Busy Busy/Crazy Neighbors

I am SUPER busy this week because of I am starting to film my senior project starting Thursday through Sunday, so I'm trying to finalize and double check things. So I'm sorry for not posting anything funny or important about what's going on in my life, but there should be a blog setup that I'll link to my blog that is all about my film "Pandora's Box". Stay Tuned!

In other news, Andrew showed me that our neighbors behind us were sword fighting so I decided to film them a bit. Funny stuff. Enjoy, because I know I did.

Also if you aren't doing anything this Wednesday night, you should be going to see the Matt Gilroy Collective play at Wednesday Night Live; it's going to be a great time.

Spring Break 08

Date: March 16-23

People: Andrew, Matt, Josh, Mikey B, and myself

Where: Page, Arizona (Lake Powell)

What: Kayaking and camping

Why: Why the heck not?!

Drive time: 12 hrs. (one-way)



We left at 7am and got into Page around 7ish and grabbed a nice steak dinner to be our last meal before we went out into the wilderness. Mine was mediocre. We found a little park area in a suburban area to put our tent down and in the middle of the night it rained and then snowed and our tent (which was already a little broken) decided it couldn't hold up the weight of the snow and it started collapsing on us. We were all pretty nervous starting the trip with cold temperatures and snow. We met with Christa to launch the kayaks and off we went.





We've had this thing planned for a long time (basically Freshman year but with a houseboat). We rented kayaks for a week and paddled around this massive man-made lake stopping off wherever we felt like it and enjoying our time with no schedules and no priorities.

We packed up our kayaks which were pretty full once we emptied our packs. We pushed off from Antelope Point or something close to that and started our great trek.



The trip entailed a lot of paddling, sun (70ish), more paddling, and then finding a place to camp where we would watch the sunset (usually climb the tallest hill or canyon to get a great view). It wasn't a crazy trip like last year going from place to place and always being busy, but this was a more chill, relaxing spring break. We were crazy don't get me wrong! We broke out the ol speedos and swam in the water which was frigid, attacked crows who invaded our campsites, skipped rocks galore, started a few fires, and some other stuff.







It was just a good time to hangout with some good friends and take in the beautiful surroundings. I brought a long a book that Nasty Nate let me borrow, On the Road by Jack Kerouac and it is a sweet book. I'm about half way through it and plan on finishing it up soon. So we would read, hike, eat, and stargaze as well as talk.



A good trip. I'm going to leave it at that and not get into everyday stuff which would be lengthy. Enjoy.

Poll Results

I know that everyone was just nail biting and rubbing their hands raw to see what would be the result of the "beard poll". I got back from spring break and looked pretty haggard as Andrew and Matt would say. I looked rough and saw the what 3 weeks of growth looked like and thought I'd rather be clean shaven at this moment in time. So this morning I shaved it, the poll showed that 1 person wanted me to shave it, 4 loved it (I think I was one of those), and 2 liked it but said I needed work. It needs work and shaving it all down will help make it grow better the next time. Not the best pic of it but all I have at the moment.

A night out

Tonight was Andrew's senior recital and let me tell it to you straight...it was a great time! The crowd alone was awesome and to top it off Andrew did a phenomenal job playing pieces by our main man Aaron Copland, Johann Bach, Mr. Beethoven, and actually something that Andrew himself whipped up from his own noggin. It was a fun night and props to Andrew for playing a sweet show. I'm just going to say maybe not as great of a show as that one Battle of the Bands competition...oh he knows.

Let me give you some highlights from the concert:
Evan showing up with his study guide
Evan falling asleep and then loudly whispering that he "always falls asleep in these things"
Evan giving Andrew the two handed thumbs up at the end of the recital
Andrew's Grandpa telling me not to whistle or hiss
Breyanna and her whole family there (just funny)
Kit Boone just hanging out and chatting with EVERYONE!!!

So the night wasn't over for some of us; Andrew's family invited Matt and I to come along to Applebees and enjoy in some food. We wouldn't pass up food so we went. I will say that Andrew's Grandpa, Lying Bill, was a hoot. I love chatting it up with old people and let me tell you he enjoyed it too. Here's a short list of what we talked about:

The Globtrotters
Celery commercial
Alaska (the cold, airforce, and cruises)
Elephants in firehouses
Falling down a hill at a golf course

You can't get better than these topics. I truly loved it.

Ca-mel

I petted 2 live camels today. We had a big Easter egg hunt on campus and then the Middle Eastern club showed Aladdin, had Middle Eastern food, and brought 2 live camels to the student center. I blew some bubbles in their faces...they didn't appreciate it. I wish I had my camera with me.

sorry for those who didn't get to see them. i'm calling the baby camel Sprout. no reason, just sounds fitting.

Rockin' the suburbs

Tonight the Collective played. It was much needed. Not everyone was there but those who were made the best of it. Lets just say when the cops show up and want to hear you play a song, you know you're ROCKIN'!

Puppy-sitting...kinda

Our house had the pleasure, mainly Adam, to puppy-sit a Dachshund puppy. He was so cute and funny. He walked all the way from our house to the Dex, hung out there while we ate, then made the BIG adventure back home. He belongs to, here we go, Adam's sister's boyfriend, Charles. Thanks Molly and Charles for letting Nesta come over and play. *Interesting name for the dog; I like the name Kyle picked out (Einstein). We had fun!

Admitted Defeat

I hung my head real low today when I couldn't make it up to the top of this silo at Lime, Oregon. Andrew and Kyle made it, but I just couldn't pull myself together. I'll skydive any day of the week over this. The agony of defeat...

My New Project

I am not shaving for 3 weeks, I want to see if I have any chance in growing a beard. Please bear with me friends, I know it may look hideous now, but hopefully I will be able to grow something that I have always wanted.

A low point

So yesterday when I was getting geared up for skydiving, Matt's tandem guy was just mad dogging me: staring and shaking his head at me. He then said something that really surprised me since I was a complete stranger; "You are the ugliest mother fer I've ever seen." At that moment I tried to brush it off and not let it get me down, but after I got home and was telling of my adventure to Adam and Andrew, I remembered this life damaging remark. I'm not going to let it bring me down.

14,000 ft and falling

Today I partook in a surreal experience of careening through the air for what seemed at the moment to be a lifetime, but eventually came out to be somewhere around 30-45 seconds of free falling. Once I front flipped out of the airplane and got on my belly, I started to soak in the beauty that surrounded me all around. I saw clouds whiz past me and hooted and haulered for the world to hear. I took in Lake Lowell, the mountains behind Boise, Jump Creek area, and all of Caldwell/Nampa. It was a little chilly during the free fall, but it didn't matter because I was SKYDIVING!!!





I heard my partner, Paul, pull the drawstring then felt a slight tug and my harness tightened. We then just glided for moments upon moments taking in the adrenalined filled experience. Paul then pulled on his cords to make us spin around and around, which was a lot of fun and a little discomforting because of the harness, but it was worth it. From there I sat back and let Paul do the steering, away from the highway, away from the helicopters, down to the landing area. We made a very smooth landing, where I basically walked back onto the earth without any problems.





This account is just a fraction of what actually happened; there is so much more that I could not put into words here. A great experience and something I can check off the Life List. Now it just means I've got to conquer the next item on the list...wrestle a live alligator in Louisiana. That's not it but something as exciting...

Fire Theories

Most of you know that part of the Johnson Sports Center was on fire this evening; as Matt, Andrew, and I were walking back from dinner we saw the smoke chugging out of the backside and it was a dark black smoke. Matt said that it was on fire and the skeptic that I am was saying no that can't be, must be just a pile of stuff burning behind the building. We walked to the back and saw the black smoke just billowing from underneath the workout area. We were the first people to the scene, no cops, no fire trucks, just people pulling over and looking confused.

So we watched it all go down, the fire trucks arriving, them throwing rocks through the windows, spraying it down with water, and climbing on top of the building and sawing through stuff. After much time of watching through the fence, a good group of us gathered and started giving explanations for it. They go as follows:

Andrew: Saw a man with a rug and a rag around his head bowing towards the east in front of the scene of the crime.

Matt: Saw a bunch of Albertson's College students running away with glass bottles with rags coming out the tops.

Nate: Kept his pet dragon, Pete, in the swimming pool area and he got a little out of hand. He is sorry and sad now that they had to put down Pete. We will miss you Pete.

All of these are great theories, but here's what I saw: I saw a fire breathing dragon flying away from the gym wearing a turban on his head and an Albertson's College sweatshirt.

Other theories: Joe V was flying in an airplane and dropped a bomb and Cork said a car was underneath it and it caught on fire. All I know is that I thought I saw the fire fighters throwing water balloons; it is a new strategy.

So the real story is that the turf grass was stacked in that area and is highly flammable. There are ideas that it actually may have been arson or electrical. We will find out in good time; from now on I'm not dismissing our theories.