Sunday, August 13, 2017

August 13, 2017


August 6, 2017

I am going to start writing in my journal daily. I think that writing in my journal weekly is an oversimplification of my life. On the 6th of August. Jessica and I flew back to Rexburg, Idaho to retrieve our stuff for our move back to California. We flew to Portland and Salt Lake City; then, we took a bus to Rexburg. I napped a lot, so I wanted to visit Krystal and Dallen Cluff, when we arrived.
Our flight was at 9 am yesterday, and mom wanted us to be at airport two hours because they missed a flight arriving one hour before. Dad drove us to the airport at 6 am. We arrived at the gate about 7:10 am. On the first flight, I tried to nap the entire time on Jessica's shoulder, but it was difficult.
Mom likes to travel on Sunday, and she did not want to risk our health by not eating since yesterday was fast Sunday. We took her commitment to eat out for breakfast and lunch. Last time, I got shingles, coming back to Idaho to move. I prefer not to travel on the Sabbath day.
On the second flight, I wrote in my journal.
During the first half of our bus ride, I napped, and on the second half I finished catching up on my journal.
Our visit with Krystal and Dallen felt more friendly especially with Dallen's brother Chris. They are wanting to get a second dog, and Jessica mentioned that we may get a dog because I was playing with their dog, Lavender, well. We talked a lot about dogs.
We also talked about us moving to Campbell hopefully to never return. I would only return to serve the students of the school as an alumni, or if our children attended and graduated from BYU-Idaho.
We made plans to hang out later this week. 
I realized that using a trailer would be best. They seem tricky though.

August 7, 2017

The main things that I focused on today is deciding if we should go with a trailer and a hitch or a moving truck and a tow dolly for our car. My parents have been helping us a lot for our move to Campbell, paying for the application fees and deposit at our new apartment, and they are going to pay for the Uhaul and hotel. I did laundry today too. I also published the daily Storify and two journal entries editing them. I will now explain the logic behind our Uhaul decision.

Last night I had a confusing conversation with my parents. My father recommended that I use a trailer and rent a hitch. My mother was saying a similar thing, and my father thought that she was recommending the same things as him. She was recommending that we rent a moving truck and a tow dolly for the car. I told my father that installing the hitch will cost 300 dollars, and it turned out that he was hoping that I could rent a hitch as he intended in the conversation last night. I didn't really understand his intention. About 33 years ago my parents rented a hitch and a trailer to move to California; however as I called around, a hitch rental is impossible. Dad realized that the risks of installing a hitch and using a trailer is not worth saving 200 dollars, so we are going to rent a 10' moving truck and a tow dolly. It turned out that my father's 1957 Nomad died as they moved with a trailer all those years ago.

August 8, 2017

Our moving preparations are going smoothly. I packed the kitchen, and Jessica is packing our clothing. There is a bunch of old newspapers in our laundry room, and I grabbed them to pack our delicate kitchenware. I will explain an evidence that I am a slob. We are going to hang out with Krystal and Dallen Cluff tonight, but I wanted to write about the day before because we will return home late most likely, since we are meeting them at 7 tonight.

If Jessica was the main character of the Pixar film "Inside Out," Joy and Disgust would be running the show as partners, and Joy would not be the main leader. Jessica is easily disgusted. The old lettuce on our sandwiches today were disgusting. Today I got to show her the standard in which she can claim what is disgusting. In the beginning of the semester, I cooked rice and oatmeal in a large rice cooker. I quit using it because Jessica didn't want to eat rice anymore. The rice leftover in the rice cooker got very moldy. I don't need to go into detail, but Jessica would puke, if she had to clean it. She wanted to throw the rice cooker away. Jessica has a tendency to want to throw a lot of things away. I think that some people think that waste is an indication of productivity. It is good to throw away unnecessary things, but a large rice cooker will be useful in the future. I did clean it, and it was not as bad as Jessica made it out to be.

The house is mostly clean because Jessica's mother cleaned it when she visited, but she required me to clean the refrigerator. We have not needed to throw away a lot food. It was simple to clean the refrigerator.

I arranged for the Uhaul today because dad forgot to last night, but they did remember to make the hotel reservations. My parents think that a credit card is necessary to rent cars and reserve hotels, but I have only come across it once, renting a car. Uhaul did not require a credit card.

Jessica was overwhelmed with packing, but she saw how simple that it is, when I started packing. Everything is basically packed. A couple months ago, I started to say in interviews and companies that I would give myself a week to move to their location, and Jessica would think that it is too short of time.

August 9, 2017

After the conclusion of a quick nap about an hour ago at 6 pm, I felt so exhausted and sore from carrying our stuff into the moving truck. Residence on the third floor of apartment buildings are common for me. We arranged for a 10 foot Uhaul truck and a tow dolly, and we needed the truck today. Mom wants us to arrive on Friday, so we are staying the night at a hotel tomorrow night at Winnemucca to drive the rest of the way on Friday.

I called to see if they were about to get the truck and tow dolly for me at a local Uhaul, and Uhaul was not able to. They told me that a local service station will call me, but none did. I called to make things happen, and they were not going to get the 10 foot truck and tow dolly in time. We arranged for me to pick up a 20 foot truck at Idaho Falls, and we had to go to another local service center in Idaho Falls to get the tow dolly. Since I was originally going to get both the truck and the trailer at one place. I was expecting to get the 20 foot truck and an auto transport, but that was unexpectedly going to cost us 100 dollars extra; although on the phone, the arrangement was going to upgrade our equipment without additional charges. This is the reason why we needed to go to another location to get the tow dolly.

I was really worried this morning driving a moving truck twice as long as originally planned, but a worker at Uhaul explained that the truck is only about 6 feet longer than most normal cars. I was worried about driving around our apartment's parking lot mainly, but it is not bad. The driving will be mostly smooth. The task to fill the tank is most intimidating now because we have to find a way to drive around the gas stations without backing up.

Our plan to pack the truck was to have Jessica to organize the back of the truck, and I would retrieve everything from the apartment. It was exhausting work, and we were blest for a sister to come help us.

Jessica is vacuuming now, and we are planning to go to sleep as soon as possible. 

Last night we watched "Spirited Away" with Krystal and Dallen; although, we have been planning to watch "Spirit", the horse movie for more than a month now. I originally watched the movie probably 15 years ago. It makes a lot more sense now. It taught me that "charity never faileth;" furthermore, gluttonous people are consumed by their natures. The main character was practically bullet-proof because her nature was so virtuous.

August 10, 2017

Today has been intense. We woke up this morning at 4 am to finish all our last minute moving out tasks. We were not ready to leave Rexburg until 6:15 am. The drive was easy, and Jessica agreed with me that moving in one week is not crazy. The one thing that made me nervous, driving, was the wind at the end of the trip, arriving in Winnemucca. When we arrived at the hotel about 3:30 pm, I scheduled blog posts for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot, publishing two Storify posts. One for today and one for tomorrow because I am going to be busy driving tomorrow. A sister named Camille Nelson followed me on Twitter.

Sleeping last night was hard because we packed our mattress, and my quick nap did not help. I love going to sleep early though because I always feel like I am sleeping in; although, I wake up early.

I convinced Jessica that we needed to get up, saying that we still have a lot to do. She would have slept in other wise.

I continued to pack the car with the final things, and Jessica cleaned our morning dishes and the sink. She did not like cleaning things, when most everything is packed; however, we still had working resources. I did not tell her, but I cleaned the toilet and bath tub with a dirty shower towel. I made uses of my motto "make things happen" this week. I ran circles around Jessica running several loads to pack in our cars and trash can while she washed a few dishes. My dad used to say to me. You would be surprised how much you can do, if you get to work.

The wind was scary because I feared that I would lose control of the moving truck. It is so tall and big. I had to slow down. I can't drive with the steering wheel straight to maintain its assumed direction.

A couple single adult musicians have introduced themselves to me the past couple days. One shared her Youtube video about her engagement all over Google+, including my Google+ page. One thing that I thought was ironic is that none of my audience really cared for it; although, I featured it in the ideal time slots. This artist's name is Monica Smith. She has some popular cover songs. Her videos are produced well; however, her original music are not as popular as her cover songs because she is not known much.

Camille Nelson followed me on Twitter. Most people follow individuals to get a follow back, but I investigate them before promoting and following them. Camille's official website has no mention of the church, so I stocked her Facebook page to see if they falls into the criteria that I require to share bloggers' content. She does; therefore, I began following her, and I will promote her content. I have not listened to her music, but her work looks unique. I quit listening to music a couple months ago because I don't want to deal with quality control of the world's music. The world is filthy. I prefer to listen to the Mormon Channel: Talk Radio.

August 11, 2017

We got up this morning at 4:30 am to leave for Campbell, California from Winnemucca, Nevada at 6 am. We were on schedule until Jessica could not figure out how to get the GPS working on my phone. She could not use her phone because it died last night. The drive was intense as usual. The wind was not too hard to deal with. We saw signs all over California that said if one drives with a trailer, the individual must drive 55 mph, which made the drive miserable. We finally arrived! At our apartment we could not move in; although, we arrived at 2:30 pm. Since our contract starts tomorrow, we are moving in then. We finished final documentation with the apartment complex. Since we just wanted to get the drive over with, we ate a late lunch at Campbell. We walked around and to the park across the street. Mom picked us up at the park because if we took buses home, we would arrive about 8 pm. At home we had a nice Thai dinner. Trevor prepared his old phone for Jessica to use. We watched the Yu-Gi-Oh movie. Mom had us put out a rug that she fabricated from extra carpet under the dining table.

I got the GPS started on my phone with WiFi, since Jessica could not find reception anywhere in Winnemucca with T-mobile. I think that the difficulty with the reception made me act irrationally by trying to fiddle with her sim card as I did before. It used to work, but I broke my old phone, which she used.

I prepared a path for the 20 foot moving truck and a tow dolly with our car, but my plan was impossible. I almost got stuck. Uhaul told me not to drive in reverse, and I needed to. An angel in the form of a truck driver told me of the path out of the parking lot, and he directed me backward.

The trip to Campbell was chill until we arrived in California. The signs saying that we must drive a maximum speed of 55 mph justified Jessica's anxiety; therefore, we drove 55 miles an hour. This annoyed me because Jessica felt like she needed to remind me every time that she saw the sign and when she did not see the sign. After driving at 55 mph for so long, it was very miserable, but I saw some of the reasons. Some areas of California are very windy, and it felt ridiculous at times. It also makes driving through merging lanes easy. We feel odd that we were the only ones that followed the sign.

The stress was relieved as we arrived, but it was very miserable. I like the ideas of traveling at least one mile a minute, since 60 mph is usually a given. 55 mph made it drag on and on. We hugged and gave each other high fives as we concluded the trip. I did not want to drive the Uhaul ever again. I said to Jessica that the steering wheel felt loose as I had to compensate for the wind. I have to return it tomorrow though. I wish that my dad will return the truck to Uhaul, but I will probably drive it.

Jessica expressed fear that she saw and worries as we walked around. I taught her what I sought for in our new life, a walkable residence. Walkable communities have all the necessities within a 20 minute walk.

We had a late lunch at a BBQ sports bar / Vietnamese restaurant. I wanted to get noodle soup because we expected to eat dinner in only a few hours. Jessica got a vermicelli bowl, and it was a pleasant surprise, when she saw that it was a salad.

Guess who we saw first at our new apartments. We saw the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They live in the same complex as us. I plan to have a close and productive relationship with our missionaries in our new life in Campbell.

At home Trevor took a while to get up Jessica with one old phone of his because he forgot his password. She has a phone again. Trevor has entrusted Jessica with his beloved collection item of the Nextbit Robin phone.

The Yu-gi-oh film was good, but I don't feel like writing about it.

Mom has been working on fabricating rugs from the extra carpet that my parents had put in. It looks like water.  She has been creating the rugs to put around the house. Mom made a large rug to place under the table. It looks nice.

I am very tired. I should go to sleep as it is 1 am.

August 12, 2017

This day was chill. I got to sleep in. I scheduled blog posts and composed another Storify post for the Mormon YSA Blog Spot. Dad made white sauce for breakfast. We moved into our new apartment in Campbell. I emailed my project manager, reporting for the week. My mom and dad helped us move in. After a successful trip traveling from Rexburg, Idaho to Campbell, our drive, returning the moving truck to Uhaul, endured an incident. We shopped for groceries. My mother always drinks filtered water, so I think that I overreacted, when I realized that we don't have a water filter. I started writing this entry after preparing our new water filter.

White Sauce is put over toast, and it is my mother's favorite breakfast. We had it this morning because Jessica has never tried it before. It is kind of like a gravy, but it is not as thick, having slices of hard boiled eggs in it. I really like it.

My project manager told me to come in at 11 am on Monday to start. This is my first salaried job. It will be a new experience. It is nice to not have to worry about hours that I worked.

 My parents thought that it was funny that we got such a big truck, when we don't have much. I had Jessica lead the move by giving boxes and item fit for the physical abilities of my father, mother, and I. It went pretty smoothly.

I planned the exit of our apartment's parking lot somewhat well with the 11 foot tall moving truck, but the car ports of have thick beams for its structure. When I drove under the corner of the carport, it sounded like something was grinding against something. Jessica looked if the car fell off the tow dolly because she was worried about that, but it didn't. Trying to accelerate the car again, I was informed by Jessica that the structure holding up the carport was digging into the roof of the moving truck. I reversed, leaving without further incidents. At the Uhaul, the first thing that the worker did is open the back door to the moving truck. We were all horrified to see the gash that he measured to be 4 feet long and 18 inches wide. I thought that he did not overreact. He was pretty chill about it. He said that it may cost more than 4000 dollars. We had my parents come deliver the Jessica's purse because she forgot the insurance policy in it. I got insurance on it, so I thought. I purchased the SafeMove policy, which included damage waiver; however, this type of damage was not a type that they would waive. Only the SafeMove plus is liability insurance. There are three other policies that are not liability insurance. They seem useless to me. The SafeMove plus policy may be useless too, but this is the policy that they said that I should have. Another worker said he overreacted, when he got the quote. It only cost slightly over 200 dollars. The first worker that we met seemed to over react 20 times more than the actual cost of the repair.

Today I have been able to speak to a blogger and a musician that I promote. I got a screenshot of my conversation with Camille Nelson, whom I mentioned previously. Another young single adult blogger that contacted me is Fampah Coyish from Accra, Ghana. He started blogging again recently as I have started writing. I asked him if he is excited about the new missionary training center in his hometown, and he went to the open house of it. Our conversation is mainly about our mission, since he got off his recently. 




August 13, 2017

Last night I got caught up in my hobby of the Mormon YSA Blog Spot, going to sleep late. This morning I schedule the blog posts of the day, and started writing my journal. Our ward met at 11 am in Saratoga. I just got back. After I finish this publication, editing and all. I will go to my parents for dinner because I forgot some things there.

My ward is great. The people are very friendly. Last semester we had a friendly ward too, but we did not follow up on the invitations to meet others. A family patriarch named Rafael invited us for dinner next week. We spoke personally during Priesthood because we separated in to groups to discuss sections of the literature. We spoke about Priesthood blessings because it was the topic of the section, and we related because both of our wives like to record priesthood blessings. It is a little taboo to record blessings in the church, and it is odd because what is the use of the blessing, if you can't remember what is said. We got rebuked once by Jessica's father for wanting to record a blessing that he was going to give to me. Rafael and I also related because we both went to a BYU school. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in Painting. I told him that I wanted to do that at first, but I thought that it was too risky. He related his experience after his graduation, bring it full circle to priesthood blessings.

He applied for a lot of jobs for months like me with no job offers; however, he needed to endure a job in his field of study a lot longer than me. He was stressed because he needed to provide for his wife and two children. When he broke down, he went to his father for a priesthood blessing. He was comforted, obtaining an assurance that he will be able to provide for his family. Soon after the priesthood blessing, he obtain a job as a graphic designer. He said that it was horribly disorganized, but he was able to step up and make something great out of it.

I also was able to meet a man that I recognized in the ward. He recognized me too, and we were both puzzled until we talked. I asked if he served in the temple, and he said that he recalled that we served in the Oakland temple on Thursday Evenings together.

Although I write every day in my journal, I will publish them once a week. The message that I would share from this week is a thought provoked by the first people that we met, walking into our new apartment complex when we arrived. They are Elders and missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I wonder if there are people that admire me, who I don't speak with personally. I wonder who read this. I wonder what fruits are of my blogging effort because I put a lot of work into writing and supporting young single adult bloggers. I would like the reader to consider meeting with the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often. Work closely with them. They are the people designated by God to teach the gospel to recent converts and investigators. The gospel is the way, the truth, and the light of Jesus Christ.



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