Just a Few General Notes

My whole family is visiting Utah for almost the whole month of March. I'm pretty excited about this. It'll be nice to see them and I think we'll have lots of fun. Of course the reason that they are coming isn't very good. My sister decided to grow a big nasty thing in her stomach.


Of course, since I'm a bit of a geek this is the first mental image I had of her. . .growth.



Yes, every time I'm around her I'm half expecting a super cool scene from a sci-fi movie to take place. Unfortunately (?) her growth doesn't seem to be near this exciting, thus she actually has to have it removed manually--via doctors and stuff--which is why my family is coming down.

All joking aside this is actually a pretty serious tumor that she's growing. It's huge, and could possibly threaten her ability to have children. Obviously this whole situation has been pretty hard on her, but she's tough and will deal with it fine. She hasn't actually said very much about this to me because I've been spouting off and getting all whiny lately, for which I now feel very stupid.

Speaking of which, I have a new vendetta against returned missionaries. Well, not so much against them all, but against those who come home feeling like they're entitled to get a little action from the first girl they come across. You can make an educated guess as to why this is getting my goat. And I definitely don't like hearing returned missionaries brag about how quickly they made out with a girl after they returned home. Listening to those kinds of conversations makes me feel kind of like pulling out my red lightsaber and opening up a can of Darth Vader. Making out with a girl two or even three weeks after getting back just seems a little shallow to me. On the other hand, I may have a pretty skewed perspective on this. I'm a writer, a romantic if you want, and I still believe in the idea of true love. And here I am trying to find that one girl, the one who is my BEST friend, so that I can devote myself to her forever. . .but here I am also, 28 and still single. Which just makes me wonder if I've been doing this all wrong. I'm pretty frustrated about all this. Sure, I feel annoyed that I got beat out by some hoser who just got off his mission. But mostly I'm really just frustrated with myself.


The End.

Christmas, Family. . . Chaos

My family tends to run a bit on the noisy side. I guess that makes sense because there are a lot of us--add a brother-in-law, two nephews, and a niece since this picture was taken--and we tend to dwell in small places (one day I may relate the story of living in a 16x20 Alaskan cabin with 10 people and a wheelbarrow bathtub). Whatever the case, when we get together there is a lot of. . . background noise. To those who come from small families that might sound kind of stressful, but it's really not. I've been missing that noise of late. Thankfully, a good portion of my siblings somehow ended up here in Provo, or close by, and the rest of my family flew down here for Christmas. We've been gathering at my sister's house, a house designed for small families, and thankfully, the noise is back.

Last night was typical. My brother (who seems has sprouted since this picture) and I got our guitars and started singing some songs, occasionally joined by two of my younger sisters. One of my brothers-in-law was lobbying hard to get some sort of game going, Hoopla or something, while the other was occupied by making intelligent and witty wisecracks about random people in the room while trying to keep his rambunctious and vocal young son in line. My other nephew started out in his high chair, covered in his dinner, and then spent the rest of the night entertaining his grandma and drooling over everything. My dad was doing a crossword puzzle on the internet, hardly a quiet activity. My niece generally ran around being quite adorable while three of my sisters sat on the couch and talked about boys, or clothes, dating, me not dating, or other similar topics.

All in all, the decibel level is quite high when we all get together. It's chaotic, but as my father likes to say it is a "happy chaos." There is a warmth in the air, an ambiance that is comfortable and pleasing. We are happy together.

Anyway, I love my family and there isn't any other group of people that I would have chosen to spend this life with. The end.