Three! Two! One!
Greetings to one and all! Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to another groundbreaking year of "Signs of the Times"! Topics to be discussed today: the month of destiny, mass texting, midnight madness, the funniest Bond movie, my thoughts about "Les Mis," and the end of another torturous fantasy football season. On we go!
Austin just walked in the room and reminded me that "this is the month." That's all he had to say. "...That they'll select us?" I responded. Oh yeah. This is the month that CBS will choose us to be on the next season of their popular reality competition, "The Amazing Race." For those of you whose New Year's Resolution it was to start reading my blog and may not know, my brother, Austin, and I have applied for the second time to be on the Race. This time they're going to select us - and this time we're going to win.
I hate getting these mass texts from people on major holidays. "Merry Christmas. I love all of you so much!" Uh... "All of you"? That implies that you sent the text to multiple people. I'd be totally fine if a bunch of strangers texted me and said "Happy New Year, Aaron. You're the best!", but I'm tired of these generic mass texts that show up on my phone every couple months.
New Year's Eve is an interesting time. I'm all about having a good time and eating food and watching the ball drop, but I think I prefer to celebrate it in a different way than many other people of my same age. Many young people like to go out and party on the last night of the year. It's a big night for drinking and hooking up (but to a much lesser extent in Utah), but I'm not about that stuff. I'm not a huge fan of large groups in the first place, but what makes New Year's Eve worse than any other night is the added expectation of kissing somebody at midnight. Let's delve a little further into my phobia of the midnight kiss. First of all, I hate public displays of affection. It's fine if you're married and whatnot, but I hate being surrounded by that stuff if I can avoid it. I've been to a New Year's Eve party or two in my day and let me tell you - as a cautiously-eligible bachelor, that countdown to midnight is a stressful, stressful time. Now, I know what you're all thinking. "That's a great time if you're single, A-Town! Get out there and kiss somebody!" NO! I don't want to just randomly kiss somebody, unlike apparently every one of my other single friends. The only time I would potentially kiss somebody on New Year's Eve would be if I was serious with them or if I knew there was zero percent chance of me ever seeing them again. The problem with kissing somebody you're somewhat involved with, but not totally set on is that it shows commitment. If I kissed somebody I had seen a time or two or even taken out a couple times, I would feel 100% committed to them. Sadly, I'm not ready to make that kind of commitment right now. So, instead of going out and breaking hearts last night, I broke hearts by barricading myself in my house. I stayed home with my family and a friend (male) from my ward, played some card games and Playstation, ate some chips and crackers, and didn't worry for one second about who I had to kiss and how to maintain that relationship going forward. It was a good night and, at this point in my life, I wouldn't have it any other way.
If I just offended you, feel free to stop reading.
The other thing that bugs me is people who openly campaign for or brag about their New Year's Eve kisses. Facebook has been flooded with status updates and pictures of such shenanigans in the past 24 hours and they make me want to gag. I know you're all so proud of yourselves, but I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT! Keep it to yourselves, people. Exchange phone numbers, whatever. Just don't post about it on Facebook. I thought ladies never told. Am I wrong? Just keep those stories personal. Please. Nobody cares.
There are certain numbers that I don't particularly care for. I don't like the number 6. I am not a fan of the number 9. And I don't like the number 13. The OCD part of me actually felt a little bit dirty when I purchased a 2013 sports game for Playstation. It's just a weird number. Plus, it's unlucky, according to superstition. I thought 2009 was an absolutely horrible year. I believe that was the year that you Subscribers voted my nose wax as the best thing that happened to me all year. That just shows you what kind of year it was. So how does my OCD personality feel, heading into 2013? I'm actually really excited about it. I've set a bunch of new goals for this year, which should keep me very busy, but also allow me to be incredibly productive. I've heard people say that it's smarter to just set a couple major goals and focus solely on them, but hey - who's to say that if I set a bunch of resolutions for 2013 I can't accomplish all of them? I'm motivated right now, so I've set a ton of new standards and I've already programmed the calendar in my iPad to remind me to do some of the weekly and monthly goals each time they roll around, so it's gonna happen, baby! It should give me quite a bit to blog about this year, so it may be a landmark year for the Newsletter, as well.
I had the day off last Friday and I spent the majority of the day watching movies. I watched three movies that day, including two old school James Bond flicks. Austin has some enormous problem with 007 because he thinks that all the movies are exactly the same. Well, to some extent, yeah, I guess. He gets a mission, he uses some cool gadgets to blow things up, he beats the bad guys, he gets the girls. Yeah. But, I mean, aren't all sports games the same, too? The dribble down the court, they shoot the ball, they score, they win the game. I watched "Live and Let Die" the other day for the first time. It started of relatively seriously, but, as the movie progressed, I was seriously laughing my head off by the end. That is easily the most racist movie I have seen since "Hairspray" and it's so gosh darn campy that I was busting up. Please tell me that somebody else out there has seen it. The best part was the boat chase scene with the redneck sheriff. Either that or the part where Bond is getting surrounded by crocodiles and escapes by running over them like an Atari game. Hilarious. Awesome. Hilariously awesome.
Speaking of movies, I saw "Les Miserables" on Saturday. Let me take a moment to inform you that my high school performed "Les Mis" during my senior year and I played my trumpet in the pit orchestra, so I have heard the musical about a billion times, but I had never, technically, seen it. I'd seen and heard all of you people gushing about it and telling me how many boxes of Kleenex you went through in the first few days of its big screen release, which made me a bit jealous, but I patiently bode my time. After seeing the movie, which was incredibly long, here are my thoughts: it was very good, it brought back tons of memories, and there was waaaaaaay too much hype for me to keep anywhere near using any Kleenex at all. I thought Hugh Jackman was great, I thought Russell Crow was surprisingly good (despite all the crap people talk about him not really being a singer), and I thought the guy who played Marius did a stand-up job. I liked the little girl Cosette much better than the grown-up Cosette. The other thing that I was thinking as I sat in the theater was, "Wow, that's some heavy stuff for a high school musical!" Goodness, gracious. Good show, though. Very good show. But way too long to ever even consider watching it two times in the same day. Some people have too much time on their hands.
The fantasy football season mercifully came to an end this week with my mom pulling from behind and claiming the first place trophy by a mere 37.95 fantasy points. A big win for Mama Mia! Congratulations. Austin's Head Hunters placed third, beating me out by just under two hundred points for the final place on the podium. My Jive City Monarchs finished in a disappointing fourth place, followed by my dad and Team Grunion. With honorable mention, Michael Brunson exceeded his own, self-proclaimed expectations by eeking out a next-to-last-place finish. Bravo, my friend! I'm just glad that the year is over. It was not a fun year for me. My team was pathetic.
That's about it for this week, kiddos. I think I'm gonna cut it short and go enjoy my holiday. I'll be back with 100% motivation next week. You people take it easy. And the Shoutout of the Week goes to 2013. It better be a good one.
Until next Time,
Move It. Sell It. And Leave the Door Open.
Aaron
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