a glimpse into my life as of late...

Many of you, my dear followers, have wondered what daily life is like for me down here in Utah. In response to the thousands of inquiries in your thousands of comments on my thousands of posts, I have taken the liberty to put together a little video that shows what life is like for me. I hope you enjoy!

Well, fun things are happening around these parts. This past weekend, I met up with an old mission buddy of mine, formerly known as Elder Belizaire.  He and I first met when we were in the MTC. He was introduced to me and I was told that he was going to the same mission as me, and so I thought out loud, "Wouldn't it be cool if we served together? Then we could be like Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice!" (see right) He didn't know who they were (nobody did, it seemed), and he actually didn't even speak good English at the time.I never really saw him during my mission until the last 6 months or so. We finally did serve together, in Lakeland FL. We had so much fun! Some of my best memories from my mission are with Belizaire. We did lots of work, we had fun and laughed a lot, and we were always so excited to go to Fred's Southern Kitchen for lunch. Fred's and Golden Corral are incredibly good places to eat as a missionary!Tubbs and I played basketball (mostly Tubbs), we learned how to drive together (mostly Tubbs), and we had tons of fun teaching and helping people in Lakeland. Here's some of the people we worked with:

Jodi

Melody and Christian

Jameson

It was fun seeing Tubbs again and catching up on old times — the only part that wasn't cool was the burly security/secretary guy who hassled us for about 10 mins on which doors we could and couldn't use and how we had to check in to see Tubbs at school. Kinda left a bad taste in my mouth....Good times though!

Lakeland Vice!

In Honor of....

Which famous actor do I look like?

This week I've decided to pay tribute to an old favorite....Summer of 2006. Way back in the day, my lady and I would always go out and play games, do some sort of physical activity (like climbing trees), and also dancing. That's a favorite of ours. This week Katherine and I attended a lesson on the Lindy Hop, which is not an easy dance to learn in half an hour. We caught on quick, as you can see below:

Yesterday we played Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of people at a Stake Activity — Katherine held her ground pretty good. She blocked a pass with her arm and the guy crumpled to the ground in shame! It was sweet, she has a real presence on the field! So that's the extent of my tribute to the past.
Now for the present....
BYU life is interesting — people are more and more frequently referring to me as "Beard-o" or "Beardey". It's growing on me. The beard, I mean. The hardest part about this limbo between BYU and Calgary, aside from the subterfuge of sneaking into classes, has been trying to figure out what to do about school. It would take just about as long for me to finish a film degree in Calgary as it would in BYU, but I sometimes wonder if a film degree is something I should be pursuing in this turbulent economy? I'm just kidding about the whole economy-thing, but I kinda wonder if a film degree is a viable option for someone who wants to provide for a family in the future? Of course a film undergrad degree doesn't doom me to a life/career within the film industry — in fact there are lots of options and places to go with a film degree as a starting point. But it's very uncertain, and I like stability.

Anyways, these are all things that are on my mind lately, as the adventure continues here in Provo! We'll see if we can get some posts/links/comments on the blog this time! Take care y'all!

Dear Life in These United States....

A funny thing happened to me today....actually it was Friday night. I am, as you may know, very heavy into High School Musical. Fun tidbit of movie-info: the high school that they used to film High School Musical is in Salt Lake City! It's actually called East High!
On Friday evening I and my ladyfriend (that's her beside me) found ourselves in Salt Lake City with some time on our hands before another social engagement. So we thought we'd stop by this school and see what we could discover.
Imagine my surprise, and utter consternation, upon arriving at the school to find that there was some sort of event taking place there and that the doors of the school were unlocked!
So in we went, adventuring and exploring and marvelling at the wonder and beauty of it all. Just kidding, but we did go in and check it out, and took some pictures!

This was my best attempt at an emotive Zac Efron, I mean Troy Bolton.
Maybe in HSM4 he'll come back to the school after having gone to college and grown a beard!

Anyways, a good time was had by all, except for the cadets trying to have a ball (literally) who were puzzled by a wandering couple smiling and giggling as they walked the empty halls of a school they're likely pretty tired of. Either way, it was a fun adventure, and only a prelude to the greater fun and chaos the summer holds in store for our heroes! (Hint: this means next entry will be interesting and possibly exciting too!)

I'm off to sneak into Stephen E. Robinson's New Testament class!

two weeks!

Hello all! This blog will be used to document my summer of fun in Provo, but more importantly the progress of my beard growth. Two weeks ago today was the last day that I shaved, and as you can see it wastes no time. Every once and again I tell people it's my playoff beard!

Yesterday I opened an account at Wells Fargo and the lady there said that it looks natural on me, as opposed to others who try and it comes out in patches. I fear I'm being spied on by the BYU Secret Police, but so far I haven't had any run-ins with the law.
One person I would like to have a run-in with is my sister-in-law! She's here for the Women's Conference, and I'd like to find her and meet all her little friends, but the place is crawling with women! I try to look only for the women with P-Cute's characteristics — blond hair, short — but there's tons of them! She's planted decoys everywhere! (Can You find P-Cute at the Women's Conference below? Neither could I!)

Irregardlessly, I'm having fun, getting settled, and figuring out finances is great! Thank goodness for credit cards and planning ahead!