7 more days

Hello Bloggers,

So for the past week I have been completely immersed in the Olympics. I have pretty much spent far too much time watching, talking, and thinking about the Olympics. I have enjoyed them throughly, and they haven't let me down. I even have watched curling, sadly I have watched quite a bit of curling. I love it though, it's like bowling. Maybe i'll do a post about curling soon, just because I feel it doesn't get enough love. But tonight I just thought I would comment about how much I love the olympics.

One of the reasons I love the Olympics is because for these 17 days I have the ability to watch a sporting event as often as I want. It's 3:00 A.M. (if i'm awake) what's on? The Olympics. It's 7:00 at night what's on? The Olympics! It's 3:00 in the afternoon on a Monday!?!?! What's on? The Olympics! Glorious! I love sports, and I love the Olympics. It's awesome.

Another reason? I love to watch as these athletes who have competed for this one thing their whole life, and it all comes together in a matter for seconds, or minutes depending on your event. All the training, all the sweat, blood, tears, late nights, early mornings, sacrifices that these people make put into a one event. All for a symbol. A medal, this medal if they win it, will symbolize their dedication to one thing for probably the better part of their life. Therefore the passion that you see from these Men and Women is incredible. The precision with how they perform, and the intensity with which they play is almost unmatchable. I love it.

I love the Olympics because of the underdogs! Remember 4 years ago when Bode Miller was suppose to win 5 medals and he didn't win any? Remember how he came to the Olympics this year and everyone juts said well, we will just have to see what happens because you never know! That's right you never know. And for the record Bode Miller has skied incredibly! But still, whether it's some guy coming from New Zealand, to lead a cross country ski race for minutes, or your the biggest name guy like Shaun White, you still never know! Probably, referring back to last paragraph, because like I said it all comes down to one event. One time, you screw up it's over. This is no 82 game season. It's minutes, minutes to perfection. It's go big or go home, literally.

Lastly of the many, many, more reasons I love the Olympics I will just mention one more. I love the Olympics because for these 17 days I think the world just feels a little closer together. Whether your from Japan, Australia, Poland, Brazil, or America, we all can be bonded a little closer together in support of our Olympians. Sure we compete against each other, but I can't say I honestly route against any of them. I am just in awe of their dedication, and i'm happy when they do good, and i'm sad when any athlete does bad. Also I could probably go anywhere in the world tonight, and see almost any person and we'd have something to talk about. Who knows though, it might just be me, but it might not. Maybe we all feel the same way, but all I can say is this, we have 7 more days of the Olympics.

1 year ago today

So Valentines day has been a mixed emotion holiday for me for the past little while. For the most part it seems to me it's just more February 14, than it is Valentines day. However, lot's of good things have come out of the past couple Valentines day and I just wanted to write really quickly about exactly one year ago today, how awesome that February 14, was.

So a year ago today I was on my mission, and I was companions with Elder Hilton. It seemed like it would be just like any other day doing missoinary work, until we realized, that tonight like a few other nights that we didn't even have a dinner appointment. So we thought, what to do on a Valentines day for dinner? We can't just do the usual, it has to be special. Then the one place that popped into both our minds almost instantly was the local Dennys! That's right nothing beats a grand slam on a special day. It's almost just American. Well we went, and enjoyed every minute. We were even served by a waitress that had little heart antennas, and long red and pink socks. She kept hitting on Elder Hilton, she thought he was pretty cute. All in a Valentines day in Sacramento. That's one holiday i'll never forget.

Oh the places you go.....

So while on my mission I missed a lot of things. There would be far too many to mention here and just now. However I will mention one because that is what this blog post is about. There is a place very near and dear to my heart which I have been thinking about lately. The place is Southwood park. In fact, pretty much every time I drive by there I find myself looking out at the soccer field where I have played many beautiful games of frisbee. You will also find me looking at the tennis courts where Dodge and I had many a heated match, and many a heated discussion whether the ball was in or not. It's also the place where traditions have been started. Well mostly just the tradition of decorating the Southwood tree at Christmas time. It's our park, and I love it.

I have been thinking lately as to why I love this park so much. I have come to the conclusion it is because I associate the things that I love so much with this park. That place where I play my favorite sport, the place where I hang out with my favorite people, and the place where I go when everything else is gone. Every weekend throughout all of junior high and high school you would find me there. It was one of the last places I visited before I left on my mission and my very first night home, I actually went there. In my last area of Vacaville we had a park named Southwood, and I would pass by there every chance I could just because it reminded me of the park here in Murray. Probably ridiculous I know, but it's me. And I am very happy about that.

I recently was reunited with my park in a game of ultimate frisbee. This post is probably a little late, but last Saturday I got to play once again ultimate at Southwood. It felt just like coming home again. The people were different, the weather was cold, and I was quite out of practice. However it all came back fairly quickly, I made new friends, and it doesn't matter if the weather was cold because we've been there before. Moral of the story, I missed a lot of things while being gone. I am glad to be united with at least one of them for the moment.


(This is a picture of the park in Vacaville, yes I threw the frisbee around while I was there. It had to be done.)