Bizarre Bradyisms

A Trench and A Wii

I have probably mentioned this before, but that’s okay, I’ll bring it up again.  My parents are building a retaining wall in their backyard to turn part of the moderately sloped grassy area into a flat, sitting / standing places for large family activities.  The project started sometime in March when some 20 cubic yards of fill dirt were delivered to our home and now that the weather is turning nice, there is time to spend outside working on the actual construction of the project.  On week nights, when I don’t have other commitments (such as FHE), I’ve been going outside for at least a couple minutes to dig out the trench that is required to start building the wall.  I can’t say there is a lot to show for it yet, but when everything is done, it will be quite pleasant to know I helped to build it.

My mother mentioned while she was digging with me one night that she was indeed “her father’s daughter” because of how much she enjoyed working outside like that.  Well, if that is the case, I believe the same holds true for me as well.  I love physical labor and being outside working on some project little by little.  In fact, that was one thing I really missed about living in apartments and condos while at school: there was never a lawn to mow or a fence to paint; everything was just taken care of.  I honestly believe the shovel is one of God’s gifts to man.  There is something serene about the silence of nature while you are working quietly in its midst. 

In other news, I finally caved in and bought a Wii.  The console has been out for around 18 months already and you still can’t find it on retail shelves.  I’d been looking (although not in a very deterministic fashion) for about 6 months now, but never was able to get a hold of one that was not priced at $500 on eBay or was a $600 bundle at Walmart.  I decided to look on Craigslist and saw someone selling theirs for only $30 above the retail price and I figured I could spring for that.  After only a few days of having it, all I have to say it that it is really quite fun.  I only have the included Wii Sports game and that has entertained me well enough.  Personally, I’ve never been one for video games since I was something like a sophomore in High School.  Those games almost required you to spend hours on end to get good enough to actually enjoy them.  This on the other hand allows me to play for 15-20 minutes at a time to relax and then move on.  In fact, I even got my Dad to play a little golf and bowling with me as well.  Who would have thought.  Now all I need to do is get my Mom to play a game or two as well.  Do you think boxing would be her thing?

Ramblings of a Rowdy Recollection

The following are short snippets that come from some random part of my brain. They probably will not come out in order nor will they make a whole lot of sense to anyone but myself. Sorry about that. You’ll learn to forgive me, but if not, I won’t take it personally.

I believe that there are specific moments in life where a person, when reflecting back on a recent experience, receives insight about who they are an individual, as a person, as a child of God, as a family member, as a friend, and as a human being. As I think and contemplate about the many times when I have had such experiences, I realize that I don’t recall the events leading up to the said moments, but I do recall what I learned about myself and my tendencies (whether they be good or bad). While I wouldn’t call it deep introspective, I know that today was one of those days.

I came home from church and was able to sit down to wonderfully quiet dinner with just my parents and myself. Later, after they had to left to visit some neighbors, I turned on some classical piano music and, while still wearing my Sunday suit, walked around barefoot in the pile of fill dirt that now lays in the back corner of our yard. I could feel the sunshine on my back, the wind on my face, and the dirt between my toes. It was so peaceful and serene and although it did take a good ten or fifteen minutes for my mind to slow down and just stop thinking, I was able to relax and a bit and not stress about

I don’t know if I have ever mentioned this on here before or not, I’ve got something that I’ve been struggling with inside of head since probably the 7th grade. It hasn’t been a consistent “problem,” but it has severely altered my outlook on myself, on others, and on life in general. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is one of those things I will be fighting with for probably the majority of my life. Why? Well, I’m not sure, but I think there are worst things that I could have “blessed” with.

I was reading in my scriptures earlier tonight and really trying to think slowly about what was being said. I came across the scripture in Mosiah 1:17 which says the following. “Therefore, as they were unfaithful they did not prosper not progress in their journey, but were driven back, and incurred the displeasure of God upon them; and therefore they were smitten with a famine and sore afflictions, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty.” Brady, tonight it the night. Choose. Make it worth your while.

During the past week, I’ve sent out some twenty or so resumes for jobs in the Salt Lake City area to begin to feel out what the job market like is there and begin to move forward with the decisions I have recently made about the next 2-3 years of my life. It feels right and it feels like it is a good thing, but at the same time, something in my head seems to tell me that I still have something left undone or I am somehow leaving someone important behind. I think I might know where these feelings and thoughts are coming from, but I’m just not sure and I’m not sure how to either confirm or reject such possibilities more than what I have already done. This all goes back to who I am as a person and what I realize I am capable of and what I will tend to shrink away from. How can I do that which is necessary? I fear it is just too hard and there is just too much at stake.

After not having shaved for about a week, I decided before going to church that I would try and see what a goatee would look life on me. I searched online a bit for some information about how to correctly style facial hair and came up with something I liked. About a half-an-hour later, I finished shaving and had an amateur’s version of a goatee. I can’t say it is perfect, but I don’t think I did too bad of a job. We’ll see how long it lasts and if I can stand that inevitable itching that coming along with it. My mother did make mention of how odd it is that both I and my older brother grow reddish facial hair. Kind of weird, isn’t it.

Yesterday, my parents and I went to Home Depot and spent about three hours there deciding which style of stones and how much would be required for the landscaping project that we will be working on in our backyard this summer. It was a long day and I think the employees there were all glad we finally finished and left the store. Then, later that afternoon, by Dad broke out his new lawnmower and weed-eater to get the front lawn all ready for the season. Overall, I think he mowed it about 5 times over trying to get the height correct and everything else just right. It was fun to watch and laugh at. He really is a great person.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I’ve recently been thinking a lot about the next few years of my life and what kind of plan I have in place about what I want to accomplish and most importantly how I am going to accomplish it. I was able to bounce some ideas off of my parents this past weekend and came to the following conclusion. I will return to Utah sometime this summer, find a place to live on my own in either the outskirts of Provo/Orem where I don’t have to deal with the mass amounts of BYU students or up closer to Salt Lake City. Then, I can find a full time job (probably in the Salt Lake area) so I can be insured, and then then be a part time student for the next couple of years until I can get my degree. Otherwise, if I try to do school full time again, I’ll get depressed and eventually get kicked out of school for good when my school work suffers.

The down side is, I’ll be in school much longer than I ever really wanted to be. The upside is, I can have a job that I enjoy (hopefully), live in a nice place where I don’t have to deal with messy roommates whom I don’t know, and eventually get a degree that says I stuck it out long enough to get a sheet of paper qualifying me for employment. The funny thing is, my job now doesn’t even care that I don’t have a degree, but pays me more than most people I know who are my age or even older. My intent here is not to brag, not at all, but merely to bring attention to the fact that nothing I have learned in my entire college career thus far has benefited me yet because I either knew it before or learned it on my own. And I keep going back for more. I must be crazy, but I know it is the right thing to do.

Now, I’ve got to decide if my current boss will help me find a way to work from Utah or if I will need to find yet another job (my resume is already long enough). Then, find a place to live. Or, maybe it should be the other way around?

Day By Day

It was my Dad’s Birthday at the beginning of the month, so all of the family got together on Sunday to celebrate and to watch General Conference. Nelson and his family of five drove down from Arvada and met us at the stake center chapel. His little boy Hayden came up and sat/played with me and Grandpa Dirk for almost the entire session and did really well being calm and quiet. Then, we all had dinner together, watched the second session on the computer, and after noticing the wind had really picked up, decided to go fly some kites at the park. It was really fun to have everyone around in a relaxed atmosphere.

For his birthday, I gave him a fancy-ish white tie to use for when he works at the temple each week and then I also bought this incredibly large universal remote as joke because neither he nor my mom can seem to understand how to work the A/V setup I have at home. It was humorous and I really hope he didn’t take it personally. Also, I promised I would take him out for a game of golf, but he suggested we start at the driving range first which ended up being a good idea because when we went the next weekend I found out that I can’t hit a ball to save my life. At least not for right now I can’t. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to practice a little more this summer because I think I might enjoy it. Who knows, right?

On that same night we went to the driving range, I went out with my Mom to this tour they did to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the city of Denver. It was called “Denver After Dark” and was basically a walk around the city with experts who knew about the architecture behind some of the cool places in the city. The tour started about 30 minutes late and so we only stayed to see about 3 of the locations, but one of them I really enjoyed learning about.

In downtown Denver there is something called the 16th Street Mall which is basically what it sounds like. Something like twenty years ago they turned the entire 16th Street into a walking street mall had have free shuttle buses going up and down it all day. Then, as the city changes from what could be called Downtown Denver into North Denver, right by the old Union Railroad Station there was (until something like 1999) an old viaduct connecting the two parts of the city. It was torn down in an attempt to revitalize the city but they still needed a way to get people across the current railroad tracks and other obstacles. They proposed a very large walking bridge which would cost a lot and have to be extremely large in order to have the foundation necessary to support itself. Wanting to keep the appearance of the bridge to be more inviting, they instead brought in some architects from the UK to help build a suspension bridge the would be supported from the top. The cool thing about this is that the support was not built in the middle of the bridge like you would expect, but only on one side, angled out five degrees to then support the entire span. Quite ingenious if you ask me and fun to actually see in person.

Although the pictures below don’t do justice to how wonderful it was to see it there in person and on such a beautiful night, it really is a wonderful structure.

Thursday is when my sister and her husband and their daughter are moving to Chicago for him to finish his graduate school there. It has been really fun to have them around enjoy spending time with them. I’ll be sad to see them go, but I know they’ll be back and around in near future, especially since my sister is pregnant again with a baby boy due in August. Good luck to you all!

Nice Guys Finish Last

During the past couple of months, I’ve been reading some of my (guy) friends’ and previous (guy) co-worker’s blogs. Most of them are in the same situation as I (or at least certain aspects of it): Not married, tired of the BYU atmosphere, and completely unsure of what the next step in life is. I’ve also been reading their posts from previous months and past years as well. Also, there is this site that I read every now and then called the 100 Hour Board that has a few “answers” that come to the same conclusion that I have. The truth is that nice guys do finish last.

These people whom I know I happen to know on a very personal level and they are all quite accomplished individuals in their own fields, know how to keep a clean house (I say this since the majority of single guys don’t), can either cook, sew, or some other less-than-ordinary skill, are active and often hold leadership callings in the church, have tried dating as best as they know how and thus far have “failed,” and when it all comes down to it, they just want someone to love and to be loved in return.

On the other hand, there are others I know (not quite as well, usually by choice) that don’t know what they want in life, are comfortable living in a dirty house, have a normal job that is merely “good enough,” don’t participate much in church callings, and yet, they are married to some very beautiful and amazing women who seem to just want to take care of them while the men sit and watch sports on TV every night.

It doesn’t make much sense to me. Not that life is supposed to be fair, but what is wrong with this picture. Why do girls think these are attractive traits? As a disclaimer, I’m not talking about myself here at all. I do know at least 10 to 15 people like this from both categories. Now, I know that this is not true in all cases and I’m probably being quite biased here, but hey, this is my blog, I get to take that liberty.

There is course the fact that those girls who do not fall for such scum-bag guys and hold out hoping for something better do tend to find the good guys and things work out really great, however, both parties usually are around 27/28/29 when this happens. Why can’t they find each other when they are younger (i.e. 23/24) and save both people the heart-ache and confusion that is inevitable in these situations?

Perhaps this is one of those things I was never intended to fully comprehend. All I can say is that it sure is hard being one of the nice guys while waiting to reach the age of 28.