Time To Move On

Can anyone believe that it's taken me so long to post again? Until a couple hours ago, I hadn't even checked my email or gone online once in the previous 48 hours. Kind of crazy for me. I wasn't really missing it all that much; I just didn't have any readily available access to it.

There's a lot to say about everything. I guess the main thing being that it just feels weird to be back in Provo. Just plain ol' weird. Except for the mission and a brief two month stint in Spring '04, I have always always always had Dave. I don't think anyone in this world gets how close we are except for Dave. Some of you think you might get it, but only Dave is really agreeing with me right now. And besides not having Dave here, it's just weird to be here without anyone that I'm pretty tight with and then also being in a living situation where I'm coming in completely blind.

Met my roommate. I dropped by when the ward was in church, but luckily for me he was home. Maybe he missed church because he was busy polishing off the Camel cigarettes in the trash, or the case of Coronas. Admittedly, that's a first for me in my roommate situation. At least when Greg drank he was more discrete about it.

The weather is weird. I drove in through heavy rain and windstorms. Heavy. I guess it had been in the upper 90s the last several days, only to get really rainy up here and tomorrow it's dropping down to 62. Weird. Then back up into the 80s after tomorrow.

On the plus side I have a beautiful view of the valley, my place is way nicer than any other that I've had while up at school, and there are tons of cool people and cute girls. I didn't get a chance to go to my ward today because I was still figuring out where I lived. And while my roommate may have some struggles with the word of wisdom, otherwise he seems like a pretty chill guy. I got an amazing blessing from Dave's dad before coming up. I'm kind of (maybe only slightly) excited for school and to find out what that will be like. And I like Utah clouds. It really could be a lot worse.

Years ago when the missionary who taught me the gospel bore his final testimony in our ward, he quoted Tom Petty's Time To Move On:

It's time to move on, time to get going
What lies ahead I have no way of knowing
But under my feet, baby, grass is growing
Yeah it's time to move on, it's time to get going.

I started listening to that song and I almost started crying.

I know this is only temporary, and I'll be back in a few months, but I just love you people so much. Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard the kind of love I feel for you guys.

There have been a few times in the 24 hours since I've arrived where I've questioned whether or not this is the place that I'm really supposed to be. I've asked myself several times already if I did actually ask in prayer if this was the right decision, and if I received the right interpretation of that answer. And I think I did get this one right. Sometimes it escapes me too quickly that I started considering and praying about this move in about May of last year. Not to say that I got any specific prompting that I needed to do this, but I didn't feel any kind of resistance to the move at any point (it's actually kind of neat how well everything has fallen into place) and I think I'm at least in tune enough to be able to interpret a 'no' answer.

I really do feel like this is an opportunity for me to grow in ways that I need to and that I just couldn't by staying in California. And it was hard to leave home. It was really hard to leave my mom not really knowing if she's going to be okay or not. It's really hard to leave old friends, and newer ones that I've become closer with over the last year or two. It's really hard and if I'm being truthful, it breaks my heart. The best part of my life is due entirely to my association with you.

But I think this move is important for me professionally, personally, and spiritually. I think I've mentioned this before, but my mission president used to always use the potted plant analogy - that the potted plant can never outgrow the pot that it's placed in. For it to have any chance of really growing, it has to get outside the confines of the pot so it can extend its roots. I think with the job that I had, with the ward and singles scene that I was in, I just had grown as much as I could within that pot. So I'm hoping that this is the right place for me to be.

Where Does The Time Go? (Crazy 4 Cult)

For the five of you who regularly come here, sorry I haven't been keeping up with my end of the bargain. Isn't it funny that the minute I stop working is exactly when I get too busy to post to my blog? I love it.

Today turned into a pretty fun day. We ended up going up to Magic Mountain and by the time the afternoon rolled around, we didn't have to wait in any lines. None whatsoever. Maybe it was because it was like 1,000 degrees celsius. Yeah, you know it's hot when you talkin' celsius. You know what's a bad idea? Going to an amusement park with rides that throw you all over the place, walking around on hilly terrain, with temperatures pushing three digits at least, and then not eating anything while you're there. And until I finally ate real food at like 7pm, I was wondering why I was feeling so weak and light-headed the whole day. Der.



But, my favorite part of the day was dropping by Gallery 1988 on the way back home. My favorite. I heard about this art show they were doing while listening to KROQ on the way to work on Friday morning (incidentally, I think I'm going to die while I'm in Utah and I don't get to hear the morning show because I feel like there have been several things in the last year that I heard about on that radio show that I've done and loved because it was some bit that they had done on the show, whether it's been new music, art stuff, movies, etc. I'm going to miss that part tons, and the accessibility of so much cool stuff in LA that I didn't nearly take enough advantage of).



The show that they currently have is called Crazy 4 Cult and features a bunch of artists renderings of various characters and scenes from cult movies including Edward Scissorhands, Wizard of Oz, Goonies, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and others. I heard on the show about one artist who painted a family portrait of the Torrances from the film The Shining, and today saw some of the others that he did, my next favorite being The Freelings from Poltergeist. I loved almost everything that I saw. I'll include a few of them here, but for everything go to this link.

You should be able to figure out this one:
I don't know why I like this one so much, but I think it's just great.

I thought this was creative.

And do you like Better Off Dead?

For the last year or two I have been really wanting to own some original artwork. I've mentioned this before, but I think you've reached Baller status when you own a bunch of original art. So, of course, I got totally excited to buy something from the gallery, and here is one that is still available that I just love. I think I like how kind of creepy it is, but it's out of my price range (which if I'm really being honest, all of these are).

And I think I might buy one or both of these:

And I would have for sure gotten this one if it weren't already sold. Did you figure it out? It's called The Extra (Wizard of Oz). I love it.

This one is by far my favorite, but it's already been sold:

It's got all of the memorable images from the movie in there. This was by far my favorite one. We were fortunate to get in because we showed up right as the gallery closed at 6pm, but the guy was finishing up some paperwork so he let us have a look around.

So don't try and hijack my pieces! I'm going to be buying my first piece of original art pretty soon.

80s Night

I was going to post about my love for 80s night anyway, but then I saw a book version of the blog Stuff White People Like, and it had a post about 80s night. A brief excerpt:

If you are in a social situation and wish to turn into one more condusive for romance, you should always ask “does anyone know a club with a good 80s night?” at which point the entire group of white people are likely to invite you to an event.

It's so true. Them white people love a good 80s night. Down at a bar in Laguna Beach on Tuesday nights they have an 80s night and I live for it. I guess I've been several times in the last couple of months and just went this past Tuesday. What's so awesome is that the DJ has a great 80s playlist, and if you go just before it gets to 10pm, it's free.

I was wondering what I was going to do with my time off this next week, but I realized this past Tuesday that my mission is clear: I need to assemble the greatest arsenal of 80s music ever. I don't know what my fascination is with it, but I totally love it. Maybe it's awesome because the clothes are outrageous and anyone, even white people, can dance to the music freely without looking out of place because the movements are specifically intended to look idiotic.

I heard this gem the other night and it's one of my latest favorites.

Week 11 - It Hurts My Bonios

I know that there is one person out there just dying to hear about how Week 11 went in training so for that person's benefit, I'm posting here.

I cut out another short run this week because my leg really felt like it was going to blow up. I ran the 8 miles on Tuesday and I think I mentioned this last week, but it just felt like it was taking such a toll. More than anything, I felt just so anxious about my ability to complete the training and run the marathon. For about the first 6 miles I was really feeling it, and then for some reason after about the 6 mile point I just decided in my mind that it wouldn't be a problem and that I would figure out how to make it work. And since then I've been okay.

I had to back off training a little bit, so skipping the short run wasn't for lack of motivation, but more for wanting to make sure that I would be strong for the long run on Saturday.

I ran that 8 mile run in 1:09, which is behind my normal pace. I attribute that to the anxiety I was feeling. I still played soccer on Wednesday night, but I skipped the run on Thursday and did some swimming as well as some time on an exercise bike. Can I just tell you how much I detest riding a stationary bike? Even riding a regular one just around town feels like such a cop-out when it comes to exercise because the muscles being used are so confined to small areas. When I ride a bike, I don't feel winded at all and I only feel like 2 areas are being utilized. I like running because I just like how there's no cheating in it - if you're not moving your own body, then you don't go anywhere. That's it.

Anyway, I ran 4.2 on Monday in about 34 minutes. My pace the whole week felt a little slow.

The long run on Saturday was the same 17.49 mile run I ran two weeks ago. I had a couple of energy gels leftover to take on my run, and I hid two gatorades along my route for hydration and to get back some electrolytes.

I didn't get to bed very early again, about 1 AM. I did wake up at 5:30 AM to eat so I would have enough time for the food to settle before the run. Starting at about 9:10 AM, I was off.

I made sure to back off in the beginning because that's when I felt most afraid that the pain in my right leg would return. I've been noticing that on my longer runs, even some of the shorter runs, I don't feel like I'm in a groove until about mile 4 or 5. It's really crazy to me that I can notice that difference, and that it would come so late into a run. Maybe for a seasoned runner, this is not uncommon, but I never thought that I would get to a point where 4-5 miles would feel like a warm-up and not the whole work out.

At about mile 5.5, I was due for my first gatorade. Because I was kind of scrambling to get out quickly because the morning was quickly passing away, I wasn't able to find a good hiding spot for my sports drink. I didn't think that would be a problem in Irvine, and only 45 minutes passed between the time when I dropped off everything got out the door and to the first spot. It turns out that it would be a problem because just when I was looking forward to my first liquid refreshment, there was nothing to be found. I was really defleated at that point because I knew that nothing was coming up until mile 9. I was so discouraged that I had decided that if I didn't find the second drink, I was going to start just trudging back home.

Luckily it was there, and I found a couple of water fountains on the way and my energy gels helped sustain me through the end. It's kind of interesting sometimes with the calories that I'll consume during the run because I can almost pinpoint the exact moment when my body has reached a point where it has processed them and made available to my tired limbs. I felt pretty strong throughout, and I did keep the pace down to make sure I had enough left in my tank to finish it off. I thought right after I found the first gatorade missing that I might cut it short, especially considering that I was going to be in a waterpark the rest of the afternoon, but I was glad to feel strong enough to go through with the original plan.

I completed the 17.49 miles in 2:34. That's 7 minutes slower than the first time I ran it, but I managed to do it without any of the overworking that I did the first time around. The pace is a little bit slower than my norm of about 7 mph. The pace ends up being about 6.82 mph, which ends up being about 8:48 minutes/mile. I hope by the race day that I'm rested enough that I can maintain a little bit faster pace, something closer to 8:30. The first time around I had about 8:24 min/mile. We'll see I guess.

The worst part about these long runs is just after finishing. I've read a little bit about it, but I'd like to ask my friends in the medical field exactly what's happening after putting that stress on my body, but to my knowledge there is a build up of lactic acid in the muscles after that kind of sustained effort. Once the legs stop moving, it's like the acid just floods in. I'm able to finish the run with little pain, but for about 20-30 minutes after I'm done it feels like my legs, especially my calves, are seizing up entirely. It's really quite painful.

The best part about finishing the long runs is how tough I feel. I love it. I'm having a hard time sustaining the motivation to run every week and plan my entire Saturday around the runs, but I love the feeling of accomplishment that comes afterward. I think that's what I'm really surviving on right now. After this week I have five more weeks of hard running, and then I begin to taper in anticipation of October 12th. I'll be back next week.

How Are You?

"I'd love to Chiquito, but I have a date with my boy friend."

"Can't you shake him?"

"No, no, I don't," she said sadly, and I loved the way she said it.

That little conversation comes from Jack Kerouac's On the Road and I just love that last phrase there. It's a conversation that Sal, the main character, has with a girl that the's trying to pick up in a bus stop.

Certain people have a way of asking the question, "how are you?" or some form of it, and they have the ability to just make me feel like I'm the most important person in the world to them in that moment. I love when it doesn't just feel like it's a routine greeting that isn't expected to elicit a response, but like an actual inquiry into my well-being. For me, it turns out that it's just one of those things that I love more than anything.

Some people I've known through the years are amazing at it, and some I've known have gotten really good at it over time. I didn't always think she was good at it, but one girl I dated got to a point where it felt like to me that her most important part of the day was hearing about what I had been up to and what I was thinking about. She just always wanted to know. When we first started dating it actually was kind of tiresome because I wasn't used to talking about those seemingly mundane things in so much depth, but she really honestly wanted to know. Whereas it had once been something that kind of bothered me about her, it eventually became one of the things that I loved most.

Some people I've known started out with that quality, but then the interest tapered and it was gone altogether. I guess really it just depends on how much the person cares.

I've just been thinking about it because there is one girl at work and she'll ask the question, and I love answering her. I love telling her because I feel like she really wants to know. It's not like it's something that everyone does well. I don't know why I'm so sensitive to it, but I really am. And with her at least, I don't think it really has to do with her being attracted to me or anything like that, but just that she really truly wants to know. I love seeing her just for that alone.

Significant Moments

She said it's not jacket weather anymore.

I love that scene from the Wedding Singer. Isn't it funny those moments that occur and because of the circumstances that accompany that interval of time, we can remember every minute detail that happens in that instant? We'll remember smells, the weather, what people were wearing, entire conversations all because of something that affected us enough to imbue the event with meaning. And what's more, sometimes the moments can occur without you even being conscious that they're going on until after you look back on them.

I'll never forget the first time I saw Becca. She had a white button up shirt with 3/4 sleeves, and wore this greenish-blue skirt. She sat in right front of me at church on the left side of the chapel toward the back. She bore her testimony about faith and how she thought that as faithful as the pioneers were, that in our days there are plenty of people with similar kinds of faith. That moment happened about 6 years ago and I can remember everything about it. I had never even seen her before, or even knew she existed before that one fateful Sunday in church, but something about her, how she looked and was attractive to me, where I was at in my dating life, and what she said struck a deep and resonant chord with me. I'll also never forget what I was feeling the last time I was at her house, or what she was wearing that night, and of course the conversation that we had. But that more recent moment I anticipated happening, and was fully aware that it would be permanently be burned onto my memory.

On my run this morning I was thinking about recent significant moments that I've had. They don't always center around love, but often do because of all the emotion that's associated with those kinds of moments. They can be spiritual, accompany a loss or tragedy, or deal with simple pleasures. Some of my favorite recent moments are from playing indoor soccer and good plays that I've made, or times just laughing because of something someone said or did during a game. Lame, right? When I'm bored at work, I'll even hearken back to some of those memories and find refuge in them.

I'll always remember sitting against the bullpen at Angel Stadium watching the fireworks thinking about how good I had it. And I'll never forget the shattering reality of the phone call I received the next day. It's surprising how many meaning-full moments can occur in a short period of time.

Lately I feel like the moments I've had have all been really nice. Getting my acceptance letter was so great. After a phone conversation with Dave during my lunch hour, I felt completely committed to the idea of going back to school. I turned left onto MacArthur from Jamboree and the sun shone brightly when I spoke with him. I think this next month or two will be filled with those kinds of moments. Some of them sad, but also with a lot of good ones mixed in.

There were some moments over the weekend where I wondered if those, too, would be times that in the future that I'll look back on and remember as being so very significant. Sometimes you can tell right away, and sometimes you have to let certain events unfold a little bit before you know. They can be earth-shaking like a 9/11, or be so simple that it happens because of a shift in the tone of a conversation, where new dimensions are added to a relationship born out of a change in how one person perceives another.

I must be in a thoughtful mood today or something.

Runner-Up For Nobel Peace Prize

Remember who won it last year? Al Gore. I got an email forward this morning and I thought it was really interesting, so I'm posting the whole thing on here:

May 12 marked the death of a 98-year-old lady named Irena.

During WWII, Irena received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive...

Being German, she knew the Nazis' plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.

The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the d og, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500 children before she was finally caught. When she was captured, the Nazis beat her severely, breaking both her arms and her legs.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.

Last year Irena was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, but she lost to Al Gore, who won the award for presenting a slide show on Global Warming.

You can visit a snopes page on her here. And this is her wikipedia page. It's really nothing short of incredible.

It's Been A Hard Day's Night

What does that even mean anyway? I never thought about that.

I may, or may not, have conquered the world this morning at work.

And I may, or may not, do it again this afternoon.

Just Some Thoughts

I was listening to some talk radio on the way up to Laura's house on Sunday. I didn't really feel like listening to a baseball game on the radio (it is so completely beyond me how anyone in the whole world can ever listen to baseball on the radio. It's hard enough for most people to even watch it on TV, let alone just listening to the game. Crazy.) and my political radio stations cater to more esoteric audiences on the weekends, so they're not as interesting. I grew tired of listening to classical music, though, and had few other options so I tuned into KRLA. The show was largely an informerical to advertise for some pill that they kept referring to as a fat-blocker. Their main premise centered around their contention that it is the fault of restaurants and fast food chains that they inject their food with additional sodium, butter, and sugar that makes all of their food so irresistably delicious. I couldn't believe my ears. It brought to my mind an image of a child responding to a scolding for eating a whole pie that was intended for someone else with something like, "but it just looked and smelled too good and I didn't see anybody else eating it!" Are full-grown adults so devoid of self-control that they no longer have to be held responsible for their own weight-gain? I just couldn't believe it. Just take pills! It's not your fault your 20 pounds overweight! Ugh.

A friend of mine sent a mass email to all of his contacts in his address book telling us all that he had donated to the Obama campaign and urging us to support our candidates, regardless of who that person may be. This is going to sound crazy, but I honestly don't understand how anyone who has a testimony of the church could ever support Obama as a candidate for president. I am fully conscious of how extreme that sounds, but I could go on for days about why I believe that is true. I have a testimony that Obama is the worst possible option for President. Without a doubt I can whole-heartedly testify that he's the most inexperienced candidate we have had for President in the last century, and worst of all, he fails miserably to represent a great majority of what people in this country stand for and believe in. I know, with every fiber of my being, that he is the wrong choice.

Out of curiosity, I responded and asked him why he was supporting him. That should be interesting.

Not surprisingly (but somehow, still surprisingly in some ways) not doing a normal run yesterday has helped my leg to feel better. I might cut out another run and maybe alter my long run this week to see if I can't get some additional rest for it.

It's absurd how much time I have been wasting at work this week. They don't realize it now, but they'll get so much more from the next person when I'm gone.

Lastly, I saw this post on Hugh Hewitt's blog today. It is about how the electoral map is shaping up in the Presidential race. This is the map and what follows is an excerpt from the post about McCain's best veep choice:

The weak Obama states are: Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Ohio, which represent 38 electoral votes. Move those four states into McCain's column, and he becomes the president.

Given that the swirl around the Ridge story from yesterday continued at Politico.com this morning, this is the map tokeep in mind when considering Senator McCain's choice.

The vice presidential nominee most likely to impact those four states most likely to shift towards McCain from Obama is Mitt Romney, who won three of the four GOP contests in them. Romney's vacation home is in New Hampshire. His ties to the mountain west from the years he spent guiding the 2002 Winter Olympics as well as the sizeable LDS communities in Nevada and Colorado argue for his selection. Romney's primary help to the ticket would be in Michigan, where he was of course born and raised and where his father and mother are still remembered warmly, but Romney's ability to talk convincingly about the auto industry and economic revival generally would also help across the border in the Buckeye State.

As it stands, Obama leads 298 to McCain's 240. And here's this little gem about Barack:

You've been Barack Rolled!

Week 9 - We're Halfway There!

I guess must have missed a week somewhere in there. I don't really know how that happened because I thought I was current with all of these running posts.

Last week was a drop-back week, and I missed a run. I felt kind of mad at myself because I didn't have any real excuse other than I just was really tired last week and didn't really feel like going. That's the second run I've missed during the first nine weeks of training. And it was only a short run anyway.

This week was supposed to be 4-7-4 with the long run being 11 miles.

I ran the first 4 last Monday with my buddy Aaron. We kept up a pretty good pace. It actually felt faster than my normal pace, and he isn't really a runner so I tried to hang back a little and let him set the pace. I think the first run of the week, especially after the long Saturday run, I usually and try and hold back a little bit. I guess with another dude there is a heightened sense of competition. I don't know if that was coming more from me or from him. In any case we covered the 4.1 miles in about 33 minutes, which turned out to be right around my normal pace. I felt fine afterwards, so that was pretty nice.

The medium-runs are starting to get a little more taxing and time consuming. It's kind of crazy that these runs still feel short in spite of the fact that just 2 months ago I had never run more than 6 miles at one time. Ever. I ran a 7.7 mile route (the same one I ran on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago) and I covered this one in 59:25. Someday I'd love to get up to 8-8.5 miles in under an hour. Probably not by the time the marathon starts though. I didn't even feel like I was pushing the pace all that much either, so that was kind of nice. It's weird to me how much it feels like my energy can fluctuate on these runs, and how I can feel totally slow during a run, but then be right on pace, or faster for part or all of the run.

Soccer was the next night. I was totally worn out from being in the sun for several hours during the Angel game, and then the batting cages right after. I even missed my usual pre-soccer strength routine. And then I missed the final short run for the week. I've got to be better about that.

The 11 mile route was the same one that I ran for week 5. I was a little bit slower this time around, coming in at 1:35. I like that I always seem to be off on how far the distances I run are. I thought this one was almost exactly 11 miles, but it's 11.5. So the other Saturday when I ran it, I was going at a 7:50 minutes/mile pace. This time around I was going at a 8:16 pace. I can't believe that I was almost 30 seconds off that first pace. I felt especially slow the first couple of miles, but I think miles 5-9 were particularly strong. I finished feeling alright. My legs were pretty tired, but I wasn't exhausted or dying like I was last week. And this time around, while I might not have been moving as quickly, I definitely felt stronger at the end of the run overall as compared to the first time I ran the 11 miles.

Up until this point I have been really fortunate that I haven't had any real kind of pain in joints or muscles. There have been some aches here and there, but nothing to be too concerned about. The last couple of days I have been feeling it a lot more behind my knee. While running last night I was starting to feel a little anxious that this was a joint injury and that it would interrupt my training. It wasn't so much that I couldn't run with the pain, but just that I was afraid it might develop into something worse. I began thinking that it might be a ligament problem and was really starting to worry, but then I decided that there was no way I wasn't going to miss out on this race, even if I have to walk the whole stupid thing. I'll figure it out.

So...up to this point I have run about 177 miles. That is around 1450 minutes, or about 24 hours of running over the past ten weeks. Including this week I still have another 9 weeks of training. So that means 258 more miles, or about 2100 more minutes, or about 35 more hours of running to go. Oi.

I'm a little worried about my knee. The most annoying part is that I think it's directly related to the MCL strain I did in soccer, coupled with overworking it a couple of Saturdays ago when I ran 17 instead of 14 miles. It was during that run when I really first started to feel it. I'm not as concerned about it being a joint injury, just maybe an overworking of that muscle along with the additional strain of the knee.

I'm planning on doing the 17 mile run this week Friday night so that I won't want to do after running it Saturday morning and trying to run around Wild Rivers all day. I'm just worried that I may not have enough recovery time between now and then to make sure I'm all set to go. I guess I'll see how it feels at soccer and if it's bothering me too much, I'll cut out the other 4 mile run, or cut it down, or split it between Thursday and Saturday to lower the amount of strain I'll be placing on it before Friday. It's crazy how much I have to think about these things to make sure I'm ready to go. And then again, I'm not sure how much pain I should be feeling at all, like should I just ignore everything altogether because I've just been spoiled and haven't experienced any real setbacks up to this point? Am I blowing it out of proportion? I don't know. I guess I'll just keep going until something pops.

Friends

I was driving home the other night from Matt and Laura's house from the other side of LA and was thinking how lame it is that we'll let relationships become dilapidated because of neglect. They invited me up for dinner (or maybe it was me inviting myself up for dinner, I'm pretty sure that's how it went) on Sunday night and it was so nice to be able to visit with them. We had a nice little dinner, I finally got to see their place, and we ended up just hanging out for a few hours.

It only took me an hour to get up there, and on my way back I thought to myself a lot about how valuable my relationships are with all of you people. Having a decent job, house, and some other things are nice and important, but I'm glad I define myself largely by the relationships I have. And maybe I'm just really lucky because I'm so privileged to have such good people in my life so it makes it easy for me to do that.

As I was sitting with Matt and Laura the other night, it was so cool to see their interaction with their little boy, Chase, and realize once again just how great Laura is. In getting to know Matt a little better, I learned also that she didn't have to settle at all when it came to her husband. I had kind of forgotten that Laura is one of the closest things there is to a female version of Dave and I. Although I can be pretty effiminate.

I felt full after I left their house that night (and I'm not just talking about the food). All it really takes to have that sense of fulfillment is making an hour drive, picking up the phone, or just making the effort to invest some time and energy into another person. You know what else? Even if you're unsure about where you stand with the other person, people always respond when you make that effort to show that you're interested in them. Always. And it's always worth it too.

I was planning on writing this post anyway, but I feel like Matt and Laura will be let down if I didn't mention that I spent some time with them the other night. Apparently, I post about so many things of little consequence that Matt had asked me if I was going to write a post on Bernie Mac's passing because, "(I'm) the only person who would put something like that on (my) blog." And although I'm saddened by his death, I'm not so personally affected by it.

Some of Laura's friends dropped by while I was over and she introduced me as one of her oldest friends. At first I was surprised, but then I realized that it was true for her as well. I can't believe it has been 10 years since our freshman year at BYU. And I'm starting all over again up there in a couple of weeks. Crazy.

Anyway, thanks.

Les Miserables In Concert

I was lucky enough to catch the performance of Les Mis in the Hollywood Bowl over the weekend. I wasn't sure how the whole thing was going to work - if they were just going to perform the music or if it would be the actual musical. Turns out it was the full-length musical. The performances were, of course, wonderful and as Caitlin so alertly pointed out, the actress playing Fantine was none other than "Jan" from The Office. Who knew she was so talented? I haven't seen a ton of musicals, but of the ones that I have seen, Les Miserables is easily my favorite. The story is so moving in itself, and then the music is just so beautiful. I also love the atmosphere of the Hollywood Bowl. It's a big venue, but the summer nights are so pleasant and it's a little bit of a lighter kind of feel than what you typically get in a theater. However, it does allow for people to make more comments and try and sing certain parts themselves, but still...I really like it. It's just a really nice relaxing feel being outside and watching musical theater.

Mens 4x100 Freestyle Relay

If you can find it on the channel, you absolutely have to check out the Mens 4x100 Freestyle Relay. It's so awesome. The entire time the announcers can't stop talking about how the French are going to win and that last 50m is just so unbelievable. So great.

Exclusive Summer Olympics news & widgets at NBC Olympics.com!

So You Think You Can Dance Finale

I don't have a whole lot to say. Yay, I guess. Joshua won. He was good. The finale was really entertaining. I like that it basically is a highlight reel of the past season's favorite numbers. Something cool that they did also was show some updates for past contestants from the previous seasons. Who would have thought that the show would actually serve as a launching point for real careers related to dance? It seems that it really has. The best part, however, was the Battle.

And this number was better the second time around when they performed it last night.

And I can't not include this one - my favorite from the past season. Still gives me the chills:

I can't believe anyone would ever think I'm gay.

Catch of the Day

This isn't the popular song on the radio, but I like this video. Maybe mostly just the guy pounding on the ceiling of the car in the back. Karen, you'd like these guys. I have their album. Yes, I'll send it over. They have acoustic videos for most of their songs. It's kind of cool. Check 'em out.

***UPDATE***They're called Airborne Toxic Event. Dave called me a dipsh*t because I didn't put the name of the band on here. He actually typed it all out. Can you believe my best friend would say that to me?

I was reading a little about the lead singer and his story is kind of cool. In a one week period the guy's mom was diagnosed with cancer, he experienced a break-up, and he himself was diagnosed with a genetic autoimmune disease. Is the rule for being an artist leading a tortured life? It almost seems like in order to be able to express yourself artistically, you have to have experience some profound emotion, and mostly that always seems to come through some sort of serious hardship. I think maybe that's why people with gender issues are drawn to the arts because the art serves as an outlet. I realize that these are broad, sweeping statements.

I didn't go to the Me First show last night because I was just plain old tired.

I'm starting to remember the reason why my rule on Rated-R movies needs to be hard and fast: even though there are probably some that aren't so bad and probably worth watching, when I don't have the rule in place, then I tend not to discriminate at all and so any benefits I might get from watching the good ones is outweighed by the crap I let in. It's totally a personal thing and recognize that not everyone needs to implement that in their lives. Having said that, while I haven't gone back to that rule yet, there are still some that I want to see. I know. It's dumb.

Are you all excited for the Olympics? In 2000 I was so bummed that I couldn't watch any of the Olympics while I was in Chile. I remember seeing like 5 seconds of swimming at one of the houses I was at. Were you wondering how much energy Michael Phelps is going to have to expend over the nine days of competition he will be involved in? How about 9 marathon's worth? Yup. Read about him here. He's amazing. This one is about the US 400m sprinter. The guy might break Michael Johnson's records, he's white, and you've never heard of him. But he's smokin' everybody.

I hit my work saturation point. I'm ready to go home now. Sorry these posts suck. I have other good ideas in mind, but I just haven't sat down to dedicate myself to any of them yet. We'll see.

Slow News Day

I don't really have a whole lot to say. Nothing significant is going on with the campaigns, and I'm kind of tired of it anyway. Lately my thing seems to be trying to figure out what I'm going to be doing next summer, or even during the school year for work. It would be cool to do an internship with the Heritage Foundation, and there is actually a conservative think tank in Salt Lake City that I think would be fun to work for. There is one in Washington D.C., granted it's one of the biggest in the country, but they offer some sweet benefits - 5 weeks paid vacation, 10-12 sick days, 12% employer contribution to retirement, and other stuff. I guess we'll see. I feel like I'm so scattered with my interests that I'm not entirely sure what it is specifically that I would like to be involved with. On the plus side, my degree program provides a ton of flexibility in broadening my coursework and including anything from business to politics. And really I'm interested in all of it. We'll see I suppose.

I found out today that I will have a place to live in up at school, so that's kind of nice. Just waiting for the contract to come in the fax. The conversation I had with the guy who owns it was kind of funny. He's from Southern California also, and was really chill. He told me that he's almost never home, going to school during the day, working at night, plus he has a serious girlfriend.

Okay, bro. I get it. I don't want to be your friend either. I'm plenty cool. I don't need my roommates to be my buddies.

Yesterday was probably the best day of my life. I came in to work just to get some sweet breakfast burritos. Probably my favorite breakfast burrito in the whole world. Then I went to the day game with Dave. We had great seats. Then we went to the batting cages afterwards. I can't even begin to describe how much I love doing that. It's easily one of my favorite things to do. Ever. And tonight is the Me First and the Gimme Gimmes show. I think some of the guys are still on board, but really...I'm just so tired that I would be okay missing it. I'd be perfectly content to finish up New Moon and see what happens with the Volturi, and see who wins the title of America's favorite dancer.

I know. I'm awesome.

I'm So Gay

Last week while at work I interviewed a black guy from Africa. He was just here to interview for our entry level leasing position. So this was a pretty easy interview for me and I have already in mind a pretty good profile of the kind of person that I typically pass on. I asked my normal interview questions, but his demeanor was a little too light. He kept laughing too much for job interview questions and the thought even crossed my mind during the interview, "if this were a girl sitting here, then I would think that we'd be hitting it off pretty well." The interview finished and I told him that we'd be in touch.

He turned out to be the very persistent kind of applicant. Phone calls came within a few days, and I wanted to just avoid answering his calls or returning them because I already knew that this wasn't someone that we were going to hire. A lot of times people will get the idea and not continue to follow up. Not this guy though. He called Wednesday through Friday of last week and I finally told him in one conversation that we would be following up and that he didn't have to call anymore. So of course when this week started, he called me early Monday morning. I wasn't around for that phone call, but didn't bother returning the call.

Today I felt bad and decided that I should at least let him know that we weren't interested. I thought I was in the clear when I got his voicemail and just had to leave a message. I gave him the my typical speech, "thanks for your time, but we have decided to go with another job applicant. If in the future something does come up, I will be sure to keep you in mind. Feel free to call if you have any questions." I shouldn't have opened that window.

He called while I was out to lunch today and mentioned on the message that he had some questions for me. At this point I felt bad that he had called so much and I owed it to him to at least have a conversation with him as to why we decided to pass on him.

I called back and I could tell that he was in the middle of some kind of interaction, work, lunch, something. This is how our conversation went, to the best of my recollection:

Me: Hi. So what's up? You said you had some questions.
Guy: Hi, thanks for calling me back. I don't normally do this, but I felt like during the interview we had made a pretty good connection, and I'm into it, and I thought you may be too, so I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime.
Me: ...
Me: ...
Me: ...(10-15 seconds pass)
Guy: Hello? Are you there?
Me: Yeah, sorry. Well, uh, I...I don't know. (At this point, I don't really want to just come right out and say that I don't swing that way, but I didn't know how to nicely turn him down.) I live...far from you and I'm moving out of the state soon...wait...what do you mean by "it"?
Guy: Well, I thought we had made a personal connection and I was just...
Me: Into what? What does "it" mean? I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at.
Guy: Oh, nevermind. I must have been mistaken. Sorry.

So how does this happen? I have no idea what it was about our interaction that made him think that I was at all interested like that. But what about me would ever make someone think that I'm anything other than a bastion of virile heterosexuality? I mean my current favorite TV show is So You Think You Can Dance, I'm loving reading New Moon, and I'm totally in love with Edward. And I even saw Mamma Mia on opening night, rather than the Dark Knight which opened the same night.

Just kidding. I'm not that gay.

Too much? Too soon? Have those wounds healed yet?

I keed, I keed!

GOP Surging

There is a turnaround happening right now in the presidential election among voters and it is kind of awesome. For the last couple of days, polls show McCain beginning to overtake Obama in the race for president. The latest Rasmussen poll has him up 47-46. The Zogby poll has McCain leading 42-41. These results are still statistically insignificant, but show a dramatic shift in the mood of the country. Powerline gives a brief analysis of the polls. It was only a little more than a month ago when Obama had been routinely out-polling McCain by 7-10 points.

Obama's trip overseas which was meant to rally worldwide support and create some separation between himself and McCain added little, if any kind of bounce to his lead here in this country. Larry Kudlow has an entry on his blog today that goes into greater detail about the message of energy expansion is amassing huge support from the American public. On Hugh Hewitt's blog, he explains a little about the current Democratic mindset among their leadership.

Kudlow attributes the swing entirely to the message of drill, drill, drill. In fact, he (Kudlow) believes so much in this message that those are often the first words that he spouts off when he begins any interview that he has on his show. And I'm inclined to believe it because there doesn't seem to be much else that is going on in the country.

Many people have assumed that the downturn in the economy is caused solely by the credit/housing-market crisis, but Kudlow smartly points out that we have been enduring the current circumstances for more than a year without too much of an effect. Only more recently has the average American been feeling the crunch as employment rates have begun to rise, and overall growth has begun to slow to a trickle. This recent shift has coincided perfectly with the rise in the cost of energy and it's creating a wedge issue for the GOP that could end up giving them the presidency, and possibly more seats in Congress.

Previously, it was assumed that Republicans would continue to lose seats in the upcoming election, but this issue is big enough and hurting the public enough that it could create an atmosphere that once again favors them in November. It really is kind of amazing. Here are a couple of excerpts from the Kudlow post:

Is there a Republican tsunami in the making?

According to the major polls, Sen. McCain has overcome a big deficit to pull even with Obama. Meanwhile, according to a Rasmussen survey, Democratic party identification has slumped. While Republicans on the House floor shouted “vote, vote, vote” and “lower gas prices,” the Democratic majority turned off the lights, cameras, and microphones. Determined Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell offered unanimous-consent requests to vote on lifting the ban on deep-water exploration, and the Democrats objected. When McConnell asked Democrats if they’d overturn the ban at $4.50 a gallon, they replied “no.” When he raised the price to $5, $7, and $10, they cried “no,” “no,” and “no.”

On the Stephanopoulos Sunday news show, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi underscored her refusal to allow a drilling vote. Asked about the Republican rebellion in the House, she said, “What you saw in the Congress this week was the war dance of the handmaidens of the oil companies.” She went on to say, “We are spending all of this time on a parliamentary tactic, when nothing less is at stake than the planet, the air we breathe, our children breathe.”

Without even realizing it, the GOP drilling offensive has become a new contract with America. And it appears to be working. The public is putting aside global warming and choosing instead new-energy production, a stronger economy, and more job creation. Voters want growth, not austerity. They want Ronald Reagan, not Thomas Malthus. And by resisting this grassroots call, the Democratic party is digging itself into one of the biggest political dry holes in history.

When President George W. Bush eliminated the executive moratorium on offshore drilling a month ago, effectively launching the drill, drill, drill offensive, oil was close to $150 a barrel. Since then, the barrel price has dropped to nearly $120 as futures-market traders anticipate a major shift in federal drilling policy.

One person to watch out for in the coming years is Mitch McConnell. Here is a look at his voting record. He is of Kentucky's senators and is currently serving as the Senate Minority leader for the GOP. The guy is a stud. He is all about lower taxes, pro-life, small government, traditional marriage, energy expansion, everything. Seriously, I love this guy. I'm all for him in 2012, or whenever he has the opportunity to run for President. It was his idea to stay after last week following one of the later sessions of Congress, to turn the lights back on, unlock the doors, bring the press back in so that more attention would come to the GOP call for energy expansion. Look out for him in the years to come.

Week 8 - Oops

This past week I wanted to alter my run schedule just a little bit. I felt like I could do a little bit higher intensity. Although when you've never really been a runner, it's hard to know how much you can push yourself without overdoing it. What I seem to hear the most is that it's always better to undertrain than it is to undertrain. I don't like how these sentences are sounding. They all have the same cadence and are kind of choppy. You ever notice that?

Anyway, this week was supposed to be 3-6-3, with a 13 miler on Saturday. I decided that I would go with a slight increase to go in between the Novice I schedule Hal Higdon has mapped out, and then the Novice II schedule. Not much of a difference between the two other than that there are more long runs, and the midweek runs are a little bit abbreviated, so total mileage actually goes down a bit.

I did a three mile (almost four) on Monday morning and that felt alright. The six mile was Tuesday night, and during that one I actually felt the strongest. Thursday I ran four, but felt really sluggish. Pace was okay, as I finished at about 34 minutes, but I just felt slow. It's kind of neat to be able to discriminate better how I'm feeling from one run to the next. I think the problem with the Thursday run was that I ran it right after work.

So it seems that circadian rhythms have to do not only with sleep patterns, but eating and exercise patterns as well. I seem to have little trouble running in the morning, other than just getting up early enough to do it. When I'm actually out and running, I feel fine energy/strength-wise. Running after 8 isn't a problem either. But when I get up at my normal hour on a work day, eat at lunchtime, then try and run immediately after work, I feel so drained. Even though I'm always on the down part of my energy cycle when I come home at about 530pm, I thought that just getting out and running would infuse me with enough adrenaline that I could shrug off any of those effects. And while I can still run the distance and make it fine, I still just feel slower, and am for the most part. Just something I thought that was interesting.

Unlike last Saturday, I wanted to make sure that I held to a better schedule of eating and getting to bed the night before so that I could get out in the morning. I was able to do that, although I did get to bed at like 1am. Somehow in my mind 1am is acceptable, while 2am is not. I thought it would be a good idea to get up at 6am and eat my breakfast, go back to sleep for a couple of hours and run sometime between 8-9am. It all was working out fine, but then I didn't have a route planned. With these longer runs it's been getting harder to find ones that are convenient for me to run, that also have some decent scenery without having too much traffic. Hitting a couple of stoplights isn't a big deal when you're covering only 7 miles, but when I'm getting over 10 miles I don't like anything getting in the way of me being able to finish my run. Anyway, I didn't end up starting until about 930.

I thought when I got up that I would be fine with the weather because it had been overcast the last few mornings, but then the cloud cover burned off, and it was mostly just humid and really warm. Again, I stashed a couple of gatorades along the route and that was nice. This week I also decided to try some Gu, which basically give you some calories to burn and electrolytes. I kind of loved them. I won't mind those at all come race time. The problem this week was that not having the route mapped out the day before delayed my departure, and then I wasn't really sure how far I was actually going.

The first several miles everything felt fine. The beginning was a little bit different then anything I had done before so that was nice, and my body and energy all felt fine. For the first time in weeks I hadn't done anything in soccer that would feel like a hinderance during the long run. Being able to map out the runs beforehand is really nice because usually I have a pretty good idea where the mile markers are and when I can drink, take my supplement, etc, and also it helps just knowing how much longer I can expect. I never look at the time until the very end of the run just so I don't get myself antsy. But because of how rushed I was just to get out, I couldn't figure out in my mind how far I had really gone.

Everything in my body during the run was feeling good, except for my energy. I wondered a lot about why I felt like I was lagging so much. My legs were tired, especially behind the knee where the calf and hamstring meet in the middle. I did much better at not trying to rehydrate too quickly. It makes a huge difference not drinking too quickly and feeling that water weight bouncing around, especially with how my sensitivity to everything is heightened as these distances get longer. I had to walk a couple of times, and there were a lot of pauses for stop signs. The temperature was tolerable.

When I finally arrived home I stopped my watch expecting to come in just under 2 hours. My pace the last couple of weeks has been just over 7 mph, and although I had felt pretty tired, I felt like I still held to my pace. To my disappointment, I came in at 2:27 total run time. I couldn't believe it. I went to a birthday immediately following, and I didn't even want to talk about how long it took me because I felt so discouraged at how long it took me. I assumed that I had run a little bit longer, but was sure that it couldn't have been more than 15 miles max. Even if it was 15 miles though, that meant I had a 10 minute pace, which for me would be really slow. I just felt so bummed because I was sure that I could run faster, and was wondering how in the world I was going to be able to make it for another (at least) 2 hours of running. For some reason I had really felt confident that I could finish the marathon no problem as long as I kept it under 4 hours, or thereabouts.

It turns out that I wasn't able to check my route until later that evening, but it wasn't 14 miles that I ran. Not even 15. Turns out that I had actually run 17.37 miles! I can't even tell you how discouraged I had felt from that run to how confident I felt after finding out that bit of information. Instead of a 6 mph pace, it was still above 7 mph, 7.09 mph to be exact. That means that my pace was right around 8:27 per mile, which I thought was pretty good considering the distance that I had covered. AND that run was a full 5 miles longer than anything I had ever done before. AND I was grossly underfueled and not well enough hydrated. In fact, normally I weigh about 173 or so, but after the run I was all the way down to 165. It's kind of crazy to think it's possible to lose that much water weight. Greg was saying that's a full gallon. I do also sweat a good amount.

It's just funny to me what a startling shift it was to feel so disappointed to brimming with confidence about the whole thing. So now I'm like, that's only 9 miles from a full marathon! I can totally do this! Woo!

Some other things worth noting:

• I'm just so disciplined these days. Not only have I been able to keep the running schedule, but I've also been able to keep up with my regular weightlifting routine. I'm still doing shoulder, bicep, chest, tricep, and core exercises in addition to the running. Last week I even jumproped on the day off.
• After finishing, I really thought my whole legs were going to seize and cramp up. I've never had that sensation before. Every muscle group in my legs. It was kind of painful, but I kept stretching, ate a banana, and had a protein bar immediately upon completion.
• Residual soreness hasn't been anything too bad either. Right leg is still sore, but I don't think that will be a problem. I went for a walk yesterday for an hour and I feel like that helped to loosen me up.
• In an 8 day period, I have run 43 miles. Crazy, right?
• I'm very lucky I don't really have any joint pain. With as bad as my ankles have been in the past, I have had no signficant joint/shin/back pain that will prevent me from continuing as scheduled. That's really nice. It makes me feel like I'm well within my abilities, and for that reason I feel like I'm able to step up the training just slightly.
• Talked with a friend who has run the St. George marathon a couple of times. I just love hearing other people's stories about their experiences. It's really fun. My favorite thing was he said you feel like such a man when you finish the race. That's totally what I'm going for.

Oh, and one last thing, but I didn't want to make this a bullet point. I was looking at some numbers for "average" marathoners. In the US, about 400,000 people will finish a marathon this year. I don't know if those are discrete numbers. The average age for a male marathoner? about 40.5 years old. Men finish on average at around 4:21. The differences between 20-34 year olds, and 35-39 year olds? Less than 1 minute. Not statistically different. I thought that comparison was the most interesting because age doesn't seem to have a bearing at all on a person's ability to perform "better" in a race. So what it really comes down to is not youth or ability, but determination. And I think that's what's nice about the marathon. It has little to do with any kind of talent, but just a person's pain tolerance and how willing he/she is to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

So far, it looks like I'm going to be shooting for that 4 hour mark. Everything about how Saturday went felt pretty good, now knowing fully the details. I'm looking for the down week - 4-7-4-11. It's still 26 total miles, but knowing that none of my remaining training runs will be longer than 20 miles, only three miles more than what I did this past weekend, makes me feel really good about being able to tackle this challenge.

That's A Good Meatball!

I can't believe Caitlin made her own meatballs last night and not one of us used that line.

I can't believe how quickly this summer seems to be going by. That's not entirely true. It seems that the weekends keep coming faster and faster, and then pass by just as quickly, but it feels like it's taking forever to get to my last day of work. Funny how that works out.

I can't believe that I've been in my branch for more than three and a half years. I've never been in one ward that long. Not even close. I found out yesterday that I get to give a farewell talk my last Sunday in the branch on the 24th. You know what's weird? I not only don't mind giving talks, but I totally look forward to them. I almost wanted to remind the branch presidency that I haven't spoken in about a year and that I would be leaving soon. Tell 10 year old me that 28 year old me would be saying that and he would have called you a liar.

I can't believe that I got email notification that I had tickets for the SYTYCD finale and I just don't feel like going. It's a combination of reasons. Makes me feel lame though that I'm not jumping on that though, know what I mean?

I was blog-stalking a guy that lives up in LA (I have a feed to his blog - I've met him once), but he was talking about how he relishes hearing about other people's battle scars, i.e. broken off engagements, dropping out of school, etc. And then I was thinking about it...I guess in the last few years I've had several of my own - broken off long term relationship, dropped out of school, severe family crisis. And those are all pretty recent, all within the last two years. Sometimes I think I've had it pretty rough, but then again, doesn't everyone have those kinds of stories? So it's not like I've really had it any rougher than anyone else, or I don't want to pretend like somehow my hardships are any worse than others, because I really don't think they have been. I guess it's just interesting to me to think about how much has actually occurred between the time I graduated from BYU (December 2004) until now. Sometimes you're waiting for life to happen, and then you don't even realize that it's been going on this entire time.

I can't believe the Angels look like they're positioning themselves for a World Series run and I'm not going to be here in the fall. It pains me to no end. Not really. It's been 6 years since one of my teams has won a championship so I think we're due. I love that Matt made a special appearance just to comment on the Teixeira deal. So great.

Apparently I'm chat needy these days. I think it's due in part to the fact that a couple of my main chat buddies have been MIA for the last little bit. You know who you are. And also due in part to me being totally disengaged at work. Completely. It's ridiculous.

What Do You Come Here For?

I read a bunch of different things online. I subscribe to several feeds for finance blogs, political blogs, and then the blogs of the people I know. Most recently I've been reading this blog by a guy in his mid-20s that managed to rack up several hundred thousand dollars in debt. The blog revolves around his experiences dealing with his debt and trying to right his ship, so to speak. The writing is okay, but I like the story more than anything else because it feels real to me.

It got me thinking though about what it is that the 5 of you come here hoping to read about. There are some blogs with content about relationships, others about family life, and a couple that talk politics. Jared's talks about music. I love the variety that you all bring. For me, I like those ones that are personal, where I feel like I'm getting an actual story and something insightful that tells me something about the person, not just what he/she is doing, or did.

My favorite part about the blog is how much the writing helps to develop my thoughts, but then a close second is when someone tells me something like, "reading your blog makes me want to be more active," or "I really appreciated your thoughts about" such and such. Believe it or not I've actually heard of those a few times, and it's really fun for me to hear that kind of stuff.

I really think that everyone has a story to tell. And not just plain stories or boring ones, but interesting ones; and all of the people I know have great things to say. One day I'd like to develop my interviewing skills and get an in-depth interview of everyone that I know and put together a written collage of all those people. Becca was a journalism major and one thing I appreciated about her was that she taught me a lot about how there is always a story, you just have to find the right angle.

Anyway, hopefully sometimes the stories I tell here are less like stick figure representations of events in my life or thoughts that I'm having, and more like fully embodied vibrant vistas.

SYTYCD Top 6

I'm not really sure why, but some people are getting routed to my blog by typing in my blog title and SYTYCD taping. I wonder if it's because they think that I go every week. Sorry to disappoint, but it was only one magical week when I was able to go. I wish it were every week.

You know how many visitors came to my blog last week because of that post on the taping? How about 2000+? Can you believe that??? I wish that I had put together a better post knowing now that so many people came here. Oh well...I'll do a brief recap though for the SYTYCD visitors...

This last week featured the top 6 - Mark, Josh, Twitch, Chelsie, Courtney, and Katee. A very strong group, but the gap left by Will's absence is glaring. Maybe that's just in my heart. I know, so gay. If only I didn't actually mean it.

I thought all the numbers this week were pretty strong. My favorite was Mark and Courtney's jazz piece. The dance was raw, but sometimes the production part of these dances really make them work with the lightin and camera shots and everything. The music was great, and the kicks and steps to the hard beats were well-timed and just really cool, I thought:

Joshua and Katee were both strong too, especially with their contemporary number. I just don't seem to love the paso doble that much. I just realized that means the two-step in Spanish. Yup. I'm fluent. And retarded. Here is the contemporary dance:

And then Twitch and Chelsie's hip hop dance was pretty cool too, but I might like best the part before the dance when they keep referring to whoever has the stick being in control. That's just a fact of life. Wink!

Cat's first words after the dance? "Play nicely with the stick." That's really what she said. I love the Velvet String Orchestra. Greg introduced me to them and I think it totally works as music for the shabbat, right?

I'm not at all disappointed with the results show last night. I thought all three girls were about equal, but I'm most physically attracted to Courtney so I voted for her. And I know that it was my 7-8 votes that put her over the top. I know it. Josh and Twitch are good, but when the first top 20 were announced, I'm not sure that I could have ever predicted this final 4. So now it's just forward, not backward, to next week's final!