Thank goodness for useless talents

A lot has happened since my last post... so much that I couldn't even fit posting on my blog into the schedule.

First was a trip to Fort Worth with a small ward group to see the BYU v. TCU game.. quite the disappointment... the game not the trip. The trip was a much needed break from my stressful student teaching. I also discovered my hidden talent for the bubble wrap popping game on the new iPod. Yet another totally pointless talent I can add to my list, along with pumpkin carving(see picture below), tying knots, washing laundry by hand, making fire with sticks, and playing on my homemade flute.

Then came Halloween, a great holiday if you ask me. Unfortunately Aldine school district doesn't acknowledge Halloween. They just pretend it doesn't exist. I wonder what they would do if I didn't acknowledge school tomorrow.... nope, wouldn't work. Too bad.

Luckily I got to go to a ward Halloween party dressed as Donatello, my favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I enjoyed the costume immensely... every time I felt awkward I just kicked my leg as high as possible and said "hi ya"... also I got to hold a bow staff. You should try it sometime, it is nice.

The next day I set out for another long day of trying to find a new car.. but this time I actually bought one. It may not have been expensive but we sure sacrificed a lot for that car. My brother and I spent a ridiculous hour and a half waiting for the owner of the car to show up with the title after we decided to by the 97 Honda CRV. The car was at the tattoo shop of the owner's 80 year old boyfriend. Ok, maybe he wasn't 80, but for sure he was too old and saggy to have as many tattoos as he did. After approximately 7 minutes of waiting in the tattoo shop, we decided that anything... anything would be better than sitting in this rather profane tattoo shop. So we walked to the nearby Dollar General and walked around... every isle... twice... We decided that the food at a dollar store must me months old and bought a cheese grater... oh, and a car.
Less than a week later I found myself standing outside that car with the only key locked inside. I had just gotten out of the temple and was very tired after a rather long two weeks or so. I was able to keep it together with the help of some friends and a Reece's peanut butter cup in the shape of a pumpkin. A few minutes after coming to grip with my own idiocy and bad luck, I found myself watching an adorable old temple worker man opening his slim jim lockout kit on the hood of my impenetrable car. Apparently I am not the first to have had this misfortune. I asked him, "Did they tell you how to use this stuff then?" "They gave me hints," he said, crushing any hope I had that this elderly man would actually be able to break into my car.. he was just too innocent, no matter how many tools he had. It can't be that hard, I told myself taking a stab at it. I'd seen these criminals in movies pop doors open in a matter of seconds... but after a few minutes of aimlessly jerking at anything I could hook my flat tool of crime on, I was starting to loose hope.

Just about every man who left the temple seemed to think the way I did, and wanted to show us how easy it really was. To my great pleasure I noticed that one of these men, a middle aged Hispanic fellow seemed to actually know what he was doing.. I eagerly went to watch him work. "have you done this before?" I asked... He looked at me for a second with a slight grin, "When I was younger." I know I shouldn't have been glad to hear that, but I was.

After about an hour, with sweat on his brow, this gentleman was able to get me into my car. Here to you Brother car breaker inner... From one person with "useless" talents to another.. you never know when your experience may come in handy!