Where to begin?! Lee v. Bridgewater, P90X, Sun Rape, or U of U Law School?!

The screen-captured photo to the right is awesome.  It is the ad for Mike Lee's U.S. Senate campaign that showed up here on my blog.  Woot!  Mike is seriously my favorite candidate of the two.  I've learned this week that Tim Bridgewater's campaign fights DIRTY.  I'm not going to go into detail, but I've seen some sides of this campaign that I didn't expect.  And apparently Tim is about to launch a negative TV ad campaign.  If I knew nothing about this campaign up to this point and I saw the commercial he's about to start airing, I WOULD NOT VOTE FOR HIM.  No matter what I'd seek another candidate.  His campaign is doing everything it can to lambast my chosen profession, and I do not see alienating an entire profession as a valuable contribution to our nation.  Sorry, Tim.  Even though you never had it to begin with, you've 100% lost my vote.  Anyway, but that's politics for you.  I could ramble on for another half hour about that, but I'll spare you... especially because "you" are my poor friends and family who are probably more than sick of hearing about Mike Lee.

About P90X, I just started it, and it is freakin' hard.  I hurt.  Ev-er-y-where.  And I've only done it for two days now.  Ouch.  At least I know that I'm doing something to my body, for good or for ill.

So, last weekend I rediscovered another one of the reasons I'm the genetic lottery winner (or loser, as my Mom put it--basically I have almost every health oddity or health defect that my parents each have--lucky me) in my family.  I went fly fishing with Jake on the Provo River.  It was a blast, but the sun did a SERIOUS number on my arms and face and neck.  This happens to me every summer.  I get serious burns.  So bad that the first time my friend Julianna saw how badly I get burned she exclaimed, "You don't get sunburned, you get Sun-RAPED!"  The picture above doesn't do the sunburns justice.  (I had actually used some sun block, so there are a few spots that made it out alive, others... not so much.) Anyway, the rest of this week I've been sick, possibly because of the burns solely, and have looked like a leper.  It's been fun.

Now the final topic for this wonderful life-updating blog post of mine, Utah Law.  The University of Utah Law school finally called me this morning to tell me that I'm off of their waiting list, and that they'll now accept me into their law school.  UGH!  On top of that, the dean told me I had only until Monday afternoon to make up my mind.  Double-UGH!  So tomorrow I'm going to find a time to go up to U of U and at least have a look around the campus, as well as maybe go do a session at the Salt Lake temple.  I've got a serious decision to make!  Here are the basics.... at Mason, I will have about $70,000 more of debt when I graduate, give or take.  However, I will have probably a better shot at a job as the market is much larger out there, and George Mason has a better history for landing people in jobs.  I also get to live in a city that I'd love to live in.  At Utah, my living expenses and in-state tuition make my debt load significantly lower.  I can have less stress in that regard.  However, I also think that Utah isn't nearly as good at placing people in jobs, despite their current claims that they are.  (What I hear from people actually going there right now is NOT encouraging... in other words, they were doing ok before the economy went to pot.)  Also, the jobs here will just not compare in salary... so will my debt still take just as long to pay off?  I don't know.

That's the decision.  Plus there are the factors of family, friends, dating, curriculum, the fact that Mason is actually more conservative than Utah, etc.  I struggle to decide these things when talking about such large numbers behind dollar-signs.

Well, that's my life in a nut-shell.  Thanks for catching yourself up.... Jules, and maybe like two other people.... and actually, maybe no one!  At least I got to get all of this out of my brain.

Campin', Fishin', Hikin', Burnin'

I'm sorry. I don't know why it is, but I always have to use the apostrophe instead of the G's in those words. Anyway, I did all of those things yesterday and today. (Well, the last one was done to me by the sun.) I really love camping, and I really really love fishing. I've been wanting to go camping since this last winter, and now that summer is almost over I finally got to do it. We went to southern Utah and camped in the Boulder Mountain area. We fished at a couple different lakes. Yesterday we fished at the lake near where we camped called Lower Bowns Reservoir. It was AWESOME. I caught about 10 fish in just a few hours of fishing. They were all about 9-13 inch rainbows, so there wasn't much variety, but it was dry-fly fly fishing at its best. I love it. I also got to don my waders for the first time this year. (Except for the fly fishing winter disaster mentioned around the beginning of this blog in March-ish.) After a frigid night in a tent, we decided to go to Oak Creek Reservoir which is at the top of a two and half mile road. I use the term road, but the street sign called it a "primitive road." In other words, unless your vehicle is a mountain climber, do not pass go, do not collect $200. So we hiked up there. (Impressively, my 2 nephews made it up there and back down in good shape, including Jacob who's just 6. He let us know it was hard for him, but he was a trooper.) I caught zero fish. I was, however, glad to have done the hike, and I still had an enjoyable time. My dad and his friend Lyle caught quite a few brook trout. So there's the short of the trip regarding the first three verbs in the title of this post. As for the fourth, OUCH!!! My skin is pretty fair, and burns very easily in the sun. I tend to look bright red after a day in the sun. (Hence many jokes from my friends and family including: I look like a lobster, I'm Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (my nose is usually included in all the burning), and my personal favorite, I don't get sun burned, I get sun RAPED!) My hands look like I'm wearing red gloves right now, and my neck is highly uncomfy, but I'm fine. Unfortunately, I probably have skin cancer in my future.

Well, there was my summer adventure. I'm glad I got to have a good one. I'm tuckered out!
Pics:

We climbed to the top of some red rock formations. (This is me and my nephews Jacob and Ryan.)

Me with Oak Creek Reservoir. It was a fun hike. Long, but beautiful country. This would be a beautiful picture, if there wasn't that ugly lake in it. (Oh, and I'm not wearing my hat backwards to be cool, it was my failed attempt at shading my neck.)

My bro Jake with my nephews. At Oak Creek Reservoir.