Recent News

I started Grad School. This is also known as Big Boy School, Real School, Overpriced School and "Whoa, are you surviving?"

Yes I am, thanks for asking

I spend most of my time in class or studying at the library so I don't talk to many people

As a result I talk to people on Facebook alot more whether they like it or not

I don't think many people like it

My Aunt asked me why I think that Mom's on Facebook are creepy. It was an awkward moment. They still creep me out

I went climbing tonight for the first time in a while and it was great

I got lost for a moment but then found the trail. It was a tense 33 seconds, even with the road 100ft away

I don't have to take accounting this semester.

I hate accounting

This is a good thing

My professor is a professional square dancer

I didn't know those existed. I think they're called pioneers

Thanks to Rose (herb) I found this www.mylifeisaverage.com

I think her work is pretty boring

I was going to work out today but then I didn't

Colby bought a Subaru today. If he moves into my house 4 of the 5 of us will drive Subaru's. Nate hates it.

I found string cheese that I can afford at the store

We got a free case of Red Bull and one of Red Bull Cola. If anyone wants the cola its yours, it's gross though

I'm keeping the Red Bull for the wings though

I MIGHT go on a date this week.

They still scare me 9 years after my first one

My wingman skills are outstanding though

Just ask Nate or Jon. I do hire out

I'll set it up but if you can't keep it going, thats your own fault (I'm not naming names)

I'm just writing Nate's name here for fun. Nate

In an effort to get to know myself better I've taken a few online quizzes.

On the "What kind of animal are you" quiz I found out that I'm a Wolverine

On the "What kind of tattoo should I get" quiz I found out that I should get a giant tree tattoo. Don't be surprised if next time you see me I have a pine tree from my feet to my head

FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is not very often that I have such fire-filled weekends as this one. On Thursday and Friday night I was at a family reunion where we had a large marshmellow roasting fire. I'll combine those and call them fire #1. The second was when I was driving up the reunion after school on Friday and at the top of Parley's Summit traffic started to slow down. I began to grumble about traffic jams, how I'm the only decent driver on the road etc. when I saw a huge plum of black smoke. I immediately changed from grumbly to interested. I could tell something was on fire and one lane was blocked off so instead of changing to the faster of the 2 lanes, I stayed in the slow lane to have the best view possible. It paid off. I passed a camper that was being completely, absolutely toasted. I tried to get a picture when I drove past but that didn't work so I just held up my phone, pointed it to the back and got the picture (kind of small but you can see). So that was Fire #2. Fire #3 was definitely my favorite. I went to a Luau that on of the LDS frats was having and they had some firedancers come. I've seen firedancers before but these were my favorite. If you've ever seen the movie Hotrod, this reminded me of that. They started out with "The Final Countdown" playing and both of them twirling their fire batons. On was wearing flaming shorts, a flame headband and an eye patch. These guys were great to watch because they had about 3 moves they could do but kept dropping their batons. One guy actually caught his shorts on fire (yes, the flame shorts actually caught on fire). Maybe the best part of all though was when they poured lighter fluid all over the ground for effect and caught the wood backdrop on fire. They spent about 10 minutes after the show trying to put it out. I couldn't help but feel that I got my money's worth out of comic relief.

On Wednesday I finished my summer job. I know I'm 25 and "summer job" sounds like something you have in highschool. Well, I've had a summer job working at Wheeler in their rental dept. On my last day they had one of the 250lbs. truck drivers sit on me while they zip tied and ceran wrapped me to my chair. I honestly was more worried about the driver letting some gas loose while sitting on me than anything else. I got them back though, don't worry. It was a good day though because Nitro Circus was in town filming and we go to go watch them film a bit since we rented them some equipment. Call me a loser but I was pretty excited to meet Travis Pastrana. If you don't know who he is check him out on youtube and you'll see that he has a pretty awesome life.

Next day I get up early, drop my car off at the repair shop and head to Seattle with Jeff and Kristin to help them move in. Jeff had gotten a head start in the moving truck while we dropped my car off and we were playing catch up. I was a little bitter about having to ride in the same car as their (Kristin's) cats but they were sitting in their cages and not bothering me. Then.....one of them decides its time to forgo the litter box and creates one of the worst smells I have ever been exposed to in any of my many roadtrips. Luckily the next rest stop was only 15 long, smelly, nasty minutes away. I escaped the cats when we caught up to Jeff only to be reunited with them 4 hours later. Tossing empty Red Bull cans at them luckily kept them at bay. While filling up the moving van up we counted approximately 20 warning signs in the U Haul, and you know they're all there because someone did exactly what the warning sign tells you not to. The sticker department at U Haul must have a pretty funny job but if they were in a Soap Opera I'd imagine their day goes something like this.
Telephone rings
"Sticker and warning labels department this is Joel, how can I help you?"
"Joel, this is Rueben down in trucking incidents. We had an incident yesterday that we need you to make a sticker for."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
"A guy was walking backwards out of the truck and missed the ramp with one foot. He fell out of truck to the ground and the couch landed on him. It had a hide-a-bed in it so it was very heavy. It messed him up pretty bad."
"I'll get right on it. What kind of sticker are we looking at here? You know the doors and dashboard of the trucks are already completely covered with warning labels and there's not really anywhere else to put them. I just can't do it!"
"I know, but we have no choice."
"You don't understand, I have no more room."
"Can you live with these lives on your conscience?
"I..Uh..."
"Think of our alternatives. Stickers or death, or at least badly bruised legs. There's got to be some way....I've got it!"
"You don't mean-"
"Yes I do. It's time to move to ramp stickers. Maybe if they see it every time they walk up the ramp they won't miss it coming down."
"You're putting me in a tough spot Rueben but I'll do what I can. Stat. Any preferences on the color scheme?"
"We'll need some red and yellow. You know that people ignore any warning signs with green. They just take it as an optional precaution."
"Like that guy that you found dead sitting on his seatbelt after he was in an accident?"
"The Bridgewater incident of '02? Yes, just like that. We're in the works to get the approval to change the color on that sticker but corporate isn't budging. You know how they are."
"Yeah, I know. We'll get this sticker right, don't you worry. A blind man in a blizzard won't be able to miss this one."
"Thanks Joel. Lives are depending on this."
"I know."

And that's how I see the warning label department at UHaul working.

You know that feeling where you just never have enough time? That's how I feel everynight when I go to bed. I either need to be able to sleep 2 hours a night and be fine the next day or just relax and do about 1/4 of what I want to do. I started a house painting company this spring with my friend Nate and things went fine for a while. Then I started working at Wheeler Machinery 10hrs a day 5 days a week. Nate does the painting but I've been trying to help, especially since we're painting my grandma's house right now. This tends to create 12-14 hour work days 4 or 5 days a week. I'm too the point where I don't mind working weekends/weekend nights/when I should be having fun with friends. I realized this is just a bit too much and have made plans to cut back (as soon as Nana's house is done) but I have so many other projects and stuff I want to work on (I haven't cleaned my room in 2 weeks, the clean laundry is just sitting in a pile on the floor cause everytime I think I'll put it away I tell myself I'll do it tomorrow). For some reason I think I'll have more time when I start my MBA in 2 weeks but I'm pretty sure that's just wishful thinking. So it goes, I'd rather be busy than not. I'd rather have people wanting us to paint their house than not. I just haven't learned the balancing act of life yet.