where everybody knows your name

*quick note - thank you, everyone, for your stress reducing strategies. i feel much better now - only stressed in spurts, as opposed to constantly. i have made use of, or will be making use of, everything you all said, so you're all cool! (matt, i just have to tell you that when i read your list, before i even got to "light tan" i said in my head "poopies." that was incredible.)*

tonight we went to get some delicious indian food at the royal taj in tempe. it is so so good. and my favorite part is the fact that we are regulars. here is how it went -

we walk in and the one waitress who is always there pointed to the table we should sit at. she always asks if we want to sit somewhere else, but we never do. then she pointed at us all individually and rattled off our drink order (coke, diet, diet) and as she was walking away asked if we wanted a menu that time. we never do. she came back with the drinks and told us what our order was (two chicken tikka masala, one lamb korma, one rice, three garlic naan, all mild). we just nodded and off she went to the kitchen. now, you can't tell me that is not awesome. she knows us well enough not to ask if we want beer, or one of those crazy (slightly disgusting) desserts they bring complimentary. i feel like i'm in "cheers" except it is a lot less crowded. and there are no cameras.

only one request

for the last... while, i guess, i have been a little stressed, for various reasons which i will not disclose here. (actually, maybe more than a little stressed. maybe a lot stressed.) what i will disclose, however, is a few of my de-stressing techniques and their relative effectiveness, so maybe i can get some better ideas from those of you out there who would like to help a brother out... :) (and now i am stressing about the grammar in that sentence. woah bill.)

- eating carrot cake for breakfast. and i may have possibly eaten some for lunch as well... this didn't help very much. but i still feel like it was a good choice. i don't have much of an appetite when i am stressed, so at least i ate something. and carrot cake is much healthier than regular cake, right?

- watching the jazz win, three times! (thank you, tnt and nbatv) that may not have been the most effective technique either, but it was probably the most fun. oh how i love those boys, if you weren't already aware. d.will is in my top five list of favorite people i have never met.

- molly last week taught me about "getting into the gap." this is where you clear your mind and think about absolutely nothing, to make yourself relax. i have a feeling this method would have had the desired result if i could actually pull it off. sadly, i can't think about nothing. (which relieves a little stress. at least i know i'm not totally devoid of thoughts, which is an issue that has been weighing heavily on my mind.) try it, and you'll see what i mean. "think about nothing" is a thought. i think i may have achieved it the other night for about .3 seconds before i fell asleep but i'm not really sure that counts.

- driving around with music and windows down, my favorite pastime. it works alright, but it would be better to be driving with someone to talk to. all those of you who are thinking about visiting, or just coming over to hang out, now is the time. the weather is perfect, and i have all sorts of great conversation stored up.

that about sums it up folks. i need some help - anyone have any suggestions?

so much better off

yesterday as i was waiting to get into my classroom and teach my piano class, one of my students came up to me in tears. it was recital day, so i figured she was stressed about playing her song or her parents had told her they wouldn't be able to make it. i leaned forward and asked what was wrong, and her friend said this to me:

"we're going to the lost and found, because she lost her tooth."

after taking a minute to figure out what he meant, i successfully suppressed my laughter and told them to go look for it, and then come back so they could get ready for the recital. then i spent the rest of the afternoon thinking back to those good old simple days when a "lost" tooth was the most devastating part of my life.

get real

i know i just posted like .4 seconds ago, but i got on nba.com - like i do about fourteen times a day. i'm addicted - and saw this picture, and laughed my face off:
you're telling me they couldn't find a better picture of ronnie brewer and grant hill? it is quite possible that this is the goofiest photo ever taken of them, and it was posted at the top of an article! wow. that made my day.

more than i knew before

i hesitate in posting this, because i don't want to make everyone jealous. but i have to brag - i had two hot valentine's dates. that's right, i said two. let me tell you all about them -

hot date number one - my dad took me to the driving range.

sadly, i did not get any pictures of my mad skills (i forgot my camera). but to help you get an idea, think tiger woods, only twelve times better. and if you don't believe it, take me golfing with you sometime and i'll show off! after golfing, we went to get sushi. i love sushi with all my heart, but for some reason i haven't been much since i moved down here. so it was a nice treat.

hot date number two - dude and jessi brought scott over so i could watch him while they had some valentine's fun in downtown phoenix. and scott sure knows how to party! we had a blast - chasing the dog, playing patty cake, pounding the piano and guitar hero drumset, watching the slam dunk contest, trying to get him to walk so we could show mommy and daddy when they got back... (that last one was unsuccessful, sadly.) he was a joy, and can be my date anytime!

(i don't know what happened - scott looks a little frightened, and i look like the scary gum monster for some reason. seriously, why are they so big? this was the best i could do by myself, sadly.)

obviously, i had the best valentine's day anyone could ever ask for! thanks dude and jessi for sharing scott with me, and to my dad for helping me develop my awesome golfing skills!

let's kick it

today is my little brother michael's birthday. he is currently serving in the new york utica mission, and probably also currently freezing his arms off. i hope not though, because then he couldn't take artsy pictures like these ones he sent us from the first 6 months of his mission:

michael is probably the funniest person i know. he is always doing some goofy thing or another. he is the life of every party - he even has a party roof in his car! i love that kid, and i miss him like crazy, but i am so glad he is out serving the Lord.

oh yeah, and one more thing - he takes awesome pictures of sunsets, and sends them to us. he's so cool!

from beginning to end

today when i:

woke up - i looked at the clock and thought "why am i awake this early?" tried to go back to sleep, but i guess i was having none of that.

was driving - i looked at the snow covered mountains to the north and thought "there are snow covered mountains visible from here?" no wonder i have been so cold lately.

ate lunch at chipotle with molly - i looked at my food and thought "mmmm this is delicious. good thing there are chipotles around here." also, i thought "molly gives good advice, and i should listen to her."

drove home - i looked at the sunset and thought "yesterday i saw the sun rise and set." i think that has happened a total of 3 times in my life, and it was cool.

there are places i remember

my most embarrassing moment is a really good story, involving my first date, bare feet, and a really tall guy's leg... if you haven't heard about it, remind me to tell you sometime. you will not regret it. it will probably be my most embarrassing moment for the rest of my life, because i'm not sure there is anything that will beat it. however, i had an... incident... on sunday that may give that story a run for it's money.

when it comes to my car registration, i like to live on the wild side a bit. one time in high school, i was sluffing class on "official" rads business and got a ticket for having expired registration. then, last winter, i got another one in salt lake for the same thing. and then, on sunday, as i was leaving church with the rest of my ward, i got another one. there i was, pulled over on the side of the road, watching my ward pass me by, with the bright red and blue lights flashing in the background. lovely.

i wonder why these things happen when i am leaving church...

give me the beat

last night i went to the phoenix symphony with my friend annie. i got the tickets really really last minute, so i didn't have time to brush up on my symphony etiquette/procedure. i was racking my brain trying to remember all of the things i learned back in elementary school. despite the fact that i felt lost, it was a really great experience. that was the first time i had been in downtown phoenix (pretty pathetic) and i got to see all the cool things there were to be seen around there, like the decorations for the all star game next weekend, and the stadium where the diamondbacks play.

(annie and i in the parking garage, with some lights from downtown in the back.)

the symphony itself was probably my favorite part of the night though. i had an unbelievably busy weekend, so it was nice to have some time to sit down and relax. and think. i found myself wondering about the politics of an orchestra. who decided that the first violin was the coolest one? i mean, he seems like the assistant regional manager of the orchestra - the conductor and the guest musician kept shaking his hand. i think if i was in charge, i would want to make friends with the guy in the back who plays the big drums. if he was disgruntled in anyway, all he would have to do is hit his drum at the wrong moment and he could ruin the whole performance. he has the most power in the entire orchestra, and seems under appreciated. (matt, correct me if i'm wrong here. also, is it as tempting as i think it would be to just pound your heart out on one of those things? i feel like i would want to do that at least once, but i'm also pretty immature.)

i wore the wrong shoes though. by the time the night was over, my feet were angry at me. i walked back to the car barefoot, in the rain. cold, but awesome.

starting now i'm starting over

my little sister tagged me the other day, and i wanted to do it, so i am going to. but i'm going to do it a little differently - instead of 10 things that bug me, i'm going to post 5 things that bug me and 5 things that don't bug me. that way, i can avoid having bad karma (i hope). here goes:

five things that bug me

one- unfinished conversations

two- when people get mad at me for reading the end of things. i'm not hurting anyone, and i should be able to determine how i read books. i'm 25, for goodness sake :)

three- dropping toothpaste on my shirt

four- waking up at 6 am everyday, for no reason. why does this keep happening?

five- people who ask for favors passive aggressively -just ask. (or really, passive-aggressiveness in general, although i think i am guilty of it more often than i like to think i am)

five things i like

one- looking at old china pictures, and hearing from china friends

two- remembering a song i love on my ipod that i haven't listened to in at least eight months

three- clean sheets

four- re-reading old conference talks, like this one and this one

five- when i ask for advice and get just what i needed to hear

i'll be dreaming of the future

i always used to say, i like pro basketball and college football, and that's it. six months ago when i moved to arizona, i didn't expect to change my mind about that.

enter the 2008-2009 nfl season. (is it just 2008? someone should enlighten me...)

i have come to realize that most natives around here weren't cardinal's fans until they got to the super bowl. i can't say that i was really an exception to that (except i feel like i have a better excuse, having just moved to the state.) i liked the suns before i moved (not as much as the jazz, but i like them) and i'll probably always bleed cougar blue, and that was the way i expected things to stay. but watching those cards keep going and going and going and finally playing in the big game today, i am not ashamed to admit to being one of the new crop of cardinal's fans.

that super bowl game tonight is the best one i can remember watching. i have never really cared about an outcome in a super bowl as much as i did about the one today (maybe thats why the game was so good.) and even though it didn't turn out the way i wanted it to, it was a close, exciting game. i think i can safely say that i am an nfl fan these days, and the cards will be my team for life, bandwagon or not.