Bizarre Bradyisms

True Perfection

The lights are all turned off and the entire house is dark, except for the glow of the Christmas tree sitting beside the front window. You can feel the crispness of the air due to the rainy weather outside. Music from the Philadelphia Brass Ensemble playing Christmas music fills the air with its calming sounds which is then sweetened by the scent of homemade banana bread cooking in oven. The taste of the most marvelous chocolate-marbled cheesecake melts is your mouth and then you look down and notice that your pajamas don’t match. You don’t care. They are comfortable and thus you are as well. If this doesn’t describe perfection, it has to be really close because from my perspective, there is not much more you could do to have it any better.

Poetic, I know.

I have a new client for work up in Salt Lake City for which I am the primary technician. I planned on going up there late Thursday afternoon so I could then use the opportunity to visit my Grandmother and Aunt afterwards. I show up and knock on the door, but no one answers, so I get the spare key that I know about and let myself in only to scare half-way to death my Grandma who is there but didn’t feel like getting up to answer the door. It was funny nonetheless. Nothing really special to share except for the fact that it is always nice to have family close with whom you can visit and ask for a hug when you need one. I have to mention the fact that when I got in the house, I found a brand new 42″ plasma TV sitting there and not expecting anything of the sort, had to look twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing anything. I never would have imagined my Grandmother to be the first in our family to have the newest and best TV. It is just funny to think about.

Although where it comes from doesn’t really add to the story, but I was watching an older British show called Red Dwarf and there was this line that was something like, “Depression is normal, it is just the mind’s way of saying there is something wrong.” Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to say that I am clinically depressed in any way shape or form, but have not been exactly happy the past few months or so. Of course there have been ups and downs and I can expect more to follow, but this line just kind of helped me to recognize that my life is pretty out of whack (can I say it like that?) and that I need to work on fixing it. I have never been really good and sitting down and writing goals about what I want to accomplish then writing out steps of how to get there and in what order, but I don’t think I have any other choices if I want things to get better. Not sure if this counts, but talk about being compelled to be humble (I think it counts).

Well, the oven is going off because my bread is done. Here’s to the best.

The Holidays

We all know the phrase, “The pot calling the kettle black,” right? Such is the case with me. Let me explain. There are a few blogs of people (friends, family) that I visit every now and then and when they haven’t been updated in a long while, I get kind of upset because I like to know what is going on in their lives. Not to flatter myself or anything, but I could assume the same for me. But now, it has been something like 2+ weeks since I have changed anything on mine and for some reason or another getting me to do it now was not an easy feat. So yes, to state the obvious, I, the pot, am calling the kettle is black. At least I didn’t call it green. (I don’t even know what that means.)

Thanksgiving break was fun. I was able to fly home instead of driving, which was nice and compared to the cost for driving home, it was basically sixes. I love my family tons and being around them is great, however, usually when I go home I get bored of being there within a day or two. This was completely different. As to why I do not know. I wasn’t bored at all. I didn’t stay real busy or anything, but loved every moment of being there and was kind not looking forward to leaving.

When I first arrived, it was my “assignment” to put up the Christmas lights on the house with my brother Colin. Assignment, please. I have always enjoyed doing ever since I was a kid and even once almost caused a fire in the house because I powered too many strings off of the same outlet. One wonders if my infatuation with holiday lights will ever dwindle. I doubt it. But even better than all that was I got to hold my new niece who is now like 3 months ago and has the cutest smile ever. I even was able to hold her and she fell asleep in my arms. That was great. My nephew recently started walking and while he keeps everyone’s hands full, he is just so fun to have around. I really love watching him learn as he interacts with the toys and discovers how they all work. It is quite fascinating to me how quickly he is able to pick up on things.

As tradition goes, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with all of the family and afterwards went to the movies together. It has always been funny to me that after how many hours are spent preparing the food, 30 minutes later it has all been consumed and is gone. On the funnier side, now that I think about it, I even restrained myself and didn’t play with fancy lead crystal glasses we have where when you wet your finger and move it gently across the top of the glass the glasses “sing”. Mother would be so proud. I’ll just have to make up for it come Christmas.

We even got a great family picture with everyone in it because after Colin leaves for Argentina in a 2 months, we probably won’t all be together for a long time. (Eliza, I know you already posted this picture and that I am stealing it from you, but I want to be able to show us off too.)

Additionally, as I was copying the photos over from my camera tonight, I realized that someone (ahem, ahem) used it while I was at home to take random photos including our fridge, an empty bowl of stuffing, and other oddities. To “punish” them, I will make public the self portraits that they took of themselves.

I need to mention as well that my infatuation with holiday lights continued when I got back to Provo because I eventually went out and bought a 7 foot artificial tree, put it up in our front room, covered it with lights and the next night Josh and I went to Michael’s to purchase ornaments and ribbons and such. I am so proud of how it turned out.

I also went out the other night after being tipped off about a possible sale looking for a suit for myself as Christmas gift from my parents. No suits, but I found some nice dress shirts and ties instead. I had not yet bought a tie since I returned from the mission 2+ years ago and decided to indulge myself. My fashion-gifted roommate even said I did good. I think so.

Although it is already late and I have written just about everything of no real world value, I want to add something that might have some value to those who do not not me personally. So, I spend a fair amount of time working with my boss, and I’ve realized that with him being a technical person, he and I think very similarly. In one of our recent conversations, it was mentioned that there are two types of people in the world. One is those who are driven. They work hard and are constantly striving to be better and do good. Then there are those that are led, or more specifically, led by the Spirit of God. A person can try hard to be kind and generous person striving to do good all around them, but unless they are led or directed, they can sometimes do harm instead. I don’t know if I’ll be able to articulate all of my thoughts, but basically it comes to this. Unless the correct balance between work, family, charity, school, religion, etc. is found in a person’s life, achieving one’s full potential is impossible. Now, people can do a lot of good in the world, but the most and best can only be achieved when they are led and directed by one who’s wisdom is beyond understanding. If that made sense, great, if not, sorry, you’ll have to ask me in person to clarify.  

In addition, while studying for one of my classes recently, there was a quote shared about an LDS football coach who tried to teach those not of his religion to understand the importance of priorities. I don’t know who said it, but it was as follows, “Faith, Family, then Football.” You must understand that I of all people could care less about football, but this helps me to recognize where a person’s priorities need to be, and shamefully, have not been in quite some time. Something to think about.

In that same class (it was accounting, believe it or not), I also learned about the importance of loving what you do for a living. The professor shared many stories about lawyers and other professionals who hated their job and had wanted a change, but could not afford to do so because of their chosen lifestyle (ie, they were making $300,000 but had to continue to do so because of their houses or cars, etc). Or there were others who worked like 50+ hours a week just trying to get ahead so that in 7 years they could retire, but when 7 years and come and past, they were still 7 years away from retiring. What one should be doing, is to find a profession that you enjoy and can provide enough for you and your family, after that, just enjoy the ride, including all of the ups and downs.

Thinking about this recently has helped some, because I have always wanted to be rich, and while I do enjoy the field of work I am studying for, I think having the main goal of being rich has disoriented me some. In other words, I am going to try and slow down, not worry about being done with school as fast as possible, leaving Utah and getting a real job, not worry about attempting but always failing to reach perfection. Life’s a journey, might as well enjoy it instead of letting it pass right over you.

Okay, I am now going to step down off of my soap box and try and get some shut eye for yet another long day tomorrow. Life is good; life is difficult; and “Don’t worry, Be happy” is indeed sound advice.