Nerves

Sweaty palms.

Nausea.

Heartbeat that can be heard from 5 feet away.

Numb and tingly appendages.

A very shaky right leg.

That's what happens to me when I'm super nervous. This nervousness usually comes about because of a solo performance, whether singing or playing the violin. That's not good because I'm a music education major and those opportunities are frequent.

Last Friday (or yesterday. Wow. Time flies) I participated in the weekly student recital on campus. I sang "The Vagabond" from Songs of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Before the performance, I thought I was either going to faint or puke. I didn't do either. And I did alright.

Random photo from the mission:

Once a transfer, zones throughout the mission would get together and do fun activities. This particular zone activity was a "National Treasure" photo scavenger hunt on the National Mall. We were the orange team. We came in third. It was about 100 degrees that day with 95% humidity. LtoR Sister Kristy C, Elders me, Tanner R, and Andrew P.

Leap Day!

I would hit myself over the head multiple times if I didn't post on Leap Day! After all, this is day that happens only once every five years!

 Haha. Yes. Someone really said that. He/she may or may not be related to me...

So Leap Day...
     A grand day where 48 year-old men celebrate their 12th birthdays.

     A day where contracts of piracy are not met, and are therefore still valid.

     A day where Leap Day William emerges out of Mariana Trench to trade children's tears for candy.

     A day where you have to wear yellow and blue or be at risk of being poked in the eye and having your hair pulled.

     A day where you can do anything and everything you want because real life is for March!

    A day that had no real tradition until I watched 30 Rock's episode on Leap Day. Here's a clip.




Bahaha! So good. So good, indeed. If you have 25 minutes, I highly suggest you watch the episode in its entirety via this link here.

My Leap Day was rather uneventful, but I have a good four years to get these fun traditions talked up before the next Leap Day.

One of my readers wanted me to  post a photo of what I wore today, but I'm already in my pajamas and I don't want to change. So here's  a nice picture of me drawn in paint.

I wore a bright yellow short-sleeve shirt and blue Levi's. Woot.

Does anyone legitimately celebrate Leap Day? If you do, how do you celebrate?

Random photo from the mission:

This good brother is Charlie M. He was 84 years of age when this photo was taken. We were knocking doors, he let us in and showed us how he keeps busy during retirement: making patchwork quilts out of random fabric pieces he gets at thrift shops. He was a very nice man. Senile, but nice.

Razr

I have a super cool phone that does something that smart phones can't do. It flips open.

Yup.

You read correctly.

Flips.


Is there an app for that? I think not.

I could point out a bazillion things wrong with my phone, but I won't because I'm not paying for it.

Considering the age of this phone (I have a Motorola Razr. The original. 1.0. Not this droid business they're selling now), it still takes some pretty decent digital photos. Here are some to enjoy (the reason why I have them: the memory in the Razr is too small to hold a lot [meaning more than three, apparently] of photos so I sent them to my email to save. Ha):

SUU has a cool group of statues that I like to call "The Circle of Dead Guys." I think its legitimate name is the Centurium. I snapped this little picture on a Sunday morning while biking to church. The previous night gave us a sideways snow. I thought it looked cool. Hence this photo and this very long caption.

My friend Michael and I took a Sunday afternoon drive to Kanarraville, UT to do some soul searching and some man-to-man talking (and "off roading." Or more appropriately "trying not to get stuck on a muddy road when taking a scenic route"). Here are some pictures.

Sometimes (like every weekend) I like to bake sweets. One week I made cupcakes from scratch! Well, from a box. But I added eggs, water, and oil. But I did make the frosting (or is it icing? What's the difference?) from scratch.

This was Michael's first visit to Kanarraville! We saw many cool things like cows, horses, a dead deer, ravens eating a dead deer, native Kanarra children, houses, plants, and sky.

This photo was actually taken with Michael's phone which is also a flip phone made by Motorola. It might even be a Razr.

 I hope you found these pictures visually stimulating.

And now for the final picture, I present the random photo from my mission:

My last companion who is dear to my heart is getting married Saturday! Elder Kiegan S. I'm going to his wedding in Mesa, AZ. Yay! This photo was taken ten days before I came home. Kiegan came home six weeks after me.