Summer Trips!

Well this blog post is going to be somewhat long because I have two awesome trips that I need to report on. Let's get started:

Yellowstone:

After a speedy rocovery from the mumps, I called my cousin Trent and told him that I was going to be able to come on the Yellowstone trip that we had been planning after all. Since I already had the end of that week taken off for vacation time, my sick time went right into my vacation time and I packed my bags and took off! We drove up in a few different cars to Rexburg where we spent the first night walking around BYU Idaho and going to see the Wolverine move- bleh. The next morning we picked up the canoes and headed out to Lewis Lake in Yellowstone National park. We camped there for the first night and I caught a massive brown trout which I ate over the fire.

The next morning we loaded up the canoes and set out across Lewis Lake into the inlet river which we were able to row up most of, then forge the rest of the way. I had never rowed so much in my life and my shoulders were definitely feeling it. It was raining and the splashing from the paddles caused a lot of water to come into the canoe. We finally got to our destination, Shoshone lake, and saw a grizzly bear swimming across the lake's outlet and he passed right behind us! We kept trucking along till we got to our campsite. Man I was tired! As we were setting up camp and I was unpacking my camelback, I discovered that the water resistant pouch in my bag was actually filled with water and my ipod was toast. It gave me the most sick feeling in my stomach becaus it was a gift from Salinda and really special to me. Jumping ahead- I ended up getting it fixed when I got home, but let's just say it was a downer on the trip. Trent and I went out on the lake to catch some fish and weren't having much luck at all. Our anchor was going down almost 100 feet and I lost one of my best lures to a bad knot on like my third cast. It wasn't going so well. Some of the other guys however were hitting the jackpot and pulling out one 17 inch lake trout right after another.

The mosquitos were horrible. They were so thick that you would breath them into your throat. You could wave your arm in the air and feel yourself hitting tons of them. We set up a mosquito net tent where we could cook our food and chill while we were on shore. The only thing more annoying than the mosquitos were two of the guys who ended up coming out on the trip with us. They were in their thirties- one was an electrition and the other a used car salesman. They were so crude, vulgar, and offensive in their speach that they really near ruined the trip for me. One of them shot himself in the leg with a pellot gun which was illegal to bring. Idiots.

The next day we rowed down the entire length of the lake and back which took several hours. We went all the way down there to see a back country guyser basin which not many people ever get to see. I really didn't want to go because the shoulder joint in my left arm was still aching from the day before. It ended up not being so bad however because we were able to take our time and stot and fish a little bit on our way. It was cool to see and be able to get so close to the geysers. We saw some wolf tracks on the beach, and that was also pretty cool. That night a storm came up that sent everyone except for me and a few of the other guys into the tent for shelter. I had to stay out and wash dishes left from dinner because it was my turn. At the end of the storm the biggest and brightest rainbow appeared whcih took all of our breaths away. It was crazy. The coolest thing was that after the storm the lake calmed down a lot and we went out and caught the biggest fish of the trip!

I was glad we were levaing the next day. Trent and I lead the assault heading back and made it back to the dock at lewis lake about an hour ahead ove everyone else. We really got into a rhythm. Tren had been tracking our distance the whole time with his GPS and told me that through the whole trip we had rowed 45 miles. That's just nuts I think. Anyways, it was an ok trip, but probably not one that I will ever repeat in the future.

Jackson Hole:

Last Friday my buddy Benjamin and I got a group together and headed up to Jackson hole to run the snake river on Saturday. I drove my car up with three girls in it who I was able to get to know and become good friends with. Two of them were twins, one of which I have dated a little bit, and the other was a girl who I met at a bonfire. I felt like quite the ladies man becuase all the other cars pretty much other than Benjamin's were just full of dudes. Haha. We got up there really late but in time enough to roast marsh mallows and eat some hot dogs. I pitched a tent that I borrowed from my roommate David which was a five-man tent, and we were able to fit six people in! It was pretty awesome becuase I had a cute girl on both sides of me. We had a lot of fun trying to get a good group picture- Benjamin held the camera with his feet and shot it from above and it was really funny.

Saturday we got up, ate breakfast, threw around a football for a bit, and headed to the river while Benjamin went to rent the rafts. I dont' know why, but the group wanted me to lead us all to the pull-out dock and I had absolutely no idea where it was. I lead everyone in the wrong direction and eded up getting chewed out because everyone else had been there before and knew where we were going. I was like "why the heck did you tell me to lead I told you I didn't know where it was and was just guessing!" Anyways, that was a bit anonoying but at the end of the story we made it to the lauch site before the rafts did.

We pumped up the two separate rafts and all 19 of us piled in. We rode the river while playing pirate games and having water fights. There were some rapids which were pretty fun but not dangerous by any means. We stopped of for lunch and cliff jumping and just enjoyed each others company and the canyon's scenery. It was a blast. At the end of the rafting run Benjamin asked if I wouldn't mind styaing another night so that we could all go to Yellowstone the next day. I didn't really want to because all of my home teaching assignments had been scheduled for then, but since the girls really wanted to stay and I would feel bad, I was able to make some calls and get the visits covered by having Tyler go in my place.

That night we went into Jackson and saw the shoot-out show and eat some good hamburgers while hanging out in the city park. The people heading back home took off and many of us said our goodbyes while the rest of us went to find a campsite to stay in. We had a fire and told stories before bedding down for the night. We woke up and started driving towards yellowstone. We ran into a buffalo herd and saw old faithful and the lower falls. Time driving absolutely killed us and made the day pretty long for everyone. By the time 9:30 pm rolled around I had lost a lot of my patience. That was when we finally left old faithful. I was speeding through the park and was pulled over but luckily was let off with a warning. It rained really hard the whole drive home so I was white knuckling the steering wheel for most of the way. We got home at about 3:30 and I didnt' go to sleep until around 5:00 when I woke up moments later for work. What a long day Monday was!

On the up!

HA!!! Right on!!

So... I almost feel a little bit embarrassed for my last entry and the state of panic I was in when I wrote it. I guess you might have a tendency to become a drama queen after a night with no sleep when all you are doing is trying to diagnose yourself online, and the only things that come up in your searches are the most terrible things you can imagine. Also doesn't help when you go to see a doctor and he acts all awkward because he doesn't know what you've got and starts ordering all kinds of crazy tests lol. Well let's just say that guy is still learning.

Sunday night when my swelling was at its worst, my parents and I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to go to the hospital. I hadn't stopped getting bigger and we couldn't see the end in sight so I was like "fine I'll go." I planned to head to the emergency room at the U, but last minute got the suggestion from my mom that I should go to the first doctor I had seen in the instacare, show him the change, and ask what he suggested I do. I knew he would just tell me to go to the hospital because he had told me that if it got any worse that is what I should do.

When I got back to the instacare I asked for him and mentioned to the receptionist that I usually saw a different doctor, doctor Tensmeyer, but was unable to see him. She said "well he's here right now if you want to talk to him!" They took me back to see him without checking me in (this guy had been my doctor my whole life) and after taking one look at me and within thirty seconds of feeling my swollen nodes and glands he diagnosed me with the MUMPS! I started laughing because that was something that had crossed my mind but that I had ruled out because of the fact that I knew I had had an immunization shot as a kid. Well turns out that I must have got a rotten shot and I was one of the lucky few that actually got to have the wonderful experience. He drew my blood, told me there was nothing they could do for the mumps, and sent me home with a pat on the butt telling me to get better. I was so relieved! Today is Tuesday and the swelling has gone down a lot already- it's going down just as fast as it went up, which is startlingly fast. But in this case, the quickness is welcomed!

There are a few things about the mumps that I think I am going to miss. First of all I really enjoyed being at home and enjoying my mom's home cooking. Even though it all came in through a straw, it was tasty. I also really enjoyed shaving my face and not having an annoying jawbone to shave around and under. It's always so hard to get the hairs on the underside of the jaw, but with my bloated face it was easy as cake. Not going to work has been nice, and I have had a lot of time to study for the CPA exam. Sadly, I will be going back to work soon, but I figure if I'm good enough to go back to work by Thursday, I'll be good enough to go to YELLOWSTONE to catch all the fish Thursday night!! Ahhh... life is good!

Not my week

Wow. Lately it seems as though I never write a positive entry and I just complain about what is going wrong. Maybe it has just been with my few last posts but I regretfully admit that this post will have a tuff time being any different. I've decided July just hasn't been my month.

There were a few things in July that I had been really looking forward to: my trials bike competition and my Yellowstone fishing trip with Trent. It didn't look like the competition was going to work out because my fan was busted and the new fan that I ordered would have to be spliced in to the mess of wires under my gas tank and I didn't know how to do it. I was able to get a guy from Colorado to send me an electrical diagram, which was good, and I was able to get the new fan working. I spent so much time and effort during the week trying to get the bike ready and it still didn't work out. Here is why.

Thursday night as I was eating a chicken nugget I stretched out my neck to take a bite and felt something pop in my neck where my lymph nodes are. Immediately I felt tenderness and pain in my lymph nodes, and immediately they became a bit swollen. I went home and slept only to find in the morning that they had become more swollen, about the size of ping pong balls, and you could tell they were swollen just by looking at me. That night, Friday night, I went to a few parties and was self conscious about them and was joking around with a few girls I met about me having a goiter. It was a funny topic of conversation and an ice breaker but it was pretty difficult to explain why they were there in the first place.

That night I sweated all through the night and ran a fever. When I woke up to head out to the trial bike competition I was having a tough time swallowing but not a sore throat.. I looked in the mirror and saw that my neck, chin, and cheeks had double or tripled in size from what they were the night before and it scared me to death. I thought about just going up to the competition anyways but was worried that the swelling would worsen to the point that it would close up my airway.

I went to the insta-care and was waiting outside when they opened up at 8:30. The doctor had no idea what would be causing it and had me do blood work, cultures, and x rays. The x rays showed that I still had room in my airway to breath, the cultures said I didn't have mono or strep, and the blood work indicated that my body was fighting some sort of infection. He said that the x rays did not show any abscesses, but that I would need a ct scan. I asked him how much that would cost and he said 1200 dollars. Since my deductible is like 3000 dollars and I haven't been able to save that much in my health savings account as of yet, I told him I wanted to hold off on the ct scan unless I absolutely had to have it. He said that if I didn't see improvement by Monday, he would recommend I have it for sure.

I came to my parents house and have been here resting up, drinking lots of fluids, and sucking soup out of a straw because I can't open my mouth. I don't even look like the same person. I look like I'm 100 pounds overweight in the face. You can't see my jawbone at all and my outside jaw and cheeks come out so far you can't see my ears. Today is Sunday, and this morning I have noticed the swelling besides becoming bigger, is moving down into my upper chest. This is really freaking me out and everything I read online, which I don't want to believe and probably shouldn't pay attention to, points straight to cancer. I have never been so worried sick; the suspense of this all is really killing me.

I'm supposed to leave for Yellowstone on Wednesday. Ha. Yeah right.

4th of July casualty

So the summer is moving along quite quickly as it always does, but for some reason this summer seems to be moving much faster than others. I have been in my house for two months now and am really starting to feel like it is home to me. For the last few months I have been studying nonstop for the CPA exam which I will be taking sections of up until November, and probably beyond. I took my first section two weeks ago (BEC) and although I went into the testing room having studied my material into the ground, I left feeling as though it would be a very big miracle if I ended up passing the stupid test.

There was so much material that I had never seen before and that was new to me- there were none of the questions I had been used to studying. The last practice test that I took before going in for the real thing, I got a 99% on, so I left feeling really frustrated. I took the test on a Thursday and was planning to reward myself by going to the river to fish afterward. I left the testing center only to discover it was raining, and raining hard outside. I went home and practiced the piano a bit, worked out, and hung out with a friend named Stephanie.

The next day I had planned to fish, but Abe called me up and asked if I would like to take my Trials bike up to the Bountiful B. I was pretty excited for that and decided to put fishing off until Saturday. (had Friday off because of the 4th of July weekend). So anyways, we go riding up at the bountiful B and I find out that my fan isn't working and my bike is overheating. So we ended up spending half of the time trying to jump two wires together to get the fan to work but I ended up just coasting it down the mountain and taking off. I went to Provo where Benjamin was having a BBQ and hung out with him for the rest of the night. We went to a party where we met a few nice girls and then we went and walked up and down main street in Provo. I had invited one of the girls to come along who wasn't up for the long walk so I felt bad for inviting her and became a drag on Benjamin's social mood- because he wanted to go around and meet everyone he could but could tell that our gal friend wanted to go and I was feeling awkward with her wanting to go. So.... we left.

The next day ended up being a perfect ending to a perfect weekend when I finally went fishing on the Provo and everyone and their dog decided to tube down the river and scare away all the fish. I was having absolutely no success as well as a hard time fighting the current so I called it a day at like 1:00 in the afternoon. I went back to Benjamin's house where I was supposed to meet up with him to go to another BBQ and then out to a rope swing in Mona. I texted him and then fell asleep on his couch. I woke up and saw that he texted me with directions of where I needed to be but by then hours had passed and I couldn't' get a hold of him. I thought "well, I guess I'll go save us all a spot outside the stadium of fire." So I took off and scouted out a patch of grass and sat there from 5:00 until the firework show started at 10:00. The girl that was supposed to come watch with me canceled, Benjamin didn't show up, and I watched the show alone with a couple of roommates that came last minute. Awesome right? Lame!

So this weekend was a bit better, but I still considered it a casualty. It was better because I was finally able to get some decent fishing in on Friday after work and cooked them up at my parents house where we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows. Saturday afternoon I studied for the next section of the exam that I am taking next month. At about 5:00 I decided I was tire of sitting at the kitchen table and so I decided that I would move the studying to my bed. Bad idea. I fell asleep again, missed my text messages again, missed out on the fun again, and didn't' wake up till 11:00 pm. Ha ha that was so annoying! So needless to say I couldn't sleep. I studied, watched "so you think you can dance", worked out at the clubhouse, and took a drunk girl in a cocktail dress home who was wandering the streets crying because she had gotten in a fight with her best friend at a party and didn't' have a way to get home. Pretty interesting night for sure.

Sunday night I went to Lehi to hang out with a girl named Tanya who I met the week before at the party with Benjamin. The whole time I hung out with her I was having to defend myself from her stinky farting pit-bull who wouldn't leave me alone and who I was scared to death of. He kept trying to playfully bite me and I was not interested in playing his game, and this chick wouldn't put him in his cage! Last time I'm going over there that's for sure. I got home at 1:00 am and the second I walked in the door I could smell that something in the house was burning. I went over and noticed that someone had left the oven turned on and the metal was so hot that you could smell it. Not only that, but my room mate decided he should turn the air conditioner down to 65 degrees. Oh, and don't forget that there were strange people sleeping on the floor cuddled up with the quilt I made and hardly even use myself because I'm trying to keep it nice! Yeah.. something has got to give!

Well, these next few weeks should be fun. I've got a motorcycle meet coming up and am pretty excited. I also have a Yellowstone fishing trip coming up that I am super stoked about. It's going to be good times.

Time for Random

So these last few weeks have been pretty fun but I don’t have a certain topic to write about today so this will probably just be a whole bunch of random. Here it goes: HBM's softball team has yet to win a game but that’s ok because I just like to go out and play. I have been trying to get around to fixing the flat on my trials bike; I have gone to buy all of the required tools and should be set to go, but I guess I just need something to prop my bike up on so that I can take off the tire. I took myself on a shopping spree at Lowes and bought everything I needed to plant a garden. I bought tomatoe cages, miracle grow, and a whole bunch of spinach and cucumber seeds. I also bought two shovels; a normal one and a square-mouth, along with a hoe and a rake. I planted my garden on Saturday and was pretty unhappy to discover how bad my soil is out back. It's full of indian clay and rocks and was pretty near to impossible to work with. I bought a garden hose and a sprinkler head, but so far I have noticed that the sprinkler head doesnt do much ogod becuase the ground does not soak in any moisture and I can water it for five minutes and have puddles everywhere. Kinda crazy. I think I am going to buy one of those things that I can do all of my watering by hand with. That will probably work the best with my cucumber plants and what-not. I think I'll have a lot more success next summer when I can get my planter boxes and sprinkler system installed. Moving on.. I got a new senior at work named Arshak Davtyan and I think that as long as I do a good job I will be fine and we should get along. He's from Cambodia (I think), and speaks like seven different languages. Him and I had some good conversations yesterday about soccer and the stock market- so we've got a few similar interrests which is always good. I am getting along great with my roommates although I've been noticing some problems now and then with the guys making marks in my walls and not telling me about them. Matt is moving out in September and the crazy thing is that I've already found someone to take his place! A guy named Sterling came by last night and asked if he could move in when Matt left, which is pretty awesome. I have wondered if I could possibly be charging too little, because getting room mates has really been easier than I expected it to be. My only problem with the roommates so far has been that David keeps parking in the driveway blocking the garage when we agreed that he would park on the street only. He also hasn't paid me his whole cleaning deposit- which is buggin. I think at the end of the month I am going to write up an invoice and make some notes on it- that's if this keeps being a problem. I am supposed to go have my year-end evaluation with the partners of the office and I'm not super excited about it because I'm always afraid of being let go. I have prepared my list of goals and stuff to go over with them. I think it would really be crazy if by some miraculous chance I got a raise- although none of us here in the office are expecting raises this year with the economy in the kind of shape that it is in. I guess I could get by without one; it would give me a better excuse to go and eat sushi more often. Rob introduced me to sushi not too long ago and I have decided that I really like it. Kinda crazy how much I do. Anyways, that's the randomness I had on my mind today-

Awkwardness follows me

Well, things have gone a lot better in the dating scene after the little dry spell I had. One of the girls I mentioned (girl x) came around and I was able to take her out and really enjoyed myself. I took her to an acoustic show and a few minutes after we sat down on the grass I looked over and noticed that we had sat down right next to another girl (girl y) who I had met that week, and who had texted me earlier on in the day asking if I could hang out with her that night. I told her I was sorry but that I had plans, and lone behold, there she was like 5 yards away from us. Not only was that night a little bit awkward because of that, but "awkward" seems to have been following me around evers since. The next day, me and girl y had plans to watch "so you think you can dance" at her house becuase she had tivo'd it. Early in the afternoon, this girl's friend (girl z) texted me and asked what I was doing later on, and told me she was probably going to go to girl y's house to watch sytycd. I texted girl z back and said "me and girl y were already planning on it, lets all watch it together." Ok, so I show up at girl y's house and somehow end up sitting in the middle of the couch between y and z. We watched the show, made dinner, hung out, then went to my house and put in a comedian to watch on my new tv setup. I was feeling awkward all night long sitting there on the couch in the middle of the two- folding my arms or crossing my hands- and I was about to go crazy. I got up to get a drink and when I sat back down I decided to put my arm up on the couch above girl y- because she was who I was more interrested in. When I put my arm up on the couch, girl y scooted closser and cozied right up to my side. About a half-hour passed in silence before girl z got up and stormed out telling girl y to have me take her home. I got up and walked her to her car and she wouldn't even talk to me and I could tell she was mad. This started about a two-week stint of drama between y and z, who were best friends who now hated each other and began to backstab each other. I felt really bad because not only did I not really dig z, but I wasn't all that into y either- Soooo..... yeah.. I've taken y out a few more times after that and awkward moment #3 showed up. I was out at the air show at HAFB with girl y when Holland Peck texted and asked what we had planned for that night. Holland and I have seen each other at church a few times and have talked about me setting her up with a co-worker of mine. Her and her roommates were looking for something to do so I invited them to the movie night I planned on having later on. So, Holland came over with her roomies and we all watched a movie in my living room on the three couches we had lined up in front of my tv. Holland ended up sitting next to my neightbor Tyler ON THE SAME COUCH that I sat on with girl y. Talk about a totally unexpected circumstance- I never in a million years would have dreampt that I'd be on the same couch with her again, let alone while I was on a date with someone else! The cool thing is that awkward moment #3 wasn't all that awkward- it was almost comfortable?? Holland and I have become purely just friends and it's pretty awesome that we've been able to do that after the long and impacting history we've had together. Regardless of this fact I think I need to try to be a little more wise with the plans I make and think ahead a little better. Although I don't blame myself for these coincidental experiences, I'll start blaming myself if they keep happening. I've been going to a lot of parties with Benjamin Bowen, my long-time mission buddy. He's a great wing-man and I've been able to meet a lot of girls through him and also introduce him to a lot of girls. I'd really like it if he would move into my house onced Matt moves out after his internship. Side note- I have two renters already; Matt Graff (rev) and David Hawks, who are both really cool kids so far. Anyways, that's all for today's post. I've got to get on to studying for the cpa exam.

W/out a date

What is it with girls lately? I don't know what's happening to me but I can't seem to get a date lol. Seriously the last three, THREE girls I have asked out have all turned me down! It's been a few months since my wedding was called off and I admit I have been approaching this scene very slowly and cautiously but seriously... not feeling too confident that I've still got that thing that makes girls say yes to a date.... whatever I might have had back in the day when they used to say yes lol. The first girl I asked out was a girl I met at church. She was sitting by this guy who I thought might be dating her, but when he got up and left I thought I'd go ask her anyways. She politely said she had just started dating this guy and that she wasn't sure where things would go but that it probably wouldnt' be a good idea to go out. Then after church I saw the same guy she was talking about, asking my friend Amy out on a date.... so either the girl wasn't interrested in me or she was on a different page that the guy she had "started seeing". The second girl I asked out I count as a rejection because she never returned a call or text- so I'm not going to keep calling and calling. The third girl I asked out said yes at first but then we both got sick at around the same time and neither one of us were getting better very quickly. Time elapsed as we kept rescheduling and rescheduling until she finally told me her dating situation wasn't on solid ground and she needed to figure some things out. Maybe a lot of things happened between the time she innitially said yes and the time we were feeling healthy enough to go out. Who knows. So I'm sitting here now thinking of things I might be doing wrong or that I could be doing better and I'm not coming up with anything. Maybe these girls have a sixth sense and are able to discern that although I am asking them out on a date, I really am not interrested in dating. Anyone. My breakup still feels too recent and I am not up for another relationship; I'm really just trying to get out there and date so I can do what I'm supposed to be doing and head in the direction of personal progression. Wish me luck!

First Trials Bike Competition

Last Saturday I competed in my first trials bike competition and decided that it is my new favorite sport. I rode with the sportsman class and took second place out of four people, which might not be saying all that much but at the same time... I was pretty proud of myself becuase I was a first time rider. I really didnt' think my bike would make it to the competition but it did, and it performed very well. I got off to a rough start, getting 5's on my first three tracks. A score of 5 indicates that you either crashed, stalled, or went out of bounds. On my second time around the loop I cut my overall score in half (because points are bad), and I "cleaned" many of the sections meaning that I did not put my foot down once to balance myself and I rode through the technical coarse without any other mistakes either. It felt so good to clean a section and really gave put me on an emotional high- not emotional as in emotional- emotional as in happy. So anyways, somehow I got a flat tire so I will need to buy another and have it installed by a professional because I don't know if I would be able to get it on myself. Probably not a chance in the world actually. I took the bike out of the garage yesterday after pumping the tire up a bit and went riding behind my neighborhood and a piece of old rusty chain-link fence came up and got caught all up in my spokes and wrapped aruond my front axel. It took a lot of work to get it all out of there, and as far as I know, nothing was broken too badly. I'm just not having a whole lot of luck with this thing so far, but it'll get better I'm sure. My next project will be bleeding the fork; which I need to jump onto youtube and find out exactly how that's done before I tackle it.

New House!

Wow I'm really tired! I was up until 5:00 am moving things into my new home- literally over 12 hours of bending lifting and getting dirty. I can't believe I have finally moved in because of how long of a process it has been to find, sign, build, and buy. Lots to tell about that's for sure so good thing I've got the time!

When I went to the final walkthrough to inspect the home before moving in, I could hardly contain my excitement. I couldn't get rid of my smile and had the strongest urge ever to hug someone. The only person there was Nathan the superintendant...so I kept my hugs to myself lol. I loved how the carpet felt and how the kitchen cabinets looked. I could imagine what it would look like once I got all moved in and I could picture myself having family and friends over as guests. Who could have ever thought signing up for this much responsibility and debt could be this fun and exciting? Gotta admit though- there was a little bit of anxiousness when sitting down at cold black marble closing table across from my lender and the gentleman from the title company. They both told me that they thought the meeting was fun because I asked a lot of tricky questions (I'm good at that) and they had to explain things a little more deeply than usual. After about an hour I was done signing my name and was good to go.

I took my closing document to my computer and immediately amended my 2008 tax return so that I could get the 8,000 federal grant money. I told my friend Ryan that for 8,000 bucks I would wear an Obama t-shirt for a day lol. I truly lucked out with timing because I was able to use the 6K from the state to pay closing costs and the 8K from the fed will be used to replace my 9-month savings buffer that has taken a big hit after having to buy so many unanticipated household items.

So a little about my house: It's 1800 square feet, so really cozy. Although the rooms are super small, the doorways are really tall so it doesn't feel cramped. I have an upgraded carpet with an extra pad and tile laid in the heavy traffic areas downstairs. My kitchen cabinets are incredible because I upgraded to knotty Alder, extra tall, with crown molding. The banister to the stairs and the fireplace mantle all match the cabinets. Right out my back gate I have the community playground, clubhouse and pool which is going to be extra convenient, and upstairs the master bath has been turned into a masterpiece with an extra tall counter, glass shower and huge walk-in closet. I didn't get to choose the outside of my house because it is in a planned community but I ended up with the best color scheme I think exists in that neighborhood. I was so excited when I saw which one I got.

Yesterday after work I rushed to Abe's house to pick up his trailer and then rushed to my house to meet up with Ryan Devlin. We loaded up the trailer with the leather couches I bought at cost from a client of our firms' as well as my bed and a bunch of other things. We got everything into the house with the walls only suffering minor dings and mars. After we came back I stopped into the Cracker-barrel restaurant for grandma A's 80th b-day party, and after that, it was off to Melanie's house to pick up everything I had inherited from her. Casey and I loaded the trailer up again and made the drive out to drop it off. We put it all in the garage because Casey had work early and I didn't want to keep him. Straight from there I went to Abe's to drop the trailer back off and help Abe finish working on my bike (another story), then went back home, loaded up the suburban with Adam, and drove back out to SL to move it all in. When we got out there it was about 2:30 AM. I opened the big garage door and realized that I didn't have my house keys. I drove all the way back home but couldn't find them until I went back to Abe's and scoured his front lawn with a flashlight. Got back to the house at 3:30 and we moved stuff around until 5:00 when we finally showered and went to sleep on the couches. BIG DAY!!!

I'm glad I had Adam and Ryan to help me with the move. It was nice having guys there who I'm close with to kind of share in my excitement. Although it has been a really great experience, I've had somewhat of a sick sad feeling in going through all of these steps by myself. I keep thinking I should be doing all of this with my wife- that all of this should have been shared with that special someone, and knowing that I came so close not long ago just intensifies the bad feeling. Not having that someone there kind of bites at me pretty regularly in fact- kind of like standing on the Hawaii beech with my college buddies wishing I was with a girl instead- like I was wasting a really special life event by doing it alone. I guess it all makes up part of the unmarried loneliness syndrome that all of us go through who are a bit behind the marriage curve. Oh well though- the purpose of this post isn't to sulk lol. All I gotta do is live my life to the fullest, and I am definitely doing it baby!!

So onto that story about my bike- I probably haven't written in my journal that not long ago I purchased a trials dirt bike so I could go ride and compete with Abe, which is something I have always wanted to be able to do. About a week after I bought it (killer deal and I found out why), the clutch started to drag. I talked to some people about how much it would cost to repair and when I was faced with that I decided to do it myself, regardless of the fact I have never been mechanically inclined. I watched a youtube video on how to fix clutches and just tackled the task, ripping into my bike's innards and tearing it to pieces pretty much. I found the problem, ordered the new part (a 200 buck slap to the face) and when I was putting it all back together, basking in my new found mechanical glory, I over-tightened a bolt and it broke off inside the inner clutch hub!!! The spring that the bolt was holding down shot up and hit me in the face and when I reacted I accidentally knocked over the bottle of oil I had opened and spilled oil all over my dad's shed floor. Disappointingly I didn't have any dilemma with letting some choice words bust out of their cage. I don't know if I have ever become so instantly furious. I had been waiting for the part for a week, was really excited to have it fixed, but most importantly, was really excited to be able to go compete with it this Saturday with Abe. Now I was going to either find a machinist who could get in and bore out the bolt (which broke off deep inside the hole), or I was going to have to pay another few hindered dollars for a new inner clutch hub- which I didn't' have the specialized tools to remove in the first place!!! I wanted to just turn into the hulk and throw the bike into orbit and then go and hulk smash the house of the joker who sold me the bike with the bad clutch in the first place.

So.... I called Abe and broke the bad news to him, telling him I couldn't go with him and that I didn't know if I would ever have my bike working again. He asked if we could try to work on it together and I said I had no time before Saturday because I would be spending all of my time moving. So you know what he did? He came over to my parents house while I was gone moving furniture, loaded my bike into his truck, took it to Stan's (the Utah trials guru), and together they worked to boar out the bolt, buy new bolts, and put the sucker back together for me~!!!! I haven't had anyone do something so nice for me in a long while and I was to say the very least, tickled pink! Of coarse, he was motivated by the fact that if I didn't' go compete with him, he would have to pay for all of the gas down to the competition by himself lol. When I went over to meet up with Abe all we had left to do was bleed the clutch, grind a new washer, and put it all back together. So I'm all set to go compete tomorrow and I'm very excited!!! How cool is that??

I really don't know how I am going to return all of these favors- Ryan, Adam, Melanie, Casey all helping me move taking time out of their days and sacrificing sleep- and Abe spending his whole night in the service of someone else's dirt bike!! I've got great friends and family to say the least. It's even more awesome knowing that I have several other people that I know would be just as willing to help me out- I'm just a really lucky guy what else can I say. Can't wait for the opportunity to return all of these favors!~

Starting a blog:

As I have kept tabs on some of my married friends I have warmed up a bit to the idea of blogs in general. I have decided that this will serve as my journal- which I've become accustomed to keep in a word document, but unaccustomed to keep updated. Hopefully writing in a blog will encourage me to do a better job; to write more creatively, concisely, and consistently that will be more enjoyable for my future kids or grandkids to read, supposing that I ever have any lol. I am writing primarily for myself- so I accept this as my blog opener and guess I will give it a shot from here on out.