I Need A Brain De-fogger

One of the worst things about being sick, or at least being extremely sick, is that even when you begin to feel better your mind still feels like it is full of cobwebs. Maybe this isn't the case for everyone but it certainly is for me. I woke up this morning to severe chest congestion, pain in my ears and a fever of over 100 degrees. I went to see the doctor who promptly drugged me up in an effort to alleviate my symptoms. I followed the doctor's orders and went back to sleep after taking my medicine and ever since my fever broke around noon today I have felt much better. At least now I feel like I can function albeit a little more slowly than on a normal day.

Despite feeling better my head is still very cloudy (probably a side effect of having four different drugs in my system at the same time) and I feel like I want to do something at least somewhat productive. Nothing big, but something like doing the dishes, or folding the laundry. It would be wonderful if I can find the energy to finish my homework for today since I just got caught up yesterday and don't really want to fall behind again, but let's not be too hasty after all.

All in all I may not get anything done today which bothers me, but in return I should be feeling much better by the time I wake up tomorrow morning for class. Well, I hope I'm feeling much better by the morning at least.

This Week Should Be Better

I am pretty sure that no matter what this week will be much less stressful than last week; or at least it better be because I was not a very happy person for most of last week.

It is snowing again today which seems ridiculous to me. There cannot possibly be an explanation for why we need to have a snow flurry every five or six hours. I would love it to just warm up and stay that way from now on. This has been a very cold and very long winter for me and since I am convinced I suffer from some mild form of seasonal depression it would be great to get this dreary weather over with.

I've got big plans to get things done over the next seven days. They include finishing all of my homework before Saturday, working a complete 20 hours for the first time in awhile, spending a little time doing a bit of creative writing to post on Writers Block, watching the BYU basketball game on Wednesday if possible, attending the meeting for Impact Magazine on campus to try and get some technical writing experience, doing some pushups, getting the water pump fixed on the car and likely about seventeen other great ideas that I can't remember at the moment. If I accomplish half of this list I'll feel pretty good, more than that and I'll be puffing my chest out like nobody's business. Oh, and on top of all that I have a floor hockey game to play goalie in as well.

Frosting On My Car

This morning, despite many warnings by the weatherman, I was not happy to wake up to find snow covering the ground and falling from the sky. I am just one of those people who thinks that once the weather decides to warm up it should not regress down into bitter cold again. It simply isn't fair if you ask me. On a funnier side of my world being blanketed in the evilest white I've ever seen is that when I went out to clean off the car I found the snow to be so heavy and moist that I felt as though I were scraping off the excess frosting from a cake. It was an awkward feeling I promise.

I've almost completed all of the homework previously left behind in a fit of wanton abandon which is improving my mood. Of course, Holly has ways of improving my mood so she fixed my very, very, very bad day I was having yesterday by allowing me to skip a class and spend time with her instead.

There was a massive brawl during the Ottawa-Buffalo game last night over a late hit on the Sabres team captain Chris Drury (formerly of intensely popular Avalanche fame). It started a full on melee after the next face-off which was capped by Ray Emery and Martin Biron duking it out at center ice. Something about the level of loyalty between players in hockey is what makes me like this game so much. If someone messes with your goalie there is no hesitation, you make sure and let them know you are there. The same thing goes when someone puts a headhunter out on your star player during the game which is what happened last night. No mercy folks, hockey is for the big boys who aren't scared to get into a scrap.

Yep, I'm Tired Today

I woke up this morning and was not looking forward to the day ahead. As a matter of fact, I'm still not looking forward to today much at all. I just feel kind of stressed the last couple of days but I can't pinpoint why, so I'm trying to just not worry about it much.

I had homework to do last night and I got most of it done before it was due in class today, but it meant that I had to stay up a little later than normal to finish. I didn't think I would have much trouble staying up late, but now that Holly and I have a routine of heading to bed between 10:30 and 11:00 it was a little more difficult than I imagined so I am running on an empty tank of gas with too many things to do today. I'll make it though, no worries.

Goal Accomplished

Well, one of my main goals for the past couple of weeks has been to score an actual goal for the ward floor hockey team. I accomplished that last night (albeit against a team of girls). I was looking forward to playing a team that might challenge us a little bit, but still give me the chance to make some saves if for nothing more than practice sake. However, what wound up happening is that the girls knew what they were doing and were very organized but our team just out muscled them for the most part. I played goalie for the first two periods and faced a grand total of zero shots, so in the third period I wanted to go and get in on the action seeing as how the team had never scored a goal before.

Next week the tournament starts and I'll be back to playing goalie for the whole game which is something I thoroughly enjoy and I really hope now that we have figured out how to score we can put some points on the board and actually contend with a win or two. That would be a lot of fun for me because I really do like playing.

Tonight Holly and I have our first official non-family member get-together/dinner with another couple from the ward. We are going to have some delicious dinner followed by a movie at the dollar theater.

The Joy Of Relationships

Part of being alive is the fact that all of us have to be involved in some kind of relationship at some point in our lives. Sometimes those relationships are forced upon someone but most of the time a person gets to pick and choose the relationships that they want to be in. Over the last couple of years my relationships with people have changed as I've matured and adjusted to new ways of life following a mission and as I've realized the more serious nature of the life I currently live versus the one I lived in high school.

Since making a change in my own life in how I interact with people I have at times been fascinated by the ways that others move through their relationships with others. For some people it is an intense "do or die" lifestyle that leaves them on an emotional high or low depending on what other people are doing around them. Then there are people who I could swear give no thought to the relationship and just let things happen as they will. For myself I think there is a balance between the two.

There is no set way to build a relationship with someone, if there was, what would be the point of living? There wouldn't be a point, none at all. Each relationship is something that must be built from the ground up; I am not a believer in the idea that each one has a mold you start with; I think they are completely unique each and every time. For example, the relationship I have with my wife is built very differently from the ones I have with my friends such as Shawn and Paul. As a matter of fact, the relationship I have with those two friends is exponentially different anyways. I enjoy each one though and except for some minor tweaks and adjustments that could just as easily be forgotten as made I wouldn't change anything about them.

Another thing I've noticed is that there is no set time limit for relationships either. You could begin one at the end of a school semester and by the last week of summer vacation have it dwindle into nothing more than a casual acquaintance that you may happen to bump into four years later, or perhaps a relationship starts one day in class and blossoms into something that 25 years into the future has nurtured seven children, two grandchildren and a pet hamster. The opportunities are infinite and that is something I think is very important about relationships.

Despite all the thinking we can do about a person and what they look like, sound like, behave like there is no way of knowing how our relationship with that person will be until we decide to drop all of our preconcieved notions and give them an honest chance. I've fallen victim to that curse once or twice in my life and there is still one individual I refuse to have any interaction with because of the things I "perceived" were wrong with him and the situation. Did I ever know the facts about everything? I severely doubt it, but if I had who knows if I would have had one more friend to add to the list.

Here is a prime example for your consideration: My entire life, even through the completion of my mission I had a prepared model for the type of girl I was going to marry. Everyone around me probably had the same one. I thought I would only be happy if I was married to someone who sat in a chair and read books for hours; someone who had the exact same habits as me. Someone who liked to have lots of quiet time to do nothing or who had hobbies similar to mine. However, I was dead wrong. Anyone who knows my wife will agree that yes, she may be fine reading a book for hours and with having quiet time, but she also loves to party. Six months into being married to her I wouldn't trade the loud parties or the constant interaction with other people for anything in the world. I readily admit that I don't handle such interaction nearly as well as she does and sometimes I just float into the background and let things roll, but I love to see her happy when she's "relationshipping" with other people in a sense.

My wife and I have very different ways of running relationships with our friends and families but the systems we both have in place work wonderfully for us. I believe that there are not many people who actively think about their relationships with others and how what they say or do, or how what two friends say to each other affects them personally, but I do, its just kind of my thing nowadays. Somewhere deep inside I have a desire to try and in small unseen ways make sure that everybody has every chance to keep relationships alive because I really do believe that whatever form they may be in (excluding bad or inappropriate) they are essential to finding happiness in this day and age.

I'm Ready For A New Week

I am willing to admit that perhaps the only really great thing about this past week was Valentines Day because it was the one day where everything went well for once. I got my car back that day and it cost much less than anticipated and I also got to spend all sorts of time with my wife having fun. Other than that, this past week can be pretty much erased and I won't mind too much, if at all.

My wrist is feeling better which has put me in a significantly improved mood. I still have lots of homework to catch up on though because I have been without a computer for a while now. It should make it back to me today though, so that is nice. I plan on spending the majority of the day tomorrow while Holly is at work getting some review in and catching up nicely for the coming week.

Posting on this blog is one of my goals for the year as previously mentioned, but as of late I just can't think of anything worthwhile to say. I wanted it to be more than just an online journal because I understand that gets boring for most folks very quickly. Alas, nothing very interesting has occurred for me to write about.

Weekend From Hell

I swear that if I ever figure out why it is that the universe decided to stop liking me all of the sudden I will personally wage war upon its very existence. Well, at least that was the way I was feeling yesterday anyways. Let me explain why. 1. The clutch on the car decided it was done living and shredded itself in all sorts of lovely ways that require lots of money to fix. 2. My wrist made a decision not to get along with its tendons or something which creates lots and lots of pain. 3. My computer is broken in countless manners prompting its need to be sent away for a week and a half. 4. The weather was gloomy for three days (warm, yes, but gloomy nonetheless).

And now....the car will be fixed in half the time originally assumed, the computer will be on its way shortly, the car will cost half of what I thought, my wrist feels better and it's sunny outside. I'm glad its not the weekend anymore, let's leave it at that.

I Love Hockey

Sometimes it really does boggle my mind that there are not more people in this world that enjoy the game of hockey. It's just plain fun. I got the chance last night to play floor hockey with an intramural team from my ward and I had the time of my life. For the first two periods I played out on the floor and despite being severely out of shape I think that I held my own for the most part. I didn't do anything spectacular, but I made one or two decent plays. For the third period I played in goal and felt bad for letting two sneak in on me. One of them nobody would have had a chance at stopping and the second one took a bad bounce and I lost track of where it was in the crowd. I stopped a whole bunch of others though, so once again a decent performance. I wonder if they will let me play goalie the whole time next time since I managed to push my body to the brink by puking halfway through the game. That was all sorts of entertaining if you ask me. I really did enjoy playing goalie though, it's my favorite position to watch.

Of course, last night it had to start snowing again so I woke up to several inches covering my car. I really, really wish it would stop. Now it is just getting old.