Childhood Story #1 Jaguar Sunny D

I was looking for a binder the other day, and happened upon a bunch of papers and miscellaneous assignments from my Freshmen English class, and found a Paper entitled "The Hedge Hideout" Finding this, made me realize i should share more stories from my childhood on here so those that never knew me as a youngin will know....can experience who I was when I was in my youth. For those of you that are included in the stories, I'm sure you will appreciate the Nostalgia (I find that's one of my favorite words. It's quite amazing).

I had a best friend growing up, Jake, well technically only from 3rd grade until now. He is married now, but we still talk and remember everything we went through. Sappy I know. During those Elementary School years, he basically lived at my house. He probably ate dinner more at my house during those years, than he did at his own. Because of how often he was at my house, he pretty much knew everything that was going on, even down to people that called our house regularly.

All growing up, I can only remember my Dad having a Sports car of SOME kind. First it was Jaguars, then a Mercedes, then Porsche's, then Mercedes again. Of course he didn't have them all the time, or all at the same time, but usually he had a car of his own. (He owned a business and the business paid for the car) I remember more than anything listening to Garth Brooks and Tina Turner in the Convertible Jag, cruising to get a slurpee at the Sev on 7th East. Wow never realized the connection there. Anyway, along with Sports cars, along with any car for that matter, comes maintenance and we discovered Jaguars didn't have the best reputation for not having Problems....That was crappy Grammar, but i don't care.

During one particular Jaguar time period, the car was in the shop for a ridiculous amount of time (Hmmm...sounds familiar with me and my car...) All we knew was that about 4-5 times a day, we could expect a call from the people at Jaguar either updating us on the "Status" of the car, Telling us it wasn't done yet, or when it would be done. The main problem with this was in that Jaguar only had our home phone #, and in a day when Cell Phones really didn't exist, so we were stuck taking their calls. We got so incredibly sick of answering the phone and hearing it was the same people from Jaguar, and telling them that "No, my Dad hasn't gotten home in the last half hour, and i will tell him you called 19,000 times today, Thanks" We started making up what we could say to them when they called us back to annoy them as much as they were annoying us.

You know those Sunny D commercials where the guy comes in from playing a hard game of Basketball, and is dead thirsty and looks in the fridge and finds "the soda, the purple stuff, the milk, YES SUNNY D!" This would have been the perfect premise and setup for a Sunny D Commercial. We LOVED Sunny D back in the day. Yes, it would have been perfect.

When you are with a group of friends and you just start laughing at everything, sometimes it's uncontrollable what happens to your body. My good friend was over, as usual, and we were laughing and making fun of the a fore mentioned Jaguar Service people, and of course Drinking Sunny D. What else would we be drinking? I honestly don't remember what was said, or who said it, but all i remember was as he was taking a drink of the yellow nectar, from one second to the next, there was sunny D ALL over everyone. But that's not even the worst. I look up, and see it continuing to spew from his nose. Of course all the rest of us lost it and jumped up out of the way to avoid the Sunny D shower. I can only imagine the burning his nose went through that day. Oddly enough, ever since that experience, Sunny D just hasn't had the appeal it used to.

I have a lot of Stories with Jake, and I'm sure if i asked him for more, he could give me more than my fair share. I'm planning on posting some of the assignments I found the other day, they're actually pretty awesome. I like writing.

The Job

Did i really expect to get the job this time? Well i thought i had a pretty good chance, but i wasn't getting my hopes up. Although, i still thought i had a pretty good chance. Nope. Didn't get it. I swear my manager hates me and tells anyone that wants to hire me NOT to do it, wouldn't surprise me at all. This is the standard email i got from HR (that i've seen countless times now):

Dear Jeff,

Thank you for interviewing for the Information Coordinator position here at Nu Skin. We appreciated the chance to get to know you better throughout the interview process.

We were fortunate to consider many talented applicants for this position. Although your skills and experience are impressive, we have elected to appoint another candidate whose qualifications more closely matched the requirements for this position.

We are truly pleased that you have considered furthering your career with us here at Nu Skin and wish you the best. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you along your journey, I am happy to help.

I know they have to send the same standard email to everyone, but for just once i'd like to get a personalized email from the person hiring me, telling me why i wasn't hired. I hate having to ask for it and then get a letter saying i'm crap (which is what happened last time). And what does "IMPRESSIVE" skills and experience mean? Seriously...if i'm impressive, HIRE ME!! I've been threatening to quit for ages now, and i'm pretty sure this is the last straw. You can only take phone calls for so long, and 3 years is just about enough for me. I'd love to stay with Nuskin, but it seems to be impossible without staying in my current position.

So if anyone knows of any good jobs, that isn't taking phone calls, and pays around 10-11 an hour, that'd be great.

Need I have a reason?

Need I have a reason to be watching my favorite movie of all time two days into the semester. NO! I don't have homework yet, and I'm waiting to get a code i bought off eBay for my Math class, so i can't even pretend to start yet. Plus Blackboard isn't working for my other classes. Nothing i can do. The Goonies will suffice. (I will be inserting Lines from the movie as i write this, as i hear them)

So i go to BYU. BYU did not have a stellar football season. They were over rated, and really came out too confident in themselves in going undefeated. Sure they went undefeated last year, but that's beside the point. I'm glad they had a "crappy" season, maybe it'll help them realize you can't promise perfection. Now, Need I have a reason to agree with Steve? (please click on Steve and go read and then come back here) I don't think i should. Utah did awesome. They deserve to be #1. I am a BYU fan, always have been, always will be, was raised one (and did not betray them like other people I know), and i'm just calling it like it is. Although Utah won't get deemed champions, maybe it'll prove something needs to change in the BCS...as if that were a mystery anyway.

(I know you're down here One-Eyed-Willey, I KNOW you're here!)

I mentioned in my last post I had applied for a job. This job is a different position within Nuskin. I'm pretty sure my life career is not going to be at Nuskin, in fact I know that is the truth. However, while i'm in school they provide pretty well paying part time job. Answering phone calls all day isn't the most glorious of positions, but it is doable. Especially when you have co-workers to laugh with about the idiotic people that call in.

Example from today:
Me: Thank you for calling Nuskin, my name is Jeff, how can i help you? (All in one breath)
Customer: I've been taking the Cartilage formula (self explanatory) and after just one week i've gained 10 pounds.
Me: I'm pretty sure our vitamins will not make you gain weight. (Thinking in my mind....did you realize it was Christmas and i'm sure you pigged out...?)
Customer: I can't take any vitamins, they all make me gain weight.
Me: Oh ok. Let me setup that refund for you *meanwhile talking to Product Support on Instant Messenger and finding out its not possible, but whatever*

That's what I deal with all day. I interviewed today for the new position. I don't think the new one is anymore glorious or great, but at least it's off the phones. Basically i would be the "assistant" to the girl that does all the daily updates, gathering information, making sure everyone has the things they need for the day. Hence the title "Info Coordinator." I felt good about the interview, as good as one can feel i suppose. Although last time i had an interview for a different job internally, i was told after i didn't get the job that i was arrogant and prideful. Whatever. No one is perfect, but i don't know how that guy read into me that way. Oh well.

School. School started this past Monday, yesterday i guess it was. I hope this semester is enlightening for me. It really needs to be. I am starting my major, Communications Disorders (where i will later go into Audiology or Speech Pathology). I'm discovering something i really didn't know before...apparently this major is a pretty heavy female major. In my Speech Anatomy class, there are 48 girls and if you include the instructor, 6 Guys in the class. I didn't really know this, but honestly i dont' really care. I feel good about this major and It feels like it fits me and just feels....right.....so i'm sticking with it. I want to get into it and figure out at least if it's what i really want to do. I'm hoping though there will be a different direction i can go in rather than being just a speech therapist. In pretty much any major, that option is normally viable, and i'm guessing it'll be the same with this.

My Classes This Semester:

COMD 320 - Speech Anatomy - Supposedly this class is pretty hard. I heard some people talking about it in my ASL class, but they are in it now as well, so you can only really go off of what they have heard. The teacher seems like a pretty cool guy, and he was honest about the difficulty of the class. I loved Anatomy, and with that i think the learning will come easy/better to me than say...Chemistry.

COMD 133 - Introduction to Speech-Language pathology and Audiology- Online course. Hear it's cake.

ASL 101 - Class today wasn't held with my teacher. My teacher is being hired...not sure what that says about the program. The guy that taught us today is deaf and the head of the department. I took a semester in High school, and i think that will help some. It was kinda fun already being back in that environment. Kinda looking forward to it.

Math 110 - With my past un-excitement of Chemistry (AKA Math plus chemicals), I'm not sure how i feel about Math 110. I went to an orientation today and they basically said if you hadn't had math for more than 4 years...or in my case since High school....which i have not....then the class will more difficult than it normally would be. They suggest opting out of the class and taking Math 97. I really don't want to delay getting classes done anymore....I have a friend taking it, Eric is a math genius, So is Caitlin, So i think i should be fine.....Pray for me.

Christmas and New Years were good i suppose. I ended up having to work all the way up til Christmas Eve, but then had the 25th-28th off, which was a nice little break. After that, i worked graveyards the 29-31, which didn't suck terribly bad. I got paid extra, and just watched the Office. Got through the first 3 seasons...yep didn't get one call from Spain the whole time...actually i take that back. I did get one, but she wanted to place an order in Italy...so i told her to call back later, where i got her again and proceeded to transfer her to the Europe lines....Back to the Holidays. I spent the majority of the time with my family, whether it was my immediate or cousins or uncles, aunts, grandma, etc. All my friends were basically gone or busy with their own families. It was just a nice time to relax. New years was kinda lame....i kinda felt like being alone, so i was (plus i was catching up on sleep because of the graveyards.) Then Caitlin and Eric convinced me to come hang out, so i did and it ended up being fun. Not the most exciting holidays of my life though.

"Oh wow!! GUYS LOOK!! It's a BEAUTIFUL WATERFALL!!!" (One of the corniest and best lines of the movie)

I really don't have much else to write on right now....that's the basic update. I know i should write more often, but who wants to read nothing? I guess this isn't nothing....

"GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!!!"

Reflections

I think I may have mentioned this before, but this year has changed me a lot. I am a very different person than i was this time last year. I will probably write about all this in more detail later on, but for now this will suffice.

1. I have a career goal. For the first time since before i started college and was just excited to get back into school, i actually feel excited to start the upcoming semester. I no longer feel it is going to be a waste of time as i have for the past year or so. It's a good feeling having at least some kind of direction.

2. 22 1/2 years i hadn't ever kissed a girl, and in one year I have kissed 3. I wouldn't say I've been a player because each of the 3 girls i've kissed, have been special and meaningful. Along these same lines, having been in relationships i have learned a lot about myself. Mainly self confidence and appreciation for good quality people.

3. My Grandmother passed away on June 9th of this year. I know that people die everyday, but it was really the first time anyone actually close to me, that I've known my whole life, has passed on. I guess the main reason this has changed me is just because it's really made me realize how precious life is, and that I should spend my time better. I probably don't even listen to my own words and advice as much as i should, but that's the truth. I wish i could have spent more time with her before she left us, but I know she is happier where she is and she is watching over me.

4. Weddings. I have had so many friends get married this past year, including two of my best friends. This hasn't made me WANT to get married, but it's something I know needs to be thought about and is in my upcoming future. I really cannot even imagine being married soon or even engaged for that matter, but if it were to come along I'm pretty sure I would welcome it.

5. Spiritual wellness. I am not where i want to be, and I know I need to improve. I love my current calling in my ward, and the opportunity i have to work side by side with my Bishop. I've kind of slacked off a little bit, but i think it has a lot to do with the end of this semester. I love my Bishop though, he's amazing and such an understanding man. Sometimes i really wonder what it would be like not being a member of the church. As hard as it is to live up to some of the standards, I know it's the best thing I can do for myself.

6. Music. My appreciation has grown. I am actually writing my own songs, playing in different tunings, learning the piano (and loving it), and just appreciating it more than i ever did before.

7-10: An overall appreciation for life. I've tried to be happier, tried to be more positive, learned more about myself in this year than I ever thought possible. It's kinda crazy just to think of how much I've been through in my life, and then this year happens. It's kinda awesome honestly. I remember a lesson Rhett Gagon gave in my sisters ward about trying to live life more like Christ, to try and think daily how to be more like him in any small way. I think that if everyone tried to do that, the world would be a better place. No, I KNOW it would be a better place. Even if you don't believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, still just following his example and the way he lived his life when he was here, would resolve so many conflicts. Plus during this time of year, people are generally nicer and more giving. If we could just keep that attitude the rest of the year.


I applied for a new job. I should find out soon if i got it....I'd be quite excited if I do.

For Anyone Curious....

My Piano recital was today.

1. The Piece I played, entitled "Sleep Baby, Sleep", I played actually really well. I surprised even myself.
2. The Duet was awesome. We played "Up on the House Tops" The first page we played basically flawless, but the second line of the second page....yeah we totally butchered it. Amber, my partner, started to kind of chuckle...which made me start laughing, and then she completely busted out. I was so lost, so i just picked up on a spot i knew we both could play...and we finished...except we are supposed to finish on the same note, but i finished a count ahead of her. It was pretty awesome. Lucky for us, our teacher is way rad and she told the class afterward that she gave everyone full credit. Woo hoo!!

I love the piano. Anyone wanna give me some pointers? That'd be awesome!

So you're telling me there's a chance.....

Do i really have time to be doing this right now? NO. Not really. But i'm doing it anyway cuz...well i need to.....

A. It's been way too long
B. I'm super stressed and I think this might take some of it away from me right now.
C. I've gone through a lot of things lately....that could use some sharing.

For the first real time in my life, I had my heart broken. It didn't make sense at all, but I am making more of it now. I've learned a lot about myself and who I am and what i want from a relationship. I hope to remain friends with her forever, because that's the kind of friendship we had. I know it wasn't easy for her either. Sometimes I still kind of question things, but it's all for something right? Besides that, I am dating someone again and it's going well, and I'm pretty happy about it to be completely honest. I fought it for a long time, and I think I felt like it wasn't going to happen because the time had passed. But, of course it's not always my plan or my way...in fact I'm thankful for that. If it were always up to me, I don't know where I would be.

School....OK. I don't know if I have even posted about me actually being excited about school....ever. Well I finally am. I have been taking a Life Planning and Decision making class, and through that and through one of those Strong Interest Inventory tests...you know the ones that ask you a bazillion questions about "Do you like This: (thing) or This: (other thing) Better?" Anyway, after taking that test, it came down and gave me some possible careers to look into. One such, Speech Pathology...which i had thought of before...was one of them. So i looked into it, and went and changed my major and i have my next 4 semesters setup. If everything goes according to plan i should be done in 4 1/2 semesters....I'll take a spring term or something....The only crappy part is the fact that I have to get my masters, so it'll be awhile still. But having an end in sight, and knowing what I'm actually going into makes life a TEENSY bit stressful.

I love music. I know this is nothing new, and I write about it all time. I discovered Aiden. They are kind of rocky/poppy/sorta unique band. I'm listening to them now. They almost remind me somewhat of AFI. ANYWAY, that's not my musical point in this post. I have been taking a Piano class this whole semester. It's been really awesome. You know how when you were a kid, and your parents forced you to take piano lessons? And you absolutely HATED it? Well, I had lessons when i was a young lad about 12 or 13 or so...maybe younger....and I was taking them from my Aunt. Well this particular Aunt had to move to Vegas, so once she moved I really couldn't take from her any longer....although i guess i could have, but those would have been expensive lessons. My other Aunt, actually probably my favorite on my Dad's side...there's only one...hahaha....started teaching us (Us being my sister, Dad, and myself) Now, why she stopped teaching us....I don't think I'll ever know. I just remember wanting to still play, (at least i think i did...i don't remember ever complaining about it) and then we stopped. So I have some very basic formal training, but really not enough to read music and what not. This class has helped me a lot. I am to the point now, where if I sit down and work on a song, I could most likely learn it in an hour or so. Ok maybe not that short of time, but I can do it now where as before I could barely read just the right hand. I love messing around and just having fun, and considering one of the string broke on my guitar recently and I'm too lazy to go buy new ones, I'm forced to play the piano instead.

Well I don't know how much stress this relieved, It kind of took my mind off some things, which is good I guess. I just need to get past the next week and a half, and I'll be good...until next semester starts at least.

Bye!

no. nuh uh. nada.

Life=Not fun. At least not right now.