I will look back...

I must say the last six plus months and the last two years have been such a unique experience for me.  Years from now, I know I will look back keenly and fondly on experiences I've had in the last two years.

(in no particular order)

I have:

• learned the cost of generosity; it is always worth it 
• seen my love grow for my grandparents, Jay, Odessa, June, and George
• listened to and love Gnarls Barkley, Muse, Radiohead, James Blunt, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, and Mika
• rediscovered my friendship with my father
• redefined my priorities a number of times - I continue to learn what's really important
• lost my gentle, loving, magic-performing grandfather, George
• made many many friends
• put 40k miles on my car in one year and five months
• fought off the girls with a stick "Why do girls have to like me?" Mom got a kick out of this highschool statement
• likewise been fought off by a stick!
• seen "The Office" rise and decline in humor and appeal
• had some great times and laughs with Nathan, Megan, Andres, Graham, Erika, Lori, John, and David 
• wish I had more time for the piano and vocal instruction
• believe that walls can be taken down in as simple a manner as Jericho - faith
• had the opportunity to teach elders quorum a number of times
• been stopped by police or highway patrol 6 times resulting in 4 tickets
• own a Dwight Schrute bobblehead
• travelled with Jochen, Marianne and Henni in Europe and saw them again a year later 
• missed my out-of-state brother Cardin and sister Brynn
• thoroughly enjoyed my golf outings with Jordan, Jared, Darin, and Tyler
• been to California twice - my second home state
• thought of my good friends - the Skoczylis family - often
• love all that I get for only 10%
• learned how to dance in public and private with little reservation 
• made a handful of over-nighters to Crystal Hot Springs
• not spent enough time outside besides soccer games
• learned the positive and negative impacts of music
• learned balance in many things
• "Why, because we're both handsome?" 
• all the fun and clever times with Jordan B., Brian, JD, Dustin, Jordan Y., Scott, and gang and wives.  "We are kind of a big deal." 
• love the wisdom I will always receive from my father
• spent my 2008 summer at Lagoon with my friends
• received a German National jersey signed by the national team from my work manager
• been able to spend time with Andy, Tiger and the girls twice in the last three years.
• been stressed to the max like never before for 12 months over last year in college
• reacquainted myself ever so fondly with Nirvana MTV unplugged
• gave up dating my last semester of college
• knocked doors for window washing customers
• fought, yelled, and cried with others and alone
• discovered Snow Basin
• dreamed of Germany for 3 1/2 years
• sang one botched, but still pretty, solo in church (it was bad, hilarious, and pretty all at the same time!)
• rediscovered oldie Erasure, Depeche Mode, Billy Joel, They Might Be Giants, Live, and U2
• come to understand my Heavenly Father a little better very slowly
• increased my gratitude and understanding of my brother and savior, Jesus Christ
• spent too much money at Bajios
  
• finally recognized that I love the emerging spring as much as I have always loved the fall
• lost my breath at the sight of Switzerland's beauty
• gained 6 new nephews and nieces; B. E. M. N. M. B. (Maci included)
  
• said goodbye to my mother for a short time and gained a stronger family
• seen my fascination for economics continue to grow
• grown closer to many elders as I served more than 2 years in the elders quorums
• randomly asked out 6 girls that have caught my eye (and have 2 more in the works)
• graduated in Bus. Economics and learned so much.  I made great friends with Dr. Nowell
• grown closer to all my siblings
• have always wanted to get an MBA
• was able to help Dave and Mandolin renovate their new home - we had a blast
• discovered Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.
• become great friends with my cousins at 374
• miraculously walked away from a completely horrific car accident in which my car was totaled.  I thank Him and His angels for that. 
• purchased my dream car - 2003 Acura 3.2 TL.  It's a beautiful romance really
• paid for my own schooling (and still am)
• gave a killer senior thesis presentation and will be published
• been blessed with two new families - 374 and 1510
• 4 new fantastic mothers - Mandolin, Kristen, Tammy and Nadine
• bought a MacBook Pro. Money does bring happiness.  Money buys the mac, mac brings happiness
• found my voice
• always loved to learn a new word - gregarious, scintillating, docile, quixotic, etc.
• thrived on hosting holiday and "The Office" friend parties
• set course for a brilliant career in investing
• learned better who I am
• discovered some fabulous music and great movies
• was forced to leave my beloved soccer field after only 15 minutes due to my wretched mono and for the following 6 months.  It was perhaps one of my saddest moments ever
• was infected with mono and West Nile virus - quite a nasty combination - nerve pain + exhaustion
• served
• run
• confronted
• loved
• played soccer and ran in the pouring rain and mud
• felt the child in me again as I saw the bright orange-yellow side dump trucks while driving to work 
• learned teasing my nephews, Harris and Brigden, has its limits. I treat them much more kindly now.  My nephews and nieces are some of my best friends
• made great friends with Kevin and Shannon and love them
• switched rooms multiple times at 1403 Cville while renovating
• broke in my bedroom door
• shoveled many walks - I love doing the walks
• become great friends with Dodger
• left my car running while I went into work
• consider myself a swimmer although I haven't swam in a year
• learned some amazing principles impressively unfolded by C.S. Lewis
• read Thomas Mann's Tonio Kröger a number of times
• am no longer ashamed of liking, no, loving children's movies
• learned that only so much is in our control
• cherish my mother's example in all things (except the whole "rotten day" mumbo jumbo)

"God grant me the serenity to 

  accept the things I cannot change;

  courage to change the things I can;

  and wisdom to know the difference."

I am a product of my choices and all that surrounds me.

Devourer and Thief of Goodness - Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am a devourer of chocolate chip cookies and not the least bit bashful about it.  Yet you might have never known it.  My obsession remains largely secret.  When it comes to my delicious chocolate baked friend I have no reservations and throw all rules out the window - socially and morally.  I have no shame in exceeding the amount deemed socially appropriate.  Where this might invite comparisons to the cookie monster, such a comparison would only discover our shared like of cookies.  Much more important is my method of acquiring many of my good chocolate chip friend.  A more accurate comparison might reference Mr. Hamburglar and his intrepid yet surreptitious method in acquiring plentiful amounts of his senses-dulling delicatessen - cheeseburgers.  At any type of potluck (be it missionary hello's and bye's, ward functions, friend bbq's, or work parties), one moment the best cookie will be just hanging out, looking pretty and then suddenly the next moment this blue ribbon cookie and 7 of his cronies will be MIA! (two on my plate, three neatly wrapped in a napkin below my plate, and three again neatly wrapped in a napkin in my pockets!)

I consider this a skill - that is, my ability to first spot the tastiest cookie and then secondly to capitalize and secretly bring as many of these cookies as possible into my possession.  A delectable, scrumptious cookie for me is as good as money in the bank.  Nor does it matter whether I eat them all or not (although I usually do); saving them for a snack later isn't difficult at all.  You didn't get one, you say.... oh that's too bad.  I will still conceal the three I have in my pockets!  Although I would much rather plot and execute highly sophisticated heists (be it banks, auto boosting, the annoying cat next door, etc.) such a quiet plunder of seizing the tastiest chocolate chip cookie without being detected feeds my need for mischief.  As for the cookies that aren't so tasty, don't be offended when I replace the partially bitten cookie back on its platter.  It was a crappy cookie and everyone behind me would soon learn that anyway - let's just speed up the line of communication and spare them the mouthful.  I see it as me doing them a favor.  If it's no good for your cookie conniving nephew, (step) son, brother, cousin, Collin, then it's no good for anyone.  

So the next time you see me exiting the food line with plate in hand you may want to check my pockets, I just snagged Noah's and little Will-will's share of the cookies!

Stay Classy Planet Earth!

Pieces

A few experiences:

On facebook I recently came across a person by the name of Jane Ulrich Schroeder. 

How would that be - to trade your ugly german maiden-name for an even uglier german name?!

I like Bell, nice and simple.  My wife won't ever be able to fully express her thanks to me.  It'll be a compliment enough that she marries me.

__

So I mentioned I think I'm going to fly with Lufthansa two posts ago.  I think I'm reconsidering.  I'm thinking about Delta.

__

The Office - 

Mr. Prince: I started our paper office when I returned from Vietnam.

Michael Scarn (Scott): Vietnam? I hear it's nice over there.

__

Cashiers

I thoroughly enjoy observing people, particularly when they either 1) struggle in trivial matters or 2) reveal their unique idiosyncracies.  I believe I inherited a portion of this from my button-pushing and chain-pulling mother.  The remaining portion I derive simply from my boyhood and exertion of power over nieces and nephews.  

This one's simple, but it's amazing how some people lack absolute self-awareness.  The breed of cashiers at Primary Children's Rainbow Cafeteria is different from the standard gas station cashiers and even your local grocer's cashiers.  Suffice it to say that they're different.  Just the other day, after ordering my grilled chicken ranch sandwich and potato cheese munchers (a tasty cheesy cousin to the tatertot) from the grill and picking up my two milks and my absolutely delicious coconut, chocolate chip, macadamia nut cookie I proceeded to the cashier.  Now, these cashiers take their job seriously.  It is imperative that all actions be executed according to their training received from the unique higher-upper cashier coworker.  Sometimes you will be overcharged for something simply not on your tray in fear of not accounting for everything there.  Sometimes, you pay a dollar or two less.  "It all comes out even in the end," seems to be their policy.  As I waited behind the kind sir in front of me I noticed his total came to $5.48.  He handed the cashier a $10 bill.  She retrieved his change from her drawer.  First came four $1 bills.  She handed them to him.  Then came two quarters, but after dipping into the penny compartment she realized there were none for her to slide out.  So she reached for one of the few penny wraps in the drawer while grasping the two quarters.  With that finesse that the who's who of cashiers possess, she smacked that penny wrap on the metal rim of that drawer.  Too much finesse, not enough power.  It didn't pop as it normally does.  Her finesse failed her this time. ( 2 seconds )  She hit it again. ( 1 second ) A penny shone its pretty little copper face through a very micro rip.  Its eyes squinted from the brightness of the intruding light.  She hit it again.  Not much change.  She hit it again. (2 seconds) It began to slowly reveal its structural weakness.  She hit it again 3 more times. ( 3 seconds ) It came to a deadlock; that wrap wasn't going to break and neither was she! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! ( 5 seconds ) BANG! BANG! BANG! (2 seconds ) - Meanwhile, the line is rather bustling and rapidly increasing in hungry patrons taunted by the food staring at them on their trays and we wait. . . . . BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! At this point you would have figured she would have reached for some scissors.  Oh, no, she remained focused, zeroed-in, head down with blinders and powered on through! BANG! BANG! BANG! The torture of the penny wrap must have lasted seriously just short of a minute.  I just relived it in my mind right now while I timed it on my iPod stopwatch and it must have been about 47 seconds. I'm tempted to embellish this fact and say it was 48 seconds, but that wouldn't be honest.  47 REAL SECONDS!  47 seconds in real time is forever.  Sit there now, and create the noise of a coin wrap recklessly being smashed against a cash drawer. Told ya, forever.  About 20 seconds into this mess I start to crack a smile and with every five seconds my smile grew larger until lastly becoming an audible constrained yet bursting laugh.  Now if her sheer persistence isn't enough to break you wait for the final element.  You see the whole funny part was the bloody penny jar sitting on top of the drawer.  At second 33 I looked down at these fifteen pennies and they were all laughing hysterically with outreached, defined, muscly copper shining arms and pointing their fingers at her while their chest and shoulders violently oscillated!  Their outcry only then fueled my incipient chuckle at which point she broke it open with quite an unfulfilling plop.  However, then she couldn't break any of the pennies free from the halves!  She finally managed to grasp two pennies, which she handed to the kind, patient (and dumb) man. (two pennies?!?)  I advanced to the front of the line at which point I quickly replaced my $10 bill into my wallet and handed her my debit card.

Stay Class Internet.

Almost forgot.

Start Radiohead tribute band.

stay clas 

Graduated. Fer rils!

I have now become the professional student and perfected this skill only for it to become mostly obsolete, similar to mostly dead, but not all dead, to wit, not all obsolete.  You see, life is less make-believe now.  (Sad admission, I know) No more fake deadlines, just real ones, that count! Obtaining an education at Weber was fantastic! I had excellent professors (not perfect) but quite sound if I may say.  Fortunately, despite my last semester being my most involved and hectic and with only 9 credit hours (three classes) I was greatly blessed to join the Corey and Kristen Bell clan for the semester and time being.  All benefits and no drawbacks!  I mean we're talking smoothies and egg muffin sandwiches that dwarf McD's McMuffins in quality and love, exquisite Sunday dinners and the list continues as we all can attest to after a homecoming and farewell recently.  After three years, I can rest easy Sunday evenings knowing homework is for silly silly students, which I am not.  All I have to worry about now is getting to work not too late, 10 or 10:30 a.m., and dodging those TPS reports!  Michael Bolton really is the man.

Plans? Yes. To plan. Basic, I know, but you have to start somewhere, right.

Thoughts? Life coach, definitely.  I've made it this far, who's to say I can't help another sap con his way along the paths of education and ladies.  Because really that's all we males care about is ladies and learning. The double L's. Really, though. No, you're right. I'm not totally being straightforward with you.  It's actually LLM. Ladies, learning and mentoring (Money's important too). Perhaps I might suggest 2L2M or we could call it L^2M^2. Whichever you prefer.

Fer rils: Girlfriend. Breakup. Europe-Germany/Switzerland/Italy. Fly back with Lufthansa. Get back together with girlfriend (maybe, we'll see, no promises). Begin career and training.  Simultaneously begin Life Coaching as consultant (drawing wisdom from Dwight K. Schrute and Buddy the Elf, especially. He has a knack for honesty and sticking to the primary colors). Experiment with Coca-cola and Mentos in the summer.  Convince 250 families to invest their life savings with this good looking, cultured, intelligent 25 year-old stockbroker.  Ask beautiful girl to marry me.  Get iPhone Nano after advising Steve in the benefits of producing a second version of the iPhone. It's cost benefit analysis, simple. And then somewhere in there I'm going to write a book.  A good one.  It can't be bad, but like a real good read, like one of those books you loved reading as a class in sixth grade. For me it was A Wrinkle in Time. Who knows, that might just send me on my way to write a second book.  To sum up the next year I will top it off with buying a new pair of soccer boots and earning 25K, 3k than I make now! I'm totally going to bed. (Just a reminder, no expectations, just like HotRod.  "You have only to believe if you wish to achieve.")

I'm Z. Casanova. Have a good night.

Stay Classy Internet   

Dankbar? Ja!

Ich danke Gott und dem Herrn für die verschiedene Segnungen die sie auf mich aufgeschüttelt haben.  Obwohl ich meine Mutti sehr vermisse, ich weiss daß sie mir noch nah ist. Der Welt Meinung nach sei sie gestorben.  Stimmt aber nicht.  Sie lebt.  Jenseits ist nicht so weit.  Ich spüre ihr Beisein.  Ich errinere mich ganz genau.  Diesen Sommer bin ich einen langen Gang in Primary Children´s gelaufen.  Es war abends, ungefähr 17:00 uhr. Als ich dem Gang entlang gelaufen bin, wusste ich daß sie bei mir war.  Was für ein besonderes Erlebnis.  Die Stille im Gang herrschte.  Noch keine war im Gang in dem Moment.  Nur ich, die Stille, und Karen.  Ruhe ist mir herübergekommen und was normalerweise dreißig Sekunden dauert den ganzen Gang zu laufen fühlte es sich wie die schönste Minute ohne Sorgen und Kummer.  Ich war warm.  Sie ermutigte mich durch ihr Wesen und besondere Gefühle.  Gefühle, die Mut, Zuversicht, und Liebe entsprach.  Das Erlebnis koste ich aus. Ich errinere wie hervorragend eine Mutter sie war.  Sie machte so viel Spaß.  Kaum gab es einen ausdrucklosen Moment mit ihr.  Ich danke dem Herrn für die 21 Jahre worin ich sie kennen dürfte.  Ich bin auch für meinen Vater dankbar; der mir ein guter Freund ist. Mein Leben ist wirklich spitze! 

Let's just deflate expectations right from the get-go. Great!

This would be my first post on my very first blog ever in this life, I think.

To be concise: I knew a man, once. He told me a wise tale of a younger boy, who had destroyed his life multiplying words and using the swift inertia of his charm to sway the lady folk and exploit other economical avenues.  The problem lie not with meaning well with the ladies and making profitable business, but rather the disingenuous approach.  He threw light on the fact that in and of itself, a Casanova, is nothing inherently verpoent (as my yiddish German friends would use) about a Casanova, that is, looked down upon.  Yet, there lies a forceful tide in succumbing to the frailties of what a Casanova is often perceived to be; a schmooser seeking his spoil. He continued to enlighten me.  He told me that despite a Casanova's ostensible nature to lack sure footing (allegedly manifest by his ineptness at life navigation; what he wants, is, sees, and feels), it is a Casanova's charge to be noble and upright; a constant to a changing society.  "So let the spoils come!," I cried as I quickly rocketed to my feet with arm, hand, and finger outstretched and pointed to the sky to discover the old the man's (don't forget, who knew a boy) disdain.  He harshly rebuked me for my sudden and brisk faltering.  I apparently didn't catch the connection in him telling me this is not what a Casanova is...... the Aston Martin will have to wait. This man, who knew a boy, who shared this invaluable pure morsel of truth with me, motivated me to keep chalk on my heels and keenly observe from a distance and become almost forgotten to then rush in, still maintaining class and respect, at the opportune moment for the attack and victory. Sieg!  He blacked out from drunkenness before he could tell me much more. Those two minutes outside the pizzeria, however, set me on a new course.  I've always waited for one of those, "This moment changed my life" experiences. You know, the kind you hear all the time about a soldier being in the trenches and his desperate prayers, or a single mother struggling to pay the rent.  Well, I just got mine, and I'm totally taking this one to the bank!  So again, to be concise: This ongoing tally of deliberations, thoughts, experiences, lady troubles, and airing of dirty laundry (a blog) will attempt to quash such ridiculous telltale connotations of a Casanova and his temptations to multiply words and manipulate. For they simply do not characterize a true Casanova.  I really am taking this one to the bank.  You better believe it.  I almost forgot to mention that it will  surely fail, undoubtedly. So, cheers!

(52 minutes to compose, 43 minutes wasted, and 36 of which I will never get back, really)

Stay classy internet.

Okay, so I bloody thought Facebook was time consuming!  Goodness, after a Facebook splurge, I have at least broadened my social scope to explore the happenings of much cooler people.  Blogging has only just helped me zero in on the witlessness and dopiness of my bland life.  Too deep, I will post in a month and good night.

(8 additional minutes to compose, 8 minutes wasted, and 9 of which I will never get back - click