Tripped Up

My passion for travel started back in May of 2006 when I visited Europe.  I was bitten by the travel bug then, and the fever has persisted to this day.
     Back in the early stages of winter, I developed this idea that I wanted to go to Cancun at some point during the cold weather months.  The idea that formed in my head remained a specter of my true desire.  My sister mentioned about going to Orlando, but my infatuation with Cancun directed her words in one ear, and straight out of the other...or so I thought.
     It was only after I had buried my hopes of going to Cancun that Orlando entered back into my mind; this time with much more fury than before.  Upon concluding what seemed to be an infinite deliberation process, the airfare to Florida was booked.
     The morning of February 13th began with much anticipation.  We arrived at the airport with no problem whatsoever.  As we entered the terminal, we somehow must have attracted an unlucky aura which was loitering outside.  As we go to get our boarding passes, my sister realizes she doesn't have her current drivers license.  If I may provide an understatement, let me say this was a small cause for panic.  It was very lucky that my sister had alternate forms of identification which was satisfactory to TSA.
     Everything from that point until our descent into Tampa was literally and figuratively smooth.  We landed in Tampa, picked up our luggage, then headed to pick up the rental car.  I was slightly annoyed because I was looking forward to not driving on the trip, but my sister's lack of a current license ensured that I would be taking an active role in getting us from place to place..
     Somehow this aura of bad karma followed us from Utah to Florida.  While at islands of adventure, one of my contacts fell out then ripped.  I spent the latter half of the day partially blind.  Perhaps the best part of the day was paying almost nine dollars for a mediocre hamburger and fries.  No matter how much I desired the fun to stop there, it did not.  We spent a few minutes in the rain waiting the bus to take a long time to drop us off at the hotel.
     Going to beach was an adventure in itself, if you call being at your wits end an adventure.  I think it has taken people less time to cross the expanse of an entire state than it did for us to get to the beach in a vehicle.  What made me really excited was the GPS took us the long way.  The beach was great once we arrived.  Returning home from a vacation never really is a fun thing, but for us it was a nightmare without the dream.  The two children behind us were acting up and making noise for a good portion of the flight.  What a delight for the ears!  We were unfortunately made aware that these children would be on our connecting flight as well.  My emotional world nearly came crashing down.    Now that I have returned, I get to repair the damage.





   
   

A Hug Not Worth Remembering

     I've never claimed to be a hugging virtuoso,  but what happened about a month ago doesn't even qualify as pond scum.  The middle of winter can be quite brutal, and that particular night it was cold as I remember.  A female friend and I had just gotten out of a movie, and we were walking to her car.  I accompanied her to her car as a gentlemanly gesture, only to humiliate myself at the end of the stroll in such a way that only a true dunce could appreciate.
     As we arrived near her car, we stopped and talked for a minute or two.  Little did I know that there was a clumsy force inside me that was about to be unleashed.  I had decided that I wanted to hug her, as to avoid any embarrassing conclusion to the night.  I went in for the hug, and the product of my effort was a hybrid of a hug and a convulsion. I found myself doing the unthinkable:  the back-pat. 
     I must confess this instance was a repeat offense.  I recall at least one other time where the ever-ugly portion of my repertoire, the back-pat, came instinctively out of me.  This hug must have been colder than the air in which we were standing.  It would have been hard to identify if it was the cold or the embarrassment which turned my face red, but my hypothesis is the embarrassment.  I immediately acknowledged the error to my friend, to which she concurred.
    For a man who likes to give women a quality experience, the hug frankly was a first degree failure.       

A Memory of a Movie

Ok. I have apparently decided subliminally somehow to only update the blog once a month. To some of you that may just be about right, and to the other, and quite smaller group I may add, it may not be enough. After all I know that my blog must be an all-you-can-eat buffet of laughter. I can't help but think back to a few years ago while I was living in St. George. A few times my friends and I would get together and have fun with a video camera. One of the endeavors we undertook was an authenitic "true to life" recreation of the Ammon and King Lamoni story in the Book of Mormon. I really really wish I still had that video so I could post it on Facebook. Anyway, I played the part of King Lamoni, and did so with such power and awe-inspiring skill that it probably would make Charlton Heston's Moses look like a babe in its mother's arms. (The preceeding statement is most likely false in every respect). The video was so true to the story that instead of using real severed arms, we got the ingenious idea to replace them with oven mitts. Chew on that Speilberg! I had tons of fun making it, the only regret I do have is that a true cinematic treasure is now lost. (That preceeding statement is mostly false, except for the "I had tons of fun making it" comment). What does the movie-making future hold for me? Only time will tell.....

The quasi miracle

For the second time in a row, I am going to write about golf, and yes I did golf this morning.  This particular outing was more pleasent than usual.  I will start off by saying that for the second consecutive time, my driving ability was pretty non-existant.  I should probably work on that huh?  Anyway, overall I think I did better than at any point in my entire life, as far as the overall round went.  For some reason, be it luck or whatever but my ball happened to find itself about 25 feet away from the hole, not that far off the green.  I took my usual practice swings and then hit the ball.  Let me tell you now that the hit was an absolute thing of beauty.  I watched as the ball hit the green, and like a laser guided missile hitting its target, rolled right into the hole.  I was pretty much in shock.  Never in my life had something so wonderful as that happened, and just a guess but probably will not happen again.  That made my day.  I am going out on a limb here by saying that it was all because I watched Happy Gillmore last night.  Moral of the story:  Happy Gillmore will turn any bad golfer into a good one (temporarily).

Golf....I like golf very much. I think the reason I like it so much is the uncertainty. I have experienced the phenomena of doing well (for my subpar ability), and then the very next round throwing whatever game I had to begin with to proverbial heck. At the very pinnacle of self-confidence I get knocked way back to it is where I came from in the first place. The prompt for this entry comes from today's golf outing. Four of us were in the group, out of which I came in third place. One of the main reasons for this is that I could not drive the ball if my life depended on it. If hitting the ball poorly were a crime, I would be locked away for a very long time. Watching me try to hit the ball was like watching a blind man chop wood. The day wasn't all bad though. At least I made it through the entire nine holes without losing a ball. That rarely happens. I did manage in all my eccentric stupidity to not put sunblock on, and hence my skin magically turned red. (I think they call that a sunburn.) That leaves me with two memories of today's activities. May many happy days of golfing uncertainty be ahead!

A country weekend

In starting this entry, I want to state that yes I am in fact going to a country concert this weekend. Those who know me would most likely be thinking to themselves that I have gone way off the deep end or so, and believe me when I say that I completely agree with you! I will admit that I do like some country, but to consider myself a country fan I have to decline. I often said to myself that I would never go to a country concert, and I find myself disobedient to my own way of thinking. Feel fee to verbally abuse me at any time. The only two reasons I am going are 1. the ticket is free (there is no way I would actually pay to see a country concert) and 2. to get away from Salt Lake for a very brief amount of time. If I don't make it out alive, keep in mind that I went out without much of a fight but with my boots on. So remember to keep me in your prayers as I brave a couple of hours of country music. If somehow I make it though, I will hopefully be a better man for it.

.A Movie for a Life

I think it would be fun to think of various movies that would describe different aspects of my life, and I will attempt to humor you with some ideas that I can apply too my life. First of all, just as a warning I apparently have temporarily lost the ability to be clever, so if this entry sucks, here is my preemptive apology. A movie that would describe my work life well would be The Neverending Story. Trying to describe my everyday life is a little more trying. *thinking really hard* Possibly Groundhog Day. Sometimes I feel I am reliving the same day over and over again. On to my social life. A good one for that would be The Invisible Man, which would aptly describe why it is Friday, and I am home. Finally on to my love life. As a precursor to this let me say that I am overly ecstatic that Valentine's Day will be here before we know it. YAY VALENTINE'S DAY!!*
The two movies that instantly come to mind are 1. Gone With the Wind and 2. Gone in 60 Seconds. I don't think I need to explain those. This probably isn't my best work, but it will have to do. I hope you at least somewhat laughed or at least started to crack a smile.
*=sarcastic remark