BOOM Saturday

A Time to Prepare, by Ian S. Ardern - "Time is never for sale; time is a commodity that cannot, try as you may, be bought at any store for any price. Yet when time is wisely used, its value is immeasurable. On any given day we are all allocated, without cost, the same number of minutes and hours to use, and we soon learn, as the familiar hymn so carefully teaches, “Time flies on wings of lightning; we cannot call it back” (“Improve the Shining Moments,” Hymns,no. 226). What time we have we must use wisely. President Brigham Young said, “We are all indebted to God for the ability to use time to advantage, and he will require of us a strict account of [its] disposition” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young [1997], 286)."

My old FHE group wanted to know if I could join them on Saturday for a short reunion.

"POSSIBLY," I typed. "Saturday is currently an eldritch maze of horrors."

And it was.

BOOM. D&D with my homies in the morning. Single-handedly take out a bunch of werewolves whilst riding upon my unicorn. Contemplate the utter geekiness of my hobbies and reassure myself my overactive imagination is not a sign of outright insanity.

BOOM. Volunteer to help out another RA with their program later in the day. Acknowledge that I'm totally going to be cutting it close in making it back from my other errands on time.

BOOM. Haircut time. Drive to a place and use my starving student card to get a sweet discount. Talk with the Hispanic lady cutting my hair about her husband for half an hour. They're doing really well!

BOOM. Time to pick up my suit. Drive to the tailor and inspect her work. Make her day by telling her she did a really awesome job and that I know exactly where I'm coming the next time I need my suit repaired. Remember that I haven't needed any repairs on my suit since I first bought it over three years ago. Refrain from telling the tailor as such.

BOOM. Come home earlier than expected. Find out the company I bought a sketchpad program from finally sent me my keys. Sketch out some concept art for my novel (if it reaches the web fiction format).

BOOM. Get totally distracted and show up to the program late. Realize my wardrobe was improper for the event and book it back to my room to change before booking it back over to my station way over on the side of campus I rarely go to. Get lost trying to find the right building.

BOOM: Realize I totally burned one of my other RAs, with whom I was supposed to help pick out costumes for our Thriller dance practice. Apologize profusely. Smack forehead several times.

BOOM: Blog furiously while freshmen come, find me at my station, and take my hints and secrets that lead them to the next step in their Amazing Race. Celebrate a job well done with donuts and pizza.

BOOM. Work on journal and novel. Resist urge to blow it off and play ultimate Frisbee. Get frustrated with novel because there isn't enough time to reach the goal I set for the day. Find a good stopping point and shrug it off.

BOOM. Fight my email service so I can help another RA with her Halloween costume. Finally print out her name tag. Color printers are the bomb!

BOOM. Head to the Helaman Halls dance. Eat half a pie all by myself. Everyone asks why I'm not wearing a costume, and I tell them I'm a Zygon. No one ever gets the joke. Join another RA in putting on his costume.

BOOM. Receive a call. Am I going to the FHE reunion? I forgot about that. Well, I have something at ten, and I ... It starts at nine? Fine. Let's go.

BOOM. Pick up friend and friend's friend and drive up to Orem. Reunite with FHE family while eating IHOP. Order an appetizer so I can quickly leave before everyone else. Appetizer is served along with everyone else's order, and I end up being the last one eating. Enjoy the company, but quickly bounce.

BOOM. Arrive half an hour late to our Thriller dance practice. Discover that we're starting an hour late because the dance at the Cannon Center stole our space.

BOOM. Read my scriptures until 11.

BOOM. The dance needs to be packed up. Assist in any way possible, putting up chairs, rolling out chairs, carrying ladders, and providing comic relief in the form of using said ladders as battering rams.

BOOM. Despite the fact that I wasn't present throughout the dance, and that I'm not wearing a 'proper' costume (a Zygon is a perfectly reasonable costume, thank you very much), am invited to join in a massive RA picture.

BOOM. Thriller dance practice. Find I'm not doing as bad a job as I thought I might have been. We all get kicked out at midnight.

BOOM. Read comics for a while before finally crashing into bed. The end.

I'm not sure how many of you wanted a play-by-play of my Saturday, but I hope the quotation explains it all (and I hope you read it, too). I found great joy in yesterday, and I'm sure you see why.

So, how was your day?

Getting Things Together: Locked In

"Doesn't it seem foolish to spoil sweet and joyful experiences because we are constantly anticipating the moment when they will end?" - Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Of Regrets and Resolutions

Yesterday, I was determined to catch up on the mountain-load of work I've struggled to keep from overwhelming me. With the one exception to my prior roleplaying commitment, I vowed to reject all invitations for social events or fun for the entire day.

After my commitment, I staggered back to my room with the intention to work all day so I could sleep easy on Sunday night before classes started up again. It was raining, and wouldn't you know that rain just makes me the coziest person in the world, so rather than tackle the mountain, I collapsed on my couch and disappeared to the world.

Of course, disappearing wasn't all that easy. Three different residents came banging on my door because they locked themselves out of their rooms, interrupting my much-needed nap. Finally, when I woke for reals, it was about 5:00pm, and the mountain still loomed.

Homework, journal, blog, novel, chores, readings, all fell before me, yet, despite my best efforts, by the time midnight rolled around, my climb had barely taken me above sea level. However, despite all this, things really weren't that bad. I mean, when you compare the picture in this post to how my room looked yesterday, well, things look a whole lot better.

And I think that's the thing. In small ways, given my overloaded truck-bed of tasks, I keep forgetting to enjoy the journey, focusing more on finishing and completing the individual steps simply so I can 'catch up.' The thing is, I'll never catch up. My to-do list always has something else to add. My responsibilities, whether from church or work or family or hobbies, will always need attention. But that doesn't mean that my day wasn't full of victories, tiny though they may have been. Even though my goals weren't completed, the day was not a waste. It's easy to view life as a win-or-lose all scenario, but honestly? It's not.

So, my challenge for you today is to count your victories! Let them shine in your memory! And be sure to comment below!

Don't Forget to Study: What I did on Saturday

2 Nephi 32:3 - "... feast upon the words of Christ ..."

This is a long block of prose!

I'll be honest, some days, I just don't have a relevant picture. This is probably obvious to you some posts, like when I start craning my neck to somehow tie the daily picture I took with the lesson I learned in the day. As it was, I figured that, at least for today, I would admit I'm at least aware when I'm doing this, and not hide the fact that the following picture has nothing to do with my thoughts. Enjoy!

Well, I just had a weird day in general yesterday. Falling asleep at 4:30am the night before was an idea that could have had disastrous consequences, especially considering I had volunteered to fill in for the DM for my DND group at 9:00am. I woke up at 8:10am, got showered, and arrived just in time to send my teammates on a battle against Scar and his hyena troop.

After that enjoyable adventure, I somehow managed to throw up a blog post and accomplish my daily goal for digitizing my journal before one of my residents knocked on my door and asked to talk. This was the same resident I'd taken to the ER a few nights prior, and he proudly showed me the tubes sticking out of his chest and just talked about everything that had happened after he called me to tell me he was heading into surgery. Poor guy obviously just wanted to talk, but right around the same time he showed up, I started hitting a wall, and about fell asleep on him right in the middle of our conversation.

I set an alarm for about two hours later than it was, hit the snooze button three times, and then just turned the whole thing off. I was out about four hours when my best bro called and asked if he could come hang out at my place. I mumbled something about being asleep, to which he called my bluff and showed up anyway. He roused me out of bed, which was good, considering I still had homework and sleep to accomplish later in the night, and we walked around campus and talked about life for a bit. We eventually parted ways, and I headed back to the dorm to write in my novel, read for my English class, and write a paper.

I was getting tired again, but I wanted to squeeze in an episode of MLP:FIM before midnight, so I threw Netflix on. Unfortunately, the internet was awful, so between buffers, I resumed my reading of the third book in the Maze Runner series. By the time the episode ended, my kindle told me I had about an hour left in the book. I had once again been sucked in by the plot, and so remained reading until just before 1:00am. I had a temple rededication to go to at 9:00am, so I prepared for bed.

Then, I remembered.

I had forgotten.

I was tired and ready to sleep, but I sure as heaven wasn't going to bed until I read my scriptures.

Lights back on, back to the couch, flip on my Gospel Library App, and I read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon and a chapter out of the New Testament. It was a shorter study session than I usually have, but I felt the Spirit, and it was enough.

When I was on my mission, my companions and I would ask our investigators or less-actives or recent converts to read a chapter or two out of the scriptures before we came back a few days later for our return appointment. Probably about 90% of the time, when we came back, they would tell us they 'didn't have time' in the interim.

My reminder for the day is: Make the time! It doesn't matter how tired you are, it doesn't matter what else you've done in the day, you will be strengthened and blessed when you read, study, and ponder God's word. I haven't missed a day since I've come back, though I've had close days like yesterday when I'm about to pass out and I'm reminded, 'Go.' I promise you, your life will seem that much more bright.