Strange Dreams

I had a very strange dream last night. I dreamed that I was living in a dorm somewhere and my roommate was one of the MBA students that I know (a Japanese guy named Makoto). This makes no sense cause Makoto is married with kids, but he was my roommate in this dream all the same. I was coming back to my room after the day and I finally found the key. Once I was back in my room I was sitting on my side of the small dorm room and the first counselor of our bishopric (not in real life, just in the dream) came in. He was Dr. Curtis LeBaron, my leadership teacher. It was kinda strange.

Anyway, Dr. LeBaron starts talking about life and about the gospel. In particular, about the evil things we do and the temptations we have. As he is speaking more people start entering my dorm room. People I know from all parts of my life. Childhood friends, school friends, family members, some of my current ward members, just about everyone. My dorm room finally ended up holding about 100 people all sitting along the walls of my room listening to Dr. LeBaron preach.

Dr. LeBaron starts to talk about my life in particular and he continues to go through a "This is your life" kind of speech. He tells me all the good things I have been doing and all the bad. He explains what I need to do to raise myself up and do better. Its really wierd because as he is speaking he transforms into the Savior. The Savior continues speaking and explaining to me all the things I need to do to make it successfully through this life. Its been a long time since I have had a dream this vivid. I woke up with a feeling like I had just lived that dream, not dreamed it.

Anyway, it was a crazy experience and I thought Id write it down somewhere so I would be able to refer back to it later.

Traditions...

[Author's Note: So I wrote this on Christmas Eve last year, saved it to a draft, and totally forgot about it. Im posting it now to get it out of the 'drafts' section of my blog...enjoy!]

So its Christmas Eve today. I went to church here in California to the Spanish Ward. It was interesting, there were alot of kids. The program was nice, alot of good christmas songs. I like that.

So, Im here at Kim's family's place and they are preparing for a big dinner with family and friends over. It's going to be one of those dinners where you sit next to someone you either don't like or don't know and the effect is the same. Oh well, good old Christmas Traditions.

Speaking of traditions, in my family (growing up) we always opened our christmas presents in the morning after we woke up. Thats one of the traditions we adhered to. It made for many sleepless nights on Christmas eve as we lay there thinking of the morning and what was behind all that bright colorful wrapping that my Mom...I mean Santa so carefully prepared.

Here, and in the latin culture in general, things are a little different. They all open their presents at the stroke of midnight, when Christmas arrives. Im of mixed feelings about this. It is nice to sleep on on Christmas day and all, especially since I always end up staying up late on Christmas Eve anyway. However, I wonder about the children and how they can possible think that Santa came when they were sitting there in the house all day anyway and nothing magical happened. Their parents just snuck presents past them somehow. I dont know how it works, but maybe latin kids are just more gullible than american kids. Anyway, its a tradition they enjoy and that I participate in when I am here. The funny thing is I dont even care anymore, since I already opened all my presents from my family and girlfriend. So, anything thats left is just presents from people who usually have no idea what I like/want in things I would use. Oh well, three cheers for more socks this christmas.

I hope you all have traditions that you hold dear, just remember that not everyone in your own country does things the way you do and be tolerant to that fact. People are different the world over, but particularly in your own country where you may encounter them someday. Life goes on, and traditions are just things we have done in the past with our respective families, they don't necessarily make us who we are in the end.

Merry Christmas! Make it the best one!

The Hulk's got nothing on me...

There are times in my life when I seem to have a vision. Its like I can see not only the future but deep into the universe and the meaning of all things. At these times the thing that strikes me most is that I feel invicible. I feel like I can do ANYTHING that I can dream. I feel like I can get any job I want, make any problem I see right, or acheive the greatest things imaginable.

These moments are few and far between, I usually only have one or two every six months, but when they do happen they are always unexpected and always wonderful. Im not sure if I am describing the feeling properly. Its not like I actually see things, I can still see my surroundings, whatever they happen to be, but I can also see things on top of that. The things I feel I can achieve are superimposed on whatever I am looking at and its like watching a movie where all the frames have been double exposed. So you are watching two movies at once. Its a crazy sight.

The funny thing is during these times I have this feeling that its all a daydream, but I have this other feeling that I am actually seeing one of many possible futures and that these are all available paths to me if I only strive for it. Its amazing the things my brain dreams up at times.

Ive always had what my Mom calls an "over-active imagination" but these moments seem to push the limits of what even my imagination could do. I often feel like these "visions" are something more, but I have no proof so I can only assume they are the vain imaginings of my brain.

In any case, I do feel invicible when I have these, not invicible in a physical sense but in a mental one. I feel like life, with all of its challenges can't touch me. I have had alot of trials and challenges to get where I am today and I feel like I have succeeded greatly to have made it this far (with divine help of course) and so I guess I can see why I would feel like this when I have these thoughts.

Anyway, Im done rambling...

Short and sweet...

I have to write one paper tonight, do one outline, and do preliminary research for a group paper tonight. I decided to update my blog as a pre-writing activity, with the hope that by writing this I can put myself in the "zone" for writing these next two assignments.

It is currently 10:53 pm and I am sitting on the couch in my living room working from my laptop. I have my Trance music station from www.pandora.com playing a sweet Trance song right now ("I cant let you go" by Ian Van Dahl, if you were wondering). If you happen to log on to pandora.com and want to listen to the Radio stations I have programmed there just let me know what email address you used to register with Pandora and I will share my Trance City station with you. You won't be disappointed I promise.

I'm getting a stomach ache again. I think its my old ulcer acting up. This semester has been much more stressful than I had originally anticipated. The best laid plans and all that...

Its almost over though. Two weeks from today I will be in California unpacking my stuff for my three week vacation there. Thats an extremely exciting prospect. However, I am still wondering how Im going to finish everything between now and then considering I can't seem to get my most important tool up and running: my writer's edge. So, here I sit trying to get that beast of a machine turned on and roaring.

Lately my writer's block has had more to do with stress and time constraints than lack of ideas or ability. I can write just fine, I just cant bring myself to do it because I'm so fried from feeling stressed so much and from not feeling like I have time to do it.

Haha, I had to laugh there a moment as I thought about it. I mean, who am I writing this to? No one reads this anymore...in the end though, I dont think it matters much. As always my writing is mostly for me. If what I write helps me a bit, then I really don't care if I am the only one who reads it. I'm sure most writers feel the way I do.

Ok, I think Im pretty warmed up, its time to turn the machine to mowing the grass on my next two projects. Thanks for listening...