August 28, 2017

22 August 2017

Last week I wrote about Jessica very minimally, giving a greater depth into my life. I could write many pages about her. She has improved a little bit yesterday. She prepared herself two meals. 
Monday was a little slow at work. My plan for the day was to see the progress done on Sunday before 8 am. At that time I was going to have start my excel spread sheet for our productivity rates and called the project manager, since he will be gone for the next two weeks. The project manager did not answer my calls or call me back. The build plan sheets were getting messy, so I printed out clean copies of the plans to start fresh on them. After lunch I planned to finish recording our progress in another part of the building. I saw that another stone contractor was in there, so I had to ask Audriana what is going on with that. It turned out that we are not finishing that part of the project. The time before lunch was a time to think of how I will prepare my spreadsheet. I realized that I need to get into the specifics of the crews that we have out on the project. I was able to get the number of crews and match them with the stone that they placed by the end of the day. I still need to double check if my crew numbers are right for the weekend. When I arrived at home, I started preparing for family home evening. Jessica would shoot down my ideas, making the evening unproductive. I want to start practicing musical instruments on Mondays and during the week. There are many reasons that I want to practice music as a family, but a main reason is because singing as a family is awkward.

23 August 2017

Yesterday Jessica had her first normal day. She cook for herself and was productive.
The first thing that I did yesterday is work on the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. I wrote a summary of my day, cooked lunch, prepared myself breakfast, and read the scriptures before work. At work, I confirmed the work that the crews did the previous day. I figured that assigning productivity rates to crews without specifying things about it like clarifying who is in the crew and what stone that they placed is not useful; therefore, I did that. I got my first question as a project engineer from a crew member. Walking back to the trailer, I met the CEO of the company Michael Twiss. He asked how I am doing. I said that I am doing well, getting to know the crew members. I think that I am creating friendships with the crew members. I talk with one named Larry the most. I spoke to Joe, a member of a crew. I spoke to him to see, if the question for me was resolved. Our safety guy said that we were working in part of the building that I thought that we weren't, so I have to go record our progress in the section of the building again.

24 August 2017

This week has been busy at home, since we had company the past two evenings.
Tuesday night the Bishopric of the Campbell Ward met us, and last night we met the missionaries. Every day at work I learn so much. I went to the jobsite to check on our progress, and my associates like Dan, the Safety Manager, and Pete, the foreman, were in my path. They showed me somethings. Meeting with the crew for a few hours, I did not arrive back at the office until about 10 am. During lunch, I went on a walk and called Jessica. After lunch I went to record the progress of a section of a building, which was thought to be given to another contractor. I already recorded the progress, but I threw out my work. I learned that we are sharing the work with the other contractor. At home we hosted the missionaries. At first our meeting with them was a little awkward, but they loosened up. They are a funny companionship. I laughed a lot.
When I finished recording our progress in the section, I checked my phone, seeing that I got a message from BYU Idaho. This is the second of which, saying that I can register for classes. I called back to ask why they are telling me to enroll in classes. I have not received my diploma when I have heard other people have, so I wanted to follow up with that too. They said that I needed to complete a few random classes, including a math class. When I started at BYU Idaho, an approved grad plan was the official path to get a bachelor's degree. I have been at the school, seeing the transition between three university presidents, since I got my grad plan approved. I hope that there is an error with the administration transitions. They are claiming that they are not going to give me my diploma; unless, I finish those classes. I was not informed of these new classes that I have to take until yesterday. During my last semester, I spoke to the school about the process of my graduation application. They said that they were going to review it, and tell me if I did something wrong. I was not told of any additional requirements that I need to do in order to get my bachelor's degree. I feel like I am not what I am. I have told you about my issue that my name was not on the program at graduation day, but the day before my in-laws were able to retrieve a document for me saying that I was graduating. The school also put a hold on my account during the semester, so I can't enroll in classes because I was graduating. Now they are saying that I am scheduled to graduate in the Fall. My BYU Idaho graduation experience has not been good. I have worked my entire life of twenty-eight years to graduate with my bachelor's degree, and they pull a fast one, denying me the life's achievement. I have already moved on, and they want me to go back.

25 August 2017

Last night was the first night in about 10 days that I got to sleep on time. We were able to prepare the evening well because the counselors of the Campbell Ward relief society presidency visited us after dinner. Friday came quick. Yesterday I explored the building more. A coworker told me that a foreman had an office in the basement, so I looked for him. He was not there. When I was at Apollo Mechanical, a salaried worker would go to appointments during work. I had an appointment with the DMV that I went to in order to renew my registration. I started working with BYU Idaho about my graduation. I got an email saying that I need to fulfill one class for the construction management cluster. It turned out that the construction management cluster is only for non-major students. I am a construction management major student, so I believe that nothing should be holding me back from them, delivering my diploma.
Meeting with the relief society last night, I kept my comments to a minimum because the relief society is very sister oriented. Jessica should be their focus. We were more open with the bishopric.
When we were speaking with the bishopric, our conversation was funny at first because they were trying to relate to Jessica's upbringing in Oregon. The bishop said that he has a house in Oregon. One of the counselors said that he has a sister that lives near Beaverton. The second counselor was most humble, thinking that he would not be able to relate with Oregon, but he said that his brother is an in-law to the Bleaks. He is a good friend of Tiffany Bleak. We were able to relate most to this because we lived the first month of our marriage with Morgan and Jane Bleak. We were more open about our aspirations. Jessica said that we were thinking about fostering children. It turned out that the bishop has fostered as many as 6 children, being able to adopt one.
Work is going smoothly, and I got an email from my project manager, expanding my work. I expanded some of what I reported yesterday. Instead of just reporting stones set, I reported stones fabricated and pulled off the wall.

26 August 2017

Today is Saturday, but I will still go to work. I will not be staying at work for 8 hours. I am mainly going this morning because a crew does not have good memory, and I want them to tell me what they did yesterday. Many crews were moved around yesterday, so it was tricky. It was mostly a normal day, so I don't have much to say other than there was a barbecue. In the afternoon, I was planning to talk to the crew that doesn't have good memory to have them tell me what they did yesterday, but everyone left early. Jessica and I relaxed that evening.

I explained why I go to work on Saturday to Jessica yesterday. I record the progress and the productivity of Columbia Stone inc.'s Crews. They work seven days a week. If I work 5 days a week, I would be missing 2 days out of the week, and I don't want to make up numbers over the weekend or record inaccurate productivity.

I like my role at Columbia Stone because I talk to the crew members a lot. We had a barbecue for them yesterday to show appreciation of their hard work. I mingled with them, talking with the people that I know, which is about half. I really liked a potato salad that the Samoan Catering company served because it had imitation crab on it. People may wonder. Did Alex eat meat at the barbecue? I did. I don't cook meat for myself, but when there is an occasion, I eat meat to not impose myself on others. It is the same thing with dessert. I rarely eat dessert, but occasionally I don't want to impose myself and refuse people's charity.

28 August 2017

On Saturday I rode my bicycle to work. It felt like the gravity was different in California compared to Idaho. I finally watched "Cool Runnings." We visited my parents on Saturday because Trevor bought a new board game. My mother cooked us a great Thai dinner. On Sunday after church we went straight to visit Jessica's cousins. Daniel introduced us to Jessica's grand-aunt.

I have realized that it would take about the same time to ride my bicycle to work as driving. I felt very weak on the bike. When I started riding my bike home from work, I thought that it might be because the change it altitude. One of my tires was a little flat; the other not so much. On Sunday I theorized that there is more air resistance in California because we are close to sea level, when we met with a counsel in the bishopric.

My dad wanted to watch Cool Runnings and play the game with us, but he drove Victor, a Chinese foreign student, staying with our family, to a party during the movie. As we started to play the board game, he received the call to pick him up from the party. The board game is a Japan themed game, where you are a tourist, trying to get the most points. I won the new board game soundly. It seemed neck to neck most of the game until we realized that Jessica was counting her points wrong.

Since I served my mission in Jamaica, I have endured the shame of not watching Cool Runnings for seven years. I finally rid myself of it Saturday. It is definitely a classic movie. The word choices are questionable especially for a PG movie, but it was great.

I finally was able to meet Lindsay, Daniel's wife. When we arrived, Lauren took me on a tour of the house. She showed me all the rooms and her time capsule for school, which had her favorite things in it. She let me look at her beloved coin from Spain. She seems to embrace her Spanish heritage. Chloe was off doing her own things for a little bit. I noticed that all of the rooms seemed to be for girls, so I asked Lauren if she has any brothers; then, she introduced me to Sam. He was also off doing his own things. After the tour, I was able to talk to Chloe. I expressed sympathy to her, saying that it took me ten years to get a bachelor's degree as she is being held back in the fourth grade. She plays the Ukulele, and I was able to help her tune the strings. There was too much going on for her to play. At dinner Lauren wanted to sit next to me, but Chloe, sitting next to me, wouldn't let her. The dinner conversation was good. I don't recall it much. When we were driving over to visit Jessica’s grand aunt, I asked Olivia how her cross country experience is so far. She only has one week’s experience. She seemed to talk about the human interaction the most. She thought that it was too hard for the first day, almost giving up. I forgot the grand aunt's name just as she has forgotten mine. Her memory is bad. We spoke to her for a while. When we returned to the house, Sam asked us if we wanted to play games, but the funny thing is that he didn't play the games with us. We played Uno and Ticket to Ride. I did not win any of the games. There is a lot going on in the house. I don't think that I could write everything.