A Pack...or Start of One Anyway...

Recent events in my life have had me wondering what exactly constitutes a pack, as it relates to a 'family' or pack of wolves. Is a paring of wolves a pack or does it require more than just two wolves to be a pack and for humor sake is it possible, should a paring constitute a pack , that it be a paring between a wolf and monkey (very few people will get that reference but I'll explain it later).

In Sunday school I heard the following quote which cracked me up and I share it now with you all because of the source I'm about to quote: "I found the following on Wikipedia, the source of all misinformation." With that out of the way I will now share with you the information which I found to title this story.

Normally, the pack consists of a male, a female, and their offspring, essentially making the pack a nuclear family. The size of the pack may change over time and is controlled by several factors, including habitat, personalities of individual wolves within a pack, and food supply. Packs can contain between 2 and 20 wolves, though 8 is a more typical size.

If you recall in my previous post Out of Hibernation (I know, Wolves don't hibernate) I mentioned a girl I was dating named Nicole Holbrook (who has made fun of me for calling her Nicole since she usually goes by Niki). I did not previously elude to the seriousness of our relationship but wish to do so now. If you will recall I mentioned that I thought things were going just about as amazing as they could be. What I didn't tell you is that from the first moment I knew there was something special about Nicole, and discovered within the first week of dating that I felt she was the one to spend the rest of forever with.

Don't worry I didn't propose right then and there, if I had been engaged in my last post I'm certain I would have mentioned it. But I did start planning a few things like, I started looking at rings and more closely examining my finances and such. About four weeks ago I called Nicole's father and set up a time where he, her mother, and I could talk alone. Obviously I asked for their permission to marry Nicole, which can I say was the most nervous I had ever been to that point. To my relief (not really cause I already knew the answer) they granted their permission and I was able to start the rest of my plans.

I went to a custom jeweler who is family friends with the Holbrook's, Jonathan's Jewelry, and discussed with Jon the design I had in mind and he presented some other alterations which were agreed upon. About a week later I picked up the completed ring and was shocked at how beautiful it was (I knew it would be but to be honest it literally took my breath away). The plan was to get into Nicole's car the day I was going to propose and leave several flowers inside each with a reason I loved her or other inside joke tied around the stem. So I contacted Becca Holbrook, Nicole's sister-in-law, who is a florist on the side and made an order of two dozen Gerber Daises (Nicole's favorite) and two dozen red roses.

November 19th (I had that date in mind for several weeks prior, no there really isn't anything spectacular about that date until now) finally rolled around and the flowers were there, I picked up all of the daises and seven of the roses, returned to my residence where I began to prep for the delivery of the flowers. My dear friend Preacher arrived to assist me and soon we were off for Nicole's work. I had informed her brother, who also works with Nicole, what we would be doing that afternoon and requested his help in keeping Nicole from noticing we were outside in her car. Mission Complete: after fleeing the scene and giving Jeff the all clear Nicole finally (90 min later) left work and discovered the flowers in her car. Strategically I had placed a note on one of the flowers that said, "Happy 3 Months (9 days early)" which I hoped would throw her off of what was going to happen later that evening...It Worked!

At 8:00pm that evening an event hosted by my chapter of SGC known as Iota Idol commenced. Iota Idol is a pageant like competition where the ladies of LDS compete to be the Iota Idol for the year. The events included an American Gladiator: Assault style blue ball war, a Q&A session, a Charades session, and finally a grilled cheese cook off. To my enjoyment Nicole had expressed a desire to compete in this years Iota Idol. Taking advantage of the Q&A session I quickly notified the few members of my fraternity what I had planned to do. The following took place.

Despite the fact that Nicole was competitor number 2 she was called up last, out of order, for the Q&A session. As she approached the MC for her question two of my frat brothers appeared from either side and handed her half a dozen roses. The MC then informed her that her questions would be delivered by a special guest. As I approached from the side and was handed the microphone my knees were shaking as though we were in an earth quake. I thanked the MC and then told Nicole how much I love her, reaching in my suit coat pocket I took a knee, produced the ring and some how managed to ask Nicole if she would marry me. She took the mic from me and said... "YES!" (I had you worried for a minute huh?). I stood while being smothered in kisses and somehow was able to place the ring on her finger.

Everyone there was going nuts. We were finally able to escape and decided to return to her house to share the news. We arrived at her house and shared the excitement with her family. After a few moments I suggested she go look in her room where she found the other seventeen roses in a bouquet on her bed.

We have not yet determined a date but you know I'll let you know when that happens. For now I sign off no longer a lone wolf. Till the next howling...

Out of Hibernation (I know, Wolves don't hibernate)

Well I thought maybe it was about time that I post something new since my last post was clear back on February 15th. What has happened since then...well normally my answer is not much is new but seeing as we have to cover a whole eight months there is some new stuff I should write, so here it goes!

Sometime back in April or May, I cant remember which and I don't have my letter readily available to verify, I received the blessing of full fellowship again which was followed promptly a calling I had come to expect. I met with Dash (the 09-10 IOTA president) and our advisor Bob Fotheringham and was asked to serve as the VP of Brotherhood which I naturally accepted since I love IOTA so much!

Serving as VP of Brotherhood has been quite an adventure and I've gained so much respect for all of the work that the past presidencies have put into the program. I never could have imagined all the stress, long presidency meetings, planning meetings, general work and preparation that goes into running a successful fraternity. For those of you who don't know, I'm in the IOTA chapter of Sigma Gamma Chi at the University of Utah (it's the LDS fraternity) and I credit them a great deal for my returning to church membership.

Amongst the planning and work for IOTA we did manage to have a few parties this summer, We threw a 4th of July party which actually occurred on the 3rd. One of the stipulations we received for where the party was hosted was that the police had to get called on us. Well I was all set for that and even expected that to happen but it didn't (I blame that on the fact that our VP of Activities turned down the music). As punishment for this (since we were using his house) his parents informed him that we had to have another party there, some punishment right? So later in July (I don't remember exactly when) we decided to throw a massive birthday party for something like seven Iotians. At this party we had a great turnout and some great burgers (Thanks Dallas!), some unplanned illegal fireworks (Thanks random backyard neighbor), and in the spirit of making up for no police appearance at the previous party we managed to have them show up TWICE, with in about fifteen minutes of each other.

Sometime in there I managed to begin dating again, nothing serious just a few casual dates here and there. Which brings me to the story of a couple dates to the Sun & Moon Cafe up emigration canyon. So my date had informed me that she enjoys trying new places and since neither of us had ever been to the Sun & Moon Cafe we decided to give it a shot. It happened to be a Tuesday night as I recall and there was a group of local musicians playing at the restaurant so despite the fact that we had finished dinner we stayed and enjoyed the music. We stayed so late in fact that it was about 10:00 or maybe even 10:30 before we left, and we left when they stopped playing (One should note that the Sun & Moon Cafe closes at 9:00 on week nights). As they were cleaning up one of the musicians stepped up to the now dead mic and started into the "Woman, Woe-Man, Whoa-Man" poem from So I Married an Axe Murderer however he couldn't finish it. But being the crazy movie lover that I am I could and did finish it, softly and somewhat under my breath...or so I thought. Several of the artists heard me but graciously waited for me to finish before reacting. Their reaction was... I don't really know how to explain it, I'll guess I should start by saying that they had been drinking all night and were slightly inebriated but in short they absolutely loved it, and told me that I "Had to come back the next time they performed and close them out with that". Well I agreed and they looked at the books and let me know what day they would be returning. My date informed me that she was accompanying me on that night as well (like I didn't have a choice, but that was fine cause I really didn't mind). So the night of their and my return came and my date and I were there but they didn't remember ma right off, so my date took the liberty of speaking with one of our favorites of the group and all she got out was Woman, Woe-man, Whoa-man and this musician instant remembered, looked up at me and gave me the thumbs up. About a set later I got my 30 seconds on stage and got tons of laughs cause no one else knew what was going to happen. It was great times, wish I had had more supporters...*cough* Red Baron!

Alright, to continue through our timeline, back to some parties. Through some of the summer events that IOTA had I met and dare say became friends with Bryce (the Delta Chapter president) who later invited tons of people to his parents house for a pool party. At this party I was asked to bring Rock Band as he couldn't find his sister's copy. So after a bit of socializing out by the pool myself and a few fellow Iotians decided it was getting a little crowded and headed inside to get Rock Band set up and play a bit. We quickly were joined by several other people and we began switching out who was playing what. As we finished one set I stepped off the guitar and scanned the room seeing who all was there and one person stood out, to the fact that I cannot tell you anyone else who was in the room at that moment just her, Nicole Holbrook.

I left the room, went and found some other friends of mine who were just sitting on the couch socializing. I sat down and began talking with them, but I must admit I wasn't very attentive and I couldn't stop wondering about Nicole. Knowing that she was friends with Boris (IOTA VP of Activities) I whipped out my phone and inquired her story of him. He asked me what I meant, and I was a little shocked. When someone asks what a member of the opposite sex's story is that generally means they're interested and want to know if they are single, taken, or should just stay away. After explaining this to Boris he in turn tells Nicole that he knows someone who is interested in her and she gives her consent for him to give them (me) her number. To shorten the story I'll provide the condensed version of this part. After that night when I was not able to secure her number myself I received it for Boris and about a week and a half later finally used it (Give me a break it was rush week and we were all crazy busy).

After using her number we began texting on a regular basis, she invited me to come visit her at work that Friday which I did and we spent the rest of the day together. The next day, Saturday, was our first official date.

We were enjoying a few episodes of Supernatural when she got a text from a friend in Omega (Chapter of Lambda Delta Sigma, LDS sorority) asking if she wanted to see Post Grad. We agreed that we would see it with them and decided to get some food first. Nicole discovered that I had never been to Luna Berry so that's where we went. We returned briefly to the "Iota House" where she paused on the step, turned to hug me, and then planted a kiss firmly on my lips which I promptly returned. From that moment we've been in a relationship and this have progressed.

So for a quick recap and over all update, I am currently serving as VP of Brotherhood in the IOTA chapter of SGC, I've been dating Nicole Holbrook for two and a half months and things are just amazing!

Anyway, I've rambled on for long enough. I'll repost just the story of how Nicole and I got together later and some more things as they unfold.