Bizarre Bradyisms

Parking Lot Hero

I have a class at 8:00 am every morning. If I go early enough, the parking lot is still pretty empty and I can get a pretty good parking spot (ie, not BFE). When I leave, however, the same parking lot is packed full and people are driving up and down the ailes to find a spot and make it to class on time. People are even clever enough to “wait in line” at the entrance to the parking lot to wait for people coming off of campus and stalking them as slowly make their way to their car. Such is the case with me. It is amazing how quickly after I pull my keys out of my pocket that I have someone rolling their window down to ask if they can have my spot. When I say yes and that I am withing the first two rows, it is like I have made their day and only now is everything going to be okay. It’s fun. I get to be a parking lot hero.

School is now officially halfway over because I took my final in block classes and although it didn’t go extremely well, I’m satisfied that I am and making through the class and not failing. I have come to realize that as bad as it may sound, I don’t care about my grades to the point where I get stressed about them. I do my best on the tests, I pay attention in class, I do my homework. After that, what happens is what happens and I am okay with it. Call me crazy, but that is the way it is.

My first week of working full-time at my new job was quite fun. Honestly, the beginning was really boring but by the end, it was really cool. Within the time frame of about 24 hours, I had been to a lawyer’s office, a neurologist’s office, a gynecologist, a family practice, a general clinic, a insurance agent’s office, and a psychologist’s office. Now, these visits of mine were not for personal reasons, obviously (a gynecologist visit would cause one to ask questions), but just shows how much I get around. I have gone as far as the “Point of the Mountain” down to Spanish Fork and I get to do what I really enjoy. Thursday morning I spent around 3 hours troubleshooting what had happened after my boss touched a setting on the router for the neurologist’s office and brought the Internet down. It was a blast. I learned a lot and got to touch some Cisco equipment again in a real production environment. Yeah, let’s just say I was “giddy.” But can you blame me.

Then this weekend, my Kitchen-Aid and I had a run in and somehow or another a few pumpkin pies and some chocolate cookies came as a result. There I was in the kitchen with my man-apron covered in flour as people walked in the door. “Why are you cooking pie?” they would ask. The only reason I could some up with is because cooking is one of the few things that makes me happy right now and it has been a good 2 months since I did anything real serious. Its that truth. I don’t say it looking for pity, I am simply happy cooking. I don’t know how the pies turned out because I delivered them to my home-teachees, but the cookies were a bit dry. I’ll have to work on that.

Josh and I felt like some more home-improvement again this weekend and painted our living room a pesto-green color. At first I had doubts because of the dark green leather couches that we have, but after we were done, it looks really good. I mean it. Amazing. It finally feels like a home. Plus to top it all off, as the night came to a close and while putting all the furniture back in it’s place, the lack of a TV really became apparent. To make a slightly longer story shorter, an hour later we walked into the house carrying a new TV that I bought from Walmart and found a wonderful place in our “new” home. I can’t say I was expecting to make that kind of purchase this weekend, but, it happened and don’t have any regrets about doing it.

I’m trying to stay happy and focused in on school right now, but when I like my job more than my classes, it becomes more and more difficult as time goes on. I’ve realized that I can force myself through about 6 weeks worth of something that I feel has no purpose, but come week 7, it grows exponentially harder to get out of bed and go to class everyday and then come home and do homework. I know I keep going at it because in the end it will be worth it, but it pretty much sucks right now. As my Mom stated, “This too will pass,” and I know it will, but still its hard. Be happy, don’t worry. Be happy, don’t worry. Be happy, don’t worry. I suppose if I keep repeating it will be true?

12:00 Flasher

I never thought it would come to this. I, Brady, have become a 12:00 flasher. What is this you may ask? If you are unfamiliar with the Seinfield reference, I am referring to what occurs when the power goes out, as it did in my apartment earlier this week, causing all of your digital clocks to reset and blink 12:00 until further human intervention. Normally, seeing this at other people’s houses or in their cars always bothered me, but this week, every time I would see my clock, I would think to myself, “I should fix that,” but then never did. What has the world come to? Next thing you know I will be asking someone how to operate a microwave or program a VCR (if those still exist). I better be careful.

Moving on, I finished my last day of work at Nortel on Friday and it was odd because my manager as he shook my hand before walking out the door had a weird look in his eyes as almost if he were desperately asking me stay. I am not sure what he expected me to do, but it might have something to do with that fact that 4 or 5 other people have quit / left / retired during the last 2 weeks and now is short staffed. It was a good job and a wonderful learning experience, but better things await.

Friday night a bunch of old friends went up to the canyon and made a fire. Roasted marshmallows and chocolate were present, plus we also tried these roasted apples with chocolate in the center. It was good and definitely different. The best part was our “shake face” photos. As has become customary among this group of friends, whenever we go up to the canyon we take pictures in the dark of us shaking our heads back and forth quickly so as to create a distorted face in the picture. Then, we all laugh at each other. It was a great break from the monotony of everyday life.

Then Saturday, Josh and I went out looking to see if we could rent a TV because we still lack one for our apartment. We were expected to find a decent one for like $50 a month to split between 3 of us, but it turned out to be like $35 a week! So you can bet that did not happen. Supposing we could find one to buy, we visited Best Buy and Circuit City, but nothing really popped out to us because we didn’t want to buy a cheap one for like $300 when you can get an amazing one that would be a better investment for $500. I don’t think we ever actually got close to really doing it, but we both had considered just dropping the cash down for one, but common sense finally talked us out of doing so.

Feeling a bit sad that we would continue to not have a TV, we went home and painted our dinning room. It was all plain white before, but now is a light mustard yellow with Japanese artwork hanging on the walls. It is really different, but I like it. I come home and see it and just think “Happy” and “Fun.”

To close out the evening Josh, Erin, and I went out to see the movie “The Grudge 2.” I like the first one and was fairly excited for what the second one would bring, but I can honestly tell you now that it was horrible. I mean it, completely horrible. I enjoy being scared and it did a good job of ensuring that that occurred, but the story line and overall plot was confusing, ridiculous, and just dumb. I kept thinking that they would find a way to tie it all back together before the end of the film, but no, didn’t happen. So, FYI, don’t waste your money on this one.

Not much else going on in my life right now. The problem I have is that I continue to see myself reverting back into who I once was a number of months ago. I am constantly bored with life, I don’t get the opportunity to interact with many people, and between work and school, there is a definite lack of excitement in my life right now. I don’t say this to feel bad about myself or for pity, I say it because I feel like I am wasting my time with trying to complete day to day activities. The problem is, I don’t know how to fix or change it. There are not a lot of options open to me right now due to previous commitments that have been made. Nonetheless, I am and know I will have to keep trying to find some excitement and happiness anywhere I can. I know, I know, it’ll be alright, and things will turn out for the better but I could sure use a little sneak preview right now if at all possible. Here’s hoping.

PS – Just thought I would add that after writing this inital entry, my boredom drove me to try my hand at making some banana bread. While not meaning to brag at all, I have to admit that I did a dang good job. Mmm, I think I’m going to go eat some more right now.

A Trial of Your Faith

To begin with, my life is finally starting to recover and I feel a lot better now, almost on par with how I was around two weeks ago. As to why, I’ll get to that later. So my new job has been good. I was down in Spanish Fork on Thursday and Friday morning working at a medical clinic on their computers and then in South Provo on Friday afternoon at a composite research company, called ACTR, becoming familiar with their site. Honestly, the work I was actually performing on those two days was quite repetitive and boring, but there is a lot of potential for some really great experiences. Eventually I will be becoming the main contact for ACTR and a secondary for the clinic along with others and I feel like I will really be able to excel and get paid to do what could be considered my hobby. On a side note, it has been kind of strange having to carry around two cell phones with me (my personal one, and then my work one). When they are on vibrate and both are in the same pocket, it is quite an interesting ordeal trying to find which one is going off.

I am working a few hours at the old place still (I did 11 yesterday, on a Saturday) but that will be finished sometime this week and I will be able to focus on other things. While at work yesterday I received an short email from Nicki simply asking how things were. I responded back that things were OK and getting better as time progressed. Then, overcoming a lot of fear to do so, I responded and just kind of laid it all out on the table and expressed how and what I was feeling and really inquired as to what really happened between us. It felt good to get it off of my chest. And so we proceeded to write back and forth a few times trying to find clarification and by the time we were done, we both felt a lot better about things and decided that we still liked each other and that either our timing in relation to God’s timing was off and that it might still work out in the future or that there is just someone better for each of us. Either way, I feel a lot better and just kind of know now that things will be okay.

All in all, I found myself a little more determined to pay the price for what I wanted in the future. I drove home from work just thinking about things and decided there were a few areas of my life that I needed to work on. Nothing like worthiness, but more along the lines of commitment to myself and to those who are or will be important to me.

Plus, today at church, all of talks during Sacrament meeting were about “Having Faith while Dating.” They were very well presented and might I add that I really needed to hear a few things that were mentioned. Although what I am about to write here may not have any significance for anybody but myself, I think by adding them here, I will be able to remember them better than just having them written on a small piece of paper that will most likely be thrown away in a week.

“The Lord cannot drive a parked car.” “You attract who you are, not what you want.” “When you feel you can no longer stand, kneel.” “The Lord requires us to choose a direction and then just start walking.” “He suffered so that He could succor.” “Only if both are willing to pay the price.”

Take those words for what they are worth, but know that my personal testimony of how God takes not simply a passive role, but an active role, in leading and directing our lives has grown.

The semester is almost half way over. Yessss! (in the Napoleon Dynamite tone). Also, I am really looking forward to being able to hang Christmas lights outside our apartment this year. I am debating whether I should go crazy with lights synchronized to music, or to keep it simple and sweet. I will probably go for the latter because I do not have much money to invest in additional equipment. But I can still dream, can’t I.

What a week

Well this past week has been kind of eventful and I can’t say that I have any thoughts to share at this point in time, so maybe I’ll just turn this entry into a travel log and see what comes of it.

I had my meeting with the new job offer on Friday morning for a couple of hours. I went in there knowing I would be taking a significant pay cut from my current job, however, after about 15 minutes of basic orientation and training, one of the partners came out, shook my hand, and said, “Congratulations, you just got your first raise.” I’m not sure exactly why that happened, but was grateful anyways. I’ll still be making less even with the raise, but it won’t be quite as bad. Plus, I expect to be beyond where I am at now within 6 months if everything goes well. Pretty neat if you ask me. I then spent the next ~3 hours getting an idea of how the company works on a more intricate level. Then around noon, I left for my apartment and was on the road headed home by around 12:30.

As funny as it may sound, I had to print a Google Map for directions on how to get home, and later realized that the exit numbers Google has on I-15 no longer correspond to the right exits. But, I made it to where I was going. The drive was beautiful, although it was raining constantly for 4/5 of the entire trip. I got home just after 8:00 and found my whole family there waiting for me (including my married brother and sister, and their children (including my new, adorable niece Kambria). What a treat it was. Aren’t families just amazing.

Then Saturday I spent a couple hours working with my Dad and younger brother wiring some network cable from the basement of the house up to one of the bedrooms (his new office) on the second floor. Honestly, I was quite pleased the way it turned out and we only had to drill through the backside of 1 wall in the attic and made it look quite professional. Way to go us! I was able to relax the rest of the day until night rolled around and the knowledge that I had Calculus homework due loomed around me until I gave in and spent the next 2-3 hours getting that done. (Have I mentioned before how much I hate Calculus?)

The best part of the whole weekend was traveling up North to Fort Collins for the baby blessing of my sister’s (Eliza) baby girl, Kambria. All of her immediate family and her husbands immediate family who were old enough was able to participate in the priesthood blessing. It was something to always remember and am sure that it was even better for Eliza and Bryan. The church, or more importantly, the gospel, brings families together like this and there is really no substitute.

Monday morning came much too quickly. Although I didn’t have much to actually do while at home (something which I tend to struggle with whenever I’m there) , I didn’t want to leave. However, due to inclimate weather possibilities in the mountains, I left at just after 8:00 in the morning, drove through a lot of rain, and made it back just after 4:00 PM. Something funny about both the drive there are back is that I don’t have a lot of actual CDs with music to listen to. I do have my iPod. I do not have a way to connect it to the car stereo. So, I drove the almost the entire way with the famous white earphones in my ears while driving down the interstate “jamming” to my tunes. Maybe you just had to be there. Then again, maybe not.

No matter how hard one tries, you can’t make the Friday come after Monday (I know, I’ve tried), and alas (earwax, its a Harry Potter thing), Tuesday did not fail to arrive. I went to class, and then to work along with my letter of resignation in hand. When I finally was able to talk to my boss about quitting, he was quite surprised because he had asked me on the previous Thursday about a “promotion” to begin working Spanish calls. Knowing that I would be quitting soon, I told him that I would think about it and let him know. Not only did I say “No” but I quit instead. I really am not that mean and did not want it to be like that, but it just happened to work out as such.

I’ve got less than two weeks there, plus I asked to take a couple hours every morning to work at the new place getting used to things. So that it where I spent this morning (Wednesday) at. Didn’t do any on-site training as I would have liked (that is planned for tomorrow), but instead spent ~3 hours putting computers systems together for some clients. It was cool and all but I think I will like tomorrow even better.

Sorry this turned out to just be a travel log really, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. As far as the rest of my life goes, I got an 85% on my accounting test, a ~90% on my IT test, and an ~85% on my Healthy Living test. A lot better than last semester indeed (did I mention I’m on academic probation). I don’t think my Calculus test went well at all, but I working on it, I promise.

It is still been quite difficult for me without Nicki and I’m trying hard to move on and know that I eventually will, but when you don’t have a lot of anything else to think about, your mind tends to wander back to that which you are comfortable with. I’ve got to try hard and find someone I can associate with (don’t ask when or where), but I think that is the only way I get over it.

PS – I’m still open to date suggestions.

“Where the [HECK] is my waiter”

I was thinking of titling this post as “So this is what it feels like… Part II” but I thought this actual title was more fun. Again, no one will probably read this publicly until I have had a few days to get over this little hiccup that occurred in my life.

I always assumed that the initial shock of breaking off a relationship would be worse during the first few minutes, but have since realized that the opposite is in fact true. I had an assignment due on Monday, but that did not happen because my brain stopped functioning. Josh and I sat in the kitchen (I suppose I was actually on floor, but still) talking about all of our life’s frustrations and enjoying that fact that we understood each other’s situations. Family Home Evening was supposed to happen, but neither of us felt that it would be too beneficial and decided to go out to eat.

Macaroni Grill ended up as our destination and I have to honestly say being there for ~1 hour helped more than I thought it would. We laughed (a lot) and wrote (Josh mostly) about everything one could think of writing on the tablecloth (they give you crayons to do so). One specifically funny such writing was the quote off of a movie I have never personally seen which goes as follows: “I can sum up our entire philosophy with this glass. I look at it and say, ‘it’s half full.’ Which, in the beauty pageant biz means, ‘Where the he**’s my waiter!” We said this out loud (not inappropriately of course) a number of times in the restaurant and a few old people sitting near us seemed upset and felt moved to explain that the waiter helping us both was doing a great job. We had to explain to them, and also (at a later time) our waiter why this was written on the table cloth. She laughed. We laughed. It was good. It will be remembered as the “Where the he**’s my waiter” night for forever more.

Life really isn’t that bad, but sleeping for the past few nights have not gone well and trying to stay focused at school and work is proving to be difficult. I know I sound lame but this is the first time having gone through all of this. Yeah, yeah, I know, the relationship was only a couple of weeks long and it could have been worse, but still. I trust in the wisdom beyond my own and know that it will be for the better of all parties involved.

PS – I got a call back on the job I recently interviewed for and they have extended me a position. It looks like it will be a pay cut at first, but the potential for future advancement looks good. I have a meeting with them on Friday morning to discuss a few of my concerns. I think this job will be fun for me and I definitely need that because right now, between school, my current job, and a lack of anything social, I don’t think fun has been a even a small part of my vocabulary.