Hypaethral

The beginning of spring semester brought new tenants to my apartment complex. In my complex some individual units are owned privately so landlords set their own rules. In order to please their tenants, some landlords allow them to keep their small dogs even though it goes against BYU Off Campus Housing Rules and Regulations. This comes with a set of negative externalities, which were brought to my attention when a small pack of Chihuahuas moved in this past April. I started noticing little landmines of dog waste in the grass of our quad. Equally annoying, we began to hear the high-pitched yapping of Chihuahuas throughout the day. Now instead of being able to run around the grass without care, tenants have to be wary as they walk through it in order to avoid stepping in the piles of doggie doo. Instead of being able to enjoy the silence as we work on our homework or try to get some sleep, we endure the yelps of the rat-like canines. One day when I was walking through the quad I s...

So today I worked at the freshman cafeteria. The full time staff member over our area really got me thinking about things. He was born in South Africa. He played soccer in England. He lived in Portugal. He went to culinary school who knows where. When he played professional soccer he traveled all over for games. And now he's getting a Bachelor's followed by a law degree. All of that and I'm pretty sure he's only like five years older than me. Well, that got me thinking about my life. I was born in Utah. I grew up in Utah (I lived in Connecticut for a few months but that doesn't really count). And now I'm going to school in Utah. A lot of my friends will complain about Utah and tell me how much they hate it, and with home-state pride I defend it and proclaim my love for it. It is true that I love Utah, but living here my entire life, what do I really know? I've been feeling this itch lately to get out. I wouldn't mind coming back to Utah event...

It's interesting how our desires change. For some reason an e-mail between Jeff and I came to my mind today, and it's been stuck in my head. And if you know me then you know that when something gets stuck in my head I do one of the following depending on my laziness: 1. Write it on something (margin of notes, in my journal, on my pants, on my arm, pretty much anything). 2. Post it as a facebook status even if no one will know what it means. 3. Blog about it. Since I'm bored and not feeling too lazy I've opted for the third. Anyway, the e-mail. I'm not sure how we had gotten into this conversation but we were telling each other about our life plans. This was my life plan at age fifteen or sixteen: "Well I'm going to graduate high school. After that I'm either becoming a Navy SEAL or going to school. If I'm not a SEAL I'll go on a mission then come back and go through vet school. Then I'm going to work on a wildlife reservation as a vet...

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This past General Conference was wonderful as usual, but this talk, given by Kent F. Richards, was one that really stuck out to me. Throughout a vast majority of my blog posts I've written on emotional and spiritual pain. I think that's something no one is immune too. However, when I heard this talk I thought specifically of my physical pains. Some of you may know that I have really bad knees. I had surgery on one, but it still gives me grief. In addition to the pain in my knees I have undiagnosed back and chest pain. I've been to a chiropractor and I've had x-rays, bone scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, and CAT scans, but to no avail. Do you know how frustrating it is to have a problem that only you know exists? I mean, I tell other people that it exists, but since they can't find a problem, and they can't feel it like I can; they can't really know , only believe. On top of that, these pains can also be really disabling. There have been somedays that I jus...