“God, how we get our fingers in each other's clay. That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of each other.”
-Ray Bradbury
Isn't that a great shot? I didn't take any video over the weekend, so I'll just go ahead and update on this trip. We cruised down last Thursday and came back on Sunday, so we really only had 2 days to be in Phoenix. And on top of that, somehow the 70-80 degree sunny skies departed for those two days and gave us clouds, rain, thunder, and even some hail. Can you believe that?
Our original intent in going down was to go for spring training. I've always wanted to go, but just never made it happen, and this year felt as good as any to get down there. Amy's brother is living down there, had an extra bedroom, we only have one child, and I can mostly take Fridays off and take off early on Thursdays, so everything just felt right to make it happen.
Highlights:
Tacos at American Taco Shop
The burger I had at Joe's Farm Grill, featured on Dinerss, Drive-ins, and Dives.
Skittles bowling
Seeing the Angels and Albert Pujols hit a home run
Pal-ing around Phoenix with Mike
Really, just hanging out with Mike, Amy's brother. He's so fun and I relate to him so well, so I have a really easy time being around him (which is true of all of Amy's family, but especially so with Mike). He was an awesome host and his roommate let us crash in his bed for our whole stay. I'm always amazed at how gracious people can be, even to complete strangers. And really, doing these kinds of trips and going to see someone in their digs and have them (or him) show us around is always so great. I can't say enough about how important I think that is for investing in relationships. It's such a fun way to do it, too. I'm so glad I'm married to someone who thinks it should be a priority too.
I just think she has the sweetest little face in the whole world. I don't think there are many differences between this month and last. I'm pretty sure she's growing, but I know she's still a runt. The biggest thing, probably, is that she can roll from front to back and back to front. She doesn't do it very much, but she does it with ease, and always seems to wait until we're not there watching her.
My favorite thing about Jane lately is when she is in the baby bjorn riding forward. She just loves it. It's funny to hear her giggle and just wiggles so much when she's in it. This last weekend when we were coming back from Phoenix we stopped at the Hoover Dam for a quick break and so I strapped her in the bjorn. One person commented to us about how happy she was in that thing.
She's such a good traveler. It was funny over the weekend because someone asked us if this was her first road trip. No, actually, she's been on three big ones already (California twice and now Arizona, with St. George and Vegas next weekend) and two plane trips (Vancouver and Mississippi). What can I say? The girl gets around. Sometimes when we're out and about she's kind of out of sorts with her sleep schedule, but always seems to adjust pretty easily wherever she is.
She's not great at naps, but great at sleeping. Although when she did figure out how to roll over from front to back, she would wake herself up in the night and not know how to go back to sleep. That was kind of rough for about a week, but she's good now. And in spite of our preference for her to go to sleep later so we can stay out and party more, she's been getting down to bed around 8ish, but she still sleeps in until about 8, so we can't complain at all.
Her awareness of people is also a little more obvious, especially strangers. We ended up going out to see a movie last week and we left her with a friend, but she cried the whole time we were away. I felt bad for that friend, but what can you do? Mom and dad have to get out on their own at some point, right?
We just love Jane. I just love Jane. I wasn't a person who just felt flush with newfound love when she was born, but it has been something that has built up since then. Just thinking about her lights me up. I can't believe it. It's such a unique kind of love to be a parent, different than anything I've ever known. And silly sometimes too. You wouldn't believe how proud I felt when she finally started rolling over and made it look so easy, like, "come on, dad, you really didn't think I was up to it?"
I love her more than I can say. We just feel so lucky to have her.
I kind of love the latest internet videos that go viral and it escalates and the whole world starts uploading their own versions of the latest craze.
Just two weeks ago it was the Harlem Shake:
And lately it's been this:
Social media is such an interesting thing to me. There are all these ways in which people can connect with each other. A year ago it was just taking pictures on your phone and the ease with which different fads spread like planking. And now with how easy it is to do videos, you have these kinds of things that pop up.
I really kind of love it. At least for the five minutes that it's popular.
(I feel like I'm complaining in my head all the time about not wanting
to blog anymore, but then something comes up and makes me feel like I
should still be persistent about it. Anyway, this is a sidenote to Lisa
because your blog actually makes me want to stay consistent about
recording thoughts just because I love reading about yours and all of
the little details you include.)
A friend of mine posted recently about going 100 days without technology. It was kind of interesting to me because I often feel the tugs and pulls of technology beckoning me. I put off getting a smartphone until just a year ago because I knew that I would be a prisoner to it once I did have one. And don't get me wrong, I do love having it, but I think there is a lot of value in simplicity. I kind of dig camping because of the absence of being always connected. I think I just kind of dislike that I feel it divide my attention when I know that I should be prioritizing the people I'm actually present with, if that makes sense.
Technology is just one of those things though - use in moderation, always. In most ways, our world is still so immature in knowing how to navigate technology (and when I say technology, I may actually more specifically mean connectivity). We bungle it a lot of times, but I think people are getting better about it. In 5 years, do you think we'll really need all of the pre-movie disclaimers about turning off cell phones and not even taking it out while the movie is playing? I think that kind of thing will be so second nature that the idea of ever even having to tell someone that they shouldn't take out their phone during a movie will seem ridiculous.
There are so many great things to being always connected that I really do love, however. I love Instagram. I love seeing my friends and their kids on there. I should probably be better at posting more regularly, but that's probably my favorite social media platform right now. I love FB for hearing about the random people that I know who I may not always be really close to, but still like hearing what they're up to anyway. And I also think the occasional friend poll that happens, proclamations of glad tidings, or rants about trivial things are also kind of fun. I think in most cases, I actually wish the people that I like most were more regular about updating their social networks. It really does decrease the feeling of distance.
Then there are all of the neat things that the Church is doing online. There are so many videos and great messages getting spread abroad that I think are so important. In my own life, it's been really neat engaging in my own family history and reaching out to some people that I have found that have actually done some of my family work. None of them have replied back, but I think it's just a matter of time. I used to think that I was the only person in my family who was a member of the Church, but because of technology I've realized that I'm actually not. Cool, huh?
Again, it's just one of those things. There are some terrible things that can happen - true - but used properly, technology can really be a great thing.
Amy and I loved being married without kids. I'd say that our first year of marriage we did pretty well at traveling and doing fun stuff. We loved going to the movies whenever we wanted, seeing pretty much everything in the theater. We really enjoyed being able to go golfing together. Fox Hollow is the course just a few blocks from our place and for $20 each, we could do a round of nine with a cart and it was pretty fantastic. That was a frequent FHE activity for us during the summers. We just loved all of that stuff.
But we just love having Jane. I find myself coming home earlier than I probably should a lot of nights because I just want to see my girls. We are not as unattached as we once were, but having her is also the greatest thing that could have ever happened to us. There just isn't enough time in the day for the amount of thanks we'd like to give in our prayers because we have her in our lives.
I bring this all up because the other day we go to go snowboarding and we just loved it. We'd still like to figure out how we can go at least a few more times. On our first lift ride up the mountain we sat with a guy who lives part time in Utah. I asked him if he'd been snowboarding much this season and he said he'd only been about 15 times so far this year.
15 times.
He also told us that he's been married for 15 years and he and his wife don't have kids, but they do manage to get to the mountain probably 100 times each season. Or at least his wife does, but I'm sure he's not far behind. He then started kind of giving me a hard time (at least I interpreted it that way) about not coming up more than I do. I should be up at least so frequently that it would justify getting a season pass.
It just made me laugh. There's no way I would ever feel good about going that often with Jane. And I don't regret it one single bit. I wish that I could go enough that I could actually improve and not just feel like I'm maintaining my ability. I love being out on the mountain. I think carving up a mountain and bursting through powder is one of the best things in the whole world. I honestly feel that.
But having Jane has given me so much purpose. Not that you can't have purpose without having your own children - but just in my own limited perspective and experience - nothing has ever made me feel so full as being a husband and father.
I miss a lot of things about my previous life. I miss seeing more movies. I miss just being able to leave and do whatever we wanted without having to plan ahead on what Jane needs.
But I just love her so much.
And let's be honest: Jane is probably the easiest baby in the whole world. I don't know what we'll do when we have a real baby who actually demands more from us, but until then, I'll count my lucky stars that I have Jane as my daughter and Amy as my wife.
I just love this little girl. I’ll only retrace the last 6
or so weeks. At this point there are a lot of developmental milestones from one
week to the next. When we were driving to the airport from Vancouver to Seattle
I would set her pacifier on her stomach as she sat in the carseat. That was the
first time I really noticed her attempting to intentionally grab at something,
however clumsy those attempts were. Since then she pretty much grabs
everything. Now when I’m changing her diaper she’ll grab on my arm with both of
her little hands. I kind of love it.
Like a lot.
So she’s been good this last month with grabbing things and
putting pretty much everything up to her mouth. She loves bottles especially
and also phones. Something that Amy mentioned last night is that it has suddenly
dawned on Jane what her bottles actually represent – food. Whenever the bottle
was in sight, Jane would cry for it and Amy actually had to put it away so that
she wouldn’t keep crying out for it.
Jane can be occupied for a good length of time just holding
and playing with her toys, going as long as 2 hours by herself just sitting and
playing. And it can be just one toy, too. She doesn’t need much to be occupied.
She also makes this really cute noise that we have kind of dubbed her
concentrating noise, which is pretty much just a one-syllable low baby growl.
Although I think she has the core strength to roll herself
over, she has no interest in that yet. Hasn’t even really attempted to do so.
She’s a little slow developing in that respect.
Over this past weekend, she seemed to figure out that moving
her jaw open and closed changes the types of sound that her mouth can make.
Earlier last month Jane was copying her mom whenever she would stick her tongue
out. She’s becoming a much more social being. She responds playfully when I
grab at her belly or dive in to kind of bite at her. It’s so adorable.
She also just started eating solids. Well, one solid, and only semi-solid at that. Rice Cereal. She was still pushing it out with her tongue the first few times, but now she gets it. And she also has been a little bit better at being able to stay sitting up. She can't do it on her own, but once she gets there, she can hold it for a few seconds. It's pretty cool.
When Punxsutawney Phil declared an early spring this year, I took him at his word. And even though I went snowboarding just two days ago (and loved it), I still found myself asking Amy this morning, is it spring yet?
I'm excited for spring because it means summer is coming, and warm weather, and I love everything that comes with that. It just makes me so happy. Not clearing the snow off my car in the morning makes me happy. Running outside makes me happy. Spring forward makes me happy. And baseball. Always baseball.
This morning Tim Kurkjian of ESPN had an awesome article about Why We Love Spring Training. I just wanted to include a few gems on here:
Indians pitcher Brian Anderson boarded the team bus at 8 a.m. for the two-hour drive to Vero Beach, Fla., for a spring training game in 2003. Thirty minutes into the trip, Anderson realized he had forgotten his hat, spikes and glove back in Winter Haven.
"I was running late that morning because I knew I was going to get to hit in the game, so I was looking for the really important things: batting gloves and a bat," Anderson said. "When we got to Vero, I was in full panic mode. I borrowed a car and went to a mall, but there wasn't one glove in the whole mall, but I found some adidas spikes. On the way back to the ballpark, I saw a Walmart. I thought, 'Hey, Walmart has everything … tires … produce. … It must have a baseball glove.' I found one: $29.95, already broken in. It was a softball glove. A Wilson. It was awful.
"I borrowed someone's hat and pitched in the game. Of course, I got three comebackers to the mound, and I caught them all because my new glove was as big as a butterfly net; it made [Greg] Maddux's glove look small. That day reminded me of when I was 17 playing Legion ball. That is spring training to me."
And that's why it's so great. That's why it's our favorite time of year. It makes you feel young again, no matter how old you are, no matter how many times you have been -- and this will be my 32nd spring training.
It is a sign that the long, cold winter is nearly over and that sunshine and summer vacation is on the way. It is a time for optimism, a fresh start and hope. No one has lost a game, the rookies have so much promise, and the veterans believe it will be their best year.
Only in spring training could then-Rays first baseman Carlos Pena make a mistake in a baserunning drill and justify it by quoting Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech. "My first baseman is quoting Dr. King," said Rays manager Joe Maddon. "I love it." Only in spring training could then-new ESPN analyst Terry Francona check into a Disney property hotel only to find out that the room was a cabin on a campsite. He slept in a bunk bed. He called a colleague and asked, "You want to go out later and make some s'mores?"
Only in spring training could this happen: One March in Winter Haven, Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd rented several adult movies from a local video store. It was nearly time to break camp and head north when The Can was detained because he hadn't returned the movies. It was an issue, but the movies were eventually returned and Boyd was allowed to leave with the team -- but not before Chuck Waseleski, a statistical guy who worked for the Red Sox, named the whole episode "The Can Film Festival."
Only in spring training does pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, now with the Royals, ride his bike to work. "It was only five miles," he said of his daily ride last spring to the Rockies' facility.
"He pitched in a game in Scottsdale this spring, then got on his bike -- still in full uniform, with his glove on the handlebars -- and rode back to our facility," said Rockies right fielder Michael Cuddyer, laughing. "It was like a scene from 'The Sandlot.'"
Only in spring training do we hear complete detail of the stories from the winter. Last winter, Mets pitcher Jonathon Niese got a nose job, and as promised, former teammate Carlos Beltran paid the $10,000 cost. One winter, then-Rockies manager Clint Hurdle drove sled dogs in Alaska. Last winter, pitcher R.A. Dickey climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Rays DH Luke Scott hunted wild pigs with a spear. Giants manager Bruce Bochy went skiing for the first time in his life. "I thought I could do it, I'm still somewhat athletic. But as it turns out, I'm not," he said with a smile. "I got on the ski lift, then I kind of slipped off, and the lift hit me in the back of the head. My gloves and skis and hat went flying. It looked like a yard sale. I didn't even try to ski after that. I went to the lodge and had a beer."
Only in spring training would Padres Chris Young and Will Venable pick teams for a free throw shooting tournament because both guys played basketball at Princeton. "That's as nervous as I've ever been for an athletic competition," Young said with a smile, "because I'm not a great free throw shooter, and my team was depending on me to be good."
Only in spring training would the Twins hold a bowling tournament behind the KFC in Fort Myers. "Joe Mauer would be high-fiving his teammates, guys he's never met in his life, after they rolled a strike," said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire.
Jeremy Guthrie is very much LDS, by the way. I love that story.
I think what I love so much about baseball is how it really is a game. Sure, it's a sport. The single hardest thing to do in any sport is to try to hit a pitch thrown from 60 ft away that can sink, curve, slide, rise, or knuckle at speeds ranging from 50-103 mph. Yes, that's hard. And there's a lot of strategy at conditioning and practice and teamwork required. All of that.
But in the end, it's the sport that really connects kids to adults. I follow a lot of sports, but I never hear about the kinds of things that happen in other sports that happens in baseball. Kid type things. And it extends from the earliest part of the 20th century up until now. It connects one generation to the next.
Jane, obviously. She goes down now at around 11 or midnight, depending. And we're totally fine with that. Now it doesn't require the hour or two commitment to rock her to sleep. We've been just letting her cry it out and it feels so liberating, almost like we're cheating. But she usually doesn't cry for too long, and now all of a sudden we have some portion of the evening free.
What I'm really loving about her though is just how fun she is. Anytime I'm there in the morning when she starts waking up, I want to run over and be the one to grab her. She giggles more now. She just feels more durable. I love it. I love her.
My wife. She really is so great for me. I love that she and I can go to some event, like the Mustacherade MBA event we had last week, and if there is music playing, it could be just her and I in a room together and we would probably dance the whole evening. I have so much fun with Amy.
This is kind of a corollary to the above Jane going to bed by herself now, but I love when me and Amy are both in bed, but not sleepy and the fun little conversations we have staying up. Just last night we stayed up until probably about three in the morning, talking about totally random things.
My MBA program. I value so much the things that I am learning, the opportunities that are available, and the people I get to associate with. Grad school is such a different kind of educational experience than undergrad. You're so much more collegial with your professors. You call them by their first names and you ask them about their lives. They're so much more accessible. And you learn such interesting things and the conversations you have are so much more informed. It's really fun in the MBA program because just about everyone has some years of work history, so people are just more experienced. And the people. It's so fun. I love it.
Running and exercising. I've been totally back on track with running and I totally love it. I feel so good and so healthy. I feel like I can do anything when I'm running consistently.
Thinking about Michigan for the summer. It gets us both so excited.
You know what's funny? I have just had no desire to blog lately. I used to be SO regular about it. Like 3-5 posts a week, and I would post about everything - sports. I think I just really liked the idea of publishing everything that I thought about and I just really loved the exercise of writing. It was really fun to me.
But these last few months that same kind of interest just hasn't been there. It started mostly because it just never felt like I had enough time. New baby. MBA program. That was enough to keep me so busy.
Then the election happened and it really killed my desire to blog about anything political anymore. I still read stuff. I follow a number of different blogs and writers and websites still. But I just don't have the heart to write about it anymore. I meant to post a follow-up that talked about how even though the outcome result was so far from what I would have liked, it still wasn't going to be the end of the world. I think we're still a good ways away from Armageddon. When the signs of the times are hear, I think it'll be unmistakable, at least to those of us who are actually looking for it.
In some ways I feel like that's the case. I look at California and while I still have so much love for that place, it is rapidly descending down the very wrong path. I really believe that.
In any case, here is an excerpt following the election of a post that I really enjoyed over at Cafe Hayek:
The fact that Obama won despite these handicaps is the source, I
think, of most people’s despair. It’s not that they dread the policies
of the next four years. It’s that this election has revealed that the
American people chose someone who wants the US to be more like
Europe–more statist and paternalistic. I have heard people who feel like
giving up. If we can’t beat this guy, it’s over. We’re on the road to
serfdom. Could be. But I think the glass is more half-full than
half-empty. So here is some cheer for those of you who are pessimistic
about the future.
Yes, a little over half of the people who voted, a little over 60
million people, thought Obama deserved a second term. But about 59
million (the combined Romney and Gary Johnson votes) disagreed. That’s
pretty close. Politics is winner-take-all, a zero-sum game. But those
totals tell you just how close it was and how little it will take to
change the outcome.
Yes, Obama overcame handicaps that should have been insurmountable.
But Romney as a candidate was not particularly well-positioned to take
advantage of Obama’s weakness. Yes, the economy was mediocre. But
Romney’s “plan”
was not a very exciting or specific alternative. Yes, the President’s
proudest legislative achievement was unpopular, but Romney had created a
similar plan in Massachusetts that muted his ability to attack it. Then
there were Romney’s own handicaps–his wealth, his business background
in the financial sector (a part of the economy that is very unpopular
these days), and most of all, the positions he had staked out in the
primary campaign. This allowed him to be portrayed as an enemy of
Hispanics for his anti-immigration position and more generally, a
flip-flopper without principles. I don’t live in an Hispanic
neighborhood or watch much Spanish-language television. I suspect the
Democrats did a very effective job reminding Hispanic voters of what
Romney had said about immigration to defeat Rick Perry. George Bush got
41% of the Hispanic vote in 2004 when Hispanics made up 8% of the
electorate. Romney got 27%
of the Hispanic vote that is now 10% of the electorate. That’s a
handicap in a lot of battleground states where the Hispanic vote is even
bigger.
My point is that I don’t think Obama’s victory is a mandate for big
or bigger government or a sign that the American people are all
Keynesians or would-be Europeans. Obama may draw a different conclusion.
I’d understand that. He would. But I’m not discouraged just because
Obama won. I don’t believe it proves how far Americans would like to go
down the road toward serfdom. There was plenty to be discouraged about
before this election. I’m not sure the election provides much new
information.
The lesson I learn is that we have work to do. It’s our job to speak
up and educate and cajole others about what we lose when government gets
bigger. It’s our job to help people understand that the civil society
that emerges from the bottom up is better than the coercive dictates
decreed from the top down. The better we do that, the higher the chance
of a candidate out there who understands these ideas and who has a
decent chance of winning. We, the people, help determine which
candidates emerge and what they stand for.
We have work to do. The Talmud, talking about the obligation of a Jew
to improve the world and do what God expects of us, says that it is not
up to you to finish the task, but neither are you free to walk away
from it. You may or may not believe that liberty hastens the redemption
of the world. But the Talmud’s insight is that small steps can
eventually make a big difference. I can’t bring about liberty
single-handedly. Neither can you. But all of us together make a
difference. Which way should we choose? More bottom up or more top down?
The American people just elected the king of top down, but it was
close, and my claim above is that the result reflects a lot more than
the appeal of “top down” policies. Let’s keep at the job and we’ll
eventually have better candidates to choose from and better results.
My other source of cheer is to remember that politics is not where
life happens. Policies affect our lives, but we have much to do outside
that world. Yesterday I helped my youngest son learn Python, learned
some Talmud, played with my photographs on Lightroom, had dinner with my
wife, and went shopping with my oldest son for his first nice blazer.
Lots of satisfactions there. Nothing to do with politics.
Put Tuesday night behind you for a while. Remember what matters. Take
a walk. Read to your kids. Go out for dinner with your spouse. Read
more Adam Smith and less of the Drudge Report. And smile at your
neighbor. That’s always a good idea. But there’s a bonus–it might help
your neighbor imagine that someone who believes in leaving things alone
when it comes to the coercive power of government might actually be a
decent person after all. And then maybe he’ll be a little more open to
those crazy ideas you talked about at that dinner party.
Toward the end of the campaign, I saw an ad where Obama looked into
the camera and said something like “look at my policies and those of my
opponent and decide which one is best for you.” Those of us who believe
in voluntary emergent order and civil society as a way to make the world
a better place, reject Obama’s calculus. We believe that our policies
aren’t just good for ourselves but allow everyone to reach their
potential and serve others through the marketplace and the communities
we choose to join and build. That’s a world I want not just for my
children to but for your children, too. Being nice to your neighbor
helps your neighbor imagine the possibility that the policies we pursue
are not just about ourselves.
So don’t despair. Get to work, instead. And along the way, make lots
of time for the joys of life. Don’t let the resident of 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue affect the sweetness of all those roses on whatever
road we’re heading down.
Anyway, that's what I got.
It's funny. Now that I've actually written some stuff, I'm halfway interested now. So maybe...here goes?
Our first year of marriage was pretty awesome. Amy and I traveled to a lot of fun places. She makes these photo books each year and looking through that one is always really fun because we were able to go to so many different places and enjoy so many fun things.
I was on Instagram the other day, realizing that I hadn't enabled the photo map feature, looking through my old photos on there, and then wishing that I had. Turns out this past year was a pretty travel heavy one as well:
May - small trip down to Zion to do a canyon, and later that month to Las Vegas for a guys weekend (Amy went to New York that same time and I go back and forth on wishing that I had gone with her).
June - Amy had a trade show down in San Diego, so I stayed with her down there...
July - and then we went up to Irvine and spent time in LA and did the whole 4th thing...(Amy also went to Chicago for her last trade show ever).
August - Idaho for the MBA rafting trip.
September - Baby!
October - San Jose for an MBA tech company trip
November - back to Cali for Thanksgivings
December - to Cincinnati for an interview then to Vancouver for 12 days
January - and out to Mississippi to visit Greg and Laura and spend a day down in New Orleans.
I'll have a post with a video on that trip pretty soon.
But it's kind of crazy, right? We don't have anything more planned for the rest of the semester. It'd be nice to settle down and just let Jane have some more stability (although she is a total champ now. She's taking her pacifier better, she's getting better at airplanes, and just being able to go anywhere and sleep anywhere, although it is easy right now since she's so young. It's kind of amazing, but then again, her parents kind of force her to have to adjust a lot).
We are so very excited for this summer. I'm really excited to work for Ford for the summer and we're excited for the drive out there and the drive back. We can hit up Nauvoo, Kirtland, and Missouri this summer for church history tours. We can explore Michigan and Detroit while we're out there. And it turns out that all of these places are within 4 hours driving distance of Detroit:
Toronto
Niagara Falls
Chicago
Cleveland
Pittsburgh
Kirtland
Awesome, right? And there are potentially 10 baseball stadiums that we can hit up during our summer tour of the Midwest.
We have a lot to be excited about. I'm pretty close to starting a countdown until we go.
Jane was awesome before Christmas, then vacation happened, then I dropped her at the bowling alley onto the cement, then she got fed old formula, then she was having a really hard time, and now she's awesome again. She's a trooper because she apparently has to be with parents that drop her and feed her bad food. We love her to death, though, and just last week she started using her hands to pick up stuff so that's really fun for us.
After some fly with some companies, some disappointment, some reservation, and now with excitement, we have decided to go with Ford's offer and go to Detroit for the summer. We are so very excited about it, a lot because our good, good friends Mike and Lauren are already out there, and we can visit so many places. Ford will be sufficient to garner attention from other companies, or we could love Detroit and stay out there with them. Either way, our options should remain open and we are excited about our prospects.
I am one quarter of the way done and I successfully navigated the first, and supposedly most difficult, semester in the program, and have landed my internship. Our baby is fully intact, my wife still loves me and I love her, and things seem to be going well. A job well done, right? The crazy part is we are already one quarter of the way done with this program.
After my longest non-marathon associated break from running, I started again this week and I love it.
Hey, it's been awhile since I've posted on here. Lots has happened, obviously, but I'll leave y'all with this video. Hope you're all having a merry Christmas!
So while I've got the day off, let me give y'all a brief update on how goes the internship search. Last I left off here, I had interviews on four consecutive days, and I felt good about every one of them. American Express was my top choice, and I felt good about that interview, and one place that I felt like I had a really good shot at, DigitalGlobe, based in Colorado, had some really positive indications for me as well.
After my interviews I told Amy, "I could get all of them or none of them, I really don't know." Interviews don't intimidate me at all, I feel like I represent myself well in person, but it's so hard to know what it is that the other person across from you is feeling.
We were supposed to hear back at the end of that week. Friday came along and no word had come from any company for most of the day, but then at 4:30 I got a phone call from American Express. They said no. That one hurt because I just really didn't know what I could have done differently, and I honestly felt like my interview went well. I happened to be at home, so I told Amy. I was really disappointed, and went for a run right after hearing so I good just get rid of some of that negative energy.
The run was good and Amy and I decided to go out to dinner. We talked ourselves back into the game. We talked about how there are plenty of good companies left, how it's still only October anyway, and there would be plenty of time for something to work out. We were feeling good again, but I still hadn't heard from two of the companies yet, so that naturally led me to checking my phone every few minutes.
As we were eating, we kept up the same rah-rah dialogue. I loved that my wife was still so supportive and optimistic. The only problem was that as she began to launch into another thought about how things would be fine, I checked my phone, got an email from DG and I cut her off mid-thought to say that I had been turned down for that one too.
We didn't talk the rest of the meal. That one really hurt. Doors were closing everywhere. It was just a really rough day. One no is hard to hear, but I could bounce back from that. Hearing several so close together was worse.
And I didn't really understand why. On paper, I stack up at least as well as most of my classmates. In person I'm sure that I come across better than most of them, but things just haven't panned out for me like it has for some others.
I hardly slept that night. I woke up in the middle of the night, started combing through different job listings, company offerings, trying to figure out where my place would be. I took a 45 minute assessment from Gallup. I emailed about a dozen different people.
I emerged the next day and the following week with much more optimism, which is more than I can say for a number of my classmates. I ran into one guy at Wendy's and he had a similar day as I had on that fateful Friday. He said his wife was beginning to freak out. He was contemplating switching tracks in the program to catch the recruiting season for finance. Another guy I talked to later that week was feeling similarly. Every time I tried to speak positively, he kept shooting me down. I finally got to a point where I told him, "well, I guess if Kellogg's doesn't work out, then that will be the end of it, so good luck."
The thing is, I really do believe things will still work out. Not long after I heard all of my no's, I talked to a friend who is a second year in the program. He is a stellar guy, and he didn't get his internship until late in the school year, but still managed to land a great one. He gave me his formula, and I'm sure it will work out. I called some of the recruiters I had interviewed with previously about their thoughts on anything I could improve. I talked to my second year mentor and he told me that he was as surprised as I was that nothing had really panned out yet. The program lead told me the same, and I've since heard that from a few different second years.
Something that really helped me put things in perspective was reading from some conference talks. From Elder Nash's talk, By Faith All Things Are Fulfilled: "The Apostle Peter looked to the Lord one stormy night and walked on water—until he averted his gaze and “saw the wind boisterous [and] was afraid” and then sank into the stormy sea. He could have continued walking if he had not feared! Rather than our focusing upon and fearing the boisterous wind and waves in our lives, the Lord invites us to “look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.”
What kind of faith would I have if after being rejected a few times I simply gave up? I know that I have the same opportunities and talents that anyone else has in my program, so how could I lost my trust so quickly that things wouldn't work out? I've dealt with setbacks many times in my life, so how is this any different than those times? Like Peter, I want to walk, and maybe I can learn from his lesson and stay afloat instead of sinking.
And I also read this from Elder Johnson, which helped also:
Making the covenant to be a disciple of Christ is the beginning of a
lifelong process, and the path is not always easy. As we repent of our
sins and strive to do what He would have us do and serve our fellowmen
as He would serve them, we will inevitably become more like Him.
Becoming like Him and being one with Him is the ultimate goal and
objective—and essentially the very definition of true discipleship.
If I ever do want to become a true disciple, then what I really need to worry about is how I measure up as a follower. Am I living up to my privileges? Do I think on others before myself? Am I abiding by the commandments? Do I maintain an eye of faith even when things sometimes get discouraging? Those are the things that really matter. Getting an internship is only a detail, but not the essential one.
So that's where things are at. I'm still looking, but I feel like I've made some great in-roads since then. I've made some contacts at Ford, with whom I interview on Monday. I'm going to Adobe today for the main purpose of connecting with some people there. I still have Citi on the horizon, Price-Waterhouse Cooper, and one more ace in the hole that I'm really hoping will work out soon. I applied to Goodyear, and got a good recommendation from one of the second year students.
Things will work out, and I'm still really excited about my prospects. I just thought I'd share some of the process because not everything has been just easy for me, ever, and I think I've gained some valuable insights that maybe could apply somewhere else out there for another person.
A total of 7 no's so far. Looking for some yes's to put in the win column. I'll keep you posted.
Nope, not going to have lots of updates about the election. I'm still feeling very optimistic about Romney's chances though. Early numbers for the Romney camp shows great GOP turnout in all the key states - Colorado, Iowa, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. Lots of good signs.
I forgot that my mom became a US citizen a couple of years ago. I got the cutest text from her today: "I just vote today First time. I vote in Romney."
Love it.
I'm so eager to see how everything will unfold. Win or lose, it's going to be so interesting to see how the country responds.
It’s strange for me to write a letter to you that you may read in a few years, but one which you won’t really grasp the full import of for maybe another 20 or so years into the future. I say that because while you can have some level of appreciation for the event of your birth that I’m about to describe, it just really isn’t one of those things that you can really understand and appreciate until you go through this experience and have your own first child.
The simple act of being the first born in our family, of course that carries enormous significance. The birth of any person is significant. However, if you look at the number of people in the world, how many are born every second all over the world, it somewhat diminishes the singleness of the experience. But, I’m pretty sure that there is something completely novel about the first born in a family because of the simple fact that it is the first time to ever occur in our family. That is what makes your arrival so truly awesome (using that word in its truest sense). Yours are the first diapers of any of our children that your mother and I will change. The sleepless nights we experience because of your being a newborn, that’s only entirely new when it is with you. Obviously every child we have will be exciting and wonderful in their own ways, but our firsts with them will only be their own, but in your case, your firsts are our firsts too. Not just firsts, but firsts ever. That is something really unique.
Anyway, I digress. The story of your birth goes like this…
Your due date was September 13, 2012, and except for a few aches and pains that your mother had, especially with her back, things really couldn’t have been much better. Truly we were so blessed with you. Without much to go off of, we thought you might come late, just because your grandmother Mary always came late with her children, but of course you had different plans than that. You spared your mother the pain of being pregnant longer than the due date, which is something that nobody ever wants to do. (Again, something you’ll appreciate more later down the road.) And like your mother, you were very punctual, coming the day before we expected you to.
Something we really hoped for with your birth was just for it to be a surprise. It seems like so many people have false alarms or end up getting induced, so we just hoped that it would be something like out of the movies where we absolutely know that you are about to come in a major way and make your first mark on the world. You did not disappoint in the slightest.
Your mom and I went to bed around midnight on the night of the 11th, as is standard fare for her and I, only to be woken up a couple hours later at about 1:50 by the bursting of her water sack. Until it happens, you just never realize how jarring it is to be woken up out of a dead sleep in the night by, "Oh my gosh, my water broke! This is happening!" It was just crazy, and to be instantly aware of everything that is going on at that time too. There was not even a second of grogginess, or trying to grasp the gravity or import of the situation. It was perfectly simple: We were going to be having a baby and you were most likely going to be born that day, September the 12th.
We left for the hospital right away, sent out some texts, and made a couple of phone calls to the people who would want to know first. People were sweet. Some were up at that time (Mike and Brian Walton, of course), while others were woken up by the text and couldn't wait to hear the progress (Elisha, your aunt, and my stepmother, Juliana), but most everyone was pretty unaware until the morning.
Progress was mostly pretty slow from that point. Amy was having contractions, and although the pitocin was stimulating the contractions to occur about a little more than a minute apart (which is pretty close together), she wouldn't fully dilate for awhile. Because she ended up getting an epidural, for us, that meant that we would just try and pass the time by taking naps, watching movies and TV, and eagerly waiting for your arrival.
Most of the day passed without anything really interesting happening. The contractions were consistent, the pain medication was working fine, so we just waited. And waited. Finally, a little after 5pm our nurse came back, saw that Amy was fully dilated, and told us that we could begin the delivery soon. Our room began to fill with people, and your mother started pushing.
The experience was just so fun for us. We found ourselves laughing frequently in disbelief; We just couldn't believe what was about to occur, and I guess that's just kind of how we react to things, which I think is a nice indication about the condition of our relationship, and how surreal that event was for us. She pushed and your head began to emerge. Everything just looks messy when you haven't seen that kind of thing before, but it was just so amazing to see everything unfold.
You finally entered into our world at 6:41pm. It turns out that your heart rate had been slowed because the umbilical cord had wrapped around your neck, and that prompted some of the procedures that followed, but it wasn't something to be really concerned about.
When a baby is born the medical staff will look for a few different things to make sure everything is okay. One of those signs is a good healthy cry from the baby. Not crying can be an indication that something is blocking the airways, but for you, once that had been cleared and everything checked out okay, you still wouldn't cry - not much anyway. You kind of whimpered a bit, cried some, but you calmed down so quickly. And that's kind of how you've been ever since you were born. You have such a sweet and mild temperament. Even when there are things that should upset you, you hardly stir a lot of times.
You've been with us now for a few weeks and so far the transition to having you in our lives has been easier than we thought it would be. It feels like we have had you our whole lives. I guess that's how a lot of these transitions can feel sometimes. You forget what life was ever like before that thing happened, but you're glad now that it's always going to be this way. That's how your mother and I feel about you at least.
Your birth and growth has been the highlight of our marriage to this point. We just love you more than we could ever express and we are so glad to call you our own. Welcome to this world, Jane. Your mom and dad love you so very much.
Don Boudreaux, GMU economist, explains the reasons why he doesn't vote here, which touches on the some of the same points mentioned in the video above. Here's a brief excerpt:
First—and least interestingly—my vote will never determine the
outcome of a political election. The chances that my voting for
candidate Smith rather than voting for candidate Jones (or rather than
not voting at all) will assure that Smith wins the election are
practically zero. Put differently, from my perspective, the outcome of
any election will be what it will be no matter what I do or don’t do at a
polling place on election day. Because my time is valuable, I never
vote; I instead spend my time on activities whose outcomes I am more
likely to affect.
Some people insist that non-voting is “selfish.” Perhaps. But note
that I’m not the only person to benefit from my refusal to spend my time
pointlessly. By not voting, I have more time to prepare for the classes
I teach, or more time to write articles that (I hope) at least some
people enjoy reading, or more time to spend helping my son with his
homework or just enjoying time with my family. Because my refusal to
vote changes nothing, the cost to others of my not voting is zero. But
the cost of my voting to others (my students, my colleagues, my adoring
reading public, my family) is real. So by not voting, I make at least
some people better off while making no one worse off.
Spoken like a true economist, right? There are some other considerations in the voting equation, namely, the sphere of influence that a person wields over the people in his/her circle. Another economist, Russ Roberts, explains his non-voting position in a more palatable way than Boudreaux does. His point was mostly about educating others, and how touching other people personally will do more to swing an election than what a simple vote does.
In any case, I haven't voted in awhile, mostly because I'm not registered in Utah, and the absentee ballot where I am registered to vote has been problematic to get the last few times. I've mostly just resigned myself to the fact that I have never actually lived in a swing state, so my vote matters very little. There are other issues of smaller scales that maybe I could help tip the scales more, but in the end, I think I largely align with these thinkers. At this point, voting is mostly just a symbolic gesture, but it still feels good to do it.
(The biggest reason why I don't register to vote in Utah is that I would have to give up my CA driver's license, and I keep holding on to the thought that some day I'll buy a Disneyland pass, in which case, I'm going to want that California resident discount. The price I pay...)
I guess I haven't talked much on here about what this job-seeking process is like. I also want to limit how much I disclose in the online universe. Companies, as it turns out, really do check up on people. I know that I used to do that for my company when I did recruiting.
It's unreal how much everything feels like dating. The companies are so temperamental about you showing interest in them, and even when you think you''re clearly communicating your intentions about your interest, they don't always understand it.
Cisco was a company near the top of my list, and I felt like I had done all of my homework for them going into the interview process. I talked with each of their recruiters. I had even began correspondence with one before I even got into the program. I went to their office hours, their info session, out to lunch with them, and I even went on a trip out to the Bay Area to make sure they saw my face.
And in the end I didn't even get an interview with them. It came down to the fact that I never explicitly told them they are at the top of my list, so they didn't even bother interviewing me. I couldn't believe it. That set off a chain reaction for me of reaching out to all of my remaining companies and letting them know my level of interest, and asking them for next steps.
There was a week period when about 6 or 7 companies came to campus and interviewed people. I only interviewed with one, where for a number of people they interviewed with maybe every single company, and then they told me no, and then a bunch of people were starting to get offers and fly-backs.
I started to feel panicky about my situation. Should I have applied everywhere even though I only had lukewarm interest? Did I put my eggs in too few baskets? Was I going to be able to get any offers?
Then my top companies started to have their deadlines, I started getting interest, and now I'm back to feeling like balance has been restored. I had an interview yesterday, one today, and I have two lined up for early next week, and I would be perfectly happy working for any of these companies. Once again, I feel confident things will work out.
It's just kind of a crazy process, but it's really fun too. Today's interview was the coolest interview experience I've ever had. I just loved it. Part of it was just two questions and in-depth conversation about my most significant accomplishment, and then how I would approach a case situation. The second part were questions directly related to their business, and it felt kind of like a game to me. I loved it.
When I got my first no, it really made me kind of mad, and shook me up, but I think it turned out really well. Now that company is getting sued for a billion dollars by the federal government, and after hearing about how they've handled some other things, I am actually glad that one didn't work out and I wasn't forced to have to make my own decision about that company.
I feel really good going forward. It's a nice place to be. We'll see where we end up and with who.
Someone has been emailing me about a broken link from a post that is 5 years old. I couldn't believe it. Then I really couldn't believe it when she followed up 3 more times in the last month or so. That forced me to go back through my blog and look for it, but I couldn't believe how much content I used to put out. I don't know if y'all realized this, but I used to post. A lot. I used to write a lot, and then link and excerpt even more.
I don't know that I'll ever get back to that level of output, but here is some more for you anyway...
Romney is still doing really well. This article by Victor Davis Hanson points out just how much the debates turned the tide for Romney. His strategy in that third debate really was pretty straightforward - he didn't need a knockout, by any means. All he needed was to basically hold the line, look Presidential, and not mess it up. He could've done more, that's for sure, but he didn't need to, and he pulled it off.
This one is by Michael Barone, who always has a really good grip on how to read these things. From the article:
The list of target states has certainly not been fixed. Barack
Obama's campaign spent huge sums on anti-Romney ads to create a firewall
in three states that the president won narrowly in 2008 -- Florida,
Ohio and Virginia. But post-debate polling shows Romney ahead in Florida
and tied in Virginia.
National Journal's Major Garrett reported last week that Obama
strategist David Plouffe omitted Florida and Virginia in a list of key
states but mentioned Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. Obama carried
the latter three by 10, 10 and 12 points in 2008.
So much for the firewall. In addition, polling shows Romney ahead in
Colorado, which Obama carried by 9 points last time, and the race
closing in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which Obama carried by
14, 10 and 16 points.
And then there was his massive rally in Colorado two nights ago.
In the all-too-important swing state of Ohio, Romney is really starting to close. This post in the Corner at NRO shows that Romney is looking like he's setting up for a big finish in Ohio:
The race for Ohio is slowly tightening, but Mitt Romney does not hold a lead in a single poll in the current Real Clear Politics average (he is tied in two). Two polls from Time
and CBS/Quinnipiac have grabbed headlines by showing Obama a five-point
lead in each. Romney is chipping away at Obama’s poll lead, but the
Democratic advantage in party-ID has increased across these polls. When
looking at the polls in Ohio, it is becoming entirely possible that Mitt
Romney should be able to win Ohio without ever showing a consistent
lead in the polls, or any lead at all.
Lastly, a reason a lot of libs are still feeling optimistic is that they keep saying, well, it's the electoral math. Romney may lead nationally, but the math for getting to the magic 270 electoral count just isn't there, but again, that's misleading. Rasmussen polls, among the most reliable out there, is showing that of the 11 key swing states that went for Obama in 2008, Romney now leads across the board 50%-46% . Formerly, Obama's team was thinking that they had a firewall in Florida, Virgina, and New Hampshire, but now Romney is either tied or out ahead on those. He is also up in Colorado, North Carolina, and closing in on the rest.
So what's the big thing now besides voting? Pray for good weather. If you want a Romney win, pray for good weather for two Tuesdays from now. Turnout will favor the GOP because of their enthusiasm, and nothing suppresses turnout like unfavorable weather. Kind of like today in Utah.
