A Lot of Fun

Saturday afternoon, I got a text from a member of the Bishopbric, asking me to handle Family Home Evening the following Monday.  I haven't been shy about complaining when I think an activity was less than ideal, so I knew if I was going to do it, it needed to be really good.  Following the advice of my parents, I talked to my little brother, Isaac, for some ideas.  He had several, but one in particular stood out: Pictionary.

In preparation, I wrote down 25 different scripture stories, ranging from "Nephi breaks his bow" to "The Mount of Transfiguration" and cut up the paper so that each prompt was on a thin strip.  I also baked some chocolate chip cookies for the treat, but that's just my style.  I put all the prompts in a trilby I inherited from my grandfather for people to draw out of and went to the church.

At the actual gathering, I gave a brief lesson based on 1 Nephi 19:23 about the importance of likening the scriptures to our own lives and even had a few people participate.

Then we played Pictionary, "likening" the scriptures by using drawings.  I counted everyone off to avoid friends being on the same team which might have created an unfair advantage, but it didn't really matter.  Team II dominated Team I.  Even so, members from both teams said more than once, "This is a lot of fun."  (For those curious, the easiest clue was "Jonah swallowed by the whale" and the hardest was "Paul seeks an audience with Caesar.")

I had fun preparing for Family Home Evening and I'm glad everyone had fun, but I'm also glad that it's not my regular calling.

New Uncle

It is now public knowledge that Ian and Sherlin are engaged to be wed.  I know that they will be happy together and I'm so happy that I got to be a part of their announcement by taking their engagement photos.  But today I'm going to talk about something related to me.

Ian and Sherlin have me over for dinner every other Sunday when they have their kids.  It's great to see Clara and Henry, but also Iris and Aeva, Sherlin's two girls.  I guess seeing me around so often and hearing Clara and Henry always call me "Uncle Jordan" had and effect, because the last time I visited, Aeva kept calling me "Uncle Jordan," while laughing hysterically.  Just a little girl playing a game, right?

Well, yesterday I visited Ian and Sherlin to take their engagement photos, but the kids were with their other parents.  Ian called and talked to his kids for a bit, then Sherlin called and talked to hers.  When Aeva got on the phone and heard that I was visiting, she asked to speak to me.  We didn't talk for very long, but I was really touched that she wanted to say hi.  Then Iris got on the phone.  I left the room to give Sherlin some privacy for her call, but I must have laughed at something because Iris heard me and asked, "Is Uncle Jordan there?"  The kids hadn't been told about the engagement yet; they just started think about me as part of their family.

I'm looking forward to being Iris and Aeva's step-uncle, at least officially -- I'm already their uncle-in-heart.

Meet-cute

At Church on Sunday, before Sacrament Meeting started, I noticed a girl who I hadn't seen before.  She was cute and I made a point to introduce myself once the meeting was over, but I was delayed and when I looked over to where she had been sitting, she was gone.  I shrugged it off and I went to teach Sunday School.

After Priesthood was over I went to collect my container that I had brought the cookies in from the Relief Society room, when I saw the cute girl from earlier.  I took advantage of the second chance and walked over and said "hi."  The reason I hadn't seen Leah (the girl's name) before was that she had just gotten back from vacation in Washington State where she was visiting her sister for the past three weeks.  We were really hitting it off and I was getting ready to ask for her number when some guy walked up and started talking to us.  With the guy standing right there, it felt awkward to ask for her number, so I simply told her that it was nice meeting her and left, though I decided that when I saw her next Sunday, I would ask for her number.

Monday evening, I got an email from an LDS dating site, telling me that I had a new message.  This surprised me because while I had set up a profile on the site, I thought I had deactivated it.  Curious, I went to the site to investigate.  Now, with dating sites, you can set up a profile for free and can even send other users messages, but in order to read the messages you receive, you have to pay a membership fee.  I had never paid that fee, so I couldn't read the message.  However, I was able to see who sent it.  Then, I went and looked at who had recently viewed my profile, which you can also do for free.  Sure enough, the last person who had viewed my profile was the same one who had sent me the message.  I clicked on the profile and saw that it was Leah from church the day before.  Turns out I wasn't the only one who was interested!  Since I couldn't read her message, I looked up her email in the Ward directory and wrote her a new email, explaining why I didn't respond to her message through the dating site.  I also gave her my phone number.

The next morning, I got a text from Leah.  Because she works evenings at a group home for developmentally disabled adults, she starts work right before I leave the office.  But she's able to text while at work, so we've been in communication ever since.  (She's 29 and also divorced with no kids.)  I suggested that she meet me for lunch near my office, so we could see each other before the weekend.  She accepted.  That's how I had lunch with a cute girl named Leah today.  I had a really great time and we're already planning to see each other again on Saturday (and on Sunday, too, of course).

I don't know if Leah and I will make it past the second date, but it sure is great to have met someone who's just as interested in me as I am in her.

Full Weekend

I know that it's a cliche that Mondays are so hard because they destroy our weekends, but I think Mondays are one of my favorite days of the workweek: everyone's coming back from the weekend, so expectations are lower compared to other days and it's the beginning of the week, so you aren't burned out from the corporate grind yet.  It's a nice balance.  And occasionally, it's nice to come back to work after a long, busy weekend.  The latter is what I experienced today.

What happened that wore me out?

• On Friday after work, I drove to DC for a joint-ward baptismal temple trip; afterwards, I went and got food with some girls from my ward, plus Jenn (the girl I met at the temple a couple of weeks ago -- we've decided to be friends, so it was nice to see her again)
• On Saturday, I went to the Post Office right as it opened in order to pick up a package (a new Kitchenaid stand mixer that my mom sent me -- thanks, Mom!) and then went to the church to help clean: I was the only representative from the Elder's Quorum (and I was late)
• Also on Saturday, I laid out by my apartment complex's pool; at my dermatology appointment last week, I was diagnosed with vitiligo and the doctor recommended that I get more sun exposure, so I figured that I might as well try to get a tan on my torso as well (yes, I'm sunburned, but only mildly so)
• In preparation for Sunday, I used my new mixer to make some double chocolate cookies
• On Sunday, I taught Sunday School -- it's not a new calling, I was just filling in for the regular teach who was on vacation; I incorporated the cookies into my lesson and then passed them out (and then I made sure the leftovers were passed around in Relief Society)
• My lesson apparently made an impact because after priesthood meeting, the bishop called me aside to tell me that he had gotten some positive feedback from some of those who attended the lesson (and he didn't even mention the cookies) -- I guess word travels fast
• After church, I asked if anyone wanted to go to a fireside at the DC Temple Visitor's Center that evening, saying that I would be happy to drive, I just didn't want to go alone
• I thought it was a YSA fireside; it wasn't
• My passengers were a sister who was baptized about about ten months ago and a brother who had just moved in the Friday before; I think they both got more out of the fireside that I did (I don't regret going, I was just really annoyed at myself for misunderstanding the nature of the meeting)
• After dropping people off, it was nearly 10 PM by the time I got home (for those keeping score at home, that's two trips to DC and back in three days)

As you can see, I had a valid reason for looking forward to starting work again today: I needed a regular work day just to take a break.

Cumbersome Clothes

I've had a rough week.  I had a big long drive on Monday to and from Annapolis for my dermatology appointment.  Then, in the evening, I attended Family Home Evening with the Singles' Ward, which meant a twenty-five minute drive each way to the chapel.  On Tuesday, I had a big long day working with the video production team, which saw me take a late lunch and not leave the office until after 7 PM.  Then this morning, I got to work just after 7 AM because my apartment complex sent out a notice demanding that all residents vacate their cars by 7 so that they could repave the parking lots and I figured I might as well go in to the office early.

All of this really wore me out.  When I was at work, I described how I felt to one of my coworkers as feeling like I was wearing a suit made out of mattresses.  It sounds silly, but all of my limbs felt overly large and heavy.  It took me until about 3:30 to figure out that I actually had a fever, but once I did, I got permission to go home (only find that my lot hadn't even been paved).  Hopefully, all I need is rest in order to recuperate because I'm tired of wearing my phantom mattress suit.

Temporary Eczema

I saw a dermatologist today.  Apparently, dermatologist are in high demand here, so I had to drive to Annapolis for the appointment.  Thankfully, she was able to render a diagnosis: eczema.  She said that she didn't know what caused it but that that was fairly unimportant since the treatment would be the same regardless of the source of the condition.  So now I have to apply a topical steroid cream for the next two weeks; after that, I should be fine.  And even though we don't know what caused the eczema to appear, the likelihood of it becoming chronic is extremely low.

Honestly, the toughest part about the diagnosis was the long drive there and back.  But the drive was well worth knowing what's wrong and that it's on its way out.

Audience Participation

Now that I'm on Facebook, I share smaller things more regularly.  That ability to post constantly makes it tough to know what works best for Facebook and what works best for this blog.  In the case of Independence Day, I went into more detail on this blog than on Facebook, but I still posted about the exact same things in both places.

Additionally, I've been struggling with thinking up content to post here.  For most of the last three years, I've written out the post for the next day the night before so it can go live in the morning.  But for the past several weeks, I've barely gotten each day's entry out before midnight and I completely missed Wednesday's post this week.

So, rather abandon this blog -- because it is important to me -- I am asking you, dear reader, to leave comments to help give me some ideas about how I can do better with my posts.  Offer suggestions, tell me what you like about the blog, tell me what posts made a big impact on you.  Should I only talk about my daily life or should I try to include more essays?  What do you come to this blog for and how can I do better at meeting your expectations?  Now, this will only work if a lot of you participate.  I know that not everyone who has access to this blog reads my posts regularly, but for those of you who visit at least once every couple of weeks, please leave me some kind of feedback.

I look forward to reading your comments and, hopefully, improving my role as a blogger.

Tuesdays with Media: Patriotic Compressor

For the Independence Day tweet from my office, I took a blue reciprocating compressor and spray painted an American flag on it.  The stencils I used I had to hand-cut myself and, despite never having done this sort of thing before, I think it turned out really well.

My boss, Magda, hadn't seen the finished product until this morning and when she did she was floored.  She kept saying things like "Wow!" and "That's amazing!"  Plus, even though the photo has only been online for a short time, it's the second most retweeted post we've ever had (the title holder is still the one from Valentine's Day).  Here's what the process looked like:

This was a weird project to work on, but I'm glad I did it; I had a lot of fun.

True American Independence

On July 4, 1776, our nation's forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence, severing ties to England and ending their oppression at the hands of King George III.  To commemorate that fateful day, we as a nation eat flame-cooked meat and blow stuff up.

The first part of the traditional celebration was handled by my good friend Mark Simcik, whose grill-roasted chicken recipe was perfected over the course of a decade.

 That sauce is a homemade recipe and it's awesome.

Me with Lori and Mark.

As for the blowing stuff up portion of the day, I left that to the professionals while I watched from a safe distance with Jenn, the woman I met at temple on Friday.

The rain had left the ground wet, but we made do with a jacket and a backpack.

You know it's a good fireworks display when the crew lighting the rockets are in danger of smoke inhalation.

This was a great holiday, spent with both old friends and new.  My only regret is that I didn't have more time with both parties, but there's only so much time in the day.

Mild Success

I attended a YSA temple night tonight.  It was the most packed I've seen the Endowment room in quite a while.  And while the session was uplifting and quite nice, my main motivation for going was the fact that after the session was over, we all met in the cafeteria in the basement for snacks and hanging out.

The promised snacks (cookies) were replaced with something else entirely (a vegetable tray), but there were singles from a much greater area than just my ward, which I liked.  In fact, I met one woman from the Columbia Stake, which is the stake I was in while I lived in Ellicott City.  We were talking with the group, but I noticed her noticing me (because I was noticing her) and as we were leaving, I asked for her phone number.

And she gave it to me.

So far, we've only texted each other enough to confirm that we have the right numbers, so don't read too much into it, but it feels good to get my feet a wet in the dating world.