General Conference Weekend Roundup

Well this week just flew on by. I'll just do a highlight reel of it. Monday we had an ward "International FHE" at the Haws' house—it was supposed to be to learn about different culture, but basically it was Ryan giving us a slide-show on South Africa, and me bringing a bunch of Pho for everyone to try.

Tuesday I played Frisbee, went fellowshipping, and came back to play Ultimate. And then I tried to find a date for the Beggar's Opera the next night the Pardoe theatre (part of my season ticket package that I had forgotten), but it was too late, really. I played ball Wednesday night, and then went with Sharolyn to the Beggar's Opera on Thursday. She's pretty cool. The play was kind of weird, though. It was a modern adaptation of the play—all the songs were set to modern tunes, like Bush or Christina Augilera, and instead of the play being about highway robbers, it was a bout the modern music industry. It was an interesting mix, although it didn't really seem to present a consistent message. And its solution to the evils of the entertainment industry wasn't satisfying either—it seemed to say let's just ignore it all and hope for a better world. But it was intriguing and fun, nonetheless. There were a couple of outstanding singers and great performances. Afterwards, we went out for dinner/ice cream at Leatherby's. I got so stuffed. A funny thing happened on the way home. It must have been like 11:15 or so and we saw this lady walking down 5th Avenue at the corner of Bulldog, and Sharolyn looks over and says "Hey, that's Amber and Angel's mom." So we gave her a ride home. Apparently, she was walking home from ShopKo.

So anyway, Friday I started to feel a little sick. I think it was food poisoning or a flu or something (maybe overeating at Leatherby's?). But that made my date with Jamie not so effective. She had been on a mega bike ride which kept our date from starting until 8:00 or so, and I had a short nap. But I still didn't feel very good, so we went over to Wayne's and Becky's and watched "Meet the Parents" and played a few games. It wasn't the best date in the world, and I blame it on being sick. The stomach ache lasted all weekend, actually. Saturday morning I watched stake conference with half the ward at Sharolyn's. She made a great breakfast, but I stuck to the breads mostly. Then I played ultimate between conference sessions, which made me feel better actually. Then I went over to Becky's and watched the afternoon session while I tried to install Linux on her computer. That didn't go to well. I'm not sure why, but it wouldn't install. Then I came home and did some chores before the evening conference session, and then Amber and some of her old mission friends came over and played pool the rest of the night.

Today I started feeling better, a little. I went over to Angela's for the morning session. Not many people were there, but a bunch of people came over around lunch and we had a waffle party, which lasted through the next conference session. Afterwards, we played a few games before going over to Amber's for a BBQ. It was all pretty fun. Amber had some more of her mission friends over and one of them had read some of my poems online and liked them. She was pretty cute, but was up at Utah State. Oh well. And then we had ward prayer and then the usual party over at our place. So it was pretty cool weekend, but I'm still not feeling 100%.

Posted 09:47 PM | Comments (2)

The Grand College Tour: Day 1

And now it's time for the great college tour. Hopefully over the next few days I'll be making up my mind about where I want to go to school, but in the meantime I'm down in Austin for Easter and I get to spend some time with Susie, Amy, and Grandma. This last week hasn't really been eventful at all. Last night I hung out with Angela, Heather, Tina, Ryan, and Dan and we ate some Papa Murphy's, watched "Schoolhouse Rocks," and played Apples and Apples until early in the morning. This morning I ran around for a while handing out home teaching assignments, then I played Frisbee until 1:00. It was a great day for ultimate. Then I got packed, drove up to Salt Lake with Becky and Wayne (we almost missed the flight because I stopped at Carl's Jr. in Sandy and we got stuck in construction at the exit for half an hour). The flight to Dallas was great. The flight was virtually empty, and I had a row completely to myself, so I laid back and just relaxed. The best thing about it was the sun came in through my window the entire trip—it felt like I was just relaxing outside in the sunlight—with of course an incredible view of the land below. Plus my muscles had that good, "just exercised" soreness to them. Anyway, I must say I don't think I've ever enjoyed a flight so much. The flight to Austin was a different story, but it was short anyway. When I got to Austin I was absolutely shocked at how cold it was. Seriously, I think it's colder than Utah. Plus there's rain. Susie picked me up in her new truck (why she got a truck is beyond me). The truck is small, so that's good, but it's so light it feels like it's going to just blow off the road. Anyway, I got in around 9 o'clock or so, and we went to go get a bite to eat at some Mexican restaurant down near Toys'R'Us on the south side. We had stuffed Avocados. They were great. Somewhere in the middle of all this, I called up Brother Wood, since I had to give him the names of two new counselors. I've decided on Jake and Ruston. I was a little surprised to come up with Ruston's name, but I think he'll work out great. But back to Susie and I—we went to her apartment afterwards, since Grandma's house was too far away. I must say, I like their apartment better now, but it still feels kind of dark and damp. Plus they have three cats now, and I think they gave me a bit of a sore throat. I met her friend Lana there. She seemed pretty cool. We ended up watching the end of Raising Arizona—such a funny movie. Amy's out of town with her friend Sara, so that was a little disappointing, but it was fun to hang out with Susie. Anyway, now I'm sleeping on their hideaway bed in the living room. Good night.

Posted 11:52 PM | Comments (2)

The Grand College Tour: Day 2

This morning Susie and I got up really early to go to church with Grandma and Grandpa. I was actually kind of surprised both I and Susie managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 7:30. I think Grandma was as well. It's the first time Susie's been at church in forever. It was funny-we got there a little early-before Grandma and Grandpa--so we waited in the foyer, and one of the people in the ward (who I'm pretty sure we never met) recognized us as Rees's. Susie said the same thing happened last time she went to church. Weird. I hardly remember anyone in Austin anymore. Anyway, the program was somewhat disappointing. The choir was tackling a very ambitious musical Easter presentation and the results were mixed. Some of it went well (especially a solo by one of the tenors). Other parts dragged. I wish they had given time to just one talk. Afterwards, we stopped by the Family History center (that's Grandpa's calling now). There we Aunt Linda told us Sister Hinkley died last week. I didn't believe it at first because I figured I at least would have heard about it, being in Utah and all. But we did some Internet research and it was true. From there, Susie dropped me off at Grandma's and I had Breakfast and a nap. Susie and Amy and Brenden came over around 4, and we had Easter dinner. Ham, potatoes, cabbage, and bread. And buttercream cake for desert. Best dinner I've had in a while-and a very compelling reason to come to UT. The only bad part of the whole evening was when someone brought up politics. Susie's gotten a little feisty about that, and so she and Grandma really started going at it. I stayed out of it of course because neither side would have benefited from my political leanings and it just would have prolonged the argument. I think most of all I was disappointed with Susie-arguing too much by the emotion of being under attack, and not offering a more calculated analysis. Most of what came out of her mouth sounded like regurgitated rhetoric. I would have hoped she'd have become more of an intellectual from UT by now, but instead she's just as indoctrinated as she believes Grandma is. She only sees the side she wants to see and doesn't try to understand the other sides. Anyway, besides that, we had a good time. It was good to be with family again.

Posted 11:40 PM | Comments (1)

The Grand College Tour: Day 3

I called UT as soon as they were open this morning. I had been hoping I could schedule a tour around Susie's schedule-I really wanted to hang out with her and check out some of her classes. But I couldn't get an appointment that fit her schedule. Instead, I got to visit a constitutional law class around noon, and then got a campus tour. The class was kind of boring. I managed to stay interested, but that may be because I've been out of school so long that it actually interests me. The tour was informational, but not much to say about it. Afterwards, I talked to their financial aid department. To make a long story short, I'd have about $50,000 in loans when I was done. So I don't know what I think about UT. Feels just like any other University. Except it's "home."

When I got back, Grandma had Easter candy for me. I feel kind of guilty because I had joked yesterday about being sad that Grandma thought we were too old for candy. Of course, I've already eaten it all. Mmm, chocolate. We went to Applebees for dinner, and I had some salmon. I also bought a router at Best Buy along the way. It was a pretty good sale, and I've been thinking about getting one for a while—a DLink 802.11g that hopefully will help kick latency issues I have when I try to stream video to my laptop when I'm browsing wirelessly at home. I'm also hoping it has a bigger range than my old router. Anyway, so far it seems to work okay with a pretty good range. Part of the urgency behind it is I'm thinking I should give my old router to Becky since their router (computer) has been messed up ever since we tried putting Linux on it. The only thing that router has over this new one is it's a print server, but I never print from home anyway. Plus I like the administrative interface on the new one better—more options for firewalls and virtual servers. Can you believe it was only $50 or so, compared to $200 when I bought the old one three years ago? Anyway, I played a lot of computer games tonight waiting for Amy and Susie to call when they got off work (they said they would). But that never happened.

Posted 11:09 PM | Comments (1)

The Grand College Tour: Day 4

After a long night of playing computer games, I woke up just in time this morning to drive down to Riverside and play some ultimate. It was good weather for once—just in time for me to leave Texas :). My game was just a little off—partly because the disk flies a little differently in Austin, partly because I didn't know my receivers, and partly because they didn't know me. But it was still a respectable game. It was a little more competitive than pickup at Kiwanis, but not quite as competitive as pickup at the Intramural fields. Then I rushed home, took a shower, crammed everything in my suitcase (I really like these new suitcases—they're the ones mom gave me for Christmas), had some leftovers and fresh banana bread (mmm, I love grandma's banana bread), and then drove on down to the airport. I got there with plenty of time, and then had a pretty uneventful flight into Dulles. And that sums up the day, besides it being a little chilly here in D.C.

Posted 11:24 PM | Comments (1)

The Grand College Tour: Day 5

Well, I'm impressed with Georgetown. I like the location. I like the connections (Justice Scalia randomly walked by while we were touring the school), and even the class I sat in on (a Properties class) wasn't too boring. I like the amenities (especially the new fitness center right on campus). I just don't like the price, and the financial aid office did nothing to help except reassure me that eventually everybody finds enough loans. That's not what I wanted to hear. Mom actually drove me to the school around noon, because I was running too late for the train, and it wasn't too bad of a drive into DC. Although it would have been much worse to find a place to park. She apparently got lost again on the way out of DC, but not too bad, once she realized the streets were all parallel. First I had a class. Then a tour. It was a rather large tour group—biggest of the year, they said. Probably because of the reception tonight. It was a good tour. The other people on the tour were pretty down to earth as well, which is good. The funniest part of the tour was when the guide started to let his political opinions slip out in incidental comments and it became pretty clear that he expected all of us shared his same leanings. Which is exactly the sort of thing I'm used to in Utah, except his leanings were to the left. He then explained that Georgetown was a very diverse place because it had some very right-wing professors as well, and he had been surprised to find a couple of people in his study group had actually voted for Bush. I found all this very amusing—I'm so used to being to the left of everyone in Utah. It'll be refreshing to be to the right of people for a change. I had a little bit of dinner after the tour, and ate with a girl and her mom that were touring from Virginia. They had the same impression of Georgetown I had. I then walked over to the reception—a few blocks away. I'm a little mixed on whether or not I'll enjoy walking through a big city every day. Lots of interesting people, but perhaps too many. The reception was okay—about 25 or so potential students, plus faculty, relatives, alumni (who worked for the law firm where we had the reception) and some current students. I met a few interesting people who were touring as well, including a guy from Colorado and a girl from NYU. I also met a current student who did his undergraduate work at UT, but came here because he liked the social life better. Anyway, I also I don't think he did much to help me out either way, though. I think one of the guys there was hitting on me, as well. That was just a little weird, especially since my name tag claimed I was from Utah. There was free alcohol of course, but I was surprised by the number of people who, like me, weren't drinking. I can't tell if they were concerned by impressions or what. There was ton of good food, so I really shouldn't have eaten before. I also talked to one of the deans about space law of all things. Georgetown won a space law competition recently, and apparently it has very practical applications. So maybe I should read up more about that, because that sounds fun. Anyway, I left the reception after an hour or so and took the subway back to Vienna. But mom was very late picking me up, and it was kind of cold outside (in April—sigh, Texas would be warmer). Then I came home and played Civ with Bryan all night (even though he has school in the morning).

Posted 11:29 PM | Comments (1)

The Grand College Tour: Day 6

Well, I had been intending to look at UVa again, but I was too lazy by the time I got there (3 or so in the afternoon). I want to express to them that I'm still interested (I'm on their waiting list), but on the other hand, I don't know that I'd accept even if I were accepted. I just don't think I like the environment. Bryan rode down with me (he skipped school) after we had lunch at 5 Guys (a really good burger joint, patterned after In'n'out). The funny thing was that Bryan and I played Civ all the way down—we did a hot seat game and I'd give him general directions (like, explore the northern coast) and he'd do my turns for me. It was kind of fun. We just hung out with Chris and Katie the rest of the day, eating at a little patio café in downtown. It was interesting—very much a college town, as most of the people in the district looked like punk college kids who listened to too much alternative music and had way too many body piercing. I wonder if the district looks different in the day time. Then Bryan and I drove back in time to pick mom up from work, and then I started packing.

Posted 11:33 PM | Comments (1)

The Grand College Tour: Conclusion

Despite my original intentions, I decided not to go with Kristen down to Moab. I'm too traveled out. So I went straight from my flight (which I slept almost entirely through, I was so tired) to work. And then I came home and hung out with Tina, Heather, and Angela. I've basically decided, though, that this trip has confirmed exactly what I already knew. Which on one hand makes it sound like a waste of time, but on the other hand it's good to get the facts straight. I think that now it's basically a decision between UT and Georgetown. I like both of them. Well, I take that back. I like Austin, and I really like Georgetown. So I need to decide how much I want to be back in Austin. I also need to make sure I'm comfortable with the debt I'm going to be in if I go to Georgetown. My deadline's now May 1st (I emailed UT and they offered an extension until then). So I guess I need to do some hard thinking over the next few weeks. Anyway, it was a fun little vacation.

Posted 11:37 PM | Comments (1)

Frisbee Party at Jessica's

Yee haw!

Jessica threw a party for us ultimate frisbee people. It was pretty fun. We watched some videos from Ultimate tournaments and played the layout game.

• Pictures
• Video (17:32)

Posted 11:19 PM | Comments (1)

Another Week

Okay, I'm behind again. I guess I'm just going to do some highlights of the week.

Sunday I got new counselors for the Elder's Quorum. Jake and Ruston. We didn't have time to meet or anything, but they seemed to have the pretty typical reaction—a little nervous, a little enthusiastic. Sunday was also Becky's birthday. I gave her my old router, since their computer that was serving as a router was acting up. Of course, they'll be without internet at their new place for a while, but I figure they'll really appreciate it once they have internet. The party was kind of lame—or maybe I was just kind of distracted. Too many couples, if you ask me. We played some board games and stuff, but I excused myself early.

Monday was kind of uneventful. And the only interesting thing about Tuesday was our first Elder's Quorum Presidency meeting. With the new bishopric and all, we had a lot of stuff to go over. Procedures. New meeting times. And so one. I don't even want to think about organizing home teaching yet. It was a long meeting, and I didn't get to play volleyball very much because of it. I also have to worry about finding a new secretary because Ryan's leaving next week.

Wednesday I went to help Spencer at the STC conference in Salt Lake. I had to wake up around 6:30, drive to Sandy, hop on Trax (this seemed much more convenient than spending an hour in I-15 traffic, though the worst of the traffic may have been right before I hit Sandy, where they're expanding the highway. I did get to sleep on Trax though. Basically, I just sat in a booth with him for hours answering people's questions. It was kind of slow, but we had a couple of leads. We also went around to other booths and discovered some potential competitors.

Thursday night, Jessica (from Ultimate) threw a party. It was pretty fun. We watched some videos from Ultimate tournaments and played the layout game (the pictures should be posted soon). Friday I went with Sharolyn to lunch at a Mexican place up in Spanish Fork.

Saturday was kind of fun. We played ultimate in the morning. Afterwards some of us (Jess, Mel, Vance, Don, and I) hung out and got some Jamba Juice. Then I did yard work—we've almost totally cleared out the junk in the yard. I finally feel safe about having parties in it this summer. But I can't believe how much junk Jonathon had out there. I mean honestly, I don't understand the mentality of people like him, always acquiring the most random things. I guess it's kind of like dad, but different too. After all that, I went to hang out with Kristen at a park and throw a Frisbee. Apparently it was her birthday. I wish I had known that before hand. I then came home for Heather's bday party (her birthday's not till next week though). We held a BBQ at our place and had pretty much the usual crowd. We also set up the volleyball net for the first time this year. In between festivities I stopped by Kristen's again for cake and ice cream. Saw Andy there for the first time in a while, and invited him back to my place. And then continued to party the night away at my place.

Posted 11:11 PM | Comments (1)