In Memory...

My poor shoes... they served me well... may they rest in peace.

We've fought the good fight and should them cows whose boss. We've made some good memories but your time has come. Fare thee well.

See you in that big green pasture in the sky!

Two Worlds, One Life

There are two worlds: the world we can measure with line and rule, and the world that we feel with our hearts and imagination.

~Leigh Hunt~

What happens when you have two separate identities for two different worlds and those two worlds meet up?

According to my Interpersonal Communications text book, it's absolute chaos. Super stressful chaos. My entire life, I have heard of examples where something like this happens and the effected individual tends to have a mental break down of sorts. In summary, it's never good.

But lo! There is such a thing as HOBY magic! Now listen children...

Remember the story about the dance? I forgot to mention my friends DJed it. They're pretty boss at it too! During dinner I was outside with the staff and DJ Thumpa (Or DJ Danny as some people call him) swagged his onto the HOBY scene. I've known this guy since high school and thus he was one part of "another world". This wasn't that big of a deal though. He's been there every year I have been so I was expecting this, and I don't see him that much anyways. No biggy.

Fast forward to Saturday, the last day of HOBY. Some emotions are already raising. Also the day of the college fair. After doing a final cabin check (and the appearance of Mr SUU), I entered the main lodge to find that some of the college reps were there. I looked around to see if I could see UVU. No dice. So I keep walking to join the admirable and winsome Brown Crew. For some reason that I am unaware of, I took on last look around and that's when I saw my buddy from UVU's Prospective Student department! I may have been a little louder than usual, because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, stopped talking to watch me hug my friend.

This second encounter was a little different from the first. It was unexpected, and from a current life that I am still a part of. It's still going to take a little more to phase me. having my two worlds meet for a few moments didn't send my spiraling into an identity crisis. In fact, it probably helped.

You know when your mixing something in a hot pot and you want to add eggs? If you put the eggs straight in, they'll cook too quickly and you'll have scrambled eggs with whatever you were mixing. You have to do something called tempering. You take a little of the hot mixture and add it to the eggs to slowly bring them to temperature, then finally you mix everything together.

This is what happened when my two worlds collided. Now, it's easier to keep a little more of HOBY in my life. Love it or leave it. Hey UVU, you better get use to it.

Happy trails

We Take a Break for a Very Good Day

This week I spent a lot of time with my nieces. Above, one of them is doing the Downward Dog. These sweet little dolls help me appreciate every day at it's face value. Spend an hour with them and you will too.

However, a day during this past week we took a break from each other. I had to be a grown up and go to work. It was like any other day of work, nothing too special. BUT THEN...

I ran some errands on campus. Doesn't sound too exciting, does it? But that's where you'd be wrong!! I took care of business, man! Curious as to what happened? I'll let you in on some of the precious little things that occurred:

• I took care of financial aid. That's one thing checked off of my To Do list.
• Despite the rain, it was a gorgeous day!
• I checked out the Pope Building to see if I could find a good place to get some homework done, but that was a no go. I was about to go down the stairs at the same time as a young man, BUT he was very gentlemanly with a "Hello" and an offer to let me go down the stairs before him. Who know thing like that happen?
• To take advantage of the wonderful weather, I did some studying outside. The after rain smell was overwhelmingly amazing, the birds were flippin' happy, and so was I.
• As was mentioned before, I studied outside. I found some serious study spots! (Try saying that ten times fast) I found a place next to a dried up stream. However, because of the aforementioned rain, this day it was a babbling brook/stream.
• Whilst cranking out some much needed reading (Criminal Justice of all things), a birdie came next to me and took a bath. It's joy splashed upon me like the sun on my face and the wind in my hair. (Yep. I just got all sentimentally poetic-like.) Then a very tiny yellow bird came down and dance around his bathing friend. It was just too perfect!
• So I went find another study place. One that didn't make me feel so happy and ooy-gooy. I started to head for another building on campus. Just around the stream bend there were two sleeping ducks.

• I'm like 5 years old.
• While studying in a quiet corner, a religions teacher was very nice to me and asked "When it comes to yogurt: chocolate? peach? or blueberry?" I said blueberry. He started to leave and said he'd be back. What on earth was this guy doing?? He went into his office which was not too far from where I was crouched over my Criminal Justice. He quickly popped out and said "Sorry, not blueberry. I meant raspberry." I said raspberries are good too. Then he came out with a raspberry Creamie! Stuff like this actually happens!!

Here is the deep side. Sometimes, life is like this dried up stream that turns rocks yellow and smells like trout (good memories). Some days, we have the waters of life flowing through us and sometimes not. We can't always see what's coming, but if we keep going we may end up on the ride of our lives.

Also, who needs an excuse for a good day? Good days have wonderful thoughts within themselves! Great things happen. You don't have to dig into everything.

Happy trails!

(P.S. If you want to hear another reason that greatly contributed to my overfilling gooberness of that day, ask me.)

Wait... You Can Learn From a Dance?

There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good. ~Edwin Denby

(Left to Right, Me creeping, Micheal- JStaff and Katie, Clint and Belen, then demonstrating the "dead bird" would be two staffies, Jerry and Lena, and in the back is the brown crew. The best crew.)

If you know me, you know I'm not a big fan of dances. Sure I like dancing, but dances just are not really my scene. At least that's what I thought! Although it only lasted a little over an hour, this most recent dance is probably one of the best so far. Should we explore the possible reasons why?

Never trust spiritual leader who cannot dance. ~Mr. Miyagi, The Next Karate Kid, 1994

(Jessica and myself showing off our "Furniture Sale")

Maybe I've never noticed this in other dances, but this one was just therapeutic. There is something about getting down to a beat, getting lost in a crowd, having your ears blasted out, and cutting loose that brings out another side to people you don't normally see. You forget all your problems and expose this different side of yourself to people you barely know.

I danced with 16 year olds. Actually, it was more like they danced with me. I would be minding my own business, just dancing with some friends, then a ton of ambassadors (sophomores) will trap us and act as though we were equals. or at least until one of them says "I'm dancing with a 21 year old! So cool!" Dancing does not discriminate. The next day everything went back to normal, other than we all felt a little closer than we were before. I must agree with whoever said, "This is better than a rave!"

You must also take into account that whether you like it or not, dancing is a form of exercise even when you're just jumping up and down, trying to stay upright. Exercise, as we all know, releases endorphins which makes people happy. There were some serious happy vibes.

We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. ~Japanese Proverb

(Me, Jerry, and Jessica bouncing. P.S. I'm doing it in cowboy boots. Not an easy task.)

I have to add that I learned how to jerk, how to "bounce", how to beat box, and re-learned the Tragedy dance. I learned a lot that night, and it was only the first official night of the conference! Who knew I could still break it down?

I also feel the need to add that after I cleaned up after the dance, I had the brilliant idea to blow dry my hair upside down. The result was a mane. Add a hoodie, sore back, and an Oreo, you get a creepy hobo. Fun times! Anyways, when I woke up that morning, my hair was still puffy, that is why my hair looks that great in the above picture. I had many different kinds of learning experiences.

After going over all of these possible reasons as to why this dance was such a great experience, I have to admit that there is only one reason that ultimately contributed...

These guys.

(The Gang: Including Staff, J-Staff, Facilitators, and others)

HOBY 2011

"Service is a lifestyle" -Mike Anderson

Another HOBY conference has come and pass. The only way I could describe this year's experience would have to be... interesting. Every year is special and unique. That is why, unlike last year, I will actually blog about part of my experience.

Evey year I learn something new at HOBY and every year I am reminded of things I should be doing. Such an example would be goals. To start off, I am setting a goal to blog a little bit about HOBY as often as possible. Wait! I don't think that's specific enough. I will blog at least once every three days. With spring semester and work, I have nothing else to blog about.

HOWEVER! I will be posting my experiences in my own way. I am blogging about lessons I learned and impressions I took from HOBY. And of course, there will be pictures.

Until next time. Happy trails!

(P.S. Yes, that is me laying in the front. This picture was chosen because it was everyone from HOBY and because the "funny" picture would be too revealing of my experience. We don't want to jump ahead.)