geology major. (Sorry, Professor Nelson, I hope the minor will do.) I think this will be easier than my editing class, which really isn't fair since the editing class is only three credits. I have a lab for this class Tuesdays at 9:00 but I haven't had this yet.
I think this will suffice for my blog post.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Ring out the Old, Ring in the New
This year was the first time I really learned that January was named for the mythical god Janus, a deity with two faces. Well, I knew it was named for Janus, but I didn't know who Janus was. But this nonexistent being is appropriate for the New Year, since there are two parts of the holiday--looking back at the dying year (which has already died, or else retired to the Archipelago of Last Years), and looking ahead at the coming year, still in its infancy. I am going to do both.
Here is what happened in 2011.
January. I started my second year at BYU, with my roommates Derek (who had been my penultimate companion, Elder Warren), Zach, and Tristram. I took fourteen credits for winter semester (the minimum amount for my scholarship). I took astronomy, grammar, modern American usage of English, internet publishing, and piano. I got a campus job cleaning up after sporting events; January was men's volleyball and women's gymnastics.
February. I don't think February was all too eventful. It was more gymnastics and volleyball and more studying and more piano playing.
March. My dad at this point was having to work in Chicago, coming home every other weekend. On one particular weekend they came down on a day when I had to clean tennis courts. Toward the end of the month I drove home after midnight while munching on Easter candy to go to my sister's anniversary breakfast. This was the era of Rebecca Black's "Friday" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
April. I finished winter classes. I was so glad to be rid of my internet publishing class--the class was OK, but the instructor was abysmal. On one day my work was putting oil on football lockers (several of us accidentally locked bottles of oil in the drawers). Following finals I flew to California to meet my family and we went to Disneyland, and then we drove back home just before Easter. At the end of the month I got two new roommates, Chase and Nate (I barely saw Nate, and Zach was still around), and started spring classes. I took the history of English and Masterpieces of American literature.
May. I started this blog! My work was mainly sweeping up sunflower seeds after baseball and softball games, and then it ended. I had some bizarre dreams. I got kicked out of the BYU Bookstore for reading on the text level (well, I didn't really get kicked out; they just told me I couldn't be there). My dad was laid off.
June. I finished a book about James Murray, the man responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary, and did a report about Edgar Allan Poe. Spring classes finished and that weekend I went to the zoo with my cousin Jesse and an old friend Lori. Then summer classes started; I took world civilization to 1500 and archaeology--these classes dovetailed quite nicely. All my roommates moved out so I had an apartment all to myself. But at the tail end of the month the air conditioning went out.
July. I ran my first 5k, on the Fourth of July. That was awesome, and in fact that was my best Fourth of July ever. On the night of the Fourth of July the apartment below me invited me to sleep in their apartment since they had an extra bed and I had no AC. In fact, I went the entire month of July with no AC and I believe only one night in July did I sleep in my apartment. When I was home I would eat quesadillas (since they generated minimum heat on my quesadilla maker) and watch daytime television, like judge shows and news. But I tried to spend a lot of time away from the apartment. I did a lot of Google doc test reviews on campus while listening to Lady Gaga Radio on Pandora.
August. What a month! My AC finally got fixed a few days before I moved out. Summer classes ended, and I moved out, not knowing if I'd be back for fall, since that depended on my dad getting a job. I ended up getting my old Church Distribution job back and started there. I was only part time, but we had to get the new Relief Society books, Daughters in My Kingdom, out before September, so I worked a lot.
September. This was the era of listening to Christina Perri and anxiously awaiting days when we didn't need to have the AC on. On Labor Day we had the missionaries over. I told them they could call me, but they never did. I started the Halloween season, and turned 23.
October. October was General Conference, Allie's primary program, and stake conference. My parents and I went to Price and Nine Mile Canyon one Saturday in celebration of my dad finally getting a job--a very good job with good pay. I ran a very muddy 5k that ended up being more than a 5k since the volunteers didn't tell us to turn around. My shoes still have traces of the mud on them. It was a costumed 5k so I wore my 5k outfit when I went with Allie trick-or-treating.
November. Work started getting really busy and we started working Saturdays. I loved having Candy Corn Dots in anticipation of Thanksgiving. We went to a World Market store and bought some pumpkin bark and turkey dishes. I didn't have to work Thanksgiving, but I had to work a lot still.
December. I once worked a 14-hour day. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get my Christmas decorations up sooner. All I did was work until we finished our queue of annual curriculum orders--then it got milder. I got a four-day weekend at Christmas. And this week I had my last day at work and my adorable nephews came. Nathaniel, "Baby," is cuter than I expected.
What will happen in 2012?
That's hard to say. I start school again this week. I'm taking geology, piano, Doctrine and Covenants, English semantics and pragmatics, and editing skills.
The world will end in February, according to the false prophet I met in East Wenatchee, WA, and in December, according to those silly people who put stock in the Mayan calendar.
I have a few goals:
By the end of the year, I want to be able to run one hour straight. I want to go to the temple once a month. And I suppose I should go on a date once a month. (That's not much, I know, but since I don't date at all, it's better than nothing--if it happens at all.) My goal last year was to start a conversation once a day. I did reasonably well at the beginning of the year, and by reasonably well I mean better than if I didn't have that goal at all. I should start that up again. And I should restart doing 300 pushups and 500 situps a week, but hopefully I can eventually do better than that.
Here is what happened in 2011.
January. I started my second year at BYU, with my roommates Derek (who had been my penultimate companion, Elder Warren), Zach, and Tristram. I took fourteen credits for winter semester (the minimum amount for my scholarship). I took astronomy, grammar, modern American usage of English, internet publishing, and piano. I got a campus job cleaning up after sporting events; January was men's volleyball and women's gymnastics.
February. I don't think February was all too eventful. It was more gymnastics and volleyball and more studying and more piano playing.
March. My dad at this point was having to work in Chicago, coming home every other weekend. On one particular weekend they came down on a day when I had to clean tennis courts. Toward the end of the month I drove home after midnight while munching on Easter candy to go to my sister's anniversary breakfast. This was the era of Rebecca Black's "Friday" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way."
April. I finished winter classes. I was so glad to be rid of my internet publishing class--the class was OK, but the instructor was abysmal. On one day my work was putting oil on football lockers (several of us accidentally locked bottles of oil in the drawers). Following finals I flew to California to meet my family and we went to Disneyland, and then we drove back home just before Easter. At the end of the month I got two new roommates, Chase and Nate (I barely saw Nate, and Zach was still around), and started spring classes. I took the history of English and Masterpieces of American literature.
May. I started this blog! My work was mainly sweeping up sunflower seeds after baseball and softball games, and then it ended. I had some bizarre dreams. I got kicked out of the BYU Bookstore for reading on the text level (well, I didn't really get kicked out; they just told me I couldn't be there). My dad was laid off.
June. I finished a book about James Murray, the man responsible for the Oxford English Dictionary, and did a report about Edgar Allan Poe. Spring classes finished and that weekend I went to the zoo with my cousin Jesse and an old friend Lori. Then summer classes started; I took world civilization to 1500 and archaeology--these classes dovetailed quite nicely. All my roommates moved out so I had an apartment all to myself. But at the tail end of the month the air conditioning went out.
July. I ran my first 5k, on the Fourth of July. That was awesome, and in fact that was my best Fourth of July ever. On the night of the Fourth of July the apartment below me invited me to sleep in their apartment since they had an extra bed and I had no AC. In fact, I went the entire month of July with no AC and I believe only one night in July did I sleep in my apartment. When I was home I would eat quesadillas (since they generated minimum heat on my quesadilla maker) and watch daytime television, like judge shows and news. But I tried to spend a lot of time away from the apartment. I did a lot of Google doc test reviews on campus while listening to Lady Gaga Radio on Pandora.
August. What a month! My AC finally got fixed a few days before I moved out. Summer classes ended, and I moved out, not knowing if I'd be back for fall, since that depended on my dad getting a job. I ended up getting my old Church Distribution job back and started there. I was only part time, but we had to get the new Relief Society books, Daughters in My Kingdom, out before September, so I worked a lot.
September. This was the era of listening to Christina Perri and anxiously awaiting days when we didn't need to have the AC on. On Labor Day we had the missionaries over. I told them they could call me, but they never did. I started the Halloween season, and turned 23.
October. October was General Conference, Allie's primary program, and stake conference. My parents and I went to Price and Nine Mile Canyon one Saturday in celebration of my dad finally getting a job--a very good job with good pay. I ran a very muddy 5k that ended up being more than a 5k since the volunteers didn't tell us to turn around. My shoes still have traces of the mud on them. It was a costumed 5k so I wore my 5k outfit when I went with Allie trick-or-treating.
November. Work started getting really busy and we started working Saturdays. I loved having Candy Corn Dots in anticipation of Thanksgiving. We went to a World Market store and bought some pumpkin bark and turkey dishes. I didn't have to work Thanksgiving, but I had to work a lot still.
December. I once worked a 14-hour day. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get my Christmas decorations up sooner. All I did was work until we finished our queue of annual curriculum orders--then it got milder. I got a four-day weekend at Christmas. And this week I had my last day at work and my adorable nephews came. Nathaniel, "Baby," is cuter than I expected.
What will happen in 2012?
That's hard to say. I start school again this week. I'm taking geology, piano, Doctrine and Covenants, English semantics and pragmatics, and editing skills.
The world will end in February, according to the false prophet I met in East Wenatchee, WA, and in December, according to those silly people who put stock in the Mayan calendar.
I have a few goals:
By the end of the year, I want to be able to run one hour straight. I want to go to the temple once a month. And I suppose I should go on a date once a month. (That's not much, I know, but since I don't date at all, it's better than nothing--if it happens at all.) My goal last year was to start a conversation once a day. I did reasonably well at the beginning of the year, and by reasonably well I mean better than if I didn't have that goal at all. I should start that up again. And I should restart doing 300 pushups and 500 situps a week, but hopefully I can eventually do better than that.
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