EC Locator

I supposedly have a sense of humour that speaks of living close to Washington D.C. My humourous anecdotes also add colour to my image as "Not from Utah". Personally, one of my favorite tales from growing up comes from when I was a volunteer for the Romney Campaign (yes I am a Republican, and I am not ashamed of it). I was a young smiling kid ready to go and do my part, albeit small, for what I believe would have been a better path for the nation.

So there I am in some khaki shorts and a Romney/Ryan shirt. My partner and I did the first two doors together. Not so bad. So then I go to take my side of the street, and the first person to answer the door is a large, muscular black man. I felt like David looking up to Goliath, the man was a giant filling the entire doorway. And of course, he had Obama's face tattooed on his right arm.

Needless to say, I was not received very well.

This brings me to a point that the humour and jokes one tells really does say a lot about the place they come from, my joke shows (I think) the atmosphere of severe partisanship and division I see where I live. Here in Utah though, it's a little different.

What I've experienced here in enormous quantities, are not political jokes, not even as many Mormon jokes as you would expect. No, the largest topic for jokes out here is marriage.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against getting married, in fact I look wholeheartedly forward to the day that my life is figured out enough that I can settle down with someone I love and know I will be with them for eternity. Eternity with someone I love would be more than I could ever dream.

Apparently I missed some Utah Joke Training course.

Today in Marketing class the Professor's lecture today was on consumer behavior in making purchasing decisions. He used the example of selecting a college to attend. By breaking college down into several components he found how someone would decide to go to a college they find the most value in. These components included: Cost, Location, Education, and EC Locator, among other things.

At this point I feel like I had missed something. EC Locator? What's an EC Locator I asked. Thankfully a similarly thinking classmate of mine was brave enough to ask the question, "What is the EC Locator?" To this the Professor replied rather jovially, "That's your chances of finding and Eternal Companion at the college of your choice!"

Now this got me confused. For starters, I didn't select what college I wanted to go to based on getting married. Second off I don't much feel like dating anyone here, let alone marry anyone here. Thirdly (and in my opinion, most importantly) there's someone at home that I love and feel perfect with. (Snap out of it! This is getting to be really sappy!)

Either way, marriage jokes aside, more and more I find myself a certain outsider here to Utah culture and environment. The air is colder sooner in the year and the sky is constantly cloudless. My favorite movies and shows are scarce here as I rarely meet anyone who could respond to any question regarding Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog, Welcome to Night Vale, or Sleepy Hollow. Meanwhile the pastime of choice here appears to be platonic dating (if not something even worse which I will only refer to as NCMO). And this is fine, I am content to hang out with friends, and work and study while they decide to date. While they date I dream of the day I can return home and all I can say is: It will all be worth it.

To Fold the Laundered Clothes

Oftentimes I wonder,
Whether I should fold the clothes,
Would the world be torn asunder,
Should I leave them in their troves?

They sit there in the bag,
And seem to look with wondering eyes,
Why does their owner lag,
In his numerous tries.

Maybe we are forgotten,
And he has turned his eyes.
Maybe he hates our cotton,
And has learned to despise.

But the kind owner did not forget,
He takes them each, one by one,
And removes all thoughts of neglect,
And from the homely hanger they are swung.

Exams: Here be Dragons

Today marks my first college exam, Finance. The first of many I feel much like a knight confronting his first dragon. I have my sword in hand and shield at the ready, and yet, like a knight facing down his first dragon I am somewhat unaware of what to expect. The Professor has told us all that the exam has a total of nine math problems and 21 concept definition problems. While I do thank him for his layout explanation I cannot help but feel a sense of foreboding. All I can tell for sure about this dragon is that it has a hypnotic gaze that can cause time to fly faster than a hummingbird and the ability to breath fire causing even the stoutest of knight to hesitate in fear.

And so soon after the first I must confront the second dragon tomorrow, Accounting. I have less knowledge about this dragon than I do about the first. However I know the details of its kind. I can read the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. So do I have reason to fear either of these? Maybe this is not fear, rather the feeling of stealing oneself to just jump. This reminds me of a quote that initially has not impacted me, a quote that I dismissed, but that has gained more and more meaning as I enter my freshman year of college. "When jumping is the sole option, you jump, and try to make it work".

Cheers everyone, see you on the other side of this metaphorical dragon.

Talking about Movies

I was overjoyed last night when my girlfriend informed me that she had just seen The Dark Knight, the second installment of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. The Dark Knight is one of my personal favorites. I like it, not for the antics of Heath Ledger as the Joker, but for the character of Harvey Dent as he goes from Gotham's White Knight to Two-Face.

It was this that reminded me how much I enjoy talking with people about movies. And I look forward to so many more movie talks.

(I originally planned for this post to be more profound, but, alas the best laid plans of mice and men...)

Being Tired

I'm tired. I'm very tired. So tired I do not even know what I should write about. So I guess I'll just write about how I'm tired. I'm tired of not feeling able to do what I need to do. It's all right there, all I need to do is actually do it. I'm tired of feeling like no matter how hard I work at something I'll just come up short, again, and again, and again. I'm tired of people thinking I'm not able to do things. I'm tired of believing them. I'm tired of being tired and being too tired to do anything about it. I'm tired of writing this post because I feel like it's all the tired angst I was suppose to leave behind in high school. Sometimes I think I've grown a lot, other times I feel like I've grown little if at all.

Ugh... it's Monday again.