Bill Nye! (9/13/11)

Today THE Bill Nye spoke at UVU. (Yes, the one and only Science Guy.) It was a dream come true for me just to see him in person let alone spend over two hours at this event with him! He spoke for over an hour about various topics. He began with telling us about his parents, their love of science, and how he inherited some of his zeal for it from them. His father loved sundials and, to this day, Bill cannot shake that love he learned from him. He mentioned many things that will "Dare I say it? Change the world!", both for the better and for the worse. Our generation will face new problems that will be completely unique to our time and we will have to be innovators to solve them. He pointed out a quote by Tex Johnston that I really like: "One test is worth a thousand expert opinions" and promised us that "there are things we are absolutely sure of that are absolutely wrong". I really like that and think that's a great way to think about things. Take what is accepted but always question and be open to try new things and experiment with innovative ideas.

After he spoke, the floor was opened up for a session of Q&A. The students presented great questions and Bill responded with equally great responses. You could clearly see that he is genuinely smart and genuinely excited and engaged in everything he does. He has been one of my heroes since a kid and today only increased my high regard of him. He's just an overall really awesome person! He followed his passion even though it probably wasn't the coolest thing at the time and transformed it into something that was. There is no other way to describe him than a super cool nerd!

After the Q&A, they let people line up to get their photo with Bill. Here's mine:

 I still can't believe it! What a fabulous experience!

Timpanogos Hike 2011

Looking back over my blog, I realized that I didn't post about the first time I hiked Mount Timp. Shame! So I'll tell you about it now. :)

I first hiked Timp on Labor Day 2009. And it totally kicked my butt. I had terrible, year-old, $20 shoes from Payless with absolutely no traction and I did it on 1 1/2 hours of sleep. Going up wasn't too bad but coming down was painful with every step. On our descent, we slid down on the snow field just East of the summit. I was unable to control my speed so I went flying down the hard and rocky snow screaming in terror for my life. By the end I was bleeding, my shorts were ripped and completely ruined, my muscles were sore from struggling to grasp anything to stop myself, and I was completely shaken up. I definitely wouldn't recommend that method of descent.

This year's hike went much better. For one thing, I was prepared and I knew what to expect. I now own proper shoes (it's amaing the difference proper shoes can make) and I had a little more sleep. (Only three hours, but still an improvement.) We began our hike at 3:30 AM and this time we took the Timpanooke Trail (last time we took the Aspen Grove Trail) and it was fun to see some different, but also incredibly gorgeous, terrain. The scariest part of the hike this time was not on our way down but rather, on our way up. The trail crossed a large patch of snow that rested in a dip in between two hills on the mountainside with no other way around. At the bottom of the snow patch was a steep drop that, if one were to fall off of, would result in tremendous injury and possibly even death. Snow is slick, especially when it's well-packed and old. (It was especially slick for my dad who insists on hiking in flip flops.) Once across the patch of snow, if a hiker were to look back, he or she would realize that there was another peril beside the drop that they didn't notice before: some of the snow terrain that was just crossed was only a foot thick or less. This part of the hike was very terrifying to me, particularly by night. After my family and I got across, we saw one hiker slip ten or so feet down the slick face of snow towards the drop--totally terrifying! She made it across OK but it was freaky to watch her stuggle.

 

                                            Thin snow similar to the one described above--so thin that it collapsed                 My dad's feet

Once again, I was completely stunned by the beauty of the this mountain. Beautiful trees, rivers, and waterfalls on the lower parts followed by steep rock faces and shale rock slides on the ascent up to the meadow. In the meadow, there are vast amounts of wild flowers in every color of the rainbow followed by more rock face cliffs and then the saddle where nearly all of Utah Valley plus parts of Salt Lake Valley spread before you. After the saddle, the hike is very steep, the cliff face eroded into stairs. The final part is one of the toughest not only because of the quick altitude gain, but also due to the thin air. But it's all worth it when, finally, you reach the summit of Mount Timpanogos, the pinnacle of the hike where you have great views in many directions and, if you're lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it) you might just encounter a few snow flurries as we did. Two years ago I said I'd never attempt this hike again but just a few weeks after our hike, as my body began to heal, it was this very beauty that I describe here that drew me back again. And after my second hike, I'm pretty sure I'm addicted! I love this hike! There's not much else like it and it's completely exhilerating.

                                                                                               At the saddle

 On our way back, we didn't slide down the glacier but just walked. We were amazed with how much quicker we got down and with how much better the hike went. The glacier is definitely not the way to go--don't ever do it! Last time, every step on the way down hurt so much! This time I was tired but really my biggest concern was that I needed to go to the bathroom. :)

Update

Here we are again...it's been nearly a year and I'm posting one of those LAME updates! Ah well...

Life has been so full of learning experiences lately. I'm very curious to see what the Lord is preparing me for. I mean, it's been one thing after another: late last winter I had my first boyfriend...and then my first breakup. Then I moved out and just as I was adjusting to that, I got a new job. (I now work as a Patient Care Assistant at on the 3rd floor (also known as the Progressive Care Unit) at the hospital in Provo! Super excited!) At the end of the summer, I moved back home and you'd think the learning experiences would stop but no! I just got called to the Relief Society presidency as a secretary in my new ward! Yikes! I'm scared! And you know that little friend group I mentioned in my last post that goes country dancing? We now call ourselves Awesomeness and I'm basically the main planner/putter togetherer of our activities. That's been a crazy amazing learning experience as well! Life is so good yet so challenging at the same time. But I guess I wouldn't want it any other way!

Update

Again, no single big event occurred to warrant an entry...so you get a watered-down, past-due, general update on my life.

My life has basically consisted of three basic categories lately: school, work, and socializing. :P

I have really enjoyed nursing (!) school so far. It hasn't been too stressful (although I'm sure it's coming) but it's kept me busy. I find that it goes in cycles--one week will be impossibly busy and the next will consist of almost no homework. It's fun though. It's amazing to be finally in a program and on my way for sure now. I also love my classmates; there are only 20 in my cohort so it's been easy to make friends.

Work has been pretty much the same... Love my employer but would really love to move up to a PCA position. Housekeeping is getting kind of old. My CNA expires a year from now (which I must keep current during Provo College's nursing program) but I will be able to test for my LPN next August and that will replace it. So staying in housekeeping is fine (I don't need the hours as a CNA to keep my certification current) but I would love to move up just to get that extra experience in a closer-related area than where I'm at now. And I'm sure it would be a lot more enjoyable as well. :) I am thankful for my job though--it pays decently, my employer is more than fair, and it's secure. It's amazing how with the economy going down the drain, what was once considered a horrible job looks better and better by the day.  ;)

And socializing is, well, socializing! :P I've just been having a lot of fun with lots of friends lately. A few of us got a group together to play games and go country dancing every 2nd and 4th Saturday night of the month and it's been lots of fun. It's a great way to meet lots of new people and get to know those I've already met better! (Everyone is welcome to come, just let me know and I'll give you the deets!)

General Update

Wow...so I haven't exactly been so great at keeping this updated. It's just there hasn't been one single event that seemed to warrant it's own entry.

Anyways...

So, my car wasn't totaled. They fixed it and although it felt a bit different for awhile, it was wonderful to be back in my own car. I had my car back for a few days when I randomly looked under the hood and saw pink fluid sprayed across the engine. I took it back into my body shop and they were able to fix it right up, although it meant another week in a rental car. (It turned out to be just a hard-to-detect hole in the radiator hose. It didn't take very long to repair, but apparently, radiator hoses for an '08 Yaris aren't easy to come by.)

The months of June and July were mostly consumed by The Music Man and work. The Music Man was a lot of fun, but also very time consuming so by the time it closed, I was very excited to have my evenings back. The day after closing, I went camping at Maple Lake with my family. It was a lot of fun just hanging out. We boated on the lake, biked, hiked, played games, built bonfires, and other awesomeness.

Since the camping trip, I've just been trying to fit in as many awesome summer activities as possible while filling in the gaps with shifts at work. My family didn't take an actual vacation this year so instead we're using my mom's vacation time to do fun things around where we live. This week my parents and brother backpacked King's Peak. They were gone for three days and during that time, the sisters had the house to ourselves. We went swimming, hiking, and like good children, threw a raging party. (Just kidding, we actually cleaned the house 'cause we're just cool like that.) Next week should be even more amazing: Lagoon, the county fair (including a demolition derby), the Alpine Loop, and hanging out with awesome friends are all on the calender.

Other mentionables of the summer include Owlz games, free smoothies galore, Boy Meets World nearly everyday, and lots and lots of hikes. Hikes I can now check off my list from this summer include: Battle Creek Falls, the Y, Red Lake, the Grotto, and Fifth Water. And there will hopefully be a few more to follow before the hiking season ends.

Oh, and I almost forgot the biggest news of the summer: I made the nursing program at Provo College. I'm SOOOO excited and at the same time SOOO nervous.

A CRAZY Day (5-14-10)

Today was supposed to be a good day. I took my writing exam, the last thing needed to complete my nursing application, and got it all turned in. In the evening I was going to take family names to the temple for baptisms with my sister Janessa and my Grandma and Grandpa Adams. It was in between those two really good things that I got myself into trouble.

I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to IKEA with Clint and Crystal in an attempt to buy these really cool vases for my sister as a graduation present. The IKEA website said the Draper store had the vases, and I took that as proof enough and proceeded with the trip. As it turns out, they had quit making the vases and had sent them to the "close-out" section just the week before. They had TONS just days before but by now had sold them all. I was pretty bummed.

And then we were driving home, sort of hurriedly, in rush hour traffic from a completely pointless, wasteful trip, and I just had to get into a car accident to make the trip even worse.  Basically traffic went from 65 to 0 in a matter of seconds and I failed to realize that we weren't just slowing down, we were screaming to a halt. I rear-ended the car in front of me and then was rear-ended myself. Five cars in all were involved, but we were sort of two separate accidents because the fourth car in the mess has been able to stop in time, but he himself was rear-ended. No one was injured in the collision, thank heavens. The car that I hit had minimal damage--I think they were probably the only ones who didn't have to be towed. The front of my car was another story though. It was pretty smashed. The back looked mostly normal, but the rear hatch couldn't be opened. My airbags didn't deploy though so that's one good thing. The car that hit me though, a mustang, was in BAD shape. Their hood was all bent, their airbags had deployed, and it wouldn't even run. It had to be shoved by an incident management truck to the side of the road and, later, by a highway patrol car onto a tow truck. It's most certainly totaled.

My car is currently at a body shop and I'm waiting to hear if they're going to total it. The original damage estimate was six-thousand and something but they've found a bit more damage. If it isn't totaled, it's going to be dang close. I really hope they don't total it because I love my car and I definitely don't want to start over again on payments. Ugh. Poor Yaris.

If they do total my car, does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of car I should get? Right now I'm leaning towards just getting another Yaris...but I'm not entirely sure.

Shooting at Smith's Saturday, 8 May, 2010

On Saturday, my sister Janessa picked up three hours of a shift from a co-worker (who had picked those three hours up from another co-worker). These three hours were pretty much the only three hours she'd worked for nearly two weeks. She was scheduled to be off at 7, but stayed two extra hours so a girl who wasn't feeling well could go home. So, she should have been off at 9 but wasn't because, just minutes before she was off, the shooting occurred.

It's amazing what led up to Janessa being there; so many little things that changed, and in many ways, were unusual. I'm just so glad she wasn't injured because each of those little pieces that changed could have become lifelong regrets.

Anyway, Saturday was a normal day at Smith's. Busy, but less so than everyone was used to because BYU had let out and the students had gone home for the summer. Janessa was busy on the front end, bagging customer's groceries, when she noticed a squabble between a man who was trying to shoplift beer and a non-Smith's employee who was there stocking shelves. The stocker was trying to carry out a citizen's arrest on the man and the man was totally uncooperative. The two were creating quite a disturbance so they went into a backroom behind the customer service counter and shut the door to work it out.

Janessa continued bagging.

Soon, the door opened again and Janessa heard something to this extent (with a few explicatives which I'm not including): "You've got a gun!" "No I don't!" "Yes you do, I just saw it!"

Everyone on the front end began to get a little nervous, but somehow just continued with their work.

And then there were shots being fired. Everyone scrambled to hide behind checkstands or whatever they could find. Alarms were ringing and announcements were being made over the intercom instructing customers with what to do. Most of the customers just ran out through the back doors through the back room though.

Then the store was evacuated to the parking lot where Janessa was held with the witnesses for an hour or two. Horrible rumors circulated that certain people had been shot, even down to indicating where they'd been shot. However these rumors started that were so far from the truth, I have no idea. It would be interesting to find out though. Anyway, the truth of the story, at least as far as we know, was this:

No shots were actually fired by the shoplifter, but only by the two policemen who had somehow arrived without Janessa seeing. (They would have had to walk right past her.) And the only injuries (not counting psychological ones) were to the guy trying to shoplift; he was shot and dead on the scene.

It's so crazy to realize that these things happen everywhere, even in our little bubble of Provo, where we think everything is so safe.