It's here!

My favorite season is here! A few days ago I was thinking how it's kind of sad that normally about this time of year I get excited about the upcoming fall, and the football season, and the crisp, chilled air, and hoodies, etc. and I had yet to fill that yet. Well, tonight as I walked out of the church building and it was dark, and I could hear the laughter of newly returned students in the church behind me, I got this rush of excitement and pure happines as it finally set in that that my favorite time of the year is here! Bring on the football, bring on new friendships and experiences, bring on the beautiful, glorious, fall weather!

Thanks for the Memories, Jimmy!

Tonight I came across a reference to Jimmy Eat World, and I had a moment of appreciation.  Since high school, I've really enjoyed Jimmy Eat World's music.  My junior and senior years of high school, I wore out this album:

I have plenty of great memories of me and friends in the car rolling down the southern California freeways with the windows down and the stereo up to full blast with some Bleed American playing.  I'm pretty positive I wore the CD out from so many times of playing it. 

Then, the first CD I got when I returned home from my LDS mission was Jimmy's latest (at the time) album:

Futures

My friend Rachel gave it to me, and I was so excited when I saw it! That CD also provided me with many great drives, several of which came on cool, California nights with crisp ear coming in my window  as I drove home thinking about the events of my life and the possibilities ahead. I loved the excitement I felt on some of those drives when I thought of the unknown in the next few years ahead of me! 

It was really nice to be reminded of Jimmy Eat World tonight, because it made me remember how much I love these albums and then how much I love the memories attached to them.  I've been feeling in a bit of a rut the past couple of days, and thinking about the fun times in the past with the songs made me a little nostalgic, but also excited for the next album (Whether it be Jimmy Eat World or whoever) that will act as a soundtrack to the good times ahead!

Have we really evolved as a society?

I went to the demolition derby last night for the Utah County Fair down in Spanish Fork. Is it white trash? Yup. Was it awesome seeing hard hits, and cars getting smashed and rolled over? You betcha!  I'm still not going to watch NASCAR though. Not gonna do it...

I didn't see that one coming...

So I started writing a post in which I discussed the reality checks that I've had the past couple of weeks with all different areas of my life...read over it and deleted it. Why? Because it sounded like a pity party and I realized that as much as the reality checks threw some curves at me, life is still REALLY good!

Seriously, I'm pretty happy.  In fact, it's kind of funny to me how out of some of these reality checks I've actually found hidden blessings that I didn't recognize at first.  I guess that's one more reason to be thankful for opposition in life.  It helps me readjust my focus to better line up with the Lord's, as well as to trust in Him that He's got my back.  So I'm glad to say that what started out as a recipe for a sad country song, has turned into the little soap box testimonial you just read. 

Go get 'em, tiger!

Express Yourself

Yes, it's a famous Madonna song. No, that's not what this entry is about.  I'm talking about communication.   Have you ever had the need to express yourself, but you just couldn't figure out how to effectively illustrate what you needed to convey? Can you remember a time when you finally just vented about something that had been weighing on you heavily, and afterward felt the sweet sensation of a load being lifted; that freeing feeling that results from catharsis? Have you ever wanted to describe something, but there just weren't words to articulate the awe that you felt about that item/event/action?

I'm always amazed when I think about how constant, and vital communication is in my every day life, in everyone's life for that matter, and yet how far away I am from mastering the art of it.  It's fascinating to me how many different modes of communication there are, and how people can be so brilliant in one form, yet incompetent in another. It intrigues me that it can be so frustrating to try and speak to others through different types of communication only to realize that they don't even know you're trying to convey a message, because they don't speak that same language of communication.

Yes, communication is one of those topics that never ceases to interest me, but always finds ways to frustrate me.  What I really love though, is when I can sit and talk to a person and know that I'm on the exact same page/thought process as they are, and that it happened without a word being spoken. Sometimes the loudest messages are those that are never spoken. 

Blogs are like pets...

but they're really not.  However, I DO feel very guilty about the fact that I haven't blogged in over a month! Now I know that it's really not that big of a deal since the only people who read my blog are close enough to me to know what's going on in my life anyway...or are they? It seems that without doing anything in over a month, visits to my blog have held steady if not increased. There you have it ladies and gentlemen, when you stop talking, people start listening...I don't even know what that means.

But seriously, here are a few highlights that have happend over the past month:

1) Met some great new friends and have had mucho fun already this summer. Included in this fun are activities such as:

• Hikes
• Swimming at Scera pool in Orem
• Outdoor musicals/concerts
• Boating
• Field seats at Stadium of Fire
• Watching fireworks happen all over the valley from the point of the mountain.
• Fun dates
• Tennis
• Spending time with the fam

...yup, that's about it. Just having fun has consumed the last month of my life.  Not sure why I started with a numbered list, but oh well.  I'm still not much closer to being done with my classes. My motivation is zero, which is ironic since I'm SOO close!

Regardless of my failures, and focusing on my "achievements" over the past month, I'd say life is puh-retty.dang.good!

Oh and...thanks for checking in! 

A Few Things Worth Mentioning...

When you have a view like this available from property that you're considering buying...do you even have to go inside for the tour? I think not!

Not sure what the marketing approach is supposed to be here, but it made me chuckle nonetheless.

The U2 Concert last night was AMAZING! Thanks Qualtrics!...and Stacy for being my date...and putting up with my ridiculous comments.