Big Boys Don't Cry

Growing up is an exciting adventure.  When we are young we long to be older so that we can do more.  When we become older we realize that with all we can do, what we must do is scarcely what we want to.  I am happy to report that my supervisor has returned to work with sufficient strength to continue experimentation.  Unfortunately for me, this came as my family decided to visit for a day.  They wanted to take me to a family fun zone to go play on go-kart, laser tag, arcade games, etc.  What I ended up doing was eating a quick breakfast, heading off to work, and returning in time to eat dinner with them and send them on their way home.  I don't always get to be with the ones I love, in fact I scarcely if ever do.  I don't get to play very much either.  Nonetheless I am content with being a hardworking young man.  If nothing else I have a sense of accomplishment?  Yes, I meant to put a question mark there.  I need to figure this out.

Monday

Mondays.....don't like me very much.  At least monday mornings don't.  This morning I woke up to my alarm clock feeling nice and refreshed, but I thought I would push the snooze and lay in bed for about 5 minutes.  As I lay there I started to hear a crackling sound.  I wasn't sure if it was a drizzle, a trickle, or a crackle.  Lately there has been a mouse issue so I automatically began to think that a mouse was eating my chocolates.  As I turned on the light I couldn't seem to see anything on the floor.  Then I looked on the bedside desk.  I had managed to knock over my water bottle, and it hadn't sealed completely!  Water was rushing all over!  It was already all over the wallet, dripping on the computer paper below, and a few drops were also landing on my laptop!!!  I never got up so fast in my entire life.  I whipped into action saving everything I could.  Then on the way to work I kept on getting stuck behind extremely slow people which made me arrive later than I would have liked.  When I found a parking spot, approximately 20 minutes after beginning the search I turned off the car only to realize I had forgotten my security badge.  Without that, I couldn't get into the lab!!  So I figured the best course of action was to walk over to the research offices, clear on the other side of the hospital campus.  When I arrived, guess what.....nobody was there.  Not my supervisor, not the administrative officer...nobody.  So I headed down to the lab hoping I could slip in when somebody swiped their card.  Eventually I got in....but only to discover my supervisor had gone to the ER over the weekend.  I was sent home.  From there things got better.  Ughhh, what a typical monday morning.  Thank goodness for Tuesdays. 

Dodgeball

Monday I think I made a terrible mistake.  After driving several hours to get home from California I attended the weekly FHE with the local singles group.  Among other things we decided to play dodgeball.  As athletic as I am, I really haven't been using my upper body lately.  So playing dodgeball it turns out uses a great deal of upper body muscles.  Long story short, my body hates me.  My muscles ache like never before.  It is a catastrophe trying to sleep or move, or well....really anything.  On the other hand, I had so much fun.  Its been a really long time since I played dodgeball and several chairs and tables were set up so it added an extra element.  On one of the games I was the last one on my team and three guys with very strong arms were left on the other team.  Fortunately they were also very arrogant and proud which worked to my advantage; I managed to get them all out and we won.  Its nice to see I still got the touch.  Well, even though my muscles ache now, at least I hadn't lost my accuracy and speed.  What is my conclusion?  Perhaps I should work on my upper body strength so I don't have to suffer the aches as much afterward.  Besides, its nice to maintain balance. 

Inside Jokes

Of all the things that are most universal among all cultures, surely inside jokes must be among the top.  Everywhere you go, and everything you do, its all so much more fun when shared with some but not all.  Think of an inside joke you have, if you told me....I would likely think you were silly or immature because I didn't understand (unless I''m on the inside of the joke).  Tonight I will share some inside jokes with you.  Enjoy my immature silly inside jokes.

"Hey, remember that one time when you told us a story.....the story about I don't know"

"I have small hands"......."Maybe you should get some burgers at Burger King"

"Hey, remember that time when we almost died, but we didn't.......scary car....who uses brakes anyway."

"They (Adam and Eve) were in a eternal state of innocence, happiness, and immorality"....."She meant immortality right?"

"Drama"

"I got these I-clickers for Mother's week"...."Did he just say you were my mom?"

"Twitter meets Pated.....and they were twitterpated"

"So do you remember the time you got pulled over by a cop at 3am?"....."You mean the 20 year old guy in wranglers, a baseball cap, and coat who pulled us over in a truck?  Yeah, I remember."

"MO"

California

Okay, its safe to confess now.  This weekend I took the liberty of surprising my girlfriend by showing up at her mission farewell.  If there has been an absence of blog posts, you can probably imagine that I may have been pre-occupied.  Anyway, the farewell is where a missionary prepares a talk  (speech, sermon, or whatever you want to call it) for the local congregation.  In a way it is to show how they have prepared for a mission and maybe excite the local congregation about missionary work.  She did a wonderful job.  I got to be there as she prepared her talk and I absolutely love her.  I'm so excited for the opportunity she has to learn, grow, and teach.

Let me tell you that surprising my girlfriend is nearly impossible.  We have a very strong connection and so we are very likely to sense that the other is up to something.  Believe me I had to jump through every hoop possible to keep it a secret, eventually even including a few white lies.  Even so, she thought I was up to something.  I distracted her by giving her an incomplete truth that some of her friends were coming to visit.  I knew who, and I was helping make arrangements for them.  This allowed me to slip in somewhat unnoticed.  I don't think I'll ever surprise her like that again even though she ended up being very happy to see me.  The flowers didn't hurt either.  Every time I see her though, it gets harder to go back to what I have to do.  I'm really going to miss her.  I already do.

1:00pm Traffic

Having lived in a somewhat big city for the last couple of weeks I've realized that traffic varies considerably with hour.  Rush hours really do exist after all.  Being raised in a small farming community, it was hard to judge if the rumors were true.  There are several tricks you have to learn in order to get where your going when your going.  Half the battle is finding a parking spot once you've arrived.  Today I got off work early.  Let me tell you that outbound traffic at 1pm is heavenly.  All green lights, nobody cutting you off, and no old folk doing 30 on the 55 portion of the highway.  Even the exit was clear, with only two or three cars ahead of me at the traffic light.  That same exit during rush hour is backed up at least a mile for 2 to 3 hours.  Thank goodness for an early start to a weekend.  I just might have a good weekend after all.  I know it could be better, but I welcome anything to make it better considering my circumstances.  Hope you enjoy your weekend too!!

Survival Tools

Survival is an interesting concept.  Survival is 90% preparation, 9% creativity, and 1% luck

PREPERATION-
   In order to survive there are several things you must learn before becoming stranded in any circumstance.  First on the list is to understand what is most important.  You can only go so far without...  Can you fill in the blank?  1- Water, 2- Shelter, 3- Food.  Because our bodies are such a high percentage of water that is first priority.  You simply cannot last long without water.  Shelter is the next priority to avoid illness, extreme temperatures, and protection.  Finally food, of course food in combination with the previous two items will make you a complete survivor because you need strength.  Strength is derived from food, believe me...I'm a biologist.  Remember there are several types of food.  Most important on the list for survival is meats.  Meats are so good because chemically they skip a few steps for you in giving off energy.  Yes, we need our greens, but if we are very malnourished, meat will help a lot.  Don't go too quick though, that can hurt just as much.

CrEAtiVItY-
  One of the things you can do to increase your chances of survival is to think like the locals.  By locals I mean the plants (in a forest, etc) or the people who live there (if lost in a Metropolis or somewhere else)  There are a few things you can carry around with you that may be of assistance.  A pocketknife is probably the most useful tool you can be lost with.  Next, consider the skill of using chopsticks (you probably won't find a fork in the wild) which can increase sanitation and double as a weapon if necessary.  I'd hate to be the one killed by chopsticks, can you imagine the embarassement of telling the others how you died.  Next, a mirror.  Mirrors have a variety of purposes.  Most importantly you can look in the mirror and estimate how many years have passed by wrinkle count, layers of dirt, or perhaps beard length.  Other practical uses include getting things unstuck from your teeth, signaling aircraft, and starting fires.  A quick word of advice on fires.  Remember that if you want a fire in a forest you may want to build something to prevent it from spreading too much.  The last thing you need is a forest fire.

"Remember only you can prevent forest fires."

LUCK-
  Sometimes all you need is a little bit of luck.  Getting lost in the right place, somebody chancing to see your fire, or a beautiful oasis that sets you up for life (making it unclear whether or not you want to actually go back).  I won't say that surviving depends on luck....but it certainly doesn't hurt.

I hope whereever you are and whatever you're doing, that you survive.  If you can learn how to survive, maybe...just maybe... you will finally learn how to live, not just survive.