Retro College Years embarassment photo...

This was a Girls Choice Formal Dance.

My date was Opera Man (his real name was Josh but he sang Opera...hence Opera Man)

Zeke could do the most hilarious animal impressions.  I didnt know Alan a whole Lot and Michael  was addicted the the game Quake(??)...something like that.  So addicted in fact he likened ones personal religious beliefs and standards to the game.  It was wierd. I digress.

Krista and Elisa and I went skiing together for the first time about a week or so before this dance.  We went to Alta Ski Resort.

It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day, clear blue skies, and absolutely excellent skiing conditions.

After 6 or so hours on the slopes we headed back to Elisas car...and discovered that our faces hurt so bad we could barely talk.

WE DIDNT PUT ON ANY SUNSCREEN!!  That sun refleced off that snow and burned us so badly we looked like Giant tomatoes and Carrots.  We had to go to the health center and get antibiotic cream, we were so burned and blistered.

I could feel the heat POUNDING in my face everytime I walked outside in the cold mountain air. My skin was so hot it could melt ice cubes. It was ridiculous.

We had to work at Vegas Night fundraiser with Lobster faces, had to go to the Dance the color of Neon Glow in an Ice Cream Shop window.

On the plus side, about 2 to 3 weeks down the road the burns peeled off into a great healthy tan...just not in time for this great picture.

WOO HOO!!! Shout out to my Alma Mater!!

Shout out to my Alma Mater- Utah State University!
30-4 record, won their conference, and are on their way to the NCAA tourney.


Hail the Utah Aggies,We'll play the game with all our might.See the colors flying,The Aggie Blue and Fighting White.How they stir us onward!We'll gain the victory, All Right!Hail the Utah Aggies,We're out to win so Fight! Fight! Fight!
Utah State Hey! Aggies all the way!Go Aggies! Go Aggies! Hey! Hey! Hey!

I am mighty proud.

Old Main Hill Sledding

During the winter months, Northern Utah gets quite dumped on with snow. The skiing is fabu, there is sledding, there is snowboarding and tubing...there are also bored Utah state college students with a hill and a matress.

One such winter of 1994 a group of roommates and friends from Valley View and Mountain View Dorms decided to take a little study break and head on over to Old Main Hill on campus. Old Main Hill is the main hill where the "Old Main" building is. The picture looks pretty tame, but in actuality it is a rather broad, sloping hill that steepens and is ended by a concrete wall that drops down a few feet to the sidewalk and onto the road. When I went to school there, they used to put hay bales in front of the wall to soften the blow and to keep people from hurting themselves. This particular night the hay bales were covered in snow and made almost a little ramp over the concrete wall. Plus they were frozen, so they were just as rock hard as the concrete wall themselves.

We headed out with little plastic roll up sleds from Smiths and cardboard boxes that we salvaged from the recycling room. We trudged over to Old Main to discover we were not the only ones with the ideas to go sledding. There had been so much snow, we actually had classes cancelled. Out in Utah there has to be practically apocalyptic proportions of snow for people to even blink. I will tell you after this one particular snowfall I needed thigh high boots.

So we are sledding and having a great time, pretty tame. the snow had been packed down, the sledding was fun. Then the mattress kings showed up. This was a group of young men who lived off campus who had this old ratty full sized mattress that they brought out for special sledding occasions. They stood at the top declaring themselves King of the hill and 4 of them jumped on the bed and sped down Old Main Hill and bringing themselves to a halt right before hitting the wall at the bottom. They dragged their "sled" back up and asked if anyone wanted to go for a ride. I think it was My roommate,"Zab" and I who decided to have a go at it. (Zab was short for Elizabeth. When we first met she said "my name is elizabeth. Dont call me Liz, dont call me beth" so I said "can I call you zab?" It stuck. Anyhoo....) Like I said I THINK it was Zab, it may have been Diane or Amy. i honestly cant remember. So for all intents and purposes of this story, I shall keep the character Zab.

She and I piled on with the 3 mattress kings and another person. We were given a shove to get started.
The mattress slowly started to creep down the hill,then hit it's stride about 1/3 of the way down. Since there were 6 of us on the mattress, we were weighed down pretty heavy and this sled was using our weight as some sort of momentum. We were going faster and faster and faster, and I could see the brick wall was getting closer and closer. The kings were trying to stick their heels into the ground to get the juggernaut slowed down, but the hill just mocked our despair and urged our out of control vehicle to go even faster. Mattress King #1 started yelling "Oh no! Oh no! Oh No!" As his oh-nos got more and more frantic, his voice got higher and higher pitched and his words faster and faster, almost like our matress hurtling down the hill to our inevitable spleen ruptures and concussions.
Mattress King #2 started throwing out cuss words as he continued to try and dig the heel of his cowboy boot into the iced down path that we were taking. (i swear by the end of that trip the heel of his cowboy boot had been filed down into some sort of deformed shape)
Mattress King #3 just sat there, paralyzed with fear and shock. He was gibbering some sort of last words, praying in tongues or possibly his life was flashing before his eyes. He was pretty useless, crying for his mommy and apologizing for all his wrong-doings, bargaining with God to spare his life.
Finally Zab in her wisdom starts yelling "Bail! Bail! Bail" She is smacking everyone, starling them out of their last moments here on earth. "Bail! Bail! Bail!"

The other guest on our trip closed his eyes and fell over sideways, falling off the mattress like a water skiier hitting the water at 90 miles an hour, skittering over the surface to come to his final resting place. Zab pushed The paralyzed matress king off his perch, and he too went flying off bouncing off the ice as we continued to hurtle down the hill at breakneck speed.. She and I each grabbed a remaining matress king by the arms, threw them off and then rolled off, sliding, rolling, bumping down the rest of the hill.(Kind of like Wesley in The Princess Bride..."Aaaaaaassssssss yoooooouuuuuu wiiiiiiissssshhhhh!" )

I got kicked in the head and elbowed in the eye and hit my jaw on the packed snow and ice. We came to rest almost nose to nose at the wall of frozen hay bales. We got up, took a head count and realized we were all still alive, all accounted for with only a few scrapes and bruises. As we shook ourselves off and helped the three fallen kings, we realized the matress was nowhere in sight. It had hit the wall, flipped upright and dumped itself on the street below.
People were cheering and "I'm next!" and "That was awesome!"

The entire length of the ride: 12 seconds. It seemed like forever.

We helped the kings retrieve the matress and carry it back up Old Main on our shoulders, like warriors returning to the village with our spoils over our heads.

Mattress Kings regained their composure at the top of the hill and the rest of the night limited the number of people on the matress to 4 at a time. I cant tell you how many times I went Matress sledding that night, but every time I go sledding now(you know in the south where we just get a ton of snow) I think of the mattress kings and I can hear zab screaming in my ear "Bail! Bail! Bail!"

This picture was from the Utah statesman . Sledding down the Old main Hill has been a tradition since the University opened in 1888. I miss it sometimes.

Can i speak to Mrs McBridge?

My name is Sarah McBride. MICK-BRIDE.
How hard is that? Honestly?

Growing up my name was Sarah Koch. (any takers on the pronounciation of that??)
It was pronounced "Cook".

Growing up I heard Sarah Kotch, Sarah Couch, Sarah Cock, Sarah Coke, and a few other ones that some nasty boy in my neighborhood called me.

I went to College at Utah State University. I went to a church ward there and the ward clerk couldnt read his own handwriting when I said my name and spelled it for him. On the church roster I was immortalized as Satach Coch. SERIOUSLY??
To this day 14 years later my roommate and dear friend STILL calls me Satach.

How hard is it? S-A-R-A-H space K-O-C-H. try spelling your last name for any reservation agent and it takes ages.for example. Booking a flight from Salt Lake City to Chicago O Hare:

agent: Last name?
me: Koch. K-O-C-H.
agant : C-o-c-h.
me. No. K-O-C-H
agent: sorry K-o-c-k
me: NO! Koch. It is spelled K-O-C-H.
agent: Cooh?
me. K as in kangaroo, O as in octopus, C as in cookie H as in Harry. KOCH
agent: koch
me. yes.
agent: ok miss kotch...

But when my tickets arrived it was spelled Coch.Had to get them changed.

We would get phone calls from telemarketers looking for the Couches, the cocks, the Cooches, the Kotches. One day one man called and asked to speak to Mrs. Knock.
I said " I am sorry, there is no onw here by that name" and hung up.

A few years later I met my husband, with a nice easy last name. McBride. I though "woo hoo! an end to the misery and constant name correction."
WRONG.

Not long after I was married The phone rang.

me: Hello?
other person: Can I speak to Mrs McBridge?

I have heard Mc bird, Mc bridge, and my fave Mrs Mac Birdie.

oh well. I guess it never ends, no matter HOW easy your last name.