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Saturday, February 23, 2013

I Should Get Nerd Glasses

Today was another day at the Chalet.  I hate my job.  I'll be the first to tell you that you should always be grateful for what you have and everything.  That being said, I really hate my job, the Chalet job anyways.  I guess I have three jobs total.  Someday.  Someday I will have a job that is worth my time, that doesn't involve spending every sunny weekend under florescent lights, that doesn't require me to listen to the same 5 song playlist for 8 hours straight, and that actually pays enough to pay my bills.  Today is not that day.

My other two jobs aren't bad.  I tutor for a learning center and for DVC.  Even DVC pays better than the Chalet, and I can usually get homework done in between students who need help.  Homework!  You know you are a deprived nerd when you long for those hours when you have time to do your physics homework.

The school week went well.  I got two exams back.  Guess who's a master at chemical kinetics?  That's right, Alicia.  She sits in front of me in lab and got 100%.  Guess who else?  That's right, me.  I would have gotten 100% if I had punched in a decimal correctly in my calculator when calculating the first order decomposition of hydrogen peroxide using the half-life of the integrated rate law.  I bet you don't even know what I'm talking about.  Don't I feel smart?

I actually am starting to feel smarter (after almost two years of college).  I'm finally in a math class that you can't take in high school.  My physics class so far is going really smoothly (I'm infinitely glad that I took the intro class last semester).  Chemistry is just dandy as well.

The other exam I had was a nutrition exam.  Compared to my other classes, it just seems like a joke.  Having read In Defense of Food doesn't help.  Nutrition is good but I don't like the ideology behind it.  Daily values and all that jazz just seems like garbage to me.  Like saying that 65g of fat is what you should eat is just insane.  Maybe I just feel that way because I have CF and I'm always just eating everything I can between classes and tutoring and work and I've never had to watch my diet.  Whatevs.  I'm biased.  I still aced the test.  I just regret having to waste time going to the lectures.

By the way, here's the quote I didn't have from last week: 

"There is a certain sociality in the presence of God that manifests itself in a fulness of joy... To be cast from the presence of the Holy One is estrangement of the worst kind. It is to take from us that which means most - our sense of belonging to the divine family. It is to strip us of security and self-worth in one fatal blow. It is like tearing the suckling babe from her mother’s bosom, sending the wayward child to his room, or sentencing the incorrigible to solitary confinement. It is akin to restricting our communication with a loved one to the telephone; the lines can be clear, the conversation frequent, but the happiness that comes from being in another’s physical presence is missing."

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Suits and Sofa Bears

So today I was at least semi-productive, which is pretty good for a Saturday.  I woke up at 7:30, actually I woke up around 6:00 or 6:30, but I thought that it was obnoxious to be getting up so early, so I didn't get up until 7:30.  I guess defeating obnoxiousness was my first feat of the day.  After that I had a snack and went for a run.  And now I've been coughing up junk all morning.  That's what I get for not running for like a month.  I jogged over to Emerald Glen park about a mile from my house and did sprints and stuff in front of about 10 elderly Asians doing Tai Chi in the area with the basketball hoops. I've never had such calming music to listen to while exercising. I usually just jog with no music at all. That way the sofa bears won't know.

Feat number two, or three if you count running, was eating breakfast. I also went over to Macy's and gave them my suit jacket to get altered. I got it like two months ago and just haven't gotten around to getting it done. I figured a $200 or so gift for Christmas should finally get some use, and I had time this morning before work. I got some guitar time in, scheduled a PPI for tomorrow with someone in the Elder's Quorum. How many feats is that? Like 6? I'm on fire.

I went to the Temple last night to do a session and try to get some sealings done for some names that were found in my dad's apartment.  I'll have to go back to do the sealings later because the people in the office said that I needed to double check Familysearch to make sure that the parents were sealed first.  I had  great time anyways.  It was the biggest group I remember seeing.  I don't usually do evening sessions. It took a while to get everyone through the veil.

I had some valuable insights during the session. At work I had been reading in The Infinite Atonement during my lunch. I hadn’t finished the chapter that I was in so I finished reading it in the Temple parking lot. The chapter was about the Fall. The last bit that I had read in the parking lot talked a lot about what being in or away from God’s presence means and it gave me some new perspectives that I hadn’t thought of before. During the session, I was able to think about it from a little different perspective. There’s a good quote from the book that I really liked but it’s down in the car so I’ll have to get it later.

While waiting for my turn at the veil, I was thinking about this valuable lesson that I had learned. Going to the Temple without prior study and preparation is like going to a nice restaurant without bringing your wallet. You can probably go in and sit down. They might even bring you a glass of water for you to enjoy while you soak up the beautiful ambiance and the company of friends. However, you will leave hungry. At the nicest restaurants of all, you should be eating your fill and then getting a box for the leftovers, not leaving hungry, right? This ain't Denny’s where you just leave whatever you didn’t feel like eating on your plate.  

I regret doing that too many times.  I've gone to the Temple plenty of times when I wasn't reading scriptures or anything really and it wasn't nearly as uplifting as last night.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Lemonade. Too acidic and too sour.

What's that expression?  If/When life gives you lemons... what do you do? Squeeze them?  Eat them?  Construct a lemon launcher and take out those pesky squirrels in your backyard?  I know the phrase really says to make lemonade, but I dislike lemonade.  Actually, I just prefer orange juice much more.  I really do.  Whenever it's on sale at either Safeway or Target, I stock up with about 6 or 7 jugs, enough to last me until they're on sale again.  Target doesn't keep as many in stock as Safeway, which is unfortunate sometimes.

I always get the Minute Made Kids kind, which is fortified with vitamins and calcium.  It says for kids but really, who wouldn't want fortification?  My doctor actually said that my vitamin D levels were low, so there, I'm justified.  Though I guess they have the kind with just extra vitamin D and calcium... whatever.

Some people dislike orange juice because of its pulp or sweetness.  I like it with pulp, without pulp, anywhere in between, and with any degree of sweetness.  The only kind of orange juice I really don't like is the fake kind they give you at the free breakfasts at hotels.  That's not really orange juice, it's watered down fake stuff.  Orange juice is so good for you too.  I learned in my nutrition class this last week that a half cup of it counts as a serving of fruit.  To sum up my love for orange juice, I love it so bad, I could have it all day, everyday, forever and ever, and never get bored of it.

The only problem is, I don't have any oranges.  Instead, life has given me lemons.  What am I to do?  My taste buds yearn only for that perfect sweetness that comes from the OJ.  Lemonade is usually really sugary.  Have you heard of any benefits of lemonade?  I haven't.  And don't tell me about them if they exist; I don't want to hear it.  Lemonade is too sour, and its acidity makes my stomach feel like its being corroded from within.

Okay, I ask the question again.  What am I to do?  It is a serious and unfortunate dilemma.  My will is directly opposed to what has been made available to me.  I most certainly will not make lemonade.  The effort would only go to waste.  I cannot change lemons into oranges, and I don't have a backyard full of pesky squirrels.  I've been delt a hand in life and it's really sad to not have what I want and what I feel I need.  I know I should try lemonade again and try to forget how good the orange juice was.  I know I believe that if I did that, I'd be happy.  I guess that's the problem.  What I know and believe isn't necessarily what I want.

And yes, I'm talking about juice.