A Very Difficult Post To Write

Public Announcement:

I am going back to BYU.

After Christmas.

(Merry Christmas.)

I'm not too excited about it, I must say. I mean, school is cool (rhyme!), but Utah isn't all that cool. Well, that's not entirely true. And after living in a place where "Utah Mormons" are made fun of left and right (something I completely disagree with) I am actually more prone to defend Utah than hate on it. But, let's face it. I just spent six months in Los Angeles. Some people would give their left arm to have the experience that I've had. Nevertheless, I need to finish school. And I've already done a year and a half at BYU, so why not finish it at BYU? They even gave me a scholarship to come back.

LIST OF THINGS I'LL MISS FROM LOS ANGELES:

- my dad and his girlfriend, Jill, and her son, Gabe, and all of their family (I'm trying hard to not think about actually having to leave these people, so please don't remind me)
- my job, which includes my boss, Jeff, and my co-worker, Christian, who was completely devastated when I told him my plans
- the Los Angeles LDS temple, which is the most beautiful temple in the world (fact, not opinion)
- the sushi, of which I cannot eat enough
- the street names, which add a lot more personality to a place than you would believe
- the diversity, which is amazing there
- the beach, which I didn't go to enough
- the Los Angeles 1st YSA Ward, which consisted of some of the nicest people I've ever met in my entire life
- the crazy housekeeper, whom I will only miss sort of, and if you knew her you would know why

But let's not get too sentimental, now...

LIST OF THINGS I'M (TRYING) TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN UTAH

- school at BYU
- friends at BYU
- the (uncomfortable and overwhelming) number of people who have the same religious beliefs as I do
- the fact that I will probably never have to pay for parking while in Provo
- the fact that movies cost less than ten bucks
- the large amount of other family that I have here
- the singles ward that I'm not yet in
- the super amazing view of the mountains

Okay, that attempt at optimism didn't really work for me. This is, actually, a very hard post for me to write, because for some strange reason putting it on my blog makes it more real and immediate than ever before. I guess I'll just have to look forward to the day when, after about two and a half years of schooling, and a church mission somewhere in there, I finally get to return home.

And that will be a great day.

"The Crappiest Generation of Spoiled Idiots"

This is my better-late-than-never Thanksgiving post.

Watch this video from Conan.

His name is Louis C.K.

He makes a good point!

BE GRATEFUL.
DON'T TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED.

Amen.

My friends,

I was going to write to you about how tonight's FHE was (as opposed to last week's - see my previous post)...

I was going to tell you all how much fun it was to have a GIANT MARSHMALLOW GUN WAR with about thirty people in the church gym...

I was going to tell you how good the cookies tasted, even though they were store-bought and definitely not as good as any home-made recipes I've tasted...

I was going to tell you how marshmallows were all over the floor while we were shooting them from the pipes, and how we were stepping all over them while focusing on our opponents...

I was going to tell you how annoying it was to have to spend an hour on our hands and knees with rags and buckets of water mopping the floor afterwords because the entire church gym was covered in sticky marshmallow mess since no one thought about the aftermath of a marshmallow melee in the church gym...

I was EVEN going to tell you about a certain someone that that I've been developing a minor crush on since I've become more social in my ward here in LA! (a girl) (not that there's anything wrong with being gay)...

(HA! I'LL NEVER TELL!)

...but I'm just too tired.

*Sigh*

My goal is to get to bed before 2:00 am.

Goodnight.

Project Runway

Last night we had Fashion Night for FHE at the L.A. First Ward.

Fashion Night.

The rules were simple:

Four teams.
Four team captains.
A large supply of paper and plastic bags from Trader Joe's.
A large supply of black trash bags.
One pair of scissors per team.
One roll of scotch tape per team.
Fifteen minutes.

Sounds fun? It certainly was.

HOWEVER,

the thing that made it so interesting was that we had actual
fashion design students
in our ward who could really help us make it all happen.

I love Los Angeles.

Check out the latest designs created in part by Yours Truly -

(and yes, I am very proud of what we came up with):

This is us starting out.

Click any photo to enlarge it.


Careful attention to detail, of course.
The tape was quite handy to have around.


The presentation to the audience.
Note the braided spaghetti straps.


That's right. Those are full-on rosettes we made out of black trash bag material.


Thank goodness we got the cute little Asian girl on our team -
she was the perfect model for the dress.


This is April hugging our team captain, Josh (who just happens to be attending a fashion design school here in L.A.).


For those who want to watch the short video (about two minutes long) of the entire competition, click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=704644759269

Ah, the Joys of Childhood.

Remember when it didn't take very much to make you laugh really hard?

I mean, do you remember when you were young, and even the stupidest things could make you laugh so hard that you were on the floor crying and your sides were hurting?

For instance, I remember when I was about five years old, and one night my family was pretty well entertained by the fact that I would laugh like crazy whenever my brother and sisters would walk up to me with an excited, deranged look on their faces and shout...

"POTATO!"

I would just die laughing at that. It was so funny.

Do you remember? Well, if you do, make sure you actually sit through this entire classic Sesame Street skit I found on Time Magazine's Top Ten Sesame Street Moments:

It Passed

My fellow Americans,

I just want to announce the good news to anyone who reads this:

The health care reform bill passed in the House of Reps tonight.

My political interpretation:
This is one step in a very, very good direction.
AND
I hope the Senate passes their bill, too.
(Cross your fingers!)

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

YEAH YEAH REGINA!

Last Wednesday I had the incredible opportunity to go to see Regina Spektor perform at the Greek Theater here in LA. This made me very, very happy. I'll admit that before the concert I really didn't know much about her music, but this concert gave me a great excuse to buy one of her CD's. And you know what? I haven't stopped listening to it since the day I bought it!

Needless to say, the concert was fantastic, and I wanted you all to watch one of the coolest performances of the night (thank goodness for Youtube, and crazy fans who go through the efforts of recording these things on their own cameras and then figuring out how to post them online!). It's a song she only performs at her concerts (i.e. it's not released on CD) called "Silly Eye Color Generalizations", and I thought this performance really epitomized everything Regina is known for -- her creative song writing skills, her beautiful voice, and her sort of shy innocence she displays with the audience despite her incredible talent. Watch it below! Then watch it again! Then watch it a third time! (I know I did...)

Please note: the very first of the song isn't recorded since the girl recording took a short while to take out her camera and start recording. But that's okay! I've written them here for you!

SILLY EYE COLOR GENERALIZATIONS

There are those boys
With earthy eyes
Their eyes are like the ground...

WASN'T THAT AMAZING???

The concert was also a great opportunity to test the limits of my brand-new camera! They are small, and they are blurry, but you can see them below!

Okay, that last one isn't Regina. But I'm pretty sure it's her biggest fan! The guy must be at least fifty years old and he was sitting right next to me and knew every word of every song she sang. And that made me laugh.

YEAH YEAH REGINA!