Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Polar Opposite: A Great Weekend With Some Cool Surprises

Ok so yes my last weekend wasn't the greatest. It seemed that the fun karma had become depleted in my life. In reality, I was having a lot of fun this summer, so I couldn't expect to have an awesome weekend every week, now could I. So enough pouting for me, time to quit being a baby.

Onto this weekend. Complete 180 from last week. It was crazy, busy, exciting, fun, and super involved. Let's take a closer look shall we (I'm such a nerd, this I know).

Friday: Work went by so quick. There wasn't anybody there, and of all the nothing I had to do, I got it all done. It was the first day that I really didn't care about having nothing going on because it went by so quickly. But after work, what time is it? Hockey time. Now this is how good my weekend was going, let me elaborate. So we only had 6 guys there to play hockey. For some reason no one was showing up. Well of course we knew that they'd cancel it and I'd be out of a good release once again. But the guy who had to stay and zamboni the ice agreed to let us play. Oh that was so awesome. We then played 3 on 3 for the next hour plus. I was super beat by the end of it all. Now once that was finished, I had to get home, hydrate, and get over to the soccer facility for a late night make up game. I was actually really out of it the whole time, for one thing, and then being in a boarded up field that looks similar to a hockey arena, made me think that I would just poke check the ball away with my stick (which didn't exist) while on defense, or just check the guy into the boards to stop him. Whoops. I got beat once or twice in the beginning and also got a foul or two called on me. All that said I did manage to score my first goal of the season. Now that's saying a lot for me because I never play up. Since nobody else on the team really gets back on defense, I decided to play sweeper, I'm the last man back. So I had an opportunity in which there was a good opening, I passed it up, he took a shot on goal, I got the rebound, and drilled it in. So it was a good night. Indoor soccer definitely is a completely different game from outdoor, which is why I am not too fond of it, but it is still fun to get out and run.

So on to Saturday. I took it easy and just did laundry during the day and waited for my night plans. So remember last week I happened to complain about a certain brunette that stood me up? Well I did get a hold of her, we planned a date for Saturday, and I totally stood her up. Oh man revenge is so nice. I mean I told her what restaurant to meet at, called her saying that I was a little late and to see if she was there already, and then once I confirmed she was there, I called the restaurant and had the hostess tell her that I couldn't make it because I was out with my girlfriend. Oh my gosh how good is that!!!! Payback.

I know, I know.... I really know how to give it to someone. And right now as you're reading this thinking about how much of a jerk I was, how insensitive and immature I acted, wanting to punch me in the face feeling sorry for that poor woman, you're now going to have that feeling of being dooped by Alex once again.

Of course I didn't do that to her. Are you serious? I did go out with the "MaGirl" and we had a good time. She truly was sick the other day and didn't feel good enough to call. So now that I feel like an idiot for thinking that she stood me let's get on to the date. So after having to stop off at her sister's for a bit we headed back up to Salt Lake for dinner. It was an alright dinner for food, but it was really good for getting to know her. We seemed to talk a lot about work, personal goals, priorities (oh yeah, you know I said skiing), and just whatever else came up. She's really a sweet person. She's mature, my age (thank goodness), brunette (of course, you know me) a dancer (way fun), intelligent, and beautiful, especially her smile. It was just really easy for me to get along with her.

After dinner we met up with my buddy Mike, his girlfriend, and her friends to go out dancing. That of course was way fun, especially when you're with a good dancer. So after all the club fun was said and done, I got "MaGirl" back to her place around 3:15 am or so. I was not about to drive all the way back up to Ogden. I called Mike and met up with him to crash, but I never got tired now that I wasn't driving, so I stayed up and finally headed home to Ogden at 6 am. Now that sucked.

Since it's already Sunday let's talk about that. Yeah so church was hard. I was so beat. The new Bishopric spoke and yeah. Well the big surprise is finally getting to hang out with a good childhood buddy from Wisconsin. Ben Leonhardt moved out to Layton the other week, and we planned on hanging out Sunday night. It's good to see him. Man he still looks the same. Why couldn't I still have the same hairline? Why do I have to have the family hairline? Anyway, we chatted about everything: school, work, finding jobs, girls (and the ridiculous drama that is contained within their DNA), crappy student loan payments, skiing, possibly rooming together in Salt Lake City, and life. Way fun time. I'm so glad that he is out here. He's a good buddy to have around. I hope that he finds a job quickly.

To an absolutely fun, invigorating, and exhausting weekend: Adieu.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Disappointing Weekend

Do you ever get one of those disappointing weekends? You know, one which starts out having a lot of plans, activities, hopes, and expectations, that eventually turns into blah. That's what happened over the past three days.

Let's start out on Friday. I went up to Idaho to meet up with a group of people. The plan was to stay up on the Snake river and just mess around for a couple of nights. Because of work, I didn't go up till Friday morning. So this brings us to the first part of the disappointment. I didn't know until I was halfway to the meeting spot that it was 150 miles away. Good thing that I just happened to dump $60 in my tank, and that I would be using 3/4 of it for the round trip over 24 hours. So I get to our place, see that everyone is out on the river, and decide to put up my tent. Well at least I got a good nap once that was done. The next disappointment came as I noticed some people that were supposed to be there had bailed. Okay so really that's not too big of a disappointment, but it added to being there with some people I really didn't care for. There happened to be more than a hand full of people I didn't care for: they just weren't my type of people.

So Saturday morning rolls around and I am pretty quick to pack up camp and head home. The whole drive home I am thinking about what I am going to do before hockey. Oh yes beloved hockey: beautiful, powerful, aggressive, energy consuming hockey. I get there a little late, about 8:00 for an 8:15 start time, and right when I get there, this stupid, selfish, disjointed waste of space, decides to call the ice time, stating that there wasn't the minimum amount of people required to be there. Apparently her Utah public school education hasn't allowed her the faculty to count to 10! If she would have bothered to raise one of her fingers for every person that was there and signed up, she would have quickly realized that she didn't have enough digits to account for every individual present. And she wouldn't even reason with us! So this really starts the aggression and aggravation within me. This was supposed to be the culmination of my weekend, and now it's gone. And to think I planned a date for Sunday night because hockey just happens to come first. Now don't I feel stupid that I didn't plan that date for Saturday night.

On to Sunday and the date. So I planned to meet up with this attractive 27 year old brunette, we'll call her the "MaGirl, down in Salt Lake City at 5:30. I meet her the previous Saturday while down in SLC enjoying the Outdoor Retailer Show and festivities. I had chatted with her a couple of times during the week and we decided to make plans for the weekend. Well about 3:30 I received a text:

"Hey you! I am so sorry I am going to have to postpone dinner. I have not been feeling well all day. I hoped to be better by now, but I am not. I am so sorry."

Well that's just great now isn't it! So I don't even get the decency of a phone call? Just splendid. Granted, she could actually be under the weather and out of it, hence no phone call, but I'm going to go with my first impression on this one. I didn't reply to the text message and shortly received another from her seeing if I had got the first one. That's when the "did I really expect anything to go as planned this weekend" thought came into mind. I'll be extremely surprised if she gets back to me on the dinner raincheck. On the bright side, it did save me from a drive down to Salt Lake City.

Here's to a beautifully disappointing weekend: Adieu.

Friday, August 1, 2008

First Comes Love.... Then Comes That "Certain" Commitment

Yes I will finally come out with it. I have fallen in love. Okay I know that three weeks is really fast, but when you know, you really do know. Plus doing something 3 or 4 days of each week really helps you get in touch and get to know what you need to know. My mother said one day I would be just floored and taken completely by surprise, becoming completely smitten. She said this probably because I have tendencies to blow girls off to go skiing, climbing, or do whatever I want to do. I guess she was right. It is a match made in heaven.

You know that feeling, when you think about your love all day? It's a distraction but a good one. You become so consumed and only want to do one thing: be with your love. You count down the hours and the minutes until it's time to meet up. You're constantly smiling. And it's that genuine smile, one that is also done through your eyes. People all around you can tell something is up. You do your best and want everything to be done for and because of your love. You don't care what other people are saying, doing, or thinking, because you are in love. You sacrifice time and stay up later, get up earlier, and try and get out of work quicker. You feel happy with life, work doesn't seem so bad, that idiot that cut you off on the highway doesn't even phase you, you're somewhat scatter brained and giddy all the time.

So I was thinking, "now that I am in love, I probably should show my commitment to my love." That brings us to that commitment that I don't say by name. But we all know that this commitment starts with a purchase of something meaningful. You know I talked to a lot of people asking them how I should go about with this: what style I should buy; what level; what size, how big; what color I should get; should I go with traditional or stylish? All these things were going through my mind for the last two weeks. I finally just made my mind up the other day. This is what I decided on (scroll down).


























That's right, I have fallen in love with hockey. I hope none of you actually thought I had fallen in love with some girl. HA!! Remember who's writing this. I am letting it really take over my life right now. It's a good fit too. I have wanted to play hockey ever since I was 11 years old. I had bought all of the equipment and really wanted to play bad but when my mother and I talked to the youth hockey coach, we found out that the price for the season ice time was $530. There was no way that my mother could afford that and she wasn't able to do that for me. Growing up my mother did anything and everything possible to assist me in my sports pursuit, but this was the first thing that she had to back away from. I know that it made her sad seeing me sad and disappointed because my childhood dream was out of reach and impossible to do. I know that it was a really hard thing for my mother to tell me that I couldn't do it, but that's fine.

Life has a funny way of having our dreams come true. It only took fifteen years, but I now am living my childhood dream. I play every Monday, Wednesday night, Thursday morning before work, and alternating Fridays and Saturdays. I owe it to Gas Can Dan for getting me into it. He started playing again and happened to have both a goalie and a player set up. Since he was wanting to just play goalie, he invited me to go play with him, and gave me all of his gear to use. Luckily I had gotten a brand new $300 pair of skates free from my buddy Justin the week before. They were going to just drop them off at D.I. (Goodwill) and decided to give them to me.

Dan and I both really turned up our game this last week. He's knocked off a lot of rust and I finally started to pick up on puck handling. It's really cool to have people ask me where I played in high school and to see their expression when I tell them that I have only been playing for three weeks. I know that I'm not that good but it'll come with time. So here are some pics from our last drop-in game on Wednesday night. Dan's girlfriend was kind enough to take them. She took them from far away in not so great lighting, so they're not the best of quality. I'll get some better ones in the next coming weeks.

Getting back on defense



Stealing a pass across the goal



Getting ready to take a wrist shot



Back on defense again



Dan and me taking a breather