See John write

Yesterday my coworker lent me his Death Cab for Cutie CD. The album is titled Transatlantacism. In the midst of my chaotic week trying to deal with big projects at work and getting ready for finals at school and home, this amazingly mellow and quirky-fun album is exactly what I needed.

I don’t know how I hadn’t clued into this band earlier. The few songs I’m familiar with I already really liked. But I’m very much enjoying discovering the variety in their sound and the cleverness of their lyrics. Here are a few lines that I think are great.

Oh, instincts are misleading
You shouldn’t think what you’re feeling
They don’t tell you what you know you should want. (From Lightness)

The glove compartment is inaccurately named
And everybody knows it.
So i’m proposing a swift orderly change. (From Title and Registration)

I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat.
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your door have been silenced forever more.
The distance is quite simply much too far for me to row
It seems farther than ever before (From Transatlanticism)

So are you familiar with this band? Do you like them too? Do you have any other recommendations for a crazy week?

I know. It only takes a few minutes to come here and jot down a few thoughts. And I love the way I feel more connected to friends and family when I do. I know, I know, I know.

But dang I’ve been busy lately. I’ve had a lot on my mind and unfortunately blogging has been forced off the stage like a one-handed, tone-deaf, rookie trying to play Guitar Hero.

Hang in there with me. I’ll be back soon. I just have to get through finals week. Maybe tomorrow I’ll post one of my professor’s sample questions from his study guide. Maybe then you’ll feel the smallest bit sorry for me.

Until then.

Oh, yeah, and GOOOOOOO COUGARS!

I want to meet the blogger who first came up with this 100 Things idea. Why couldn’t it have been 50 Things, or 25 Things?

Oh well, I’m diving in once again. But this time it’s partly for me, to see just how different things are in my mind and life since the last time I made this list.

1. I have a great view out my window at work.

2. I recently purchased a U2 greatest hits album and have discovered just how much I really love their music.

3. Occasionally, when I realize just how much my kids think I know, it scares me to death.

4. I can’t wait for the fresh strawberries to hit the stores.

5. There is something magical for me when, after a long cold winter, you feel the warmth of the sun for the first time in a long time. It’s like heaven.

6. It really bugs me that all my kids friends have cell phones.

7. When I go to parent teacher conferences, I always wonder what the teacher thinks of us as parents.

8. At work, we sometimes have massive Nerf dart-gun wars in the middle of the day for no reason at all.

9. I miss working in the young men’s organization.

10. I love Sunday mornings when the kids come into our room and climb into our bed.

11. When bbqing burgers, I prefer a Morning Star Farms veggie burger to a real hamburger any day.

12. I miss many of my co-workers from FranklinCovey.

13. The professor who taught the marketing class I took in the fall was the most idiotic professional educator I have ever known. I would rather be thrown in a vat of raw sewage than have to suffer through another class from that man.

14. My GPA for my first semester of graduate school: 3.667

15. Most of my childhood memories center around water skiing, family dinner, family home evening, and playing football with the neighborhood kids.

16. Most of my high school memories center around my English classes and wrestling. Oh, yeah, and state tournament football and basketball games.

17. I really, really hope that all this snow goes a long way toward filling up Lake Powell.

18. Being in graduate school this summer, I’m worried that our water skiing trips will be disappointingly scant.

19. I wear disposable contacts.

20. I like to wear baseball caps, but they give me a headache.

21. I’ve never spent more than $12 on a pair of sunglasses.

22. My dreams recently have been really vivid—and bizarre.

23. One of the things I worried the most about in going back to school was group projects.

24. Most of the groups I’ve been a part of in school have been pretty cool. In fact, I’ve made some pretty good friends.

25. I sleep on the right-hand side of the bed. (Well, unless you’re standing at the foot of the bed, then it’s the left-hand side.)

26. When I’m eating a delicious piece of fresh fruit, I like to imagine the first lucky human who found that particular kind of fruit and tried it.

27. I also think about the first human who was so stinking hungry that a crustacean looked appetizing. Seriously.

28. The president of the company that I work for has this strange OCD behavior where he loves to play with scotch tape.

29. I guess #28 isn’t actually about me. But you already know about my OCD behaviors.

30. Like for instance, loading a moving truck.

31. I went for a jog on Saturday for the first time in at least 6 months.

32. I love to make Josh laugh.

33. I love to help Elizabeth work through a problem (with math, with friends, with school, whatever.)

34. I love to watch Nate play soccer.

35. I love to listen to Matt tell a story when he’s very excited.

36. I’m amazed at how much an ink cartridge for our printer costs and how little ink is actually in there. Is there a bigger scam in the world?

37. I’ve never been a good journal keeper.

38. I’m amazed at how each discipline I’ve studied in school is presented as if it is the key to successful business: organizational behavior, marketing, statistics, operations management, and on and on.

39. I am an uncle to 31 nieces and nephews (with one on the way).

40. I have the most amazing Father who knows how to fix everything.

41. My mother is amazingly steady, calm, and thoughtful.

42. There is something magical to me about the sound that 65,000 Cougar fans make when the home team scores a touchdown.

43. I miss summer.

44. I hardly ever get sick.

45. Sometimes, when I really need a day off, I pretend to be sick.

46. I loved my mission, but deep down I really did want to learn a foreign language.

47. Someday, I will learn Portuguese from Janet.

48. Utah drivers drive me absolutely crazy. Just MERGE for the sake of all that is good and holy.

49. I do not consider myself a Utah driver.

50. To prove #49, you should ride with me sometime and see the complete shock on the faces of other drivers when I leave space for someone to merge.

51. I think the raspberry almond concrete from Nielsen’s Frozen Custard is one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth.

52. I love being a Dad.

53. I love to share things I’ve learned.

54. Because of #53, I sometimes come across as a know-it-all.

55. I don’t really like know-it-alls.

56. I love my boat.

57. I love blogging.

58. Sometimes I think the fact that musicians are still creating new melodies is mind blowing. Seriously, with all the millions of songs that have been written, how are they still creating original songs? Awesome.

59. I wish I could sing. But I’m pretty much tone deaf.

60. Despite #59, I laugh my guts out at the tone deaf people who go on American Idol.

61. If I had to choose between a trip to Disneyland or a trip to Lake Powell, I’m packing the boat before you can say Mickey Mouse.

62. Every now and then I check on prices to Brazil, Hawaii, Jamaica, or some other exotic locale and imagine what it would be like to be able to travel the world with Janet.

63. I’m ready to start bbqing again.

64. I wonder why is it that musicians can continue to produce fresh, original material, but Hollywood seems completely devoid of fresh, original ideas.

65. I love doing science fair projects with my kids.

66. Maybe I missed my calling as a scientist. Well, no, not really.

67. But I do think I would have made a heckuva physical therapist.

68. I’m very excited that my sister Leslie and her family are moving closer so that we can see them more often.

69. I’m very sad that my sister Tiffany and her family are moving far, far away.

70. Google Reader saves me at least 10 minutes per day.

71. I love Farmington. It’s a little town that suits me.

72. I think I’ve lost weight since I left my last job because nobody at my new job has a little treat jar that they keep full all the time.

73. I have a list of a bunch of home fix-it projects that I need to get to and I always begin Saturdays with grand intentions. But at the end of the day, I’ve usually done well to finish one thing on the list.

74. Going back to school makes me feel young.

75. Going back to school makes me feel old.

76. I fondly remember when my mom learned how to make fajitas.

77. I haven’t flown on a plane since 2003.

78. I feel bad that we’ve never made it down to visit James and DeDe in Arizona.

79. In a few months, I will start paying car insurance for a teenage driver. Yikes!

80. I firmly believe that the text book industry is the biggest racket in this country.

81. I thank my lucky stars for the way the internet has made it easier to find cheap text books.

82. I like to watch Mythbusters on Discovery channel.

83. The Office makes me laugh out loud.

84. I believe that most people are genuinely nice.

85. I believe that most every person has their own difficult challenges.

86. I have never seen So I Married an Axe Murderer, What about Bob?, Legally Blonde, or Tommy Boy despite being told many, many times how funny they are.

87. I wear my watch on my left wrist.

88. I put on both socks, then both shoes instead of sock-shoe-sock-shoe.

89. I have a constant ringing in my ears—not loud, not super annoying, but always there.

90. I cannot go to sleep without brushing my teeth.

91. When I’m pushing a shopping cart through the parking lot, I feel compelled to push it fast and jump on.

92. It seems I always see someone I know whenever I’m “scootering” on a shopping cart.

93. I love to play volleyball.

94. When I was younger, I played a lot of softball. But I haven’t played on an organized softball team in years.

95. I wish I had played soccer when I was younger.

96. If I could only teach my kids one lesson, it would be to believe in themselves.

97. I worry about halitosis.

98. I worry that our country is heading in a really bad direction.

99. I really like my digital camera.

100. I need a new cell phone.

Did you see this news story about the blind, autistic, 11-year-old musical savant?

Perhaps, it’s because I have a special needs child. Perhaps it is because in small moments I can see brilliance buried somewhere behind all the confused nerves and muscles in my little boy. This story inspires, confounds, and deeply moves me.

This story is about a boy who can hardly carry on a conversation. Who barely reads. Who struggles with daily tasks. Yet music pours out of him as naturally as breath. And not awkward halting music like his speech. Beautiful, perfectly metered, flowing music from any genre. Music he’s heard one time can be reproduced like it was recorded. Whole symphonies, whole music scores, lyrics included.

A miracle. A boy who struggles to express himself in any other way can achieve heights of success beyond comprehension.

It speaks to me on a very deep level. Is there any doubt that we have barely scratched the surface of the potential God has placed in every one of us? Is there any doubt that this marvelous mind of ours is capable of knowing and understanding and expressing and creating in a degree far beyond our current imaginations?

And why music? What is it about music? Why do we think of choirs in heaven? Why is it that when we want to express the deepest feelings of our souls we most often turn to music? Is music the language of heaven? Are melody and harmony the way spirit speaks to spirit?

These are my thoughts on a Friday morning. I think I’ll put in my iPod now and enjoy the music of my day.

Should you hear about a roadside bomb at a bus stop on 300 W in front of a certain 7-11, don’t be alarmed. It’s not infiltration of radical Islamic terrorists. You have nothing to fear … well, except the most extreme stupidity.

Here’s the story: Route 471 from Farmington to Salt Lake passes this 7-11 each morning. At least a couple times a week, the bus stops for this sweet little old lady. She’s about as frail as an Ethiopian refugee. And she lugs her oxygen tank up the steps into the bus. I have been impressed the way people have graciously given up their seats so that she could sit. She’s friendly and talkative. She likes to comment on the weather or ask about the book a fellow passenger might be reading. I have developed kind of a soft spot in my heart for her, thinking of her precarious walk down icy sidewalks to catch her morning bus.

But this morning, as the bus was slowing down at her stop, I looked out the window. And there she was waiting, oxygen tank in tow, taking a long deep drag ON A CIGARETTE! While wearing her oxygen tubing up her nose!

Let’s review shall we? Burning cigarette + Pressurized oxygen = Recipe for disaster.

Crazy! People are just plain crazy!

I knew the evening would have it’s difficult moments. We had been so cold to each other for so long, that recreating our first date at the aquarium mostly served to create awkward moments of silence. I thought back to the way we laughed so hard together that first night. But I wouldn’t dare try a joke tonight. It was like holding the most fragile piece of crystal and any carelessness might shatter it into a million pieces.

Eventually, I brought up Reverend Spagnoli.

“You’ve been going to church?” Jenny asked in genuine surprise.

“Well, no, not like services or anything,” I answered.

Jenny cocked her head to the side. “So what, is it like confession?”

I smiled. “More like a twelve step program.”

“You mean like Alcoholics Anonymous?”

“Kind of …,” I said. “He’s just someone I met who seemed—I don’t know—to give me a place to start.”

Jenny nodded slowly and then was silent. I couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
We turned a corner and walked into a room with a tank full of spectacularly bright yellow fish. They darted back and forth in the enormous tank like a choreographed dance. We both paused for a moment and watched. I wanted to keep the conversation going, but everything I could think to say seemed so forced.

A few minutes later, she told me a story about when her elementary class had visited the aquarium on a field trip.

On the way home, I pulled the car into the parking lot of a little mom and pop drugstore. I knew they had great old-fashioned sodas and I thought it would be a good place to end the evening.

After we had received our order, I took a big swallow of my soda and then took a deep breath. “Hey, I want you to know how much I appreciate tonight.”

Jenny gave me a half smile.

“I know it’s been hard. But I promise—”

Jenny’s hand shot up in front of my face. “Don’t!” she said forcefully. “Don’t promise, Brian.”

“But I mean it. I truly mean it,” I answered trying to keep my own emotions from boiling up.

“You’ve promised too many things.” Jenny’s sarcasm made it clear just how deeply I had hurt her over the years.

“It will be different,” I said with complete confidence.

“How can you say that? How can you …”

“I know what you’re saying. I haven’t kept my word. It’s a mistake I intend to do everything I can to repair.” I tried to look in Jenny’s eyes, but she just looked away.

“Things will be different. … Things are already different,” I said softly.

Jenny turned to me. “What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been meaning to tell you … the day my dad had the stroke … Mr. Graham fired me.”

Jenny’s spine instantly stiffened. Her brow furrowed and her lips narrowed.