I?ve been riding the bus, this week, from Utah county to downtown Salt Lake City.

This has proved to be an interesting experience for me. I?m used to driving everywhere, and suddenly, I don?t exactly feel as though I can just drive anywhere I want to go. There are a few reasons for this, one is money (yes, that is always an issue) and the other is that I don?t want to put that many miles on my car every day of the week. When I came to work here we were given the option of either getting a parking pass or a bus pass. I opted for the bus pass.

The bus is an interesting mode of transportation. You don?t drive. You sit there either staring out the window or at the people around you. I read. Or have been. It?s proved to be very good reading time. The trip goes by quickly. There are often plenty of seats and I don?t have to worry about the road conditions or accidents as the bus driver does all the worrying.

On top of that I don?t have to drive my car. That?s very important.

On the negative side, I get up at 5:30 to be to work by 8 a.m. When I start answering phones the overtime can prove to be a bus killer and then the travel time will, most likely, increase as a result. Express buses only run at certain times of the day and work schedules don?t always match bus schedules. Therefore, I can add 45 minutes to the travel time. Going home has proven to be a bit longer because of commuter traffic. I get off, currently, at 4:30-ish and I don?t get home till closer to 6:30-ish. Traveling according to bus schedule is a definite negative. You start according to the bus and you end according to the bus. It can prove to be very frustrating. Especially if something comes up and there is a need for alacrity.

Still, the bus pass costs about $95.00. I?m pretty certain Fidelity doesn?t pay that much. I figured I could plan to spend at least $120.00 a month in gas to get to and from work or take the bus. The bus sounded, in my head, like a better alternative. So far it?s proving correct.

Okay, time for some housekeeping. I was wandering around, looking at my website, trying to decide what seemed off to me, and noticed that all of the comments since the inception of this website have somehow disappeared. I?m sure I could find out where the comments went and what happened to them; but I don?t know that I really care.

I?ve been a tad remiss this weekend. Mostly it was sleeping and hanging with number 7 who tells me he?s read the book I am actively reading twice and is working on it a third time slower, now. We put together bookshelves, I had two remaining, and then watched a movie; and on Sunday we went to number 1?s house and then to number 4?s before I took him home and went back to my house to sleep. Love that sleep. None of the mornings were early and none of the nights were late. Hopefully what?s got me will go away soon.

This morning found me riding the bus in for the first time. That was an interesting trip. The bus. I?m thinking that this won?t be a bad thing, especially since I got to read all the way in and didn?t have to worry about traffic or accidents or whatever else was going on. Admittedly, I was a little surprised when we hit the Salt Lake Valley out of Utah County because I was a bit engrossed in what I was doing. Reading. I like to read.

On Friday I got my bed. That was a wonderful, neat, something or other, experience. I?d asked my roommate, first, to pick it up, but he wasn?t available (after he told me he was) and then I asked an aunt who decided that picking up the bed was ?dishonest? and because it was delivered later than anticipated I was able to go and get it myself. This was done by tying the heaviest box-spring, and an average weight mattress to the roof of my car and driving home wicked slow. Several people had to go around even though home was about three miles, as the crow flies, from the hotel the bed was delivered too and my place.

Getting it into the house was interesting. The regular mattress isn?t a problem. They are pliable and not easy to move, far more agreeable than the box spring. I?m used to a rather light box spring and I got something that weigh as much as, or more than, the mattress. My dad tells me that a ?real? box spring is supposed to be heavy and that I probably got a good deal on the mattress set. Number 1?s wife told me that her cousin, the contact, told her that the bed I selected was the best of the model line.

Anyway, the box spring was heavy.

Number 7 came over on Saturday, afternoon, and we (read he) put together the last two bookshelves I?ve purchased. That took a lot less time than the first one I put together, but Friday night I?d purchased another screwdriver and I believe that helped a lot. I know this, or suspect this, because I?ve tried bad screwdrivers and that one and the screws and holding bolts went in much smoother than they did for me about a week ago.

Sunday night I did grab three more boxes and grabbed a couple other things and will, eventually, start arranging books on shelves. This is a process since I keep finding that I have more boxes with books in them than I?d thought I did. Truth told, I will probably get to purchase another bookshelf or two before all is said and done and I definitely need to buy something, in the near future, for a writing/computer surface. All things in time, I?d imagine.

That?s it, for now. I need a girlfriend, or some chicka to do things with.

Yesterday was a bad day. I?m not saying that lightly. I was in bed all day, got up to pay for my bed, sat at the guys house for about two hours waiting for someone to show up, and then called him to find out that his son had a soccer tournament today and finally left the check under a planter on his front porch. I?m guessing he got the check because, well, I haven?t heard back from him yet.

Two days ago I bought Robert Jordan?s latest book. I did read some of it over the past couple of days. Not sure, but I am thinking that the author is throwing more names at me than I am familiar with. Granted, he published every two or three years and I don?t always re-read books, but there are a lot of names that I am totally unfamiliar with. Number 7 says he may write a review that I will post here ? if he comes through with it.

Anyway, the bed is being delivered to a local hotel tomorrow and my roommate told me he was available, and willing, to pick it up. Last night, kinda late, he told me he wasn?t available any longer because he had to drive south for the weekend. On the one hand, I get the place to myself for two or three days; on the other hand, I now have to find someone to pick up the bed. This could prove to be VERY interesting.

At the moment, I think that?s about it. Sitting at work listening to a lot of questions I wouldn?t have known answers to several months ago and now just listen and answer the questions in my head. This division is a bit different in the way they approach training and the material. Should be interesting.

It?s been a couple of days. In case you were keeping track or are sincerely interested in my life. I doubt that anyone is sincerely interested in my life, they are just playing at it, reading this tripe as a way of releasing pent-up anger or frustration; but since you are reading and I haven?t scared you away, yet, I might as well continue updating people on what is going on. Yes, there are things going on.

For starters, I went to my ward for the first time on Sunday. Lots of nearly deads and newly weds. I?ve heard of this phenomenon, thought I?d encountered it once, in New Hampshire, but never realized just how prevalent it might be until I got here, actually went to church in Utah county, and saw this wide array of newly married couples NOT mingling with the nearly deads and talking as though the sum total of their life experiences was significant enough to allow them to realize that what they are doing and where they are going is exactly right. Maybe, fore them, it is. I am not the person who will be able to determine that. However, Robert said to me, once, that the Jews, or the ancestral house of Judah, always look beyond the mark. Whether or not this is true of my experience at church is to be seen; yet, the quote seems to apply.

After church I slept. After I slept I woke up. I am currently awake. I am sure you are impressed.

Yesterday I started work at Fidelity in Salt Lake City. It takes, on a good morning, about 45 minutes to get to work. That is about what I was expecting. The time/distance thing could be better, but I am at Fidelity and I am happy about it. Just ask me. Go ahead, I dare you.

Anyway, got up wicked early, went in to work, worked, turned around, drove back south, stopped at Wal-Mart, then at Circuit City followed by Best Buy (bought a DVD player at Best Buy because Circuit City is? grrr), and then drove, through town, down to Officemax where I purchased three bookshelves for way too much money. After making the purchase I loaded the shelves into the back of my car (they were not assembled) and, amazingly enough, they fit allowing me to drive home, unload the shelves, and then attempt to put one, only one, of the three sets together. That took two hours. That was a wicked long two hours. LONG LONG LONG LONG. Oh, and I stabbed a finger on my left hand with one of the screwdrivers and learned that I can, on occasion, control some of the swearing I have a penchant for.

In case you were wondering, the first set of shelves went together. They look marvelous. My roommate got a good laugh out of my stabbed and, last night, bloody finger. And then said something along the lines of, ?I told you so,? in relation to my putting the shelves together. I believe what was meant, with that quip, was that he?d told me that I wasn?t going to get all of the shelves together last night. He might?ve been correct since I only got one of three done and plan to do the second at some point tonight and the third at some future date.

Amazingly enough, I?m not sure that the bookshelves are going to be enough to hold what they are intended to hold. That?s a little confusing. I mean, bookshelves, designed to principally hold books, are not necessarily only going to hold books. I do have a few books, okay, maybe I have a lot, but the point is Morris needs a place to live, I have some posing dummies that need places to pose, and other things, toys and such, that all need a home. Therefore, bookshelves aren?t just for books.

I believe I?ve also ordered a bed, but am waiting to hear back about that. There is a need to write a check, exchange money for goods. I was supposed to hear about that yesterday and will probably make a call on it today when I don?t hear anything by the time I get off work.

As an aside number 7 and I will be going to purchase our copies of Robert Jordan?s latest book, Knife of Dreams. This is book 11 in a series I started when I was about 14 and needed something to read, picked up a copy of his first book, The Eye of the World, and immediately fell in love with this fantasy world. I?ve been reading his books ever since. I own copies of most everything he?s written, most of the books as reprints, and most of my friends are all reading his works; most of them are actually turning away from Robert Jordan because he writes a lot, doesn?t publish as often as other writers, and is 11 books into a series that was supposed to be somewhere between 3 and 6 books long.

Anyway, number 7 and I are going for our copies of his latest book and I am excited. Not wicked excited, just excited. This is reading I get to do on top of school work, some writing, and trying not to pass out once I get home from getting up way to early and going to bed way to late.

Beyond that, I am getting a bus pass courtesy of Fidelity and will begin riding a bus into work in the very near future. This, just so y?all know, is putting a lot of trust in a company, and in a situation I am not comfortable with, but it sure beats the tar baby out of driving from Springville to Salt Lake City every day of the week. I may actually save money on this. Doubt it. But I might.

I have now spent two night in my new place. To call it an apartment would not do the place justice, its more than that… something missionaries might live in (in like twenty years), and owned by the guy Im living with and renting from. Two nights, man, on the floor. I shouldve thought ahead and gotten an air mattress or something. Or something. Or something. Or something.

Yesterday I went up to number ones house to help pull out windows that didnt offer any insulation to the house during the winter, summer, spring, fall… they are single pane windows that dont offer insulation. I really dont know how else to describe them. As we began the process of pulling the windows out (of six or seven we had two left to do) number one said, Glass making has changed considerably since these windows were manufactured,and then proceeded to explain that the windows may break on us.

The first one we pulled didnt break, at least, not while we pulled it out (I can guarantee you, before we were done it was no longer a single sheet of glass); however, the second window did break into several pieces even though I was being more careful with that one than the other one. To tell you the truth, I seem to recall getting tubes in my ears as a teenager and the doctor, who didnt come across as a very nice man, trying to be nice and injecting the local anesthetic into my ear slowly, which hurt really bad, and then saying something to the affect of, Im not gonna be nice anymore. The next ear I do it and we get it over with. Ill tell you, I dont know if it was the placement of the window or the way I was trying not to break glass, but it cracked and we ended up pulling it out in pieces.

After that number one and I took the load of scrap wood, glass, and other materials to the dump (always an exciting experience) before going to the orange store and then heading on back to his place where we spoke of MP3 players, music, and cabbage. We didnt really talk about cabbage, but now I have a little ditty going through my head and… yeah.

I went from number ones house to number fours to clean up oil spots. Went to the store with him, cleaned the oil spots, and then grabbed my mail and headed down to number sevens to pick him up to find bookshelves, or barring that, someplace that would sell me mostly nice, not so expensive, bookshelves for my bedroom. One or two now, more later as I got my books from number fours house and brought them to Springville.The search was not as exciting or profitable, for someone other than me, than I was hoping, but we did locate a store that might be able to help me out. So, the search wasnt completely fruitless, though I didnt see anything or buy anything either.

We did dinner at Arbys. I am getting tired of fast food and need to start eating better. Just so people know, I am finally thinking about actually cooking something. Okay, thats over-representing myself. Im not going to be cooking anything, but there are some great package deals places that I can prepare relatively quickly and with the right ingredients that require little or no effort on my part and arent so bad. And no, I am not talking about TV dinners. Those are dangerous… and so good.

To wrap up the night, I did homework and watched Shaolin Soccer, twice. The American version and the Chinese version. They are almost identical, except, not. Where the American version cuts out some violence and superfluous scenes, the Chinese version adds things that almost make you want to go, What the… with a colorful adjective added at the end that would cause good Mormon womens ears to turn blue from the nature of the word and its implied meaning. Okay, the Chinese version was a bit on the weird side. Sall Im saying.

I do start working at Fidelity on Monday morning. That should be interesting. Hopefully, I wont have to drive it all the way everyday of my life. Number one was telling me that they (I dont know who they is) offeran express shuttle from Lehi to downtown Salt Lake City. So, maybe Fidelity will offer me the monthly bus pass to get to work and I can ride instead of drive. That would probably be a really good thing.

Nuff said.

Its Wednesday, or some such nonsense like that, and I am sitting in front of the computer and the television having just watched number fours daughter, you know, second niece, while her parents went to see Serenity. They came home with positive reviews, e.g. I really liked it, and I just looked at them and smiled. For three or four hours it was just niece baby and me as she slept, for a small portion of the time, and then played with me, climbed on me, played with her toys, and made me hold her so she could stare out the window at the neighbors beagle puppy. I am sure the evening was more fun for her than me, and it wasnt bad for me; so, pretty good night.

She did learn how to open the CD/DVD drive on my computer which means that I am not going to be able to just leave it sitting out like I have in the past. Not that I will be living here after tomorrow morning. Rather, I will be moving to my new home in Springville and thats not exactly a bad thing.

What came, unexpectedly, was a call from a Salt Lake company, with an office in Orem, that wants to interview me for a CSR position. If all goes well, I will get them to offer me what Fidelity is willing to pay me, and maybe a little more. However, I wont know until Friday as I have an Academic Advisement appointment tomorrow at BYU at 11 a.m. In either case, something will probably change in the next few days. I cant point at what, but I am sure something is going to happen.

Anyway, a quick update, now Im done.