Be not faithless, but be believing

Dear readers,

Have faith. An update is coming soon.

-Yellow

Rejection: A tutorial

Occasionally on the Board we receive questions that basically come down to this one question: "How can I turn down a date without crushing his heart?" It's never a fun question to answer because the whole time I'm just imagining myself in the place of this poor, love-stricken guy. I don't like participating in his pain.

Ladies, I have the solution. I discovered this in a very recent (read: 5 minutes ago) experience. I happened to have an extra ticket for the Divine Comedy show tomorrow. I've been looking for a date. A couple weeks ago I took a girl to dinner and we had a pretty good time, so I just barely called her up. I explained that I had an extra ticket to the show and asked if she'd like to go.

Before I even finished the question, she cut in with "Actually, I've been wanting to set you up with my roommate for a while. Would you want to go with her?"

Wow. Incredible. It even took me a second to realize that I was pretty much being summarily and irrevocably rejected. Well done. Of course, now I have a blind date for tomorrow night. Hmm. I hope she's fun.

Sir, we have engaged the opposition

So I was over at Johanna Von Bigenstrien's place the other night playing games with a few of the neighbors. First we played Taboo. For those who haven't experienced it, Taboo is a game in which you have to get your team to guess a certain word by describing it. You are not allowed to use certain related words, and gestures are likewise forbidden. As there is also a time limit, the describer sometimes gets rather flustered, which results in hilarity. Everyone had all sorts of fun.

As the night progressed, a few of the neighbors had to leave. The group slowly shrank until just Johanna, A Charitable Ditz, Quandary, and myself were left. Realizing that we were all of the Board persuasion, we began entertaining ourselves as only Board Writers can. From holding hands to holding feet, from teaching Johanna about Rubik's Cubes to playing Little-Mermaid-splashes-on-the-big-rock with a finger puppet to knocking on hips, all craziness broke loose. At one point I mentioned that I was hoping to get a date for an upcoming event. This, of course, led to a discussion of those we know who are setting dates. (See posts from from August for more on that.) Then the following conversation ensued:

Yellow: Maybe I should just set a date.
Charitable Ditz: Maybe you should! Just, like, pick an arbitrary date!
Yellow: Okay. How's April 3, 2009? Charitable Ditz, will you marry me on April 3, 2009?
Charitable Ditz: Okay! Sure!

So there it is. I'm engaged. She later told me that my proposal was very romantic. And if April 3 falls through, we have contingency plans for Pi Day. That's 3/14/15, 9:26:53, nearest temple to 58° S 97° W. (That's Perth Australia. The Regina Saskatchewan and Edmonton Alberta temples in Canada were slightly closer to 58° N 97° E, but Australia's just so much more exotic.) At the wedding reception we'll have pie laid out in non-repeating sequences in place of cake, and since Pi day is of course non-repeating, every 22 of July (that would be 22/7, the smallest fraction close to pi,) we'll celebrate our pinniversary.

See guys? It's not so hard!

Things that make me happy

As the astute reader might note, this entry is all about things that make me happy. Learning to take pleasure in the simple joys of life is probably one of the most important things I've learned to do in my life.

However, before I get to that, I'd just like to mention a something that doesn't make me happy.

• People that bring freshly-popped popcorn to class. Honestly, people. I don't mind if you snack on fruit snacks, nuts, carrots, or chocolate. But popcorn? Do you not notice that it makes the rest of us salivate? Definitely does not make me happy.
  

Anyway, on to the things that make me happy. I've had a very stressful and busy couple of days, and finding little things like these is a great way to relieve the stress.

• Seeing "100%" next to my Student ID on the Testing Center monitors makes me happy. Nevermind that the 100% only applied to 38% of the test, 100 is a happy number.
• Attending the BYU Devotional and hearing Jon Schmidt live while watching a very well-performed dance makes me happy. I've been talking about it ever since. It makes me happy.
  
• Having good friends makes me happy. Joining the Board has turned out to be a very Good Thing for me this year. Since many of my previous friends are now married, (see previous posts for more information,) I'd been left largely without day-to-day entertainment. Uffish Thought, Novel Concept, Lavish, Optimistic., and others have been a marvelous help in that regard. They make me happy.

Well, there you have them. My three latest reasons to be happy. There may be another one in the makings as well, but only time will tell.