Life Before and After Utah (written 4/18/23)

FINALLY, I have some time to sit down with my thoughts.  Life can get so busy, it's hard to carve out time to just think and introspect.  I have never in my life been able to write like this.  When I was in high school and college, I enjoyed creative writing and writing poetry.  But after college, I kinda had writer's block, and I didn't really write much because of it.  I think my poetry really stemmed from the painful move my family did my mid-Junior year in January 1993.  There is a reason that the best writers and artists out there have painful lives, I think it is a way for them to express their feelings.  And pain is a very strong feeling!  After my first year of college at UVSC (now UVU), I moved to Saint George, Utah for a change of scenery.  I spent the summer of 1995 there, and had a blast living on my own for a bit.  Working at Learn Key, and having roommates, and also making new friendships.  Since I had a scholarship at UVSC, I decided to return home in the fall.  Shortly after returning to college in Orem, Utah I found myself with Pearl Jam concert tickets.  The original concert was supposed to be at Wolf Mountain in Park City over the summer, but after we all got there a huge thunder and lightning storm blew into town, and it got rained out so they had to reschedule it.  The original guy friend that had gone with me to that concert was not returning my calls, so my dad said you should just stop calling him and ask someone else.  One of the rare occasions my dad actually gave me advice, now that I think about it.  So because I was still new to Utah, I had a very small friend group.  Also College age time is when some of them move away, and I was still living at home to save money while I went to college.  So I got to thinking, who should I invite?  Well, I remembered my ex-boyfriend telling me that one of the boys in my church congregation heard through mutual friends that he thought I was not very friendly.  In fact, I later found out that he had given me the nickname "Grumpy".  Well, there is a term now for it, but not then...I have what you would call "Resting Bitch Face". Combine Resting Bitch Face with being an introvert, and not having friends because I moved to Utah at age 17, then yes I do have to agree, I was not very friendly, LOL.

So knowing deep down, that I in fact was a nice person, if you get to know me...I decided to ask this young man to the Pearl Jam concert, out of the blue?!  We played phone tag for a couple days, then he left a note on my door.  (I believe this note still exists in our home to this day, just not exactly sure where it's at at the moment).  Well, we finally were able to talk on the phone and the date was October 13th, 1995.  I mentioned that I liked to do outdoorsy things, but later we realized that comment was not exactly the same thing that Mike was thinking.  I grew up in NH, surrounded by trees, lots and lots of trees.  My idea of outdoorsy things was riding my bike around the neighborhood, playing at the bridge/pond, taking walks around my neighborhood, just basically hanging out with the neighbor kids and playing for hours.  Him having been born and raised in Utah, outdoorsy means camping in the mountains (with bears and cougars), hiking (up really big hills with bears and cougars), boating, boy scouts, etc.  

Having only been in Utah for two years, and not having many friends to show me all that, our ideas of outdoorsy were very different.  After telling him I liked to go do outdoorsy things, he asked me if I'd like to go on a hike.  Now that I actually think about it, I think this is the first hike someone from Utah asked me on.  He picked me up in a really old silver Subaru, which funnily enough was less old than the Subaru I drive our family in now.  But ours has been babied and well cared for since we bought it in 2012.  The main thing I remember about this first hike/date is how loud the roof of his car cracked while driving over all the bumps and rocks on the dirt road to the hiking trail.  It was fall time, and so we didn't have a lot of time before the sun went down, so we hiked for maybe 30-45 minutes.  After that we were kinda hungry so we went to Wendy's.  If memory serves me, I got the baked potato and chili, which isn't something I normally get....I think he got a burger and fries.  I thought we actually had a good time, and we must have because we started to hang out a lot more!  The concert was scheduled for sometime in November.  Basically the rest is history, because we are still together and have 2 great kids, and 3 furry kids, a home in Lehi, Utah that we've lived in since Summer of 2007, shortly before Liam was born.  

To be continued....