Tales from September

I miss blogging, but every time I sit down to write, I am reminded that:

a) I don't have much going on in my life beyond work.

b) If I write about some of the stuff that goes on at work, it might not be appreciated.

c) When I do have things going on besides work, I typically forget to bring my camera.

Here are some of the undocumented moments of my life as of late:

Stephanie came to visit. She spent about four days with me. We ate at this restaurant, and she got me to buy several wardrobe items that are too fashionable for me to have considered by myself. We had one of the most bizarre experiences I have ever had as a therapist, which Stephanie described in her blog. We also saw this group live in their only concert appearance of the year. For guys who are in their mid-thirties, and who, as far as I can tell, had to get regular jobs, they put on a pretty good show.

Following Stephanie's visit, I caught a mild cold, which forced me to take it easy for the rest of the week.

A week ago Saturday, Melanee and I completed the Top of Utah Marathon in Logan. I am not going to lie: there were times I thought I might die before I finished. To make a long story short, I was having some physical issues that were standing in the way of running the way I had trained. Also, we were very close to not having a place to stay the night before, but, thanks to some smooth-talking by my brother-in-law, everything turned out okay.

I just returned this afternoon from a visit to Atlanta, Georgia. While most of the week was devoted to professional development, I did manage to do some cool things:

• I spent some time with Tracy, Elliot, and Graham in Decatur. While with them, I visited the Cake Art store that Bakerella loves. I bought a lot of sprinkles. An embarrassing amount, really. Particularly when I add them to my already excessive collection. Something tells me I am going to have to do some more baking in the near future.
• I also visited this donut store, which I also found through Bakerella. I got a dozen. I ate many more than I should have.
• Tracy and I had burgers at this place, which was featured on Man V. Food. Don't judge it by the skull entrance. The burgers were great!
• I had lunch with some colleagues at this place, which rotated around for a panoramic view of Atlanta.

I booked a flight home this morning so that I could catch Sammie in her first Primary program. Before we got too far out of Atlanta, the gentleman next to me pressed the flight attendant call button, and informed the flight attendant that he was feeling very sick. I assumed that meant he was about to throw up on me. The flight attendant asked if something was wrong with his heart, but, by that time, he was unresponsive. I found myself standing up and moving to the first vacant seat I could find to make room for the oxygen tank and the medical doctor who happened to be sitting a few rows in front of me.

Fortunately, the man was okay. Unfortunately, they decided to land in Memphis anyway so that he could deplane. It took us an hour to get back in the air, which put me in Salt Lake too late to make it to Sammie's program. I'm told she did a great job.