End of the Line(Summer)

I sat at the bar, gained insight in the dark, got new roommates, dumped water on people, meditated, and began an adventure.

The last couple of weeks have been fun.  And busy.  

I've had trouble this summer sleeping.  I eventually stopped fighting it, and just started sleeping later, and working later.  But that left me alone a lot.  It's very boring.  

One night last week, I decided that rather than stare at my ceiling when I couldn't sleep, I'd go on a walk.  This was at about 3 in the morning.  So I went walking in my pajama bottoms my Mom made me.  Provo is very quiet that late at night.  After walking around a bit, I ended up laying on the hill under the stadium, looking up at the stars.  Very peaceful.  Great place to think.  I took a  look at who I am.  I ended up leaving my hill after awhile, and walked over to by the MTC, and looked at the Temple.  I think I figured out things that were going wrong, things I wanted to change.  Made a plan to be the person I actually want to be.  It was a good night.  

Travis moved out.  It was an awesome summer being roommates with him.  It was fun getting to watch him work on his book, and the little bit of brainstorming I did with him.  He's one of the people that I look up to, and easily my favorite priesthood leader I've ever had.  He'll be missed.  On the plus side, he's finally finishing up his 4th draft of his book, and I started reading it yesterday.  I'm excited to dig into it.  I've been pretty patient.  

New roommates include Chris Reed, which is pretty funny.  I've known his brother for a couple years, and I was Chris's TA last semester, and am slated to be his TA again this semester.  Guess we're keeping that tradition alive (Tyler was Jake's math TA last year).  I think the apartment will shape up pretty well.  I'm looking forward to the start of the semester, and a new year.  After this year, everything will change.

Childhood Passions

Kept the children clean, fixed my malfunction, rediscovered a childhood passion, lost my losing battle, heard life changing news (for my brother).

Last week, my sister's best friend got married.  More than a month ago, Taylor asked me if I would watch her kids, while she went in.  Being the great guy and brother that I am, I of course agreed.  I didn't really know what I was getting into though, apparently.  It was a long couple hours.  

At first, the kids were great.  We went around, looked at all the water features on Temple Square (Deacon tried to go into the water) danced, looked at the statues.  Every time we'd walk towards a fountain I'd ask Adi what the rule for the water was.  She'd respond (because I'd told her the rule enough times) "Look, don't touch."  The wedding supposedly started at 12:30, so I was expecting them to come out around 1, maybe 1:15 or so.  Unfortunately, it started at 1, and they weren't out till much later.  The kids were tired, and not listening anymore.  That was an adventure.  I will say this: they were both clean(ish) and neither one ended up in a fountain.  Deacon also still had his binkie.  Mission successful as far as I'm concerned.

At work, I've been having a lot of problems with things not working.  That's been very frustrating, because I hate not being successful, and I feel that lately I haven't been.  Well, this week, after a long time, I was finally able to get it back working.  That is a large burden, off of my shoulders.  And at the same time, lets me happily put the burden I want back onto my shoulders.  

We went to Classic Skating as a big group for an activity this week.  I haven't been roller blading in a long time.  It. Was. Awesome.  I'd forgotten how much fun it was to zip around on roller blades.  I'd also never realized how in shape I must have been as a kid, because I don't remember my legs feeling sore.  Ever.  But I've been feeling it this week.  It's great.  I've been looking around the internet at skates, trying to decide if I want to get some so I can skate up to school every day.  Only time will tell.

As for the life changing news.  Luc got his mission call in the mail today.  Still waiting to hear where he's going, but I'm excited to find out.  He'll have a blast.

Cabin Fever

I said goodbye to two great friends, found adventure on the big blue wet thing, conquered the builder, and was liberated from the oppression of pants.

Two of my roommates moved out this week.  Joel Anderson and Sean Southerland.  I've lived with Sean for the last 2 years, and Joel a little more than a year.  Over that time, I feel like I grew pretty close to them.  You'd think after moving around so much, I'd be used to saying goodbye to friends.  But I don't think it's ever gotten easier for me.  I'll miss them both a lot.  

I watched Muppet Treasure Island yesterday with some friends in the building.  I'd forgotten how funny that movie is.  I think I'm going to read Treasure Island one of these days.  See how close the movie got to the actual story.  

I've been having a bunch of problems with my work.  I was getting down for awhile, because it seemed like every time I would fix one thing, another one would break.  It was frustrating, and annoying, and I felt like I wasn't getting anything done.  On Friday, I got back on track.  I fixed the problem I was having, and was able to move forward again.  It felt great.  And today, I discovered how great it is working from home.  My setup here is better, my chair more comfortable, and the best thing, if I don't want to, I can do my work not even wearing pants.  It's fantastic.