Bizarre Bradyisms

The Five vs. Las Vegas

Las Vegas was a success.  We won.  It was fight, but we were the victors.  In other words, I am still alive.  Friday afternoon at ~4:30 we (Josh, Kyle, Christine, Erin, and I) made our way down to Las Vegas for the weekend to take advantage of the last day off of school for the semester because Spring break does not exist for BYU. We arrived Josh’s brother’s house in Henderson, NV after a short 6 short hours after only stopping once in St. George to grab some food and a view of what has come to be called “Utah Hair” (ask me about it later if you are unfamiliar with the term).  After unpacking, he hit the hot tub almost imidiately.  Eventually some other residents showed up too and we ended up talking about Las Vegas life.  Whenever I leave Utah, there is always an initial shock that occurs when I realize how the rest of the world lives their lives.  Such was the case here.  I wasn’t really “offended” by it, but the vulgarity of the language they used and simply how they acted and portrayed themselves was so different and odd.  I don’t know how to better explain it, but in an odd sense it was nice to see and hear something different.  At the same time, I also realized how greatful I am to have the standards that I do and I felt more inspired to do better with myself.  Strange the way that works.

Saturday we visited the Outlet Malls on the North side of the city, and as usual, I was a bit out of my element, however, I enjoyed myself and the rest of the group did so as well.  We had lunch at In and Out Burgers and I think I must have ordered close to a pound of meat in addition to fries and a shake.  Yeah, it was that good.  Plus, to justify myself, I don’t think I have ordered fast food more than twice in the past 6 months, so its all good.  Later that afternoon, we made our way back to the house and kind of lounged for a few hours before going to dinner and Black Angus.  More meat!  I won’t say exactly what I bought, but it was the most expensive meal I have ever purchased for just one person.  Why not?

Sunday we decided to behave and went to Church where Josh made a little girl cry by kindly stating that she was being distractive by leading the music during the hymns.  I didn’t witness the event, but supposedly she was quite obnoxious and kind of had it coming to her.  Then that afternoon was when we finally made it down to the strip.  We went to the Monterey Bay Shark Exhibit which was pretty neat.  I am glad that I went and was impressed by everything that was there, but it is definately those “do only once” type of things.  That night was the evening of the NBA All Stars game being hosted in Las Vegas, and while there is nothing wrong with it, I just have never seen that many black people before in my life.  I think we all felt like the minority there.  I am serious.  

We of course saw the Bellagio Fountains and then went inside to take a peek and the nicer things of life.  Something really cool I enjoyed seeing was this chocolate fountain that was there inside the hotel at a shop.  The plaque said there was something like 200 pounds of choclate flowing through it at all times and took over 2 years to design the display.  It was “dope.” 

Also, as the night went on, more and more Police officers were on the streets ready for anything crazy to happen.  I think I saw over 200 officers in just 8 city blocks and was able to witness 2 arrests taking place.  After heading home, we made a 2+ hour visit to the hot tub again and although I did not say more than 15 words, I was able to witness my friends talk about their lives and relationships, etc.  The things one can learn if you just listen.

The drive home from Vegas was sad.  We got up and the weather was a bit colder, only to remind us of what awaited.  The trip to Provo would have only taken us about 6 hours again if it were not for some road construction going on outside of St. George that took over an hour to get through in addition to the inclement weather that appeared some 20 miles north of St. Geoge.  It was bad.  There must have been a lot of idiot drivers on the road that night becuase I think we personally saw 3 multi-car accidents as we slowly drove by.  So, instead of 6 hours, it was more life 8 hours.  Killer. 

Now, I am back home, doing my W-2s to see if I will have to owe anything this year.  I think I might becuase I made a fair amount of money, I have no dependancies and I am single (2 of which I would like to change, but have obviously been thus far unsucessful at doing).  This trip will at least keep me going for hopefully another 2 months until school finishes.  Anyways, that was my trip.

Jumped Ship

As I was walking out of class today I spoke with an ex co-worker from my job at Convergys.  I guess they are dropping the entire Nortel support team and sending the contract to India leaving everyone there without a job come ~2 or 3 months.  It made me smile becuase I asked him if he was really that suprised and of course he said, “No.”  Now I feel even better for having left when I did and was able to spend the last 4 months establishing my place at my current job.  Even better though was that I was able to tell him that if he was interested, to send me his resume and that I would pass it on to my bosses.  You know the saying, its not what you know, but who you know.  I am that who.  Neat.

Scared

I like being scared.  Really, I truthfully enjoy it and even though I am quite jumpy, I usually laugh when I get scared.  Last night I went to see the movie “The Messengers” with a number of friends and it was great.  I especially liked it because unlike another scary movie I recently saw, *cough* Grudge 2 *cough*, it had a solution and an ending.  We then went to dinner at what has turned out to be a common place for us to dine at, Mimi’s, and by accident made a few people a little uncomfortable.  There was this young couple sitting in the next booth over who were obviously on a date, but seemed really akward because they weren’t talking to each other.  The strange part is, we noticed wedding bands on both of them.  I was constantly peeking over and trying to hear their converstation / read their lips.  When they left, the guy walked by and said “Goodnight, hope you liked the converstation” or something to that effect and we all laughed, and I did feel a little embarrased, but really.

On a positive note, I went and took my first test of the semester and got a 95% on it.  Now granted it was a religion class, New Testament, but I actually had to work hard and study for this one and so it felt only that much better was walked out of the testing center.  When I think about it, this is the first test in about a year that I have had to really work for (study for more than 10 minutes before the test) to be able to pass.  I am trying to do well this semester and while I am not perfect, I feel like a have control over my grades and what I am learning.  It looks good.  I have another 2 tests at the beginning of this week and hope the outcome of those will be positive as well, although I am a little frightened about my Spanish Literature Analysis class.

I have decided that this summer I am going to go skydiving.  I don’t know exactly how it works, but I’ve been told that it is around $100 to go tandem (you have to until you are otherwise trained) and I am kind of excited about it.  I was thinking that if/when I ever get married, I don’t think my spouse would let me do it, so I better get it done beforehand.  I even think a few of my friends might come along with me as well. 

It is President’s Day weekend coming up and I’ve decided to go down to Las Vegas with my friends and stay ar one of their sibling’s house for a few days.  It is really odd how quickly a person can get sick of Provo, and so before it gets too late and becomes fatal, I gotta get out of here again.  They all went down there this past summer and supposedly it was a blast, hence I will be looking forward to the break. 

So, I think I am going to be a good boy and study a little bit before it grows to late and the old man inside of me deems by beauty rest to be more important than good grades. 

How Many?

How many guys does it take to jump-start a young, unmarried, BYU girl’s car? I was walking to my first class the other day after having just parked my car and saw a girl with her car hood popped open and five, yes five, guys standing around trying to help her jump-start the car? I didn’t have time to stay and watch, but I am assuming at least half of them must have asked for her number. Yeah, it was funny.

My younger brother Colin reported to the MTC this week on Wednesday and my parents came down to drop him off. It was good to see all of the family again, and hard to say goodbye to Colin. He is going to be great and I will miss him, but I know that it will be a life changing experience for him as it was for me.

On another note, I think we have all had one of those days when we are driving and it seems that every stop light has turned against us and changes to red a few seconds before we arrive. I hate those days. Luckily, I didn’t have one. I had the opposite. I was up in Sandy on Thursday for a Microsoft Launch 2007 tour and when I was coming home, I don’t think I ever came to a complete stop after I left the parking lot because every light was green as I went through it all the way down Provo (~30 miles). It was cool.

I am starting to realize why I do not want to be a consultant for the rest of my career. It seems that for the past 4 weeks I have done nothing but drive around and put out “fires” or problems for all of the clients instead of helping to develop plans, solution, and design systems. It really starts to bum you out. I like my job, I like my company, but I don’t think I am willing any more to sacrifice much more time for my bosses like I have been. We shall see. Maybe I could even do a little bit more studying. I know, I shouldn’t get too far ahead of myself. :)

And to close off my post, I thought I would add a photo of another one of my cooking concoctions, a spicy, peanut-butter stir-fry with pea pods. Way good.