"I usually try to take advantage of exceptional opportunities when they present themselves."
-Whitney Olsen
Basically life is precious, life needs to be lived, lessons need to be learned; through a myriad of perfect circumstances, I can say I felt the guidance of an angel today. The angel that guided our car in a 360 degree spin across two lanes of traffic, in front of at least two cars. The angel that stopped the car in the snow before the gaping hole; the force making sure the car split the space between the two posts. The weather angel that cleared out the clouds and let the sun peek through to give us some relief from the cold; the snow that stopped as we were working things out. The tow truck driver, who was on top of his job and making sure people were safe, who just so happened upon us 10 minutes after we were stuck, who accepted AAA, even though I didn't have a card; who lectured us on the importance of driving safely during inclement weather. The exact timing it took for us to be where we were, when we were. The decision made the night before to stay the night in Vegas, even though we wanted to just drive through the night. When a crappy scenario happens, there are circumstances, the BEST circumstances, that you could normally only ask for. All of those happened. I cannot think of even one thing, apart from NOT having the incident occur, that could have gone better. I would almost even say, I'm glad it happened. It was kind of terrifying, but at the same time, it was a huge testimony builder that there really is someone watching out for me.
Usually I avoid any kind of bad weather driving when it's not completely necessary, but let me start about a week ago, December 6th to be precise. Whitney Spurrier, a friend from my home ward and long ago, spurred (no pun intended…especially as her last name is now Olsen J )a chain of events that would lead to one of the best weekends of my life; at least this year 2009. She posted a facebook status asking if anyone in her realm of friends were Muse fans. Muse is amazing; I LOVE Muse; I have wanted to see them live for a LONG TIME now. When Whitney posted her status asking if anyone wanted to go to the sold out show in Vegas, I jumped on it. Jennifer Sorenson decided to live up life a bit and go out of her way to the Muse show in Vegas, something not many people would do. Myself included. When I almost couldn't find anyone to come with me, I almost gave up. Finally Adam answered the call to Muse, and said we should go. From that point on I was excited beyond measure. The week lead with so much school work, and stress about finals, I almost forgot what was to happen Saturday night at 8:00 PM in Las Vegas, but luckily my brain remembered and the day arrived.
We decided to leave Saturday morning as Adam had a field trip on Friday night, and we figured there was no need to drive during the night when the concert didn't start until 8 pm Vegas time. We left Provo about 9 am, and meandered down to Las Vegas. We didn't really encounter much weather, just a bit of snow and fog, but after that it was smooth sailing. We got to Vegas and decided to search out my Uncle Andy's house, as we made accommodations to stay the night with them. We found the house and talked to my Aunt for a bit and decided to go out and see the strip a bit since Adam and Jenn hadn't really ever seen it. Of course if you are Mormon and don't live the lifestyle Las Vegas offers, there isn't a TON to do. We didn't have tons of time either to go shopping or to search out anything spectacular. We walked around a bit, saw the Lions at the MGM, saw the slot machines….the thousands of them….saw some bums, and people starting to get drunk, and made our way back to the car. We decided to search out the venue where the concert would be, and find parking so as not to have to deal with it later on. We found everything, and found that the concert would be happening in the Hard Rock Hotel, at a venue called The Joint. We had about 3-4 hours to kill, so we decided to go eat at the Hard Rock Café. It was good, nothing AMAZING, but good. Probably not worth what we spent, but hey, as Adam said "How often are you going to be in Vegas to see Muse, and eat at the Hard Rock Café?" Yeah, probably never again; so that was my excuse to get a $20 steak. You gotta live right? Isn't that what this world/life is all about? Making the world your playground, living life to the fullest, doing those things you normally wouldn't do, taking chances and making life exciting. After dinner we walked around a bit, went to a golf store where Adam bought a present for his Grandpa, then went to get in line, 2 hours early, in a line that seemed to be 10 miles long.
FINALLY we got into the venue at about 7:30, after standing in line for an hour or so. The show started pretty close to 8 pm, as we weren't on Mormon Standard Time, and opened with a band called "Afghan radar." I won't even begin with how ANNOYING and NOT Muse they were. Essentially they played the same song 5 times over, with a different beat. It was two guys, one singing, one head banging and jamming out to a electronic board…or something….it may have been nothing to be honest. Who knows. If I wanted to go clubbing, I would have gone to a club, where techno dance electronica music is expected. After a good solid half hour of annoyingness, they stopped. I wonder how much of the clapping was people being thankful they were done vs. people actually enjoying their tunes…..yeah….that. Anyway, next up was a band formerly unknown, now LOVED, named Paper Tongues. I sincerely would like to see this band take off as they have an extremely unique sound, and are awesome. Check Them Out Here!! Basically they're one of my new favorite bands, and they don't even have an album out yet. Part of the reason I love going to concerts is to learn about new bands. Bands that harmonize and sing rock out, and sound stellar, are harder to come by these days; I really hope they take off. After they played, a band known as Cage The Elephant played. The singer was crazy, completely insane….I swear he was going to have a seizure, or was having one half the time he was singing. They were pretty rad, not exactly my taste for live music, but I'm sure their studio stuff sounds good. They played a good while, then left the stage and left us in earnest waiting for Muse.
Muse is AMAZING. That's all I can say. I always had an appreciation for them and their musical talent, but I never fully realized how amazing they are. They hit every note, every sound, played with energy and emotion, got the crowd involved, and so much more. I haven't ever felt so tired in my life, but didn't care and wanted them to play more. They only played an hour, which was extremely disappointing, but it's also understandable when they were playing for a radio station event. Luckily, they are coming in April to Salt Lake, and yes I will be going. There's no way I can miss it, it would just be a travesty.
By the time everything was over and we got out of the Joint, it was well past midnight. We got to my Uncle's house around 12:30 or 1 a.m., and found they had kicked 3 of their kids out of their beds to accommodate us. We weren't expecting anything more than the couch or the floor as they have a pretty full house, and we were extremely grateful to crash on comfortable beds after a long 4-6 hours of straight standing. Adam and I read a Chapter from the Book of Mormon, got ready for bed, and zonked out. Much to our avail, the alarm went off 5 hours later for us to get up and leave. Starting with this timing, the events for the rest of the day were perfectly aligned to protect us, or at least that's how I see it.
The roads from Las Vegas to St. George were basically perfect. No snow, no real weather, just some wet roads and normal driving. We stopped in St. George and filled up with Gas, another key to events that would occur within hours. We started on our way towards Cedar City, and encountered some weather. We didn't think much of it because we've driven in weather before, and so we were just cruising along. We pulled up behind some cars, and were going a bit fast for the conditions, and that's when things happened. We cut over to pass them, or at least avoid hitting them, and by doing so hit a patch of snow/slush/ice and started losing it. So there we are in the left lane on the freeway going Northbound in between St. George and Cedar, with two cars in the right lane next to us, one behind us, and our car losing control. The back end of our car started coming around to the left, we continued across two both lanes, IN FRONT of the cars, spinning in a 360, missing the cars completely, careening off into the snow on the side of the row, and finally coming to a stop. After our hearts stopped racing, and we were able to change our pants (ok, not really), we realized how lucky we had been. As anyone knows who has driven in winter from St. George to Salt Lake, the roads can be disastrous. Luckily for us, everything happened perfectly where the only real problem, was us being stuck in the snow. My door wasn't openable due to the amount of snow now surrounding us, so Adam got out assessing the situation. A number of other factors occurred unbeknownst to us at the time. The poles that supplement the highway, while not very big, could cause a problem, were behind and in front of us. We split them exactly in the middle. The car stopped about a foot short of a gaping hole, which had our car not stopped where it did, who knows what could have happened. I called my Dad and informed him of what was going on, and he got on the horn with AAA to see if they could get a tow truck to us. Adam tried to flag someone down, but to no avail. Jenn had a shovel, so he started trying to dig us out a bit, but that was completely useless. Someone finally stopped and made sure we were ok, and informed us there was a tow truck behind us a bit pulling someone else out for $50. The clouds parted and the sun started shining a bit, and made things seem just a little bit better. When the tow truck got to us, him NOT pulling us out wasn't an option. He was doing it no matter what. He meant business and was barking orders (and cursing the people who didn't get over or slow down passing him) at Adam (who had taken control to try and get the car out of the snow). My Dad informed us AAA approved pulling us out and they would reimburse him for the service (even though I don't have a card of my own, but I am on the policy as of now….I told my parents to put me on years ago….). He pulled us out, and we were on our way. The car was shaking a bit, and we thought the alignment was off or something. We got to cedar and inspected things and everything seemed ok. We knocked some ice off the tires and wheel wells, and got things as cleaned out as we could, and went on our way. The car "fixed itself" and worked fined the rest of the way, so we figured it was probably just ice buildup or something, and it was shaken off (probably literally) by driving. We made it the rest of the way with no problems, but passed two rollovers (one with an ambulance on site), MANY evidences of people sliding off the road, and many snow plows. We know things could have been so much worse, but they were not. Incidentally, after we initially slid off the road we said a prayer and thanked our Heavenly Father for protecting us and making things happen in the right order and at the right time.
Here is a picture of the Car stuck, and the gaping hole that could have made things so much worse.
Also is a drawing of my rendition of what happened. As I'm not an artist, I do apologize for the squareness of the cars, and the complete lack of scale…..but hey, I'm human J
(Here's a Link to the picture to see it bigger...)
Why does it take something like this to happen to make you realize how much God cares for us? I know he loves me, and I know he cares about my well being and protects and watches over me, but sometimes with the business of life, one forgets. The fact is, no matter how you live your life; God loves us and blesses us when he can. Of course living better makes that line of communication much stronger, but regardless I know he watches over his children. Sometimes I don't feel worthy for blessings like this, but like Adam said, God will bless us no matter what, and loves to bless us when he can. It's like "Man, I thought I was SO CLOSE to being even!!" But in reality, there's no way we will ever be even with him and what he and our savior Jesus Christ have done for us as humanity and children of God.
This weekend taught me a lot. I think the number one thing I learned, is the first line from this post. I'm going to take more opportunities when they present themselves. You never really know what's going to happen, and like Ferris Buhler says "Life moves pretty fast, if you don't take some time enjoy it, it'll pass you right by" (something like that)
On top of everything, I gained a new friend. We all decided (Jennifer, Adam, and I) that we now have no choice but to be friends. That's just what happens when you have experiences like this.
Life needs to be enjoyed. Life needs to be lived. Life is precious, but Life needs to be fun. Experiences need to be had. Asi es la Vida.
