St. George and Back.

So. Last weekend was conference, and Saren talked me into bringing Julie down to St. George for the weekend (I liked the idea too). So we went down there and had an awesome time. A nice long drive is always good for talks...and there is nothing like a good traffic jam in the middle of nowhere for no apparent reason. We found a place to go backwards off an on-ramp and made up some time on the access road, so it wasn't too bad.

As usual Saren and Jared were awesome hosts. Jo and Aja were down in Vegas til Saturday night for Aja's reunion. So we had a great time with the Loosli's til Jo and Aja got there and then had a great time with them as well. They were all real nice to Julie and I think she was impressed by all you guys. I mean you are pretty awesome. So we had a lot of good food, both physically and spiritually...enjoyed some beautiful hikes...good weather...and lots of little kids.

For those of you who don't know, this is my new Jeep I just bought from a Vietnam vet. Just kidding, this is Jo's Jeepster Commando from the 60's. He let me and Julie take it out for a spin up Snow Canyon. That thing is awesome...feels like you are driving one of those army jeeps you see in the movies. Anyway, we made it to the top where there are some pretty huge speed bumps. Well, we went over those...and suddenly the old commando quit on me. So we tried to jump it, looked pretty dumb for a while...then couldn't get it to start so we coasted the whole way down the canyon, which was actually quite pleasant. We got back down to where Jo was and he in turn found out that one of the stupid big old speed bumps had popped the battery cable off the terminal. He slapped in on and it started...i guess I could have figured that out, I just figured we were out of gas. Anway, it was a great trip...I really enjoyed conference and the chance to spend some good time with Julie.

This last one is from the other night, Julie took me out and one of the stops was a 3d Imax about the ocean and the life therin. That would explain the sweet glasses on my head. We came home after and made fondue and ate with mom and dad. Nothing tops that huh?
Well. As for now I am going to be sticking around here in Salt Lake for a while as Julie is pretty awesome, and I can't just leave now that things are going so well. Not what I had anticipated, never in a million years would I guess that I would still be here and not back on the East Coast, but good thing God knows better than I do and things don't always turn out they way I expect them. Love you guys, give me a call...

a girl

So you may have heard a bit that there is a girl. Julie. She's pretty awesome. We were really good friends in Jerusalem...she had a guy back home though, so nothing really amounted other than us getting to be really good friends. So we got back, she was home in San Diego for the summer...a couple of weeks ago I went by to visit her when I was down in Provo and decided I ought to ask her out (after firguring out what happened with the other guy). So we went out. And we hit it off...so we have been spending a lot of time together the last couple weeks. and it has been really...well, great. She is really quite a girl. She came up last weekend and met mom and dad and Saren and Jared, so if you want the real inside scoop you might have to ask them. That much said, she is making my life quite a bit harder right now as I am unemployed and deciding where to go next...but harder in a really good way. Call me and we can talk details. Love you all, read on for more on the Rally that finally took place.

The Rally

Well. We came we saw we conquered. The Rally happened. It happened good. It is crazy to spend so much time on something and then all of the sudden it is over. What an experience it has been. It has been crazy. Every day til late 9pm working our tails off. It was awesome to see it actually happen. Mitt was there, he was happy, his people were happy and I think we raised a pretty good sum of money. So as Mitt has said before "I was pleased as punch" to see this thing finally come about.

Here they are....The Rally Coordinators. From left to right. Stevie from Iowa, me, Danielle, Brad and my doggy Parley. Had these guys not been around it would have been impossible to keep my sanity. We were all the on the same boat and felt the same way about a lot of things so we were able to vent to each other and keep our cool instead of going ape on our bosses. They are all now really good friends and it was definately a pleasure to work with them and get to know them. I think they will be friends for a long time.

Here's the Rally in action. We had around 1.000 there. Not bad, not what we wanted, but everyone that was there was dedicated to the cause and really excited about what is happening with the campaign.
Here we all are making calls. The baloon were the markers. Red = $1,000. Silver = 2,000 Gold = 5,000 and Blue = 10,000. By the end there were quite a few baloons around as we raised a good chunk of cash. Fund raising is not easy, especially after you have exhausted most of your options. I am really interested to see what the campaign does in the fourth quarter as they have pretty much tapped out all of their resources.

The Perks

You all know how much I love cities. Salt Lake isn't all that big, but anytime you get up on top of something that is the tallest building around. It just feels good. We go up on top of the Wells Fargo building every once in a while to keep sane.
The big event is in 48 hours. Things are crazy around here. Like you can't imagine. I love how people around here handle stress. It's like...ok here comes the event...let's get more stressed and make it even more difficult. That much said I am learning at a very high rate here, both the "dos" and the "don'ts" I have no idea what I am going to be doing next week at this time. Life is crazy, but I kind of like flying on the seat of my pants. Living it up.
I have been hanging out with this girl...and let's just say she has it going on. We were good friends in Jerusalem and things just kind of happened and we have been having some fun times together. If you want to know more you are going to have to call me about it...maybe that will entice you enough.
Love you all. And just remember. Go Mitt!

The Rally Office

Early in the morning, the office prepares itself for another day or coMITTment. This has been my home for the last two months. I spend more time here than anywhere.

IMG00048.jpg

I have a crink in my neck from tilting it to hold the phone on my ear. I don't think I ever want to use a phone again. I do get to flirt with some nice old ladies on the phone though, and that is always fun.

The Wells Fargo

The Closest I can get to the Big Apple right now.

The Office

Boxes and boxes of nonsense. The Rally is in two days and the office is basically full of boxes...not really sure what they are but they are probably important.

My Life

Have you ever felt like a monkey that does whatever someone tells you to do? Have you ever taped a phone to your head? This is my buddy Parley. One of my best friends who happens to be my coworker. He keeps me sane. The people I am working with are great. They make something that could potentially make one crazy, quite a bit of fun. The rally is coming along. My job description and what I am supposed to do changes just about every day as we try to get ready for this massive event. This week one of our responisibilites on top of coordinating with all the recruiters for the event, we became call monkeys. They asked us to get on the phone and start calling all the donors in the state, thus Paley has a phone taped to his head. I strapped it on there real good. it brought on a pretty good laugh. So I have talked to a lot of people on the phone this week. Mitt has a lot of really old people for supporters. but I have also talked to a lot of really great people that want to come to the event.
I am learning a lot about the world, and how it works. Some of the methods they take aren't always the most effective, but I have learned to respect what they want us to do, and just do it. I think a lot of the business world comes down to people having confidence and acting like they know what they are talking about that. When you do that, it is like almost automatically people respect you and think you know what you are talking about. Have you experienced that it in the business world?
At any rate, things are coming along. This is going to be an experience I will never forget. I am not sure yet if i am in to things enough to go back to Boston. I am also going after a job at a huge luxury vacations/travel company that is based in Seatlle, but they have an office in NYC. check it out.
It is a lot of fun to be here in SLC, I haven't really lived here for like 6 years, so it is fun to be here with my best buddies, and to be close to mom and dad and char (until she takes off on Sunday).
I am headed up to Jackson Hole for Labor Day to go river rafting with some of my friends. I am excited about the rafting, but even more so I am excited to eat a Billy Burger. So there's a bit of an update on my life. Love you all. Check out that is the main website for this fundraiser. SLC is the last of 42 of these going on all over the country the last week of September. Go Mitt.

Buffalo Bills

MittLoganSoCal

This is a nice flower don't you think... I quite like it. Life is good right now. I am going full time on the campaign...I really like it so far, it is pretty intense, but quite awesome to be a part of such a great thing. Mitt won in Ames and has some good momentum going. One of my best friends, Parley is working alongside with me, and that makes it a lot of fun. We are going for 2500 people maybe up to 3000 there to raise money $3 million on the 28th of September. We have a lot of good stuff going and a lot of great people working, so it is definintely possible.
Me, Tal and Char had an awesome trip up to Logan last night and today. We took Grandma out to dinner and had a great night talking and hearing stories. Tal recorded a lot of it, so if you would like to listen let us know. My favorite part was last night...I got Grandma's record player going and pulled out all of her old records. I want to get a record player now. The old fashioned music, the old fashioned sound... I just love it. It was fun for Grandma to recall her memories as we listened. The best part was when she said, "I can close my eyes and see Dean there dancing with me, and I know exactly what move he is going to do next." That one really hit me. What an incredible woman Grandma is. We also spent some time with Melva Stiles (a famous singer who dad met in NYC on his mission who also sang at mom and dad's wedding, she was there visiting grandma) And EmmaRae, Vern's wife. They just told us all sorts of good stuff. We went to Church with Gram today and then headed down and met up with Mom and Dad and spoke with them at a big fireside in Bountiful. Like 20 stakes of single adults, about 1,000 people there. Mom and Dad had me and Tal and Char take some time and speak as well. It was really cool. There was a great spirit there...Mom and Dad are amazing speakers, they are able to appeal to anyone, even young singles. Dad was bringing the house down with hilarious stories about his decision to marry mom and mom brought a special spirit as she talked about getting out of the world and serving others. I also met a beautful girl there I hope to be able to take out.
So it has been an action packed couple of weeks. Read below for pics and info about Char and my trip to LA last weekend. I love you guys.

L.A. Hollywood. SoCal

Hey all. You like the song don't you? I sure do. It is from the movie Once that just came out.
It is a movie from the UK that won some stuff at the Sundance Festival. I haven't seen the movie, but is the lead actor and actress singing this song. So as you may have heard, I got to go on a nice roadie with my best little sister down to SoCal to see our good friend Lisa. It was so awesome. SoCal is just a great place. From the beaches, to the museums, to Hollywood, all that good stuff. This top pic is of us on a tandem beach riding from Santa Monica beach down to Venice beach (crazy people land).

Here is me and Char in Hollywood. In front of the Chinese theatre...with Julie Andrews and my main man Frank Sinatra. I am liking that guy more and more. I can't wait to hear him sing in heavan one day. He is awesome. So simple itinerarie. We drove for what seemed like ages, w/ nice rest stops in Vegas at In and Out Then to the border of Cali/Nevada and a ride on the rolller coaster at Buffalo Bills. It was sweet. Next day, to the beach...Malibu beach, then to Santa Monica and bike ride, then to 3rd Street in Santa Monica (street performers galore). Saw some crazy stuff. Then went up to Hollywood. On Sunday we went to church with Lisa and her sweet fam, had some food with them and then went to the Getty. The sweetest museum I have seen on this side of the US (one of my new favorites in the world) Atop a mountain overlooking LA. The architecture was amazing, the gardens, and the art. Not too much, just a couple from the major artist, but it was quite impressive. They had an awesome Photography exhibit on as well. That night...to the beach in Malibu for a picnic behind all the insanely large houses.

The next day we went to the Ronald Reagan Library, saw the actual Air Force One and learned a lot about Reagan. He was an awesome man...his wife too. Then to Huntingon Beach to Tal's stomping grounds. Hung out there on the beach, then to Anaheim for the Red Sox game...It was Awesome!! The sox lost, but anytime you get to see the two best teams in Baseball go head to head, it is a pretty good game.

Then we hit the road and drove for another 78 hours and got home. With a stop in St. George to say hello. It was quite a trip and it was so awesome to spend some good quality time with my sis. She is the greatest. So much going on for that girl...it was great to talk and get advice, and just enjoy ourselves...and wear matching Red Sox shirts from Israel at the game. More pics below. Notice the slide show on the right of a bunch more pics. I think I want to live in SoCal for a while some day.

The Getty. The temple. The beach in Malibu. I think I want to live in Southern California one day. Those beaches. The ocean. The waves. The temple as a beacon over LA. The Red Sox. Hollywood. Huntington Beach. The Ronald Reagan Library. They just have a lot of great stuff in that neck of the wood. No wonder Tal liked it there so much. Best of all I was with Char. We had such an awesome time.

A Whole Lake of Thinking

Well. These last weeks have been full of good times with the family, beauty time at the lake, and me thinking myself to death. I have thought so much about life and what do in the last little while, it's actually quite taken me by surprise. I am usually a pretty laid back guy, and not to say I have been crazy or antsy or anything, just that I didn't realize how intensly I could think about life. Not sure if that made sense...let me put it simply...this is a tough decision.

Trips to Bloomington Lake with my awesome little neices and nephews, and great talks with my siblings have parents have lightened the burden a lot. But it is just one of those things, that no matter how much you talk to others, when it comes down to it...you yourself have to make that decision. So I am learning that. And the ropeswing is back up at Bloomington after going on hiatus for a period of time.

This is all of us who went on the swing... Kristi took the picture, and afterward she went as well, in her clothes. I thought she was going to freeze to death, but she made it out alright. So the other day I had a great talk on the phone with Spencer Zwick, who is the head of fundraising on Mitt's campaign. We talked and he proposed the idea of me working on the campaign... (big surprise) no what I mean is, the campaign is really working hard to get fundraising going at a more grassroots level...instead of the the richies giving all the money, they are trying to really get it coming in from all levels. So at the end of September, in Salt Lake at the Salt Palace they are having a huge call day (like the one mom and I did in Boston) but with 2500+ people there. Each person being a community captain of sorts, who by themselves, or with a team of a couple of people has commited to raise $1000 that day. So bringing in around 3 million in that one day. Once they see it can be successful here in Utah, they will expand in the next quarter to other states.

So you're thinking, ok, where do you fit in Eli? Well they have the heads of Finace and fundraising for Utah being the chairs of the event, but they need 3 or 4 full time staffers to work out of Salt Lake for the next 7 weeks coordinating the event, getting people excited and committed to it, and actually making things happen. So he asked me to be one of those people. So for the firt bit I would be in Salt Lick and then move on to Boston afterward, hopefully with a good reputation after having a good showing at this fund raiser. If for some reason I am really not feeling it at that point I can move on to something else. So it seems to me to be the perfect opportunity. The more I think about it, the more into it and excited I am. I just sent an email to Spencer telling him that I am excited about the idea, he is going to send me a formal offer, and assuming it is all good and right, that's what I will be doing. Living with Tal in NYC is extremely intriguing and hard to look past, but I have a feeling we'll be there together before too long. By January, or November when Mitt gets elected. So give me a shout, let me know what you think. I sure love you all.

An interersting opportunity.

As most of you have heard, I had the chance to go back to Boston with Mom for this Mitt Romney Fundraiser last week. It turned out quite nice as I am thinking about going back to work on the campaign. This gave me the chance to get up close and personal and see what this is all about. I really liked the feeling there (and the chance to go the Fenway and the Garden). I don't like politics too much, but to work on a Presidential campaign, especially when it is someone who holds the same values as me, is once in a lifetime, not to mention a good resume builder.

So Mom and I made calls from the floor of the Boston Garden with a goal to raise $10,000 between us. It was a little awkward calling people and asking for money, but after 6 or 7 hours, we made our goal! Largely because of Dad, he was calling people from SLC and then calling me, and I would fill out the donor sheets as I talked to him. So we raised a lot of money, and it made it look like I was doing something worthwhile, other than calling friends for 10 and 20 dollar donations.

They even had these banners down. #33 that's Larry Bird. #00 the chief, Robert Parish.

Here we are standing outside the chartered JetBlue plane on the tarmack at the private airport in Salt Lake. That was pretty cool. So anyway, I am feeling pretty good about the prospect of going to work on the campaign. I fasted about it yesterday and have yet to receive a stupor of thought, so assuming I can actually get a job, I think I am going to go for it. Work there in Boston until the campaign ends, and then see what happens from there, maybe migrate down to the Big Apple because as you all know, that is one place I just have to live. I am excited to see you all at the reunion! Keep reading down for some pics of Fenway!

Fenway Pahk! (say it with a bostonian accent)

How bout that lighting.

You can see the history right in these seats.

Terry Francona uses this phone to call the bullpen to bring Papelbon in.

This is where the famous pitchers stand. (in this exact same stance as they look out of Boston's dugout)

The Green Monstah!!

It is the dream of every Red Sox fan to walk on the field at Fenway. There is something magical about Fenway. Being in there and walking around, the whole stadium empty. Thinking of all the great players that had been there. Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Big Papi, Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez, Wade Boggs, The Rocket. It was pretty dang cool.

I wish that guy would have moved, but he was pretty set in his ways there.

This is the 2004 World Series Trophy. The one that broke the curse of the Bambino. They had it out there on the field, just for us to take pictures with. Someone has some connections.

This right here is the Green Monster. If you don't know what that is, well I am sorry. It is the left field wall at Fenway. And it was made out of tin. I am sorry for all those who have smashed into it trying to catch a fly ball.