Christmas wishlist 2009

Well, its that time of year again Santy Claus! Here are my wishes and I've been real good this year! I brushed my teeth every day (except when I was camping)!

1. George Forman Grill
unless you can bring me a woman, Santy claus, I need somethin' to cook for me!

2. DVD Player (clean-play - optional)
clean play would help me convince more people to watch Braveheart which in turns bring peace on earth and good will t'ward men

3. Tom-Tom dock for my iPod touch - itunes gift cards are also a VERY good idea!
soon I won't need anything else except my iPod touch and a pair of undees


4. Hook and/or Rescue Dawn and/or Jeremiah Johnson DVD


5. Books - Graphic Design/Church/Outdoor Survival/Financial
Thats right, im gettin' scholastic on yall
im not picky about exactly what books as long as its like legit and people are backing it up as a really reliable book - typography and color books are preferred from graphic design.. NO storybooks church related... I'm talking church history or doctrine here... Outdoor Survival could be a story if its a true one... Im thinking more along the lines of what plants I can eat in western US or how to trap small animals (jk santy, I wouldnt kill a small animal... but seriously)

6.


just sayin....

7. a portable high quality tri-pod for my camera would be sweet
8. you can never fail with flannel - lumberjacks and william wallace wear it.
9. I know, no outdoor stuff this year, right? I pretty much have everything I want in that regard...
except... a new snowboard.. wait, I forgot.. I REALLY want a little backpacking cooker thing.. you know it folds up and its just real tiny but you screw it to the butane and then a little fire comes out and you set your can of chili on it...
10. tools - Im becoming a man and I deserve tools.
11. I thought of this this weekend and im pretty excited about it - posters. I could really use some good posters in my room. Themes very much accepted are Rambo, Jeremiah Johnson, Nature (mountains), Deer, Extreme stuff like snowboarding or rock climbing or other adventurous stuff.
example:

12. My #1 wish list item I wouldn't really want anyone to get for me... but while I'm at it I might as well add it to the list! So here it is -


oh p.s. remember how everyone else is on a cruise all this week and im working? Well... my presents better make up for that ;)

Thanksgiving and Thoroughly Modern MIllie

I was in a play and it was fun and then there was thanksgiving and I kinda wanted to go to Richfield more but then I was glad I went to blanding because i love it there and then the morning after thanksgiving dad and I went out and saw a lot of deer and had a gay old time and it was like the best thing ever and... then I found this cool old man suit at grandmas and I took it home with me.

WARNING: This is a long and boring blog post of my random self evaluation thoughts... I advice you to ignore it.

So... I realized something in the last couple of days that's a little personal but I think it is a great study of human behavior that other people maybe able to benefit from so I am blogging about it.

When I first moved to Provo I was pretty lonely and lost and all that. I was kind of shocked at how much I didn't act like I thought I should. My first reaction was to try even less and become more lazy... what did it matter if no one knew who I was anyways? Then I began to change. I didn't have very many friends so I focused mostly on myself and began to rekindle a friendship with myself. I had time to plan things that would help me be a better me. As I became more of what I could be more proud of I began to see a change of attitude. I became happy and content, despite the fact that I still didn't have very many friends.

So here is my observation. I had so many friends and acquaintances in Logan that I had begun to base a large portion of my self-satisfaction on the acceptance that other people gave me. Many times when I was doing something to "be better" it was to improve that acceptance that I got from others. My self image was proportionate to the image that I had in my social circles. So when I came to Provo all that was lost. There was no reputation to judge my self worth from and so at first I figured I had no responsibility to be anything. Then, as I began to focus more on myself I started to instead judge myself by how I viewed myself and what I wanted to be - not because someone expected it, not because it was my reputation, but because I could be whoever I wanted to be and the sky was the limit. How many times can I say myself? Well, obviously I've become VERY self focused - so: A LOT! Anyways, all that I am trying to say is that I have become VERY happy because I am becoming who I REALLY want to be and to do that with very limited social influence is a very good feeling. I think its very easy to get self worth from the number of friends we have. Well, that may be a good indicator that you are worth a lot, but its not really what measures your worth. Be who you want to be, man. Make goals. Be your best you. I also noticed that when you have this view - you can be more confident around others and they can tell that you are really being you and you're still a great person. They respect that and they like you for it. Even if they don't, it doesn't make any difference because you aren't judging your worth off what they think anymore.

On a side note, lose yourself in the service of others...

Halloween

Last week was great. Ive officially re-instated Halloween as my favorite holiday after an 12 year absence (I was bitter because I couldnt trick or treat anymore). Monday I threw a ward halloween party with my Activities Co-chair Becca Pitchforth. Earlier that day I had the brilliant idea that I should be Peter Pan for halloween. So I threw a costume together after work and got to the party. It turned out really good. We had it at a barn in Providence and had a pinata, learned thriller, bobbed for apples, carved pumpkins, and other fun stuff. On halloween I had play practice ALL day but then at night I went to a party with that happy dancing girl Jaque from the picture. It was real fun and I won apples to apples and got to sing kareoke. I had promised Tony I'd go to the howl with him so I left the party and did that which was a huge let down.. but we saw a mentalist do some cool tricks there. We stopped by Corys inbetween to visit her party and that was cool. I like the smell and colors and climate of fall. Its like a nice little relaxing place after a hot busy summer. Plus I like to dress up and see other costumes. Also, dont forget the best part of halloween - CANDY!

im moving to Provo!

I got offered a job in Orem doing design work for Publishing in Design & Big Fat Logos and decided to take it! So I will be moving to a house near center street in Provo with Mikes son Jeremy on Nov. 10th and Im REAL nervous. Its tough leaving a job I love and a TON of people I know up here in Logan but I think that to move forward I need to move out. Its going to be a great adventure and Im excited to live closer to some relatives and good friends.

Upper Muley Twist

So Andrew and I decided to go on this epic hike as a last hoo-rah before winter came and we took to snowboarding. We were gonna go to the narrows in Zion National Park but through rain and cold weather we were divinely led to this gem of a hike in Capitol Reef National Park. We were treated with various arches, narrows, hikes along clifftops, climbing and many other natural wonders. It was also cool how back country this hike was. Without a map, we lost the trail more than once hiking over a half a mile in the wrong direction which provided for extra exploration. We fed ourselves with MRE's which was definately a highlight of the trip. It was a 15 mile hike but we figure we probably ended up hiking closer to 18 miles. We would have camped one more night but we were both pretty exhausted. We ended up doing the whole trip in 2.5 days which is pretty sweet considering the awesomeness of what we accomplished in that time.

Washin'ton -n- Dave

Well, this is old news by now but I just recently got pictures of the road trip I took to Washington with my dear friend Allison Mumford and some of her friends who are now also some of my friends too. We drove to Washington and camped at Moses Lake for to see the Dave matthews concert at "The Gorge". Im not a big concert man but I really liked this concert. No one blocked my view, the nature was breathtaking (look left and theres a sunset, look right and theres a rainbow, look down and there is a pretty gorge, look straight and someone is blowing your mind with some tunage) and the company was pleasant to say the least. Highlights: road trippin' through OREGON. getting rained on for 4 hours before the concert. going to a random church alone and teaching a guy about the true gospel restored on the earth today. wind storm that ripped through one of our tents. catching crawdads by myself when everyone else went to the second concert. pudding. riding with the top down in the convertible. seeing some of the band members close up before the show. um.... thats all i can think of right now. It was good. Oh, there has been a lot more camping and splunking lately too. I could probably just live in the woods and sleep in caves my whole life... if it ever had to come to that..

This Week

This week was set aside for moving into my new apartment. Its smaller, more expensive, and further from campus and thus the social atmosphere. BUT they have a pool and hot tub... sooo... take that. Anyways, I had to move all my stuff and clean my old apartment before monday. Unfortunately half my stuff is still all over my bedroom floor - sorry Spencer. The week that was supposed to stay open for moving after work went like this - Monday I had FHE at 7 then I ended up dealing with girl drama till midnight.. tuesday I went to the temple, then to a Troll 2 party.. then up till 3am watching the meteor shower... Wednesday I did a big dutch oven dinner for a big group of friends which took all night... thursday night my friend jessica wanted me to take a group of people up to providence cave... so we tried to do that just to find a pack of wild dogs ready to tear us apart where we were supposed to park to hike to the cave so we had to turn around and drive 1.5 hours back... and now its today and I got asked on a date for tonight... so I guess all in all it was a super fun week of summer... but I CANT get moved! :-) Aw well...

Yellowstone was a really great time! I wish more people could have come along but us 5 made the most of it. We crammed WAYYYY too much into a day and a half, but it was worth it. My favorite part was standing on top of lower falls. Its a really great place and if I was a hermit I think id have just as good a life as those squirrels. We never did get to see a bull moose which I was pretty dissapointed about, but we saw a lot of elk and bison and deer and also a bear so that was all cool. We probably hiked a total of 15 miles in those 2 days we were there. So... yeah. Yellowstone, I suggest it!

Cave.hike.

wait... was I supposed to stop doing this after I broke my wirst???
This hike was with these people. I liked that dog. Made me want to get one. Id have a major crush on her master if she was mormon and wasnt moving to california.



Well, after waiting in the airport for 13 hours last friday I had to face the truth that I was not going to get to go to Oregon and I also had to face the ironic fact that if Id started driving to Oregon when Id left for the airport Id have allready been there for a couple of hours.

So... I quickly started making some phone calls... I might not go to Oregon, but i Couldnt lose a precious weekend over it so Devin came through for me and hooked me up with a great hike to Naomis peak saturday morning. Actually what sould have taken a couple of house took all day because of such slow travel speeds. It was a great day though. First time I'd done this hike and I was very pleased.

Tuesday night we planned a trip to Providence cave and it was an amazing trip. I love going to providence cave, its a great adventure. I took a bunch of friends from my ward - the only people who had beene before were Devin and I. I think they were a little shocked at how dirty you got and how tight some of the squeezes were. But I think everyone had a good time. I enjoyed the hike back to the car because it was dark and I LOVE pine tree sillhouettes with a dark blue starry sky above. It was just beautiful. The best part for me, though, was the ride back in the back of Tobys truck laughing with everybody and lying on my back staring up at the stars as we cruised over the bumpy dirt road.

Summer time = HERMIT time

Well, I kept waiting to see if more pics would get posted of my adventures on facebook that I could post up on here.. but this will do. Ive been working hard to get my share of outdoorness joy this summer and I think its paying off. I have been camping lots and still have a LOT more I want to do before the summers end when everyone else has to go to school! This last weekend I went on a fishing trip with tony, cory, and devin up at a lake called smith and morehouse by kamas. It was BEAUTIFUL and the lake was nice and we actually caught fish! We had a lot of fun.. wish I could have stayed longer. Last tuesday, I went up by Tonys Grove here in Logan canyon and went camping with 2 mississippi girls, 2 guys from my ward, 2 british girls, and my cousin, Andrew. That was also a very successful campin trip. You can see andrew and I eating the dutch oven we made above. Good thing andrew had his super sharp knife to cut thsoe potatoes. Then you can also see me fishing on a rock bright and early the next morning. We didnt pay for parking and andrew didnt have his fishing liscense... so we had to cut fishing a little short. The only fish I "caught" got away right as I was about to pull him out of the water. The weekend before that we had our family reunion at fish lake where I learned "I have never..." is NOT the game to play at a family reunion. Or it is, depends. This weekend im going to OREGON and im super excited. I got a postcard on my mission from there and ever since its been my dream to go! So stay tuned for that adventure!
On another note, I went to a play with my friend jessica last night and her aunt is all into the theatre stuff up here in Logan so she had me talk to some people and im going to try out for a play sometime soon and im also going to take singing lessons ("finally", right? haha) Im very excited about all this.