Ross

Some of you may know I am a huge fan of the show FRIENDS. I have all 10 seasons on dvd, have seen them all numerous times, and still laugh and cry even when I know what is going to happen. Some of you may recall an episode where Ross goes spray tanning and messes it up and gets the front of him twice. then goes back to try to correct it and does the same thing. lol. he looks so nuts by the end of the episode. Wellllll....................I sorta did the same thing. My friend Sarah works at a tanning salon in Lafayette and so I tried out the spray tan. She explained how it worked and that the machine will talk to me and tell me which way to turn. Well, I couldn't really understand what the machine was saying and sprayed the front of me twice, one side once, the back once, and none for the other side. I went out and told them. LOL. they were laughing at me so much. Turns out it wasn't so bad of a mistake, I was just really tan on front. I had been tanning in Texas anyways, so it wasn't too noticeable. I felt really stupid though. lol. if you make a huge mistake in there you can shower quickly and get most of it off, but I didn't feel it necessary. I did look super tan though. And spray tans fade in about 6 days. So no worries.

Check me out!

This pic is after a few days of the spray tan wearing off. And the light is really bright. but you cant even tell. Check out my eyes though. (I am so vain, i know.)

Halloween 2010

Some years for Halloween I go all out and have some great/crazy costume (troll, hershey kiss) while other years, I am just not feeling it. This year was one of those years. I was still in my bitter, anti-social, dont-want-to-be-around-people, hate-myself mode and I didnt have a good costume or any motivation to make one. However I did finally bring myself to go to a church Halloween party. (or I was forced into it...its whatever) It was in Arlington. Where of course no one spoke to me except the people I went with. (That ward is the most anti-social group of LDS people I have ever met) Then again, I guess I wasn't much in the mood to be social. But anyways, I went. We played volleyball. I refused for the first couple of games. But gave in after some pretty enthustiastic persuading from my friends. I did end up having fun. I got all decked out for this party. Not sure why. I guess I just wanted to look nice for a change. Yeah buddy.

December 5k

I decided the other day that I need to be motivated to work out. I find that 5k's tend to inspire me to do just that. So I signed up for a 5k. Toys for Tots. I also decided I need to do one every month to keep myself inspired. So I have done the "December one", and am still deciding on which January one I will do. I did the 5k alone. It was on December 11, 2010. Amy and I had talked about, long ago, doing another 5k together, but given that we live 10 hours apart, she has 2 small children, and I work a lot, it just wasn't gonna work anytime soon. but we decided the next best thing was shirts that said "Im with Ames" and "Im with Al", and for us to do a 5k on the same day and wear our shirts. so that is just what we did. I made the shirts and sent her hers. I did my 5k and she did one on her new tredmill. I had a horrible time, which I wont tell you. But my goal is to constantly beat my time with each 5k I do. Yea!

Before!After (and still alive :))

My Regrets

"If there was one thing you could do over in life, what would it be?"

That was what my manager asked me today when we were at lunch.

My manager took me to lunch today because I made him a bet earlier in the month and I won. Whoever won got free lunch. muhahaha...me.

So we were eating, and chatting, and my manager asked me, if I could do anything over in life what would it be...I sat there and I thought for a second.

Nothing came to me. This surprised me a little.

So I dug a little deeper into my life.

Nothing.

I looked at him perplexed and with a shrug of my shoulders said "I don't know." He smiled and said, "Come on. There's gotta be something." In an effort to not look like I was just lying or covering up all my huge mistakes in life, I did another quick scan of my life.

Still nothing.

"Yeah, I really got nothing." I told him.

"Wow" was all he said to me and then proceeded to tell me something that he regretted doing in his past.

As lunch went on I pondered this thought. It really surprised me that I couldn't think of something. I figured I must just be overlooking the huge elephant in the room, so to speak, and had forgotten some huge, disastrous thing that I had done. But soon enough, lunch ended and we went back to work. But I kept thinking. I pondered on this for the rest of the day. I scanned over the major and not so major events in my life. I kept asking myself...

Do I regret...

• Joining the church?
• Falling in love?
• Not doing more homework?
• Not making better grades?
• Not going to grad school?
• Studying Interior Design?
• Switching my major (more than once)?
• Moving to Texas?
• Working at the bank?
• Any of my roommates?
• How I have spent money?
• The boys I have dated?
• Going to BYU-I?
• Going to Purdue?
• Taking out my endowments?
• Road trips I have been on?
• Going to Maine?
• Saying no to marriage (to the wrong person)?
• Never drinking?
• Never doing drugs?
• Choosing my standards over the newest boy in my life?

...No. I regret none of them. Some were hard decisions. Some I cried over for months. Some of them broke my heart. But...I will say that I have learned something from all of them. I am a relatively good person (I think) and I feel like these decisions have shaped who I am today. And that's not too shabby.

As the day went on I thought to myself how blessed I really am. I have no major regrets in life. Sure, I could have been nicer at times. Could have held my tongue instead of making a stupid comment. I could have worked harder. Smiled at people more. Little things. I certainly am not without fault or flaws, but overall I feel like I have done life pretty good so far. Yea, me! And I wonder how many people can truly say that about life. I feel like it is more rare than I think. At that moment when I realized I couldn't think of any regrets, I felt overwhelmingly grateful that I have had the life I did and made the decision I have. It was another rare glimpse at the green grass that is on my side of the fence. I feel like Heavenly Father is showing me this side more and more often. And I am grateful.

Do you regret anything?