Monday, August 31, 2009

Apartment Searching

Now that Christina and I are getting married over Christmas break we need to find an apartment! I hear that this can be hard to do in between semesters. But I figured I could get 50 eyes looking (or however many will read my blog post), rather than just us two. Not actively looking like us, but just let us know if you hear about something. That will help us out a bunch. We would prefer a furnished place, but let us know about everything. I'll have graduated and Christina will be student teaching, so it doesn't need to be right next to campus either. Thanks everyone!

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Proposal

As most of you already know, I'm engaged! It's pretty exciting! Christina and I have enjoyed all of the wall posts on Facebook. We will be getting married December 22 in the Seattle Temple. So here's how it went down.

If you already know the background story of Christina and I and just want to hear the proposal, skip this and the next paragraph, but it's a good story. Christina and I have known each other for two years. We lived in the same apartment complex until she moved out this last December. I had never taken her out that entire time, but we were good friends. We stayed in contact a little bit the next few months and saw each other at a few get-togethers. I even called her one evening in May, I believe, to see if she wanted go to a dance with a group of us. The whole group thing fell through and it just would've been me and her, so I called to cancel (I know, what was I thinking). After that I started thinking it would be fun to go on a date with her. But since I had already been accepted into the Jerusalem Center for fall and would be leaving for an internship shortly, I didn't expect anything to happen.

I organized a group to go see Up on it's opening night, May 29. That's the night we both decided we liked each other (but didn't say anything, we hadn't even been out on a date). Then that next day I invited her to volunteer at Special Olympics with me, we also went swimming, and then she came over to catch the last bit of a movie (the movie had just ended and we ended up talking for a while). Anyway, she was very clear that she liked me (hint, girls, that makes it so much easier) and we were dating by the next Friday (a week after Up). We didn't need a DTR (define the relationship, for those who don't know), but that's what day we look to because that was our first kiss. After an amazing three weeks, I was off to my internship in California. She came out to visit me the next week over the 4th of July. We video chatted or talked on the phone every day while I was in California. I had a tough decision to make about going to Jerusalem or staying and getting married in December. After talking to some great friends, praying, fasting, and going to the temple, I knew that I wanted to get married. And even though she would've waited for me, it wouldn't be worth it to be away from her for so long. And the fact that I would come back from Jerusalem broke didn't help. So on July 12th I told her I wasn't going on the study abroad and we decided we wanted to get married (I know, we had to keep it a secret a long time). We saw each other one other time when we went to go meet the parents at the end of July. Although I left out the part in that blog entry of me talking to her dad.


The Proposal

This last Saturday, August 22, Christina went wedding dress shopping (haha) so she could get an idea of what she was looking for when her mom comes to town this week. That gave me plenty of time to finish up my plans for that evening. She thought it might happen soon, but wasn't sure if I had the ring yet. (I had tried to make it seem like it would take a week or two to be ready.) Around 4pm we went to a favorite park of ours in Orem and played some card games (Lost Cities and Ligretto). Then we went out to dinner at Carrabba's. Afterwards we went looking for a dessert to take with us for a walk along the Provo River. She was getting suspicious, because she had suggested going there earlier, but I told her I'd rather go to the other park. We couldn't find any dessert, so we went over to the Provo River trail by Bon Losee off of University Parkway. She had worked nearby during Spring Term, so we had taken a lot of walks there during her work breaks. We talked for a little while on the bridge we usually go to. I thought about doing it there, but the fear of losing the ring to the river by accidentally dropping it was too great. So we walked about 20 feet to a bench. I told her I made her something and pulled out a book I had been working on. In it are all the journal entries I've written about her and the things we've done the last few months, along with pictures of many things we've done.
The last page I wrote a letter to her expressing my feelings for her and read that to her. Then I pulled out the ring. She said yes (or I probably wouldn't be writing this). We're both extremely happy and excited. We haven't been able to take a good picture of the ring yet, but hopefully we will soon. Oh, and the book has a lot of blank pages for the future. (Yes, the book idea does come from the movie Up.)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Education Week

I'm back in Provo and Christina and I decided to go to some Education Week classes. She got a morning pass, and I got a school day special (morning plus a few more hours). Last year was my first experience with Education Week. My mom had been in town and paid for me to go to some classes. It was a great experience. I still remember a few of the classes and what was taught, especially from one teacher--Randall A. Wright.

This year I've been to four classes (all today), and all the classes are at least okay, but there are some really good ones. I'm excited as the week continues to attend some more great classes.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Disney World!

My Florida trip got much better after the first day of traveling (see my last post). After that ordeal was over I went swimming and played beach volleyball at this cool looking place inside the resort. It was misty the morning I took this picture.

At night we had to sit for four hours to hear speakers and have dinner. I was tired! The next day after breakfast and a big meeting with everyone we had something called "team challenge." Some people I talked to loved it, others hated it. Imagine EFY for grown-ups, that was pretty much it. They even had us create cheers. I thought it was the longest six hours of my life.

That afternoon/evening we went to Disney World. The group I was with decided to go to Magic Kingdom since it was open the latest (for those who don't know, there are many parks within Disney World). Magic Kingdom is almost exactly like the original Disney Land.

Here's the group I was with. Yes, that is indeed the one and only, Kevin G. Brinkherhoff.

Monsters, Inc!!!
We went to the Monsters, Inc Laugh Floor. It was pretty funny. Mike Wazowski was the host. It was cool because they involved the audience in it. Highly recommend it.

We of course went on the Tea Cups.
I wasn't scared.

The fireworks show was really cool.

Getting ready to go on Splash Mountain!

Saturday there were some seminars that were pretty good. At night they had this mind reader/illusionist perform for us. It was crazy some of the stuff that he did. Then afterwards they had games for us to play--pool, foosball, darts, Wii tennis, Rock Band, and fake gambling. Here we are having fun!
It was a fun trip overall! Although Florida is so humid! And I don't know if I could ever afford Disney World, especially for a family.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Flying to Orlando, aka - Worst Day Ever

Here is an excerpt from my journal:

Wednesday just may have been the worst day of my life. I traveled to Orlando, Florida for the Ernst & Young International Intern Leadership Conference. This was my first time ever really on the East Coast (other than airports). In the morning I went to pick up a friend. Going to get him made my ride to the airport twice as long as it should have been. And it took him several minutes to get outside once I arrived. Then the long-term parking was at least a mile away. I was so worried we weren’t going to make our flight. We got the shuttle from long-term parking (which took forever) and I was able to check my bags 27 minutes before my flight. They told me it wouldn’t be guarenteed on the flight because it was less than a half hour before but they would try to get it on. The plane ended up being about ten minutes late, so I wasn’t too worried.

At the layover in Phoenix I got some California Pizza Kitchen despite not having liked it much before. I decided to give it another chance. Halfway through the four and a half hour flight to Orlando I started feeling a little ill. Mostly just a headache. I got some Advil from someone and tried to rest. My headache started to go away but I felt a little nauseous. This continued as we descended. But we were almost there—I could make it. I located the barf bag just in case. Right after we touched down I uncontrollably vomitted all over myself. I didn’t have enough time to react with the bag. It was disgusting! Everything I had eaten that day was now on my clothing. I went back to the bathroom (I was in the third row from the back) and a nice flight attendant name Kelly helped me out. I tried cleaning it off as well as I could with the little paper towels they had. Vomit does not come out very well. I couldn’t believe this had happened. The next flight was delayed because of me a few minutes (which I thought was a little funny). Southwest gave me this extra large bright orange t-shirt to wear and offered me a wheelchair, but I was feeling better. I honestly think it was the food at Phoenix since I have never thrown-up on a commercial jet. My jeans were still kind of dirty, so I tried covering that with my bag as I walked. I wasn’t too worried about what people thought though.

I got to baggage claim and waited for my suitcase, very anxious to change. I waited until there were only three bags still going around—the same ones over and over. I couldn’t believe it. Now more than ever I NEEDED clothes to change into! But nope, my luggage didn’t show up. They told me they would deliver it to the hotel as it was probably on one of the flights to come in later that night. I asked the same friend who I had taken to the airport that morning if I could borrow a pair of shorts. They were big on me so good thing I had a belt. So I was wearing these big shorts and the bright orange Southwest shirt. I got to the hotel and talked to the workers for awhile about the whole situation (I don't know why it took so long). Then I walked like fifteen minutes to my room (I'm not joking, this resort was huge!). I opened the door and turned on the light only to wake up my German roommate, Uwe. A little after midnight I checked at the bell desk to find out my luggage had arrived at the airport and should be there within 2 hours. I decided to go to bed at 1am and get it in the morning. The morning came and still no bag! And all the hotel staff had changed so they didn’t know the situation, and I couldn’t get a hold of the airline at the airport. Well, eventually I found out my bag was with the Disney Magical Express, and they had shut down the night before at 10pm and didn't start delivering until 9am. But at least it was good to know my luggage was safe and coming. I got my bag around 11am.

Phew, what an ordeal. But honestly it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. It’s kind of funny and a good story. I was surprised how positive of an attitude I was able to keep throughout it. It’s almost as if I was able to look back and tell myself, this won’t be such a big deal, but while it was happening.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Palm Pre vs Blackberry Curve 8330

I need to get a new phone. My current Samsung m500
has served me well, but I've had it for 2 1/2 years. For the last year I've had to set something heavy on top of the charger where it hooks into the phone so that it would stay in at the right angle, otherwise it wouldn't charge. That's been a little bit of a hassle.

I have Sprint, and I have a really good deal with them--$35 a month and I get internet, unlimited texting, 500 anytime minutes, etc. So don't try and convince me to get an iPhone, cause I'm not switching. I went to the Sprint store on Saturday so I could handle both of them. Here are the pros and cons of both that I see.

Palm Pre
Pros
  • Very user-friendly. I love the touch screen. You can have multiple applications open and just sort through them like cards. Want to check something out on the internet or your calendar without losing an e-mail you were writing? No problem.
  • Sleek. And the colors are really vibrant.
  • Pretty small--smaller than the iPhone when the keyboard isn't out.
  • Universal Search--just start typing and it will search everything on your phone that starts with the letters you type.
  • webOS, the operating system, is very fast and intuitive.
Cons
  • $199
  • It doesn't have an expansion slot to add memory. So you only get the built in 8GB I believe it is.
  • Battery life isn't that great.

Blackberry Curve 8330
Pros
  • $49
  • A slightly bigger keyboard
  • Does have expandable memory
  • I've heard it works really well for business-oriented people
Cons
  • The keyboard makes clicking noises that I don't like
  • When compared to the sleekness of the Pre, it doesn't look very cool and feels kind of outdated. I want to touch the screen!
  • I also don't like the rollerball very much. I got tired of it after just a few minutes of messing around with it.
Obviously you can probably tell I like the Pre better. But is it worth the extra $150? Let me know your opinion--especially if you've had either one of these phones (or if you've had another similar type of Blackberry).

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Giants Win

My internship paid for all of the interns to go to a San Francisco Giants game on Thursday. My Brazilian friend, Leo, pointed out to me that hardly anyone was watching the game. It was true. I was socializing more than watching. I'm not really a Giants' fan. And baseball isn't the most exciting sport (although I had arguments about this with co-workers the next day). Here are some pictures from the game.
AT&T Park

Tyler, Leo, and me

People talking to each other while the game is going on.

Me, Leo, Damaris


Oh, the Giants were playing the Phillies and won. I got to see a homerun or two, so that was cool.