Declaring the Word

Hey everyone! I know I'm probably one of the least faithful bloggers of all time, but I promise I'll be a much more faithful missionary for these next two years. And as such, I won't be blogging at least until I return. It's completely surreal that I am leaving. I don't feel old enough. My mom still needs to teach me to sew on a button! I feel a bit lost as far as that's concerned. I'll give my very best. Until later, farewell!

I'm Alive!

Just in case everyone was wondering, I am still in existence. I'd love to make excuses as to why I haven't been consistent in blogging, but it really comes down to me falling out of the habit. I will do my best to make the habit again.

So I'm at school now! It's pretty unfathomable to me to be honest. All my life I've said that I would be going to BYU. It's now strange to know I'm here. I'm nervous; I can't lie about that one. I think everyone reminding me that I need to study as definitely urged that nervousness along, as well as the sheer enormity of the incoming freshman class. I do hope that I can do my very best. My course load isn't necessarily rigorous, but I am taking 17 credit hours. It does help that several are music classes, which really shouldn't be an issue.

One of the oddest things about being here at college is just living on my own. The lack of authority is just strange! A lot of kids at college say it's very liberating. I say it's strange. I'm not used to having no one tell me what to do or where to go. But I think I'm doing fine with it. And as it turns out, my whole apartment is doing fine with it. As one of my roommates came home from work last night at 1:30 he said that the area around our residence halls was still packed with students. I'm glad I wasn't one of those students. I like sleep. And I like not sleeping in until noon. Consequently I choose a more conservative bedtime. 

I think my favorite places on BYU campus so far are the library and the music building practice rooms. It sounds completely ridiculous, but I love the quiet. I'm not necessarily being quiet in the practice rooms, but I still love just being alone in there. It's nice. I'm also grateful I came down to Provo as early as I did. It was very fortunate of me to be able to get things all set up before any of my roommates got there. 

Well, that's about it for now. I will probably post some pictures of my dorm as soon as I take them. But until then, keep hoping I get in the blogging habit again!

SoCal Day 7 Continued

Here are the photos as I promised. Enjoy!

SoCal Day 7

So I've vowed to myself that this is going to be a short post. Although I think I'll probably break my own promise. I'm just not very good at being concise in this type of writing, especially when I just pour out whatever's going on in my head. But anyway, about my day.

Today our family visited the Huntington Gardens, Art Gallery, and Library. It wasn't all too far away from our hotel, just located in San Marino. The place was gorgeous. It's one of the top ten things to see for a very good reason. One of the most amazing things about it is the sheer immensity of the estate. Combined with excellent quality, it makes the place almost unbelievable. The "Gardens" of the Huntington Gardens are immaculate; divided into categories, it makes it seem as if you are touring the world on foot. There are different gardens in areas like desert gardens, jungle gardens, Japanese gardens, palm gardens, and so forth. To imagine that one person owned all of this is honestly unfathomable. 

The art gallery was really pretty impressive too. I've been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and it's quite something to say that Huntington's European art collection was about on par with that of the Met. One of the most impressive portraits in his galleries was that of George Washington that's used on the dollar bill. It was just unreal knowing that famous painting was the original. I've seen many originals of famous paintings before, but this one seemed to have a more dramatic effect on me. I would have pictures of some of them, but I didn't get any that were good enough to publish. I did get plenty of nice snapshots of the gardens though; I'll post them in a separate post above.

As soon as we got done at Huntington, we headed straight for Angel Stadium. I can say I was definitely excited. Our seats for this game were much better than I've been in before. We were just two rows back in right field, just about where Manny hit his home run. Too bad it wasn't enough... I was extremely disappointed in the Red Sox's showing tonight. It would have been awesome to see them win. I honestly wouldn't have minded seeing them lose a close one, but seeing them get taken to the woodshed like this was kinda awful. I wish they would have played well enough that I could have more easily held my head up high as we walked out of the stadium. It would have been nice; maybe some of the jeers would have lessened. I must say the highlight of the evening at the park was batting practice when Ben scored Manny's home run ball. I was pretty stinkin' psyched. But anyway, that's about it. Those of you who saw the game can probably guess why this post's tone is a bit more somber than normal. Tomorrow we head home... I'm not exactly looking forward to being off vacation. I can't wait to be home, but the prospect of lifeguarding again isn't exactly cheery. But anyway, I think I'm going to try and sleep off these post game blues.

SoCal Day 6

I've just decided it was pretty lame of me to title all of these posts with just "SoCal" and then the day it is. I'm actually disappointed in me. I'm sick of it. But I'm definitely not going to break format just to please myself. I'm a little (really a lot) obsessive about things like that. If I could have picked one for today, it would have been something way cool, like "Wipeout" or something. It would give a better lead in to what the post is actually about. So on behalf of myself, I'd like to apologize for the lackluster titles. I will do my very best to spice them up after my trip ends.

Today, we hit the beach. We hit the beach earlier in the week, but that was like a warmup to this hitting of the beach. It would be like our first trip was Steve Urkel socking you in the jaw, and today was like Chuck Norris. There's quite a significant difference. 

We went to a part of Newport Beach called Balboa. I really couldn't tell you if that was the name of the beach. Whatever. It was a pretty cool beach. I must say it wasn't quite as busy as I had expected, and there were less of the tourist-types too. Stupid tourists (that is very sarcastic, seeing as how we are definitely tourists. I wouldn't want all of you thinking I was moody or something). We rented some boogie boards, and the fun began.

Honestly, there isn't much to say about boogie boarding. It's a blast! What more is there? I guess there's that magical feeling the first time you really get caught by a wave. 

It sounds ridiculous to call it magical, but after many failed attempts of catching a wave, you're kind of surprised when the wave actually starts to do something for you. 

This picture here is one of the first times I felt that magic. I do look quite excited about it too. I don't know if that's because I knew my mom was taking the picture or true excitement... I guess there's also the rash you get on your belly (ooh and on your inner thighs... Ouch!). And the absolutely disgusting taste of ocean water. I must say I've been in the ocean before, but never where I was actually swimming in it. So this was my first experience with the biting nastiness of water that has seemingly made very good friends with a salt shaker. A couple times as I crashed, and oh did I crash, the ocean water was pretty forcefully shot up my mouth and nose. I don't suggest it. I've kinda got this funny heartburn/acid reflux thing going on I would assume is from swallowing saltwater. It isn't pleasant. Oh and on a completely different note, we saw some porpoises today by the beach. I'm not gonna lie, it was incredibly eerie seeing a fin poking out of the water. 

I told myself they weren't sharks. But, I don't think they were. There were a few traveling together, and they came out of the water once to the point that I could determine they were gentle mammals instead of sinister fishes. This other picture is all of us with our boards just heading out. I think I'm just figuring out in this picture that the tether isn't actually supposed to go on your ankle. That was awkward... Boogie boarding seriously wears you out however, I'm surprised I'm even awake to write this post! I'm pretty sure I'll be sleeping well tonight. I think tomorrow we're planning on marking off another one of the "10 U.S. Places to See Before You Die" when we visit the Huntington Gardens in San Marino. 

SoCal Day 5

I think tonight may be an entry lacking in photos. My mom's camera is in the other room, and I don't think we got many amazing pictures. Not saying that any I ever have are too amazing. Ooh I do have one from Disneyland the other day I'd better post. It's from this awfully cheesy Toy Story ride that's actually a bunch of fun. You ride in those little horse-less chariots there and shoot some signs on the wall. It's surprisingly entertaining. But anyway, here's me and Ben in action. Needless to say, we had absolutely no idea that our picture was being taken. I do remember seeing flashes on the wall, and wondering why they were attempting to blind us with them. I thought Disney was more wise than to attempt to cause seizures in its paying customers. Happiest Place on Earth... Geeze...

But on to today. This morning we went to Camelot. To Camelot! We loved saying this as we reminisced about the scene with the dancing knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Camelot, as the knights in the movie warn, is a silly place. It's your average arcade/pizza joint/mini golf wonderland. I've decided that the Nelson family needs to make sure not to gamble. 

We blow plenty of money on games at places where prizes are involved, like this one. I can't imagine how much that would be magnified if we were playing for money! Afterward we got some lunch at this pretty cool bakery and cafe. However, with the chill menu, free wifi access, softly playing cool jazz, and modern decor, the place seemed like it would probably be more fitting for the place to be in Seattle as opposed to Southern California. It was just too chill for Orange County! But the food was pretty darn good, so I didn't complain. We snagged some bagels for tomorrow's breakfast. I can't wait to wake up to those delicious things.

The next thing on our itinerary for the day was, well, to eat dinner. We had an appointment at five with a family from one of the wards we served down here. It was a pretty cool experience (sorry for sounding so cliché...) to see a family Steven actually taught. The elders from the ward were there too. I do love spending time with the missionaries. It makes me quite excited to get out there for myself. After dinner, Ben, Steven, and I went out and got some food to take to the missionaries' apartment. Upon delivering it we got to spend even more time with the missionaries. Steven was kinda in this zone that made it easy to see what he must have been like in the field. And that was today! Not really as flashy as Disneyland, but probably more eternally valuable. Tomorrow we're headed to the beach! I can't wait...

SoCal Day 4

Writing two posts in a day feels like doing work you don't really have to do, but not in a "I'm going the extra mile" type way. It's in the "this is completely worthless" way. Like writing a ten page paper when a five pager is due. It just doesn't make much sense! However I guess I'd better be diligent in my writings. I am quite afraid of hitting a huge writer's block when I get home. What am I supposed to write about? I already wrote about work, and that's pretty much all I do. Oh well. I'll figure it out later. No use worrying about it now!

So this morning started really slow. I delayed getting out of bed, as should happen on all vacations, and woke up really gradually. I enjoyed it. The family then decided we needed to get Steven a pair of shoes and my mom some fingernail clippers. I took the opportunity to find myself some new shoes, and came away with a pretty good pair. Although I noticed Ben smirking in the background as we checked out with our shoes, his hands empty. I think he had two words on his mind: "save up". Good thing I really liked my shoes. 

Afterward, we took our second jaunt to In-N-Out. It was delicious even the second time. Again my family seemed quite astonished about how quickly I wolfed down my double-double animal style. I attribute it to always eating in a hurry at work. I usually get a very brief break in which I can eat while on duty. I do realize the long list of health benefits to eating slowly, but I have a hard time doing it. However, I don't plan on competing in any eating contests...

We then set our coordinates for Disneyland a second time. Here we have a very, very interesting story to tell. Everyone knows about the felt Mickey Mouse hats, right?

 Well, Ben decided that he would like one, and would like if we put his nickname, Beans, on it. He tried yesterday, and a grumpy old seamstress quickly shot down his request. 

Evidently nicknames are banned from gracing the felt fuzziness of Mickey's dome. Ben was pretty crestfallen. We then quickly began devising a plan to get "Beans" on the back of a hat for him. We began doing this mostly in jest, just thinking if we could make a believable and workable plan. As the plans progressed, we resolved more and more to executing the plan. Benjamin Nelson quickly became Beanschløgen Nelson. Ben crafted his story, that his parents were a "bit strange" or even "tipsy" when they named him. He wove the tale that he went by a shortened version, Beans, pronounced bainsh, nothing like the legume. The name was an old Norse family name, and he didn't want to use it on his hat. He even had me as backup to come in and call him by his name if needed. I even recalled Nathan's Norwegian lesson, when he taught us how to say "Wishing a quick release without pain." We prayed the sewing attendant wasn't from anywhere near Norway. As we entered the park, we set the wheels in motion. Ben wheeled. Ben dealed.

 And Ben was ultimately shut down. Despite a near perfect delivery, the seamstress was too suspicious and called her manager for approval, who then pulled the plug. They required ID for such a strange name, and Beans had none. Even more crestfallen, Ben returned the hat and gave up. The funny part about returning it though is that Ben had to sign his name. He wouldn't go down as a liar, so he signed the receipt "Beanschløgen". What a man. The photo with Ben and the two women show Ben trying his best to get the hat of his dreams.

My dad, the tender-hearted man that he was, would not give up quite so easily. Not being asked to do so, my dad came up with his own plan. The following is the actual dialogue (or close to it) that took place with an attendant (at a different store, mind you). The scene is set, my dad with two pairs of Mickey Mouse ears in his hand.

"Good afternoon sir, how may I help you?"

"Well, I have kind of a funny favor to ask of you. My wife is a bit eccentric. This Christmas for our Christmas cards, she has requested that we all wear matching Mickey Mouse ears, and she wants our names embroidered on the back."

"Oh well that's not a problem at all."

"Well, she wants a set for the family dog too."

"Oh..."

"You know how this goes, your wife sending you to do things you don't really think is necessary, something you don't really want to do." (The attendant nodded understandingly.) 

"So what is the dog's name?"

"Well, you see, the dog's name is Beans."

"Oh... (at this point, this guy is very, very sold) What kind of dog is it?"

"It's a Saint Bernard." (My dad's wisdom shows through tons in this. Had he chosen a smaller breed, the attendant may have forced a smaller set of ears on him. Good job Dad, kudos to you.)

"Oh well sir, that really shouldn't be a problem. I think we can do this for you. It shouldn't be an issue." (Another attendant came over, and my dad replayed the story for her. She was less sold.)

"Sir, I really don't think we can do this for you. I just don't feel comfortable doing it. I'll have to call my manager and ask him if we can do it."

"Well then, m'am, forget about it. We won't do either pair, and I will just have to tell my wife you couldn't do it." (The male attendant jumped in.)

"Oh sir you don't need to do that. We can do this just fine. (He waves off the second attendant and she leaves.) I totally understand how wives just ask for crazy things. We here at the Disneyland resort feel we should treat every customer special. We can do this for you without a problem. You'll just have to promise me the ears with 'Beans' on them won't leave the bag until you're out of the park." 

My dad grinned ear to ear as he agreed to the deal. His smile didn't wear off until he had returned and recounted the story to the rest of us. Ben was as overjoyed as he was surprised. We all shared in a good belly full of laughter at the thought of "our Saint Bernard, Beans" wearing his Mickey hat.

That occurrence was one of the highlights of my day. Another was being able to ride a Segway. A five minute excursion on a Segway was one of the highlighting attractions at Innoventions, a huge rotating building dedicated to the "house of tomorrow". It was filled with a bunch of Microsoft junk. It seemed like a bunch of product placement, without much substance. After waiting in line for half an hour or so, Steven and I had the opportunity to ride one of those mind-boggling suckers. Since I saw their debut on the Today show a few years back, I've aspired to riding one. Today my dream was fulfilled.

This is an incredibly intense video filled with thrills, spills, and five-mile-per-hour fun! Actually, it's probably deathly boring. I don't blame you if you stop watching after a few seconds. And sorry about it being sideways and all. I'm sure as I gain more Blogger experience points I'll be able to flip it over if I so please. But there you have it! My voyage on a Segway. Quite exciting. Especially considering the flaming attendant guy was always like two feet away.

Afterward, we headed over to ride California Screamin', Disneyland's most intense roller coaster (if you don't count "It's a Small World After All"). However, Ben, Steven, and I have all ridden it before, so the intensity level was kicked down several notches. Which explains why we

had the mental fortitude to pull faces like the ones in the picture instead of being photographed either looking stupid or scared out of our wits. I prefer being more aware of the photo as we were. Either way, we had a bunch of fun on the ride. However, Ben looks like he's crying and I look as if I am trying to lick my nose. Steven looks like he's younger than Ben. We finished off the day with a tour of one of Steven's areas, complete with a tour of a neighborhood he tracted. It was pretty stinking interesting thinking he had knocked on the doors of those complete strangers to share something so personal and sacred as the Gospel message. I'm proud of him. The family followed that up with a trip to a local eatery where we were also able to take in the "breathtaking drama" that is always saved for baseball's meaningless All-Star Game. Luckily for the employees of the restaurant, we jetted when the score was tied after the ninth. We made it home in plenty of time to catch the very end of the game. Since the AL won again, the game has a bit more meaning. Had the NL won, I would staunchly denounce it as completely meaningless. J.D. Drew's MVP award helped boost it into being only sort of meaningless. Go Boston! It made me pretty excited to see the Sox play the Angels here in Anaheim (or L.A., no one in the world seems too sure which city they're from) on Friday. I made sure to pack my BoSox cap. I'm just hoping there aren't any diehard gang-banging Angels fans sitting too near us. I love the Red Sox, but I just don't know if I'm willing to give my life for them at this point. Do I need to try harder in my love for them? Who knows. All I know is it's bedtime for me.