Blog Challenge: Day 3

Well, my "Faithful 5", this past weekend has been crazy! I've been either not feeling so great, running other errands, out with friends, or helping my friend finish recording some music for his album (look for Drew Reese on iTunes! You can find him on Twitter @drewreese, or on Facebook under Drew Reese-Music. Look for his newest album, "Redemption" on iTunes on Feb.8). Since I've flaked out right off the bat on this, I'm going to make up for lost days by posting three days at once! Well, not all in the same sitting, but you get the idea. Ready for a mind blowing read? Here it goes...

Day 3: A picture of you and your friends. *


     *I don't have as many pictures of my friends and myself as I should, so I'm picking the few that I think are best suited for the job!

*Sigh* Sam, Grant and Michele... These people are the greatest! I've known Grant pretty much since the day I moved into his neighborhood. Michele and I met at the tail end of our 8th grade year in school, and we've been great friends ever since. I met Sam that summer through Michele. Up until our graduation, we did just about everything together. For instance, we had a bunch of pictures taken one weekend at Kiddie Kandids, and this is one of them.

I see Michele and her husband all the time now, but I haven't seen Grant or Sam in a few years. It would be a lot of fun to "get the band back together" for a weekend. I really miss them all!

Rachel. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel...  :-) Enter the Snow College Year. We all know that I'm the best, most accomplished cellist in the area, but man, Rachel gave me a run for my money! All joking aside, she's a great friend! I think the best part of having Rachel down at Snow with me was the fact that if one of us couldn't readily find the other just walking around campus, chances were that we were in a practice room or studying in the music building.

We never really broke any laws, but we got close to being kicked out of school a couple times! (The trick is NOT being caught.) There was the Denny's Run where we piled 8 people in a coupe that barely fits 4. One night, we drove an hour into South to the nearest Denny's for late dinner/early breakfast in an expired car with one working headlight, no dashboard lights, no horn, a door that didn't shut all the way, two working seat belts, transmission that pops out of gear, and 8 people piled in. That night when we got back to school, we all played Hide-And-Seek and Sardines in the Concert Hall, all the while evading the campus security guards. We never actually got caught, but the campus newspaper wrote an article about how the security cameras saw "10 faceless people playing children's games in the music building" in the middle of the night. I figure it's safe to write about that since it was 4 years ago, and there wasn't anything said about it after it was posted in the paper. Shortly after that incident, we had our musical semester juries coming up. The month leading up to our juries, every practice room was occupied for all hours of the night by us students practicing and praying that we would pass. Well, Rachel and I decided to get creative since neither of us were ever able to actually snag a room of our own. One day after class, we propped the door open to the Concert Hall. That night we got to the building and just used the stage to practice our music on. Luckily, we were both playing one of the same pieces, so it worked out really well. After the building closed for the night, we came out of the Concert Hall and called the rest of our friends to come study and practice with us in the main lobby. We were easily up until 4 that morning practicing. Our juries were at 7...

Let's see... Erin (with my arm around her), Grant (over my right shoulder), and Christina (behind us. I'll have another of her later.)

I had just come back for the weekend from working in St. George for Erin's farewell in this one. It was great to be back because I was bombarded by all my friends at once! I've never felt so popular! Haha  Erin is Grant's sister, so that's how I know her. When we first met, we actually hated each other! I would get a ride home from school from Erin occasionally, and it was just awkwardly silent the whole ride. Out of nowhere though one summer, we became good friends. It must have just been because I'm so attractive...

Gah, Christina! You closed your eyes! Well, I've known Mark forever. I've known Christina and Kayla since the day I moved in here. Wow, Mark is darker than Christina here. The whitey is darker than the Samoan? Hmmm...

There really isn't any fantastic story behind this one or for these friends. They're just great people, and I'm really happy they're my friends. I mean, we've all been together for years, and that should count for something right? Kayla crushed on me hard, Mark crushed on Kayla really hard, Christina was Switzerland in all of this. She was our neutral power. (But I secretly have a huge crush on her anyway.)

The St. George Crew! These guys were the greatest! Besides the past 2 1/2 years, my time in St. George was the best time of my life! It was awesome, because 90% of the time, I was the only guy there at the site with a bunch of girls. Seriously, these girls are tough! I saw one girl get attacked by fire ants, sand wasps, a scorpion, and still work like nothing happened for the rest of the day. CRAZY! Okay, so the reason I was down there is because I was helping a good friend of mine with his company. He owns an archaeological consulting company, and he needed help with an excavation. Since I've had experience digging, he asked if I would be interested in taking the job down there for the year to excavate the Sand Hollow Resort. I learned a lot, did a lot of things I thought I'd never do, did things I'll never do again, ate some things I'd rather never eat again, saw some amazing things, and made fantastic friends! St. George Crew, I love you all! (Including the dudes.)

I snagged this picture from my friend Amanda. We met up with Drew one night for dinner at The Bayou in Salt Lake. Amanda is fantastic! She's very grounded, smart, witty, and fun to have around. She's one of the lucky few who get to be around me all the time! People would kill to fill her shoes...

Drew, why do you make it so hard to find pictures of you? I've known Drew for a few years. He's been a great friend, and he's always willing to get together for lunch whenever we need a break from life. Drew is a Pastor, Worship Leader, and is very accomplished. He just finished another album (his 4th, I believe) this week, to be released next week! He's a very talented musician, who sings and plays piano very well. He just started a non-profit ministry organization called Warrior Worship, to help benefit soldiers dealing with, and the families of those soldiers dealing with PTSD, to help those deployed to have access to religious material, and to be an active support group to those soldiers and their families if needed. This thoughtlessness is what started our friendship. Being a veteran himself, his drive and love for his fellow soldiers and veterans is easily seen. He's a great person, caring, loving, incredibly sarcastic, funny, witty, and the best friend anyone could ask for.

My whole family! Well, on my Mom's side... These are the best friends I have. They've never failed to be there when I need them. I know, it's the cliché, sappy answer to anything with family, but it's true. They drive me absolutely crazy, but I love them!