Blood, sweat, and tears.

Anyone who doubts my commitment to my religion should have been in attendance for the alumni day at Seminary this Thursday at 5:40 in the morning. I had stayed up almost the entirety if Wednesday night studying scriptures, marking them, memorizing them, and preparing to compete in Scripture Mastery Chase. We were paired up, and our Officiator, the Seminary teacher Sister Bingham, told us the rules. We lined up on one side of the gym, facing five chairs, one less than the six teams of Seminaryologists. The far left chair was worth 5 points, then 4 points, all the way to 1 point for the far right chair. Sis. Officiator Head Referee Umpire Bingham would read 3 to 6 words from a scripture, and we had to write the first three letters of the book of scripture and the chapter and verses (ex. ‘Trust in the Lord’ = Pro 3:5-6). Then, you grab your writing tablet (actually a plastic plate with dry erase marker on it) and run full throttle across the room to the chair. First one with cheeks in the seats gets the chair. If it is simply an arm or a hand or a stomach, feel free to kick the chair out from under them, tackle them, employ bump and run coverage while running. Honestly, we would get called for unnecessary roughness even in the early 1970’s NFL of headslaps, spearing corner backs, punching, pile driving, etc. Well, my teammate and I were able to overcome a slow start and take 4 first place chairs in a row en route to a 20 point victory. I have 7 quarter sized patches of rug burns, a bruised and swollen abdomen, a bruised bone in my hand, and a welt on my arm where someone sat on a chair that I was currently under. It was tremendous amounts of fun. Discount Double Check belts adorned my waist, and Clay Matthews III was briefly channeled after the victory.

3 hours after getting a minimal amount of sleep (which I woke up during multiple times to see Patrick Carroll’s head hanging over the side of the couch as the rest of him contorted to stay on), I found myself at work. At 1, I left to go to lunch with my manager at Pizza Ranch, then ran home… ok, I made it two miles on 16 slices of pizza and a huge salad, but I consider that a success!

In unrelated business, I read through a slideshow of the 25 best college uniforms of 2011. I LOVED IT!!!

This just in! Tangled is officially my favorite Disney movie. Flynn is my favorite Disney Prince (by marriage!). ‘I Had a Dream’ is my favorite Disney scene. ‘At Last I See The Lights’ is my favorite Disney song…  Who knew? I watched it two nights in a row and thoroughly enjoyed it each time. I then listened to/sang the songs for the next hour.

I just witnessed a beautiful exchange that melted my heart. A five year old girl joyously shrieked at the sight of Santa. As she jumped up and down waving him over to her.  She talked with him for two or three minutes, asking how his wife, the elves, and reindeer were doing, and closed the exchange by hugging him around the waist. I cannot put into words the pure childlike innocence of the scene, but only say that it almost made me cry at work.