Climax
I have recently buegun playing with a Brass Ensemble called Utah Premiere Brass (www.upb.org) and it is full of a lot of wonderful musicians—-and me. Still trying to catch up to everyone…. But I am giving it a whirl and doing my best, and dog-gone-it, I just may survive.
During today’s rehearsal, the conductor was talking about the music and the phrasing that we need to take care of, explaining that it needs to build and build and build and build until it gets to “a certain climax” and what not.
Me being me thought the word climax itself was pretty funny.
We all have a climax in our lives. In fact we all have more than one, or two, or even more. We hit certain thresholds that we could not receive any more joy and happiness than we are experiencing now that you know that it is just going to be a slow ride to the bottom of the summit from there on, and we have also hit those lows where we feel sorrow, anger, disbelief, and whatever else–knowing that it can only get better. We have experienced both of those moments in our lives, and i believe that it is the way we choose to come off of those highs and those lows that will determine our character in the future.
ANYWAY–enough of me trying tot sound remotely smart, sensitive, or sensational.
So the director mentions this “climax” and points out a certain person in the ensemble saying he doesn’t quite understand the climax.
A person in the front of the ensemble blurts out “He doesn’t now but he is getting married in two weeks. He will understand it then“
to which everyone laughed.
the end
I don’t get it.
22-1
My streak of miserable softball failings are going to continue on for another season it seems.
I joined a team in Provo made up of the FUNNIEST IRS guys i have ever met.
Tonight was the first game.
we lost 22-1 and they called the game after 30 minutes. Each and every one of us lived up to the Accountants are nerds stereotype.
Never have i laughed so hard in a such a losing effort.
I guess I will show up to practice on saturday.
more snow on the way
What is up with the cold?
I really don’t mind it so much since I consider myself an avid snowboarder. By avid, I mean that i have a snowboard and I go up to the mountains every once in a while. I was once avid. That was back in the winter of 05 and i bought myself a season pass. I was not only avid, but I was sexy.
But with the new job that i have, and the 90 day waiting period period for health insurance, the last thing i can do is keep riding in a sport that I know is bound to hurt me once again as it has before (refer to my blog from the 7th grade…oh wait, i wasn’t quite bloggin then…but i was learning about email from my seventh grade computer science teacher mr Stevenson. And he had a lisp. You cold imagine what our typing lessons were like when we were learing how to type the keys “W”, “S”, and “X”. He was a nice guy, i just couldn’t figure out the difference between s and x. holy tangent)
Anyway, i don’t know where this blog is going, but there is a lot more snow heading this way and it is the 2nd week of April. What a great year to be on the mountain. A good friend of mine suggested that we take a winter off and just work at a ski resort for a year and hype up all the magic that comes with it.
This blog is gay. but reminiscing about SXSXSXXXSXSXXXSXSXXSSXXXXSSXXXSSXX which all sounded like SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS to me was worth all thr fluff it took to pull it out of my noggin
peace out
I SHOPPED ON SUNDAY and BYU FARTED a GROWL OUT
There it is. I needed something on the sabbath. I bought something. I have always tried to refrain from buying anything on sunday unless I really need it, not just because of the Christian commandment of keeping the sabbath day holy, but because i feel bad that the consumer demand within me and so many others are forcing these people to work. Anytime I have had to buy anything on sunday, I have always made it a point to try to brighten up the day of the person whomever I get to deal with for my transaction. If i have to eat at a restaurant, I leave a better tip than normal. If i am paying a toll on a toll road, I let them know they are appreciated. If I am checking out at Wal-Mart, I ask how their day is going and try to leave some sort of lame-a$$ inspirational thought for them……..
So I went to Wal-Mart (i honestly hate shopping there) to get one item that i needed very very badly. I mean my ox was in the mire. If i didn’t go to the store and buy this item, my whole week will be defunct. So I succumbed to the pressure to buy the Shake n Bake for pork chops that i needed to bake my chops for the upcoming week.
Yes, I bought Shake n Bake on the sabbath. I am not proud of it either.
While I was at it, I went ahead and bought my favorite cereal–Quaker oatmeal square
….and a half gallon of milk…….
How did i justify all of this? I will get to that later.
So i took a look around, and the rumor i have heard is true. I think every single Mexican in all of Salt Lake was in that store today!!! EVERYWHERE!!
I am not a racist, nor do i stereotype anyone for that matter, but I was amazed at how many were there buying their rice, Maze flour, beans, and little candles with the Virgin Mary on them. They really had it going on.
So the cashier, lets call her Madge, gets angry at the Mexican family in front of me for having so many heavy items–and multiples of those items. Like 5 bags of rice, 4 bags of flour….*GRAB* she grabs ONE bag of flour *SLAM*SLAM*SLAM* she repeatedly slams it over the barcode reader as if she is trying to scan the heart of a damn watermelon (which made me think, What if Wal Mart were selling babies and you scanned it like that(which made me think again, Damn Wal Mart could seriously sell babies if they wanted to))*BEEP* it finally registers, *BOOM* she throws it on the little triangular sack rotator and glares at the husband of this Mexican family as if to say with her eyes “YOU PUT IT IN YOUR CART, PACO!“–she turns to her register and *GACHUNG* she slams in the qty of the bags of flour and then SNARLS at the bags of rice that she will have to check in next.
seriously, the bags were like 10 lbs each.
but Madge was not a happy camper
The kind Mexican family, who had a beautiful cross-eyed toddler aged little girl who was playing peek-a-boo with me while her parents were being demeaned by this “customer service representative” , kindly handed over cash to complete their transaction and the wife pushed the cart out of the way while th husband stayed to receive change. SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM was all i really saw Madge do to get their change and glare her customer away to the parking lot.
So then it is my turn and i look at madge with a smile “hello there beautiful!” and proceed through the live with my 4 items (2 boxes of shake n bake) shakin in my boots.
I needed to get some cash that i owed my brother anyway, so since you can only get $100 cash back for each transaction, i made 4 seperate transactions–i bought two boxes of shake n bake–which delighted Madge to no end.
I tried to see how her day was, and all of a sudden my heart softened……”My back hurts, I have been working all day non-stop and and and—”
I really started to feel bad for her “And I can’t speak ESPANOL!!”.
I finished my transactions with Madge and ran away before she started getting angry at the family behind me who had stacked bulk packages of frozen tamales up on the conveyor or whatever it is.
So from this experience I learned some things:
- There is a language barrier and I am not necessarily telling Mexicans to learn English nor Americans to learn Spanish. But Wal Mart has the right idea. Everything they sell is in both languages and they are making some bucks because of it. I think those people that capitalize on the Spanish language will be king someday.
- I wish I knew Spanish.
- I came home to shake n bake my pork chops and PIECE of CRAP my pork chops had gone rotten!!! Do not shop on the sabbath, you will be cursed.
- The reason all of the Mexicans are shopping on Sunday is because they are all laboring at odd times of the day or night throughout the week and that is FINALLY some time that they can take. That is why it is Mexican day at every Wal MArt throughout the country–because I hate to break it to you people, Mexicans are everywhere!!
- I really am not a racist.
- I really don’t like Wal-Mart. I felt so dirty being there.
- This blog went on too long, I am sorry if you read the whole thing.
- ON the brighter side of things, I farted in the shower the other day. The sound was incredible and familiar. I could not believe my ears. I now know where BYU got the Cougar growl that they play to pump up the crowd for their football and basketball games.
Tax Season
After helping some friends do their taxes today, I would like to remind everyone to hang on to any documents that come in the mail–especially in the month of January– that say “IMPORTANT TAX NOTIFICATION” or “KEEP THIS RECORD FOR YOUR 2007 TAXES”. You might need it in order to get a better tax return……just a thought…. As for my own taxes, I am due to get a healthy return back–hooray for the lifetime learning credit and paying for my own schooling….Happy taxes everyone.
Exchange Rate
I have now been home for 2 weeks.
I had a whole bunch of Japanese coins leftover.
I had to go to UVSC to talk to some folks about getting a job yesterday. Parked in the meter parking. All I had was my coin pouch from Japan in my pocket to pay for the parking.
So I took out a Juendama. Or a 10 yen coin, and dropped it in the meter to see if I could get away with it.
I got 25 cents worth of time on that thing!!
So I finished my meeting in UVSC, and went to the drink machine since I had a few more coins. Dropped in four (4) juendamas (10 yen x 4=40 yen) and sure enough, it worked! I bought a $1 soda for 40 yen.
Current Exchange rate right now: 1 USD=108 Yen
Yesterday my rate for a diet pepsi was about 37 cents.
Sorry UVSC pepsi guy. I won’t do it again. I am out of Juens.
a first for me.
I am back home now in the US and it is glorious….minus the unemployment thing. I have now been unemployed for 8 days, a record for me i think. I have always had some sort of job. BUT i have had a few interview–one that i bombed completely and a couple more that i was able to stutter out enough English that I was able to communicate with them that i am somewhat of a decent person and that i am able to do a good job at whatever is needed…. anyway, with a little bit of time on my hands i finally decided to upload my first ever movie to youtube.com The filming of this movie sucked. The editing of this movie sucked.The clip selections sucked.The music didn’t really suck, but i should have gotten a shorter song.But you know, it was the first movie that i have ever recorded and put together on this beautiful MacBook of mine using my Canon video camera. not really a plug for them, but i do like them. anyway, if you have 6 minutes of your life to waste away, please feel free to watch it.
so many pics, so little time
I have so many things to tell you all ever since my little snow boarding expedition….on the 15th if Dec.
it includes
Snowboarding
farewell party after party
Disney land
Disney Sea?
Good old friends.
and me coming home in 24 hours.
see you all on the other side.
now this is motivating
Many of you may know that I like hitting the slopes whenever a time permits. Utah has the greatest sow on earth and i love being able to get to 7 good resorts within an hour of my home. And it is always best with friends.
Since I am here in Japan, I thought it would be need to be able to snowboard at least once here just so I have something to compare the sweet conditions in Utah.
My prayers for snow have been answered as snow has topped the Oou mountain range, including the back side of Mt Bandai–which is where we are heading in T-minus 19 hours.
First runs of the season, all on Japanese snow…….with thoughts of Brighton and snowbird permanently engraned in my mind, I am trying to imagine how fun it will be…..especially with this pic that a co-worker sent me:
