Friendlove part 3: Ty Rone Farnsworth

Right around four years ago, I met a boy who had less in common with me than probably anyone else I'd ever met. The circumstances of our first meeting were vague and un-extraordinary, and quite frankly, I don't even really remember them. He was good friends with my FHE brothers in my first BYU ward, so he just kind of appeared in my life one day.

On paper, Ty and I are pretty much complete opposites. Ty is from Arizona; I'm from North Carolina. Ty's humor is very witty and sarcastic; mine is more corny and punny. Ty is smooth; my charm is in my goofiness. Ty is lean and athletically inclined; I am a little chubbier and have to try and be aggressive in sports since I have no real skill. Ty is tall, dark, and handsome; I am shorter, fair-skinned, and . . . well, we've always had the good-looking thing in common I guess. Still, on so many levels we are so different from each other that it kind of blows my mind that we've become such good friends. Somehow, out of all the people I met during college, he is the one who stuck around and stayed close for the entire 4 years. Now, a lot of that may have to do with the fact that many of our friends have gotten married, but I think it's bigger than that. We just learned that we have a lot more in common than we originally thought. I think the thing we have in common that has made us such tight friends is that we appreciate true friendship. We've both had our share of some great and not-so-great friendships, and the not-so-great ones really make you appreciate the loyal, uplifting, and inspiring friends in your life.

I love Ty's advice; he sees things fairly objectively (especially compared to my sometimes overly-emotional view of situations). The best thing, though, is that he has a gift for knowing when to give advice and when to just listen. He knows how to tell me things I don't want to hear in a way that I can deal with them. He sees a lot more potential in me than I see in myself sometimes (especially in the dating category). He's a great example to me of honesty, loyalty, and faith in God.

For the past few years, he and I have had this running joke about how he doesn't have a heart, but the truth is, Ty has one of the kindest, most loving hearts of anyone I know. He's loyal to his friends and would sacrifice anything for those he loves.

(Mushytime is over now.) As great as Ty is, I mostly decided to write this post because today is his birthday! Woot! So happy birthday, Ty. Thanks for always being a great friend. Love you!

Mumbo Jumbo

I don't know if I ever announced that I have a new(ish) calling! I'm the tutoring committee co-chair in my ward. (There's only one of me, so I've thought about getting rid of the co, but then I sound too conceited. So "co-chair" it is.)

Anyway, our ward has a "sister ward"-- a Spanish ward that meets down the road a bit. So every week, we go and tutor people in the ward in various subjects--piano, guitar, violin, math, English, etc. I may even be teaching their Stake RS President how to speak Spanish! So far, I love it and I'm really excited to get more people involved. The word "tutor" still makes me giggle though, so I don't know how much people will want to deal with my immaturity in that manner. Oh well. I'm excited to get a little more experience teaching people.

That leads me to another announcement I'm not sure I've made: Next August, I plan to start getting certified to teach Special Education. I'd love to go to UNC for that--I've always been a spiritual Tarheel, but it'd be great to make it temporal as well--so I may be moving back to North Carolina next year! I'm excited to be closer to my parents, my siblings that are there, and my precious niece. Oh, and black people. But of course, if a special man comes along and wants to love me forever, my plans may change.   As of right now, though, I'm getting excited for NC. We'll see what Heavenly Father has in store for me. :)

I've also committed to accompany a musical number in Sacrament Meeting in a couple of weeks. I got the music Sunday, and let's just say I'm extremely out of practice and it's gonna take quite a bit of work. Still, I got to practice with the singers last night, and they sounded glorious. Pretty sure even if I mess it up, it's going to be a beautiful, touching piece. You can listen to a MoTab arrangement of it here.

In other news, there were no forks left in my office today, so I used two plastic knives like chopsticks to eat my lunch. The food tasted even better after having to struggle for a few seconds to get it stable between the knives.

Where's my fish?

The Life and Times of Ronaldiago Weasley Cox-Gentry

     On the sixteenth day of October, in the year 2010, two roommates, Debra and Katelyn, found themselves bored on a Saturday night with nothing to do. Desperate for some more companionship since their roommates were elsewhere with their own families, the two lonelies decided to go to Wal-Mart and buy a fish. Upon arriving at the pet section of the store, Debra and Katelyn were immediately drawn to two types of fish that happened to be listed as good tank mates for each other. One was an Oranda; the other was a Black Moor. Being lovers of fish, literature, and good corny jokes, Debra and Katelyn decided to get the Black Moor fish and name him Othello. They knew not the name-to-be of the Oranda, but would decide after some time.

     These fish had what the girls thought to be personality, but in reality, the fish were just broken. Othello's head was too heavy for the rest of his body, so he often flipped his fins as if he were backpedaling to keep his head upright. The other fish, who was livelily following the girls' fingers in the store, started playing dead as soon as they got in the car to ride home. It was as if, once removed from the tank, his life was devoid of purpose and he had no desire to smile, as it were, at their fishy games. Katelyn also noticed that this fish, who was all white with the exception of an orange spot on its head, had a little hole at the base of his dorsal fin, just a fraction of an inch from the front. It was decided, based on both his coloring and that hole in his fin, which could serve as a convenient wand-holder, that this fish would be named Ronald Weasley.

     It was not even two days later when tused-to-be-lonelies realized that Ronald was back to his playful self, swimming all over the tank, albeit backward and sideways more than forward. But wait! Where was Othello? Alas, he had sunk to the bottom of the bowl, head down in the rocks, with the rest of his body pointing toward the surface.

     It was then that the girls recognized Ronald's previous weirdness as nothing other than a symptom of his frenzied thoughts of premeditated murder. Ronald had, in fact, killed Othello, which caused his owners to re-think his name. The fish's namesake would never have committed such a cruel act. He needed a name that better fit his harsh personality and heinous crimes. Thus he was renamed "Iago."

     After some time, the girls forgot about Iago's temper and forgave him for his offenses. They decided his full name should still reflect both sides of his personality, so he was then called "Ronaldiago" (in a very Spanish accent, with the rolled "r" and everything).

     Ronaldiago lived a long life (at least, compared to his 2-day bowl buddy) and overcame many hardships, including an accidental 10-day fast over Christmas break. Regardless of the low room temperature and the lack of food, as soon as his owner returned from celebrating the Christmas holiday with her family out of state, Ronaldiago perked up and swam around the bowl. He ate his food and became a happy fish once again.

     Fast forward approximately 6 months. On the morning of the tenth of June, in the year 2011,  Ronaldiago started to fade. He could only swim on his side, and couldn't make it up to the top to eat the food that was given him. His owners thought he wouldn't make it through the day; they kept asking him, "Ya dead?" and when he wasn't (but acted like he was), they decided he deserved just one additional name before his life ran out. And so it was that the fish became Ronaldiago Weasley "Sanka" Cox-Gentry. He passed away late that night/early the next morning, after a hard-fought battle to reach the top of the bowl. His owners had been watching Seven Pounds. They wrote a beautiful eulogy for him in the form of a song, the lyrics of which I will share at this time: 

Bye, bye, Ronald Weasley just died.

Named him "Sanka" 'cause he sunk-a

When he swam on his side.

When we woke up this morning, he was barely alive,

Singing, "This'll be the day that I die!

This'll be the day that I die!"

     And so it was that the fish departed. Katelyn and Debra were the only two present at the intimate,  beautiful service, which consisted of a slow saunter to the toilet, accompanied by the playing of Taps by Katelyn's nose-harmonica. It was the saddest toilet flush of their lives, but both knew that there would be other fish in the sea (or fishbowl . . . and probably toilet bowl too) some day.

Disclaimer: This is not actually Ronaldiago.

Ronaldiago Weasley "Sanka" Cox-Gentry

October 2010-June 2011

May he rest in pee. I mean, peace. 

Update, apology, and advertisement

So I didn't finish half of the things on my 22 by 22 list. That was kind of lame. But it was a fantastic weekend anyway, and I really loved being able to do the things that I did. I'll add the rest to an overall bucket list and get them done soon I hope!

I've been a bad blogger lately, but I'll pick it up, especially because I'm even worse at keeping a journal besides this. Oops. 

On a fairly unrelated note, here's a shameless plug for my mama's business/hobby. If you want a way to spend your free time doing something fun and creative, go to www.mysweetmemorybooks.com and sign up under my mom's Heritage Makers account and create some stuff! You don't have to pay anything to just make things online. But if you want to publish something--which I do recommend, because it's so much fun to actually get the product that you make--then there are plenty of options. I am working on some 4x8 photo cards (which are really cheap) to just hang around my room and my office, as well as sending to some friends just because they're cute. (I will post a couple of my projects on here so you can feel better about your creative abilities, since I don't really have that many.) 

Talula: A tribute

Today I had a new (and glorious) experience. I rode my bike while wearing a dress. And before Mama can fuss at me for not being lady-like, I'll go ahead and clarify that yes, I did wear my stretchy pants underneath. Eet's for fun.

I guess I could always learn to ride side-saddle, but I still felt like a princess.

See, this summer I've really fallen in love with that bike. The weather is starting to cool down, and while I love it because it means cuddle season is on its way, I'm a little bit worried about what it's going to do to my relationship with Talula.

See, we've been through so much together this year. Since I won the custody battle (Maddie decided I'd be a better parent than her grandparents' garage), Talula has been my primary means of transportation to and from work, dinner group, the grocery store, and to a bajillion parks in the area. We've gone up and down hills together. We've visited friends and family together. We've gone to Utah Lake together. We even went to the temple and looked at houses together, so I guess you could say it's gotten pretty serious.

Talula has taught me a new definition of summer, such that when I even think of the word, I will always think of trips to the library, picnics in the park, and riding along sidewalks that seem to have curves meant just for us--for my bike and me--to weave in and out, left and right, all for the pure joy of the ride.

Now, don't think that we haven't also had our fair share of unpleasant-ish experiences. There were those nasty hills that our friend Steven made us go up. There were those bumps in the sidewalk on the way to work that almost made my laptop fall out of the basket. And then there was our wreck when someone didn't see me trying to turn and smacked into Talula--right in the butt! But through all that, Talula has remained a strong, trusty, and pretty adorable friend.

In fact, she's done a lot of what all of my good friends do for me:

1. She makes me a happier person. Every time we go for a ride, I end up grinning from ear to ear.

2. She protects me physically. She jumped in front of a train car for me. (And I bet if some guy ever charged me with a machete, she'd let me hit him in the face with her.)

3. She protects me emotionally by giving me a way to escape from my own stressed thinking.

4. She gives me rides to places when I need them most.

5. She strengthens my friendships with others. (First of all, we go on bike rides with our dearest friends, but also since I'm all the time grinning, people are friendlier while we're riding down the street.)

6. She makes me look good. Seriously. Do you see this?

I mean DANG, right?

I guess what I'm trying to say is . . . just . . . this. Forever and ever.