Saturday's a special day...

...It's the day we make history. Or rather, it's the day Michael Phelps makes history. My day was rather innocuous and tedious. It involved waking up early to finish packing my things and cleaning my apartment, watching the Redeem Team absolutely destroy Spain, eating some pedestrian glazed donuts and drinking Sunny D, passing my cleaning check, moving all of my stuff to the apartment two doors down, not unpacking or organizing anything, taking a shower, and driving to Salt Lake (Midvale, to be more exact) where I spent the rest of my evening.

My purpose in going to Midvale was not to escape the clutter and stress of unpacking everything I had just packed (the only time I think I have too many books and movies is when I have to move); a friend of mine, Stacey, had flown into town from Portland, Oregon and was organizing a game night with her cousins and their spouses. I wasn't the only non-family member invited, but I was the only one to show up. But in a way, I suppose I'm not that far removed from the family ranks, despite not having any blood ties. What bonds me to the Betts family is an amazing similarity and compatibility of personalities and time. Lots and lots of time.

I have had multiple best friends in my life, but there has almost always been one friend that stood apart from the others, and even when outside factors briefly separated us, we were always able to quickly resume our friendship. I first met Justin Betts when we were about four years old in Vernal, Utah; his family moved into a house just a block from my own, and it wasn't long before Justin came out to play with the neighborhood kids. He was then very similar to how he is now: a skinny kid with red hair. Since that beginning, we have been friends. Justin moved out of the neighborhood when we were nearly eight years old, but that didn't stop our friendship. Of course, it helped that he didn't move too far away, still close enough that we could easily ride our bikes or walk to one another's house.

This reminds me of a funny and completely irrelevant story: my first bike was this small red and black thing. After a few traumatic experiences (riding into the big evergreen tree in my front yard and getting scraped up; my shoelaces becoming untied and wrapping around the pedal causing me to panic and run into the dumpster and get a bloody nose in the church parking lot), I went everywhere on that bike. One morning I called Justin and he got permission to come over to my house. I decided to meet him at the halfway point between our houses so I took on my bike to the corner near the Vernal Junior High seminary building. The sidewalk on the south side of the building has a very high curb, maybe twice as high as your normal sidewalk curb. When I came to the end of the curb, I decided to jump off it onto the side of the road. When that little bike landed on the cement, the handlebars snapped completely off the bike. I wasn't injured at all, probably just a little disappointed that my bike was broken. Anyway, Justin showed up, and we walked back to my house where my misfortune was likely forgotten in no time.

I could (and probably someday will) chronicle our friendship at great length, but it suffices me to say at this point that Justin and I have enjoyed a remarkable friendship. Perhaps my experiences growing up were atypical, but it seemed to me that very few friendships can endure the long passage of time without losing some of their lustre and excitement; eventually people change, frequently in ways not to our liking, and our friendships don't disappear altogether, but they become irreparably different and fade into obscurity and forgetfulness. Life tends to pull friendships apart, not limb from limb, more like a piece of taffy, stretched until it's about to break.

Justin and I have enjoyed the opposite. The passage of time only allowed us to influence one another's interests and tastes, and that give and take process helped us develop our individual personalities while still incorporating the other's influence into our growth. We survived middle school and junior high together, won rec league basketball championships in dominating fashion, and rocked our sophomore year of high school in glorious fashion. When Justin moved to Grand Coulee, Washington at the beginning of our junior year, I was worried that not even our friendship could survive such distance. Losing my best friend to the Pacific Northwest was definitely one of the most difficult experiences of my adolescence. I'm not sure if Justin moving acted as a catalyst for the somewhat angry teenage phase that followed or if it was inevitable. Had we grown up at any other time in the history of the world, that may have marked the end of our friendship. Thankfully, technology allowed us to remain in contact, and when I saw Justin nearly one year after his move, I found that our friendship had done more than just survive; it had continued to grow and develop.

As it has to the present day, despite the various paths our lives have taken. Justin is now married and living in Cedar City, and I am still very single in Provo, but that doesn't matter. It's been months since I saw him last, and I don't see him with the regularity that I wish, but there's not much that can be done about that. I realize that real life (i.e. adult life) will likely take us even further apart - my grad school plans will likely make this happen in the next year or so - but I am not worried. I know that an occasional email, text message, or phone call will reassure me that our friendship is as strong as ever, and if any crisis were to occur in either of our lives, we will be there for one another, willing to do whatever we can.

Now that I've spent longer writing about the friendship Justin and I enjoy than I anticipated, I'll try and get back to the original intent of this post. While Justin has always been the Betts that I get along with best, I've always enjoyed good friendships with his siblings, especially his older brothers. (Interestingly enough, my older brother Michael and Justin's oldest brother Jason have had a friendship like Justin and me). Whenever I spend time with Justin and his family, there is a lot of laughter and enjoyment. Even though Justin wasn't at the little gathering last night, I didn't feel out of place. I was able to converse and joke and feel comfortable with his siblings and cousin Stacey.

We played games and watched the Olympics, stopping everything to watch Michael Phelps win his eighth gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, the most golds ever won in a single Olympics. I have watched almost all of Phelps's races, and I'm pretty sure that people will be talking about his performance for a long time. I don't think anyone will dominate like he has for some time. It will probably take thirty years or so for competitive sports to produce an athlete so superior to his/her competitors. I've had some great times watching Phelps, and now that his quest is complete, I'm not sure what else to get excited about in these Olympics. I will definitely watch the Redeem Team continue its quest to bring the basketball gold medal back to the States, but I don't think they will ever be challenged like Phelps was. However, could you imagine how insanely awesome it would be if (that's a big if) the Redeem Teem were down by 2 in the closing moments of the gold medal game and hit a three at the buzzer to win? That's pretty much the only way anything could be as exciting as Phelps incredible victories.

I don't really have much else to say about my day. I've since unpacked and organized most of my possessions and am in the process of adjusting to a new apartment and new roommates. This concludes my Sunday evening post.