Tuesdays with Muerte

Yoga is good for your health. Last night, Russ Walker, my hometeacher, asked me if I would play the role of yoga instructor for his President's Day Olympics group date. I readily accepted. I prepared a 20-minute workout routine and some music to augment the experience. The playlist was mostly composed of New Age artists like Vangelis, Enya and Sigur Rós. At noon today, I drove down to the RB where I met up with the three couples that were competing in the various events. I knew three of the people from BYU dance: Russ, Kristoffer, and Heather Sabin from WA. They had already finished a number of events: basketball, racquetball, paper airplane throwing, and a couple of others. We used the empty clogging room in the RB, room number 180, for our yoga studio. I introduced myself and calmly welcomed them to couples, nude yoga . They laughed uncomfortably as I removed my shoes and socks. I realized that none of them had ever done yoga before and had no idea what to expec...

Post-it Notes are the Most Cowardly Form of Communication As a rule, stickies are a passive aggressive vehicle to ruinous relationships. (I need to be reminded of this sometimes.) Granted, there are exceptions to every rule. Here are my three fundamental issues regarding sticky-notes: Anonymity . When authors are anonymous, as one can plainly see when visiting any open-access internet forum, they feel licensed to say things that they otherwise would not say. Futility . In my experience, the likelihood of an argument being won when fought via sticky-note approaches zero. All who engage in a sticky-note wars are losers in the end. False Friendship . So much hate is crammed into one those stickies, masquerading as sweetness, that it is difficult to reconcile the a relationship after a serious exchange has taken place. Here are few of my favorite examples from passiveaggressivenotes.com : Here is another prime example of passive aggression from Pan Beezley in The...

The girls of apt. 216 [Courtney, Kelsey, Nichelle, Kristen] asked me tonight if I agreed with what one boy in the ward allegedly said to the sisters in our ward's relief society: "A smile is worth 1000 kisses." I don't know what that dude was smoking; either he has virgin lips or he knows one amazing smiler! I suppose that under extraordinary circumstances this quote could be true. Like, if it were between two dudes. Or if the girl had a horrific case of halitosis. Exceptions like that. A truism, such as this, might possibly be applicable in a ward full of hussies, where "kisses are handed out like pretzels," but in general, I would file this under hyperboles . To be fair, ONE smile may be of equal value to ONE kiss, but that is being generous. I'm just trying to be thoughtful about this. The girls in 216 also reported that they felt chastised during their RSSo  dating lesson for not being "nice" to the boys in the ward. They we...

8:30 - Scrape snow off car 8:40 - Drive 0.6 miles to the gym where I typically spend the 9am hour in Spinning Class and the 10am hour in Yoga. 8:45 - Discover that those darned "New-Years-Resolutioners" stole all the bikes! Swim for an hour instead. (These days, I typically swim between a mile and mile and a half.) 10:00 - Do Yoga right next to my old friend, Christine Weiss. Awesome! 11:15 - Scramble Eggs and Fruit. Meanwhile, watch VH1's 3 Top music videos. Taylor Swift's Romeo and Juliet finally was dethroned apparently. 11:45 - Check to see if anyone has checked my blog. (Nope.) 12:00 - Sleep my sorrows (and tiredness) away for the following 4 hours. 4:15 - Lunch [3 different bowls of cereal and some apple-chunk oatmeal.) 4:35 - The Signature Game. Those in the ward already know what that is. For those who don't I'll amend this post with a scan of the rules. It's a game I made up to strengthen Ward unity. 6:45 - Scrape car ...

BACKGROUND This is a picture of Crest's Premium, 7-day, teeth whitening system! My generous sister, Heather, gave this kit to me as a gift 2 Christmases ago.  (I think she's just trying to do her part to married me off.)  I kept the box underneath me sink for a year, waiting for a (female) reason to use it.  Finally, on February 3rd, 2009 (a day of complete unimportance), I decided to bust it out. REVIEW The Crest Whitestrips are NOT as user friendly as they claim. They are designed for people with gigantic, horse teeth. Small-mouthed people, beware!  Once I figured out how to remove them from their complicated wrappers, they tasted awful. The instructions ask you to peel off and discard 20% of the strip, which seems like a waste. (But I out-smarted them! I saved those extra bits and carved them up to use once my 7-days are complete.) The gooey bleach always smeared on my fingertips which left temporary, white stain marks. Other than those things, the ...

I usually honor St. Valentine's Day by revealing *my feelings* to a special someone. The term, crush , I think describes it best. I typically don't know the person well, but I'll still care for them (or at least want to care for them). About 75% of the time, I'll be a man and express my feelings for them in some way. Some years, it is a dinner out. Other years it's just an elaborate card. One year, I chickened out entirely and ended up watching a movie about muscle cars. This year, however, is different. This year--I have no "Crush". (Notice: If you secretly have a crush on me, I will still respect any demonstrations of affection you have to offer. I understand that sometimes you just need to get it off your chest. Please, girls only.) Last week, someone asked me what I was doing to celebrate the big day. I looked shocked and replied that I had no idea. Since then, I've pondered how I should be feeling about . . . how I am feeling: ...

Why did I cut my hair? Everyone keeps asking me. I didn't have a great answer on the spot, so I am using this opportunity to process and think through my motivation. My Motivation On Wednesday, the 28th of January, I had a head-modeling gig at The Bridge ; it was the first of four sessions over the next month. Justin, who teaches on Wednesday nights, smiled and welcomed me on my way in. "You know, Bryan" he said pulling me off to the side. "I wouldn't be upset if you were to decide to shave your head for the next study. I mean, you TOTALLY don't have to; I'm just saying--you could do it." I pondered on his words for the rest of the night. The following day, I made a list of pros and cons. Some carried more weight than others, but in the end Pros won out. To Bic, or Not To Bic? Should I completely  bic my head? I'm so close anyway… Cons: It's winter and I hate being cold. I've always felt that shaved heads are goof...