Rewiring

What's really going on with Shawn?



[And I still had time to make a jerk out of myself up on stage.  They never should have left that sword untended.  Hold on a sec...]

This last weekend, starting Thursday evening, I went to a marriage-oriented seminar-thing.  Because I love my wife so much I put on a good face, determined to learn something new and not be a butthead about it.  My wife usually has as much cooperation for this sort of thing as you might putting a sweater and a leash on a cat and taking it for a walk.

Besides, I have work to do!  I don't like being away from the fields for too long.

And off we went on Thursday night, just to stay up in Sandy at a mid-range hotel.  I sleep horribly on a hard hotel bed and I got about two hours of sleep the first night and woke up in considerable physical discomfort.  When I walked into the conference room and saw the title was "Royalty and Romance" I about shed tears of blood.  By the time Friday's eight hours of sitting in a hard chair listening to marriage stuff, visualization and what-not I was in a pretty foul mood, and just in time to get another horrible night's sleep.

Oh, I tried.  I really tried to keep a good face on.

Notwithstanding all that, I did take notes, and I have to admit that as I gleaned some insights (expecting only to hear a few new things) I had accumulated quite a list of new ideas.  Just one new concept after another.  I have to admit I was learning something new about reprogramming my own brain.  I didn't like what I was hearing, but it certainly was a new way of looking at things.

Friday night was even worse.  When I took a shower late at night I felt nauseous.  I put both hands on the wall and my whole body was wracked with convulsions.  I was trying to puke but nothing came out.  I believe now that I was "mind-puking".  All my wretched programming and bad stuff was trying to crawl out of my brainpan.

By Saturday morning I said "take me home I've had it" and that's when we had a break-through.  We started working on some of the workbooks.  I have to admit that my lunchtime I had quite a stack of notes.  Mind you, I have a solid marriage, we've always gotten along famously, and we only went to this thing to improve, and in fact I didn't think it could get much better.  That said, I must say I learned a ton.

Won't go into detail here, but I'm definitely on the other side of a new door in my life.  And I do highly recommend.  Family life is notably better now.  I'd go into specifics, but it's too personal for this format.

After this (and I was exhausted after two days of solid meetings and three hours of sleep per night), we went to my nephew's pre-mission endowment at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  It was really magical.  A ton of Tamie's family was there.  But I had to take a piss something fierce through the whole thing and I have to say that the bathroom there was pretty fantastic.  Then off to eat pie at a local eatery.  Then the long drive home around midnight.

Oh, another magic moment: as we were leaving the temple I came across my twelve-year old daughter in the foyer (for she had come up to meet us), and I snapped this pic; serene as an angel.  I am ever so proud of my family and I just can't get enough of them.  I shuttle between twin paradises of work and home.  I often marvel at the goodness of my own life.  I don't feel deserving of all this, but I am willing to accept God's good grace, his un-merited good will.  Or if you prefer, an outstanding life-long run of apparent good fortune.

So, Sunday I was completely exhausted and I basically just sat around waiting for Monday and to hit the ground running.

I can't believe tomorrow is Thursday.   The week has flown by.  I've got some sweet Batreps lined up.  Oh, and only six days until Valhalla!

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And we're going to squeak in War Machine