I write today many weeks overdue, well past the regular blogging time I would like to keep up. It’s been roughly 7 weeks since I last wrote, and life has been like one giant sprint through an obstacle course. A quick overview, then some thoughts on school and football. Perhaps I will split this into two separate posts.
August 1-7: Tuesday night was a MUSS board activity and a bunch of us went to the Bee’s game. I’m notoriously known for not being a huge baseball fan, although I did re-discover my appreciation for the game over the summer. Still not my favorite sport to watch by any stretch of the imagination; I enjoy watching the game live much more than on TV. Went home to Idaho Falls on Wednesday to see hang out with my family and work the Idaho Falls Country Club Member-Guest from 7 AM-3 PM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I drove to Tremonton to pick up a one Ms. Lindsay James before we stopped in Ogden to see our dear friend Tiffany Law to help her stay awake for her EEG Monday morning, with many other close friends of course.
August 8-14: Stayed up most of Sunday night well into Monday morning with Tiffany and friends. Definitely a fun time seeing everyone together again. Incidentally, this would double as a small going away party for Tiff as she left for DC for an internship for the semester. Also, under the radar somehow as always, I’m sure on somewhat purpose because he never tries to attract too much attention to himself, this also served as Batman Zach’s goodbye to the group, leaving for the sunnier desert skies of Tucson, AZ. I drove Lindsay back to Tremonton Monday morning and actually ended up spending the day with her. We went to see her brother Travis’ family, getting a hug from her nephew Nate, chatted it up with her niece Abbie about the violin, and pushed little Tom in the swing. Had dinner with Lindsay and her parents, and then headed back to Salt Lake City around 7 o’clock. On Thursday, the MUSS board attended our annual lunch with the football coaching staff up at the Dee Glen Smith Center. It’s one of my favorite events of the year because we get to hang out with the great men leading Utah Football. It never fails: every year new board members are in awe of just how personable our coaching staff is and down to earth with us, mere college students. It’s never a wonder to me why our program has been so successful in recent years. You gotta know the Xs and Os to win games, but it takes more than that to repeatedly win championships and bowls like they do.
August 15-21: At this point, I already realized that this semester was already going to be unlike any other, I just didn’t know how. This week would be the beginning of a whole new world. First new thing: meetings. I already attend a lot of meetings already, but somehow this year I’ve been in at least one or two meetings a week, maybe a couple more impromptu ones depending on how often I visit the Alumni House haha, in addition to the occasional interview for something MUSS related. But it started off with a meeting on Monday with Mark Matheson, probably one of the coolest professors on campus, just to catch up. On Tuesday and Wednesday I went to graduate school orientation. Tuesday was dedicated to CPR/First Aid re-certification. What does that mean? Basically it amounted to a 7 hour crash course of the two subjects, with lunch in between. That evening we had a small informal dinner with the faculty, and I was humbled that the professors in my emphasis all remembered me and expected great things from me. Wednesday evening was a long overdue MUSS Board meeting, getting every back up to speed and preparing for a crazy first few weeks. On Thursday morning, MUSS Board VP Ellen Stemle and I were a part of Utah Athletics Social Media Day, which was a lot of fun! We were only on for about 15 minutes out of an entire day of interviewing and answering questions from all the Utah sports programs. At 11 AM I went up to the Burbidge Center for a quick tutor orientation for the semester. It’s just a little refresher seminar on the dos and don’ts of working with NCAA athletes. Some pretty tedious stuff, but when in doubt, the answer is usually don’t do more with them than just help with their class. Friday morning me and a few board members helped out with an event called Race Around the U (based on the show The Amazing Race), something spearheaded by friend Jillian West. We ended up staying there longer than we wanted, but I’d consider it a pretty good success. The team of Sara, Steve, Trevor and Steven won by about 15 minutes and their reward was a $25 gift card at the bookstore. #Win! After helping out with that and going to lunch, I drove to Park City to visit Lindsay and her parents. I hung out with them for the afternoon and had dinner with them, played a rousing game of Phase 10 (Lindsay and her mom are more competitive than you might think!), then I drove home, arriving just before midnight.
August 22-28: First week of school! I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, but it seems like the other days are filled with meetings or some form of preparation. I woke up to a phone call from UPC asking if we were going to be at Crimson Nights that Friday. I said sure, then began to scramble for the rest to prepare the board on such short notice with a great amount of help from TJ McMullin. Tuesday morning I attended my first grad class, which was joint with an undergrad class that I took a year ago. After class, Dr. Shultz informed me that I did not have to take the class and I could waive out of it. This also began another scrambling, this time searching for a class to fill the now empty void in my schedule. Tuesday night was an always fun Student Alumni Board meeting. After a hectic week, Friday finally arrives and after a MUSS ticket distribution meeting and an awesome Utah Volleyball match, we are finally ready for Crimson Nights. After a frustrating series of events aimed at UPC, we are set up. Tired and stressed, I was ready for the weekend. Fanfest was that morning. It’s always great to see so many Utah fans and be around fellow Utes. I can’t imagine the atmosphere in about 5-10 years after we’ve further established ourselves in the Conference of Champions. After going to another great Utah Volleyball match at noon, I headed to Idaho Falls with Trevor and Lisa because they wanted to go to Trevor’s mission companion’s homecoming. Quite an adventure driving home on Sunday as we detoured to Logan amid closed highways and exits on the way back so I could pick up something for my brother-in-law.
August 29-September 4: Ticket distribution! I was at the Alumni House from about 7:45 AM to about 4 PM on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Lots of work, but always worth it. After scrambling for the past week trying to find another class to fill the one I waived out of, I landed in a research group with a few people in my program, and it’s been pretty fun ever since! I’m definitely the baby of the group in terms of both age and experience in the field. Just trying to be a sponge right now. Thursday evening was the first football game of the year! Opening up against Montana State isn’t anything to get too excited about, but the first game of the season is. Lots of rust and kinks to work out after that initial 37-10 win, but a win is a win. Instead of heading home for the weekend like I planned for a wedding reception, I stayed in Salt Lake to try to recover from the previous week or two.
September 5-11: You’d think that by this point in time, I would be used to the perceived craziness by now, but no, not really. Being busy has become the norm. This week we prepared for MUSS Bus X to Southern California! A couple impromptu meetings in the Alumni House with John, Brynn and Ellen, a MUSS board meeting on Wednesday evening, classes, then MUSS Bus X on Thursday night! I missed a few volleyball matches while we were on the bus :( However, despite the loss and a little bit of tailgate hunting frustration, and a momentarily broken bus, it was a great weekend! It was a great example of creating your own experience. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Steve, Zac and Mike, as well as Britney, Lisa, Kenny, Justin, and co. Another special part of this trip is I got to see my younger brother, Alex, who lives in LA and attends Cal State-LA. I’m pretty sure that was only his second college football game ever, the other being the snow covered game of Utah vs. Utah State in 2007. No bus troubles on the way back to Salt Lake, although my bus driver’s full bladder created an unplanned pit stop just minutes before reaching Beaver, UT.
September 12-18: The beginning of this week was dedicated to recovering from the MUSS Bus adventure, in addition to really trying to convince myself that BYU was the next school on the schedule. This may have been the most calm week I’ve had in a long time. Just one impromptu meeting at the Alumni House to recap the MUSS Bus trip, discuss some board business, a meeting with the people in the College of Humanities in preparation for the “Game on the Green” at the Union. I feel like the event went pretty well overall, although I think some of their plans anticipated a lot more people than those who actually attended. I also think that if they didn’t charge for some of the food once people were there, it would have gone better. I understood that everything went towards scholarships, but sometimes I think you can sacrifice quality and quantity of food when it is not the main attraction. I think if they charge a small entry price and then make it so that the food inside is free, that would help a lot. However, I feel like it was an overall success. It also feels pretty good to be around a couple hundred other Utah fans when you stomp your rivals into the ground 54-10 in their house. Go Utes!
I am definitely making this its own post. I’ll get to my thoughts on grad school and the football team in another post.
Go Utes!
August 1-7: Tuesday night was a MUSS board activity and a bunch of us went to the Bee’s game. I’m notoriously known for not being a huge baseball fan, although I did re-discover my appreciation for the game over the summer. Still not my favorite sport to watch by any stretch of the imagination; I enjoy watching the game live much more than on TV. Went home to Idaho Falls on Wednesday to see hang out with my family and work the Idaho Falls Country Club Member-Guest from 7 AM-3 PM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I drove to Tremonton to pick up a one Ms. Lindsay James before we stopped in Ogden to see our dear friend Tiffany Law to help her stay awake for her EEG Monday morning, with many other close friends of course.
August 8-14: Stayed up most of Sunday night well into Monday morning with Tiffany and friends. Definitely a fun time seeing everyone together again. Incidentally, this would double as a small going away party for Tiff as she left for DC for an internship for the semester. Also, under the radar somehow as always, I’m sure on somewhat purpose because he never tries to attract too much attention to himself, this also served as Batman Zach’s goodbye to the group, leaving for the sunnier desert skies of Tucson, AZ. I drove Lindsay back to Tremonton Monday morning and actually ended up spending the day with her. We went to see her brother Travis’ family, getting a hug from her nephew Nate, chatted it up with her niece Abbie about the violin, and pushed little Tom in the swing. Had dinner with Lindsay and her parents, and then headed back to Salt Lake City around 7 o’clock. On Thursday, the MUSS board attended our annual lunch with the football coaching staff up at the Dee Glen Smith Center. It’s one of my favorite events of the year because we get to hang out with the great men leading Utah Football. It never fails: every year new board members are in awe of just how personable our coaching staff is and down to earth with us, mere college students. It’s never a wonder to me why our program has been so successful in recent years. You gotta know the Xs and Os to win games, but it takes more than that to repeatedly win championships and bowls like they do.
August 15-21: At this point, I already realized that this semester was already going to be unlike any other, I just didn’t know how. This week would be the beginning of a whole new world. First new thing: meetings. I already attend a lot of meetings already, but somehow this year I’ve been in at least one or two meetings a week, maybe a couple more impromptu ones depending on how often I visit the Alumni House haha, in addition to the occasional interview for something MUSS related. But it started off with a meeting on Monday with Mark Matheson, probably one of the coolest professors on campus, just to catch up. On Tuesday and Wednesday I went to graduate school orientation. Tuesday was dedicated to CPR/First Aid re-certification. What does that mean? Basically it amounted to a 7 hour crash course of the two subjects, with lunch in between. That evening we had a small informal dinner with the faculty, and I was humbled that the professors in my emphasis all remembered me and expected great things from me. Wednesday evening was a long overdue MUSS Board meeting, getting every back up to speed and preparing for a crazy first few weeks. On Thursday morning, MUSS Board VP Ellen Stemle and I were a part of Utah Athletics Social Media Day, which was a lot of fun! We were only on for about 15 minutes out of an entire day of interviewing and answering questions from all the Utah sports programs. At 11 AM I went up to the Burbidge Center for a quick tutor orientation for the semester. It’s just a little refresher seminar on the dos and don’ts of working with NCAA athletes. Some pretty tedious stuff, but when in doubt, the answer is usually don’t do more with them than just help with their class. Friday morning me and a few board members helped out with an event called Race Around the U (based on the show The Amazing Race), something spearheaded by friend Jillian West. We ended up staying there longer than we wanted, but I’d consider it a pretty good success. The team of Sara, Steve, Trevor and Steven won by about 15 minutes and their reward was a $25 gift card at the bookstore. #Win! After helping out with that and going to lunch, I drove to Park City to visit Lindsay and her parents. I hung out with them for the afternoon and had dinner with them, played a rousing game of Phase 10 (Lindsay and her mom are more competitive than you might think!), then I drove home, arriving just before midnight.
August 22-28: First week of school! I only have classes on Tuesday and Thursday, but it seems like the other days are filled with meetings or some form of preparation. I woke up to a phone call from UPC asking if we were going to be at Crimson Nights that Friday. I said sure, then began to scramble for the rest to prepare the board on such short notice with a great amount of help from TJ McMullin. Tuesday morning I attended my first grad class, which was joint with an undergrad class that I took a year ago. After class, Dr. Shultz informed me that I did not have to take the class and I could waive out of it. This also began another scrambling, this time searching for a class to fill the now empty void in my schedule. Tuesday night was an always fun Student Alumni Board meeting. After a hectic week, Friday finally arrives and after a MUSS ticket distribution meeting and an awesome Utah Volleyball match, we are finally ready for Crimson Nights. After a frustrating series of events aimed at UPC, we are set up. Tired and stressed, I was ready for the weekend. Fanfest was that morning. It’s always great to see so many Utah fans and be around fellow Utes. I can’t imagine the atmosphere in about 5-10 years after we’ve further established ourselves in the Conference of Champions. After going to another great Utah Volleyball match at noon, I headed to Idaho Falls with Trevor and Lisa because they wanted to go to Trevor’s mission companion’s homecoming. Quite an adventure driving home on Sunday as we detoured to Logan amid closed highways and exits on the way back so I could pick up something for my brother-in-law.
August 29-September 4: Ticket distribution! I was at the Alumni House from about 7:45 AM to about 4 PM on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Lots of work, but always worth it. After scrambling for the past week trying to find another class to fill the one I waived out of, I landed in a research group with a few people in my program, and it’s been pretty fun ever since! I’m definitely the baby of the group in terms of both age and experience in the field. Just trying to be a sponge right now. Thursday evening was the first football game of the year! Opening up against Montana State isn’t anything to get too excited about, but the first game of the season is. Lots of rust and kinks to work out after that initial 37-10 win, but a win is a win. Instead of heading home for the weekend like I planned for a wedding reception, I stayed in Salt Lake to try to recover from the previous week or two.
September 5-11: You’d think that by this point in time, I would be used to the perceived craziness by now, but no, not really. Being busy has become the norm. This week we prepared for MUSS Bus X to Southern California! A couple impromptu meetings in the Alumni House with John, Brynn and Ellen, a MUSS board meeting on Wednesday evening, classes, then MUSS Bus X on Thursday night! I missed a few volleyball matches while we were on the bus :( However, despite the loss and a little bit of tailgate hunting frustration, and a momentarily broken bus, it was a great weekend! It was a great example of creating your own experience. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Steve, Zac and Mike, as well as Britney, Lisa, Kenny, Justin, and co. Another special part of this trip is I got to see my younger brother, Alex, who lives in LA and attends Cal State-LA. I’m pretty sure that was only his second college football game ever, the other being the snow covered game of Utah vs. Utah State in 2007. No bus troubles on the way back to Salt Lake, although my bus driver’s full bladder created an unplanned pit stop just minutes before reaching Beaver, UT.
September 12-18: The beginning of this week was dedicated to recovering from the MUSS Bus adventure, in addition to really trying to convince myself that BYU was the next school on the schedule. This may have been the most calm week I’ve had in a long time. Just one impromptu meeting at the Alumni House to recap the MUSS Bus trip, discuss some board business, a meeting with the people in the College of Humanities in preparation for the “Game on the Green” at the Union. I feel like the event went pretty well overall, although I think some of their plans anticipated a lot more people than those who actually attended. I also think that if they didn’t charge for some of the food once people were there, it would have gone better. I understood that everything went towards scholarships, but sometimes I think you can sacrifice quality and quantity of food when it is not the main attraction. I think if they charge a small entry price and then make it so that the food inside is free, that would help a lot. However, I feel like it was an overall success. It also feels pretty good to be around a couple hundred other Utah fans when you stomp your rivals into the ground 54-10 in their house. Go Utes!
I am definitely making this its own post. I’ll get to my thoughts on grad school and the football team in another post.
Go Utes!
