Missing my Lauren like crazy

Lauren has been gone for 36 hours on her trip to California, and I'm looking through pictures of us to try and make me miss her a little less, because right now it's a little much. Good thing she comes back in in another 24. There are more pictures that I'd like to share, but for the sake of brevity and upload time, here are a few of my favorites:

This was the 4th of July. I told her I loved her the next day.

The night she told me that she loved me.

This is last summer when we hiked the Narrows in Zion National Park.

Here she is looking at her tomato plant which I had Phil plant in a tree ahead of time to catch her attention. Meanwhile I'm waiting for her to turn around with the ring in my fingers.

Our wedding!

It is good to know that even though eventually death will probably separate us for more than 60 hours... we'll be together again for eternity

In summary... who ever knew love was this good?

Ah... how about just one more for the road?

Isn't she beautiful?!

Thoughts from Campus

Yesterday I was walking between classes and had a few thoughts that I thought might be worth mentioning on my blog. I haven't written much because with the weekly e-mails to Stephen, usually my noteworthy things are put in there. However, I had some musings that I decided to share on here.

It's good to know that I had my i-pod in, so I couldn't really hear the outside world, which left me alone to my thoughts. I don't often walk around with headphones in because I like to be able to say hello, but I had them in yesterday for some reason. As I walked between my first two classes I passed a guy that I've met before. I don't remember him very well. I remember that he looks very thick. Thick neck, thick arms, thick jaw, thick head, thick limbs. His head kind of reminded me of a box turtle--thick and compact. He just looks really solid all the way through and could probably go through a lot of guys in sports. I got the chance to see him once (I don't remember how long ago or what I met him through) but I remember he was really kind of an introverted guy. Very nice and soft spoken. It helped me remember that people aren't always what they seem on the outside.

I next passed by a guy who had an obvious physical disability. He walked by teetering from leg to leg. A very stiff motion. He had his hands locked across his chest, much the way a choir or opera singer might lock them. I imagined that he probably locked his hands because it helped him balance in some way. I turned the corner and as I was walking down the hill from the crabtree towards the snell, which is by the law building kind of, I saw another interesting figure. This third guy was sporting a mustache, curly brown hair that was kind of longer, and tight jeans. He seemed to me to have hair from the 70's and clothes from the 80's.

I thought as I walked by him that it is a very amazing blessing that we have to be able to pursue our own ideas and passions. That guy wants to dress like that, so he can. He can be an individual. He can be different if he wants to be. I just thought about how wonderful it is that we can each do that. Perhaps if he was the first guy I came across I would have thought he was weird. However, after looking at the first two and thinking about them as individuals and their lives/circumstances I think I was less prone to call the third guy weird.

The last thing I'll point out is that the farther away from the third guy I got, the more time I had to think, and the older I realized I am becoming. The give away with this thought process. "That guy's clothes were definitely an 80's style. I wonder when that will all come back in. I may start teaching in an era where the kids all pull their socks up over their jeans to get them as tight around their ankles as possible. I remember when I wore baggy jeans. Would I rather have the kids in my school dressing in baggy jeans or thin jeans? ... Probably neither. I think I'd like them to just be clean-cut and dress conservatively. Oh man, that probably means I'm old."

Couch burning and relationship torching

Hello again, all of my adoring readers.

Bryan made a great discovery yesterday. He found a couch in a dumpster. This happened once before just over a year ago. We grabbed it and burned it. Here's a picture.

We expect just as much fun the second time around. In other news, Nik broke up with his girlfriend of 5 months. She lives in Idaho and he lives down here and it was hard. She eventually told him basically that it had to go somewhere or it had to stop. By go somewhere I mean, she wanted him to propose or she didn't see any point in dating any more. He didn't feel like he could propose yet and didn't know how long he would need to figure it out, and he let it go. They broke up a few times before but he said this one was pretty final. Dating is so gut wrenching. I feel bad for him. And I'm really glad I'm back with Lauren, all at the same time. Okay, well I don't have much else to say except that we're going to go pick up the couch from the dumpster today. The ensuing fire will probably be later this week. Here is the funny video I've chosen for this post.

Shoes

So I'm thinking about getting a new pair of shoes. Anyone who has gone shoe shopping with me probably remembers how particular I am about my shoes. Bryan thinks I'm ridiculous for the shoes I have. If at the end of this post you also think so, let me know in the comments. If you understand and agree with me, let me know. I'm curious what the reality of this situation is from a removed, dispassionate viewpoint. And I'm going to gauge reality from everyone's comments. Remember that only the family reads this blog so it's not like there will be tens of comments, so make sure to not skip the comments. The purpose of this particular entry is more like a survey than an update on Tyler's awesome life in Provo.

Some background on the shoes I own. Like I said, Bryan doesn't think I need as many as I have. Here they are-

-I have some left over black shoes from my mission. I use these for the MTC.

-Cheap but nice looking black shoes from ROSS. Used for sundays and nice occassions only, since they aren't very durable.

-I have some nice brown shoes for when I go to work or church in brown slacks.

-Running Shoes. I'm training for my tri-athalon and I use these exclusively for running since I don't want to lose them any earlier than I have to. I don't want to get injured during my runs, and a good way to prevent that is good shoes.

-Cleats. I use these for very competitive games of soccer/frisbee, etc.

-Rock climbing shoes. These are specialized and are only used on rock.

-Suede Puma tennis shoes. I use these when I want to look nice on a daily basis. They are one of two pairs of shoes that I wear to school or anything else besides school/work/sports. They are a lot wider than regular tennis shoes and are more like Puma's style of skater shoe. I can't really use them to run around.

-Doc Martins. I wear these when the ground is wet and I don't want to wear my suede Pumas, or if I want a dressier look. This is the second pair that I wear on a daily basis.

-Old tennis shoes. These are 3 years old. I wear these for all sports whenever I'm not wearing my cleats. They are starting to split out the sides.

As you can see, I use all of these shoes for a specific purpose and they do all get used. The biggest problem comes with my 3 year old tennis shoes. It's not uncommon for me to wear tennis shoes this long but once they split out the sides I usually shift my other and newer pair of tennis shoes into a dual role for a few months. However, as you see from the descriptions above, my other pair of tennis shoes, the suede pumas, can't really be used for sports. That is why I want to get a new pair of shoes. Tennis shoes, to be specific. Is that ridiculous? I could probably get through one more summer on these old tennis shoes because they have only begun to split. That is the problem. I have a hard time buying another pair and having THREE pairs of tennis shoes, even if they all have a use. I just have a hard time saying, "this is my pair for hiking" "this is my pair for sports" "this is my pair for school" Here is a picture of the kicks I'm eyeing.

Please leave your thoughts on what you think reality is. Thanks.

Survival

So this last week I was over at Lauren's on monday night and as a result I went to FHE with her. They happened to be having a ward FHE that night and it was on emergency preparedness. Since that FHE, 4 or 5 days ago, it's been on my mind. If anyone needs things to put on a christmas list or wish list or anything, just remember--you can't go wrong with gear. I know I've said that before with regards to climbing equipment but I'm adding outdoor camping and emergency equipment to that list too. Basically, the store REI is a place where you could buy anything and make me happy. One of the counselors brought in his emergency pack and explained the things in there. He said that for 72 hours you should not only be able to survive, but thrive. He had warm clothes as well as work clothes, including work gloves. It all looked very well packed and inspired me to get a good emergency pack. The guy said boots are invaluable to have because you don't know where you'll have to go or what you'll have to do. You want to be able to be stable and also be able to help others until more help comes.

Let me share some of the interesting things I learned. If a person has hypothermia you should not attempt to warm their body. The blood in their body has started to go to their core to keep them warm, making their extremities go cold, but also bringing the temperature of the remaining blood out there down. If you start warming up limbs, their body will think that it is okay to start circulating blood regularly again and will start pumping more aggressively which will bring all that cold blood into the core and chill the formerly warm blood. You also shouldn't wrap up in a blanket with that person to fix it all because recent studies have shown that you can't put off enough body heat to help the other person. You should make sure that any wet clothes are off, wrap them in a blanket to capture their own body heat, let them continue to shiver (it helps warm them up), and give them something warm to drink (helping to warm their core. You want to warm them up slowly so that the blood in their extremities is warm before it goes back into the core.

How about frostbite? In frostbite, the water in the cells of the skin has started to freeze so rubbing a frozen limb for someone is likely to rip those cells up inside and be extremely painful for the person. The best thing to do is to warm them up in a bucket of water that is 98-105 degrees or so. That is just a touch colder than the hottest tap water. At least the BYU tap water comes out at 120, so a touch colder than that. You don't want to use a fire, stove, or something like that because the person with frostbite can't feel their frostbitten appendages and can't tell when they are burning themselves. Don't defrost the frozen skin if there is a chance that it could refreeze. Refreezing will cause more damage than if you had left it frozen for a few extra hours. Treat within 24 hours if at all possible.

Cotton is horrible for survival. If it gets wet it doesn't dry easily. Nylon and fleece both breathe easily and dry easily. You should dress in layers. On the skin go with a layer that is moisture wicking. In the middle you want to insulate, and on the outside you want a water resistant layer. Not water proof, because then it won't breathe, but water resistant.

In the event of an earthquake, no longer is the advice to get under a table or doorway. A falling roof can collapse these things down on you and crush you. Now they say to get to the side of a sturdy object. If a roof falls it will hit that first and then often create a void to the side of the object where a person could survive. If you are in your car, get out and on the side of it. If you're in bed, roll out onto the ground next to your bed, not under. That is what they taught us. I looked online for a source and could only find this- http://www.jeffersonreview.com/2011/03/where-to-go-during-an-earthquake/ The government's website with advice about earthquakes still says to find cover. Do what you will.

Back to well established procedures. For shock, raise the feet, keep them warm, and put a pillow under their head. make them comfortable and just talk with them. Assign one person to just keep talking to the person, it is one of the most critical factors in keeping the person from having more severe complications.

If a person gets something stuck in them, don't take it out. You don't know how much it will bleed after it gets taken out. Wrap around it to keep it stable and take the person to the doctor. If blood soaks through a bandage, add more bandage, don't remove and replace the old stuff. This is because blood has begun to coagulate and removing the bandage will rip all of that off.

Okay, that's it for now. Here is the latest cool video that I've seen. If the people reading this blog ever get tired of reading my posts, hopefully you'll still come for the videos.

What I used to think

So here is a story that I forgot to include in my e-mail to stephen but I think is kind of humorous. It happened freshman year of college. I remembered it when Erin said that Carly's comments reminded her of when she was younger and she had ideas of how things would be and how things wouldn't be. I used to make a lot of those comments. I remember being in Daniel and Erin's wymount apartment during my freshman year and someone was pregnant. I know Erin was pregnant with Ashley but I don't remember if it was her or someone else that sparked the conversation, but what I do remember is that it came up that some women have a harder time than others being pregnant. Conversely, some women have an easier time. I often would say what I thought the future would hold and I said, "I'm going to make sure I marry a girl that isn't going to have rough pregnancies." Daniel's return question was, "How are you going to make sure of that and still keep a temple recommend?" Good question. I retracted my statement.

Another one of those this-is-how-it's-going-to-be statements that I remember is also about marriage. I said, "I'm going to get married at 21, or at least engaged by 21." I remember the first semester I was home there was a guy in my FHE group that was 23. I thought, "What is wrong with this guy?" I thought that there might be a case here or there were a good catch is unable to go for that long without getting married, but largely everyone who went two years without getting married had some serious flaws. I'm now 24, turning 25 this year and as of yet unmarried. I'm left with one of two conclusions. Either I have some serious flaws and not a good catch, or my previous judgment was wrong. I've chosen to accept that I was wrong.

Here is the latest funny video I've seen.

So the Oscars are tonight. I don't know who will win what. Of those nominated for best picture I've seen Toy Story 3, The Social Network, and Inception. Of the others that I haven't seen the only two that I'd like to see are True Grit and The King's Speech. I've heard that the King's Speech is a lock for the win so I'd especially like to see that to see what the hype is. I've heard that there are only a few minor parts where swearing is heavy, so I would think that the clearplay would turn it into a veritable PG movie. But let's return to those that I have seen- I thought the social network was good, but not the best movie of the year. I actually didn't think that about any of those three. But in all fairness, let's look at other movies I saw from 2010. Megamind, Prince of Persia, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and How to Train Your Dragon. Prince of Persia was easily the worst of that list, but an equally clear choice is the second to last movie-Alice in Wonderland. Let's look at my rankings for these movies. 1 being best.

1. Social Network

2. How to train your dragon

3. Harry Potter

4. Inception

5. Toy Story 3

6. Megamind

7. Alice in Wonderland

8. Prince of Persia

Other movies from 2010 that I still want to see besides the two I mentioned above include: Tangled, and Tron. Maybe Red. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I'd like to start watching more new movies because it always seems like there are a million that I want to see. Always feel free to let me know about movies you'd recommend. (Thanks Erin and Daniel for the recommendation about Waiting For "Superman."

Here is a song on youtube that I like called "Teach Me How to Jimmer"