The Next 4 Days.

Finals.  They have returned.  I didn't even see them coming.  Alright.  Maybe I did.  Maybe I saw them on the syllabus back in August. But only maybe.

This semester I am in a photography class.  Artsy classes have the best final.  AKA they don't have one.  They have final projects instead, which is a blessing and a curse.  Blessing: no studying old material trying to remember stuff you sort of understood back in September.  Curse: spending way more time on a project than you would studying for a normal final.

Well this morning I presented my photo final.  What a relief that it is over.  And good thing my opinion doesn't count for my final grade because personally, I didn't think it was that strong.  My professor and class thought it was great though.  Christmas miracle.  Hallelujah.  So here it is, my project in all its glory.  The theme was adventure.  It is a series of pairs of photos, the first being a boring, everyday, non-adventurous moment, the second being an adventurous moment.  Ah, just see for yourself.

This one is a bit of a stretch, but on the left he is doing physics homework and on the right he is writing a novel. 

       

One final down, four to go.  Let's do this.

Advice Column

My blog is hugely successful. Just ask my mom. Naturally, people leave me lots of comments. Sometimes they even ask for advice. Today I aim to answer the question that I am asked most often: "My best friend has a new girl/boyfriend and now never hangs out with me, what do I do?"

Let me answer this with a personal anecdote. I once had a friend named Conner. He was what some people call a best friend. I made the mistake of introducing Conner to a friend I met while working as an EFY counselor this past summer. They quickly hit it off. Soon(ish) after they were dating. Then he disappeared. Missing in action? Treason? I've heard it both ways. We searched for him. Our text messages to meet up went unanswered. Our calls to check up went ignored. We were devastated by Conner's disappearance. We waited two months for Conner's return. Alas, he was gone.

We did the sensible thing, we held a funeral to honor Conner's memory. We invited his friends and family to participate. We purchased some flowers, found an urn, and even contacted his family for a nice photo to place next to his last remains. Since Conner's body was never recovered we filled his urn with Life cereal, his Life cereal to be precise. A cruel irony.

The funeral service was beautiful. His sister offered an eloquent eulogy. His cousins offered a gift to his grieving roommates. His friend consoled all present with an uplifting musical number. It was a sublime occasion. Enjoy the photos and video below.

I sincerely hope this personal experience helps all who are facing a similar situation. Remember you are not alone in this. Hope on.

Holidays are for Fun.

Labor Day. What a strange holiday. But I love it. It means no school. To celebrate the labor force of America my family headed up to the family ranch. I'm sure there was lots of labor going on there at one point or another. The ranch is always a good time; the standard trip includes shooting contests, dirtbike adventures, spikeball tournaments, hot dogs, sourdough pancakes, and napping.

I love the ranch. I love that technology doesn't work out there. Disconnecting from social media for a few days is always a dream. I love not having a schedule. There is endless fun up there and all day for it. I love the stars. At the ranch you can see stars on stars on stars. It is humbling and magical.

My favorite event was the Shotgun Knockout. If you've never heard of it, read on. If you already know what it is, read on. You play with 4 or 5 people. They stand in a shooting line. With shotguns. The left most person is first. He/she yells "pull!" and has the first shot at the clay pigeon (if some of these terms are foreign to you, call my dad for a description in laymen's terms). If shooter #1 misses (we'll call him Payden), then shooter #2 (we'll call him Riley, for no particular reason) can shoot and knock Payden out. If they both miss then shooter #3 (his name will be Trey) has a chance to shoot. If Trey hits the clay pigeon then both Riley and Payden are out. It is incredibly fun. We played until we ran out of ammo. We started with a lot of ammo...

My uncle brought his horses out to the ranch. Read below for our riding story.

Before my uncle unsaddled the horses, my friend and I decided to go for a ride. We planned heading into the pasture until we hit the fence. The horses had other plans. We started leading them out away from where they were tied up. We made it about 30 yards before the horses decided they were done. They started turning around. I tried to steer my less-than-loyal steed straight but he wasn't having any of it. He would turn and start heading back to the tie spot. So I would turn him around and start heading back to the pasture. I would make it past the garage and he would turn around again. This happened 3 or 4 times before I gave up and let the horse have his way. He walked straight back to the tie spot and demanded to be unsaddled. Trey had a similar experience. His horse was just as stubborn. He even tried to pull his saddle blanket off with his teeth. It was pretty hilarious. Nutshell: we rode to our hearts content...which was only about 5 minutes.

My dad's Dirty Harry impression.

Family. Friends. Guns. Food. Stars. Fun.

The ranch.

Rhyme Time

Tonight. Instead of doing my physics reading, I helped my friend compose a masterpiece. She needed to write a poem...in Spanish. Since I have made at least two Spanish soap operas in my lifetime I was the perfect candidate to help her, naturally. One topic immediately came to mind. I quickly constructed this sage rhyme. Enjoy.

El Deseo

Por Stefanie Isaacson

Quiero darte un beso

Necesito un novio

Los labios delicioso

Es muy glorioso

She was more than impressed.

Durango

Last month I was full of adventure. My dad, brother and I went to Colorado for a mountain biking trip. We stayed in an old forest fire lookout tower. It was pretty rad...well except when you had to walk up and down 4 flights of stairs to go to the bathroom. The views were amazing though!

We spent 2 nights in this bad boy. In between we did a savage bike ride. It was 22 miles from Kennebec Pass to Durango. In other words, it was 22 miles of brutal, torturous riding. Ok, maybe only 10 miles of it was bad. But those 10 were so bad I found myself wishing I had purchased a motorcycle instead of a bicycle. The worst part was watching my dad crash over and over again (I wonder if he'll read this...). The trail was extremely technical, way too technical for my dad and I. My dad took a beating. At one point he fell then barrel rolled over this massive rock coming to a stop on his other side. I hated watching it. Alas, we triumphed...6 hours later. It is a miracle that we all made it off that mountain alive. 

Despite the grueling ride (from which my body is still recovering), the trip was really fun. We ate sloppy joe's, played black jack, ate cheetos puffs; it was glamorous. 

Racing the Wind

Last week I went sailing. When I say sailing I mean snoozing around a no-wake zone protected by jetties. It was marvelous nonetheless. 8 of us went as a group date. We rolled up to the Utah Lake State Park, fought through clouds of bugs and finally made it to the marina. There we met the Sailing Skipper. The look on his face as 8 sailing rooks arrived was priceless. He was a champ though and quickly set us up to sail. Because of the lack of wind he wasn't too worried about us capsizing, so he gave each of us a 5 minute lesson in a boat and then let us sail. Our vessel was a 2 man dinghy called a sunfish. It was a beaut. The captain manned the tiller while the first mate trimmed the sail. After 15 minutes of floundering and getting stuck in the mud we realized I was a much better at trimming the sail than steering.

We can't contain our excitement. 

The whole experience was new, exciting and addicting. The entire time I was thinking, "I must do this again!" After we finished racing the wind, the Sailing Skipper shared his wisdom with us. He taught us the biggest life lessons that he learned from sailing. It was money. To celebrate our sailing success we went to Stan's for shakes. Tasty business. 

Nutshell: it was a splendid evening.