The Backup (Or The Time I Subbed For the Primary Chorister)

A few years back, I served for a few months in our church as the backup, substitute, third string, second rate Primary chorister.  J. was pregnant and sick and needed some help, so I volunteered to do her calling for her.  Why I did this, I have no idea.  I'm not musical and I'm not really super outgoing.  Plus, I really don't have a [good singing] voice at all.

When asked to participate in "Special Musical Numbers" at Church, I'm quick to point out that while I'm capable of "making a joyful noise to the Lord" (see Psalms 100), even if my "noises" were considered musical, they would not be considered "special."  That's usually enough to do the trick and get me out of the assignment.

But my love language is probably Acts of Service, so I decided to enthusiastically help J. with her calling.  Over the 3 or 4 months that I did the calling, I grew to love it.  It finally dawned on me that J. was not getting better and was getting closer and closer to giving birth, so I realized I needed to "up my game."  I decided to dive in and teach the kids the ASL signs for their main song in the Primary program.

But first, I had to learn them myself!  Thank goodness for YouTube and the internet!  I figured out the signs and practice.  As Sunday approached, I was excited to teach the kids the song and the signs for the song.  Then, we got a call.  The Bishop had decided to release J. from her calling due to the pregnancy and a new Primary chorister had been assigned--effective immediately.  I never did get the chance to teach the kids the signs or the song.  :-/

Fast forward to this week.  I made the mistake of telling K.M. that I had loved serving as the Primary chorister.  As luck would have it, K.M. had just been called as the Primary chorister and was going to be out of town this week.  She had no substitute lined up.  She wanted me to help and K.M. is not the type of person that really takes "no" for an answer.  (As I have learned through experience...)

My "PDR"

I practiced the songs this week, but I knew from experience that the three most important things to remember as Primary chorister are (in no particular order):

• Have a fun game for the kids;
• Be energetic because the kids don't care if you know how to actually direct the music; and
• Have a fun game for the kids!  (Did I already mention this?)

For the game, I grabbed my mini hoop from my office and decorated it with an official BYU football helmet sticker.  Then I grabbed one of Baby M.'s toy BYU basketballs.  The kids would shoot a shot.  If they made it, they got to pick one of the three mystery songs to sing.  I worried that it would be too simple and whether the girls would like the game.  (#itsnevertooearlytoconvertthemintoBYUfans!)

I was a little nervous, but I felt like since I was doing a good turn, I'd be entitled to some inspiration and help.  I can honestly say that I did feel like I had some flashes of inspiration, including the idea to have the kids hold up the signs with the words to the song that they were learning.  (Previously, I had thought I would tape them up on the white board.)

I have to say that I felt like it went really well.  The kids seemed to love the game.  I had kids lined up after church because they wanted to shoot the ball.  The girls seemed to like it as much as the boys.  I moved around during the singing and tried to get all the kids involved in singing--even the older boys that like to pretend like they're "too cool for school."  I also encouraged them to sing louder (because we didn't need to hear me doing any solos!).  In the end, we had good participation and the kids seemed to have fun.  (And I'm pretty sure that the kids didn't notice when I fumbled a few of the lyrics in the chorus to "Called to Serve"--but I'm pretty sure that a few of the adults did!).  :-/

The Primary Presidency and my pianist were also so supportive and nice to me that I felt very welcome there.  Plus, I really felt like the Sharing Time lesson was so good.  I pulled some spiritual insights out of a very simple--but profound--lesson on prayer.

I may not be the world's best backup Primary chorister, but I can honestly say that I had a good experience doing it. And I would do it again if asked.  

One Night In Bangkok

Let's Get Ready to Rumble!

I recently helped a client through a tricky legal issue.  What I didn't know was that the client is a Hollywood producer and is in the movie "biz."  My client was helping to promote an MMA event at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California on Friday night and he invited me to come as his VIP guest.

I could get used to the VIP treatment...

Now, I know that Commerce is a long way from Bangkok, Thailand, but MMA (or mixed martial arts) fighters practice a variety of fighting disciplines, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, American wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, taekwondo (from Korea), and Muay Thai fighting (from Bangkok, Thailand).

Truth be told, I really never watch this stuff on television (despite having a lot of friends in my church ward/congregation who gather to watch on pay-per-view), and I'd never actually been to a live fight.  This was my first.

As a VIP guest, I got a personal escort to my seat and access to the free bar.  Of course, the bar wasn't much of a perk since the only thing I ended up drinking was Coke--but at least that was free!

The event was BadBeat 10 and I had great seats on the front row.  I made friends with a young guy sitting next to me on the front row of the roped off VIP section.  He was super helpful and showed me things to watch for in the fighters.  Only later did I learn that he was "in the biz" and was a successful actor as well.  The fact that he didn't trade on his celebrity only made me like him more.

"A Witness to the Ultimate Test of Cerebral Fitness"

Ace Marrero of Body of Proof and General Hospital

He was Ace Marrero and he provided some "ace" commentary on the finer points of MMA strategies and techniques.  Thanks to Ace, I know that there is more involved to the sport than just beating the crap out of another fighter.

The final fight was pretty intense--the challenger beat the champ, but neither fighter left the cage unscathed.  I'm glad that my natural sports are limited to basketball and litigation.  I wouldn't want to have to make my living in the cage.

Here's a photo essay of some of the remaining pics from my One Night in Bangkok (which is a great song, by the way--see the video here):

"One Night in Bangkok and the Tough Guys Tumble"

First match of the night...the fighter on the left is praying after KO'ing the fighter on the right

"You See One Crowded Polluted Stinking [Casino]..."

Checking in at the VIP table

"I Get My Kicks Above The Waistline, Sunshine"

You really can't get much closer than this
#nozoom

"The Creme de la Creme of the [MMA] World"

Celebrity Lineup...many of these are soap actors that only someone like @TheMostess would know!  ;-)
If you look closely, you can see the villain from Karate Kid 3 (Sean Kanan)--he too was really nice in real life

"One Night In Bangkok and the World's Your Oyster"

Can't believe they let me hold the title belt #ihavenodesiretotryandwinit

I'm a little bummed that the cage was locked...

"One Night in Bangkok Makes a Hard Man Humble"

One of the best parts was meeting actor Danny Trejo.  He was so nice and was willing to pose for several pictures.  I have since learned a couple of things about him.

• He apparently starred for a couple of seasons in "Breaking Bad" as a character named "Tortuga" (Tortuga means "Turtle" in Spanish).  He must have been a bad guy--and he didn't make it.  But he apparently went out in a very memorable way.  I haven't seen a single show in the series, but I know some people swear by the show.

• He spent time in some of California's worst prisons before he got into acting (in and out of jail for 11 years).  On his first acting job, he was cast as a prison convict.  The director was trying to give him some direction and here is how Danny describes the conversation: 
• "It was the funniest thing I'd ever heard. I'd been in Soledad, San Quentin, Folsom, Vacaville, Susanville, Sierra--and here's a guy asking, "Can you act like a convict?" I remember I said. "I'll give it a shot".

• Danny doesn't drink and neither does anyone in his entourage.  That was kind of cool.

The Entourage (and I look like a giant standing next to all these Hollywood types!)

Danny Trejo and Me
#moneyshot

Camp Pendleton Tri 2013

Last Year's Competitors

As you have probably noticed, one of the things that I like to post on my blog are race recaps from the races that I've done.  It's fun for me to do the races with family and then to put up some fun pictures, etc.

The first real triathlon I ever did was the Camp Pendleton Sprint Triathlon in 2010.  It's become a fun tradition because the race is practically in my backyard.  Not only do I do it every year, but every year we've had more and more people (both friends and family) doing it.  (See pic above.).  Last year's race was the biggest yet with 7 members of Team Skil!

Maybe because of our family reunion this year or maybe for other reasons, the silence this year was deafening.  I pleaded with my brother to do it and I think he would have, but ultimately Team Skil was unrepresented this year.  So I can't give a race recap.

Instead, I felt like I needed to go out to Arizona to visit my kids and family out there.  So even though I didn't do the Camp Pendleton Tri this year, I felt like I got a "triathlon-ish" experience during my whirlwind trip to Arizona.

Swim

Rather than fight through the breakers for a 500 yard ocean swim, I settled for some time in the pool with the kids.  We worked on some very technical dive techniques:

It looked pretty much like this..."Ladies and gentlemen, may I please have your attention...."

Bike

Are you crazy?  I don't think that anyone bikes in the summer in Arizona.  The temp is 110+ and the heat index is off the charts.  Instead, I satisfied my need to heed the call of the open road by driving over 800 miles roundtrip in a 36 hour period.

It's a lot easier to handle the heat when you have the AC cranked up to full and a cooler full of ice cold water and soft drinks.

Still, an 800 mile roadtrip is about 7x as long as an Ironman bike course and requires a certain amount of endurance and stamina in its own right.  Unfortunately, I don't think it's the type of training that's going to help me in Florida!  :-/

T2

I managed to find a great job to transition from driving to the "run."  Getting a shaded spot is just half the battle.  You need to try and make sure that you have shade when you leave church as well--not just when you get there.  These spots are worth the extra walk!

Run

I got to chase after Baby M. all through church.  It was actually a lot of fun and I'm realizing that he's not such a baby anymore.  He's getting big and I feel like I can't really hug him enough.  Here's some more gratuitous pics (even if I'm the only one that wants to look at them!--well, okay and the grandmas too)  :-)

Summary
Even though this year's Camp Pendleton Race didn't happen, I still feel like the weekend was a success.  And don't count Team Skil out quite yet.  I have a feeling we'll back back in even bigger numbers next year!

Happy 101st!

It was my grandma's birthday yesterday. She would have been 101. The picture above is of her and my grandpa. 

My mom was her youngest child and we grew up only a few miles from grandma's house. It was always fun to go visit her and on special occasions my mom would  let us spend the night at grandma's. 

Grandma had her share of adversity in life, but she successfully overcame it. She never had a lot in terms of material possessions, but she was generous with us anyway.  

She had to work hard her entire life. For a while she worked as a cool at a restaurant. I'm sure the patrons loved her dishes because I know I always did. My two favorites were her homemade chicken noodle soup (with hand rolled noodles) and her chili which she always served at her New Year's Day parties. 

She had a small garden that she loved and would send us home with oranges, tomatoes, figs, and pineapple guavas. I never did care for the figs  (#idontgiveafig), but the pineapple guavas  have become the stuff of legends in our home. 

Grandma loved to tell the story of how one year an apple tree in her yard bore a prize apple. I think she planned to enter this apple in the County Fair. That is until a certain 3 or 4 year old boy took a bite out of it as it was sitting on her kitchen table!  I like to think she forgave me for that so quickly because I was such a cute little kid. ;-)

There are so many things I love about my grandma and so many happy memories, like the Avon soaps she would give us as kids since she was the Avon lady in her neighborhood or sitting next to her on the pew at church. 

But I think most importantly, I saw her kindness and compassion for others. She was constantly worrying about us--in a good way. I learned how to be kind and compassionate and tender, in part, by watching her. 

Grandma, we love you and miss you!  Happy 101st birthday!

Surprised and Delighted!

In college, I took a marketing class from Professor Geurts.  The very first day he showed up with homemade cookies for the entire class.  It was a very pleasant surprise and a nice start!  He brought the cookies as a sort of object lesson that great marketing efforts are focused on "surprising and delighting" the consumer.  I will forever think about making customers "surprised and delighted" when I think about how companies ought to market their products and services.

So often, companies spend gazillions of dollars to make ads designed to get the customer in the door, but then spend little effort or attention on making sure that the customer is happy once they arrive.  I have grown to appreciate great customer service (and posted about it on this blog).  This week, I've had three examples of interactions with companies that left me surprised and delighted!

The Ink Spot - Orem, Utah

This is a great Utah company

A few years ago, my sister got me a Christmas present that I loved.  It was a BYU basketball practice jersey similar (but better) to the one above.  I think it looks really cool and I've been using it for this weekly basketball league that I've been playing in.

Unfortunately, some of the numbers and lettering have started peeling off.  I mailed it to The Ink Spot earlier this week to see if they could salvage it.  When I called today, they told me that they had fixed it and that they weren't going to charge me anything!  They said it should be better than new.  (Apparently, the numbers hadn't been heat pressed properly in the first place).  They are mailing it back to me today!  I can't wait to wear it!

I have literally bought dozens of jerseys from the Ink Spot through the years for church basketball teams, city league basketball teams, and office basketball teams.  You can be sure that with this type of customer service they will continue to get my business.  And I'll refer them any chance I get!

Southwest Airlines

About a month ago, I had to buy airline tix for a little race in Florida.  I had planned to fly out and back with my brother.  By the time I went to buy my tix though, the flight back (after the race) that my brother was taking was $500 one way!  Yikes!

I settled by buying a ticket the very next day for only $200.  I would have to miss an extra day of work and wouldn't be able to hang with my brother, but I figured it the best I could do.

Earlier this week, my brother called to let me know that Southwest had dropped prices.  I was able to go online and change my reservation to take advantage of price cuts on both the outgoing and homebound flights!  It only took about 5 minutes on the internet and Southwest didn't charge me a dime to do it!  Yay for convenience!  Panama City, here we come!

Apple

Last month, on our trip to the family reunion, my kids informed me that our Ipad was broken.  I took it to the Genius Bar only to find out that because it had been "mishandled" (i.e., thrown to the ground by Baby M.), our extended warranty didn't fully apply and we would need to pay a $49 deductible.

I didn't have the iPad replaced right then and there only because the iPad had been a gift from Santa to the kids and I wanted to keep the inscription on the back.

I mailed my iPad back and waited and waited and waited.  After two weeks (and my kids asking every day when it would be fixed), the iPad showed up!  Yay!

I eagerly opened it up to discover that...it hadn't been fixed!  What the heck???  I got on the horn to Apple's Customer Care.  When the CSR asked how I was doing, I pounced!  I let her know how unhappy I was that I had wasted two weeks and been sent back my non-working unit.  I asked her what Apple would be doing to rectify the situation.  She initially told me that I hadn't bought the "right" warranty and so my "accidental" damage was not covered.  The cost to replace my iPad was not going to be $49--it was going to be $249!

Our Family iPad

I told her that that was not going to work for me and asked to speak to her supervisor.  After about an hour of hold time and a good discussion with the supervisor, I got my answer.  Apple would be sending me a replacement unit free of charge.  No $249 replacement fee.  No $49 deductible.  Free.  Yay!

I was so impressed that I'm giving some serious thought into getting an iPad mini.  I'll justify that decision by telling myself I'll use it to Facetime with my kids when we're apart.  (Now if somebody could just tell me what exactly Facetime is and teach me how to use it!)

Taylor Swift - Superman

I Declare Bankruptcy!

It's interesting the thoughts that run through your head at 3:00 a.m. in the morning.  Tonight, I have been thinking about this clip from "The Office:"

Michael Scott officially "declares" bankruptcy.  Little does he know that he can't just say the word "bankruptcy" and expect things to happen.

Michael responds that he didn't just "say" it--he "declared" it.  Legally speaking, however, his declaration is meaningless and has no effect.  But that doesn't mean it's not funny.  Hope you enjoyed the clip whether you've seen it before or it's brand new to you....