July 23, 2017

This week was my graduation. Both my parents and Jessica's parents came. On Monday neither Jessica nor I could do much with Jessica’s parents because I had a paper to complete, and she had two final type exams. 

On Tuesday Mercedes and John wanted to go the temple, and we were waiting for my parents to arrive from Utah. When they arrived, they did not have going to the temple in mind. Jessica's parents went to the temple, and we went to eat at G's Dairy, the traditional location where Jessica and I celebrate our anniversary monthly. Mercedes and John's anniversary was on Monday, and we took them out to ice-cream after we finished our final assignments. After I got ice-cream with my parents, I got a haircut. Most hair salons were busy, so we had time before my appointment to shop for BYU Idaho souvenirs. Jessica finished her introduction to applied mathematics final about 3 pm as I was cleaning out my hair from the haircut. We had a reservation at the Hickory for 3:30. After dinner, I had to rush off to the location for the graduates before the commencement of my graduation. I seemed to be one of the first to arrive from my major, creating the community feel among our class. Jessica texted me that my name was not on the program, and that gave me a disappointing feeling during the commencement. President Henry J Eyring, President Kim B Clark, and Elder J Devin Cornish spoke. We had about forty minutes of break between the commencement and our walk to receive the thing that does not hold my diploma yet. After we took some pictures and resolving my concern about my name not being on the commencement program, I sat next to Nefi Quito. We spoke, and I asked how he was going to get his name pronounced properly. He had not written his name phonetically. Another friend of mine and her husband, namely Angie and Dallen, joined me to help him get his name successfully written and said out phonetically. A sister who worked with Jessica and I at the Rexburg Temple spoke in the convocation as well as another guy who spoke on overcoming our fears. Afterwards, we had to rush off because Jessica and I were staying the night with my parents at a family friend's house in Blackfoot. 

Most of the family friends that we met with were mission friends of my mother from Thailand. We met with the Merits, Sue, and Kim Graham. At Sue's house, I had my unfruitful interview with CH2M Hill. My mom's Android phone was very out of date and I updated it on Heber City, where my grandparents live. 

On Thursday we visited Kim Graham. We also visited Jessica's aunt Elizabeth, and in the evening we had dinner with some sisters from my mother's mission. I invited Rachel Dunlap to join us, and she did. We went to a Thai restaurant that Kim Graham hailed as the greatest Thai food in Utah, but I don't agree with him.

I had an interview with Dixie State University on Friday. I have applied to a lot of jobs in Heber City. Jessica and I had dinner at Jessica's half-sister’s apartment with her cousins. 

Saturday was grandpa's birthday. I was grateful that I was able to continue to keep a good relationship with Eve and Ezra during our visit. The children took a while to play together. A cousin spotted a red ball that they could play with, and Andrea's daughter ran to get it. We had the ball, and I was kind of the catalyst for all the children playing together as we kicked the ball around. We had barbeque. Martha and Joshua Day are my only two cousins that are my age, and we are good friends. We were able to catch up. A lot of people congratulated me on graduating. We had a family provide Hawaiian entertainment. They only did one Hawaiian Hula number. Their performances was delightfully well-rounded though. My uncles got my grandpa a 4K big screen TV. I am not really into TVs, so I didn't help set it up. The use of a TV is a skill that I have never learned, and I don't care to learn it. I got a subscription for my grandfather with StoryWorth for him to write stories of his life, and we will have a book after a year. Eve introduced me to a social network that I joined to keep up with her called Music.ly. I do Twitter basically for Trevor, and I will do Music.ly for Eve. Ezra basically played Minecraft during any free time except for our walk after dinner. 

This brings us to Sunday. Mother likes to travel on Sunday; therefore, we are driving to California at this moment. Our car is full of people and luggage because the Lara family is with us. Somehow we fit the luggage of seven people in our van. Jessica tried to sleep on my shoulder before I started writing in my journal. It is hard to keep Jessica from falling off my shoulder. She is still sleeping. I am grateful that she is a good sleeper. I had a roommate with insomnia, and his life was rough.

That is my week's summary. Now I will expound each necessary part. I already wrote in the last entry about how we showed Jessica's parents around the school, and John posted all his pictures a couple days ago. 


The pictures above shows the location where Jessica and I met for the first time. 
 

This picture shows that my name is on the cross country champion plaque. 
 
A poster has pictures of the season that I was the champion of; although, it was the season of 2013.

I had to write a 2.5-3.5 page paper summarizing the book Crucial Conversations, and the conclusion of the paper was my plan for my application of the precepts of the book for the long term. The teacher wanted it to be single spaced. I bought a program a few years ago that reads text, and I probably had it read each paragraph to me ten times in my editing process. My first paragraph was not complete when I began working on the paper on Monday, I worked on it from 10 am until 7:30 pm. 

Earlier in Monday morning I heard John say to Mercedes "Feliz anniversario." After Jessica and I finished our final assignments Jessica came in, saying "Alex, today is my parents' anniversary. What should we do?" I suggested that we take them to ice-cream. G's Diary has the best ice-cream, and I didn't want to go two days in a row, so we went to Coco Bean. Coco Bean is awesome because they mix cupcakes into their ice-cream. When we walked in, Jessica said that she wanted the Love Potion flavor, and Mercedes said the same thing. The cashier had a hard time remembering our order, and it took a while to get it together. We got some pictures. The time together was nice.

Jessica's mom was interested in buying a bread making machine. Since Jessica was going to work all day long on Monday, I needed to make bread for her lunch. This was a good opportunity for me to show Mercedes how to use the bread machine. I think that our machine is getting old because it is skipping gears. Mercedes wrote down my advice, and she put in the ingredients. The only time previous to the Mercedes attempt that the machine skipped a lot is when I think that I put an extra cup of wheat flour in it. I threw out both attempts. I think that the machine is worn out because it skipped gears on my second attempt too. I have had the machine for two years. 

 The souvenir that I wanted to get my dad for his birthday was a BYUI dad mug. Jessica thought that a hat would be better, and my dad agreed with my original idea. When we went shopping at the BYUI store, I found it quickly, and my parents asked me if I wanted anything. I said that I wanted a BYUI hat with the year of its establishment. None of the other hats were good, and I felt that I should not buy the Underarmor hat because I worked at Nike, but Underarmor had the best designed hat, so I got it as my graduation present. 

The graduates of my class gathered together at 5 pm. This gathering had a feeling of comradery. I have uploaded a picture of our class. I have not networked nor studied that much with them.

As we walked into the iCenter for the commencement our professors, and everyone applauded us. I felt that I was not included because my name was not included on the program. 

Henry J Eyring spoke on focusing on an individual's ministry among people and places rather than prominence, position, and prosperity. Kim B Clark spoke on following the prophet, and J Devin Cornish said that our motivation should be to please Heavenly Father. 

Nefi Quito's name is pronounced Neh-fee Key-toh. It is not proper phonetics, but we helped him know how an average American person would read it. 

I seem to be tired of writing, and I am now writing very minimal. 

Since Jessica and I were so busy before the convocation. We had to pack for our vacation for the next few weeks, and we arrived at the Merit's house slightly before 12 pm. The trip to Heber City, Utah was chill because we drove an hour and a half to Blackfoot on Tuesday night. We drove an hour or so to north Ogden the next day after catching up with the Merit family, visiting Sue, before driving the rest of the way to Heber, which was another hour or so. 

Connie Merit and Kim Graham both have gardens, and it keeps them busy. Connie grabbed some lettuce from her garden. It didn't seem like she grabbed much, but a big basket was not only full of lettuce. There was a big pile on top too. 

Sue is cool. Her persona felt like she had a higher level of consciousness. Some people live on cruise control too much. At Sue's house, I had my unfruitful interview with CH2M Hill. I was prepared to Skype, but it didn't work well because Sue did not remember the Wifi password. When we got the Skype going, my microphone didn't receive my input well, and CH2M wanted me to call them, so they could hear me. My phone put out the Wi-Fi that the laptop and Skype relied on, and it could not put out a Wifi signal and maintain a phone call at the same time. We gave up on Skype, and we continued talking on the phone. I thought that I answered the questions well. They emailed me the next day, saying that they don't have a position for me. 

The next day we visited Kim Graham. I felt like I spoke to him as if we were good friends. We got along well. His son is living his dream life. He signed a new job with the best mountain biking company, making films. I think that most people are inherently a creative person, but most don't fulfill their desires and passions like Stephen Graham. I admire these people. I was able to catch up with Stephen over the dinner at the restaurant. We spoke as good friends too; although, that evening was practically the first time that Stephen and I spoke. We just knew of each other for many years. 

When Rachel Dunlap came, I focused my conversation on her because we were friends at school. Jessica was flattered because she said that we are perfect together, and she also brought up as usual that I gave her the greatest compliment, saying that she looked like a Disney princess. On the topic of catching up with people. A lot of people asked me what is next for me. I only have the next two weeks planned, visiting family in California. I have one weak job offer in Texas with Osburn Structures. My sublease at Rexburg is ending at the end of August, so I have to figure out my life before the end of August. This is my next steps, networking and job hunting like crazy as I have been. I contacted all of my friends in Orem, and they were all busy except for Rachel. No one was able to meet the next day. 

I had an interview with Dixie State University on Friday. It was for a GIS focused Facility Management Project Manager position. It was over Skype, and I did not have a problem with the audio or visual this time. I believe that I answered the questions well. I made sure to be honest. They asked about my general construction management skills, and I don't have any experience. GIS stands for Geographic Information System. The system has a lot of regional documentation. One can find this information on the internet. Dixie State University wants to begin contributing to the system. 

We were able to visit Jessica's half-sister and cousins later that day. We arrived a few minutes late, but no one was home. Arrie, Jessica's cousin, arrived about 5 minutes later, and we caught up a little. Hayley and Austin snuck in the apartment. Wesley came with Emma. They were engaged temporarily. She seemed quiet. We were in the middle of the attention with few answers as I explained previously, catching up with Rachel. Arrie went to sit next Emma to talk. Jessica's anxiety was hard on her. Hayley visited Europe and her beloved France. We learned of that trip. Austin visited Holland. I believe. It was for a contest or festival type event. Each member of the music program of BYU Provo submitted a composition, and one was chosen for a chance to perform it with an established musician. Austin did not think that his piece was developed well enough, but it won. After catching up, we were going to play a murder mystery video game, but the game was not on the purchased set. We ended up playing a trivia Apples to Apples type game. I did not do well because it was timed. I don't perform well in games of pressure.