Thursday, April 22, 2010

Rainstorms, Lost Kitties, and Little League



Yesterday we had a rainstorm that was unlike any other I remember in Utah before. Leaving the U campus, I saw some very-close-to-black clouds hanging over the highway I was about to drive on. Here we go... Out of no where, it went from zero precipitation to fairly heavy rain, and had to turn on my high wipers to be able to see where I was going on the onramp. Traffic came to a near halt. As I got to the highway, I could no longer see the road stripes, because they were drowning in a river of rainwater. The drops were so huge, it literally sounded like two dozen people were hurling rocks at my windshield over and over. Very fun stuff. Then when I got to the I-215/I-15 change, I went under the tunnel, where I discovered a foot-deep muddy puddle of water. Going 15 mph so I wouldn't hydroplane, I splashed through it and completely covered my Mom's car in mud. The car was clean within the next 15 seconds or so.
When I got home, I found that Mom and Tara were in a cat hunt, as Sweetie (Tara's cat) had escaped their sight. Searching high and low through the house, we could not find Sweetie anywhere! Tara and I went outside in the pouring rain to search for this poor cat, who hates the outdoors. For about twenty minutes or longer, I went up and down the street, completely soaking my clothes, looking for this cat. No luck. Eventually we gave up looking, hoping that when the rain stopped, we'd find Sweetie somewhere. Later at a friend's birthday dinner, my Mom texted me to tell me she'd been inside the whole time and finally cornered her in the bathroom. That was pretty frustrating, considering I'd frozen outside for nothing!

I also have the fun opportunity of being a Little League baseball coach with another friend. Our team is the Rockies, and we are just getting ready for the upcoming season. On Tuesday and today, we watched all the 3rd and 4th graders in the league and scouted their talent, and took notes on who was good at what, and so on. Today after scouting, we had our coaches meeting and our draft. My co-coach Tim and I felt very pleased with the team we'd drafted. Most of the attention of the other coaches had been spent on the 4th graders for the two scouting days. But, Tim focused completely on the 3rd graders and I split my attention,
because there were far fewer 4th graders than 3rd. The draft order of the 4th graders went almost exactly as I had ranked them, but the other coaches seemed rather clueless as to who had the best skills in the 3rd graders. One of the coaches picked my last choice as the fourth 3rd grader pick. We took advantage of all this and picked the players that we saw to have the best abilities. We're going to have an all-star team this year! Our first practice is this Saturday, and we have our pre-season starting in two weeks. I'm very excited! Also, I am nervous, because I really don't have any idea how to coach baseball. I only know how to play it. We'll see how it goes!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Clifford the Con and Wisdom Teeth

Upon returning home from school, I was told that Clifford (my dog) had been out walking and captured by the city dog catcher. The cop (badge and all) had seen Clifford out by Windsor Drive and for 15 minutes, tried to capture him (go Cliff!) with that pole with the hoop on the end. Finally, he caught Clifford and took him to jail (the cage in the back of his car) and drove to our house to return him. He then took Clifford by pole and hoop again to the door, and gave my mom a ticket. Why? My guess is that the city needs money, desperately, so they decide to go fine people whose dogs are walking around the neighborhood. I find it funny that my dog has gotten in trouble with the law and gone to jail before I have (not that I will..).
Also, I had my dentist appointment for my mission today. I was the center of attention at the dentist office once they found out the checkup was for my mission-- especially by a (I must say) very attractive girl, who looked my age, maybe a year younger. She was an intern there and it was her first day. She was chatting with me most of the time I was there, which was pretty neat. I would have asked for her number, etc if I wasn't leaving on my mission soon. The big story of the visit, though, was I found out I do in fact have wisdom teeth. 2 teeth on the top, so they will have to be removed, because there are no teeth on the bottom to bite on. Luckily, they just recently started developing so I can go on my mission the full two years before they become a problem.
Last day of classes at the U are two weeks from Wednesday! One final the following week, and then on to summer!

Monday, April 5, 2010

A Bad Day Averted

This morning, I got up in plenty of time to take a shower, have breakfast, and be comfortably on my way to American Fork to catch the express bus to Salt Lake for school. I arrived there about twelve minutes early, so I just sat in my car and listened to the sports station until I got there. When I was ready to go get on the bus, I stepped out and thought "my back pocket feels pretty light..." So I checked, and I had forgotten my wallet, which included my bus and train pass. Frustrated, I watched as the bus drove away, and I had to drive all the way back home to get my wallet, because it had my money that I needed to pay for more gas to make it to school.
After my first class, I chose to drive my car over to a lot near to my next class instead of walking eleven minutes through the middle of campus. This was risky because I didn't know the time it would take to get there (this class takes attendance- if you are late, you are absent). I got to the parking lot, and found a spot just as I saw the shuttle I needed driving on the road. I parked as fast as I could, grabbed my backpack, and sprinted with all my might to the shuttle that had just parked, only to realize my pants were unzipped. But, I couldn't be late, so I kept running. Luckily there was an old lady who was crossing the street, so the bus couldn't go anywhere. I got to the bus just before it left, and the driver looked at me and laughed to himself, I assume because of my pants. Embarrassed for having looked like a fool for running, and because my zipper was down, I boarded and sat down. I made it to class just as it started, so I wasn't late. I took my seat, and went to pull out my paper that I had worked on the night before for a few hours that was due. It wasn't in my folder--I had left it on the printer. Rats! Luckily, I found that only the rough draft was due, and we would only be peer reviewing them in class, instead of turning them in for a grade. I, as well as a few other students who had the papers on their computers, exchanged computers, and class went smoothly from there.
In my next class, I was terrified to see my grade on the midterm we took last week. I studied hard, but I didn't feel good about it at all after. The teacher handed back my test, and it said 89/100! Better yet, he graded on a "curve" so he added 10 points to everyone's test. My final grade: 99/100! That was so relieving! The test counts for 30% of my final grade, so that is a huge help.
On the way home, I was driving on Foothill Drive, which has a speed limit of 40. I was going 46 when I passed a cop who was sitting on the shoulder. After I passed him, he turned on his lights and sped up on the road. Feeling the burn of adrenaline and fright, I pulled over. The cop sped past me and turned up a street further along Foothill. Whew.
On the freeway, the wind was extremely heavy with the passing cold front. I had been facing a headwind the whole way home, and trying to keep my poor light little truck straight on the road. I constantly had to adjust with the changing wind direction and speed. Almost hit a car in the right lane once, despite having the steering wheel turning left. I never was able to go faster than 64mph the entire way past Sandy. That was interesting Upon exiting, I had to accelerate down the offramp. Didn't really even need my brakes until the last 200 feet or so.
This could have been a bad, bad day, but it ended up being a pretty good day overall!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Easter Weekend

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. Blogger isn't one of the websites I go to routinely, so I forget a lot! Much has happened since my last blog entry, here are some of the highlights:
-Fall semester at Utah ended (I passed all my classes)
-Utah football had a very impressive season for its rebuilding year, including a bowl game in San Diego that the band went to.
-I moved back home to Provo after the fall semester, but I still go to the U. I take a bus to Sandy or downtown SLC, depending on the day. I take TRAX to campus from there.
-I am in the Utah pep band, and we played for all home men's and women's basketball games, as well as gymnastics. The men's team had an abysmal year, but they will get better with years coming. The women's team did well overall, especially in the MWC tournament in Vegas (which the band went to as well-- missed a week of school.)
-My classes at the U are racquetball (that ended halfway through the semester), pep band, symphonic band, intermediate academic writing, and severe/unusual weather. I am also taking missionary preparation at the Institute.

Last Monday, I started filling out my mission papers. I will submit them sometime within the next month or so. I put my eligibility date as my birthday (July 31)

I have lots and lots of pictures on facebook about things I have experienced. I will try to blog at least every few days now. I hope you all have a great Easter Weekend!