Tuesday, March 31, 2009
One of the Sweetest Moments of My Life
A few weeks ago I met Thomas S. Monson, the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was amazing. For wednesday night mutual with the young women we decided to go to one of our beehive's class play at her elementary school. It turned out that President Monson's grandson was in her class so he was there with his wife and son to watch as well. A bunch of people lined up to meet him and as I waited my turn, I watched him interact with all the people. He had jokes and comments for everyone and was genuinely interested in each person that came to shake his hand. When I got up there to meet him myself I froze and had nothing to say other than and akward "hi." Why am I so akward in these key moments? I guess I just couldn't think of anything worthy to say to a prophet of God. Nevertheless, it was amazing. I felt a special spirit in the presence of this great man. While we watched the play (I was sitting a few rows behing him and to the left) I stole a glance or two and spent a lot of time thinking about how lucky I am to know of modern revelation. I know that this man is chosen as a prophet of God. And yet, he is also just a man. It's incredible.
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Closest I've Come to Dying
I almost died today. Surprisingly, I wasn't on a motorcycle. It may have been my closest brush with death. Closer than the two times I had a gun pointed at me at school. Closer than the time on my mission when my companion and I had our backs against a metal pole as it was struck by lightning, or when we jumped on and off of moving trains and trucks. Closer than the time I crash landed sky diving, hit a bullet with a hammer when I was a kid, rode a motorcycle in a blizzard, almost fell of a cliff in Colorado, crash landed jumping the "Grand Canyon" dirt bike jump at the Pits, had food poisoning, chased a bull in a rodeo arena for $25, and just barrrrrrely closer to dying than the time I was in a car with my friend when he tried to pass a car on Route 89 and missed, by no more than 12 inches, a car heading the opposite direction at 80 mph. Woooh. Those were CLOSE calls. But this was worse.
I take all the blame for this one, though. I signed myself up for the "Corporate Climb" event in the Tanner Building (above). The idea is to run, either individually or as a relay team of 3, a lap up and then down all 7 floors of the Tanner Building (where all business students have their classes). Like this:
The race is longer now because of the new wing added on this year, but the race looks easy, right? That's what I thought. So I recruited 2 buddies, Kyle Pulley and Ronell Hugh, to run the relay with me. I realized we were racing against a few teams that had guys who ran for college teams, but I was more interested in beating SOMEONE than taking First Place. I thought it would be fun. As the event was called the "Corporate Climb", I thought the name "The CEOs" would be fitting for us.
With a couple of the other MBA runners: Me, Steve Jackson, Kyle Pulley, and Cody Coombs.
I was the first runner of our relay and things started out good. Well, great actually. I was leading everyone for the first half, until I got to the 4th floor. Thats when I started feeling sick. I slowed down and just about everybody passed me at once. Once I got to the 7th floor, all I could see were stars and blackness closing in on me. I was hurting but I kept fumbling through the halls, down the stairs now, and almost to the finish line to tag my partner. Here, let me help you visualize it:
By the time I entered the room with the finish line, I had a disoriented look on my face and I hesitated which direction to go cuz I was still seeing stars. Someone pointed out the finish line for me. My teammates did an awesome job running leg 2 and 3. We didn't win, but we did beat a few other teams.
By the time I crossed the finish line I felt as if I were dying. The best part was when I was in the bathroom for 15 minutes after the race. My gut was wrenching in pain and I was coughing up a lung. I heard a few guys come into the bathroom and vomit. Poor Steve had Carl's Jr. for lunch and you KNOW that stuff isn't going to stay down after sprinting up and down 7 flights of stairs.
I asked Cbug to take a picture of the aftermath and she said "Why? You look like crap!". I said "so I have a reminder to never do something like this again!"
It took me all evening to recover from the pain in my gut, and even still, I feel like I'm swallowing sandpaper every time I swallow. The funny thing is as much as I hated it, and as painful as it was, and as sick as it made me......there is a small part of me that wants to do it again next year, when I'm hopefully in better shape!
I take all the blame for this one, though. I signed myself up for the "Corporate Climb" event in the Tanner Building (above). The idea is to run, either individually or as a relay team of 3, a lap up and then down all 7 floors of the Tanner Building (where all business students have their classes). Like this:
The race is longer now because of the new wing added on this year, but the race looks easy, right? That's what I thought. So I recruited 2 buddies, Kyle Pulley and Ronell Hugh, to run the relay with me. I realized we were racing against a few teams that had guys who ran for college teams, but I was more interested in beating SOMEONE than taking First Place. I thought it would be fun. As the event was called the "Corporate Climb", I thought the name "The CEOs" would be fitting for us.
With a couple of the other MBA runners: Me, Steve Jackson, Kyle Pulley, and Cody Coombs.
I was the first runner of our relay and things started out good. Well, great actually. I was leading everyone for the first half, until I got to the 4th floor. Thats when I started feeling sick. I slowed down and just about everybody passed me at once. Once I got to the 7th floor, all I could see were stars and blackness closing in on me. I was hurting but I kept fumbling through the halls, down the stairs now, and almost to the finish line to tag my partner. Here, let me help you visualize it:
By the time I entered the room with the finish line, I had a disoriented look on my face and I hesitated which direction to go cuz I was still seeing stars. Someone pointed out the finish line for me. My teammates did an awesome job running leg 2 and 3. We didn't win, but we did beat a few other teams.
By the time I crossed the finish line I felt as if I were dying. The best part was when I was in the bathroom for 15 minutes after the race. My gut was wrenching in pain and I was coughing up a lung. I heard a few guys come into the bathroom and vomit. Poor Steve had Carl's Jr. for lunch and you KNOW that stuff isn't going to stay down after sprinting up and down 7 flights of stairs.
I asked Cbug to take a picture of the aftermath and she said "Why? You look like crap!". I said "so I have a reminder to never do something like this again!"
It took me all evening to recover from the pain in my gut, and even still, I feel like I'm swallowing sandpaper every time I swallow. The funny thing is as much as I hated it, and as painful as it was, and as sick as it made me......there is a small part of me that wants to do it again next year, when I'm hopefully in better shape!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Birthday Chosey
Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people of all time, Chelsea. She is also known as Chose, Chosey, Chose-Pose, Chelsaroo, Claudia (on special occasions), and Ladyloo. I met Chelsea during design school at ASU and although she didn't like me at first (a story for another time), we quickly became fast friends. She was my roomate for 2 years and I loved every minute of it.
Here are 25 things I love and miss about my dear 25 year old friend Chelsea (in no specific order):
1. Car rides on the way to school. Driving too fast to make it to class on time (we were perpetually late). Singing at the top of our lungs. Fighting over what song to listen to or who's turn it was to be dj.
2. Being the frequent third wheel on her and Jay's dates.
3. Having heart to hearts.
4. Ditching class to go see a movie in the middle of the day.
5. Laying out at the pool together.
6. 2 hour lunches between classes.
7. Staying up for 3 days straight working on projects. Making up crazy dance moves in our drafting chairs (remember the chimney sweep?). Deliriously laughing and laughing while she cried over a broken project (I'm sorry but I still laugh when I think about that night).
8. Listening to songs on repeat while we drafted into the morning.
10. Getting ready separately in the morning only to come out of our rooms wearing the exact same outfit... seriously.
11. Reading our textbooks outloud in weird accents just to keep it interesting.
12. Being silly constantly.
13. Being the only ones in class to not take it too seriously. We were always talking other girls off cliffs.
14. Having my own personal stylist who put up with me when I couldn't find a thing to wear.
15. Being the most steady person I know.
16. Asking her for advice and final opinions on anything and everything.
17. Getting love from her doggy.
18. Finishing each others sentences (that's what happens when you spend 24 hours a day together).
19. Having a friend I can trust with anything.
20. Having the best Maid of Honor of all time. She took care of everything for me on my most special day.
21. Begging her to eat nuts just to see what would happen (joking of course, she's very allergic).
22. Talking about having babies at the same time and living next door to each other.
23. Scheming plans to have a wedding business together someday.
24. Telling her everything.
25. Having the best friend I could ask for. I'm so grateful to have such an amazing lady in my life!
Happy quarter of a century
Chose-Pose!!! Love you!
Here are 25 things I love and miss about my dear 25 year old friend Chelsea (in no specific order):
1. Car rides on the way to school. Driving too fast to make it to class on time (we were perpetually late). Singing at the top of our lungs. Fighting over what song to listen to or who's turn it was to be dj.
2. Being the frequent third wheel on her and Jay's dates.
3. Having heart to hearts.
4. Ditching class to go see a movie in the middle of the day.
5. Laying out at the pool together.
6. 2 hour lunches between classes.
7. Staying up for 3 days straight working on projects. Making up crazy dance moves in our drafting chairs (remember the chimney sweep?). Deliriously laughing and laughing while she cried over a broken project (I'm sorry but I still laugh when I think about that night).
8. Listening to songs on repeat while we drafted into the morning.
10. Getting ready separately in the morning only to come out of our rooms wearing the exact same outfit... seriously.
11. Reading our textbooks outloud in weird accents just to keep it interesting.
12. Being silly constantly.
13. Being the only ones in class to not take it too seriously. We were always talking other girls off cliffs.
14. Having my own personal stylist who put up with me when I couldn't find a thing to wear.
15. Being the most steady person I know.
16. Asking her for advice and final opinions on anything and everything.
17. Getting love from her doggy.
18. Finishing each others sentences (that's what happens when you spend 24 hours a day together).
19. Having a friend I can trust with anything.
20. Having the best Maid of Honor of all time. She took care of everything for me on my most special day.
21. Begging her to eat nuts just to see what would happen (joking of course, she's very allergic).
22. Talking about having babies at the same time and living next door to each other.
23. Scheming plans to have a wedding business together someday.
24. Telling her everything.
25. Having the best friend I could ask for. I'm so grateful to have such an amazing lady in my life!
Happy quarter of a century
Chose-Pose!!! Love you!
Saturday, March 14, 2009
You Know You've Made It BIG When...
You know you've made it big in your professional career when you're asked to be a guest on the Morning Market Call program. Its a daily news-type show put on by the BYU MBA finance majors. My friend Kyle Freebairn and I were invited on the show to talk "marketing in a slow economy". Kyle and I both had a lot of fun with it. See what you think:
http://marriottschool.byu.edu/clubs/gfa/playmmc.cfm?yr=09&mth=03&dy=16
http://marriottschool.byu.edu/clubs/gfa/playmmc.cfm?yr=09&mth=03&dy=16
Saturday, March 7, 2009
More Snow Fun!
Last weekend I was an official snow bunny. Friday, my firm took the whole company up to Solitude for an afternoon of skiing/snowboarding. I borrowed all my mom's gear and went for it (have I mentioned lately how uncoordinated I am?). I got a good 4 runs in, falling most of the way down the hill as toddlers sped past me on one foot skis, and had a blast doing all of it. I laughed out loud at myself, by myself, the whole time. I wish I had video because you would all be dying at how bad I am.
Saturday, Shaw Carpet sponsored a ski day for all the interior designers in my office so we headed up to Canyons. I brought Cur and we had an absolute blast. It was a gorgeous day.
We went up the first hill together and, true to form, I was too stubborn to listen to any of Cur's great pointers. It's frustrating to fall over and over and over again!
Cur was brave/waaaaaay better at this than me (Is there anything he's not good at?) so he went up the black diamond runs with the big kids while I stayed on the green hills with the babies. I love how contemplative he looks sitting on the lift.
Can you find Curbo?
Rob (thanks Rob & Shaw Carpet for taking us all!), Gritt & Timaree (my fellow interior design gurus).
My cube-mate, Amelia. She's great.
Beautiful.
(Thank you to Gritt for most of the pics!)
Saturday, Shaw Carpet sponsored a ski day for all the interior designers in my office so we headed up to Canyons. I brought Cur and we had an absolute blast. It was a gorgeous day.
We went up the first hill together and, true to form, I was too stubborn to listen to any of Cur's great pointers. It's frustrating to fall over and over and over again!
Cur was brave/waaaaaay better at this than me (Is there anything he's not good at?) so he went up the black diamond runs with the big kids while I stayed on the green hills with the babies. I love how contemplative he looks sitting on the lift.
Can you find Curbo?
Rob (thanks Rob & Shaw Carpet for taking us all!), Gritt & Timaree (my fellow interior design gurus).
My cube-mate, Amelia. She's great.
Beautiful.
(Thank you to Gritt for most of the pics!)
Sledding on Heart Day
I keep forgetting to post about this.... we went sledding on Valentines Day and had an absolute blast. Playing in the snow is really helping me appreciate it (a little bit) more.
It was a perfect day for sledding although we didn't last too long. Still being snow illiterate, I wore my red cashmere gloves (I don't have any that are really made for this kind of thing) and snow was sticking all over them. Not to mention they didn't keep me very warm once they got wet. Then I forgot to zip my jacket all the way up and snow got all inside. I'm still trying to figure this whole snow business out... Anyway, here's some evidence of the fun part:
It was a perfect day for sledding although we didn't last too long. Still being snow illiterate, I wore my red cashmere gloves (I don't have any that are really made for this kind of thing) and snow was sticking all over them. Not to mention they didn't keep me very warm once they got wet. Then I forgot to zip my jacket all the way up and snow got all inside. I'm still trying to figure this whole snow business out... Anyway, here's some evidence of the fun part:
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