GGGOOOALLLL! (edited on April 6th)

I should probably get over this moment but I'm pretty proud of myself. Earlier today, I played an intramural soccer game with a group of friends. In the middle of the first half I was playing forward and my team released me with a far pass. I wasn't able to catch up to it but the goaltender on the other team was a bit timid and instead of picking it up just kicked it straight out. That is, straight back out to me. I was probably about five feet away and I slotted it cooly home for the third goal for the team. I love soccer and it was awesome to score! I've played high-school football and basketball, church basketball, and intramural football, but that goal was really cool. We won 4-2 (Ryan 2, Edsen 1, and myself 1) which means that as long as we don't post a no-show tomorrow and our sportsmen rating stays about 2.5 we are in the playoffs! Woot!

In other news life is as hectic as ever. Fortunately, and usually, as an undergrad for the majority of the time you don't have constant assignments to work on. Of course there is that odd paper every so often, but what usually occurs is that all you professor assign papers/tests on about the same day or week. That turns that week and the week before it into a mini-version of finals week. Law school is a bit different. Instead we have mini-finals weeks every week. Thus when the schools starts to combine projects say like oral arguments with the start of serious preparation for finals it gets bad and it gets bad quickly. Luckily for me, I've always seemed to do well under pressure so I'm doing great but the stress is starting to get to some classmates.

Oral arguments are on Thursday. Team 51, Dan and I, had our last round last Wednesday. We both felt good about the result and we seemed to believe that we probably won the round. Thus, the round this week takes on an important role. If we did win last week and we win this week, we move into the tournament proper. How it works is there are 24 or so teams from each section. From the last round only 12 advanced with winning records. Thus after this round there will only be 6 teams with perfect records. These six teams advance into the tournament with 2 going straight to the sweet sixteen(probably copyrighted) and the other 4 going into a small 2 round regional. With four sections that means eight teams receive byes and the other eight must work their way into the tournament. We are guaranteed at least this round on Thursday, but if we win we could be competing in a round every day of next week.

I'm pretty excited about it because I think I'm doing a pretty decent job at oral arguments and I enjoy doing it. Also, I think the natural Nielson inability to lose may be kicking in here as well. I think we have a good shot at advancing into the tournament but then it'll be interesting to see how far we go after that. I guess ultimately it is a wait and see kind of thing.

Other then oral arguments and the random other things that occur, such as intramural sports, there isn't a whole lot going on right now besides school. The weather is extremely nice and you just want to sit out underneath a tree and read all day, or play ultimate or soccer. It was interesting to note that we have entered into our last month of instruction and that in only a few short weeks my classmates will be heading to jobs or internships. I'll be preparing for my mission and law school will be behind us for awhile. Man time sure does fly.

I hope everyone had the opportunity to watch General Conference last weekend. I thought all the messages were worthwhile and as usual I especially enjoined the priesthood session. I don't have anything else to say, so I'll just leave you with the customary signature.

One Love