'Tis the Season... Or is it?

The holidays are upon us and you know what that means: food, sweets, food, and more sweets. Thus far I have been taking advantage of this trend and have been eating my heart out and stuffing down most everything I can get my hands on. This mostly includes pie, and other baked goods. Now, lots of you probably have had hands-on experience with what I just explained, and others are nodding their heads in agreement, nevertheless this is not the main point of this post.

It has been my plan since summer ended to "bulk up" so people would stop telling me that I look so skinny. I don't want to be fat of course but I do want to be bigger. Some of that mindset seeped into my eating habits and I justified eating 'whatever', just as long as I was eating a lot of it, to help me gain weight. That is why I have been eating a lot of crap lately, and neglecting my responsibility to eat healthy foods. I even didn't care that my stomach was getting bigger and my abdominal muscles were going into hibernation, after all, who was going to see them?! (I didn't plan on showing anyone either-- sorry Amber). My plan was to worry about it in the spring and eat healthy then. But today something changed my mind. I was looking at Christmas ecards on a website and as I was browsing I saw one with Chippendales (male dancers I think) and anyway it said underneath: "What does this have to do with Christmas? We don't know, but then again, when are sexy abs not in season?" and so ladies and gentlemen, I was kicked into action. I decided to start eating healthy now and working out more consistently to get those sexy abs that are always in season. Why wait until New Years to make my resolution? I am doing it now, and then maybe by summer I will have more to show off than this past summer. I hope you will all support me because I am sure it will be hard to keep it up in this lazy time of the year, so cheer for me and thanks to all who already help.


Disclaimer: I do not mean to use my body as an object for others enjoyment. I believe being healthy is very important and looking nice is a great way to boost my self confidence. That is all.

Give a compliment

-Validation

So today at the institute they had a compliment day. They made grilled cheese sandwiches and had little yellow papers that you could write a compliment and give it to someone. I got a compliment from some girl who I don't know, about how she liked my shirt. That made my day!! I encourage everyone to compliment someone today. It makes you feel so good!

Life Resolution

So while talking to a dear friend today I realized that it is time that I "take life by the horns." I am sick of waiting for stuff to happen and for things to fall into my lap. My new motto will be "I want it NOW!" Which comes from Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, and is from the song that I had in my head all weekend. Although this isn't the best motto to stick with I have decided to tell it to myself (at least until I feel like it is no longer doing good) every time that I feel idle and that I am not being active in my life. My resolution is that I am going to work for what I want. Good idea? I hope so!

"This is your life, are you who you want to be?" - Switchfoot

 
“Taking shelter in the dead is death itself, and only taking all the risk of life to the fullest extent is living.” - Rabindranath Tagore

Just so you know

So girls are confusing!!! The end.

But really they are and I think the dating game is so hard and sometimes I just need to take a break because it can be so frightening and frustrating all at the same time. Also, I am not very experienced with the rewards that come from it so I think that only makes it worse because I don't really know what to look forward to!

Hooray for blogging again. This was my attempt to try and get back into things. I will hopefully try to blog a lot more often.
P.S. Rock Band 3 is awesome!

I made the choice and paid the price

Now some of you may think that the title is alluding to something bad or negative that happened to me, but actually I was using that play on words to explain something amazing that has come to pass in my boring life. Some of you may already know about this event, and I would be impressed if you could guess what I was talking about just by the title. As for the rest of you here is the good news:

I finally bought my own car!!!!!!!!
  
I consider this a big milestone in my life because it will be the first time I will have purchased my very own car. It is in my name! I am so excited and I can't wait to continue driving it. It is stick shift and so I am learning how to drive it but it should be fine, and I am actually excited to learn to drive one. Everyone I talk to says it is fun to drive a clutch and keeps them a little more alert on the road. It is in pretty good condition  and seems to drive well. The brake light is on, and also the airbag light flashes, along with the battery and oil lights. I don't the extent of the problems but I don't think it can be too bad if it runs well and nothings is shaking or dripping from it. 


It passed inspection and they cleaned the oil tank and that light went off, not sure why the other lights are still on. I am driving it now though and loving it. Here are some pictures (before and after cleaning):

Before Cleaning

After cleaning (you can now clearly see the scrapes and bad paint areas, haha)

Hooray for my new car!!!

My true colors

So today at work I was bored because the system wasn't working and I couldn't work (and wasn't getting paid) and so I was chatting with a friend who told me to tell a story. I didn't have a good story on the top of my head and so I was told to make one up and this is what came out:

once upon a time....   
there was a young man sitting at a desk at his work   
he is usually pretty cheerful and happy to people   
but not today   
no. he is not very happy today   
because he came into work ready to do great and make success happen   
but when the system wasn't working his dreams for the day were shot down   
he slowly by the minute lost patience   
and the ending result was an angry young lad who is ready to punch his boss   
except that he really wouldn't ever punch his boss for fear of consequence, but he can still think about it   
and then of course he would probably forgive him later   
that is the epitome of this man's life, he will always get over it    
but sometimes he can get frustrated   
but even so he is very good at hiding it and people can't always tell that he is frustrated.
but when he is frustrated, he can't control his emotions for the time being, and that is what is happening to him this day   
It is sunny outside and a nice day in general, and if it weren't for this man's job he wouldn't be mad at all   
and that is what got him thinking that maybe his job isn't right for him   
These thoughts usually only come when his frustration is a result of his job, which is the main contributor to his anger in general anyway, so these thoughts come frequently
now he is going to go hide in a corner and cry until his emotions calm down and he can just relax. That is all it would take for him to relax, a good crying session, but he is too manly to even do that   
but apparently he is not manly enough to punch someone, because in his head that is what he sees a real man doing   
no, he will just wait and wait until his anger subsides, and then just move one, forgetting that he was even mad   
maybe one day he will build up the courage to punch someone, although it would probably only happen if that person really were deserving   
and so he sits, waiting for things to turn and for things to go his way   
sad really that he doesn't take more initiative but he is okay with that for the time being   
he will just hold out the storm like always, and pretend not to be mad, like always, and things will turn out as they always do   
...   
THE END   

This was very revealing to me and actually kind of relieving to get out. It is good to get stress out, and not let it sit and boil up inside. Punching may not be the answer but I still wonder if it would be satisfying.... ;) I advise everyone to share their true feelings and write them down, even if no one else sees them it is good to get them out. If you don't like writing then find some way to express them. But just remember that violence is probably not the answer.   

Bus rides and life's angels

So I take the bus almost every day. Maybe some of you didn't know that and when I tell some people they feel so bad for me and say if I ever need a ride to call them. Well, just so you all know, I really enjoy taking the bus. First of all it is the "green" choice as they say, and I am also saving a ton of money on gas (it was almost $5 every trip up to the U). I only use it to go to the gym because it comes right by my house and drops me off right in front of the gym (The U's fieldhouse). I think that in a city like this that we all should try and take public transportation at least in some part of our day, it would make the environment better. Oh, and I happen to love all the time I can use on the bus to read or text people. I don't have to drive at all and so it is like I don't lose time traveling either.

Well, the reason I had to explain all of this is because something marvelous happened to me on the bus today. As I was traveling to the U I was one of 3-4 people on the bus and I was quietly reading my book. Next thing I know someone from the back of the bus comes and sits in the row next to me. As I look over just to see what caught my attention out of the corner of my eye he says, "Hi, how's it going?" and he said it in that tone like he wanted to talk to me because he was selling something. I, of course, said hi and quickly turned my attention back to my book hoping that he wouldn't try to convince me to buy his knife kit or whatever it was he might have been selling. The next few moments were agonizing because I could tell he was looking over at me, and was waiting for me to look up or something so that he could talk to me, but I pretended not to notice. The bus then stopped and I heard him talking to me and I looked over as he was saying, "I just wanted to give this to you, you can take it if you want or you don't have to." He was standing there holding a card in his hand. As I looked at the card I realized it could be only one thing. With the picture of a video showing Jesus coming out of His tomb in glory I knew that he was trying to hand me a pass-along card. I smiled and just said, "Oh, I am already a member." He acknowledged what I said and ran out the door because we were at his stop.

After he left I couldn't help but just stare, not at anything particular, but just lost in thought. 'Wow,' I thought. 'He is really brave to have done that and he is doing what all of us members should be doing.' Can any of you say that you are a good member missionary? I realized that he must have talked to the other guy in the back of the bus before coming to me because I recall him talking back there before he came to sit by me. I am now calling him a little angel because he was such a great example for me. And then I realized that life is full of people like this. So many good examples that I see everyday and they are all just reminders of little things that I can improve in my own life.

Does anyone have any cool people like that in their lives? It could be anyone, for example like my friend Mike who reminds me that we should try and stay away from movies and media that are bad influences because of what they contain. Evil can be hiding anywhere. Thanks Mike! Anyone else?

Also please share any missionary moments you have because they can help and inspire all of us!

My wishes

I decided to make a list of all the things that I desire in my life right now. Some of you may feel the same desires and others won't (probably because you have already acquired what I seek). This will help everyone to get to know me just a little bit better. Also some of these things are just fantasy and may not come true but it doesn't keep me from wishing:

1. To be more outgoing
2. To be good-looking
3. An attractive girlfriend (but not just physically)
4. An iphone
5. An ipad
6. A Macbook Pro (I really do like Apple I guess)
7. My own car (Toyota 4Runners are my favorite)
8. To live on my own
9. A better paying job ( and one with a vision clinic)
10. To be more spiritually in-tune
11. A workout buddy
12. Hiking boots
13. A wet suit
14. Shelves in my bedroom
15. An "A" parking pass
16. Flat screen HDTV (BIG)
17. Unlimited purchases from itunes
18. A black labrador or a pit-bull
19. Money for my parents
20. A good singing voice (and maybe know how to play the guitar/piano well)
21. A trip to Europe
22. A trip to Disneyworld
23. A cruise (any but I really want Caribbean)
24. To be better at all sports
25. To always eat healthy (while not getting rid of sweets/desserts)


This is the top 25 that popped in my head, so they must be the ones I want more. That just makes me think that I am really worldly. Anyway, I do have more wants but I obviously don't think about them that much because I didn't add them to this list. I invite you all to post something similar so that I can learn more about you, or you could just comment on this about which ones you want too and which ones you don't care to have (feel free to give me some suggestions to as to things missing in my list). Thanks!