Dallas, TX

So...I meant to post this a long time ago, but better late than never right?

As many of you know, I've been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and have been assigned to labor in the Texas Dallas Mission speaking Spanish.  Ummmm...I am SO excited.  I leave October 3 which seems forever away, but it's only about 6 weeks down the road which means it will be here before I know it.  Crazy.  Anyway, of course I had to research the city of Dallas as soon as I got my call.  And of course I started at the most reliable source I know of, Wikipedia.  Okay, it may not be the most factual, but it's the most interesting.

It has a nice skyline.  :)

Here are my random thoughts concerning the mish and Dallas.

1.  My favorite Dodgers pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, is from Dallas.  I'll have you know that I well aware of this far before I read it on Wikipedia.

Kersh.  I've interviewed him a few times.  Super nice.

2.  According to Wikipedia, many Disney Channel stars are from Dallas.  Not that cool, but interesting nonetheless.

3.  According to Wikipedia, the Dallas area is home to the largest Jewish population in Texas.

4.  My mission basically basically the northeastern corner of the state of Texas and also includes small parts of Oklahoma and Arkansas which is cool.

5.  The closest baseball team to Dallas would be the Texas Rangers.  Unfortunately, their stadium is located in Arlington which happens to be very close to Dallas, but just barely outside my mission.  It's in the Fort Worth mission.  So this is good and bad.  Bad because I probably won't get to see it.  Good because I'll be less tempted to spend time there when the Dodgers play the Rangers in the World Series.  Hey, it could happen.  And, I'm sure you're dying to know if I'll become a Rangers fan.  Uh, no.  Maybe they can be my second favorite team.  They do play in a different league after all.  But that would mean second by a long shot.  A VERY long shot.

6.  I am SO excited to speak Spanish.  Seven years of Spanish will not go to waste.  Now of course, I may be in areas where I speak English, but the possibility of speaking Spanish is enough for me.  Also, my friend Nico called me from the MTC to test my Spanish proficiency.  After much discussion we decided to put me in the advanced Spanish courses at the MTC meaning I'm only there for 3 weeks.  Crazy.  The MTC will be funny since I know quite a few people who work there.  And most of them are in the Spanish department.

7.  Some may think that it's a disappointment to get called to somewhere in the U.S. of A.  Not me.  I love this country.  A whole lot.  Don't get me wrong, I would gladly serve in the DR or any other foreign country, but serving in the U.S.A has it's perks.  For example, I get to stick around for the election.  What an easy way to start up a conversation with people about the gospel.  Also, I don't have to get a passport or visa.  And last but not least, mail is fast, relatively cheap, and reliable.  There.  You all, or should I say ya'll, have no excuses for not writing me.  :)

8.  Also, Dallas has an NFL team.  Currently, I could care less about the NFL since Los Angeles is team-less for the time being.  So perhaps I'll turn into a Cowboys fan.  Who knows.  I hear they're the team everyone loves to hate.

9.  Will I become a Mavs fan?  Nope.

10.  People tell me the people are great and the food is great.  The weather...not so much.  The summers are hot.  Triple digit hot.  Plus they're humid.  Not as humid as other parts of Texas, but any humidity added to 100+ degree weather is not good.  Luckily I'll only be their for one summer.  The winters don't seem too bad.  Apparently they get large hail sometimes.  Sounds exciting to me.  :)

11.  My mission president happens to be a former BYU basketball player and the son of my mom's favorite BYU professor.  I think we'll get along.  :)

12.  And last but not least, Anna Schiess, my roommate who is a Texas native and was born in Dallas, says Dallas is the classiest city in Texas.  And I like to pretend I'm classy.  Ha.

Anyway, ya'll should come to my farewell on September 30.  It'll be the party of the year.  Meaning probably not, but come anyway.  :)

Rolling the mice.

So it's summertime and that means I get to hang out with my three-year-old brother Grant all day.  At least until I get a job.  Grant's favorite activity is watching PBS shows online.  So I was watching him this morning and when I finally thought his brain might be rotten from so much TV (aka I wanted to get on the computer), I told him we should play a game.  He chose Charades for Kids.  Now normally I dislike Charades, but Grant always makes up his own rules to games so I agreed.  The game has a board that you move your little marker around and a die.  So we basically just rolled the die (or the mice as Grant would say) and moved our markers around the board, no acting involved.  Now that's my kind of Charades.  Grant eventually decided we should draw some of the cards and act things out.  To my delight, the actions included such simple things as "clapping your hands", "being sad", or "scissors".  I could get used to Charades for Kids.  Grant was an excellent guesser (or I guess you could say I was a brilliant actress).  The real problem arose when it was Grant's turn to act something out.  He'd have me read the card to him and then he'd act out whatever I said.  This made the guessing quite easy on my part.  Thus, the moral of the story is playing Charades with illiterate persons is very difficult (meaning quite easy).

Also, my dad informed Grant that he could use Justin's old baseball mitt.  Grant liked this idea.  After my dad wrote Grant's name on the glove he gave it to Grant who wanted to put it on his hand.  He asked my dad, "How do I get this mitten on?"  He's a cute kid.

Happy summer!

Incredible.

So...I'm completely done with finals and school for at least 4 months.  Hallelujah.  The last final I took was for my Music 202 class.  And before that I took the music and art ID exam for the second half of the class.  I love studying for those ID exams.  Does that mean I studied for it in advance?  Heck no.  But for the few hours I spent cramming I loved listening to the classical music and looking at all of the art and architecture.  There are some pretty dang talented people out there.  And yes I'm a nerd.  Anyway, this guy named Franz Liszt wrote some insane piano pieces.  I'm sure they're all great, but the one we had to know was "La Campanella".  This is by far my new favorite piano solo.  I will never be able to play it in a million years and don't know if many people can.  But if you can...you have mastered the piano and then some.  Anyway, the video is well worth your time.  It's crazy.  Enjoy!

Not too shabby...

It's that time of the semester when one realizes they haven't blogged in far too long and they have no idea where to begin.  Thus, you all are in for one very long post.  :)

So...the Dodgers.  Hello.  I am THRILLED to say the least that baseball season has finally arrived.
The fact that the Dodgers are 8-1 is just a nice little bonus.  8-1.  That would be the best record in Major League Baseball right now.  Not just the best in the National League West or the best in the National League...but the BEST in the Majors.  Yeah yeah yeah.  I've heard it time and time again...baseball season is long and it could all change very quickly...in fact I'm sure it will as soon as I post this.  (Knock on some wood please.)  But I will enjoy it while it lasts.  :)  Oh and remember how the Angels (who are currently last in their division with a 3-5 record) got Albert Pujols?  Well...he hasn't hit a single home run yet this season while Matt Kemp on the other hand has hit 5 in 9 games.  He hit 2 tonight in his first 2 at bats making that 3 home runs in 2 games.  Do I hear MVP chants?  He is crazy...or should I say cray.  Can't wait to get back to the City of Angels to see my team in person.

Some how the beginning of baseball always corresponds with the end of the semester.  And since my priorities aren't exactly in the correct order I probably watch more baseball than I should and do less studying than I should.  Oh well.  You only live once...right?  Don't worry...I study a lot.  Kinda.

Taxes also correspond with the end of the semester.  I'll have you know I am a tax pro.  Okay not really.  But I did my taxes all by myself without any help from a live human being.  That is quite a feat.  You would think they would make taxes less confusing if they wanted people to file them.  Guess not.  All I know is I made about the same amount of money as last year, but my federal tax return was about 4 times as much this year.  Thank you Mr. Obama.

Guess what.  I love my major.  I'm sure I probably said this 3 million times previously.  But seriously.  Who wouldn't want to watch sports highlights all day and then talk about them and eventually get paid to do it?  Sick.  You know you picked the right major when you can justify your sports watching addiction by calling it homework.

And now an ode to the Spanish language.  I just finished the last class of my Spanish minor.  I LOVE the Spanish language.  A big thank you to my mother for making me take Spanish in high school instead of French.  Best choice I ever made.  Now to get called to a Spanish speaking mission...that's the goal.  Just kidding.  I decided I really don't care where I get called.  English speaking would just make things easier.  Spanish speaking would make my Spanish a million times better.  And another language speaking would make me trilingual.  Oh did I mention I'm planning on serving a mission?

Also, have I mentioned lately that I have the coolest friends?  It's true.  I love 'em to death.

And my family...they're the greatest.  Also, my siblings are way cuter than your siblings.  Especially this guy.  :)

Oh and remember BYU basketball?  What a great season capped off with the biggest comeback win in NCAA Tournament history.  Down by 25.  No big deal.

Well...I'm currently loving life probably because the fact that I have finals coming up hasn't hit me yet.  But hey...at least I'll be done by Wednesday.  Have a lovely day.  :)

Winter 2012.

It's finally here.  It actually looks like winter outside.  It's snowing!!!!!!!  I guess I can survive at least a few more weeks of winter especially if it keeps snowing.  The cold weather gets a little old, but nothing is worse than a Utah winter without snow.  Everything's dead and there's no snow to cover it up.  I'm a huge fan of snow...probably because I don't have to drive in it.  I just have to walk to school on the ever so treacherous frozen tundra that is the icy/snowy/slushy sidewalk.  It's an adventure to say the least.  Schiess and I barely made it out of the icy parking lot trying to walk to church yesterday.  Thank goodness for kind people who give us rides.  :)  Sorry to talk so much about the weather.  It's so hard not too when it's so exciting.  A week ago Saturday I walked home from work and it was GORGEOUS outside.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Super warm (for Utah).  It made me SO happy.  I walked home in complete awe of the beautiful weather.  The next Saturday (two days ago), I walked home in the pouring rain.  I was DRENCHED.  It was pretty hilarious.  And then it finally started snowing.  Meaning all the rain turned to ice and the snow covered it.  Lovely.  :)  I wish I had pictures of all of this.  But my camera decided to die and my new one is not here yet.  Here is one of my favorite weather pictures in substitution.  :)

This is when we were in Spain...Córdoba to be specific in May of 2010.  It was raining...or shall I say pouring...off and on throughout the day.  Somehow we decided to walk over the bridge right as it stared to pour.  This rain was torrential.  And it was really windy.  I was with a tour group of a bunch of senior citizens (which was super fun).  But they all were trying to stay dry under umbrellas while we crossed this super long bridge.  It was hilarious because the umbrellas were doing practically nothing to keep them dry.  In fact most of them were blowing inside out because of the wind.  So I decided to scrap the whole umbrella idea and just go for it.  So...I was soaked.  Completely.  I thought it was hilarious.

Alright.  Enough about the weather.  Classes are decent enough this semester.  I'm not super motivated yet.  Hopefully that will happen soon.  I have to be at school at 7 a.m. or before 4 out of 7 days of the week.  The other two days are 8 a.m. and Sunday is 9 a.m.  I never thought the longest I'd get to sleep in would be when I have 9 a.m. church.  But who needs sleep right?

The other exciting news of the semester is that I'm the Tuesday/Thursday sports anchor for Eleven News on KBYU.  Basically my news director got super desperate for someone to fill that position and I was willing to do it.  I've only done it once so far and it wasn't on air, but it's so fun!  I get a 3 minute segment and I get to talk about whatever I want...meaning about what our very limited audience wants to hear about...meaning mostly Utah sports stuff which isn't much.  But hopefully it will help me get an internship this summer.  So if you're in Utah turn on Channel 11 every Tuesday and Thursday starting tomorrow at noon.  It'll be great.  :)  I also am a producer for the Friday show which is an all sports show.  You can watch that too.  :)

Well...this was an awfully boring post.  Sorry.  Hope you are enjoying winter wherever you are.  :)  Just think...if we didn't have winter, summer would be far less exciting.  P.S.  I made potato salad the other day.  So good.  Who says potato salad can only be eaten in the summer?  I'm against the notion of seasonal foods.  In fact, I think I'll go eat some right now.  :)

Oh and one more thing.  I love my Cougar basketball.  LOVE it.  And did I mention my dad will be in town for the St. Mary's game on Saturday?  It's just probably the biggest game of the regular season.  Can't.  Wait.