Can You Tell Me How To Get To Sesame Street So I Can Buy A T-Shirt

Do you ever have one of those moments where you say something and you are certain other people have been in that situation as well only it turns out you seem to be the only person who has in fact experienced that?

For example, when I lived in the Barlow Center there was a girl who told me that she liked to put hot dogs in the freezer, take them out once frozen and then lick them. She asked me, "Don't you do that?" I just shook my head with a look of disgust on my face.

Yesterday I was chatting with Andrea, and somehow the topic of sixth grade fashion came up. I told her that I had a Sesame Street T-Shirt, that I would wear, and I had it because that was what the cool kids wore and I wanted to be cool (it may be hard to believe but I was not the coolest kid in sixth grade...I know ssssssssssssssssssssssssssshocking). I distinctly remember going to the Sesame Street store and getting an ash colored T-Shirt that had Grover, Elmo, Telly, Cookie Monster and maybe Oscar on it. I wore it to school the next day and remember that Mike Deleon wanted to trade shirts with me, and Naomi Urich complemented me on it (I was shocked that she would even speak to me). Now there is nothing inherantly cool about a sesame street shirt, I would only wear it because they were trendy. Andrea thought this was the dumbest thing, I explained to her that I didn't like Sesame Street when I was 11, I just wanted to fit in. Perhaps this was something that wasn't popular in Sandy, so I asked Jim from Denver -nope, Mary from Nor Cal- Nope, Quinn from Idaho-Nope, Meg from Utah-Nope, Holly from Arizona-Nope, Dan from Wisconsin-Nope, Anna from Pennsylvania-Nope. Not a single person remembered Sesame Street T-shirts being cool or in.

I'm sure Dani Lee will remember that I retired the shirt and gave it to the cousins that summer as Sesame Street Shirts were no longer the rage. I don't know if I have photographic proof of this phenomenon but I'm pretty sure there exists a picture of Don and my cousin Alexander wearing Sesame Street T-Shirts. I need to know if this was just limited to the greater Whittier area. Josh, Jordan, JJ, and Danielle Nandy if you are reading this, I need you to confirm that I am not making this up. Andrea gave me a hard time for at least thirty minutes about this and then admitted that Doc Marten Sandals were really trendy for her in junior high (so Utah). I am hopeful that you will share examples of relating an experience in which you were confident others had shared and found that not to be the case, trendy things you look back at and wonder why, or a knowledge that kids at Granada Middle School did in fact wear Seasame Street T-Shirts in 1992-1993.

Is This Thing On?

Ah....summer. A time when your favorite shows take a break and you are put to the mercy of what network programmers have to offer. Perhaps my favorite Summer of television was the year 2000. Survivor was a hit, that all of family watched together. We were intrigued by Richard, Gervese, Rudy, Gretchen and all the rest of the castaways. My sister Jennifer even sent me the results of the show while I was in the MTC.

Jack Bauer is in a coma, Dunder Miflin is having branch closings, Locke is dead. All that means is that my shows are nowhere to be found and there isn't much to look forward to on the TV. The Duggars do a new episode here and there, and I'm starting to watch the new season of the Real world, but for the most part the television land scape is full of dreck.

There are two shows that I have enjoyed, relatively speaking.
Whale Wars, which tells the story of the Sea Shepard, they are like pirates out to save the whales from whalers. These people are crazy and dedicated. I am a bit bored with my life right now, so I briefly entertained the thought of going to Australia and joining up with them. Then I heard they eat three vegan meals a day. No thanks.

The other is called Tosh.0. If you like The Soup on E, this is basically a show like that of stuff on the web. I think Tosh is pretty funny. He does a segment called web redemption where people who have been embarrassed in a viral video have a chance to make up for it.

So loyal pete chat readers I'm asking you, what is out there, what must I add to my Tivo that I am missing out on. I watched a few episodes of Royal Pains but that was sort of meh.

Let me know in the comments which gem of a show I have been missing.

What to do?

I remember once hearing a story about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They had traveled west and were in what is today Oregon. They were welcomed by the Indians and invited to partake in the Salmon that was so plentiful. They enjoyed it. They were at the time in one of the most bountiful salmon fisheries in the world. After a few days the men were sick of salmon and asked one of the leaders of the expedition if they could kill a horse and eat it. They were sick of salmon.

People come from all over the world to watch the fireworks and celebrate Independence day in Washington D.C. But after seeing them for the last three years and dreading dealing with the crowds, I am officially sick of going to the National Mall to watch fireworks. I don't even like fireworks that much to begin with. I mean it's really the same thing for the most part every year. It just doesn't do it for me.

Thus I have no idea what I am going to do this weekend. I guess i should have planned better. I have been invited to a few things, but I'd really prefer not to be in DC, because after the swimming and picnics and such, I will be pressured into going to watch the fireworks. I don't want to be lame and just sit home (although I have considered embracing my German side) and be un patriotic.

Sometimes things that seem so great, lose a bit of their luster after you've done it a few times.

This is Happening

It's Friday so what better time for a blog post. Can I tell you how much I enjoy writing on Pete Chat. It is my place to tell the world or at least the 30 or so people who read it what I am thinking about.

It's official Ryan Barber and family are moving out here. This is tremendous news. I have enjoyed having Ryan here periodically over the last year. He is working for the Navy. Ryan, Lauren, and Lucy will be moving out here and are going to live in Pentagon City, which is about one mile from where I live. It's fantastic. I think Andrea has been entertained/horrified by my interaction. We have a lot of history and are still outraged that we didn't win twin day in fifth grade. We dressed identically. So Ryan and family, Washington DC welcomes you.

Another enormous occasion is happening very soon. One of my best friends from college, an absolute scholar of sports, and all around great dude Brian Rowland is getting married next Friday, to Melissa. I don't know if Melissa reads Pete Chat. I met her briefly once at a New Years eve party that I went to with Brian. He was really sweating the fact that she wasn't paying as much attention as he would have liked. Melissa I stole this picture from your website.

Brian along with Matt and Scott let me crash at their place when I had no apartment of my own in the Fall of 2004, he loves Honey Bunches of Oats, Bananas Foster, and Venezuela. Although he loves the Lakers but he did let Josh Duffy intimidate him out of watching a playoff game once.

Dude is just a straight up solid guy. I'm ticked I won't be making it out to So Cal for the wedding, I know they'll still party it up. Best of luck B-Rock.

B-Rock marks my final close friend from BYU who was single. I am the last one to still be a bachelor. Since most of my other friends from BYU had married at least three years ago, I figured I would be one of the last. That prediction has held true.

In case you were wondering ( In approximate wedded order)

Steve...Married

Jeff...Married

Jordan...Married

Brett...Married

Matt...Married

Dan...Married

Shane...Married

Jim...Married

Brian...Getting Married next Friday.

My best friends out here in DC have managed to stay single as well, thus I don't feel nearly as bad about myself as one might think.

Likes to Sing Guy + Monday Haiku

First and foremost I would like to congratulate the 2008-2009 NBA World Champion Los Angeles Lakers. A team I root for has not won a championship since the Angels in 2002. I

watched every playoff game this year and am pumped that my team are the champs. Kobe did work. I am excited to buy a championship T-Shirt and DVD.

They dominated most of game five and won handily. I try not to be a poor sport but it was satisfying that among the teams they eliminated were the Jazz, the Nuggets, and of course the Magic. They may have been flawed and maybe they didn't always play with maximum effort but every time they really needed a huge play...they got it.

I want to mention a couple of things, when I flew back to DC from home last month I saw there was a Laker T-Shirt in the airport. $20.oo dollars, just a basic Lakers T-Shirt in yellow by Addidas. I stopped, duffel bag over my shoulder, considered buying it, and then kept walking. I just couldn't risk the bad karma potential. Now I doubt that this one act of consumer restraint was won't shifted the cosmic balance, but as I mentioned earlier...I couldn't risk it.

So it's Monday and here we are. Another new week to look ahead to. My friend Tia, who is finishing her masters at VT mentioned on her blog (http://tiawilliamsuva.blogspot.com/) that she'll soon have more time on her hands and thus more time to blog. I figured, well I have time, I should blog more.

Before I get to the point of this blog entry, I have to tell a story. When I was younger I never sang in church. Never in sacrament meeting and I did sing in Primary until an unfortunate case of puberty caused my voice to do something unpredictable during a rousing version of "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission". Thus from ages 12-19 no singing. I think when I got into the MTC I would sing quality because I felt (was pressured) into thinking that is what missionaries do. Fast forward nine weeks and I am in my first area called Karlskrona. It was a smallish branch that could fluctuate in attendance between 18-45. The chapel was quite small, no real cultural hall, and a few classrooms. I remember on one particular Sunday that the congregation was its smallest. The Branch President was a good man but extremely reserved. I don't know if I ever saw him smile, let alone laugh. He most certainly didn't sing. That Sunday one of my favorite families in the Branch the Bloombergs were attending the Kalmar branch and thus their musicality (not sure that is a word) was also not in attendance. I remember thinking, if I don't sing, it is quite

possible no one will. So my comp and I sang. From that Sunday I have pretty well sung every song presented. Jump forward 20 months later and my parents have picked me up in Sweden and we have traveled to Germany and the town of Wurtzburg (Dirk Nowitski's home town, I saw his then GF [not the crazy con artist lady] who was a cute tallish German girl who wore Nike shox) where my Aunt and Uncle and Cousin Alexander live. We all went to church that Sunday and I sat next to my mom. As we were singing the hymns, my mom (miss her every day) turns to me and says "Sing right." I reply "I'm doing my best".

Anyone who has ever gone to Karaoke with me knows that singing is not one of my strong points. I am much better at identifying songs than singing them. I don't mind singing, in fact I enjoy it, I just can't stand to hear my own voice, I hate it. My solution to that problem is to sing quietly in church. This works particularly well in the Colonial ward as there are often 200 people singing and I am easily drowned out. This is more difficult in the Santa Gertrudes ward as my dad is a non singer, so I can sort of hear myself. Not a good thing.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Thankfully they aren't 1,000 words being sung

What, you may be asking is the point of all of this. So yesterday at church I am sitting in sacrament meeting next to Andrea (a remarkable singer) and we are singing, when I notice there is a guy who is singing just a little bit louder. At that moment I look up and see Ryan sitting in the row in front of me and we look at each other and we're both thinking "What is that?" Immediately I dubbed that vocal artist "Likes to Sing Guy" I'm sure you have all run into him on occasion, the guy who likes to sing a little too much, is a little too ambitious with singing the parts, and is just a little louder than everyone else. Needless to say I was thrilled by his performance. I'm thinking, I am aware of my voice, surely he knows that he is singing extra loud. Maybe, but that certainly isn't stopping him. I couldn't help but be reminded of the over ambitious chorister from last summer who stopped mid song and admonished us for not singing with fervor ( I wasn't there but I heard about it) and all of the people who take their musical performances just a bit too seriously. "Likes to sing guy", "Likes to cry girl", "No tie guy", "Ward hopper girl", "Future GA guy", and "Blatantly fake tan girl" are just a few of the cast of characters in a singles ward that no matter where you are, you are likely to run into.

So my dear Pete Chat readers I am asking you to let me know about "That Guy" and "That Girl" who show up at your ward, place of business, or other people you run into on a consistent basis.

Got a new Nephew

Lakers are World Champions

Newly Manscaped. Nice.

A Nephew to be Named Later

Sports are full of cliches. Occasionally when teams make a trade, they aren't ready to name the actual parties involved. Thus the phrase "A player to be named later" (I also enjoy the phrase "Cash Considerations"). Well last night (and as predicted yesterday on Pete Chat) my little nephew was born in Dallas to Marc and Jennifer Stanworth. I am thrilled to be Uncle Peter for the sixth time and finally be able to say nieces and nephews.

They don't have a name for him yet, but I am thrilled that he is finally here name or not. Obviously the indoctrination of all things Angels, Lakers, 49ers, Cougars will begin shortly.

Well done Jenn and Marc. And as someone who has seen that two older sisters is the ideal situation, I know he will be treated like a prince.

7 lbs 11 oz of joy and manliness

The Final Countdown

Have you ever heard of the Swedish rock band Europe? They are pseudo famous for their song "The Final Countdown" popularized by G.O.B Bluth on Arrested Development. When I woke up this morning, I thought of this song because it is indeed the Final Countdown for the arrival of a young gentleman we refer to as:

My second nephew should be arriving any day now. I know his mom (my sister Jennifer) would prefer her arrive sooner rather than later. My sister says that they haven't agreed on a name yet so Thomas Bolt is being used as the place holder for the time being.