So this weekend my MCOM professor (the strikingly handsome, "Provo 100" falconer himself, Shayne Clarke) challenged us to find someone who was having a hard or stressed out time and do something nice for them. This may be an "easy way out" unfortunately but the person that I chose to do something nice for was my fiancee Alyssa.

Alyssa Carroll and I are getting married in 19 days and I love her so so much. We are getting married in the Newport Beach temple and I can't believe how lucky I am to be marrying such an incredible girl. Unfortunately the stress of wedding planning has been overwhelming her, in addition to her full-time job as a Registered Nurse at the Utah Valley Intermountain Health Care hospital. Her job is requiring her to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year before going to her family in California and having one week to prepare for the wedding at home. I am leaving Provo on December 20, so she will be alone for 6 days before being able to fly home on December 26.

The combination of not being home for Christmas, wedding planning stress, and nursing stress has really added up for Alyssa these past few weeks. One thing that she had said she wanted for Christmas more than anything else was to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir special Christmas concert, which ran from December 12-14. Unfortunately I was not able to get tickets in the lottery for the concert, so I had to settle with trying to get lucky the day of. She was working her usual 6 AM-6 PM shift yesterday (December 14) when I took off to Salt Lake City on the Frontrunner train mid-afternoon. I talked to people on the train and got lucky enough to receive one ticket from someone that had an extra. Once I got to Salt Lake I waited for four hours in the "stand-by" line to receive a stand-by ticket, and was able to after waiting because I had gotten there so early. Because of my hours of persistence, I was able to get two tickets and surprise Alyssa by calling her and telling her to hit the road for Salt Lake because we had a concert to attend. It was a magical evening. I was so happy and grateful that everything worked out and I know that it meant a lot to her as well.

In addition to doing something nice for Alyssa though, I would like to find someone to serve this holiday season. The other day someone in front of me in the drive-through line at Taco Bell paid for my taco, which was awesome. Maybe they were doing it for this class, who knows. I'd like to do some random acts of kindness like that though to help people out this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

19 days until the wedding!! :)