Airports

Can you believe it? I sure can't. I remember receiving my license back in 2005 and noting that it would expire in 2010 and thinking to myself, "Man this isn't going to expire for forever." My license is now expired as it expired on my birthday. If I had followed standard mormon protocol I would be returning from my mission within the next few months... Jeez, am I really that old? Of course, I still have plenty of years ahead of me, but it seems weird to think that I've finally reached 21. Never saw that happening, at least not for awhile.

My posting has become a bit more erratic over the last few weeks as I've been quite a bit busier then usual. Never fear though as I've got nothing going on until about 5pm tonight so I've got plenty of time to write.

Tuesday the 9th

Although class were the norm, I had the opportunity to feed the missionaries that night. On March 1st, Lena and I were waiting for the Ward Missionary meeting to start after church and we were waiting with the two missionaries. Elder Hamner looked over at me and reminded me that I hadn't signed up to feed the missionaries yet. I replied that I would sign up when Lena sign up. We joked around for awhile and then Lena and I decided to feed them together at my apartment. We did pasta in a white-sauce with chicken, corn, fruit salad, and some texas toast. It went well and after we finished eating we dropped the missionaries off at their next appointment and then headed to the institute for class.

Wednesday the 10th

Classes were once again fairly normal and so there is nothing to report about them. I did have the great opportunity though to home teach two of my hometeachees. Home teaching is one of my favorite church programs. It truly is an inspired way for the members to take care of each other. I was especially fortunate to teach a lesson on Patriarchal Blessings to a new member. I hope she learned as much as I did. That night Lena and I went to Orange Tree to celebrate, or in her case to mourn, the 3rd bedlam meeting of the year.

Thursday the 11th

People are going to start to wonder if I even go to classes the way I post about them here. Either way, once again classes were fairly tame. The highlight of Thursday night was indoor soccer with Matt. The guys from the local spanish ward get together and play indoor soccer at the stake center. I went and played with them because Matt and I hadn't hung out for awhile. It was a blast! I definitely wasn't very good but I enjoyed it immensely. I wasn't sore afterwards at least not until saturday and then it was tough.

Friday the 12th

Classes were difficult on Friday. Being so close to Spring Break it was hard to focus on anything but the freedom that was to soon be. I was good in that I showed up for Civil Procedure but I was bad in that I skipped Criminal Law to work on my brief... Oh well! I'll be okay. Friday night Lena and I went to the Softball game of OU v. Utah. I thought Utah might be able to pull off an upset for awhile after they homered in the first inning. Sadly, they weren't able to sustain the momentum and OU ended up crushing them 12-1 in 5. Side note of the night, We were planning on going to Starbucks after the game in order to get their Carmel Apple Spice drinks, which are very good, but the Starbucks on campus closes at 8pm on weekends! What is up with that!?! After I dropped Lena off, I ran back to my apartment got my stuff together and then drove out to Stillwater. I didn't get to Stillwater until about 12:30am but it was good enough for me.

Saturday the 13th

Natalie, Jacob, and I hung out Saturday morning until we drove to Guthrie and ate at the Stable. The Stable is a Nielson family essential. It is a BBQ cafe and it is absolutely amazing. The portions are huge and the food is awesome. After the Stable we went antiquing, which I discovered is code for looking at junk, around the town and then drove back to Stillwater. After some ice-cream and some downtime, I picked my stuff up and away I drove back to down to Norman. I was hoping I was going to be able to print my talk off for church the next day but then I realized that my usual printing location, the Law School Library, was going to be closed and I wasn't going to be printing off anything until Monday. Uh Oh!

Sunday the 14th

I had the opportunity to speak in church on Sunday and my talk was on endurance. Like I mentioned just barely, I was unable to print anything off so I was forced to talk from a skeleton outline. It worked out really well though as I had plenty of material prepared and I love to talk to people so I wasn't nervous at all. My first speaker spoke for 10 minutes and I spoke for 35. I think it went really well at least that is what people told me. Sunday night was all appellate brief all the time. I spent a few good hours on it and got it ready to go. 

Monday the 15th

Monday started in Norman, Oklahoma and ended in Stansbury Park, Utah. I woke up about 8am and got ready and then traveled the vast distance to the law school. I quickly read through my paper and discovered that I had used fiances instead of finances. As you can tell, there is a big difference between the two. Phew! Dodge a bullet there. After I turned in my paper, I drove to the airport and get ready to fly back home. I flew Frontier for the first time ever and it was pleasant flights. I actually had the same crew for both flights which was nice because I had friended the flight attendant in the back. Luckily for me, she took a liking to me and so we changed my seat on the second flight to one with more legroom, gave me a snack usually reserved for reward members, and gave me quite a lot to drink without having to ask for it. She was really nice and I plan on writing an email to Frontier complimenting her. My father and sister picked me up at the airport and we bumped into some missionaries just departing for Sydney. The missionary we were talking to actually was probably related to us. After we left the airport, we went and picked up my mom and then went to eat.

Tuesday the 16th
I woke up today about 10am which was really really nice. Since then I've been hanging out and watching TV. The Chelsea game starts in 15 minutes and I'm super stoked to finally get to watch them its been far too long.

Airports

Surely in today's modern world the airport is much like the seaport of old, the central hub of transportation where individuals of all walks of life are forced to interact with one another. I was thinking about this as I was sitting in the Denver Airport during my layover. I can't think of any other place, where I interacted, maybe on a very basic level, with more individuals that I will never interact with again. More over, it is interesting how everyone in the airport shares a similarity in their story else they would not be sharing such a common space for such a limited amount of time.

That thought struck me as I was sitting next to a spunky sixth grader who wanted to talk to me the entire flight. What interesting lives we have both, undoubtedly, lived to that extent and how different we were, but for a brief moment our stories were intertwined as she continued to talk through my book. As we both went our different ways myself to wait for my next flight and her to find our cousin, I was struck with the fact that we were never to see each other again. I won't miss her, to be honest, but it is interesting how many of these types of interactions we have with other individuals, and perhaps it is a testimony that we should cherish the relationships that we do have.

Bah! That's too deep for me. Chelsea FC is playing right now so I'd better focus up more on the match. Until next time, Keep the Blue Flag Flying High!

One Love