The Fragility of Life

Less than 6 weeks ago, my former mission companion and friend, Jake Hoffman, was diagnosed with cancer, and he talked optimistically about beating it even though it was going to be a long journey. Yesterday he died. Not living close to Jake, I didn't know that his body reacted badly to chemotherapy, and I didn't know he was on life support. I knew he had cancer, but I didn't think it would take him, let alone this soon.

Jake was one of those people who could make anyone laugh. He was goofy and funny and confident and vulnerable all rolled into one likable personality. I really feel sad that I will no longer benefit from his wit and charm. I also really feel sad that I had a lot of thoughts to go visit him over Christmas break before he knew of his illness, and I didn't do it. What a missed opportunity.

I spent one month on my mission with Jake in a run down little mining town in the middle of Nowhere Australia called Broken Hill, or affectionately referred to as "Broken Hell". I'm not sure that I would have stayed sane there without Hoffy, and I'm very thankful for that.

I wear a Livestrong bracelet, which is to celebrate cancer survivors in my life - Dad most particularly. Now it also will help remind me to live strong for Jake too.

I'm a better person for having known Jake Hoffman.

Didn't Plan On This...

I'm sitting in a Holiday Inn in Reno, NV, forced to stay the night here because of the heavy snow falling outside. We hit bad weather about 30 miles outside of Reno, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to know as we got closer that we wouldn't be sleeping in our own beds tonight. We're disappointed but also happy to not risk traveling through the Sierra-Nevadas late at night in the middle of a blizzard. Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.

We had a great vacation. As usual, it's good to be headed home, but we had a good time. We skied three days, spent fun time with family, and recharged our batteries.

The Greatest Perk of All Time

Nope, it's not the free gourmet food (although you'd get a big argument from, well, almost everyone... justifiably so). It's the fact that I can swim during the work day, any time I want, in one of the Google endless pools. It is SO different from swimming in a lap pool because you never stop when you hit a wall. I set the speed at somewhere between 2.5 and 3 mph, depending on how I'm feeling, swim for 30-40 min, and be back to my desk all within at hour. The weather here helps too - I can swim straight through the winter, outdoors, and even though it's a little chilly before I get in, the water is just right, and when I get out I'm always over-heating anyway so the cool air feels good. There have been a few days in which I swam in the rain, but that's actually fun. And here's the thing - not that many people at Google use them. You'd think they'd be hard to get time in, but they're not. Of the 17 times I've swam so far this year, I've only ever had to wait for a pool one time.

This alone may be enough to keep me at Google for the rest of my employable life...

Looking forward...

I'm very excited for the Winter Olympics to start this weekend. I am a big fan of all things Olympics (except figure skating), and not only do I enjoy the competition, but also seeing the world come together for a big event. It brings me back 8 years to the SLC 2002 games, and how cool that was for the city and region. Angela and I were recently laughing at ourselves that we still sport the Olympic logo coats we both got because my company at the time was a very minor sponsor. Anyway, it'll be fun to have a couple weeks worth of something to participate in (by that I mean serious watching time).

We're also looking forward to our upcoming travels. Micah is a little nervous right now because the storms back east are currently canceling all flights. She's headed to NYC on Friday for a few days with her piano academy - the highlight of which for her will be seeing Aunt Jenny, and performing for folks out there. Hopefully the snow will have let up in time for her to be able to go. The rest of us are looking forward to driving out to Utah for some R&R and Provo house stuff. Thanks as always to family who is willing, and doing a very good job of portraying the illusion that they actually want us to invade their lives, to let us stay with them. Should be lots of fun.

Kennan turns 10 in a couple weeks, Brig turns 4 in a couple months, and Morgan turns 8 in early May. We're going to baptize her on the weekend of May 15-16 if anyone's interested in coming along.

So now with all the good things we're looking forward to (and more that didn't make the blog), the challenge is to also live happily in the present and be content with today.

Pre Valentines

When we got home from the Saturday session of Stake Conference, followed by dinner with some friends, we were met by a very nice Valentines surprise. The girls had cut out dozens of hearts, all shapes and sizes, written fun messages on them like the candy hearts, and taped them all over our bedroom. It was so awesome that they thought of that by themselves, and it made me happy and proud to be their father.

I think Brig is being influenced by his older sisters. He has been going around the house lately telling people he can do the splits (which he sees his sisters doing), and then he'll drop down and show us how he's not even close to the splits. The problem to me is, that's not something for a boy to get that excited about. The other morning we had music on in the kitchen while I was making the pancake breakfast, and he came up to me and showed me his latest dance move, which was one shoulder moving up and down in a sort of feminine way. He asked me if I do that move, and I just said, "no", and left it at that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not worried, it's just funny...

Worst movie we've seen in the last 5 years: "The Invention of Lying". Don't see it! I was very disappointed because I like Ricky Gervais a lot, but this was pathetic.

Morning Commute

The morning commute was a little longer than usual today, thanks to a planned stop along the way at the girls' school. I got to go into Morgan's classroom and read a couple of books to her class, and let me tell you, it was really fun. I'm not sure how many of the parent readers do different voices for the characters, but the kids loved when I gave Grandpa and Gran their own distinct voices. Morgan seemed pleased, and I had a good time.

So as I continued on my commute, I drove past the McDonalds I always drive by, and it struck me how many cars were lined up in the drive-thru, as well as in the parking lot. Here's the thing - every person I could see either sitting in their car or walking into the restaurant, was large. What a shock...

Ang and I had a great time visiting with Dave last night as he was able to visit late in the evening. He's in town on a work trip and came by. Now if we could just get Mer and the kids here with him, it'd be perfect.

Visits

Just found out Dave is coming to NoCal tomorrow for a couple days of training - yeeeeaahhh boooyyyy! Very excited to hook up with him on our home turf, and looking forward to hanging out. Always great to have family or friends come visit, even if it's piggy backing on a work trip.

Brig's little buddy was over playing at the house this morning and hurt his leg; when Angela was helping him feel better, Brig asked Blake, "are you gonna need surgery?" - expecting Blake to get the tickle torture "surgery" that always follows a minor injury. Angela laughed when she told me about it.

OK, we're thinking hard about a ski week expedition to Utah. We have some house business we need to try and take care of, and we sort of figure we could take advantage of the week off school and get the kids on skis one more time. It's not a done deal yet, but in the serious thought stage.