live for the disco

i live.

i love.

i am.

disco saturday night.

the kite runner

hi, lets try something new. a deeper, more personal look into my life is in order: just a few moments ago, i had this conversation with Dylan Lamb on facebook chat. 

regarding my nightly conference viewing:

Dylan

thanks man, hopefully i can just get a habit started of heading over everytime

that would be ideal

1:43amTrevor

yes, yes it would. its a great way to stay in shape

1:44amDylan

ya it is, i'm loving it. i just wish there was a way to search for a topic. you can search for topics in magazines and stuff, but not gen conf talks really

1:45amTrevor

yeah, but i'm realizing that every single talk is amazing. you just have to watch them one at a time.

1:45amDylan

ha good point

you've stumbled upon a beautiful thing

1:46amTrevor

i really have. thanks to sean. he introduced the idea, i ran with it like a child and a kite. hopefully the wind takes hold of it soon.

shoot. that was good. its going on my blog post tonight!

1:47amDylan

ha, maybe title it as "the kite runner", it's already taken but maybe people won't catch on

1:47amTrevor

hahaha

no one would ever guess that i stole the title. but i'm using it. thanks!

1:48amDylan

hey us bloggers gotta stick together 

Trevor

i would have you know that i'm posting this entire convo on the blogosphere.

1:49amDylan

well in that case.....antidisestablishmentarianism!

come join us, every night, at 12:00am. my room. 

on a completely unrelated note: today was.. well, thursday. you know what that means. 

oh, you don't?

it means sleeping till the sun just won't let you anymore.

it means pencourt with Angela Sorensen.

it means procrastination.

it means an especially hard bike ride.

it means Computer Science projects.

it means late-night P90X with my roommate.

thursday is the best day, i do all of the things i love.

i love sleep, Ang, procrastinating, cycling, CS, and even p90x.

time to start over. for tomorrow? lets just see how far i can get with just sleep.

until then, beloved readers.

a day of accounting

accounting midterm #2: success.

i still missed 2 more problems than i wanted to, but i can't complain.
i'm going to ace this class.

you're going down, norm nemrow.


some weekend in november 2009, i went to Yellowstone National Park with Kati Van Dusen and Aubrey Brennan.

this picture is the result of that trip. me, conned into wearing trunks and a sweater. aubrey, cozy in her sweats. kati, sitting comfortably close to michael's car.

it was cold. it was fun. it was surprisingly pretty, even though we didn't actually go in the park.

moral of the story? i'm missing this. i'm missing the weekend adventure to nowhere. i'm missing the needless trespassing into a national park. went to WYOMING. i couldn't even point the state on a map until i drove there myself.

i miss getting stuck in a blizzard, pulling over in an overly sketchy parking lot next to teams of truckers.


i miss the thrill. life changing weekends only take the time of one weekend, yet they are so few and far between.

here's to a weekend at the cabin in Zion.

here's to adventure. who's in?

Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.

commonly translated to mean, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." yesterday i embarked on a quest not unlike Dante's. i got on my most stable means of transportation. while i did not have my own Virgil to guide me, took off riding, looking for a place that could bring me to the 7th inner circle. i went looking for my hell.

what i found, however, was surprisingly similar. it was the closest thing i could find on earth. instead of posting those famous warnings at the top, the sign read, "HILL: USE LOWER GEAR." and you know what? that was good enough for me.

after riding miles and thousands of feet of elevation gain, i felt a push, no, a pull on my bike. it wanted to go down that hill.

call it curiosity, call it exhaustion, call it gravity. we descended. it was steep. it was a short lived, intense high. i knew i could not just descend that once. i knew i had found my personal "hell".

i got to the bottom of that hill, and was determined to make it back to the top.
1. first climb was great. my heart raced, endorphins flowed. the descent only added to this joy.
2. second climb - even better. with a clear idea of how fast i could go down, the sting in my legs was completely ignored.
3. third climb - i was hooked. addicted to the idea of making all 7 rounds, bringing my body as close to hell as this hill would allow.
4. my legs hurt. they begged, they pleaded to quit. but upon reaching the top, i got the same exhilaration, that same thrill that would inevitably curse me with another ascent.
5. at this point, it was my pride at stake. could i really quit, coming home disappointed and with nothing to blog about? again, my legs screamed.
6. have you ever seen someone sweat? this was no normal sweat, it was the sweat of complete exhaustion. it was the sweat of sweet victory. it was close, but the last 100 yards of this climb something terrible happened: my legs turned to stone.

i made it to the top, giving my bike everything i had and more. that 6th climb was hard. but i had one more to go, if i wanted to use Dante as a metaphor in my post.

7. the seventh circle. the seventh hill. by now, my feet seemed as if literally cemented to the asphalt. each cycle of the peddles was a personal victory against the hill. we worked in unison, the bike and i.
i stood up. 200 yards to go.
shift up one gear.
put all your weight into each mash into the peddle.
pull up with every ounce of strength with the opposite leg.
look up. look down.
you're close.
100 yards to go.
time slowed.
blood rushed from every crevice of my body to my crying legs.
the tunnel started its sinister enclosure on my vision.
50 yards to go.
49 yards to go.
victory could not have come any slower.
48 yards to go.
everything you have. put it to the hill.
think of the children.
what children?
think of whatever is making you do this.
my brain played tricks on me.
the tunnel tightened.
you can do it.
i thought of nothing. nothing could make me continue, but my own drive.
10 yards to go.
it was so close. that sign, translated to read, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."

i would beat it.
i would make it though all 7 circles.

i'm not sure what happened after that. but i do know, i made it to the top of that hill for the 7th time.

i made it through all 7 circles of hell, and punched through to the daylight.
they were enjoyable, at first. the thrill was worth the pain. however, around climb #4, my body rebelled. it tried to stop the ascent. it tried to fight the mental addiction i had created.

don't try this at home, folks. hell is a scary place.

a bump on the head; a sweater removed

last night i hit my head. the kind of head-hitting that only occurs when one is overly excited and underly cautious. the physical, literal, hitting of the head on very unforgiving stone. while this did not result in a life-changing, mind-altering, paradigm-shifting vision, it did leave me with a bump on the head. and you know, that bump on the head was worth it. it resulted in a fantastic picture; 7 friends stuffed in a fireplace.

notice the smile.

i like smiles.

smiles bring more smiles, more smiles bring laughter, and laughter brings joy.

smile more, world. there's too much to be happy about.

spring. today foreshadowed spring. no, there were not many shadows on the ground, but i can tell spring is imminent.

spring is my favorite. my favorite season; my favorite underused dance move.

spring brings warmth. warmth brings smiles. and, as you know, smiles bring joy.

thank you, spring. today, a sweater removed; tomorrow, a nap in the grass.

keep it secret, keep it safe

i made it back from california. safe. the drive was long, but worth it; the speeding ticket was not.

tonight i'll sleep well. my bed sounds great. i finished the Priesthood session of the Fall '09 conference, moving on to the Saturday AM session. join me, 12:00am every night.

i don't know how, or why, but we decided to line up and sit in the cubbies in the canon center tonight. it was fun, till i hit my head on the stone fireplace. then it was funny. i love these people.

 

this is surprisingly difficult.

'cause we're the 7 best friends, anyone could have'

hope this was very informative. that's what it was meant to be. g'night.

i'm coming home, again (again)

perfect night. perfect day. perfect weekend.

i could not have asked for a better way to spend this weekend: family. friends. surf. dirtbike. dance. spa. family. friends. surf.

i've literally spent every possible hour doing something extravagant. i love being home.

thanks are in order:
mom, dad, shane, shelby. i missed you. i love you. it was fun.
kailee. thanks for the best day, ever.
brooklyn. i can't wait till you come to provo. hurry up.

yet, when i think ahead to when i can finally rest, to when i can finally take a break, to when i can be at peace, i don't think of my room here in Orange County. i think of BYU. i think of that small dorm room. i think of provo.

why? i ask myself every second of every minute.

is provo really where i call home now? or is this just a glitch, some turbulence in my brain waves.

i don't know. either way, i look forward to the moment i get to sleep in my bed.

i'm tired.

po-po shut us down

first off, i'm home. home sweet home. home in the sense that i grew up here, it is a part of me, and me a part of it. home.

second. within one hour of being home, i got stopped by the cops.
no, i was not doing anything terribly illegal. but it did result in a phone call home for my underage brother, and a very understanding response from my great dad. thanks, dad.

i learned a lot today. in reality, i learned more today than i have in any full week of college. really. here's how it happened.
     i went to the temple this morning. it had been way, way too long. not to preach to the choir, but i suggest you go to the temple. now, tomorrow, and the next day. it was the best experience i've had all month.
     i drove home today. not the whole way, mind you. i had driven this drive before, even taken longer shifts.
     even when on vacation, it is possibly to be shut down by the po po at home.
     i talked to my dad. he's the best. if you ever get a chance to meet him, you'll see why. love you, dad.
     i can see my breath, even in california.
     i am still very much a 'Mac'.

i learned that you can get caught by the po-po; anywhere, and for anything.
they always shut me down. no, i'm not cool. i'm not living on the edge. and i am in no way 'BA'. but i attract them, like bears to honey.

sweeter than honey, was the white house. there the po-po can't touch you. there is peace.

hello, spring

i know i have already visited this on a previous post, but that was a good eighteen months ago.

i love my bike. i really, really do. i finally found a good spot for it to live in my room (sorry sean), begging for a quick spin. with any luck, i should be able to ride every day (resting sundays) for the remainder of the semester. i love spring.

Rides I Like:
Squaw Peak
Alpine Loop
relentlessly riding up and down the canyon
the take-every-right-hand-turn-in-North-Provo ride
...more to come

you know what else i love? my new room. and roommate, Sean O'Rourke. check his blog.

McKelle took this. i like it. thankyou thankyou!!

i'm coming home, again

going home seems more and more sensible every day that passes.

luckily, i'm making the trek this thursday. you're invited. thursday at 3 to sunday night.

on a completely unrelated note, i've got a very important announcement:

     this weekend, i purchased my very own piece of furniture. my first couch!

though it was from DI, and cost me all of $35, it is one of the most comfortable couches i've ever come to relax on. sure, it isn't your everyday leather couch from Arizona Leather Company, but it is 'plush'. it is firm enough so you don't hit the bottom when you sit, but soft enough that you feel it embrace you when you need some rest. it's fabric is in good order, excluding the two smaller-than-dime-sized holes. 

even more importantly, i have another announcement:

     every night, at approximately 12am, i will be watching one, just one, talk from the fall '09 general conference. 

i will be watching said messages from the above mentioned couch, and you are more than welcome to join. i've found this a great way to end the day. 

need a spiritual message, from the leaders of the LDS church, directed at you? need to park on something more comfortable than that standard Helaman Halls chair? need some good company?

join me, tonight at 12am, in watching general conference. 

or tomorrow. 

or the day after.

or basically any day until the conclusion of finals week.

catskiing

presidents weekend, i learned how to tame a wild cat and force it to take me up an untamed mountain. these are pictures from said weekend. best powder day, ever.

the group. sorta.

mid-trip loading into the cat. must have been run 7, of 13.

brother and father. miss this.

riding with the famous, one and only, shane brown.

end of the day. found a cool lake and took a pic by it. but you can't see it. trust me.

this guy was incredible. can't remember his name, but i guess that's why he's so INcredible. best cat driver ever, hands down.

a good, fluffy, 1-2 feet of untracked goodness, consistently.

in review of my life

i am old. so old.

4 years ago i was a freshman. in high school. even then, i was old.

8 years ago i was in 5th grade. still, i was old.

12 years ago i was 6 years old. again, old.

why? because i remember being 5. questioning the world at 4. opening my conscious eyes at 3. yes, i am indeed old.

i remember walking past 26 Santa Maria with Kathryn Vidmar, wondering where we would be when we grew up.

i remember sharing thoughts of elementary school, where we'd get our very own desks. we could stash unlimited Halloween candy in those (private?) desks.

i remember she moved away after kindergarten. i remember finding her again in 5 years, in middle school.

i remember thinking high school would never come. that it was a completely new place we would feel uncomfortable in.

i remember thinking the same thing of college. that we'd be a different by then. 

but always, i remember knowing we'd be best friends, forever. 

guess what, kathryn? we are old. we made it. we're living the dream. and you're still my best friend. 

i remember thinking i'd never drive a car. i remember thinking i'd never sit in a college-level class, typing away at an online journal, blogger. i remember thinking i'd never serve a mission. i remember thinking i'd never own my own house, be the head of my own family. 

but with this new-found age, i am indeed that old. i can drive. i am currently in Bio 100, writing to mr. Blogger. i'm turning in my papers within the year. in a few more, i could be married. and that seems ok. 

i cherish you, youth. i accept you, old age. 

welcome me back, already.

its been an eventful one year hiatus from the blogosphere. i honestly didn't think it'd still be around. welcome me back.

things have stayed the same. i've kept some old posts that i liked. they remind me of simpler times. i still have brown eyes.

things are new. new blog name. new clothes. new music. new friends. new trials. new roommate. new mountains. new life.

trevop is a nickname given to me by my best friend McKelle. i like it. i ran with it. i'll keep running.
meghann murphy-i'm missing you. consider this post to the blogging world a tribute to you.

i'm training to beat my dad on September 11, 2010. one hundred miles of trails. he's done this before--for a good 30 years longer than i have. but-look down to that post on youth-he's got something coming for him.