EFY: The Long Short Week

Even though it seemed like just yesterday I was passing out shirts for the newcomers, I am exhausted... this has been one EXTREME week!

And there are still four more to go...

Sunday: Technically our week starts on Sunday with the session director fireside. All the counselors from my session would be there, as well as the coordinators and building counselors and all the high-ups you know. Our session director was Brother Ryan Garner. Has anyone heard of him? After this fireside, I knew he was everything we expect of an outreach speaker: passionate, funny, knowledgeable, always relating to scriptures and general authorities. I would even rank him among the veterans we all know and respect like Scott Simmons, Brad Willcox, and Shaun Chidister. And now my name is in the front of his scriptures... I'll get to that part later.

Anyways, that night I got to meet my fellow co-counselors. There were three of them, one guy and two girls. I was actually the oldest of them all, the other guy being only two months off of his mission from Canada, and one girl being 19 attending BYU and the other 21 attending hair school somewhere. Both girls had boyfriends, so don't even go there...

Monday: I passed out shirts for registration. It got kind of monotonous so we tried to spice things up in various ways like throwing the shirts at the youth or talking in Spanish. Just after noon we met with our youth. I lucked out here, seriously. Only six guys, all 14, all pretty chill and well-behaved as the week progressed. Some were sociably awkward, so the only difficulty was breaking some of them out of their shell. Other than that, I was really impressed with how far ahead of their time these guys are. One of my boys was from Houston, actually. And he was a Jazz fan... gyargh!
There were 9 other guys in our company, the Keys of the Kingdom. 4 of them were immediately recognized and "fun", which is my euphanism (spelling?) for trouble. I ended up being good friends with these guys.
Quote of this day: "Flip the Baby!" (Brother Garner as he flipped his 6 month old Court in his arms, it was sweet)

Tuesday: We had classes today... Brad Willcox was there and he gave me a giant hug when I found a scripture for him. That guy is like a spiritual comedian! I made sure my boys weren't going to classes by themselves, so by the time it was free time I turned them loose so I could go get some shorts from the bookstore because I had forgotten any sort of pajama pants to sleep in. That can be kind of awkward with a roommate... At the dance that night I suffered my first casualty during a particularly crazy dance... my glasses. I put them in my pocket so I could head-bang and stuff, and they didn't stay there.
By the way, we were eating meals in the Morris Center. That was NOSTALGIC! When I would get my food, I almost automatically would start looking for Justin or my other freshman buddies to sit by. Did I mention Justin is engaged?
For everyone who memorized Mosiah 5:15, the theme scripture, and recited it to Brother Garner, you got to sign the front of his scriptures. I did that on this day, as well as two of my other boys.

Wednesday: One of my boys took sick this day, and the special four were out of control at games night. Kind of a long day... Getting 35 youth moving and motivated, much less organizing a cheer which was entirely up to them, is much like herding cats. So I felt the pain of my poor parents. That night before we had our pizza, I had a special devotional with just me and my co-counselor's 4 upstart youth. We had a good time and talked about what was happening, and I suggested they write apology notes to some people, like the girls in our company who complained to their counselor, Chelsea. Here are some direct quotes from that note:
"Dear Hot Chelsea..."
"We're sorry for stalking you..."
"We promise to show more respect by excurting (that word is supposed to be escorting) the girls..."
If you knew the guy who wrote it, it was freaking hilarious. I'm sorry....

Thursday: This was basically the intensely spiritual day that you can't blog much about, but after this day it was hard to believe that this week was going to happen four more times this summer. How do you repeat an experience like this?
At the variety show, you had the usual... the guys who thought they were all that because they wrote their own song and played a guitar, the uni-cyclist, the dancer, the kid who was named Leviticus and turned his feet backward (both very unique talents)... but that was about it. It was only about 45 minutes long.

Friday: We all hoped to end the week on a good note, but despite my special devotional on Wednesday, 3 of our ADD candidates were still not co-operating during the service activity of simply cutting yarn and wrapping it on tongue dispensers. I wonder if I was too nice to them... It all turned out well because we were cool at the dance and everyone had a great time. I got the chance to practice my social dance with another counselor. She's a dance major and doesn't go to BYU, so I probably won't see her again. Sorry dad.

Thus it was, though what is written here is not a tenth of what I truly experienced. I'm sorry, I know people hate it when people say this, but you had to be there.

So now what? I get some much needed sleep, but return to a world where I have nothing much to do for the next two weeks. But after this one, I really feel this is going to be one of the best summers ever. Who knows what lies in store?!

Brilliant Ideas

So, what if you and a bunch of friends choreographed a musical number that was supposed to take place RIGHT ON CAMPUS when nobody was expecting it! One person would just break into song like, "That test! It sucked! It blew my world!" and the girl from the other end of the square responds, "That food! It sucked! I nearly hurled!" and I would be like, "These pants, they're nice and my hair is curled!" And about 12 more people would all randomly fall from the crowd into a line dance with jumping and singing and hugging and stuff!!... Who could possibly have a bad day then? It would be like Saturday's Warriors in REAL LIFE! Wow...

Another week in Texas

Ya, so I stayed an extra week. Why? A few reasons...

Some would say that a good Friday night for me would be watching muppets with my cat... some would be correct.

Some would say that excessive whiskers are not allowed at the Y... and some would be too lazy to shave.

Some would say that I should stay for free labor, light-hearted company, and access to the most cutting-edge games of legos and z-bots... and again, some would be correct.

Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I know (da da da da da) it's my own pants fault.

In all honesty, there are lots of reasons, but one main reason can be summed up in one word: NAE!

It's easy to find her when she tells you where she is going to hide.

It's kind of Hot Outside

I should probably be outside shoveling dirt or moving junk out of the shed... but I'm hesitant to do so unless dad is here. I fear working for no purpose... you know, doing something wrong and making zero progress. What's the point in that? Character building?
Anyways, I don't have EFY until the 26th, so I might not shave until then. I have the little mustache going on, and it's not so hot, but who am I trying to impress here? It is starting to itch, unfortunately.
Last Friday I actually went on a date. I wasn't really expecting to do anything like it, but I did. Thanks Jonno. Anyways, it was with Jon's girlfriend's sister, so it didn't feel much like a date, but I do wish more girls were like her. She likes dorks without muscles... I could use this as a pick-up line, "Hi, I'm Todd. I watch muppets for fun, read girly books like Twilight, and I love the word 'pants' ". Well, we went to the Astros game and it was awesome! Friday night fireworks! What could ruin the night then?...
How about the Rockets getting knocked out of the playoffs by a big bunch of cheaters! If anyone remembers my "Lament" poem from 2004 about the Astros, I'm working on a new one as we speak.
This week has been kind of slow, just a lot of working outside. I did take mom to see Iron Man as an early mother's day present (so what if she paid!) and I thought it was bomb-sha-bomb. And dad's mower is so much fun I drove it three blocks just to mow Marianne's acre or so. Hoowah! I'm just getting warmed up!

I'm done...

Quality Time with Pops

One of my chief duties during this hiatus at home is being dad's chauffeur. Did I spell that right? In case you didn't catch that, it's the word that sounds like "show-fur"... Anyways, I got to drive him to Sugarland on Sunday and then to Austin today, which is the main theme of today's blog.
Dad and I attended the funeral of Matt Bruder today in Austin. Ya, I have no idea who he is either, but dad works with his dad and we got to know their family a little bit today. And for the second time in my life, I attended a non-LDS funeral, but this one was Lutheran and not Methodist. Interesting... it really is. I think lots of other faiths are catching on to the idea of eternal families and promoting similar ideas. Who wouldn't? The words said today concerning the life of the deceased were similar to those that we heard or said ourselves in January, but concerning belief and what happens now on this new "journey" of his... there was a lot more uncertainty. Not many people out there are really focused on the eternal scheme of things. Occasions like this bring it all more into perspective.
On a side note, we ate at Makeska's barbecue and I spilled sauce all over my pants... typical. We also got a few cases of Guarana, so if anyone needs a pick-me-up, stop on by and enjoy. Tomorrow is another big day, and not only because it's game six.
Did anyone else get really angry when the crowd in Utah chanted "over-rated" when T-Mac was at the line in game 4?