Whirlwind Trip to Utah

Here is a recap of my trip to Utah:

Thursday 18 October: I was up packing until 1:30 in the a.m., so I didn’t get much sleep. I left for the airport around 7:00. It was raining hard when I left but mostly cleared up by the time I passed the downtown area on the freeway. I decided not to bother anybody with dropping me off and picking me up from the airport so I decided to use the economy parking - $6 per day. It was worth it. Security was short and I was able to have a nice hot breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast at O’Charley’s. It wasn’t that bad.

The flight from to Nashville to Dallas/Ft. Worth was all right. It wasn’t great but I did get in some valuable reading time: a short story collection by Brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa and a book on Joseph Smith called Rough Stone Rolling. When Aimee and I flew back from Portugal in August 2004 we flew threw DFW but it did not have the new Skylink people mover system, which was built in the spring of 2005. It was really cool. I was very impressed with the airport on the whole. Although my layovers were short, they were enjoyable experiences. On the flight to Salt Lake, I sat next to Sean Stevenson, an infantry soldier who was on two-week leave from Iraq. He is currently stationed at Camp Bucca babysitting prisoners.

Any way, Aimee and the kids picked me up. There was a bit of confusion since I made the mistake of standing in the “drop off” area instead of the “arrivals” area. We stopped by my parents’ place in Kearns and we ended up going out to Chili’s for dinner. I can’ really remember what we did that evening when we arrived to the Sanders homestead in Provo.

Friday 19 October: That morning Aimee and I made omelets for everybody. That afternoon we took a trip to BYU campus to see a few of my professors. It was fun for me but I don’t know how much fun it could’ve possibly been for the kids. That evening we drove the kids up to my parents’ house to spend the night. Aimee and I drove down to IKEA to check things out. This was Aimee’s third trip to IKEA in as many weeks. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in the best of moods and the trip wasn’t as cool as it could’ve been. We had driven Anita’s car up to Kearns, which Aimee drove back down to Provo, and I drove my mom’s car so that Anita could have her car on Saturday. When we got back into Provo we went over to Carraba’s for a delicious dinner. In a rather spontaneous move we took some yummy desert over to Michael and Tiffany’s. It was good fun but I was beat. I still have “Mesopotamians” by They Might Be Giants running through my head. Thanks a lot Tiffany. When we got home I attempted to watch M. Night Shamalamadingdong’s Lady in the Water but I probably only lasted five minutes.

Saturday 20 October: The next morning I let Aimee sleep in as long as she wanted since the kids weren’t there to bug her. I watched the movie from the night before. It wasn't amazing but I can certainly think of worse ways to spend a lazy Saturday morning. I finally cracked and woke Aimee up.

Saturday was a big day since the Asherites were getting together for a little family reunion. Let me just put it this way: everything we had planned occurred, just not in the way we had imagined. The idea was to have a small acoustic concert in the living room of my parents’ house for close friends and family. Initially, Richard (the drummer) was going to come up from St. George but then he decided not to. Also, Kevin (the bass player) was going to bring over his PA equipment and we toyed with the idea of getting a soundboard recording of the show. But he ended up having to attend a dinner party with his wife, and although the two of them came over later, they missed the performance. In the end, Ben, Doug and I just sat on chairs in a semi-circle and we played for about a dozen members of our family. It was a lot of fun and it turned out really well. We filmed the performance but since Aimee now has the camcorder I won’t be able to edit it until Thanksgiving. Ben, Doug and I also had a male bonding moment before the show by eating steaks at Texas Roadhouse. Great stuff. Mmmm…I could go for a steak right now. We also celebrated Andy’s birthday, which was the following Tuesday, and everybody had some cake and snacks while they watched the show. I could also go for some cake right now, too.

My memory may be a bit fuzzy but I think the set list was the following: 1 x 1; Own Thing; Something New; Psalm 65; Puerto la Rosa (w/ Scott on vocals); Slow Dancing (U2 cover); Alone; Taking its Toll; To the Face of the Sun. As an encore, I played Song of Susannah. Everything turned out much better than I had expected especially since Doug and I only had time to run through everything once and we only went through three or four songs with Ben before the show. You have to remember, we haven’t played together for over two and a half years. It was like riding a bike. I’m really glad we now have at least one recording of Slow Dancing. Ben and Doug sang it at my wedding reception. Ben and I sang it at Doug’s and Doug and I sang it at Ben’s. Although we have played it together before in rehearsals, we had never played it at a show. It turned out really well. My dad tooks some great pictures that can be seen here.

As people started filtering out, Kevin and Jen arrived and we hung out for a bit more. It was great to see them. It was great to see everybody. This was probably the last Asher performance, not that Asher was much of a live band. We should have the whole “Sides” project wrapped up by Christmas and this show was a fun way to get together, eat some food, play some songs, and enjoy each other’s presence.

Sunday 21 October: Aimee and the kids went to church with my mom. (It turns out it was one of those satellite regional conferences.) I stayed home to spend some time with my dad. He has put together a list of memorable songs from the 60s and 70s. We listened to a lot of the tracks and he told me the stories behind them. It was fun. Dad took us down to Provo. We went and saw one of my mission companions, Jerem Eyre, and his family. Aimee and Tara became good friends while we lived in Provo. They also bought my in-laws home when they moved several years ago. It was kind of depressing being with Jerem knowing they were able to afford this big house and Aimee and I are still crammed in a tiny two-bedroom apartment. But, that soon passed and we had a nice time with each other.

Monday 22 October: On Friday, one of my professors had asked if I could come back to campus to talk with a group of graduate students about life after BYU. It was kind of cool to go back and talk a bit about my perspective now that it has been two years since I was at BYU. For lunch, Big Boy and I went to pick up some food at Training Table, which was on my list of things to do while in Utah. Ah, cheese fries and a blue-bacon burger. (Man, oh, man. I’m hungry right now.) That afternoon we went back to campus to buy t-shirts for the whole family. In my six years at BYU I never bought a BYU t-shirt. I guess now that Aimee and I are alumni, we feel a bit sentimental. I also picked up a few books from the discount foreign language section, which was another item on my to-do list. We had a brief family meltdown when Big Boy had an accident, which was his second or third of the day. He’s been really stressed out and even though he was excited to see me, I think my presence was disrupting and stressful for him. After the crisis was resolved we drove up to Grandma Krause’s house. I called right before pretending we were still in Nashville, so when we pulled into her driveway she was extra surprised. It was fun to see her and the kids were fairly well behaved for the most part.

When we arrived back to my in-laws, I decided to take back a few things I had purchased for Saturday’s show that we ended up not using. I went over to Macey’s to buy some butter and oil for Anita and I also picked up some Guarana (another to-do item) and lo-and-behold they also had egg nog. Ah, there are too few egg-noggy days in the year. Right before I came home, Big Boy slipped and smacked his head against the counter, cutting himself above his right eye. Tom and I headed over to Rite Aid, which was right next door to Macey’s – why they didn’t call me while I was still a the store I don’t know – and we bought some butterfly bandages. That did the trick. Getting to bed was a bit difficult. Little Girl's sleep schedule has been out of whack the past month and it has been really hard on Aimee. Somehow, we all got to bed but without a bit of tension and resistance.

Tuesday 23 October: Got up, packed, Aimee took me to the airport. Nine hours later I was back in Nashville, but I got on the wrong airport shuttle and ended up having to go back to the terminal to get on the right one. Twenty minutes later I was in the car on my home - exhausted.

This past week has been crazy. Ups and downs but I’m feeling a bit better. In the end, I am glad I went to Utah even though it was disruptive to everybody’s schedules. It was great to see Aimee, Big Boy, Little Girl, my family, my in-laws and my friends. Thanks everybody for making it a fun and relaxing (although hectic) weekend.