Vegas!

I’m leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning! So excited. This will be my first visit to this fascinating city. Can’t wait to walk down the strip, eat at a buffet, and play some blackjack. I’ll let you know how it is when I get back.

Turkey Day

I know there is only 10 minutes left, but I want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all. This is the first Thanksgiving that I have spent away from my family. It was a different yet fun experience. I had dinner with some friends from church which was great. After dinner, a few of us went to see Zombieland. Good times. I hope you are feeling as thankful as I am today for good friends, good food, and zombie movies.

My precious

I played on this amp last night and fell in love for little while. What is this you may ask? It’s Mesa Boogie’s coolest, most versatile, most button and switch having, amp they have probably ever made. I have been wanting to try one since they came out, but there wasn’t a lot of music stores in the wilderness in Alaska. On top of that they are pretty hard to find in stores. Just by chance last night, Guitar Center happened to have one just sitting there waiting to be played by me.

After noticing the object of my guitar gear desire sitting there. I casually kept looking around and even played on a little cheap combo amp, just as a little warm up I suppose. Finally I went over to the counter and asked the guy for a chord so I could plug into it. I flipped the power switch on and let the tubes warm up as I looked over the myriad of buttons that let you customize your tone to your hearts content. I flipped the standby to on and went through each of the 3 channels one by one. Was it my dream amp? Well, not quite. I don’t know if my dream amp exists in real life, but this thing sure did come close. It had tons of tone that poured out through the speakers in such a pleasant way. It made me want to hand the sales guy my credit card and take it home with me that night for the super low price of $2,000. Luckily I did not let the tone hypnotize me too much. I resisted. One day I will own a nice amp though. An amp that makes me giddy every time I crank it up. One day…

My new career as a teen fiction writer

I have decided to start writing on here again all the time. I hope that is ok. I hope that you want to read more. Maybe you were hoping I would stop writing on here, but then I guess you wouldn’t be visiting my blog if you didn’t want to read what I had to say now would you?

Sometime I think I would like to be a writer. Granted, I also think that I want to be a rockstar, director, stand up comedian, dive master, mountain climber, chef, etc, on a regular basis. Writing is different though because it is attainable now. I have a computer. I have a means of sharing what I’m writing with people. Really I am set. It just comes down to me sitting down with my laptop and typing out words. Kind of how I am right now.

I like to think about the things I would write about if I were a writer. Last week when everyone was going crazy about the New Moon movie I decided that I would like to write a series of books for teenage girls. Not because I would enjoy writing books like that really, but because I’m sure the lady that wrote the Twilight books has enough money to write whatever she wants now and it doesn’t matter. I think I have the formula down too.

First you need a girl that has a good dose of teenage angst along with some kind of strange family situation. Maybe she is raised by her aunt because her parents died, or something like that. She has to have something that makes her feel different and out of place in high school because, let’s face it, we all felt different and out of place in high school and kids will relate to that. Next she needs to meet some weird, dark, mysterious guy. Maybe he’s a vampire (already done). Maybe he’s an alien (like the Roswell High books). Whatever he is, he has to be really good looking and have some kind of supernatural ability. I’m thinking in my books, maybe he has a pet unicorn that he can fly around on. Maybe he’s a half breed with a human mother and an angel for a father? Whatever it is, it gives him super powers.

Now even though this guy is the hotness and has superpowers, he doesn’t go for the popular, pretty girl in school. No, he goes for the weird outcast girl that has no friends. Why? Well because all the weird, outcast girls reading the book want a guy with super powers to like them even though they are ordinary. No one wants to read a book about the popular girl in high school getting the half zombie Luke Perry. It really is a formula that preys on the insecurities we all feel as a teenager. It’s kind of sad, yet genius at the same time.

After you get that far, it really doesn’t matter what else you write. It’s pretty easy from there. As long as there is some kind drama about if the improbably relationship will work or not, people will keep reading. Maybe his unicorn gets kidnapped. Maybe his demon uncle shows up and tries to kill the girl. Whatever it is, the audience will be hooked.

So what do you think? Is teen fiction my calling? Should I start book one of seven? Or maybe I should just make it a trilogy so the movie rights will be an easier sell. Hm…

(The picture is from Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake)

A good day

Today was a good day. Don’t you just like it when you can climb into bed at night (and blog on your laptop if you are me) knowing that that day falls into the better than average category. So often I think I just go through one day after another without putting any kind of qualification on things. It’s like I’m living, not really remembering anything about life, good or bad. I would rather have bad than days not even worth remember I think. Bad days remind me how different the good days are. Here’s what I did today:

Went to church

Ate lunch at church with fun people

Went to Target a bought a black hoodie. I have been missing this staple of my wardrobe quite dearly.

Also bought a casserole dish to make something for Thanksgiving.

Finished watching a documentary about the Iraq war called No End in Sight that was quite good yet made me angry with our government.

Left to meet a friend for dinner and noticed that it started raining with a little snow mixed in.

Found out the Chinese restaurant we were going to eat at was without power and switched dinner to a middle eastern place.

Left the restaurant to find the precipitation was all snow now.

Debated whether to drive home for an hour or kill some time at Barnes and Noble before the movie I was planning on seeing.

Talked to Stephen my roomy on the phone in B&N and discussed the prospect of going back to Alaska for the summer. Ugh, I don’t want to even start thinking about that.

Read an interesting photography book that had some great ideas.

Worried that I got stood up for the movie because my friend didn’t call me.

Decided to wait outside the theater just to see if they would show up.

They did show up and I found out they had tried to call me but had my number wrong.

Watched Julie & Julia which was an a great movie. It also made me very hungry.

Came home and tried some of the Kashi Cereal I got today.

Good day. Good night.

(the photo is from Canon Beach in Oregon)

Antelope Island

I had a chance to check out Antelope Island this weekend. All I can say is wow. I was expecting some dinky little state park, but what was there was a huge island with mountains rising out of the middle and bison roaming freely all around. It’s hard to believe that this place is a just a short 40 minute drive from Downtown Salt Lake City. They filmed western movies here back in the 20’s and it definitely felt like you were in the old west.

More pictures to come.

 

 

Dear friend, as you know…

This song has been playing quite often on my computer lately. I just thought you might like to know.

All good things

I’m sick and it’s no fun at all. It started with a sore throat about a week ago and became rather miserable this weekend. I’ve gone through more tissues, than I can count. Despite this present misery of sickness though, I must say that it is amazing how things have worked out as of late. I have so many things to be thankful for. Here’s just a few things off the top of my head.

1. I made it safely to Utah from Alaska with zero problems while at the same time seeing more amazing sights that I thought possible.

2. I got a job working for an awesome organization where I get to work with some of the coolest people I’ve ever met.

3. I found a house to live in the first day that I started looking.

4. I found a church that even though I’ve only been going to it for a month now is starting to feel like home.

5. There is a van pool that I can ride to work every day. Instead of having to drive 25 miles each way every day, I only have to drive about 3.

I still can’t believe the course of events that has lead me to where I am right now. If you had told me a year ago that I was going to spend 6 months in Alaska then move to Utah to work for Sundance I would have said, “huh?” It’s exciting to know that God has things planned for us beyond our wildest expectations.

The picture above was taken at Byers Lake in Denali State Park, one of my favorite places to visit this summer.

Just so I don’t forget

Ah Mt. Denali (or McKinley if you want to call it that) how I miss being able to stare at you on a daily basis (weather permitting). For 6 months I lived 40 miles away from this mountain and I never once got tired of looking at it. I remember walking to work on those awesome clear mornings without a cloud in sight and a sky so blue you would swear it was fake. The mountain would be there larger than life, demanding your attention.

This particular picture obviously isn’t one of those awesome clear days. It was taken on the Denali park road about 20 miles or so from the mountain I think. I just love this view and how big Denali looks next to everything else. I’ll go back there someday. I’m sure of it.

Wednesday’s random thoughts

I am back. To my blog that is. I’ve neglected it for far too long so it’s time I start writing again.

This might be the quickest cold that I’ve ever had. I woke up with a slight sore throat yesterday. My throat killed me last night and now my throat feels fine and I just have a runny nose. That’s pretty quick.

I currently live at 4,500 ft. and my job is right at around 7,000 ft. That’s over a mile up. I guess you could say I’m moving up in my career.

For some reason Comcast doesn’t have Bravo out here. I hate missing Top Chef. I have to find it online every week.

I have really cool neighbors. It’s 5 girls that invite me over for cake and cookies.

I thought fast, cheap Mexican food didn’t get any better than Chipotle. That was before I discovered Cafe Rio. Don’t worry Chipotle, I still love you.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t quit my job and moved to Alaska. I’m sure I wouldn’t have ended up here in Utah. I hope I wouldn’t still be at my same job.

I miss my little black Sentra and all it’s 175 horses under the hood. My poor RAV4 can barely stay above 50mph on the highway going up the canyon to Park City. Sorry Nancy, I still love you. You got me safely through the middle of nowhere in Canada.