January 25, 2006

Dear Family and Friends,
Well, yet another week as come and gone and what an interesting one it proved to be. Last Monday there was no school so I was able to finish all my homework, play some ultimate Frisbee and go climbing with a friend from Park City, Amanda Earnshaw. We went climbing at a fairly nice gym here in Provo called 'The Quarry'. We had a good old time. We each climbed about six climbs and then we bouldered for a good little while. It was fun to get on a wall again, and fun to spend some time with Amanda. We got a bit to eat after words at a place called Zuppas. They had some amazing sandwiches and soups. We got caught up on life, and I got to hear about her mission. It was an all around nice day after the first week of school.
Nothing of significance happened Tuesday, but I got two days worth of excitement in on Wednesday. I couldn't resist the opportunity to get involved in some kind of sports activity this semester; I tried to get on an inner tube water polo team, but I have been unsuccessful to this point, so I had to settle with some other wacky sport, WallyBall! WallyBall is a lovely sport. It is played in a racquetball court with a net in the middle. It is played just like volleyball with a few exceptions, the major being you can play off most of the walls (The opponents back wall and ceiling are out). I signed up to play on one of the ward Intramural teams, and showed up faithful Wednesday night for our first game. At that point in time I had never played WallyBall, in fact I hadn't even heard of it until two days earlier when they came around looking for people to play. I was expecting some of the other people there to have some experience, but I soon found out we were all new at it. I was even more surprised to discover the team we would be playing. As I was preparing for the game I ran into yet another friend from Park City, Anne Khuni, and I another girl that looked familiar, I think she was from Park City also. Well, as hard as it is to admit our team got crushed by Anne's Team, but it was fun none-the-less. The game was so quick we had time to play for another half-hour or more before the next game. I think we will be a little better when our next game rolls around.
After that I pulled a quick change in the locker room and headed out to my car and to the next appointment, a Jazz Concert! Yeah, buddy. A few of the professors here at BYU have created their own little group called 'Q'd up'. They held a free concert Wednesday night with two guests that would be playing a concert Thursday night. It was a blind pianist named Valerie Capers and a Bass player, whose name I can't quite remember at the moment. It was an amazing concert, and the best part is that is was free! They had the concert at one the Tahitian Noni buildings by the mouth of the canyon, so it was pretty nice set up. They played a handful of songs they had written, and then brought in Valerie and the bass player and played a few of Valerie's songs. Wow, she could really play the piano well, and the pieces they played were really fun. I wasn't able to stick around after the last song was played because I had to get to work. I finished the night closing at the LRC at midnight.
Friday was a great day. I started it off in the perfect way, at the Temple. It was nice to feel the peace that comes from the spirit. I usually only have one class on Friday and then I'm done for the rest of the day, but being the nice guy that I am I ended up working for someone and staying on campus an extra hour. That night I went to a Piano Concert, or I should say a duet piano recital. It was really cool. My roommate Andy Jensen, who is an organ performance major had two friends who put the recital on. It was a small crowd of about 10 people, but if people knew what they were missing I'm sure more would have shown up. It was incredible to watch these two girls bang out some amazing pieces on the piano. They were so synchronized, it was fun to watch and listen to. After that I headed up to a stake activity. Called Kearl's Carnival (Mr. Kearl, the 'famous' economics teacher here at BYU is my stake president). It was an interesting activity to say the least. There were some carnival type games, and karaoke, and later a dance, but the most interesting part was the "Speed Dating".
Yes, "Speed Dating". This is a ritual in which I can now see why Happy Valley flourishes at match making. I had never heard of such an activity, so let me explain how it all worked out.

1. Before entering a large room with two rows of tables, set up in a dinning room table fashion, you signed up at the front door by writing your name and email address next to a number on a long spread sheet-type list.
2. You then received a sticker with that number on it and wore it on your shirt.
3. Upon entering the room you received a piece of paper which was divided into two columns, "Interested" and "Not Interested".
4. You then proceeded to a seat. The young women sat on one side of a table, and young men on the other.
5. Starting with introductions you then had three minutes to "get to know" the person sitting across from you. If you had trouble thinking of things to talk about the sheet of paper handed to you at the door had some "helpful questions". I never used these questions, but they were there just in case.
6. After three minutes of talking, the young men would rotate to their right. Some where between finishing with the last person and starting with the next you were to write the the other persons number in either the "interested" column or "not interested" column.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 over and over for about 30-40 min.
I confess I participated, I don't know if it was mere amusement, or just the fact that I wanted to be able to say I had actually done something this crazy. After leaving I ran into a young man in my ward that I home teach. I asked him if he had met any nice ladies. His response was perfect. He said with a little nod and a small grin, "yeah, some nice people." Honestly I out of the 7 or 8 ladies I 'got to know' there was 1 I would probably be interested to go on a date with, maybe one other; however, I realize first impressions can be wrong, so I was liberal and wrote a few more numbers on my 'interested' side than that. I guess they were going to enter every ones' 'interested' list into a program and put it through a computer. People who were 'interested' in each other are supposedly going to get an email that says, "so and so is interested in getting to know you better, the same way you were interested in getting to know so-and-so". I haven't gotten an email yet, which brings me to one of two conclusions, (1) They haven't run the numbers yet, or (2) No one was interested. Either one wouldn't surprise me.
Well, that sums things up. I guess the last big news I got this week was my new calling. Or I should say callings. I am the Second Counselor in the Sunday school presidency and "Home Evening"(they don't want us to use Family Home Evening for some reason) coordinator for my apartment. I'm excited about these callings. I had one of those deep down feelings, that we call the spirit, telling me I was going to do something with teaching. It's good to have those experiences to let you know you are still in tune.
I hope you all have a grreat day and week. Sorry once again this went so long, I hope you enjoyed it and sorry this week I have no pictures to send, I'll try and do better next week.
-Ant Quinn

Archieve

So, I thought I would at least put up some of my old Ant-ology updates. I regret saying this, but I think I deleted a bunch of them from my email so I only have a few. If anyone has more forward them to my email so I can have a record.

Thanks, and enjoy.

A humble beginning

I used to send out updates about life to my family. I called it the Antology, because it was like an anthology of my life. I got married and started the quinntessentials for updates for our family that pretty much took over the antology.

I'm thinking about starting the Antology back up again as the last month I have begun posting more frequently to Quinntessentials, but it has been less about our family and more random thoughts and tid-bits I've been having. No promises for now, but I wanted to get the Antology space just in case I do want to start it up again.

If you think I should leave a comment. I'm thinking people don't want to keep up on two blogs, and I don't want to keep three blogs...I have one that I'm trying to brand as more 'professional' that relates to things I'm more interested in career wise.