Sad News at My Office

Today and the next few weeks are going to be very somber in my office. My boss and director, Matt Smith, passed away unexpectedly this morning.

This is how I will always remember Matt.

I walked into the office around 8:15 am and saw Forrest and Scott (two of my previous bosses; Forrest is the Assistant Vice President over all of HRS) in our reception area talking to Marie. Forrest said he had some bad news. I was thinking I was busted for showing up late, so I was stunned when he shared the news. Apparently, Matt had sleep apnea, the kind where the brain stops telling you to breathe, and he had some heart issues; it was the heart issue that caused his death this morning. 

Matt, and his wife, just returned a year ago from serving as a mission president in Tahiti, and his youngest daughter is due to serve a mission to Japan this coming September.

It's just so shocking. I met with him just yesterday about the computer changes we're about to do in the department. He was so wonderful. He went to bat for me many times, gave me great insights to my work, allowed me to work autonomously, and was just a hoot to work with because of all the fun jokes he would play.

The best joke he played on me and Collette was just a few weeks ago. Whenever he'd go to Forrest's directors' meeting, he'd take notes, scan them and email them to me and Collette so we could see what was happening in the rest of HRS since we are quite isolated in HRD. In this particular meeting, they talked about raises for the full-time employees in HRS. Well, he wrote in his notes that he donated our raises (meaning mine and Collette's) to the other directors to give to other employees in the division. Both Collette and I emailed him accusing him of writing that in his notes just to see if we actually read his notes, but he stood by his joke and said that's what he thought we wanted him to do. Collette, not knowing him as well as I did, believed him at that point and was pretty upset. But I still wasn't going to believe him. I went into his office and told him I wanted to see the whites of his eyes when he told me that he gave away my raise. He still tried to hold onto his cover, but his laughing eyes gave him away and he gave way to actual laughing. It was a pretty good joke.

I'll miss him - even if I only worked closely with him for a year. (Before him, we didn't have a director because the previous director left during the hiring freeze so we couldn't replace her, but since we were close enough to Matt returning from his mission, we left the position open for him to return to.)

Four and a Half Years of Piano Lessons

I received some bittersweet news from my piano teacher, Deanne, at my last lesson: that it was going to be my last lesson with her because she was turning in her papers to serve a mission. Her husband passed away suddenly at the beginning of April earlier this year and she has been struggling to keep busy enough to distract her from her sadness so she decided to turn in her mission papers. I will miss her greatly! I've been taking piano lessons from her for four and a half years! She was so fun - always asking about my love life, offering to set me up, always telling me to be more expressive, keep my fingers curled, elbows in, shoulders down, and start slow. Now to see if I can keep her hard work (and mine I suppose) in practice. Bon voyage!

Conquering & Relaxing

I conquered a Utah Valley must-ride classic today: the Alpine Loop. It is a paved road that goes up and behind Mount Timpanogos. Kendra and I started at her house in Orem and went out toward the freeway then directly north through Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills, climbed up the American Fork side of the loop, descended down the Sundance side of the loop, and finished the ride down the Provo River Trail. The ride ended up being 45 miles, over 4,200 feet of elevation gain, and took us almost four hours to complete. Definitely the hardest road ride I've ever done . . . so far. I'm proud to say that I did it! I conquered it. I'd probably do it again. Here is a pic of me at the summit.

That evening I relaxed by going fishing at Payson Lakes with my friend, Deb. We didn't have any luck. We caught a lot of sticks and snags, but we had a yummy deli picnic dinner! I was ravenous from my long ride, so it all tasted so good to me. After a while I gave up on the fishing and ate some of my German chocolate cake and laid on the bricks and just enjoyed the beauty of the great outdoors. When life doesn't give you any fish, I suggest eating a German chocolate cake! :) 

A Hike & Block Party

Last night, I went for a little hike with Lindsey and Rob to Upper Falls in Provo Canyon. I'd always wanted to hike to the falls and see it because I've ridden along the Provo River Trail and have never seen the water cross the trail that comes from the falls. We found out that the water goes underground! Immediately after tumbling over the falls. Crazy. We had to cross a bridge over the Provo River to start the hike and it had a chain link fence and gate around it with a little hole that we squeezed through. But Lindsey had a tough time squeezing through because she is seven months pregnant! Apparently, their baby, Charlotte, kicks quite a bit, but after the squeeze she quit kicking for a while so Rob was pretty distressed. But Lindsey says she tends to quit kicking when Lindsey is active anyways. Just to be sure, I checked in with Lindsey today to find out if Charlotte survived the squeeze and started kicking again, and she did! Yay!

Then I joined Janie and Carrie for their neighborhood block party "Cul-de-sac of Fire" fireworks party. Holy Frijole. There were a ton of people there, lots of good treats, way too many errant flying flowers (fireworks) that went onto house-rooftops, into vacant dry fields, and in spectators' seats - all of which were chased after with hoses due to the high fire risk we have right now. And there were many big-air, and I think illegal, fireworks that seemed way too close. But! It was super fun. 

Mundane Monday: Tale of Two Fridges

Teri and I just love the stark difference in our fridges. Meet Teri's Tetris fridge:

And my cooler: 

Ha ha! I know. This is a repeat post, but Teri and I still talk about it frequently whenever we are at each other's homes. 

Wildfires Galore

We've had several wildfires burning here in Utah over the last week or two. It's been so sad! Many homes and cabins have burned. At least one person has died - that I've heard about. Thankfully, none of the fires have been near me, but they've been close enough to rain ash down on my home and work and fill Utah Valley with smoke for most of the week. It's tragic to me that so many fires have already occurred this year when we haven't even reached our hottest and driest months yet. And many more fires have taken place outside of Utah - like in Pocatello, Idaho where dozens of homes have burned and in Colorado Springs, Colorado where hundreds of homes have burned. I just keep thinking of the people who have mortgages to pay for those homes that no longer exist - will their homeowner's insurance cover that? Or would their insurance not cover it since maybe their home was built near foothills where wildfire was a possibility? I don't know, but I feel for them.

I also keep wondering if the Lord is getting started early on his promise to burn the Earth in preparation for the Millennium. At the very least, this is surely a calamity spoken of in the scriptures in reference to the Signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Smoke in the air over my town/neighborhood.

My Race, Car, Grades, & Weekend

I have a lot to cover in this post!

First, I had a race at Sherwood Hills Resort in Sardine Canyon outside of Logan today. Teri and Kelly pre-rode the course with me Friday night and then they grilled up some yummy hamburgers for dinner. My race began at 9:00 am but it was already so hot! I felt sorry for my teammates that had to race later in the day (since the race organizers split up the race start times based on ability). I took third place, but the more exciting thing about this race for me is that I shaved 10 minutes off of my race time from when I last did this race two years ago. That's huge! It took me 55 minutes two years ago, and only 45 minutes this year. It was pretty awesome. And the other fun coincidence about this race is that just a week before my seat-pack broke so I was looking at buying another one on my way up to Logan but couldn't hack the price so I'd thought I'd try just taping my spare tube to my seat post and carrying all my other emergency supplies in my jersey pocket. Well, the prize for third place was a new seat pack! How providential is that?!  Apparently there was some sad news about this race after I left - another racer (no one I know) had a horrific crash and really messed up his neck to the point where racers behind him had to do CPR to revive him and he was life-flighted out of there. Sad, huh?

Second, my dear Lola, my 2000 Honda Accord, made a milestone today. She turned over 200,000 miles!! To celebrate I took her to Super Sonic Car Wash for a full-service spa day (car wash). Here's to many more miles and years of good service! 

Third, grades. I rocked my spring term class with another A. This was my Legal Issues in Public Administration class where we basically read a ton of legal cases and then talked about them. Our entire grade was based on three things: a multiple choice mid-term exam, an essay final exam, and class participation but that only counted for 5% of our grade so the bulk of our grade was on the two exams. Ugh. They were tough! I got a 76% on the midterm, but with the curve it ended up being an A- and on the A side of the A-, not the B+ side. So I knew I had to do really well on the final if I was going to keep my 4.0 GPA and get a A in the class. I dedicated eight hours of work on my final exam essay, and it paid off!! I got a 95% on it and got an A in the class. Woo hoo! Only one more year of grad school and only one more year to see if I can keep this 4.0 GPA!! :)

Lastly, I had a fabulous Saturday evening with some great girlfriends. Janie, Patti, Carrie and I went to dinner at the Foundry Grill up at Sundance. I was still in the mood to celebrate my car's milestone so I ordered a yummy and fairly-pricey cod dish, and then ice cream. Then Janie, Carrie, and I met up with Lindsey and Rob to watch the Robert Redford movie, All the President's Men, since this year marks 40 years since the Watergate Scandal. The movie was about the two Washington Post reporters that uncovered the scandal. I had a little trouble following it, but I still enjoyed it since I learned a little about the scandal. I love how Sundance holds these complimentary screenings of Robert Redford movies!

Carrie, Patti, Janie, and me