I took a bike ride to Utah Lake today. I didn't bother to take my MP3 with me so I was left to my thoughts and I realized how extremely nostalgic I am... or maybe I just have lived in Provo too long. Either way, here is a brief overview of some of the thoughts I had along the trail.
-I passed by lots of ducks swimming in the river. Among them was the "Ugly Duck". Many of us grew up being told ugly ducklings (or cygnets) grew up to be swans. In at least one situation, I can safely say, it just isn't true. He is simply an ugly duck. He has a feathery cyst or mass or... something. Maybe its normal for the variety of ducks? I don't know. Either way, he's a resident of the river trail I usually notice when I bother to go to or past the duck pond.
-I saw a chickadee chirruping on the trail and it made me think of a report I wrote in 2nd grade about them. They still have a special place in my heart because of that paper. If I was a Disney Princess I'd probably want a swarm of them around to do my bidding instead of squirrels and mice (who spread all sorts of bacterial pathogens. Who'd want them cleaning the kitchen, seriously).
-I thought about one of my last dates with my first boyfriend. We managed to get halfway down the trail until his tire popped and we had to turn around a go back. This was before I had really explored the trail thoroughly enough to learn it went down to the lake.
-On another date I went canoeing down the river. The wind blew the canoe everywhere and halfway through the date Will called me. Its awful distracting to notice you're getting a phone call from your latest crush when you're on a date with somebody else. Then Will proved to be a jerk. Moving along.
-On yet another date I remember having a picnic, finding a frying pan in a nearby stream, discovering there were leaches in the stream and jumping out rather quickly, and hiking in the river upstream... I've been on a lot of dates. For some reason as I've been typing I'm realizing that it really has been A LOT more than I realized. I would hardly have believed in high school. I didn't have my first date until a month before I left for college.
-Once I got to the lake I skipped rocks for a while. On the Southeastern corner of the bay there are large flat rocks, some the size of dinner plates. I've managed to get to about 4 skips but usually I can only manage one or two before the stone sinks into the brown salty waves. Despite its turbid dirty color, the sunshine looked particularly lovely on the lake. It sparkled in a brilliant, delicate way, like diamond lace (if such a thing is possible.)
-One time I went kayaking with some roommates and friends. One guy's brother had come for a visit and later moved into my ward. He met a girl, was crazy about her, she went on and came back from a mission, and he's still crazy about her (they're just dating as far as I know). It makes me hopeful when I see someone love a girl with that sort of determined passion.
-I've become a "its been a while" sort of date. I'm that girl that guys go out with once, forget about, and then a month or so later, when something with another girl has flopped, they remember me, give me a call, and plan a date. I don't know what about me has inspired this pattern but its happened with about 4 different guys since November. Am I doing something to encourage this or do I just attract "its been a while" sorts of men?
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