Remember Me?

Remember how I used to be the guy that would blog regularly about 4-5 times a week? I had a whole range of topics that you could choose from - politics, sports, current events, psych stuff, relationships and dating, running and exercise, and my own personal life and churchy things. The next year, I think, will be a really busy.

Last week I got back from California and then got moving the very next day. As I've grown older, it's now taking me longer to move. It's more involved. I own pieces of furniture. I have cookware. I don't own a spice rack, though I do desperately crave one, I have more than a dozen different spices. Isn't that crazy? I inherited a pretty awesome bookshelf in my last apartment and a desk. I bought a file cabinet. I have a TV stand. And last Friday I bought my first real piece of furniture - a dresser. Granted, it was from Ikea, but I actually really love it. It has eight drawers, a little taller than waist high, and of the black/brown variety. As I start moving my clothes around, I always get interested in how many t-shirts I have. It's up to 35 now, with about 25 of those that I would not hesitate to wear in any casual situation, not including the dozen or so white and black t-shirts that I also have in my repertoire. I love me some t-shirts, but if you think I have a lot, you ought to ask Dave about his collection. He's the king. It's beautiful.

I moved over everything by the weekend, but this morning I finally started getting settled in with everything. It's really nice. It's nice to feel at home. My roommates are super cool. I love that they're all really clean too. When I was younger I used to be pretty passive-aggressive, or just outright aggressive, about cleanliness. If a roommate had a newspaper subscription and let them pile at the door, I'd wait until there was a few weeks worth and then pile them all on his bed. I'd put dirty dishes in bed. One of my mission companions used to do that all the time, and I adopted it as my own. In the last couple years, I just cleaned everything without any complaint. Sometimes my roommates would help out, sometimes they wouldn't, but I'd just go ahead and stay on top of it, regardless. That got tiring with the last pair of roommates that I had, so it's nice to feel like I'm not alone in the upkeep of our apartment.

Anyway, I'm excited for the fall. I'm settled. I've started working at the church office building. Classes start next week, although I don't really have any real classes. My research assistantship will start the following week. And now it's time to just really get cracking on my thesis.

On my car ride home from work yesterday I was thinking how different today is than one year ago. I had totally different roommates. Different apartment. Different Utah friends. Different Utah dating interests. Calling. Position in school. And then I started thinking about how different next year at this same time will be too. I was mostly thinking in terms of my resume. I'll have a year's worth of research with one of the top Marriot school professors under my belt. I'll have had a year's worth of work with a huge international, widespread organization doing research and evaluation with them. I'll have my thesis done. But who knows what next August 25th will bring, right? Changes are always happening, and I kind of love it, and I'm so grateful for it.

Oh, and play this game. It will change your life - Robot Unicorn Attack. It's so funny.