Holy Crap! What a year!

This was one crazy/busy year! I thought back to the things that stuck out the most over the last 12 months. Of course there was a whole lot more than this that happened but this is just a blog entry.

January: Speeding ticket
I received my first speeding ticket on New Year's day. The future wife and I were on our way home from sledding and the NOPD decided my speed was just a bit too much for their quiet suburban neighborhood. I naturally tried to blame Andrea for the ticket saying that sledding was her idea thus the ticket was her fault. It didn't work and North Ogden made a cool 75 bucks off of me.

February: San Fransisco
Andrea was in Redding for the first part of the year. So during Christmas break we planned a trip for me to San Fransisco. She drove down and picked me up and we had a wonderful Valentines weekend. That was the longest stretch of not seeing each other we went through that year. The trip was fun and we hugged the whole weekend.




March: My last normal month as a college student
Yes, that's right normal. March was full of the last big college adventures:

1. Like when the Army landed black hawks on campus and I covered the news story.

2. I went home to my parents house for one of the last times to recuperate during spring break. aka Dad and I took a nap.







3. I went to see Frank Turner preform in Murray. One of the coolest British, Folk, Punk, and/or Rockers out there.  


April: Thesis
Senior Seminar Thesis...That's the only thing that can define this month. The culmination of my college career in one paper. A paper that to date is one of the worst put together documents in the history of a senior thesis. It was so bad me and a few others in the class were calculating how bad we could do on the paper and still graduate. Turns out you could do pretty bad and still get away with a diploma. I even skipped that last class when we were supposed to present our findings. Why you ask? I didn't know how to present nothing.

May: Graduation

I made it. Yep, I finished a bachelors in Communication. I had a lot of fun doing it. I learned a lot and met some of the best educational influences of my life. I was excited to leave and to fend for myself in the real world. I had no idea what was coming next...

June: Internship
Well except for this minor internship. I interned and at KUTV 2 in Salt Lake. I learned a lot:
1. I can't write
2. Each department was more worried about the mistakes of others than communicating and putting together a good news cast.
3. It takes going out on two news stories to about death to make you completely insensitive to victims and the public.
4. Gephardt is one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet.
5. Riding the Front Runner everyday forced me to apply for every available job I could find.

I also made it into a Get Gephardt (Watch the video in the link) Lame I know.

July: New Job
I received a lot of rejection emails. Sad I know but a part of life. Then one day in the first weeks of July I received a phone call at work. It was an interview. Next thing you know I was offered the job and leaving Weber State for good. The new job landed me at Utah State University. It was at a distance education campus in Salt Lake, the main campus being located in Logan. I was scared to death. I would be doing IT service desk work along with night managing classes.Starting a new job and getting married in three weeks was so stressful I'm sure I black out for hours at a time each day.

August: Wedding
Andrea and I got married! The weeks leading up to the wedding were some of the most stressful weeks of my life, but in the end it was all worth it. After the wedding we spent the night in the Hilton (Airport) Penthouse suite then the next morning flew off to Hawaii for a week.

September: Became an Adult
Not that I wasn't an adult already (lol) but getting married forces a boy to break down and become a man. I had to "buy" my car from my parents, get auto insurance, and learn how to juggle work/ a life.


October: Lameness
October flew by. Really it did. Between work and being married I don't think much else happened.


November: Turkey
I ate turkey sometime towards the end of the month.


December: Sat on Santa's lap

Christmas is always good for a laugh. I say laugh because after you get married and before you have kids what else is there. Hanging out with the family and sitting on Santa's lap make you feel like a kid again without a care in the world.

The Professional Lunch

I recently ate lunch with two bosses and and coworker at P.F. Changs. The entire time I was sitting there I had a lot of interesting thoughts flowing through my mind.

Don't spit rice at your boss while you talk.
Don't be the first to finish your rice bowl.
Try not to say "huh?" too many times.
Don't drool.
Resist the urge to unbutton your jeans to allow for more food to enter your stomach.
Despite what she says DO NOT say "that's what she said"
You can look at the strange Chinese statues behind your boss but don't stare at them for too long.
Ignore the call from your wife. Send her a quick text.
Laugh lightly at their jokes.
Don't cry.
Defend your actions.
Hold in that fart.

Super Nintendo

I've been sitting here surfing the net for a couple of hours watching the wife play crappy Disney Super Nintendo games. She's good at them. I hated those games with a passion as a kid and my wife can sit down with the patience of a saint and beat level after level. I'm not sure if I'm ok with this or happy that my wife is actually playing some form of video game.

Now if I can only get her to play Modern Warfare 2 with me.

New Post for Nichole.

Nichole has left a new comment on your post "Dreams":

"Isn't it about time for you to update your blog? Seriously Mike."


My response: "I forgot I had a blog for a second there."

Dreams

I generally don't dream.When I do I only remember bits and pieces. Here's one I recently had.
(Entering Dream Sequence ZZZzzz...)

The setting was that of a run down neighborhood. It was well into the evening hours and the sun had set some time ago. In front of one of the shabby looking houses a car pulls up. I am an adolescent kid in the passenger seat. For some reason I know in the dream that this is not me but I'm in the body of someone else. I'm experiencing what he is feeling, controlling his movements, and hearing his thoughts. I don't know who's driving but I do know that the place we are arriving at is going to be home.

As the car pulled up to the curb a stop a gun shot slices through the quiet dark neighborhood. The bullet strikes me in the head just above the right eye and comes out the back of my head. (Keep in mind that this is a dream.)
 I don't remember feeling anything but the fear of just being shot. I could feel with my finger where the bullet went in and where it had exited.

After this I remember running. The car and the house were long behind me. I was hopping fences and cutting through backyards. I think I was looking for help or maybe a hospital but I can't be sure now. At this point in the dream I remember feeling as if the worst thing in world had happened. I felt as though I had given it all.  The feeling in my stomach told me that I was going to die but that I had to fight to stay alive. I had to give more than I ever thought I could.

Then my wife's alarm clock went off.

Repackaging the "Mart"

The Walmart in Riverdale is undergoing its repackaging to fit the new corporate image. You've probably seen the commercials on TV stating that you can still be happy and buy the things rich people do...Or something close to it produced in China and sold for a fraction of the price. BUT anyway that doesn't bother me as much as the actual physical remodel of the store.

We never shop at the Riverdale Walmart, because it isn't the closest, but we were in that part of town and it was late in the evening so we stopped in. Now any good, law abiding, normal minded, American knows that most Walmarts have the same general layout. You know that the soap is here, the toys there, and frozen pizzas on the other side. Well this night left the wife and I confused (mostly me).

Everything you can think of was out of place. There was flour next to the pharmacy and I think we counted six aisles of candy. (I think I notice unmentionables in the freezer aisle.) Even with that, the magic of food placement didn't stop there. As we came around the corner we noticed that all but one aisle sign was blank. Now we were in an unfamiliar Walmart layout and we had no map, signs, or magic lamp to guide us.

Luckily the wife is pretty smart and as I complained, took pictures, and pushed the cart she rounded up everything we had on the list except for Vodka sauce.(If you've never tried it I suggest you give it a shot...no pun intended) So the repacking of Walmart didn't kill us but next time I would like to at least see a sign begging us to "Pardon Their Dust".

All carrots are not created Equally

I like baby carrots. I can't help it. The wife buys them and I eat them. I'm also a visual eater. If I find something in my food that doesn't look right it generally turns me off to that item of food.

Today I found a not so "baby carrot" in my bag of baby carrots. This carrot was double the size and almost looked like it was the genetic freak sibling of its other baby carrot brothers and sisters. Now there was probably nothing wrong with this one but it prompted me to do a little research into the origination of the "baby carrot."

According to a USA Today Article from 2004 the baby carrots come from regular sized carrots that are deformed or misshaped. They are cut in two in pieces and shaved twice to give them that nice skinless round look. Cleaned and then packaged.

So the next time I find a freak baby carrot I won't worry about its size but I still don't think I'll eat it.

Here's the link to the USA Today Article for your reading pleasure:
USA Today Baby Carrots

Water Tower- Education

A view from a window.


Is this water tower still in use? Is it just a fading relic in the industrial side of town?

Sitting in a class listening to special education law, and I'm wondering how education has come so far in the last 200 years. At the same time it faces even more problems than it did in the old school house days.

There are so many laws protecting students in the education system. On the other side there are so many educators breaking laws with students... 

Work

My work space.

You should make the space you spend most of your week at as enjoyable as possible. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I have yet to add any of my own personal flavor to my office. I don't think I have any real reason other than I don't think about my office when I'm home.

How do you find the medium between professional and funny?

Commuting

Today I awoke slightly late. This means I was in a hurry to get to work on time. (I did get to kiss my wife before I left which made being in a hurry ok.) My interstate journey is about 45 miles and the journey was accomplished in 45 minutes. It was as if the commuting Fates had aligned my threads and made traffic flow beautifully and in the end I was proud of myself.

How is it that some days it's like every car on the road is in sync with you and your driving needs? Is it a naturally occurring phenomenon? Or is it just chance?Is it possible that I am the first one to ever witness this event? (I doubt it.)  All that matters is that it happened and it could happen again.