Yesterday we went to go see fireworks at Santa Monica College. It think its weird that there are all these firework shows on the Saturday before Independence Day because everyone had the day off on the fourth and can just as easily go see fireworks on the fourth. It is like a build up to the fourth of July. A lot of people don't have work on Monday either so it is this five day weekend building up to the fourth where I guess everyone will have a BBQ and the non-LDS people will all get drunk and the LDS people with play card games or something.
Anyway, so the firework show was fun. We parked at the LDS Institute and sat on the institute lawn because the place they shot the fireworks off was near there. They used to set the fireworks off right across the street from the institute and and once one of the firworks fell over and shot over to the institute and under a car. No one got hurt. Staying at the institute felt like a ward activity because everyone knew each other because they were all in the same stake. I saw a lot of people that I new from our ward.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Monday, June 26, 2006
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
It seems like I would just like to go through life without having to do anything difficult. I just want to do things that I enjoy and that come easy for me. But really, what kind of life would that be? I think we get the most satisfaction in life from overcoming and growing from challenges. As good as life would be with nothing to challenge us, it would be really boring too. We don't progress if we are never challenged, we would just remain in a state of stagnation.
Sometimes I feel like I have a little too many challenges. I'm not talking about big moral dilemmas or life and death situations, just little things that I feel push the limits of my capabilities, even though deep down I know I am capable of completing the task put before me. Too many of those little things can become overwhelming sometimes. Then you have to decide which challenges to really try the hardest on because it would be impossible for you to throw yourself into all of them.
It's like when you're in school and you have a hard class and you know that if you work really hard you will be able to get an A in the class. But you also have four other classes and some of them are easy but most of them require a lot of work too. You feel overwhelmed because you want to do the best you can, and you know you can get that A, but not in every class because you just don't have the time to devote enough time to get the A in every class.
Sometimes I feel like I have a little too many challenges. I'm not talking about big moral dilemmas or life and death situations, just little things that I feel push the limits of my capabilities, even though deep down I know I am capable of completing the task put before me. Too many of those little things can become overwhelming sometimes. Then you have to decide which challenges to really try the hardest on because it would be impossible for you to throw yourself into all of them.
It's like when you're in school and you have a hard class and you know that if you work really hard you will be able to get an A in the class. But you also have four other classes and some of them are easy but most of them require a lot of work too. You feel overwhelmed because you want to do the best you can, and you know you can get that A, but not in every class because you just don't have the time to devote enough time to get the A in every class.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
About Today
Robert's Bike TireAbout today:
-I have been doing homework all day and I am going nuts!
-Robert got a whole bunch of new-used (hand me downs) clothes because his cousin just came back from a mission and cleaned out his closest. Now we have no where to put them all!
- Right now Robert is out dumpster diving for a bike box because the bike he ordered online came ruined by UPS, so Robert is getting his money back and shipping the back to the seller and
letting the seller deal with UPS.
-Robert had free lunch everyday this week.
-Yup, that's really how boring my life is right now. All I do is homework because I have only have three weeks left to finish my classes.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Saturday, June 17, 2006
The Pedicure
Every Friday I am off work and I focus on doing homework. The first Friday I didn't leave the house all day, so every Friday since Robert's aunt has taken me out shopping or to lunch or something to get me out of the house for a little while at least. Yesterday we went to get a pedicure. I told Robert once after reading an article about pedicures that I would never get one because of the infections that you can get. Since someone was actually telling me to come with them to get a pedicure I decided to try it because I was kind of curious about it.
Well, I think the place we went looked pretty sanitary, and now I have pretty toes. I still think it is a little odd, but my feet look nice at least.
Well, I think the place we went looked pretty sanitary, and now I have pretty toes. I still think it is a little odd, but my feet look nice at least.
Friday, June 09, 2006
Dreams
This whole week I hav been having dreams about being at a family reunion. Three days ago my dream was about being at the ranch during a reunion, two days ago it was about Bear Lake, and last night I think we were in Logan.
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Odds and Ends
Just a few odds and ends that I have heard about recently:
- The news is Los Angeles is nuts. Ever night at 11:00 (what normal person--i.e. not a college student--stays up until 11:00 everynight on a weeknight anyway?? Do people on the West coast not sleep? Don't they have to get up early to go to work? That could explain their driving, which is a topic for a whole other day.) the news anchor comes on and tells about some breaking news story where, without fail, there has been another car accident or shooting. Then we always have, of course, the reports of shootings, robberies, and abductions that have happened during the day. It kind of reminds me of the newspapers in Guatemala where everyday without fail they had pictures of a horrible murder or deadly car accident as the frontpage news. Just something you come to expect. In L.A. we have the mundane things that would be top news stories in Utah, and then move onto the real crazy stuff: whole families being murdered in their homes, ladies claiming the life insurance money of homeless men who have died, ladies offering to buy a baby and then kidnapping it, three children drowning in backyard swimming pools in the same weekend, stuff like that and crazier stuff that I can't even remember. Only in L.A.
-Speaking of children drowning in swimming pools... there was a ward in our stake that at one time had four lawsuits going where people were suing other people in their ward, members suing members. One lawsuit was between the Primary President and her first counselor. It's a sad story really, made even sadder by the lawsuit. The Primary was having a presidency meeting at the Primary President's house and the first counselor had brought her three year old child. Somehow the gate to the pool got opened and the child fell in and drowned. Really sad, especially since it happened while they were attending to church callings. However, the first counselor then went and sued the Primary President over it! Another lawsuit a woman was suing the church because she had tripped on a step and she claimed that the church should have had better lighting in the area. Only in L.A.
- Well, we are in L.A., near Hollywood (the sign is not that impressive by the way), so I have to tell about all my movie and T.V. connections. First, the two old ladies in New York Doll that work at the family history center are in our ward. Also in our ward is Doug Heder, Jon Heder's (Napoleon Dynamite) brother. Another guy that I have met at work was in an episode of 24, he was a guard in CTU who Jack Bauer knocks out. Yeah, I know, my list isn't that impressive, but I have only been here a month, give me a little more time. Robert saw Adam Sadler at a Dodgers game.
-I say we are near Hollywood because L.A. really isn't as huge as I thought it was as far as space. Every place in L.A. is nearby if you go by Utah standards. Isn't Salt Lake close to Provo? Well, here people would balk at having to go that far to get to anything. That's because there are so many people packed into this town that it takes twice as long to get anywhere! Downtown is like 15 miles away from us, but it takes an hour to get there because the freeway doesn't ever move and the surface streets are just as bad.
- The news is Los Angeles is nuts. Ever night at 11:00 (what normal person--i.e. not a college student--stays up until 11:00 everynight on a weeknight anyway?? Do people on the West coast not sleep? Don't they have to get up early to go to work? That could explain their driving, which is a topic for a whole other day.) the news anchor comes on and tells about some breaking news story where, without fail, there has been another car accident or shooting. Then we always have, of course, the reports of shootings, robberies, and abductions that have happened during the day. It kind of reminds me of the newspapers in Guatemala where everyday without fail they had pictures of a horrible murder or deadly car accident as the frontpage news. Just something you come to expect. In L.A. we have the mundane things that would be top news stories in Utah, and then move onto the real crazy stuff: whole families being murdered in their homes, ladies claiming the life insurance money of homeless men who have died, ladies offering to buy a baby and then kidnapping it, three children drowning in backyard swimming pools in the same weekend, stuff like that and crazier stuff that I can't even remember. Only in L.A.
-Speaking of children drowning in swimming pools... there was a ward in our stake that at one time had four lawsuits going where people were suing other people in their ward, members suing members. One lawsuit was between the Primary President and her first counselor. It's a sad story really, made even sadder by the lawsuit. The Primary was having a presidency meeting at the Primary President's house and the first counselor had brought her three year old child. Somehow the gate to the pool got opened and the child fell in and drowned. Really sad, especially since it happened while they were attending to church callings. However, the first counselor then went and sued the Primary President over it! Another lawsuit a woman was suing the church because she had tripped on a step and she claimed that the church should have had better lighting in the area. Only in L.A.
- Well, we are in L.A., near Hollywood (the sign is not that impressive by the way), so I have to tell about all my movie and T.V. connections. First, the two old ladies in New York Doll that work at the family history center are in our ward. Also in our ward is Doug Heder, Jon Heder's (Napoleon Dynamite) brother. Another guy that I have met at work was in an episode of 24, he was a guard in CTU who Jack Bauer knocks out. Yeah, I know, my list isn't that impressive, but I have only been here a month, give me a little more time. Robert saw Adam Sadler at a Dodgers game.
-I say we are near Hollywood because L.A. really isn't as huge as I thought it was as far as space. Every place in L.A. is nearby if you go by Utah standards. Isn't Salt Lake close to Provo? Well, here people would balk at having to go that far to get to anything. That's because there are so many people packed into this town that it takes twice as long to get anywhere! Downtown is like 15 miles away from us, but it takes an hour to get there because the freeway doesn't ever move and the surface streets are just as bad.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Los Angeles Traffic
This week I have been getting used to driving around L.A. and finding out where all the streets are. On Thursday I made the mistake of going down Santa Monica Blvd. during rush hour. I have never seen traffic so crazy. Traffic was so backed up that even when there was a green light it was impossible to move. Finally I got off Santa Monica onto a less busy street, but to get home I had to get onto another busy street where we hardly moved in five minutes. Everyone is always talking about how bad traffic is in L.A., but really I don't think I realized how bad. I had seen traffic this bad, but only after things like concerts or bad construction. In L.A. it is everyday everywhere.
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