My Long Summer Part 4/4: It Finally Begins + A summary of the First Week

I will start out by writing that I have enjoyed living up in Salt Lake City so far. There is so much to explore and discover. I guess it feels kind of refreshing that I came from a city where I know every direction and building to somewhere where nearly everyday, I am seeing something that I did not know was there before. One of my favorite sites so far is the Barnes and Noble Bookstore up here. It has so much more than the B&N in St. George and it has a great coffee shop built in to relax and read. I knew in the last while that I have found a new liking to reading but this going to this store makes me want to read so much more. It is nearly impossible for me to spend less than 30 minutes there. Another thing I have enjoyed is being closer to my father. I am able to see my Dad more now than I have before. I won't get to see Mom as much, but I still try to call her every weekend.

My home up here is not too shabby either. I live in the bottom part of a top-bottom duplex. It has a gorgeous backyard, and I love how it is in a relatively quiet part of town. It is fairly close to the University and Indian Hills Elementary where I work, but it is just far enough to escape all the fad that goes on around those parts. If the University has a big event going on, I won't even know unless they light up fireworks.

My roommate Karl has been a joy to live with. I feel like I struck gold with him as far as roommates are concerned. He is friendly and very flexible. Him and I have gone on a couple walks and outings together. His family is also very friendly, in fact they invited me to have dinner with them for one of his sisters birthday parties. They welcomed me like I was one of them. Back to Karl; not only is he very nice but he is very helpful. He is always offering to help me out with groceries whenever he goes and he has no problems sharing his dishes with me as long as I pay back the favor by keeping them clean. He has introduced me to some good foods, my favorite being smoked gouda cheese. He has said I will be very educated on all different kinds of cheeses while I am his roommate.

Another thing that I have enjoyed about living up here was I got to reunite with a few of my high school pals in Provo. It only takes about 40 minutes to get there thanks to the TRAX Frontrunner system. I got to see Presto at first and the first thing we did was go to a free in town concert that he says they do every first Friday of each month. The band that was playing seemed like a Beatles Tribute Band. Later on we met up with Nick Gubler and Kayden Barber. We did all kinds of stuff until I went back home 2 nights later.

After that, it was mostly just relax and wait for school to begin. Now that school has begun, let me just say that it is exciting but it has also been a lot of work. The University of Utah has been fairly easy so far but working at Indian Hills has been a bit draggy. First off, let me explain what I do. I am a part time PE instructor. I meet with all the classes in the school once a week, 30 minutes a day. One teacher will bring her/his class in, than 30 minutes later I will swap another one. It is an awarding job because the teachers and the principle have been so nice to me on this first week, plus I love seeing the kids grin when I walk by them and they say something like "hi Coach". One that was so sweet was when I was headed home a boy jumped and excitedly said "Daddy, that's my coach"! So you are probably wondering where the draggy part comes in, right? The draggy part is mentally, it is quite tiring. I have to come up with the plans for that week, I am running the gym solo and the hardest part is getting the kids under control with out me blowing my own top off. I had to learn what worked and what did not work fast. The first day, I could not get the kids under control much at all so the very next day, I had to try out a new approach that worked much better. Plus being a PE teacher at an Elementary school, I am expected to play the games I plan with many of them so by the end of the day, I feel physically exerted. I am sure that part will pass because I will be in better shape soon but the first few days my thighs were sore and one day my ankle felt like it was ready to snap off. I now applaud all teachers sincerely because now I have a more realistic idea of how hard being a teacher can be. That is not to mean I no longer want to be a teacher. That is still my goal because even though it is a tough job, the intrinsic awards are endless. I feel important to society, I like making a difference in peoples lives and I love the respect and unity that being a teacher brings. Plus I kind of like challenges. I see them as a chance to prove to myself and others what I am capable of and when I continue to push the limits and still have a bit of motivation by the end of the day, it is very self reassuring and I feel proud by the time I am laying in bed.

Thanks all of you for supporting me. I promise to keep you all updated on this experience. You all are the best. Its because of your support that this man keeps chugging along!!

My Long Summer Part 3/4: "RUSH"ing off to Salt Lake City, Utah

My last week living in St. George, Utah ended up having more events than I expected. When I announced through social media that I was moving out within a week, suddenly everyone wanted to hang out with me. It was kind of overwhelming but at the same time flattering.

One highlight of that week was going on an afternoon trip to Las Vegas with one of my best friends ever, Sarah Oldland. We had planned this a few weeks prior and I was never quite sure it was going to follow through but on her birthday, we ended up going. We had a blast down there in Sin City, Nevada. Sarah recently got a new convertible mustang and we rode through Vegas with the top down. She and I went down there with no direct plans of what to do. We just walked through the strip and did whatever we felt like doing. We planned as we went and we saw a couple fun shows such as the Volcanic eruption by the Mirage. We spent most of the time in Caesar's Palace and it always looks much larger inside than outside. There were so many shops, it was like a city within a building. For dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. The food was pretty large for the price we paid, at least for Las Vegas standards. It was definitely the most fun time I had celebrating a friends birthday. I have to give compliments to her because I was very flattered that she trusted me enough to take me down to Vegas with her. It was just the two of us that went and neither of us have had much interest in getting in a committed romance sort of relationship. We were both OK with being just your old typical best friend but she still could have looked at this as kind of risky. You get it, a girl and a guy going one on one down to Vegas can look suspicious to some but we were able to just enjoy hanging out down there, gender differences aside.

 Their were plenty of other outings that happened that, but they were relatively small and easy compared to the Vegas trip with Sarah. I got to enjoy dinner with my friend and mentor, Mr. Rod Linford and his wife at Peppers and I had another dinner the next day with my friend and Danville coworker, Samantha at Chili's. I also got too watch Minion's in theaters with my Mom and brother Parker. That was a bit out of my norm because I do not normally prefer movie theaters, but because I was moving, I decided I had better enjoy every moment I could with my family. I did enjoy Minions. I see it as a movie that I will eventually end up buying on Blu-Ray. Probably in a Despicable Me box package.

On Friday, July 17th, I packed and moved to Salt Lake City. My Dad helped me carry my stuff up which I loved because I never get too see my Dad as often as I like. Just sitting with him in the car going to Salt Lake had a lot of meaning to me and I could tell it was meaningful for him as well because he ended up inviting me to hang out with him for the weekend. I could not say no to that. After dropping off my stuff in my new home, we drove off to Tooele. Dad showed me the new Nerd Store that just opened up there and it was really enjoyable to explore. I got my self a few Pokémon cards, which I never thought I would get into again but when my stepmother Jen told me that they do Pokémon tournaments up here, I began having interest in them again. On Sunday, Dad and I watched the WWE Battleground Pay-Per-View. If it wasn't for my Dad being a fan, I doubt I would be much of a fan of either. It is a show I got raised into and as a result it has been apart of my weekly routine. One of the funnest matches was Kevin Owens vs John Cena because my Dad was routing for Cena and I wanted Owens to beat him. It was fun trash talking each other during the match. If Owens hurt Cena, I would make a comment toward my Dad and if John Cena did a big move on Owens, my Dad would talk back just as hard. John Cena ended up defeating Owens forcing him to tap out with the STF submission maneuver so Dad ended up getting the final gloat. Later in the Pay-Per-View, Dad and I were super stoked to see the Undertaker make an appearance. He interfered in the middle of Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Title Match which I wanted Lesnar to win, but for once, I did not care. The fact that it was the Undertaker and not just some jobber easily made up for the disqualification.

When Dad took me back to my new home, I was very excited to get comfortable with it. It wasn't too hard to do that because my bedroom has a very soft bed and my roommate was very nice about showing me the ropes of the place. I have enjoyed getting to know him because he seems really nice and happy to help me with anything I may need help with and he is just easy to talk with. We also have mutual agreements with our living styles so it does not seem like there is going to be many arguments between us.

Overall living up here has been very quiet. Having no job until August 24th means I have to try that much harder to create plans for my day. Some examples of my plans have been walking to my new job to test how long it will take to get there, walking through the city, exploring the University of Utah Campus and of course shopping for groceries when I need to.

One last event that I have to write about on here is I did go back down to St. George to go see Rush in Las Vegas on July 25th with my stepfather Robert, and my stepbrother Cameron. Maybe I am just biased being an enthusiastic fan of the band, but the concert was a mind blowing experience. It was my 3rd time seeing the band but I think this was the most enjoyable one. My first concert I saw, I still was getting to know the band, and on my 2nd time seeing Rush, I was going through medical conditions so that only leaves so much room for fun. This R40 concert had no roadblocks. I was feeling very good and I am a much bigger fan now than I was when I first went which was still pretty huge at the time. I am such a fan of the band that Rush is almost like a drug to me. Whenever I need some emotional healing, I go to them. When I need motivation, I listen to a couple tunes or if I am just simply feeling good, Rush is often playing somewhere even if it is just in my head. To see them live in concert was like dying and going to heaven for 3 hours. I was so into it, that I kept track of every song they played.

Well that is pretty much the gist of it for now. I have a feeling it is going to be a slow few weeks but I will definitely keep finding ways to make my first few weeks enjoyable up here until I start working again. I am stoked to begin working at Indian Hills Elementary and studying at the University of Utah but that is still 3 weeks away. On the bright side, I have 3 weeks to keep catching up on my reading, in fact just very recently I finished the "Battle of the Labyrinth" so now it is on to "The Last Olympian". I will also find some fun bike trails to ride and keep getting in shape which reminds me. I was 258 lbs. in March and now I am at 223 lbs. I am very proud of that!

Thanks so much for following!! Its great to have support from so many amazing friends and family!