Amazing Blessings

So it turns out that I'm a starving college student. I wasn't always this way, but this summer I've been spending a lot more than I've been earning, and I noticed suddenly last Friday that I had $20 to my name in both my savings and checking account.

I was only slightly concerned. I'm a member of a dinner group, and I had already bought the food that I needed to cook when it was my turn next. I also often eat lunch at my parents' house after I babysit my sister's kids. All I really needed to worry about was breakfast, and $20 should've been more that enough to take care of that.

However, I woke up on Sunday morning and I remembered that it was fast Sunday. This may seem like just the thing a struggling budget might need; however, I pay my tithing on fast Sundays. I quickly looked up how much I owed and it was $40.

"Hmm," I thought. "How am I going to make this work?" I wrote out the check anyways and handed it in, knowing that the extra would be absorbed into the line of credit on my account. It was a little intimidating to go into debt to pay tithing, though. Knowing that my dad would likely disown me if I were to try to cover my expenses by selling my plasma, I went throughout that day trying to figure out how I'd make ends meet that month.

That evening, I walked into my apartment and noticed a letter on the table that my roommate had brought in from the mailbox that afternoon from Brent Brown Chevrolet. I had bought my car from them several months ago, so I just figured it was a letter saying that they wanted me to by another car from them.

I started walking down the hall to my room as I tore open the envelope. Inside was a $70 check! I couldn't believe it.

"BLESSINGS!!!" I shouted. One of my roommates had just come out of his room to the hallway and looked surprised that I was shouting high-pitched, incomprehensible exclamations in the hallway. After I had calmed down a bit, I was able to explain the whole thing to him.

Lest you be a skeptic, I realize that the check was in the mail much before I paid my tithing and probably even before I realized that I was really hurting for cash. I think though that the main lesson to be learned here is to just do what's right, because God is already taking care of the details you.

In any case, I think that this story is almost Ensign-worthy. The only thing that would make it better is if I had 3 starving children and lived in Tahiti. I mostly just think that it's fun that I have my own tithing story that I can one day tell my grandkids.

Dance Like Patrick

So I have been asked by several people to post my new instructional video online. I hope that you all enjoy it. It has been broken into two segments for viewing simplicity. If you only have a couple minutes, the second segment is shorter and the better of the two.

Odd new plates

I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the new license plates for Utah. I am perhaps biased because when I first saw them around, I thought it was very brave of so many UofU fans to be parked on campus. Now that I realize that they are actually the new default plates when you buy a car, I just think they bear a striking resemblance to a beer can.





The other one isn't so bad, except that it makes the new license plate slogan stand out more. This wouldn't be so bad except the "Life Elevated" sounds so much like a drug reference.



I'm sure who ever was on the committee to design these was chuckling to him-(or her-) self, thinking that the poor, sheltered Utahns would never make such a connection. Well, the secret is out, though it seems it is too late. I guess we will just have to put up with beer can/druggie cars until 10 years from now when they get around to redesigning them.

Pizza in Tight Spaces

I approached my locker for the first time in an upper hallway of the JKB. I was a little dispointed in the placement--it was not near any of my classes and on the opposite end of campus from my appartment--but I was soon pleasantly surprised. As I opened the door, I realized that my locker was huge! It was not a tall locker, but it went back at least 3 feet.

As I gazed into the depths, I was hit by a sudden epiphany. Why am I paying so much for rent when I only pay five bucks a semester for a locker this size? I slipped inside and realized that this dream was conceivable.



Well, alright. Maybe not living in the thing, but I had another idea. And so the planning began. . .

This is a rough sketch of the phone conversation:

Me: I'd like to order a small pepperoni pizza.
Her: Where would you like it to be delivered.
Me: Can you deliver on-campus?
Her: Yes.
Me: OK. Could you send it to the JKB, across from room (such and such), locker (something or another)?
Her: Yeah, that'd be fine.
Me: Great. Just knock on the locker when you get there.
Her: [Silence] You'll be in the locker?
Me: Yep.
Her: [Nervous laughter] OK.

After waiting about 30 minutes, I once again ventured into my little home and waited. After a few minutes, I heard Bran (whom I brought just in case) say "It's that one right there," which was followed by a few loud bangs on the door.

"Hello!" I shouted.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he responded.

"Hey, can you do me a favor?" I shouted back. "I can't open this from the inside. Here is my combination. . ."

He proceeded to try to open the door, and on the second try, he succeeded (lucky for me).





As a whole, I'd have to call a it a pretty successful venture.

Something about Lit'rature

Summer is here and I want to finally read all of those books that I've been putting off in the name of lack-of-time. Yesterday, I read The Miracle at Speedy Motors which is the latest in The Number One Ladies' Detective Agency series. It was fabulous, as usual. I think that Alexander is starting to wax more and more philosophical in these later ones actually. He skirted the topic of religion several times.

One of my favorite parts was right at the beginning when Mma Ramotswe is thinking about how the address of her Detective Agency is c/o the adjoined auto shop. While her assistant believes that such an address belittles the agency's importance, Mma Ramotswe notes that there is security in being "care of" another. In fact, she says that we should all be "care of" one another. And I thought it was a great idea.

(P.S. If any of you have ideas for me to add to my summer reading list, I'm up for suggestions.)

Problems

I think that a great majority of the world's problems could be solved with basic human kindness. The rest can be solved by good and able economists. :)

(and maybe an occasional doctor.)

Won't somebody think of the children

I think that it is vulgar to have finals at 7:00 AM. I also think it's awful to have finals on Saturdays. This morning my Econ 110 students had both. At the same time.

Luckily, the other TA is married, so he goes to bed at around 10:00 every night, so he volunteered to proctor the first half of the exam while I did the second. It still amounted to me arriving on campus at 8:30, but that is an hour and a half better than 7:00.

Perhaps I'll take a nap this afternoon. I'll do it between washing my car, going shopping, depositing checks, and studying for the other 3 finals that I still have ahead of me. Hmm. . . .