So, back to Wednesday night. I had been debating about going to the activity that evening, ultimate frisbee or something along those lines. Lauren seemed interested in coming, so I was going to wait around for her. Then, around six she told me she was tired and wasn’t going to come. I thought, well then I’m getting the heck out of here. I started driving, but felt like maybe I should still go to the activity. I ended up going South and then turning around at Rancho Calif. I got to the sports park a bit early and didn’t see any signs of anyone I knew. I sat there for a few minutes before deciding I was just going to go home. As I’m almost getting to my house, Lauren calls. We can’t decide what to do, but we eventually figure that if we’re debating about it, that means we should just do it. So we did. It was now about 7:45 when we got back to the park, and we still couldn’t find anyone. We even tried the other sports park, so I don’t know what happened. We ended up driving in circles for a while before deciding to go to Claim Jumper for a white chocolate chip with raspberry sauce calzone.

Thursday was crazy at the office. We conducted some interviews and tried to get things done in between.

The idea that Emily knows more about Cheesecake than I do has been driving me crazy. Specifically, the fact that she not only knew about, but has been to a Cheesecake Factory that I knew nothing about! This has been a major battle for me the last few days. I spent some time researching this Thursday evening – it turns out it (the Riverside one at the Tyler Mall) opened in December 2006, so it’s been there for a while. There is also one in Boise now – I sure could have used that a few years ago.

Friday wasn’t much better. I got a few things done, but didn’t get anywhere near the things I was hoping for before I had to leave for GT. The wedding went well. i came home for a while, cooled down and showered and then headed over to the Morris’ for Will’s birthday party. Things seemed to go well there, other than it was after eleven when I decided it was time to go home. Then Lauren and I spent until just after midnight talking outside, so I didn’t get to sleep until almost one.

That made it really hard to get up this morning and make it to building cleanup. I made it there at 8:15, only 15 minutes late – which is better than I did all week work wise! There was only a handful of us, but we got things done and were out of there around 9:30. That allowed me to get to the office with plenty of time to spare to purchase my Rascal Flatts tickets. The seats I got for Saturday night at Hyundai are OK, but I wasn’t too happy with how far back they were. The seats are in row GG, presumably all the way house left. I then decided to check out the situation at Coors (Friday night), and found the best available (who knows how Ticketmaster comes up with that) to be row F – all the way house right. Being the crazy weird-o I am, I bought tickets for both nights! At least between being all the way hour right one night and house left the other, I’ll average to the center!

I got the bills entered into the computer and then paid. I confirmed that everything was functioning after the power line maintenance earlier this morning and was able to get out of there right around noon. After making a few stops on the way home, I pretty much enjoyed a quite afternoon and evening at home. I washed my car and cut my hair, but that’s about all I accomplished. I was really just ready for the relaxation – it’s been a few days since I’ve just been able to sit at home. This evening i watched A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash. I don’t know how much to believe, but I do believe that we are headed for trouble. Our world could change drastically overnight if a shortage of oil was to occur. I am still amazed at all the wacky ideas that people have regarding alternative fuels though. I do believe it takes more energy to produce a ethanol than we get from it.

I was thinking some more today about the experience on the ski lift at the fair the other night. We were surrounded by people all day, and never came across anyone we knew. I actually thought I might know people from Fullerton/OC there, but didn’t recognize anyone. Then, within minutes of giving ourselves some space we found – or rather we were found – the least expected – someone from our branch in Murrieta – 80 miles away! It just kind of lead me to ponder about how often I get wrapped up in things and forget to take a breather. That by stepping out, i.e. getting away from the crowd, we can actually get closer. I’ve been thinking about sharing this tomorrow, but I haven’t come up with a good presentation for it yet. Maybe I don’t need one.

Well, I don’t know, but I think I have a lot of sleep to catch up on and it’s getting late already. Good night and God Bless!

Well, the opposite of what I predicted Friday ended up happening. I was not able to find someone to go with me Saturday night to the $5 concert with Ty Herndon, Luke Bryan, Crossin Dixon and Billy Ray Cyrus.

Saturday night’s show went well.  I was really tired coming home from the concert, even after leaving early…

Sunday went well. I spent some time at home myself before heading back up for branch prayer at the Lee’s. I thought things went well there that night, and I was happy to get some good pictures as well.

Monday went well in the office. We reviewed the resumes we received and decided who to call in for interviews. Lauren was supposed to be doing something with friends, but ended up coming to FHE which was cool. She said she really enjoyed the lesson, which Zion taught about continual learning. He talked a lot about reading books to expand ourselves.

I got to the office late on Tuesday and was busy until I left at about 12:30.

We walked around the fair to see what it had to offer. Emily got attacked by farm animals. She tried to feed a lamp/sheep and the crazy animal decided to ram her hand into the cage. Maybe he thought she was stealing his food. No blood was drawn, but I’m sure it was painful. We did some more exploring before sitting in a booth where they were selling cookware. We sat through a demonstration, ate the free food and won some serving utensils for sitting in the right seat. We saw some crazy acrobatics and lots of long lines at the carnival rides. We went down a big slide and also went on a carousel before the concert.

Taylor was much better this time than she was last month. I think she still has some work to do, but she is only 17, so I’ll give her credit. LeAnn Rimes was great. I enjoyed the variety she presented. It was pretty much non-stop once she started. She had a fairly cool set as well. I really enjoyed the sound. The FOH engineer seemed to be on it the whole time and the speakers were not just pushing the highs in your face the whole time. The level was probably hotter than it needed to be, but I never felt that it was overly loud and didn’t feel that I needed to put plugs in.

After the show, we walked around some more before deciding to get some Cheesecake. We rode the ski lift type thing back to the front of the park – and were really surprised when we heard Marie say our names.

The Cheesecake plans didn’t quite work out, but it was good in the end. I had forgotten that it was Tuesday night, and that places aren’t open forever. Cheesecake Fashion Island was closed before we left the park, but I continued to drive that way until we could figure out another plan. Cheesecake Brea was open for a few more minutes, but there was no way of getting there in time. Since we were near the  Newport Beach temple at this point, we stopped by, but it wasn’t lit up at all. We then rushed to get to BJ’s in Brea before they closed at midnight for a pizookie.

Today was quite busy, but I made it through. I really need to get some sleep and am tired of typing though, so hopefully I can recap and post tomorrow… Good night and thank you God for such wonderful blessings, and especially such wonderful company. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.