Updates

I apologize to anyone who follows my blog. I have kept meaning to update it, but never really wanted to when I got home from work. I tended to write most of the text during down times at work before, but since the summer I've been busier.

Anyway, I'll try to be more regular in the future. For now, thought, here are a few highlights that I missed.


Early in the summer, 2nd and I participated in our church's Savior of the World musical production. We sang in the choir -- which is all I was interested in, but they also persuaded me to have a couple speaking roles. I played both Malachi and the "angel to the shepherds." (He's unnamed, so I referred to him as Linus, because of Linus' monologue in A Charlie Brown Christmas.) It was a lot of rehearsals with not too much for 2nd and I to rehearse, but in the end I think I enjoyed it. Though I was a little glad to have some evenings back.


In July, I took a business trip to Las Vegas for Black Hat. It was the first time 2nd and I were apart since March, so it was a little sad. I made sure to hurry back home to her. The conference was in Caesar's Palace, which is rather extravagant. I particularly enjoyed the mall attached to the casino. Unfortunately, the training sessions ran until 6 each day, and left me rather drained, but I did try to get out and see the strip anyway.


During the summer, my poor car was involved in two minor accidents at the exact same intersection near work. Both were the other drivers' faults (no, really!), but thankfully neither was serious enough to require professional repair to my car. In the first, the other car stripped my front license plate off. In the second, I was rear-ended hard enough to worry me at the moment, but I just can't see any damage.


In October, our functional group at work had a team-building exercise, consisting of a little every-man-for-himself competition (some team-building exercise, huh?) at go-karts. Mind you, this wasn't kiddy go-karts. We raced in heats, awarding points via finishing position. I took second, but I "let" my boss beat me, of course -- I wouldn't want to get him upset! No, he was actually a very good racer, and in the last heat the two of us pulled away from the pack for most of the race. He started ahead of me, and, try as I might, I couldn't manage to pass. The track was actually fairly narrow, and mostly turns, making passing quite difficult unless the leading driver made a mistake. We both set lap records for our group in that little showdown, so I'm still quite pleased with myself, even though I couldn't take the lead.

We've had several other things on our plate here, like planning and executing ward activities, but I'll leave well enough alone right now. We are having fun getting ready for our first Christmas, and we hope everyone else is having as much fun as we are.

Wide open spaces

See, recently I was telling a good friend about this experience I had on my mission. On our day off, a group of us went to the St. Louis "Children's Museum." This museum was actually more of a large, multilevel play area indoors. There are caves, tunnels, fake hollow trees, and more. (We went to play sardines.) Anyway, I was telling my friend about this narrow, cement tunnel that ran under the main floor. I suppose it was built with children in mind, but that didn't stop us from going through it. It was too narrow to turn around in, and just barely big enough to pass someone else in, and even then, only if you weren't afraid of human contact. A lot of it.

I guess it didn't bother me at the time all that much, but thinking back on it makes me a little nervous. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but it was rather tight. One of the ends of it was easy to enter, being straight. The other end was a ninety degree vertical turn, which was narrower than the rest of the tunnel. I remember it being very difficult for me to enter or exit that end. I just don't like the idea of having a difficult or impossible exit, and no way to turn around, and wondering if I'll be able to crawl backwards to get back to where I started. But especially with all of the kids clogging it up, too.

So, having just recently related this memory to my friend, what did I do with my weekend? I went caving with the elders' quorum! In reality, the path we took through the cave was very open for all but one time. (That one spot, Fat Man's Squeeze, did make me a little nervous, though. I had to take off my helmet to fit through.) However, there was a pair in our group that did a lot more "exploring" of small offshoots. I joined them for a bit in their first adventure, as did one or two others. But then I realized there were a number of us in this rather small area, with more talking of joining us, so I got out of there rather than press on. I'm not sure if I was most nervous about the small tunnel I'd used to enter the area, the congestion in the area itself, or the possibility of one of the others clogging the tunnel (which would block my exit).



Don't get me wrong. I had a great time. And the one dose of exploration was really fun. I think I just have this thing about personal space. And while having rock in every direction of my personal space might make me a little fidgety, I think it was the people that began to make me really tense. (I remember not being all that comfortable in Time's Square at New Year's, too.) So, basically, I'm just anti-social. I think we should all be allowed one neurosis.