All I Wanna Do Is See Ya Bounce With Me

Chad has many moves, but Mark's favorite is a little thing he likes to call "bounce." Chad doesn't always do this on command, so this footage was hard to come by. Mary prefers the slow-mo version, "booouuunnnccceee." Someone has a little too much time on their hands. Ok, it's Mark.

University of Louisville, Louisville, KY

Mark's dental school tour continued with a brief stop in the Bluegrass state. Two thumbs up for enthusiasm and overall friendliness of the faculty and students at U. of L. The school is a little old, but has many positives as well, namely, the feeling of "being home." Not that Mark really was home (wearing his virtual reality headpiece,) but the city, the school, and the people felt like home. During the interview, Dr. Ralston said, "Yeah, we're just good ol' country folk." We also consider ourselves country folk, so there is an appreciation for that. Mark says it's a place that he'd be excited to move the family,...watch out.

Virgina Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

"Now boarding flight 746, service to Richmond." Oh the soothing sound of Mrs. Airport Voice. Mark boarded five airplanes in two days in his quick trip across the country and back. Thankfully, a friend provided a place to stay making everything a whole lot cheaper. VCU is known for giving its dental students a great clinical experience. You can't go wrong with that. Mark thinks the city feels a little colonial, even though it doesn't really look that way. It just feels old. The interview went well, but it is really good to be home.

Chad, The Best Of

Chad has been hinting to the fact that he doesn't get enough face time on the blog, so we've created a montage just for him. Here's the latest from the adventures of one Chad Johnson: chewing on bear, sporting his new "mob boss" sweatsuit, with a duct-taped diaper, playing football, catching a diamondbacks game, hat backwards, dippin' in the pool, camping, and of course, pushing his cousin's pink baby stroller.

BYU 59 - UCLA 0

Saturday afternoon we took our seats at LaVell Edwards Stadium with high expectations of a thriller. The clash with the Bruins lived up to the hype for,...well,...about 8 minutes. BYU established dominance early and didn't let the foot off the gas. It was fun to see the Cougars score touchdowns like they were going out of style (In fact, Jen said that Entertainment Tonight officially placed touchdowns on their "Out-of-Style List" later that evening.) I believe her. Why would she lie? We all had a lot of fun even as the suspense wore off the sun's rays seemed to intensify. Hot, very hot.

Best dialogue from the father-son combo behind us:
Father: "They can't go for it on fourth down when they're up 59-0, because there is this unwritten law in football about not rubbing it in the opponent's face."
Son: "I don't care dad! I want 'em to score!"

We were there; he really didn't care.

"There is No Arizona"

Anybody remember that Jamie O'Neal hit from the '90s? Well, we set out to prove Ms. O'Neal wrong over labor day weekend as we took a little trip down south. We spent Friday night at Dave and Areli's house in Flagstaff and then continued on to Willcox the next morning. With the BYU kickoff still a few hours away, Mark and Jeff decided to golf scramble against Uncle Bruce and his son, Weston. We soon found out that Weston is a ringer as he gave the father-son duel a one shot victory with some "9th green" magic. No hard feelings here. We then spent the afternoon watching the Cougs in their unimpressive victory over UNI. Sunday we attended the Spanish Group that Jeff leads and then spent the afternoon relaxin'. On Monday we set sail for Phoenix to meet Dave, Areli, and Crystal at the Diamondbacks game. All of us Johnsons were really excited to see "The Big Unit" Randy Johnson on the mound. We weren't the only ones as the Cardinals came out and hit 4 homeruns off him in only 4 innings. The Diamondbacks battled back with 4 homeruns of the own and won 8-6. The ultimate highlight was provided by Stephen Drew who hit for the cycle (that means he hit a single, a double, a triple, and a homerun in the same game.) It was great to see Mom and Dad Bushman and we really enjoyed the weekend. Oh and by the way Jamie, there really is a grand canyon.

Midwestern University, Glendale AZ

"Glendale, in the Zona." That is Mark's first and last enjoyable memory of the movie "RV." On the other hand, he's pretty sure the reference was to "Scottsdale" and not "Glendale," so apparently it isn't a great memory after all. The last leg of the Johnson journey through Arizona was a stop in Glendale for Mark's first dental school interview. A little nervous, a little excited was the feeling going in, but things seemed to go pretty well. The school was very impressive and faculty really seemed to care (Mark claims he has an eye for insincerity.) Midwestern is a health science university that has been around for a while, but the dental school is brand new. Sounds exciting.

Toughest question: Other than family members or religious figures, who do you consider a hero?

Best quote: "Can we go get our nails done over there at "Quik Nails" instead of going to lunch?" - Dr. Polk, a 12-year-old in a 70-year-old body, on the bus ride to Subway for lunch. The old-tymers at Midwestern have to be among the funniest in the country.