“I’ll kick you right in the ding-dong!”

Oh hi Joe!

Thanksgiving is the only pure holiday left. The patriotism of Independence Day has been replaced by partisanship, the mirth and mischief of Halloween has been replaced by mom driven sugar handouts for overly sheltered children, Christmas has been replaced by commercialism with the real Christ being substituted by the fictional Santa Clause. But thanksgiving is still about gathering with family and loved ones with only the threat of football for a distraction, which under the right circumstances, is still about family and tribe.

So, as predicted in my last communication with you this week was a great and welcome respite from my worries. It started off with a bang on Monday morning. I had a first interview with the Brady corporation. They are a medium sized company that makes identification hardware for the medical, entertainment, and IT fields. Think of the wristbands you get when you are in the hospital and all the scanners that are used every time anything is done with a patient. Every time mom would eat, drink, get meds, get shots, etc., etc., they would scan her. They also make similar wristbands that you might get at a high end amusement park where they scan you for rides etc. They are used similarly for concerts and other large events. They also make name badges for businesses etc. it’s kinda cool. Anyway, the job would be for marketing director. Which would mean that I would be in more of a strategic role than the one I had. I met in person with the HR director and the general manager over zoom. I met for 90 minutes total which was a really good sign, I got along with them both so I’m feeling like I have a shot. It may be a week or two before there’s a next step, they had a meeting coming up where they were planning for next year. I think that will be critical for the role and for there to be a next step for me. I followed up with hand written thank you cards for the two people that I met with as well as the person that referred me. I’ll follow up with a call or email next week.

I felt really good about it when I was done as I honestly didn’t expect it to go that well, for some reason I thought it was just going to be a meeting with a recruiter for general placement. So I drove around aimlessly while I was telling your mother about it on the phone. I celebrated, hopefully not prematurely, with lunch at Hires. It was delicious, but I did have sticker shock as it came to $20 bucks for a burger, fries and drink for just myself. Not too long ago I could take the whole family out for burgers for lunch for just a few bucks more than that.

Tuesday morning I signed up for a service assignment at the church furniture factory in Salt Lake. I always feel bad for not signing up for those because of my work schedule. I really enjoyed it. It’s where they make mattresses, dressers, beds and bunk beds, and side tables that they sell at DI and send to people in need. We got a tour and it’s a well run facility with modern, automated tools and hard working people. There were about five people from the Stake and I worked with one guy from the 5th Ward. We packed boxes with head boards and frames for beds, we stacked them on pallets, we built boxes for future packing, and we sanded hundreds of bed legs. It was kinda fun.

After I went to this big outlet store with loads and loads of random crap. There might have been some cool stuff there, but it was head achingly vast and overwhelming. Now mom wants to go. 

Both Monday and Tuesday afternoons were spent on the job search.

Wednesday was the day I was looking forward to, the day mom was going to be home. We did a little thanksgiving shopping in the morning then spent the rest of the day getting the house and food ready. We set up our large kitchen table diagonally in the kitchen with the extra leaf (I like it better when you do that job). We moved the couches against the wall and piano in the family room and set up two folding tables there. Mom made it look really nice.

Thursday we had the turkey bowl. It was fun but kinda cut short by some bad news that happened to Alex’s mom. She was in Portland Oregon visiting family and was attacked when they were going to dinner and lost some teeth and had to go to the hospital. As tragic as that was, it affected the turkey bowl in a way only uncle Tim and your cousin Mark could do. Tim told me about it in confidence as he didn’t want it to upset the younger cousins. Then, not three minutes later, in the middle of play action, Mark screamed,”WHAAAAAAT!!!???, HER TEEEETHHHH!!!??” And just like that the game ended. At least we had donuts and hot chocolate after.

We went home and got ready for the big meal. It was mom’s side of the family (isn’t it always?) including Rod and Beverly. The Pratt’s from our ward came too and poor sister Pratt took the brunt of your dear cousin Rod. Your cousins Tyler and his husband came, so you dodged that bullet. But overall it was fun to be with family and we had a good time. Uncle David brought me an unfinished X-wing helmet. I’m looking forward to finishing it. After dinner all the byu fans went downstairs to watch the byu basketball game, the whole game and the thanked me by complaining about the subwoofer sound on the home theater. Okay, I admit, I’m venting a little here, but it was nice being together. Oh wait, one more story. Uncle Steve was complaining about something and mom told him to just sit and wait. He said the word that rhymes with duck under his breath, so mom said, “Steve, if you say that word in my house again I’m going to kick you right in the ding-dong!” Everyone went quiet the everyone busted out laughing. Anyway, that’s what you missed.

Friday morning we went to the mall. Jacob wanted a Lego and didn’t want to wait for Christmas. We had to park across the street and it was crowded, but it was still fun to be together. Then we drove around until it was time for our lunch with my family at little America with my family. It was fun. I had the cheeseburger, the fries were insane.

Saturday I took Jake’s car to have the snow tires put on, did a few chores, then went to an early baseball game at the U, I sent you rudimentary updates. It was fun. Your brothers were invited to do a half time relay and they won. I sent you the video. When we got home mom had delicious hot turkey sandwiches waiting. She’s the sweetest person ever.

Today was church, fairly standard. Mom and I fasted for my job and added that we want to invite someone to our Christmas sacrament meeting. The stake has asked us to do that. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Mom made grandma style roast beef for dinner with leftovers. It was good. After, mom and I went to see aunt Stella. She’s having pains in her leg and might need surgery. I called Artie over and we gave her a blessing. We also helped her get into her accounts. 

Well kid, that’s it for me. I sure love you.

Pops