Cogent Comments

Here's my life's update:
1. My grandmother is making me read a book about Dealing with Differences in Marriage by Brent Barlow. Why? Because I'm having marital distress. Ha! No, rather, she just wants all of her grandchildren, married or unmarried, to know that differences in marriage are inevitable and even desireable to some degree if managed and understood properly. I'll be a marriage genius/counselor before I'm married myself.


2. I'm done with my capstone project at Pac States! As neat as that is, I now must do an internship. The capstone project was fascinating and I hope the internship is half as cool. Nothing like developing equations for determining molten iron temperature.


3. I'm studying for the GRE. I haven't taken a practice test, but some of the sample questions they give are EASY. I hope the test is like the sample questions. Why am I studying for the GRE. Reason 1: I'm a MAD masochist. Reason 2: I'm considering grad school at the Y. Yes, a masters in manufacturing technology and an MBA is a dynamite combo. I'll be the most marketable thing since canned ham.

and lastly...

4. I don't understand why Doug Call isn't a bishop yet. I thought they typically struggled for young, energetic, spiritual giants outside of the Happy Valley Bubble.

Phun with Phlebotomy

I gave blood for the first time this week. It was a blast, or should a say, a squirt. I saw about 5 others from the 6th ward while I was there and a couple others were firsttimers as well. It took me 8:11. I think they all beat me. I was the one that wanted the race and everyone killed me. I told my phlebotomist about the race afterwards and she said she used a smaller vein at a funny angle on purpose. I yelled at her and told her next time we engage in venepuncture, I wanted her to stab right into the inferior vena cava. If I'm going to be egging people on, I need to give them a competition.

Bitter Defeat

Well, tennis didn't go as planned. Heather and I didn't play too poorly, but I really don't think either of us played up to our potential. My serves looked like they did back in the 7th grade and I allowed myself to be intimidated on occasion. The best part was that we made visible progress. We lost our first game 3-8. We won the second game (I don't remember the score; probably 8-5) on Friday night which meant we would come back and finish the tournament on Saturday. Saturday morning we won 8-5 and then, in what I believe was the semi-finals, we lost 8-8. The tie breaker went 5-4 in their favor. The worst part was it was the same team that spanked us 8-3 the first time. I know we could have beaten them. I had so many mind-bogglingly terrible shots. But! At least we could see that we were improving as a team. Maybe if I do it again in the Fall (do they do it in the Fall?) I'll be that much more prepared. I added this particular picture, because that is exactly where I felt I was making contact with the ball. Not in the sweet spot, but rather at the tip of my racquet. I must say, I don't mean to do nothing but complain. I had a great time and really enjoyed getting to know Heather better. That's the most important aspect of any tennis match for me. It's probably also great to be humbled!

Tennis Intramurals

So, it's time to dust off the ol' tennis racquet and whoop some trash. It's mixed doubles and my partner is supposedly amazing tennis player. I've never seen her play, but she can't be bad since she just won the 1st place in the women's singles Division 1 intramurals. She's a girl in my ward who I just went on a date with this weekend to the Utah Symphony. We went to Benihanas for dinner which is pretty amazing. It was a FABULOUS concert. I can't believe that there were actually a few empty seats in the crowd. You dont' get to hear Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D very often and they played Mendelssohn's Fifth which is one of my favorites (especially mvnts 1 & 4) . Definitely a magical evening. And actually the thing I liked the most was that this girl (Heather is her name), likes to think and express herself. Her conversation was full of ambition, goals, values, and she wasn't afraid to talk about the gospel as though it was a part of her everyday life. Holy Cow. I'm trying really hard not to get too twitterpated in case her fun personality and gorgeous smile was denoting nothing more than that she wasn't miserable. Hopefully I'll post again once we're tennis intramural champions together. Pray for me.