Dear Waterblogged,
It has been such a long time since we have talked and I felt that this would be the perfect time to catch up, seeing as I am not doing anything at all at the moment. A lot has happened since our last conversation. I went home to Alabama to enjoy a nice Christmas vacation. I saw a real movie, in a real movie! That is the first time in over two years! It was I Am Legend, and while it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, I enjoyed it. For some reason after watching it I couldn’t stop thinking, “I want your bod!” I can’t understand why as I don’t remember that being in the movie, oh well I guess that is not important. While we are on the topic of movies, I saw many movies. Here is a list of all of the ones that I can remember: The Bourne Supremecy (Good), Live Free or Die Hard (Good), Under the Tuscan Sun (Good), The Lake House (Good, I am a sucker for Keanu, I hear that he is gay. I did not know that), Blades of Glory (Funny), Lady in the Water (Alright, but nothing spectacular) and I also watched a bit of Visionaries at Stev-N’s request (Awesome!)
Aside from the movie deal, I also received a few presents for Christmas. This consisted mainly of socks but, I also got a gig bag for my bass which made me happy. I felt more excited watching my family open up the presents that I gave them. I think that it is safe to say that I completely surprised all of them in a very good way. However, Christmas was not a day reserved solely by happiness as tragedy struck. My external hard drive fell from a table. I guess that was too much for the little guy to handle as its bytes shattered into a billion pieces. Adios memories and irreplaceable files. It is not bad as some of it deserved to be dropped off of the Empire State Building, but I was to scared to delete it for fear of regret. It is alright though.
I spent one day with the good ol’ boys and that was a lot of fun. I feel really bad for investing in something so monumental as Lord of the Rings Risk, but when Dillon showed need for a bass player I decided to try it out. It soon became an addiction, watching Anne Marie swaying with the groove. Something about them swinging hips kept the guitar at my finger tips. Drums were much fun, but singing proved disastrous when all of the songs I did not know came up as I took the microphone. Defeated I went home. That was pretty much it. No more interactions with people, except for the huge pizza party that happened at Stev-N’s house. That was a lot of fun, except for his black dog had it in for me the entire time.
There is something about flying that does not click well with me. All of my flights in the past two years seem to have gone wrong in some way. At least they did not crash. My sister met me at LAX with my little cousin in tow. I brought this cheesy hat and my sister made me wear it when we went to the American Legion to see the rest of my family and to celebrate New Years. Just in case you do not know, the American Legion is a place where all the veterans go to get drunk and smoke. Everyone kept offering me booze. I have not seen most of them for the longest time and it was a neat experience. There was a band that played and they played a really neat version of, “Play That Funky Music White Boy.” We did not stay long and took off to kill the New Year at my grandma’s house. That was nice. We watched the countdown twice because one of the channels was lagging behind the other.
My grandma is a wonderful woman and given her lot in life she has done very well. Unfortunately that little thing called dementia tends to erase all of that. My grandpa has been dead for years, but according to my grandma he is down the road living with two other women. She kept forgetting who I was. She told me time after time after time how much I looked like my Dad, but she referred to us as cousins, or him as my uncle. After correcting her the first few times, I just learned to smile at her. Despite her loss of cognitive thought, she played an incredible game of Monopoly. She didn’t want to buy any property, but she lasted a really long time.
Deanna is my sister, but she goes by Paige. I call her Deanna, I even pronounce it incorrectly. She took me to the sights which included, the beach (I have not seen the ocean in years!), the Playboy Mansion (well the gates), and the Santa Monica Promenade. My little cousin Matt and I watched this asian guy performing on the promenade and he was really good. They have a bunch of neat street performers there. My sister and I ate at this place called Houston’s one night and it was really nice, but a bit pricey. I guess it is a mark of a good restaurant when they list their food with just dollar amounts. No cents. At first I thought that they were combo numbers, but then I realized that there were no combos under twenty. We walked along Venice beach one day where, according to my sister, some of the weirdest people in the world are gathered. I have to agree. There was this group of girls walking by these two hobos, when all of a sudden, one of the hobos jumped right out at them and started yelling as if he were a monster. He did the motions and everything. Obviously he scared the crap out of the girls. There was also a man that through this huge plastic tarp onto the walk way and stated yelling, “I don’t use plastic!”
My last night there we did a dinner murder mystery thing. That was really neat. My sister and I wore red and we stuck out like a sore thumb as everyone was dressed in black. The point of it was that there were actors amongst us and we had to try and figure out who this murderer was that was killing off the dinner guests. My sister and I played it off well enough that we got a whole table to write down that it was us in their final guess. It was a lot of fun. I felt really bad that the skank that hit on me at the bar though was just an actress. Oh well.
The road between Los Angeles and Provo is a long one, and I will just say that after playing the movie quote game for ten hours straight, you kind of get sick of the whole movie idea. I also came to the realization that I hardly know anyone anymore. It is strange. All of the people that I was close to during my mission are scattered throughout the world now. It would take a lot to go and see all of them. Did someone say Road Trip? (You can’t drive to Europe I know, but you can take the trian. I saw that Hot Shots movie).
That brings me to BYU. So far I have crapped my pants after my first reading assignment in Molecular Biology, but to have my diaper nicely changed by my professor, who looks like Jan from the Office. That is weird. I have also worked, mastered the basic step of the Fox Trot and successfully caused the death of a poor dummy by accidently turning off the defibrillator instead of pushing the shock button. Hey, live and learn right? But enough about me, how are you doing? How are the wife and kids? Let me know what you are up to sometime, ok? Take care and all of that good stuff. Jay Es. Did I say that right?
Sincerely,
Sean

“The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.”
-Bob Dylan

The Pearly Gates
My cousin Matt, my sister and I counting down with our awesome hats.
The Hobo Monster
My Grandma, my uncle Larry and I at the American Legion.