all things considered

monday has arrived and the setting is salt lake city, utah. the past three days have been spent driving from omaha, nebraska, where our last event was held.

there is nothing special about the city omaha, which makes me sad to report. the only glimmer of hope for the omahanians is nebraska football; it begins next week. this will probably be the only exciting on-going event of the year. from omaha we drove straight to fort collins, colorado. the drive was a bit exhausting, the scenery flat. the only thing i know about ft. collins is that the "new belgium brewery" is located here.
and that is still the only thing i know. the true tragedy about my visit to this town was the fact that the brewery was closed when we got there.

makes me sad to think about it again.

from ft. collins we drove to ogard, utah where we stayed at this hotel called the "ben lomond". this brick building with all of its fourteen floors gave me the creeps from the moment i stepped inside. maybe it was the rickety wooden elevator, or possibly the faded burgundy flower-pattern carpet and its peachy colored walls; i really don't know, but this place was cut straight out from an alfred hitchcock movie. all along the walls, black and white pictures of western men gathered together holding different varieties of farming tools and rifles.

an hour later, jessica googled our hotel and uncovered some interesting facts.
in its history of existence, the lomond was the following:

a bank
a boarding school
a brothel
oh, and it is also said to be  ...HAUNTED.

anywho, my night at the "ben lomond" went by without a paranormal encounter. still, the place gave off some twisted vibes.

the morning after, which was today, we drove to antelope island where we saw wild bison.
we kept driving around the island seeing these huge beasts and all i kept thinking about was how they tasted. was their meat tough? soft? gamey?

we drove to the only place in the island where they sold bison burgers, but after walking to the front door, we couldn't believe it. it must have been two in the afternoon and the place was closed!
that was pretty much it, the rest of the day was uneventful.

now, on this plane, i'm surrounded by kind hearted mormons who are about to journey all over the world for their two year mission trip. i spoke with elder stuckey and we had an interesting conversation about theology. i heard him out, and learned some new things about the church of mormon. in the end, i spoke about the difference between the bible and the book of mormon, and most importantly the difference between the Jesus that i believe in, and that of his. fumbling through four books, stuckey kept looking for different passages and all i kept thinking about was, "wow" this kid is only 19 years old.

the initial descent is right around the corner and all i can say is that these past two weeks have been amazing. i've learned new skills, met some old friends, heard some good artists, all while getting paid! not bad in my book. but i do miss my familia un chingo! can't wait to see them :)