Last week was a week of discoveries. First one, saltine crackers are MUCH better when they’re the mini-size. I even checked to see if it was butter or special of the week flavor and it was not. They were simply more delicious small size.
Next, adventures are always awaiting. I went up to Logan last weekend for work—Road Respect had a trailer at the MS-150 century ride and I asked people questions about safe cycling and driving and gave prizes. It was really cool, in fact, Road Respect is one of the favorite components of my job, but it got extremely cool once the crowd went back to their tents and it was just me and Smitty the Rat. I can imagine what you’re thinking will follow, but unless you’ve seen the 30-foot inflatable mascot that X96 so hilariously claims, you really have no idea what I’m about to say. This 30-foot inflatable rat has gangly teeth and a big fat belly and a long inflatable tail. It’s all quite ridiculous.
Well I ended up hanging out with some of the guys from X96 for a few hours playing the Wii on the belly of this inflatable rat Smitty. It was the most random and ridiculous thing I could have concocted for a Friday night. They ordered pizza after awhile and the delivery boy looked so petrified, truly nauseous when he came up, asking hesitantly, “Is..this the right place.” After seeing the instructions on his computer: “Look for the giant inflatable rat” I really wondered how he could have even been in question. I looked around. Nope, no other large inflatable rat in sight. So we ate pizza and started talking about politics, then religion, during which we looked up and remembered that the angry jaw of Smitty was literally looming over our heads and it kind of halted the conversation.
Another one, if your plans get thwarted by outside interferences, sometimes those interferences are worth using in a plan B. I went to the gym to swim laps and after about 10 minutes all of these old people started filling up the pool and they took out the lap divider. I realized there was an aqua class at the top of the hour. I was already wet anyway, so I joined ‘em. Me and all of Salt Lake City’s finest senior citizens doing our water aerobics together on a Thursday morning. And I’ll have to say, it was one of the most fun workouts I’ve ever done, and challenging too. I did have to chuckle to myself when I got out and noticed there was a walker near the pool stairs. Love those old people.
Well I ended up hanging out with some of the guys from X96 for a few hours playing the Wii on the belly of this inflatable rat Smitty. It was the most random and ridiculous thing I could have concocted for a Friday night. They ordered pizza after awhile and the delivery boy looked so petrified, truly nauseous when he came up, asking hesitantly, “Is..this the right place.” After seeing the instructions on his computer: “Look for the giant inflatable rat” I really wondered how he could have even been in question. I looked around. Nope, no other large inflatable rat in sight. So we ate pizza and started talking about politics, then religion, during which we looked up and remembered that the angry jaw of Smitty was literally looming over our heads and it kind of halted the conversation.
Another one, if your plans get thwarted by outside interferences, sometimes those interferences are worth using in a plan B. I went to the gym to swim laps and after about 10 minutes all of these old people started filling up the pool and they took out the lap divider. I realized there was an aqua class at the top of the hour. I was already wet anyway, so I joined ‘em. Me and all of Salt Lake City’s finest senior citizens doing our water aerobics together on a Thursday morning. And I’ll have to say, it was one of the most fun workouts I’ve ever done, and challenging too. I did have to chuckle to myself when I got out and noticed there was a walker near the pool stairs. Love those old people.
Last discovery, I was sitting in church, feeling kind of blah and ugly, when it hit me that being good and cool is also attractive. Doesn’t sound so profound, I know. We all learned that lesson in elementary school in the warm and fuzzy lesson and hear it all the time, but obviously living in society can make us question those simple life lessons and what’s really important and worth working toward. Well it hit me hard that character and substance equate for a lot more than I was giving them credit for and after several weeks of having this deeper understanding and internalizing it, it’s really made a difference for how I’m able to view myself and others. I saw this young teen girl crying on the side of the road while walking to fireworks last night. Her cry sounded like a little animal, just desperate, scared, defeated. She said her boyfriend and her had gotten in a fight and had left her there and she was scared and didn’t want to get lost. I looked at this little girl, whose huge plastic blue glasses covered more circumference than her shorts and knew that her childhood understanding of worth was already lost, if not temporarily. It was clear that society had currently gotten the best of her, thinking that being sexy and accepted is the most important thing, as it’s gotten the best of all of us at one point or another. Now I’m hoping that I can hold on tight to this re-discovery of what I’ve always known but used to actually understand as a kid, and hoping that others can remember too.
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