End of Another Year

The Pool is officially closed. It feels so weird. I don't know entirely what to do now. When you go from craziness everyday to complete silence and no one around, it becomes a bit lonely. I love my job. I love all the challenges it brings, but I miss the pool when it's gone. Which is weird, I'm completely burnt out. I was getting to the point where I didn't want to show up to work anymore because I couldn't take another couple of minutes in that place. But now that it's gone, I miss it horribly. I miss all the guards, despite all the challenges they could bring, they make me smile. Seeing them each grow into the person they are becoming... it really is enriching. I miss it.

Funny Phone Coversations

So today at the pool brought some interesting conversations either overheard, or I had them on the phone. The first was on the phone. Around 6 tonight, I received a phone call from a lady who had bought a season pass earlier that day. She explained to me that she needed to cancel the pass and get a refund as she had gone home to discuss this with her husband and he informed her that they didn't have the money to be able to afford this. I told her this was fine since she hadn't picked up her cards yet, we would just destroy them and refund her for the full amount minus the cost of coming to the pool that day. I explained our pool refund process and how long it would take, she thanked me and hung up.

Normal phone conversation right... well fast forward about 30 minutes later and the phone rings again. I look at the caller id and recognize the name as the same lady that called to cancel. I figured she was calling back to uncancel the season pass... this happens a lot actually. So I pick up with my normal phone greeting. She responds, "Uh yes, I called a bit ago and canceled my membership, well my husband needs to know that I actually canceled the membership, can you talk to him?" I was a bit flabbergast at this point, however I managed to say yes. So she hands the phone to husband. He gets on the phone, "Hi, I'm sorry for doing this, but my wife is extremely irresponsible when it comes to finances, she spends money when she shouldn't and today is a great example of this..." At this point, I was completely blown away. I couldn't believe this man was saying this about his wife. He continued, "I would appreciate it if you could please explain to me everything that has transpired today." So I told him in exact details the numbers and how his refund would be processed. At one point in this conversation, I told him the amount his wife had spent on the pool pass, he butted in with, "well that's great, she lied to me about the price too." The conversation ended without a thank you or a goodbye. I confirmed it would take about 2 weeks and the man hung up. Needless to say, the whole conversation left me a bit speechless.

The second conversation that made the day interesting was one that was overheard. Towards the end of the day a lady in her late 20's came in and asked to borrow the phone. From the beginning of the phone call, she had an annoyed fed up tone to her voice. Now I could only hear the conversation from her side, however that was enough, it went something like this, "Umm, can you come pick us up. We are stuck here and need a ride." "Well my phone is dead. I mean it's completely dead, and we don't have a car here to get home." "I can't take kindergartners on a road, there is no way I can walk with them all on State Street." "Well if one of your grandkids is dead by the time I get back, that's on your conscience." "Dude, we need a ride. I don't know where he is, he took my 4Runner and left." "What do you mean you wont be able to find us? It's not hard, you pull up to the pool and we are out in front of it." "Fine!"

The entire conversation was in a completely annoyed tone. It was hilarious. After she hung up, she gave a completely frustrated sigh, gave each of us in the office the evil eye roll. As soon as she left the office, we were all on the floor laughing. It was pretty much the best one sided phone conversation I've heard in a while.

Climbing the Rope Bridge

So at the pool we have a super long bridge that crosses from the main pool deck over the lazy river to the island. It has a railing as well as a rope fence thing to keep people from falling off the bridge. There is pretty much no way to climb over this rope fence it would just be awkward. Climbing on the outside of the rope would be close to impossible as well as there isn't much space to walk. So the other day, one of the lifeguards was walking around that portion of the lazy river and came to the bridge. He heard a shout and looked up. Much to his surprise, he sees a kid hanging on the outside of the rope, about to fall off. The kid is really really short and super chubby, he looks at the lifeguard and says, "I can't hold on any longer! Should I jump?" The lifeguard is like, "No! Can you climb down?" The kid says there is absolutely no way he can climb down. The lifeguard tells him to hold on and gets the Head Guard on shift over to help him out. The head lifeguard came over and lifted him down... it took everything he had to get the kid down. The whole time the kid was yelling, "I can't hold on any longer, I can't hold on any longer!" When they asked the kid how he got up there, he replied with, "I don't know. I was just here." Yup... awesome.

Peeing in the Pool

So recently, there have been a few complaints at the pool all having to deal with the same thing... and all describing the same person involved. Each person described a little African-American kid with a mohawk. From there is where the story gets interesting. Apparently he would watch the lifeguards as they are walking around the lazy river. He would wait until they had disappeared from sight and then he would hop out of the pool and stand on the side and start peeing on people as they went by in the lazy river. He has yet to be actually caught by a lifeguard. We now have at least 6 cases of this reported. I want to meet this kid, he is my new hero. Haha... he hasn't been back to the pool since we've heard about it, so when he does, we will be watching close.

The Light Up the Trail

So recently, life has started to calm down, because the pool is starting to calm down for the summer. Taking this into consideration, my friend Tyler and I decided that we wanted to hike Mt. Timp one night and sit at the top to watch the sunrise. It's the thing everyone talks about doing in Provo, and neither of us had done it. So we planned a day to go, talked to friends about it got a group together and decided to head up the mountain. Luckily, we had someone with us who has done the hike before, so he was able to warn us of how cold it would be, as well as how long it was going to take, how tired we were going to be and all that. That being said, words never can fully prepare you for what is to come. Our group of 11 met at my apartment around 9 o'clock the night we had chosen. We got all our stuff together and loaded into Tyler's and I's cars. Spirits were high as we headed up Provo Canyon to our destination. It was still all fun and games at this point. I had some water bottles and food in my backpack along with gloves, a hat, a sweatshirt and another jacket. It was time to get started. We had about 4 flashlights for our whole group to climb up in the dark. This was definitely enough, though I'm sure everyone wished they had one.

The start up the hill was fun and lighthearted, I for one was singing my way up. Though if you know me, that's not unusual, I'm always singing my way along anywhere. Everyone was chatting and having a lot of fun as we went up. However it didn't stay that way for long. Suddenly the pavement ended, there was no more paved trail, it was all dirt from there on up (so I thought). The incline suddenly became a lot steeper. Soon it took all your effort to keep from falling. Walking up you couldn't see much because it was so pitch black, but you could feel that there was vegetation on either side. I personally am not a huge fan of nature, or touching things in nature. I was praying the whole way up that I wasn't touching anything super gross and that bugs weren't jumping all over me. As we got further up, you could hear the running water of the falls and all the little streams that run off of it. Soon, the ground beneath us was sloshing. Suddenly I knew I was walking through mud. Gross. I had passed off my flashlight to someone else by this point, so thankfully I wasn't able to see the gross of the mud on the ground. However I still had high spirits. I was excited we were actually doing this. By this point, we were about 2-3 hours into the hike. We had hit a series of switchbacks that were proving to be quite difficult, a couple of our group decided they couldn't do it anymore and headed back to the cars to go home (They took my car back and were going to come get us in the morning).

After these 2 left the group, we got even more quiet. Every now and then we would come to a look out ledge. Even at night, you could tell these were gorgeous. I was excited to see them in the daylight the next day. The climb was getting steeper, and it was definitely getting colder, though thankfully, we were all so warm because we were huffing and puffing our way up the mountain. The climb was pretty monotonous for the first 4-5 hours. We were just climbing up switchbacks on the side of a mountain face. Every now and then it would get scary, and we would have to scale sheer smooth rock to get across to the trail. It was crazy in the dark. A couple of the guys would get setup, one on either side of the rock face and would help the rest of us get across it. Then we'd go back to the monotony. After a while, things started to get a little bit easier as we reached a meadow. It was peaceful, the stars were beautiful, and you could hear a stream running nearby. Right after the meadow however, was an incline I've never seen the likes of. It was crazy steep and the dirt and rocks would shift underneath you. I was literally on my hands and knees to get up it. But once at the top of that, we were totally rewarded! We had reached Emerald Lake. Most of the 9 of us that were left made it to the top of the hill okay, however there were a couple of stragglers. So the 7 of us at the top of this hill found a nice little spot to settle down and take a small nap.


Yup we look pretty ridiculous.

After a short nap, we gathered our things to start going again. The 2 stragglers decided this was where they were going to stay until morning. There was no way they could make it up the rest of the way (one of the poor girls had the flu). So they camped out there and the rest of us continued up. From there, things got crazy. There was no longer a cut trail, just rocks and icy snowy drop off. I'm not kidding... if you stepped on a rock or the snow wrong, you would have tumbled down the entire mountain side. It felt like it was completely treacherous. I couldn't believe we were attempting this! That was probably one of the scariest parts of the hike for me. I was completely silent by this point. Finally after what seemed like the entire night, we reached the trail again. This was straight switchbacks, but at the top of these switchbacks was amazing. We had reached the Saddle Back. This is the point where you are at the top of the mountain and can finally see down the front and the back of the mountain. It was gorgeous. The lights in the cities below looked amazing and the stars were so clear and beautiful. We sat down at this point and got some more water and snacks. Tyler and I started to get antsy to get to the top of the mountain, so we got our things packed up to go. The rest of the group decided to stay behind at Saddle Back.

Tyler and I began the last leg of the journey. This was the hardest part. Often we were walking on really unsteady rocks and it was a drop-off to the cities below. There were a ton more people now, so you were constantly waiting on someone else, or having someone impatient pass you. There were some huge climbs where you were using your hands. But after about an hour, we made it to the top. It was just starting to get light. We found a seat and waited. As we watched, the sun started to come up over the horizon in front of us. I saw the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. It was absolutely amazing. The colors were so vibrant and amazing. After the sun was up, Ty and I went to go and sign the book they have at the top. It felt like such an accomplishment.


Tyler and I at the top

Then I realized... I had to climb back down what I had just climbed up. And on top of that, I actually was going to be able to see the drop-offs and the grossness this time. I was sooo not excited. However, the trip down was pretty uneventful. We were all exhausted. Tyler and I climbed back to Saddle Back and met up with the 5 we had left there, and then we all headed back down the mountain. It was interesting to see all the things we had climbed the night before and all the obstacles we had made it through in the dark. Even more interesting to see was what could have happened if we had happened to go the wrong way. I was completely enthralled and pretty deep in thought the rest of the climb down. We stopped at the falls and stuck our feet in. It felt amazing to have the cool water going over our hot sore, feet and my feet seriously did not want to go back in the shoes. All the bundling up that had happened the night before was quickly undone as the sun made the climb down hotter and hotter. But finally we made it back down to the bottom and met up with the last 2 from our group. We all just laid in the parking lot and waited for our ride to come and get us.


The Group after we finished

This was a truly amazing experience. I am so grateful that I got to do this. While I was hiking, I got so much time to think, and out there I felt so close to my Heavenly Father. I felt like the lines of communication had opened up in a way that I could only dream of. A lot of what has happened in my life thus far, suddenly began to make sense. Why I had the feeling to make certain decisions and such. I was also taught some beautiful lessons out there.

How often are we climbing up a steep trail in the dead of night? How often are we in complete darkness and scared, not knowing what gunk is underneath our feet, or what we are touching off to the side? I know that this happens to me a lot in life. I have no sense of what direction I'm going, or how what I'm doing affects my life. However out on the trail, we had a light, just a small one, that opened up what we could see enough so that we could make our way. It lit the pathway before us so that we could continue on the path unharmed. I was amazed to realize, this is how the Holy Ghost helps us. He opens up our light on the the trail to let us see where we are going and to give us the help that we need. If we rely on that help, we can make it to the top to see the beautiful dawn in our life. I know that through the help of our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ, my life is blessed and led in a direction that will bring me true happiness!

Gradumacated!!!

It's official! The day has now come and gone when I graduated! I am now a graduate of Brigham Young University (kind of)! I say kind of because I still have to finish up my internship, so it won't actually be finalized until I get all that done. But still, it was exciting. I got to graduate with a friend from my major, as well as my cousin. It was a couple of really long days, but overall, so much fun! The past 4 1/2 years have been so crazy. I can't believe it's gone by so fast. Seriously! It seems like just yesterday (I know, I'm totally cliche) that I was walking on to BYU campus for the first time as a freshman. I know with all my heart that this is the place I was supposed to spend these years. The time I spent here I will cherish always. Thanks to the many great people I have met here... I have had times that I could only hope for in dreams before. This has been truly the most cherished experience of my life this far. I can only hope that life is going to be even better from here! Here's to BYU class of 2009!

Kaleb Enters the MTC

So today we a really exciting day! My little brother went into the MTC! It was really exciting to have the whole family together in Utah for the occasion. Though the whole family (minus Kaleb of course) will be back for my graduation in a week. Kaleb is going to the Porto, Portugal mission! I'm so proud of him and excited for the opportunities that is going to bring!

Summer Craziness

So this summer is proving to be absolutely amazing. Like Yeah... I am working at an amazing pool for my summer internship. Though because it's brand new, my life is one constant stream of working. I'm busy all the time and I love it. I was recently interviewed by a local newspaper on everything I do there. It is pretty much my favorite addition I've made to my life. There are crazy stories about the lifeguards and all the things that happen at the pool as well as craziness connected with our FlowRider. But it is all totally worth it. And so much fun. If you are interested in seeing the article, click Here!


That's the top of the FlowRider... I think it looks rather cool.

Catch Up

It's been a while since my last post. Dang it... I need to get better at this whole thing. However, life took over and I got super busy. School has ended, another semester down and I'm only 4 months away from graduation!!! Who knew it would happen. Yes I passed all my classes. So now I only have to knock down this term, and I'll be done! I'm also doing my internship right now. So that's where life got super busy. Around the end of March, my boss at the pool I was working at received and email that a guy she knew was looking for staff at a brand new pool. She immediately emailed him back listing all my many qualifications. At this moment, I have now been the Pool Manager of the new Lindon Aquatics Center for about a month and a half. It has been the best experience of my life so far. I am learning so much everyday. I am involved in every operation of opening up this pool. It is a brand new facility that is still under construction right now. I currently am up to my neck in sorting through applications as well as designing t-shirts, setting up our computer software, forming all our policies and procedures as well as trying to get all the equipment ordered and getting people totally certified to work. It's craziness. Between everything I'm doing I'm working 10-12 hour days right now! It's so much, but totally worth it. This is unfortunately a pool that is only open for the summer, so the job only lasts through September, but the experience I'm gaining is totally invaluable!

Oreo Commercial

Last year in my Marketing class, we had to come up with an advertisement for something that was already out there on the market. My group decided that we were going to make a commercial on Oreos. I have included here a link for you to see it. It makes me laugh.

Sorry the audio is so horrible. I was wearing the mike, so only my voice is really well picked up on.

Recycling...

So I wrote this probably when I was 16... but I love it... so here we go!



As I was meandering down the lonely dark lane,
I came across an unseemly sight.
In the middle of this dreary way
Was a brightening power
Conquering and driving away the evil influences.
A tiny little flower,
Paving the way for more to follow,
To defeat the dark sadness called winter.
Though small and feeble,
The whiteness brightens the day like nothing before it,
Reminding of days gone past and better,
More fun times.
Of the sun and the green, green grass
And all the amenities of summer gone by.
One miniscule flower can refresh
And make new the overpowering force
That drives away the hopelessness that seeps into a world.

I Love My Boss....

... and I'm not lying! She is amazing. So today I went to work and she pulled me into her office. I was just thinking she needed me to sign some papers from a class that I had taught with her, so I was shocked when yet again, she had lined up another possible job for me. No joke. They are building a new rec center a couple of cities over right now, and they are looking for some aquatics staff. So unbeknownst to me, she had emailed him all of my qualification and everything I've done so far in life. He quickly responded asking for my contact info... Ahh!!!! I don't know what I'm going to do if something comes from this, seriously. The internship we had talked about me doing with her was so exciting, but this is a life defining experience! I'm just going to wait it out and see what comes! Seriously... so excited!

Graduation!!!

I recently decided that I'm going to graduate this year instead of wait another year, so I condensed all my classes into these 2 semesters. I have one class left for spring!!! I'm so excited. A few days ago, I was just sitting around waiting for my next class to start and I was like... ooo... I need to apply for graduation. So to make a really long story short, after dealing with the driest counselor on BYU campus, the bubbliest teacher on the campus and a few more people, I am now prepared to apply for graduation! I just need to remember to take my wallet up one of these days so that I can pay the fee to graduate. Why on earth is there a few to graduate? Seriously... 15 dollars so they can process your application? Slightly ridiculous seeing as I have paid close to 20,000 already... hmmph. But once that is in, I will have officially applied to graduate from this school! Now all that is left is I have to pass my classes from this semester, spring term and find and complete my internship. Phew... seems like a lot... but I think I can do it. As for the internship as of right now, I'm just planning on keeping my lifeguarding gig... should prove to be exciting! Okay... now just to stave off senioritis...

Starting Anew

I swear every few months I resolve to begin blogging again... but it's happening yet again. We shall see if it actually holds this time, who knows. Life is going totally crazy right now, but I'm not going to post about all that right now... I'm going to slowly post about them, drag it out I guess. Haha... anyways, here goes nothing!

The Election

Recently, there was an election. I'm assuming you know this unless you have been living in a bomb shelter. In that case, you wouldn't be reading this. Well I have been following this election and the candidates since 2006. I was a hardcore Mitt Romney fan. He seemed to represent everything that I thought was important and was fully ready to back him. Yes, I was that person. Then Romney dropped out. I stopped caring. My only interest in the election was moving to Australia if Clinton won. Well it finally came to the point where Clinton was out (thank goodness) and soon it was time to apply for an absentee ballot. I sent in my app... and waited... and waited... and waited... I soon realized that I had waited too long, and it was now too late. I was saddened to realize that I couldn't vote, the election that I had been following for so long. Now I won't say who I was planning on voting for. That isn't fair to either candidate, especially now that we have a new President Elect. I will say that I was and am prepared to support either candidate, whoever won. I'll come back to that thought later.

I was disappointed that my family had moved to Georgia. This meant that I was registered there, and not in California. As a California citizen I would have been able to vote on Prop 8. This was the election I actually cared about. I felt very strongly about voting for Prop 8. Not only had those in authority in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints spoken out about this, I felt that this was fundamentally wrong. Marriage is between a Man and a Woman. This is the way it was meant to be created. This was how it was originally ordained, and this is how it was meant to be. Now, I know that people are going to say this is because I'm a Mormon. Grow up people. The count was so close. There is not that percentage of LDS in California. How could we have controlled the vote like that. Not only that, there are some LDS that were against it. Others that have no left the Church because of this. Obviously the majority of California (LDS and non LDS) wanted this to pass. By the way, is violence and hatred really the answer? Why is it necessary for people to treat the church this way? Check out this article. Okay that is all I have to say on that subject.

Here is an excerpt from a talk by Neil A Maxwell. It really sums up my feelings.

“Discipleship includes good citizenship; and in this connection, if you are careful students of the statements of the modern prophets, you will have noticed that with rare exceptions--especially when the First Presidency has spoken out--the concerns expressed have been over moral issues, not issues between political parties. The declarations are about principles, not people, and causes, not candidates. On occasions, at other levels in the Church, a few have not been so discreet, so wise, or so inspired.

“But make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters; in the months and years ahead, events will require of each member that he or she decide whether or not he or she will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions.

“President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had "never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional, or political life.” This is a hard doctrine, but it is a particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . .

“Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . .. .

“This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions. Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened. . . .

“It may well be, as our time comes to "suffer shame for his name", that some of this special stress will grow out of that portion of discipleship which involves citizenship. Remember that, as Nephi and Jacob said, we must learn to endure "the crosses of the world" and yet to despise "the shame of [it]". To go on clinging to the iron rod in spite of the mockery and scorn that flow at us from the multitudes in that great and spacious building seen by Father Lehi, which is the "pride of the world," is to disregard the shame of the world. Parenthetically, why--really why--do the disbelievers who line that spacious building watch so intently what the believers are doing? Surely there must be other things for the scorners to do--unless, deep within their seeming disinterest, there is interest.

“If the challenge of the secular church becomes very real, let us, as in all other human relationships, be principled but pleasant. Let us be perceptive without being pompous. Let us have integrity and not write checks with our tongues which our conduct cannot cash.

“Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even these, however, must leave a record so that the choices before the people are clear and let others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, that others will step forward, having been rallied to righteousness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds--a majority which was, till then, unconscious of itself.

“Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves "summer is nigh". Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat.”

Neal A. Maxwell, “Meeting the Challenges of Today”, BYU Devotional, 10 October 1978

When I read this I was struck by the meaning of this. I have a lot of friends that are really mad because Obama was elected President. Now while I may not agree with all of his ideas, I do know that he was elected by the people. He was able to get the younger vote, and got more people to vote from the younger demographic than ever. I am amazed by his speech making. So while I may not agree with his policy, I do believe in supporting him. He was elected and he is the leader of our country. If we don't all unite, that is much worse than any policy that could be put in place. As made manifest by the 12th Article of Faith, "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." So in closing, though I didn't vote, I am going to sustain our President for as long as he is in office. I believe it is the right thing to do.