Everything is Better in 3D!

So last Thursday night my compadres and I set out for Bricktown to watch our very own Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Sacramento Kings in the final preseason game of the 2009 season (thanks to Chesapeake and my sister for the $126 tickets). This was a momentous occasion for 3 out of the 5 peeps in the group as they had never been to an NBA game before. Little did we know, this was only the bunny hill on the way to the double black that would soon cross our paths.

As we left the game we walked past the movie theatre. For some time now, Sethy and I have been discussing how great it would be to see a movie in 3D. In fact, he tried to talk me into going to see Final Destination in 3D. LAME. Anyways, as we crossed the theatre we saw that the original Toy Story was playing in 3D. This was great, because even if the 3D thing sucked, we knew the movie would be phenomenal. As we got into line both Katie and Tristen proceeded to make a scene about the Toy Story movie in 3D. As the line standers began to stare, I knew I had to be quick on my feet in order to keep from losing man points in the eyes of all of the Oklahoma City late Thursday night movie goers. Immediately, I began rousing up a debate over which of the Saw movies were the best because there was no way Saw VI was going to be scary. Phew, crisis avoided.

As we slipped into the theatre we received our 3D glasses which were not your cereal box, plastic red and blue lens 3D glasses, no, they were Buddy Holly replica, wear out in public 3D glasses. As Woody came on the screen and asked us to put on our glasses, the six of us (4 college kids and two adults a few rows in front of us) did as he asked and put on our spectacles and prepared for the mind blowing experience that is three dimensional. Now, what is better than just one 3D movie you ask... TWO! That is right, to the surprise of all of us, this was not just Toy Story in 3D, but a double feature of both Toy Story one and Toy Story two! Now, if I had known this going into the 10:00 pm movie, I would have probably vetoed the idea, but for some reason when the unexpected bonus movie was announced, I was filled only with jubilee!

3 and a half hours and 3 dimensions later my mind was, "literally" blown, and we made our way back to Norman. I skipped class the next morning and slept passed noon. I wish real life could be 3D...

Greener Grass

Life is kind of dull right now. I have not had a blog worthy story yet this semester. Do not fear though faithful 3 1/2, there is adventure on the horizon. Before the first month of 2010 is over, I will have succeeded to go on 3 trips which should create some sort of excitement for us all.

1. Lincoln, Nebraska

2. New York, New York

3. Breckenridge, Colorado

If I go on these 3 trips and have nothing to bring back for you, I vow to remove this blog and all of its content from the mind altering drug that is the interweb.

Slow Down... Or Maybe Speed Up... But Just a Little Bit

What in the world is happening?!?! I have so much time to be bored and lonely, yet I have no time to accomplish any of my personal goals or be of service to others! I object to alone time and weekends spent on my own, yet I complain about not being caught up on a number of things including my reading list, school work, relish assignments, and various projects at Tara's house. Now I look at the calendar and but a week is left in September! 3 football games are over. I have already begun the madness of midterms. I am still trying to catch up with people from summer. I am in the process of creating new friendships. My nephew is almost 2! He is also the best looking child you will ever see. How do things go at such an alarming pace while dragging on for so long. I'm ready to see, "what's next" in life, but I love the comfort of college. My point is, I don't understand life.

Long Time, No Post.

Ok, so I would like to apologize to the 3.5 of you who stumble across my blog from time to time and have seen no change in the past month. It seems as if the number of friends I have to hang out with is inversely related to the number of blog posts I create.

Sad fact number two is that I currently have no great story to share in which I either made a fool of myself. This is not to say that I have not made a fool of myself in the past month, only that it hasn't resulted in a positive experience to be shared with all.

What the past month has done is make me think. I spent the summer in what some might call, the "Real World." This was both a scary and exciting place. I was in bed by 11 and I woke up every morning at 6:30 to go to work. I got a paycheck on the 1st and the 15th. I drove a work truck and had a few beers with a guy named Herb while we discussed the current state of the energy industry. Now I am back in Norman where I have classes to keep up with and an irregular sleep schedule. I have friends and social dynamics that seem to change daily which create a since of bonus stress that goes along with the woes of an engineering major. I play basketball at 10:00 pm and rarely wake up before 10:00 am unless I have class. My diet consists of things ranging from the mystery meat of Taco Bell to a delicious steak grilled to perfection over a hot bed of charcoal. Just the other day there were over 40 people all in my house at once! College is crazy! It is so far away from what is "normal," that I am still learning what to do with it. I have now been back in this lifestyle for around 5 weeks and I feel as if I am acclimating well, but it scares me to think of what life will be like outside of this 24,000 peer bubble I am enveloped in currently. Will I be successful? Do I have what it takes to find a community within a city of 3-5 million people?

So the above is basically just an open minded rambling of what I have been thinking about recently, but I am truly happy to be back at the University of Oklahoma. While I currently miss the mountains and great weather, it doesn't outweigh the fact that I missed my friends and family dearly while I was gone and I dread having to leave them again in the future. As this semester and year continues on I hope to remember that this college world is not "normal." That it is actually a scary place where one can be surrounded by 24,000 of their peers and yet feel more alone than ever before. I pray that God may use me as an instrument to these people and that he will continue to encourage me with the ministry of RUF.

Boomer Sooner!

Finished. Done. Completed.

Guess what. It's OVER! Well, all but about three and a half hours from over. I have succeeded. I lasted an entire summer in Wyoming! Do not be fooled, I am no super hero. John Stuart is. He lived in this barren, treeless, female lacking land for a year! Wow!

I must thank a few people for helping me to a grand exit from the equality state. I begin with JA and one who will probably never read this, Kristy Knapp. As Justin arrived in Denver I knew the summer was coming to a close. He flew into Denver, a solid three and a half hours from Rawlins, early Wednesday afternoon. We met up with Denver local Kristy in order to see the best of Denver on this long awaited reunion. Possibly a poor decision due to the fact that we got back to Rawlins at 4 am and I had to be in Rock Springs, 2 hours west of Rawlins, by 8:30 am for a meeting. I'm not a morning person.

The next few days were spent in Rawlins. Rawlins sucks, but we toured the old state prison built in the late 1800's, and learned as JA puts it, "Our action do in fact have consequences." I really wanted to buy a sticker which stated, "I spent time in Rawlins, WY" with an eerie picture of the prison on it, but I believe burning those memories is probably the best way to deal with them.

Then my final weekend as a semi-resident of the equality state came. We met up with actual resident J Stu and these last days were spent with a couple of Okies and our fair share of alcoholic beverages. Marijuana Party of Wyoming and a slightly odd reference to a founding father made for some inside jokes that will carry us through at least the next six months.

So this brings us to where I sit tonight. Denver. Ahh... I truly do love this place. JA and I attended a couple of Rockies vs Cubs games and met up with my family for dinner and a night game. Back to the city though. I have been in and out of Denver all summer long and have met a number of people who live in the city. I can see myself here. Let's compare a couple of statistics.

Oklahoma - 6th most obese state

Colorado - 1st most fit state

OKC - 2nd most obese city in America

Tulsa - 16th most obese city in America

Denver - 4th fittest city in America

Ok, so I know there is more to a city than it's ability to eat less food and exercise, but I find these statistics a little frightening. I love the elevation, and I love the mountains. These are things I will never have in Oklahoma. For now though, I have a year and nine months left in school. That is all. Then I will enter into this real world that I have merely gotten a taste of over the last 3 months.

Fair Week!

Yes, you read it correctly, it is that time again. The time when Rawlins, WY comes alive with the Carbon Country Fair! According to the locals this is the time of year they all look forward to. There are Rodeos all week which all culminate in the grand finale of the demolition derby. Keep a close watch on this blog because I plan on updating you on all of the grand events of this most glorious week.

I Reached Another Mountain Top, but this One wasn't Figurative

Hiking and walking have a lot in common, right? So a hiking trail marked, "Difficult" is nothing more than a difficult walk. I feel as if I am a pretty advanced walker, so I decided to head towards the Medicine Bow Peak trail, a 7 mile, 1,600 ft gain, trail boasting atop the 12,013 ft peak of Medicine Bow Mountain. Although this entry begins with a slight foreshadowing of a struggle to reach the peak of the tallest mountain in souther Wyoming, I reached the peak with little frustration. The peak was beautiful. To look down upon the place I started and see how far I had come was a feeling of great accomplishment. Not to mention it was my first literal mountain to hike to the top of. It was here that I met two nice guys, who came up the mountain from the opposite side, that advised me there was another trail just down the way that was a quicker, easier way home. Although my original plan was to head back down the trail I came up, I felt assured by the guy who stated that he had made this hike several times. Not wanting to get lost in the mountains, I asked him if it was a pretty easy to find the intersecting trail back to the trail head. He assured me, "You can't miss it."

This is where the story really begins. I missed it. I hiked about a mile only to see on my map that there was no way I hadn't gone too far. So I retreated back towards my original trail dreading the 300 ft climb back up the boulder ridden peak only to have to make the 7 mile hike back down the original trail. It was on the way back that I saw what faintly resembled the trail I was looking for. It wasn't. I didn't know this at the time so I started to venture down it looking on with amazement the 5 foot snow drift that covered the entire mountain side. Soon I ran out of solid ground and had to venture onto this large area of snow. Now, as I prepared for this trip I did not realize how much snow could still be present in July. JULY! So I wore my Chacos and I have since learned that Chacos were not intended for the snow. Ok, so I am heading onto the vast snow covered mountain side only to realize that the nice walkable incline has turned into what resembled to me a double black diamond ski run. Luckily, I have spent much time on my but on double black diamonds, so I proceeded to sit down, dig my Chacos into the snow, and sled down the mountain on my butt, sometimes trying to stand up and ski. Although by this time I had realized that I was not on the trail, I knew I couldn't go back up, and I was loosing daylight.

It was on my way sledding down the mountain that I saw a trail off in the distance as well as a parking lot with a number of cars in it. Hope. I immediately tossed all survivor man thoughts aside and resorted to my little girl find people and beg for help side. I trekked across the rocky mountain terrain to get to this trail and follow it to the parking lot I had spotted from above.

It was here that I met Dave and Bob. These were nice guys. It was Dave I approached, explaining my situation, and asked for a ride back to my truck. He had no problem with this and told me he and Bob were waiting on the rest of their party and then we could go. It was in this time that I noticed he was wearing a shirt with a picture of the great state of Oklahoma, so I simply asked him if he was from there. He was currently living in California, but had spent 20 years in Oklahoma working in the oil and gas industry as a geologist. Ah! We proceeded with solid conversation until they eventually drove me the five miles back to my truck. Bob was a super nice guy too. He told me a story of the time he got lost hiking and approached a lonely cabin out in the middle of nowhere. He also warned me of about 10 animals that could jump out in front of my vehicle on the way home and any given moment.

On the way out of the mountains I saw a moose. MOOSE! It was a real moose this time too, not some creepy guy in a suit that my mother persuaded me to take a picture with.

Side view of the mountain a approximate place of sledding. I started my hike just to the left of the lake on the top of the picture.

This was a piece of the trail. I now understand, "difficult hike," is different from difficult walk.

Wyomin

After approximately 2 months in Wyoming I have developed a theory based upon an in depth study of the state's phonetics. I hypothesize the state of Wyoming will soon drop the "g" and officially become Wyomin.  

I currently live in Rawlins, WY, which I assume was once known as Rawlings, but simply transformed to Rawlins over time as the local dialect continued to develop. Those who have lived in the ever so great city of Rawlins love to go campin.  While campin they will usually do some fishin.  People stay in shape up here in the mountains too.  You just can't beat a good day hikin, bikin, or runnin.  

Catch my drift?

Elk, Bison, and Bears, OH MY!

So this last weekend was a good one. My family came to Wyoming to visit me and we trekked up to the Grand Teton mountains and Yellowstone National Park.  I could probably write a book about all of the ridiculous things my family and I do, but for your reading sake I will only highlight one occurrence from each day.

Our first night was spent at Jackson lake in the Grand Teton National forest. This is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  We stayed in a little cabin right on the lake.  After we arrived my sister and I decided to go and do some fishing.  We actually did pretty well too, catching 4 trout in less than 2 hours, tripling my summer fish total.  On my way out I was approached by a kind lady who asked me if the trail I had just come from was open. I responded yes, and quizzed her to why she asked.  I then found out only the day before there was a moose with her baby chasing people off the trail.  Shortly after this I found out that they assumed everything was ok because a bear had eaten the baby moose.  

Day 2.  On our second day we made our way north into Yellowstone National Park.  This is a beautiful place but terribly inefficient.  While in Yellowstone we saw 2 elk, tons of buffalo, and a bear (ok, it was actually in the Tetons, but close enough). We spent the entire day driving around the park and we saw only 3 species of animals. I feel that if you are out to see animals, you should probably stick to the zoo. 

Day 2, part 2.  That is not a story from day 2.  Our original plan was to camp inside of Yellowstone. We had a campground reserved, but about the time we were going to make our way to camp we encountered a furious rain storm. It was only hours before this that we had bought hot dogs and stuff to make s'mores on the camp fire.  Due to this torrential downpour we mad our way into Jackson where we tacked on an extra night to our resort.  After we arrived to our nice two bed accommodation, my mom had become deeply saddened due to the fact that we had bought outrageously expensive hot dogs to roast and we would not even be able to eat them because there wasn't even a microwave in our room. To this I responded, "It's ok, I'm an engineer."  I proceeded to use the mini coffee pot to cook dinner. Mmm mmm coffee pot boiled hot dogs!

Day 3.  We spent the day shopping in Jackson and then went to the rodeo.  I am curious as to when in life one decides to strap his hand to a bull and see how long he can hold on. I also wonder how I get started in this industry.

Day 4. We drove home. It was somewhat good to be back in Rawlins after a jam packed weekend including 2 national parks, 2 lakes, and a ski resort. I love my family. I am sad they are gone. 

5 1/2 weeks left.

Montana Sucks, North Dakota has Oil, and South Dakota needs to Learn How to Sing

I love a good adventure. I also enjoy a little reggae music.  Take those two things, 2 national parks, and karaoke night in South Dakota and it comes out to be a pretty good weekend.

I spent last week working in North Dakota.  I had never been to North Dakota.  There's not much to it.  Especially in Crosby, ND, population 1,089 (1,090 last week).  I left on Monday and traveled through Montana, and arrived upon my destination, just 5 miles south of Canada, just in time to enjoy a t-bone steak on Samson's tab.  If you have been following my blog this summer you have probably learned that I like lists.  And since I'm always trying to look at the cup half full, here is my list of things I enjoyed from North Dakota.

• Northern Accents

Ok, so North Dakota sucks.  It's ok though, because they have oil and I got paid.  This entry isn't about ND though.  It is about adventure.  It all began on the way home.  I left ND Friday with some bread, gatorade, and my sleeping bag in the back of my truck.  I drove throughout the day and arrived in Rapid City, SD around 7 or so.  My plans were simply to find a coffee shop with free internet and waste about 3 hours.  I found what has become one of my favorite coffee shops (although chances are I will never go there again) in Alternative Fuels, located in downtown Rapid City.  This place was great, but like all great things, not perfect.  Karaoke.  It is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think SD needs a few lessons in Karaoke.

1. It's not a concert. I feel as if I should be able to answer my phone whenever I please without having to exit the building.
2. A few bad singers are kind of fun to make fun of every now and then, but it gets old when the same crappy person sings 3 songs in a row.
3. If no one wants to sing, just give it a break. DJ funky mamma needs to take a few minutes off.

So this was a solid few hours of entertainment.  After the coffee shop closed I walked outside only to hear the sounds of South Africa.  Just down the street from the coffee shop there was a reggae band playing at a block party.  This was great, and I listened to every Bob Marley song on my ipod after the concert.  It was finally time for sleep.  Now when you are by yourself in a tourist town where you can't find a decent room for under $100 dollars what do you do? You got it, I busted out my sleeping bag in the back seat of the truck and slept like a baby for 6 straight hours.  

I woke up the next morning hungry and with an idea.  In this tourist town with many many expensive hotels, I figured it would be easy to find a free breakfast.  I was right.  I drove down to the local Quality Inn and found their breakfast bar where I enjoyed a waffle and delightful conversation from a nice family from Kansas. 

Now it was time to continue my along my journey to the main attraction. Mount Rushmore. I understand many people may find this national monument lame and not everything it's cracked up to be, but I am not one of those people.  I am the nerdy guy who goes there by himself and spends two hours taking pictures (some of which can be seen on fbook) and watching the video on how it was made. If you haven't been to Mount Rushmore before I would suggest you put it somewhere around half way down your list for semi-near future enjoyment. After seeing the giant heads of my country's great presidents, I went to the second national park on my list, Devil's Tower. This was neat, but once again in a nerdy geologist kind of way. Finally my adventure was over and I continued home.

So what did I learn from this experience you ask? I love tourism. I'm a sucker for it. Some people want to go to the places where there is no one, but not me. I mean, if there are thousands and thousands of people who want to see this "tourist trap" every year, it's got to be pretty cool right? So there, I said it. I'm not ashamed.  I'm a tourist. Bring on Jackson Hole and Yellowstone!

If April Showers bring May Flowers, What do June Snows Bring?

You know that 10,000 ft above sea level, side of a mountain looking straight down a 300 ft cliff in your Saturn Ion after you had just driven past a sign that definitely didn't have a picture of your vehicle, "What the hell am I doing" feeling? Ok, well maybe it isn't as common as I might have perceived at first, but it really is quite the rush.  I felt this rush for most of my day on Saturday as I decided to go exploring in the vast Wyoming wilderness.

On my adventure last Saturday I encountered snow.  At first I was excited. For a kid from Oklahoma, the snow comes few and far between, so whenever I saw piles of snow in the mountains I instantly pulled over the car and started to play in it.  A little childish yes, but still fun.  Now if this were the end of my snow story, things would be great. Sadly though I must continue.  As my Saturn Ion and I both continued to try and be things we are not, on off road vehicle and a mountain man, we came upon a section of road covered in snow with tire tracks going through it.  The snow was fairly deep, but to turn around and go back would cost me an extra 25 miles of mountain terrain to cross.  I should have turned around.  About 10 ft into this snow my car came to a stop.  A complete stop that is, where it will go neither forward nor backward.  Hmm... After 30 minutes of trying to solve this problem I was faced with a dilemma. Do I call someone from work and open myself up to be ridiculed for another 10 weeks, or do I go Man vs Wild on the situation? You guessed right, I took on the mountain in a fierce battle.

Step 1: Identify the problem - I was stuck.

Step 2: Ration Food and Water. You never know how long you are going to be out there.

Step 3: Become Oriented with your Surrounding - There was snow all around.  

Step 4: Locate items that could be useful; hammer, sticks, baby pine trees, rocks, snow, 

Step 5: Go MacGyver and get out of the snow

So here is what I did.  I got the jack out of the back of my car and lifted the front end of my car.  I wandered around in the forest until I found a handful of branches and put them under my tires.  I then cut down a few small pine trees to lay down as a track to get the car backed out.  Guess what? It worked! I was free and took the long way back around and safely arrived back in Rawlins.  Crisis averted once again.

So I know there is one question that is still bugging you.  Did I go fishing? Yes.  I suck at fishing.

The Weather

I think if you live in a small town you are required to talk about the weather at least once with anyone you have more than a 10 min conversation with.  I have a couple of hypotheses about this, but I'm pretty sure there is just not much else to talk about.  Yesterday it hit a blistering 80 degrees and it was the talk of the town.  Come to find out this was an extremely hot day for this town.  I love the weather here! 

So while on the subject of small towns I want to share a little bit about Rawlins with you.  It is in the middle of nowhere! The nearest Wal-Mart is 100 miles away.  It's ok though because between Alco and Davidson's Gun and Grocery I think I can get pretty much everything I need. 

My favorite place in town is Huckleberry's.  Huckleberry's is the local coffee shop.  I have lived in Rawlins for exactly one week now, and I have already become known by name and offered a job at this wonderful local expression of Wyoming pride. 

While I am in the middle of nowhere, there are some great people up here.  I attended a church at First Souther Baptist Church Rawlins during my first weekend in town and I was chased down and invited to lunch by one of the nicest ladies I have ever met.  I have also already been to one of the local lakes to go fishing and to a bbq all within my first week in town.  Although I am very far away from my friends, family, and loved ones, the community of the Equality State have been very kind and welcomed this okie into their state for the summer.  

So I would like to conclude this post with a list of my favorite things about Wyoming so far in no particular order:

• Pronghorn Antelope (google it, they are everywhere out here!)
• Huckleberry's Espresso
• Prairie Dogs 
• John Stuart
• Natural Gas
• Mountains
• 40 degree nights
• 70 degree days
• SNOW!
• Work Truck

The Art of Deception

So my stay in Denver is almost over.  I have seen people on the side of the street playing guitar, harp, bass, djembe, flute, and probably a few other instruments I can not recall at this moment.  That is not important though.  I arrived in Denver knowing I was going to get treated well, but by no means did I know what I was getting in to.  Before I go about listing off the ridiculous amount of things supplied by Samson, my company for the summer, I would like to remind you that if I were filling out a survey I would check the box "high school degree and some college." So this is the list of a few things I have received during my first week in Denver:

• 5 nights in the Sheraton in downtown Denver which is a literal hop, skip, and jump away from the office
• Meals for the week which include but are not limited to The Cheesecake Factory and world famous Denver Chop House and Brewery
• A moving stipend which is approximately 25 times the cost of gas to travel to Rawlins, WY from Norman
• A window office on the 30th floor of what might possible be the largest building I have ever been inside of.  Did I mention the view of the snowcapped Rockies out of that window?

I really hope they don't find out who I am.  This is kind of fun.

Denver

So here it goes. I'm a blogger. I hope that in the future this will entertain you and bring you excitement and laughter, but tonight it will be some of the many thoughts I have had after a 10 hour drive from Norman to Denver and the hour and a half I spent wandering the streets of downtown.



Let's back up for a minute. I am blessed. I have some very wonderful friends and live in a gospel community. What does that mean? I have no idea, but it is better than I could ever imagine. I spent last night with some of the people I love most in this world. We sang hymns and cried together (a manly sort of got something stuck in your eye crying that is). Not that odd right? Who wouldn't want to spend their last night in town with their best friends? What is crazy is that most of these people I have only been friends with for a semester. In that short semester they have truly brought joy and community into my life. Even better than that, they have brought the gospel. They confront me about my sin and praise me for things I haven't done. You guys are great, and you know who you are.



The Drive

I was really dreading the drive from Norman to Denver. I am not the biggest fan of being alone and 10 hours staring out at the beauty of western Kansas while my friends prepared for summer conference wasn't exactly my ideal lazy Sunday. I did prepare for it however though. A play list including the best of Simon and Garfunkel along with a long list of hymns, radio lab, and sermons seemed like they just might be able to do the trick. To my surprise the drive was not nearly as terrible as I had once assumed it would be. The bulk of it was spent listening to hymns and Kevin Twitt lecture about the postmodern hymn movement.



Denver

Wow. I arrived to the Sheraton around 8 mountain time and approached the front desk only to be greeted by the greatest British accent I could have imagined. She soon had me checked into my room and sent to room 915. Wow. I don' mean to sound like I have never stayed in a place like this before... but I haven't. There is a receptionist desk in my room for crying out loud. On that note, I will be taking applications for a personal summer secretary position. Pay sucks, but the company is great.



Downtown

To some people a nice relaxing night in the room after a long day driving would sound great. Not to me, I had to go explore. My hotel and office are right in the middle of downtown Denver. Wow. I felt like a freshman on campus as I walked around with my head pointed straight up looking at all of the giant buildings. I even found a map. I was a little intimidated to walk around by myself, but that did not stop me. I even made friends. One guy offered me pot while another asked me if I knew Denver very well because he was, "Looking to find some honies and rebound."



This is an exciting place. Maybe I will come up with more exciting stories from Denver. Maybe not.