Signs of the Times, Issue No. 222 - 08/21/22

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Greetings to one and all. My name is Aaron and this is my blog. Welcome. Welcome, everyone. So... let's just say that I was trying to get a jump on the blog by writing a few segments last night after my family got home from the Salt Lake Bees game, so I was up a bit later than usual and... well... I may or may not have heard my alarm going off this morning. Um... At least I got a little bit more sleep than my co-workers, right? And, the way this week will wind up, I'm probably going to need all the extra sleep I can get. Lots and lots to discuss today!: Big trip prep, what could potentially be my best week of social media ever, singles ward socializing, A-Town's day on the town and the resulting confidence steroids, and one moment that nearly brought this blogger to tears. On we go!

Well, I'm headed to Texas for my big adventure tomorrow! I'm very excited for my trip. I've got most of the time planned out and I think I am going to have a lot of fun. Some of the things I will be doing include a day at Six Flags Over Texas with my friend Julie, a tour of both Cowboys Stadium and the Ballpark at Arlington, followed by a Texas Rangers game that same night (with fireworks!), a historical tour of the JFK assassination site, and, probably, a drive to the border of Oklahoma for some swimming with my young cousins. I'll also be attending a Texas singles ward on Sunday, if everything goes according to the plan. We'll see what they think of the Utah boy. Of course, that won't be all! There will be a lot more to do and a lot more time to fill, so I'm excited to see what happens. I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.

FREEDOM!!!

There's something else I'd like to do on this trip. I'd like to try to meet a bunch of people and make friends "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"-style. Now, that probably means nothing to any of you because none of you saw that movie. (I saw it in the dollar theater and kind of wanted my dollar back by the end. It was depressing.) But in that movie, the little depressed, loner boy goes around and talks to a bunch of people and takes pictures with all of them so that he can remember them. Throughout the movie, he finds that each person he meets has an incredible story to tell. I've never met anyone at an airport or on a flight, but then again, I've never flown alone. Should be an interesting experience - and I'm sure that if I don't initiate the conversation, others will have no problem doing that for me. I'm going to keep a list of people I meet. Hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell in next week's Newsletter. Oh, and you better believe that I'll be making an A-Town Webisode out of my, shall we say, "Texploits."

Would you like to guest star on my Webisode?

This week would be a very good week to follow me on Instagram and Foursquare. I really don't take that many pictures for Instagram, other than to show what socks I'm wearing on a particular day, and I'm not that artsy to begin with, but if you want to see some cool Texas stuff, go find me (@atownmania). Once upon a time in a past Issue, I made fun of Foursquare because I thought it was weird. I still think it's a little weird. I've been using it for a bit, anyway, mostly because it helps track where I've been (22 weeks in a row at the gym, babies!!) and it makes me feel like I actually DO get out of the house every once in a while. A week with a low number of check-ins must have been a really good week for Rock Band. (Set a new high score last week by hitting 111 total check-in points. Woo.) Though I highly discourage you from going out of your way to find out where I am all the time, if any of you are interested in knowing what I'm doing in Texas, feel free to, um, check in on me in the next few days.

You know it.

So I went to church this week. This new girl moved into the ward. She was kind of attractive, shall we say, but what really got me interested in talking to her was that she said she is a seminary teacher. Nothing creepy. I just wanted to talk to her about seminary since I was looking into doing that, as well. I went up to introduce myself to her before the last meeting and said, "I'd like to talk to you later." She responded, "No, I don't think so." I'm pretty positive she just misunderstood what I said to her, but, let's be honest - that's probably not the first time a girl has said that to me. (Joking, Mom.)

Trying to meet people has been hard for me ever since I moved back home from Snow College to go to the University of Utah back in 2009. I'm not entirely sure what it is. Maybe the people up here in Salt Lake just aren't very friendly (I think that's actually most of the problem), maybe it's something that's wrong with me, who knows?? At one point or another, all the rejection and frustration of dating - and the subsequent weekends home alone playing one-person "Rock Band" - start taking a toll on the confidence levels of a young(ish) bachelor like myself. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not depressed and I'm not anti-social, either. I just don't have a lot of close friends that are still either single, living in Salt Lake County, or both. So that's rough. It's all about perspective, though, isn't it? And isn't that what this blog is all about? I've always said that when bad things happen, you can either cry about it or you can laugh your head off. I choose to laugh. With all things considered, you know what? I don't think there's anything wrong with me at all. It's been a good week for me for a few different reasons. Allow me to elaborate:

My brother, Austin, and his wife, Lex, went on a little mini-vacation to Park City last week. They kept telling me to go up with them one day when I had a day off and I reluctantly told them I'd go, though deep down inside I really don't mind my days off, which generally consist of going to the gym, grocery shopping, a movie or some TV, some one-player "Rock Band," and the occasional night of "rescue visits" with the ward. I ended up going up with my sister, Amy, and, if we're being honest with ourselves, which - let's face it - we are, it was one of the best days I've had in a long, long time. We headed up there in only about 35 or 40 minutes, which was much less time than I thought it would take, so that was nice for me and my gas tank. We met up with Austin and Lex and headed over to the outlet mall to do some back-to-school shopping for the newlyweds (can I still call them that?). I suppose it was back-to-school shopping for Amy, too. Me? I'm headed back to the School of Hard Knocks and, well, I very rarely go out and update my wardrobe, which is apparently offensive to some people, so I picked up a couple things, too. Got a couple new polo shirts, a long-overdue pair of new shoes, a could fancy new hats (2-for-1? Oh heck yeah!), and, well, let's just say that I dropped like a buck-twenty in the LIDS sports store. (When I saw that retro Mariners track jacket, I knew I had to have it... and the price? Even better than I ever could have imagined! It was beautiful. Too bad I can't wear it for like two months until the heat dies down.) Throw in a few new pairs of argyle socks (am I right or am I right, Instagrammers??) and a new pair of pants and I felt like I was on dang Extreme Makeover A-Town Edition or something. It was... um... kind of nice, actually. After the shopping, we went back to Austin and Lex's fancy hotel to swim (which eventually resulted in me getting what I guess they call "swimmer's ear," causing me to be partially deaf in my left ear to this very day), we spent a few minutes in the sauna (my first time - I felt like I was suffocating), we hot tubbed outside their room for a bit, grabbed a bite to eat, and played some crazy board game, which, it is of note to mention, that I dominated. After all of that, Amy and I got home about three and a half hours later than we had planned on and, throughout the entire day at work the following day, I just wanted to go back to my new favorite city in Utah. Ah, it was a beautiful day, as my Facebook photo album can attest.

Ballers.

I've found a way to fill the giant void in my life created by the end of the stake softball season. I've decided to fill that void with........ more softball! I went to the store the other day and got a really good deal on a new baseball bat called "THE HAMMER" and I picked up some softballs and I've decided that I want to continue to play! On Friday night, Austin, Lex, Cody, and I, along with high school buddy Scott Aylett, headed over to a local stake center and played Home Run Derby. It was a blast! And, let me tell you this: THE HAMMER is incredible! I haven't hit like that in a long, long time. Ah, it was glorious. I'd like to play again a few times before the weather gets colder. If you're interested in a little HR Derby action, let me know and we'll play when I get back.

One of the great things about last Friday was that I realized that I don't need a million friends to hang out with me all the time to realize that I'm not a loser. One of the most difficult things for me in the past few years (mostly since transferring to the U has been that A) I rarely get invited to do anything and B) when I try to invite others to do things with me, I rarely have success. On Friday night, I was only with my siblings, basically, and one other friend, but we all had a great time. Perhaps I should spend less time worrying about how nobody ever wants to have fun with me and spend more time worrying about having fun, period. I think that, instead of waiting around for others to join the party, maybe I should just continue to do fun and exciting things and post lots of pictures to Facebook. Joking. Kind of. But if the other option is sitting around and moping that all my friends are married and haven't initiated a conversation with me in years, I think I'll just keep doing what I've been doing lately. There's always a standing invitation for anybody to come hang out with me (well, almost anyone, I should say... stalkers...), so if you ever want to get out of the house, let me know and... I'll see if I can pencil you in. [That, my friends, is what you call Leaving the Door Open.]

I've been revamping my resume lately. I had a nice chat with my mom's sister the other day who also majored in communications and has worked in the industry for a while and she gave me some tips about how to make myself more marketable. I've always had a hard time understanding how you can't get a job if you don't have experience, but you can't get experience if you can't get a job. She gave me some tips about how to obtain experience without having a job and things of that nature, so, let's just say I'll be incorporating her advice into my life here in the next little bit in my search for the proverbial "next chapter."

Who wouldn't want to hire this guy?? ...oh wait...

The other thing that has really been a big confidence boost for me has been a book that I have recently started reading on my iPad. The app, "Deseret Bookshelf," recently had some deal going on where you could pick up a couple free e-Books, so I took advantage of that by picking up a book by President Monson and "What I Wish I Had Known When I Was Single" by John Bytheway. Good old Bro. Bytheway... It's like... has he been following me around for the last four years or something? He's got some great, great advice in there that has really changed my perspective about the dating process, has answered a lot of questions I've had on my mind for a long time, and has given me comfort in what has turned out to be an unusually long and turbulent period of my life. If anybody else struggles with the dating process like I obviously have (and continue to do), I would absolutely recommend this book. I'm only about half-way through with it at this point, but I'm sure I'll have completed it by, oh, probably the end of my layover tomorrow, most likely. He has some great insight into how guys and girls work, some helpful hints for things to do (or not to do) when dating, and has really helped steer my perspective back in the right direction. It's been good. That's all I'll say here.


Here's a Feel Good story for you - and, believe me, as a brother, if there was ever such a story, this has got to be it. In Elders Quorum on Sunday, we were talking about things we can do to advance the work of the Lord today. The Stake President came in and made a big pitch for us to create profiles on http://www.mormon.org for their popular viral "I'm a Mormon" campaign. It was a pretty inspiring lesson and I felt like going home that night and creating my own profile, which was fun to do and will hopefully end up blessing somebody else's life, too. Because profiles take a few days to approve before they are posted for the world to see (making sure I'm not preaching false doctrine, saying anything inappropriate, etc.), I had some time after entering my little bio where I was just browsing the website and looking at what others have posted. Ever the young bachelor, I thought, out of curiosity and nothing more, that I would look up Caucasian females from the 18-24 age group who had "DJ" as a keyword (kind of a cool feature to find Mormons with similar interests). So, I entered the search options and hit enter, which brought up a page full of pictures of people who met my criteria. I looked at a couple of the pictures and their bio information and then, lo, and behold, who just happened to pop up? MY SISTER, AMY!! Oh man, can I tell tell you what joy that brought me as a brother? There she was: "I'm a college student. I'm a radio DJ. I love to sing. I'm a Mormon." Oh gosh. I almost wanted to cry. I've got such an awesome sister. That earns you the Shoutout of the Week, Amy. You're great. Keep up the good work and don't let any boys down at college touch you. Or else.

You made your brother proud!

In other Feel Good news, fantasy football is back! My seven-team league, which features both of my parents, Austin, a former college friend, and EFY child, and Loyal Subscriber Michael Brunson, had its draft last night and, well, let's just say... I'm going to dominate. Best of luck to all of you.


That's about it for this week, kiddos. In conclusion, here is what I have to say: I Feel Good About Myself. I Feel Good About Myself everyday - and do you know why? Because, even though there are a lot of things that might seem discouraging, I don't think there's anything wrong with me, personally, at all. I am not perfect (pretty close, though) and I struggle with stuff just like anybody does, but I like myself, dang it. I unintentionally got some extra sleep this morning, I'm a snazzy dresser, a home run hitter, a fantasy football champion, I have an amazing family, I'm still pretty darn good at Spanish, I haven't been to the dentist in a couple months (which is quite the feat for me, as a matter of fact), I finished my blog at about 2:30 this afternoon, and I'm going on vacation tomorrow, babies!!! And, oh yeah - I'm a Mormon.


Until next Time,

Move It! Sell It! And Leave the Door Open!

Aaron