the interesting thing about having no expectations is that you never cease to be surprised. sometimes it's fabulous, sometimes it's not, sometimes, it's just surprising.
my weekend in utah began with one of the more unexpected surprises i could have imagined…or rather, never in a million years would have imagined.
though almost missing my 2nd flight from phoenix to salt lake, thanks to a layover-nap that went a little too long, i made it on board as one of the last passengers. as i boarded, i heard my name, and though still a bit groggy, it seemed to be my former friend jesse standing up in his seat, on my plane. apparently it was not my grogginess or the sleepy dirt in my eyes. he was the real mccoy.
many of you will know what a shock this was, but for those who don’t quite understand, let me just say that the last time there was any communication between us, was the day my dog died. november 21st to be exact.
and seriously. what are the odds. never in my life have i 'bumped into' someone i knew on a plane. of all the airlines, all the days, all the times, and all the connecting flights, he had to be on mine...and though i never expected (nor had any desire) to see or speak to him again, here we were, on the same flight, and a conversation was unavoidable.
i didn’t quite know which conversation i wanted to have, the 'hey, let's pretend what happened didn't happen and just get through this' conversation, or the 'dude! what is your flippin' problem!?' conversation.
but when the seatbelt light went off, and he came back to talk, my emotions won the battle, and i said things that were hard to say, and i hope, harder to hear. unfortunately, the conversation didn’t yield much by way of closure, yet, at the same time, it was easy to remember what had been so good about our friendship. we talked through our...hmm...i don't know what to call it...issue? as best we could, but standing in the galley while drink service took place, wasn't exactly the most conducive place for resolution, so we moved on, and for the remainder of the flight, we got caught up on one another's lives. it’s been three months, and much has changed.
upon arriving in salt lake, we claimed our bags and headed our separate ways, but not before learning that we would be on the same flight back to phoenix on tuesday. surprise!
the rest of the weekend was no less interesting. i put the encounter out of my mind, picked up my rental car and headed to shannon’s, where we spent some time talking before i had to hop in the shower to meet corey and jill.
corey and jill had selected salt lake pizza and pasta…or pasta and pizza…i can’t remember. the food was tasty and the company excellent. being with corey and jill made me feel, in a way, like being home.
after dinner, i dragged corey and jill to my favorite bar on the planet. yes, you read that read that right.
back in my olympic days, there was this brand new bar i used to frequent with colleagues and friends. it was a dueling piano bar called the 'tavernacle'. it was a tiny space, yet tables were easy to come by. the beauty of discovering something ‘first’ i guess☺a lot has changed in the last 6 years. they have expanded, tables were nowhere to be had, and the crowd consisted of a lot more 21 year olds than before (though there were some oldies too). but what remained the same were the three rotating piano players playing requests all night long. one, two, three, four dollars or more to request a song, but you could just as easily stop it with $1 more over the request amount.
as we stood, we sang along and enjoyed the antics of the pianists, and i was grateful that jill and corey were willing to indulge me! truth be told, jill was singing all the way back to the car.sunday was my down day..slept in late, went to sacrament meeting, and spent the evening sunday with shannon. i had to be well rested for my monday after all!
monday was one doozy of a day. i met two new friends and spent time with two old ones.
lowell is as sweet in person as he is in cyberspace
i'm always a sucker for rob's hugs and kisses
i leave all my dates blithering shells of their former selves.but don't worry, jill will return to normal after a good night's rest.
a late breakfast with lowell (who after two years of reading my blog deserves a shout out), then to rob’s for an afternoon of talking, movie watching, and… on to dinner with russ—a new friend i met online, followed by a movie (juno) with my hottest date of all...jill. course she was a little less hot after crying through the end of the movie, but only a little;)
we both loved the movie, and since i've heard nothing but good things, that was a pleasant surprise. typically rave reviews from family and friends = high expectations, resulting in absolute let down. not so in this case!
after the movie, i followed jill back to casa burk, where i spent a little time with her and corey before calling it a night.
today was a mostly glorious sleep-filled day, though my cousin pam stopped by on her lunch break to give me all the deets on her new man.
then it was time to pack and go. i arrived at the airport in plenty of time, and was shortly joined by jesse, who entertained me while we waited for our flight.
when we arrived in phoenix, he treated me to dinner and dessert, while we killed our two hour layovers. if someone had told me that one day jesse and i would be having dinner together in phoenix, i might have suspected they were off their rocker. such is life!
all and all, i'd describe the trip as quite successful and FULL of surprises:)
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