Monday, August 16, 2010

For Old Friends Who've Just Met

Unfortunately, I wasn't very diligent about taking pictures while in Oregon last week. So you'll just have to use your imagination when it comes to picturing the settings of my various activities. Believe it or not, I didn't just cry at the gas station. Here are some good things I did:

1. Hanging with Mutter and Vater. They're awesome and fantastic, and I'm sure lucky that I have parents who love and support me, despite all my crazy antics.

2. Kate's bachelorette party at the rose gardens, complete with garden party theme. Helping contribute to the atmosphere was the opera in the park playing in the ampitheater below us. Also the funny hats.

3. Day trip to Cannon Beach with Melissa. The weather wasn't too kind to us, but I didn't mind much, even if my hair did get more-than-slightly untidy from walking in the rain and wind at Hug Point.

4. Kate's wedding. The sun came out just in time to make the entire afternoon just beautiful (and hot!), as if Kate wasn't lighting up the whole day with her beauty already.

5. Family dinners. Food is important.

6. Visited my brothers' places and hung out with my sisters-in-law. Hope they didn't hate the intrusion, because I had fun seeing them.

7. Karen's reception. Such fun. I saw quite a few people I wasn't expecting to see, but it was great talking to them. (also true for kate's wedding.) Karen was gorgeous, as well.

8. Bought new shoes. Quite possibly the highlight of my trip.

At the two weddings, I got to catch up with plenty of people, many of whom I haven't seen since ... I don't know ... high school graduation? I had oodles of fun talking to everybody and I didn't really mind answering the same questions multiple times, but I did decide that I should create a nametag that answers at least the standard questions, so as to prevent the necessity of repeating yourself and skip ahead to the individual conversation topics. Maybe it would be a bit large and unattractive as an accessory, but it sure would come in handy in those situations when you're updating people on years of your life. I believe mine would include this information:

Name (necessity? not sure, considering people usually know your name, but this is a nametag)
Residence Area ("area" because people will not have always heard of orem)
Occupation (including your enjoyment of said occupation)
Relationship Status (be brief, even if it's complicated)
How much you participate in activities that people remember you doing ten years ago

Of course, this is an entirely subjective list, and you may supplement or elide as you see fit, but I think it gives a fairly good overview of the questions I was frequently (if not constantly) answering when seeing old friends.

-Me

"It is a sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information." -Oscar Wilde

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