Headin' Fer the Hills

I'm on my way to Arizona. It's been nearly eight months since my last visit. Tonight, we're in the little town of Annabella for the night. Tomorrow, it's onward down South, on to Joseph City.

While dinner was being made, I decided to take a walk and stretch my legs. That walk turned into somewhat of a geology expedition. I found an outcrop of basalt flows on the outskirts of town, and I explored nearly the entire place.
Sorry -please just endure the geology photos. In the picture below are some "xenoliths". Rocks that don't belong, but assimilated into the lava flow.
I'm nearly home; I'm half way there (Whoa-ho! Livin' on a Prayer!)

I played some early morning Rock Band before I left.

I had to have my fix.

A New Perspective

I spent most of my time today lugging my belongins (I typed that wrong. It should be "belongings" but I read it and laughed -so I'm leavin' it.) ...anyway, lugging my belongins across the apartment complex lot and up three flights of stairs. I was counting the number of trips I took. I stopped counting after nine. It's these type of exercises that make me question the worth of material things. I'm thinking it's time to down-size again. I think I'll take my rocks back to Arizona with me. That's a start.

So my apartment for the summer is on the top floor and I have a new view of things. Out of my front window, I see Moroni with his trumpet at the top of the Rexburg Temple. Out of the back window, other apartment complexes, the roofs (Doesn't it seem like it should be spelled "rooves"?) of houses and chapels in town, and a HUGE industrial-sized dumpster for the end-of-semester garbage items. A few minutes ago, a guy was inside the dumpster with a flashlight looking over the discarded goods. I can't say I blame him. I got a nice keyboard by doing the same thing in Flagstaff. It still plays beautifully.

I got to talk to Alicia (and Lacy) tonight, and that was the highlight of my night. I'm super excited to be heading down to Arizona in a few days. It's been nearly eight months since I was there last. It's high-time, I reckon.

Final Exams = Yuck, therefore Yuck.

My brain is officially ready for a re-boot.
All my life, I've been on the educational cycle: study for the duration of the school year, take a summer break void of classroom focus, homework, and exams. This semester really threw me off.

Everything in me knows that it's supposed to be break time. It's super nice outside. Watermelon is in season. Weeds are growing. Kids are swimming. The smell of barbeque permeates the night breeze. It's not time for school! I can't help but feel a twinge of animosity towards my teachers. I know it's not their fault. Heck -I signed up for this. But does that mean I have to be happy about it?

No. There are other things to be happy about though. First, that the semester is now officially over. I don't have another single thing to do for school. It's all done. Second, that I'm probably going to have the opportunity to visit my family in Arizona. Third, that I'm now able to have some form of a summer break.

I've hated and loved this semester. I've hated some of the schoolwork I've had to struggle through; I say some, but I really just mean my Physics and Technical Writing class. I normally love writing -this class sucked all the fun out of it. And Physics -well, I don't even like bringing that up. I've loved the friends I've made this semester. Life continues to bring amazing, fascinating, and entertaining people into my little sphere of existence.

Here's to hoping for an amazing Fall semester. I'll be living with friends, taking some easier courses, and being a Teacher's Assistant for a few courses. I'm gonna continue the mind-set of reaching out and getting to know the people around me. I know I say it a lot, but it really is amazing what you find. It makes life so much richer. Happy Summer!

All Frayed

There's no better way to cap off a grueling semester off schoolwork than to go to a smashing concert. Bryce and I knew it. We'd planned ahead for months to go and bought tickets.

The concert: The Fray July 18th 2009 at USANA Amphitheater in West Valley City, Utah.

They had two bands open for them: Meese (a newer group from Denver) and Jack's Mannequin. As the week of the concert approached, we began to finalize plans. We were going to ride down with Bryce's chica on Saturday afternoon, go to the concert, stay the night somewhere, and travel back to Rexburg on Sunday. it didn't quite pan out that way.

A few days before the weekend of the concert, Byrce's girl Kalina decided that finals were too important and she couldn't spend the weekend away at a concert. So our ride fell through. We didn't know who the opening bands were at that point, and as it turns out, Jack's Mannequin is Kalina's favorite band. Ha ha! Sorry. They were really good.

I talked to my friend Christy about letting us her Toyota Tacoma to the concert. She's so incredibly nice. She let us. Even after two idiots in our ward tried to talk her out of it!

We got to Salt Lake at around 5:40pm and drove around for a bit before heading to the USANA Amphitheater. We met Bryce's friend Krystle there and found a sweet spot right at the front of the lawn seating. The concert was packed, the weather was perfect, and it turned out to be the best concert I've ever been to. All great bands, all of them sounded amazing in a live performance.

Bryce and I hadn't eaten anything since lunch and the concert ended at 11pm, so we went to IHOP. We crashed at my friend Rex's place in Provo that night. He's a huge fan of The Fray, and he was at the concert too (but he got seats in the pit ---front row).

Sunday morning we showered and headed to Orem to meet Krystle and say goodbye before heading back to Rexburg. We ended up taking a lot of random pictures at a park in Orem -fun times.

The drive home turned out to be one of the funnest parts of the trip. Bryce took my camera and got some pictures and videos. I hope you've survived my dry travelogue-style entry. It was less of "I'm going to tell it in a creative way" and more of "it's finals-week and I've got just enough time to tell you what's up". I'm back in town, a little road-weary and tired, but so ready to be done with this semester that I'm humming songs by The Fray. Everyone knows I'm in over my head, over my head...

Not to Worry

I'm going to share a few thoughts, but with the subject as a disclaimer. For all those aunties, mothers, sisters, and friends that read this post and end up thinking, "Oh, DEAR!", please don't fret. It's an outlet of feeling and I don't want a shred of sympathy or a word of pity. Just let me write this out, and I'll move on.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been spending most all of my free time with a girl. She's really sweet and pretty cute. She's in my ward, and we've really had a lot of fun together. I found out from a friend that she was interested in me, so I looked into it, and decided to go with it.

We didn't get very far. I don't move super-fast with things anyway, but I was sort of at the point that I was trying to decide whether I really wanted to make something more of this acquaintence. I had decided to keep going with it and give it more time, when out of the blue she sent me a text:

"I don't know how to say this, but I think we should just be friends. I think you're a great guy and I'd totally want to still ahng out and stuff, if you're cool with that, if not that's ok. I feel like a jerk, but I just have to be honest."

To which I responded,
"That's cool."

And it really was. I'd rather a girl be honest with me about things, especially before things get way involved.

We continued to text about it, (which I think isn't the wisest way to handle these type of situations, though does make it easier to say) and she told me she felt bad, but I assured her that she didn't need to feel guilty. I appreciated her honesty, blah blah blah.

To be truthful, I was sort of surprised by it, but not really all that affected. At first.

Here's the deal: I was a little unsure about how things would go with her anyhow, so it wasn't like a break-up. Except for the fact that it left me wondering why. Why did she decide that? Was it something I did / said / didn't do / did wrong ?

For the rest of the day, my self-confidence experienced some new sensations. If I were a hard-boiled egg, my shell would be my self-confidence. Her tap started a crack. The crack slowly spread, and pieces have been peeling off ever since.

I'm a single dude. You know this, but I couldn't very well relate the next few points without mentioning that fact. I'm being courteous (a good quality, no? Still not enough for some).

I'm used to the bachelor life, void of all dating drama and complications. I've done it my whole life. For me to pursue a relationship at this point, I feel like I'm really venturing out far beyond my comfort zone. I don't mind so much, especially with the prospect of a rich pay-off. But when I've ventured out and come back empty-handed, battered, low, and frustrated every time, what am I to do? Experience has taught me that this venturing out is never worth it.

For the next few days, I was really out of sorts, for lack of a better way to describe it. I've never felt quite that way. It was sort of a dulled reality. I felt like I was floating through the sequences of life, not a real actor, just catching bits of action here and there, rising through the fog for a few laughs or comments, then being caught back down by the memory of it all.

My friends (who have investigated her side of the issue) assure me that her decision has nothing to do with me. It's one thing for me to hear them say that, and quite another for me to try and convince myself that it's true.

This weekend, I felt like this:

To Hell with dating, girls, decisions, stress, and all of it. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it. If anyone asks, I'm not even considering options, so you can just save them for another dupe who's dumb enough to even try.

Now I've settled a bit. But not entirely.

So I've laid out the entirety of my dejected inner-most feelings, not for anyone to console me. Know that I'm quite content, even happy. Just a bit shaken, not stirred, and in recovery-mode. By the end of the week, I'm sure I'll be right as rain. Until then, I want otter pops.

Independence in Idaho

I've celebrated the Fourth of July in Arizona most all of my life, except for 2 years in Canada. This year, I celebrated in Boise. We had Thursday and Friday off school, so we made a LONG weekend out of it by leaving Rexburg Wednesday night. I'll give you the highlights rather than the play-by-play.

-We saw Transformers 2. It was okay. I wanted to play editor and chop out several characters and lines. A lot of it was completely unneccesary and dumb. But the battle sequences were really impressive.

-We went to Eagle Island Park and swam in the lake and rode the water slide. The water in the lake was a pale brown -not too inviting, but still fun.

-We went and played around in downtown Boise and had dinner on the balcony that overlooks downtown main. They had live entertainment -very cool. After dinner, we played in a fountain and some of my friends got SOAKED.

-I got to meet the families of a few of my friends.

-We floated the Boise River on an inner tube, then had a barbeque in the park while we waited for the fireworks to start.

-Watched the fireworks and had a blast!