4x4, a face full of snow, and a Christmas miracle.

I had an experience and I feel the need to write it down. This is my method.

I went to Park City this weekend to party with a good group of friends and while I was down there I decided to visit my dear friend Nat in Midway. It was my first time in the beautiful city and I had a very enjoyable time. While I was indoors tho, it happened to snow a good 8 inches. I left Nat's house at about 1 in the am and headed back up to Park City to party. It was great fun to drive on roads full of snow and unmolested by other less worthy vehicles and drivers. I had a great time sliding around in the snow, fish-tailing, and doing donuts.


Eventually, the fun started to wear off and I realized what kind of situation I was really in. I was in an area I had never been in before, late at night, and in the middle of a pretty heavy snow storm/blizzard. I didn't really let it get to me, but in the back of my head doubt and concern of my safety were beginning to sound.

I got on the highway back to Park City and that's when the real blizzard hit. I wasn't able to see the road because no one had driven on the roads in awhile and so my focus wasn't to stay in between the lines, but rather to stay on the road at all. That usually isn't too hard, but due to the blizzard I was struggling to be able to see the markers that boarder the highway on both sides. With all that said, no real panic set in until I passed an exit sign that was completely covered in snow and I realized I might not be able to recognize my exit when in came. I thought up scenarios of driving aimlessly for hours in the storm, losing control, sliding off the road and freezing to death somewhere north of Midway. I passed a few more illegible signs and I decided that rather than panic I needed to pray.

I quietly said a prayer to myself that I could have the Spirit with me to find my exit. Not even kidding, the next sign I saw had no snow on it, was completely legible and said "Park City Next Exit 1 Mile". It was a tho someone had wiped just that one sign clean. I soon found the exit and in no time I was back at the mansion called a cabin in Park City. Prayer is real. God is real. He cares for us and will bless us if we are willing to ask and to show forth a little faith. Thank you Heavenly Father for the many blessings you have bestowed upon me, my family, and my friends.

I'm a sucker for a good Christmas miracle.

Realptimistic

Optimism. Would you consider it a good thing?
You prob do. And for the most part I would agree with you.
But the real question is, can optimism be a bad thing?
In some instances, I believe this to be true.

What good is optimism if it makes you miss or avoid reality and in turn creates more problems and issues. Looking at and dealing with reality allows us to more accurately asses a situation and act accordingly. If you are "optimistic" by pretending that the situation is better than it really is, then chances are you will only make more mistakes and make the situation worse.

That's exactly why we are in our current economic situation, everyone was overly-optimistic. No one prepared for or imagined that tough times could be ahead, everyone assumed that the good times would continue to roll when all the signs were saying that the growth and economic situation were unrealistic and bound to change in the near future. But "optimism" kept us from seeing the truth, it shaded our eyes and now we've fallen into a deep hole.

It's also the reason I believe the recession is far from over, all these stimulus packages have done nothing but postpone the innevitable. We made some mistakes in the past, we went to far in debt and the recession is the consequence. By going through all these measures to soften the blow we have only postponed our consequences, not avoided them all together. Bad decisions bring bad consequences, that's just how life is.

Don't think that I'm a pessimist from these comments, cause I most certainly am not. I hope to make the best of the future, but I don't think we can do that if we are misleading ourselves today by being overly-optimistic. By being realistic today, i can truly be optimistic about the future, it won't necessarily cause me to be over-optimistic.

We need to optimistic, but we also need to be realistic in order to change and improve.
Just don't be stupid and live in a world that doesn't exist. Instead create a better world by living in the real world.

If I could sum it up in two words, I would choose optimistic and realistic. Put them together and you get...realptimistic.

Ya.

Embrace your inner-animal

My Spirit Animal

I have a problem when I sleep.

I haven't been getting very much sleep as of late.
So I left my 9:30 class early today and went home to take a nap.

Ya, i went home to take a nap at 10 in the morning.
I was exhausted.
Don't judge me.

My dream, like all dreams, made a lot of sense at the time, but now it just sounds crazy awesome.

I am running down main street and tugging a royal blue, 14 foot canoe behind me.
Some dude in sunglasses and a chick with big hair are chasing me while dragging their own canoe.
I don't really understand why, but I need to get the hell away from them.
Main street begins to fill with water and I jump into the canoe as the current takes me swiftly away from my pursuers.
I'm not worried anymore. I'm just excited to be floating down main street on a canoe.
Of course tho, just as I am really enjoying my float down the street all the water begins to drain down the big drains on the corner of 1400 north.
Panic sets in again as I realize that my canoe isn't gonna last long being pushed along the rough asphalt.
Luckily, the canoe doubles as a sail. I grab the sides of the canoe as it lifts up into the air.
I'm flying superman style behind my canoe turned sail/flying device.
I hit traffic and panic hits again as I fly narrowly between speeding UPS trucks on both sides.
Just as I am about to hit one of the trucks head on, I pull up and fly into the sky.
I am flying swiftly thru the air...what an amazing feeling!
I've never had so much fun, the feeling of flying is better than anything I have yet experienced in my life and I realize that this is the first time in my life that I have flown in a dream...
No sooner had I realized this than my great dream quickly turned into a terrible nightmare.
I began to spin out of control and everything turned dark.
I instantly opened my eyes to the sight of my room on fire and the sound of sirens and screaming.
I wanted to jump up out of bed and run, but I couldn't move, couldn't shout, I could only lay there and watch the fire consume my room and imagine my imminent death.
I'm awake, conscious, and I begin to truly panic as the feeling of death creeps into my bones and makes my stomach twist and turn with pain.
Death is so close...I struggle and struggle and somehow break free from my paralysis.  The hallucination is gone in an instant.

And I realize, it's not on fire.
I'm not going to die by being burnt alive.
Praise the Lord.
I had almost pooped my pants.

I hate my condition.

I choose you!

Immortality Institute by The Abandoned Hospital Ship
This isn't much of a music video, it's mostly just a picture with music playing, but this song is amazing and easily my favorite non-church song.
So please, just go listen to it.
I love it.
You'll love it


PS- For those of you wondering, my favorite song of all time is "If you could hie to Kolob". It is amazing.
PPS- You can download The Abandoned Hospital Ship's album for free here.

Hush baby, don't cry.

There is a lot of crappy shiz going on out there in the world these days. Times are rough and there are probably some even harder times ahead of us.

Bad things are always going to happen, that's life and we can't control it. But we can control how we react to it. Let's take control of the situation and make the best of it. And I think that I have the perfect solution. Just laugh. Laugh at it. Life is ironic. Life isn't fair. So what? Just make the best of it. Laugh at the good. Laugh at the bad. Laughing doesn't only make life bearable, but it makes it enjoyable. Take what life gives you and enjoy it.

Just laugh it.

If you need some help to get you started, just watch this and laugh...Life is tenawesome.

My mom says it's impolite...

If someone asked me what my best talent was, you know what I would say?

Belching.
Burping.
Ructusing.
Or eructating.

Ask anyone who knows anything about me and they'll admit I'm pretty good at it. Not only are they loud, but they last a long time and they smell delectable. The reason I mention this is not to tute my own horn, but because of an experience I had in the Hub the other day.

So anyone that has visited the hub at USU knows that it employs people with disabilities to pick up the trash and clean the tables. So one day, we were having Hub Club by just eating and enjoying our time with friends. So in mid conversation I had to belch pretty bad so I let it loose. At that moment, 2 disabled employees were cleaning the garbage near us and when they heard me belch they both started laughing. Those 2 guys were smiling from ear to ear, they thought my belch was one of the funniest things they had heard. One of them even told me that my belch sounded just like an elk.

An elk!
What an honor.

We all had a good laugh about it and continued on with Hub Club. A few minutes later the 2 guys walked by and both of them were watching me, just waiting for me to belch again, but I didn't have one and I could tell they were disappointed. So I made sure that I had one ready the next time they walked by and I let another loud belch go. They started laughing again and we followed with some loud laughter ourselves. It was great. So much joy out of something so simple.

See mom, belches are good for something.