Wendover!

To start in the middle of a story, I was in the parking lot of a casino as my gambling friend Matt tried to take a picture of me. I dodged the situation because I was too embarrassed to post it all over facebook, which typically happens with these kinds of trips. A couple days later Matt told me I needed to come out of the gambling closet. So since there is no photo evidence of me, this is my cyber-coming out. I went to Wendover, as trashy as it sounds, played some Blackjack, as sinful as it sounds, and had a damn good time, as unlike me as that sounds.

So I turned 21 in May, but I never got to do anything to celebrate my 21-ness. About a month ago, my two friends Matt and Matt were talking about Wendover, and I expressed desire to go, which apparently is a surprising thing to find in the Provo bubble.

We let the idea simmer, and then one Friday night I found myself driving to Wendover. I don't even know how it really happened.

Net Ionic Equation of the trip (gah, too much chemistry on the brain): I had a lot of fun, but was probably a little too intense about my excitement being a first-timer that was wired on caffeine, sleep-deprived, loopy, and all. Poor Matt to have to deal with that.

The Good: I did something new, and I got to know someone a little better in the process.
The Bad: Okay, maybe I lost some money, but it was nothing that I wasn't planning on losing anyway.
The Ugly: The dealer was a jerk and half. It was my first time! Give me a break for touching the cards with both hands. And don't call me "honey." It's creepy and condescending. I have a problem with arbitrary rules for which I don't understand the basis.

I also learned that people at casinos take themselves way too seriously. Lighten up people!

Because of my bad blackjack experience with the dealer, I came home obsessed with the game. I kind of seriously want to learn how to count cards and basically be a blackjack ninja. I've already started... It's actually quite intense.

ocean

My friend Matt introduced me to this band called John Butler Trio. I always knew he loved them, and I just never checked them out. Last night we all drove up to the hot pots, so we had plenty of driving, and I got a good dose of this band. They are classified as an "ecelctic/jam band" according to wikipedia. That's a pretty good term for them because their music has a lot of different influences, which adds to their versatility. John Butler is pretty much one of the most amazing musicians I have heard. I'm sad it took me this long to realize this.



There is an instrumental piece that John Butler plays called Ocean. Basically he started writing a song about how everyone is connected, but words eluded him, and this is what came out. It's brilliant; it's epic; it's moving; there really is no adjective to describe how impactful this song is. It's about life and love and birth and death and people and connections and relationships and empathy... It makes me realize how big life is beyond my small scope that I see through. It makes me want to change something, create something, be something. It makes me realize that my small part in the world is enough. There is a greater force in this world (which would be God for me) that takes our small actions and magnifies them to affect so many people. We are in a beautiful entangelment of interdependence with one another.



And life is just so beautiful.



Great band. Great song. Great message.



Thank you, Matthew Gress for opening my ears.



New Love:

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