A little bit of everything

It's been a long time since I've blogged anything that wasn't a Friday Night Lights quote.

I don't have any really good reasons for that. I've been really busy with work and other things. Rather than complain about not having time to blog anymore, I thought I'd just dump some pictures to serve as a visual explanation of all that I've been up to since I got home from China.

Below is a shot of Mike Leach from BYU's season opener against Washington State (he's the lone man in black standing on the sideline). This picture was taken from the other side of the stadium with my telephoto zoom lens. Snapping pictures of Mike Leach at a football game is pretty much exactly what I envisioned when I bought the lens.

Also, I am fairly sure this is the closest I will get to seeing my two alma maters play one another for some time. 

Below is a shot of me at AAMFT in North Carolina with two of my students. We are posing in front of our research poster.

I got to spend the weekend hanging out with Stephanie. Below is a shot of us from the Wamplers' retirement party, where we resolved to finally get a picture of us together (notice we don't have any from New York).

Coincidentally, this weekend was the weekend of the BYU/Utah game, and the only thing I have to document that is this weird reflection of what looks like a blue Y in one of the buildings in downtown North Carolina. A large group of faculty, students, alumni, and incredibly supportive friends took over the top floor of a bar that night to watch what turned out to be a heartbreaker of a game. But the lesson I learned was that, of the vast number of Mormon male MFTs I know, the one with the most knowledge about college football is Paul Springer. I don't think I would have guessed that going into the night. 

The next weekend, a good friend from my mission (in New York) had a big birthday. I hadn't seen him or his wife in about 8 years, and I had no idea they were living in Utah, so I happily went. I ran into Andrea Sundberg Fesler, who was my companion in the MTC, and then again in my third area. It turns out she lives in Lehi and is about to have her third child.

Then, a week later, I made a trek up to Logan to watch Utah State play UNLV. It made for a long weekend of football, as I had watched BYU wallop Hawaii the night before. It turns out a lot of my time this semester has been consumed by attending college football games. No complaints from me, but it does make for some long days which almost never involve cleaning my apartment or doing laundry at the end. You can't see it in this picture, but Utah State has this weird tradition of tossing students up in the air every time their team scores a touchdown. It was awesome and frightening.

I have before expressed my feelings about BYU's homecoming parade, but this was the first year I had the opportunity to be a part of it. I am a faculty advisor for our department's undergraduate student association, and it is the most fun thing I get to do as part of my job. This was our truck/float, which was definitely not as cool as the one belonging to the Orem Institute of Religion (below).

You probably can't tell from the picture, but the people pictured on the float are Mother Teresa, President Hinckley, Joseph Smith, and Elizabeth Smart. Also, they were blasting music by David Archuleta.

I also saw Ryan that weekend, which he talks about more on his blog, as well as the outcome of the football game that followed.






 That same weekend, my friend Megan had a bonfire in her backyard, where we sat around and talked over the great mysteries of life, including, but definitely not limited to why none of us are married.

Finally, my mom's side of the family had a Halloween party, which was almost as odd as the first year my dad's side of the family had one. Below is a shot of Mack as sushi (nigiri).

There have been other things: plays (Spitfire Grill, Little Shop of Horrors, In the Heights, and Arsenic and Old Lace for those of you keeping track), visits from the Okas, parties, more football, (if you can believe it) and an embarrassing amount of work. It's hard to believe it's almost November. No wonder I'm so tired. I'm crawling back into my cave to grade some papers. See you in December!