Why I Love The Train – Again

It’s another train day, and I found more reasons to love riding in on the train.

When you drive, it’s really sterile. You are protected from the world. You can avoid the humanity around you. You can shut people out. You can feel isolated and alone. It’s like some funky protection between you and the world.

Then you get on the train. Immediately you are assaulted by with the humanity of those around you. And I mean an overload of the senses, not that people assault you. There’s the guy with the long grey mullet and the Kiss tattoos. There’s the students on their way to school or the U for classes. There are the moms with their babies. There are the lawyers in suits. There are more people. It’s sooo refreshing to be among different kinds of people. Farmington, heaven love it, is homogenous. Little or no variety. The people you meet are like yourself if you are me. But being on the train gets me in touch with people again. It’s magical. Our lives intersect on the train.

I even saw the branch president from the singles ward I used to go to on the train…

The other magic these days is Craigslist. We’ve been talking about getting rid of a bunch of junk for months. We put it on Craigslist for free and it magically disappeared from our yard. Thank you all those people who got our junk from Craigslist.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Is it me or is Raiders of the Lost Ark one of the best movies ever?! Holy cow, I can’t believe I waited this long to own it. I forgot how much I absolutely love this movie. Adventure. Great love story. Action. Amazing character development. Wild ending. Love it. Best ten bucks I have spent in a long long long long time.

One Year Anniversary

Isn’t that a great picture of my baby and my baby? I love it. Thanks honey for emailing that picture to me…

For any of the two people that actually read this, being my wife and my mom, today’s post is going to get a little heavy and personal, so if you aren’t game for this kind of stuff, I suggest you read another post.

I went on a camp out with the ward last night. It was the Father’s and Son’s camp out. They do it every year to commemorate the anniversary of when the Aaronic Priesthood was restored to the earth. Fantastic reason to spend time with my Jason boy. I love Jason. He’s so excited most of the time. I know he had issues trying to hold all of that excitement in. I would too if I were him. We had a great time, some great adventures that I may write about another time, but mostly it reminded me that today is 52 weeks after when my father shot himself last year. Being with Jason boy reminded me that I love him, that I am his father, and that I am completely committed to giving him everything he needs from his father, that mine never could give for whatever reason. I’m going to baptize him, confirm him a member of the church and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost. I’m going to give him the priesthood as he grows. I’m going to take him to the temple for the first time. I’m going to go to sessions with him before his mission. I’m going to be his guide. I’m going to go to Father’s and Son’s camp outs with him. I’m going to teach him what I know. Mostly, I’m going to make sure that he always knows that I love him.
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Another Train Day

I’m on the train again. Listening to some Stanford lectures on analogy and cognition. Fun stuff…Love the train.

I remember so many days in Italy when I rode the trains. To Padova for mission conference. To Udine for scambi. Hours of staring out the window and thinking. Sometimes a nice nap. People watching. Sometimes we worked the trains. Mostly it was down time. What little of the downtime we actually had. Those were good days. These trains are a little too clean and no one is speaking italian…

Well, it’s time to start working on my second book. Ciao bei ragazzi.

How It Went

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not a very dedicated blogger…

I steal moments here and there and blog when I get a second. Right now I am taking Frontrunner, the new fancy commuter train, back to Farmington. Some of you may have been wondering how my class last Friday went…well, it was fabulous. I mean, after three years it should be fabulous…but really, it went really good. There were eleven of us in the room and it just didn’t matter. The message was clear, the invitation was good, and eleven of us were a little more clear about what success means to us and how to create it. I did pretty good as a presenter I thought…but then, I’m biased. I love me. It went well enough that I am going to do another class on June 20th at a TBD location in Davis County. More details as soon as I get a location pinned down. I have two in mind…but if you know of somewhere, let me know.

I decided today to ride the train in to the city for a number of reasons: one (and these are in no particular order) to see if I could do it on a long term basis – two because I believe in public transportation and love being able to do other things than sit behind a steering wheel – three because this way costs 6 bucks and I get a little exercise when I walk to my next destination – four so I dont put more miles on my car – five so I can watch all those poor suckers stuck in traffic! HA HA!

Really though, I we’re cruising through traffic and I am sitting on a nice train blogging, how cool and european is that? UTA has promised wi-fi shortly on the trains, and in fact I am hooked up to the not-yet-functioning wi-fi right now.

Two things to relate about the trains. First, Frontrunner is a much higher class experience than Trax. For real. The cars are nicer, I have a table, the seats are comfy, the view is better, the ride is less bumpy, etc. Second, it’s still really nice to be able to ride Trax. I went down to 9400 South and back today with a stop in the middle in the morning all for 6 bucks. It would have been a half a tank of gas kind of day for me today which is like 25 bucks these days. Saved twenty dollars riding the train…

The train is pretty full here in commuter time. It’s nice to see it getting used even though it has only been open a week or two. I’m surprised at the usage to be honest. Good times. My stop is next. Then a quick ride on my bike home. Lovely. I wrote more today than I have in quite a while. Thank you mister train man.

For the future, Tuesday is going to be train day. Six bucks and a lot of time to write down what is up with me. Expect a blog post at least once a week now. And see you on the 20th.

Saturday is a Special Day

Ok, so yesterday I am getting ready to go ride the FC and I am running out the door to the garage, trip on someone’s toy, sprain my ankle and don’t get to ride. I went back to work instead and got something done. The doctor says it’s fine, but I still didn’t get to go ride….boo hoo.

Today is Saturday, and Saturday is a special day. Mow the lawn, vacuum the house, get the kitchen cleaned up. Etc. Good times. Right now I am waiting for two videos to render and one of them is also going to be the video clip of the week. It’s from Return To Me, a favorite at our house. It’s pretty much a terrible first date. To all of you women who may read this… never hit your date on the arm. Or anywhere else. Unless you are in danger, then get crazy. But if you want to impress or even have your date LIKE you, don’t hit your date. Also, we love the look on David Duchovney’s face when she takes off her coat. Hilarious! Have fun with it.

Lastly, I’d really like to do some kind of video work that lasts more than a couple of hours and tells a story that would be fun. Drama, comedy, whatever. I just want to put together some film. If you have any ideas, email me or call. I’d like to do some fun work.