The List

The Following is a list put together by a very close friend of mine. It always makes me laugh and smile. So I thought I would post on this blog for all to read.

1. Must love the church2. Must love Indiana Jones (or at least appreciate it)3. Must have an understanding sense of humor that is more grateful for Jon's uniqueness, than somewhat baffled by it. For Jon's uniqueness is not easy to come by.4. Must love dogs (including little poodles) 5. Must enjoy, maybe not hard core excersise, like Jon, but at least a light jaunt every now and again for some fresh air. 6. Must be creative. As Jon has a very creative mind and is always thinking of new ideas, he will need somebody that not only fosters this creativity, but can add her own personality to it as well, making it not just a good idea, but a masterpeice. 7. She must have impecably soft hair of medium to long in length. Nothing above the shoulders. 8. It would be a definite bonus if she could have dark hair to excentuate her fair, beautiful face, as well as stand out with personality from beneath a variety of hats. 9. She must dress sensibly and include at least 5 items of argile in her closet. 10. Must be outgoing and a people person, so as not to hinder Jon in anyway while he is being sociable. 11. Must enjoy going out on the town for a fun filled evening of dinner and bowling, ice skating, movies or whatever date Jon has planned out, as well as appreciate the fun and quiet peace of also staying in and just being together. 12. She must have a good attitude and be very positive, but not overly positve... for those moments when Jon is feeling negative towards things and displays an air of bitterness... She will be able to lighten his mood and make the problem seem small and solvable. 13. She must have a close friend who finds great interest in Jon's friend so that they may have close together weddings.14. Must enjoy to an extent, winter sports, so that Jon and her can take weekend vacations to their snow bird get away and enjoy a pleasant day or two on the mountain. 15. She must love penguins16. She must be a good hostess and enternainer, as Jon is constantly responsible for being the host of various parties and gatherings.17. She must be supportive of Jon's 100 callings in his ward18. Must know or at least of some experience with the french language so that some day they can joyfully visit the country of Jon's mission.19. She must be a sweetheart as Jon deserves nothing less, so that he can spoil and praise her always.20. And lastly, she must be a former U of U cheerleader, as we discovered this to be Jon's destiny when the number that was drawn for him to win the prize, held a picture of him and his future wife (a u of u cheerleader). Plus, to avoid too much contention it would be nice if she was on his team's side.

No Place Like Home

Being a new home owner has been an interesting expereince. One of the first things that was interesting was how long it took for my condo to feel like home. For the longest time, I would refer to it as my place, but never home. Eventually that changed and I refer to it as home.

Today I was thinking about the things that made it felt like home. The first was the day I came home and found a new phone book sitting on my door mat. I am not really sure why this made my place feel like home but did it. My guess is that, I was remember coming home from school or work, and finding the phone book on the porch and sorta being excited.

Another thing that has always been a part of home life is receiving random things on your door step. In particular cookies. This as not actually happend but I for some reason always hope that, when I wake up in the morning to get the paper or when I get home from work, I am going to find a plate of cookie (or brownies) at my door.

Thanksgiving.

Let us all be thankful for our many blessings.

With the advent of fall, brings college football. This year many of us have something to be thankful for. Whether we be fans of the University of Utah or BYU we have much to be thankful for. Up in Salt Lake we are thankful that Brian Johnson is finally healthy, and once he get in rhythm is almost unstopable. Down in Provo, BYU fans can be thankful that there team may actually live up to the hype of being a BCS Buster. Fans of both teams I am sure could list many more things that they are thankful for, but there is one thing that I am in paticular thankful for. That one thing is the unfathonable possiblity that both teams could be undeafeadted come November 22. Granted there is still a lot of football to be played and any number of things could happen between then. There could be an injury to a key player, an opposing team could get hot at the right moment, or any other number of strange things that happen in college football.

If this historic meeting were to take place with two undeafeated teams, and two nationaly ranked teams the historic nature of this game could not be expressed into words to justify it. For many years BYU fan have felt like they deserved national respect, and in someways they are correct they have produced some great Quarterbacks, and had some great teams. Lavell Edwards and Norm Chow even changed college football to be more pass happy. The University of Utah had some national succes in 2004 when they became the first team to break into the BCS. But the one thing that has held back both teams from becoming conversations on ESPN is the fact that most time they have weak strength of schedules. Most of that fact as to be because of the weak Mountain West Conference. Another thing that has hurt the national exposer of these two teams is that usually it seems that only of the teams is in the national speak. This year how ever is different. BYU started as a preason top 25 and has since moved up the rankings steadily. Utah started just out side the top 25 and is now number 20. BYU if the things follow into place could even be considered for National Championship Game. Granted that possiblity is small is still a possiblity.

The How you doing, how you doing?

Have you ever been walking around town, at work, or anywhere for that matter and encountered somebody that you know as a friend or an acquaintance and then preceded to ask the following question. "How are you doing?" What was the response you got back? Was at full answer to how they were doing or how things were going in their lives. My guess is that it was not the response you received. Typically in these situations we receive our questions, with the same question. Then when you were asked that question did you respond? The typical respone that I have noticed is that we don't respond. We just continue to walk by and don't even realize two questions were asked, and there was no response given. I call this phenomenon the "The How you doing, How you doing?

This bizzare phenomenon could be caused by a number of different factors and may be different for each person. One reason that I think we do this, is because we see the peerson and our natural respone is to ask how are they doing? We get into our own little worlds and are thinking about things, and then we see somebody we know, and we just go into a sorta of robot like state. We know the poliete thing to do is to ask aknowledge their precesne. We do this by asking how they are doing, they of course do the same.

What causes us not to answer the questions. Sometimes we may really not want to talk to that person, or we may not want to really express how we are feeling. The reasons could be many, but if the answer is to busy, lets examine ours lives a little closer. Why would we be to busy to talk with somebody. This excuse has become our cop out to forming relationships or creating relationships. We claim we are busy, but are we really busy. What do we do when we get home. Do we watch TV, do we perfor a task, work on a hobby of ours. Whatever it might be may be worthwhile, and rewarding but lets not forget that what truly matters in life, friendship. Why must we sacrifice our friendships for some hobby that really only brings us closer to it. Does it give us anything in return. Sure it might give a nice painting, a better talent, it may even give us a sense of accomplishment. These things are nice, but are fading. Friendships can last forever, they can be there for you when you are having a bad day. They are what gives our life meaning. No videogame, project or talent can give us that. So lets anser the question to how we are doing? lets be friends and care about our friends.

What makes one jump out of a plane?

What makes one jump out of a airplane? This a very excellent question. That is the very question I was asking myself a week ago. It is a question I can easily answer today. But lets first look at reasons to why I wanted to jump out of an airplane.

1. It was on my goal list. This could easily have been postponed, but I knew that one day I would have to do it.

2. Its a great story. If you know me you know that I love a good story. I really can't think of a better story then jumping out of an airplane with a another man strapped to you.

3. It impress the ladies. OK I am not really sure this is actually a good reason to jump out of a plane. But it did cross my mind. If you have ever heard the expression Chicks Dig Scars and Glory lasts forever...you believe this and understand this expression then you know why this would be a thought of mine.

4. Its going to be a huge adrenaline rush! For some reason I have always felt that I could be an adrenaline junkie, but I never had the nerves to follow this feeling.

5. To prove to others, that I am somewhat of a risk taker. Most people who know me probably think that I am a bit cautious and probably not much of a risk taker. In a lot ways this is very true. But sometimes when somebody questions you, or says they are suprised that want to do something you want to go out and prove them wrong.

There you have a few of the reasons to why I would jump out of an airplane. Why would you jump out of an airplane.

# 3...Go Skydving...hold what?

Have you ever made a choice in your life that you wanted to make. But then when you did you really started to question your own sanity. Well I made one of those choices yesterday. Yesterday I decided it has been way to long since I had accomplised a list item from my list of goals. I decided to take on # 3. 'Go Skydiving' at the time I made this list, I always thought this would be something that would be fun to do, but may never actually come true. One I never wanted to do it alone, I always wanted to have people there. Now the perfect storm has arrived and this Saturday I will be taking the plunge.