This One's For All My Dead Homies...

When I started working at American Eagle I didn't think anything of it.  Up to that point in time I had held 2 jobs.  McDonald's when I was 15ish, and Noodles'N'Company for the duration of the summer before my mission.  I quit McD's after only a month, and I was only at Noodles for 8-9 months.  I didn't quite know if all jobs were like that, but some people seemed to have been at these "job" things for quite a while!  Years even.  Decades if they were really dedicated/confused/stuck/etc.

It is coming closer and closer to my time to leave AE, after having worked there for 2 1/2 years, and I never EVER suspected I would get emotional about it.

Tonight was my last floorset at store 2062, and there was absolutely nothing special about it, which is ok, because floorsets are kinda crap to start with.  I also found out that my head Manager, Justin, turned in his two week notice today.  This is a man that has been with the company for somewhere around 10 years.  I never thought I'd see the day when he was no longer there.  He had always been there, and I figured he would continue to always be there.  All night, while building walls I couldn't wrap my head around this idea that he would someday be gone...

THIS IS CRAZY

I have dealt with death, loss, sadness, pain, grief, depression, but never have I felt this way.

One of my other managers, Roz, quit just a matter of weeks ago.  It was rather unexpected, but I hardly felt a thing.  I was a little sad that her quirky personality wouldn't be around anymore, but it was nothing emotional.  Just completely habitual I would say.

And now Justin is leaving and it feels like my whole world is turned upside down!  What will become of the store?  Who will the new Store Manager be?  What will happen to the happy, laughing atmosphere that is found at only our AE?  How long before Adam leaves, too?  What will the other employees think?  How long will they stick around?

I won't be around to find out the answer to any of these questions...and I'm glad for that.  I can't imagine an AE without my favorite people around.

And the strange thing is...it seems like everyone else is leaving about this time, too!

Our store is strange because we have little turn-over.  In an industry that is full of little teenagers that need a job just for nights after school for a couple years, or college kids that just need to work while home for the holidays, our store has been the exact opposite.  We have had a constant, unchanging workforce for almost the entirety of the 2+ years I've been here.  Now, we're all moving on...

It's like we are all getting a divorce or something!

This has all just become very real.  I guess before, I knew that I would someday leave, but I never imagined what the day would be like when it actually happened.  It's still quite...surreal.

But this is a retail job!  What is there to be emotional about?! 

Life is sure gonna be different in a month...

***

Life is amazing now.

~Boy

Dupe

That's pronounced Doo-peh, not doop.
***
Today was a fantastic day to be alive and a member of the Lord's church if you live in the Midwestern area of the United States.
-Stake conference broadcast with Elder Cook, Bishop Burton, and President Eyring.
-CES Fireside with Elder Perry.
Pretty good stuff.

So, on this topic, I had a couple pretty awesome revelations today, and a couple moments of increased determination:
-satan quivers when he see's faithful Saints on their knees.
The last week I have been doing fantastic with a little one of my persistent sins.  BUT, I have been doing terrible with my scripture reading and daily prayers.  So last night I picked back up my New Testament scripture reading and immediately today I am ambushed by all these temptations over again.  He wants so bad for us to just give up the simple, little, everyday things, because it is those things that keep us on the path of righteousness.  I gave the exact same talk at least twice on my mission of the everyday battles, and how they are more important in the long run than a single, glorious day.

(These could/should probably be added to the goal list I made earlier this year)
-I will only watch three television shows from here on out, Biggest Loser, The Office, and Community.  All other shows were funny, but they were ultimately an even bigger waste of time than absolutely anything else I could have been doing.
-For every hour of TV that I watch, pointless internet that I surf or video games that I play, I will spend the same amount of time during the week doing something productive...such as practicing guitar or piano, studying the scriptures or other church-related materials, or simply educational reading or music categorization.
-Daily workout is a must.  No exceptions.  Except the Sabbath, on which day I will abstain.  Just something, ANYTHING to get active again.  Winter has destroyed my physically fit drive, and that is terrible.
-Brush my teeth twice a day EVERY day, and always wash my face before bed.  I have gotten really lazy with this as well when going to bed so late at night.  If I can make time for other pointless activities in my life, I can certainly make time for a basic 5-minute routine of brushing and washing before bed.
***
Now I have to go to bed so I can get a jumpstart on some of these goals.
Ciao.

~Boy

NERD-DOM!

I recently purchased a TV.  Not just any TV.  A Vizio, 22" LED 1080p TV.  For just over 200 bucks!  From Wal-Mart!

I don't care what you have to say about Wal-Mart, so keep it to yourself.

THEN(as if that wasn't good enough) I bought some HDMI cables.  And proceeded to hook things up to said TV.

NOW I have the ability to switch channels between XBOX360 and being a second computer monitor.  A beautiful, big, shiny computer monitor.

AND I added a second hard drive to my computer and a second DVDR drive...

Life is good.

***

The Gospel is amazing.

I have been thinking about it a lot lately and how truly awesome it is to know 100%, without a doubt, absolutely that the way to God that I know is the path He wants ALL of His children to travel, and how fortunate I am that I was born into it so that I didn't have to search for it or have it come to me.

Did I still have to find my own rhythm?  Absolutely.  BUT that is a heck of a lot easier when you have others supporting you, helping you, and being examples for you.

***

Today, in EQ we talked a little about the Law of Consecration, and how ultimately God wants us to give all(time, talents, material goods, etc.) that He has given us back, or at least be willing should the circumstance arise that He, or one of His other children, needs it.

So we talked about time, and how we can consecrate our time to the Lord.  The teacher, Noah, had any of us willing to give a non-detailed breakdown of our time go up to the whiteboard and write it down.

I simply wrote:
20% Work

80% Fun

I didn't put MUCH effort or thought into my answer, but it felt to be roughly accurate...as long as I include sleeping, eating, and travel time as fun.

After we joked about it for a bit, and me actually doing some math, here's a rough outline of what I came to:

There are 168 hours in a week.

IF you get the recommended 8 hours of sleep per night, you sleep for a 1/3 of that time, or 56 hours.

So that's...

~33% of your week you spend asleep.

If you work a normal 40 hour work week, that comes to about...

~24% of your week is spent working.

If you spend roughly 14 hours a week(bare minimum 2 hours a day) of eating & hygiene...

~8% of your week is spent on eating & hygiene.

That equals a grand total of 65% leaving you a whopping 35% to do what you want with it.

Now, I didn't include it here, but I also figured in 9-10 hours of travel time every week just to get to different activities, meaning...

~6% of your week is spent traveling.

AND if you happen to be a good, spiritually-inclined, YSA Mormon with free time like myself, you spend about 7-8 hours a week doing things related to church, equaling...

~5% of your week is spent with church

That added to the previous totals equals 76% and 24% of used time/free time respectively.

Now, this may vary by person, of course, and some people have even gotten as good as doing two or three of these already listed activities at the same time.  I haven't.

This is the bare minimum for me.  I won't let myself be far from this schedule.

This, of course, will also change drastically once I'm in school.  For instance travel time will practically disappear and school will take up another rough 32-36 hours a week or somewhere around 20%.

BUT for the time being, I still have 24% that I have all to myself.  Or, roughly 40 hours a week.

Now, these are all rough estimates, don't get me wrong, but that still leaves me with a ton of time to just sit around and do whatever.

It's sobering to think about.

***

AND on that note...

I am a failure at most of my goals set earlier this year, but that doesn't mean I haven't stopped trying.

BUT life is good nonetheless.

~Boy

See Ya Later Butt Popcorn

The above statement is a translation of the only sentence I know how to say in Bulgarian.  Don't ask me to spell it on here.  It's impossible for me.
***
Today has been good, and you know how I know that?  I'm dead tired.
Days are always best if you end them ready to collapse.  Or so I like to believe...
Woke up and shoveled the driveway some more.  After all the snow we got it definitely needed to be shoveled a 2nd and 3rd time, and so it did.
Got ready for work.
Went to work for a couple hours.
Went to see I Am Number Four with my awesome friends.
Had Taco Mondays at Acapulco with same friends.  75 cent Tacos.  How do you beat that?!  And they are darn good tacos.
Spent the last couple hours playing Halo with Ivan.  All-in-all, it was a successful day, no matter what anyone else may say about it.
***
One of the beautiful messages of the Gospel is that you are as strong, or know as much, or are as saved as you allow yourself to be.  All the strength, glory, knowledge, spirit that God is willing to give you is entirely dependent upon yourself.  If you want to overcome something, it's as easy as turning off the natural man and allowing that strength to flow through you.  In application that can be really hard at times, but the principle is simple.  Same with knowledge.  God wants you to know His mysteries, and it is on your shoulders 100% whether or not He can reveal them to you, because He will never give you something that you're not prepared for.
It's awesome knowing the truth.

~Boy

Winnie The Pooh

I think that checking Craigslist for "Missed Connections" might be my new nightly routine.
It's amazing!
Not because I'm looking for myself, but just because it's funny to see what other people put.  I would have a hard time doing that and ACTUALLY thinking someone would respond.  Plus, I haven't had many love-at-first-sight moments...if any.
***
Today was a good day full of goodly goodingtons.
Started off with church, which was really good.  Messages of hope, faith and enduring to the end.  Always good.
Priesthood was awesome.  We had a lesson on work and responsibility.
I love the analogy of the storm.

You see, not every single little choice we make matters to God.  It doesn't matter what shoes we wear today.  It doesn't matter what we eat for breakfast.
This is like a storm.
Imagine that you are a rain cloud inside of a storm.
You are definitely part of something bigger than yourself, don't ever think otherwise.
That is besides the point.
He will move the storm system by the winds, and thus He will move you, and He may make all the conditions perfect for you to rain and bless the Earth with moisture, but He won't force you.  He will put you right where you need to be, fill you with water, and wait, but never force.
And when you do choose to rain, He won't guide every raindrop.  They will fall where they will fall.
He makes the conditions just right for us and what we need, not what we want, and then when we choose to rain, he will allow us to choose where the droplets fall.
Will things get done in His own due time?  Absolutely.  We just receive the blessings if we are the ones to accomplish His designs, not just wait for some other rain cloud to come along.

So I recognize that there are probably loopholes and oddities in my analogy, but I like it all the same.  I also mixed a couple analogies together, I think but whatever.
***
After church I came home and had some lunch and took a long nap.
Only to be woken to eat dinner and shovel the driveway.

Just when we thought that all the snow in Minnesota was gone, we get one last glimpse of Snowpocalypse.  It snowed over a foot in less than 10 hours.  May not have been the BIGGEST/FASTEST snowfall, but it's still coming down, and isn't supposed to stop until sometime later tomorrow.  So much for the Groundhog saying that Spring was coming soon.  Looks to ME that we still have quite a bit of winter left.

Darn Groundhog.

That's fine by me.  I would still like to get in a snowboarding trip sometime this winter.
BUT, I am so ready for some sunshine and warmer temperatures.  Last week was just a teaser of what warmth feels like.  I can't wait for it to return, because I want to wear my flip flops again.

~Boy

Dead Island

Tonight's volleyball was pretty epic.  I enjoyed it to say the least.
Now I have to go to bed so I can get up earlier than I want, so I can go to work earlier than I want, to do shipment faster than I want, so that I can end up doing something that I really want:
eating dinner with my dad.

Wish me speed!

~Boy

Falling is definite; Failing is optional

Tonight I taught the lesson at FHE.  It was a lesson that was relevant to me and at least one other person.  I don't know what everyone else thought of it, and I'm not sure how I feel about it (besides the initial bad feeling of "ohmygoshIambadateverything...") but it was alright.
***
Apparently today was a holiday.
Known as Valentine's Day.
I don't know what I was expecting exactly.  I haven't had a Valentine.  Ever.  I don't know why I thought this year would somehow be different.
I dressed all fancy.  I was extra nice.  I was funny.
Oh wait, that's just like every other day of my existence.

It sucks to hear people talking about Valentine's Day and how awesome it is when they have someone, and it's just as annoying to hear people complain about Valentine's Day and how much it sucks when they DON'T have someone.  But it is darn near impossible to ignore the fact that you should be celebrating/crying alone on that day because EVERYONE ELSE IS.

So despite my best efforts to treat this just like any other day of my existence, I am left feeling sad and lonely.
***
A bunch of friends (approximately/exactly 8) and I went and saw The Eagle tonight.  It was really good!  I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though it didn't start 'til 10'o'clock!!  Seriously.  Who does that.  Why not have a freaking earlier late showing.  Like 9 or 8:30.  Why do you have to wait 'til 10?
Either way, it was good.  And tasteful.  There was action, and it was good action, and there was implied violence and blood, but no blood was shown, besides an old wound, and very little violence.  Oh, and no sex, either.  All-in-all, a good family movie for those who are interested in Historical Fiction.  Or what I believe is Historical Fiction.  I honestly have no idea.

Anywho, at the start of the movie 2 friends and myself showed up late.  2 of us (males)naturally sat on the ends that were open and the third (female) sat a row up.  The person (female) I was sitting next to got up and left to go sit with the person (female) who had sat up a row.  Leaving me in a seat that was next to two empty seats.  So, moral of the story was that I watched the movie by myself.  And there happened to be some people that I knew there.
So, on Valentine's Day I end up getting the bigger shaft than the usual shaft I am used to receiving when viewing movies with groups of friends.  It helped me feel good about myself, and I think I will make origami flowers, bake cookies, and find a unicorn to poop a golden rainbow for me, so that I can use the magical rainpoopbow as ink to write a book about how great life is and why I should win the Nobel Prize for happiness.
***
Shove that in your card and smoke it.

~Boy