It's here!

My favorite season is here! A few days ago I was thinking how it's kind of sad that normally about this time of year I get excited about the upcoming fall, and the football season, and the crisp, chilled air, and hoodies, etc. and I had yet to fill that yet. Well, tonight as I walked out of the church building and it was dark, and I could hear the laughter of newly returned students in the church behind me, I got this rush of excitement and pure happines as it finally set in that that my favorite time of the year is here! Bring on the football, bring on new friendships and experiences, bring on the beautiful, glorious, fall weather!

Thanks for the Memories, Jimmy!

Tonight I came across a reference to Jimmy Eat World, and I had a moment of appreciation.  Since high school, I've really enjoyed Jimmy Eat World's music.  My junior and senior years of high school, I wore out this album:

I have plenty of great memories of me and friends in the car rolling down the southern California freeways with the windows down and the stereo up to full blast with some Bleed American playing.  I'm pretty positive I wore the CD out from so many times of playing it. 

Then, the first CD I got when I returned home from my LDS mission was Jimmy's latest (at the time) album:

Futures

My friend Rachel gave it to me, and I was so excited when I saw it! That CD also provided me with many great drives, several of which came on cool, California nights with crisp ear coming in my window  as I drove home thinking about the events of my life and the possibilities ahead. I loved the excitement I felt on some of those drives when I thought of the unknown in the next few years ahead of me! 

It was really nice to be reminded of Jimmy Eat World tonight, because it made me remember how much I love these albums and then how much I love the memories attached to them.  I've been feeling in a bit of a rut the past couple of days, and thinking about the fun times in the past with the songs made me a little nostalgic, but also excited for the next album (Whether it be Jimmy Eat World or whoever) that will act as a soundtrack to the good times ahead!

Have we really evolved as a society?

I went to the demolition derby last night for the Utah County Fair down in Spanish Fork. Is it white trash? Yup. Was it awesome seeing hard hits, and cars getting smashed and rolled over? You betcha!  I'm still not going to watch NASCAR though. Not gonna do it...

I didn't see that one coming...

So I started writing a post in which I discussed the reality checks that I've had the past couple of weeks with all different areas of my life...read over it and deleted it. Why? Because it sounded like a pity party and I realized that as much as the reality checks threw some curves at me, life is still REALLY good!

Seriously, I'm pretty happy.  In fact, it's kind of funny to me how out of some of these reality checks I've actually found hidden blessings that I didn't recognize at first.  I guess that's one more reason to be thankful for opposition in life.  It helps me readjust my focus to better line up with the Lord's, as well as to trust in Him that He's got my back.  So I'm glad to say that what started out as a recipe for a sad country song, has turned into the little soap box testimonial you just read. 

Go get 'em, tiger!

Express Yourself

Yes, it's a famous Madonna song. No, that's not what this entry is about.  I'm talking about communication.   Have you ever had the need to express yourself, but you just couldn't figure out how to effectively illustrate what you needed to convey? Can you remember a time when you finally just vented about something that had been weighing on you heavily, and afterward felt the sweet sensation of a load being lifted; that freeing feeling that results from catharsis? Have you ever wanted to describe something, but there just weren't words to articulate the awe that you felt about that item/event/action?

I'm always amazed when I think about how constant, and vital communication is in my every day life, in everyone's life for that matter, and yet how far away I am from mastering the art of it.  It's fascinating to me how many different modes of communication there are, and how people can be so brilliant in one form, yet incompetent in another. It intrigues me that it can be so frustrating to try and speak to others through different types of communication only to realize that they don't even know you're trying to convey a message, because they don't speak that same language of communication.

Yes, communication is one of those topics that never ceases to interest me, but always finds ways to frustrate me.  What I really love though, is when I can sit and talk to a person and know that I'm on the exact same page/thought process as they are, and that it happened without a word being spoken. Sometimes the loudest messages are those that are never spoken.