OK, OK, I did it.

I am on the book of faces.

Cool kids quit their jobs.

Natalie and I both quit our jobs today. Huzzah!

"So uh... that last blog..."

Guess some people were a little thrown by the nature of my last post. These are mostly newer readers. Old readers can no doubt recall I do this textual vomit routine semi-frequently. It's like with the swings (post before last post)... I kinda start thinking out loud just talking and talking until I get to the point which is often a pretty good one. Except on the blog it's typing, which is a little more confusing, cause I suck at typing and think way faster than I type (think Jackie Joyner Kersee vs. Nathan Lane). So I have to go back and correct "wirds snd phtases" and the whole thing is just a bit cumbersome. I usually feel weird about these blogs a couple days later, but in the sake of journalistic integrity, I allow them to remain. Perhaps they give readers insight, perhaps they lose readers, in any case this is more for my sake than theirs (yours), so whatever. I promise the next one will be light hearted, maybe about how I didn't get the job I wanted...

Nah, honking story it is.

She told me with her lips what she wouldn't with her tongue.

I'm really interested to see the comments to follow this blog topic...

So I've been thinking about kissing (Heaven forbid I should be doing any, instead I theorize):

For those who know the tragic tale of the 3 Melissas, this is about the first and worst. This woman is possibly the most responsible for any screwed up perceptions I have on relationships. She's certainly the one I blame.

Anyway, I once invented this game where we would tell each other secrets via kiss. You weren't allowed to say anything or lead in at all, you had to just tell a secret, with kissing as your only mode of expression. To my amazement, we could both do it, almost all of the time. It was amazing. She was so good at guessing that once I threw her a curve ball and she pulled back mid-kiss and said, "you did what naked in High School?" Seriously, it was uncanny. She even told me she was breaking up with me with a kiss. (A particularly cruel method, for the record.) P.S. This is also the girl who honked when she laughed for those who know that story.

Point is, I grew to depend so heavily on this affection, that I've either consciously or subconsciously expected it from every girl I've kissed ever since. I've even tested other girls. No one can do it. So I harbor this little disappointment, and eventually when things aren't going just like I hope, I disengage. Which isn't to say, I break it off; cause honestly, the girls do that more of the time, but I'm convinced it has a lot to do with my unrealistic expectations and this freak girl who could read my thoughts and managed to hurt me more than I'd been hurt before or since. It's a terrible thing to let that keep me from happiness or enjoying who I'm with.

Yes, it was unbelievably cool to be able to communicate like that. And it was really fun to kiss her. But I think I'm done telling secrets with a kiss. I want to tell somebody someday, what isn't a secret to anyone in the world, that I'm totally in love with only her, and say it with a kiss.

The swings made me say it....

Enjoying the swings late at night with a good friend is very theraputic. I find I tend to wax philosophical and dang if I don't say some pretty profound things by the time I've had a good swing...

Don't ask me to remember what I said, something about being ourselves and showing all our plumage and dropping the pretense of who we think we should be around others.

Doesn't sound very novel, I know (and the plumage part is probably downright perplexing out of context), but I swear in the moment it was profound, at least to me... whatever it was I actually said.

It's late and I spent all my brain energy on profundity.
I'm in no state to blog.

Dear New York:

My dear friends in the NYC, I will come visit soon. I am poor. But hopefully in a couple weeks I will be not so poor and we can celebrate not only my being in New York, but my having a fabulous job in Boston. Sound like a plan?

Geez, I Love Church!

"So, how's your ward out there?"
"Perfect."
"Haha."
"No seriously."

Sooo much ice cream. So little tummy.

I had a fun day today. Kristy and I went to lunch at Faneuil Hall and then attended the scooper bowl. Ice Cream abounded. It still runs for 2 more days so get down there and pig out. I fear I ate a bit too much ice cream, but at least I didn't puke it up. Huzzah!

In the House of the Lord...

An oft-quoted charge of President Brigham Young has been resonating in me of late, made to the weary saints as he led them in a hasty and heartbreaking exodus from Nauvoo. He cried in a loud voice above the congregation, "Let the fire of the covenant which you made in the House of the Lord burn in your bones like flame unquenchable." The covenant he spoke of was the collective covenants of the gospel and specifically obedience to the law of consecration.

I seldom have Saturdays off. Hardly ever, in fact, since I don't work on Sunday. So, having this Saturday off was a big deal and honestly I struggled a little as to whether I would spend the precious weekend day at the "Regional Temple Day". I ultimately decided my Temple worship has been spotty at best of late and that I should attend.

Let me unequivocally state for the record that there is absolutely no better way I could have spent my Saturday. I was refreshed and renewed, I was instructed of the Holy Ghost. I was recommitted to the truth I love, and the religion I profess. I have been considering of late, how much Satan wants to keep us out of the Temple. In retrospect I am convinced that my endowment, not my mission, was the vital turning point in my life. I think of how hard the tempter worked to keep me out of the Temple. If he couldn't have me unworthy, he wanted me unmotivated; if not unmotivated, faithless. There is nothing Satan is so jealous of than his power. We are given so much power over him in the Lord's House that he will do everything he can to dissuade us from receiving our endowment. Once we have received it his only hope is to undermine it's value and priority in our life.

Brigham Young's charge is so important, because it lends the most powerful imagery to testify of the absolute significance of what that covenant should MEAN in our lives. It should never stop burning within us.

That Jared is soo hot right now...

The title of this blog's significance is threefold:

1. I really am hot right now. Rachel cut my hair last night. She's worth every penny folks. I'm too sexy for this blog.

2. Rachel administered said haircut whilst watching Zoolander.

3. My job interview went about as well as I could possibly expect. I felt confident and qualified the moment I entered the building. I got along very well with the boss and it sounds like he'll be having me back to talk to the big boss. Thank you every one for your prayers. I'm convinced they did most of the work. I was unspeakably nervous yesterday and today right up until just before the interview. I got there early so I killed the iPod and did a little last minute begging. I immediately felt at ease and really enjoyed the tour and the interview. Whatever happens, I'm really grateful for the divine assistance.

New Job? One can hope.

So, most of you know I'm kinda sick of the job these days... mostly because it has next to no relation to what I DO. I'm a Sound Designer and an Audio Engineer. So I've been looking for jobs. I hate looking for jobs almost as much as staying in a lousy job. However, mine is a lousy job with lousy pay. I've applied to 3 positions of interest and distributed maybe 10 resumes to places I'm interested in. Lay off, I'm starting slow.

So I got a call today from the "Golden Job". This is the one with regular weekday hours (getting my Saturdays back), ample to comfortable salary, and... benefits. I'd like to know that if I needed to I could visit a doctor. Maybe get some help payin' for the meds, you know? I'd like to get my teeth cleaned by an attractive dental hygenist, and maybe have a dentist poke around in my mouth a little, without feeling like I shoulda bought a microphone instead... In this benefitless condition I always opt for the microphone. Always.

Ok, to the point... Prayer. Yours. For me. So I can have this job I desire so much. I interview Thursday next week so you have almost a week to pray good and hard and over and over on my behalf. Thanks kids. Love ya.

Real conversation I had at work today...

Precursor I might be paraphrasing this a little, but honest to Betsy, this was pretty much exactly the conversation I had today...

Background There's this nice lady I teach at the Apple store. Comes in almost every week. A little slow on the computer, but a very enthusiastic learner. Good student. She's obsessed with all things opera. Obviously I mentioned a few weeks ago I had tickets to Turandot at the Met and was very excited. Today I'm showing her how to Google Image search and find pictures of different world opera houses for her screen saver. We were having trouble finding a good high resolution image of the Met so I said, "I know where one is" and navigated to my Flickr page where my pictures from last Tuesday were posted.

Dialogue She spots the pictures and immediately recalls I went to Turandot.

"Is that the girl you took?"
"Yeah."
"She's lovely, I mean, really beautiful."
"I know, she totally made me look good."
"No, I mean it... she's way hot. Is she your girlfriend?"
"Nah, we're just friends."
"You should marry her."
(Beginning to laugh) "Oh I don't know if I'm ready to get married."
"You should get ready."
(Chuckling a bit more readily) "Yeah, that's what my mom says."
"You gay?"
(Almost dying) "Nope."
"I don't mean any disrespect by that... I got a grandson who's gay."
"No, I'm not gay." (Trying to keep the volume of our conversation low)
"How is it you don't marry that nice girl?"
"Haha. Who says she's nice?"
"I do. You're too nice a boy to take out nasty girls."
"I'm 27..."
(Cuts me off) "I'm 76, you're a boy to me."
(Almost aching with laughter) "Sooo...you wanna get back to the lesson?"
"I've got a granddaughter who looks like that girl."
(Guffaw)
"Don't give me that sass, she's a lovely girl."
"I'm sure she is... Listen, I'm a little embarassed by this conversation. I'm pretty sure I'm blushing and I don't blush."
(She nods to acknowledge that I am, in fact, beet red)
"Let's get back to the computer and we'll talk about my dating life after."
(Under her breath) "Always putting the computer before the girl?"
"Now wait a minute..."
"So how do I put that in iPhoto again?"

Freaking amazing.

This is Analise...

She's pretty cute huh? Yeah, she's my niece.

Links for all you linkers and linkees...

So Jacosa told me I was a blogging hub on Wednesday evening. Who knew? Not me obviously, since I haven't updated my links in forever. But supposedly people use them, ok so I updated the links. Some of you people who haven't updated in a ba-jillion years got dropped (Emily, Chateau, Scott). Sorry. Some of you barely survived (Kristy, Marie, Laura) and perhaps only because we're such good buds. But dangit, Marie, if you don't quibble soon it's gone!

Anyway, I'm glad you're all here. I like hearing that my friend Jacosa reads my friend Jen in Arizona's blog and loves it... and other stuff like that. Makes me happy to facilitate connections between awesome people.

Turandot

...was Incredible. The Met knows how to put on an opera. I have seriously never seen a theatrical production so immense and beautiful. The sets were mind-blowing, the costumes, the singers, as an opera fan, it was seriously the pleasure of a lifetime.

And, of course, the music was flawless. Such an amazing libretto. Puccinni's really over the top, but unapologetically romantic and epic.

I went with the awesome Laura Pugmire, who is really one of my favorite people in the Boston. We met up with Yancy and Megan afterwords, and it was a really just such a nice night in New York. Huzzah for the opera! Next season I HAVE to see the magic flute. I don't know how I let myself miss that this year.

And... pictures.

"But they have rasberries..."

If you ever need some real solid entertainment and don't mind risking your life a little, go downtown around 1-2AM when the bars are closing. Colleen and I decided to spend my insomniac evening driving around Boston. Extolling the virtues of girliness, she brought snacks. We stopped in the Common to chow. A particularly animated fellow who obviously had a little too much sauce that evening wanted to make our acquaintance. Wrangled by 3 of his friends, and apparently having just romped in the pond, he reasoned with his caretakers, "But they have rasberries..."

Highlights of the evening also included witnessing a spurious hookup of two girls with some random dude, several men almost hit by taxis, and my personal favorite, a lady in the backseat of a car... aggressively pawing and licking the window. Wow.

Things that ruled about going to AZ...

Someburros
Pei Wei
Charlestons
In-N-Out
Pete's Fish-N-Chips
Filibertos
Jack In The Box
YC's Mongolian BBQ
Claim Jumper
T.C. Eggingtons

Oh and... the wedding, friends, Mark trying to kiss Kylee, Katie Bug, Jen, Bill and Judy Thompson's like 20 awesome grandkids, running into Mona (who apparently doesn't live in London anymore), Mom, Lori, Erika and Aaron, Katrina, Fry's Electronics, Zia Records, and lots of other stuff.

Yancy wants his poem...

And here it is:

Yancy, my dear friend...
I fear O.P.P. is dead.
Regrets.

I bought tickets to the Opera.

Turandot by Puccini to be precise. They were $170, but I'm pushing that to the back of my mind. After all, how often does one get to see the Metropolitan Opera of New York do Puccini? Well, unless one is rich enough to buy season tickets (would that I were). I am extremely excited. Must find a hot, hot date.

P.S. The answer to the question, "Where the Hell have you been?", is:
1. The Apple Store at Chestnut Hill (way too much)
2. The Berkshires
3. New York City
4. Self-Secluding like a monk. But I'm feeling better, done with that, and extremely excited to be flying to AZ soon. It's like 100 degrees there and not raining or snowing... should help the mood a tick.

You ever sign in and then fall asleep?