The problem with night-time

So I'm a self-induced insomniac. I HATE going to bed. I'm like that little kid that says, "Just 5 more minutes, mom..." (and ironically, I say the same thing when I wake up.) I think it's because I think I'm going to miss something. So I have this constant urge to just stay awake. And I hate myself for it in the morning. But it just won't stop. And now you'll get to see some of the fruits of staying up late. This may not be entirely coherent.

The other problem with night-time is that I get these fits of creativity (perhaps fits of pseudo creativity). I think my muse finds it funny to keep me up at night. Since I've wasted the night away flipping between episodes of Scrubs, South Park, and Mythbusters, she thinks it'd be great to give me a couple creative one liners that could spark some kind of creative writing. Or an idea about what to do about a Halloween costume. Or some dish that would be quite palatable with edamame. And if I don't write it down, she gets mad and stops visiting me. I've found the best way to materialize these ideas is to write text message drafts on my phone addressed to no one. I shared one of these fits of creativity with Brooke once, and she demanded who I wrote it about. It was about no one, just a thought I had in the wee hours of the morning that I needed to write down or face the wrath, nay, the neglect of my muse. Fickle things, muses...

And finally, every night when I got to bed, I turn the light off and stare in wonder at all the lights that are still on in my room. The optic mouse glows red, the cable modem has four green lights and one flashing orange, the router has three more-or-less solid green lights with two or three flashing ones, my printer has a green light, the monitor has a faint orange light when the computer is off, the powerstrip has a red light under the on/off switch, and if I leave my computer in standby mode, it flashes green, too. Then my cell phone sits right next to my bed. Am I being affected (or effected, for that matter) in some way by all these bits of radio waves, etc.? Makes me wonder.

And now I've given even myself reason to say to myself, "Go to freakin' bed, Garrett." And so I shall.

(P.S. Post on all things Halloween coming soon... Maybe after Saturday.)

Best. Birthday. EVER.

Or very nearly so.

I had a birthday recently. I don't know about you, but I think birthdays, especially for single Mormons, are pretty much a let down after 18. I mean, really. 21 comes around and you're either on a mission or don't believe in gambling or drinking (or both... or all three), so big woop. Mine have been pretty uneventful since 18. But this year was different. And it was well documented, as you will see below.

Friday, I decided not to go to work. Correction: Thursday, I decided not to go to work on Friday, so I told my boss as much and she said, "Ok." Some great friends of mine, Brookey, Stacy, Matt, Roy, and Beth, took me to dinner at Chili's on that workless Friday. Freakin' love that place... Brookey and Stacy got me a couple books: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand and Edit Yourself by Bruce Ross-Larson. Roy and Beth got me Thoughts from the Commode by Michael W. Domis and The Ultimate Book of Useless Information by Noel Botham & The Useless Information Society.

My books and stuff!

Do my friends know me or WHAT?! That day I also went to a Halloween party and got to take home a pumpkin.

My pumpkin, displayed outside my door

Don't worry, I didn't paint it. But that doesn't mean I'm a BYU fan, either. Go Aggies! I might just wash off the paint and carve it the day before Halloween. After the Halloween party, a few of us went to a corn maze. Good times.

Saturday, I slept in, did some laundry, then went to Katie and Jill's to play games.

Sunday, I visited the fam. My little brother got me a stuffed E.T. guy from Universal Studios.

E.T.

He's awesome, as you can see. I used to have a stuffed E.T. as a kid, and I chewed his finger until the fabric got stiff. Gross, I know, but I had to illustrate how much I loved E.T. as a kid. (I also found out that I am one of two of my family members who aren't sick, and a few of those are sick with whooping cough. Added bonus to be healthy, but sad for them.)

Sunday I also went to a wine and cheese party. Ok, a sparkling grape juice and cider and cheese party. Beth and Roy got a little cheese slicer and knife set and while showing it to me, Beth said, "When are we ever going to use these?" to which I replied, "For all those wine and cheese parties you're going to have... DUH!" So we decided the next birthday would get a wine and cheese party. I'm so freakin' lucky. We also decided to dress for the occasion. Matt and Roy came as yuppies, with sweaters and khakis, the girls dressed up, and I even came in a suit and tie with a matching handkerchief. Here's a bunch o' pictures of the occasion. I may have more later...

Our cheese, crackers, summer sausage, and fancy mustard. We had guda, munster, swiss, smoked cheddar, dublinar, and havartti to name a few.

Beth, Sarah, and Jill

Matt enjoying some wi... I mean, grape juice

The whole group

Roy, who hasn't had carbonation since he was in middle school, couldn't get enough of the sparkling cider and grape juice. He sorta passed out with the bottle there...

Then Monday, I came to work with a little birthday card on my chair with a gift card to Best Buy inside. You can see it in the picture with the books above, along with ANOTHER gift card from Katey to Barns & Noble. I also decided I needed to get a hair cut. It's been 4 months coming, and I had the girl cut more than half of it off. Not really birthday related, but there ya go... Here's the before and after shots.

Pretty sweet birthday, huh? And Halloween is still coming up! Woo hoo!

My day in court...

As some of you know, I got in an accident on Labor Day. I even wrote a blog about it. Well, as you may or may not know, I didn't have my most recent insurance card in the car at the time of the accident. Because of that little lapse of judgment, I had an automatic court date. I went down on Wednesday, and in true Garrett fashion, I arrived insanely early. (I hate to be late to things, especially if I've never been to the place or if my presence is required right at a certain hour. I arrived 45 minutes early to the interview for my current job, for example.)

Being early as I was, I was told to wait in the court room. This meant that I got to sit in and listen to other law-breakers like myself plead guilty, not guilty, or no contest to the charges against them. I also found out that this was a Hearing only, and the judge couldn't listen to any facts to make a decision, but could only answer our questions if we had any about the charges against us.

So I sat there and listened to what everyone else had done, and even without the gavel and robe made my own judgments. Not on sentencing or anything like that, just on their character, which I think might be more dangerous. Then I realized I'm in this boat, too, so I'd best change my attitude and observe. One woman was doing 42 in a school zone. One kid had quite a talk with the judge, and will have to bring in his grades as part of his plea bargain, and will need to maintain a 3.0 average. His mom thinks he can do better than that, but said she didn't want to push it. I don't even remember what he did, but I was intrigued by the whole thing. One guy was doing 94 in a 50 zone, to which he pleaded guilty. My favorite, though, was two guys that were charged with exhibition-style racing, which is a class C misdemeanor. The crazy part about that is that driving without insurance is a class B misdemeanor. So, me forgetting to put my most recent insurance card in the glove box is apparently more severe a crime than people who endanger the lives of their fellow citizens by racing on city streets. I know I said I wouldn't judge, but in my opinion, that is RIDICULOUS.

I also got to hear other people charged with not having current insurance. They all kept pleading guilty, even a few that showed they now had insurance. I kept wondering what I would do. I brought my most recent insurance card in, but that didn't show that I was insured at the time of the accident, so I also had with me a copy of the insurance card for that time period. I didn't want them to think there was ever a lapse in my insurance, that I am a regular old law abiding citizen who happened to be in a freak accident. I kept thinking of every Law and Order, CSI, and even every Matlock episode I'd ever seen, and I was convinced there were times when people had the charges dropped in the hearing before it ever went to trial. I didn't want to just blindly plead guilty like everyone in front of me. Do you know what the fine is for not having valid insurance? 400 bucks. Yeah...

So when my turn came up, the judge read my charges and asked if I had any questions. I sure did, and asked if I could show that I had insurance at the time of the accident, could the charges be dropped. The judges response: "Absolutely." So I gave the bailiff my insurance cards, and he brought them to the judge (in true People's Court fashion, the bailiff was a very old guy who looked a little like Barney from The Andy Griffith show) who then told me that the charges could be dropped, and because that was the only charge that made me have to come to court, I could plead no contest to the other charges, pay the minimal accident fee, and be on my way. So that's what I did.

I was there from 2:30 to 4:00 and it was a huge waste of time, but at least I didn't have to pay $400 extra. I don't know about the rest of you, but going to court is quite an intimidating experience, and I really don't want to ever do it again...

Party time!

So the party last week was a success! It all happened because Haley and I have had plenty of email conversations about how we need to get together and perhaps the "recovering Continentalites" as she calls them. So enough is enough, and we decided to have a little smoothie party with our old college buddies and I decided to host. We also thought it would be a good idea to invite our friends from outside the Continental realm so we could enhance and expand our circle of friends. As fate would have it, one of my friends (Carona) was having a pizza party that same day and decided we should merge our parties rather than have conflicting parties. As you can imagine, all these people inviting all sorts of people made for quite a large group, and my little living room could hardly keep us contained!

Thanks everyone that came! It was great to see some old faces and meet some new people. We will need to have another one of these soon. Maybe at Haley's place so more people will fit comfortably, huh?

One other tid-bit I wanted to share about the party. We played one of my favorite games. What you do is get everyone a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. On the top, yo write a sentence. You pass the paper to the left, and now you draw a picture of what the sentence says. You fold down the paper so you can no longer see the sentence, and pass it again. Now, you look at the picture and write a sentence of what you think is going on in the picture, then fold down the paper so the picture can't be seen, and continue. Below are some of the best ones from Friday. I almost died laughing.


(Here's the pictures! Click on them so to see the whole thing. They're so great! )

Halloween help!!!

Some of you reading this may know that Halloween is my favorite holiday. As a kid, I loved the costumes, the candy, and staying out way past bed time. I loved the scary movies and cartoon specials on TV. My favorite is still "Ichabod Crane and the Legend of Sleepy Hallow." Other favorites include "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and "Gremlins."

Well, the tradition lives on. I even get on scary movie kicks now and then (and I'm usually disappointed, as in the case of "Darkness Falls"), and I still like getting scared at haunted houses or corn mazes. I even Like to dress up now and again. Las year I was a ketchup bottle, and it freakin' rocked, as you can see below.

If you're wondering, yes, it is homemade, and yes, it's made of duct tape and poster board. I KNOW! I'm the coolest.

But this year, the creativity is not coming and I have no costume as of yet. Here's the dilemma: I have three co-workers that want to do something together, so we're trying to come up with a themed costume idea so we can all dress up. We've thought of being characters from NBC's The Office (I would probably be Kevin), characters from the Dukes of Hazard (I would probably be Boss Hog), the Publisher's Clearinghouse Prize Patrol, or characters from the board game Clue (an idea that I really love, but wasn't received with as much enthusiasm as I hoped). The thing is, I want it to be something I can still use for parties and other times when a costume may be in order.

So here is where I beg for help from all of you. What should I be? Any group Halloween costume ideas? I may even take a really good single costume idea at this point, since my group isn't being as cooperative as I hoped. I even made some "labels for this post," hoping that any stragglers browsing blogs might find this post and give me an idea or two. So what do you all think??

Conference review

Ok, I was going to be clever and give you a one sentence synopsis or probable title to all the talks from all 5 sessions of conference I watched, but then my notes got jumbled and I don't know the correct order to put them in. I know I could look through and figure it out, but because that happened, my feelings changed on how I wanted to remember the conference. Not just one liners, but some actual feelings. So what I think I will do instead is talk a little bit about my feelings on this conference and just a couple talks that touched me.

First, man what a great thing conference is! It's really quite an uplifting weekend. True, it really kills your weekend (especially if you're a guy and go to the priesthood session). You've got to figure out how to do things in two hour increments, and some activities, like going to Costco, really are out. But it's really a small price to pay.

The most touching talk to me was Elder Wirthlin's talk about love and charity. My favorite line from his talk was, "Nothing you do makes much difference if you have not charity." I was especially touched that Elder Nelson (Dr. Nelson...) stood up to help him. It made me a little teary eyed.

The most powerful talk for me was Elder Holland's talk that was to clear up the misconception that members of the Church of Jesus Christ aren't Christian. He spoke with such power and knowledge of deity that it seemed like a challenge to anyone who wanted to say otherwise. And if anyone takes him up on that challenge, I hope I get to witness him and the power he will speak with.

Another that stood out to me was Elder Perry's talk in the priesthood session. He talked about raising the bar, and how important that is for progress. You can't always do the minimum and expect to get anywhere. Even now that the bar is raised, young men shouldn't just do the minimum to become a missionary. They can do more and excel in their callings, and so can the rest of us.

Ok, that's it. I decided when I started this blog it would be something of a journal for me, and I hopefully will have a book put together in a year of all my blog entries. With that in mind, I really wanted to put some things that mean a lot to me, and this conference session was one of those things. I hope it touched all of those who had a chance to listen, and if you didn't, click here, and maybe you'll find something worth listening to.

Knickknackery

If you can tell me where the name, "knickknackery" comes from, you get ten bonus points.

As many of you may know from the mass email earlier this week, Brookey and I have decided to start a little blog where we can post, read, and comment on various creative works from all sorts of people... maybe even YOU! What does this mean for you? Well, I know a bunch of people out there who like to write. Be it poetry, short stories, whatever, I'm sure you've all written something. I know I have, and I've wondered if it is any good. As stated in my last blog entry, I have a slight fear of finding out the truth, but this site will help me overcome this weakness, and will give anyone else with the knack for writing the opportunity to share their creative works as well!!!

We want to leave the blog open to anyone who wants to post something, but there will be some moderating, so please submit stuff to knickknackeryfriends@gmail.com. Our highest hopes are that all our friends will tell all their friends, and then we'll get posts from all over the place!

Anyway, I think it will be fun, and I've even posted something. I'm very nervous about it, because before posting it freely on the Internet, I've let about four people read it. But click here, and you'll all get to read something I've written and kept hidden from the world for a couple years. Please feel free to comment on it and send something in if you want!

St. George tri, and I'm tagged

I've been tagged by Bonny to share with you all 8 facts or habits about me that may be lesser known. First, I never fill out those email forwards that have you answer 78 questions and send them to all your friends, but the blog world might be different. And because I'm still new to it all, who am I to not participate? Plus, 8 is so much easier than 78. I do, however, commiserate with Haley, who is also an open book and it took me quite a while to figure out what I might write about.

Before I go into that, I do want to say that I went to the Kokopelli Triathlon in St. George. Not to compete, but to be part of a very excited and supportive pit crew for four friends who were going to race.

The pit crew. We got so into it, we wrote "pit crew" on our arms and legs just like the actual racers with their numbers

Because the race was on September 22nd, and I did have four friends racing, I'm behind on writing a blog about it compared to the others who were there.

My four triathlete buddies

To give you a general overview, we drove down Friday afternoon, carbo-loaded at the Spaghetti Factory, woke up entirely too early, watched a beautiful sunrise,

See how pretty it was?! This is Caron and Christy, very excited to swim

watched the storm roll in, dodged wind-blown audio equipment, got soaked standing in the rain, lamented with the triathletes when the race was canceled,

A very sad Christy leaves the transition area having only finished the swim

went to breakfast because it was still 9:00 a.m., went bowling, then drove home with the storm on our tails the entire way. For further perspective, please see Christy's and Caron's blogs.

Now, on to my 8 things.

1. I am deathly afraid of heights, but I love roller coasters. Sometimes I really have to muster up the courage to go on the big ones, but I usually have a blast. To give an example of how afraid I am, here is a picture of me on the Tower of Terror at California Adventure in August.

You may not be able to tell, but I was clutching the arm of Becca G. who was sitting next to me. There was nothing else to hold on to! You're just sitting there in a chair, and suddenly you're shot up some 50 stories, then dropped! I was temporarily cured of my fear once in high school. We went to the Stratosphere in Las Vegas as part of a band tour, and I went on the Big Shot. I was totally fine with heights for about 12 hours after.

2. I am secretly a creative writer. I mostly write short stories, micro-fiction, or poetry. I don't know if I'm very good, but I don't like to share what I write very often because it's easy to hide behind the technical writing degree. Hopefully that will change soon, because Brookey and I are thinking of starting a creative writing blog where we and others can post our creative works and comment on them. I'm a little nervous because what I write is often very personal and can give a glimpse into my inner soul and it makes me feel a tad vulnerable.

3. I don't like cereal. I don't like it as a snack, as breakfast, anything. Every now and again I'll buys something because It sounds good in the moment, and I'll even eat a bowl for breakfast, but it usually goes stale and I have to throw it away.

4. I don't have an iPod and don't really want one. I can't think of when I'd need one, but I can think of all the music that I'd buy on iTunes, and I still need to pay a mortgage. I'm a big fan of music and have been known as the guy who knows all the words to every song, but I still don't know when I'd listen to an iPod. My sister-in-law asked me about it yesterday, and I was almost convinced I should get one, but I think I'll hold out still.

5. I love the Discovery Channel. Some of my favorite shows include Planet Earth, Myth Busters, Dirty Jobs, Cash Cab, and Man vs. Wild.

6. I used to play the clarinet and saxophone, and I was pretty good. I even made the jazz band in college my freshman year, and was a music major before I realized I didn't practice enough to become a professional and had no desire to become a music teacher (which, in my opinion, is the least appreciated job in the entire world, while arguably the most demanding). Consequently, I like musicals, live theatre, and going to listen to a symphony. About a year ago, I looked into what it would take to become part of the West Jordan City Band, but I never showed up. I haven't played my clarinet for about 7 years. It sits in my closet looking longingly at me when I get a tie every morning. Someday I will brush the dust off and play something.

7. I like to keep my house clean, but my room is a freakin' mess. Many of you will know that my room is often a mess. It's not gross or anything, just looks like my closet threw up into the room. It's mostly just clothes on the floor. But I like to have the living room, kitchen, and bathrooms clean. Partly I think it's pride--I want people to think the place is nice, and I can always just close my door--and partly I think it's part of my new homeownership. I really want my condo to retain its value so when I eventually sell and buy a house with a yard, I'll get a good return on my investment. If things stay clean, they usually stay well kept and avoid holes and other permanent damage.

8. I am a huge movie buff, but I own relatively few movies. I love going to the movies. I love the big screen, the big sound, the big seat, and the occasional big bucket of popcorn. I like to see new movies when they come out and I have many favorites. I never keep a favorite for very long, but some of my current favorites are About a Boy, Stranger Than Fiction, The Matrix, Toys, Clue (yes it's a movie, and if you haven't seen it man you'd better!), and Empire Records. I own only three of those.

Ok, that isn't all of me, but there's a little glimpse! Hope you like it! Oh, and I'll tag........... anyone who needs their blog updated or feels like it. (I don't want to pressure you to do anything you don't want...)

Decree nisi and other depressing activities

In the last month and a half, 4 of my friends have gotten--or entered into actions that will eventually result in--a divorce. I won't be naming names, because this is not a gossip column and I don't have permission from any of my friends to spread the news, but I feel compelled to write my feelings on the subject. I tend to empathize with my close friends, and if I don't respond in some way to how I feel, coming to terms with the situation and finding a resolution will be delayed or debased.

I was raised in a family and a church that looks highly on marriage. Marriage, I was taught, is one of the highest forms of happiness one can achieve. Imagine, finding that one person who makes you want to be the best you, understands and loves you enough to hold your hand when you're down, enjoys with you life's victories when they come, and even tolerates your morning breath. Of course, that's not all marriage is--I'm not naive enough to think marriage is like a country love song--and I will admit I don't know the extent of the commitment that is made when two people enter into "holy matrimony," but I have been taught that it is good and I am now old enough to know believe myself that it is good, and I see it as a sacred union that I hope to be a part of some day.

Now that you have a small precursor to how I feel about marriage, you can understand the agglomeration of feelings I experience when I hear that one of my friends is getting divorced. Multiply that by four. I consider myself a fairly decent friend, and I empathize with my pals when they are going through hard times. I don't know what my roll is in this situation, and each one is different. I don't know how to be the best friend I can in each situation, and don't know if there even is any specific thing I am supposed to do or if I should just be around. Or maybe I'm not supposed to be around.

On top of that, knowing that my friends, who share some of my ideas and beliefs about marriage, are ending theirs makes me a little cynical about such unions. Heck, I even put quotation marks around "holy matrimony" above. I know a divorce doesn't make it less holy, but I can't help but think on how frequent divorce is today, and it scares me a little. It makes me wonder if anyone is immune. The answer is a resounding, "NO," because you can't say it will never happen to you, and there is no failsafe against it. Never go to bed angry. Sometimes you need to sleep on it. A family to prays together stays together. Communication is the key. Have dinner at the kitchen table. All of these are excellent words to live by, but none by itself (or even together?) will be insurance against divorce. But I still believe that marriage is something sacred and good, and that it can still be one of the highest forms of happiness. I think cynicism is a disease (not to be confused with sarcasm... which I still have internal debates about), and optimism is really a much better way to live anyway. People do stay together and things can work out in the end.

So tell me what you think? When things like this happen that directly or indirectly affect my belief system, I have to work them out, talk them out, and bounce my thoughts off people. It helps me make sense of the situation and add the scenario to what I believe and how I will act and react in like situations. It also helps to see what other people believe and how they have dealt with the same situations. So feel free to pontificate with me. It helps, I promise.

"Salsa is now the number one condiment in America..."

"Do you know why? Because people like to say 'Salsa.'"

I love salsa. I really always have, but I think part of it stems from my mission. Just to clarify, I'm not one of those crazy RMs that goes nutso about stuff people do on their missions. I don't think tamarind is that good, I still hate cilantro (tastes like weeds), and I don't think the best way to sleep is in a hammock. But I am crazy about salsa, and the hotter the better! And I do owe my knowledge of chilies and peppers to the time I spent in Mexico, and I'm happy to say that I have some wonderful salsa because of it.

Last week, I made salsa with my sister and sister-in-law, and man is it tasty!

Liz and Tiff's arm chopping tomatoes

We made it from tomatoes from my dad's garden, and used a delightful mix of fresh jalapeños

mmmmm... jalapeños

and a smoky flavored chili called "chile de arbol." If you can think of the flavor of the chilies in General Tso's Chicken, that's kinda what it tastes like. The great thing about these chilies is that if you fry them or cook them, they get a little hotter. And if you leave them in a sauce or a liquid, they will make whatever they're sittin' around in hotter. So if you use them in canned salsa, your label for the first week or so will be "mild," in a month, you will go to "medium," and in six weeks or so, you've got "melt your face off." You can't understand how excited I am for six weeks to pass by. My sister-in-law, however, will need to eat her ration of salsa quick, or she'll be dead...

This is Liz, not cringing from the heat of the salsa, but dodging salt being blown into her face by the fan behind me.

Thank goodness for sisters and sisters-in-law. Tiff provided her home to prepare the salsa, Liz brought all the tomatoes, and I just had to bring some onions and peppers, and help chop and slice, and I left with 14 jars of some top notch salsa!

You can see the excitement on my face, can't you.

In conclusion, this isn't a well written or organized blog entry. But I made salsa (well, helped anyway) and I'm really excited about it. And I'll get to enjoy tortilla chips the way they were meant to be enjoyed... and I'll have the means with which to enjoy them for six months or more...