Shhhh...It's a secret

Over the last several weeks I have had some eye opening conversations with some of my male friends.  I've been talking to a couple friends about girls they are interested in and been shocked to find that, as much as I refused to believe it, a lot of guys are afraid of girls.  Which in some cases is totally justified.  Girls can be crazy.  But most of us are not. 

Both guys (separate from one another) told me about a girl they were interested in and their plan to talk to said girl.  They then proceeded to ask something to the effect of:  "but would that be weird?"  "is that creepy?" "Will she think I'm crazy?". 
My response is simply that you are over thinking things.  Fact is, there is no definite answer.  But here is a little secret: 
If she is interested in you she won't think it's weird.  She will be flattered to have the attention.  If she isn't interested- yes you will probably be blogged about and filed away as a creeper ;)

But I'm kind of serious.  You just won't know what she will think until you try.  I know it's scary but you are just going to have to gain (or fake) a little bit of confidence and jump in with both feet.  One of two things will occur:
1.  She's interested and you get a date
2.  She thinks your a creeper, and you can dust your shoulder off and find a girl worth your time.

Think of all the time that's wasted hemming and hawing over all those "what ifs" ... Just do it.  I think you will find that unless she's a spoiled princess, she is not going to shoot you where you stand for saying hi, or sending a text/message, or asking her out.  We may not want to marry you but most of us are pretty nice. 

The Unexplained....

WHAT. THE. HECK?!  So back in...oh maybe the end of October my body store got packaged PJ sets.  Just before black Friday they went on promotion.  Here is the story with packaged PJ'S...everyone wants to undo them so they can look at them but they don't want to buy the one they opened.  So every year I try and make a preemptive strike and set up a display of each style and at least one of each size.  This year I put out my display and by the time I came back into work I had a pair of PJ pants and no shirt.  I set the pants aside just waiting for the shirt to turn up... maybe someone tried it on and it got separated.  Well I waited and waited and finally after Christmas I price killed the pants and just sold them on their own for way discounted. 

GUESS WHAT showed up today.  on the 25th day of January??  THE FLIPPING SHIRT!  Are you kidding me?!?!  It's been missing for two months- the only possible solution...Big Foot.  It's the only thing that makes sense.  ;)

Smack YOU!

Gum.  I used to love the stuff.  Not because I love Gum really but more out of a perpetual fear of bad breath.  I chewed gum for hours every day...and then my jaw decided to lock and I was forced to end my long complicated relationship.  I have been gum free for 3 years now.  Perhaps this is the reason I feel so strongly about what I am about to say. 

NO ONE ELSE SHOULD KNOW YOU ARE CHEWING GUM!

Seriously, if you are over 15 you are not allowed to chew gum in public.  It is so gross when a middle aged adult smacks their gum.  A man came into my store today and I seriously could hear him chewing across the room.  He was probably at least in his 50s and I could barely concentrate on anything he was saying because all I heard was gum smacking.  ewww.  Gross. 

Chew your gum if you must but I don't want to hear it.  Keep it to yourself. The End. 

The Cart Was Pushing Me...

I have not blogged in weeks.  Mostly because I have just been so tired...even if I had the time to write it would have not been much...my brain has not been functioning at full capacity.  So even now I am not going to try to be witty or clever.  I am simply going to share with you a story I found while preparing my lesson...one that is fantastic but maybe a little too "deep" for an introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants lesson. I enjoyed it all the same and thought someone else might as well. 

 

James E. Faust:

“Some years ago president David O. McKay told from this pulpit of the experience of some of those in the Martin handcart company. Many of these early converts had emigrated from Europe and were too poor to buy oxen or horses and a wagon. They were forced by their poverty to pull handcarts containing all of their belongings across the plains by their own brute strength. President McKay relates an occurrence which took place some years after the heroic exodus:

 

“A teacher, conducting a class, said it was unwise ever to attempt, even to permit them [the Martin

handcart company] to come across the plains under such conditions.[According to a class member,]
some sharp criticism of the Church and its leaders was being indulged in for permitting any company of converts to venture across the plains with no more supplies or protection than a handcart caravan
afforded. An old man in the corner… sat silent and listened as long as he could stand it, then he arose
and said things that no person who heard him will ever forget. His face was white with emotion, yet he spoke calmly, deliberately, but with great earnestness and sincerity. In substance [he] said, ‘I ask you to stop this criticism. You are discussing a matter you know nothing about. Cold historic facts mean nothing here, for they give no proper interpretation of the questions involved. Mistake to send the Handcart Company out so late in the season? Yes. But I was in that company and my wife was in it and Sister Nellie Unthank whom you have cited was there, too. We suffered beyond anything you can imagine and many died of exposure and starvation, but did you ever hear a survivor of that company utter a word of criticism? Not one of that company ever apostatized or left the Church, because everyone of us came through with the absolute knowledge that God lives for we became acquainted with him in our extremities. ‘I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.’ He continues: ‘I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there. ‘Was I sorry that I chose to come by handcart? No. Neither then nor any minute of my life since. The price we paid to become acquainted with God was a privilege to pay, and I am thankful that I was privileged to come in the Martin Handcart Company.’ (Relief Society Magazine,Jan. 1948, p. 8.)

Here then is a great truth. In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner’s fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong. In this way the divine image can be mirrored from the soul. It is part of the purging toll exacted of some to become acquainted with God. In the agonies of life, we seem to listen better to the faint, godly whisperings of the Divine Shepherd. Into every life there
come the painful, despairing days of adversity and buffeting. There seems to be a full measure of
anguish, sorrow, and often heartbreak for everyone, including those who earnestly seek to do right and be faithful. The thorns that prick, that stick in the flesh, that hurt, often change lives which seem robbed of significance and hope. This change comes about through a refining process which often seems cruel and hard. In this way the soul can become like soft clay in the hands of the Master in building lives of faith, usefulness, beauty, and strength. For some, the refiner’s fire causes a loss of belief and faith in God, but those with eternal perspective understand that such refining is part of the perfection process.…The proving of one’s faith goes before the witnessing, for Moroni testified, ‘Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith’ (Ether 12:6). This trial of faith can become a priceless experience.” (Conference Report, May 1979 Ensign, “The Refiner’s Fire”