Olivia got her braces off
3 weeks ago
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
More about housing
So after giving it some thought, and sleeping on it, I realized that there are some serious benefits to the new situation (assuming I can find housing on Condo Row or somewhere); one of the major ones I see is that I will be in a ward of people who don't know High School Court or Pre-me Court; I will be in a ward and a house where the only one they know is suave, charming RM Court; and I get to define who that is, free of expectations. I get to redefine myself, and make a whole lot of new friends. Looking at myself with a more charitable and happy attitude, I'm sure that I'll make some good friends and find people who like me. So I shouldn't really be afraid.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Trying to clear my head...
So Clayton wrote me and decided he's living with Nathan this coming semester. I won't lie and say I didn't feel somewhat betrayed, even though I did see it coming. Still, it was a tough break for me. We had made a deal to be roomies after our missions, and it hurt to have him decide against that. It also threw me into a world of other emotions; fear, for one. What if I can't find housing I like? What if my roommates don't like me? What if I don't like them? I am not exactly the easiest person to really become friends with; I can get along with lots of people, but, well, I'm weird, and that makes me worry about finding people who are also weird or who are ok with weird. What's more, I am imperfect in many ways, and I worry about my roommates really disliking me, my messiness, my unstoppable desire to flirt, etc.
On the other hand, it's not like I'm really angry with Clayton. He has every right to live with whoever he wants to. He wants to take some classes with me, which I'm sure I'd enjoy, and so we'll see what comes of that.
Mommy, accidentally, raised the question... do I think he just doesn't want to room with me, and this is his way of getting out of it? I don't think that at all, but it certainly gave rise to some bad thoughts. Oh, the ego is such a tender, fragile thing!
So anyway, I am now officially bummed and on my own, and I still have no idea of where I'm living in January or what I'm majoring in, and I have almost no friends in Porterville and my birthday's on Saturday. But, on the other hand, I have all of my limbs, a loving family (even when they are far from me), good looks (not rogueish, mind you- I am the take-him-home-to-mama kind of hansdome :) ), an irresistable charm, a good job, and more than enough to eat and drink basically at whim. So I'm still pretty happy, when I take the time to stop and count my blessings.
However, don't hesitate to call or email and shower me with sympathy and love at any time.
On the other hand, it's not like I'm really angry with Clayton. He has every right to live with whoever he wants to. He wants to take some classes with me, which I'm sure I'd enjoy, and so we'll see what comes of that.
Mommy, accidentally, raised the question... do I think he just doesn't want to room with me, and this is his way of getting out of it? I don't think that at all, but it certainly gave rise to some bad thoughts. Oh, the ego is such a tender, fragile thing!
So anyway, I am now officially bummed and on my own, and I still have no idea of where I'm living in January or what I'm majoring in, and I have almost no friends in Porterville and my birthday's on Saturday. But, on the other hand, I have all of my limbs, a loving family (even when they are far from me), good looks (not rogueish, mind you- I am the take-him-home-to-mama kind of hansdome :) ), an irresistable charm, a good job, and more than enough to eat and drink basically at whim. So I'm still pretty happy, when I take the time to stop and count my blessings.
However, don't hesitate to call or email and shower me with sympathy and love at any time.
Hey Everybody!
SO, in an effort to make The Full Court Press more accessible, I will now be posting it on my blog as well as sending it out to everybody. If you don't like it like this (or don't like getting the email, or whatever) let me know, and I'll bend over diagonally to accomodate you.
Well, it has been two weeks since I last wrote, my planned schedule having been repunctuated and demogenized by my trip up to Utah, the funeral, the MTC application, and (on Sunday) our stay in Babylon and our trip home. All in all, these two weeks have gone by pretty darn fast, and there are a few things which have stopped scampering around and are now making a concerted effort to swell and current, so as to cause me to smash my boat of footloose and fancy freedom into the palpitating surge of stress.
For those of you who don’t know (a number I assume to be none) Grandpa Roper’s funeral was last week. It was an interesting experience for me- I have never been a real fan of funerals, and I (as of now) don’t plan to have one. I therefore encourage everybody to say all of the nice things you were going to say at my funeral to me at some point DURING my lifetime; for those of you who are waiting for the chance to dance on my grave, I encourage you to come talk to me about it, and we’ll work out some kind of arrangement. (Maybe your children can jump up and down on my belly with a lawsuit-free guarantee or some such thing). But Grandpa’s funeral was nice. I stand with Brook and Crystal that the poem on the back of the program should have been replaced by a crossword puzzle or word-search filled with references to Grandpa’s life. The poem was really bad. Did anyone else notice?
Applying at the MTC was fun, I guess. Oh, shoot! I’m sorry: I forgot, Glade E. is incapable of non-linear thought, and I was supposed to put in a disclaimer and a warning so I wouldn’t make his head explode if he tried to read this. Glade E., if you can hear me, you’ll be fine. Go read a children’s book or watch a television murder mystery or something as obvious. Whatever you do, stay away from Douglas Adams! It will only exacerbate your frail condition.
I heard back from the MTC, and they want me to come to the next stage of applicationing at some point, which was somewhat humbling for me, because I thought I did such a good job they would be jumping up and down to hire me, and they seem only mildly interested. We’ll see how that goes.
One of the oddest- and, perhaps, saddest- things for me to come back to is to see how the election- and especially Prop 8- has affected my high school friends. It has polarized a lot of them and rabidized many of them. I hope that after the elections are done, whichever way they go, that I can still maintain friendships with them. Sigh. I find myself moving farther and farther away from many of my high school friends. It is a hard thing to realize how little I have in common with most of them. I miss BYU. I worry about what this will do to the church in California. There is so much hate going on in it! Seriously, people on both sides need to just calm down.
Anyway, off onto a happier topic! I have enjoyed reading Agatha Christie since I returned home. One of my favorite parts about it is that she wraps everything up so well; in the end, the bad guys get caught, the good guy gets the good girl, and the detective heads off into the sunset. I just finished “The Pale Horse” and “The Crooked House”, and successfully called a couple of the parts of both of them. Yay me!
My job is very interesting… a mix of (a) interesting research work, (b) learning some of the ways t and (b) the mindless doldrum of purging 15 year old medical records from files that will never be opened again. The thing is, even when I’m mindlessly purging files, I find things that interest me; I’ll be checking through the file to find the medical records, and I’ll start to hypothesize to myself about what actions need to be taken next, of what claim was filed, etc. Considering the great company I spend it in, it’s definitely the best job I’ve had up to this point. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m learning things that I definitely wouldn’t learn anywhere else.
Daddy and I have been getting up and working out in the mornings; I have done a terrible job of staying organized/ making a chart of my lifts, so I am definitely not doing as well as I should. I just don’t know where to begin to make a chart. Oh, well, I’ll get to work on it one of these days. I feel better, physically, despite my lack-of-list. I can feel myself getting stronger, and I think I look nicer, too. Watch out, ladies...
So I am doing really well in my online class, with 100% in everything but ONE test, which raises a pretty problem. I disagree with the test, and feel that (a) the questions were terrible and (b) the answer which was considered wrong is found exactly within his course materials. It was one of those match-the-answer forms of questions, and as a result of that stupid question, I missed two, giving me a 12-out-of-14 and an 86% on the test.
Now, if you consider all of the points I have gotten so far, the two points are (at this point, approximately halfway through the class) are worth about 1.5 percent of the class. They will not make any actual difference in my grade. On the other hand, I feel very sincerely that I should have gotten 100% on the test. The question is, how far should I pursue this? Remember, I have never met this teacher. It is not as if I am going to go talk to Hevener during lunch or walk into my Professor's office with the paper and talk to him about it. The only communication I would have with him would be an email, and remember, he would not have any prior knowledge of me. It is interesting to me (on a psychological level) to see me really considering fighting about it, because I think that I would usually just let two points (in fact, many more than that) go by without too much worry- in fact, I know I have done just that in the past.
At this point, I really like Mommy's suggestion, which was for me to get 100% on the rest of the class, so the teacher would possibly think, "gee, why didn't he get those questions right?" and then go back and see his error and fix it for next year. Not that it makes that much of a difference. It's just...grrrr.
So I got an early birthday present from Daddy- an iPod! Having never had one before, I feel so hip and trendy with it now. I remember Clayton having an iPod at college and me thinking, "gee, he looks so hip and trendy! No wonder the girls follow him around school!" So watch out, ladies.
I went to Institute the other night, and had a lot of fun on the way there and the way back, and an ok time while there. I actually have found that I just like talking to people. I hope I can find a fun group of people to hang out with beforeI head up to BYU. I can't wait for Clayton to get back so we can hang out and do fun stuff; it's always nice to have a good buddy around.
I am now feeling kind of guilty for not being better about keeping in contact with my investigators and members in Indonesia. Is that normal? Did anyone else feel that way when they got back from their missions, or am I just weird? This question is flawed, of course, because both answers could be (and probably are) true. But that's ok.
I talked in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, and the two youth speakers before me took about two minutes, so I got to expostulate amd expound to my heart's content. I spoke about diligence, and I thought it went rather well. You'll have to get someone else to make an unbiased opinion, but it certainly did go for a long time. I forgot to bear my testimony in Indonesian, so they gave me the chance to do it in Sunday School. I used the word "cumi-cumi", which means squid, in the middle of it just because that word sounds so cool, but I doubt that anybody noticed. As Dad would point out, I could have gone up their and spoken in random gibbersih and no one would have had any idea. I'd know, though.
BYU had a really thrilling game against UNLV, with the last two plays being the only sack and the only interception of the game. I think my favorite football position is the linebacker; I like to see the quarterback get punished, for some odd reason. I think it has something to do with my fear of beavers. (Is anyone else afraid of beavers? I mean, seriously, they're giant rats with huge sharp teeth. Not cool.) Unfortunately, both BYU and UNLV's defenses left their pads at home, and had to sit on the sidelines the whole game as punishment, because the coaches wanted them to think long and hard about what they had done. Luckily, one of the BYU players was very very good, and so was allowed in to play the last two downs (thereby winning the game).
I am having serious trouble deciding what to major in... I am open to any advice from the floor and the galleries, because it's proving to be a seriously diffilcult decision to make. I am leaning toward philosophy or english, with maybe a history minor, but I just don't know. If you'd like to donate two cents (or more) to Court's Make-a-Major foundation, let me know.
I am hoping that when I write once a week my letter will have slightly more form and be closer to the seamless, concise and poignant masterpiece it usually is... as it is, I still like this letter and the style it's in. Sometime's it's nice to throw in a Picasso in the middle of a bunch of Rembrandts; it makes them both seem better by comparison.
SO, in an effort to make The Full Court Press more accessible, I will now be posting it on my blog as well as sending it out to everybody. If you don't like it like this (or don't like getting the email, or whatever) let me know, and I'll bend over diagonally to accomodate you.
Well, it has been two weeks since I last wrote, my planned schedule having been repunctuated and demogenized by my trip up to Utah, the funeral, the MTC application, and (on Sunday) our stay in Babylon and our trip home. All in all, these two weeks have gone by pretty darn fast, and there are a few things which have stopped scampering around and are now making a concerted effort to swell and current, so as to cause me to smash my boat of footloose and fancy freedom into the palpitating surge of stress.
For those of you who don’t know (a number I assume to be none) Grandpa Roper’s funeral was last week. It was an interesting experience for me- I have never been a real fan of funerals, and I (as of now) don’t plan to have one. I therefore encourage everybody to say all of the nice things you were going to say at my funeral to me at some point DURING my lifetime; for those of you who are waiting for the chance to dance on my grave, I encourage you to come talk to me about it, and we’ll work out some kind of arrangement. (Maybe your children can jump up and down on my belly with a lawsuit-free guarantee or some such thing). But Grandpa’s funeral was nice. I stand with Brook and Crystal that the poem on the back of the program should have been replaced by a crossword puzzle or word-search filled with references to Grandpa’s life. The poem was really bad. Did anyone else notice?
Applying at the MTC was fun, I guess. Oh, shoot! I’m sorry: I forgot, Glade E. is incapable of non-linear thought, and I was supposed to put in a disclaimer and a warning so I wouldn’t make his head explode if he tried to read this. Glade E., if you can hear me, you’ll be fine. Go read a children’s book or watch a television murder mystery or something as obvious. Whatever you do, stay away from Douglas Adams! It will only exacerbate your frail condition.
I heard back from the MTC, and they want me to come to the next stage of applicationing at some point, which was somewhat humbling for me, because I thought I did such a good job they would be jumping up and down to hire me, and they seem only mildly interested. We’ll see how that goes.
One of the oddest- and, perhaps, saddest- things for me to come back to is to see how the election- and especially Prop 8- has affected my high school friends. It has polarized a lot of them and rabidized many of them. I hope that after the elections are done, whichever way they go, that I can still maintain friendships with them. Sigh. I find myself moving farther and farther away from many of my high school friends. It is a hard thing to realize how little I have in common with most of them. I miss BYU. I worry about what this will do to the church in California. There is so much hate going on in it! Seriously, people on both sides need to just calm down.
Anyway, off onto a happier topic! I have enjoyed reading Agatha Christie since I returned home. One of my favorite parts about it is that she wraps everything up so well; in the end, the bad guys get caught, the good guy gets the good girl, and the detective heads off into the sunset. I just finished “The Pale Horse” and “The Crooked House”, and successfully called a couple of the parts of both of them. Yay me!
My job is very interesting… a mix of (a) interesting research work, (b) learning some of the ways t and (b) the mindless doldrum of purging 15 year old medical records from files that will never be opened again. The thing is, even when I’m mindlessly purging files, I find things that interest me; I’ll be checking through the file to find the medical records, and I’ll start to hypothesize to myself about what actions need to be taken next, of what claim was filed, etc. Considering the great company I spend it in, it’s definitely the best job I’ve had up to this point. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m learning things that I definitely wouldn’t learn anywhere else.
Daddy and I have been getting up and working out in the mornings; I have done a terrible job of staying organized/ making a chart of my lifts, so I am definitely not doing as well as I should. I just don’t know where to begin to make a chart. Oh, well, I’ll get to work on it one of these days. I feel better, physically, despite my lack-of-list. I can feel myself getting stronger, and I think I look nicer, too. Watch out, ladies...
So I am doing really well in my online class, with 100% in everything but ONE test, which raises a pretty problem. I disagree with the test, and feel that (a) the questions were terrible and (b) the answer which was considered wrong is found exactly within his course materials. It was one of those match-the-answer forms of questions, and as a result of that stupid question, I missed two, giving me a 12-out-of-14 and an 86% on the test.
Now, if you consider all of the points I have gotten so far, the two points are (at this point, approximately halfway through the class) are worth about 1.5 percent of the class. They will not make any actual difference in my grade. On the other hand, I feel very sincerely that I should have gotten 100% on the test. The question is, how far should I pursue this? Remember, I have never met this teacher. It is not as if I am going to go talk to Hevener during lunch or walk into my Professor's office with the paper and talk to him about it. The only communication I would have with him would be an email, and remember, he would not have any prior knowledge of me. It is interesting to me (on a psychological level) to see me really considering fighting about it, because I think that I would usually just let two points (in fact, many more than that) go by without too much worry- in fact, I know I have done just that in the past.
At this point, I really like Mommy's suggestion, which was for me to get 100% on the rest of the class, so the teacher would possibly think, "gee, why didn't he get those questions right?" and then go back and see his error and fix it for next year. Not that it makes that much of a difference. It's just...grrrr.
So I got an early birthday present from Daddy- an iPod! Having never had one before, I feel so hip and trendy with it now. I remember Clayton having an iPod at college and me thinking, "gee, he looks so hip and trendy! No wonder the girls follow him around school!" So watch out, ladies.
I went to Institute the other night, and had a lot of fun on the way there and the way back, and an ok time while there. I actually have found that I just like talking to people. I hope I can find a fun group of people to hang out with beforeI head up to BYU. I can't wait for Clayton to get back so we can hang out and do fun stuff; it's always nice to have a good buddy around.
I am now feeling kind of guilty for not being better about keeping in contact with my investigators and members in Indonesia. Is that normal? Did anyone else feel that way when they got back from their missions, or am I just weird? This question is flawed, of course, because both answers could be (and probably are) true. But that's ok.
I talked in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday, and the two youth speakers before me took about two minutes, so I got to expostulate amd expound to my heart's content. I spoke about diligence, and I thought it went rather well. You'll have to get someone else to make an unbiased opinion, but it certainly did go for a long time. I forgot to bear my testimony in Indonesian, so they gave me the chance to do it in Sunday School. I used the word "cumi-cumi", which means squid, in the middle of it just because that word sounds so cool, but I doubt that anybody noticed. As Dad would point out, I could have gone up their and spoken in random gibbersih and no one would have had any idea. I'd know, though.
BYU had a really thrilling game against UNLV, with the last two plays being the only sack and the only interception of the game. I think my favorite football position is the linebacker; I like to see the quarterback get punished, for some odd reason. I think it has something to do with my fear of beavers. (Is anyone else afraid of beavers? I mean, seriously, they're giant rats with huge sharp teeth. Not cool.) Unfortunately, both BYU and UNLV's defenses left their pads at home, and had to sit on the sidelines the whole game as punishment, because the coaches wanted them to think long and hard about what they had done. Luckily, one of the BYU players was very very good, and so was allowed in to play the last two downs (thereby winning the game).
I am having serious trouble deciding what to major in... I am open to any advice from the floor and the galleries, because it's proving to be a seriously diffilcult decision to make. I am leaning toward philosophy or english, with maybe a history minor, but I just don't know. If you'd like to donate two cents (or more) to Court's Make-a-Major foundation, let me know.
I am hoping that when I write once a week my letter will have slightly more form and be closer to the seamless, concise and poignant masterpiece it usually is... as it is, I still like this letter and the style it's in. Sometime's it's nice to throw in a Picasso in the middle of a bunch of Rembrandts; it makes them both seem better by comparison.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Drinking Fountains!
Has anyone else noticed how cool drinking fountains are? Let me tell you, after two years of no drinking fountains... it is really nice to be able to just walk over and get a drink whenever you feel like it. It was something I really didn't realize I missed.
In Indonesia, the water is not the safest thing to drink. Many of the missionaries in Central Java caught typhoid while I was there, probably because they got some water that had been contaminated. We had to get all of our water in bottles, and even then, we questioned the health of it. It was just not safe.
Now it is difficult for me to walk past a drinking fountain without drinking from it, just because I really enjoy having the opportunity. It's something we should all be more grateful for. Hooray for being able to drink from drinking fountains!
In Indonesia, the water is not the safest thing to drink. Many of the missionaries in Central Java caught typhoid while I was there, probably because they got some water that had been contaminated. We had to get all of our water in bottles, and even then, we questioned the health of it. It was just not safe.
Now it is difficult for me to walk past a drinking fountain without drinking from it, just because I really enjoy having the opportunity. It's something we should all be more grateful for. Hooray for being able to drink from drinking fountains!
Applying at the MTC
So I went to Utah for my Grandpa's Funeral...(look for a post about funerals in a second), and while I was there, I applied for a job at the MTC. It was actually a lot of fun to do, and I enjoyed it. I like to teach, and that is what they had me do... teach them a principle from MIK! It was really a good thing to do, and I think I'd like to work there. But we'll see.
I'm trying to figure out what classes I should take and where I should live. Are there any suggestions for housing possibilities for me and (maybe) a roommate? Clayton and I were talking about rooming together, but I'm still not sure which way it's going to go.
I'm trying to figure out what classes I should take and where I should live. Are there any suggestions for housing possibilities for me and (maybe) a roommate? Clayton and I were talking about rooming together, but I'm still not sure which way it's going to go.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Driving
Mommy and I talked to the Insurance company just now, and it seems that it would actually be pretty cheap to insure me for the months I am here. That came as somewhat of a surprise to me- I had already resigned myself to not driving again, and was pretty much calm with the thought. I haven't had to worry about gas, driving, carrying my license, etc, for years. Somehow, I feel like I should be excited at the thought of being able to drive again, but... somehow, it makes me feel just...odd. I don't really know how I should respond to it. Driving can be really useful, but it's a lot of responsibility.
Some of you may know I was hit by a car on my mission. I am fine, really; I was basically unhurt (miraculously), but I can still remember the incredible power behind the impact. I really don't want to hurt anybody, including (ahem) myself. Anyway, it sounds like I may be driving again soon.
Some of you may know I was hit by a car on my mission. I am fine, really; I was basically unhurt (miraculously), but I can still remember the incredible power behind the impact. I really don't want to hurt anybody, including (ahem) myself. Anyway, it sounds like I may be driving again soon.
Going to Grandpa's Funeral
So I am, it seems, browbeaten into going to Grandpa's funeral. We'll be leaving tomorrow, right after I get out of work. If I can get 8 hours in tomorrow, then I'll be able to get 23 hours this week, which is ok considering I'm allowed to do up to 30 hours. Really, I wanted to get 30 hours in.... but I guess filial piety has its costs.
Note that when I say filial piety, I'm referring to obeying Mommy and Daddy, not going to Grandpa's funeral. I don't think it's really necessary to go to a funeral to show filial piety...I personally want to be sent to glory in a glad bag.
Note that when I say filial piety, I'm referring to obeying Mommy and Daddy, not going to Grandpa's funeral. I don't think it's really necessary to go to a funeral to show filial piety...I personally want to be sent to glory in a glad bag.
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