Taking my own advice.

The other day, I was talking to my 16 years old sister after school and she mentioned that she would like to go out for a sport. I immediately dropped the idea of running and told told her that I feel as though nothing has changed me more in my life (aside from maybe my mission) than the 4 years I spent running and training year round. Well, she said she wants to swim... which is great, swimming is hard and I'm sure she's up to it, but it just got me thinking about what I had told her. Ofttimes, verbalization is pretty important to realizing just what one believes (maybe that's why we are counseled to share our testimonies?).

Anyway, despite the craziness of my life at the moment, I have decided to again lace up those shoes everyday and start racking up the mileage. It's not going to be easy. I don't have the life changing coach I had before (Ed Murrell), I don't have team mates to poke and prod me when my will starts to give out, and at the moment I really don't have anything to shoot for besides a sense of accomplishment. Maybe I can find some goals, I think that would help.

Well, in order to give some sort of accountability, I have decided to account to you, the internet. Well, more specifically, who ever reads Jess and I's blog. I will be posting something after every run, be it a lot of a little, if for no other reason than to have a little bit more incentive and push until I get back into shape. So...

Day one
Ran mile and a half on Olympus High's track. It was cold. Albuteral kept the wheezing away.

Jake

Conan

Thinking back upon the last ten years or so, Conan O'Brien has been a part of my thinking and laughter. He was always on when I came home from hanging out and worth suffering through the half hour of "Mad About You" that preempted him for years on Utah's NBC affiliate. He was a writer on a show I watched almost daily growing up, the Simpsons, along with with another fave, Saturday Night Live. If I was to very pick someone to represent me in the late night world, Conan would be that person.

I like making people laugh, it's almost a gut reaction to most of life's situations. Likewise, I am grateful to Conan for the laughter he has given to me. In case you didn't watch his last episode of the Tonight Show, here are his parting words:

I can never thank you enough for your kindness to me and I’ll think about it for the rest of my life. All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.

Thanks Coco.

-Jake

Dear Abbey

Hey everyone.

In case you didn't know, my band just finished our new EP Dear Abbey. I thought I'd share it with you. Let me know what you think!



Jake

PS- Jess is the reason track number 3 "This Time" is on there. It was one of the first song I ever wrote. I just realized today that I would have been in 9th grade when I wrote it and that was 10 years ago. Wow.