Letter I wrote for Maretta's family

Maretta and I returned from Utah without any problems. It’s always a little nerve-racking opening the door after you’ve been away for a while and wondering if the tv is still going to be there. I was a little worried especially since our neighbor recently had his car window smashed open right in front of our house. They stole his GPS. Fortunately, everything is still here. Maretta had to work the next morning and I slept in because it is still my spring break and I am still recovering from my accident (Stay tuned).

Friday was hard for everyone to concentrate in group at school. We had a standardized patient that we had to practice following up with. I felt like I was back in the MTC practicing the commitment pattern. They schedule these things so that we don’t skip out early on spring break. But noon finally came and spring break began. We got to Utah around ten o’clock, so just decided to take it easy. I had originally planned on going snowboarding on Saturday with some friends, but they bailed on me, so instead I headed up to midway with all the grandkids and Mom and Dad. Maretta already had plans to hang out with her friends Emily and Anne in Provo, so she went there for the day. Luckily for us the Jazz were in town that night and Dad gave us the tickets. We watched the Jazz whoop up on Denver and I caught a ball and a tee shirt.

Sunday was nice to have the whole family (except Diane) over for dinner. We celebrated my birthday and I got a stethoscope, which I will actually get to use in a month or so. It was great to see grandpa doing well. We didn’t get to see his new place, but we did see everyone else’s new place/new editions to their house. Maretta’s favorite new game is rock band, which we played at Dave and Sylvia’s. Mckennah and I on guitar, Maretta on drums and Caden lead singer. We also met Chichi the Chinchilla. Caden’s new pet with the controversial name. Matt and Nancy’s new house looks like it will be really nice once they get moved in.

Monday I went to the ophthalmologist to see about getting lasik on my eyes. They said I am a good candidate, so I will probably get that done when we come back to Utah in August. It will be nice not to have to wear my glasses everywhere. I always feel a little dorky when I’m working out at the gym with my glasses on. Ever since I got back from the Dominican Republic though, I haven’t been able to wear contacts for longer than a few hours, so I’ve given up on them completely. Monday night we were able to spend with all the Bassett’s that are in Utah and Liz and Ashley too. They were kind enough to move the dinner to Monday night so that we could come. We had a great time feasting, playing games, and catching up with all the family. After dinner we stopped by some friends of ours in South Jordan and found out that they’ll be moving to New York City in May for school. It will be nice to have some more people out here that we know.

Tuesday was supposed to be the day that I defied the odds by golfing in short sleeves in the afternoon, followed by snowboarding in the evening. Everything was going as planned with golfing. My dad and I went to hidden valley for 9 holes. I played my normal bogey full round, while dad had the best 9 of his life, shooting even par. I don’t know, maybe I should have recognized that as a sign that it wasn’t my day and I shouldn’t be upsetting the golf gods and the snowboarding gods by doing both on the same day. But I had already changed plans on Brayden on Saturday when my other friends cancelled on me, so I decided to go ahead and press my luck anyway. Maretta sent us off with words of encouragement, “don’t break your leg” and we headed up to Brighton. Brayden and I grew up snowboarding at Brighton and decided to take some of the runs that we used to. After a few successful runs I was starting to get my confidence back and we headed over to the terrain park. We hit a few boxes and even a couple runs in the half pipe. By now I was feeling like I hadn’t lost a step, since last year. We hit a few more boxes. Towards the bottom of the park there is a box that is set at an angle so that it’s grade is steeper than the slope of the mountain. I hit the jump that launches you on the box and began to slide the box. I’m almost toward the end of the box when my feet slide out from under me and I summersault forward. The box is about 4 feet off the ground which may as well be concrete it’s been packed down so hard. I flip forward and land directly on my left shoulder. I scream out in pain and probably a profanity or two. I lay on the ground for a second unable to move my arm. By this time the adrenaline had kicked in and I wasn’t in so much pain, but my arm wasn’t moving like it should. I got up and snowboarded down to Brayden who was waiting for me a little further down. We sat there for a while and I tried to see what kind of movement I could get out of my arm hoping it would start to feel better after a minute or two. The pain was getting worse and it was starting to swell and feel hot. We decided to end the day early and head back down. By this time I was starting to feel a lot of pain where the collar bone meets the shoulder blade and I thought that I might have broken my collar bone. I called Maretta and told her the bad news. My dad looked at the injury and thought we should get x-rays. Our stake president happens to be an orthopedic surgeon and has seen me a few times before for my baseball injuries. He worked me into his schedule the next morning. They took some x-rays and discovered I had separated my shoulder at the AC joint. That was a relief because it wasn’t broken and I didn’t tear my rotator cuff, which would have needed surgery. He said that in two weeks I will be pain free and in 6 weeks I will be able to have full activity of my arm and shoulder. So for now I am supposed to wear a sling for two weeks. Three days later and my shoulder is feeling a lot better. Today I can raise my arm up above my head, which allows me to put deodorant on a lot easier, and I’m sure Maretta appreciates that just as much as I do.

Wednesday was our last day in Utah. After the visit to the doctor we were able to go out to lunch at Zinn’s Bistro with Mom, Dad, Dave, Sylvia, Nancy, Lisa and Annika. It is a family run restaurant that reserves the right to refuse service and is not afraid to do so, or so I hear. We were able to get a table and it was delicious. That afternoon we came back to Philly.

We’re both doing really well back here and looking forward to this summer. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my 6 weeks off. I’ve thought about doing research, working with some kids in our ward through a program called bridging the gaps, trying to get a summer job, or just enjoy the summer and travel. Maretta is looking forward to teaching next year. She’s guaranteed a job, but not necessarily the one she wants. We’ll know more about that in the next few months.