The Trip Thus Far (text version)

It's late here. That, of course, means it's even later according to my internal, Michigan clock. Nevertheless, here I sit, The High Strung's "Raise the Bar" blaring in my ears, typing away.

It's been a good trip so far. The flight was fine. I was wedged between the window and a meaty teenager who smelled like b.o. He was texting his mop-headed friend who sat two rows ahead. Occasionally, after a really clever text, Mop-Head would turn around, bare his rat-like teeth and give his bro a thumbs up. Sigh. Fortunately, that was only for one leg of the trip. Overall, it was dandy.


(Sunset in Utah.)

Friday with Tony was great fun. He showed me around the 2 million dollar expansion of his facility and I watched him do some orientation with some new hires. Then, around noon, we took off and left work behind. We drove to Jordan Commons and watched a matinee of U2-3D. Yes, Virginia, it was awesome. It was in IMAX and 3D. The picture was actually almost too clear -- it was apparent how old Bono is getting (which, by extension, means I'm getting old too.) Anyway, I loved it.

Tony's kids are really cute and funny and smart so spending time with them was a real joy. Little Lucy pretty much had me in the palm of her fat, slobbery hand for the entire time I was there. She's a sweet kid for sure.



Saturday was the whole point (supposedly) of this trip: the AML conference at BYU. I met Scott Bronson, the playwright, Eric Samuelsen, the director, Stephen Carter, the screenwriter, and my newest favorite author, Angela Hallstrom. My good friend, Darlene, was there as well and, all in all, it was just a lot of cool people gathered together in one place.

My presentation went alright, I guess. Looking back, there were about two paragraphs that I should have left in for the sake of continuity. The paper sounded okay without them but I feel like they would have helped the whole thing make a little more sense. Ah well. Maybe next year?

The best part of the day was an informal conversation that started out in the hall after my session. Eric Samuelsen is a close personal friend of Richard Dutcher's and when he came across me, Darlene, Angela, Jack Harrell, and Robert Bird talking about Brigham City, he brought considerable insight to the discussion. It was fun, it was interesting, it was far too short. Tony came to pick me up and I had to go. Of course, I was happy to return to my place in the Lucy Fan Club but the next time I attend an AML event, I'll make sure to schedule in plenty of time to shmooze and socialize before, during, and after.

Sunday, Tony drove me up to Idaho and we spent a couple of hours driving around Rexburg, looking at how the site of our past had changed. Tony hadn't been to Rexburg in over four years so it was a lot more shocking for him than it was for me. I'd been there as recently as last July so it wasn't a big deal for me.


(Tony consumes a Slim Jim somewhere between Utah and Idaho.)

We walked around, he took pictures, and we laughed an awful lot. Hard.

Now I'm in Rigby and all is well. I've spent some time terrorizing my niece and various nephews. I was paid a very high compliment earlier today when nephew Kyle chose to play with me instead of watching a Thomas the Tank Engine movie. Apparently, that's the equivalent of a vampire giving up a chance to run free in a blood bank or Dick Cheney passing on a whole bank account of dirty Halliburton money. Choosing me over Thomas is a big compliment from Kyle.

Nephews Kameron and Hadley are awesome little men. Hadley's got places to be and things to do. He looks at me without much regard and then rolls off to some far corner of the floor to bop around his shiny soccer ball. He forgets that I'm his favorite uncle but I'm sure he'll remember before the end of the trip.


(Hadley: "Mark, I'm not impressed with you.)

This evening my dad and I went out to Olive Garden for dinner and to see There Will Be Blood at the Center Theater. I may write about the movie later. I'm still processing it at the moment. More than anything else, mine was a case of reading too much before seeing the movie. I knew everything that was going to happen, knew about the weird, discordant music, read a lot about Daniel Day-Lewis'es "hypnotizing" performance. Consequently, all the surprise and power the film was supposed to have -- well, it didn't really. Anyway, I may say more later. The important thing is that I got to go out with my dad. He and I have always had movies in common. I really like going to the theater to see films and he's always been a game companion. Even back when we didn't really speak or have anything to talk about, we'd still go to movies together once in a while. I'm really glad I got to do that with just him tonight.

Anyway, tomorrow I'll go out with Dan to lunch and then we're having a brothers' movie night in Pocatello in Jason's new home theater. Shifting from the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood to The Rundown starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It'll be sweet for sure.