Adventures at the St. George Triathlon

This post is kinda long, but it's worth it if you can stand to read it all. Well, it's worth it if you like semi-gory videos of stitches...

Last weekend I went with a bunch of folks to St. George to cheer on my friends that were participating in the St. George Triathlon (not to be confused with the St. George Triathalon, which doesn't exist). As a precursor to this blog, you may want to check out what happened last year. Basically, the thing was canceled a year ago due to bad weather. We should have taken it as an omen, but it seems the hubris of the determined tri-athlete is not easily brushed aside. (And I don't want to give anything away to those that don't already know the story, but if you're a little squeamish at the sight of blood, you may want to proceed with caution. There are a few photos and videos at the end that are... well, bloody.)

I guess I should start at the beginning. We left Friday afternoon for St. George. When we finally got there, it was off to The Pasta Factory to carbo-load. Ok, more like 7 or so were there to carbo-load. The rest of us just got some good food. Being in the pit crew is not as strenuous as running a triathlon. But we had a good time and we were excited for the morning.

Later that night, a few people went swimming or hot-tubbing at the hotel. I, regretfully (ha! right...) forgot my swim suit, so I watched the Jazz game. I'm pretty sure the Jazz lost. I don't remember, but they're not doing so well, and the fact that I can't remember it (or that I've blocked it out) makes me really think they lost. Buncha losers... Anyway.

sleeping that night was... interesting. The girls had like 3 rooms between them. Two of the girls' rooms were in the same hotel right next to each other, so they kept the divider doors open and had a slumber party.

In the guys' room, there were two queen beds and 4 guys... so we sucked it up and slept two to a bed. The other unfortunate thing in this situation is that I snore. To help the rest of the guys sleep, I stayed up as late as I could and told them to throw stuff at me if I was snoring too loud. My feelings wouldn't be hurt at all. Well, I only got a pillow thrown at me once, so it must have worked out ok.

We woke up at the crack of dawn and headed off to the race. As I mentioned there were about 7 racers, but there were like 20 in the pit crew. We had fun waiting around for the race to begin, finding places on the beach to sit and watch swimmers, watching the helicopter, and soaking up some sun. But it was crazy windy. At one point I thought I was going to witness a helicopter crash into a lake. It kept getting really low to the water (to get good shots of the swimmers waiting on the beach I assume) and hovered there, visibly shaken by the turbulent wind. But thankfully, it didn't crash. I would have gotten some awesome pictures if it had.

Anyway, here's a bunch o' pictures of the race before it actually started, with the faithful pit crew and racers.

I guess it's fitting to end with pictures of swimmers getting in the lake, because they canceled the swim while the triathletes were in the water. They had let a few groups go before, but water just got too choppy and scary to swim in. The wind was relentless. So we move on to the biking portion... Here are a few pictures of our biker friends before the tragedy struck.

Rachel is in the red helmet, Matt is mounting his bike in the blue and white jersey and sunglasses:

This one is Rachel by herself. She doesn't know she's being photographed.

Here's Matt taking off. ...poor, poor Matt.

Ok, I'm going to have to get a few more pictures from the rest of the group, but this is all I got. Why you ask? Well, thus begins the story of Tragedy at St. George. Remember the wind that I thought could fell a helicopter? Well, turns out, Matt was a little more susceptible than the helicopter. Matt, more than a little upset that the swim was canceled, went strait to the bike and hoped to make the best of it. He was going along great, down in the arrow position to go faster, when a huge gust of wind blew him over. Because he was in the arrow position, he couldn't get his balance fast enough so the wind pushed him over into some gravel, then knocked him right over and he hit the ground hard. He couldn't get his feet out of the clips fast enough, and just ate it into the gravel. His hands were torn to sheds and he ripped off his finger prints. But the worst was his knee.

Warning: This is where it gets gory, so beware--but it is gradual, so maybe you'll be desensitized by the time you see video of Matt's sick, gouged knee being stitched. I'm just gonna start adding pictures. There will be a few with captions, but you get the idea...

These ones are at the tri before we left. The ladies there that helped him get some bandages on didn't really know what they were doing and barely had a first aid kit.

Oh, I should probably mention Matt is a die-hard Utes fan. We got like 30 pictures of him with that BYU blanket on, and everyone that came over to check on him always pointed out the blanket. Way to add insult to injury, right?

Next, we got to the hospital. It was a little worse than we originally thought. Mat actually thought he would try to finish the race after he fell, but thank goodness he didn't. He may have done some serious damage to his knee. Anyway, Tyler and I took Matt to the hospital and had to carry him with an arm around each of us. What a lucky bugger he is to have such good friends, right?

Here are a couple videos of the nurse cutting off some of the bandages that the amateur first-aid ladies at the tri put on.

Ok, now we're getting into some more close up action on his wounds.

I don't think I've said it yet, but Matt was really in pain. He was gritting his teeth while we waited for our chance to go back to a bed. They had to take off the crappy bandaging the ladies at the tri put on him and that hurt, too. Then they wanted him to soak his hands in a couple tubs so they could get clean, and that hurt. They had to give him a tetanus shot, and that hurt. After that, they had to numb up his knee before cleaning it out, and even the numbing hurt. It was really rough for the guy. But that didn't stop us from taking pictures. And here they are.

Once the knee was cleaned out, the doctor realized Matt had ripped open a sac of fluid in his knee. There are sacs of fluid at all your joints to lubricate and help you actually bend. Matt had broken that open and actually had gravel up in there. They cleaned it out real well, but the doc had to call an orthopedic surgeon to make sure he was doing everything correctly. Well, turns out you can't stitch up the wound like you normally would. They had to only sort of put the flesh back together and let the fluid sac (I really wish I remembered the actual name so I didn't have to keep writing "sac" all the time) heal itself from inside. That meant that he would probably have an infection, so he really needs to keep the knee clean and take some strong antibiotics. Oh, and percocet for the pain. Awesome huh?

Ok, now time for stitches. We've even got some video here. The doc was really great about letting us take so many pictures and everything. Anyway, enjoy.

Here are the videos.

So that's that. Tyler, Matt, and I had a bet going on how many stitches he would get. Tyler said something like 13, Matt said 17, and I said 7. Turns out we were all high. He got 5 stitches. 4 on the knee, one on the Thumb. It probably would have been more if he hadn't ripped open that sac. And don't worry, Matt will be ok. When everything heals, he'll even be able to get back into the whole swim, bike, run routine. But his career as a knee model is pretty much shot. That's gonna be one nasty scar.

We had to carry Matt out to the car and basically everywhere else.

He also couldn't use his hands because they were zombified with bandages and they still hurt. I actually had to feed him food so he could take a percocet... but now he's doing a little better. he couldn't really do much at work with no hands, so he took like a day and a half off. But all in all it was fun. Well, fun for me because I didn't have to do a triathlon or wreck my bike attempting one. And from what I hear, the bike ride sucked and the entire run was in sand. Sorry guys. But here's how you all look to me, in spite of the crappy and crazy race conditions.

Haircut

Here it is finally! Pictures of my haircut. Before anyone asks (but they probably already have), there was no real reason for it. I did not lose a bet, I did not win a bet, I'm not going on a mission, and no girl asked me to. The thing is, I HATE haircuts. I hate that I have to pay for one, so I avoid them at all costs. Which isn't hard, because really, it's the cost I'm avoiding.

I noticed my hair was really long and looking a little shaggy, so I've been saying for about 2 months that I need a haircut. My last haircut was around the month of October, so I guess I'd been avoiding it for long enough. I happened to be at my brother and sister-in-law's place, and just asked if they had clippers, and if Liz could cut my hair with their longest attachment, she said yes, and chopped it off. That's really it. So without further ado, here are the pictures.

This is me just before the cut.

This is after Liz chopped off just the top of my hair. Sweet curly mullet, bro.

This is all the hair that was cut, laying on the floor. Looks like some sort of road kill, huh?

Here's a close up. Even removed from my head it stays in curly locks.

Here's what I looked like immediately after.

And here I am, all gelled up. Handsome, huh?

So what do you guys think? I'll probably not get another haircut until next year...

A couple... seemingly ironic epiphanies

Today I had a couple of these. I'm not sure if epiphany is the right word, but that's all I can think of right now. They were little thoughts that came to me and suddenly seemed significant once I thought about them. So without any real explanation (because that's how they come anyway) here they are.

Americans go to Asian grocery stores to buy Asian food. Sometimes they buy Asian wafer cookies that are made to taste like American wafer cookies, but they don't. But Americans buy them anyway because they're Asian. And they need a desert for their sushi.

Three people I know live in the same apartment together. One guy is in a relationship that seems to have stagnated a little; but it continues and may or may not progress. One guy has plunged head in and is engaged to be married. One guy has just had a break-up... sorta. If someone wanted to write a short story about that with a little commentary on the dynamics of the relationships of modern 20-somethings, it'd probably be a good read.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band are games for boys. Girls who can play those games well are oddly intriguing. They're not odd girls, per se, but definitely oddly intriguing.

So that's it. Any of you have any weird thoughts that you just can't get over?

Book tag

This tag actually sounded pretty fun. Here's mine:

"Meet the newt you trod on," said the voice.

The rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book
2. turn to page 123
3. find the 5th sentence
4. post the 5th sentence
5. tag some people

This line comes from the book Life, The Universe, And Everything by Douglas Adams. It's the third book in The Hitchhiker's series. I'm reading it very slowly because I'm only reading it just before I go to bed, so I fall asleep fast. I'm not liking it as much as the first two, but it's picking up.

I tag... whoever. If you do it, though, be sure to comment on my bloggy blog so I can come see what book you had closest to you!

I've got shingles

Not THAT kind. Ew. But the kind that go on a roof. Tiff's roof, to be specific.

Saturday, I went to my sister's house to help her and her husband re-shingle their roof. They are planning to move to Eagle Mountain (...I know, who moves to Eagle Mountain??) and they're doing a few things to make their house even more of a deal. They are re-shingling, building a deck, and they already finished a half bathroom in their basement. Kinda sucks to do all these improvements on your house, then leave, but they are going to get a bigger place and a MUCH bigger lot, so it will be worth it.

Well, I had no idea how to do anything to put shingles on a house, but I really got to try out my new transition lenses (I'll post a picture soon). So I did what Mike and my dad told me to do, and even put on a few rows of shingles all by myself. It was just before the pizza guy came that I realized that roofing in shorts is a very bad idea. As soon as we decided to go in to eat lunch, I grabbed a piece of pizza and sped home to change into some jeans. It was much, MUCH better after that.

I should also remind you all that I'm afraid of heights and Tiff's house is two stories up. If we were roofing my parents house, I'd be a whole lot better, having jumped off the roof many times as a child. (Once I jumped off because the ladder scared me... kid logic, I tell ya... it's infallible.) So while I tried my best, I feel like I was pretty useless on the edges of the house. I still did a few rows close to the edge but I wore myself out pretty quick, since not only was I working on the roof, I was tensing every muscle in my body anticipating a terrible fall off the roof.

At first, it was just me, Tiff, and Mike on the roof with my dad cutting starts and stops below, but eventually Jared showed up and gave me a little relief. It didn't help my fear of heights, however, to see him get so close to the edge and then turn his back to it. It freaked me out so much I had to look to Tiffanie for comfort, since she's as big a wimp as I am when it comes to heights. We'd both just smile at each other and pretend to be ok with it. I should also mention that Liz came with Jared and took Carter away with her, which was also great on my nerves. He liked to be on the roof, and every step he took freaked me out. And he's not even my kid! Tiff freaked him out, though, with all her talk of being scared, and he wanted to get down after a while.

So today I'm sporting a very sexy farmer's tan. Last night I looked like a lobster. I'm sure I still look like one today, but I feel like I'm not radiating as much heat as I was. And today I'm also sore in my shoulders and my hands. It was so bad I had to get up at 2:30 a.m. to take some Advil so I could sleep. But it was fun and now I sorta know what to do up there on the roof. And I'll be going over on Tuesday to help finish it up. Hopefully I'll be a little more useful now.

Just call me "itamae"

...that's Japanese for chef or cook... at least that's what the internet told me.

Tonight I went to Jared and Liz's place and made sushi. That's right, MADE sushi. I'm a fan of sushi--and I'm sure there are plenty of you reading this that don't love it--and every now and then I crave it. Well, I wasn't really craving it, but Jared texted me during ward choir practice and invited me over. Of course I couldn't refuse.

I've never made sushi before and imagined it was a very difficult, very long, drawn out process. Turns out it's not so bad. I may even get a rice cooker now. I also learned that you put vinegar in the rice for sushi. Jared and Liz have these little bamboo mat thingers that help you roll the sushi. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, here are the ingredients.

From the top left, there's carrots, some weird Japanese radish, avocado, cream cheese, barbecued eel, and salmon. We also had some barbecued chicken that Jared made the sauce for that was really good.

So the first thing you do is put down the bamboo mat, put some plastic wrap on it, then put down the sea weed stuff, then start mashing rice on that. The sea weed feels like paper and I was worried it would be crunch and gross, not like sushi you pay money for; but I was pleasantly surprised. Once it gets a little moist from the rice, it loses the crunchy completely. While you're mashing the rice onto the sea weed, you have to keep your hands pretty wet so you don't get sticky rice all over the place. I also learned that a pretty thin layer of rice is all ya need, or you end up with quite the fatty roll... Here are a few of the rolls we made.

This one is Liz's. She used the barbecued eel in hers. Really, it's tastier than it sounds and looks. I was skeptical too, but it is really good.

This is the one Jared made. He made one with the barbecued chicken with carrots, cream cheese, and avocado. It looks messy in this picture because he forgot to flip over the sea weed, so he was taking it all off to flip it and start over. He likes the rice on the outside. Actually, the one I made was the only one with the sea weed on the outside.

And here's me triumphantly displaying my very first sushi roll.


I thought it was a California roll, but apparently I don't know what a real California roll is. They've got salmon. Mine had crab, cream cheese, avocado, and just a few sesame seeds inside. Here's a better look at my sushi roll.


After I took pictures, Liz wanted one with her roll, too. So here it is!


When you've got the roll, you need to use a sharp knife and make sure you keep it wet when you cut the roll.


It was a little difficult for me, and my individual pieces came out a little thick, but it was still really tasty. I think I ate the ends off of everyone's sushi roll, in addition to the regular pieces I ate. It was really quite good.

Once we had all the sushi rolls made (I think we just had four), Jared made this tasty sauce with mayonnaise and hot sauce, and of course, we had soy sauce with wasabi in it. Liz pulled out Madaline's little table and we ate on the floor. By we, I mean me and Liz. Jared sat on the couch and Madline had one of her little chairs. Here's a picture of our tasty dinner.

Liz is going to love that I used this picture. :-)

It was REALLY good! Thanks for inviting me over, guys! Oh, and I tried to take some sort of artsy fartsy pictures, but true to Garrett form, they suck. But also true to form, I'm posting them anyway. Enjoy!

Can't wait to hear what you all think of sushi in general and maybe even what you think of this sushi!

Yeah, yea, ya...

I'm not judging or telling anyone what to do, just explaining what works for me and how I do it.

There seems to be a whole slew of different ways people use yeah, yea, ya, and yay. I use them all consistently so there's no confusion. You can do whatever you want, but here's what I do, so you don't wonder if I'm excited, agreeing, addressing you personally, or quoting scripture.

First, "yeah." "Yeah" is basically agreeing for me. Here's an example.
Friend 1: "Do you want to go see that movie?"
Friend 2: "Yeah, sure."

Second, "ya." This is a more casual form of "you." As in, "Hey, how are ya?"

Third, "yay." This is used as an exclamation. "I'm going to Disney Land!!! Yay!!!"

Forth, "yea." This is used in scripture. "Yea, verily, I say unto you..." and so forth.

Again, you can do what you want, but this is the way that all those words make the most sense to me, and then I don't have to guess which one to use. And yes, I feel very nerdy having typed it all out, but at the same time I feel good that it's all out in the open. Did I miss any?

Irony

Today (well, yesterday... it's kind of Saturday morning now...) may have been one of the cruddiest days I've experienced in a while. Without going into detail, I felt a little hollow and didn't want to do much thinking, so I wanted to go to a mindless movie. My good friend Katey was there for me and while she is also dealing with her own set of troubles, still accompanied me to a kung fu movie, even though she hates those.

Before that, we went to Jamba Juice. Katey has sworn off sugar and sweets, but an occasional Jamba is still acceptable. I would have gone to Leatherby's otherwise. Well, on the drive there, we sort of chatted about life and the cruddy things it can dish out now and then. For some strange reason, we would both chuckle a little after talking about one thing or the other. I mentioned how weird it was that we keep laughing even though it really isn't funny and in most cases it was down right sad.

Well, we got to Jamba and at the counter Katey asks very unenthusiastically, "Will you be offended if I don't get anything?" This was, after all, mostly to satiate my need for something cold and chocolaty (the Peanut Butter Moo'd is quite tasty), so I said I wouldn't be offended at all. We waited for my smoothie, quietly sulking, and as my name was called, Lean On Me started playing on the overhead. I smirked at Katey and pointed to the ceiling and said, "Do you hear this?!" She confirmed she did with a laugh. The irony struck me very hard and I began laughing HYSTERICALLY.

Now, people exaggerate their descriptions of events (myself included) quite a bit sometimes. "That was the saddest movie EVER!" or "That was the best cheese cake in ALL THE LAND!!" or even "Nothing will ever top THAT!" I am here to say in that moment I laughed harder and longer than I ever have in my life, and that is no exaggeration. Katey had the wisdom to suggest we go outside (luckily I didn't see any of the people shooting glances at us as I tried desperately--and failed miserably--to gain composure), but even outside I couldn't stop. We went to my car and I just kept laughing. I had to cover my mouth because it was making a weird face that I could NOT control. I was hootin' and hollerin' making noises I never make while laughing, and I had to gasp for air. I've had long laughing sessions before, but this was far beyond anything I've ever done. And tears just kept streaming down my face. I think all the emotion just mixed together and in that moment, all I could do was laugh and wipe the tears so I could find the way to the car and find the ignition for my keys. Even thinking on it now makes me pause in wonder.

I still feel a little crappy, but I'll be fine with time. ...Lean On Me... seriously? THAT'S the song that should play at that moment?!? Oh, Lord, give me strength.