San Diego!

Labor Day weekend, how I love thee. Let me count the ways...

1) The San Diego Temple.

It was amazing! We went to San Diego to be there for the Sealing of Jared Ray and his then fiance Tamara. After the Sealing we stuck around with Jordan & Christine and Kevin & Julia to do some sealings ourselves. The San Diego temple is absolutely beautiful. I love it - everything about it had me in awe, especially the Grand Staircase going up to the sealing rooms on the fourth floor. It was marvelous.

2) Luigi's at the Beach

This place had the biggest slices of pizza ever. They make 30" pizzas. That's 30" in diameter, which means each slice is 15" long. In case you were wondering, that's 707 square inches. They serve it by the slice, which is an eighth of the pizza (80 square inches). Here's a picture of some random girl because it's the only picture I could find on the web, and we of course don't believe in taking our own pictures (really, this whole weekend we only took 3 pictures). Notice, the pizza slice is the length of her arm.
Also, Luigi's at the beach is freakin amazing. Not only was the food good, but the football was even better. Let me explain: We showed up there at 1:00 in the afternoon last saturday, which also happened to be the first saturday of college football. Well, Luigi's had about 10 big screen flat panel tv's hanging on their walls, showing 6 or 7 different college football games. It was amazing. They won my heart for forever.

3) Mission Beach

I love the beach. And i especially enjoyed my time at the beach this particular day. Was it crowded? Heck yes, it was Labor Day weekend. But it was stil a lot of fun. Last time Shirley and I went to the beach it was cloudy and cold, but last weekend it was sunny and warm. We stayed at the beach for, like, 5 hours. We played in the waves and had a grand ole time. I even tried body surfing and got pummeled several times. But it was a blast. After we got tired of sucking down salt water, we took a break from the water and built a mighty edifice to me. Well, it was a sand fortress. Do we have pictures? Of course we don't. But it looked something like this:

Perhaps it didn't actually resemble this particular building... but it was something like this.

4) Balboa Park

On Sunday we went to Balboa Park and had a picnic with Julia & Kevin and Kevin's parents. Following the food, we wandered the many sights of the park, and then settled down at the Organ Pavilion for the free Sunday afternoon concert. Organ Pavilion is home to the Spreckles Organ Society and the Largest Outdoor Organ in the world. Each Sunday at 2:00 (since January 1915) there is a free organ performance for all to enjoy.This picture is obviously not from a sunday afternoon performance, but this is the Organ Pavilion Outdoor Organ in all it's glory.

I kinda wish we had had more time to explore more of what Balboa Park had to offer, as I understand that there was much, much more to see than what we were able to. I think I should like to go back and see more of the park one day. But as it is, that pretty much sums up our vacation from last weekend.

-----------------------------------------------------------

In conclusion, I've realized that I only have 4 ways that I love Labor Day weekend. Is 4 enough to say that I love it? Is that like saying "I love you" after only the fourth date? Even if it was four great dates? Maybe I just 'like' Labor Day weekend. Or 'I have a really good time with it.' Or maybe it's just a crush, I don't really know yet. It's too early to know I think.

Wyatt Earp

This is one of my new favorite movies of ever. It will change your life... or just make you want to be a cowboy for the rest of your life. Kevin Costner is perfect for the role of Earp.

Mo-hawks

Today's observation while walking around campus: The Mohawk.

Wikipedia says

The Mohawk or Mohican is a hairstyle. In the most common variety, both sides of the head are shaved leaving a strip of noticeably longer hair in the centre. Mohawks became common in punk subculture and Rivethead subculture in the early 1980s and were then adopted by various other groups, becoming more diverse in style. Today, Mohawks are still associated with the punk subculture, but have also become part of mainstream fashion.

The Mohawk hairstyle is named for, and often associated with, the people of the Mohawk nation, an indigenous people of North America who originally inhabited the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario.

In modern punk fashion, the Mohawk is often dyed brilliant colors and worn so that it points straight up, often to impressive height. The Mohawk is also a feature of goth fashion. The Mohawk is also known as the signature hairstyle of Mr. T, the actor who first became famous playing the boxer Clubber Lang in the movie Rocky III and later as Sgt. B.A. Baracus in the television series The A-Team.

I saw a few kids with mohawks today and I thought to myself: What do people who sport mohawks think when they're getting ready in the morning? Maybe I've just forgotten what it's like to have to do my hair in the morning, since i'm blessed to not have to do that anymore. But I saw a guy with a full on, stiff, spiky, mohawk and I imagined him doing his hair this morning and thinking to himself "dang my hair looks good." I laughed to myself. in my head.

That's all.

I always feel insecure when I blog without pictures. It's like i'm not cool. and stuff. Shirley just hates that I don't blog about all the cool things we do. Well, today is the first day of school, but I got out of class early and have nothing to do for an hour or so, so here it goes. I don't have many pictures, but at least I'm alive.

-----------------------------------------------------------

The First Day Of School

I don't really remember being nervous for school to start last semester, or the semester before that, or really ever since I started college. But I was today. It was weird. I think it was because my schedule wasn't entirely set and I wasn't excited to be going back to school. Or something. I don't know.

But I got here and I've been smiling ever since. I forgot how funny school is; how weird people are, how young freshmen look, how weird people's conversations are, the wierd ways people do their hair, the weird ways people dress, etc... I just like being on campus and seeing people. It makes me smile/laugh.

When I was registering for classes, I was thinking that I was going to have three semesters left, and that I would graduate next fall, but earlier this week I realized that if I could get into an ACC444 class this semester (they were all full at the time) I could work it out so I graduate in the Spring of this year! I've been checking the ASU registration page, like, every ten minutes for the last week, and about a half hour ago, a section opened up. I'm gonna graduate next Spring! I'm pretty excited.

I think my wife is the opposite. She graduated 3 months ago. And was fine until today when I was getting my backpack together and getting ready for class. She's suffering from withdrawal from not having school, and she wants to go back. I wish I could trade her. I think I'd like to be done and just working not... But that's how it goes, eh?

----------------------------------------------------------

Sherwood

Sherwood is one of my favorite bands. I saw them last summer and they covered the song Holiday from The Get Up Kids, who are also one of my favorite bands. Since then I've been a pretty big fan. I even have 2 Sherwood shirts! You know someone must be a good fan if they have a band shirt (ok, maybe not, i'm just saying...)!

Shirley and I saw them early in July this year and it was great. It was the first concert I've been to in a while and I had a lot of fun. They played with Copeland, who was headlining that tour. Because of this, I think most of the folk there were Copeland fans, more inclined to enjoy the more mellow tunes produced by Copeland than the sweet fun music created by Sherwood. It seemed that when Sherwood played, most the people in the crowd just stood there. It made me sad. I enjoy concerts... though I imagine I likely won't go to many more. They're not quite as fun as they used to be, which it is part of maturing, which is really fine with me.

------------------------------------------------------

More to come...