Weren't we just here?

Back in Rexburg tonight, in the same hotel we were in a few days ago. We went to church with Jeannine, then headed back on the highway from Provo to Rexburg. We'll spend the next couple of days helping Melissa gather information, make contacts, etc. for coming back to school here in the fall.

Since we spent the last few days driving in Utah, and since this is my blog, I get to take a moment to comment on how much I dislike Utah drivers. Now, there are bad drivers in every state, and lots of drivers all over do things that I dislike. But it just seems that Utah has the highest percentage of anywhere I know where: almost every driver I saw during a 1 hour period was on the phone, some even texting while driving 80 miles/hour; highway speed limits within the city are 65, and that's still not fast enough for most drivers; they tailgate like crazy, some to the point where I can't see the front of their car in my side view mirror -- while going 65 miles/hour; more than any other location I've seen, they are more likely to cut you off, to speed up when you put your turn signal on to pull into their lane in front of them; or to come up on your tail, speed up and pass you, pull in front of you, then slow down. Basically, the drivers in Utah just seem extra competitive, rude, and in a rush. To them, everyone else is just an obstacle.

For this, and other reasons, I don't mind visiting Utah, I just wouldn't want to live there. One of the other major reasons is the weird juxtaposition of good and bad. That is, there are so many good Mormons (and so many church buildings), but there are so many don't-care-anymore Mormons, but also a ton of people who go way out of their way to prove they're not a good Mormon or any other kind of Mormon. I remember when I was in college, I used to look forward to going back home to California, where there seemed to be a lot fewer people who smoked, and where there was no smoking in restaurants! At least now smoking is not prevalent in public spaces, but there's still plenty of it.

Then again, I may have a prejudice as seeing it as the headquarters of the Church and unfairly holding it to a higher moral standard. Except the driving. There's no excuse for that.