Whatevs

2011, adios!

2011-12-30T21:55:00.000-08:00

Here we are at the close of 2011, which means, it's time to reflect on all that has happened this year. As I think of the year in general, I'm leaning towards it being good, though the stressful parts were REALLY stressful.

As usual, good things are in green and bad in red.

January

After having reviewed every episode of Bewitched since the 40th anniversary of the premiere on September 17, 2004 for HarpiesBizarre.com, and at the prompting of my readers, I submitted the idea to Bear Manor Media and they said I may have to edit it, however, that indicated they were interested:)

Mr. Sniffles, my parent's cat, came in one day from outside very ill and later my mom let him out again and he never came back. It's so very sad.

February

I got almost $3,000 for my yearly bonus which I used to pay off RC Willey and pay off my car!!! I also got a laptop.

March

Because I was going to meet Barbara Eden (Jeannie from I Dream of Jeannie) next month, I decided I wanted a Jeannie bottle and found one for about 3/4 of the price! When it arrived, it was horribly painted but the seller sent me another one that was much better.

Mayson celebrated his 5th birthday at Boondock's. Everyone was there except Jody, who wasn't invited. It was so much fun. We played laser tag and also went in the go-carts.

April

I went to Los Angeles by myself so I could meet Barbara Eden at her book signing. I was going to meet some of my Bewitched friends there but it was so lonely and dumb being by myself. I did go to Disneyland by myself which was interesting. But Barbara was so awesome and beautiful!

May

Mom passed her final and only has one more class to go to finally be out of school!

Tracey introduced me to "Ultimate Dog Tease" which truly made me happy and still does. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/nGeKSiCQkPw

Had a candle light vigil for the 16th anniversary of Elizabeth Montgomery's passing. Tracey, Jenn, and her new awesome boyfriend Zack were there. We watched her Twilight Zone and Johnny Staccato episode. We also watched "Double, Double, Toil and Trouble."

That same day was also HIV Awareness Day that Paula Abdul was always mentioning on her site. So I posted about how fitting that it also fell on Liz's death anniversary as Liz was a champion for AIDS rights and Paula responded, "@davidp what an AWESOME post about Elizabeth Montgomery. She was right we need to get educated about HIVE and AIDS and STOP STOP STOP w/the ignorance and prejudice." It made me happy that Paula mentioned Liz:)

I also started on a new team at work. My supervisor is Laura Holden, who was rumored to be a horrible person, but I really like her. She has made me loyalty champ.

Saw Pirates of the Carribean III with Tracey, Ian, Mackenzie and Jack. It was way awesome because it has mermaids in it.

I had to get a new cell phone as the speaker on my Palm Pre Plus blew out so I got an awesome HTC Incredible 2.

I also showed Mayson the "Ultimate Dog Tease" video and he was laughing so hard, he was slapping his knees, and said, "Dave! We have got to show this to someone!" Man, he's so funny!

June

Attended the Best in State awards with Michelle, Michael, Jenn, Tracey, and Jason Roundy as Michelle's Utah Events by Design was receiving an award. We rented tuxes and the girls bought dresses. It felt very much like the Academy Awards.

Jenn and I spent a Sunday going to various little known parks around the city, particularly the Peace Gardens so I could finally see the Little Mermaid statue. That night Tracey, Michelle, Michael and I went up the canyons to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. It was a great day.

I spoke to one of the relatives of the Von Trapp family at work which spawned many emails with my team quoting the songs from the movie. It was hilarious!

I went to the zoo with my mom and Mayson and we had a really fun time. Mayson was so cute saying, "Let me see the map. I know where to go."

I hadn't heard from Ben Ohmart of Bear Manor Media in over a month since submitting the edited book so I asked him how it was going and he replied, "It's a good piece of work, so let's go for it!" WOO-HOO!!!! I had started pursuing the book also because last September Paula Abdul had challenged everyone to make goals and that was one of mine so I tweeted her that it was going to be published and she responded, "DON'T MAKE ME CRY! If i start cyring this early team mystery glam will find you and they'll HURT YOU! I'M ECSTATIC FOR YOU! xoP" Awesome!!

I met Jen Gruz on her layover from Alaska on an early Saturday morning. It was good to see her.

July

Rachel Harris Hill, the girl I dated in 2005, found me on Facebook. I've thought of her every day since we split up and I found she was married but divorced and has a two year old son. We only traded like two messages and she never wrote back to me.

Pamela and Sydney came up to visit one weekend for Sydney's softball tournament. Tracey and I met her and Janette Clark Belnap and Jill Atwood at the Valley Fair Olive Garden and had the best time. On Sunday, Pam, Sydney and I went to Temple Square and had lunch. It was a fun day.

The Slack Family Bear Lake trip was fun, even without Evelyn and Bert. My family went up to Preston, Idaho to visit the sites from Napoleon Dynamite. It was awesome! My mom really loved it and so did Mayson.

Had a fun time at the Pioneer Day celebration at Evelyn's, though it wasn't as fun as last year.

Amy Winehouse, one of my favorite singers, died of alcohol poisoning. So sad, but not unexpected. That same day Jenn threw a huge summer BBQ at our house that even Paul came to! It was fun.

August

My mom, Paul, Mayson, Pibby, Jenny, and I went up to Tyler's family's cabin in Kamas with he and Heather and had a great time even though we had to bring water in from the creek for the toilet. It was beautiful up there and I tried riding a motor cycle for the first time and about crashed.

Tracey and I took Mayson to see the UP house in South Jordan. It was so awesome!

One Friday I had off and posted on Twitter that I had the day off and Paula Abdul asked "How's your day off? xoP I replied, "Fine as frog hair...I'm going to hang with my 5 year old nephew Mayson. He's awesome! How's your day?" Usually Paula doesn't respond more than once but she responded, "Fine as frog hair? Really?? I see where this #Friday is headded...hairy frogs, guys named Dougie and 'Stanky' legs. lol" based on other comments going on. While I was hanging with Mayson this strange boy came to the door saying the Draper grandkids had told him to come find a drink at our house and I told him to go back there and tell them to be nice. Well, the next day I find out that the kid went and climbed up the Draper's roof and fell down their chimney and got stuck!! The fire department came over and had to break down the walls in the living room to get him out. Crazy!!

Mayson started kindergarten!! I can't believe he's old enough to go to school! They made him the 'C' expert.

September

Mayson lost his first tooth!

We celebrated Paul's birthday at Pat's BBQ and invited Michael and Michelle since it was also Michael's birthday. It was fun.

Heather's birthday was awesome because I gave her this HUGE Simpsons book that is comprised of the first 20 seasons. She loved it.

I started taking supervisor calls at work last month, not really wanting to as I had done so for a week in February and hated it. It has been horrible!! People such dumb asses!

Grandma Pierce stopped eating around Heather's birthday and my dad and I went to go see her the weekend of September 11. She had really labored breathing just like Grandma Slack did before she died. We said our goodbyes and on September 12, Grandma passed away. We had her funeral that weekend and I, Tracey and Troy, Pamela and Natalie, and Matt all gave talks. It's so weird that she actually died.

October

The weekend of my birthday, Dad had to go to the hospital because two of his toes are totally black and he had red lines going up his leg which indicates infection. So I made my birthday dinner of tacos and mom had made me a chocolate cake. Michelle, Michael, Paul, Mayson, Pibby, Jenny, Tracey, Jenn and Zack were all there. It was a lot of fun and we went bowling too, which I've wanted to do the past five birthdays.

Paul and Jody FINALLY got divorced! It's sad but good.

Paul went with me to Reno to stay at Andrea and Robert White's for Halloween. We had a lot of fun with the exception of me choking so bad on some food at the Chinese restaurant in Virginia City that I had to go to the emergency room. I was really scared. But they did a good job. I was King Henry VIII. It was awesome!

November

My parents were supposed to work for Thanksgiving and Pibby and Jenny and Heather and Tyler were going elsewhere so Michelle invited Paul and I. We had a really good dinner and just hung out most of the day until the evening when Paul went and picked up Mayson and we all went to see the new Muppet movie. I loved it! But I seemed to be the only one, other than Mackenzie, who was with us with Ian and Jack.

December

My mom failed her final which means she cannot get her RN. Her teacher was the biggest bitch and pretty much made all the tests impassable. There were many that didn't pass. Mom is currently trying to appeal it.

I was finally taken off taking supervisor calls. So glad!! I hated it so much!

Christmas was good with the traditional Christmas breakfast. Jenny had my name and she got me Liz Montgomery's The Black Widow Murders.

I also decided I have to have another job so I applied at Altius on the advice of Paul because his friend works there and I got it! So now I have to quit Verizon which is going to be difficult, but necessary.

My book has also gone to the typesetter and so I feel that it's going to be published in the spring.

I'm really excited for 2012 - new job, first book published, and hopefully many more great things!

The Return of The Muppets

2011-11-28T21:39:00.000-08:00

I have been a fan of the Muppets ever since I can remember. In fact, I have more Muppety memories from childhood than I ever did of Bewitched. The Muppet Show premiered the same year I did and I do remember watching it when I was younger, most likely in reruns. I don't remember when I first saw my favorite Muppet movie, The Great Muppet Caper, however, I do remember that every time my dad would go to rent videos and a VCR I would always request it. For my eighth birthday, I went with my parents and my friend Shantel to see The Muppets Take Manhattan and for my tenth birthday the traveling exhibit The Art of the Muppets came to town so my mom paid for me and about 10 of my friends to go see it. Up to that point it was the best day of my life as the actual Muppets were there, albeit in cases, but still! Even Big Bird, my favorite Sesame Street Muppet was there! My bedroom was filled with Muppet posters that I got at the store or out of the Muppet Magazine (which I totally regret destroying as they are highly collectible).

What did I love about the Muppets? I loved that they were full of dreams and ambitions that they achieved, that they tried to be very professional even amid Fozzie's terrible jokes and Gonzo's crazy attempts at feats of daring like jumping through a hoop of fire while his chickens clucked the William Tell overture. Most of all I loved the outrageous zaniness of the resident band, the Electric Mayhem, particularly Dr. Teeth and his far out way of talking and Animal, the crazed drummer who could lose control at any moment.

My career goal was to work for Jim Henson and in fact, for career day in about fifth grade, I dressed up like a hippie and brought my babysitter Vanessa's Animal puppet so I could demonstrate how I was going to be a Muppeteer. Of course, every other boy was a fireman or doctor, so I stood out like a sore thumb, and I was told that it wasn't a very good career goal, which I didn't agree with at all.

In September 1990, Jim Henson (Muppet creator) sadly passed away and the world wondered if the Muppets would continue, no one more than myself. Shortly after his death the newest big screen Muppet movie A Muppet Christmas Carol was released and was also the unveiling of the new Kermit's voice. I was apprehensive, but it was OK, though I felt something was a bit off. Piggy was hardly in the movie and the Electric Mayhem, who had seemed to be a big part of every other Muppet movie, was a mere blip.

In 1996 Muppet Treasure Island was released and I have to admit I forced myself to like it, but it mainly just sucked. There was something missing! That year also saw the release of a new Muppet TV show - Muppets Tonight - which was all right, but it was certainly no Muppet Show, though it did introduce a new favorite Muppet, Pepe the Prawn.

The last big screen Muppet vehicle was Muppets from Space (1999) which was not that great at all. My Muppets were known for their great songs and all this movie had was musical montages to 70s songs.

A little after that Palisades began releasing Muppet action figures which literally was a dream come true. For years I've had dreams of going into what looked like the old Crossroads Mall into a shop in a deserted corner to find Muppet action figures everywhere and when these were released, I literally bounced a check at Toys R Us to buy Kermit, Piggy, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Dr. Teeth. That last one made me smile as big as he did as there was never any Dr. Teeth toys before! But soon, Palisades stopped their productions and the Muppets came out with a few TV specials that were far from special. It truly seemed that any Muppet magic was a thing of the past.

But then came along Jason Segal (How I Met Your Mother).

About four years ago it was made known that Jason wanted to head a new Muppet movie as he was a huge Muppet fan and in fact, had his own puppets he made. I wasn't sure about how all this would go down considering the most recent Muppet projects were ill-making to say the least, aimed towards pre-schoolers.

Then, starting last year, photos from the set and promotions started happening and it looked like maybe there was hope that someone had finally realized that us Muppet fans love ALL the Muppets like Thog, Sweetums, the Newsman, etc, because those Muppets were showing up in pictures and then in the previews.

Fastforward to this past week, Thanksgiving evening to be precise, I saw the new movie (simply called The Muppets) with my brother, my nephew Mayson (who I've indoctrinated with the Gospel of Muppet via the Muppet Show DVDs and the movies) and some of my friends.

So what did I think?

I LOVED it!! In the very first few moments the title of the movie came up and THANKFULLY not in the font with the M looking like a contorted Kermit, but with the old school Muppet Show looking font. I had the biggest chills when Gary (Jason Segal) and Walter (his Muppet brother) were shown watching The Muppet Show back in the 70s where Walter realizes there are others like him. When his room was shown with tons of Muppet stuff, I heard my brother tell Mayson, "That's Uncle Dave right there!"

I thought the songs were kinda cheesy, however, I can't get "Life's a Happy Song" out of my head. And I totally related to "Man or Muppet" where Gary tries to decide how much of a man or a Muppet he is and finally comes to the conclusion that he's a Muppet of a man.

The best part of the movie, though, was when Kermit and the reunited gang, put on a show harkening back to The Muppet Show, and when Kermit announced through the O of what was now the word "Telethon" the special guest star, I thought I would pass out...it was AWESOME!! Especially seeing all the Muppets in the archways.

I also really liked the inclusion of Uncle Deadly, a little known Muppet, but an awesome one.

Of course, the movie did have it's faults like the over all depression of Kermit, the Electric Mayhem not having a musical number and Beaker and Bunsen hardly being in the movie, however, those were minor gripes.

I loved the movie so much I went and saw it again and hope to see it at least once more before it's out of theaters. I really feel like MY Muppets are back, the ones that had an adult sensibility but who could also play to children a like, and not just be focused solely to kids.

What I really like is that my nephew, who is five years old, is about the same age as I was when I really began to begin my love for the Muppets, and now it seems that he's going to be able to have the same opportunity.

I hope the success of this movie means even more movies and maybe, just maybe, a new Muppet Show utilizing the old set.

RIP Grandma Pierce!

2011-09-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

Tonight, around 9 PM, my Grandma Pierce passed away after dodging Death's scythe for many years. In fact, she stopped eating last Wednesday and went into some sort of coma state, though she could still hear us. My dad (her only son and first child) and I went down to see her on Saturday. She was having heavy breathing followed by periods of no breath for about twenty seconds or so. I grasped her hand and said, "Grandma, it's David. Me and my dad came to visit." Her breathing immediately went to a slow rhythm. I had watched my Grandma Slack pass away and the way Grandma Pierce was breathing was the same way. I was sure we would witness her death, especially since the nurses said it would be within the next twelve hours.

However, Saturday came and went, Sunday came and went, and today I had resigned myself to the fact that maybe she was again going to pull through.

Today I received the Complete Series of M*A*S*H on DVD. That series is a Pierce family favorite. In fact, every time I think of it I think of being down at Grandma's, getting ready for bed in our sleeping bags on the living room floor (us kids were too scared to sleep down stairs in the basement), and the adults getting ready to watch the show right after the 10 o'clock news. Everyone laughed and it was cool that the main character, Captain 'Hawkeye' Pierce, shared our name and looked like my dad. Anyway, my cousin Tracey from that side of the family, who is also my roommate, and I were watching the extras discs from the set when she passed. How fitting.

It's also a full moon which I think is great.

I'm so glad she's not suffering anymore. I felt bad that I didn't go to see her more often. I would usually go once per season because it was such a long drive, and then just really depressing when you'd get there because she was so miserable.

I lived with her while going to college and we had many discussions, laughed some, argued some, and just had nice time. I felt a special bond with her as she loved to paint and so did I.

While I was on my mission about three months in, I woke up horribly ill with a splitting headache and quite nauceous. In fact, I fell into a coma and awoke in the evening thinking it was still morning. As I lay in bed not able to get up because my head hurt so bad, the phone rang. My companion answered and said, "No ma'am, there is no Pamela Reddington here." !!!!! Pamela is my cousin so I told him to give me the phone. When I got on, it was Grandma!! Nobody had my phone number as I wasn't allowed to call home. She was quite surprised and said she didn't know how she got my number. I told I was glad because I was feeling so sick, which made me homesick so we spoke for awhile. She was glad to speak to me. She also wrote me quite often, which I greatly appreciated.

Grandpa Pierce has been dead 20 years this Thanksgiving so it's about time she joined him.

All though I am sad, I'm more grateful and happy that she won't suffer anymore, that she'll finally be with Grandpa again, that she'll get to see her parents whom she lost when she was just a teen or younger, and her younger sister who died when she was quite young. I know I'll see her again and I'm so thankful for the testimony I have of eternal life and that the Savior, Jesus Christ, has made it possible for all of us to be with our loved ones again throughout Eternity.

My Dreams of Jeannie Come True!

2011-04-18T22:54:00.000-07:00

All though my heart lies with Samantha and the witches and warlocks of Bewitched, I have a place in my heart for Major Nelson and the beautiful Jeannie he released from her bottle imprisonment of 2,000 years on I Dream of Jeannie. In fact, I would say that when I was little, Jeannie was more my favorite than Samantha because she was half naked (for the 60s) plus the bottle was so cool and her smoking in/out of it was even more cool!

Late last year, Barbara Eden (Jeannie) announced that she was writing her auto-biography. I knew that meant she most likely would be having a book signing and wouldn't you know it, she did! So I purchased my trip and flew out last Thursday to Los Angeles for the book signing at the Barnes & Noble at the Grove. I met up with some friends that I had met at the Bewitched Fanfare and after going to lunch, we got in line about 15 people from the front due to Lindsay being an employee of B&N getting us wristbands for the front.

A couple weeks before I had bought a replica Second Season bottle that Barbara could sign however the B&N people had all these dumb rules about "No Memorabilia" and "No Posed Photography." I brought it anyway.

At 2PM Barbara showed up. She is very tiny and though she is pushing 80, she looks like she is pushing 60! She asked if we wanted a Q&A or just start signing. We all opted for the former. She did about five questions and then the signing started. When it was my turn, I was so thrilled! She is so beautiful and kind! I had all ready read the book and told her how much I loved it and how she has brought me so much joy through her talents. She thanked me and while Lisa was taking our picture, Lisa said outloud, "No don't you dare pose! But smile!" Barbara laughed and we looked at Lisa and then when the rest of my friends had gone through the line we all told her goodbye at the same time and I blew her a kiss.

I was going to stay until after the line had died and see if I could get the bottle signed but Lisa invited me to go with her and our other friends to a Hollywood Starbucks where the stars always go so I opted for that as Lisa seems to attract an extraordinary amount of stars to her. Well, we ended up visiting with Zsa Zsa Gabor's crazy husband, Prince Frederick!!

When I went back to the Grove for a dinner party that my friend Gina had set up with the possibility of Barbara joining us, I found that the book signing ended early and Barbara had actually been signing memorabilia as well as went to the place where we were having dinner. She had left just before I got there. Oh well! The dinner was fun as I was with other IDOJ fans.

The next day I made my way up to Westward Beach in Malibu, CA where the pilot episode of the show was shot. It was so cool seeing it as it hasn't changed. I also got to be part of some more magic as I was asked to film a proposal of a guy to his girlfriend without her knowing under the cover of them building a sandcastle and her digging up a bottle with the proposal message inside.

All in all, a dream come true and I shall always dream of Jeannie, er, Barbara!

You know what? F*** YOU 2010!!!

2010-12-30T23:13:00.001-08:00

Now you all know I do not condone use of the F-word having been traumatized by the two times I did utter it, but there was no other way to express how I feel about this past year.

Last New Year's Eve was supposed to be magical and infused with positive energy because of the very rare happenstance of a Blue Moon happening that night. I was sure it meant great things for the new year. This was not the case:( And what's even weirder is normally even years are generally good for me.

Here is a recap (RED means I hated it and GREEN means I loved it):

January

It did start out with a little magical event when my friend Jean was sending me a book and it kept not arriving and one day Jean asked if he could call me so we could talk about it. He called on my way home from work and we were depressed that his present seemed to be lost when I discovered that I had a package waiting for me and it was the book! So Jean and I, whom I never get to talk to, got to listen to me open the book to see what it was - a photo journal of one day in the life of Daniel Radcliffe aka Harry Potter.

Because of my three day illness with the flu, and the fact that I didn't have enough time to cover it, I was put on a final written warning at work, which meant that I didn't get any of my Personal Days and that any attendance infraction would be my demise. The warning would last til September.

Liz Montgomery's three part mini-series "The Awakening Land" was FINALLY released on DVD! It's SOOO good! And Agnes Moorehead's "Alice Through the Looking Glass" was also released. I love 'Alice in Wonderland' so it was was awesome to have a Bewitched tie.

February

Sharon and I continued our I Dream of Jeannie club in the Second Season. It was fun because it's fun to hear a different point of view about the episodes.

I was so sick of the crap at my job that I decided to reapply at the Post Office and had to re-take all their damn tests only to be told via an email that I was unsuitable for re-hire and if I wanted to know why I had to write an actual snail mail letter. Those bastages!! So I had to remain at my job which, from previous posts you know I do NOT like.

I did receive a raise and a HUGE bonus at work which I used to purchase a Blu-ray Player, a flat screen for my room and for the living room at my parent's and paid off my curio cabinet.

March

The first weekend my dad and I went down to Price so my dad could baptize Colton, my cousin Shaun's son. The Spirit was there in great abundance and it made me very happy as I had to work on Sundays for the past couple months.

Also that weekend I went to the premiere of Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" with Mackenzie and her son Jack. I hadn't seen them for so long and it was fun. And the movie is one of my new favorites!

And that weekend my friends and I went to see Daniel Tosh's show. We had second to front row seats and it was awesome! It was a lot of fun.

Paula Abdul also tweeted me for the second time but you can read about that in a previous post on my blog:)

My elementary and jr. high school friend Andrea asked me to draw a logo for her MS race team. She has MS and she loves llamas and she remembered I draw. Seems like noone knows that anymore, and it's probably because I hardly ever do, so I drew one and Pibby polished it up. It made me feel really good to break out the drawing talent again and Andrea loved it!

Mayson turned four however because of conflicting schedules (or so it seemed) his parents couldn't be bothered to throw him a party, yet were able to have poker parties of their own every weekend. They kept saying they would have one so I waited to give Mayson my present. My mom did make him a cake and she, Mayson and I had a little party.

April

My friend Jone from Iowa flew into town for her work and I met her for dinner in Layton. We hadn't seen each other for a long time so it was great to see her. The best part was I had the waitress take our pic on my phone and I immediately posted it to Facebook until I realized that my fly was open!!! It was so embarrassing but funny:)

I read about a ballet production based on Jim Henson's "Labyrinth", one of mine and Michelle's favorite movies, so I talked everyone into buying tickets and we went down to Orem for it. We were going to be late so we ate dinner really fast and then it turned out the production was THE lamest piece of crap we have ever witnessed. However, I believe that was the trip where Tracey and I came up with the fun game called "There's a Church" where you point out all the LDS churches along the way.

I added my mom to my cell phone plan not thinking she would actually use the phone but she keeps it with her for the most part.

I was officially diagnosed with diabetes:(

Last month at Grandpa Slack's late birthday celebration, Evelyn told us that her friend Ellen had a long haired Siamese cat to give away as it belonged to her son who is a meth addict in jail. My mom had been thinking of getting my dad a cat for therapy as she had read that having pets helps a person feel healthier mentally. So Ellen brought it over. The cat is BEAUTIFUL and Andrea from Reno says he's probably a Snow-Shoe or Ragdoll. He's huge! Paul named him Snickers however one day Mayson asked where "Sniffles" was so he's forever known as Mr. Sniffles.

A month after Mayson's birthday Paul and Jody went on separate vacations which was really weird, however they seem to be doing a lot separate lately. However, the fact that Mayson hadn't had a birthday yet really pissed me off as he kept saying how he was going to have a party and yet never got one:(

Mayson also fell at preschool and cut his head wide open but Jody found a great plastic surgeon and he now has a light scar.

I FINALLY received my Paula Abdul Fan Club package a YEAR after joining! It was cool though...it came with one of her star rings she designed, a tote she designed, a signed photo and a letter.

Mark Simpson, the organizer of the Bewitched Fanfare, told me that he had booked Bernard Fox for this year and that he wanted to present him with the Fan Favorite Award and he wanted me to present it!

May

Dad collapsed at work because his blood sugar was 314 when it should only be 120. He was in the hospital a couple days.

My mentally disabled cousin RuthAnn's husband David died from complications due to Muscular Distrophy suddenly. It was very sad and I think because of all the stress I had at work and with my dad and everything else this was the straw that broke the camel's back because I found out at work and could not stop crying. And it's not like I was close to David. Still, very sad.

Two days after showing us her new ring setting, Jody told Paul that she wasn't in love with him anymore and that she wanted a divorce. It was truly unbelievable, though it seemed like they were growing distant the past couple months. However there was more going on then we realized and so it made it hard to feel sympathy for either side once the truth came out, though Paul wanted to go to counseling which Jody refused cause she's done. It makes me so sad as they seemed perfect for each other not to mention that Mayson shouldn't be denied having his parents stay together.

While Jody, Paul and Mayson were in Lake Powell, where the big breaking point came, my dad seemed truly out of it and not coherent at all. He kept repeating himself and seemed like he wasn't listening to anyone. So when we take him to the hospital we find that his sugar was 1200!!!! He should've been dead. It was truly scary and so stressful especially with the unnecessary stress of what was happening with Paul and Jody.

Heather became engaged to Tyler, whom she had been set up on a blind date with in February. THANK GOD!!! We have had to hear about her whining about stupid Dave S. for so long and how she was never going to get married that this was truly welcome.

The series finale of LOST aired and it was truly sad and awesome. My family and friends and I have been following it since the Second Season. It's been so great because it made you think about things and pay attention. It was always nice to look forward to a new LOST.

Jenn R and Tracey invited me to move back into Tard Mansion as their roommate was leaving. That's where I lived two years ago and I was so excited cause I missed that place and was WAY tired of living with my parents.

June

My dad hadn't been to work in over a month because of twisting his ankle when he collapsed at work. He seems to be really going down hill:(

I got a sore throat that turned into laryngitis yet I still had to stay at work with no voice because the all mighty dollar rules.

Mom was told by her b*tch a$$ boss that she wouldn't be hired in December when she got her RN. And my mom has worked at LDS hospital for 18 years and that's how she's treated.

Bewitched Fanfare happened in Los Angeles and it was THE best one ever!! I met my favorite Dr. Bombay aka Bernard Fox plus other great stars including Erin Murphy aka Tabitha who surprised us at the Bewitched house. Also got to go to Disneyland for a minute with Andrea and Robert. I was so glad they were there.

At the Fanfare there was a cute girl there named Lindsay who I thought was married as I knew a married couple was coming. Afterwards, all of us at the Fanfare were sharing pics and memories through email and as Lindsay and I started talking I found that the guy she was always with was her uncle. So we decided to start up a long distance relationship.

July

It was the annual Bear Lake trip and I drove up with Mayson. He slept most of the way and we had a lot of fun up there. He had to leave on Friday night with my mom and it was the most sad, heartbreaking farewell as he tried saying goodbye to me but couldn't say it as he started crying.

Lindsay painted a picture of me in a bull fighter's outfit, just like Dr. Bombay wore, so I decided to paint her a picture and painted an awesome watercolor of Endora and Samantha. As time was going on, I realized that long distance relationships are not my bag, and I ended it but it was fun while it lasted.

I went for a card reading with Michelle and Kim, who was out visiting, at Tarot by Tracey and it was really insightful.

My Uncle Ray and Aunt Sarah from Florida flew out the week of Pioneer Day and so Evelyn had a party up at her house as there is a firework show that happens quite close to her home. It was one of the best Slack parties I've ever attended.

August

My Uncle Ron was hospitalized because of high blood pressure which caused him some amnesia. My mom called me to come over to the hospital to give him a blessing and when I got there, it seemed like Ron's family had know idea why I was there and that's because they didn't: Mom had taken it upon herself to ask for a blessing. So my dad and I were supposed to give him a blessing and I felt that since I hadn't been to church all year, my dad would give it to him and I would just stand in. However when I started going up to Ron, Dad just stood there. So I gave it. I was so mad at both my parents, my mom thinking she has the authority to ask for a blessing for someone not in our immediate family and for my dad for not stepping up. He said it was because my mom hadn't told him he was going to be a part of it.

Some time during this summer, we had a couple BBQs at Pibby and Jenny's at the place in MillCreek Canyon where they were renting. It was so peaceful there.

The starter on my car gave out and I had to buy a new one with really no money. Luckily Tyler could install it.

September

Mayson seemed to have a huge growth spurts this month and his vocabulary is getting even bigger. I wish he'd stay little forever! He also didn't get enrolled in pre-school again which made me sad as I feel like he needs to have friends his age around him.

I bought the coolest Halloween decorations at Tai Pan and Michaels and decorated about two weeks into September. Halloween makes me so happy!

I FINALLY got off my final written warning for attendance which opened up being able to apply for other positions when they became available.

October

I FINALLY got a Saturday-Sunday off schedule at work but have to work 10 - 7 PM, which is both good and bad.

On October 5, 2010, Heather and Tyler were married in the Salt Lake Temple for all time and eternity. Their reception was at the Gathering Place at Gardener Village and Michelle was their wedding planner. Michelle started her own event designing business during the summer and it's been going so well. The reception was awesome and it was so great seeing old friends.

I turned 34 and had a great birthday! We had a taco dinner at my mom's one night and the next night my friends and I and Pibby and Jenny and Tyler and Heather went to dinner at Olive Garden and then we went to the Haunted Forrest in Lehi. It was so much fun!

Halloween sucked because I didn't have enough money to fly to Reno and because it was raining. Also, in the times I didn't go to Reno, I would go over to the Wilde's and go Trick-or-Treating with everyone but as Jody and Paul are split that couldn't happen.

Sharon and I also finished "I Dream of Jeannie" club:(

November

Andrea White's father had a stroke while hunting near the Nevada/Utah border and was life-flighted to the U of U hospital so she flew in to be with him. All though it was sad and scary about her dad, I was glad she was able to fly in because I felt so sad about missing Halloween with her.

Wouldn't you know it, my starter gave out AGAIN and I couldn't find the receipt for it. Tyler wasn't available to help me get it fixed and so I had to drive Jenn's car (she was in Italy). I was totally scared driving her car for fear of wrecking it. But Tyler got it fixed again however I went into bad debt.

Because Jody has decided to leave the family, we had to make other plans for Thanksgiving as we usually have it with her family. We decided to have it at my house and it was absolutely delicious! And it was nice just having our family. So though I did miss having it with the Wilde's, it turned out great.

I won $175 at work for my great customer reviews!!

I got put on another final written warning, this time for "behavior" as I didn't pull up the Consumer Clear Disclosure list when helping a customer, even though I hit the points of it when helping the customer, who rated me as best. I felt it was an unfair punishment for the crime because it's a year long so I told Stephanie, the Assistant Director, that it should be reconsidered. She reviewed it again and found that I had noted in the account that I had covered the CCD but because I hadn't pulled it up, the punishment stands. Which means that I can't apply for any other position for a year.

December

Because of Paul and Jody's troubles and the fact that Mayson's life has been turned upside down, I was not in the mood for Christmas. Also, my mom, who was supposed to be graduating with her RN this month failed two classes so everything is just depressing. I have been so depressed that I never put up the Christmas tree at my mom's house until a week before Christmas, and even then it was a stupid fake one.

The Slack Family Christmas party was a lot of fun and probably the best one in years. I look forward to it every year. I even had Mrs. Santa sit on my lap.

One night, Pibby, Jenny, Mom and I went up to Temple Square where we were going to listen to a choir from Carbon High sing but they got snowed in. We listened to other groups sing and looked at the lights and it was a lot of fun and made me feel much more like Christmas.

I wasn't looking forward to Christmas Eve cause normally that's spent with the Wilde's at Paul and Jody's house, however we had dinner at my mom's house and Pibby and Jenny made the most DELICIOUS chicken. We watched "Muppet Christmas Carol" with everyone and it was just a very nice evening.

Christmas Day was good as well. Jenny's cousin Charmaine joined us and I got $50 from my parents, a magic book from Jenn, a Mad Men book from Tracey, a $40 Old Navy gift card (which I bought pants with), Doritos, Peanut Butter M&Ms, beef jerky and a 2 ltr of Diet Coke with Lime from Heather.

Jody's best friend, Reagan, was hit and killed in a car wreck due to the horrible weather. Jody lives with Reagan and her brother and so Mayson is there part time. It is so sad. That same night Heather and Tyler got rear ended by a guy high on drugs. Luckily they weren't hurt.

New Year's Eve was spent with Pibby, Jenny, Jenn, Michael and Michelle at the Cousins's house for a crab feast and goodies. We also played Wii games and watched the ball drop. It was a nice evening.

This year was horrible because of Paul and Jody breaking up. Even though there was a lot of good, it was always dampened by the thought of our family breaking up. Plus my dad going into the hospital all the time didn't help matters either.

I'm not going to say anything about 2011 because I thought last year that 2010 was going to be so great. I have hope that 2o11 will make a 180, but we'll see.

The Summoning of Salem

2010-11-20T22:22:00.000-08:00

In 2006 I fulfilled a life long dream of visiting Salem, Massachusetts. Of course, Salem is notorious for the events of 1692 where many people, mainly women, were unjustly accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 people lost their lives as they were sentenced to death.

My fascination with Salem was sparked by the episodes of Bewitched where they traveled to the Witch City so Samantha could attend a witches' convention. Those episodes have always been favorites of mine and much to my surprise and delight, in Ninth Grade I learned that the Witch Trials were an actual event in American History. In fact, my year end project for History was a presentation about the Trials complete with visuals including poster board depicting wood cuttings from that time, pictures from Bewitched and a visual aid of my sister's Malibu Barbie dressed in a shoulderless black dress which was hung by the neck from a a tree branch set in a vase with Plaster of Paris. I also did a huge report on one of the big participants in the Trial, Cotton Mather, who wrote much about witchcraft.

Since that time Salem has always held a deep fascination for me so when the opportunity arose in 2006 to visit Salem, I pounced on it. Salem was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. The town still retains much of it's pre-Colonial charm because of some of the original buildings still standing and a graveyard adorned with Tim Burtonesque headstones memorializing people from over 400 years ago! There are many places devoted to the history of the Trials but also a lot of modern practicing witches/wiccans have taken up residence there and so the streets are dotted with little witch boutiques filled with charms, incense and crystals.

But the thing that struck me the most was the atmosphere. I had heard rumor that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints didn't have missionaries in Salem because of it's affiliation with the Devil and evil spirits, however right before I left for Salem I found that wasn't true. Even knowing this, I was afraid I might feel of the evil that maybe there however it was markedly different. It was a feeling of sadness mixed with jubilance but most of all a sort of sacred feeling as you realized while visiting the homes and sites of the people involved in the Trials, that people had lost their lives due to hysteria and greed. I also felt that though Salem is only 40,000 people big, it was filled with many more souls than that. Everywhere we went, even if it was in the empty elevators at the Hawthorne Hotel, you were never alone in them.

I also didn't come home from Salem alone. The whole time I was on the plane and when I came home I felt there was someone with me. I also felt that whoever this was came with me because they didn't want me to leave. I know this sounds nuts, but the reason I know someone came home with me is that they made their presence known by making a wooden spoon fly off the counter one night when friends were over for dinner and then another time, right after the trip when showing Amanda my photos from the trip, my relatively heavy cell phone did a somersault on the glass top coffee table. Every so often something will happen that will remind me my visitor from Salem is still around and when I visited a tarot card reader a couple months ago, when I asked about any spirits that may be around me, she asked if I had noticed things that moved by themselves and told me it was a spirit that had attached itself to me, a young man who held me in high regard who in life hadn't been a "good boy" and that he moves stuff to remind me that he's there.

Before I went to Salem, I purchased a book by Marilynne K. Roach called "The Salem Witchcraft Trials", a day by day account which I read on the plane there and back. It was a totally fascinating book and it brought me closer to those victims of the Trial for which I feel much sympathy.

Recently I began re-reading that book and have had Salem a lot on my mind, more than usual. My visitor has also been more active than before as he knocked over my shelf of DVDs while I was talking on the phone one night. I've found new wood cuttings depicting the Trials lately and I keep wondering if Salem is summoning me back? I also just found a TV mini-series from the 80s titled "Three Sovereigns for Sarah", the most realistic portrayal of the Trials. It was filmed in Salem and the surrounding areas and I felt what could be termed "homesickness." I wonder that maybe I should move there? And possibly for permanent. I know I would have a hard time doing it as I would miss my family so much but it seems to me that Salem is my home. I do have ancestors that came from that area and I can't help but think that maybe there is something

However, I'm sure my recent re-kindled focus on Salem has been stirred by this past October which marked the 40th anniversary of the premiere of the Bewitched Salem episodes which I have written about.

All a Twitter over Twitter

2010-08-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

About a year after I joined Facebook Twitter came into being. I really didn't understand why anyone would want to be a part of Twitter since essentially it's just the "update status" part of Facebook.

That is, until I realized that a ton of celebrities were using Twitter including my Paula Abdul.

So I joined.

It has been awesome! Paula updates her Twitter quite often and has close to 2 million followers. And even though I've met her and spoke to her on several different occasions, I always thought it'd be cool if she'd answer a 'tweet'. That happened last November quite out of the blue, right before Thanksgiving when Paula had asked how everyone's day was going. I was at work (of course) and said how I was working but was hoping that I could leave early. Right after that I got the following back:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 I hope you get off early to enjoy the day! xoP
5:17 PM Nov 25th, 2009 via web in reply to drbombay76

I was in the break room with people I didn't even know but I was so excited I said, "Hey I realize we don't know each other however the coolest thing just happened and I have to show someone!" They thought it was so cool.

How is it that I still get such a thrill out of talking to Paula??! I've met her, spoke to her on Larry King Live and on the radio here in Utah and yet that was so awesome! (p.s. We did get to go home early)

I seriously thought that since there are so many people tweeting her that would be the only time but I was thankfully wrong:)
So then in March she asked what everyone was doing and I responded that I had a five-day weekend and was going to see Daniel Tosh's show. She responded:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 Hope it's a great five day weekend for you and have fun at the comedy show! xoP
1:36 PM Mar 5th via web in reply to drbombay76

Then just a month later she was talking about the return of "Glee", which I'm embarrassed to admit I watch, and I told her that I thought she should be a guest on the show as Coach Sue Sylvester's rival at a different school. It would be hilarious cause Sue is so evil and Paula is good and perky:) Well she responded:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 I would love that!! xoxo
1:34 PM Apr 13th via web in reply to drbombay76

Wow!! Three times!! I have to admit that I feel pretty honored because I've seen a lot of her other fans that whine and complain about her never talking to them. So if three times wasn't enough in May she asked what everyone's plans were for the weekend and I told her I was going to see Iron Man II:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 Let me know what you think! xo P
12:52 PM May 7th via web in reply to drbombay76

A couple weeks later she posted behind the scenes videos from the American Idol finale and I told her how much I liked seeing them, especially cause she had been playing around with Bret Michaels and Ruben Studdard:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 i'm so glad, david! xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
1:44 PM May 27th via Twitter for iPhone in reply to drbombay76

That response was my favorite because it confirmed that she knows who I am. I know I have some weird psychological need for approval from her which I think stems from the fact that I seriously love her so much. But again, she took the time out of her millions of fans to answer me!

In June Paula said that she was going to start following her fans Twitter feeds to pay us back for following her. I saw that she had all ready started following about two hundred fans and I noticed a lot of those that hadn't been followed were whining about it and also begging her to follow them. I was embarrassed for them however I really wanted her to follow me but didn't say anything. So one night I decided to see who was following me because I noticed there were 20 people following...and wouldn't you know it, Paula was one of them! I was so happy!! When someone follows you that means you can send them private messages, so that's cool.

Around this time I started losing my voice and was bored on my break so I thought she'd think it was funny that I have a job where I use my voice but yet had none so I told her about it and....:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 good thing you don't need your voice to tweet! lol! xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
9:21 PM Jun 7th via Echofon in reply to drbombay76

Paula is always tweeting trivia or quotes so a couple days later on King Kamehameha Day in Hawaii she asked if any of us knew about it. Well, I only knew about it because of an episode of "I Dream of Jeannie" that centered around it, which I told Paula about:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 LOL LOL LOL LOL! :))))))) xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
3:54 PM Jun 11th via Echofon in reply to drbombay76

I loved that I made her laugh. Quite frankly, I love Paula's laugh and it was awesome to imagine it. Plus I loved that I gave her multiple LOLs.

A month later I had read that she was having an event that is about empowerment and achieving success but, of course, it's not coming to Salt Lake. I had read this right before I was going to sleep and I tweeted her telling her that I wished it would come here cause I'd so be there..and I told her to have sweet dreams:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 awww, thank you! same to you..sweet (tweet!) dreams! xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
11:22 PM Jul 11th via Seesmic in reply to drbombay76

I seriously couldn't fall asleep! Paula had wished me sweet dreams!! LOL

A week later I sent her a quote ( "A man is not measured by what he does with his life but by what he does w/the lives of others.":) that reminded me of her. A little bit later she tweeted about how it was Nelson Mandela's birthday and I thought it was amazing that my quote fit him to a T. I wasn't aware it was his birthday and told her that and she said:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 today might be a holiday for #NelsonMandela International Mandela day? not sure, anyone know? xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
11:44 AM Jul 18th via Seesmic in reply to drbombay76

We found out that it was, so that was fun to be learning with her.

So last night she was having trouble posting pictures of a photo shoot she had just finished and she thought maybe her tweets weren't being seen. I told her I could I see it and called her "Tweetness" cause she's always calling her fans "tweethearts" or "tweeties". She responded:

PaulaAbdul@drbombay76 thank you Dr Bombay! xoP www.PaulaAbdul.com
about 23 hours ago via web in reply to drbombay76

Of course, that gets me all excited on two levels: 1) It's Paula tweeting me for the 10th time and 2) she referred to me as my nickname 'Dr. Bombay', which is what I'm referred to in the Bewitched fandom world. I know I need to snap out of it, but I doubt it will happen cause every time I think I'm over her, she does something or says something (or wears something) that makes me love her more!

Anyway, I LOVE Twitter!! I love that it allows me to keep in touch with Paula without having to go to great lengths to do so.

I also got tweeted by Melissa Joan Hart this week because it was the premiere of her new sitcom "Melissa and Joey". I told her I hoped it was highly rated and lasted long and she retweeted my message for all her fans to see but also added "Salute!"

Bewitching Dreams Come True

2010-07-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't updated the blog lately, just haven't been near a working computer much.

Anyway, I wanted to post about my most favorite weekend of the summer so far! And that was June 18 - 20 for the Bewitched FanFare 2010 in Los Angeles, CA.

I posted below about how I was going to meet Dr. Bombay aka Bernard Fox...and I did!! And it was even better than I could've imagined!! The events were held at the cute and classy French Market Restaurant. I dressed up in my finest duds and we got there at about 5 for dinner where me and my friends sat up in the gazebo. Soon Mr. Fox arrived with his wife and daughter Amanda and her lover, Lisa. I was astonished at how tall Mr. Fox is! They sat on the ground floor and it was all I could do to not go stare. Here was Dr. Bombay in real life eating dinner with me!! Soon, Mark, the event organizer, came and took me to meet Mr. Fox. As he is older his eyesight and hearing are going but he was so nice.

After dinner we gathered in a little area for a presentation. I sat with the Fox family right behind Mr. Fox and we watched a clip show of his performances as Dr. Bombay. After that it was my turn to give my presentation which I present here along with Mr. Fox's acceptance speech. Unfortunately he doesn't speak very loud but there are still some funny moments and the last minute of the last video is the best!

Afterwards Mr. Fox signed autographs while I visited with Mrs. Fox and Amanda. Both are so funny and witty! I got my pic with Mr. Fox and the family before the night was out. I don't know why put the pics are cut off on the right because of the blog formatting which I can't figure out how to correct but if you click on the pic you'll see the full picture.

The next night there were several guest stars that showed up and wouldn't you know it, I forgot my camera and can't find the pics of me with them that were taken by others. However there was Art Metrano who appeared in five episodes and is best known as Lt. Mowser in the "Police Academy" movies, Bobby Hart of the music group Boyce & Hart who wrote the Monkees songs and appeared in one of my most favorite Bewitched episodes, Steve Franken who appeared in eight episodes and who I met in 2008, Heather Woodruff Perry who was a secretary in three episodes and who I met also in 2008 and best of all, William Asher, the show's producer/director and husband of Elizabeth Montgomery showed up!! I met him in 2008 but he seemed in better health this time. He also confirmed that when Liz would dress as Samantha's sultry brunette cousin Serena he would take her home like that for some "fun". LOL

The last day we went to the WB Ranch where the outdoor scenes of Bewitched were filmed. While we were all basking in the glory of 1164 Morning Glory Circle, a sleek silver Thunderbird pulled up in the driveway and out stepped a beautiful blonde woman who announced, "I'm home!" It was Tabitha aka Erin Murphy!! I was so excited as I didn't think she would join us, especially since I had essentially pestered her on Twitter. She was so beautiful and nice and we all got pics and autographs with her as well as a big group photo out in the front of the house.

After the Ranch and a pizza lunch at Shakey's, we went back to the French Market and met Ron Masak, guest in four episodes and better known as the Sheriff from "Murder She Wrote". He is one of the nicest men you will ever meet, so full of light and laughter.

After playing some games and listening to Heather Woodruff Perry's memories of the show as well as from her career, it was all over.

I'm so happy that my dreams have come true in meeting Dr. Bombay AND Tabitha! However, there is one more magical thing that happened that weekend, one thing I thought would NEVER happen! I met this beautiful cute girl named Lindsay, a Bewitched fan as well! She had brought a painting for the cast to sign and I thought she was married so I didn't really interact with her until after I got home. As we conversed I found out that the guy I thought was her husband was her uncle! And that Lindsay was really taken by me:) So I'm in my first long distance relationship and I loving it!

Thank you Mark Simpson for being a dream maker!

My Favorite Part of the Day

2010-05-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

My favorite part of the day is really but a moment and most of the time I don't think I even recognize it because it is so brief.

It's that part of day when you just wake up and you think about the dream you just had, especially if it was a good one, and you're so comfortable in bed and you think, wow, things are great.

It's really REALLY brief because then, like the hitting of a gong, the reality sets in that you have to get out of bed plus all the turmoil that is going on in real life comes flooding back and you think, "Oh, I don't want to think about all that!"

I wish I could live my life in that brief beautiful moment all the time....

Calling Dr. Bombay!

2010-05-03T22:42:00.001-07:00

You all know of my love, obsession, passion, etc for Bewitched (and if you don't, girl, you really don't know me).

Of course, my favorite character is Samantha because she's played by the beautiful, sexy and funny Elizabeth Montgomery. And then there's her cousin Serena, also played by Liz but in a dark wig.

But my most favorite male character is Samantha's witch doctor (they call him Warlock Doctor cause he is a warlock), Dr. Bombay who was played fantastically by Bernard Fox. The doc was always my favorite because first and foremost, he's hysterical with his bad jokes, his bad temper when Samantha has zapped him "of me porpoise and I was winning the race!", and his bevy of beautiful nurses (one of which was played by Utah native Pat Priest, more famously known as "the odd looking one" on the Munsters, Marilyn Munster). Dr. Bombay epitomized everything that was the best of any world.

One - he's a doctor and that's always a good thing to have around, especially if you are one in the mortal world cause you make the big bucks!

Two - he was the ladies' man, always having a hot nurse or three in his employ and with whom he played "doctor" a lot.

Three - he was smart as he came up with all manner of devices to help diagnose a sick witch.

Four - he had a marvelous sense of humor.

Bernard Fox played Dr. Bombay in not only 18 episodes of Bewitched, but two episodes of the spin-off series Tabitha and two episodes of the daytime soap Passions over 30 years after he had appeared on Bewitched. He was also considered to reprise the role for the Nicole Kidman Bewitched movie but, alas, the role was written out.

Whether you realize it or not, Dr. Bombay is in the public stream of consciousness as Mr. Fox has appeared in several HUGE big screen movies over the years including Titantic (Col. Archibald Gracie) and The Mummy. When I went to see The Mummy I didn't realize he was in it until I saw him on the screen and I leaned over to my sister who was sitting a seat away and she leaned in towards me and at the same time we both excitedly whispered, "That's Dr. Bombay!" People around us all sighed with relief as they said, "That's who that is! I knew I knew him!"

About eight years ago somebody posted on one of the Bewitched message boards that I frequent that Bernard Fox had passed away! I was utterly shocked and saddened, but only for a brief moment when that same person found that there was A Bernard Fox who had passed but not THE Bernard Fox. Quite relieved I decided to write him a letter to tell him how much I really enjoyed him so much so that I had adopted the screen name of Dr. Bombay. I also told him how much I enjoyed his other roles, especially the one in The Mummy. No more than two weeks passed and I got a response from him! He told me how much he appreciated my letter and told me what a great time he had on Bewitched and recounted that just he and a few others remained of the cast and how he enjoyed his time filming the Mummy as he and his wife got to fly to Morrocco.

A couple years after that a Titanic exhibit came to town where each of the tickets was printed with an actual passengers name so at the end of the exhibit you could check to see if your passenger survived. Some magic was working that night as my dad ended up with Col. Archibald Gracie out of the hundreds of possibilities!

Over the past decade I've been to the Bewitched convention almost every year and the more recent ones he had been invited to attend but always declined because of his health or other reasons.

This year, he is actually attending!!! And even more special is that I've been asked to present him with a Fan Appreciation Award, the first of which we presented to the producer/director of Bewitched and Liz Montgomery's husband at the time, William Asher.

I'm so excited and I can't wait to see him in person, shake his hand and possibly give him a hug!

Snickers Satisfies:)

2010-04-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

First off, I'm not going to be blogging about the candy bar which happens to bear the name of my new kitty:)

It has been four long years that I have been feline-less. I had my cats Molly and Tigger for over 17 years and they both were put to sleep within two months of each other in 2006 around this same time. That was over half of my life that I had them. I didn't think another cat would ever compare.

Right now I live with my parents as I try to recover from the financial raping inflicted on me by my former dentist and my dad is in the midst of kidney failure and is on dialysis. It's a very depressing situation for everyone, but especially for him. My mom is currently trying to get her RN License and in the course of her studies read up on how having a pet relieves a lot of stress and can help combat depression. She has never liked cats and said that after Molly and Tigger she would never have anymore. My dad was the one that took Molly to the Humane Society and even though he claimed he didn't like her (he really loved Tigger), he said he didn't want another cat because of the possibility of having to face their loss again.

Last month my Aunt Evelyn announced at a family party that her friend Ellen was giving away a cat that belonged to her meth addict son who is currently in jail. She can't take care of the cat and wanted to give him a good home. She also said it was a Persian-Siamese mix. My mom instantly perked up and said she would like to take the cat.

And so, last week Ellen brought the cat over.

He is majestic and not Persian-Siamese, though I can see why Ellen though that. A friend that worked at a veterinarian clinic said that he looks like a rare breed called Snowshoe which are very docile and love people and very smart. They have Siamese ancestry which accounts for the cat's beautiful coloring. Ellen said her son called the cat "Freddy" but for such a majestic creature, that name would never do. The minute I looked in his beautiful blue eyes I knew that he was an aristocat and that his real name was Aloysious Q Crumb IV. My brother said he looked like his name should be Snickers, and so that's what it is. However during the past week that he's been with us, he's just been called "Kitty".

He is awesome! He LOVES to be petted and insists on it all the time and even more than that he loves his long fur to be brushed. He never stops talking, except for the 20 hours that he sleeps. And my mother absolutely loves him because without any real direction, he knew where the litter box was, even when we changed it out of the room that he was hiding in when he first arrived. My dad loves him too and always wants to know where he is.

I love him too because I think he is Molly reincarnated. Molly would always talk, she had a certain way she would walk and Snickers walks just like it. She would also always suck on the blankets on the bed and knead them with her paws like she was getting milk from her mother (which she didn't know long, we found her in some bushes when she was only a couple days old) and Snickers does this too. He also really resembles her in his facial markings.

He is two years old and I hope he's around as long, if not longer, as Molly and Tigger were.

So I Gots "the Sugar"

2010-04-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I had a doctor's appointment so that I could get something to tame my horrible anxiety lately as it seems I'm stuck in my job. Along with getting pills for that I had some blood work done and a urinalysis. The results came back and it turns out I have diabetes, type II.

That sucks...however, I knew it was coming considering that my dad has it, his father had it and so do all of his sisters. That and my weight are contributing factors.

It makes me feel like I can't eat anything because let's face it, my dad is the best example of what NOT to do when one is diabetic. I'm going to be seeing a diabetes nutritionist soon, but for now I'm going to stick with vegetables and some fruit.

So goodbye delicious sugary sweet foods! Goodbye sumptuous salty foods! It's been fun but thanks for nothing.

I really think I can get it under control cause it's not that bad, but still.

Oh, and hello exercise!

No Easter Here

2010-04-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

Remember how I b*tched and moaned about working through Christmas vowing never to do it again? Why didn't I think at that time "let's make sure not to work on the other Christian holiday" which happens to be Easter.

Guess who's working? That's right...me!

Nothing says remembering the Savior and his Crucifixion and Resurrection like listening to some jerk whine about their unpaid bill or how I work for the most evil company in the world or how their phone won't work...even worse are the nice people who apologize for calling up on Easter...THEN DON'T DO IT!!!!!

This week I'm bidding on a new shift and there are quite a few with Sundays off. Please pray that I get one!! It'll at least cure the problem of Easter next year and Christmas will be taken care of by the fact that I haven't been able to use any sick time so far.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAYSON!

2010-03-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

My nephew, Mayson, is four years old today! It's so unbelievable! He should just be a baby but he's a cute little kid and my favorite person in the whole world. And such a miracle as well!

He was born three months early due to complications from HELLP syndrome that his mother, Jody, had where the body thinks the fetus is a virus and attacks. He was only 1 lb 6 oz when he was born and looked like a little alien baby.

Even though he was very tiny and fragile looking he was very strong and had a very tight grasp with his tiny little fingers. I remember it being a scary time yet I felt calm about it, like I knew he would be all right. One night after he was born I took his father, Paul, to buy a shirt really quick as he needed a new one, and Paul said, "Don't tell anyone else, but I'm not worried about Mayson at all. Everyone is all upset but I just don't feel like that." I confirmed that I felt the same way.

It seemed like he was in the hospital forever, and I believe it was two months, but it was so great to finally be able to hold him and then have him at home. And it's been so much fun watching him grow up and learn. He's SOOOO smart and picks up on everything instantly. And he's funnier than even his dad.

He also just dotes on me and always wants to be where I am when I am around. We have a lot of fun playing BATman (that's how he says it to) or Spiderman or Wolverine, which essentially is play fighting. He also loves Mickey Mouse and the Muppets and every so often he requests to watch Bewitched, even though his daddy told him it was

dumb. (Mayson: "Daddy says Bewitched is dumb. He's a KY [how Mayson thinks you spell 'jerk'...but funny cause of the jelly].")

Anyway, I'm so blessed to be the uncle to the cutest little boy ever to hit the planet and I hope his birthday is fantastic!

Why Am I Crying??!

2010-03-14T20:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is seriously so stupid but I have to write it out so I can hear how ridiculous it is so I'll stop crying! I'm literally in tears right now and I don't know why! I know what started it and it makes me mad because I'm such a baby. It was hearing the song "It Might Be You" by Stephen Bishop, which was made famous in the movie "Tootsie". I would try and find it on YouTube but if I hear it again I'll never stop crying.

It's supposed to be a love song but ever since I heard it when I was really little it's made me very sad. It's a stupid cheesy 80s love song that probably plays on continuous loop on KOZY.

Anyway, I heard it again tonight as part of a show I was watching. Everyone has left my house or has gone to bed and I keep on hearing it and when I saw these pins that Heather got me in Disneyland of the Muppets with Mickey ears, for some reason I started thinking of Mayson, my three-soon-to-be-four year old nephew, and how he seems to be really growing up fast lately.

I know, right? I'm seriously crazy! But hear me out...cause I don't know what else to do to stop crying. Holy cow, I haven't cried this much since my cats died!

Mayson stays at my house a lot and he absolutely loves me. He doesn't want to do anything unless it involves me. I always read him a couple stories before he goes to bed and he likes a lot of the things that I like, like the Muppets. And he LOVES Mickey Mouse! Anytime I come home and he's hear he shouts out my name, "DAVE!!" and asks where I've been and then about if we can watch a movie/play a game/play BATMan or whatever other super hero he wants to be. It really makes me happy and I feel like I'm really needed. I really like reading to him, though, because I remember how much I liked it when I was read to when I was little. There hasn't ever been a night where I couldn't read to him...there were nights where I wanted to go to bed earlier but gave in when he said, "Just one story, please!"

Last night I came home from Michelle's house and had to use the restroom first thing. As I was closing the door to the bathroom I thought I heard him. Usually if he knows I've come home and I'm in the bathroom, he'll play the Big Bad Wolf and come pound on the door and say, "I'll huff and blow your house in!" (One of his favorite stories is "The Three Little Pigs"). That happens EVERY TIME! Last night it didn't so I thought maybe I had just heard something. When I stepped out and into the living room he was there and turned and just said, "Hi Dave." He did come and give me a hug but then he went right back to watching whatever it was that he was watching.

As it was the evening of the time change and I did get home pretty late and had to work early today I told him I was going to go to bed prepared to hear that he wanted me to read to him. There was nothing but a "good night, Dave"....and that's it! I was glad but sad at the same time because we ALWAYS read a story.

While going to sleep I thought about how maybe the time is coming when Uncle Dave isn't so awesome anymore and I didn't think about it much more nor at all today.

I actually was in a good mood today because the sun was shining and for the first time ever I actually felt awake at work, even with the time change!

My family came over for dinner and Mayson was still here and we played Batman-Wolverine-Spiderman and watched the extras from "Up" and had a good time.

He and his family left along with the rest of the family that doesn't live here and I watched that show with that STUPID song in it with my cousin Tracey, and he left. I did tell Tracey that the song seriously makes me depressed and when I saw the Muppets with Mickey hats on it I just started bawling! I guess that's why I'm crying...Mayson is turning four this Friday and I guess really soon I'm not going to be the big star in his life anymore. I remember how I used to love sleeping over at my Aunt Carol's when I was little but how there are very few memories of doing so and I've realized that may happen with Mayson. He'll remember how much fun we had and I know he'll always love me, but I suppose there will be few memories since he's so young, and it just makes me sad.

But I guess that's part of life is growing up and moving on and quite obviously I'm having a hard time with that. And I supposed that's why that STUPID song brought it up because it starts out:

Time... I've been passing time watching trains go by
All of my life...

I feel like that's what's happening watching Mayson grow up.

Anyway, I think I'm done with my tears and runny nose...though I suppose I'll look at the pins again and keep hearing that stupid song in my head, but I just needed to talk it out.

I'm as Mad as a Hatter about "Alice"!

2010-03-10T11:50:00.001-08:00

This past weekend Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" was released. I've seen it twice all ready. I love the original story of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass". It has got me to thinking how much the stories have been an influence in my life.

Like most people, I was introduced to them via Walt Disney's version that was originally released in 1951. However, I saw it for the first time at a family reunion at one of my mother's rich relatives houses

who was rich enough to actually own a VCR when they first came out. While the adults visited they put on this strange movie about a girl who falls down a rabbit hole, speaks to a disappearing cat, finds out it's her unbirthday and almost gets her head chopped off by a scary Queen covered in hearts. I loved all the nonsense and the puns and sheer comedy of it. I loved reading as a child (still do) and was quite pleased to find out that Alice's Adventures were in a story that seemed to be even funnier than the movie, though a bit different.

When we were able to rent videos, one of them most likely would be "Alice in Wonderland". My family loved it as well. Over time we saw different versions on TV and my brother brought home a book and record from one of the musicals. The book eventually got lost but we kept the record which had four songs on it, two of which my sister and I would listen to ov

er and over - "The Pun Song" and "The White Rabbit's Song".

On a trip to visit our Grandma we blew a tire in the canyon, just past Soldier Summit and had to wait for my uncle to come with a replacement.

While we waited out by the fence keeping the cattle in, Paul found a teacup that was literally in half, just like the March Hare had in Disney's version and without a beat Paul lifted it and said, "Just a half cup, please." That memory is relived every time we pass by that area.

When my family started going to Disneyland, one of my favorite rides were the Teacups as the Mad Tea Party is my favorite scene. Heather and I loved the ride and every visit afterwards we choose the same tea cup, the one with blue and gold trimmed flowers to ride in and always get a picture in it. Unfortunately, none of them are on this computer or I would post them.

In High School we had to write about our favorite author, and of course mine was about Lewis Carroll.

One of the first things I bought when I got my first job was an "Alice in Wonderland" shirt for my mom, a purple "tea"-shirt with embroidered characters along the bust. I wasn't sure that she would like it but she loved it and wore it until it was practically threads.

And I can imitate Disney's Mad Hatter to a "tea" LOL

I would also wager that not a week goes by that I don't throw out a "BUTTAH!" or "Exactickly".

Essentially, I want to thank Lewis Carroll aka Charles Dobson for that golden afternoon that he told the story to the real Alice and her sisters, even if he was a creep.

Thank You, My Two Preciouses!

2010-02-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

Just this week, because of the bonus received previously mentioned, I upgraded my entertainment systems, specifically the TV and the DVD player in my bedroom. I did so because I was under the mistaken assumption that the TV was going out. It started making all the colors, especially red and white, just blow up on the screen. No amount of adjusting colors and contrast would work. It made me sad because this TV has been around forever and has been a good little TV.

It was one of my first big furniture/appliance purchases I made after getting my first job. It is a 13" Sony TV/VCR combo and was a dream come true for me because I love watching TV and even more importantly, I loved recording Bewitched on to tape. My family didn't share in my enthusiasm and I was sick of listening to their complaining or having to sit through the stuff they wanted to watch. At that time, we were just getting TV through the antennae on the roof and the picture on the living room TV was all right, but for some reason, this little TV/VCR combo made it look crystal clear! I also remember when we first watched Star Wars on it you could totally see the shaded boxes around the Tie-Fighters that weren't present on the bigger less clear TV. And it was great that I got both a TV and VCR all for the low price of $500! LOLOL! What??! It was 1994, give me a break! In the years since I've had it, the remote has pretty much given up, the front door cover to the VCR has fallen off but it still keeps chugging away. So when the colors started going flooey, I was sad:( So I decided it was time to get a new TV and catch up with the 21st century and get a flat screen HD 19" TV. To my horror, the problem with the bleeding colors wasn't my trusty old TV at all...it was my Tivo/DVD player, the other precious mentioned in the title!

I was one of the first people, probably in Utah, to get a Tivo. And it was THE best birthday surprise I have ever had! My family is not too big on surprises but this one came out of nowhere since it was really expensive and just for my birthday. But ever since I had heard Rosie O'Donnell extol the virtues of Tivo on her show, it sounded like the perfect fit for me. And it was. The family got me a Tivo with a DVD player, which they also thought was a DVD burner, which was to help in my obsession of recording every Bewitched episode, so rather than stockpile 294529472394723947 VHS tapes, I'd only have probably half as many DVDs and thinner to boot. Even without it having the burner capability it was awesome! I could record any show and just watch it when I wanted and I could pause live TV for awhile for a bathroom/snack break. It was glorious! Not to mention having a DVD player in my room, especially when Bewitched was released on DVD.

So after purchasing the HD TV and finding out that it was the Tivo/DVD player that was the culprit behind the bleeding colors I decided to really join the future and get a Blu-ray.

Both new purchases are awesome, however, I will always love my TV/VCR and Tivo/DVD player. They both provided years of entertainment and lulling me to bed. It makes me happy to know I can have them for backup though if I start to get scared of all my new technology.

The Looniness of Libra

2010-02-20T21:42:00.000-08:00

If you are into astrology, it'll help you understand what you are about to read. I don't believe that I am ruled by the "rules" of my astrological sign, however I use it as my excuse for my decision making abilities.

I am a Libra, the sign of the scales, or balances. Which means that I like to make things balance and weigh every option, much of the time to the point where I can't make a decision because I'm afraid I haven't weighed every possibility and foreseen every possible outcome.

So it goes with my current employment.

Recently I received a HUGE bonus plus a nice raise. I haven't worked at a company EVER that gave out such a huge bonus nor a raise all at the same time. My euphoria over that led me to believe that all my weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over how much I hated my job was for naught, because look at all the great benefits! When I found out about how much it was I was elated and it seemed like I had broken through the darkness. But after about four hours I was back in my dark place feeling hopeless and lost that I had to put up with all the stress and negativity related to my job.

I've been looking for other employment but it hasn't been fruitful with the exception of having the opportunity to go back to my old job, which is without even insurance benefits and definitely no chance of bonus. But, I don't remember feeling helpless and anxiety ridden and angry all the time there...just bored.

I've found that were I to go back to Old Job I would have weekends off, which I haven't had for about six months now which means I'd be able to go back to Church and nurse my dying spirit, and I wouldn't have to cut my weekend playing short for getting up early the next day.

But on the other hand, I would have to work from about 2:30 - 11PM Mon - Friday. I really enjoy having the evenings off.

So back and forth I go weighing this option and that....it's driving me nuts!! But then again so is my job! What do I do?

My Possible Date with Death

2010-01-27T19:57:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks the 20th anniversary of the passing away of my Uncle Dave and it's got me to thinking about something that I keep in the backburners of my mind on low, and that is the possible family curse. Not so much on the family but on the Davids of the family, particularly my mom's side of the family.

My Uncle Dave is my mom's brother, her oldest brother, and he passed away from a brain tumor which he was diagnosed with about seven years before he died. He was only 37 years old.

My mom's youngest sister Carol married a David. He was the oldest of his siblings and he passed away in 1997 due to leukemia. He was 39.

You're all familiar with my first name.

I am the oldest of my siblings.

And, like it or not (I mainly say that part to myself), I am 33 years old.

None of the other siblings of my mother have passed away or had their spouses pass away from cancer-related causes.

I also think it would totally be ironic for me to get colon cancer as that is how Elizabeth Montgomery met her demise and I've always wanted to get to know her better, however, I wouldn't like to know what having colon cancer, or any cancer for that matter, is.

I know I'm being silly, but it still haunts me, that I'm the third David in the family and I'm getting close to the ages of the other Daves. I would like to say "third time is a charm" however, I also realize that deaths come in threes, and for such similarities between us Daves, I'm not thinking I'm going to be the charmed one.

My Review of Awakening Land, The (1978/TV) (3 DVD Set)

2010-01-27T16:14:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at WB Shop

Unschooled homesteader Sayward Luckett couldn’t read her name if you showed it to her, yet she fell in love with and married agnostic, book-learned frontier lawyer Portius Wheeler. Now it’s time to make a life with him in wild, wooded 1790s Ohio Territory. There will be children, seven in all; joy ...

Great Liz Montgomery movie!

By David*P from Salt Lake City, UT on 1/27/2010

Pros: Informative, Entertaining, Engaging Characters, Original, Great Cinematography, High Production Value

Best Uses: Adult Viewers, Perfect Gift, At Home

Describe Yourself: Movie Buff

I've been waiting years for this awesome TV movie trilogy to be released and Warner Bros has come through! The picture quality overall is great, though there are few places where the film becomes a lighter blue.

And the only disappointment is finding out that in the first part on Disc 1 there are five minutes missing:( I hope Warner Bros can find a better copy of this first disc and make a way for those of us that purchased to get it.

(legalese)

Unicorns! Rainbows! Bunnies! Oh my!! PBBBBBBTTT!!!

2010-01-14T21:52:00.000-08:00

Everyone always says that your day is what you make of it. I especially remember my Grandma Slack telling me when I'd complain about having to go to school, especially that part about waking up early, "Now, David, if you just tell yourself 'I'm going to be happy and have a great day' than you will."

BULL SH*T!

I have tried and tried these past couple months, every so often, to look at my job from a different point of view. I will honestly get to the point where I think, "You know? What are you complaining about? It's not that bad. In fact, it's good. You have great co-workers, you make money, and it's close to home." And then I'll take my first call of the day and that is not only blown to smithereens, but it's chewed, swallowed, digested and the crapped out in a big ol' lump of IN YA FACE!!!

Today was no exception. And I know everyone is tired of hearing me complain but I literally will go crazy and blow up if I don't! There is no where for it to go. So I've tried my damnedest since my last blow up here to not say anything about work, I've tried on Facebook and elsewhere, but I just can't do it. I figured that I would save my griping for those that truly understand and that would be my co-workers.

So today at lunch, after a harrowing morning of listening to bigoted blow-hards and crabby ignorant "people", I went into how much I thought it was a bunch of crap to have to put up with it when immediately one of my co-workers shoots me down and says, "You know we have to deal with negativity out there, and I'm sorry, but if you're going to bring negativity to the breaks, I'm going to have to leave."

*SIGH*

So really, I understand where she's coming from because she agrees with what I've been saying all along: it's nothing BUT negativity when dealing with our customers. However, I CAN NOT act like everything is OK, and that I'm fine with people telling me how horrible the company is I work for, how I essentially don't know anything, how I should even flinch at their not paying their bill etcetera. That's not how I'm designed! I'm designed to be me and guess what? ME doesn't give one rat's ass about something so STUPID as an unpaid bill, a broken piece of equipment, nor what you think about what you're paying for. I can't even ACT like I care. Now, were these people to tell me about how their wife is divorcing them, how they don't know how to control their kids, how they feel lost in life, how they enjoy mountain biking, THEN I would truly care.

I felt like Co-worker wanted me to come in and sing about unicorns, and candy, and kittens and clouds just so I can stay positive. Well, screw that!! Every time I do try to be positive, that energy is retaliated with more than double the amount of negativity coming from the customers and I'm not doing it!

I am in the midst of searching for other employment, but please understand, I am have to vent or I will literally have a melt down.

2009...eh!

2010-01-01T01:18:00.001-08:00

So it's a couple hours into 2010 and all ready it's great because 1) it's not 2009 and 2) it's peaceful. As part of tradition here is a recap of the past year:

January

Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America, the first African-American to hold that office. I stayed home from work to watch the inauguration and was so glad I did. The feeling of that day was priceless. It felt like one of hope and joy.
Michelle's husband, Michael, moved here permanently and it's so nice to have him here.

February

Mayson held my arm one night at Paul's and looked up at me and said, "Dave, I want to be you. You're funny."
Bewitched Season Seven was released on DVD. It is my favorite season of Dick Sargent's because of the Salem-centered episodes and other great episodes.
Went to HOT Katy Perry's concert with Michael and Michelle and it was a lot of fun. And did I mention she's HOT?!!!
Mayson told me for the first time that he loved me when we had a very fun day playing games and watching Mickey Mouse. It was so sweet!
Took Mayson to the Safe Kids Fair to see Spider Man. Mayson was so good and well-behaved and it was a lot of fun. We got our pic with the Star Wars characters.

March

Mayson turned three!! I got him a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Playset that plays the "Hotdog Song" which he loves!
Mayson's birthday party was held two weeks later at Classic Skating and I was having a really good time and doing really well at skating until dumb a$$ Pibby had to come up behind me and tickle me, not once, but twice causing me to fall down really hard. So then I lost my temper and since I'm such a girl I could only try to slap hit him and almost got kicked out by the manager. I was so embarrassed and I really wanted to end Pibby's life right there.

April

It was so uneventful I didn't even bother to write about it in my journal.

May

Paula Abdul released "Here for the Music" and performed it on American Idol. It's seriously such an awesome song and they played it like once on the radio.
I was invited in studio at 97.1 ZHT to speak to Paula when they interviewed her over the phone and I got to tell her I love her and she said she loved me:) I also got to ask her when she was going to release her music videos on DVD and she said it was all in due time.
We (my brothers and sisters-in-law...Heather didn't do anything but go get pizza and says she watched Mayson) and some other people re-roofed my parent's house. I didn't think we'd be able to do it but we did a great job. It was HARD work!
I got a new job at Verizon Wireless in the Customer Service, which I was excited about, because of the benefits and because the Post Office was so boring. I also met awesome people in my training class.

June

All on the same day, Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and Mackenzie's niece Sadie passed away. It was such a sad weird day.

July

After over 20 years, I FINALLY received an apology from Jessica Fitton, via Facebook, for the way she treated me when we "broke up" as friends. It made me feel so good to know that she realized she had hurt me but that she also cared enough to apologize.
Went to Lagoon with my friends a couple times and it was a lot of fun.
Found a new Bewitched friend, Dayna, that lives in West Jordan and went over to her house to celebrate the DVD release of the Eighth, and Final, Season when all my friends declined my invitation for a viewing party. It was a lot of fun! However, I had hoped that maybe Dayna and I could start a romantic relationship and I found out she's a lesbian (or at least claims to be...I don't believe it...sorry Dayna!)

August

My dad started dialysis and it's really strange watching him slowly deteriorate and very painful to see how it's affecting my mom.
Grandma Pierce suffered a heart attack and stroke on the same day and we were told she wasn't going to make it. I missed many days of work, yet she's still around. It's really sad to see her suffering like that, but she refuses to give up the ghost.

September

Not much happened except that I was in transition at work and started realizing how much I hated the job.

October

My 33rd birthday occurred and I had a lot of fun with my friends and family at Pizza Factory again and then seeing one of my all time new favorite movies, "Where the Wild Things Are".
Got to go to Reno for Halloween for the first time in two years! It was so fun and great to see Andrea and her family and Jone.

November

Started to work for real at work with no assistance and my supervisor was the biggest ass! Had multiple breakdowns at work and had to come home early just to cope.
Thanksgiving was nice at the Wilde's again.

December

Got an earlier shift and a new supervisor, who is so nice, which I thought would help me in my liking my job better, but to no avail.
The Slack Family Christmas party was a lot of fun.
Christmas was SCREWED by the fact that I had to work on Christmas Day for four hours missing all the festivities at home.
The day after Christmas I was violently ill with the flu...projectile vomiting, etc...so I called into work and was out the next three days. Because I decided not to subject my co-workers to my ill-ness, I am now thisclose to being fired because I didn't have enough time to cover it.
I was thinking I wasn't going to do anything for New Year's, but Michelle came through in a pinch and put together a fun dinner party with a great ham dinner and I brought some awesome homemade Chex mix Mom made. Amanda, Mariah, Natalie and her boyfriend and Kyle were all there. It was a lot of fun and a great way to end the year.

Really, my job has tainted how I view this year along with Grandma Pierce taunting death and my dad just getting increasingly sicker. It wasn't really that bad of year, but it wasn't that great. I just have a feeling 2010 is going to be a stellar year...it has to be starting off with a blue moon!

So Much for the Happiest Season of All

2009-12-27T17:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year. I loved how, generally, the world was blanketed in white, drowning out all the drab colors brought on by the cold, and also the drowning out of all the noise. It's peaceful. I also always loved all the twinkling lights on display, no matter if they were carefully designed or just thrown up pell-mell, I loved all of it.

I also liked the general feeling of good cheer and peace that seems to permeate everyone which I always liked to believe was brought on by the rumination over the Birth of the Savior Jesus Christ over 2,000 years ago. That maybe, those who claim to have nothing to do with God or religion, actually take a moment to realize what the Season, and really life is all about.

Christmas has always been going to Temple Square to see the light displays and the beautiful life-size Nativity, having the Slack Family Christmas Party, going to my brother Paul's house on Christmas Eve to celebrate with his in-laws and then having a HUGE Christmas breakfast at my parent's house Christmas morning consisting of sausage casserole, abelskievers (spherical pancakes), and bacon, and orange juice, unwrapping presents and having the thrill of seeing someone who I bought a gift for unwrap it, and then laying around all day and maybe going to a movie that evening. It's also been going to church and hearing the choirs sing and then having the testimonies borne of the Savior's birth. It's just been great.

This year seemed like Christmas never even happened. Because of my new schedule at my job that I detest, I haven't been to Church in over four months. I haven't had any semblance of feeling any of God's love because I get to hear morons day in and day out complaining about their bills, their service or what have you, and tell me how horrible the company is that I work for. I also had to work not only Christmas Eve, but on Christmas Day!!! What in the hell is wrong with people??!! Granted, I only had to work four hours, but just working one minute on Christmas is a travesty. And that four hours came right at the time Christmas breakfast is meaning I missed out on most of breakfast and ALL of the gift opening.

Because I've been so depressed about my job I haven't felt like doing anything Christmasy. I never went to Temple Square, never went and saw all the lights, was pissed off because the lights I did hang on my own house looked terrible because of the way the new roof was put on. Granted, I did get to enjoy the Slack Family Christmas party and the party at Paul's house, but I just didn't seem as excited. I miss it.

So I'm saying this right now: I will NOT ever work on Christmas again...EVER!!! There is no reason for it! In fact, I will find employment that will be shut down Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and will not require me to be there on Sundays. I don't care what people say about church, how it's man made and boring and blah, blah, blah. It's what you make of it. That is where God wants you to be one day out of the week so that you can think on spiritual things with your fellow man instead of the constant crap going on day in and day out. True, I've complained about getting ready to go to Church, but once I'm there, with rare exception (I refer to the day crazy homeless guy got up in testimony meeting speaking of killing cats), I love it.

My Grandpa Slack

2009-12-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

"E Potz!!"

That is something my Grandpa Slack would often say just to be silly. I have been thinking of him often lately as I am currently in possession of his history that he wrote that comprises THREE 3-ring binders! Now, that is impressive even for long hand but keep in mind that my Grandpa typed on an old type-writer all the pages with the last binder holding pages with type on both sides!

The marvelous thing about Grandpa is that he hadn't always kept a journal. He began writing it while recovering from having his one lung removed in 1975. He had the most intricate and detailed memory his whole life and so it was quite easy for him to relate of his early boyhood, his meeting Grandma and starting a family and everything up to that point, after which he pretty much wrote two to three times a week until the month before his death. And it was fitting that the last entry in his journal was about the night of his and Grandma's 50th Anniversary Celebration, which was a good time had by all.

Grandpa didn't provide many details as far as feelings and that goes, however he went into intricate detail when describing his massive garden that was envied by all the neighbors and whenever he built something he described the exact length and precise size of nails or screws he used. But when he did describe his feelings they were sweet. Almost every wedding anniversary, he would always say if he had to do it all over again he would've chosen the same sweet beautiful woman. He also always went on about how much he loved his children. And I don't know if it's because she's my mother, but it seemed he always described how Beverly brought sunshine into any room she was in and how she made him so happy. Other times that would elicit feelings from him were when he would describe the symphonies and concertos that he loved to listen to. He played the French Horn in the BYU orchestra, which is where he met my Grandma (she played violin), and most of his entries about when he would listen to music on his massive record collection or when he would see a relative playing an instrument would thrill him to tears.

Also in reading his journal, I've realized just how spiritually great he was too. It was so wonderful reading of how when he was being introduced to give a talk one Sunday in the last years of his life, the person introducing him said, "Brother Slack keeps all of the commandments." I have never heard a truer statement. I never heard, nor read, of my Grandpa speaking ill of anyone, even if they hadn't treated him well at all, he never swore, and he always had that glow of someone great, a glow you could only have by following in the Lord's footsteps.

Grandpa also had a quirky sense of humor which I briefly mentioned at the first, but he was always up for a good natured laugh. I believe it was the day before his death, my mom and my brother, Paul, and my aunt Carol were visiting him at home and he was telling us about how he and his brother Lawrence had this language they made up. He would speak it and it was hysterical.

All of this has reminded me of how much I have been blessed with to have been related to him and only hope that I can be remembered as fondly when my time comes. I have taken a page from my Grandpa (and not his journal's) and have kept a journal off and on over the years since I was 13. I hope that my progenitors get as much a great feeling reading those as I have had reading his.

What a Difference the Day Makes

2009-11-30T22:26:00.000-08:00

This week I've begun my new shift at work and it's been the GREATEST spirit lifter! As you all know, I've not been too kind in speaking of my job and it's because I feel like I've been trapped and left for dead working with customers that, for the most part, resemble nothing close to civilized human beings. That and the fact that my shift started at 2:30 PM and dragged on through the evening until 11 PM, Sunday - Thursday. It's been horrible to say the least.

My family has Family Dinner every other Sunday and I've missed them pretty much since the middle of summer. That has been the worst part of my previous shift. The other part is that the days that I would work I'd wake up around 10:30 - 11 AM and stew over the fact that soon I would have to be at work and then I'd be at work just dreading every minute. I would never see any of my friends or family, and if I did, it would have to be carefully choreographed because I had so little time on Friday and Saturday to fit everyone in. Not to mention I had to quit going to the Ward I was going to, that I was teaching in and loved, to do this crap.

The other horrible part was my supervisor, a red-headed bearded fellow with the manic energy of a fly on crack. I believe I tune into other people's energies and his was too much to handle even in the first moments of meeting him. He seemed to always be on the look out for failure and wouldn't keep eye contact when you would speak with him. Needless to say, he made me nervous.

But now, on to New Shift!

New Shift is 7:30 AM - 4:15 PM Thur - Mon with a new supervisor!! I thought I would dread changing my sleep schedule considering I am NOT a morning person, but it's been a blessing because I don't even really gain consciousness until about 10:30 AM. Before then, I'm on auto-pilot so by the time I've fully realized where I am and what I'm doing, I've all ready been at work for three hours! To be able to leave work in daylight has made me tingle all over with excitement knowing that I'll be able to see my friends and family, the latter especially on those every-other-Sundays. My new supervisor has a calm, sweet energy that is a complete 180 from Old Supervisor. She knows how to get the job done and wants to help us get the job done and so far, knock on wood, it's been pleasant.

I'm still missing Church, which makes me sad. And the customers are still crazy as an outhouse rat, but having a better energy around me, and being able to just be at work and not have to think about it before I actually go, is going to help me handle their crazy much better...and my crazy too:)

40 Years of Sunny Days

2009-11-12T00:19:00.000-08:00

On November 10th one of my all time favorite TV shows celebrated it's 40th anniversary, and no, it's not Bewitched, it was Sesame Street. I don't think any show has been more influential on myself or my family than this show. It seemed to be always entertaining and quite funny, even now. And I'm speaking more about the earlier years than what has happened with the Street now, all though I do recognize it's doing a lot of good. But those earlier years seemed to have a magic all their own. I once asked my mom when I was younger why was there Sesame Street and she told me it's so you can watch it when you're bored. Which I did for many years until I realized I could count in Spanish:)

In honor of Sesame Street's 40th I wanted to share 6 favorite moments via video clips. I chose 6 because that's how old Big Bird always is and 10 is just too many:)

I remember this one so much from being really little because I had a huge fascination with Grandfather clocks when I was little. To see this one destroyed was morbidly fascinating! I even had a large Lego like set that I would build a clock with and then destroy but always have the two parts of the outercase of the clock left standing like this one did:)

This one represents the brilliance of Jim Henson for me. It's so basic, from the rhyming, to the set, to the puppets,

but so wild and awesome and just plain hilarious!

Cookie Monster was always one of my favorites because he was blue and a monster and he loved cookies.

This one is so precious!! I just want to give that little girl, Joey, a big hug. When I was little I was totally blown

away that not only when they spoke the letters did they appear but when she threw in Cookie Monster, he

appeared as a letter!

This song has to be one of THE coolest songs! And I loved that all these famous people were in it, including the Simpsons!

Cookie Monster kills me with his trying to be polite but also not understanding that not everywhere would have cookies!

Jesus, Tell Me What's Up With That?!

2009-11-09T00:57:00.001-08:00

The other night my friend Michelle found out that a good friend of hers had committed suicide. It was really sad and it brought up a lot of questions like suicide always does. We were discussing the whys and hows of life and death, particularly what happens to someone when they commit suicide on the other side of the veil.

To be honest, I'm not quite sure, though I believe it's really not up to us to decide, it's just up to us to know, that we have no business committing suicide.

That got us to thinking about what we would ask God about if we had the chance. That is something I've thought about often because I've got a TON of questions!

The way I imagine it though is that we will get a time for questions right after the Judgement takes place, our own Personal Priesthood Interview, if you will, with Jesus Christ. After we've reviewed my life, everything has been weighted and decided, I think Jesus would say, "Now, what questions do you have for me?"

Mine are, as follows:

1. Why is that some people die young and way before their time and yet others *cough, Grandma Pierce, cough* live years and years in sickness and loneliness?

2. Can I see what would've happened in certain circumstances had I made a different choice? Quite frankly I think the answer to this would be "no" because I think seeing the outcome of most things would be too painful and regretful.

3. May I see my father's life from his birth to pretty much when I was born? That one is important to me because I don't feel that I know why my father is the way he is, though I definitely know why my mother is the way she is. Her sisters have always said that our household was just like theirs growing up plus all of them talk about their lives so much I pretty much know it anyway.

3.a. and b. In addition to my dad's life, I would like to see my Grandma and Grandpa Pierce's life.

4. Please tell me the purpose of dinosaurs...leftovers from other worlds used to create the Earth, practice for future animals, what?

5. How did John F. Kennedy really die?

6. How do the gays work into all this? It's quite plain in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin yet it seems like not many people believe that. And I know quite a few homosexuals that are very great people whom I love dearly. What's going to happen to them?

7. What happened to my kitties Kizsha and Snowy?

8. Are there certain people that truly share a flow of thought constantly though they have no contact with each other?

9. What really happened during the Salem Witchcraft trials? Was it all just a horrible game or was the devil and his minions really rampant in that area? And why?

10. Were some people just born attracting all the great things and others born repelling all great things? What for? And if not, why does it seem like that?

I'm sure I have million others but I really want to know the answers to those.

Hopping My Broom to Reno!

2009-10-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

Right now I am in the midst of packing for what once was my Annual Trip to Reno for Halloween. Because of money I haven't been able to go the past two years which has been VERY depressing. I'm SO excited that I'm going this year!

Why so excited, Dave?

Well, let me tell you. The reason it's Reno is because my dear friend Andrea lives there. Actually, she lives in Sparks, a suburb of Reno, but nobody ever knows where Sparks is. She lives there with her husband and two boys, Cody and Zack. Andrea loves Halloween as much as I do, if not more. Andrea also loves Bewitched but I'm gonna say not as much as I do, but she loves it enough to care to post on Bewitched boards, which is how we met way back in 1999. Oh wow! I just realized that's 10 years ago! HOLY COW! Anyway....

In 2000 some of us on the Bewitched board decided to have a get together to meet face to face. Andrea wanted to host it in Reno since she was the only one with kids and couldn't get away. The get together was set for August. I had never seen a picture of Andrea before so I didn't have any idea who to look for when I got to the hotel where she was going to meet us to take us out to her house. However, when I saw her shiny eyes and red hair I knew immediately it was her. She hadn't seen a pic of me before either but she said she knew immediately who I was and this was before I ever had a Bewitched shirt. We all had a great time and she said that I must come back in October for her Halloween party that she throws every year. I accepted and so Heather and I did go back that October.

I was blown away by how much all of her friends went all out on their costumes! Even more so by all the decorating she does. It was just like in the movies where there are tons of people with awesome costumes, games and tons of dancing. In fact that night Andrea and I danced from about 7 PM to 2 AM with maybe a bathroom break. We were both so tired and crippled from dancing but we had so much fun! And so every year after (with the exception of one where she was mad at her friends and decided not to throw it) I've been.

Aside from the awesome party, I just love hanging out with Andrea and her family. I feel as though I've known them my whole life. They are part of my family and I definitely feel a part of theirs. Our friend Jone also joins us and I would be remiss in not mentioning that I also get to see her as she flies in for it too. Jone and I have always been room buddies on our get togethers.

But the past two years, money has been tight so I couldn't justify going and it was really depressing.

So tomorrow I will be flying to Reno for five days/four nights and I can't wait!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

So Maybe "Deplore" Was a Bit Much...

2009-10-27T19:04:00.001-07:00

I have to say that when I last blogged I was in a frightful mood. What you saw there was the equivalent of an emotional HUGE zit that popped - satisfying, yet disgusting. It was the culmination of many days of frustration and just over all raw nerves.

The following day I was shown how to do something at work that I hadn't been doing because I felt there wasn't an effective way to do it. This is because I had either been misinformed or misunderstood. I choose to believe the former as there were several others in my training class who believed as I did. Now that I know how to do the particular task, which leads to more money for me and happiness for my customers, my mood has improved considerably! Do not take this change in mood for my actually liking my position, cause I don't. However it is much easier to deal with.

I DEPLORE my job!

2009-10-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

There is no other word for it...well, yes, there are, like "detest", "loathe", and the not-so-violent "hate". Honestly, I cannot remember the last time that I hated a job as much as I hate this one. Actually, yes, I can...when I worked at McDonald's when I was younger, but since then, this one takes the cake.

I work for a major telecommunications company known world wide. I will say that I love the company, I like what they stand for, and they do have great benefits. However, all of that is being over shadowed by my current position as a customer service representative. Of the five days a week I go there 4 1/2 of them are absolutely awful. There always seems to be that 1/2 day that comes where people are pleasant and things just go right which gets me thinking, "You know? Maybe you really don't hate this job." But then it delves right back in to days like this. I spend most of my nights having panic attacks about what I should do about my job and if I'm going to last there and that's just not right. I HATE every minute that I'm there and I hate the hours leading up to all those minutes. I work an evening shift so my sleep schedule is all messed up. I get up around 11 - 11:30 AM every day and for the couple hours before I go to work all I think about is how much I would rather be hit by a train.

Today I went to lunch with a good friend (who incidentally is not enjoying her job either) and I told her that I've decided I'm going to write down everything that happens that leads me down Crazy Town Lane. And I did...I only wrote down the first HOUR of things that absolutely drive me nuts and lead me to believe that I MUST find other employment. Here is the list:

1. 2:30 - 11 PM shift, working on Sundays.

2. First call of the day: I was told that I'm the reason that companies outsource their work to other countries because I'm so incompetent. And when I responded to her that I didn't appreciate her talking to me like that she asked for a supervisor. Keep in mind, I am NEVER to respond to customers berating comments. I'm supposed to move on.

3. When trying to find a supervisor there were none on the floor so I had to call the Escalated Calls team, which looks bad on my stats, and though she was very kind and understanding told me that she couldn't help this customer with what her original reason for calling was, that a supervisor should take this kind of call.

4. A customer's phone has been breaking down the past couple months. He is eligible in two weeks to upgrade to a new phone with a discount in addition to the all ready discounted prices. When I ask my supervisor who had just returned from wherever he was, he said it was too bad, he'd only approve the all ready discounted prices but not the huge additional discount. He'd have to wait the two weeks.

5. Tried helping aforementioned customer troubleshoot his newest problem which was that the ringer had stopped working. One of the troubleshooting steps is to take the battery out. After we did that found that because of one of his previous problems with his on/off button no longer working his phone no longer will turn back on.

6. Tried using the application on the computer to call a customer back as it looks better on my stats rather than the buttons on my phone and ended up getting another phone call, delaying my call to the customer who I had just told I was going to call right back.

7. Received an email saying a meeting was cancelled meaning more time taking phone calls.

8. Supervisor comes around after said email was sent saying to log out to the meeting and he disappears like earlier. So we sit around wondering if we're supposed to go to a meeting and end up taking calls again but it has now ruined our availability stats as well as our schedule adherence stats.

9. Late for another meeting because of problems mentioned in #5 and #6.

10. Customer calls because his bill was sent to some stranger's address who opened his bill and called him to tell him about it. When looking at the comments on his account found that a request for the change had come in on a remittance slip. He said he had no idea what that address was and hadn't moved so why would he do that? He was concerned about security and when I ask a supervisor (who wasn't mine because of course he isn't at his desk) she tells me, "He made the request because there's the remittance slip." I advise her he didn't and she just looks at me blankly and says, "He did. It doesn't matter what he's telling you." So I have to go back and tell him that I honestly don't know how that happened but it looks like he requested it.

That was all within an hour period. And, truly, you multiply that by eight, which gives you a day in my work life. Is it any wonder I hate my job?

Who Once Was Lost...

2009-10-18T23:42:00.001-07:00

...now is found via Facebook!

The "Who" to whom I am referring is quite possibly my Uncle John, my mom's youngest sibling and Snoop Dogg look-a-like (white edition, of course). We have not seen nor really heard from John in about 10 years and if you know my mom and her family, this is HIGHLY unusual! You see, throughout the course of John's life he made some very bad choices leading him on a very rocky path which was lined by monetary loans from my Grandparents. When my Grandma passed away in 1999 (Grandpa having died in 1994) my Aunt Irene was left as executor of the estate because of her aptitude in finance. She discovered that Grandpa had written receipts, some of which were signed by John, of how much the loans were and when he would pay them back. However, he never did. He had borrowed upwards of $40,000.00 with no attempt to pay back. Irene held a family council with my mom and the rest of the siblings to discuss the impending inheritance all of them were to get. She brought up the fact that John had borrowed all this money and the fact he had never made any retribution. It is true the rest of them borrowed money from time to time but it was always rendered back. So it was unanimously decided that John had all ready received his inheritance and that he would not have to pay back to the estate.

This did not sit well with John's wife at all and in fact she wrote a nasty letter to Irene accusing her and the rest of the siblings of malice. And that was it. We never heard John's feelings on the subject and any phone calls or letters to him have gone unanswered.

Keep in mind my mother was like his second mother. There is 20 years difference in their ages and when John was little their father had to have massive surgery in Denver leaving my mom to take care of her brothers and sisters. I remember John telling me when I was younger that he thought of my mom as his mom more than his own mother. For John to cut off contact with my mother has been devastating to her. But that's the weird thing...we all think that it's not so much that John has cut off contact so much as it is that Kimberly has all control of that household. My mom has sent them birthday cards and Christmas cards every year and she'll call him on his birthday but her attempts are never acknowledged.

A couple years ago I found John's son Stephan on My Space. I didn't really know him that well but I thought it would be a good "in" to see how his dad is doing and possibly get him to call my mom. But Stephan was very evasive when asked about his father.

Just tonight, as I was looking over my cousin Greg's Facebook, I noticed that he recently became friends with Kimberly!! Greg and John were best friends growing up as they were the same age and John hasn't even tried to contact Greg. So this was a shock! Of course, Kimberly's profile is set to "private" however she does have an old photo of her and John. I also noticed that Kimberly has posted comments on Greg's Facebook that make it seem like nothing is wrong.

Maybe so much time has passed that she's not bitter anymore and hopefully this will be the "in" that my mom and her family so desperately want so that they can re-kindle their relationship with their long lost brother. I certainly hope so!

God Loves Even the Pizza Girl

2009-10-07T00:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a hankerin' for Little Squeezers (that's what I call it) $5.00 Pizza! Pizza! so I rolled on into the establishment located in what is considered the ghetto part of town. As I was entering I was first thinking, "I can't wait to eat some pizza! I'm SOOO hungry!" and the second was, "Look at these people working here! I'm glad I'm not one of them."

Yes, it turns out I have a shallow side and I can be judgmental. But I just looked at them having their kinda greasy hair and their seeming lack of hope cooking up my pizza and taking my five bucks. The cashier was a middle aged woman and I kind of had pity for her working in Ghetto Squeezers and for the possible fact that being the cashier in Ghetto Squeezers is her lot in life, when out of nowhere I heard/felt, "You know, she is one of my daughters and I love her more than you can fathom. And the same goes for the rest of her co-workers... and you."

Keep in mind, I haven't done anything more spiritual than watch an hour of General Conference in the past two months because of my work schedule and quite frankly I've been feeling further from God than ever, though I do pray every day. For me to have that prompting, something which I haven't experienced in a long time was overwhelming to me in the fact that I kind of felt since I've forgotten God in the past little while he may have forgotten me. How silly is that?!

I almost started crying there at Little Squeezers and thankfully they are good workers so our transaction time was quite minimal thus allowing me to leave with my composure in tact.

But it is true. I know that God loves me more than I can fathom and that he loves all of my brothers and sisters here on Earth even if I don't know why. And I hope that you all know this too and keep it mind. Though we may get bogged down in the crap at work, the crap at home, and the crap in the world, one thing remains, and that is God loves us!

End of an Era

2009-09-24T17:32:00.000-07:00

Four years ago one of my wishes came true in having Bewitched FINALLY arrive on DVD! Which meant every episode, un-edited and crystal clear in both picture and sound (mostly). My friend Sharon decided to pull an Oprah and created "Bewitched Club", just like book club except we wouldn't be reading, we'd be watching! And what we'd be watching is one episode, three times a week (Tuesday - Thursday) and discussing what we had watched. She wanted to be able to watch the series in order as though she were watching it for the first time and wanted to hear what other fans thought. I thought it was a great idea and so I joined along with a few of our other Bewitched friends. Keep in mind, none of us live in the same state or even country, so this was all done through e-mail. We began at the end of summer 2005, just after the First Season had been released.

It was great! I loved hearing what others thought, especially Sharon, because she is so funny and has a way of relating her thoughts in a very entertaining way. Plus there were certain things that would be brought up that I hadn't noticed before or behind-the-scenes info that I didn't know. And sometimes I would know things that they didn't know.

It took us some time to get through the First Season as it has a staggering 36 episodes!! Normally shows today only have about 24 so it took about three or four months just to get through the First Season and by that time the Second Season had been released and it was 38 episodes! Each season through the Fourth would be released about every three months until the Fifth and then it was almost a year.

Over the course of time, pretty much all the other participants fell to the wayside leaving just Sharon and I to discuss, which was fine by me, because most of the time the others simply said, "I love this episode!" or "I hate this episode!" but wouldn't elaborate on what exactly they loved/hated about it.

One of the things I looked forward to most was when we arrived at the Switching of the Durwoods, Dick York for Dick Sargent, because for as long as I've known Sharon, I've also known she cannot STAND Dick Sargent. I couldn't wait to hear her scathing remarks about him. As it turns out though, she grew to appreciate him and when the last season came out most of her scathing remarks were directed, and not without good cause, towards Elizabeth Montgomery who seemingly was not into the part at all anymore.

Well, anyway just this past summer the Eighth and Final Season was released and just yesterday we watched the last of the 254 episodes and now I'm sad:( No more Bewitched Club! It was like mini-Christmas waiting for a season to be released and even more so to wonder what Sharon would think of the episodes. Sharon and I have a joke about us sharing One Brain because most likely one of us will send the other an email about something that the other sends about the same time and on the same subject (not necessarily Bewitched). But it was surprising how many times we totally disagreed on the brilliance or horribleness of an episode. But even if we did, it was still fun discussing.

Sharon and I are in a "mourning" about no more Bewitched Club but I suppose we'll get over it. Maybe we'll start I Dream of Jeannie Club!

A Quarter Century Sister

2009-09-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow my sister, the only sister I have and youngest sibling, Heather, is turning 25 years old! Want to know what I think of that?

CRAZY!!!

I was just about to turn eight years old when she was born. It seemed the whole world was in awe that my parents, after three boys, finally received a little girl. I even remember Great Great Grandma Blackburn, who was around 101 years old, saying she couldn't believe that my dad was finally going to get a baby girl. It was also a miracle that another baby was born as my parents had been trying for another baby for over two years and it seemed that another wouldn't ever happen.

Our house was crazy town forever what with the entire neighborhood over constantly to see the beautiful new girl. I also thought I was never going to be able to hold her.

Heather was seriously so cute! She had the prettiest blue eyes and a cherub face. It also seemed she was very smart because she started speaking in full sentences when she was just under two years old. She was also very girly and had to have everything purple or pink. She even had what she called her "sexy suit" which was a black and purple pin-striped jump suit with a plastic purple belt and poofy sleeves. And she called it her "sexy suit" at just two! Very smart and funny!

I always used to read to her, mainly the Little House on the Prairie books, and think that had a huge part in her love of literature and writing. It made me sad when she grew older and didn't want me to read to her anymore.

One of my favorite memories was the night before we went to Disneyland for the first time as a family when I was 10 and she was 2, she was laying in bed with me as we were trying to fall asleep and I would ask her, "Are we going to see Mickey Mouse?" And her little voice responding, "Yes." "Are we going to see Winnie Ah Pooh (that's what she called him)?" "Yes" and going through a whole list of characters until she fell asleep.

Heather has always had a marvelous sense of humor and a very contagious laugh. If you ever think something may not be remotely funny, just watch with her.

She's also been my traveling buddy when I would go on my "Bewitched" vacations, specifically to Reno to visit our friend, Andrea, for Halloween. We always had fun singing along to the tapes/CDs we brought or laughing our fool heads off at the sign for Pioche, which Heather pronounced (with a whole lot of phlegm) "PEE-auggh!!" LOLOLOLOL

Anyway, I just thought I'd post some memories of my sister. I can't believe she's not a little girl anymore.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HEATHER!

Update on Grandma

2009-09-01T01:13:00.000-07:00

The day after I posted last I went to visit Grandma who had somewhat come out of her coma. She looked terrible! Which is to be expected when 1) you're close to 90, 2) you've just experienced a heart attack and 3) a stroke. But still, it was shocking.

I held her hand and told her I was there and she said "That's nice." I stupidly asked her how she was feeling, cause what else are you supposed to say, and she groggily replied, "I'm fine. Don't you worry." And then she fell back into her coma/sleep.

Since then she's been talking about how she forgot to make dinner for her mother, who's been long dead and the other day my cousins went to visit her and I guess she wasn't conscious at the time they arrived so they came back later and told her they were sorry they missed her before. She said, "It's OK. Grandpa told me you stopped by." Keep in mind Grandpa left this world in November 1991. So the veil is quite thin.

The doctor said that he gave her a week, and that was last week. I was very glad to have seen her and been given the chance one more time to tell her that I loved her.

It's been quite stressful, though, thinking that every phone call is going to be "the One". Especially at work, and you see that someone in your family has called multiple times in a short span, only to find out they just had something else to say but were hoping to catch me on break. Not to mention trying to stifle the emotions so you can function somewhat normally at work only to have all those efforts shattered when a customer, in response to "How are you doing this evening?" say, "Not very well, my mom just died." Luckily, she had a sense of humor and knew the awkwardness of the predicament she just put me in. Unfortunately though, her mother's situation was quite similar to Grandma's, and therefore I had a little breakdown at work...it's so embarrassing.

I just wish Grandma could leave right this minute. But I'm thinking she's being stubborn and that's why her mother and my Grandpa have been hanging around. I believe that one person comes to escort you beyond the veil and for some reason Grandma's being stubborn about it necessitating two people. We'll know it's really bad if she starts mentioning her father or any of her mostly deceased siblings.

But all kidding aside, please pray that she'll be released from her body so that she can finally have peace, and also that me and my family can have some peace.

Why won't the last grain fall?

2009-08-26T23:22:00.001-07:00

I'm speaking specifically about the grain of sand in the proverbial hourglass that belongs to my Grandma Pierce who is currently in a coma after suffering a heart attack and stroke a couple days ago.

Grandma has not had the greatest of years in the past couple. She is nearing 90 years old and essentially gave up on taking care of herself necessitating putting her in assisted living. But when she became violent with the nurses she had to be moved to the most depressing of rest homes. But, really, are there any rest homes that aren't depressing? Anyhow she just sits/lays there in the rest home, day in and day out, waiting for someone to come visit and crying, justifiably so, when visitors have to leave. Her memory is shot so sometimes she doesn't recall the visit anyway. And she has been without Grandpa for almost 18 years...it's time for her to leave.

Yet, she keeps hanging on for some reason and it's been really difficult to function normally knowing that she is in the state she is in and that is, being physically here, but that's it. Right now I feel it's futile to go see her (she does live a little over 120 miles away) because she may not know that I'm even there. Not to mention I was there in the room when my Grandma Slack passed and I do not wish to have the experience again.

Little things are setting off my tears, like a simple song on the radio, someone asking me how I am or how she is, or just some random thought of her.

Grandma and I have a very close relationship. I lived with her for about a year when I went to college and got to know her very well. She isn't the easiest person to get along with, but she still had great moments, and I love her. She was always very kind and nice to me, even when we would have arguments. But I think that's why we got along so good, is that we could argue but knew that we still loved each other.

Grandma also played a very special part in my mission. She wrote quite often and there was one day where she provided great comfort. I was horribly ill with a high fever and a headache that I thought was going to destroy me. In fact, I was in and out of consciousness all day. When I finally came to in the evening I was still feeling bad and couldn't get out of bed. I was quite homesick and was wishing I could speak to someone in my family. Nobody in my family had my phone number because on the mission you're only to communicate through letters and speak to your family on Mother's Day and Christmas. While I was laying in bed trying to rest the phone rang and my companion answered it. I was quite shocked when I heard him say, "No ma'am, you've reached the wrong number. There is no Pamela Reddington here." Pamela is my cousin from the Pierce side who at the time was living in a neighboring state. I immediately told him to hand me the phone and when I asked who was calling, it was Grandma Pierce! She was quite surprised to have reached me, but no more surprised than I was! I told her I was so glad she called, even if it was by mistake, and we chatted awhile and it made me feel much better.

I hate to think of her in the position she's in now and wish that God would just release her from her body. She's told me countless times she's ready to move on, so why doesn't it happen?

Time keeps on slipping...

2009-08-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

In the past two days I've had major moments of "time realization" that I am not too happy about, quite frankly. And it's because I hate that time is moving so fast and I seem to have jumped off the train, and I'm really struggling to get back on. That probably makes no sense, but to me it does, and it's my blog!:)

Anyway, August 11th was the 10 year anniversary of the random tornado touching down in downtown Salt Lake City. A DECADE has passed since then! In my mind, it seemed like that happened maybe just a couple years ago.

Then, even more rattling is the fact that yesterday (August 12th) marked the 11 year anniversary of my returning from my mission. I hate thinking about that because when I was on my mission I had my life planned out to where by now I would've been married with at least three children and not working at a customer service/phone job. My mission self would be disappointed in now self.

The worst "time realization" rattler occurred earlier this evening. That is when my sister showed me pictures of these kids I used to babysit, though I erroneously just used the term "kids". When I babysat the Clark family there were four children, the youngest being a baby boy named Jonathan. I remember that before they moved there was another baby born when Jonathan was about two and it was a little girl, who I saw once. From then, until now, I've seen the two oldest children, girls, and marveled at how they've grown and then got depressed when both of them got married. Depressed on account of I should've been married way before they were. Anyway, the pictures my sister showed me were of the younger girls' wedding which included a picture of Jonathan who is now almost out of high school!!! WHAT THE.....??!!! When I think of Jonathan, I think of the little baby, who when he barely learned to walk, would bring me all his toys, and who had difficulty learning to talk. Now he's practically an adult!

It's ill-making...to me all those events like babysitting those children, my mission and the tornado, all seem like things in the very recent past, but apparently I'm mistaken. I guess I need to hop on a horse and try to catch up with the train before I'm lost forever.

Troubling Thought addendum

2009-08-05T00:56:00.001-07:00

So Dad came home from work just after I finished the last post. I asked him what he thought about the kidney transplant and he says he's all for it. I said I didn't agree because I feel he's too sick and he, of course, says, "I'm not too sick. What would make you say that?"

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Troubling Thought

2009-08-04T23:34:00.000-07:00

As you may know, my father is in horrible kidney failure...it's at about 13% function. He isn't in great health whatsoever, though he does work. But by work I mean, he's a wheel-chair pusher at the airport and very rarely does he actually DO something because I'm sure people are wondering why they aren't pushing him. And when he's not at work he's laying on his bed.

Also, he has started dialysis. He had been working towards getting a kidney transplant but the only donors were my mom and my brother, Pibby, and us kids certainly didn't want our mom to do it and Pibby didn't want to either knowing that Dad wasn't taking care of the kidneys he currently has, why should he give up his for Dad not to take care of that one either? Not to mention when Dad had his gall bladder removed a couple years ago, a minor outpatient surgery, it turned into a major inpatient hospital stay because he's just so weak he couldn't take it. Of course, a kidney transplant is much more serious so we've kinda been thinking that were he to do it he'd most likely pass away. And some of the doctors have agreed with us.

During the past couple years my dad's appearance has drastically changed because of being sick. He's very gaunt and looks really tired whereas he used to have a glow about him and was very healthy looking. A little while ago I found a video from Christmas 2007 where he was on it and I showed it to him thinking maybe it would kick start him into realizing he needs to watch his diet and do some exercise. Unbelievably, my frail, zombie-looking dad told me, "Well, I look TERRIBLE there! And I definitely feel better now than I did then."

......REALLY???!!!!

So you can see he doesn't have a realistic view of what is going on.

I said all that, to say this: today my mom received a call while Dad was at work from the kidney donation center saying that my dad's name had come up on a list to receive a cadaver kidney. My mom told the center that she didn't think he'd be healthy enough to go through with that but that they would need to talk to him. I think my dad will approve and go through with the surgery and that scares me. I know I should have more faith but I know he wouldn't make it through. He's only 67 and I think that's WAY too young to go even though many have and will die at younger ages. I want at least another 15 years.

So I hope my dad really thinks about it and makes a good decision. And when I say that I mean maybe he knows if he gets a transplant he'll do better...

I guess I'm rambling now but I'm just very upset about this whole situation and how it's not only affecting me, but Mom as well and the whole family.

Dream Weekend with a New Friend

2009-07-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend has seemed like a dream. First of all, Bewitched Season 8 (the final season) arrived on DVD which I thought would NEVER happen! But after four years I now have all 254 episodes in their unedited form* in crystal clear clarity and sound!

So I decided I would do something fun and host a DVD viewing party.

Well, back up....

...a couple months ago I became friends with this woman named Dayna who had heard the Morning Zoo always talking about me and she realized that we worked together so she hit me up on Facebook. We didn't work the same shift so I had only seen her in person like once or twice and only for a couple minutes. She found out I love Bewitched and told me she did too, that she watches it all the time and she really wanted to see my memorabilia collection in person.

That has NEVER happened. Ever! Especially not from someone who isn't on a Bewitched fan site. So I told Dayna that I would set up a time for her to come over and decided that with the release of Season 8, that would be perfect. She could come over, I'd invite other friends and we'd watch a couple episodes, visit, play games and just have fun.

Well, my idea sounded good on paper but I was shocked by how many people, ALL of them to be exact, said "no" to my invitation. For some reason Bewitched has this stigma that apparently I am not aware of that invokes anger and apathy in everyone. I couldn't believe that not a one of my friends said they wanted to come, and in fact, the day of the party one of them, apparently forgetting that I had invited her, had the chutzpa to invite me to a gathering at her house. I thought simply doing something different and at a different venue (my house, cause nobody ever comes over here) would be fun, but apparently only Dayna and I shared that thought.

A couple hours before the party was to start, Dayna offered that since nobody else was going to come, what about coming over to her house with SURROUND SOUND and a 52" plasma screen TV to watch Bewitched and then we could swim in her pool! Well, how could I refuse?! For one, I'm operating on a mid 90s 32" tube TV that has faint wavy lines, no surround sound and definitely no pool and it's been in the 100s around here. So I said sure and told her I'd bring the snacks and drinks.

I brought my binder full of 8 x 10 Bewitched photos since Dayna was going to miss out on seeing my collection and she was very glad I did. She said she loves looking at still photos from TV shows. See, Dayna used to work in Hollywood as a script continuity supervisor and so she gets as excited about Hollywood stuff as I do. I also decided that maybe she'd want to watch other episodes of Bewitched so I just brought the other seasons too. She was very glad that I did and so was her 7-year old daughter who was so excited that I came. The first thing she said was that she and her mother always watch Bewitched when it's on TV. Another magical thing was that Dayna resembles Elizabeth Montgomery (Samantha) and Erin Murphy (Tabitha). She told me when she was little that she very much looked like Tabitha.

As Dayna had a 5 disc DVD changer, we selected 5 DVDs from different seasons deciding that we'd try to watch 5 episodes. I chose my favorite episode "Allergic to Macedonian Dodo Birds", Dayna said she wanted to watch any of the episodes where they go on vacation so we put in the disc with the Salem episodes and Hailey (her daughter) wanted to see the Loch Ness Monster episode, which happens to be from the Eighth Season and a disc with some Tabitha episodes (cause Hailey likes her).

Now keep in mind, I kept thinking, "Is this really happening?! Am I really talking to someone here in my hometown that actually WANTS to watch Bewitched with me?" All of the time I get rolled-eyes and patronizing comments but Dayna and Hailey were so excited! And so we began with my favorite episode and munched on 'pean-pean butter' (that's how Mayson says 'peanut butter') M&Ms, Tomato-Basil Wheat Thins and sipped on Diet Coke and Root Beer.

Watching Bewitched on a big screen was phenomenal! I'm so sad now that I don't have a huge TV:( We went into watching "The Salem Saga" where Samantha and Durwood fly to Salem and get harrassed by a hexed bedwarmer at the House of Seven Gables, part one of two.

We decided to swim and it was glorious being in that cool water amid the horrible heat. The sun was going down and the thin clouds were beautiful in the sky. We even saw a huge flock of geese flying south for the....summer? They were quite low. It was so nice visiting out in the pool, especially when Dayna sent Hailey in so we could have some grown-up chat.

After we got out we watched part two, "Samantha's Hot Bedwarmer" and then "Samantha and the Loch Ness Monster" and decided to call it a night.

Dayna said we must do that often, as she totally loved it. I did too! And what is strange is all though we've just met we feel as though we've known each other forever.

As much as I was annoyed by my friends brushing me off, it was satisfying knowing they missed out on a really relaxing fun night and the opportunity to meet such a great new person!

*There are a couple episodes from Seasons One and Three that have a few scenes edited, but it's no biggie.

An apology, 20 years later...

2009-07-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

...the most amazing thing happened this weekend which I never thought would, and that is an apology for an event that took place in Junior High which drastically altered my life, an event to which I pinpoint almost everything wrong with me. I'm in awe of this apology not only because it happened, but by how much it made me feel better.

Growing up my best friend was Jessica Fitton. She lived down the road and we were together so much that we were referred to by everyone in the neighborhood as Mr. and Mrs. Pierce. We always worked out having our classes together and I really loved her. She was my best friend. Well, in 8th grade she began hanging out with these snobby girls, particularly Brigette Nielsen who didn't like me and didn't treat me well at all, which was weird, because everybody liked me. One day, as I was going to the table at lunch to sit with Jessica, I could see that Brigette was whispering to Jessica and it was about me as they were both focused on me. When I sat down, I tried to make small talk and then Jessica spoke up and said, "David, you can't sit with us anymore." I asked why not and she said, "Because you're a boy and I'm a girl and we just can't be friends."

Needless to say that obliterated me.

It hurt more than anything that has ever happened before or really since. To me, it felt like she was saying I was totally worthless and not even good enough for anybody and I suppose I harbored that feeling causing me to eat myself into comfort and my "husky" size not to mention I didn't want to ever feel like that again at the hand of some girl that I loved, which means I've tried my hardest not to fall in love with someone because I knew what they were capable of, and that came true with Rachel...but anyway....I still went to school with Jessica through high school and it was horrible seeing her there because I just felt so stupid and I really missed her. We've seen each other occasionally over the years and we've been cordial and all, but I've always had hurt when I've seen her.

I've always thought she never gave it a single thought until this weekend when on Facebook I posted a message asking people to name a memory they had of me. She replied with the following:

So many memories! Probably the most memorable was when I would steal my dad's cowboy books and come down and read the sex scenes to you and Paul! Also, in Jr. High when I thought I was too cool to hang out with you, little did I know that you were too cool for me! Sorry about that, I was jerk!

I was floored!! Her apology came out of nowhere! I take this to mean that her actions have been gnawing on her ever since then and it's taken 20 years for her to actually say she was sorry! I honestly was so taken back. It makes me feel better to hear it. True, I still wish it had never happened, but kids are dumb and I'm very glad she apologized. Now I can save all that money on therapy that I was going to have to do:)

Earwigs...really?!

2009-06-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

Apparently my house has been designated for the summer rally for all earwigs! WHY???!!!

I went to mow the lawn this evening and when I moved the mower about 29,374,239,742 of the little creepies skittered out and all over the place...and it's only been a week since I mowed!!

So then I brush up against the neighbor's overgrown shrubbery and two drop to the ground and just as I'm typing here there are two that are crawling down my wall!! WHY??!!

I really want to know what purpose earwigs serve in the grand scheme of things. They are disgusting little creatures and I wish they'd go away!

A Day of Death and Faith

2009-06-25T22:40:00.000-07:00

There must've been something in the air today, or maybe the veil was thin, but whatever it was three great people left today.

The first I heard about was Farrah Fawcett, she of Charlie's Angels fame. She was afflicted with anal cancer and has struggled the past couple years. She was very beautiful and in recent times I've heard that it wasn't just because of her outward appearance. Apparently she was very giving in nature and did a lot of things through her life for others in need that never went mentioned, until now. My only connection with Farrah, other than the fact that I was born the year Charlie's Angels premiered, is that she was on I Dream of Jeannie twice as Major Healey's girlfriend.

The next person I heard to finish their Earthly mission was quite shocking and that was the King of Pop, Michael Jackson! Only 50 years old and was in the midst of preparing for his last concert. Now granted, Michael was very strange, and possibly even creepy, but there is no denying that he left a legacy of music, dance and performing that may never be topped. All though I was only about 6 or 7 when "Thriller" was released, I remember it quite well. My aunt Evelyn had the record and I would listen to it at her house with her kids and we would dance and dance. I remember seeing the music video of the title track and being scared spitless but also quite intrigued at the pure magic of the moves. That Easter my brother got the tape and we listened to it so much I'm sure it broke. We LOVED Michael Jackson! Everyone did and so it was very hard to hear of his death.

But the one that had the most effect on me was one that most likely won't hit the news and that is of 6 year old Sadie Huish. She is the niece of one of my good friend's and only just last year was diagnosed with a rare brain cancer. Her parents decided to blog about their daughter and her struggles with this puzzling and frustrating illness. I became aware of Sadie's struggle when there was a piece about her meeting with President Thomas S. Monson of the Church of the Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and it was then that I looked up her blog. The faith and perseverance of Sadie and her parents was remarkable! I couldn't believe that through something so terrible they still had happy moments and kept believing. I suppose I can believe it because that's all one can do, is just know that Jesus is there to support, that these trials are for our good and that a greater life than we could dream of is waiting for us at the end. And now Sadie has returned to her Father-in-Heaven leaving the rest of us to strive to bring our faith to even a fraction of what hers was.

I'm sad, but comforted, knowing that all three people, though not in their bodies for the time being, are still around and do not have to suffer any longer. They are with loved ones and are more happy now than ever before.

But hopefully Death has had his fill for some time.

My happy place?

2009-06-16T00:27:00.001-07:00

So it turns out that my happy place is the sound of a train blowing it's horn! I didn't know this until yesterday and I'll explain why.

There is a train track that runs near my brother's house and while I was there playing Nertz (family favorite card game) we heard the train signaling that it was approaching. It doesn't seem like I've heard that sound in quite some time, like a REALLY long time! But it has always reminded me of being down to Grandma Pierce's house or over at my cousin's house sleeping over when I was younger. Those were great times even though we were in Wellington, a small sleepy town in central Eastern Utah where there is nothing to do but listen to trains and sleep over. I remember hearing the trains and wondering where they were going to. I also always thought of how it's quite possible that the same bellowing sound of the train was something that was heard over a 100 years ago and that it's something that hasn't ever changed and in fact, was somewhat of a link to the past.

Anyway, when I heard it yesterday I immediately felt that sense of peace and happiness that I had when I was younger and there wasn't really much to worry about except when the next round of fun was going to come around.

It was even sweeter still that when I got home yesterday that I heard the train again on the tracks that run about two miles from my house as though it were saying, "Those were good times and you know? There are still more to be had."

Age of Technology

2009-06-13T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today I went to tour the new facilities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints History Museum. I had a two-fold reason: 1) I really wanted to see what kind of stuff they have in the archives and 2) my brother Pibby works there so I wanted to see where he worked.

It was a very interesting tour, the most fascinating part for me being the archival of audio recordings. The demonstrator at that point of the tour works in that department and showed us how he can take a horrible, crackly old recording and make it sound brand new! It was awesome! He also showed us how in the late 19th to early 20th century there was a device used to make recordings on wire. Did you know this? I certainly didn't. On a thin wire like what you would fish with, maybe a bit thicker, people back in the day would make recordings! I didn't have a chance to ask Demonstrator how this was possible because there were too many people there. I am going to research though cause that's crazy!

Anyway, he played a couple examples of recordings he had of various Prophets of the Church, the earliest being from Wilford Woodruff in, I believe, 1897 that was recorded onto a wax cylinder. He also played the testimony of President Gordon B Hinckley's father that was from a wire recording and he most definitely was in that same time period as Wilford Woodruff. The marvelous part about it was hearing the testimony of these individuals, far removed from my time, but with the same testimony that I have, and that was that God lives and that his Son, Jesus Christ, is the Savior of the World.

The recordings played were no more than 20 seconds long, if that, but it made me marvel at how these men used these crude recording devices to share what they know to be true and how I have such an array of easy ways to share my testimony in a crystal clear fashion, whether by a digital recording, whether audio or visual or both, or simply typing it out.

So, like those men of yesteryear I'm going to share in about 20 seconds, really less, what I know to be true. I want all two readers of my blog to know that I know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he is my Savior and yours. I also know that Joseph Smith, Jr restored the Church of Jesus Christ to the Earth and that in addition to the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon witnesses of the divinity of Jesus. In His Name, amen.

Why am I not allowed to be me?

2009-05-21T12:07:00.001-07:00

Recently I've signed up to have Facebook updates sent via text. It's been both a blessing and a curse because sometimes I can't read all of what was said until I get home from work. Today was such an instance.

As you all know (or may not) I LOVE Bewitched, the 60s TV series about a witch and her dumb mortal husband. I've loved it ever since I can remember and in the past decade started collecting memorabilia from the show. I like seeing stuff that is from the show.

It makes me happy.

I also like knowing that I have that stuff.

It makes me happy.

I've seen countless programs over the years where people have various collections of stuff like Star Trek memorabilia, Wizard of Oz memorabilia, Elvis memorabilia, etc.

As far as I can tell, it makes them happy.

And I always wanted to have my own collection of stuff, and finally I got it in my Bewitched collection, which like I said before...

...makes me happy.

Why then must I endure the CONSTANT belittling and rolling of eyes from 99.9% of everyone I know, particularly those that claim they love me and enjoy me? What does my collecting stuff have to do with their happiness or their general contentment with life? NOTHING! You would think by my having a collection of stuff that I literally told all of them, "Hey, you look like a moron for associating with me. Please tell me and make me feel that way."

To get back to the Facebook, I get this message that my brother Paul has posted a message about a picture of my Bewitched collection in which he says, "You are LAME. You're going to have every old lady in the valley wanting to see your collection."

That is Paul's attempt at being funny. What's not so funny is the fact that a couple of my friends, who happen to be women, some younger than me, also posted on that picture meaning they will get the message too.

I honestly am not upset about him saying I'm lame...that's just another day in my life. What I am upset with is the fact that he's making me and him (because he is my brother) look like an idiot by referring to my lady friends as "old".

Therefore, in the heat of the moment, I busted this out on him: "I cannot believe how stupid you can be. You are just proving the theory that Pibby, Heather and I have that you are getting stupider the older you get caused by your alcoholism...not to mention the fact you just called my friends old...that's perfect!"

So of course that got sent to him and all my friends.

When I calmed down, I realized I shouldn't have said it so I deleted both his and my post.

The moral of the story is: I'm tired of feeling like the biggest joke anyone as ever met. I cannot believe that people can be so rude and mean thinking it's all in fun and teasing. Weaker people than I would kill themselves for the treatment I receive at the mouths of my so-called "loved" ones. And that says a lot.

Come What May, and Love It

2009-03-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I taught the Elder's Quorum at Church. My lesson was based on the last talk given by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles at last October's General Conference, the whole of which you can read here.

This was one of the talks I really enjoyed from conference and remembered and so I was pleased when it was the one chosen for me to give the lesson on. The only thing is, as far as scriptural references, it's very sparse which made preparing the lesson quite difficult.

The title of the talk comes from something Elder Wirthlin's mother told him when he felt times were tough. It reminded me very much of something Maxwell Smart would say on Get Smart after the Chief had just told him that his newest mission would put him in all sorts of harm, that he may not make it out alive or physically well. Maxwell would respond to the Chief's warning with "And loving it!"

So the beginning of my lesson included that humorous bit as well as the next part as Elder Wirthlin shared four lessons he had learned in helping him to "love it". They are:

Learn to laugh.
Seek for the eternal.
The Principle of Compensation.
Trust in the Father and the Son.

The humor of my lesson was lengthened when talking about learning to laugh. I shared some experiences from my mission where I felt that the Lord was showing me his sense of humor and the other Elders in my class shared their laughter filled experiences.

Next, the tone of the class became somewhat more serious when talking about seeking for the eternal. I emphasized how the Lord had told the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. in prison, "My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes."

The mood of the class was still a bit jovial because of some clowns in the class, but I felt that was OK. At least my lesson wasn't boring.

Well, then the biggest curve-ball ever thrown in Elders Quorum History happened.

I got to the Principle of Compensation which essentially is that that which the Lord takes away will be returned to us 100-fold, maybe not in this life, but it will be returned. A new Elder in the ward, a man who I think is too old to be there (the age limit is 45 years), who looked rather distinguished with his gray perfectly quaffed hair raised his hand. He said he had a question about that principle and it was this: he had recently lost his wife because she had taken her own life and he had lost his job. How was the Principle of Compensation going to work for him?

*stunned*

I honestly told him I didn't know, but I felt that his compensation, particularly where his wife was concerned, most likely wouldn't be seen until after this life. It was then that thankfully the other Elders came to my aide and shared with him their thoughts. They mainly said that because his wife had made the decisions that she had, it shouldn't prevent him from carrying on, that yes, he should be sad, but all in all, he has his own salvation to think of and he should do everything to trust in the Lord that things would go for his good.

I was glad that was said because the last lesson was "Trust in the Father and the Son". Elder Wirthlin put it so well when he said, "The Lord Jesus Christ is our parnter, helper and advocate. He wants us to be happy. He wants us to be successful. If we do our part, He will step in."

"He who descended below all things will come to our aid. He will comfort and uphold us. He will strengthen us in our weakness and fortify us in our distress. He will make weak things become strong."

It seemed to me that the answers of the Elders and this statement seemed to calm this new guy.

I was very glad that to have had that opportunity as it showed me that things in my life really are nowhere as bad as they could be.

And really, it is better to just face any obstacle with the attitude that it's all for my learning and betterment, so I should just love it!

Free at last!

2009-03-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

I have a two fold purpose for titling this the way I did, but it all happened in the same week.

First of all, about 18 months ago when I was at the DAMN dentist getting a root canal on the far back upper molar, he mentioned that the barrier betwixt (I like that word) my nasal passages and the tooth root was quite thin. So as he has all sorts of metal miscellania up in my mouth he tells me that he's going to pour some sort of bleach up in there, after he had drilled it out. So he proceeds to pour it in and as he does so I can feel it literally pouring up into my nose. Of course, I can't say anything cause my mouth is pried open. Well, right after that I developed the most marvelous of sinus infections, particularly in my right side. I told Dentist that I felt he had caused it but he denied it though he gave me a prescription for an antibiotic.

It didn't work.

So I've been living with the most irritating, hurty sinus infection, not being able to breathe right out of my right side, until this past week when I somehow contracted strep throat and had to go on an antibiotic for that. Well, what do you know, it has COMPLETELY obliterated the sinus infection! I LOVE BREATHING!!

The second part of my freeness is that I finally paid my brother off for last year's Hawaii trip. I could've paid him off earlier, but as he's such an ass sometimes I felt I would just prolong it, which I shouldn't have because it really did weigh on me.

So, FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LAST! GOD-ALMIGHTY, FREE AT LAST!!!

2008 was GREAT!

2009-01-07T22:33:00.000-08:00

If you've read some earlier posts, particularly the one about 2007, you'll know that I was not a happy camper when I wrote that...and for good reason: 2007 SUCKED! To quote the Simpsons, it was the suckiest suck that ever sucked! However, 2008 was not, thank you, God!

Here, for your perusal, and for my own records, is a listing of what happened in 2008. Like the 2007 recap the good stuff will be in GREEN and the bad stuff in RED.

January

Elizabeth Montgomery FINALLY received her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attend, but still cool.
The STUPID dentist advised me that for all the other work I needed, it would be an additional $4,000!!! This is on top of the $8,000 he's all ready charged! I agreed to it not knowing what else to do, so I'm royally screwed.
A friend reveals that she's pregnant. Not just that but by the brother of an infamous person in Utah. I find it hard to believe.
Tried out one of the Why-The-Hell-Aren't-You-Married-Yet wards and came home horribly depressed because it felt like an exclusive club, even though the Sacrament Meeting was really good.
My dad expressed, in words, his love for my mom totally catching her off guard as he usually doesn't verbalize it.
Dad had a hernia operation and was in and out of the hospital for about a week because he's so sick with diabetes.
I received a book called "Cinema Salem" by Peter Mac about the filmatic history of Salem. There is pic of me in it with the rest of the Bewitched group from our convention in Salem in 2006.
President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, passed away. It was sad, but a blessing for him that he could be reunited with his wife who had passed away a couple years earlier.
Paula Abdul released "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow", her first single in 13 years! And it is AWESOME!!

February

Dad, Pibby, Jenny and I attended President Hinckley's funeral at the Conference Center. it was a very good funeral and I was so blessed to have been at it.
Thomas S. Monson was announced as the next President of the Church. I love and admire him!
I attended the Parley's 7th Ward for the first time, and I really liked it.

March

One of Pibby's friends threw him a Bachelor Party that was seriously so lame!! But we turned it into a fun night by going to the hookah bar.
Pibby and Jenny got married on March 15. I was really happy and really sad that day.
Mayson turned two. He had two birthday parties, one at my mom's house and one at his house.
Everyone in my house got sick with sore throat and a terrible cough. My mom even lost her voice.
In preparation for receiving new carpet, Heather and I pulled up the old carpet and during the process I rubbed my eyes causing HORRIBLE pink eye!! The doctor said he hadn't seen such a severe case and I was off work for three days, hardly able to see.
I won a collection of 12 photos from Bewitched on eBay for only $12.00. Turns out they are RARE! So rare in fact, that the Bewitched Collector, my friend Mark, hadn't ever seen any of them before!

April

My entire family (minus Pibby and Jenny who all ready went for their honeymoon) went to Oahu for a week with Jody's parents and her sister Jaycie's husband and child. It was SOOOO much fun!! I LOVE HAWAII!!!!
Started listening to 97.1 ZHT's Morning Zoo. They make me happy.

May

The computer bit the dust for about a week and it was shear torture, though by the end of it I kind of didn't want it back because I actually had to think of stuff to do to bide my time.
The Sixth Season of "Bewitched" was released on DVD. It's the first with the second Darrin and it was awesome to see the episodes in their entirety. Gave me a whole new appreciation for Dick Sargent.

June

Went to my cousin Tracey's graduation from Walla Walla University with my parents. He received his Master's Degree in Psychology.
Attended the "Bewitched" FanFare in Burbank, CA. It was awesome! I met William Asher (the director and Liz Montgomery's husband at the time), Billie Hayes (she was a wicked witch on "Bewitched"), Heather Woodruff Perry (Darrin's secretary) and Steve Franken (frequent guest star on "Bewitched"), plus I won a replica diamond heart necklace like Samantha wore AND the Holy Grail of "Bewitched" collecting, the 1965 Ideal Samantha doll in a reproduction box!

July

Joined Facebook and I cannot believe how many long lost friends I'm reconnecting with. It's awesome!
Went on the Morning Zoo's show with my "Bewitched" collectibles and had a lot of fun being on the radio.

August

The Slack Family Bear Lake outing was fun and peaceful. Bear Lake is essentially like Hawaii, but less green.

September

Met Cindy HOT Crawford at RC Willey's where she was schlepping her new furniture line. She's awesome!
Jenny's car got stolen the night of Heather's birthday.
My friend that I mentioned claimed she was pregnant in January really was pregnant gave birth to the sweetest baby boy. I need to give people more credit I guess.
Taught Priesthood for the very first time in Parley's 7th. It was scary but everyone seemed to really enjoy me as the teacher.

October

It was announced that amongst a handful of new temples, there would be one built in Rome, Italy, the Catholic capital of the world!! AWESOME!!!!
Turned 32:( I hung out at the radio station again and celebrated at Pizza Factory with all my favorite people.
I had to bow out of Halloween in Reno for the second time in a row cause I'm so poor. It was really depressing but...
...I did go to a Halloween party with a really cute girl from work. I was Dr. Bombay and I really liked my costume.
Mayson has started speaking in full sentences which is cool, but sad, cause he's growing up so fast!

November

For the first time ever, I voted for the Democrat candidate for President, Barack Obama, who won. Watching his victory speech was so powerful! I felt like it was one of the most important moments in U.S. History.
I won the Harpies Bizarre Halloween decorating contest by default of me being the only entrant! LOL I won a 60s Samantha Halloween costume in the box.
I reconnected with my good friends Ian and Mackenize and went to dinner with them. It was so nice to see them and know that we're still friends even if we don't ever see each other. I also got to meet their son Jack who bears my last name as his middle name in honor of me playing Cupid for his parents. He's an awesome kid!
I met CNN's Anderson Cooper at a lecture he was giving. He's awesome!
Spoke in Sacrament Meeting for the first time in four years. I really enjoy speaking.
Watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in it's entirety for the first time ever. It was a great start to an awesome Thanksgiving over at the Wilde's.

December

I put up outside lights for the first time ever on my parent's house.
The Annual Slack Family Christmas Party was so awesome this year! It hasn't been so great the past couple years, but this year the magic was recaptured, probably on account of Mr. and Mrs. Claus making a return and watching Mayson interact with them.
My siblings and I bought Mom a new kitchen table that's really nice for Christmas. She loved it!
Christmas, of course, was really great.

Finding the Christmas Spirit

2008-12-25T00:06:00.001-08:00

As December started it seemed that the weather had forgotten what to do with itself and remained unseasonably warm, so much so that all the trees in my yard had barely lost any leaves. In essence it felt like September which meant it DEFINITELY didn't feel like Christmas.

I was really bummed out about it because I LOVE Christmas, but it just didn't feel like it. I even put up my Christmas tree the second week of December rather than the day after Thanksgiving. I was sure that the world had forgotten about Christmas what with the hard pressing economic times and wars going on. But then I decided I needed to do something to make me feel like Christmas.

And just what does Christmas feel like? To me, it's the feeling of joy and happiness, of wonder and thankfulness, that seem to permeate the world at this time of year and that's all due to the joy, happiness, wonderment and thankfulness that was brought into the world the night the Savior was born to His mortal mother, Mary. And as Jesus' life was full of giving, I decided I neeeded to that. So I picked out a young child from our Sub for Santa tree to give something to. My ward also was doing Sub for Santa and last week I helped them wrap up all the gifts and then I offered to deliver to a family that lived near me. This particular family consisted of a single mother of eight, count them EIGHT boys ranging from 15 years down to one year old. They had many presents and when I showed up at their home, the mother was so extremely happy. She didn't speak English very well but what she spoke with her smile and eyes was more than enough. As I hauled their gifts in, back and forth from my vehicle, it was all I could do to not cry. Their home, from what I saw, consisted of a small couch, a wicker end table, a 13" color TV on the floor and a space heater. The lights weren't on and it was quite cold in there. But seeing that mother's face made it so much warmer for me and for them. I just loved knowing that I had totally changed their outlook on Christmas.

In the mean time, very trivial things have happened to make it feel more like Christmas. The snow has started, the family parties have been had and have been great, feeling even more like a great time than previous years, and any minute now Santa will be arriving with some gifts. Which means I had better end so he doesn't skip my house.

Merry Christmas everyone! And may God bless you with all you stand in need of, whether spiritual or temporal.

Come and listen to my story...

2008-11-15T14:23:00.000-08:00

...'bout a man named Jed and his family better known as The Beverly Hillbillies my new favorite show (though nothing will ever top Bewitched).

I used to watch the show sometimes when it was on in the afternoon re-runs when I was younger but I didn't take a yen to it, mainly because it didn't have any magic to it like Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie did. I also thought it dumb that these hillbillies would still act like that living in such a cool place as Beverly Hills!

Just a couple months ago it was announced that the Second Season of the show was going to be released on DVD with the original sponsor openings and closings included!! Now one that thing that I LOVE about classic TV is seeing the old commercials or the variations on the theme songs. Not many people are aware that when TV shows in the 50s and 60s originally aired they used sponsors to support them and a lot of times the sponsors were integrated into the opening of the show. Here is an example of the two sponsors from the Beverly Hillbillies:

These rare pieces of film are never seen in re-runs and I think they add to the mystique of whatever show it is. Bewitched had their own sponsors but none of those openings are included on the DVD releases so I wanted to see how this would look on the Beverly Hillbillies.

There is a lot of legal mumbo-jumbo concerning the First Season that has seen many DVD releases but not any of them really good except for a two volume set that also included these rare openings and cast commercials. I happened to find the second volume at FYE but when I got it home it was missing two discs. But the ones that were on there were FANTASTIC!! It also happened that WGN started airing the Beverly Hillbillies from the beginning, so I started watching it.

What a funny show!! And I do have to say totally believable that they would move to Beverly Hills and maintain their hick lifestyle. What I also noticed is that they have good moral values that they try to look for in others. But mainly, just simply hysterical!

My sister ended up buying me the Second Season and I've just enjoyed it all to pieces! I pert near double-up in laughter whenever I watch it! I would totally suggest purchasing it if you're looking for some good laughs and fun. And the best thing? There are still seven seasons to go!

How blessed we are!!

2008-11-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

It has only been a couple hours since Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States of America.

But more signifigantly he is the first African-American President to be elected in our nation's history. I am proud to say I was a part of that.

In every election previously I have always voted for the Republican nominee and almost did so this year. But the more I listened to Obama, even more so, read up on Obama and John McCain, the more I felt good about casting my vote for Obama. My feeling about that was solidified in August when the Vice-President nominees were announced and McCain chose the beautiful, but bewildering, Sarah Palin (who can see Russia from her house!).

But back to this evening. Unfortunately the only word I can find to describe my feelings is AWESOME! We essentially are witnessing one of the all time great moments in American history. To me, I feel like we are witnessing the signing of the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech. No other generation, with the exception of the one that will see a woman elected president, will have such a great opportunity and blessing.

I do not think Obama is perfect. However, I do believe he honestly has the best intentions and ideas and is more than willing to work for the improvement of our Nation, which right now is hurting....badly!

So I tip my hat to Obama!! And I tip my hat to John McCain, who so graciously offered up his support of Obama. And I tip my hat to those of you who voted, for whoever you voted for. Way to exercise your right and freedom as a citizen of this blessed United States of America!

I did it!

2008-11-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

I should've posted before now because my resolution to show my dad I love him came to fruition well over two weeks ago.

I actually had to get a real big kick in the butt from our Father in Heaven to do so, but sometimes that's needed. What happened is that I was asked to teach a lesson in the Elders Quorum at Church. My lesson was based on President Thomas S. Monson's (leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) Sunday morning address at October 2008 General Conference. His talk was entitled "Finding Joy in the Journey" (you can read the transcript of this at the link provided). What hit me specifically was this statement:

Send that note to the friend you’ve been neglecting; give your child a hug; give your parents a hug; say “I love you” more; always express your thanks. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. Friends move away, children grow up, loved ones pass on. It’s so easy to take others for granted, until that day when they’re gone from our lives and we are left with feelings of “what if” and “if only.” Said author Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.”

During my lesson I shared with those Elders what I had shared here on the blog. One of them spoke up and told me how importat he felt it was that I do go ahead and share my love for my dad with my dad because his opportunity had been taken about five months ago when his own father passed. He also mentioned how awful the process of grieving over your parent is, especially if you have regrets.

And so it was that evening when my father came home from work, and we were having a late night talk that I gave him a hug. He was really pleased and so was I.

So don't put it off, whether it's your parents, your spouse, your children, your siblings or your friends. You never know when the moment will forever be gone.

Why is saying/showing "I love you" so hard?

2008-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

For those two people (out of five) who actually read this blog, you may not be aware but my dad is in the midst of kidney failure and has been for almost two years now. He has lost much weight and pretty much looks like a rather healthy zombie (or, from their point of view, a rather sick one). In the past year he has been to the ER about five times, a couple of them where we weren't exactly confident that he would return from the ER. I honestly feel at times that he is merely here simply because of the prayers that I know I offer up and also many others. The sad thing is that my dad doesn't take care of himself at all and it sometimes looks as though he's tempting the Reaper.

It used to be I had no trouble offering my dad a hug when he'd come home from work but as I've grown older it seems that it just gets awkward to do so. However, I have no problem hugging my mother or telling her, "I love you".

Last night, as I was going to bed kind of late, he came home early from work because there just wasn't work to do. We had a small conversation and then I just couldn't handle being awake anymore and told him I was off to bed. This news didn't hit him at all as he went on about a movie he and Mom had seen over the weekend. If you know my father, he can go on and on. Also keep in mind, if it were him saying he had to go to bed, he would simply just say so and leave and cut you off short. So I tried doing the same to him, even so far as walking closer to the exit. But it didn't curtail him. So I listened patiently. Well, when movie story was over he started on a new one about not believing what some people's kids have to go through as he saw a severely handicapped toddler at work (he works at the airport pushing wheelchairs). Finally I simply said, "I must go to bed. Good night!"

As I was entering my room I felt the strongest impression of love for my dad. He has been the greatest of fathers, always there to support his family, never raising a hand or belt to us though we may have truly deserved it, being faithful to my mother and being a faithful Priesthood holder. He's always loved us kids more than anything, sometimes too much what with his nervousness when we'd move out or go on extended vacations, but that's OK. I realize as I'm older there are not many people who can say as much of their own fathers. So I felt that I should go and give him a hug and tell him I loved him.

But I didn't. I just felt it would be so awkward, especially after having tried to get away from his stories.

So I've decided if I see him tonight I will give him a hug and tell him, "I love him" because it may not be an option in awhile.

Failing in my fan duties...

2008-09-17T18:58:00.000-07:00

If you know me, you know that I LOVE Paula Abdul and have ever since I first heard "Straight Up" on the radio way back in the day. I finally met her in 2004 but I only have video of our momentous occasion. And when she was signing her autograph, we were in a rushed situation: both of us were late for our planes, there was lots of reporters, security, and fans and, of course, my pen wasn't working. Paula has a mad look on her face but that was because of the stress we were under. This pic is a screen capture that my brother enhanced. Therefore, I NEED another pic of Paula and I - a posed pic. Both of us are good looking and it's unfair that this happened.

Well, my opportunity has come up. American Idol did auditions here in Salt Lake back in July and tomorrow and Friday, Paula (along with the other judges) are going to be here! I asked the local radio station that plays Top 40 hits if I could sit in on an interview with Paula if that happened. They said sure, but this was back a co

uple months before the original interviews. This week it has been announced that there is no media or public allowed to the judging, which means no Paula photo-op. At the same time though, I realize that I could go sit outside the Delta Center (yes, I know it's now the Energy Solutions, but I don't care) to wait for Paula to show up in the morning, but I gotta go to work:( What a bummer!

It's kind of a consolation prize (not really, I'm just trying to make myself feel better) that a couple weeks ago I got my pic with HOT Cindy Crawford!! I just wish I had such a great pic with Paula.

Not Half Bad...

2008-08-31T00:59:00.000-07:00

...yesterday, I accompanied my father and my cousin down to Price where Grandma Pierce's gigantic doll collection was to be divvied up amongst her progenitors. Keep in mind, Grandma is still alive and sometimes kicking, albeit she does so from a rest home. She is not exactly all there which is really sad, and I know it may come across as harsh, but I truly wish she would be released from this mortal life so that she wouldn't be so lonely and so she could reunite with Grandpa who has been gone for almost 17 years.

The reason the dolls were being divvied was that they were currently residing along with some other personal affects in a storage unit, which costs money. The rest home seems to be sucking that money up and soon Grandma will have none (so much for an inheritance). So it was decided that we'd just let everyone choose what dolls they would and get that out of the way.

Along with doll divvying we were going to have a BBQ with my dad's family.

Let me suggest that all though I do love my extended family, it takes work. Especially as there are, okay, IS a crazy aunt, some ne'er-do-well cousins and just a whole lot of Jed Clampettedness going on with them. Not to say that I'm not a bit Whiskey-Tango myself, but I've never had a mullet. Needless to say, I wasn't really excited for this trip. And pretty much the only reason I really wanted to go was to see my favorite cousin Pam, whom I hadn't seen for a long time. But then again, her husband Father Time was going to be there, and he isn't pleasant. I also thought that there would be a lot of arguing over who got what doll because it seemed that all growing up people had certain attachments to dolls. I will go ahead now and say that there was one specific doll I wanted, a porcelain Victorian lady who looked like she was traveling somewhere, that I had used as a model for an engraving of a lady that was put on my Great Great Grandma's grave. And I figure someday I hopefully will have a daughter that will be pleased to have a doll from her Great Grandma Pierce.

Well, my family surprised me and pleased me very much. First of all, there was not one argument or bad feeling from anyone when the dolls were divided. Secondly, and THANKFULLY, Father Time left at the beginning of our visit to go to the Y game and thirdly, we all had such a great time visiting and reminiscing. It used to be growing up, that all though it was fun to visit, almost always there would be an argument, someone would try to make themselves look bigger and better than everyone and it was stink. None of this went on. Even the weather was pleasant.

So the next time you think you'd rather receive an un-anesthetized root canal than visit with your extended family, think it over. You may be just surprised how much you really do like them.

RIP Joel Dean (1977 - 2003)

2008-08-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

Five years ago today, as I was going through the normal motions of getting ready for work (and it also happened to be a Monday) I received an unexpected call from the wife of my favorite mission companion, Joel Dean. Her voice was shaky and I immediately thought that maybe Joel had been in a wreck. Instead, it was much worse: Joel had passed away during the night. It was eventually revealed to be caused by viral pneumonia.

I can't tell you how sad I was to hear this.

I met Joel when we were assigned as companions while we serving missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Eldersburg, Maryland in February 1998. Joel was very athletic and seemed to be the ladies man, on first impressions. Both of those qualities, I was not. But I found immediately that he was a whole lot more. He was really funny and interested very much in other people. He seemed to really enjoy making people happy and he always made me feel good about myself. He also had a great testimony of Jesus Christ. We served together for three months.

After the mission we kept in contact, but not as much as I would've liked, which I blame myself for. He would call a lot to see how I was doing and just to chat and we would always make plans to have lunch but it never seemed to happen. The last time I saw Joel was the September before his death when he had invited me to his house for dinner on what happened to actually be his and his wife's wedding anniversary that they were celebrating later that week.

When his wife called with that awful news, it was devastating. I don't mean to demean my other mission companions, but it was absolutely horrible that out of all of them, Joel was the one chosen to go.

I think of him often and can't wait to see him again on the other side.

Appreciate in '08

2008-08-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Reading my previous post made me realize that I needed to talk about some positive stuff! So far this year has been good. At least my attitude has been because I'm not exactly in a place I'd like to be, which is being figuratively raped by my dentist with a bill that is as much as a car, living at the parents again, and having a less than stellar job. But at the same time, I feel generally great! So far this year, I've done a lot of cool things that have been goals I've had pretty much my whole life. In April, I went to Hawaii with my family (minus Pibby and his new wife Jenny - they went the previous month on their honeymoon) for a week! It was AWESOME!!!

Then, with the generous help of friends, I was able to go to California for the Bewitched FanFare where I met William Asher, the director/producer of Bewitched and Elizabeth Montgomery's 3rd husband. It was so emotional because I've always wanted to meet him and thank him for all the great things he has done. He was so sweet!

I also won the Holy Grail of all Bewitched collecting - the 1965 Ideal Samantha doll in the box!!! I know some of you think, "What's the big deal?" That doll is very hard to find in good condition, let alone in the box. Granted, the box that mine is in is a recreation, but still, every time I look at it I just flip.

And just last month I was able to play DJ for a couple hours at 97.1 ZHT with the Morning Zoo. They asked me to come in to show them the doll. It was a lot of fun.

So I guess life must be in the attitude whether you think it's good or bad...I don't apologize for my previous post, but I think that I'm going to try and keep a positive outlook.

2007, see you in hell!

2008-01-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

Though this post may be more potent had I written it on January 1 or even December 31 it's been written in my head and just now am I able to post it.

Needless to say, 2007 was THE worst year ever!! True, it seems that in my life odd numbered years seem to be crappy but this one took the crap cake. Normally at the end of a year I'm able to write down lots of good things that happened every month and some bad things creep in but literally, there are only about four good things that happened in 2007. Here now for your perusal, month by month, is why 2007 needs to eat it!! Bad is in RED and good is in GREEN.

January

I had the flu or something like unto it for the first couple weeks of January.
Tracey moved out of Tard mansion leaving Michelle and I with Chad, who never was at home.
Michelle decided that the living room was her place only so I wasn't able to put up any of my pictures even though we all pay the same amount in rent.
Mayson gave me a kiss all by himself. He also started crawling, but only backwards.
Carly FINALLY divorced that dumb ass Steve she was married to.

February

My Dad found that he is going to need a kidney transplant because he is going into kidney failure and the doctor only gave him three years to live. Before this though, he will need his gall bladder taken out.
I met Jeddah Carrell at work. She is really funny and cute.
Janene Clark's husband, Wade, up and died for unknown reasons.
Trolley Square shootings.
Gave Shula a kiss on Valentine's Day but I don't think she liked it.
Chad, who never paid his bills or rent, abandoned us and left his stuff.
Shula totally didn't even call to tell me about a dance they were going to until they were there for about two hours and were going to leave! She also chose to go bowling with her roommates instead of me on a double date so I gave up on her.
Michelle gave me "The Book of Witches" for Valentine's Day.
Mayson got a viral lung infection and had to spend two night's up at the hospital.
Made a cool card for Jeddah asking her out and she accepted.
Jeddah and I got in trouble for long breaks at work and were forced to never sit next to each other again.
Mayson sits up all by himself.

March

Mayson crawled forward for the first time and to me:)
Went on a date with Jeddah to the Scottish Bagpipe Festival with Tracy and Michelle. Jeddah broke the all ready iffy chair at our house but our date was fun.
Mayson had his 1st birthday.
Got Ruby from MySpace's phone number.

April

Went out with Ruby for the first time.
Planned and executed my mom's surprise 60th birthday party. It went very well except for my dad not showing up because for some reason he didn't know where the church was that it was being held at even though he helped build it. I think senility is creeping in.
Shootings at Virginia Tech.
Michelle and Michael's wedding shower at the Grand America.
I received "A Diary of a Genie" from the webmaster of the Jeannie Journal for running an episode game. It is THE coolest book!

May

Michelle's friend, Kathy, moves in with her cute beagle, Tuesday.
I was offered a job at Amanda's father's work but had to decline when I found that they couldn't pay me as much as I wanted.
I signed the early out list at work and was let go at around 2 PM. It was raining horribly and I decided to go find the address of the author of "Diary of a Genie" as he lives in SLC. On my way there I saw a man walking along the edge of the on ramp to North Temple and discovered it was my dad who had blown a tire! What a blessing it was that I found him!
Chad never paid his full portion of rent or bills so Michelle and I were stuck with that though we had been told to forget about his portion of the rent by the landlord.
Mayson had to go to the ER again when he started choking on his own vomit.
I was so sick on May 18, the anniversary of Elizabeth Montgomery's death which I usually commemorate, that I slept most of the day and didn't do anything for it except watch the tape of news clips from that day.
I've lost a total of 16 lbs at Weight Watchers!
Mayson knows "Pat-a-Cake" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".
Jeddah quits the post office and has been acting very strange towards me. She ends her relationship with me but not returning any texts (she's the texting queen) or calling.

June

I was told by the kidney specialist that I'm too fat to donate a kidney for my dad.
Mayson scrunches up his face and breathes real hard and it's way funny. He does it all the time.
Michelle and Michael got married and it was seriously the second best wedding I've ever been to (Paul and Jody's was the first). But Michelle is staying here until Michael retires from the Marines so I'm really sad for both of them having to live apart.
I helped paint Heather's room for money as I'm so poor.
The Post Office only schedules us four days a week now and the days we are there they send us home early.
Paula Abdul's new reality series "Hey Paula" premieres and Bravo, the network that runs it, holds a contest for her biggest fan to be the blogger so I enter.

July

My friends and I discussed having a fun, but cheap, 4th of July. Amanda offered up her parent's cabin and then proceeded to purchase all this food that she expected each of us to pay $50 for!! We still went but there was tension in the air and none of us paid, or will, pay her. I should've just went with my family to Cherry Hill.
John and Chelsea found this black Shit-Poo puppy wandering the streets and Michelle decided to keep her, even though Kathy and I had said we'd rather than she didn't. The dog was named KeeLee and she is noisy and shits and pisses everywhere, even though when Kathy's dog did that Michelle got all mad about it. Plus, Michelle's cousin turned her in for harboring a stray and Michelle went through all sorts of unnecessary measures to keep the dog and has written her cousin out of her life.
A friend's brother died from complications of diabetes plus this friend has just seriously been irritating lately.
I won the "Hey Paula" blogging contest!!! The prize is being the blogger and a $500 Bravo Gift pack.
I started going to Dr. Nelson for a severe tooth pain which I had a root canal on but it was the starting of more teeth work which Dr. Nelson says adds up to $10,000.
Dad had his gall bladder removed and didn't do well at all in recovery and in fact was in the hospital for a week making it so that my mom missed her only vacation to Bear Lake with her family.
Started dating Ruby.
Our landlord was robbed and he lives in the unit next door to us.
Mayson starts saying "Oh no!" He's so cute! And he just loves me.
After Dad gets out of the hospital, he has to go back after a couple days because of an infection.
Mayson started walking.

August

Became exclusive with Ruby. She's really nice but I'm not sure how I feel about her.
My cell phone was shut off for about two weeks because I simply don't have enough money for everything.
Broke up with Ruby and really broke her heart but I just didn't feel the "spark" with her that I wanted to be there.
Grandma Pierce was hospitalized and moved to the rest home from assisted living. They also say she has a form of cancer that lies dormant awhile and then when it "wakes" it kills almost instantly and it could do so at any time.

September

My mom's favorite car was stolen from her work and found later beat all to hell.
Pibby's car was broke into at Paul and Jody's and his iPod and computer drawing tablet were stolen as well as a window broken.
Received Gina Meyer's 2nd edition of her Bewitched Trivia book and found that Pibby, who HATES Bewitched, was pictured in it twice because he came to a Bewitched convention in 2005.
Had a really nice dinner at my friend Wendy's, whom I hadn't seen forever.

October

Held my own 31st birthday party at the Pizza Factory. It was a lot of fun because everyone I love was there.
I got kicked out of the Single's Ward because I'm too old...so now I don't know where I want to go to church.
The "Hey Paula" prize pack finally arrived and it SUCKED!! It contained all these shirts from shows I don't even watch, bumper stickers from those same shows, all seven episodes of "Hey Paula" on individual DVDs that they made and a Wonder Woman bobblehead....yeah, right it's all worth $500!
For the first time in about five years I didn't go to Reno for Halloween cause I was too poor. It was really depressing.
Went Trick-or-Treating with Mayson (which I still could've done even had I gone to Reno) and it was a lot of fun.

November

Gave my 30 day move out notice to Michelle. I have to move back to my parent's because my dentist bill is so big!
Mom's boss told her she was laid off but then said she didn't say that cause the boss, Nancy, is crazy as hell!
Applied at 23947239847239472 places and NONE of them would hire me.
Thanksgiving dinner was fantastic.
Kathy attempted suicide on Thanksgiving Day and we found out about it that weekend and took her to the UNI at the U of U.
Was on the KSL Evening News cause I was talking about the weather and how I braved it to come visit Dick Nourse on his last evening there.
Pibby, who has been dating Jenny for about three months, proposed to her! I'm happy for him but sad for me cause I should've been married by now.

December

Moved back to my parent's house, which is both good and bad.
My dad had to be hospitalized and they think he may have had a mild heart attack a couple months ago.
Found out that Michelle and I are responsible for Chad's missing rent.
Decided I couldn't afford to go to Elizabeth Montgomery's Star Ceremony. I officially didn't go on ANY trips this year (except for Bear Lake but that sucked cause my mom couldn't go). I usually go on two trips a year.
Christmas was really good.

So there...I'm sorry it's so long but I just had to get it out of my system and really see what sucked and what didn't. I'm so glad it's over though!!!

SON OF A....!!!

2007-02-16T21:09:00.000-08:00

A little back story before I begin...I moved into the place I am now last year. For the majority of the time it was just my cousin, myself and our friend. Well Cousin decided he needed to move home to save money before he moves to school so Friend and I put up an ad for a new roommate and a day later we had one. We'll call him George. His father actually called wanting to make sure that we didn't get rid of the room because he really wanted George to have it and after speaking with George, who was moving up from the bottom of the state, we felt like he would be a good match. He sounded very educated and smart and we figured if his dad was calling on his behalf than it was good. So he moved in about a week later.

We found that he had been divorced about six months previous. He was wanting to get a fresh start. He also seemed to always be gone to friends' houses which was good for us cause then we didn't feel we had to entertain him. Well, we also started noticing that when rent or bills came due he would never be around and he didn't get a cell phone til last month so there was no way to call him. He paid last month's rent 5 days late and was REALLY late with bills. We also found him to be very flakey, like he would say he was going to be home for something and then wouldn't show up.

Last week he signed a lease with us and today (one day after the rent was due which he said he would pay) he leaves a note saying he is going to pay it on Saturday and that he is moving out. Well, this is good in the fact that now we don't have to worry about whether he is going to pay his portion of stuff...the bad thing is we don't have anyone to pay his portion of stuff and Friend and I can't do it on our own...

WHY MUST LIFE BE SO DIFFICULT??

Would You Believe I Watch Something Besides Bewitched?

2006-12-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

If you know me you understand that I pretty much only watch "Bewitched", the GREATEST sitcom...no, the GREATEST TV show of all time! It used to be when I watched any show from the 60s, I would realize that on another stage somewhere Elizabeth Montgomery and crew were filming their episodes so what was the point in watching anything but "Bewitched"? I do have to clarify that there were three exceptions which were "I Dream of Jeannie", "the Munsters" and "the Addams Family" only because they fell in the fantasy realm. It there was a 60s TV show on and it wasn't fantasy I wouldn't have any of it.

Recently Time-Life did something unprecedented and that was to release an entire TV series all at the same time on DVD, and that series was "Get Smart". For those of you who are not familiar with this show, it is a spy-spoof series starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon. It ran on NBC from 1965 - 1970 (during "Bewitched"'s hey-day). I remember watching it when I was little, but only because it was probably on before/after "Bewitched" and I don't remember being impressed because Maxwell Smart (Don Adams) certainly couldn't disappear fly nor could his partner, Agent 99 (Barbara Feldon). Anyway, back to Time-Life...not only were they releasing the entire series in one fell swoop but they were including extras that were beyond anyone's wildest imagination including rare bloopers, Don Adam's 75th Birthday Roast, and his memorial.

At the recommendation of several people who had seen the show and knew my likings in TV I bought it. The main reason was I really just wanted to see the set for myself and imagine what "Bewitched" would be like if given the same treatment. So far "Bewitched" has had four seasons released with crappy cover artwork and extras only on the first two seasons...the second season extra, a "blooper" reel which was really just inconsistencies from that season highlighted, not really counting.

To my surprise I'm LOVING "Get Smart"!! The writing and the acting are superb and it's just so entertaining! I would totally recommend anyone to get this set...if not for the fact that it's a great TV show but if other studios see that it's all right to release a TV series all at once than they will do it and try to mimic this fantastic set.

Winds of change....

2006-09-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Frankly, I'm tired of things changing so much and so quickly! If you were to take a look at my life one year ago it wouldn't resemble much of what is going on now...the nail in the coffin about my feelings about all this change was last night when I went to go pick up some hamburgers from one of the two Artic Circle restaurants close to my house. I went to the one that makes THE best vanilla ice cream cones only to find to my utter horror and disappointment it had been torn down and the ground raized in order for the car dealer right next to it to expand their lot. Now where the heck am I going to get good ice cream for cheap??? For certain, the other Arctic Circle doesn't know how to make ice cream good.

I realize that change is a good thing but can we just have maybe one or two things change and in those changes not affect my ice cream??