Random Journal Entry

On Friday night we drove up to Park City and ate at a fantastic Asian restaurant called Wahso, for only $60 each counting tip. Then we stayed in a very nice resort, watched the old Frank Capra flick "It Happened One Night," and enjoyed some cuddling, despite a six-month-pregnant belly (hers, not mine. I'm only about four months along). The next morning we sat through a damn two-hour timeshare presentation and said no to the nice Southern saleswoman.

Then I had to read hellish student paper drafts, but I also got to read part of my grandpa's very cool autobiography, which he's writing from the point of view of his deceased wife. In one paragraph, he discloses that they called each other's genitalia Frankie and Johnny, after a song popular early in their marriage. And their code word for sex was "looking at the ceiling." So yes, even old people once had fun love lives. I now say to my wife, "Honey, any chance you'd be willing to look at the ceiling tonight?"

On Sunday morning, I went to the church at freaking 7:00 a.m. for a stake audit, which consisted of a really old guy pawing through our tithing deposit receipts with shaky fingers. I got home ten minutes before church started, and I decided to stay home and sleep. However, I had to get back to the church by noon to input the day's donations into the computer, but it was a light day, only about $5,000 bucks total and no coins. Last week, we had over $5,000 in cash alone, which freaked us out. If you're into robbing churches, you missed your best chance ever. Last fast Sunday, total donations were about $60,000 for the day, with lots of Hurricane Katrina donations.

On Tuesday morning when I was doing the treadmill, I received inspiration about where to put our Christmas tree this year. Instead of moving around all the furniture in the living room, there's a perfect corner in our family room. I don't usually give a hoot about the Christmas stuff and don't help my wife except with handling the big storage boxes, but she's got a baby due on Christmas Eve, so I'm looking for ways to help her not overdo. Plus, we're low on funds. (Christmas is one of those areas that I just tend to mostly block out of my mind, like sports, poetry, politics, and TV.)

Things I've been enjoying recently: peanut butter on whole-wheat Ritz; sleeping with the window open; a can of Sharp's malt beverage at night; my digital music; hearing our one-year-old start to talk and do other cute things; seeing our six-year-old lose teeth and start learning to read; having the house vacuumed and dishes done by the sitter most mornings; my car starting with no problems anymore, since I spent $200 to replace the starter after more than a year of spotty performance; watching old Simpsons episodes before I sell off the DVDs on Half.com; reading David Copperfield; typing my novel, when I'm on a part that seems to be working well; looking forward to upcoming trips to Southern California and New York City.

Things I haven't been enjoying recently: dealing with my ex-wife; worrying about my two kids she's ruining with her poor parenting skills; my legs hurting most of the time when I sit at the computer (getting up and stretching helps, but I keep putting it off); the bugs eating our front lawn; my habit of plucking my beard; teaching freshman English; worrying about finances, especially what will happen in January when several situations will make our money quite a bit tighter (Ann stops getting BYU money, we have to pay more child support, and we'll probably have to increase our withholding to meet tax obligations, depending on what this year's tax bill looks like); signs of hearing loss; not being able to get to bed until midnight, when I should be going down at 10:45 to get enough sleep and not feel tired during the day; some fleeting sinus-type symptoms, including headache, nasal drainage, bad taste in mouth; wondering if I'm ever going to actually get on a career track that I feel excited and passionate about.