The Gameday Experience....

Let's begin by remembering that most of the time I make responsible decisions...This was not one of them. After BYU beat SDSU, I started getting pumped for the TCU game. I was a little nervous for the game (which it turns out I should have been) but excited nonetheless. On Sunday night I got an e-mail announcing that College Gameday was coming to Provo. I was so excited. For those of you who don't know (or don't care) College Gameday is the weekly college football show that travels around (mostly on the east coast) to important football games across the country. They haven't ever come to Provo before and so it was quite the honor. Let me also explain that at one point I wanted to be these broadcasters. The four people who do the show are Lee Corso, who is kind of wacky, Desmond Howard, who I'm pretty sure is there to be a cool kid, Kirk Herbstreet, who is so good looking and a good football analyst, and Chris Fowler, who is the host and also a great analyst.

As the time came closer I realized how big of a deal this actually was. People started camping out early Thursday for this event. We were thinking of just going that morning but decided that we wanted to get in sooner and got there at 6 on Friday night. Three of us prepared with one blanket (to cover the ground), two thermal ponchos (thank you Aunt Peggy), a sleeping bag, two little blankets, a down comforter, a pillow, two coats, and three sweatshirts. I realized this is a rather obnoxious list but it paints the picture for later. So equipped with all of these things and 3 Little Caesar's Pizza's we began the campout around 6 on Friday. Now our timing was pretty sweet because we got an awesome spot that allowed us to meet a lot of interesting people.

We decided to spend the first hour or two making signs that we could use for the show the next morning. Aaron came up with some pretty great signage: "evEn frogS can't stoP Unga" and "Cougars eat Frog for breakfast" (although the second was more Katie and me, Aaron made all of the letters for the sign). We were pretty proud of those signs and even got a few compliments on them from people who were wandering around. Most of the time we spent talking and walking around and such.

Once we finished the signs we were lucky to have a string of visitors to our little campsite. First my roommate Laurel came by and we had a blast! I showed her around the Gameday set and such (which she totally didn't care about but pretended to be excited about). As we were sitting and talking an man and his son (both dressed up in slacks and nice shirts) wandered by our little place. I think we were a pretty open target for people to talk to because there wasn't much that separated us from the outside world. Anyway, this man was a Fiesta Bowl representative who had come to see the game. He and his son (very good-looking I might add) were bored and thought they would come out and see what was going on. We talked to him for a bit and Aaron talked about his dad being in the administration at BYU and such. We also talked about how his son was applying for BYU and how hard it is to get in and such. I was funny because for some reason the whole time we were at this Gameday thing, I would talk to anyone. The whole shy thing was totally gone. Laurel and Aaron just laughed and me and wondered what in the heck was going on. Anyway it was a pleasant chat and it was kind of cool to know that other people thought the game was important too.

After that we decided to take some pictures of the whole experience. And it was all things cheesy (also something I don't normally go for). We took more pictures than I have for a while and enjoyed every minute of it. After a while Laurel and I wandered off and took more pictures and talked about the general splendor of it all. In our wanderings we had two very interesting experiences. One was as the Fiesta Bowl guy and his son were leaving. We saw them walking past and just politely said "bye" and "have a good trip" and things of that nature when he starts walking toward us. He then asks us to take a picture with his son....talk about awkward. His son just stood there inbetween Laurel and I while his dad took a picture. I tried to laugh it off but he did not seem amused. It was a pretty funny thing. Then Laurel and I met a dad and his son who came down to look at the Gameday stuff. It was so cute to see the dad interact with his son and try to show how important it was to share the experience with his son. We even got to be on the video he was making. It was pretty funny.

After we finished our wanderings, we played a few rounds of Catch Phrase with a few more visitors. Laurel's friend Nathan and his friend Zach (maybe I think but I can't really remember what his name was...oops!!) came and played with us for a while. We also had the chance to be on Channel 2 news. I called my sister and told her to tape it and she was so excited to. We ended up being in the front of the crowd, with our sweet signs. It was so much fun. I've never been willing to do anything like that before. Just another example of this being the craziest thing I've ever done. Pretty soon Laurel and her crew left and Lane and Audrey came to visit. They stayed until about 1 a.m......when the rain started. That's right rain.

Now look back at the materials we had....notice....no tent....or semblance of a tent....yeah...

It rained for a good while. Katie, miraculously, slept for about three hours. She bundled up in her sleeping bag and slept. She stayed pretty dry too. Aaron and I had our ponchos and huddled inside them in an attempt to sleep. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful....it was dark....and wet....and the parts of you that got wet were cold....I had the thought multiple times to go to the car and sleep while Aaron and Katie stayed out. They seemed to be able to handle it....but I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Finally around 5 a.m. we got up and packed up our stuff to get ready for the broadcast. Now the next two or so hours were kind of a blur of not so great things. There was chaos when the people came to let the people who had camped out in and people cut in line and such. I choose to skip this part because I like to focus on the positive....the good things that happened....

We finally got our spots in the crowd and it was so cool. I could see something live that I had seen over and over again on TV. I got to see the National Championship trophy. I got to be a part of something and tell a story that no one can take away from me.

By the time it was all over (10 a.m.) we were exhausted. We headed back to the car and we were so grateful for how comfortable the seats of the car were compared to the asphalt. I got home and knew I had to do homework. I started and lasted for about 10 minutes before I was too tired to even function. I slept for a few hours and then moved on with life.

BYU ended up losing the game that night (which I didn't go to because I didn't want to be cold again) but I will remember that experience for the rest of my life. I will probably never do something like that again....but it was definitely worth it!!! Yay for random adventures and fun times with fun people....

Just a few things I'd like to say...

Every once in a while I'm amazed at the sporting world...it has the power to bring the most amazing moments and then, in the blink of an eye change into something surreal and bizarre....

The Good:
-White Sox pitcher Matt Beuhrle threw a perfect game...as a follow up he continued the perfect streak through the sixth inning of his next game retiring a MLB record 17 batters in a row. He didn't end up winning the second game but it was amazing nonetheless...

-Josh Willingham of the Washington Nationals hit two grand slams in one game becoming only the 13th player to do so in major league history...

-I found a new sports show today called SportsNation...it almost made me want to major in sports broadcasting again...almost...needless to say it's an awesome show...

The Bad:
-Lamar Odom can't seem to decide whether he wants to play for the Lakers or not...and now the Lakers have lowered his contract from their previous offer...just sign already so we don't have to hear about it any more.

-People are becoming more accepting of steroid use among athletes....I knew the time would come but it still makes me sad

-Michael Phelps lost his first major race in four years...and everyone was quick to blame it on the winner wearing an ultra-sleek swimsuit....I don't know about you but I'm feeling that one major loss in four years is nothing to complain about...

The Ugly:
-Plaxico Burress will testify in front of a grand jury facing I think a illegal possession of a weapon charge....I think he deserves it....why is it even in the news anymore...I mean the man shot himself in the leg...

-Michael Vick is back...NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reinstated him but he'll have to miss a few games...T.O. thinks the penalty is too harsh....I think T.O. is a whiner....I think Vick should have to sit out a whole season...and maybe he will anyway because no one will touch him with a 9-foot pole...talk about a walking PR nightmare...

-Lance Armstrong didn't win the Tour de France....and the guy who did doesn't like him...and said so...and now looks like an idiot for hating on of America's heroes. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish.....

-And I end with Brett Favre....America's favorite quarterback has finally retired (at least today anyway)...I'm sure the Vikings thought he was going to show up for camp in a few weeks....it's gotta make the rest of the team feel good that their coaches and trainers spent so much time on someone who just decided to retire...oh crap...(don't get me wrong I have great respect for all that the man has done...but when it's over it's over...didn't you learn anything from last season??)

So these are my thoughts....with all of its maddness I love sports anyway...and college football is so close...

Lessons Learned...

So since I last updated I have learned a lot about myself...I finished summer semester under a whirlwind of activity. Moving into my new/old ward. I was called to teach Relief Society and I was stoked. I taught my first lesson and apparently that was the kiss of death. The Tuesday after the lesson the Bishop wanted to meet with me for some reason....I was a little nervous....I thought maybe I had preached some false doctrine or he was going to talk to me about my roommate leaving and me living alone for the rest of the spring....so not the case. In case you haven't heard...he called me to be Relief Society President....how bizarre is that. I couldn't believe it. But here I am about three weeks later trying to figure out how to be an effective leader....it's quite the trip.

So along with that I had my school work....and it was a pretty good semester. Aside from my psychological testing class (darn statistics strike again), I took a Sport Psychology class that was well AWESOME!!!! It took my two favorite topics and combined them into one class. I think I made more comments in that class than any other...well minus the Newswriting class...but these comments were definitely more productive!!

Now after a killer winter semester and a crazy busy spring term, I am ready to kickback and have a nice relaxing summer....we'll see how it goes. Right now I need to find a few hobbies but I have a feeling I'll have plenty of things to do!!

ADD and Moving...

I'm going start out by saying that I am officially the worst mover ever...It's been over a week since I was supposed to be "out" of my old apartment but I still have stuff there. It's almost like I have moving ADD or something....or maybe it's just general ADD. Thankfully my old roommates have been kind enough to keep the stuff until I get my act together. Moving really is a painful experience. Somehow...I accumulate so much stuff throughout my life. I actually got rid of tons of stuff before I moved but seriously...how can one person have so much stuff. Along with moving out goes the whole moving in thing...not fun. I'm pretty sure I injured my hip moving boxes up the stairs. Luckily I seemed to have recovered and can officially walk normally again. Also another problem with the moving moment was having to move most of my stuff twice. Because of the gap between moveout/move in dates I ended up moving half of my stuff to my sister's and leaving the other half on a roommates bed while I went home for the weekend. While I had a good time at home is was a little bit down played by my anxieties about having to move again when I got home.

So I've decided, with the help of my mother of course, that I not only have moving ADD but ADD in general. I probably should have discovered this a long time ago. It probably would have been helpful in previous years of college...so I'm trying something a little bit different for studying...it's the 30, 30, 30 program. I do one task for 30 minutes and then switch to another. I used it during finals and it worked out very well...hopefully it'll still work out in the future.

Another semester has begun and I'll have a class update soon...

Looking for Summer Adventure...

With the days of winter semester coming to a close ( I would just say winter but it snowed 5 inches here yesterday) I turn now to the summer and the adventures it can bring. As previously mentioned this semester has been somewhat of a whirlwind and I'm ready for a little slow down. I am back down to one job, which I love most of the time. I'll take classes during the spring but not summer which lends time to having adventures...and I'm pretty pumped...

A week and A Day....

Whew....so I didn't quite reach the week mark...one day too long..dang it. Oh well, close enough. So basically the run-down of my life is this...I feel like a chicken (with it's head fully intact) being chased by a fox. With the end of the semester closing in there is so much to be done and so little time in which to do these many many things. It's at times like these that I wish sleep wasn't a necessary part of life.

I'm excited for the end of the semester. I think this semester was a true test of my abilities to survive under the craziest of circumstances...sometimes I even feel like a real grown up...shhhh...don't tell

So looking back one of the highlights of my semester that I forgot to mention is being able to go out to lunch with my sibling without their kids. This has happened on three occasions this semester and I have loved every minute of it. Because of the age gap in my family it's been difficult to get to know my sisters well. They were all gone by the time I was 8 or 9 so it wasn't like I had the "big sister" to help me get through those teenage years. I'm so grateful that they live close now so that I can learn from their examples and see what I want out of life. I'm so grateful for you are and the examples you are to me...

The Update...

So I made this resolve to update my blog once a week...not only for my sake but just so I have a record of my thoughts and feelings in life. We'll see how it goes. So here we go on the update. I've almost completed yet another semester of college....woot woot. While the semester hasn't gone exactly as I would have liked there were a few things that went rather well....

• I still have awesome roommates!! While we have our moments of tension and irritation we all have a great time together...
• I have successfully contributed to three groups projects. While two of them aren't quite over yet, I've been able to expand my horizons and learn that I have the ability to lead a group. It means I'm growing up...
• I've been able to handle my course-load/work schedule and haven't died. There have been some weeks were I have felt close but nothing too bad...
• I went to Vegas again this year. This time Aaron was back and it was a blast!! We even made friends with at UNLV fan who I'm pretty sure was drunk the whole weekend. Simply awesome....

While there have been ups there have also been some not so fun moments:

• For some reason I'm feeling really disconnected from old friends. I'm not really a fan...
• I've only been able to go home once this semester and that was in January. Yes, I realize I've been in college for 3 years and I should be over it but I just love home....
• There were moments where I was not so nice to my roommates because of the crap that went on the day/week previous. I'm glad they will put up with me and my dramatics....
• Running experiments is really hard....running two in one semester is ridiculous...
  
• Then there is whole toilet freaking out we've had to deal with. The latest involving lots of water and a subsequent kitchen leak, oh fun times...

Basically, I've learned a lot about myself this semester and am ready for it to be over....group projects are definitely not as fun as they are cracked up to be but you learn a lot from them. Hopefully you'll get more musings from my life as time goes on...it will be awesome....

It's Time....

Cougar fans IT'S TIME.....time to sit down....time to walk out...time to sell those beloved season tickets you've always dreamed about....time to move on....pick a new team....time to admit your fair-weather fanness.....time to sell the blue paraphernalia and change it to re.....ok....I'm getting carried away....let's start over

Cougar fans it's time...time to rally....time to gather around your team...time to use you all-sports passes and season tickets to their greatest extent....time to rise and shout....it's time to be a real fan...

Losing two games at home is not the end of the world. It's like little league, or YAFL, or junior Jazz, or whatever....if you had good parents they didn't leave you at the game because you lost yet another painful game to watch....it's time for the fans to step up...be the proverbial parents and keep cheering the team on....be there....or don't....but if you are there....be there. This is a call to stop being that fairweather fan....the obnoxious fan that throws things onto the court and ends up hurting out team more than proving any kind of point.

And while I'm at it...remember that we all human...athletes and coaches are no different.....