Thursday, July 29, 2010

Waterloo

June 18, 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte defeated at Waterloo
June 18, 2010 - Schmetterling got married

Whereas I got married on the 195th anniversary of Waterloo, I feel that a little ABBA is in order, don't you?

Thus dies this blog:

Thursday, April 8, 2010

My foray into identity theft

A few weeks back, I opened FireFox on a library computer. Inexplicably, FaceBook came up as the homepage, and I found myself logged into somebody else's account. So I changed his status to "occasionally neglects to log out of his account on public computers" and logged him out. I wonder if anything ever came of that.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Why I'm thankful for wisdom teeth...

(...or the long overdue continuation of Faux Fiancee)

I had to get my wisdom teeth extracted this past summer, and I decided to go home to California so my mom could mother me while I convalesced. It's an eight-hour drive for me to get home, and it's pretty much all desert, so there isn't much to keep a guy's mind busy. Also, my car's CD player doesn't work, so all I had was the radio, and, because Michael Jackson had died the night before, every radio station I came across was playing either Thriller or Billie Jean, it seemed. Come on, people--he's the King of Pop and you can only come up with two songs?

Anyway, somewhere in Nevada, I decided I would give Katie a call--just to see how talking on the phone would work for us. (I hate talking on the phone, so I was a little apprehensive that the awesome week we had just shared would get swallowed up in a summer of infrequent and awkward telephone conversations.) I called her up and we talked for, I dunno, maybe half an hour, and the conversation didn't flow throughout that time but rather came in spurts. I crossed the California border and told her I had to go because I was supposed to call my parents and tell them when I made it that far (this was close enough to the truth: they told me to call periodically and report my progress), so the conversation ended and left me feeling far from confident about the coming weeks.

My parents' house is situated such that cell phone reception is totally unreliable most anywhere on their property. Because of this, the next bits of communication between me and Katie came in the form of a couple of voicemail messages that she left on my phone. But I went for a walk each evening while I was home so we could talk in real time, and our conversations' lengths grew exponentially--half an hour, one hour, two hours (does doubling count as exponential? I'm really bad at math...)--and it wasn't long until our conversations were back to being long and easy. After I got my teeth extracted, I didn't go for walks much, but I started calling her using my parents' landline, and life continued charmingly.

One day, my Dad suggested to me that, since Katie and I were in the same state, I may as well swing by and visit her on my way back to Provo. This was a ridiculous suggestion because that involved adding roughly 7 hours of drive time to my journey. Strangely enough, though, Katie made the same suggestion later that day in semi-jest, and I tentatively agreed to it--not jesting at all but a little worried about the cost of gas. Then--a miracle. My sister who lives in Sacramento but was down visiting my parents for Independence Day (ironic, no?) told me that she really didn't wanna ride the train back and asked me if I'd be willing to give her a ride if she paid for my gas. I have no idea whether she was put up to it by our dad or came up with the idea herself or just honestly didn't want to ride the train, but I took this as a godsend and readily agreed. I called Katie and worked out the details, and it was decided that, on the next Tuesday, I would drive my sister up to Sacramento, go to Katie's place to hang out with her and meet her family, stay the night, and leave the next morning--probably as quickly as possible because we were both certain that this was probably going to be the most social encounter imaginable, what with the whole, "Hey, Mom and Dad, this is the guy I proposed to--blindly--after a comedy show--and now he wants to stay the night and--and--he'll leave first thing in the morning, I promise!" Nevertheless, when faced with the chance to embark upon a brave new world of social faux pas, this little butterfly never backs down--never, I say!--so we went ahead with the plan.

And what happened next is almost as unbelievable as the story of how we met. (Is that poor narrative style? I think it probably is, but I can't help myself sometimes: I just love dramatic suspense--or whatever this is....)

I got to Katie's parents' house around 5pm on Tuesday evening. I walked in and introduced myself to everyone, and then, as I had feared, we stood there just staring at each other, suffused is a palpable haze of awkwardness.

Well, now what?

We were all wondering that, I'm sure, but only one person--the hero of this chapter, perhaps--actually had any idea: Katie's seven-year-old sister Christina. She grabbed my hand and said, "Let me give you a tour of the house!" and dashed the ice to pieces as she dragged me up the stairs. After that, I was very much a part of the family, somehow--so much so that I did not, in fact, leave the next morning, or the morning after that, or even the morning after that. I didn't leave until the mid-morning of Saturday, and then I had to honestly tear myself away because I really didn't want to go. It was fantastic.

The 10-hour drive back to Provo was punctuated with calls to and from Katie. Once I called, and for a good, solid minute before she said hello, all I could hear was her and her family laughing hysterically. I had no idea what to make of it. Turns out they were playing a trivia game, and it was Katie's turn, and she didn't know the answer, and she asked if she could have a lifeline and call me; her mom said, "No, you can't call him. But if he calls in the next five seconds, you can ask him for help"--and I did!

And so I went to Provo, feeling wonderful because of the solidity I had given my friendship with Katie, but feeling more than a little sad that it was now time to settle into its summer hiatus--or at least its summer relegation to phone calls and email.

The morning after I got back to Provo, I got up and went to Church and there met up with a friend that I had not seen in more than a month. He asked me how my life had been in the interim, and I gave him a big, "Well let me tell ya!" and caught him up to speed with the inexplicable awesomeness that was my relationship with Katie. He ate it up, grinning from ear to ear (therefore, I suppose, metaphysically chewing with his mouth open), and then he said something truly amazing: "That's awesome! Hey, I'm roadtripping out to Sacramento with some friends in three weeks; if you want to come, we'd love to have you."

As soon as Church was out, I called Katie to tell her the news and to ask for permission to return. Unfortunately, I got her voicemail, but, being totally unable to hold in my joy, I left my news on her phone. Hours of pacing and wringing my hands passed, and then she called with an answer. I excitedly answered the phone and was greeted, not just by Katie, but by her entire family on speakerphone saying, "Kyle! Come back!"

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Faux Fiancee

So. I joined HumorU, and I performed my first show a couple of weekends ago. Video of my set can be found here. After every show, HumorU has a stack of note cards that people can write a review on to let us know what they thought of the show. Saturday night (which is where that video clip comes from), we got a note card that was so crazy, you'll have to see it to believe it. You can see a scanned copy of it here. You'll have to read that if you want any of the rest of this story to make sense.

Okay. So that's the background; here's the story:

I called her up--mostly to see if this was for real. I figured that either she was joking or this was some trick that someone had played on a roommate thinking, "Haha. This'll be funny. Now Katie will get a really awkward phone call!" But I just couldn't pass up an opportunity like this, so I called the number on the card. I got her voicemail, and it said, "This is Katie's phone. Leave a message and I'll call you back," so I thought, "Well, this phone belongs to Katie. May as well leave a message." So I left a message saying something this:

Hello! I got this card recently, and it says it's from you. I don't know if you wrote it. This is Kyle Jepson from HumorU, and I did a show last night and, afterward, someone left me note that said, "[read note]." So I'm calling because I think it's funny. Call me back if you wanna: my phone number is [phone number]. Bye.

That was on a Sunday afternoon. A couple of hours later, she called me back, and I answered, "Well hey there!"

"Hey, is this Kyle?"

"Yes it is."

"Hi. This is Katie."

"Well hello."

"Hi. Um. Yeah. I wrote that note."

"Really?? Wow. I'm--I'm flattered. And I have a lot of respect for you because you are bold."

"Yeah," she conceded, "it's a blessing and a curse."

The conversation quickly dried up into an awkward pause.

"So," I said. "What happens now?"

"I threw myself out there," she said "so now it's your turn!"

"Oh! I! Well! Um...."

So we set up a time to meet up on campus at JambaJuice. We were both taking summer classes, and this happened right at the beginning of the last week before finals, so I knew I was going to be swamped with Latin. (I got an A in that class, but the way. I'm so proud of me right now!) So this was a Sunday and we set a date for a Thursday afternoon--almost two weeks away.

Meanwhile, there's a guy in HumorU named Pete, and his little sister (18-years-old) came to the show and thought I was cute and asked Pete to set us up on a date, so the Saturday after I talked to Katie on the phone, I went on a blind date with Erika. Erika was nice, but she's a freshman at BYU-Idaho, so we really didn't have much in common. We had a nice time together, but I don't have any intention of seeing her again.

This had me feeling a little more worried about meeting up with Katie, but I was resolved to go through with it.

Katie and I were going to go out on Thursday, so I called her Wednesday night to solidify plans, and we decided to meet up at JambaJuice at noon.

I got to JambaJuice about ten minutes early and just sat and waited. When I got there, the place was pretty well empty, but then people started pouring in, and about a million girls walked by me in the next 15 minutes. I was going out of my mind! Every time someone walked by, I'd sit up and smile, but the only person who walked up to me was a guy who thought I was there to sell him a chemistry book.

I learned a lot about myself as I sat there waiting. I have always claimed to be affected very little by physical appearances, but it turns out that this is not true: I am a fairly typical guy. As girls walked by, "Oh, please, no!" and "I'd take that" were constant thoughts, and I felt equally guilty about both. Katie showed up about 5 minutes after noon, and I was so relieved at her appearance that I hopped up and hugged her as soon as she said my name--which really isn't my style. I bought her a drink, and we sat and talked for about four hours.

Four hours!

That was Thursday. Friday, nothing happened. Saturday night, I was hanging out with some friends, and Katie texted me, and we had a texted conversation that lasted a really long time--certainly the longest texted conversation I've ever had (not that I do a whole lot of texting; still, it lasted a couple hours, I think). Sunday, I called her up to say hello (she had taught a mission prep class that day, and I wanted to know how it went), and she invited me over to her place, so I went. While we were there, she got a call from a guy in her ward who was cooking stir fry, so we went over and hung out there for a little while. Then I had to leave for a presidency meeting. We idly talked about meeting up later that evening, but it never happened.

Monday after FHE, I was going to watch the 1960 version of The Time Machine with my roommates. Katie texted me to ask what I was doing, and I invited her to come over to meet my roommates and watch an old movie, so she did. We watched the movie, and then the five of us (me and Katie and my roommates) sat and talked until midnight hit, and then she had to leave because of the university's honor code's curfew, so I walked her home. When we got to her place, we stood outside the door and talked for a while, and then we ended up sitting and talking for a while, and we sat and talked until sunrise, and I finally went home a little after 8am.

We had hung out for 10 solid hours!

I went home and crashed into bed, slept for about three hours, and then got up and went to work. After work, I texted her to ask her if she was home, and she was, so I went over to her place at about 6pm and we hung out for a little while. I had a ward bonfire at 8:30, and she came with me to it. We hung out there until the party wound down and then at my place until midnight hit and then we went back and sat on her porched until 3am!

So, Monday night, we hung out for 10 solid hours; Tuesday night, 8 solid hours. Of the 24 hours that made up Tuesday, I spent 13 hanging out with Katie.

This has never happened to me before, readers. You know me; you've read my blog: I go on one or two dates with a girl, and then something ridiculous happens that makes it fall apart. That's why I have more blogs than girlfriends.

Wednesday is my busy day because I'm a part of two clubs that both meet Wednesday night, but I managed to hang out with her for an hour or two in between work and club meetings.

Thursday was my last day in Provo (I went home to celebrate the 4th of July by getting my wisdom teeth extracted), so I wanted to make it awesome. I went to work that morning and by 3pm I was done with everything I had to do before leaving town, so I texted Katie and we got together a little after 4:00. The on-campus art museum has a really cool exhibit right now of Walter Wick (the guy who writes the I Spy books), so we went to that together. We spent a couple of hours looking at the pictures and searching for the hidden things. It was fantastic. Those couple hours were really a turning point for me. Up to that point, everything had just been happening so fast that my head was spinning and all I could think was, "Is this really happening to me? To me? Kyle Jepson? This is happening to Kyle Jepson, and I'm Kyle Jepson??" But as we wandered around that exhibit, I realized that what was happening, crazy though it may be, was pretty stinking cool. Here, for the first time in my life, was a girl I really liked who wasn't avoiding me and wasn't merely tolerating me but genuinely seemed to enjoy my company, and it happened without any effort on my part. I call it a miracle.

Downside: she's from Sacramento and she was heading home for the rest of the summer on Saturday morning. So we had a rip-whirlin' good week, but now we're separated by hundreds of miles.

GLOOM

So we spent a couple of hours at that exhibit, and then I had to go home teaching and we were separated from about 8:15 till about 9:45, but then we met back up and we went with my roommies to Brick Oven Pizza, after which we dropped my roommates and car off at my apartment, and I walked her home.

As we were walking, I got this a text from one roommate that said something like, "If you don't give her at least a quick kiss on the lips or the cheek you will disappoint her and me."

Thanks, man....

I showed her the text, and we both laughed.

We got to her place and sat and talked till about 2am, at which point she said that I should probably get some sleep before my long drive home. Then we both stared at the ground and pondered our impending separation in silence for a while.

"Well," I said. "Let's start with standing up."

"It's cold," she said, taking off the blanket she was wrapped in.

"That's okay," I said. "I'm going to hug you for a really long time."

"Oh," she said. "That isn't forward at all...."

We hugged. For a really long time. Not a really long time, but it was the longest hug I'd ever given up to that point. After it ended, we just stood and looked at each other and said how sad it was that we were leaving, which launched us back into conversation, and we stood and talked for another 5 or 10 minutes before I said that I should probably go.

More sad staring at the ground.

"Okay," I said. "I wanna hug you again."

And then I actually did hug her for a really long time.

"I'm going to miss these nights," I said as we hugged.

"I'm going to miss you!" she said.

"I'm glad about that," I said. "It wouldn't be fair if I missed you a lot and you didn't miss me at all."

"You were supposed to be a jerk," she said. "It was just supposed to be a funny story that ended with, '...but then he turned out to be a jerk, so I never tried that again. The end.'"

The conversation continued, then fizzled, and then the hug ended, and I started slowly, sadly backing away.

"When are you getting your teeth pulled?" she asked.

"Not till Tuesday," I said.

"See?" she said. "You could stay another day!"

"Yeah," I said. "I know. But--" and then I trailed off. If I had been thinking, I would've said something like, "The more time we spend together, the more I'll miss you when you're gone," but I was too sad to be witty.

The awkward good-bye lasted a few more seconds, and then I walked down the stairs and into the pouring rain. I didn't cry, but I made a point of telling Heavenly Father how unfair this all seemed.

THE END

(Not really: look for a continuation soon)

Thursday, June 25, 2009

My Proudest Moment



I would say, "Is it any wonder the ladies are flocking to me?" except that I spent the majority of this set making fun of dating....

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

I know I'm sexy, but dang!

So, I performed in my first stand-up comedy show this past weekend (video to come soon, with any luck). How well did it go you ask? This well:



Yes, I called her.
No, this is not some prank that was pulled on her.
Yes, we're going on a date.

Exciting stories to follow, no doubt.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

beeBOO BEEP

I really suck at living in the cellular age: I never, ever have my phone on. To keep people from getting angry at me, then, I have resorted to making clever voicemail answerings. Today I made a new one and realized that I should probably preserve these someplace to show off my awesomeness and then complain when people plagiarize. So here you have my collected cell phone voicemail answerings of 2009, starting with my current one, and going back to the one that was on my phone when the year started:

(Piano Man)
Leave a message you're on Kyle's phone
Leave a message for free
And I'll call you back when I am all alone
And need someone to talk to me

(Downtown)
When you try to call Kyle
You are faced with denial
'cuz you just get his
Voicemail
And he doesn't have minutes
So who knows when he'll get it
and respond to this
Voicemail

(Over the Rainbow)
Somewhere in Provo Utah
A man lives
Who's good at checking voicemail--
Sadly this is not his.

(Gilligan's Isle)
Just sit right back and you'll hear a sound
The sound of a little tone
Then you can leave a message which will then be stored
On Kyle Jepson's phone
On Kyle Jepson's phone

(Beverly Hillbillies)
Well, you have reached the voicemail of a man named Kyle
Who likes to make it answer in a musical style
So you can do some singing at the sound of the beep
Because that is your queue from me to leave a short and sweet
[spoken:] Message, that is.

("O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana)
It's Kyle's phone!
Leave a message!
And I will call you someday!

(We wish you a merry christmas)
I wish you would leave a message
I wish you would leave a message
I wish you would leave a message
And I'll call you right back