Does This Look Funny to You, Too?

Saw this when I was trying to decide what gift card to get with my points for my credit card. Typos are part of my job, but I get a huge kick out of typos/grammatical errors on very professional, corporate sites (I see them on People.com all the time, but I don't think that counts). Do you catch this one? You might need to look at it full-size to read the text well.

(hint: think bottom-right corner-ish)

Bozos

Today our bishop spoke in church for a few minutes about visiting teaching, rescuing, and all sorts of great stuff. My favorite bit was this passage (so glad I had my iPad so I could take good notes on his awesomeness):

"We need to love everyone. You need to love everyone, and if you can't love everyone because they're bozos--and we do have bozos in our ward family--then you can at least love somebody and let them know they are loved and they are missed. Knowing that you are loved and knowing that you're missed . . . nothing better than that."

Yep. Bozos, folks! Gotta love Bishop Lark.

Context

I was talking with one of my friends the other day and realized how important context is--how important it is to really get to know people, to know their motives, the "thoughts and intents of their heart" if you'll allow me to quote a bit of scripture.

For example, she and I were talking about how absolutely pathetic I may look on paper.

• 28, didn't graduate BYU until I was 26
• Graduated BYU single (woah!)
• Didn't go to high school (GED, baby!)
• Lives with mother
• Jazz fan living in Laker-land and with a dog named Kobe

Awesome, right? But when you dig a little bit deeper, I think there are very legitimate reasons for a life that has been less than ideal, or different from what I'd planned on and hoped for.

• Health problems that weren't resolved enough until 21 to start college
• Would rather be happy and single than unhappy and married
• Health problems again--being bedridden for several years makes high school impossible
• Saving up for a house, and really, who's a better roommate than my hilarious mom? And who else has my same internal body temperature? We're a/c people and I love it. Plus, she lets me have my big, fun dog. It's temporary and it's a means to an end.
• My uncle has been with the Jazz since they moved to Salt Lake. It's in my blood. "Stockton" didn't have quite the same ring to it. "Kobe" just . . . fit. Big, black, loves playing with a ball. It works.

As much as we do need to make intermediate judgments (thank you, Dallin H. Oaks), I'm grateful for friends and family who've looked beyond my poor resume. Love you all!

Happy Anniversary!

At the risk of being dramatic, today is my 15-year anniversary. It's not uncommon for folks with chronic illnesses like CFS/EBV to remember the exact day they got sick, and February 8, 1996 was my day.

While there are hints of sadness while I reflect on the last 15 years, I'm so much more overcome by gratitude. Yes, it's been a very difficult trial and I'd never deny that, but I'm so grateful for family, friends, and doctors who have helped me so much in this time. I was bedridden for 7+ years, didn't go to high school, and was unsure if I'd ever be able to function again. I may have gotten a late start, but I graduated from BYU and am working full time--exactly what I dreamed and prayed I'd be able to do. I feel so incredibly lucky to be in this place now.

I'd like to say I'm incredibly blessed to be in this place now but, honestly, that would be true in whatever place I would be. I'm in His hands and am trying to live according to His will. It's not my time, it's not my health, it's not my money. I'm just grateful He's letting me be.

I want to share two talks that have really affected me recently. One is a chapter in a book by Carlfred Broderick, a former stake president and psychologist. I've been familiar with a portion of this chapter since I got sick, but I didn't realize it was part of something else. Anyway, I found this chapter recently and was so touched by it. It's powerful. It's called "The Uses of Adversity."

Another one is "But If Not", Dennis E. Simmons' Conference address from April 2004. It's a good reminder to me that, even if I still couldn't get out of bed, even if I still couldn't function . . . would I still have faith? If any of you read these talks and like them, shoot me an email so we can talk about them. Especially the Carlfred Broderick one--it's wonderful. I don't think you often get articles in the Church that are this REAL.

I know I try to go more for funny/witty posts (try being the operative word), so if you wanted funny/witty today whilst browsing my blog, I apologize for the dramatic shift in tone. But I really am grateful--as I'm sitting here at work and getting a bit misty-eyed--and sometimes you just have to share that.

Apparently I'm still six . . .

I was walking out the door today to, you know, go to work, when Mom handed me a sandwich bag and said, "Here, I made you a snack!"

Yep, ladies and gentlemen (or gentleman, if you're the only man still reading this blog, Tod), I'm six years old all over again. It's just too bad she didn't throw in a lunch pail and a thermos. That would've been the best!

Uh oh!

It's been a wee bit chilly in California recently, at least to those of us with California-thin blood. And since we're normally cold-blooded folks, we don't often turn on the heat. But this morning I couldn't get out of bed because it was pretty darn cold.

So what did I do? What any rational person would do: I called Mom on my phone (yep, she was downstairs) and asked if she'd turn on the heat. Apparently it was 59 degrees in the house. Thirty minutes later, I was good to get out of bed.

I've gone soft, people. I've gone soft.

New Form of Missionary Work

I'm at work and doing some research for Comcast prior to a call with them. I came across a typo domain--wwwcomcast.com, so it's missing the "." in between the www and "comcast"--and saw that it was redirecting to a random site instead of the usual typosquatting sites (parked pages, competitor redirects, affiliate fraud, etc.). So I typed it in and, lo and behold, the domain points to harvest.org and, more specifically, to a "How to Know God" landing page.

Admittedly, I'm a religious person and I love getting the word out, but really? Typosquatting on a cable company?

As my co-worker said, "It's a means to an end! Cybersquatting to get the Word out! Nice."

(Yes, I realize this is quite possibly the nerdiest post ever. You're my friends, you know this about me, and I think you still love me, so I thank you.)

Gossip

Ever found out you're the topic of some gossip going around? Ever had said gossip come back to you? Ever heard said gossip and realized that someone was really making something up because it was the opposite of true and nothing you'd ever told anyone anyway?

Ever happened to you? How'd you handle it?

Words with Friends, Part II

Remember how I said I was hooked?

I may or may not have been playing Words whilst brushing my teeth tonight.

Awesome, I know.

Do you have Words with Friends?

I'm hooked. Hit me up if you've got it, por favor.

Of Course! Part II

Mom and I  dropped off some music for organ accompanists tonight, and at the last house we visited, we stayed for a while and chatted. They offered us some cookies so Mom took two, I guess. Ate one and decided she didn't want to eat any more sugar. So, unbeknownst to me, she held the cookie in her hand the rest of our visit.

We left, and as we were walking out to the car, I heard a noise in the bushes to our right. Knowing Mom freaks out with animals in nature, I looked over to the bushes to see what was going on. Mom started to laugh and said, "I just had to get rid of my cookie." So she tossed it!


Um, what? We were, like, five steps away from the car!

"You couldn't hold it until we got in the car?"

"Well, I didn't want to hold it any more!"

"The bushes?"

"I didn't want to throw it on the grass."

Of course! Why not?

Cliche Pictures Again

 But I'm okay with it. Made another trip to SF this last week and it was fantastic! Paola and I basically ate our way through the weekend, which is exactly how we roll. 

Thurs night = Fritz crepes. Biggest crepes ever. Nice!

Friday night = Thai place (P, what was the name of that place? We need to go back) within walking distance of her place

Sat morning = Zazie = YUM! I got the gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd on top and they were AWESOME.

Sat night = Taquiera Cancun. Best burrito I've ever had, even if the gang (?) that hid in the restaurant to evade the cops was a little disconcerting.

Monday = random place at the SF airport had the best quesadilla outside of La Sirena Grill that I've enjoyed. The bacon in it definitely had something to do with that.

 I've been wanting to visit this place for a while, so I was thrilled we got it on the agenda this time. Beautiful, huh? The best part was this: two gals were having (separate) quinceaneras/photo shoots there, decked out and with fancy photographers and everything. Some random tourists apparently really wanted some shots, so they got IN FRONT OF the photographers and started snapping away. Pretty classic.

It IS a real tree, and it has 20,000 lights on it. I had to take a picture of both the tree and sign since Mom is well known for her love of a tree that's pretty much on fire. She put 31 strands of lights on our cute little tree. 31! Now, it's not 20k, but c'mon! :)

Of Course!

So, we've got employees. Plural. And we've got an office. With cubicles and stuff! It's all very exciting. And do you know what this means, in part?

My days of talking with friends whenever they call, middle of the day, middle of the night, whenever, etc. might be over. It's kind of sad and I miss it.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when Little Sister called this afternoon, on a non-work-day. She said, "Guess where I am?"

"California?!"

"No, but that's better than my answer."

"PF Chang's?! Tucano's?!" (our usual spots back in the day)

"No."

I gave up, so she said, "TJ Maxx!"

OF COURSE she's shopping. =) Why I didn't guess on the first try, I'll never know.

I heart Little Sister, and I miss her adorable face so stinkin' much! Come visit soon, love!

My Bishop Rocks

Any of you had a Yellow bishop before? It's pretty dang cool. If you haven't had a Yellow bishop before, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop ask you to meet with him to go over your patriarchal blessing? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

Any of you had a bishop read over a part of your patriarchal blessing, and then say, "That is LEGIT"? If you haven't, I feel bad for you.

My bishop rocks.

San Francisco, I Love You

Cliche picture? Perhaps, but I'm okay with it. Even more okay with it since the boat tour coincided with the Blue Angels doing their fancy tricks overhead--it was awesome!

I went up to S.F. for five days to play with Paola and to try and squeeze in some work. The play and the work were all pretty much perfection (I love clients that love us), and I may or may not have fallen in love with San Francisco. Again.

You'd better believe the $90 JetBlue fare to return to S.F. next month is tempting me. Potentially more than I can handle.

Add This to the "Feel Like An Adult" List

Semi-recently I asked when you felt like an adult, and I've got another to add to the list of TiVo'ing cooking shows and asking for nice kitchen knives for Christmas: picking up my suits from the dry cleaners after a business trip. I feel like I'm totally faking this being-an-adult thing 99% of the time, until doing things like that.

Any new "Feel Like An Adult" things to add to your list?

Is This Crazy?

I am currently the owner of three printers--is this crazy?

I bought a black-and-white laser my third year up at school because paying for those stupid ink cartridges every few months seemed so stupid to me. Lasers rock and save you bundles in the long run. Then I saw a color laser on sale the next year, and I had to buy that, too.

My boss showed up tonight with one of those printer/scanner/fax things--sweet! I don't have to go up to the neighbor's house anymore to scan documents for clients--yay! Everybody wins.

No Bueno

You know how you have good hair days and bad hair days? Days where you wake up and think you're looking pretty good for the day? Other days when it's maybe not so much? I was feeling pretty good about things today having recently gotten my hair cut and colored, only to pull out my magnifying mirror to find it was broken.

Cue jokes now.

I Used to be Better at This

I used to be better at this blogging thing. Or maybe my life was more interesting and I felt I actually had something to blog about. I dunno.

But I'm heading to Santa Barbara next week for work, and then to San Francisco to visit Miss Paola and also meet with a client or two a couple weeks after that. Life's about to get more interesting.

I'm seriously looking forward to S.B. See why?

Does this ever happen to you?

This didn't happen to me, but I'm wondering if it happens to anyone other than, well, someone I know.

So work with me during this hypothetical situation, and let me know if any of these aspects of this situation ever happen to you.

Do you ever call up the customer service line of a product and, while on hold for 10 minutes or so, realize you REALLY have to go to the bathroom?

Do you decide to go, even while on hold?

Does someone take your call just as you're, you know . . .

Does a man happen to be on the other end of the line?

Do you happen to be calling the customer service line to ask a question about pantyliners?