Frick and Frack, call me back!

Jennifer has a secret boyfriend. We think it's Frack.

My roommate has suspicious behavior sometimes. She'll take secret phone calls and when later asked she'll say, "oh, it was just a friend..." Sometimes she disappears for days at a time. "Oh, I was just out." Or, "I was just with some friends." She never gives more details.

We think she likes her secret life. Especially because she knows it drives us crazy. She used to deny her secret boyfriend and get mad whenever we mentioned it. Now she denies it less and jokes around about it with us more. I think she even admitted it to me once as we were walking home from frisbee one night.

Last weekend we think we caught her, though we have no hard evidence. We still need to do some detective work. Set up surveillance. Follow her when she leaves. Get a tracking device. Confiscate her phone and read old text messages and look at call lists. We'd be quite good at this kind of stuff because we've done our research: two straight seasons of 24.

Natalie and I had a BBQ Sunday night for our Wasatch Back Relay team. It started at 6:30, so we should've been gone a little before then. I guess our delay was the usual Sunday afternoon nap, gathering stuff for our dang grilled quesadillas, and helping Jennifer jump start her car. We didn't get out the door until 6:45 pm. A few minutes before we left, Jennifer came back into the apartment, "Frack's coming over." He never comes over anymore. I haven't seen him in months. Minutes later he walks through the back door. It was too quick. Were they always planning to hang out that evening and we were just supposed to be gone by the time he came over?

Maybe we need the back story. Jennifer met Frack over a year ago. He was her roommates cousin. They instantly hit-it-off and started hanging out a lot. He'd come over and hang out with all the roomies, but he and Jennifer would go out and see movies together, etc. Months later he even remembered the first song they ever listened to together in the car. Something a little more than friendship had to have been there during all of this. Jennifer really liked him. But for some reason she sets up these walls between people. She puts up a "We're just friends" front so just in case he doesn't feel the same way she doesn't get hurt. There was sexual tension between them. They would talk about their relationship in the abstract. Neither was up front with the other. They would text message each other a lot. Frack would get girlfriends. Their text messaging would dwindle. They'd break up and he'd be back texting Jennifer all the time. It would cycle like this. Jennifer still liked him the whole time.

She says she's over him now. He frustrates her, or so she lets on. But maybe it's all an act. While Nat and I were at the BBQ, my friends Cyndi and Rob came over to see me. They knocked on the door but nobody answered. Cyndi looked through the peep-hole hole and could tell lights were on. They knocked again, but somebody turned off the lights. They walked around to the back to find our apartment's curtains half open and the place in darkness. She took a quick peek inside before running away. She swears she saw two people on the couch. But it was really too dark to be certain. Were Jennifer and Frack making out?!

I guess we need to solve this mystery once and for all. If it is Frack I don't know why she would have to hide it. Other than the fact she likes secrecy. Maybe it's not Frack at all. Maybe it's someone else that for some reason she feels she has to hide.

Post script: the names have been changed to protect the guilty. But if you know "Jennifer" and "Frack" you'll know exactly who I am talking about. Especially since I used everyone elses real name--use your powers of deduction.

26.2 years... 26.2 miles...

I am 26.2 years old today. To the very day. And this morning I ran 26.2 miles. That's one mile for every year. Exactly. Who knew! Pretty much I'm the coolest.

Earth Day 2K5

I hope everyone has the chance today to reconnect with that which sustains us. Take a moment to reflect on your relationship with the earth. Resolve to do more to lessen your impact and live within the rhythms of the landscape.

Go outside. Get dirty. Feel the earth beneath your feet and hands.

Secret boyfriends

I have a mysterious bruise right above my left calf, near the back of my knee. I noticed it yesterday. It's quite perplexing. It wouldn't be so weird except it seems to be a pretty big bruise with a little purple line going through the middle of it. I know, I'm kinda accident prone sometimes. And I do play a lot of sports. But still. I think I would have remembered hurting myself right there. (And I would have had to run into something backwards!)

So this is my theory. My roommate has a secret boyfriend. Maybe I do too. Maybe I have a secret abusive boyfriend that even I don't know about! Or my roommate abuses me in my sleep. Or I have some weird blood disease (other than the weird blood disease I already have) and I'm dying. All very plausible.

Wild Mercy

The eyes of the future are looking back at us

and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.

They are kneeling with hands clasped that we might act with restraint,

that we might leave room for the life that is destined to come.

To protect what is wild is to protect what is gentle.

Perhaps the wildness we fear is the pause between our own heartbeats,

the silent space that says we live only by grace.

Wilderness lives by this same grace.

Wild mercy is in our hands.

Terry Tempest Williams, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert.

Why I love Jack Johnson.

He surfs.
He makes films.
He's a champion for the earth.

Along with his mellow tunes that draw you in like the rise and retreat of waves breaking across the shoreline, Jack J is a supporter of grassroot environmental efforts. He recently joined the nonprofit group 1% For the Planet, an alliance of progressive companies dedicated to environmental work. He also started the nonprofit organization Kokua Hawai'i Foundation to promote environmental education in elementary schools in Hawaii. His upcoming tour is going to be as environmentally friendly as he can make it. Check out the Patagonia website for a complete interview with Jack J by Chris Malloy, Patagonia's surfing ambassador and lifetime friend of Jack's. There's also some footage of their trip to Chile. Check him out if you haven't already. You won't be disappointed. By supporting him and other's like him, we also support a healthier planet.