Hey everybody. I've got a couple minutes here and I thought I'd take the time to let you know what we're up to at the moment.
Megan and I are feeling fine and dandy these days. Never underestimate the positive effects of eliminating the main cause of frustration and aggravation in your life. That's a lesson I've learned a few times over. Look back to my old blog when I was dealing with difficult roommates. Then look what's happening now that I'm not under skeletor's thumb anymore. There is an immediate benefit to distancing yourself from people who drag you down. It sounds like elementary logic, and it is, but it's absolutely true.
Megan and I have smiled bigger, laughed harder, and have felt closer in the last two weeks than we have at any other time. Not that the first 8 months of our marriage has been anything less than stellar. We've had a great time being married up until now, but I can see a big change in the way things have gone lately. When I get home from work she doesn't have to be the person I vent to. I don't have to release all this anger, tension, and frustration before being able to relax and enjoy being home like I used to. We're able to go to work together and be happy, then come home and be happy. I can't even begin to describe how much better life is now.
One thing that I would like to throw out there: I have completely forgiven the boss man for everything he's done to me. He really went out of his way to make a miserable working environment for me, but it hardly matters now. He is no longer an influence in my life. I always knew and frequently commented to Megan that the boss man's life is way worse than mine in a number of ways. He has no friends. He is not respected by his employees and colleagues. He has a way of making very bitter and lasting enemies of people. He is now living in my old apartment complex (I'm so glad Megan and I have a house). He doesn't have a very good education. He isn't qualified to do anything other than what he's doing (and some would say he's not even qualified to do the job he does). He's a 57 year old anorexic whose appearance is shocking and frightening to many. The campus police told us they get suspicious person calls about him when he's just walking from his car to work. Granted, a lot of the things that are wrong with his life have to do with the way he treats people and himself. That being the case, I still feel more pity for him now than I do anger or hostility. I imagine he must have been treated very poorly at some point in his life to act the way he does now. He might be a victim of abuse or just a lonely guy with no idea how to connect with people. Whatever his story is, I bear him no ill will now. Releasing the anger and hostility I had toward him has been a major factor in the increase of happiness in my life. You can't be happy when you're lugging a grudge around. Now that it's all behind me, life is exponentially better.
Now for a subtle shift in gears. Megan and I bought a new weed eater today. We're trying to kick some shape into our back yard. It's been slow going thus far. We have about a billion tons of gravel to shovel and another billion tons of river rock to move. We were thinking of trying to rope some of our brothers-in-law into coming over and pitching in. Anyway, I mowed down all the gigantic weeds that were growing in the old jellybean shaped lawn. Megan pulled some of the bigger weeds growing up through the gravel. I think she did a lot more work than I did. All the while, we let Gamera roam around the yard. It's good for him to get a feel for what will someday be his domain. Sometimes he seems really excited to explore the yard and other times he picks a nice shady place to relax. It'll be fun once we have a yard and Gamera is big enough to own it.
The other day Megan notice a problem with our house (one of the joys of home ownership). We noticed a bunch of our insulation on the ground. We looked up and saw that something had broken through the mesh on one of the vent holes into our attic. Most likely we have some winged rats living in our attic now. So when we were at the Home Despot (Yes, I spelled it that way on purpose. Yes, I think I'm funny) we picked up some aluminum mesh to replace the fiberglass mesh that the birds found no trouble in getting through. So next weekend I get to roll around in fiberglass and try to evict the unwanted new tenants in our house. Megan and I are so glad we didn't get any of the fixer-uppers we looked at. This house has given us plenty to do and it's in really good shape.
As for jobs, I'm not looking too actively right now. I know it seems crazy, but I've got myself a super good situation at the moment. The balloon store is a great place to work and Megan and I are really enjoying working together. At the same time that I stop getting double paychecks, I'll finish my seminary teaching classes. I don't know if I'll be able to jump into seminary teaching right off the bat, but you never know. I feel good about how things are going at the moment. Just so you don't worry, you need to know that I have been working with ASU's HR in seeking to use my reemployment rights. So when I send in the last bit of paperwork (I'll get it to the guy on Monday) I'll get an email anytime a job I even remotely qualify for becomes available to us rif'ed employees (rif means Reduction in Force. It's the term they use to try and take the edge off the layoff. I thought laid off was the term they used instead of terms like pink-slipped, canned, booted, and sacked. I guess there needs to be six degrees of separation between what's actually happening and the words that describe it). So I'm throwing my hat into that ring. I'll also kick off the job hunt in earnest as we get closer to the day when I won't be collecting double paychecks. I just don't want to get myself into a situation where I can't finish my seminary teaching classes. I've thought about trying my hand at seminary teaching for a long time, and now that I'm taking steps in that direction I'm inclined to keep moving that way until I feel I ought to do otherwise. As always, I'll keep my ear to the ground and I won't pass on any good opportunities, but things are really good right now. Seriously. It's true.
One last thing before I wrap this up and Megan and I go watch some Star Trek (We finished watching M*A*S*H*, and watching Star Trek was actually Megan's idea. She's great). Anyway, a couple weeks ago when Megan was out with the young women, I was feeling not quite myself. I just felt sort of...I guess you would say bad. I hadn't done anything or thought anything bad. There was no real reason I should feel that way at all, but I did. So I left the house and just started driving. While I was driving, I remembered that I needed to buy some new oil to consecrate. So I drove down to Deseret Book and picked some up. While I was thumbing through piles and piles of commentaries, biographies, histories, and other good but non-scriptural books it hit me that I needed to go home and read my scriptures. Megan and I have been reading together almost every night since we got married. My personal scripture study kind of got crowded out as life came crowding in. The last time I had read the Book of Mormon was right before we got married. I finished Moroni either the night before or two nights before our actual wedding (oddly enough, that was in connection with a goal I made to finish the Book of Mormon one more time before we got married). So I picked up my Book of Mormon and started with 1st Nephi Chapter 1 Verse 1. I made it my goal to finish in a month. So far I have been right on time. I've had to pull a couple marathon sessions to make things even out because February is a short month, but I should be done next week, which is right on the money for the goal I set.
I'm not bringing all this up because I want anyone to be impressed with my ability to read. I bring it up because I can feel a definite difference in my life when I'm taking time to do my own personal study in addition to what I get in institute, church, and at home with Megan. So when the end of this month rolls around, I intend to keep on reading. I don't know what pace I'll set for myself the next time through. I might want to slow down or I might want to keep tearing through it. That isn't important. What is important is that I'm gaining insights that I've never had before even though I'm whipping through the Book of Mormon at breakneck speed. It's been good. The lesson, as always, is to never let life crowd out your personal scripture study regardless of how much scripture study you get from other sources.
Well, that's about all I have for the moment. I intended this to be shorter and take less time to write than it did, but you know how long winded I can be. Yeah.