A New Year, A New Life

The subtitle of my blog mentions that there are 525,600 minutes in a year, and so today I was reflecting on the past 525,600 minutes of my life. Roughly a year ago, I got a text from my roommate saying he was moving. It was kinda sudden, and surprised me. We had planned on rooming together til the spring and that plan was the only real reason I had stayed in Provo at all. So during the Christmas holiday I suddenly found myself forced to reevaluate my living situation. What followed has changed my entire life. Strange sometimes to look back at our lives and realize what the catalysts were that led to such monumental growth and change.

I decided almost immediately that if he wasn't sticking around there really was no reason for me to either. I wasn't happy where I was, and hadn't been for a while, but it was easier to stick around with the friends I had than to try to start my life out new.

All that changed very quickly. So the day after Christmas I started looking for an apartment in Salt Lake, deciding that Provo was no longer the place for me. I looked around at several complexes trying to find an available lease that I could afford, but to no avail. After a few days of fruitless searching, I realized that another change needed to happen. I needed to take the leap of faith and just get out of my contract. Find someone to take it over and trust that the Lord would provide a place for me. I made arrangements to stay with my Grandma for the interim until I found a new place, and then kept looking. I made inquiries into single rooms available and the day that I moved into my Grandma's guest room I found the place I had been looking for.

It's really interesting to me to be able to trace all the change in my life back to that one single moment when a text message opened up a path for me that I hadn't even considered. I don't regret a single moment of the past year. The mistakes I have made have taught me important lessons, and the good has far outweighed the bad. Here's to 2008 and to a year well lived. May 2009 be just as wonderful.

Utah Drivers + Snow = Frustration

Since moving to Utah in 2004, I have been amazed at the complete lack of attention that drivers in this state pay to anything other than their own car. They will drive at precisely the same speed as the cars on both sides while traveling on I-15, and thus rather effectively block anyone wishing to go faster than 60 mph on that 65mph road. And then just to have a little fun with those of us that are already frustrated, they will spontaneously offer acts of kindness to others. i.e. letting someone into traffic that has been sitting on the side of the road trying to get in for more than 15 seconds. They will of course pay no attention to the 30 or so other cars that suddenly have to brake to allow for this kindness that would have been completely unnecessary in another 45 seconds. It's wonderful that people here are so kind, and I do not want to discourage kindness in general, but making 30 people behind you wait so you can feel fuzzy inside for a couple minutes is not kindness. It's the worst kind of rudeness.

Then there are the Utah drivers that feel it is their duty to keep all the rest of us in line. I have heard them discuss this. I am not making this up: They get into the far left passing lane (the one intended to allow for passing other cars) and then go no more than 65 or at the most 70mph. This is because, and I quote a conversation I overheard recently, "No one needs to go more than 70mph anyway." They deliberately prevent people from passing them while going no more than 5mph over the speed limit on the only major freeway in the state! Thank you, but if I want to drive fast, it is my choice to do so. It is NOT your right to allow or not allow such things unless you wear a badge and drive a squad car. If I get a ticket for doing so, that is a natural consequence. One I'm willing to risk in certain situations. And it is my right to make that choice.

But my absolute favorite are the drivers that pay so little attention to anything but themselves that they will pull out into traffic from a side street and expect everyone to brake and stop for them!!! How egotistical are you?? You getting where you need to go is more important than everyone else around you? What amazes me is that usually when this happens, there is a break in the traffic three cars back that if they had waited another 5 seconds to pull out, would have allowed them to enter traffic and not piss anyone off. But that wouldn't be any fun.

And now, to add even more fun to the mix, Utah has a climate that in the winter is anything but mild. Snow is a frequent reality here. There is a reason that the 2002 winter olympics were held here. So now, take what I've said already about the driving abilities of the state and throw in snow. It's incredible.

What is truly astonishing is that these people should be used to the snow!! You go to Denver in the winter and while it's not fun, at least people can get where they're going because they deal with it every winter! Here in Salt Lake, these people seem to forget between April and October what the other half of the year ought to have taught them. And when the snow flies, they completely freak out.

This morning I got into my car amid the gently falling snow, smiling to myself in my naivete as I looked at how pretty the fresh snow was. I then got behind the wheel and pulled out of my complex and onto the road. There was maybe a half inch of snow on the road. The tire tracks of the cars was enough to clear the road of what was there. And yet, the drivers in front of my were barely moving. It took me 45 minutes this morning to drive what usually takes 10. And there was no accident anywhere to give a reason for this slow crawl. They all just felt the need for tortoise speed. And let me tell you, if the hare had raced a tortoise from Utah - even with his naps - the hare would have won that race.