“He has a five year plan...” “What is it, don't DIE?”

Plans change, people adapt. I thought about this as I sat on the top of the giant Y painted on the mountainside overlooking Provo and the surrounding valley at 1:30 a.m. This is not where I thought I would be, in fact most of what I had thought I would do, didn’t happen and everything that did was not in the forecast. Is that bad? No, just odd.

Today was another free showing of Napolean Dynamite in downtown SLC. I want to see this movie.

My plan: work until 3-3:30, pick up some friends, go kick it in line until 7, watch the movie, get back probably around 10:30 or so.

Contingency plan: If no one can come with me, I’ve got my book and my Gameboy Advance with Super Street Fighter II (greatest game ever…ever). If I can’t get in, I’ll either hang around downtown with the friends or I brought clothes to change into and I would go to the Salt Lake Temple.

After a phone call, I find out that everyone bails on going, but I am determined to see this movie. So three o’clock rolls around and I walk out to my car and as I am standing in the parking lot I am flooded with the severity of the situation. I will be spending the next 7 hours by myself with the hopes of seeing a movie. Now I like myself, I think I’m funny, good looking, charismatic, entertaining, etc. But is this really the best way to spend my evening? And right there in that 1/1,153,234th of a second, I decided I shouldn’t go this week (they have another showing next Wednesday). So I’m standing outside in the parking lot and I’m thinking: “Well...now what?”

Since I already had planned to go to the temple, I started by going over to the Provo one. It was great and refreshing. I got home, changed out of my shirt and tie and remembered that it was Thursday and there was Institute (like a religion class) tonight. I skateboarded there and back and afterwards, changed to go to the gym. Following, my "gym"ing, I stopped by Blockbuster to rent The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It’s like the Shawshank Redemption meets the Great Escape, played out with a Half-life interface and design. That = Brilliant.

These walls are kind of funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, gets so you depend on them. That's institutionalized. They send you here for life, that's exactly what they take. The part that counts, anyways.

After spending some “quality time”, trading smokes for a shiv, “shanking” a dude named “Rust” to get some respect and busting into the sewers of the prison, Mindy called to see what I was up to and if I wanted to come with them to go hike the Y. A gentle and slightly comical hike and we were at the Y and I was sitting on the top edge of the right slant looking out over the valley.

When I get too caught up with “my” plans, I think I am doomed to disappointment. I get set upon my expectations and if things don’t turn out how I thought they “should” I get annoyed or frustrated. I’ve just got to follow the advice of the wise Doctor Dre: “So just chill, ‘til the next episode.” When I relax, and enjoy what is happening, rather than what could or should be happening, life’s quite enjoyable and fulfilling...

...and the view from here is incredible.