1 Year Anniversary

Tonight marks the 1 year anniversay of my first post on this blog. I can't believe it's already been a year! Thank you to everyone for making this such a fun experience. I've done some math and figured that since I've had 1,628 hits since Nov 15, I've had about 3,681 hits since this night in 2005. That averages to about 71 hits per week, or 10 hits per day. I check the blog 63 times per week, Sarah checks it 7 times, so many thanks to whoever that other person is!! I can't believe how much has happened in a year: trip to Nova Scotia, Joseph Smith movie, graduating, Idaho internship, falling in love with a beautiful french girl and choosing UNC. What a year!

Gone to Carolina in My Mind

I've officially decided to go UNC-Chapel Hill to pursue a Masters of Science in Public Health (MsPH) in the department of Health Policy and Administration. I'm really excited to be going to the 2nd highest ranked School of Public Health in the Country in a city ranked as one of the best 5 in the country (according to a pamphlet I read). The top picture is of a beautiful indoor atrium available for reading and hearing lectures. The picture below is of the nicely renovated health science library accross the street. Of course the final picture was the real selling point of the school and city, as I too love NY pizza.

Senator Smith & Suicide

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a reading and book signing by Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon. It was a very emotional experience as his book is about the suicide of his 22 year old son (who would be my age today if he were still alive). It was especially poignant for me to realize that Senator Smith is a member of my Church, and his son had recently returned from a succesful mission in England. He says he has found healing in advocacy, and wants everyone to recognize that mental health is just as important as physical health, and deserves to be treated as such by insurance companies and legislative bodies. This is exactly in line with what I believe, stemming from my experience with Rep. Henbest in the Idaho legislature who was instrumental in passing a bill extending greater mental health parity to Idahoans. It was interesting for me to observe the incredible opposition that this idea has received over the last few years. I enjoyed meeting Senator Smith and as he signed my copy of the book "Remembering Garrett," I thanked him, saying that as a Latter Day Saint with an interest in public service, his career is very inspiring to me, to which he smiled and gave strong encouragement. The next morning he was on the Today Show talking about the book and his son's suicide. I hope you'll follow the link to watch the excellent interview.

Happy Easter

There are three profound quotes on my mind this easter season that I'm trying to adopt into my psyche. The first is by the First Presidency in the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet. The second is by Winston Churchill and the third is by the Lord while speaking to Alma in Mosiah 26:30. 1) Choose righteousness and happiness, no matter what the circumstances. 2) Success is defined as going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm. 3) As often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me. I've read each of these statements in the last week and have been struck very deeply by them. It seems to me that the full application of each of these principles in my life is made possible by Jesus Christ. His example, sacrifice and conquering give me the hope and literally the power to live the productive and successful life these quotes promise; this is what Easter means to me this year.

Elder Bingham

While in Montreal last week I got to spend some time with my cousin Mike Bingham who is currently serving in the Canada Montreal Mission. I am so thrilled he's serving in one of my old wards and is having such a great experience. What a great place to be a missionary! It's very clear to me he's doing a great job and I'm very proud of him. He's also lucky to have a great companion. Bonne chance Elder Bingham!

Butterflies in My Stomach

Sorry for the long delay in telling this story. Last week I went to Montreal to Celebrate Sarah's birthday and we had a great time. In addition to watching movies, hanging out, eating out at nice restaurants, we spent a day with her family, including her sister Rebecca and her husband Yohann and two kids, Guillame & Estelle, as well another of their sisters, Emilie and her boyfriend Sergio. We met Saturday morning at Montreal's botanical gardens accross the street from the Olympic Stadium to check out the buttefly exhibit. Unfortunately I woke up feeling very sick, and in the few hours before meeting up with her family I had already been the bathroom more times than the previous few days combined. Sarah was very sweet to me and provided a plastic bag to carry around in case I was feeling nauseous. After spending an hour or so enjoying foliage from all over the world I already had doubled the number of times going to the bathroom that day. We finally made it into the room with all the butterflies and it was really incredible. Imagine hundreds of butterflies flying all around you. I gave Sarah my camera and she took tons of great pictures of her family and beautiful butterflies. Unfortunately I was only there for 3 minutes before I felt my stomach jumping around. I didn't make it all the way to the bathroom before I threw up, the first, second or even the third time! Fortunately I had the plastic bag with me so I could discreetly, or as discreet as you can be about puking in public, threw up without requiring a cleanup crew. The first picture on this post is just a few minutes before this happened. I made it through the day and tried to have a sense of humor about how it's only fair that I get sick when I'm visiting her family since she's had unique health issues while visiting mine.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

Joyeux anniversaire ma cherie!

First Day of Summer

As far as I'm concerned there are only 3 seasons: offseason, regular season and the postseason. Last week was the start of the regular season for baseball, but yesterday was the first home game for the Yankees. I was working yesterday, but for the first since 99 and 98, I got to go to the first series of the year in the Bronx. Notice that the last 2 times I did this, the Yanks won the championship; a good omen perhaps? I had a great time today out the in the right field bleachers, as the Yanks crushed the Royals 12-5. The highlight was chanting Bernie Williams name whenever he did anything. Yanks all the way in 2006!

Sarah in New York

My sweetheart Sarah came down from Montreal over the weekend and we had an absolute blast. Je veux dire a Sarah que je t'aime tellement! I miss you already Sarah, can't wait to see you in a couple weeks. I took this picture of her on the Staten Island Ferry as we passed another french lady (the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France). Notice the slightly shorter white building all the way on the right? That's where I work these days as a temp doing mutual fund accounting.

UNC!! 6 for 6!!

After getting home from Priesthood Meeting on Saturday evening, I got a call from Alan Bingham, who I had stayed with in Boise, saying that mail had arrived from the University of North Carolina congratulating me on my acceptance to their school. This is the 6th acceptance letter I've received in the last month and I couldn't be more thrilled. This is the highest ranked program I applied to, and also the cheapest! I'm going to spend time at Columbia this week before I make my decision, but while I've narrowed it down to those two, UNC is a slight favorite at this point.