The Dating Cycle

Minor Disasters

Do you ever have those things in your life that you repeat often, and you think, "One of these days, I'm going to lose my concentration and this routine thing is going to go very badly on me." Today that thing went badly. But humorously.

So, every Tuesday and Friday I water the plants in my office. We normally keep a jug here with water in it that we refill every so often, and of course the water was out today. Since there is NOBODY ELSE AROUND, I didn't really have anyone to forward my phones to in order to refill the water, and its just down the hall, so I simply hurried.

Now, we refill the water in the janitorial closet, which has a large hose attached to the water. Often, when I am filling up my water, I think to myself, "If I turned on the pressure too high, this hose could go flying and spray water everywhere." Which is normally what keeps me from turning it on high.

Well, I wasn't thinking today, and I stuck the hose into my water jug, and turned it on high, and BLAST! Water started spraying everywhere, I had to catch the hose mid-air, I had water dripping off my face, and I'm just grateful that nobody in leadership saw me. Though I will probably as to see it again when we watch the post-mortal review of our life, because I think it would be super funny to watch.

I am now very grateful that I don't have to wonder "what if?" when I think about turning the water to full pressure. Now I know.

I love power tools!

A couple weeks ago, I spent a Saturday morning helping my dad fix a tree that broke during a snowstorm last winter. The storm hit while there were still leaves on the tree, and the weight broke the tree in half. We were worried that the tree would die, but this spring it started blooming!! Dad contacted our local garden store about what to do. They said that we should have tried to fix it last winter when it first broke. "Okay, well, we can't do that anymore. What now?"

They suggested that we prune the tree to remove excess weight, then bolt it together where it snapped. Dad was going to climb into the tree to do the drastic pruning, but I convinced him to let me get into it instead.  I got to climb a ladder into the tree, then cut the branches using his chainsaw. SO MUCH FUN!!! There were a few moments where I felt off balance, but otherwise I felt pretty stable up there, and I really loved using the chainsaw.

My favorite moment came when dad told me to cut the branch that was directly over my head. To clarify, I pointed at said branch, and said, "Really? This one? This big heavy branch right over my head? You want me to cut it off?"

"Yup."

Trusting my dad, I cut the branch, and instead of falling right onto my head like I thought it would, it got caught in the other branches around it and only fell NEAR my head.

Anyway, we got the tree trimmed down, we used some fun pulley-systems to pull the broken halves back together, and now our tree has bolts right through its middle. It will now be our "Frankenstein's Monster" tree. Lets just pray lightning doesn't strike and set the tree to life.

Happy Spring!

Spring has come to temple square, which means that I have a very hard time concentrating at work because all I want to do is look at the flowers outside of my window. I've decided I want to create a planter for my back patio, which will be my little paradise at home - I'll have my deck chairs and table, a small bbq grill which I got for Christmas, and then as many flower/vegetable planters as possible. I'm excited, and I hope it will all fit.

And in an unrelated topic, (because I love to choose two unrelated topics and combine them in the same post), I love my nieces and nephews. There is really nothing more rewarding than walking up a hill and having your nephew run towards you and give you a huge hug, and then to have his younger brother jump into your arms and for another huge hug.

Did you notice how a huge theme of conference was on families and rearing children? Sometimes that can get hard to apply when you don't have kids. However, there ARE children in my family whom I love with all my heart. So, although I can't give my love to any children or a husband right now, I'll just give extra love to those precious 8 children whom I am honored call me "Aunty Em." (Well, they don't actually call my Aunty Em, but I'm trying to convince everyone that it would be awesome if they do. And if one of my future nieces is named Dorothy and she gets a dog named Todo, all the better.)

An open letter

Dear Guy Friend,

I get it – from the moment we met, you immediately felt like I was “one of the guys.” You trusted me, you felt comfortable around me, and you put me in the friend zone so fast I never knew there was any other “zone” with you. That’s fine. I understand completely about platonic feelings. But here’s the thing – you are still interacting with a woman, and you should at least try to act like a gentleman towards me. So, for the future, let me lay out some ground rules for our “friendship”:

1.   If you want to complain about other girls to me, be specific. I get it, you have been burned by girls before, and you are upset and hurt. If you want to rant to me, at least be specific. If you say “Mimi is absolutely insane,” I interpret that as: Mimi is insane. If you say, “Girls are insane,” I interpret that as: I’m a girl, therefore you think I’m insane. Thanks so much for the self-esteem boost.

2.   Don’t complain about dating. Again, I get it – you hate dating. Well boo hoo, so do we all. It hurts to put yourself out there, to be rejected, to go through the standard first date questions. Here’s  what hurts though – when you say that there is nobody out there that you want to date, and that all the good ones are taken, I’m sitting there thinking, what am I, chopped liver? Again, it hurts our self-esteem to think that we aren’t even good enough for you to take on a date. You’ll take an insane girl out and then complain about her, but you won’t take me – all that tells me is that I’m not good enough.

Okay, that’s really all I can think of. And as I contemplate this further, I’ve decided that I hate being “one of the guys.” I hate being a purely platonic friend. If you want to complain and whine, go find a guy friend to talk to. If you want to take me on a date, call me on the phone and ask for a date. And if you don’t want to take me on a date, then leave me alone. Because I need some esteem left to convince myself that someday, somewhere there might be a guy who actually wants me.

Sincerely,
Me

And more injuries. . .

I ran into a tree branch yesterday while playing with my nieces and nephews, and now I have a slight cut on my forehead. I feel like Harry Potter, except that while his forehead scar symbolized his mother's love and his triumph over a dark lord, my cut simply symbolizes that I got bested by a tree.

And my mother has now admitted that I am indeed a klutz. She thought for years that I was graceful, simply because I apparently did well in my ballet class as a child. But since I started pointing out to her all of my falls and injuries, she has now admitted it - I am indeed a graceful klutz. And proud of it.

Adventures in Renting

So, on a Thursday in July, I came home from work and noticed that my A/C wasn't working any more. Now, keep in mind, this was the NEW A/C unit that that installed the end of June. It barely lasted a month. It was blowing air, but it was hot. I quickly sent off a note to my apartment complex to put in a work order. I hoped that they would get to it Friday, but when I got back it was still warm. No word through the weekend (which, thank heavens, was a rainy weekend which kept temperatures down, otherwise I might have moved back into my parents house for a bit), so on Monday I contacted them again to see what was up. They said that the repair man was at my apartment now, and he should be fixing it.


The remainder of this story can be told by the notes that I found on my door each night, from the repair man.


MONDAY:

I determined the problem with your AC is on the roof, but I cannot go up there in the rain and lightning. I will put it first place for the morning. Thanks, Brian


TUESDAY:

Your AC was out of refrigerant, which should not have happened with the new unit. I re-filled it and it is now working good, but please let me know if it happens again, and I will do my best to solve it quickly. Thank you, Brian


Update: I came back @ 2:00, the refrigerant has all leaked out again. . . I will contact our specialist and let you know what we decide. I am sorry for the delays. -Brian


WEDNESDAY:

I have found the leak and am going to get parts. I have to go to Orem, and am not sure if it will be in stock or have to be ordered. Please know I am doing my best to solve this for you. Thanks, Brian


At this point I felt the need to leave a note for HIM, telling him that I understood and appreciated all that he was doing to help with my conundrum. I wanted to leave cookies to suck up to him and make him feel better about himself, but I was worried he might think that I spit in them, so I just made sure the note was extra nice.


THURSDAY:

A/C is working now. I need to fix a pipe, and your furnace door that I broke. I will be back in the morning. You may use the A/C. Some water may drip inside the closet, but it's not a big deal and I will have it solved.
Thanks, Brian


FRIDAY:

Everything should be working right. If something should go wrong please feel free to call the emergency line and I will do my best to solve it. (please don't tell others I said your A/C will count as an emergency, I usually don't count them as such) - Thanks. Thank you for your patience while I fixed it. -Brian

- We added all new oils to your A/C with all the modern gadgets - it should be the best in the complex now.

Note, on the front of all these notes is a printed page with an option to check whether the work was completed or not. He had a huge circle around "work completed" with a big smiley face. I think he was just as glad to stop coming to my apartment as I was to finally have my air conditioner working.