School's Out!

It was a bit of a bittersweet day here in the Winn home. As you can tell by the title, another semester ended today, Jarom's 23rd here at BYU. He thinks that he did pretty well (Optimistically all A's and A-'s). He is a little upset though, because in one class he ended up exactly .67 short of an A. He asked the teacher if there was any possibility of doing extra credit to make up that 2/3 of a point and was told no. Bummer. Lixi finished her final class (First Aid) and just has to survive one more semester of student teaching. She is getting used to her job and liking it a little more these days, although she is still not sure this is her final career path.

Today also marks my one year anniversary as a resident here in Provo. It was not celebrated at all because I am in the proverbial doghouse right now. There was an incident today where I made a mistake. It is feeding day, and as Lixi was putting me into my feeding cage, I got a little too excited and bit her hand, only briefly, before realizing that she does not taste good at all. In my defense, I hadn't eaten for over a week, and I would love to see any of you do that and not take a bite out of anything that looked even remotely like what you usually eat. Anyway, she cried (not from the pain, but from the emotional trauma of being bitten by her buddy) and I tried to apologize, but she isn't a parselmouth. Hopefully she will forgive me.

Jarom and Alixa also did some babysitting tonight for some friends. It was not very long and the kid was quite pleasant, so everyone had a good time. It did remind Lixi that she wants a baby of her own. Who knows how long Jarom can keep avoiding that. It was also sad because their friends whose child it is will be leaving for Kansas after Christmas. So this was the last time that they will see them for a while. That is the really sad part about school; you make great friends, but the probability of ending up in the same place is not high. I guess that is why God invented facebook.

I will be locked up for the next few weeks while Jarom and Lixi visit their families on the east coast, so have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Black and White

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. In more ways than one. It is stinkin' freezing here in UT. The last 7 days we have had temperatures between the teens and low thirties. I just sit on my heat pad and don't worry about it, but Jarom has to get on his motorcycle and ride to school and work. His throttle has frozen itself solid a couple of times, so he has started going out earlier to start the bike and let it warm up for a few minutes. He wonders how on earth he managed to ride back and forth between American Fork and Provo every day last December in similar conditions.

In addition to the cold, there are some presents sitting around. All the shopping is done, which is nice. Neither Jarom nor Lixi is very patient or concerned with opening their presents on Christmas day, so they have opened their gifts from each other already. They both did a good job choosing gifts, and are excited to see their families and open some more. They leave on Friday for Cleveland, where it is at least as cold and snowy as Utah, and probably worse.

Jarom did have one interesting thought that he wanted me to share. In his priesthood lesson today there was a discussion about the revelation that was given allowing blacks to hold the priesthood. Throughout the entire lesson, both the teacher and those in the class were noticeably uncomfortable using the term "blacks", and most of the time exchanged it for "African Americans." This is obviously not right, since the revelation had nothing to do with one's nationality and everything to do with their skin color. In fact, the vast majority of those affected are just Africans, with no Americans attached. But in the strange politically correct world which we live, saying that someone is black has taken on a slightly racist feel. On the one hand, I guess that it is good because it means that people are thinking about the feelings of other groups of people. The flip side of that coin is that I think everyone is just getting too sensitive. Few things annoy me as much as easily offended folk. I am reminded of a Seinfeld episode where Jerry is dating a Native American and has to avoid saying things like scalper, reservation, and indian giver. All very amusing, but irritatingly true. It is a problem that has seeped into groups all over the world. Muslims flip out because someone drew a cartoon of Muhammad or named a teddy bear after him. Indian tribes get offended (or other groups get offended for them) because a school is using them as a mascot. Crazy christians go off the deep end and try to boycott The Golden Compass because they think it has a subliminal anti-God message and will encourage children to read books. I know that we often times say and do things that are offensive and should be stopped, but pretty much everyone takes it too far. I have a dream that someday all the crazy people in the world will calm down and realize that it is just not that big a deal.

In other news, Canada has the most coastline of any nation in the world, Jarom made it to the finals of two of his three fantasy football leagues, and Alixa wore her shirt backwards to church today. How embarrassing!

Finally!

It has been a little while since my last entry. I apologize, but I have been shedding, and Alixa gets really mad when I leave my old skin everywhere, so I haven't left my cage much. Provo got a whole bunch of snow dumped on it for the second straight weekend, which makes everything pretty but causes some problems transportationally speaking. The big news for this week is that Jarom finally bested his wife in fantasy football. It is playoff time, so unfortunately that means the season is over for Lixi. But she did great, especially considering the fact that this was her first season. Although Jarom did give her advice on occasion, she did it mostly on her own and had one of the best teams in the league. In order to balance out the good karma Jarom used in beating Lixi, he had to give a talk in church today. This is Jarom's second least favorite thing to do, behind trying on clothes and just in front of formal dinners. Alixa said that it went OK, and he even got a few chuckles from the congregation when he told his joke (The one about how the Pope, President Hinckley and Pauly Shore go fishing together [Punchline: "It's not holy water anymore!"]) This afternoon Jarom and Lixi went to visit their other animal friends, a pair of horses that have been named Snow and White (guess what color they are). They live on a vacant lot next to Jarom's sister's new apartment. It was not quite a smashing success, as they could only find baby carrots in the store, and it is tough to feed a horse through a chain link fence with only 2 inch nubs of carrot. A lot of them fell on the ground, but the horses didn't mind. They enjoyed the snack and probably liked having some company on a very frigid evening.

Alixa's flag football team lost in the championship game, bringing the fall intramural season to a close. Runner up is by far the best finish the household has ever had, but still no t-shirt. Only one semester left. Other than that the Winns are busy prepping for finals and getting excited to visit their families over Christmas.

As a final side note to those who participated in the recent poll, here is the lowdown: Despite what you may have heard in scouts or from your mother, you only lose about 10% of your body heat through your noggin, although for me the percent is much less (I have a pretty small head).

Winter Wonderland

Provo received its first real snow last night, which meant that Lixi had to go wipe stuff off the car before heading to get her haircut. It also means that Jarom's bike is out of commission for a few days, so I guess it is a good thing that it is the weekend. Last night Jarom and Lixi lost the first game in their volleyball tournament two games to none. The highlight of the evening came when Jarom swung as hard as he could in an attempt to spike the ball for a kill. He made good contact, but can't aim very well, so the ball went screaming out of bounds where it connected squarely with a small childs face, knocking the kid backwards into the wall. Play stopped for a minute while the parent (a member of the opposing team) took care of the little girl, who seemed to be OK later that evening.

Today Alixa went to see Enchanted (her new favorite movie) while Jarom had to go take the GRE. He has to wait two weeks to get the results from the essay portion, but he got a 1400 (760 Math, 640 Verbal) on the portion that is graded thus far. Now we will see if that will be enough to overcome his slightly less than stellar performance in classes and get him into graduate school. Alixa is eternally optimistic. She is also learning spanish now, thanks to Nate, who gave her a Rosetta Stone introductory CD. Ella habla muy bien y siempre me esta llamando 'Mitcho'.

Vacation

Jarom and Lixi went to Delaware this last weekend to play with the Winns for Thanksgiving which left me to my lonesome all weekend. I appreciated the solitude as I am shedding and prefer to do this in peace. They came home Sunday night and told me all about their trip to Delaware. They arrived at the Philadelphia airport late on Wednesday night after a long flight. Jarom had some bad luck at first on their flight and had to sit next to a VERY overweight person who took up most of his and Jarom's seat. His bad luck turned around, however, when a seat opened up in the exit row. He was glad to have his space but Lixi was sad she had to sit all by herself on the long flight.

Once in Delaware, the fun began immediately. There was a Winn family Turkey Bowl Thursday morning and Lixi is so good at football that she scored a touchdown on the opening play. Loni was the photographer and was able to capture the whole thing on film. Lixi and Jarom were on opposite teams and Lixi's team won due to a wide open pass that Jesse dropped in the end zone which would have won the game for Jarom's team. This is okay though, because the better team won.
After the foosball game, it was time for Thanksgiving dinner. Lixi reported to me that her homemade dinner rolls finally turned out this year! She was very excited. This is the first time she made rolls that actually worked. She has horrible luck with yeast breads. The rolls were a nice compliment to a delicious dinner. After dinner, the rest of the evening was spent watching football games on TV. Lixi was also pleased to report that she won her fantasy football game again this week, putting her at 6-6 for the season. She has a really great chance of making the playoffs. Jarom, on the other hand, is struggling and if he loses his game this week, he wont make it. Bummer for him.

The rest of the weekend went smoothly and included a shopping trip, a trip to Lancaster to visit some friends and putting up of the Christmas decorations. I personally am excited for Christmas. I find it to be a fun time of year. Maybe Jarom and Lixi will give me an extra mouser for a Christmas present... Can't wait!

After the fun weekend, Jarom and Lixi had to get back to work. Lixi's teaching is going well and Jarom is doing well in school. He takes the GRE this Saturday and will hopefully do well so he can get into grad school. Anyway, hope you all are doing well. Jarom and Lixi send their love.

Turkey Day's a'comin

It has been a relatively uneventful week here in the Winn home, but I wanted to write and express my thanks to those of you who have voted for me in the current poll. Even though it has hurt Jarom and Lixi’s feelings, I am happy with the results thus far. Thanksgiving is coming up, which is OK I guess. Turkey isn’t really my bag, due to their size and all those disgusting feathers, but is always nice to have a few days off from work. Well, I don’t really have a job, so I guess it is the same as any other Thursday. But it does mean that I will be left alone again so that the others in the house can go to Delaware for the weekend. It should be a good time.

Safe Sets, our intramural volleyball team finished the regular season with four wins and only one loss, and we are hoping to make a strong run through the playoffs. Alixa is having a blast playing the sport that she loves the most, and Jarom has gone from being an idiot who has no idea what he is doing to an idiot who has some idea what he is doing in only a few short weeks. He actually scores a few points per game now, and Lixi doesn’t have to yell at him nearly as much now as she did in game 1. His 3-on-3 basketball team, the team formerly known as Sons of Abish (the BYU intramural office seems to have realized the hidden joke of this name and has removed it from the database, relegating us to the generic name Team [25]), finished the season without losing a single game and now will have to fight their way through the top division playoffs. Things are going much better now than they went for football and soccer earlier in the semester. Perhaps this will be the year that Jarom finally gets a t-shirt to prove that he is a good athlete.

Conflict Resolution

Jarom spoke with his co-worker Meghan today and wrapped up this little fiasco. It turns out that her anger towards him stems from an incident that occurred in early September, but she had never spoken to him about it. During the first two weeks of school she missed a few days of work without telling anyone and was late for several other shifts, once by more than two hours. When he asked her why she was late, she gave excuses like "I was talking to my mom" or "My roommate was in the shower." Those are fine if you are five or ten minutes late, but honestly, who showers that long?! Assuming that there were some personal issues that she didn't want to talk to him about, Jarom decided to alert the office supervisor of the situation. The supervisor spoke to Meghan and there hasn't been a problem since.

It turns out that this action insulted Meghan on several levels. First, that Jarom would "go behind her back" and talk to the boss about her tardiness. Second, she felt that he was singling her out because he didn't complain about others lack of punctuality (none of which was seen by him.) Thirdly, she felt and still feels that it is OK to show up late or leave early because the job isn't that big of a deal. All of this had been festering in her for three months, and when Jarom had the audacity to invade her privacy and read her blog (posted on the World Wide Web, the most secret of hiding places) it came boiling over.

Fortunately, they were able to discuss it like civil human beings. They came to an agreement that they will not be friends but will coexist at work without further incident.

In other Winn news, Lixi smashed Jarom for the second time in their fantasy football league. Jarom has not handled it well, and is very bitter.

Nefariousness

It has been an interesting weekend in the Winn residence. Jarom and Alixa went up to Boise for the Grandma Holderness birthday bash, leaving me with their apartment all to myself. I enjoyed my solitude. But first – surely you are wondering why I would use a word like nefarious for the title of this entry. Let me explain.

Jarom went in to work on Friday, and it started out like any other Friday. Some classes to record, DVD’s to make, equipment to move. During his down time, Jarom was playing around on the computer and found a blog that his coworker Meghan had written. Curious, he began to read the several entries that it contained. Pretty typical blog stuff, what was happening in her life, her thoughts on being recently engaged, blah, blah, blah. And then he stumbled upon an entry in which she was comparing the good and bad things in her life. At this point she mentions the great people she works with, counterbalanced by the nefarious co-worker with whom she currently shares the office. A quick look at the date and time reveal that the blog was written during the shift that Jarom shares with her. Taken aback, he posted a comment questioning what he had done that was so vile as to merit a word meaning extremely wicked or villainous (and thanks to Satan, usually reserved for snakes like me). No one else seemed to know anything about it, and since Meghan does not work on Friday, the situation would have to wait until Monday before an assuredly awkward situation could take place.

Jarom and Alixa took off for Boise as soon as his shift at work was over. Upon their arrival, Jarom was telling the story of his interesting day to his family and opened up Meghan’s blog so that the others could read the entry first hand. Unfortunately, during the 6 hour journey Meghan discovered that Jarom had found the blog, and in a spastic overreaction made the blog for invited readers only. He then sent a message to her facebook account, only to have her immediately block him there as well. He plans to talk to her about it, but is fearful that her immediate childish response will be to stop talking all together.

I will continue to update you on the outcomes of future encounters, but the main thought that I have been having involves people’s reactions to conflict. It amazes me how frightened most humans are when it comes to confrontation. I suppose that it is a byproduct of your cushy lifestyle. In my world, we are used to dealing with others, often in situations where one of the participants dies at the end. I guess that sort of struggling makes it a little bit easier to handle a little discomfort in interpersonal relations. Hopefully Meghan and Jarom will be able to resolve this little spat like adults and nobody will have to be killed.

Life from ground level

Get a blog, they say. Everyone has a blog, they tell me. All my friends stare at me with disbelief in their eyes when I tell them that not only do I not have one, but I don't even want one! But here it is, the initial offering of Mitch's Corner. In the coming days, weeks, and possibly even years you will be able to read about my thoughts on topics ranging from sports to politics, from tropical deforestation(a subject that is particularly dear to me) to how much you should tip your waitresses(at least 25% if it is Lixi). Today will just be a short intro, no main topic. Please let me know if there are subjects that you would like me to speak on. You will probably find that my perspective is unique, as an immigrant to this great nation and most particularly as a non-human. With that I will close by stating my sadness that the Pats beat the Colts today in what will probably be the best regular season game all year, and my joy in watching what was probably the best regular season game all year. Unfortunately I had to watch it by myself since Lix and Jarom don't watch TV on Sundays. They are really great people. Instead they went out and delivered home baked cookies to underprivileged local children.