I Swim for Brighter Days Despite the Absence of Sun

First, sorry folks, it's been awhile (emphasis on the 'h' just for spencer), but im back from outer space and i just walked in to see that sad look upon your face! So a lot has happened in this past summer I would say. Took a couple classes, spent half the summer in provo half in fremont, returned for the fall to realize that, once again, life is far more complicated than i had thought previously...
To start, this summer i took chemistry, "suck me sideways!" (more on this phrase later) and it was the worst thing ever. Let's remember that i already hate chemistry and am no good at it beyond the simple math part and finding moles and whatnot, but add too it the fact that my teacher was a COMPLETE TOOL!!! yea, wanna kno what i mean? go to askaninja.com and watch the "college tips" episode and fast forward about a minute and a half and watch, he'll talk about teachers and it perfectly describes my chem prof. Besides this class that i have to take again, summer wasnt too bad. I messed up my knee once again (those of you who ran with me in high school know my affinity for knee problems) bad enough to need physical therapy. This was pretty awesome tho since i got to see what i think i want to do someday in being a therapist (i say think cuz med school is still an option). I rehab-ed for about 6 weeks before i could run again then started playin intramural softball which was pretty fun.
The downside to this time is when Callie tore her ACL..... :( extreme disappointment. She had to have surgery on her right knee which put her down for most of the summer, however, i got to be boyfriend, maid, chouffer and chef while she was recovering and i think it was pretty sweet!
Eventually, i had to make that long drive back to CA after my class was done so that i could work for my mom and visit for a few weeks plus take the GRE (I did ok, probably gonna take it again plus maybe some MCAT action). It was cool working for my mom this time around because 1) i was workin with my best friend Kevin 2) Diane is ridiculous 3) Alan, our coordinator, is the freakin man. He's so the man we gave him the nickname Alan "All Man" Manalac and 4) I played some basketball every week. Staying out of other peoples drama was good too. And the phrase earlier (suck me sideways) started at work when me and Kev were assigned to pull indate orders and we would have bins full beyond the brim and it was a rough day and i got an order where it had like 5 bags out of one bin that was overflowing and i said it....and it stuck and was hilarious. This visit was about 6 or 7 weeks long in the which i went to Vegas for a weekend and talked to Callie almost everyday despite the potential of us not dating when i got back because of a thing that i wont mention. Well, turns out we did and are still dating! why she's into me? I will probably never kno but I wont complain ;P

Stand Up!

I couldnt figure out wut to say but i wanted to update this thing, but this song was playin so i grabbed the lyrics its sweet!
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We still don't understand thunder and lightning
Flash back to when we didn't fund the dam
Didn't fund the dam levee? No wonder man
Now our whole damn city's torn asunder man
Under water but we still don't understand
We see hurricane spills overrun the land
Through gaps you couldn't fill with a 100 tons of sand
No we still don't understand
We've seen planes in the windows of buildings crumbled in
We've seen flames send the chills through London
And we've sent planes to kill them and some of them were children
But still we crumbling the building
Underfunded but we still don't understand
Under God but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel like about the son of man
We will overcome

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on a cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system thats rotten through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
And we won't fight a war for fossil fuel
Its times like this that you want to plot a coup
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

Now shake, shake
A Polaroid dream
nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait for the government team
Criticize they but who the fuck are we
The people want peace but the leaders want war
Our neighbors don't speak, peek through the front door
House representatives preach "stay the course"
Time for a leap of faith
Once More

Put your hands up high if you haven't abandoned
Hope that the pen strokes stronger than the cannon
Balls to the wall, Nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave your mind blown
So Place your bets lets speak to the enemy
Don't let em pretend that we seek blood
And who's we anyways Kemo Sabe?
Mighty warlord wanna-be street thug
a threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
blow for blow never settles the score
word for word is time need clarify
We the people did not want war

So Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except By a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give then you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Unless were taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you

I said Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up

yea.....good old intellectual rap

You Know It Would Be Nice....

It's done!!!!!! School is out for summer and by that I mean for a week! Its all good but I am so done with the devil's class (ANATOMY)! I rocked the lab final and kinda bombed my lecture but luckily there is always a curve that will save me! The way it gets done tho is weird. See, as we go along and take quizzes all semester long (9 quizzes, midterm and final in lecture and 16 quizzes, midterm and final in lab) and we find out our grade on each plus the what the curve is. Usually I'm above but oh man was this final hard. Although, its been a good experience and I'm pretty much set for any anatomy class I take from here on out cuz they will just be review. PT school is going to be so easy! haha!

Use Somebody

Why does it take so long for me to update this thing? honestly, things are pretty crazy right now. Finals are coming up in the next couple weeks and its goin to be crazy!!! Actually, only 2 of them will and their for the same class. I've come to realize recently that my career choice was probably the right one (Physical Therapy), however, I could probably do med-school if I really wanted to and spend an extra 4years getting paid in food stamps while paying of $300,000 of student loans. Ha! I realized though that medical is definetely what is right for me. I freakin love anatomy! cadavers rock! I've held a brain (multiple actually) and a horse heart! its huge, like the size of a basketball or pretty much the average persons full thoracic cavity! (squeeze lungs in there if you can, plus a descending aorta and inferior vena cava) if my heart was that huge i would have never quit track thats for sure. Besides rockin the hardest anatomy undergrad class in the better half of the U.S. i really like helping people. honestly, anyone that reads this, ask me for something ill probably help, unless your looking for a loan i might be too broke for that lol!
These past few weeks I've some interesting experiences. Anthony moved out because he was trying too hard to sell his spring/summer contract and ended selling it this random kid that is not necessarily, "BYU approved" dont get me wrong though, he's a good kid deep down, but a little misguided and scared. I must that I've gotten to learn a lot about myself during this time. I really love having someone to talk to about everything in the world and this experience was no different. I got some perspective on it from Callie cuz i mean, why not? who wouldnt want to talk to that girl ;p As an apartment, we had to come to a decision however, and we did and I feel that it can be for the better and things are going to work out. Faith is great isn't it?
Besides boring stuff like that, I got to climb for the first time in about 8 months last week! It was awesome! I didn't climb well, but there's a lot of summer to come to be out getting a tan (yea right) and buffin up the guns! if anyone wants tickets let me kno! ;p The best part was when we saw the aftermath of a base jumper crashing into the northern opening of Rock Canyon! He is one of the very few that has a failed jump and gets to tell about it............check out the peak and rescue chopper...........

How to Shave Your Wife

its been quite some time i feel like since ive sat down givin some thought for some updates here. i just got back from spring break, which is a gift down here in 'happy valley' seeing as how at UVU we get 3 school days off and BYU gets none! we dont get the prestige but we do have more fun! so in this past week and a half or so ive taken 3 midterms, 4 quizzes and a test. yea, full load for a little vacation. but some interesting things have been goin on lately.......
i went back to the bay for spring break and it was great! i saw friends, did some fun stuff, didnt get shot and dublin BART for longboarding in the parking garage and i went to LA for one of the semifinal games of the World Baseball Classic which was pretty sweet! amongst all the fun i did give myself a lot of time to think about things that are important in my life. i realized over this break that i dont really miss home. now, dont misinterperet that statement, i love my family and friends and the area in which i was raised to the dapper young man that i am now, but i dont like living at home. so many things have changed since i 'moved out' of my parents house. the bay area is a great place but it is changing, whether it is good or bad i cant really say but if its changing enough to have my parents to consider leaving the home they bought where they expected to pass away in, well thats just not a good thing i feel.
sometimes we get hit by a ton of bricks. for instance, last week when i got picked up by my mom from the airport we get in the car start drivin and about half way home she asks where i plan on living like once im done with grad school and people start callin me doctor. it was wierd and i answered with i dunno anywhere i can, ideal would be san diego i guess. she replies with, well, your dad and i were talkin about movin to boulder, CO. WTF????? you never kno quite how to react to something like that cuz its a shocker! you kno, really id be cool with that in the end cuz boulder is a sweet town! any of my homies back at CU can tell you that for real. it was just strange to hear comin from my mom and dad who are as constant as the tide.
friends change. quite constantly actually. i love my friends back home like no other, but you kno, wer all growin up. figuring out lives for ourselves and gettin older and whatnot. but it is funny that we do the same stuff we used to do in high school except now wer 3 or 4 years older than back then.

so i went to LA with my fam last weekend and we drove. which was cool i drove part of the way which i liked. all good through the grapevine kinda i guess but things took an interesting turn. look, anyone that knows me these days knows how strong im gettin to be in the Gospel but i always feel strange bein at home since my family doesnt believe the same as me in the slightest but its cool wutever, jus kinda do my thing. BUT as we wer gettin into LA, conversation got wierd. some things came up about Bible times and the fall of Rome and development of the Catholic church to the church of england and so on and so forth til we find ourselves talking about the Latter-day Saint involvement in prop 8. i really didnt wanna get into it but you kno i defended the Church's position but i also gave my insight that i had thought at the time. i do kinda feel like prop 8 in general was kinda off from a 'America is the epitomy of freedom' standpoint and not a religious one. i do kinda feel like a better alternative that would have caused way less fighting would have been to change the CA law to allow domestic partnerships similar freedoms as married couples without calling it marriage still. since marriage is a religious ordinance if you will. way less controversy had CA done that i feel like. but anyway, my dad gets into this thing that churches have great political power. which in some ways is true. cardinals or bishops in the catholic church can shmooze the pope for more power, however, that doesnt work for the LDS church since being an Apostle or holding a calling is in itself a calling from God. he then begins to argue with prop 8 and how involved members were in it that werent even from CA and blah blah blah and how most members are sheep and follow blindly and yea and so on. how can i really defend that, hes kind of right. there are alot of members that do follow blindly. we do need to follow the counsel of the prophet be are also encouraged to feel it to be true for ourselves and act in the way each of us, individually should act. we all have agency. basically, it went down hill from there and i was done with it. but it was really upsetting to find out that my dad really does have a problem with the Church. it sucks..............

MFEO Pt. 1 & 2 Made For Each Other/You Can Breathe

What a week huh? yea, this is the first time i've really had a tough time at "midterms" BTW, i like that teachers have created a big test to give us in the middle of the semester when really they can just give us 3 or 4 smaller tests during the semester and a final to seal the deal you know? i only mention this because for the first time in the college days that i have that i can actually speak of proudly this is the first time ive had legitimate midterms. i have 2 anatomy midterms (1 for lab and 1 for lecture), a math test (not a midterm but still tough) and a stats midterm! why is school so hard?
so on to real stuff....
yea school is great but i really like Sundays. i've made it a point or a valiant attempt to refrain from doing schoolwork on Sundays. for me it's an effort to trust God that if i keep His day as Holy as i can that He will bless me for doing so. now, of course im not perfect and neither is anyone else (if you think you are, well, take a step back and look in the mirror, honestly...) so every once in a while i fail to do so, but its usually my own fault. i let myself get preoccupied with this and that or just plain feel lazy. it happens, so what? learn from it and move on right? thats kind of the thinking ive began to use and realize is that there is no need to dwell on mistakes youve made that are behind. learn, grow, recognize, dont let it become a habit and keep on keepin on! (thats a little redneck sayin for ya) i feel like one of the counselors in my bishopric always says it best, he always has the attitude of "Onward Christian Soldiers!" and everytime i see him or ask about something he always finds a way to finish with that and that is totally the outlook i wish i had. the "dont worry about it, keep goin, youre doin fine" attitude. speaking of "churchy opportunities" i got to go to the Draper Temple open house this past week with callie. it was so amazing! to just be able to walk through the Lord's house and see it and feel the Spirit of peace that resides there. if you havent done it, do it! even if your not mormon. its awesome! well, folks i feel like i have more to say but i guess i dont, this one took on a different topic than i was expecting to say but oh well still good i think......

Working Class Hero

today was/is sunday. coming to an end and since a certain someone isn't back from the airport, guess i'll throw down some ideals for you peeps out there that might read this....here goes!

Since its the first sunday of the month, it is fast sunday for the LDS community/church/culture/etc. andi had a tough time makin it through today. i find it interesting that at least every month i fast, but i don't necessarily always have a particular reason to fast except that i donate an offering that goes to the Church welfare/homeless help/Bishop's storehouse/etc. (i dont totally know where it goes it helps someone that needs it). See, one could fast to Heavenly Father for answers to difficult questions in one's life at that time or fast about understanding from a particular experience or ask for guidance or for help through a trial one might be going through at that time as well. however, for me, i dont know if this is good or bad, but i dont always have a particular need from Heavenly Father. i hope that doesnt mean that im stagnant in my eternal progression or anything like that but i feel like sometimes i just like to let God know that i (me) have things that i want to offer Him and my fellow brothers and sisters with nothing in return but a good feeling that i helped someone that day, that one or two got to have meals because i gave up mine and donated. now, dont get me wrong, i struggle to get that full 24hrs. of fasting in and sometimes it ends up only being 15 or 20 hrs. because i might have had a late dinner or realized too late that that midnight snack isnt good and this is something im trying to work on, but honestly, i dunno what else im really gonna that will be relavant to this post so i guess ill leave it here. and seriously, if you do have tough decisions to make or have a really hard trial to get through, PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! remember that you can ALWAYS turn to our Father in Heaven. He will always guide you to where you need to be and help you through that difficult time. i know, i've been there and ill probably be there again soon. ;P trust in Him, im learning to, its tough but if it was easy, everyone can do it!