I hate peeling eggs...

So here is the deal, chaps and chapettes; writing to strangers is kinda weird. I have done it only a handful of times. I had to write to another German student at a cross town high school my sophomore year; I sent an email to a person that I was ‘introduced’ to over the internet (no, not online dating); I sent a letter to a girl whose grandmother pressed me to write while I was on my mission; and then I just recently wrote a friends sister-in-law who is on her mission. In all of these cases it is difficult to try and figure out what to say or include about yourself to let them understand you a bit more personally without being overbearing or downright creepy. Plus, what sort of introduction works for never meeting someone? Well, one that I employed most recently was a parody of Carli Rae Jepsen. I wrote (in fun scented markers and a different color for each line) “I’ve never met you - I guess I’m crazy – but here’s a letter – so write back maybe” and then I signed it as a friend of her sister’s. I think that is about as god as it gets for a blind approach via script.

I am getting very excited for football practice this upcoming week, and I have actually been trying to recruit a handful of friends to put on the pads with me. Well, so many of them had played so rough for so long that they are all of them no longer in shape to knock heads with other people. Between unresolved neck injuries, torn ACLs and 5 too many concussions, torn rotator cuffs, mangled hands, and loss of vision, they are not prepared for a full season of impact, now or possibly ever again. It is a real shame since two of them are such pure athletes, and another has one of the best arms I have seen in person that does not play on Sundays. I shall, therefore, be flying solo as I attend try outs this weekend (unless there are any 18+ guys that would like to get involved. Email me!).

I would like to include a fun story from church. My dad was teaching the lesson, and he was asking about receiving promptings from the Holy Ghost and if there comes a time that the Spirit ceases to speak to us. Mark Palenske spoke up saying that his mother still tells him what to do, even though he is a 38 year old man with three growing boys of his own, and he knows that Heavenly Father loves him far more than his mother does, so he cannot see the Spirit stopping talking to him. My dad then turned to me and asked how old I was (23) and then asked Mark if I ever told him how often I am told the same things over and over by my parents, or if I ever tell him that they nag me. Mark replied that I am a great kid who never spoke ill of my parents, all speaking of them with respect. I began to lean back into my pew, stretching my arms out just cool as a cucumber. When Mark was done talking, I took out my wallet and handed him a 10 as the entire chapel broke out laughing. Good times.

I’m trying to come up with another fun story, but my memories of this last week are mostly of throwing eggs and working, so we shall leave it there for the time being. Enjoy the icy roads, everyone! It’s like a thousand car slip’n’slide out there!