Getting there...

Last couple days went pretty fast or slow or what day is it? David took me to the airport at 6:15. Everything went pretty smoothly. We had a good talk. My baggage was 1lb under for one bag and 3lbs under for the other. Yeah... it was (cocky face). At the check in desk I looked over to my right and who should I see, but my bishop. I love my bishop. Such a wise and loving guy. He took me in and bought me breakfast (no vegimite sandwiches). He asked me if I believed that there's no such thing as coincidences. I told him I wanted to believe that. He explained it like typing on a typewriter: you know what's going to happen when you press the keys a certain way. And he said that's how God works. I struggled to keep from shouting my doubts in relation to that line of thought.

It seems at first glance like something we tell ourselves to keep from facing our poor choices and owning our experiences. I do believe however that it is written for Him and not for us. The mystical wild card aspect of human choice is merely a system of underlying processes which we do not consider, but follow silently. It is supremely difficult to calculate those processes. We can't list them all, let alone measure them. Social sciences approach these, but cannot have the audacity to claim even a minute handle on this understanding.

We play with plastic stethescopes and then ask if we can help in the operating room. But we do some useful things still.

I finally heard the words to this song that illustrates what a jerk I was a year or so ago. It was alluded to, but I never heard it till now. Ouch. And at the same time more stuff made sense. I felt like apologizing again and maybe I'll get to some day.




I watched two movies on the flight. I had an interesting problem solving activity where I tried several different interpretations of the fetal position across two seats during my 9 hour flight to Vienna. So the movies were Dan in Real Life and 21. Both movies tried to wow you with poignancy (thanks Joseph Smith) with their final lines.

Dan in Real Life: Tell your children to plan to be surprised.
21: Always account for variable change.

That's a big part of the Romania experience. I don't say I respect the opinion of Hollywood writers more than priesthood leaders, but I'ma get truth where I can.

It was so good to see Mario. She is fantastic and so helpful. I wish I had slept more, so that I could have been more enthused looking. She said she was afraid when she heard I was going to be facilitating. I laughed. I told her I would have been too. Then I pwned her opinion with my Romanian skills (sort of?). In the taxi she told me Alex is going to be so happy to see me. That made me feel like a trillion old Lei (roughly 41 million dollars). And the tired me said, "That makes me feel so happy... That makes me feel so happy."

My apartment is great. Seriously, so blessed.



We went to Hala centrala (I'm super happy to see all these places. I was just grinning hysterically as we went around this place). I saw magic pizza and got a big smile. "I'll get some after I buy my essentials and take them home," I thought. I knew I was in trouble and needed to sleep, because I spent what felt like 10 minutes deciding what brand of water I should get and another 10 or 15 on shampoo and deodorant. I decided not to buy food yet, because it was too complicated for my simple intellect at this point, I would probably go caveman and club a streetdog or something. I also saw the coveted Joe's for which I have been approached by several people with requests to smuggle for them.

I bought minutes for the cell phone and this girl didn't speak english and I thought my Romanian was passable, but checking cell phone minutes vocab is not in my quiver so we ended up awkwardly stepping through the transaction. It didn't help that she didn't actually know how to do what I was asking her to show me. It also didn't help that I was probably legally drunk from sleep dep. I still got a wake up call on how much language work I need.

I came home and put my stuff away. I went to the other apartment to look for a gluestick and saw the kids records. I ended up spending about 2.5 hours pouring over them. I fell asleep doing this at what I'm guessing was about 4PM or so. I woke up and it was dark. I found the internet and was stoked to get a hold of Holly through google chat. That brings us up to speed. They won't all be this long.

Tomorrow I go explore.