Summer Wrap Up

In the course of the summer, there were a few highlights that probably should have merited an entire blog post, but didn't because I never sat down and turned them into one. But here were some of the ways in which I spent my summer vacation:

...my first-ever trip to the Stadium of Fire to see, among other things, Brad Paisley, David Archuleta, and the guy from the BYU Library/Old Spice Commercial...

...visiting the Salt Lake Japanese American Citizens' League's obon festival...

 ...eating sushi and gyoza unlike anything we get in a restaurant...

 ...going back to watch the taiko drummers...

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...and the dancers...

...visiting Shane's family in California and watching Lisee eat rice and noodles in Little Tokyo...

 ...taking Kevin and Sammie shopping in Park City...

...and watching them ride the merry-go-round...

 ...seeing outdoor movies and plays with the girls...



...growing a garden...

 ....periodically forgetting to pick the vegetables for long periods of time...

...and basking in the beauty of one lone sunflower.

All in all, not a bad summer.

And now for something completely different...

Three days after the Lea Salonga concert, I found myself in the BYU Broadcasting building watching the BYU/Texas football game with Melanee and George.

BYU, as some of you may know, declared their independence last year. However, this season marks the first season that will be affected by that change. Much like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy, just saying it is not enough. It meant that, while BYU's football team would no longer be bound by the constraints of a conference (specifically the Mountain West Conference) the rest of the sports had to be housed somewhere (specifically the West Coast Conference). It means that BYU is now responsible for scheduling its own season and finding teams willing to play during weeks of the year typically devoted to conference play, as well as some .

What does this have to do with my Saturday night? One of the major factors in BYU's decision to go independent has to do with their TV station. In their deal with the Mountain West Conference, the conference controlled BYU's football TV exposure, despite the fact that BYU has some incredible TV facilities. Now that they are independent, they have more freedom to show football on their own station. That said, the game was broadcast on ESPN. But we got there early to watch the pregame show live in the studio.

After the pregame show, we stayed to watch the game on a giant screen.

Here are some things that I observed about the game with a large group of fans in a small space:

• In the space of a stadium, you can't hear all of the things fans are shouting, like, "He's got all day to throw!" or, "Who were you passing to?" In a small theater, you can hear all of it.
• Regardless of what the small squad of cheerleaders who do not go on the road with the team and instead have to cheer at the pregame show say, I did not feel motivated to join in cheers, do the wave, or any of the other things that I would have done if I had actually been in the stadium.
• The vending machines in the broadcast building, while more moderately priced, had nothing on stadium food.

Also, the Cougars suffered a heartbreaking loss to a still-rebuilding Texas team, which would have been worse if I'd gone to Austin to see it.  Of course, I would have been in Austin, which is always a plus.