New Email Address

I decided to use my gmail account instead of my hotmail account. Email me your email address, phone number, and mailing address (and any other information you want). I realized my contact information I have for many people is outdated.

Here it is: jordan.m.waite@gmail.com

Thanks

Mid-Academic Identity Crisis

I have started my junior year in college which is about half-way through my academic life. That is probably somewhat comparable to someone in their 40s, which is the perfect time for an identity crisis. I woke up about two weeks ago with the second moment of academic identity crisis in my academic life. When my alarm sounded, I turned it off and stayed in bed not wanting to get out and go to accounting classes. My only thought which repeated in my mind was, "Why am I an accounting major?"

It was a moment like someone has when they wonder which religious path to take (except much less spiritual, and probably eternally much less important). I then got out of bed and took a shower where many of my best ideas originate, and by the time I was finished showering decided to talk to the academic advising office and change my major.



I walked into the office and declared that I was no longer an accounting major, but instead I was switching to Humanities! Okay that part was a lie. I actually asked if I could switch to Business Management with an emphasis in Finance. I originally was an Accounting major with a cluster in Business Management, but I swapped those two around and now I am a Business Management major and a cluster in Accounting.

I had to jump through six hoops to get my first signature, jump through ten more hoops to get the second signature, just to get the final approval. After a week of waiting and wondering, I found out they let me make the switch. I feel so much better and wondered why it took me this long to make the change. I have really enjoyed my business classes, but dreaded my accounting classes. I realized I didn't want to sit in a cubicle my entire life making sure the debits and credits balanced, or spend tax season after tax season working on others taxes. Instead I would much rather understand finance and investments, to help others make important financial decisions.



Just as a side note, I did get the internship with Lanny Hildebrandt and will get to be in La Grande from January to April. I am excited not to have homework for the next few months and to get out of Rexburg!

Gray Hair and Balding

Despite the fact that I am both going gray and bald, people still think I am younger than I really am. If this continues the rest of my life, then it might work to my advantage. When I am 50-years old people might think that I am actually 40. But the only time I don't like when people can't guess my age is when I need something that you must be 18-years old or older to buy. Now don't jump to conclusions, I wasn't buying cigarettes or alcohol, I was just buying NyQuil because I had a cold for a couple days and wanted help sleeping.

The Wal*Mart worker scanned the NyQuil, paused, looked up and said, "Are you 18 or older?" With a frustrated tone I said, "I am six years over 18!" He then looked back down, paused for another moment then said, "Can I see some ID?"

I couldn't believe it. I know I might not look 24-years old, but I should at least look like I am out of high school! I passed over my ID and waited for him to do the math in his head. He seemed to have some trouble adding up the years but finally he gave the okay and took my cash. I came to Wal*Mart already not in a good mood since I was sick and left in an even worse mood.

But I drank my sorrows away with NyQuil and quickly fell asleep. I do love NyQuil. It is the only thing that can put me to sleep when I am sick.

Oops, that last blog was kind of vague

I should probably apologize. I was pretty vague in my last blog and everyone thought I had a horrible experience or a near break down. Nothing in particular happened that made me post that blog. I am just simply burned out of homework and the culture of Rexburg (I have now lived here for 14 months straight, and have had homework ALL 14 months because I got on Fast Grad, so I go to school year round).

I am just ready for a break in homework, new scenery, no calling, and new people. I hope I get an internship this January, but if not, I will go one more semester, then get off of Fast Grad and take a break in the Summer.

So you don't need to worry about me, I am doing great!

Rexburg....

....I need to get out of here!

250 Can Friend

Last semester I was the Area Director of Service Activities. If students had an idea for a service project, they had to go through my adviser and me in order to get the approval to go ahead with their project. For the most part, if they project followed the University's guidelines, then the project was approved.

Two students came to me and want to do a "Charity Date Auction." Basically students could fill out an application to auction themselves off for a date with the person who bids the most for them. Because of certain policies, we weren't allow to bid on people with money, so we bid with cans. All the cans would then be given to the Rexburg Family Crisis Center.

I convinced my friends to fill out applications, and three of them were chosen. The event was fun. All the "meat" came out on the stage to begin. Then they left and one by one, each person being auctioned off would come on stage. Music would play and a clip from their video interview would be in the background. Then the bids would start. All three of my friends went for over 200 cans. Another friend and I were in the audience and we bid against each other for one of our friends on the stage. We won the date with her for 250 cans.

Overall, we raised 5000 plus cans of food and other items for the Family Crisis Center. This was such a success that we want to do it at least once a year.

Here are my three friends who were auctioned off:


Here is my friend that we bid on, and the cans/items she is worth:


I guess this is the modern day Johny Lingo.

The Garden of Eden: Clothes Are Optional

I decided since this would be the first Summer that I didn't live at home (excluding my mission years) I would plant a garden at my apartment complex. I asked permission to plant in this square box in front of my old apartment. I knew I would most likely get permission since every Summer the box is usually full of weeds.

One Saturday I bought tomato plants and seeds for green beans and peas. I went out to the garden and began to weed and water. Eventually, others in the apartment complex were curious what I was doing and they joined me. Here they are:


It was a good thing I just pulled weeds and tilled the dirt that week without planting because the next week Rexburg looked like this:


But that was the last snow of the year, so I began to plant:


Finally a few weeks later the peas began to sprout:


And as of a week ago, this is what my garden looks like:


I really should have taken another picture because the garden is about twice as big as this picture shows. The peas now have pods (and almost ready to harvest) and one of my three tomato plants has an almost red tomato (with about 18 green tomatoes). I am still waiting for green beans to show.

I wanted to put a sign in my garden that says:

The Garden of Eden
Clothes are Optional

But my manager said it probably wouldn't be approved by the University. Oh, well. I am just excited in a few weeks when I can harvest my little garden.

My Brother's Keeper

This semester I have been serving as the EQ President. I wouldn't be surprised if I got a new calling next semester, because I have never held a calling more that one semester.

My counselors and secretary are great guys and have strong testimonies (and they are much more serious than I am. I think they balance out my sarcastic personality). When it comes to having a testimony, keeping the commandments, and living the university's honor code, they are on the ball. But when it comes to filling their assignments, I have about as much luck as a coin toss if they will actually do it. Also, when it comes to punctuality...well, let's just say they don't have much.
Each week I would stop by their apartments a few minutes before our meeting to round them up for the meeting we have each Sunday morning at 9 am with our High Counselor. It seems they were always in the shower, or eating, or sleeping. So I began to come 10 minutes before the meeting would start. That didn't seem to work, so I tried 15 minutes. When that didn't work, I decided I would walk to my meeting alone and let them come when they do.

The next week I stopped by their apartments and only one my first counselor was ready. My second counselor was still in the shower and my secretary was no where to be found. Like I had planned, we I didn't wait for the others, but instead went to our meeting. My first counselor and I arrived on time at the meeting. Upon arriving my High Counselor said, "Where is your second counselor and secretary?" I responded and said, "My first counselor is on his way and I have no clue where my secretary is. We can just get started." Then my High Counselor said, "That sounds like somebody I know. That sounds like Cain. Are you your brother's keeper."

I wanted to respond, "Hell no, not this week. If you want to be the keeper of my presidency and knock on their doors every Sunday morning and drag them to this meeting, go right ahead." But of course I usually never speak my mind. I have found that usually gets me in trouble.
Despite the tardiness of my presidency and sometimes the lack of completing assignments, they are great guys. I do consider all of them friends. Even though they can be late and forget assignments, they have made great contributions to the Elders Quorum.

Pregnant Marathon

Here at BYU-Idaho the campus is very "family friendly." Great efforts are made to encourage everyone to get married, then multiply and replenish the earth. To encourage these commandments, BYU-Idaho offers many "married student" activities from married camping to children carnivals, and pregnant aerobics to pregnant marathons.

Even though Audra is not a BYU-Idaho student anymore, she recently reaped the benefit of this "family friendly" campus events.

In connection with the City of Rexburg, BYU-Idaho put on the Teton Dam Marathon. Audra got to participate in the event:


This video is dedicated to Audra (despite her threats if I made it public):

Maybe next year we can all run in the marathon.

I have a Famous Twin

We had a ward talent show tonight for our closing social. It was a lot of fun. Our FHE sisters totally surprised us. A few days before they came over and said they were going to pretend to be a boy band and dance to Backstreet Boys. So they wanted to dress like boys. They came over and borrow our clothes to use for the act.

What I didn't realize was what they were going to do with our clothes (and identities):

They borrowed our clothes because they wanted to impersonate all of my roommates and me. They also printed out a picture of our faces and used them as masks. It was way hilarious.

Here is my twin. Her name is Katelyn:

Do you notice that two of the girls are wearing white shirts and ties? Like I said before, the girls dressed up to match our personalities. The two dressed up girls represented the two in my apartment that are kind of the Peter Priesthood types who think having fun and laughing is a sin. I contributed a T-shirt, two shorts, three pair of shoes, white shirt, dress pants, and a tie.

Bravo to our FHE sisters. They are great.

There's Something Wrong

For my statistics class I have to do a little research about crocodiles and present it in a powerpoint presentation. I came across this picture on the internet:


I don't think I would want to visit that zoo.

The Herald Sun

While I was serving in Durham, N.C. we had a photographer from the Herald Sun follow us around for several months observing different aspects of our work (morning study, knocking doors, eating with members, weekly planning, etc.).

His name is Mark Dolejs. He recorded an interview and made a little movie that was posted on the website for the Herald Sun. Mark told me to speak slowly because if I spoke too fast it would be difficult for viewers to understand me. So I spoke way too slow and sound like I am mentally slow.

It was a good experience to have him follow us around. He said his favorite moment with us was when we went to Duke University and looked at a copy of the original Book of Mormon. He said he had fun watching how excited we were looking up our favorite scriptures in the nearly 200 year-old book.

Misfits Island

Correct me if I am wrong, but I heard that Australia was populated a long time ago with criminals from England and other places. The punishment for the criminals was being exiled to Australia.

I think there should be another island for misfits like my mom and me (and others who have the label of misfits). My mom and I will be co-presidents. The only rule would be that anything goes unless it harms others. Taxes will be low, I promise.

The reason I have decided to move to Misfits Island is because I am "The Heathen" in my apartment. In the beginning of the semester we had an apartment council to create "The Constitution" in our apartment which includes rules about dishes, conflicts, and when we have prayers in the morning and scripture study at night. I told my roommates that I wasn't going to wake up for prayers in the morning and if I happened to be there for scripture study, that's great, but if not, not to wait for me.

We had another follow-up apartment council to discuss how well we were doing at living "The Constitution" and bring up other issues (does any other 20-something year-old roommates have apartment councils, or are we the only weird and crazy ones?). At the end of our apartment council one of my roommates brought to our attention that we would" feel the spirit more if we didn't use sarcasm." Instead of saying something sarcastic, he encouraged us to think of something sincere to say.

I, being the most sarcastic in the apartment, was thrilled for this new amendment to the constitution. It made me feel warm and fuzzy inside to know that I was the reason that my roommate couldn't feel the spirit in our apartment because of my sarcastic sense of humor and personality.

You know that saying, "If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all?" For me the saying goes, "If you don't have anything that isn't sarcastic to say, don't say anything at all. So I have been pretty quiet recently in my apartment. All my thoughts are sarcastic.

Even though some of my roommates are stuffed-shirts with Peter Priesthood personalities, they have good intentions. I know if I ever need anything they would be there to help me (in a very sincere, non-sarcastic way).

So if you are a "misfit" and want to join my mom and me on Misfits Island, we are taking applications. Just mail you application to:

Misfits Island Co.
Attn: Hell Raisers
666 Slippery Paths
Inferno, HL 12345

Family Dinners

I have many memories of the "Family Dinner." It was at the family dinner I learned about all of mom's surgeries and pregnancies. It was at the family dinner I learned which cow's gave birth recently. It was at the family dinner I learned about politics. It was at the family dinner I learned...and the list goes on.


This semester my roommates and I decided to have "Family Dinner." So far I haven't learned anything quite as exciting as mom's surgeries or pregnancies, or the birth of calfs, but it is interesting to get to know my roommates a little better. Each roommate is assigned a particular night, and he is then responsible for food to be on the table by 5 pm. And if you can't make it at 5 pm, then a plate is saved for you. So far this dinner thing has gone well. The standard was set high the first week with dinners such as chicken parmesan, homemade chicken noodle, shish kabobs, lazangna, and I made chicken fajitas.

I am assigned to Thursday and I decided to make chicken curry today, with kalrose rice, and a salad. The recipe was simple. I placed the chicken in the crock pot, then put the chopped sweet potatoes and onion on top, and poured the sauce which included orange juice, curry, salt, pepper, garlic, and chicken bouillon granules.

I dedicate this picture to mom:


The salad is underneath the tomatoes, cucumber and carrots. My senior year in high school I had to bake cookies for a bake sale for FBLA. I was very confused why I my mom was making me wrap the ginger bread men into cellophane bags and then tie them off with fancy ribbon. My thought was the first thing this person will do is rip the bag open and eat the cookie without recognizing the effort that went into the cookie. But my mom was insistant that it's not just about the taste. It's also about the presentation. The salad was my presentation.

First you put rice on your plate:

Then you put the curry chicken on top of the rice:


Finally you sprinkle the green onion and chopped peanuts on top of the curry chicken and rice:

We had store bought roles. I know, not very original:


For the most part I felt it was a success. I accidentally put too much salt in the sauce, so I had to add more orange juice. While family dinners in college aren't quite as exciting or revealing as family dinners at home, I am grateful to have a warm meal everyday at 5.

Bon Appetit!

Winter Wonder Land

It seems funny to me that the Christmas my siblings decide to stay home is the Christmas that La Grande looked like this:


On Christmas Eve my mom and I even sun bathed in the backyard and got a pretty good tan (and no tan lines might I add).

But last year was quite the opposite. When I arrived home from serving in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission in December 2008, this is what I came home to:

We couldn't get into the front of the house because the drift was about seven feet tall at the peak and extended from the front door to the gravel parking spot. We had to make a path through the back yard and to the garage in order to get into the house.

On Saturday--the day of the Waite Family Christmas Party and the day before my homecoming talk--we had a blizzard and weren't able to get out by driving on our gravel lane. So we had to pack up, bundle up, cut through our neighbor's fences, and drive with 4-wheel drive vehicles through hay fields in order to get out. That night we stayed at my grandma's house.

We had to leave Tony and Heather's car behind:


The next day I gave my talk and had the party. Eventually my dad cleared out the lane and Sunday evening we moved back in. Shortly after arriving back home, luck would have it, our power went out. But mom was a prepared boy scout and had her head lamp:


So if you wonder what kind of weather we will have next Christmas, just give Heather a call and ask if they're coming home. If they are, it will probably be a bad winter with many blizzards. We don't read the Farmers Almanac, we just check Heather's plans.