A Bloody Endeavor

Went to the blood drive at the high school yesterday. Hadn't donated blood in a real long time so I was a little wired through the whole experience. Didn't help my nerves when the nurse kept fidgeting with the needle that was already in my arm. Wasn't flowing smoothly or something because the needle kept sliding in just a smidge too far, so she kept adjusting it and such until it positioned correctly. But yeah, I was afraid that she was gonna say that she would have to retry and stick it in my other arm or something (it was joked about at one point to try sticking the needle into the heart. Would've sped up the process maybe, which you could look in a couple of ways; process of donating the pint of blood or quickening yourself to death).

But before all of that went down, I waited FOREVER for pretty much the whole student body to go through before me. And wow were they rude. When I got there the waiting table where you fill out the paperwork had kids crawling all over it so I squeezed in the end amongst all the extra school supplies/textbooks that weren't supposed to be there. Right next to me was recycling can thing, and while I was filling out the paperwork some girl comes over and carelessly slams a bottle that still had some water in it into the can, splattering me and my paper. There was also the typical case of some kid, who was off dinking around somewhere else in the room, cutting past us when we finally got through the line, but it was ok. I know that teenagers are not very bright and I can only hope that they'll straighten up. Most don't but hey.

Despite all the nervousness and nincompoopery, Matt, Ryan, and eventually Jarom (who didn't donate, the pansy) were there to make it all a little more enjoyable. Had some good laughs while hanging out. They're pretty good guys. I'll let them live.

But yeah, overall I had a good time, like I usually do with blood drives. I admit I first wanted to do them because of the pizza (yesterday was no exception), but I soon got into them because it's a pretty special thing to do. Everybody feels good from doing a service for somebody else. With this case, however, of doing a relatively easy yet crucial part of the whole process, you learn a little about gratitude when you take into account that although your part is short and effortless there are heaps of people who work on this project. There's all kinds of crazy equipments and procedures needed to save lives, and I'm grateful to have all those people with the know-how to do that.

Ok. I'm done blabbering.

Should call it "Coldth!"

Nothing big to report. The weather has been real pleasant lately. Wind's been kind enough to pile up the snow right around the top of the stairs where you go down into my basement apartment. Frickin'. Lovely.


Anyway, all that snow encouraged to try out some hot chocolate for the first time in forever. Caramel-flavored. It was awesome. Not sure why I didn't get around to it earlier. Good stuff. Wish I had gotten more than the one sample. :)

Alright well that's it for me. Yeah it's random. That's what I know.

Life, Lameness, and Losing to a Girl

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I'm making an attempt.

Noticed I didn't mention some other things that were happening during when I wrote those two previous posts. Wasn't much to say though. Just had been working for Northern California Resource Center since the beginning of February. Basically I just piled sticks and crap. Well, not crap. Anyways, the only other thing I can recall was when a stupid doe sprinted out in front of me one early morning, smashing up a vital part of the BMW, so a lot of time has been spent trying to fix that. That was pretty aggravating. Did cause me and my little brother to bond more though, since we would carpool all the time. That was nice.

Did all that up until earlier this month (September) when I came here to Rexburg to try my hand at the school thing again. It's been pretty stressful and a little depressing getting into it again because I didn't know what I was doing last time I was here and I'm definitely not any better now since it's been a while. Pretty rusty. One of the classes I'm taking, though, is just so ridiculous. It's about as serious as a high school class; but that's understandable I reckon since the teacher does teach at some high school normally. Math is lame. But it is good to be back. I've always thought that Rexburg was interesting for some reason.

During my mission and even afterwards I was pretty good at not having any real attachments or longings for new medias, or whatever you call them, that had been created while I was gone. The first Transformers movie was the only movie I ever really remembered to watch afterwards, but I was good at not thinking about it. And even Halo 3, something I was even more into, never really crossed my mind. Even after I got back, I didn't play it very much.

Well, Halo Reach came out half way through the month. Having no xbox 360 of my own, and only playing the game the few times I was at Taron's place, has made me a little crazy. Ended up getting a bunch of screenshots from the game onto my computer to use as a desktop theme and screensaver, so I'm often times reminded of the awesomeness that Halo Reach is. I even felt deprived enough to look at some gameplay stats online and dink around with putting together some kind of display from one time I played with Sam and Taron. Don't judge me. I just have an interest now since the mission days. :)

Anyhoo, can't think of what else to say. Really appreciate the help that Mitch T and Sam and Taron have given since I've been here.

Virtually! Every! Angle!

Had a pretty good week. Tuesday I was at David's place, just waiting around until we would go up to Ashland/Medford area later in the morning, and while I was there his parents had a little birthday thing for him...just before they would leave him...again. That was pretty fun, since all his gifts were things that he would use for his mission. A suit, camera, scriptures/marking stuff, carrying case thing, and what not. Anyhoo, it was fun because of how we'd talk about the little things that make the mission experience better and such. Just re-living the olden days through David's birthday.
Eventually Matt showed up and we headed off for Ashland for an interview that we were taking David to. We decided on the way up that we'd grab some "Double Downs" from KFC, because we knew they were going to be...memorable...before we had even tried them. They weren't as bad as we thought they would be, but they definitely weren't items we'd consume ever again.

Got to Ashland, David had his interview with Pres. Woodley, was reminded again of the mission from all of it, because that's where and with whom I had my interview.
Later on in the day, after watching the Robin Hood movie, we went to Tin Tin Buffet, since David had never been there before apparently. While we were there I came across a pair of full-time missionaries dining out. I eventually noticed that there was actually a whole gaggle of elders in the restaurant. So that was pretty cool, but also weird that they happened to be in the vicinity, adding to the already mission-mindful day.
But it didn't stop there. Thursday I stuck around in the middle of the valley long enough to try checking out the Missionary Correlation Meeting that I hadn't been to in months. And that was pretty nice. Still didn't have anything to contribute like before, but it still felt good to be there. And then today, for the Fifth Sunday Priesthood/Auxiliary meeting in church we had another missionary effort-related theme. Some of which involved Matt and Mitch demonstrating some goofballery in some role playing.
Anydangway, it was a pretty good week. Not only because of all the missionary moments throughout the week, but also because I got to see some good friends during the weekend. Always nice to see Sam and Carolyn because they're just the sweetest friends anyone could have. Wish I could see them more, but oh well. Go forth and live your grown up lives.

Soups and Hoops

Was a pretty good day today. Worked on the cars for most of the day (changing oil mostly). There were frustrations, of course. Cars are like that. But still, felt good to get that kind of crucial work done, gaining a real sense of accomplishment.

Eventually got to the basketball games. It was homecoming, so that's fun, I guess. For the wee little children in high school I reckon. Etna vs Burney...again. Sort of surprised to see Chet and Hunta show up for the varsity games. We had a lot of good laughs. I forgot to bring my camera, but luckily Chet brought his, which was good because his is better than mine anyway. Our girls were winning by quite a bit, so that allowed for my cousin, Tilly, to play tonight. Played a lot actually. So that was great that she was so involved. We even stuck around for the varsity boys game, and that was a lot of fun to watch as well.

What was really cool was that at the end of the boys' game, since it was well known that Burney wasn't going to beat us, they put in one player, who was handicapped or something, so that he could take a couple shots, uncontested. And when he made his first basket, everybody in the gym, meaning even Etna folk, applauded him, and it was just really sweet. Those moments made me think of a couple of things.

One, how handicapped or similar people really affect others. They really are special people. Having such persons around really brings out the best in everone that comes across them. I was wondering what everybody in that gym was really thinking and/or if they had even noticed how suddenly they may have changed their thinking. The players didn't go sprinting around and anticipating others' movements and spectators weren't tensing up while watching the game and if the players could stay ahead of the other like we had been doing throughout the whole game. Competitiveness turned to genuine congeniality when that kid played, even though he only played for a few seconds. Those kind of people have some of the greatest influence. That's definitely apparent with my sister.

I would go on, but I wrote a lot more than I planned to anyways. The only other thing I have to report is that I spilled soup in my lap at around lunchtime today. That was fun.