Delinquent

Hey everyone,
Sorry for not posting much. I guess lately I haven't felt much like blogging.

Anyway, I'm back in Provo now. The drive wasn't so bad this time. I listened to a book on CD, listened to the Wicked soundtrack for the first time, and rocked out to classic tunes from the 90s. The only thing that made the trip eventful was I was pulled over by a cop right outside of St. George, Utah.

I don't know how many people know the drive, but there is a period of time where you wind through a bunch of rocky cliffs (it's actually quite pretty)...well, at the windy part the speed limit is 55 miles per hour.

So, I slowed down through the windy part because years ago I got a ticket there (I took them at a regular speed and the officer did not approve of this choice).

Oh, and a little backhistory: I don't know if anyone else does this, but when I am on a long drive I usually pick a pacer car. This car is a car that is traveling at about the speed I like to go (usually a few mph faster than you're supposed to go but not fast enough to get a ticket).

Well, on this drive I had a pacer car...it was a BMW that sorta looked like a Rav4.

As we drove through the windy part where I got a ticket all those many years ago I slowed down (once bitten twice shy and all), but my pacer car friend kept going at the usual speed (oh, I remember when I was so young).

Needless to say, when I made it out of the windy mountains my pacer car was way ahead.

Now, I'm sorta sentimental, and I wanted my pacer car back (it's good to have one: if you're going too fast the radar usually dings the person you're following and they get the ticket).

So, I sped up to find my friend and continue our journey together.

Well, right as I speed up to catch up to the BMW I look to my left and see a police car. And since I was trying to catch up to someone who was going just slightly above the speed-limit I was of necessity going faster than someone just going slightly above the speed-limit.

When I passed the cop I immediately got into the right lane, got behind another car, and slowed down to a crawl (I'm sure my car looked like it was moping and repentant).I tried to make it look like I was just passing a slow driver. Well, the cop pulled out of his spot...and I got sorta nervous.

He stayed in the left lane for a while while and I stayed in the right, and I thought maybe he just coincidentally pulled out...but then he pulled into the right lane. His lights weren't on so I thought maybe I was in the clear.

I began to get my hopes up, but kept snailing it along to just be safe. I kept furtively looking over into the rear-view mirror watching the cop's lights, wondering if they'd turn on and declare my sentence.

After far longer than normal (maybe the policeman was contemplating whether to give me a ticket) his lights went on and he pulled me over.

He came up to the passenger side door and asked for all my info which I readily gave to him. He told me I was going a little fast and that there was construction up ahead so I really needed to slow done.

He asked me where I was heading. I told him I was making the drive from California to Provo. I looked at his CTR ring and I began to hope. Maybe he'd think I was a poor and pathetic student driving back to BYU (66 percent of that is true). He winced when I told him where I was driving from (obviously he knew how annoying that drive can be). He commiserated with me for a sec., took my license back to his car, and looked up my info.

I guess my record is pretty clean cause when he came back he didn't shoot at me or anything. He just gave me my license and said "Watch your speed."

I told him I would watch my speed, and I drove off feeling like a convict with a presidential pardon.

Sadly, I never found my pacer car again. I had to do the rest of the drive alone. I found a Mustang to drive along with for a while, but it just wasn't the same. Oh well.

So, anyway, now I'm back in Utah. In some ways it's good to be back, but in others I kinda wish I was still at home.

Here's just a sample as to why: on the drive to Utah I received a call at around 11PM and was told that the person who was supposed to teach in Elder's Quorum had moved out of the ward and that the person in charge of planning our lessons hadn't found a replacement....and since the person who didn't check into the matter was going to be out of town, and since it was a bit too late to ask anyone else to do it...it fell upon me to give the lesson. I skimmed the chapter once and then gave a lesson for 45 minutes. Realistically I never prepare much anyway, but it's the principle of the whole thing. Anyway, when I got that call I thought to myself "Yep, I'm back."

Well, that's where I'm at now. Back in Utah, and I really gotta get back into studying the GRE. I need to go to the dentist too (I was told I need to get an on-lay cause I grind my teeth at night really bad and I've cracked one of my molars along the biting surface).

funfact: when you grind your teeth during your sleep you can bite down with up to 8 times more than your regular bite strength (my dentist told me this, but I didn't clarify if this meant that you are 8 times stronger than your maximum waking bite strength (I would sorta like super strength while I sleep) or if he meant 8 times harder than you normally bite).

It was actually sorta funny, when I bit down he noticed that I have extremely overdeveloped muscles just below my temples and along my jaw. When he had me bite down he said "oh yeah, judging by that bite you definitely grind your teeth, a lot." But, he also noted that there isn't much wear on the biting surface so I probably clench rather than grind.

I guess I'm angry when I sleep or something. Maybe I just have a recurring dream that I'm a rock-grinder.

Well, that's about it. I hope you're all doing well. I'll try to post more regularly again.