Fair Weather Fan

In college sports, I've always said that I root for both BYU and Utah except when they play each other. The truth is, I really don't care who wins most games, but when there's a home team to root for, it's fun to side with them. So last night when I went to the BYU vs. Utah basketball game, I found myself in a little dilemma: who do I root for?

I ended up rooting for both teams (at the risk of being beaten up by everyone around me), and had a really fun time doing so--especially since it was a close game from start to finish. It was really fun to celebrate every basket that was made, and to boo at every foul. But I'm curious now to see how many of my blog readers would root for BYU vs. Utah. So I decided to set up a poll. Let me know if your blood is red or blue. Also, if you want, let me know how you would have reacted if you'd been sitting next to me at the game.

"In Like A Lion (Always Winter)"

Here are the lyrics to a song by Relient K that I really like, because it describes perfectly how I feel about winter. Plus I like it when artists put Christian messages in their songs (see the last 2 stanzas). If you haven't heard this song, I suggest you look it up.

It's always nice to look out the window
And see those very first few flakes of snow
And later on we can go outside
And create the impression of an angel that just fell from the sky

When February rolls around I'll roll my eyes
Turn a cold shoulder to these even colder skies
And by the fire my heart it heaves a sigh
For the green grass waiting on the other side

It's always winter but never Christmas
It seems this curse just can't be lifted
Yet in the midst of all this ice and snow
Our hearts stay warm cause they are filled with hope

It'd be so nice to look out the window
And see the leaves on the trees begin to show
The birds would congregate and sing
A song of birth a song of newer things

The wind would calm and the sun would shine
I'd go outside and I'd squint my eyes
But for now I will simply just withdraw
Sit here and wish for this world to thaw

And everything it changed overnight
This dying world you brought it back to life
And deep inside I felt things
Shifting everything was melting
Away oh away
And you gave us the most beautiful of days

Cause when it's always winter but never Christmas
Sometimes it feels like you're not with us
But deep inside our hearts we know
That you are here and we will not lose hope

Improv Comedy

Hey everybody. I know this is late, but I have an improv comedy show tonight at 7:00. It's free and will be held at my church (150 E 4600 S). If you can't make it to tonight's performance, we'll be doing it again next month. I'll be sure to post an announcement earlier next time.

I'm Warm!!!

Last night was the best night's sleep that I've had in a long time--our furnace was up and running again!! We just noticed the other day that the furnace had been down. Before that, I had just assumed that the man who pays the heating bill kept turning down the thermostat whenever I had turned it up. I never spent enough time in the basement to realize that the heater never worked. But now that it works, it's made a world of a difference in my sleep. I didn't wake up once during the night! My blankets didn't freeze me every time I moved. I could actually crawl out of bed this morning without too much trauma. If only I'd actually gotten more than 6 hours of sleep last night. But then, that would have meant I would have had to come home earlier, and I was having way too much fun to come home.

Deep Clean

I have a negative opinion about New Year's resolutions. While goal setting and habit forming/breaking are wonderful and encouraged, I find it hypocritical that so many people (my former self included) sit down only once a year to reflect on their lives, and write up a list of goals that is typically forgotten after 1 or 2 months. For a few years I've tried to go through this process as often as I can without overbearing myself. It just so happens that the most recent goal of mine has fallen in January: I want to clear up as many things as possible on my "To Do" list so that I can be prepared for whatever life throws at me in the future. These last few days have really progressed me in this goal.

Just today I finished a deep clean in my bedroom. And for any of you who have seen my room, you know just how monumental a task that was. Not only did I reveal the carpet in my room, but I went through all the boxes in my closet to determine what gets thrown away and where everything else belongs. All my shelves, my dressers, my desk, and my closet are no longer covered in junk, but clear of all clutter. Woohoo!!!

The wedding on Friday was nice. It's nice to see those two finally married. I had somehow managed to find enough time during the week to play through my wedding music and determine which songs I could pull off without further practice. However, there was quite a bit of friction after the luncheon when the bride brought up an old disagreement and became accusingly venomous toward me. I'm still bitter that she continues to hold such an unjustified, vile perception of me, regardless of who I really am. As such, it had a negative impact in my piano playing during the reception. I did play one song that I had learned specifically for them. I like to think it shows them that I still care about them. But it's time to let them find their "married friends" and to move on. So even though that friendship didn't end on the highest note, I still think positively of them and am glad that the wedding is over.

My tap performance on Saturday went, well...depends on who you ask. I messed up several times and am embarrassed that all my practicing didn't pay off as much as I'd hoped. But to those who watched the performance, I apparently did well enough that they didn't notice the mistakes. Either way, it was nice to finally have a performance with this group (I've been practicing with them since March last year). I'll do better at the Rose Wagner Theatre (if there are still tickets available, you can get them here). I'll also see if someone took a video of it that I can post on my blog.

Lastly, it's nice to no longer have my Sacrament meeting piano solo hanging over my head. My mistakes were minimal and (mostly) easily covered up with the pedal, so it sounded wonderful.

I'm not done with my "deep clean" yet, but my To Do list is definitely shrinking, and I'm feeling a lot better because of it.

The Delinquent Wedding Planner

Late last night a friend of mine asked if I would play the piano for her wedding. Normally this would be no problem, so long as I don't have anything else booked for that night. However, their wedding is this Friday--she asked me on Monday night as I was getting ready for bed. I am not the only one who has a problem with this...unless you are dealing with someone who frequently (I'm talking at least once every 6 months) plays weddings/other events, 4 days is NEVER enough notice.

I'm not surprised they asked me to play. I've been very close friends with both the bride and groom for 15 years, and they know I love playing the piano. In an effort to cut the cost of the wedding, I'm sure they would want to go with someone they know. I wasn't anticipating it, though. I've had several conversations with them about their wedding plans, and this never came up. I know they didn't just "space it" because I know their parents well enough to know they would have brought it up multiple times. In recent years I've noticed both the bride and the groom to be more and more frivolous, especially once they got engaged. They just didn't care enough to ask me sooner.

Well, this is an extremely busy week for me. I have a tap routine to finish learning so that I don't embarrass myself on stage this weekend (get tickets here). I have a piano solo I'm playing in church on Sunday (I've been planning for it and practicing for a month, but still have lots more practice to do before I'm prepared--and it's even a song I had mastered 3 years ago for another performance). I'm working my 40 hours Mon-Thur so that I can take Friday off for the wedding. I have improv and choir rehearsals this week. All of which my soon-to-be-wed friends are aware of. Why, then, would they ask me, unless they were really really desperate? That's why I agreed to play. I still have my collection of wedding music from my brother's wedding, 3 1/2 years ago. I haven't practiced since then, and I can't guarantee I'll get any practice before Friday. But since I'm their friend, and their frivolity has made them desperate, I'll do this favor for them.

And if it turns out I'm too rusty, I won't feel bad. It's not my fault I had no time to prepare.

Tap Concert

Hey everybody! If you get a chance you should come to my tap dancing concert. It's going to be on Saturday the 17th (week from tomorrow) at the Covey Center (425 W Center Street, Provo). Tickets are $10.

The concert will have my tap company, another tap company, 3 clogging companies, and an Irish dancing group. Since there are so many groups involved, I will only be in a few numbers. But I have a wicked solo in one of the numbers we're performing in, so I'd like as many people as I can to come.

If you can't make this performance, we have another performance at Rose Wagner theater on the 29th. But this is going to be in their small theater that only holds 200 seats, so tickets will be extremely hard to come by.

Tongue Twister

Say the following phrase out loud 3 times fast:

Mrs. Smith's Fish Sauce Shop.

Now click on this link.

Real Men...

I was driving down the road the other day and I saw a billboard that says "Real Men Wear Gowns" (in reference to hospital gowns). To that I say, what the heck? Are you not manly unless you're sick? Or are they encouraging lengthy hospital stays due to accidents? Whatever the intended message was, I didn't get it. It inspired me to do a google search to see what else defines a "real man." Here's some of the things I found.

Real men cook
Real men go green
Real men exfoliate
Real men wear pink
Real men blog in aprons
Real men moisturize
Real men don't eat turtle eggs
Real men do cry
Real men knit
Real men stay home
Real men love cats
Real men do yoga
Real men eat gardenburger
Real men carry purses

I don't know about you, but that sounds like women to me. If this is what it takes to be a "real man," I don't want to be a real man.

I think the real issue is that women are trying to define what they think they want men to be. But do they really want that? My experience has taught me that you should NEVER believe a woman when she tells you what she wants. Let's face it: they don't want sensitive metrosexuals who cook and clean and have softer skin than their own. Women don't want "real men." If you do one of these "real men" things, you're in trouble already. If you do more than that, you'll never be with a real woman.

My point is that you should never believe a woman when she says she wants something in a man.

I Need More Sleep

I have this really annoying habit of not waking up when my alarm clock goes off. Okay, so it's probably because I never get enough sleep because of staying up late. But it seems like every morning I go through the same routine:
1. My alarm clock goes off, and I hit the snooze button in my sleep.
2. My second alarm (my phone on the opposite end of the room) goes off. If I choose not to ignore it (which is about 50% of the time), I get up, turn it off, and carry it back to my bed.
~note~ After laying on my side all night, all my body fluids have sunk due to the amazing power of gravity. I cannot get up unless I lay on my other side for about 10 minutes to even out my equilibrium and create symmetry again. I've tried, but I feel out of sync the rest of the day if I ignore this ritual. Therefore, I can't get up this time.
3. My first alarm goes off again. Yet the 9 minute intermission between the first and second alarm is not enough time, so I hit the snooze button again.
4. My phone alarm goes off again. This time, since it's now in bed with me, either the blankets have muffled the sound or my thumb inadvertantly turns it off without waiting for my brain to register that it's gone off.
5. Now there seems to be a 1 hour break in time. I'm not sure what happens here except that I'm no longer conscious of the real world. Whether I'm hitting the snooze button, or the alarm is just going, I don't know.
6. I usually have a dream at this point. Sometimes the alarm will sound in my dream, but never as an alarm. It typically manifests itself as a police siren, a truck backing up, or an annoying little brother. Other times, I don't hear the alarm in my dream, but there's lots of tension in in the air that you can feel. It's only at this point in the dream that I'm able to wake up and stay awake for the rest of the day.

When I get married, I'm either going to have to go to bed a lot earlier, or train my wife to smack me every morning to get me up.

My First Blog Entry

Okay, I give in. I decided that in 2009 I needed to either start a blog or a Facebook account. The blog won.

You might be wondering why I chose the name for my blog. I'm sorry to say, there are no funny stories behind it. Here's my reasoning for naming it the way I did:
I'm probably going to use this blog to brag about how awesome my life is. Most of the awesomeness in my life is because of different things that I've decided on a whim to get myself involved with. Therefore, I decided to name it something having to do with "opportunity knocks." Since all the obvious names were already taken, I had to get creative. This made me laugh when I thought of it, so I decided to go with it. That's all.