12/10

Today I ran more than i have in the past 3 months of my life.

It was an interesting day. to say the least.

I arose at 6 AM to iron my clothes and get on the bus to salt lake city. when i say "arose" i mean got out of bed, looked in the mirror, and then decided to go back to sleep. At 9 AM, i really got out of bed and did something in my life. I had to catch the bus to Salt lake city in order to attend a concert with my grandmother. more on that later. Today was pretty much my first experience with public transit. Shameful, yes I know, but I marched head-on to the bus stop a mile away from my apartment armed with nothing but a bus schedule, ipod, roughly 15$ worth of quarters, and an ELfudge cookie for breakfast. The bus was slated to arrive at 9:57 AM. it didn't. I got to the stop around 9:50, and i thought that the bus had come early and i had missed it. just before i went into an outright panic, it showed up. I got on the bus, paid my fare, then rode it to the end of the line, after which i took the tram to salt lake. Journey up? fairly uneventful, but it did give me a good opportunity to spin some Fountains of Wayne, John Mayer, and Jack's Mannequin i've been neglecting.

I found my Grandmother shortly after getting off the tram. it was nice to be away from the two guys i sat by who discussed the circumstances of their various DUIs. Grandma called my cell phone when i was about 15 feet away from her because she thought i was lost. We went to lunch at Brigham Young's house (which is now like a museum/restaurant thingy) and it was one of the best meals that i've had since i've been in college. Got a pulled pork sandwich, but may i say how severely i miss north carolina barbeque. I miss it like a fat kid misses cake. or like a boy scout misses TP when in the woods. something like that. (it wasn't NC BBQ). These utahns don't know what they're missing out on. Solid meal. can't wait to get back to my mom's cooking.

We went to the Kurt Bestor matinee. Kurt Bestor is this guy who plays lots of instruments and arranges christmas music. Probably the funniest thing he did was have a random audience member (debatable) come read "twas the night before christmas" while his band/orchestra accompanied the reader. kind of like the ultimate hipster fantasy except it wasn't poetry. The concert was great, and i really enjoyed it. It had about the most intense bell choir i've seen in my life.

My day kicked into high gear after the show.

I had to be back in provo by 7 PM because i had a date. I planned on taking the 4:39 tram back to the bus station to catch the 5:20 back to provo, which would put me at home sweet home right at 6:40. it'd work like clockwork. in theory. The concert let out at 4:31. Let me take this time to tell everyone who reads this how much i HATE BEING RUSHED. so much. it makes me want to yank leg hairs off my roommate with a pair of pliers. I made the train, so i was convinced that everything would go according to plan.

It didn't.

The tram got to the bus station a full TWO MINUTES BEHIND SCHEDULE. not that big a deal right? in the olympics, that's like the difference between being a gold medalist and a complete loser who didn't qualify, just to put things in perspective. for the most part, the tram ride was uneventful, and i sent everyone who would be involved with my evening the "it's going to be close" text, but i was sure i'd be back in provo with plenty of time to get changed and go pick up my date. I might even get to grab some dinner beforehand. Boy was i wrong.

The supposed 5 minute wait I was supposed to have between the tram and the bus turned out to be a 30 minute wait. To top that off, when the bus finally did arrive, the large and in charge bus driver decided he needed to go take his bathroom break. It's not like any of us were in a hurry. Even though it is on my bucket list to take a bus street racing, i controlled myself tonight. after the bus driver (who will be referred to as 'Santa' for the remainder of the post) returned, I was finally en route to provo. Did i mention that i had to stand in the below freezing weather for half an hour before Santa decided to show up? yeah i'm feeling the christmas spirit.

I did meet another BYU freshman at the bus stop. he was pretty cool.

Still, I HATE BEING RUSHED. this 30 minute delay was cutting it way to close. so i texted my date and told her i'd be late (intentional rhyme) and then proceeded to try and forget about what time it was. if there's one thing i wish i could pride myself on, it's punctuality. I swore that when i came to college, i would be on time for anything and everything, partly because when i was living at home my mom's time clock and mine did not line up very often. here are a couple threads that showcase my frustration:

(757): "going to be a bit late...bus driver had to take a bathroom break. now stuck with this ghetto white girl who is talking the freak loud on her phone about alex boyer."
(801):"how late?"
(757):"shouldn't be too bad unless fatty has to crap again"
(801): "go slip him 5$"

A couple busted into a fierce ASL debate on the bus, and and the ghetto white girl's phone convo lasted a solid 20 minutes and every other word was either "gurl,""like," or "[tongue click/gum pop]" i freaking hate utah. i need a new word to describe it because hate does not do it justice. public transit is a weird place. but i like it.

I ended up getting off the bus at THE WRONG STOP. turned out i was waaaaay south of campus, but i thought i was just north of campus. I tore my coat off and attempted to sprint home in my dress shoes. failure. the air is so thin here. Also, i was completely lost in south provo, and i didn't even have my pocketknife. i was pretty much a naked guy in the sahara desert trying not to get a sunburn. my situation was bad and there was about nothing i could do. I also tried giving the other BYU guy directions, shortly after which i started running in the direction i thought my apartment was in. it didn't take me long to realize that i was pretty far off the mark. so i start running buck wild toward the SWKT (the tallest building on campus) because it's a good landmark. i was far away from it. Phone dead, screaming at every object i could, and out of breath, i was ready to break into a car and drive it home. lucky for me, a woman spotted me running like a duck up toward campus and asked if i needed a ride. I told her i was late for a date (which incurred her pity upon me) and got a ride back home. eternally grateful. I got home, got changed, ate an ELfudge cookie, then ran to my date's apartment to pick her up. notice lots of running? yeah.

The date ended up being more fun than i expected. We went ice skating in the middle-of-nowhere-utah, but then again everywhere is the middle of nowhere in utah. so if everywhere is the middle, what shape does that make utah? an infinitesimal, unimportant speck in the universe maybe? Jake wanted to stay until we were the last people on the ice, so i offered to go warm his car up for him, because we'd been skating for almost 2 hours in the 15 degree weather. My date said she'd be journaling about the "coldest date she's ever been on." wouldn't have it any other way. I ended up taking jake's car for a little joyride (about 50 feet) because i haven't driven in 3 months and am uninsured. I just moved it from one side of the parking lot to the other to see how long it'd take him to realize it was gone. it took him a while for various reasons. i think visibility decreases as it gets colder. yes.

I also ended up NOT laying bruised, bleeding, and broken on the ice rink at any point of the night.

After my date, at 1149 PM, I RAN to the grocery store (closes at 12). I made it.

Champion.


I will never run again unless someone is dying, and even then its a long shot.