Running And A Birthday Party

I'm starting to think going on a run solves all the world's problems

If I seem restless lately, it's because I have been. I recently was working a pretty stressful job and then was let go, and the past few days have just been really long. While everyone else has been at work or school, I've sat in my apartment mostly just thinking. I only have two roommates, and they're gone a lot. So, I have a whole apartment to myself for long periods of time. haha it would be pretty awesome if I wanted to have a party, I guess. And I have lots of time for blogging, too..... haha just in case everybody wanted to hear more from me.

Anyway, so the other night I decided to go for a run. That's what I do when l'm stressed out or thinking a lot. For just that short period of time, I can think about anything I need to and get all my worrying out of the way. Then, when I get back, nothing seems quite as bad. My head is clear, and I can think and concentrate better. I feel like, when you're running, you have so many good ideas and solve so many problems with that endorphin rush.

For all of you who don't run, it's a good way to clear your head and let yourself unwind. Yeah, it does hurt sometimes, but you always feel better when you're done, and it's a good way to release frustration. Especially when you think as much as I do, your thoughts can get in the way sometimes and do more harm than good with all day to think. Running helps me slow everything down and forget my problems for a little while.

On a side note, next week is my 22nd birthday. I'm throwing a party for everybody who wants to come, and have probably invited most of my friends. It should be a lot of fun, though I'm worried I might have invited too many people and won't be able to talk to all of them much. haha I guess that's why they invented pizza, so everybody could feel united and eat together. It really does make me feel good to realize how many friends I've made here in Provo. I've been really blessed to meet some great people and have so many more friends than I ever thought I would make. When I first moved here my freshman year, I felt incredibly lonely and felt like I just wanted to leave since I had no friends yet. After nearly 4 years, so much has changed for the better. I would be ungrateful if I didn't thank the Lord for all I have.

I don't know how I feel about getting older. It really doesn't seem like much of a big deal to me, and I feel like I should be the one giving things to other people for making my life as good as it has been.

So, that's about it for now. Leave a comment and tell me what other kind of posts you'd like to see!

Working The Day Shift

"It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about." -Dale Carnegie

I have a job now. I'm a park host at Seven Peaks water park here in Provo and will be working full time once we open on May 26. I'm glad to have a job, since I'm actually making money and supporting myself. I haven't been able to say that in a while!

However, it's a little bit weird having this schedule. It's been a long time since I've been able to consistently wake up before 10 in the morning..... and I will have to do that all Summer long now! So, I am finally going to have to figure out how to wake up in the morning or get fired. I think I'll take the first option. haha and I have to work Friday and Saturday every weekend the rest of the Summer, since I'm a supervisor at the water park. I'm not to worried about it, just glad to have a job with fairly consistent 9-5 hours every day without a lot of menial tasks.

I realized a yesterday morning that waking up sucks when you stay up late. I should have remembered that, but I haven't had to wake up early in a while since I usually don't schedule classes for the morning.... and when I do I sleep through them.... yeah, that was kind of a problem. Anyway, I was pretty grumpy at work yesterday, so I'm think I'll start going to bed earlier now. I'm a lot more tired when I'm working during the day, too, since having to talk and negotiate with people for hours at a time is more exhausting than you'd think.

I had my first kiss a couple weeks ago from today. It was pretty enjoyable, but just decided I'd bury this in a post so it doesn't seem like I'm bragging about it or anything. It came near the end of the date I was on and just kind of happened, not even awkward or anything. Girls are kinda cool, I enjoy dating. It can be frustrating at times, but then there's those moments when things seem to be worth it for all the trouble you go through.

I'm also in a dinner group in my new ward at Glenwood. This means I get dinner every night, actually a pretty good dinner. It's been several years since I've had that, since I just don't usually know what to buy to cook good food for more than a few types of dinner when I shop. I enjoy actually eating dinner most nights. Maybe that's why some people like to cook. haha

I'm starting to make some new friends in the ward, my job is going pretty well, the weather is good for running at night again, it's baseball season, and I am going home for the weekend tomorrow. Life is good.

Easter Testimony

Since I have this blog, I feel like I should share my testimony of Easter and the Resurrection here. I want all my followers to know that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. I know that He lived and died for us so that we can live again. I'm so grateful for this. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father who wants the best for us, who was willing to give His son to redeem every one of us from death and sin. Christ allowed us a way back to live with our Heavenly Father and families again, and I know this is true. As Easter comes to a close, I invite everybody to take a few moments to ponder over the Savior and His resurrection. This message has given me a lot of happiness in my life, and I know it can do the same for all who come to Christ and believe in Him.

The Case for Utah Weather

Okay, so everybody talks about how much they hate Utah weather. But, nobody ever talks about how great it really is.

Here's why it's awesome: it adds something a little more exciting to your life. Think about it for a second: that one moment when you were on that date and things got awkward, your date seemed really shy, and then you asked, "How about this Utah weather? Crazy, huh?" Then, you proceeded to have a good laugh and the awkwardness is suddenly gone. Let's face it, that happens all the time when Utah weather saves us from boring conversations.

Also, two years ago, I woke up one morning around June and was prepared to have a really mundane day, since things hadn't been going so great lately. Then, I realized that it was snowing, and my day was exciting again. It took my mind off the bad things and I thought about how great it was to have snow in late Spring.

Then, there's some Winter days when it's freezing cold, and suddenly you have one day in Utah that's really warm, and for that one day you really enjoy yourself. When it goes back to being cold, people are unhappy about it and talk about how terrible it was for Utah to play with them like that. They don't often talk about how great it was to have that one day, only how the weather shouldn't have changed so suddenly.

I actually really enjoy having a conversation piece once in a while that everybody can relate to. I like those Spring days when you get a short taste of Winter again, and those Winter days when you get a short taste of Summer. I really enjoy not being able to predict what's going to happen from day to day. Having it warm everyday like California would be nice, but I don't think things are so bad how they are. It's actually pretty enjoyable sometimes.

I think Utah's weather patterns are amazing, it just takes some time to notice it.

1,000 Pageviews!

I was just looking at my blog tonight and realized I had finally gotten to 1,000 views! Just wanted to say thanks for supporting my writing here. I'm gonna try harder to post more frequently and more interesting, since I've gotten a few more followers than I used to have! Thanks, guys! You'll be getting lots more good stuff from me in the future! If you have any good ideas for what you'd like to hear from me, or more I could write about, maybe even changing up the blog format a bit, I'd love to know and I'll do my best.

Derek

Memories of Centennial

Lately, I've been thinking a lot. One of those thoughts has been that I'll be leaving Centennial Apartments soon, and I'm kind of sad about it. I feel it's a needed change just to get somewhere new and have different experiences, but I've made so many memories here and had a great time getting to know the ward.

So, I'm making a list of some of my favorite memories here. I want to remember the good times I had, and this is one way I will make sure things don't get forgotten. If you have anything to add that I've forgotten, feel free to let me know. This is just what I remember:

• First came back to BYU, and didn't know anybody, when Scott Richey (longtime resident of 105) befriended me as a roommate and made me feel like I had a friend. We had a lot of times where we were both just up talking and watching movies or TV shows since neither of us slept. It was a lot of fun in that apartment. He also helped me out a lot. One thing I can think of was on my birthday, when nobody showed up to go to Tucano's like I had planned and invited people to go to, he went around trying to find people and, when nobody still wanted to come, he drove with Joe and I down to Pizza Pie Cafe and paid for my birthday dinner. Scott's been an awesome friend. I'll sure miss that guy. 
• Mattress Mondays: gathering up all the mattresses and moving them to the front room to watch a movie and fall asleep out there. This was something we did in Apartment 105 on Monday of Finals week. It was definitely an interesting tradition...
• Terrible Movie Tuesdays: another apartment 105 tradition which was on the Tuesday of Finals week, where we simply rented a really dumb, cheesy movie and watched it. I remember one year we watched Old Dogs.... and that movie was really awful.
• In The Name of The King Day: last of the 105/208 holidays, on the final Friday of January we'd invite lots of people over, get hoards of food and watch In The Name of the King, which might be one of the most unintentionally funny movies ever made. It's still celebrated by one of my old roommates, and we actually had the celebration again a few months ago. Good times...
• Endless Boxes of Little Caesar's Pizza stacked up from the pizza joint just down the road
• Smashing our Halloween pumpkins while listening to Smashing Pumpkins
• Watching Matt Wakatsuki live on virtually no real food....... and somehow survive.
• Drinking Yerba Mate with Derek Larsen and occasionally Derek Heiser when he came over
• When Chelsea and Scott went through the fridge and threw away about ten packs of mini carrots that I had bought. I kept buying more and forgetting about them, and then buying more again and again.
• Spring Semester with Scott Man and Gordo. It was just the three of us, and we had a lot of fun. The apartment was usually a big mess, though.
• My birthday, when Scott, Gordo, and I all dressed up in jeans and blue-collar shirts, then went to the store to buy ice cream and sparkling cider. We made a toast to "life only getting better." A couple weeks later, we went to Tucano's along with Joe, and had a different toast: "to getting huge." Still working on that one. haha
• Tiffany Jackman's dinner date banquet, where she homemade amazing food for all the guests. It was a girl-ask-guy thing, and I ended up being invited at the last minute, but I really enjoyed that.
• Boring Summer nights when Dallin would come over, since his fiance wasn't there, and we'd end up playing video games (usually Modern Warfare), playing Scrabble, or doing something else completely random.
• Playing the flashlight game at the ward campout, the same time Brandon Love fell into the bushes, though I guess that was probably dangerous
• Bejeweled Blitz, Robot Unicorn Attack, and Tetris Battle
• Going to Stan's Diner across the street the night before Thanksgiving, buying a chicken sandwich, then spending the entire night and most of the next day in bed feeling sick. Needless to say, I never have gone there again. haha
• Walking over to King Henry's and hanging out/going on walks with a girl I really liked. I even made her a homemade Blackberry pie (except for the crust) at one point, and walked it over there, and also woke up early one day to deliver her french toast and a note as a surprise to begin the day. Those were some of my favorite times here.
• Late Night Wendy's runs
• Sitting at the pool tanning when I had nothing better to do
• When Emily had an FHE where we watched football and ate Thanksgiving dinner. That made me happy, since I didn't eat much during the real holiday after being sick. 
• Getting half of our apartment (including Tiffany Manwaring Doman) addicted to Facebook Scrabble and playing game after game against them while we all sat there in the front room
• Making dinner for an apartment of girls and bringing it to them to eat. I made a comment that it was kind of awkward at their apartment and ended up on the quote wall..... haha
• Cinnamon Challenge (see my earlier post about this). I had no clue what I was getting into there....
• The Hot Tub, just going out there and sitting to talk to whoever was there at the time. It's almost never been empty. 
• Becoming friends with Ty the cleaning check lady. Never thought I'd ever be friends with her when I first moved in, but she's actually nice when not checking your cleaning.
• Apple Juice. While I've been here, I've almost always had a bottle of apple juice nearby I'd be sipping on throughout the day. Probably not very healthy. Maybe I should change that habit.....
• Going on a date where I forgot my wallet. Didn't end too well.
• Introducing one of my roommates to his future wife and watching them hit it off the best I've ever seen
• Watching Rockies games on the TV while almost all my roommates have been completely bored by it
• Having a quote wall in the apartment which was mostly dominate by random things I'd say. 
• Watching through nearly the entire series of LOST for a second time with Brad and Rachel. 
• Getting body-slammed by Cole Stahl while everybody sat there and laughed. I didn't enjoy it at the time, but it's funny to look back and laugh at it. Cole was awesome.
• Failing cleaning checks and paying tons of money. Not one of my favorite memories.
• Watching and talking about sports with Andrew Doman, and then later Eric Olsen
• Guys' Weekend going to a hockey game one night, a movie the next and then staying up half the night playing Super Smash Bros.
• Insomnia, and seeing each one of my roommates react differently when they realize I'm still up at 3 in the morning.
• Spending several hours with a girl talking and cuddling under a blanket outside one night, under a tree because it was raining
• The all-night basketball video game contest between Matt, Doman and I
• Skyping with K.S. (decided to withhold her whole name, for privacy) and talking to her almost all the time for a little over a month. Some of the deepest conversations I've ever had were with her.
• Going on long runs to train for a half marathon
• Game nights on Sunday after Ward Prayer
• Watching Batman cartoons and playing Modern Warfare with the guys
• Long sessions playing rock band with the roommmates 
• Filming Brother Husbands, the kind-of controversial movie we made that was actually really funny. I played the part of the pushover husband secreting plotting against everybody.
• The Ward Capture the Flag Game, where our flag was captured once before the game started
• Michael getting every song he ever played stuck in my head
• The one-person couch
• "Derek's engaged!" *Everybody Claps* (Periodically, for the last two years, somebody has announced I'm engaged at Ward Prayer for no reason, and it became a running joke that never died.)
• Getting Ready to Say Goodbye

Guess It's Back to Training

For a while, my brother and I have been talking about running a full marathon, after running a half last year. We had been thinking about doing one this Summer, but I wasn't really so sure and didn't know if I really wanted to train for it.

Well.... after talking to my brother today, it seems our mom signed us both up, and paid the entrance fee already. She was being nice and really wanted to help us. It looks like I will have to to run 26 miles in just over 2 months from today.

Wow. Training to run 26 miles is something I've never fully comprehended before. Guess it's about time to start comprehending it, cuz I'm not getting out! 

So yeah, back to training and running long distances. Might need some new shoes, too.

I'm excited to conquer this challenge.