Just call me Thoreau

Last Tuesday I finished my finals. Then I headed for the hills. Well, really it was a desert. Back in December my mom showed me a magazine article about Natural Bridges. The article said it was one of the only places in Utah with no light pollution. Zero. Zilch. Nil. My mind started scheming. It also said there would be a meteor shower in April and Natural Bridges would be a good place to watch it. Sold! I grabbed my laptop and started doing research. When are finals, when is the best time to watch the show, where can I camp down there? Within an hour I had a rough plan: take my finals ASAP as possible, drive down there with a van-full of camping gear and friends, watch the meteors while sipping hot cocoa. Perfect.

So that is what I did. Due to lame professors who schedule finals on the last day possible my amigos had to come down a day later than me. So I went into the desert...alone. It would be my Walden. I was pumped. So I drove 5 hours listening to General Conference talks and a single MOTAB cd on repeat (great music selection, Dad). I got there late. Real late. After miraculously setting up the tent in the dark I sat in my camp chair beholding the stars. There were thousands of thousands. I sat there in awe taking it all in. It was breathtaking. Then I thought I heard something, got scared and went to bed.

The next day was less scary. No creepy noises. No coyotes waking me up in the middle of the night. Just me, my book, the nice German-Canadians in the next campsite over and the great outdoors. Paradise. There I was in the middle of the desert with nothing to do but think, meditate and discover. I lasted about 5 minutes before I pulled out my novel about zombies. A couple chapters later I decided to go check out the bridges, you know, see what this park was all about. I did a little hiking, took some photos... ate some fruit snacks, it was a dream.

After the scenic loop I drove 30 minutes to Blanding to get some lunch and kill more time until my amigos showed up. I found this unbelievable drive-inn burger spot. It was sublime. Tasty as. Then I thought about going back to the campsite and pondering my existence. I went to a dinosaur museum instead. It was well worth the $3.50.

If you ever find yourself in Blanding, Utah give this place a try. Tasty business.

In a nutshell, my Thoreau experience was marvelous. It didn't result in a book, but a blog post is kind of close right? I didn't have any profound realizations while I lone wolfed it, but I did relish the tranquility. As Bob would say, I took a vacation from my problems. I highly recommend it.

Me trying to look Thoreauian while pondering the essence of life.

If you're still wondering how the meteor shower went: We slept under the stars and saw some epic meteors. We planned to go to sleep and wake up at 4 AM (prime viewing time) and watch the good stuff. I woke up long enough to turn my alarm off and go back to sleep. The shooting stars we did see though were enough to make the trip worth it.

Study Breaks

This past week was finals week. It was rough stuff. The hardest part is not the whopping tests but the struggle to stay motivated. School is like exploring a cave. You crawl, wiggle, and squeeze your way through the tightest of spaces hoping that someday it will end. Then finals come. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel and you have two options: continue army crawling through some sludge, or stand up and take the emergency exit to your right. That emergency exit is the study break. Sometimes it is necessary to maintain sanity, other times it is definitely unnecessary but very tempting. The challenge with taking that emergency exit out of the tunnel is summoning the will power to go back in there and slosh through the final hundred feet to the end. Imagine: You are on your belly, face barely above water, and you see the end. It is only a couple hours away. Your vision wanders to the right and you spot this red door with a bright green exit sign hanging above it. You know that if you go out that door you may never come back. It’s a risk. So what do you do? You yell YOLO and plow through the red exit, mentally resolving to go back to the tunnel in an hour or two.

Well that’s how it works folks. Study breaks. I took one such break the other day. I had just finished an exam that didn’t go well. Shimmying my way through more tunnels was the last thing I wanted to do. Now the day before my roommate jokingly said that I should rappel out the window. Perfect. Lets do it. I set up an anchor using two legs on the coffee table and bombed my rope out our 3^rd story window. My roommates all sat on the table to weigh it down and out I went. I exchanged waves with the boys on floor 2 as I went by, then I gracefully (sorta) landed in the bush at the bottom. I unhooked and raced upstairs to do it again. After two more trips I felt accomplished and decided to be done. I coiled the rope, gathered my gear, examined the pics, and then headed back into that dreadful tunnel.

A behind the scenes look.

Pretty Sure This Has Never Been Done Before...

Ok, so maybe every budding photographer takes a bunch of photos of hands, but I felt revolutionary when the thought first came to me.
You can tell a lot about a person by looking at his/her hands. If you don't believe me just watch an episode of Psych. If someone saw only what your hands did each day how well would they know you? Do the things our hands do define us? I wanted to create an album that showed who I was by taking photos of the things my hands do most often. Alright, I'm done trying to be all meta, here are the photos.

If you made an album like this what would it look like?

Also, shout out to my roommates for their excellent hand modeling.

#WellAwesome

When I think of dating sometimes I feel like I am in the 7th round of a boxing match. I'm up against the ropes. I've got a black eye. I can't see and I hear myself saying, "Cut me, Mick." I can't last another round.

Dating. It is a blessing...and a curse. Lately, it has been a curse. Trying to find a date now resembles door-to-door inviting on my mission. Sometimes I think letting my brother-in-law practice pulling my teeth is a more attractive offer.

Each and every time I go through the same ordeal. On Sunday or Monday I come up with this sweet idea for a date. Over the next 3 days I try to find someone to take. These are some of the responses I get: "I already have commitments for that day." "My friend is having a birthday." "I have to fold my socks." "New phone, who is this?" By the time the weekend comes around I am starting to get pretty desperate. Sometimes I give up and hang out with da boyz. Other times in fear of missing out on an awesome group date I ask someone to set me up with a rando. 

The whole cycle is emotionally taxing. I start each week determined to find a date for the upcoming weekend. I end each week thinking I'll just go rock climbing and see a dollar movie instead.

Girls complain that guys only want to hang out. Well in my experience girls don't want to hang out, go on dates, answer their phones, or return texts.

You are probably thinking, "Well, Riley, maybe you are just barking up the wrong tree." I have literally thought the exact same thing. It is possible, probable even. So, I have decided to observe Post-Easter Lent. I guess we'll call it Pent. I will be giving up girls and dating for 40 days. Hopefully by the end of these 40 days I will have wandered into a new grove of trees, trees that actually bark back.

I was fully committed to this goal until I reflected on what I heard at General Conference. Elder Ballard, "You single adults need to date and marry. Please stop delaying!" I guess making a goal that is a direct contradiction to what modern prophets teach is a dangerous road, regardless of my intentions. So I guess I will have to draw upon my inner Rocky Balboa and fight on. So here's to fighting the good fight, swinging back at life when life swings at you and following the prophet.