I survived the 26-hour trip from Japan to Utah, but it’s 5:50 am local time and I’ve been awake for two hours. That’s jet lag, right? On the plus side, I did not nap yesterday, my first day back, and I’ve survived on 5 hours of sleep during the school year–and that means teaching 8 hours on that little sleep. All I have to do today is have meals with friends. Surely I can do that just fine!
Yesterday the travel stars aligned, and my sister Jennie and brother Brent and their families were also in Provo, so we all got together for dinner and spent some time on campus as BYU.
These are the RB stairs, the stairs that I hated so much I made sure I never had classes in the buildings on that side of campus. Those three teeny blips at the top right of the stairs? All three of my nieces. Two of my nieces ran up those stairs 3 times, and the guy on the left was doing some sadistic workout on those stairs. All four of them are insane.
BYU has a small sports museum, so we went and looked at the exhibits. This here is an outline of Shawn Bradley’s body, and my niece Lauren is sizing up against her will.
She much preferred striking this pose, and I must have snapped the shutter a second too late, because she had quite the diva face going on.
That’s BYU’s only national championship trophy. Jennie said the last time they visited, this was not out. So we were lucky to see it!
What I loved most about the museum was its integration of sports–I’m not sure how it was organized, but I saw a cross country display next to Jim McMahon and Ty Detmer’s Heisman Trophies. I was also impressed with how much attention was paid to female athletes, a subject dear to my heart after some of the research I did in grad school. It was a nice way to kill some time wile waiting for my nephew to finish his basketball camp.
Exactly one week from today I’ll be driving home, and I’m ready for that. The past six weeks have been such a wonderful break from my life, have given me much to ponder and recalibrate some goals, and have reminded me how lucky I am to have the friends I do all over the country.
And just like I’ve vacationed these past six weeks, I’m taking a week off from blogging as I prepare to return to “real life” and all of its demands.
So, I’ll see you, my dear tens of readers, in a week or so. Enjoy July!
Welcome back Julie! Can't wait to talk to you in person so you can share some travel stories. I am available most days for lunch.
There is a girl in my ward who is in that museum, I believe. She was on the XC team. She also ran the marathon for Hong Kong in 2 Olympics. That makes me kind of cool for knowing her. 🙂