No Good Cookies Part 2: Enter the Wingman

(If you need a refresher to understand the situation, please read the post "No Good Cookies" from November 22.)

So let me start by explaining how great my Saturday had been. I slept in until 10:30, Napoleon made me an awesome lunch, and I had enjoyed watching college football and at the time, I was watching the Florida vs Alabama game sprawled out on the couch. Napoleon was in the bathroom shaving.

We got an unexpected knock at the door and as is our custom, I simply shouted "Come in!" and the door opened to reveal a tall girl who claimed that we had a plate of hers. I remembered the plate. How could I forget this girl's tactic. Now she was coming over unannounced to pick this plate, but she was obviously coming over to try and talk with her intended target: Napoleon. This girl is pretty gutsy and knows what she wants. Napoleon is in no condition to come out (halfway through shaving) nor does he want to come out and face an awkward conversation with someone who wants answers.

So she and I go to the kitchen to looking for this plate. Wouldn't you know, we can't find it. After a couple minutes she starts to laugh this "I can't believe this" laugh and explains that this plate is her roommate's who is moving out at the end of the semester. I leave her looking for a second and go run into the bathroom to ask Napoleon where the plate is and he says that it has to be here. Not wanting to deal with the situation (and without a shirt on and shaving cream smattered on half his face he was clearly in no position to deal with the situation), he turned on the shower and made his escape.

After a couple more minutes of looking through the kitchen until I assure her that we'll find it and Napoleon will get in contact with her and let her know when we have it. So she emphasizes again that she needs the plate for her roommate and leaves 0 for 2: no plate and no face time with Napoleon. But she did leave her mark with her second interesting blog post of the semester.

-A.T.H.

New Insight Concerning Rookies

In baseball, many players go straight from high school to the draft. Others will go to college for a year or two and then get drafted. And still there are others who will go to college for the full four years. However, regardless of whatever route they may have taken, at the end of the day, they are still just that: rookies. Yet, because of their various backgrounds, the respective maturity levels, mindsets, and attitudes of each rookie will all differ. A rookie coming straight out of high school is much more likely to be distracted by all the hoopla, media attention, and endorsements of the bigs, whereas a four-year college player will be much more mature and focused on the prize at end. Yet, they are still both rookies. Herein lies our new insight, for there are some rookies here at BYU that have come "straight" out of high school, whereas there are others who are four-year college players. And as a result, some rookies can be good for your team, while others may just be a hassle.

Utah Follow-up

My friend had the following to say concerning Utah as a follow-up to our previous post:

About Utah and not ever wanting to leave...

Things That Utah Offers
1) Prophet of God
2) NBA Team
3) Lots of temples
4) Lots of members
5) Mountains
6) Family (if you're from around there)

Why None of These Things Matter
1) Because God in his infinite mercy made it so we could have broadcasting and magazines
2) Because the Jazz year after year can't put things together - and plus there's lots of NBA teams, at least 30 or so by my guess, including one in Canada (but they suck worse than the Jazz)
3) You can find a temple anywhere too pretty much unless you can't settle for anything less than a 15 minute drive which is pretty picky if you ask me
4) Lots of INACTIVE members too...the thing is, you can find lots of active members where ever you go in North America relatively speaking...quality isn't always quantity
5) There's a lot of mountains, and if you're an ocean person Utah is not a good place to be
6) God in his infinite mercy invented the air plane because He realized that we can't always stay ten miles away from Mommy and Daddy

No Good Cookies

At the beginning of the year, our apartment was blessed to receive cookies and brownies almost every Sunday for 5 or 6 weeks straight. Since that time, we have been so fortunate as to receive similar offerings at a less-frequent, yet still quite pleasing pace. For example, tt was our blessing to receive such a gift last Sunday.

NOTE: We know that many girls think about whether to use paper plates or real plates when delivering such treats. Paper plates can be thrown away, while real plates guarantee an additional meeting when the plate has to be returned. Not all girls are like this, but many are. We just want you to know--we are on to you.

So keep this in mind while I set the scene for you. This is this one girl, let's call her Carol, although that's obviously not her name. Carol is a good friend of mine that I have gotten to know quite well the last few weeks. Because of our busy schedules and other circumstances, we would email each other often or talk online and didn't get many opportunities to see each other or do anything together. At the culmination of these emails, we were able to find a time one Friday afternoon to just sit around and chat on campus for awhile. The conversation lasted almost 3 hours. It was pretty good, although she informed me of her desire to raise a family in Utah (see blog post below). So it was good, but overall, just ok. The following week, which was this past week, I was super busy; I was swamped with both schoolwork and homework. As a result, I didn't respond to her emails and didn't really talk to her at all. However, in the midst of such business, I also came across another young lady here at the Y. We shall call her Lily, although that's obviously not her real name either. Anyways, I was able to spend some time with Lily, and it was just wonderful. As a result, I quickly found myself being drawn further and further away from Carol and closer and closer to Lily. By the week's end, Carol was no longer really on my mind.

Ok, well this afternoon while we were sitting around on the couch after church, we heard a knock at the door. As is customary, we yelled "Come in!" Nothing happened. "Come in!" Again--silence. "COME IN!" Usually third time's the charm, but not this go around. One of us got up to go open the door. No one was there, but at the foot of our apartment entrance was a plate of cookies and a note. Such an event is cause for great curiousness, so we all looked on in anticipation as it was revealed that the note was addressed to yours truly: me. Feeling flattered before I even knew who they were from, I quickly opened the note to read the attached message. It was from Carol. It said something of this sort: "Hey, I know you had a busy week, so I just wanted to drop these off so you could enjoy them while you relax . . . Hope to talk to you soon!" My heart sank. My roommate perfectly interpreted her actions: "Hey I don't know where you are, but I just wanted to let you know that I am still here." Ah! The thing is--I'm not still here. I've kind of moved on . . .

Needless to say, we enjoyed the cookies in terms of the taste and joy they brought to our mouths and stomachs. However, the overall experience was quite sour for me and caused me to feel very badly! I'm not exactly sure what to do, but I do know this: she used a real plate, meaning I haven't seen the last of her.

Oh cookies . . . oh real plates . . . oh BYU . . .

I guess that's life--darn, no good cookies!

S is for Sensible, That's Good Enough for Me

If we ever write a book on the 4 S's (see previous blog post), there would most definitely be a sub-heading underneath "Smart" that would be entitled "Sensible." Dictionary.com defines sensible as "having, using, or showing good sense or sound judgment." I recognize that based on our upbringing and life experiences, our understanding and perception of the world around us and how things should be will differ from one person to the next. Moreover, I acknowledge that as a result of such differences, people often maintain varying preferences and desires that not only guide their everyday decisions, but also navigate much bigger decisions that one must make over the course of a lifetime. In sum, we all have our "ideals."

It has been my unfortunate experience to come across many a young ladies here at BYU that seem to be so adamantly attached to their vision of the ideal life that they regrettably become inflexible and act quite insensibly. With regards to S standing for sensible, I might have even another sub-heading that I would entitle "Supple." Concerning flexibility, I would like to mention the concept of where one raises their family. I am aware that the majority of students here at BYU, particularly the women, speak so highly of their hometown that it is their preference for where they would want to raise their family. I find no fault in such a desire. I love where I grew up and if it worked out that I was able to raise my family there, well that's great.

However, the downside of all of this is seen when the particular girl is so set on this "ideal" of raising her family where she was raised that she seems to push all sensibleness aside. She forgets to realize that 1) her family should follow the will of the Lord in making such decisions and 2) maybe the will of the Lord is for her family to be raised somewhere else. I firmly believe that the Lord wants us to have preferences and make the best decisions we can based on such desires. Notwithstanding, I know that He ultimately desires that we seek His will in all things, including where we live and raise our families. Consequently, shouldn't would be flexible in our approach to the future and where we will raise our families?

I recently sat down in the CougarEat with a particular "friend" of mine who is of the female-sort. As we sat and talk, she informed me of how she couldn't imagine raising her family anywhere but Utah. She was born and raised in Utah. She explained her reasoning in that this is where all of her family lives, this is where she always has lived, this is where she is happy, and she can't imagine living somewhere else away from her family and being happy. Upon hearing this, I found it completely reasonable and understandable that she would have such an "ideal" future in mind for her family. However, as the conversation continued, I became aware of how stubborn she was concerning this matter. She couldn't imagine the Lord asking her to live somewhere else, nor could she imagine her husband wanting to live somewhere else either. Ultimately, she came across as completely inflexible concerning this matter.

Maybe it sounds harsh, but to me, it was really a turn-off. This one particular experience is just an example of the many girls I have met here at BYU who feel the same way. I think it's great to have preferences, but c'mon people! Where is the flexibility?

All I have to say is that S is for sensible, and that is surely good enough for me.

Truth or Dare

What started out as a simple game being played by silly boys at 1 am who felt they could stay up late because they could sleep-in the following morning due to having stake conference at 1 pm the next day as opposed to having the normal 9 am morning church turned rather hilarious when we reached dare #2. After going through a few truths and a singular dare, I decided to take a risk and do another dare. "Prank call somebody." What?! Prank call somebody? I haven't done that in years! That's so high school! Who should I prank call? We decided we would call somebody outside the ward, lest they reference the ward menu and find my # listed. We decided to call this girl my roommate knows from back home. She doesn't know me, so it would be safe. I decided to put my cell phone on speaker phone. I reached her answering machine and left the following message: "Did you know Chuck Norris was born in a log cabin he built with his own bare hands?" Haha! We were dying laughing (please remember: this was at 1 am). I closed the phone. We continued to giggle. We could not hold back out laughter. "Ok," I said. "Truth or dare?" We proceeded to another truth, and likewise continued to giggle. I don't know what all was said, but we were in rare form to say the least. In the middle of my roommate answering his truth, we heard the following: "If you would like to make another call, please hang-up and dial again." What?! I quickly grabbed my phone and opened it. The phone had been on speaker phone the entire time and was recording a message still for the girl we were prank calling! There was one split second of stunned silence, and then we lost it. Each one of us quickly tried to remember what had been said in the past two minutes, but we were laughing too hard. We could only imagine how the message would be received in its entirety when the girl listened to it. After our roaring laughter quieted down, we wiped the tears off of our faces, changed into our bed clothes, and went to bed.

Playing for Keeps

There are three reasons why people try to set you up with other people:

Reason 1: "I live vicariously through other people and as such want to set you up with someone I know just for the sake of setting you up."

Reason 2: "I think you two are a really good match and would really hit it off!"

Reason 3: "Even though you haven't officially met, my friend has expressed interest in getting to know you."

I have always enjoyed the prospect of getting "set-up," so long as the motivation behind such has found its roots in either reason 2 or reason 3. If both of those reasons are the motivation, well then, that is pretty much just a really fortunate situation. Consequently, when I was approached by another girl in the ward and told that she wanted to set me up with her friend due to both reason 2 and reason 3, I was very excited.

I proceeded to make contact with this friend of hers: I called her, made it known that I would love to eat dinner with her one night, set up a time, etc. etc. And just like that, it was in my hands.

My approach to the evening was very appropriate: I had a good balance of excitement, realism, hope, and openness. And so the evening came and we ate dinner together. It was truly a great little "date" and we really did hit it off (or so I like to think). The conversation flowed freely from both ends, we found out that we shared a lot of common interests, and it just felt very comfortable and pleasing. I obviously wasn't making wedding plans in my mind--c'mon, what kind of an RM do you think I am--but I was thinking to myself that this was a great girl that was definitely worth pursuing. And then it happened.

Me: "Ya, I was really glad to see you come to my lesson on Sunday."

Her: "Well I thought I should probably start going to mission prep. In fact, as of last night, my papers are officially in! Isn't that so exciting?"

Exciting? EXCITING?! I don't know if that is the word I am looking for to describe how I feel. Thank you for setting me up and telling me I'd hit it off with, and be a good match for a girl that I will no longer be able to hug 3 months from now. Is that what we now define as a good match?

I guess maybe that is the difference between some sisters and brothers here at BYU. Some look at dating as only a way to get to know people, have fun, etc. A night out on the town, you might say. The rest of us? Well of course we want to get to know people and have fun. But in the end, it's all about the ring: you see my friends, I am not playing this game for the sake of playing. I am playing for keeps.