On Monday I was playing in one of our “office soccer league” games. It’d been a while since I’d played, since last time I pulled a couple muscles immediately after starting. Well, it happened again, though not as bad as last time; was at least able to finish out the game on the field.

After the game I was feeling a bit stiff. By the end of the work day I was having serious flexibility issues. My lower back was not cooperating. This isn’t the first time this has happened, and I recalled that it lasted on the order of three days or so.

On Tuesday I really wasn’t feeling like going in to work, but there was a training session being offered that I needed to take, and they only offer it every several months or so. So in I went, took the training, did some work, headed home to lie down.

On Wednesday I decided to work from home. Spent most of the day on my back. That day I learned that a team in Mountain View that I support would benefit from my physical presence, so I booked a ticket to head down and see them. Had no idea how long I’d be useful, so to be safe I arranged to head down Sunday afternoon and return Wednesday.

That evening my roommate had some people over for an acoustic jam session. One of the songs they played was Hero by Enrique Iglesias. It “struck a chord” with me and I knew I’d seen a video of that song somewhere, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. Some kind of duet video that… featured missionaries? This bugged me like crazy, till I took a gander through my old mission videos and found a night where six of us were sending one of us off and had some fun with a guitar and impromptu choreography. The videos were ensconced in what we colloquially referred to as The Vault, where the records of all our… questionable antics were kept.

It was now midnight, but I had such a blast looking through these old vids that I put a few of them up on my server and sent a link out to the missionaries on Facebook. Hadn’t chatted with these guys in the seven years since I got back from the mission. Stayed up till 1 or 2, reminiscing like crazy. Ahh, good times, good times. In fact the chat has kept on going for the last several days, lots to catch up on.

(If you have Plex access the videos in question will be put up shortly, they deserve to be preserved 🙂 If not, and you really wanna see them, shoot me an email.)

Thursday was work followed by lying around, back still acting up. Friday I found out that the issue I was heading down to California to help resolve had resolved itself. I was about to cancel my flight, but my boss said I may as well head down and meet the team in person anyways, since I work so closely with them. Paying the ticket change fee was annoying – more than half the cost of the ticket itself – but it wasn’t my money I was spending, so wasn’t too bad.

That evening I worked pretty late in preparation for my flight down. Went straight from there to a friend’s place to watch We Bought A Zoo, which I’d never seen before, good flick.

Saturday was a real good day. My back was measurably better, so I was able to head out to the multi-ward boating activity. Sadly no pics, but it was a blast. Went out on a boat, but didn’t do anything in the water of course.

From there I drove with someone I’d never met to Duthie Hill, that bike park I mentioned a few weeks back. Someone had posted on our ward Facebook page asking for a biking buddy for a friend of his who’d only be in town for a couple weeks. I raised my hand and got put in touch with this person, who was on break between semesters from the University of Utah. She’d been biking for only a short time, but proved to be more comfortable on the crazier trails than I.

Drove from there back to her place to drop her off, then went back to mine to shower. I was just in time to help my roommate move out the last of his boxes.

From there I darted over to a friend’s house where she was feeding the missionaries. I guess our ward tends to be the place they put missionaries about to head home, so we we’ve had a long string of short-timers, and these guys were no different.

That evening I had nine or ten people over to my apartment to just chill and play games. The topic of Australia came up, which I think was the first time that had happened in my apartment, so I got to bust out my kangaroo pelt and didgeridoo. I also played a few of my mission videos I’d just recently dusted off, and was gratified to learn that it wasn’t just the memories that accompanied them that made them completely hilarious.

This morning I cleaned the apartment a bit before heading out to the airport. My flight was at 3:17, so like the procrastinator I am I left at 1:45, arriving at the parking garage at 2:15, making it to the gate at 2:45-ish. Just in time to hear the gate agent ask for volunteers to hop on a later flight in exchange for a travel voucher. When I bought the tickets I’d listed myself as a volunteer, and placed my bid at $500. I walked up right behind someone who balked at the 9pm departure time, and right before someone who turned away dejected once I claimed the last voucher. When I looked closely I noticed that the voucher was actually for $800, so that’s awesome. That’s Christmas and most of another visit all paid for.

So here I lie on a bench, without a book. Back’s still acting up, hopefully I can get my hands on some muscle relaxants tomorrow when I’m down in Mountain View.

That’s all folks!