You know those Christmas cards we all receive which tell a little bit about each family member and what has happened to them in the past year? They give me hope. The reason for this being that I realize that my life isn’t the only boring one. ;) Or maybe it’s that my life is boring. Oh well. Whatever the case may be, I thought as this year draws to an end I’d like to reflect a little bit on what has happened to me this year. You’ll be thrilled, I promise.

Luckily for you, you won’t be as thrilled as you could have been. I was going to write something for every month, but it soon got way too long (see the month of March). So I’m just going to give some highlights.

February: One of my good friends made me go to a Valentine’s party at the local community college. I protested loudly at this idea, especially since it cost me $10 and cost him nothing (he had a free pass), but went anyway. It was that night that I started to learn how to swing dance. We then went swing dancing the following night. And then the next week, and the next week, and the week after that and oops! I’m getting into March.

March: and the next week and the next week… okay I’ll stop. I turned the ripe old age of 489 minus 467. Over spring break I went to San Diego with a group of friends. There were 13 of us I think? We left on the 16th and came back on the 20th. We stayed the first night in a hotel casino called Whiskey Pete’s just outside of Las Vegas. The only thing good about that place was the fact that it was cheap. Of course, the second hand smoke probably took a good 31 years off my life so it might have been better to stay somewhere else. We arrived in San Diego on the 17th and enjoyed a nice evening on the beach. Too bad it was cloudy and windy. Uh oh, this is sounding really negative. First I lose 31 years of my life and then the beach wasn’t sunny! Well, just because it wasn’t sunny doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun. We had a good time swimming and playing volleyball. We then went to Old Town San Diego or whatever it’s called and had dinner at a cool Mexican restaurant. We then stopped in the Mormon Batallion visitor center (read more about the Mormon Battalion). The next day, the 18th, we went to Tijuana Mexico. This was my first time out of the good old USA. Me divertí mucho poder hablar con los mexicanos y aun mas divertido fue cuando ellos hablarían sin saber que yo y dos de mis amigos podían entenderles. Creo que gaste demasiado dinero en Tijuana, pero para que quejarme? Claro, no debía haber tenido presa comprando gafas de sol, pero ya ni modo. La historia de las gafas de sol: al entrar en Tijuana un hombre trato de venderme gafas de sol por $20. Yo le dije que no. $15, no. $10, no. $5, no, pero tal vez regrese luego le dije. Al salir de Tijuana pasamos por el mismo hombre y yo le dije que compraría los lentes por $5. El problema aquí fue que yo tenía prisa y el lo sabía. Yo le di un $20 y el dijo “$6 dolares”. A mi, con mi prisa, no me importaba ya y le dije algo como “whatever”. El me dio los lentes y mi cambio y salí corriendo. No fue hasta luego que conte el dinero para encontrar que había pagado $12 por mis lentes baratos. Hasta este momento había estado defendiendo a los Mexicanos puesto que conozco a muchos personalmente y son personas muy honestas. Pues, los que conozco son honestos y millones mas tambien, pero este hombre no lo fue. :) Unos de mis amiogs se quejaban que todo lo que hacían los Mexicanos en Tijuana era para estafar. Mientras sabia que no todos son así, ya no me caian bien todos. :) Yo le perdoné por haberme estafado, pero la próxima vez no confiaré tanto en personas que no conozco. Ya ni modo, a lo mejor el necesitaba el dinero mas que yo. No fue mucho.

Okay, back to English. After leaving Tijuana I don’t recall going anywhere else but back to where we were staying to watch a movie (Pirates of the Carribean). The next day, the 19th, we went to the San Diego LDS Temple and then drove to L.A. (well, near it anyway) where one of our friend’s sister and brother-in-law live. After eating at an In and Out Burger joint we dropped our stuff off and drove up into the mountains to go hiking. We were to hike to a waterfall and go swimming. Our friend’s sister was our guide. We somehow got off the trail though and our short hike turned into a really long hike. But don’t you fear. We didn’t get lost and eaten by bears or anything. We eventually made it to the waterfall and had a good time swimming. I need to scan these pictures in to post on here (I really need a digital camera). As it started to get dark we decided we better head back so we wouldn’t get lost again and freeze to death. We took the real trail back. We ended up being quite happy that we got off the trail on the way to the waterfall. The trail was boring and really quick. :-P

When we got back to the place we were to sleep we had a funny experience. One of my friends had bought a guitar in Tijuana. While we were hiking, the brother-in-law who stayed home decided to fill a plastic bag with powdered sugar and shove it in the guitar. So when my friend picked up the guitar to play it he noticed something inside after a few minutes. What the? Drugs! Or so everyone thought. Well, most everyone. From where I was standing I could see our friend mouthing to his brother-in-law “he fell for it”, laughing, and giving a thumbs up. It caused quite a stir and was really quite funny to watch. How did that much drugs get across the border through the scanning machines? etc. etc. etc. They eventually flushed it all down the toilet. I have no idea if anyone still believes it was really a bag full of drugs, I know the friend with the guitar doesn’t anymore. :) The next day I and two friends drove home while the rest stayed to go to a theme park. We called them half way home and asked how it was going. They’d been on two rides and were in line for another. We’re glad we didn’t stay.

Whew!

July: ULX 2004! ULX stands for Utah Lindy Exchange. A Lindy Exchange is basically a big huge swing dance that crazy swing dancers in big cities organize. People from all over the USA and world attend these things. An entire weekend of swing dancing! The dances usually go from 8 PM - 4 AM. It’s great. ULX 2005 is in January.

Also in July was our annual family reunion in the Uintah Mountains, Utah (Flaming Gorge is in the Uintahs). The actual family meeting part is boring, but we always go up a few days early to go fishing, raft the Green River, cliff jumping and sometimes water skiing on Flaming Gorge. Always a good time.

September: Started this blog! What? This shouldn’t be a highlight? Why are you reading then?!

December: Christmas concerts, skiing (was going to go again today, but other things got in the way), I learned how to tie my shoes the right way (!! you only think I’m kidding), and other fun stuff. The Phantom of the Opera movie was good, but I wouldn’t say it was a highlight and since this is supposed to be highlights I suggest you forget I said that. :)

That’s all for this year! I could have gone on and on, but I’ll be surprised if people read all of this already. :)

I’m looking forward to 2005! I wish you the best! See you next year!