Always a Believer

I entered into the classroom at the University of Utah's Bountiful extension last night like every other Tuesday night. That's where I have my State and Local government class. I really enjoy that class - my professor is very pleasant and she makes the subjects interesting.

Last night was different. My two younger sisters, Tawni and Brittany, had a voice concert at a library. I enjoy watching them and usually make time to see them, but I couldn't miss class. There was something else afoot, however. Something far away.

The Jazz started their eastern road trip last night against the most hyped team in the league, the Miami Heat. (I think it would be inaccurate to say the most feared team in the league.) It started at 5:30 p.m. MST, so as I waltzed into class the game was already underway. A quick check of the score before started brought no surprise to my eyes: the Jazz were trailing by double digits. ESPN's GameCast showed the Jazz getting handled early in the game, and I assumed the beating would continue. I turned my computer off and participated in a discussion on Health Policy.

My class is three hours long, so naturally my attention span wanes before the end. "Time to check out my Jazz," I eventually thought to myself. My boys in blue were still down by double digits. I casually checked the score over the next few minutes. Suddenly I found myself completely enveloped in the GameCast as the Heat's lead slowly diminished to single digits. When the game was tied with mere minutes left I had forgotten where I was. An actual video feed would have been nice, but I kinda liked the intensity of waiting for the next play to be broadcast.

Jazz up by two points. Minutes left. I wanted to believe they could pull it out, but after years of watching the Jazz give up leads, I just couldn't. My doubts became reality when the Heat easily regained the lead and took the game over. Cue the magic.

Ronnie Price: 3-pointer. Deron Williams: 3-pointer. But nothing compares to the performance of my long-time Jazz love, Paul Millsap. 3-pointer, 3-pointer, 3-pointer. When these plays popped up

on my screen I almost gasped loudly. Millsap? Really? Never have I seen him make a 3 in a game. At the Leapin' Leaners charity dinner every year, yes, but shooting around the ESA in dress clothes is different. That isn't a real game. In Miami. Against LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. With people in his grill. The best part was that he wasn't getting lucky. The ball graced only net on all three shots. He topped it off with a last second put back to force the game into overtime, totaling 11 points in 30 seconds. THE JAZZ WERE DOWN BY 8 WITH 30 SECONDS LEFT! Amazing.

Jazz clinched the win in overtime with help from Anrdre's trey and two deafening free throws by veteran Francisco Elson. A huge win by any standard, but it was that much sweeter against the Heat.

To all those sudden-Millsap fans out there, I want to say "shame on you." I have been a Millsap proponent since I first saw him play in Utah. All through the Boozer years I pleaded with Jerry (through mind bullets) to play Paul over Carlos. A consistent player, Paul has always impressed me with his game. I saw a scrambler in the post develop an outside shot that was smooth as lotion on a baby's bottom. Playing "backup" to Boozer, Millsap amazed me with his ability to play against the bigger man. (He's listed as 6'8'', but he's got to be shorter...6'6" maybe.) Always a love of mine, I am glad to see that Utah is finally appreciating Paul Millsap: the man who dethroned the king.

After the game I watched the video of Tawni and Britt singing at their recital. They did excellent, and they are so gorgeous.

Ragnar Revisited

My first experience with the Ragnar Relay was in June when I ran the Wasatch Back with 11 good friends. The whole idea seemed pretty stupid to me: run, don't sleep much, run again, don't sleep much again, run a third time, suffer the pains of sore legs and headaches. I couldn't quite get a grasp on what the draw to these relays was, but I (somewhat reluctantly) joined a team.

Well, you can read a blurb about that experience here. It was truly amazing, yet I wasn't quite satisfied with my performance.

Enter Kari and Genevieve: two good friends who also caught the Ragnar bug. They had a team who registered for the Ragnar Las Vegas Relay with a single vacancy and somehow decided to invite me to fill it. I blindly joined, not knowing any of the other 9 runners. I took the training only slightly more serious this time, consistently running about 4 times a week.

The week of the race came not soon enough. It was in the back of my mind for so long and, based on the extremely sore legs I had from the Wasatch Back, I couldn't wait for this race to be behind me. Our team, Baby Got Swack (don't ask) had a start time of 10 a.m. Being in Van 2, we left Farmington, Utah around 8 a.m. on Friday morning.

After a pleasant 7+ hour drive to Lake Mead, we went through safety training and anxiously waited at the exchange point for Runner #6. He finally came and we were officially a part of the race. As runner #11, I didn't run my first leg until about 7 that night. An easy 2.5 miles, slightly uphill the whole way. My second leg was 7.2 miles, mostly uphill and flat. It's so fun to run in the middle of the night (at this time it was between 2 and 4 a.m.). I love looking ahead of me to see hundreds of flashing lights bouncing up and down as runners span miles of desert. The weather was perfect – in the 50's or 60's with a gentle breeze. I was happy that my first two legs were run in the dark.

My third leg started around 1:45 p.m. on Saturday. The sun was high, the temperature was hot, and I had 4.8 miles ahead of me. I had two goals when I began this last run: 1. Pass as many people as you can; 2. Don't stop. I had stopped several times during the Wasatch Back and always regretted it, failing to push myself harder. Not this time. I ran at a steady pace, trying not to overexert my already worn leg muscles. "Downhill?" you think. Downhill isn't as easy as you think. My legs feel just as tired going downhill as going uphill, especially after miles of pounding the hard asphalt.

I finished my three legs without ever stopping. Mission accomplished. I was shooting for 7 minute miles for my last leg and ended up running 6.48 minute miles, so that was pleasing.

We finished in less than 29 hours, even after a half-hour mishap by the other van. We showered, hit the buffet at the Red Rock Hotel, and relaxed the rest of the night. It was a great experience, and I definitely have Ragnar fever. I'm looking for people to join me on my next Ragnar adventure, whenever it may be. Let me know if you're interested. You won't regret it.

Hot Days and Conference

Yesterday, October 1, 2010, was the hottest October day ever in the history of Utah. Not surprisingly my dad convinced Ben and I to go swimming with him in our doughboy pool to celebrate this feat. To seal its significance in history, Dad grabbed an empty pizza box and a marker to make a sign. Here is a photo of Ben and I modeling in front of the pool to commemorate this day:


Today, October 2, was another special day in my life. I came upon some conference tickets on Thursday for the Saturday AM session for General Conference. I, of course, decided to go on a triple man date with Nate and Shawn. I hadn't been to a session of Conference for a long time, so I was anxious to go and sit in the marvelous Conference Center. We sat on the far east side, looking almost completely sideways at the speakers. We were by the "red carpet" of the Conference Center where all the General Authorities enter.

I very much enjoyed the talks given in the first session, but I have to admit my mind was elsewhere. My mind was here:




My beautiful Portugal is soon going to have a temple! Tears came to my eyes when President Monson announced the construction of a temple in Lisbon, Portugal. I never imagined that I would see the building of a temple in my mission land so soon. I am so grateful to have served in Portugal and am so happy that those people will no longer have to travel to Spain or England to attend the temple.

The Lion King

Last night my little sister Tawni and I had the opportunity to go to Capitol Theatre in downtown SLC. The tickets landed in my lap through a friend who unfortunately (or fortunately, for us) couldn't go.



It was opening night and a full house. We had excellent seats, actually. The show stayed pretty true to the Disney cartoon. It included a few new songs, a couple of which I really enjoyed. Simba's "Endless Night" and "They Live in You" were great. I could almost quote the entire show because the writer's didn't change the script that much. Rafiki, to my surprise, was a woman. A sassy monkey woman. She was hilarious and a superb singer. Mufasa, Pumbaa, and Timon had voices that were very similar to the cartoon characters.

The symbolism in the show was neat and unique. The scenery was incredible along with the costumes. I wonder how they came up with everything the way they did.

Overall, the show was deluxe, and I'm so glad I was able to go. I'm also glad I could go with the prettiest girl in the whole theater: my little sister, Tawni. Heck, we even saw Kyle Korver there with some girl and she wasn't half as pretty as Tawni...

BCHM 2010

On July 17, I ran (and completed) my first half marathon. It was in Bryce Canyon, which is absolutely gorgeous. Those running the race were my dad, Brandon, Michelle, Kim (Michelle's sister) Tawni, and myself. Brittany, my cute little sister, was registered but pulled out due to a stress fracture on her right leg. So literally days before the race my dad, who had not planned on running at all, decided he would take her spot. I was so proud when he came across the line in awesome time.




We stayed in Fosters Motel, a quaint place that was so perfect for the occasion. (Did I mention that yiddle Ben joined us? He took video/photos at the finish line for us.)


Here's Britt with her monster Frankenstein boot. Dang stress fractures. Tawni finished in great time and actually took 2nd place overall in her age group!



Thanks to Brandon and Michelle for motivating us to run this fabulous race! I think it should be a Barrett summer tradition!

Long time coming...

A couple years ago I first heard about the Wasatch Back, put on by the relay racing company Ragnar. It sounded fun and tedious, and I was excited. My running hopes were trampled when I made Footloose at Rodger's Memorial Theatre. The rehearsals were very time consuming and in the end I had to withdraw from the race.



Last year I was also invited, but for some reason the race didn't sound as appealing. So I didn't do it.



This year, however, I was determined to do it. And I did. Finally.

I love the middle picture because I look dead...and that was during my first leg.

It was a blast. My van consisted of myself, Jessie, Mary, Emiliy, Spencer, and Ryan. We slept at the wrong exchange station on the ground and it was freezing! But ending in Park City with some free stuff and a massage made everything totally worth it.

Return to Reality

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post. Maybe if anything exciting ever happened I would write more. Life was just as I left it when I returned home from DC. Same bedroom, same clothes, same job, same school, same family, same car, and pretty much everything else. I had to wonder if the monotony would be disrupted.

Then change happened. On my second Sunday back the stake presidency announced the division and reorganization of the 32nd and 13th wards. This came as a pleasant surprise, because I was actually seriously considering changing wards anyway. It turned out that a small section of the 32nd ward was combined with the majority of the 13th ward to create the new and improved 32nd ward. Same bishopric - mostly different congregation. Of course it is sad to be apart from my ward friends. But DC taught me that meeting new people isn't such a bad thing. I met some phenomenal people back east and thought I should do the same here.

After missing more than half of the Jazz's season, I was so excited when my dad handed me some playoff tickets. Jazz vs. Lakers. (I love how everyone treats it as a rivalry, though it completely isn't.) I went with the younger version of myself. Ben is my 12 year old brother who is absolutely hilarious. We were super excited for the game and even wore the fuzzy Jazz-hair hats. Well, that excitement balloon burst before half time and we ended up leaving with 2 minutes left because the slaughter was too much for us to take.

ROAD TRIP:

A large group from my ward had plans to go to St. George to stay in some condos and enjoy the perfect weather. At the last minute I joined them for a mind-blowing weekend. We arrived Thursday night. Friday was chill-around-the-pool day. Saturday was go-on-a-terrifying-hike day. We decided to hike to Angel's Landing, one of the most popular (and most deadly) hikes in Zion National Park. It was a great hike. My already-bad knees were destroyed by the end, but it was worth it. As the hike ensued I kept thinking that we were the first group of people to ever hike to the top. I can't believe the park lets anyone do this! They have a chain - A CHAIN - for people to hold onto. No chain = 10+ seconds of thoughtful freefall until a splattering death. Children younger than my chest hair were going on this hike. It was insanity at its best. We ended the day with some Cafe Rio and an impromptu trip to Snow Canyon to see the stars. Southern Utah is one of the most beautiful places in the world. We also played some wicked Ninja Destruction.

Other than that, I'm back at the U this summer taking a full schedule. I have about 4 days of being 23 left. 24 doesn't sound half as great. I'm entering "weird guy" zone.