Merry Christmas everybody!
So today has been a Christmas unlike any other for me because it is the first Christmas, aside from the two I spent on my mission, that I did not get to hang out with my family all day. Yes I had to drive on back to Provo to close up shop tonight. Yeah it sucked but what kept me happy was thinking about holiday pay! haha, oh yes! That's real motivation right there people. So since I have been writing each night for the past few nights I am running out of new intriguing stories to tell and really treating this blog like a journal. A journal that is free and open for discussion and comment, yes, I do invite any and all comments on my posts, if you are reading this then that means we are friends and I respect your opinion.
Let me begin with dropping you a list of gifts I received for Christmas, now this is purely off memory because I don't want to go in my room and go through my little box of goodies, so I am sure I might forget one or two things but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate them, just that I am tired and lazy!
- A trip to San Fransisco!
- A cute little red snowflake blanket, thanks mom!
- A Chargers mug and 2010 calendar.
- A few trinkets my Dad picked up in Chinatown and gave me.
- New video games, always appreciated, and not just on Christmas, feel free to give me some anytime!
- The Zombie Survival Guide. Within that book is contained the greatest knowledge any living man or woman will wish they knew when the Zombie apocalypse happens. I will be ready and you will wish you with me and my survivor group.
- Pizza making kit.
- Scattergories.
- A new toothbrush!!!
All in all I had a FANTASTIC Christmas this year, as usual. I am so blessed to be in a family full of wonderful people who love each other and love giving me a ton of gifts on Christmas, heck yes.
So I had to take off from Preston around 1 to make it to Provo in time to shower and get to work today. It was a real pleasant surprise to get to work and see a plate of cookies for me, thank you Sarah, a bag of Christmas goodies including the ever amazing strawberry peanut butter m&m's, thank you Megan, J-Hep wearing some heinous red guitar hero pajama pants, a plate of rocky road fudge to be shared, thank you Mindy and the knowledge that we were closing at 10 instead of midnight like a normal friday. So I guess I am saying coming to work on Christmas could have been a lot worse.
Along with it being a good Christmas day my mind has slowly began being at ease. I think I may have figured out what is going on and am hoping and praying that I am right. That's all for tonight on that reoccurring subject.
Well I picked up a few movies from work and feel like putting them in a just lounging around on my couch and not getting up until noon tomorrow. Peace out!
~Bracken Rawlings
Friday, December 25, 2009
Thursday, December 24, 2009
no time on the clock, no margin for error
So I had another good day today! It all began when I slept in until 11, who wouldn't love a day that starts that way? My dad came in to wake me up and tell me that he and Alan were going to head to Logan to see the new Avatar movie so of course I jumped up to get ready and head down with them. It was a pretty dang cool movie. My first legit 3-D in theaters and I was quite impressed with the experience. We got home from that just in time to help out a little in preparing the house for the family Christmas eve party. Always a blast, I love my family. We always do a white elephant/gift exchange and this year I ended up with a new toothbrush and some toothpaste woot woot!!! Big winner of the night if I do say so myself. After that we sat down and watched all the embarrassing home "music" videos all us cousins/kids have made, quality. I then quickly uploaded all the pictures and posted them on facebook. I added a few more photo's of my San Fran trip to that album, made a Christmas Eve party album and then was in a good mood so just went through some family pictures of the last year and put them up as well. Lots and lots of pictures!
So tomorrow is Christmas day and I am excited to wake up and hang out with my family for a few more hours until I have to head back to Provo to work, yes that is correct, I am working Christmas day. I will be in Provo by myself for the next couple of days and it will be a lonely few days, days that I am not looking forward to at all. They will just give me more time to think and reflect on my life which is both a blessing and a curse, who knows, maybe I will actually divulge on here one of these next nights some of the inner-workings of Bracken. Guess we will just need to wait and find out.
It is now that time of night were I will go lay in bed and slip slowly into madness thinking about life.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
~Bracken Rawlings
p.s. this is the first post where I clicked spell check at the end and nothing was spelled wrong or highlighted! Commence your applause.
So tomorrow is Christmas day and I am excited to wake up and hang out with my family for a few more hours until I have to head back to Provo to work, yes that is correct, I am working Christmas day. I will be in Provo by myself for the next couple of days and it will be a lonely few days, days that I am not looking forward to at all. They will just give me more time to think and reflect on my life which is both a blessing and a curse, who knows, maybe I will actually divulge on here one of these next nights some of the inner-workings of Bracken. Guess we will just need to wait and find out.
It is now that time of night were I will go lay in bed and slip slowly into madness thinking about life.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!
~Bracken Rawlings
p.s. this is the first post where I clicked spell check at the end and nothing was spelled wrong or highlighted! Commence your applause.
It's more then a gift card, it's a 3-D experience!
I'm back!!! Now before I get into the San Fransisco trip there are just a few things I feel I need to put out there, going to get a little spiritual on you all so prepare yourself. About three weeks ago I pick up my scriptures, the first time I have done this (not including Sunday's) since I last took a religion course at BYU. I have been reading them every night since then and let me tell you guys, the difference in my life in just these last few weeks is something I have desperately missed since I was serving my mission almost 3 years ago! Along with reading scriptures again I have gone to the temple twice in the last 3 weeks and this too has brought a whole new level of comfort to my life, and as you have been reading in older posts, I could really use some extra comfort in my life at this time.
Alright time for the San Fran trip. So I have posted some pictures of it on facebook and I'm pretty sure if you are reading this then you also have access to my facebook because I have only told people about this blog and only posted the link on facebook. So I'm just going to break down the days and key events of the days on here and if you want some good stories or something feel free to track me down in person or somewhere else and we can talk!
Sat:
-Fly into the Oakland airport, my old stomping grounds. Sat next to and chatted with Lee Cummard in the terminal, at SLC airport, and then sat next to a sister missionary leaving for her mission on the plane, I gave her the inside scoop of what life is like in the Bay Area from the perspective of a past missionary.
- Took my family to a Hawaiian BBQ for dinner, even though we got them in Provo there is just something special about eating at one in Oakland for me.
- Navigated my family through the streets of Oakland and on up the hill to the beautiful Oakland Temple!
- Gave a small tour of the grounds and listened to a little musical program. Lady who sang and played the flute = just plain crazy. Dude who sang and played the piano = Crazy GOOD!!!
- Drove into San Fran and got a full nights sleep.
Sun:
- Woke up, put on some church clothes and drove to Sacramento to meet up with my Aunt Pam and some of her kids, my cousins, duh.
- Enjoyed the Christmas program at Pam's ward.
- Had lunch with my family, pam, corey, doug, kristie and john and shelly dropped in for a minute to say hello.
- Drove on back to Oakland.
- Mother was sick so just me, allison, alan and my dad went to Union Square (horrible experience riding the cable car that night, stupid driver........)
- Walked around Union Square for a minute, listened to a sweet Peruvian flute band! haha.
- Put our name on the list at Cheesecake factory and were told it would be a 2 hour and 15 minute wait...
- 30 minutes later my jacket was buzzing and beeping, time to eat!!! 2 hours and 15 minutes... please....
- Ate a delicious burger, and that's it! No cheesecake for this guy! Gross!
-Went home and went to bed.
Mon:
- Slept in a little, but not long because we had a long planned out day!
- Rode the cable car down to fisherman's wharf!
- Took a quick stroll on down to Pier 39 and down the pier to Bubba gump's Shrimp!!!
- Ordered the Shrimper's Heaven. I'm sure you can guess what it was, besides TASTY!
- Had tickets for the 1:20 boat to the "Rock" so we had to book it down further to make it to the dock.
- Rode a windy cold boat to Alcatraz.
- Toured Alcatraz and LOVED IT!
- Got back to Fisherman's wharf with just barely enough time to eat at Boudin's Sourdough factory/bistro.
- Had a bread bowl with crab bisque (zupas lobster bisque still takes the cake, sorry boudin's) and also a cheese pizza on sourdough crust.
- Ran back to the apartment and got cleaned up to go to the Orpheum Theater to see Wicked.
- I am now a fan of Wicked. (Yes that deserves its own bullet point)
-Ask me my favorite song(s).
- Bed time.
Tues:
- Nothing scheduled or planned so I could again sleep in a little.
- Walked down 2 blocks from our Hotel and we were at Chinatown!
- Saw some sweet graffiti. Exactly the kind I expect from Chinatown.
- Checked out way too many ridiculous store's. I found, and bought, some goofy stuff.
- Ate at the Hunan's Home restaurant, least favorite meal of the trip but still good.
- Dropped off our ridiculous purchases at our hotel then hopped on a cable car down to Ghirardelli Square.
- Spent $50 buying chocolate.... worth it.
- Expensive designer perfume/lotion shop, haha.
- Ate at McKormick's, holy crap, best meal of my life! Tried swordfish for the first time and I have a new love.
- Walked down all the piers and bought some more souvenirs including my new "the CITY" shirt and Mitchell & Ness "the CITY" hat. (I'm wearing it as I type this right now.)
- Got a delicious crepe on Pier 39, raspberry jam and sour cream.
- Caught a taxi that took us to our hotel for the last night :( sad.
Wed:
- Woke up at 6am to load the car and clear out a spot for me to sit.
- 11pm, I am home.
So as you can read, and see if you are also looking at the pictures on facebook, I had a blast with my family in San Fransisco. It is definitely a place everyone should visit at least once, you really only need 3 days to see everything but its a wonderful 3 days. Lot's of amazing things there. I am sure there are some thing's I am forgetting to add to the above list's but that is ok with me, just gives me some extra stories I can tell when I talk to people.
Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve and when I get up I will more then likely be helping my Mom prepare our house for our family party here tomorrow. We will potentially have 40+ people here and no, our house is NOT big enough to fit that many people but we are a tight family and we love each other and we make it work. Hopefully I will get a few good pictures of my family so I can post some more up so everyone can see. Night!!!
~Bracken Rawlings
Alright time for the San Fran trip. So I have posted some pictures of it on facebook and I'm pretty sure if you are reading this then you also have access to my facebook because I have only told people about this blog and only posted the link on facebook. So I'm just going to break down the days and key events of the days on here and if you want some good stories or something feel free to track me down in person or somewhere else and we can talk!
Sat:
-Fly into the Oakland airport, my old stomping grounds. Sat next to and chatted with Lee Cummard in the terminal, at SLC airport, and then sat next to a sister missionary leaving for her mission on the plane, I gave her the inside scoop of what life is like in the Bay Area from the perspective of a past missionary.
- Took my family to a Hawaiian BBQ for dinner, even though we got them in Provo there is just something special about eating at one in Oakland for me.
- Navigated my family through the streets of Oakland and on up the hill to the beautiful Oakland Temple!
- Gave a small tour of the grounds and listened to a little musical program. Lady who sang and played the flute = just plain crazy. Dude who sang and played the piano = Crazy GOOD!!!
- Drove into San Fran and got a full nights sleep.
Sun:
- Woke up, put on some church clothes and drove to Sacramento to meet up with my Aunt Pam and some of her kids, my cousins, duh.
- Enjoyed the Christmas program at Pam's ward.
- Had lunch with my family, pam, corey, doug, kristie and john and shelly dropped in for a minute to say hello.
- Drove on back to Oakland.
- Mother was sick so just me, allison, alan and my dad went to Union Square (horrible experience riding the cable car that night, stupid driver........)
- Walked around Union Square for a minute, listened to a sweet Peruvian flute band! haha.
- Put our name on the list at Cheesecake factory and were told it would be a 2 hour and 15 minute wait...
- 30 minutes later my jacket was buzzing and beeping, time to eat!!! 2 hours and 15 minutes... please....
- Ate a delicious burger, and that's it! No cheesecake for this guy! Gross!
-Went home and went to bed.
Mon:
- Slept in a little, but not long because we had a long planned out day!
- Rode the cable car down to fisherman's wharf!
- Took a quick stroll on down to Pier 39 and down the pier to Bubba gump's Shrimp!!!
- Ordered the Shrimper's Heaven. I'm sure you can guess what it was, besides TASTY!
- Had tickets for the 1:20 boat to the "Rock" so we had to book it down further to make it to the dock.
- Rode a windy cold boat to Alcatraz.
- Toured Alcatraz and LOVED IT!
- Got back to Fisherman's wharf with just barely enough time to eat at Boudin's Sourdough factory/bistro.
- Had a bread bowl with crab bisque (zupas lobster bisque still takes the cake, sorry boudin's) and also a cheese pizza on sourdough crust.
- Ran back to the apartment and got cleaned up to go to the Orpheum Theater to see Wicked.
- I am now a fan of Wicked. (Yes that deserves its own bullet point)
-Ask me my favorite song(s).
- Bed time.
Tues:
- Nothing scheduled or planned so I could again sleep in a little.
- Walked down 2 blocks from our Hotel and we were at Chinatown!
- Saw some sweet graffiti. Exactly the kind I expect from Chinatown.
- Checked out way too many ridiculous store's. I found, and bought, some goofy stuff.
- Ate at the Hunan's Home restaurant, least favorite meal of the trip but still good.
- Dropped off our ridiculous purchases at our hotel then hopped on a cable car down to Ghirardelli Square.
- Spent $50 buying chocolate.... worth it.
- Expensive designer perfume/lotion shop, haha.
- Ate at McKormick's, holy crap, best meal of my life! Tried swordfish for the first time and I have a new love.
- Walked down all the piers and bought some more souvenirs including my new "the CITY" shirt and Mitchell & Ness "the CITY" hat. (I'm wearing it as I type this right now.)
- Got a delicious crepe on Pier 39, raspberry jam and sour cream.
- Caught a taxi that took us to our hotel for the last night :( sad.
Wed:
- Woke up at 6am to load the car and clear out a spot for me to sit.
- 11pm, I am home.
So as you can read, and see if you are also looking at the pictures on facebook, I had a blast with my family in San Fransisco. It is definitely a place everyone should visit at least once, you really only need 3 days to see everything but its a wonderful 3 days. Lot's of amazing things there. I am sure there are some thing's I am forgetting to add to the above list's but that is ok with me, just gives me some extra stories I can tell when I talk to people.
Well tomorrow is Christmas Eve and when I get up I will more then likely be helping my Mom prepare our house for our family party here tomorrow. We will potentially have 40+ people here and no, our house is NOT big enough to fit that many people but we are a tight family and we love each other and we make it work. Hopefully I will get a few good pictures of my family so I can post some more up so everyone can see. Night!!!
~Bracken Rawlings
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