The Wheel Turns

I like cycles. I like the increments of days and weeks and months and years. It lets you compare to previous cycles of similar increments and see the changes. I imagine that would be much harder in an unbroken "eternal round". 

After Christmas, I immediately returned to work, which I really didn't mind too much. In my spare time, I was writing and reading and cleaning my room and practicing my new piano music. Meanwhile Chris and Heidi have been doing a boss job cleaning and organizing their joint possessions - as demonstrated by the dumpster out front and numerous trips to Goodwill and a garage sale. 

I got to chill with Noah before he left forever for school in Utah. We had an impromptu lesson with the Elders and made a smoothie of Jamba Juice status. It was a nice chat.

Sam decided that he needed to get rid of some of his excess cash before he leaves on his mission, so he bought a bunch of us Chick Fil Bae and we watch Pirates III. Great movie. 

Cen and I made our drinks night FBO - so we got Kaleb, Jared, Kennedy, and Cen's HS friend out for some virgin blackberry margaritas. Yum. 

Peter was busy this week, so I did sprints on my own Friday afternoon. The little girl next door was practicing gymnastics in her driveway and volunteered to time my sprints. Thanks...

We made a huge fortune teller with the checker board.

Ok, ok, you may have heard rumors about an upcoming wedding and mistakenly assumed it was Greg's. HAHAHA YOU FOOLS. It all started a week ago when I refused to go see a movie in theaters because I'm too cheap to pay for a ticket. It was remarked that I need a Sugar Daddy, so Brodie agreed (conditional upon his becoming a rock star) that he would fill the role. We've got our whole lives planned out except for the part preceding rock star status. Ehh. We'll get to that later. 

I shadowed at the hospital and heard several renditions of "that time that I crapped the bed after the nurse slipped something in my drink". Then I had a brief respite before the big pre-NYE party. Which was more fun than I had planned. My knee was kind of bugging me and the food was subpar, BUT the company was good, checkers turned into a melange of other games, and the deejay at the end was l-i-t lit. Let's gooo motherlickers. 2018 come at me. 

so cute.

A long non-scurvy ridden weekend

I worked out a good deal last week. Which is good, but doesn't quite counterbalance the garbage I was force-feeding myself. One of my patients brings me oranges sometimes and I offhandedly mentioned that was the only thing keeping me from scurvy and the truth came out - people keep bringing us ridiculous amounts of goodies so I only eat those and am not hungry by the time I get home. 

Solid celebration.

Rod and Charlie chatted with me after institute and brainstormed the creation of a Star Wars themed rap that I need to make and Charlie will do the video for. Get ready for a terrifying new hit. Also Rod is the biggest drama queen. 

I got off work a tad early so I could make it to Heidi/Chris' wedding (the end of it). I mainly played/distracted the 3 tiny Genchi girls who now love me and being thrown into the air. Do I want to babysit? Not really, but I can do 30 minutes of cardio/arms. Then I made it to ward volleyball, but I forgot a knee brace, so I was just scared the whole time. But it was fine.

This is my best friend. Look how cute.

Swing PT had our Christmas party/White Elephant exchange where I ate all of Shea's cake balls and won a doorframe basketball hoop, so I'mma count that. 

Thursday we had a movie night/face mask extravaganza with my VT's and Autumn and Cenita. Addison was also there for a while, so it was nice to catch up. And I made them watch all the episodes of Ghost Ghirls, so everyone won.

Blue faced beauties. Aka Skeeter from Doug.

Immediately after work Friday, I drove to LA listening to Greg's friend's Audible account (because Branden Sanderson just came out with a new book). I got there pretty early, picked up some KFC across the street, and watched international wipe out and Superstore (?) that featured me as the chief - with Shan, Han, and Gerg. 

Saturday we went out for Korean lunch (when in Koreatown...) while Derek worked. We watched a few movies, games were played, and eventually Shannon's fam arrived with pizza. We opened one gift as a pseudo-Christmas eve and watched Bright, a new Netflix movie that is not Greg-recommended. Also it was dumb.

An exact likeness of The Potato.

We opened the first installment of chingear and never changed our clothes all weekend.

We went to Spanish church. We watched Clue and ate Spanish food (deliciously prepared by Shennsley). We napped on and off. And we opened presents. Highlights: several unpaired, unwashed socks and books. Also Hannah got brownies that she made for us. 

On actual Christmas, we played games - I even played real games. And Derek made us pancakes. Yum. And we straightened Deek's hair. Look at this crusty motherlicker.

Like some kind of greasy computer programmer/grunge band guitarist.

But we also got to Skype the fam. First just the fam. 

Literal best photo they've ever taken.
"Imagine if that was the whole family - simpler times." - Derek

Then the fam + Kevin: where CT had a hookup, Kevin had a hookup, and everyone in CA had their own individual hookup and the filters were on. I love the chins. 

This is us. 

It's Not An Event Without Technical Difficulties: REWIND

Christmas Party. Overall, a resounding success. Especially because I just planned the kind of activity that I wanted to have. I left at 3 to pickup some last minute supplies and met the crew at the church around 4 for setup. We had tablecloths and lights and a bomb photobooth. Andddd all the sound/tech stuff. (Thank the heavens Matt Prine exists.)

Squad goals.

We ate Olive Garden lasagna, breadsticks, salad, and homemade punch for dinner. Plus all the candy strewn on the tables. Then we kicked off the talent show. Which was fraught with technical difficulties, but somehow we made it through. (Videos to come.) Voila, the act that started it off:

Then Alex was the literal best Mormon deejay I've ever had. One slow song the whole night, crazy remixes, bumping' bass. I was so wild I ripped open my sutures. And we had it all cleaned up by 11pm.

jk - THIS is squad goals.

Old Men. My favorite genre of human. And I got to see plenty of them (and old women) when I shadowed at an inpatient clinic for 5 hours Saturday morning.

Friday Night Lights. My dance squad met up to practice. Then the crew + Cen/Brodie came over to not play games and watch Pirates.

My guy Tyler, 3rd place for ugly sweater comp.

AT Coverage. I covered a HS basketball game in my *spare* time. It was infinitely better than football. But the home team crushed the visitors by 80 points and their coach was still yelling at them. For the wrong things, I thought. If my kids missed that many layups, that's all we'd be doing at practice. And running.

Institute. Rod taught an interesting interim lesson this week. Nothing new, but some misunderstood and confusing stuff, especially because it's hard to picture life in the 1830's from my bug-free bed in my air conditioned house.

So cute.

Let me tell you something about Mormon history for a sec. Mormons, from their inception (or restoration), were very progressive. In a time where slavery was still a thing, we accepted and loved our brown friends and treated them as equals. They got the priesthood, interracial marriages were a thing, and life was pretty good.

Except that the world still saw black people as a different species, as savages. Associating with POC's was thought to decrease civility and cause a return to barbaric tendencies - and light skins who married dark skins were seen as declining their race. And you could kill blacks/their families without consequence.

90's Rap style.

Which was a problem, because there were already laws in place allowing people to kill Mormons on sight. So our intermingling with POC's only enhanced the issue. Which is why, we kind of took a step back - and stopped giving blacks the PH for a time. An unfortunate and awful restriction, but necessary for the survival of the church. Glad we're over that now.

The Lone Ranger

This title describes my current situation for many reasons.

First of all, I'm single.

Secondly, I've been dog sitting for a coworker who lives garbage far away from civilization so I have been intentionally antisocial. And it's been glorious.

And thirdly, the Blessed Mother^TM sent me her cowgirl boots that I haven't removed since opening the package.

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the Lone Ranger to make further comparisons. Apologies.

Coming soon to a YouTube near you. Also, I realized I have seventeen (17) followers. What?!
I mean, they're probably all 12-year-old girls, but that's fine.

Peter's computer programming classes are already coming in handy for subtle, but important nefarious plots and we had round two on Friday. It's good stuff and it gives my brain a nice workout.

Chris was baptized on Saturday and everyone cried. I just got a small child stuck in the trash.

I went to Adam's birthday party and sat uncomfortably close to Jenson - who actually agreed on a talent show act. Now we're all excited. I knew my extensive YouTube knowledge would come in handy some day.

Tome It Down Kid

The older I get, the more time I have to think about who I am enough to put it into words. Things that may be obvious to others, aren't quite so obvious to me, mainly because I don't typically care to think about them. For instance, I never knew I was bossy until halfway through my mission.

My new epiphany is this: I love to read. I knew this. I always knew this. But I didn't realize how much. I always make fun of Shiboi because he loves watching movies - to the extent that he will stop watching a movie to watch another movies so he can watch more movies. Which seems outlandish.

BUT I LITERALLY STOP READING BOOKS SO I CAN READ MORE BOOKS.

On an unrelated note, I have now finished the Mortal Instruments stem series.

Coolest kid you know. Shoddiest beats.

And while I'm hyping myself up for quality accomplishments - have I mentioned what a good leader I am? I mean, delegation is still a hard thing for me (BUT I DO IT), but mainly I'm just talking about having efficient meetings. Fifteen minutes in and out. Bam. (Close quote, Emeril.)

I also still sound vaguely like a man. I was debating about trying out for a female quartet as the bass, but my phlegm-filled lungs are currently preventing the necessary breathing techniques.

Crazy enough to kill, but with a little effort behind it.

While my voice may sound like I've been taking testosterone supplements, the flesh is that of an eighty-year old man with seven previous knee replacements. Also my attitude. And thus I was of limited (albeit still valuable) help while transferring furniture chez moi for the upcoming nuptials. (Not mine.)

And speaking of nuptials that AREN'T happening, the Tempe Institute had a dance this week where you HAD to dress up nice and you HAD to have a date or you'd be refused entry. Allegedly. My date also got sick (not how you wanted to end up here, eh Charlie?), so I took my friend Joe Bale instead. And it was a delight being part of the hoodrat pack.

The Hoodrats.

Oh, did I mention that Rod and I had a nice conversation this week? It started with the insanity scale and ended on levels of fertility. (High, on both accounts, if you were wondering.)

Oompa Loompa Doompety Dum
That's my Sister, she's got a nice bum. 

Olivia, my favorite Oompa Loompa, had her final performance of Willy Wonka. It was well-done (ish) and reminded me why I hate the song Cheer Up, Charlie. And then we all crashed back at the ranch with some Ghost Ghirls. Classic.