September 16, 2000 – Ward Hike

September 16, 2000 – Ward Hike

On a beautiful Saturday, we went on a bus trip with the ward to Parley’s Canyon near Salt Lake City. We hiked up to the top and had lunch up there. I know I didn’t hike to the top the whole way with Rob, but for a lot of the way I did. I remember him telling me that the name of the tree that I thought was so beautiful was a quaking aspen because of how the leaves shook when the wind blew.

We got to the top and I remember hassling a member of our Bishopric about his former occupation. He had been a Hollywood lawyer for a lot of Hollywood stars. His list was fairly impressive. I asked him how he could be a lawyer if he didn’t feel good about lying. He told me you didn’t have to lie. You could choose your cases and your clients, yada yada yada. It was fun to harass him anyway.

We had a lunch of sub sandwiches, I remember. And there at the top of this mountain I found out that the bottle of water I had in my book bag had spilled all over the only other thing in there: my Book of Mormon and Bible. How sad. My book bag has a waterproof bottom to it, so the water just sat in there creating a pool for the scriptures to soak up. It was sad. I have since bought new scriptures. The Book of Mormon was pretty beat up by that experience.

We drove down to This is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City. Not downtown, out a ways. Really this whole time after the hike I didn’t see Rob much. I watched him with other people, though, mostly girls, and thought a ton about him. I think I was sitting alone on the bus, or with Lorelie, I don’t remember. But I sat on the bus thinking about Rob and writing a poem about him called “Inspired Through.” Clearly I was completely smitten by Rob. At this point, though, I wasn’t convinced he even knew I existed, or if he did, that he cared much about me.

Rob: I would like to add in a few of my feelings at this point in time. I really didn’t know how I felt about Tamra at this point in time. I remember trying to keep up with Shanda for a good part of the hike. Shanda, I believe, was doing a fair share of trying to get me to like her as well. She had invited me on a group date earlier, it was actually the day I got my braces on. She had requested that I be a co-chair person on the activities committee with her, so we had meetings together on Sundays and had helped plan activities like the hike. I think every guy in the ward liked her, including me, but I hadn’t openly pursued because she was constantly telling me about her missionary and about other guys in the ward. She was confiding in me, and I listened and gave advice but I was definitely cautious. I just saw all of the other guys she led on and then let go of and I wasn’t fully willing to be the next even though I think she wouldn’t have minded if I was.

At the same time I had a lot of mixed feelings about Tamra. Every other day I changed my mind. One day I liked her a lot, the next I was telling B that I really didn’t want to pursue a relationship with her and that she dressed like a boy (though, I might add, that she didn’t really walk like a boy). Then I would see her and change my mind again. I didn’t know what to think about her, and somewhere, I still kind of liked Shanda and AO, who I think comes into this story a little bit later even though she was a part of this story before it began.

written Spring 2006