Putting it together

I seem to have fallen out of the blogosphere completely. I feel like I'm not alone.

I have much to write about, and some day I'll have time for it all.

In the meantime, over the weekend, Stephanie was in town, and we went to a concert given by Audra McDonald, who--I have established--I love. First of all, she was INCREDIBLE. I was completely blown away. She sang this song, and there was a distinct pause before everyone in the audience began to applaud. I'm pretty sure we were all wiping our eyes first. And someone actually shouted from the audience (it was a small venue at a university where I may or may not have once been employed) asking where the song was from.

I bought the album on iTunes, and I have since listened to this song roughly 15 times. It's a song about September 11, and what happens when you experience tragedy and start to move on. I thought it was worth dusting off the blog to post this song on September 11.

That same weekend, I also attended the BEST FOOTBALL GAME EVER! But that's a story for another post.

My House

At long last, I am a homeowner.

The day after we got back from California (at around midnight, mind you), I drove up to Logan to close on my house. I didn't have time after I signed the papers to do anything but drive back to Provo to meet with students.

Then, the bank made two or three mistakes in the closing, and it looked like it wasn't going to record before the weekend.

Then it did, and, in a matter of seconds, I went from not having a house to having a house. Despite the fact that I'd already made one trek to Logan that week, I decided to make a trip up again on Saturday to get the keys to my house.

I really like saying that.

If you've seen my posts on Facebook or Instagram, you've seen the kitchen, the fireplace, and the master bath. When I went up on Saturday, I took some extra pictures of some things I hadn't included before.

Here is the view of my garage and driveway.

Here's another shot from the same side. Notice the tree.

And here's a shot of my front door, which, interestingly enough, is around the corner from the driveway.

And here's my backyard. As you can see, I will need to buy a fence if I want to plant a garden and not have vermin make off with my vegetables.

This is one of the closets in the non-master bedrooms. Notice all of the room for guests to store their clothing and shoes.

Here's a shot of my staircase.

And here's the great room in the basement that the sales person talked me into finishing. Did I mention I have lots of places for people to stay?

Here's the cupboard under the stairs, just in case Harry Potter comes to visit:

And here is my downstairs bathroom. I know it's weird that the toilet is so close to the bathtub, but the contractor assured me that it is not a mistake. Score!

And here is what I believe to be a bottle of Powerade in the room with my water heater. If it's something for the house, I hope someone clues me in. If it's anything else, I do not want to know.

I'm planning on moving my stuff in a couple of weeks, and as soon as it starts to look presentable, I'll post more pictures. In the meantime, if anyone has a hankering to pay a visit to Northern Utah (or Southern Idaho), consider this my open invitation to stay with me.

Happy April Fool's Day

Two big April Fool's moments of my day:

1. A student e-mailed me to tell me that his client attempted suicide over the weekend. I thought it might be a joke (a really bad one, but this is the same male student who grew a mustache, so it seemed plausible), but, sadly, it wasn't.

2. My friend Megan texted me and said, "It looks like you're going to be working for BYU after all :)" It turns out, she saw a link to this, and forgot what day it was. For almost a minute, though, I thought she was dead serious.

Existential crisis averted, everyone.

While you're waiting

It's been a weird couple of months for me. I am contracted at BYU until mid-June, but I will be at Utah State in the fall, which means that, for the next few months, I sort of have a foot in both places.

I am in the process of buying a house that is currently being built. You can see this awesome picture above of the front windows, my fireplace (which seems like a must-have in Logan) and the cutout for my pantry. I plan to put a TV on the wall above the fireplace.

The craziest part about me buying this house is how huge it is. It is a townhouse rambler with a finished basement, and, all told, it will be 2460 square feet, which is more than double the size of the place I am in now. With five finished bedrooms. And three bathrooms. I'll be able to have a licorice room AND an aroma room if I want (points to anyone who knows the reference).

In my free time, I alternate between visiting design blogs to find decorating ideas to try out (like spraypainting a bunch of picture frames glossy white that I suspect I will one day throw out and making a blue jar out of a regular jar) and wondering what spirit possessed me to buy such an unnecessarily large house.

Stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some of the blogs I like:

For design:

younghouselove.com

housetweaking.com

For DIY furniture:

ana-white.com

And my brother's father-in-law's awesome blog for tips on how to save money when your find yourself suddenly worrying about being house poor:

popapajoe.com

It's Not You; It's Me

Stay with me. This is part end-of-the-year musing and part important announcement.

This has been quite a year for me.

• On the frivolous side, I took trips to Texas, Washington, D.C., New York, Georgia, China, Taiwan, North Carolina, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Logan, UT (more on that in a minute).
• I attended the following plays, ranging from Broadway to very local: Memphis, Newsies, Porgy and Bess, a Mandy Patinkin concert (not a play, but I'm counting it because Mandy Patinkin. He said, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die!" at the end of the show), In the Heights, the 39 Steps, the Secret Garden, Arsenic and Old Lace, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spitfire Grill. 
• I attended nine college football games, including every BYU home game, two Utah State games (we'll get there in a minute) and my first ever college bowl game. It's a good thing I like football because those games represent many hours of driving and sitting that I will never get back.
• I bought a camera, took an introductory photography class, and by my count, have taken over 2,000 pictures since May. There are only about three of them that I am actually proud of.

On the professional side, I've had some things published that I'm pretty proud of; I've started a research project that I am very excited about; and, oh yeah

I am leaving BYU.

I haven't talked too much about it on this blog, out of respect to my employer/alma mater, and as an act of self-preservation, but I've been consumed by looking for a job for the better part of this last year, ever since BYU decided not to hire me for the position they had open last year. Another position is currently open at BYU (because, again, they didn't hire me), for which I would have interviewed if I hadn't found another job.

However, week before Christmas, I was offered a job at Utah State University, which means I will be leaving BYU in August, which is something I wouldn't have thought I would be saying at the beginning of this year. However, I am very excited for my new job, which has accounted for the numerous trips to Logan to check out the mid-singles ward and the football team (and, no, for you football fans, I didn't know Gary Andersen would be leaving when I accepted the job, but I am still optimistic about the Aggies next season. And, of course, I am always foolishly optimistic about the Cougars. That will never change).

And while I will always be a BYU fan at heart, and I have had many important relationships at BYU that will continue (after all, I'll only be moving 2 hours away), leaving the institution feels a little like a breakup. It's the right thing for me at this point in my life, but I can't say it doesn't still hurt a little.

It's not working. I'm going in a different direction. I'd like to see other people. It's not you; it's me. We are never, ever, ever getting back together.

Most likely.

Happy 2013 everyone! I have a feeling it's going to be a good one.

Manic Pixie Dream Guys

So, why, when there are so many things going on in my life today: job stuff, finals, family things, etc., did I decide that a) I needed to write something here, and b) it needed to be this link?

Because, for years, I have believed that this was a problem. The Manic Pixie Dream Guy is exactly what I am looking for in a man, and he doesn't actually exist. Now I have someone else backing me up.

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!