An Open Letter...

An open letter to the guy I sat next to last week in ceramics class...

Dear Guy,

I find you to be astoundingly unimpressive. The other day, you jabbered on for several hours about how much you love smoking marijuana, drinking, public intoxication and a host of other immoral behaviors. I was not impressed by your story about how you approached a young, blond-haired girl with dreadlocks at a Lowe's hardware store. You described the encounter by mentioning that the girl was obviously "on her guard", and you found yourself suddenly surrounded by her male coworkers who had gallantly come to her defense. I felt great sadness for the girl who had been approached by you simply because she had dreadlocks and you assumed that she was a toker and you wanted to know if she liked "The Grateful Dead". You were awfully proud that you had become "that guy". The guy who is suddenly old, shameless and is known to hit on younger girls. Although you claim to not have been hitting on the girl, your "friendliness" in assuming she would be eager to talk to a strange old man about her assumed drug habits may not have been as well received as you thought.

I also feel it necessary to wonder how old you think you are. Although you appear to be in your late 40s, your demeanor would suggest that you are much closer to 13. I am unimpressed by your tales of bar hoping, throwing up in the drawer of your nightstand and attending wild parties in order to pick up on "chicks". Am I supposed to be happy for a man who is in denial about his age and responsibilities to his wife and children? Am I supposed to respect a father who sets such a poor example for his 10-year-old daughter? I think not!

I am especially disgusted by your candor in sharing about how, when you were in your early twenties, you "hooked up" with a woman at a party who was in her 40s, married and who had a daughter your age. Not exactly something to brag about, sir. You're sick. You are what's wrong with our society.

Although it may be too late, I sincerely hope that you will try a little harder to be a better father for your children. At the very least, please do not share any of your "Pearls of Wisdom" with them.

Best of luck to you,
Jamie

P.S. Please don't ask to borrow any of my tools. You're gross.

So Sweet!

So even though my birthday was hampered by the flu, I've had a lot of people call and wish me happy birthday. I was particularly humbled when I got a phone call from one of my Activity Days girls. She called and said that she knew it was my birthday and wanted to wish me a happy birthday. I told her that I had a stomach virus and had been throwing up and hadn't even had any birthday cake. Well, very much to my surprise, when I got home from ceramics class tonight, that same girl had brought over a cake and birthday card for me!! How nice is that!?!?! She's only 11 years old and is so thoughtful to have brought me a birthday cake--and with funfetti frosting too!


Fortunately, I am feeling much better today. I'm glad there are no lingering effects from my bout with a stomach virus. I was feeling so well that I met up with Andy for lunch (he had to work today and I didn't) and I planted three fruit trees. So hopefully we will be able to enjoy some apples, peaches and pears soon.

It's your birthday...you've got the gombu!!

I was really looking forward to this weekend. For a couple of weeks, Andy and I had planned on taking advantage of the Valentine/birthday weekend by getting away. Andy always does a great job at planning surprises for me and I was excited for what he had in store. He had arranged for us to go up to Raleigh. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and spent the night at a Bed and Breakfast that was located next to a beautiful lake. It was really nice. On Saturday, we had planned on going to the temple--what better way to spend a Valentine's Day? After going to the temple, the plan was to head home so Andy could make me dinner. I was particularly excited about that because...what's not to love about Andy cooking dinner?!? And I had specifically requested that he not make Tater Tot Casserole. He also was planning on making breakfast for me Sunday morning for my birthday!

However, I started feeling a little weird Saturday morning and am still amazed that I didn't hork during the session or while we did sealings. As we started driving home, I really didn't feel well. About ten minutes into our two-hour drive home, I threw up. The flu has been going around and I caught it! As my mom would say, "You've got the gombu". So for the last 24 hours, I haven't had anything to eat for fear that I would be seeing it again. I'm achy all over and I'm either burning up or freezing cold. Last night I tried drinking some Gatorade and some Ginger Ale. So far, so good. I'm thinking that in a couple hours, I just might try eating some Jell-o or possibly some oatmeal. How's that for a Birthday Feast?!? Of course Andy's not completely off the hook, he will be making me dinner and breakfast in bed...as soon as I can handle it. You better believe that the glass of Ginger Ale he brought me last night does not count as the dinner he promised to make me.

In the mean time, I'm sitting here at home while Andy is at church (he agreed to teach my class for me). So Happy Birthday to me. Yay!

Progress

I realized the other day that it's been a while since I have posted pictures of my pottery. I can honestly say that I am starting to get better now. They say that thousands of pounds of clay have to go through your fingers before you're any good. I'm certainly not there yet, but I'm starting to feel like I'm improving and making some progress.

Tunes

So I recently purchased an iPod off of E-bay. I got a pretty good deal, too. I got an 8 gig, 2nd generation Nano that came with "Shure" ear buds, the Nike + sport kit and an arm band for about $120. (Thanks, Maren, for the inside info on how to win online auctions!!) I have used my iPod a few times to go running with and I must admit, it makes a huge difference. It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to distract my mind by listening to music rather than think about how much I'd rather be walking. I have found that I am able to run the entire route I usually take without walking at all. I also listened to my iPod yesterday while I weeded a flower bed too. The weather was in the 70s (only a few days prior we had some snow flurries, too!) and it was actually quite nice to be outside.

I thought I would share with you some of the songs I listen to while I run. If you have any that I should try, let me know because I can use all the help and motivation I can get!! Please note that I have downloaded the CLEAN or Edited versions whenever possible.

Viva La Vida - Coldplay
So What - P!nk
Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
Pon de Replay - Rihanna
Kernkraft 400 (Sport Chant Stadium Remix) - Zombie Nation
Pocket Full of Sunshine - Natasha Bedingfield

Space Phone

That's what Stephen calls the iPhone. David loves the iPhone almost as much as he loves cars. Andy recently got an iPhone through work and since our contract with Verizon was up, I decided to get an iPhone too. So far, I'm quite pleased with it. I really enjoy all the "apps" and am constantly being entertained by all the many functions.

Getting my iPhone was quite an ordeal, however. I really really wanted to keep my same phone number because I don't like the idea of notifying anyone I have ever given my number to that I have changed my number. I think that's annoying. How am i supposed to remember to contact the doctor, the dentist etc. AND I really like my number. The digits make a square. It's easy to remember, it's my number and I want to keep it.

So I tried to switch to the iPhone over the internet. No such luck. I tried for about an hour. At various points I was told by customer service people that I wouldn't be able to port my California number to AT&T because I am now in a different state. I finally ended up at an AT&T store where I had to call Verizon...who had to call Andy because my name was not on the contract...blah blah...I switched to an individual plan...blah blah...two hours later, I walked out of the AT&T store with a functioning iPhone. The hassle of actually getting the phone really took away from the enjoyment of actually getting an iPhone. Sad.

Anyway, the moral of the story is, if a customer service rep says that you can't port your number to another provider, tell them you know it's illegal for companies to not allow you to take the number with you and they will figure out a way to make it happen.