Favorite Shirt

  

 

This is my new favorite shirt.  Why is it my favorite shirt, you ask?  Because of the fun experiences I have when wearing it.  As background, Beta Alpha Psi is an international accounting fraternity (or "professional service organization" if you're at BYU) of which I was an officer at BYU.  I can't remember if only the officers got these shirts or if all the members did, but that's where it came from.

Now, on to story #1:  When Sarah and I were getting ready to move, we made a couple trips to the U-Haul store to buy some picture boxes and other moving supplies.  When we got up to the counter to check out, the guy looked at my shirt and then said, "Beta, alpha, pounds per square inch.  I don't get it."  I cracked a smile and responded, "Oh, it's actually the Greek letter psi (pronounced 'sigh').  Beta Alpha Psi is an accounting fraternity."  Silence.  Then scanning of bar codes.  Finally his response:  "Man, I feel stupid."

Sarah got mad at me for laughing out loud once we got to the car.

Story #2:  Monday morning, I sat down on the bus and continued reading on my iPod.  Then I hear someone say "Hey!"  I'm on a bus full of people, so I figure that they couldn't possibly be talking to me since I know next to nobody here in Norman.  A moment later I hear from the same voice, "Hey, are you in Beta Alpha Psi?"  I look up to see this guy looking intently at my shirt.  I reply, "I was during my undergrad at BYU, but I'm not in BAP here at OU."  Now the funny part.  This guy stares at me, puts out his hand and gives me the curling index finger as if to say "come over here."  I did one of those look-side-to-side/is-he-motioning-to-me type actions then look back at him.  He gives me the finger again.  I go over and sit down next to him.  

He pulls out his accounting homework and asks me, "Do you know what a classified balance sheet is?"

I think to myself - classified balance sheet...let's see, we don't really complicate things in accounting - it usually is what we say it is.  "You mean like a balance sheet where things are classified as current or long-term assets or current or long-term liabilities?"  He opens to a page of his notes, which confirms my suspicion.  (I also looked it up online after I got to school to make sure I hadn't led him astray.)  He then mentions that he had been looking through past exams in preparation for the exam they had that day and the professor had asked about an unclassified balance sheet.  Going of my same logic, I said "That's probably a balance sheet that doesn't have the assets or liabilities classified by their time horizon.  Maybe they're not even classified as assets or liabilities, but I'm not sure why anyone would do that or whether that would even be considered a balance sheet."  His blank face told me that he was confused, and to be honest, so was I.  I didn't know why someone would ever ask about an unclassified balance sheet and I didn't know why wearing an accounting shirt could lead to so many adventures.

I'll have to keep you updated with any more adventures I have wearing my new favorite shirt.

(If at any point while reading this you wondered, Does Bryan realize how big of a nerd he is? the answer is yes.)

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Pictures and Details

Sometimes I am convinced that all of us are extremely similar, we just express our thoughts, emotions and feelings differently.  I think that deep down we all have the same desires and aspirations.  Other times, I am convinced of the exact opposite - that the only thing we have in common is that we try to communicate with one another, with varying degrees of success.  Today was one of that latter type of days for me after I got a phone call from Sarah.  It went a little bit like this:

"So, Jennie (Sarah's sister that she's staying with) just reminded me that she owes me a picture.  Originally I was just going to have her paint a nature type scene for me, but then I thought I should probably call you because you actually care about home decor and how things look." (I was going to put "emphasis added" until I realized that the way she said it put the emphasis there for me.)

We talked about it and decided a nature scene would be grand, which then got me thinking.

Why is it so surprising that I care about the way things look in our apartment?

This took me back to when we were putting up the pictures in our apartment.  I think Sarah got to the point where she was thinking come on, Bryan, let's just put the pictures up and be done with this already.  While I'm thinking these pictures are going to be here for at least a year.  I can't have a picture bother me every time I look at it.  If the matting doesn't match the rest of the room, it very well may bother me whenever I look around the room.  The frames need to match if we put the pictures by each other.

It's times like those that I realize how different I am.  I like to tell myself that it's a good thing that I'm so into the details of life because I think it helps me understand and appreciate the bigger picture more.  I could be completely wrong and it could be that I just get distracted by the details.

I'll share another example that happened just yesterday.  I drove up to the Oklahoma City Temple yesterday morning and decided to take some pictures of the temple after the session.  I was trying to get everything just right (trying my hardest to get the temple level and not crooked in the picture) when I took the picture.  Only problem was that a couple was walking out right when I took the picture.

 

 For some people, this picture may suffice.  They may say I got a picture of the temple and I'm happy.  I won't even notice that couple when I look at the picture.  Not me.  Every time I look at this picture, my focus immediately goes to the couple walking out of the temple.  So, rather than making them feel awkward, while I hold my camera and tap my foot impatiently waiting for them to get out of the picture, I decide to take a lap around the temple and see what other pictures I can take.

 

 I decided one of the temple name would be nice.  Now when I look at it, I notice how bare some of the plants are around it.  What you won't see a picture of is the fountain on the back side of the temple.  When I got around to that side, there were a bunch of kids running around and a very exhausted looking father with them.  I decided it wasn't worth an attempt at a picture to try to get that dad to round up all of his kids for me.  I have a feeling that some day I may understand how that father felt.

 

 Here's the east side of the temple with the stained glass windows of the Celestial Room.  Not the most beautiful picture but I kind of felt bad walking out on to the grass, so I didn't walk out that far.  (Not to mention, there isn't much of a lawn around the temple and I'm not sure where the property line is between the temple grass and the neighbor's lawn - the temple is in the middle of a neighborhood, and yes, the lawn is shared with the house next door.)

 

 Finally, I got around to the front again.  However, there was a man walking out of the temple and his wife was waiting in their car.  I tried to move to the side and get a picture really quick without him or the car in it.  I succeeded in that regard, but the temple wasn't centered in my picture.

 

 So, I waited until they left and took another.  That sure was an adventure just to get this one picture.

 

I then thought that it would be nice to have a picture that isn't straight on, so I took one from my car.  I know there is a lot of sky in the picture, but it is because I was trying to not get the cars.  Alas, I failed (but didn't notice until now).  So, if you read this post and noticed everything I did about the pictures, then maybe we are more similar than I thought.  On the other hand, if you read it and thought to yourself man, Bryan is weird then I'm glad that at least we try to communicate with each other.

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Happy Birthday Bryan

Since today is Bryan's birthday and because his wife isn't around to do anything for him, I decided that I would take it upon myself to make this day special for him.  So, last night when I realized that I didn't have cake mix or frosting (and because I don't have the home-making or culinary skills necessary to make them in a reasonable amount of time), I made a quick trip to Walmart to get everything I needed.

Also, since it was Bryan's special day, I decided that I wouldn't wake him up, but rather let him sleep as long as he needed to.  The only problem with that plan was that he didn't wake up until 9:15 this morning and church started at 9:00.  Luckily for me, he choose to stick around for the next ward's sacrament meeting after getting to church half an hour late, which gave me more time in the kitchen to get things ready for him.  Nothing quite like a surprise birthday cake on your birthday.

So, after slaving in the kitchen (yes, it is slavery for me to add water, oil and eggs to a box cake mix, bake it, let it cool and then frost it), I had a wonderful birthday cake for Bryan. (Unfortunately, I couldn't find the candles at Walmart last night, plus there is a state wide burn ban in Oklahoma, so I wasn't sure it was legal and I didn't want Bryan to see that many candles and realize how old he is getting.  Everything considered, I thought it was pretty thoughtful of me to not include the candles.)

  

 He seemed pretty excited for the cake, even though he gave me that obnoxious smile of his, feigning that he was more excited than he really was.  I told him he wouldn't want that picture on the blog and that he needed to sit up straight, so he gave me a more decent picture.  (I also told him that he needed to shave, but his response was "It's my birthday!", so I let it go.)

  

 With the fear of offending all those loved ones who sent Bryan a birthday card, I've included a picture of his favorite.  (He didn't tell me if it was his favorite because it was from his wife or because it has his dry sort of humor or some combination of the two.)

  

Since his wife wasn't around to give her permission to post pictures of the rest of the card, I haven't included those.

So, as strange as it may sound coming from me, I just wanted to let Bryan know that even though he is far from loved ones that doesn't mean he is far from being loved.

Happy Birthday Bryan!

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