stop this train, i want to get off and go home again.

Things are going so fast! This is good and bad...it is awesome that Thanksgiving and Christmas are close, but this just means I have so much work to do before then. Ahh!

So funny update...this weekend we had our Best Buddies Halloween Party--always a big hit--and it was seriously the best turnout. The buddies looked so good in their costumes. We even had a girl dress up as Sarah Palin and during the scary monster sound contest, she said,"Vote for Sarah Palin!" Kills me. Anyway, the party was a blast and, in true Best Buddies fashion, we had to have a dance. Let me tell you...these people can dance! They put me to shame. We have 4 married buddies (2 couples) and then lots of other relationships. One buddy, Amy, is such a handful. She has down syndrome, but she is VERY high functioning...has a job, emails, does her own thing. Still, her social skills and such are not like most. She was engaged last year to another buddy, but that went south and she now has a new boyfriend. He is too much. Daniel is also a buddy, but I sense that he is much less innocent and naive than the other buddies. I'm onto him. It seems like he would just be the awkward guy at the office. Maybe somewhere pretty mild on the autism spectrum such as asperger syndrome. *Sidenote: Rachel (Zach's sister) and Candice (her cousin) are their buddies. They are good with them.* Anyway, they were dancing and getting a little too close for comfort so I just mentioned that we want to keep it clean. Daniel says, "But I have raging hormones!" I just walked away and took care of some other stuff. I walked by them again and jokingly said, "Remember the Book of Mormon rule from church dances?" Amy looked at me with a very upset face and said, "You are making me uncomfortable." More like she was making me uncomfortable. I went and talked to some other officers to get input and one said she could try and say something because she did it all the time as an EFY counselor. She got busy and when I walked back toward the dancing, Amy and Daniel stopped me and informed me that they weren't going to do any bad dancing or "petting". I don't know how I kept a straight face as I walked away.

Another funny story...my roommate's buddy lost her camera at the activity (we think she left it at home because we never saw her with it). She called my roommate who then called me to check if we had picked it up during cleanup, but we hadn't seen it. Anyway, my roommate got a few calls early Sunday about it and the last she heard Mary Ann was going to call BYU Lost and Found. Done deal, right? Never in Best Buddies. I check the email on Tuesday night and we have a message from BYU Broadcasting:
_______________________________________________

Dear Stacie Nichols,
We received some voicemails here at BYU Broadcasting from one of the BestBuddies participants who lost her camera at a recent event. Her info is below. Could you please respond to her?

Thanks,Karen Knorr

BYU Broadcasting

A young woman named Mary Ann left 2 voicemails.
She lost her camera (black with pink stripe and blue stars). Have you found it?She tried calling the Lost and Found but "they're not answering."
***-**35 or ***-**34 (she left a different number each time she called).

_________________________________________________

Why is BYU Broadcasting involved? That would definitely be the next place I called... Again, I thought that was the end of it. Who am I kidding?

Wednesday I get a call from the Best Buddies College Buddy Director from the U (my equivalent up there) who tells me that he had a message about a buddy who lost their camera. I was dying laughing. You can't be serious. He was.

I get off the phone and check my personal email and I have an email from the Best Buddies Utah State Director, Justin Haskell.

__________________________________________________

Stacie,

I think the voicemail attached is from one of your participants. Let me know if you have any questions.

In Friendship,
Justin W. Haskell

___________________________________________________

He actually attached the voicemail. Too good. It was 1:45.

Best Buddies can be so overwhelming sometimes (all the time), but I can tell you that it is giving me better abs because I laugh so much. We all need to take the advice of Elder Wirthlin: "The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable."

Last thing...I'm pretty sure that no one reads this...if so it is just my family...but I would ask that if you work in the schools, please see if you can get the Best Buddies program there. If you don't, go to bestbuddies.org and see how you can get involved. Donate, go to events, or BE A BUDDY! There is a Buddy Citizens program for adults and there is also an e-Buddies program so you can live anywhere and be involved! I don't think I have to tell you that I love working with people with disabilities, but I want you to love it too. Everyone deserves a friend and if we could all just reach out a little further then that might happen.