A Board Invasion

Earlier tonight, we Board Writers set into motion our secret plans to take over the world one apartment at a time. With an effective blitzkrieg, we completely overran all local defenses and established a beachhead from which to continue our forward march.

Okay, that wasn't actually true. But we did have a lot of fun tonight. Through a series of events, a certain writer had committed to deliver brownies to a reader's apartment, a reader whom she had never met in person.

Not given to doing things in a small way, this writer invited 10 other writers and a few friends to come along. We all crowded around the front door of the apartment and knocked on the door, muffling our giggles so as to not alert the tenants. They opened the door, (quite shocked to see 13 people standing outside the door at 11 PM), the writer in question introduced herself, and the collective Board invaded the apartment. We laughed about the wonder that is the Board and various Writers for about 30 minutes and then left. Mission accomplished. We did leave them brownies, though.

Watch out; your apartment could be next.

Late Night Special

The other night my friend Lanora and I went over to Lavish's place to watch "Remember the Titans" with a group. I really think it's one of the best sports-centered movies ever made. It's exciting, touching, meaningful, funny, insightful, and powerful all at the same time without feeling forced. The experience, of course, was only made better by Lavish's excellent hosting skills.

Afterward, we pulled out Scattergories and began playing. Since there were 11 in attendance at that point, we played in teams of two. (Quandary played on his own.) You know how things get funnier in proportion to how tired you are? Well, Duchess and dimmi demonstrated this principle to great effect. Lanora and I spent most of the night laughing at their incessant giggles every time their turn to share came around.

For those who don't know, Scattergories is a game in which you are given a list of categories, an alphabet-die is rolled, and everyone competes to produce unique words matching each category beginning with the rolled letter. Hilarity ensues.

• Excuses for being late: Hit by a car, Halitosis, and Hellfire (I'm sorry, teacher. I ran into some hellfire on the way to class.)
• Round: Jewels and Jay Leno. (Poor guy. How would you like to get the first thing we think of when we hear "round"?)
• Bodies of water: Jordanelle Reservoir, Jacuzzis. (Jacuzzis... they've got bodies and water!)
• Bad Habits: Kicking cats and Killing your sister (Response by dimmi: "How many sisters do you have to kill to make it a habit?")

But the ultimate answer of the night came from dimmi:

• Weapons: Jackhammers. (NEVER get dimmi mad at you.)

Oh, the irony

Near the end of Winter Semester 2006 I met a very fun girl. We'll call her M because that's not her name. We dated for a while before the summer, but we're not together at the moment. Things have been a little tense between us, but I think they're getting better.

The other day I got off work and dropped by her work. She works in a fairly public place, so there was a line waiting for her attention. I was just going to stop by quickly and say hi, since she was busy. However, as I was walking by the front of the line, I heard someone calling my name. I turned to look and saw a Sister from my mission waiting in line, so I stopped to talk to her for a second. We'll call her B because that's not her real name either.

Keep in mind that I'm standing about 5 feet away from M at the moment. After the usual chit-chat, she asked:

B: "So, are you..." [leans over a little to look at my left hand]
Yellow: [laughs] "No, I'm not married yet."
B: "Oh. Are you dating anyone? What about that girl you were dating last year?" (Referring to M.)
Yellow: [laughs again, quite hard] "No, I'm not dating anyone at the moment either."

B, of course, had no idea why I was laughing so hard. She had no idea that M was standing within perfect hearing distance of the entire conversation, nor that this was the first time I had actually seen M in a number of months, so I was quite nervous about it. She just saw that I found a question about my current relationship status much more humorous than it deserved.

Oh, the irony of it all.

Are you my friend?

Over Labor Day weekend, my family went camping in the mountains of Central Utah. Every year, we go with a few neighbors to spend the weekend in the mountains, relax, and enjoy each other's company. The group grows every year as the young married couples bring new children, "significant others" are invited, and new families are invited. We had a great time.

Since we had a member of our Stake Presidency there, we were able to hold our own Sunday meetings up in the mountains. I was asked to give a brief talk, so about an hour before the meetings started, I wandered away from the rest of the camp to ponder what I should share.

We had a number of horses up at the camp, and I found myself near the horses. A few of the youngest children (ages 2-4) were nearby, trying to throw a frisbee to each other. As I was watching them, the cutest little two-year-old girl looked up at me and asked,

"Are you my friend?"

I just couldn't help smiling. I told her that Yes, I was her friend. For the rest of the weekend, she would run up to me and say "Friend, come play with us!" or "Friend, hold this."

It was the cutest thing ever.

It's a Small World

Two stories.

Story #1: Before my mission, I worked in a BYU cafeteria. Once I got out of the dishroom, I was mostly responsible for restocking drinks and cleaning up spills. Certainly not the most glamorous of jobs, but my co-worked and I got along really well, so the time went pretty quick. He taught me the ropes of the job, and we quickly got a routine down so that most of our time was spent just standing around and talking. We laughed about all the funny things people wore, who sat with whom, and occasionally snuck drinks out of the almost-empty Chocolate milk bags. Mmmmm.

Story #2: I checked into my apartment today to drop off a few things before I move in for good. As I was picking up my key, one of my roommates was there. He said "Oh, you're [insert Yellow's name here]. You know our other roommate [insert roommate's name here] then." I wasn't aware of knowing any such roommate, so I was quite surprised. I got into my apartment, but nobody was there, so I didn't get to find out.

The point of all this: I did some further investigation. They're the same person. Walt Disney was right.

It's a Small World After All

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

I'm living out of town for the summer, so when I receive mail at home, my mom usually puts it in a larger envelope and forwards it to me here. The other day I received one of these envelopes with two letters inside.

The first was a wedding invitation. (Yes, another. Hence the previous post.) It was from a high school friend I hadn't heard from in a while. He was one of my favorite people in high school and I was very excited to receive his wedding invitation. It's fun to see so many of my friends getting married and generally being very happy.

The second was a letter from a girl we baptized in my mission. I won't be too specific out of respect to privacy, but here are a few snippets:

"...I didn't go to the temple and I don't plan to. I stopped going to church three months ago."

"When you come, you'll find only 4 or 5 people. Nobody goes to church anymore."

"Regarding the Book of Mormon, it's sitting abandoned on the bookshelf. I don't touch it at all, and I'm not interested in it anymore."

Needless to say, I wasn't nearly as excited about receiving this second letter. It was good to hear from her; I hadn't heard anything in a number of months. But this wasn't exactly the news I was hoping for.

She thanked me for writing and said she hopes we can still be friends despite the fact that she's left the church. And of course we can. In my opinion, one of the true tragedies about current church culture, (especially in Utah,) is that we don't know how to deal with those that don't follow the ideal path, so we shun them. Instead of reaching out to them, instead of keeping those relationships open, instead of showing these people the love of Christ, we block them out. These are the people that need our help the most. These are they of whom Christ said "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."

My mission president taught me something very profound. He said that there are two parts to a testimony of the Church. The first is that the Church is true. This is what we generally think of when we imagine a testimony. It involves a testimony of Christ as the Savior, a testimony of the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith, a testimony of the Book of Mormon, and other such things. The second is that the Church is good. This means that the Church makes me feel happy inside. This is why we have ward parties and basketball teams. When there is no unity among the members, they won't stay. As missionaires we taught people that the Gospel brings joy. If they don't feel that joy, they'll leave.

I think that's what happened with my friend. The happiness and joy that comes from the Gospel was gone. And if men are that they might have joy... then why go to Church if it doesn't help in that pursuit? Granted, the Church isn't perfect, but if we don't do our part to make it better, it will never get there.

Sixteen

Make that sixteen weddings this year. Just got another one.

Summer of Love

Let's begin by stating a few things. I like girls. I really do. I enjoy dating. When I'm in Provo, it's not at all unusual for me to go on 2-3 dates per week, often with different girls. This makes me quite happy, since in high school I probably went on 10 dates total in 3 years. I've been feeling quite good about my social situation. I think I'm about right where I should be.

But evidence would suggest otherwise. Between March 1 and August 5, I have been invited the weddings of no less than 12 friends. These aren't just acquaintances either. My best friend, wonderful mission companions, roommates... these are all the people I hang out with! A few others are getting married, but I haven't heard directly from them yet, bringing the total to over 15. With only 2 exceptions, they're all my age.

I don't know what's gotten into everybody, but apparently Summer 2006 is the designated time for everyone to get married. And I missed the boat. That's perfectly fine with me; I'll get married when I love the girl so much there's no question that I want to be with her forever.

Anyway, if anyone else would like to announce their Summer 2006 engagements, please feel free to comment. Especially if you happen to actually know me.

I made it!

A few months ago I rediscovered BYU's 100 Hour Board, a Q&A board on which any registered user can ask a question and get an answer within 100 hours. It has quickly become my favorite way to fill the empty minutes at work. It's a great way to learn lots of random information and keep yourself entertained. At first I just read the daily posts, but I soon discovered the "I'm Board!" link, which displays a random question from the archives.

Occasionally readers ask the Board a question along the lines of "How do I become a writer for the Board?" The answer is always the same: "Search the archives." This intrigued me a bit, because I'm always looking for more information. I didn't necessarily want to apply, but I wanted to know how in case I had the desire at a future time. However, none of my searches resulted in the necessary information. This only whetted my appetite.

About a month ago, I came across the necessary information. By that time, I was thoroughly addicted to the Board. I had favorite writers, and I even stared reading their blogs. Realizing that I was spending a lot of time on the Board, I decided to jump through the hoops necessary to apply to be a writer. If I'm going to be on the Board that much, I figured, I might as well make a useful contribution.

Monday, I was browsing the archives while waiting for someone at work when suddenly a whole set of links I had never seen before appeared. The Board occasionally has little bugs, so I figured it was just one of those, but this was much more extensive than ever before. I then saw in the top right corner the following text:

Logged in as [insert Yellow's name here].
(Probational Writer)

I was stunned. Could it really be? I poked around a bit. Yes, I could see the Inbox. Yes, I could assign categories to questions. Yes, I could click "Reply" to questions.

I made it!

I did a little semi-elated dance in my chair. I'm sure my cube-mate thought I was quite crazy. But then, I am. And I don't even care!

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

I'm living with my cousins in Albuquerque for the summer. I really quite enjoy it since they live far enough away from Salt Lake that I really haven't had a chance to get to know them as well as I have some other cousins. Last night my 15-year-old cousin "Jeff" and I stayed up until about 11:00 while he played PS2, at which point his mom came downstairs and told him it was time to go to bed. I've been enjoying my position in the house as parent-helper, so when I saw he was hesitant to go to bed, I decided to try my hand.

Me: "Jeff, do you know what you need to do?"
Jeff: "No, what?"
Me: "You need to sing a song."
Jeff: "What???"
Me: "Yeah. You need to sing a good-night song to your teddy bear."
Jeff: "I don't have a teddy bear! He's a monkey!"
Me: "Oh. Well, you need to sing a good-night song to your monkey."
Jeff: "What song?"
Me: "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
Jeff: "You're weird."

I proceeded to accompany "Jeff" up to his room. I kept on him about it, and eventually, between his giggles, he got out one round of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." It was awesome. I mean, how often do you hear an almost-16-year-old guy singing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to his stuffed monkey?

He then went to bed, so I guess I can count my experiment as a success.

I love my life.

Yellow

Yellow, it was. All of it. Every bit. Nothing I could do about it. So I didn't. My only choice was to write a blog about it. So here I am.

Anyway, welcome to the blog of Yellow. This being my first post, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm a BYU Junior of the male persuasion. Life for me is all about collecting stories. Some experiences are funny, some are sad, some are just plain silly, but they all become a part of you. So then it's all about learning to see my experiences in a good light so that my stories are happy, not tragic. This being my philosophy on life, I tend to tell a lot of stories. It's almost a favorite pasttime of mine.

Welcome to the repository of Yellow's stories.