#20 08/27/08 Tastes Like Chicken...

Today for The Week Of Welcome, was the Day On the Quad.  This is my favorite day because I turn back into a five year old and run around and get all the free stuff!  Well I passes a booth that was giving out crickets and so I ate a salt and vinegar cricket!  At first it tasted fine until I got to the fried guts...Not so good.  But I had never done anything like that before!   I also went country swing dancing for the first time!  It was fun but I would recommend bringing your own boys or else you'll be stuck standing on the wall looking like a loser... 

#19 08/26/08 True Aggies Bleed Blue..

The first week of school is called WOW week, or week of welcome.  They also do a blood drive all this week.  So in honor of WOW week, and for doing something new, I gave a pint of blood to the American Red Cross, and also got a free T-shirt.  Now they say that True Aggies Bleed Blue, but alas I am not one so my blood was red... :(  oh well.  The lady was just about finished with me and was just getting samples for their lab, when all of the sudden, the needle comes out of my arm and it starts to bleed!  She told me that she had never seen that happen before and asked if I would use my other arm so they could get samples.  Lucky me.  So by the end of the whole thing, I walked away with two arms with brightly colored tape, lime green on my left arm,pink for my right.   Oh yeah... I looked pretty hard core.

#18 08/25/08 You did WHAT? At What TIME?

For those of you that thought waking up at 6:30 a.m. was impossible, try waking up at 6:30 and going running.  So the other night, we met lots of people from our ward, and discovered that there were a lot of us who liked to go running.  For some reason, the next day we decided to wake up BEFORE the sun was up and run.  It definately was a new experience, but I don't really like waking up that early...

Today was also the first day of my college sophomore year!  And let me say that I have quite a tough year ahead of me: Calc 3, Statics, Physics 2, Electrical Engineering for non-majors, and Institute.  BRING IT ON!!!

#17 08/24/08 And It Came To Pass...

Even though I go to church every week, today's new thing was I went to church in a new ward as a sophomore!  I know, it's not really a big deal, but it was something I've never done before...  Let me just say that there is a lot of good looking men in our ward if you catch my drift... :)

#16 08/23/08 Home Sweet Home... :)

Today, I moved into my new apartment!!! Let me just say, It is so good to be back in Logan!  I forgot how much I loved it here!  I'm living at Continental Apartments with my roommate Allie Bytheway and I absolutely love it!   I love being a sophomore, I love my ward!  I didn't realize I had that much stuff, but it's all good because I LOVE COLLEGE!!!

#15 08/22/08 Are We There Yet?. . .

So today I was going to hike mount timpanogus with my dad but things kept coming up.  I still wanted to go, so he took me to a shorter hike called Mt. Olympus.  We hiked about half of it because we got started too late.  It's a very intense hike but it had the most amazing view even from where we were.  Too bad we didn't make it the whole way...

After we hiked, my family and I went to see "The Errand Of Angels", a movie about two sister missionaries and how they cope with the struggles of being on a mission.  I really liked it!  It was well put together.  It did make me miss my sister, who is serving in London, England as I write this blog.  Oh well, she's doing the right thing.

Look at the view!!

#14 08/21/08 Sanctuary, sanctuary

I've told a lot of people that I should have been a boy, because I like skateboarding, hiking, you know... boy stuff.  However, I broke apart the Tom Boy in me and got a pedicure!  Let me just tell you, it was probably the girliest thing I've ever done, BUT I really liked it.  I went to Sanctuary in the South Town Mall to get it done.  The lady, Sogol was her name, did a fantastic job.  She made me feel so comfortable and was very entertaining to listen to.  She also gave me some foam flip flops because I wore tennis shoes to a spa.  Guys, get in touch with your feminine side and go get a pedicure.  You won't regret it.  

#13 08/20/08 You're Hair is Everywhere...

I was thinking of something fun and new to do so today I switched the side I part my hair on.  I know... Such a big deal but I kind of liked it.  It made my hair look darker because that side was hidden all summer long.

#12 08/19/08 "Barley, Barley, Barley"

Today I did two new things:  I helped my dad take down our 15 foot swimming pool, and I made 9 cups of barley flour instead of wheat flour.  My mom went to run errands and had asked me to make some wheat flour so she could make homemade wheat bread.  So I, being old enough to do this simple task, began to grind the grain I though was wheat.  It most definately was not wheat grain, it was BARLEY!!  My mom got a good laugh, and I felt like an idiot for a couple hours.  But now I know what it looks like, and I'll never mess it up again!

#11 08/18/08 I Rode My Bicycle Past Your Window Last Night...

As I was walking in Smith's Marketplace with my sister,  I was thinking of something new to do.  I turned around the corner, and I saw it:  a shiny new bike.  I thought to myself, "that's something I've never done before."  So I hopped on that bike, and rode it all over the store.  I got some pretty interesting looks but it was all in the name of doing something new.  I'm sure the manager will understand...

#10 08/17/08 "Rip it! Rip it Good!"

New thing today: I tried a ripstick.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a mix of a surfboard, snowboard and a skateboard.  WAY harder than it looks.  But I'm pretty much pro

#9 08/16/08 There's No Place Like Home...

In all my time at Powell, I had never seen the sunrise.  So this morning, I woke up early and saw the sunrise while reading my scriptures!  What an incredible experience.  I felt so much closer to my Heavenly Father.  It was so quiet and calm at 6:00 a.m.  Also done today, I DROVE HOME FROM POWELL!!  My contract with Aramark ended yesterday, and I took the long four and a half hour drive back to good ol' South Jordan.  I got a little lost, but I eventually made it home!  It's SO good to be home!

#8 08/15/08 Innocent Joyriding!

Today I did a lot of new things: I got paid to ride a jet ski, I helped someone who had a seizure, and I took (stole for a few hours) a 20 foot powerboat and visited a stranger.  Ok, starting with the jetski,  these past weeks we have been working really hard, so for a reward, they took us boating during work.  I got paid to swim and jet ski.  Those things go 60 miles an hour and were a blast to ride!!  

We had a lady at work have a seizure, so I ran to the Laundry room and got her two cool wash cloths to help her out. Scary!

Earlier that week, I piloted out a family from West Jordan.  The lady was super nice and told me to come visit them in Forgotten Canyon and she would feed us and let us play with them.  So me and my roommate Mikelle, went on an adventure and actually found these people.  We didn't have much time to stay, but we did say hi and we also saw some indian petroglyphs along the way.  The downside to that story is, I had to steal one of our faster boats to get there, but technically I didn't steal it because It was back in time for the other customer to use it.  I felt bad for "borrowing" it, but it is an experience I'll never forget!

Me and Mikelle in the Baja

Mikelle fell trying to get back in the boat!

Look how awesome Lake Powell is!

#7 08/14/08 This isn't even Spider Canyon!!

Today's new thing was I hiked "Buttcrack" Canyon!  Ok, I only hiked like an eighth of it.  But I had good reason!  You see, there's another canyon "Spider Canyon"  (you can guess why we call it that) that we always hike.  I wanted to try something different.  "Buttcrack Canyon" got its name because of how skinny the canyon is.  When you go through it you are literally chest and back against the wall.  We would have gone all the way through if we hadn't seen the giant pack of 2-300 spiders the size of your fist climbing up the wall.  The picture doesn't even come close to what we were feeling at that moment.

The mountain of spiders!!

Later that night, I went down a houseboat slide HEAD FIRST!  But I can't get the video to upload, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

#6 08/13/08 Are you "Tire"d?

I work at a marina.  Outside the marina there is a line of tires that indicates the end of the wakeless zone.  These tires also have light on them.  Ever since I saw them i said to myself "Before I leave I NEED to swim out there and run across those tires"  And that's exactly what I did.  I took the Turkish people, my roommate, and some other employees from Columbia in a paddle boat, and paddle boated out to those tires, where we proceeded to run across them.  It was a blast even before we got to the tires.  The paddle boats we took out didn't have a rudder, so we had no way of steering the boat.  It took us like 20 minutes to get to the tires when it should have taken like 5 minutes.  We were laughing so hard!!

Ok, now to the tires:  These tires were huge and probably had like hundreds of spiders on them, but we went at night so we didn't care.  They were wobbly and had so much algae on them.  It kind of grossed me out but hey, it was something I'd never done before.  I liked it!

Kind of  a cool night scene...

                                                            Me and the boys    

#5 08/12/08 To slide... or Not to Slide... Use the Force!

I did two new things today : I went down my very first houseboat slide and I drove in a boat back into the marina with Star Wars music blaring!  I'll explain.  For my job, I teach people how to use their houseboats, and then I drive, or pilot, them out and I drive them back in when their vacation is over.  So I was driving some people in, and they had a huge speaker on the front deck.  They looked at me and said, "Are you ready?" and I was like "Huh?" and before I knew it, they started the music and there I was driving in the houseboat with the Darth Vader theme song blaring.  It was the funniest/nerdiest thing I've ever done!  DUM, DUM, DA DUM, BUM DA DUM, BUM DA DUM!!  

I can't believe I'd been working that long at boat rentals and hadn't gone off a houseboat slide.  That all ended today!  It was a blast and hopefully the video will work because it is awesome!

Me and Tyler after the slide

#4 08/11/08 Hold What?

There are some new people down here from Turkey that we've been hanging out with.  They wanted to play poker, so tonight, I learned how to play Texas Hold'em!  I can see why people love to gamble.  It's a lot of fun if you win the "money" or in our case, playing cards.  We didn't play with real money, so I think my integrity is still in tact. It was a lot of fun!  We can't really understand the Turkish people and they don't really understand us, so it was a challenge to actually learn the game.  Once we got it it was easy, and I won a lot! :)  Since I'm kind of on this "doing new things every day kick" I also learned to count to ten in Turkish.  Pretty cool huh?  I'll demonstrate:

one bir (pronounced "beer")

two iki (prounounced "icky")

three uc (pronounced "ootch")

four dort

five bes (pronounced "baysh")

six alti (pronounced "altuh")

seven yedi

eight sekiz (pronounced "se keys")

nine docuz (pronounced "doh koos")

ten on (pronounced "oh-n")

                                                         This is the rules for who wins...

                                    This is me, chagatay, mckell, mikelle, chiat, and machit.

                                   That was a good round for me!  Look how much I won!

                               This picture was never meant to look creepy or gay, but alas, it does...

#3 08/10/08 Nickels and Pennies and Dimes! Oh MY!

Today's new thing was I payed for a Gatorade and laundry coins with only dimes, nickels, and pennies!  You wouldn't think that would be such a big deal, but I was amazed that I had almost three dollars in just those small coins!  Sure it took a while to actually count it out, but hey it's better than breaking a whole dollar :)  Another little thing done today: I went tanning for the first time at Lake Powell.  Usually I just roast my legs and arms, but this time my stomach and back got fried!  

#2 08/09/08 Saving the World, One Street Sign at a Time!!

Life here in Bullfrog, Ut gets pretty dull.  Basically we get up, go to work, eat, sleep and repeat.  Well, it was my day off so to spice up the Browntown life, me, Kirsten, Alison, and Mckell decided to drive to Hanksville and eat dinner!  Keep in mind that the little town of Hanksville is conveniently located one hour away from Bullfrog.  We ate at a place called Stan's Burgers and I had a turkey avocado sandwich.  It was delicious!  So worth the hour long drive!  On the way home, we took a little detour, or in other words, we took a break to take some road signs that had been hit and knocked over.  Technically, it wasn't stealing because these same signs had already been replaced.  We were actually helping the highway patrolman keep the road clear of any signs that had fallen down!  No one got hurt or broke the law during our little "outing".  Alison did look very funny trying to break the wood post with a hammer so it would fit in her truck.  But alas, I have no picture.  To wrap this blog up, I drove an hour away just to eat dinner, and I permanently borrowed a street sign without asking!  (If anyone asks, I will deny it completely...) 

This is the infamous sign.  The other one is under the firewood box.

#1 08/08/08 It's Just a Little Rain...

So Ironically, on 08/08/08, Lake Powell had the worst storm I have ever seen. It was insane! It started out calm as any other day, and then you looked again and saw three foot swells and white-capped waves with like 60 mph wind!!! We were all running around like chicken with our legs cut off! (yes, i did mean legs) We were running and sliding down the dock left and right! One thing happened after another! One boat with no motors got loose and drifted toward a personal jet ski, but luckily it didn't hit it. Another boat got loose and was heading for our boats that were supposed to go out the next day. If it hit them, we would have been screwed. Again, Luckily we got it tied before it could do any real damage. Another boat swung into our most expensive boat, the 75 footer, and put a HUGE HOLE in the pontoon. Oh yeah, there were customers on the boat. Just an added bonus. One boat was rocking so hard, the dishes fell out and shattered everywhere! Because the wind was so strong and the waves so enormous, some of the boats actually got stuck on top of the dock and did some serious damage to the front of the boat. Railings were ripped off, windows were broken. We even had some heavy four wheeler trailers fall in the water! No worries, we saved those too! It's hard to believe but all that damage happened in less than fifteen minutes!! So to start this whole new thing blog I survived the worst storm I've seen in Lake Powell this summer!