San Fran Thank you Ma'am

Last week DJ had to go to the Bay Area for a business trip and his boss said I could go with him! I had to go out one day later because I needed to finish finals first but we were there from Wednesday - Saturday and it was so much fun!

Thursday morning I just relaxed at the hotel in San Jose while DJ was at his meetings, then in the afternoon we went and toured Stanford.

After we toured Stanford we went and stayed in downtown San Francisco. It was crowded and hilly but super fun! Friday we spent some time at Pier 39 and driving around San Fran. There were some awesome street performers that were really talented but also hilarious!

Friday night we went to an Oakland A's game with our good friends Ben and Karin. It was super fun to see them and of course DJ loved watching baseball live!

I woke up Saturday morning at 4:30 and just could not fall back asleep. It was hot and I was hungry. Naturally, this was frustrating and after an hour I started to get grumpy. So I woke DJ up and he waited up with me until the 6 am continental breakfast bar opened and we could get some {free} food for my grumbling tummy. And he was super cheerful about it! Reason #13247363279 I love my husband :) After breakfast we got back in bed for a few more hours :)
That afternoon we went to the Oakland temple to do a session before we had to go to the airport. The weather was beautiful and the grounds of the temple were gorgeous!!

View from the temple

All in all it was a great trip! Thanks for the fun Cali!

Behind

In the next few days I'll {hopefully} be updating our blog with our life events from the past month and a half. The semester got crazy busy and hard for me and DJ started studying for the LSAT so our blog has sat very neglected. Assuming I can figure out how to backdate the posts, they should show up behind this one with the date that they should have been posted :) Happy Spring!

Dry-Mouthed Stake Conference: I Will Survive

I like to drink. A lot. And no, not that kind of drinking. I'm just talking about liquids in general - chilled beverages, sports drinks, water, the occasional juice, and even sometimes a can of soda here and there. I've gone back and forth as to what my favorite drink may be, but Pink Powerade (officially "Strawberry Lemonade") has always battled for the much sought after top spot. Although, such a comment is not really relevant for a story like this. You see, Powerade in any flavor would have been quite the luxury at a time like this. We weren't seeking after anything flavorful. We didn't even desire a significant amount. We just wanted a little bit of satisfying, ever-quenching water to assuage our parchedness.

Our request was simple, humble, and innocent at best. We were being good Latter-day Saints in attending the Saturday night adult session of Stake Conference. Sitting through two hours of teachings was not too much to ask, and we felt grateful for the opportunity to attend. But while we acknowledged that we were gaining much more than we were "giving," we still had one more thing we wanted: water. Just a sip or two. Even if it was lukewarm, we just wanted some water.

Halfway through the session, Laurel and I both found ourselves to be incredibly thirsty. We had obviously not prepared well in drinking up prior to the start of the meeting. Laurel made it known to me that at the intermediate hymn, she was going to go get a drink of water. I had mixed feelings about us both leaving to go and ultimately decided that it was not a good idea. But I was thirsty. And while I was happy for her up-and-coming relief by way of her water fountain rendezvous, I was also troubled by the thought of having to sit for one more hour in such a thirsty state. So right as Laurel was about to get up and leave, the following conversation ensued:

Me: Hey, make sure you get me a drink of water too please!

Laurel: Haha.

Me: No, I'm serious. Can you please get me a drink of water?

Laurel: Huh - what do you want me to do? Take an extra gulp at the end and keep it my mouth until I get back to my seat?

Me: (trying hard not to laugh out loud) No - I don't think that would work too well. But seriously - there are cups in the kitchen. You know there are. Just fill one up with water. We can wash it after the meeting.

Laurel: What - I'm not going to do that. If you want some water, just go get some yourself.

Me: Laurel - I can't, you know I can't (from The Office). Please . . . for me . . . as an expression of your love.

She rolled her eyes as she turned her head, and then she was gone. I knew it was a futile and silly attempt. But I had to try.

Moments later, the entire congregation is still standing as we enter the last verse of the intermediate hymn. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Laurel emerge from the cultural hall door. She has the biggest smile on her face. A quick glance about two feet down from her smile reveals the reason why - she is ever-so-slyly holding a small cup full of water. Instantly, I find myself smiling an equally large smile. As she comes and stands next to me, I do my best to restrain my laughter.

One heartfelt expression of gratitude and one big gulp of water later, I sit down satisfied as we finish singing the hymn.

Against all odds, she pulled through in the clutch. And if there weren't already so many examples providing support, this singular event clearly sets the record straight - my wife is awesome.

This is what night time looks like at our house.

Sweet dreams!!!!!

The Intramural Debut

What do Kelly Clarkson and BYU intramurals have to do with each other? I'll give you a hint: this song is called "What Doesn't Kill You Makes you Stronger" (or something equally similar). 

(Imagine this post has background music, and this is it!)

Background history:

Back at the beginning of the semester when hubs and friends were setting up their inner tube water polo team they pressured me into letting them add me on the roster so that in case they needed an extra so they wouldn't forfeit, I could at least check in (but not play). Plus, then when they won the championship I could get a t-shirt.

Fast forward to today.

I was sitting in my finance class when out of the corner of my eye I saw my phone light up alerting me to the fact I had a bunch of texts from Tara and Michael (coordinators of the innertube team) begging me to play. Michael needed my net id before 3 pm and it was already 2:57 so I caved and said yes! After all, I couldn't let them forfeit...

So it was Laurel to the rescue, albeit begrudgingly.

For the next 3.5 hours I had the glorious pleasure of analyzing and overanalyzing just what I'd gotten myself into. I'm thinking to myself, "Are you kidding me? The last organized team sport you played was in high school gym class. And that could be your most hell on earth experience to date!" Needless to say, sports aren't really my thing. 

Anyway, game time comes and I got put on defense (good call, btw). For the first half of the game I couldn't stay in my tube for the life of me and had more face plants in the water than I care to admit. It was so frustrating! By halftime I had this crazed determination to do whatever it took to stay in the tube! I don't know how, but I didn't fall out the second half at all! AND! I blocked a few shots and was able to beat the other team in the scramble to get the ball first a few times. Needless to say, all parties involved were pleasantly surprised.

Despite the fact that we lost and the team we played was rude (and that's putting it gently) I still had a fun time and a great experience!

So in sum--I guess I could say I got the MSIP award (Most Surprisingly Improved Player). BUT. Don't count on me for the playoffs--too much pressure!

Hip-Hop In The Shower

Last night when I was in the shower, I started humming. Nothing new for me, and nothing out of the ordinary for many people. Slowly, mumbled words accompanied the humming. This didn’t last too long before I was in full-fledged singing mode.

Except, the thing is, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill singing in the shower that so many of us enjoy on a regular basis. No, no, no my friend. This was straight up rap.

Was I rapping a song from the radio? No – this was original stuff being created by yours truly. Naturally, my song was about Laurel and how because she doesn’t drool when she sleeps, her pillow is dry when she wakes up. The chorus went like this:

There ain’t no drool from my La-la-la-rule

She wake up in the moanin’ her pillow is dry

There ain’t no drool from my La-la-la-rule

The way she sleep, it is so fly

I was still rapping a little bit this morning as we both got ready for the day. After Laurel left for school, I thought to myself, I wonder if she knew what she was getting into when she married me . . .

I think she did, but somehow, stuff like this never really came up when we were dating. Oh well - extra perk for her I guess!

This Really Happened (?)

Yesterday I was texting back and forth with my mom about some of her birthday gift ideas for my dad. At the close of our texting conversation, she sent me this:

Btw, dad and I are both puzzled by your text to him the other day about a job at “Jimmy Hohn’s” – joke? Care to explain? Is your job at Adobe still ok?

My first thought? Who is Jimmy Hohn?

My second thought? I wonder if I would like working there . . . sounds like a Chinese company!

My third thought led me to actually calling my mom.

Apparently my dad had shown her this text last week. And it was from me. Apparently. We figured out that Jimmy Hohn’s must have been in reference to Jimmy John’s, which is the rather delicious sandwich shop that supplied my baseball team meals on game days in high school. In talking with my mom, I suggested that the combination of surgery, pain meds, and a week-long stint in the ICU was reasonable cause for doubt in regards to my dad’s claim about this text sent from me. And if that wasn’t enough reason to be suspicious, the fact that I checked my phone and saw that I hadn’t texted my dad for two weeks was justification enough! Needless to say, I was pretty skeptical about this “Jimmy Hohn” text.

Well, fast-forward to today. I get another text from my mom:

Weird. Checked dad’s phone again last night. Text definitely Says from you, so tonight I will see if he maybe fiddled around with his contact list.

With this, my mind goes off.

How did this happen? How did he get a text that I never sent? What other texts have people received from me that I never sent? What texts have I received from people that they’ve never sent? Maybe he has my old # from high school still in his phone? But then, whoever has that # now, why are they texting my dad? Has my dad been texting with this person all along thinking that it was me? Is it possible that my dad knows two separate people named DJ Dorff? Does my dad have another son? Why do we both have the same name? I wonder if he spells it differently . . . no – it would have to be the same, or else my dad would know the text was from him and not me.

And then I realized that I was entertaining way too much ridiculousness for it being a Wednesday, so I got up, went to the break room, and got some OJ. My thoughts were much more reasonable upon my return.

Still, I have to wonder, How did my dad get a text from me that I never sent?

Kind of makes you wonder.