PAIN TRAIN

about a year and a half ago i was playing football at the provo high fields. just me and some friends playing touch football on a saturday morning. it used to be a regular thing and my main source of exercise. on this particular occasion we decided to try tackle for a bit. all the girls had left and everyone was feeling extra manly. so we started tackling each other and everything was going great until peter (250 lbs) tackled his own teammate caleb (170 lbs) and put a knee in his spine. caleb sat out for the next couple plays...


minutes later my team was down field and our qb hiked the ball. i ran about 20 yards and looked back just in time to catch the ball. i broke a tackle and was in the clear to the end zone. about 20 yards away from the end zone, joe (130 lbs) comes sprinting up to me and leaps for my legs. i (200 lbs (at the time...)) tried to jump out of the way and joe managed to only clip my feet just a couple yards from the end zone. i flew through the air for about 10 feet and landed on my right shoulder and slid for another 10 feet (it was really muddy). of course, my shoulder was all screwed up and, of course, i kept playing. that night it took me about 30 minutes to get my shirt off so i could shower (yes, i spent the entire afternoon sitting in the chair-of-death trying to get up--the lever thingy is on the right side). then i took a single ibuprofen and went to bed.


the next day i found even the simplest tasks to be challenging. everything from tying my shoes to driving my manual transmission car (the hardest part was setting the emergency brake) was painful to say the least. i couldnt raise my arm without the assistance of my other arm.


well, on tuesday i gave it another go as i leaned left into a turn on my motorcycle and hit a patch of loose gravel...


on the plus side, i got my first day off work in about a month. and for those of you wondering why i didnt post this sooner, i really didnt want to do this whole post with one hand.

LET'S GET PISSED

yesterday i had a great ride out to mona, utah. dont worry, i turned around and came straight back. this trip showed me that my bike is still awesome. really awesome. perhaps even too awesome. i honestly have doubts that i could actually hold on to the bike if i where to let it go as fast as it seems to want to (the speedometer goes up to 140 mph; which is about where i think it would red-line).

later that evening i was showing off my bike to my roommates and friends who hadnt seen it yet. of course they had only good things to say about it (even tho one of them was too scared to actually sit on it).

yet, amid my feelings of ecstasy, i did feel kinda... bipolar. during this session of show and tell i received some interesting information. a girl that i used to work with (and apparently loves motorcycles) recently became engaged. and of course the sentence following indicated that she was "soo attracted to you." which sucks because feelings turned out to be mutual... it was a "i like her, but i dont think she likes me, so i wont show any interest for fear of embarrassment and a potentially awkward work environment" sort of thing. so i never had the balls to ask her out.

i realize that this sort of thing happens to everyone, and getting the timing of relationships down is part of what makes dating so hard. but how many times is this exact situation (i find out after the girl i am interested in is engaged to someone else, that she was actually interested in me) going to replay itself? i mean, come on! is this something that girls do on purpose? once they finally seal the deal they run around to all the guys that had a chance and rub it in their faces? is it out of bitterness that the guys never asked them out?

i guess in all fairness, they are never the ones to tell me that they are engaged (or interested). it is usually a good-intentioned friend or family member oblivious to the situation (one girl's new mother-in-law told me AT THE RECEPTION "dont feel bad; if you hadnt been on a mission, she would have married you"). and i dont really blame them. it is just easier to play the victim and turn my frustrations into bitterness.

at least my motorcycle still loves me...

TO THE WIND

that is where i threw caution this afternoon as i rode off the kawasaki dealership on my brand new mean streak. ok, maybe i didnt throw it. it was peeled off my person by 90 mph winds on the freeway. seriously, this is an awesome bike. it handles like a dream, stops on a dime, and absorbs the shock of riding over boulders. it even has a clock!

MEAN STREAK

i know i implied that i was thinking about getting a new car. but i have recently been talking to moydie and what with the vegas trip coming up, i am now thinking of upgrading my current motorcycle. ya know, for the trip and such.

so i guess what im saying is i am now torn between the yamaha warrior

and the kawasaki mean streak