in my ear

i have a problem.


lately... i've been really struggling with words. what? words?! i thought that was like...me! ha. guess not.


i'm sorry. 


it's been the worst. i'm the worst. i apologize to all those who have been victims of my horrible lack of communication and my complete inability to express myself when i actually do put forth the effort. whoops.


at carrabba's, whenever we're running to the back to drop off dirty dishes, pick up bread, or grab drinks, we always yell, "corner!!" (or if you're tawny or carlos you say it "corrrrrrrrrrrrrrneeeeeeeer!" with unmistakably rolled r's.) i feel like the second after i "corner" it up, i'm back there running around with my head chopped off, singing away.


as of late--instead of coherent, well thought out, strung together words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs--this is what's been coming out of my mouth:



(thank you broseph. suuuuuuuper convertida!)



(second thanks to broseph toseph. basically i wasn't a fan of it at first because of the bass and how hardcore it sounds...but listening to it in his car with the sound booming and the air rushing through my lungs has just... ah. opened my eyeballs and eardrums.)



(and... talley. thank you for this one. i didn't like it at first but then it was somehow stuck in my head allllllllllways. so enjoy it. but hey, don't watch the video. just listen nada mas. i made that mistake and saw the first few seconds and was uuuupset. trust in me.)


and the following bon songs. well... there's no shout out to anyone for these--except youtube. and i guess talley for teaching me to utilize my resources. helloooo. i'm obsessed with these though.


 








so there you have it. a weak/vain/futile attempt to tell you what's up. i'm thinking about getting around to verbalizing what's on my mind, but for now.... this will suffice. 


appease your eardrums. 


words to come. 

all in a Day's work.

(this post was started weeks--maybe even months--ago. i've been keeping track of all his hilarity to make it extra uber ultra real. enjoy.)


Some of you may or may not be familiar with the infamous Dr. Day. Randall. What a baller. I'm in his 460 class, Advanced Family Processes. Apart from being the most unique class I've had during my BYU experience in that he treats us like Masters students, he has been one of the funniest teachers I've ever had. It took me awhile to understand his dry, sarcastic, hidden hilarious humor, but now that I understand, I look forward to class even more. I've been writing down his quotes all over everything, but it only felt right to combine and combust and make a tribute blog post:

• "We can't trivialize our rituals. We've turned Easter into Peeps and Eggs. It has nothing to do with the Savior! It's just about fertility and rites of spring. It drives me nuts! (Someone asked him if he does easter egg hunts with his family.) But of course we do the easter egg hunts. I like to eat them! I'm not above a healthy dose of hypocrisy! I have to speak on Easter...Pray for me that I don't get on a rant and offend everyone in my ward. I'm going to bring marshmallow crosses. No, chocolate crosses. Maybe that'll help. We'll merge the two things together."
• "If you were attending USS and you were going to destroy families and you had a workshop, you’d teach them to trivialize their rituals. You’d turn thanksgiving into chips and bear. Christmas into presents and santas. Easter eggs. Turn them into Easter eggs. Takes all the meaning out of it and turns everything into garbage. Takes all the sacred out of it. We’ve allowed it to get tarnished. Our materials now corrupt our rituals. Thanksgiving is really about black Friday. What does it actually do? Why is this so important? Takes out symbols, emotion, etc, it gets watered down. We’re writing it away. Funerals are really about potatoes. No clergy person, no ceremony, about going to the beach…it’s about going to the beach and the next bottle of bear. And who even is St. Patrick? It’s a chance to wear green, go drink your brain out and pass out in the gutter." [-Dr. Day]
• "Going back to our rituals. We've made Easter about eggs and Peeps, Thanksgiving is now about food and beer...Oh and what about how we've made a ritual for the academy awards? We'll all just sit around and cry and eat food and hug each other because our favorite movie won a reward...how dumb is that?!"
• "Lets say you're having an awe-thing during the super bowl (aw-ful)...is that a sacred experience? No. Absolutely not."
• "If couples minimize their rituals it could be a major wedge--wedgie--between them...I appreciate you being my fashion police person."
• "Resistance is futile, we will assimilate you."
• "That theory is dead and buried and no one likes it.”
• "NEVER SAY THE WORD PROVEN. Holy cow. Write that down."
• "Learn to walk downstream. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy, it means your smart."
• "She is your helpmeet which means your helper, your underling."
• "There’s only a one-letter difference between iniquity and inequity."
• "You can teach people to fight, you just have to have the basic skills"
• "Let's write a book called Toxic Rebellion Further Up the Food Chain."
• "I bring people to dinner, we have dinner, and now they’re using drugs. What the heck. I’m a failure."
• "We’re thinking about inviting you guys over for pizza on Saturday. But you can only come that one time and then you’re never welcome again."
• "I ripped my shirt this morning and I said a swear word. But I said it in German! Is that okay?"
• “This is REAL and it’s really important.”
• Me: "Dr. Day, how did you convert?" Dr. Day: "Well, my teacher said we were going to be baptized for our ancestors. I said, 'I don’t have any ancestors.' And he said, 'Well more importantly we’re going to Disneyland.' And I said. 'Okay I’m going.' And he said, 'Okay, well then you have to have to be baptized.' And I said okay. And that’s the story. I didn’t know the church was true until my mission.” “Why did you go on a mission?” “My mom. And the Vietnam war. So I said, ‘Alright.’ And I went. And now I know the church is true. Don’t worry, my testimony isn’t waivering.”
• "I’ve got the proclamation. I’ve seen it. I’ve read it. I even know some of it by heart. Seriously, I do."
• “The title of the book is Free Agency and How to Enforce It.”
• "Next time we'll have a testimony meeting.. about the class.. and about what you're doing your paper on."
• "Dr. Day, will you move the paper down?" "No, i will not do that. I'm sick and tired of trying to accommodate crazy requests like that."
• "A mind expanded by an idea never returns to its original shape." -Einstein/Day.
• "i'd like this to be a testimony meeting only I don't want you to say your testimony. lets have a little cumbaya around the fire and talk about how girls camp went this year."
• "you cared about this class? really. that's a compliment. thank you so much."
• "it's a selfish personal interest for why i respect and appreciate you."
• "I'm sad that it's over. It doesn't happen very often that you get a group as good as this."
• "you can't build a big enough castle to live in. you can't get a bunch of rounds of ammunition and bags of corn seeds and try to just go down there and protect yourselves. they were at uvu last week. 2,000 dollars you can go down to sanpete county and protect yourself down there. those kinds of strategies are hopeless. you need to strengthen your testimony in a way that you've never thought of. as we become more visible, we won't be able to hide in our urban camoflauge. we've got a big M on our forehead and people will want to know what it's all about. you are going to need to know how to think and not just be compliant and obedient."
• my great great gpa was lorenzo snow.
• "if you don't have a fantastically strong testimony that is renewed every day, you're in trouble."
• "You can go to any school so long as its in utah, in provo, located east of university avenue."
• "You can play soccer on sunday but you realize that you will almost for sure get struck by lightning. God will personally be there frowning at you."
• "You watch movies? I thought we had prerequisites for who could be in this class."
• "What i hope remains is that maybe this was one time when you had to struggle with some ideas. it is what we're giong to be doing a lot of in the future. don't run away from it."

Bro. Day,

Thank you for teaching me tooooooons about critical thinking. Thank you for challenging my ideas, for making me be more thorough, to be the devil's advocate in expanding my vision. Don't worry, my testimony isn't shaken. I'm going to be okay. The church is true. I appreciate you so much helping me to see the importance of being able to have a stance with evidence (NEVER SAY EVIDENCE!)--i mean support--and a legitimate reason for thinking as I do

...notwithstanding my testimony. It has been a whirlwind...and i've absolutely loved it!

Thank you.

so proud. sing it alex!

for shelb

i found this in the text for one of my classes and wanted to post it for your enjoyment.

"But to what extent are intimate relationships truly private? Consider these examples:

"Late at night, a couple in your apartment building have a series of loud, physical confrontations--leaving you and your neighbors feeling unsafe and taking the police away from handling other crimes.

"Throughout the school year, a few of your child's classmates are upset over their parents' arguments and imminent divorces; these children distract the teacher, disrupt the class, and reduce the quality of their education.

"A dorm mate of yours, despondent because he is unable to find a steady girlfriend, gets drunk, drives through town, and accidentally kills a pedestrian.

"Because of a nasty divorce, a coworker is less effective at work, fails to give you the information you need to do your job until the last minute, and fores you and your colleagues to pick up the slack.

"Or, more optimistically, your happy neighbors might live longer and be less of a burden on the health care system; or they might raise children who finish their schooling rather than drop out and engage in petty crimes; or they might generate a higher income and thus pay more taxes than they would if they were divorced, thus contributing to the greater good.

"Added up over countless children, countless relationships, and and countless transitions between relationships, effects such as these accumulate, helping us to see that intimate relationships are inextricably woven into the fabric--and welfare--of our society."

_______________________

"Intimate relationships, in short, are fundamental to who we are as humans and pervasive in their effects on us and those around us. no one lives a life untouched by intimacy."

oh, gcon.

"For the next six months your conference edition of the Ensign should stand next to your standard works and be referred to frequently. As my dear friend and brother [President] Harold B. Lee said, 'We should let these conference addresses be the guide to our walk and talk during the next months. These are the important matters the Lord sees fit to reveal to this people in this day.'"

-Ezra TB (Ensign, May 1988, p. 84)

"He knows why he inspired the other bretheren who have talked in this conference to say what they have said. It is our high privilege to hear, through these men, what the Lord would say if he were here. If we do not agree with what they say, it is because we are out of harmony with the Spirit of the Lord."

-Marion G. Romney (October 1950, pp. 126-27)

"We have heard enough already, that if we can just remember half of what we have heard and take it back to our stakes and wards, they will be enriched because of these conference sessions."

-Legrand Richards (April 1945)

"No text nor volume outside of the standard works of the Church should have such a prominent place on your personal library shelves, not because of their rhetorical excellence, nor the elecquence of delivery, but for the conent which points the way to eternal life."

-Spencer W. Kimball (Teachings of SWK 68-05)

Ahh.

Conference. Holy cow. I know. It was a spiritual blast for everyone within earshot.

Awhile back bro requested that we go to conference for a reunion when he got back. And so we did! We went up the Saturday night, slept (actually not), and attended the Sunday morning session. SO POWERFUL. It was amazing!

I just feel so grateful to be a part of the restored church--everything is so clear and fits together perfectly. I went into this years' round of conference supposing that every speaker was speaking directly to me, and trying to pay attention to my feelings and specific goals I needed to make or actions I needed to make. I marked actions with an arrow, and it's been so neat to go back and see all those little arrows and know the Lord blessed me with ideas of things to do to draw closer to Him and His Son. It's true. The church is true. I know it!

My boss sent me this clip and I've just been loving it. Who doesn't love Elder Holland? But Elder Holland throwing down? A personal favorite from conference: "Don't delay. It's getting late. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." BOOM! ha ha we rewound that part. Holy powerhouse. He doesn't worry about just saying it like it is. So watch him just go al grano at Harvard. he's so concise in developing "our most distinguishing feature in our faith"!

"That is our first testimony, of Jesus Christ as the literal son of God, of the merciful and redeeming gospel He brought from the Father to earth to share with all of God's children, and the church Christ established to be the vehicle for communicating those truths and those ordinances.

"But our next testimony is that after Christ's ascension, and with the death of those early apostles, the church and its divinely ordained succession of priesthood authority was lost, taken, removed from the earth. So when ensued what a millennium and a half of opposing Paul's hope that there would be a unity of the faith and a knowledge of the Son of God.

"What brings me to you today is not a message of reformation but of restoration. The restoration of that church Christ established by His hand in that meridian of time, and which He has reestablished by His hand in the present time."