Utah has proven interesting for sure. I think I can appreciate the excellent public transportation system, and a new and way cool job. Yes, it's another mexican grill. Ha.
Also, I found a great place to live. Details and pictures to come.

Stranded

Okay, so the car died. I am not happy about this, considering the fact that I needed to be at my new job an hour ago in Utah. Where am I, you ask? Wyoming. Cheyanne.
Pluses to this predicament:

• A cool bishop who took us in, who is letting us use his truck, sleep in his house, is feeding us, and is totally personable.
• Cheyanne is a small town. I really like it here. Who knows, I might come back.
• I am rather ill, and this is giving me much needed rest time.
• Reyna gets to help with the bishop's twin 4 month old boys.
• Mormons are everywhere.
• The tow truck guy only charged us $75 dollars for like, 15 miles. Way cool guy.

Yes, I am ready to go. But things could be a whole lot worse.

Road Trippin'

It sure wasn't easy to say goodbye to home after only being there for 2 months since finishing the mission, but leaving is the right thing to do, at least for now. It has been nice being with my family, that's for sure... But, the road rose up like a welcome mat, once we did leave.
So this time I really am trippin'. Ha. It's been really cool to see so much that I've never seen before, such as the great Mississippi River, or the Arch, or other such nifty things. My sister has proven a good travel companion, as well.
I do get a kick and some reassurance of Mom calling every few hours to check on us. And of course, it was great to see Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Allie and the boys. Too bad Kevin couldn't come up from Signal Mountain....
The best thing that's occured is the minimal amount of gas we've had to put in the car... :)
One thing, however, I can do without is construction zones. I really dislike how they put those concrete barriers so close to the edge of your lane...

More on the trip later, pics to come.

Barf

So after work this morning, I went to see some old friends who live in the area where I work. We had a nice little conversation, etc.
Then the dog puked. At that point, I decided it was time for me to go.

That's all.

Tired

So I've been thinking. I am tired... why is it that adult life consists of us continuously being tired, ready to fall asleep? In the morning, I'm tired. In the afternoon, I'm tired, and in the evening, I'm tired. Then 9pm hits, and all of the sudden I am wired.

Why is this?

Vintage is better

So I got a bit of flack tonight from my "older" chick friends. Umm... when I say older I mean it in a very relative term. It simply means you are older than me. I'm not saying that any of them are "old" as I have heard some so rudely put it. But it does mean that I am younger and less experienced in life.
So props to all of my chick friends for being there for me when I need them. I named names in my last blog, so no need here.

That is all.

Families under attack from Pornography

Tuesday night, for our Institute lesson, Brother Patrick taught us from Joseph Smith's history about Moroni's angelic visits to Joseph Smith. It was awesome. He focused in on the prophecy that Moroni quoted to Joseph, about the hearts of the children being turned to the hearts of the father, with the focus on the Restoration of the sealing power. He then took this and focused on eternal families, and how they are strongly under attack.
He then told us how the Church Educational System is changing their mission statement to include families and our how our focus as young people should be toward making that leap of faith and starting a family and making education a means to this, and not having education take presidence over this. At this point, Bro Patrick played for us a clip from an address given earlier in the day by Sister Julie B Beck, Relief Society General President.
Sister Beck said several amazing things, encouraging us to have faith and get married, to make an effort to be family minded. She encouraged us to live in the real world, and not just the tech world, to apply real people skills and not spend all our time texting.
What was said next blew me out of the water. She mentioned that young women are now the new target for pornography. Wait, what? I thought that porn was something only guys did, usually by themselves. I was slightly disturbed.
Then I got to thinking: Men in general have been desensitized by pornography. Many are addicted. However, it is ruining marriages, families, etc., and certainly women had to have been getting sick of it, because it creates false expectations about relationships, human behavior in general, not to mention sexuality, and dims and narrows men's view on life as well as the respect for and the way they relate to women.
If the pornographers are recognizing this, and I daresay they have even anticipated it, they would need to get women to "see" things the way they do. Thus, young women are the new target for this to continue making this evil market a multi-billion dollar a year industry.

Does anyone see a correlation here, with the almost sudden disintegration of the family? I sure do, and I know it's not going to end here. It's no wonder that the prophets, with their vision and Heavenly connection, have been warning us to stay away from this.
And yet, the world continues to embrace this moral decline. They run everywhere, lamenting that life is falling apart, and yet they don't start the place any logical person would know to begin a change: themselves.

Bitterness

Have you ever had someone you loved? This was many years ago... yet is still sticks with me, all the memories. We were teenagers, we were bffs in a boy/girl kinda way. I was her protector, she was my sanity.
We had some fights, disagreements, and some rough times and some great times. We kept the standards, and still dated other people. I went over as soon as I got my braces off when I was 16 to show her. "Wow, ya got no teeth!" she said. I still laugh about that.
We did Prom, Homecoming, even my first date. And yet, I have learned that my sister is right, yet again.
You see, after we finished high school, she moved to Utah to go to school. Okay, this is not uncommon. Contact began to wane, and then I went on a mission, so it pretty much stopped completely.
She got engaged. Okay, so what? I've moved on with my life. I was planning on marrying someone else even before I left to go serve.

But when I was at someone's house last evening, and saw the announcement on their fridge, I was just a little bitter. I didn't say anything, and I have only spoken about it to my family. But this one is going to take a while to get over. Not because I "still love her", or can't "get over her", or anything like that, but she didn't even have the decency to send so much as an announcement.
Am I incorrect in this? Or is this okay?
Tell me what you think.

Older Women

People have been asking: "Hey Dennis, what' up with you always hanging out with the older girls in the (singles) branch?" Allow me to give you my reasoning:

• They are easier to talk to.
  
• They have more experience in life.
  
• I don't have any older siblings... these two up here serve in that capacity, giving me perspective on the dating world, what's cool and what's not.
• You can go to the temple with (most) of the older LDS girls and spend some good quality time strengthening your friendship, and again, get that more experienced perspective on things.
  
• They know when a girl who is acting like she likes you is being fake.
• They can help you through... delicate ... situation.

Thus, here's to Katrina, Evalis, Tiffaney, Melissa, Suzanne, Bridgette, and all the rest of the awesome singles girls. Thanks for helping me keep it real.

• Oh and one more reason: They are freakin' fun to dance with.