New Calling

So my wife and I have been called to be co-teachers (along with another couple) of a marriage and family relations Sunday School class.  It is looking like it will be lots of fun.  Its getting to the point where Bonnie Jean and I have been married for longer than many people in the ward.  I wonder if that is part of why they asked us to teach it.

Its funny, because this is the one class I used to joke they better not ask me to teach.  I love teaching in doctrinal settings, so its not that I'm not looking forwards to it.  Its just that my experiences and suggestions for the class on how to hold a relationship would be based on my own neurological experience which is distinctively different than most peoples.  I mean, I can't really expect many people to get a lot out of it if I were to get up in front of everybody and say "If your feeling irritated shelf the feeling till it can be analyzed and deconstructed for its various causes, motives, and goals.  After analysis is complete, reintegrate those feelings with your principles and long term goals and form an action plan that may include overriding the original emotional status.  Once that is done then you can act on your feelings.  If you act before then, likely you won't like the results".  I mean, that is true of the way and I relate to Bonnie Jean, but very few people would even understand it much less believe that is how my brain genuinely tries to operate.

The lesson manuals (which I have downloaded as PDF's to view on my IPAQ), seem very principle based in the discussions, so I should have lots of material to use without having to dive into my personal experiences too much.  But there will be those moments that I'm sure I won't know how to deal with until they come.  It will be a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know the ward members better and for them to get to know me.  That's part of what I like teaching in a ward.

The lesson manual states I should try to review the entire course before beginning to teach it, so I'm attempting a rush through of the material before I begin to teach.  Even though Bonnie Jean and I took this course together when we were much earlier along in our marriage, its still amazing stuff to read through.  I'll be looking forwards to teaching it.

The call was extended last Sunday.

Work the past few days...untranslated

Content warning: The following contains a high percentage of weird with a lot of relaxing, being myself, and exposing my thought processes without prior translation.  Do not read if your sensitivity levels are high!!!

Other wise have a nice day.

So I got a note from my new manager at work today.  He didn't stop to talk to me, just kind of threw it on my desk as he walked past.  It was essentially a thank you card for adapting into his team so well, but put onto a fancy little card that we use when we want our thank yous to be officially recorded by our work program that recognized exceptional agents.  See here for a brief overview.

In any case, I guess I was not feeling totally sure of my performance on the team and getting a note really made me feel good.  Which triggered some confidence.  When then in turn started to inflate my head a little.  I caught myself being rather superlative and prideful for a little while after getting it, which made me laugh at myself quite a bit when I recognized the emotional shift.  Silly me, thinking I'm better than someone else because I get a thank you card.  The funny things you notice about yourself when you are paying attention is really quite fascinating, to me at least.  I don't know that my introspection really are of that much worth to anyone else.  I mean, I doubt everybody wants to hear about how I agonized myself over whether I was appropriately displaying my personality at a bad time or acting out inappropriately or whether I should be concerned about it at all or whether I should be glad I was loosening up at work or whether this was a sign I was becoming more comfortable with my identity or... over accidentally interrupting a trainer the other day to comment that there was a woodpecker on the tree behind her.  For family members think dinner time bird observations/exclamations and you'll get a sense of what happened.  Fortunately the woodpecker comment was not noted upon and we moved on with the training presentation as if there wasn't a window behind her with a bird that I couldn't quite see properly because the blinds were closed.  Yes we have semi see through blinds at work and I could see a bird through them.

Or there was the time I had a coworker say that she was going out to the hall for a drink.  Then when she got back I asked her if she felt more hydrated.  When she said yes I commented that it was always nice to have plenty of hydrogen in you, especially when it was coupled with oxygen, except for when it was H2O2 in which case it was mainly useful for cleaning small cuts and scrapes...  Wow, I get weird some times.  In any case that triggered about the same cascade of self evaluations as the bird incident did.  Except, since I knew the target of my hydrogen jokes a lot better as things go, no where near the same level of self criticism and agonizing, just a careless inquiry into what my action actually meant to myself.

I suppose I am beginning to enjoy my shift a little bit more than I was when I first started.  I've found people I'm comfortable being weird around and I'm starting to feel like I've got a grip on what I'm doing.  Feel more a part of what is happening instead of feeling like the new guy on the team.  So I'm more or less happy with it.

Dishwasher

So we broke down and bought a dishwasher.  I'm thrilled.  We went from having a sink full to the brim of dirty dishes that despite hurculean efforts every few days would just fill right back up like to having a sink scattered with a few dishes here and there that a mild amount of effort could mop up.  Given time and situation constraints on when we could effectively work on dishes, this is a massive boost in lifestyle quality over here.

Dishwasher envy

Given how many late nights I've had slaving away at a pile of dishes that appears seemingly out of nowhere, I've been experiencing dishwasher envy recently.