Happy New Years!

Well, here it is. New Years eve. 2010 is over, tomorrow is a whole new year. Writing in here every day for the last two months has taken a lot out of me, and I’m looking forward to a little bit of a break. I’m still going to write in here, just not nearly as often, probably only when I have a legitimate story to tell. I do appreciate the readers that have stuck with me during the boring entries this last little bit. Thanks for the memories and the good times, and I’ll see you next year!

Poor, Poor Echo

I noticed today that my car is super dirty. Of course it’s going to be dirty, it’s winter, and that’s what cars do. I keep wanting to go get it washed, but then I think, it’ll just get dirty again, and I’ll be upset that I paid money to wash it. But looking at her, she’s just so dirty, I can’t help but think it’ll be better just to wash her.

Again, with my originality for names, I’ve named my Toyota Echo, Echo. I used to call her an original name, Gigi, but then calling her Echo is just a little better. It seems to fit her. Plus, its easier to know who I’m talking about if I just say Echo, if I say Gigi I bet it’d be confusing.

I’m pretty sure I’ll break down and wash her in a day or so, because she legitimately looks gross, but for now…I’m abstaining.

Vieve’s Videos

My Pop showed me this the other day, and it totally tickled my funny bone, but mostly in the laughing way that’s like, I can’t believe I’m laughing at this. Enjoy!

The amazing, wonderful, fantastic…

You guys, there is an amazing toy. I’ve only fiddled with it in the past. I’ve had brief times with it, I’ve gotten comfortable with it. I got one of these for Christmas. Ladies and Gentlemen, I am of course referring to Bucky Balls.

They are magnetic balls that come in a back of like, 360 or so. They are small, so easy to lose, and just addicting. Its like, once you start, you just can’t put them down. I got two packs, a red and a green (like Christmas!) and I just keep playing with them.

If you can find these anywhere, I recommend buying them. I don’t know that I’ve seen them in stores (to be truthful, I haven’t really looked all that hard for them…) I’ve just seen them on the internets. And trust me when I say, if you get them, don’t let anyone else touch them, you’ll have a hard time getting them back.

Miscellaneous Monday

I have the day off today. I don’t really have anything planned until this evening, when people are free to play with me. In fact, my hardest decision today was to choose what color I should paint my nails. I chose blue.

This morning I ran outside. I’m so sick of treadmill running right now, so to get out felt awesome. It wasn’t as cold as I was anticipating it to be. Of course, I was in like, double layers of everything, with running tights, gloves, a headband, etc. I was feeling pretty good, temperature-wise, until I misjudged the distance between the snowbank I was running on and the one on the opposite side of this river next to me. I landed right on the ice – which broke, and I fell through. The rest of my run was a sloshy cold mess. Dislike.

Sometimes, I wish I had picked a less fattening treat to be obsessed with. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to stop eating cupcakes, but man, if I was addicted, to say, carrots instead of cupcakes, I would be so healthy. I don’t really care that much about health, in general, except for when I realize how many cupcakes I eat in a week, then I feel sorta guilty.

And then I eat another cupcake.

Not quite the same

Well everyone, Christmas has come and gone. This year had some new things, but for the most part, it was business as usual. I spent Christmas eve at Boyfriend’s, and his family opens a present on the eve. Meanwhile, all growing up, we were never allowed to open anything unless it was Christmas morning, so that was pretty awesome. Opening a gift early felt taboo, like I was breaking a rule. It was delish.

Christmas is just different from when you’re a kid, which is perhaps why I don’t really care for it anymore. I mean, when you’re small, your parents and Santa buy you all the gifts you want – or whatever they think you want and/or need. You don’t have to worry about giving anything. You can if you want, and it’s appreciated if you do, but you don’t really have to, you have the excuse of being young enough to not have any disposable income. But as an adult, oh boy, now it’s your turn to give gifts. And don’t forget anyone – make sure to get everyone included in your list. Luckily, I’m pretty good at remembering who to get gifts for, and hopefully this isn’t too full of myself, but I think I’m a pretty good gift giver. I think forever about what to get people, what they’d like, what they need, etc. I probably think too much about it, but I love when I find that perfect present, and I’m so excited to see their face when they open it.

But alas, the holiday is over. The gifts have been opened, the hugs given out, and holiday cheers have been said to everyone. It was a lovely day full of loved ones, but I’m glad it’s over. And now…364 shopping days left.

Merry Christmas!

I hope your holiday is filled with good cheer and love!

It’s a Christmas Miracle!

Merry Christmas Eve, readers! This day is special because it’s both an eve and a day – a Christmas miracle!

I don’t really have anything to write about today. Things of late have just been a flurry of getting ready for Christmas – which I’m not even excited for. I’m generally not that into Christmas, but this year, I’m not at all in the mood for it. I don’t care if it comes, I don’t care if I celebrate it, I’m just a general scrooge about things this year.

This hasn’t affected my gift-giving though. I’ve not gone that far, I have all my presents wrapped under the tree with care, ready for the big morning. I will still see all of my family members this day, and open presents, play games, that sort of thing. I’m not boycotting the holiday per se, I’m just…not really looking forward to any of this.

But good news, in about a day or so, the whole thing will be over. Everyone will be over the holiday, presents will be distributed, and lives will be back to normal. I’m just holding on for 24 more hours.

Water from the Arctic

I’m pretty sure the water in the sink at the bathroom at work is taken straight from the Arctic and then put into my sink. Every time I wash my hands in there, they are turning to ice, and I’m shivering until I’m done. Then I have to spend the next little while trying to warm my hands back up to normal temperature. And this dang sink has no hot water setting. No matter the time of year, it’s always freezing.

I could use the other bathroom, I suppose, but this one is closer to where my desk is, and I’m just lazy. I’m still just going to use the sink with the freezing water, but sometimes, while I’m washing my hands, I completely regret my decision.

What a boring blog this was.

Caramel Apples…a dangerous adventure

Last night, Chelle and I got together to yet again make some caramel apples, candy-cane popcorn and dipped Oreos. It was going to be a great night. We started off by making the popcorn – and we started by smashing up the candy canes:

Then after that, we got started on the apples. While Chelle was making the popcorn, I washed and scrubbed the apples. I had taken the caramel (a 5-lb block, mind you) out of the box and set it on the counter. I turned the heat on the pot, then turned to get the caramel and put it in the pot. The caramel had gotten stuck to the counter! I was trying so hard to pry it off with no luck. Chelle came over to help me, and the two of us were pulling it off with all of our might, and POP! it came off the counter!

…and landed directly onto my big toe. Ouch!

Luckily I had the presence of mind to take a picture of my toe right afterwards. It wasn’t too horrible right after it happened, which is when this was taken. We kept going with the caramel apples, because I wasn’t going to stop making these just because my foot hurt. We had an issue with the caramel scorching in the pot, but we remedied that by getting a new pot, etc. We got done dipping all the apples, and by that time, my foot was killing me! So we take a look at it, and it’s now like, purple, and considerably bigger and just looking generally gross. I usually don’t ever go to the doctor, but we decided to make an exception.

Chelle drove me to Insta-Care, and we got an exam. My blood pressure was taken, my pulse, etc. The nurse (who I didn’t really care for, she was sorta bratty) asked me if I was nervous, because my pulse was like, 100-something and I replied that I must have been, but I don’t know why. After waiting a while, the nurse came in to take me to X-Rays.

After the X-Rays (which were painful!) they brought me back, and I waited again for the doctor to come in with the diagnosis.

Broken.

My poor big toe.

The doctor told us he couldn’t do anything for it, just elevate, ice and ibuprofen, and sent us on our merry way. We went back to Chelle’s and finished the apples (they looked fabulous, but I didn’t get a picture), iced my foot, took some pills, and called it a night.

Today it still hurts, of course, so I’m walking gingerly and taking my pills for it. I wore by biggest, loosest pair of shoes today to alleviate some of the pain, and it’s not too bad, but it still feels best to be shoeless, which I mostly am on that foot. I have a bandage over it, to make sure the cut doesn’t get anything on it, but that’s mostly it.

What a night it was! I’m so glad we made the apples, but man, the elements sure were against us doing them. Next time, once we start getting signs like that again…I think I’ll play it safe and stop!

Being watched…

All right, everyone, I have a friend. I don’t know who this friend is, but they are here in my life all of a sudden. A few days ago, I blogged about how I found a note hidden under my last Post-it note that said “I’m watching you.”  I wasn’t sure who left it (even after my really in-depth handwriting analysis ) so I just chalked it up to a fun prank done by someone here in the office. Things now…have changed…

Ok that’s not true, things haven’t changed, I just wanted this to sound all dark and forebode-y. Monday morning, when I got to work, I found this on my desk:

Now, I know this means business. Whoever is keeping an eye on me is still doing so – and getting bolder, leaving presents with the notes. Now, according to my handwriting analysis, I’m not sure this is the same person. It could be the same, but all signs point to a new party being introduced here. Is there a team working together? This is something unknown so far. I don’t know who this is, or why I’m being watched (is there a greater purpose for me? Am I being watched to make sure I can handle the responsibility?) but I’ll be careful with my moves now. I’ll keep a clearer head about things.

With that being said, I do think this is pretty funny, and I appreciate that someone is keeping me in their thoughts or whatnot. So to my mysterious watcher…keep on keepin’ on.

And I’m sorry my life is so boring for you to watch.

Miscellaneous Monday

I am almost finished wrapping presents. I finished everything last week, but have been trying to wrap them since then. I got most of it done yesterday, but then I finished all the tape in the house. I need to get more, but I mostly keep hoping that someone else will just go to the store, so I don’t have to.

When I was eating my cereal this morning, I spilled it on myself and desk 4 different times. I’m like a child, someone should apparently be feeing me.

I finally watched The Muppet Christmas Carol for the first time last night. I think every movie should be made with Muppets. That would be glorious.

WoW

We’ve all known for some time now that I’m a nerd. Not like, a huge nerd, but I so have some nerd-ish tendencies. I enjoy video games, I like nerd shows (Firefly…Superman...any comic book movie…) and I read nerd books. I used to be pretty embarrassed by these things, but at this point in my life, I’m used to it, and I even embrace it. But right now, times are a-changing.

Boyfriend is a nerd too. Again, like me, not a huge nerd, but compared to me, he’s a much bigger nerd than I. He plays World of Warcraft (hereafter referred to as WoW) like many a people. Recently, a new version of this game came out, and he warned me before it was available that he might not be available to hang out quite as much when it came out, which I got. He’s been pretty good about it though, it hasn’t interrupted things as much as earlier anticipated.

Anyways, so one day, we were talking about it, and he said that I should play to give it a go. At first, I was super reluctant, but after being hounded about it for a little while, I finally gave in. He downloaded it onto my computer, and after I got my little person created, we played it for a bit. That's right - I'm now a player of WoW.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I was thinking it was going to be – and I’ll never admit this again, but it was actually pretty fun. I don’t know that I’ll be one of the super-nerds that play it all the time, but I wouldn’t object to playing it more often. I don’t think I’ll ever be good at it, and I know I won’t learn secrets and tricks, or even the lingo, but at least I won’t embarrass myself playing WoW – so long as Boyfriend is there, coaching me through it.

Vieve’s Videos

All right peeps, it’s time for another video! I found this a little bit ago, and then stumbled across it the other day, and decided that you guys would probably like it too.

I just think the shell is so cute! And his little sayings are adorable! Enjoy!

Keep Your Chin Up

I have a confession to make.

The saddest moment of my day occurs at 5:15 AM MST. Regardless of the day, or what’s going on, I am always the saddest when my alarm goes off.

I try not to be. I try to be excited – a whole new day is here! There are loads of adventures to be had! But alas, when it goes off, and I’m snuggled in my warm bed with my blankets around me, and I hear that blaring alarm, all I can think of is “Man, I just want to go back to sleep”.

There are days when I wake up and think, if I don’t run today, I can sleep for another hour! But then I realize that if I don’t run, I’ll just be more sad that I didn’t run, so then I drag myself out of bed, lace up the shoes and get going.

Its kinda cool that the saddest part of the day happens so early, because then the day can only get better, and I like to keep that optimistic outlook.

But today, and most other days, I’m just sad that I had to get up at all. Luckily for me, it’s Friday, so for the next few days at least, I can get up whenever I want.

Which will be like 8. Dang it.

Done and Done

Good news, readers! I am, as of today, the  16th of December, 2010, finished with my Christmas shopping! It’s been a long road. I started all the way this morning, and I finished at like, 3-ish. Most of it was done online (God Bless 2-day shipping) but I did hoof it out there for the rest of it. My shoppings took me all over this good city, and even up to Sandy. I battled traffic jams, (the entire freeway was shut down up in Sandy because of a giant accident) my own fatigue, but I pulled through.

My last shop was Macy’s, here in Orem. As I was making my purchase, the cashier asked how I was doing (like usual, so polite) and I responded that I was doing great, this was my last purchase of the Christmas season. He congratulated me, and then as he was handing me my bag of merchandise, he made a little fanfare and handed it over, like I had won. I really felt like I had, at that point.

Now I can settle in and enjoy the season without any problems. I can’t believe how late I let everything get before I purchased stuff, but in my defense, I had no idea what I was going to get people. But then I had an epiphany, and then I was set. I’m psyched to be done, and even more psyched to give my gifts away – so long as people like them!

Again, any opportunity…

I stated yesterday that any opportunity I have to copy something that I think is a good idea, I’ll take it. Today, as Chelle and I are working, we were discussing blogs, and the topic of the day. Since blogging every day takes a lot out of me, I am consistently out of ideas to write about. When she said she was doing random thoughts, (which is different than a Miscellaneous Monday, I suppose) I decided to jump on board.

I dislike snow. I dislike having to shovel a foot of snow off my car in a dress with not sensible shoes on.

I have tomorrow off work, mostly because I have extra vacation days, but also because I need to go shopping at stores that close before I get off of work. I know what you’re thinking, I could go shopping on Saturday, but that’s the day I usually spend with the people I’m shopping with.

Looking at diamond rings gives me anxiety. The decisions made on this one tiny thing are going to stay on your finger for the rest of your life. That’s a lot of decision making.

I’ve been wishing for some time now today that I wish I had a cookie. A cookie decorated like Christmas and tasting delicious.

I wish skirts came with pockets. I would like to be able to carry chapstick in my pocket instead of a bra when I wear a skirt.

Why do Goldfish crackers look so smug, smiling at me? I’m eating them, they have nothing to be smug about.

I made my Goldfish into a school of fish. I’m pleased with it.

When someone says “No offense” is it because they really don’t meant to hurt your feelings, or do they just not want to seem like a super-douche?

The tights I’m wearing today are really uncomfortable. All morning, I keep shifting, hoping that’ll alleviate some of it, but it doesn’t. They’re just not as comfy as you think they’ll be. They’re warm though, and that’s why I’m wearing them.

Even though I’ve said I’m going shopping tomorrow (which I will!) mostly what I want to do is wake up, curl up in a blanket, and not move all day long.

Whenever I hug someone that I know doesn’t want me to, I wonder how quickly they’re going to hit me. In some cases, I'm pretty sure the punch is coming soon, so it becomes a quick dodging game out getting out before anything happens. But alas, I’ll not stop hugging.

If I could have any superpower, I keep waffling between invisibility and teleportation. I think they’d both be really useful to have.

I found a post-it note under my post-it notes at work that said “I’m watching you” and I haven’t been able to figure out who left it. If someone really is watching me…he’s probably really bored.

Its a conundrum, this is

I wanted to take a picture of the thing that I have decorated my phone with, because it’s so cute. But the thing I take photos with is my phone, so how is it possible to take pictures of my phone with my phone? It’s not, there’s the answer for you. I’ll describe.

PJ told me a while ago about her friend that had an iPhone 4 like me. We both have the same boring clear case that we got for free from Apple (since they didn’t have the good sense to make their phone usable without the bumper, they gave all of us who owns one one for free! Victory!) Anyway, the friend took a sheet of scrapbook paper, put it in the bumper and it made her phone all cutie. Well, I’m never one to back down from copying something that I like, so I did the same thing. Of course, I don’t have any paper of this sort, so I went to my local paper distributor – Chelle.

I first did this last month, before Thanksgiving, so the sheet I got was all Fall-y and Thanksgivingey. I cut the paper out, made all the modifications that were needed for my camera, etc and put it in and it was so cute! I loved it! As soon as Thanksgiving was over, I felt I should change it, and I had tiny friends reminding me of this as well. So finally, I was over at Chelle’s again, and I got a piece for Christmas.

I am glad that I got to steal this idea from someone else, because it’s so fun. And I’m totally going to change it every month, depending on what my theme for that month will be. And I’ll give a shout out to Chelle for letting me raid her scrapbook paper stash – and continuing to let me do so for the foreseeable future.

Miscellaneous Monday

Sometimes I wish I were in a comic book and could have a cool name full of alliteration. Lois Lane, Peter Parker, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner, Lex Luthor, Pepper Potts. How are those not the best names ever? I long for my names to be the same! Ah, to be a character in a comic book. The adventures I would have.

Bing is trying so hard to be the next Google. They’ve tried adopting the saying “Bing it” instead of “Google it” which is what everyone says right now. Unfortunately, saying “Bing it” sounds so weird, because bing is so small of a word that it just sounds awkward. Try it with me. “Bing it” “Bing it” Now try the original. “Google it” Ah, that sounds much better. I think I’ll just stick with my Google.

I hope that if ever I’m falling from a really tall building (say, if a villain pushes me off, or an explosion causes me to fall) I hope that I have the good sense enough to flail my arms and legs and scream a lot. That way, the noise I’m making is hopefully enough to get the attention of a passing superhero, or at least let people on the ground know I’m coming, so they can jump out of the way of being hit by me. Lets be honest, if someone falls out of the sky and falls on you or something you own, it’s definitely going to make your day a little worse.

I have a great idea

All right, I did it again. I went running and left my watch at home. I know, I can't believe I'm this dumb either, but these things happen. I didn't even realize it until I got all the way to my running park, and by then I certainly wasn't going to go all the way home and get it. So I looked at the clock in my car, hoping that I would sorta remember it, and hoped I could at least get a feel for how long my run would be.

As I was running, I had a brilliant idea. Now, stay with me on this, I know it's unorthodox. (Cue infomerical music and images) Have you ever been stuck somewhere where you don't have the time? By some miracle of craziness, you don't have a watch, or a cell phone, you're nowhere near a bank for their clock? What'll you do?! Well kids, luckily you have me and my great ideas, because I've thought of a doozy. Wouldn't it be great if we had the time displayed above us, in the clouds or something? Wouldn't that be awesome! I know it's not feasible, and I haven't even worked out all the kinks, so I don't know how this would even work, but I think it'd be so great. I'd never have to remember a watch! Alls I'd have to do is just look up, and see the time displayed there for all to see.

There are definitely downsides to this. You can never say you didn't know what time it was when you were late, because it's always there for everyone to look at. I still can't quite figure out how to get it going, but I guess that's what I'll hire the smart people to figure out, I'll just take credit for it. I know the easiest solution to my problem is just to remember a freaking watch, maybe put it by my keys or running shoes or something so that I'll always have it, but come on, that's clearly not an option that'll work for me. So in the interest of helping everone out, you heard it here first: The SkyClock. Ah, that just rolls of the tongue. Lets see what we can do to make this happen.

My Pop is my hero

Today was my Grandfather’s funeral. He was a great man. He was my father’s father, and had lived a full long life. We gave him a “red” funeral – we all wore red to respect him.

Anyway, the point of this story is my dad. Whenever he gives a talk or anything, speaks in public, I always see if I can get him to work in a phrase. In various church talks, he’s worked in the phrases “water is worth it’s weight in gold” and other awesome things. When I found out he was speaking at Grandpa’s funeral, I wanted him to work in a phrase yet again. I thought for the few days previous, to see what I could think of, but alas, I had nothing. It wasn’t until that morning that I thought of it.

Boyfriend, Rory and I were driving up to the funeral. We had a book in the backseat that we were going to read, but as of yet, we hadn’t started. We were maybe a half hour away from the funeral, and I just opened the book up to a random page and found the phrase “jam is knowledge” – I knew immediately that I wanted that phrase worked in. I texted it over to him, but he said on such short notice that he didn’t know if he could work it in. I understood.

He started his talk, and I listened intently (of course, either way I would have) and as he was going, he got to a part where I was like “dude, this is where it works in”. He said something, and then the next line was my magic phrase. It was glorious, I was so psyched to have had that happen.

I know a funeral maybe isn’t the best possible place to have done this, but it was something my Grandpa would have loved – he loved jokes and humor and the like. It was a great funeral, from the colors of everyone to the military salute at the cemetery. A great send off for a great man.

Well….

All right, I tried all day to think of something to write in here, but alas nothing ever came to mind. Chelle had the day off, so I didn’t have anyone to play with, so my day was very long and boring. More exciting entries to come.

Sing a song, a pretty little song

This morning, I was humming a song to myself, like always, and trying to think of the words to it. As I sang the words I knew, I realized I was singing the state capitals to this tune. I laughed, because the version of it I was singing was the one that I learned from Animaniacs. (Don’t judge – not only have these guys taught me some of the states and their capital cities, but I have also learned to name the countries of the world from them. Well, the ones I can remember at least)

After I’d been singing the tune for a while, I realized that I don’t know the actual real words to that song. I don’t know even what the name of the song is, just the words that I’ve learned from those little animals. I’ve never really been clear on what animal the Animaniac kids are. Cats? Dogs? I have no clue.

I think I have a lot of songs like this, that I know words to it that aren’t the real words. I’ve tried all day to remember the real lyrics to these tunes, but alas, I’ve taught myself too well. Maybe someday I’ll enlist the help of others, and learn what they are, but that seems pointless. If I learned the real words, then I wouldn’t remember the capitals! I’d forget that Texas has Austin, and then we go north to Montpelier which is up in Vermont, and Salt Lake City is out in Utah where the buffalo roam! I could go all day with these! But really, which is more precious here? The “real lyrics” or having knowledge of Montgomery, Alabama, south of Helena, Montana? I think we all know the answer to that.

Called to Re-paintance

Once there was a painter, a cheap painter who was more interested in how far he could stretch his paint than actually making his paint jobs look better. He used turpentine to water down his paint, to thin it down to use less on a bigger job.

One day, he got a job painting the local church. It was a big job, and he was excited about the possible money. After thinning down his paint, like usual, he started. He was all done with painting, after a long day, when there was a giant thunder clap from above him. As he looked up, all of a sudden, rain started pouring down, washing all of his thinned paint off the building. The painter knew this was a warning from the Almighty, he fell to his knees and cried “Oh God, forgive me! What should I do?”

From above him, a mighty voice shook the earth and said

Repaint, repaint! And thin no more!

This joke is one that my Grandfather Jack told me quite often, for as long as I can remember. Even though its one of those “dumb jokes” that you hate yourself for laughing at, but I laugh at it all the time, its really one of the funniest jokes I've heard, dating back to before I have a memory. My Grandpa recently passed away, and this is just one of my memories that I have of him that leaves the warmest spot in my heart. So this joke’s for you, Gramps. I know you’re telling that joke to a lot of people right now.

It's a Blogaversary!

Holy cow readers! Do you know what today is?! I didn't until just barely! I was all ready to blog about something else. I was actually about a paragraph in, when I needed to reference an old blog, so I hopped into my blogs, and I noticed it. This entry, today, Tuesday the 7th of December of the year 2010 is my 300th blog! Oh my gosh, who ever thought this would happen?! Certainly not me,!

I would like to take this glorious occasion to thank all of the people who got me here. My loved ones, who have faithfully read this. The haters, who have made me found my own inner strength. The random passersby, who have maybe hopped on here and accidentally read an entry or two. And last but not least, my various computers, without which I would have nothing to blog with, so they are especially helpful.

All right, lets not kid ourselves here. Of the maybe 4 people who read this, we here at ¡Vieve! thank you for your patronage. We understand how hard it is to get here once in a while to read my useless ramblings, so without you, we'd just be blogging to an empty internets. Here's to the previous 300 and to 300 more!

Miscellaneous Monday

I like being read to when I’m driving. Not like, on a trip to the store, but if I’m going to be in the car for a while, I like having a book read to me instead of just listening to music. Even though I love music, and I love all my music, on a long car trip, I like to be read to. I was on just such a trip yesterday, and I had my younger sister read to me from my current book Shades of Gray. It was such a delight to accomplish two things at once – get to my destination and finish a little more of my book. I have too many books I’m reading right now, so any chance I have to read one, I’ll take it.

Recently, Boyfriend’s little sister asked me if I’d paint her fingernails. I agreed to, so tonight, I went to her and did just that. It was so odd to paint her nails – first of all, I rarely paint anyone’s nails but my own, and her fingers are so small that I kept thinking I was just going to get paint all over the place. We chose teal and blue (she wouldn’t back down from having two colors) for her nails, and they actually turned out pretty well. I don’t know that I could open a business with this, but at least I’m not embarrassing myself when I’m asked to do this again.

I used new shampoo the other day, and it made my hair so soft and shiny. All day long, I kept doing the shampoo commercial hair flip, and I kept smelling it, and just feeling it in general. After I had done this for about half the day, I realized how weird it must have looked to everyone else to have me doing all this. Luckily, with hair that looked as great as it did that day, I didn’t mind what everyone else must have been thinking about me. I wish my hair was like that every day, but alas, rarely does it look like I actually put some effort into it. But I’d like to think it did this day.

A little holiday, a little romance…

You guys, here it is again. Lifetime –slash- Hallmark Christmas movie time! As I am writing this, I am sitting here watching my Tivo’d Mrs. Miracle. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend. I’m only about halfway through it, but I am really liking it so far. This morning, I have already watched Farewell Mr. Kringle, and it was a delight!

This Christmas season, I have already watched about 6 movies, some of them new, some of them are classic good ones I’ve seen years previous but love to watch again. I like when I find ones that I like, so that I can watch them year after year. When I watch ones that aren’t very good, I’m always so disappointed, but impressed with Hallmark’s tricky ways of getting me to watch it. With their cast list and/or impressive sounding movie summary, I always get sucked in.

I’m trying to be a little better this year about recording to many. I’ve only seen the 6 so far, and I have 5 to be recorded in the next week, and I’m keeping it to the bare minimum, so that I won’t be overwhelmed by the movies. I’m sure that, come Christmas Eve, I’ll be glad with them on my TiVo, to watch, and even now, I watch them instead of anything else. And I love them.

Festival!

It’s that time of the year again – Festival of Trees! Sadly, this year, we didn’t have the time to decorate a tree for it, but I wanted to go nonetheless.

The trees were lovely as always, and I was sad to note that a good bit of them weren’t sold this year. I don’t know why they weren’t, but I hopefully they were sold by the end. I made the rounds of the whole place, the mini-trees, the slightly bigger trees, and finally ending with the 6-8 footers. They were all looking good, and of course, there were some themes that kept popping up. It’s always interesting to see how different people come up with different trees based on the same idea, but that’s the joy of Christmas trees. They’re all different and unique, while all embodying the same ideas.

I was glad that I went, and even gladder I left with my annual gingerbread cookie – delicious! Now it seems like the Christmas season can start – traditions are already underway!

Motivation Required

I have racked my brain all day to think of what I could write today, and today just didn’t have anything that I could think of to write that would be good enough to justify a blog entry.

When I was getting up to run this morning, I had to motivate the heck out of myself, I just wasn’t in the mood. I had to start with telling myself, listen, if we run for 10 minutes, we can call it good. Then I got started, and I kept bumping up the time, 15 minutes, 20…you get the idea. Then I saw this shirt on the internets, and it described my run perfectly. Sometimes…you just need a little help.

I think I’ve got pizzazz

Now, I know that most of the time, my blog is so exciting to read that people get here to read it as many times as they can. There is so much information to be learned from here! Today, sadly, will not be one of those days, I’m sorry to say.

Today is Thursday, which means it’s skirt day. I don’t know what started this tradition, but I wear a skirt to work every Thursday. Chelle does too, but hers is for legit reasons – she has meetings and the like after work. I like having this change of pace. I especially like it during the winter, when I get to wear fun tights underneath my skirt. Today was no exception – I rocked the hot pink tights. I wore them with a black and white skirt and black shirt, so really it didn’t match or anything, but I still think it looks dashing. I wore these same tights on Sunday, and Boyfriend said they were “cutie cute” which I’m pretty sure he said in sarcasm, or to make fun of my excitement over them, but I don’t care, I love these tights too much.

When I wear bright tights, I always feel like my legs are screaming at everyone to be looked at. Like this is how they’ll get noticed, with a color that you just can’t ignore, and that’s fine, my legs are pretty good, I’m not ashamed of them. Listen, anyone can wear black tights or nude tights or white tights, but I think it takes pizzazz to wear hot pink tights.

I would have included a picture of me in these tights, but I thought that might have been weird, just putting my legs here on the internets, so I decided against.

Challenge Accepted

Even though it’s no longer November, thus National Blog-Every-Day Month is over, I was challenged (dared?) to write every day until the year is over.

Challenge Accepted.

Keeps gettin’ better

This evening, Chelle and I took some time to make some caramel apples. We all remember last time I made caramel apples (with mostly disastrous results), so this time, I was hoping that maybe time and a little distance had made me a little better. Well good news, I was right, it did. I had a clearer mind about things, and I approached them with a different attitude, which I think helped a lot. We had our caramel to dip in, we had our chocolates, and we had our dipping candies – we were ready.

We melted down the caramel, and once it was ready, we got to working on the apples. It’s a little tricky to get the apples and caramel to make friends with each other, but I think we did a good job. We dipped a bunch, waited for them to cool down enough to dip in chocolate, and kept the cycle going. We had Butterfingers dipped ones, Oreo dipped ones, coconut…so many delish things. I was nervous the whole time we were making them, just because of how unsure of how well I’d do. I just assumed it’d be like last time, when I just sucked it up in general. But as the evening went on, I could see that we were doing good work. Instead of being like my class and wrapping up all the apples as soon as we were done, we decided to wait overnight, to make sure the apples were completely set. So I left them in Chelle’s house, waiting to see them the next day.

When we went over there the next day and looked at them, I was so excited by how great they looked! They all looked so good, and not at all as horrible as I had previously imagined. Here are a couple:

See how good they look! I was so pleased. We had bought these cutie little bags to put them in, to make them super presentable to people, because that’s how we roll, so this is what they look like in the bags:

Even more adorable.

I had so much fun, and I look forward to our next baking (dipping?) adventure that we’ll have soon. Now, my only issue is…who do I give these to? *wink*

Miscellaneous Monday

I think I’ll make this a weekly tradition – lets begin.

I was watching Lucky 7 this morning (you know, that delish Lifetime movie with Patrick Dempsey and Kimberley Williams-Paisley) and as she’s getting her morning coffee, and he just hands it to her, because he’s already made it for her, and with the bagel that she always orders, I thought “I would love to frequent a place where they already know what I want to order, and give it to me when I come in!” I am recognized at the cupcake place sometimes (depending on who is working) but it’s just not the same. I want them to greet me by name, have my order ready for me.

Best thing I’ve heard all day: (and please excuse the language on this) was at lunch, Pop and I were watching Smallville. Lois is trying to catch Clark and Mom, and they step into an elevator, and right as the doors closed, Lois gets there, and is frustrated, and just stands there looking at the closed doors. Dad, while watching, goes “Use the stairs, lazy bitch” and I laughed so hard I almost choked on the sandwich I was eating at the time. Classic.

I wish I had a machine that, whatever I’m craving at that moment, would just pop up with it. That would have been especially helpful today when I was craving Munchies mix. There wasn’t any in the vending machines here at work. I tried to compensate by eating Nacho Cheese Doritos, but, alas, it wasn’t the same, and I was disappointed, with a belly full of tortilla chips.

Effort…failing…

I love when my toes are painted. For some reason, when they are bare, I think they look horrible. I already think my toes are weird looking, and I think the polish helps cover it up. I have the opposite with my fingernails. When they are bare, I like it, I’m used to it. When I have polish (besides clear, ha ha) on them, I think they look crazy, and I always find myself looking at them. I do, sometimes paint them, but usually its just like, a peachy color, or a clear with glitter, which I love doing. I wanted to paint them the glitter color this week, but boy is it hard to do!

Thursday is when I wanted to do it. I had some time, dinner was cooking, I was just chilling. I took the old polish off, filed, etc, got a new clear coat on them, then I was all ready to paint them when dinner was going to happen, so I had to rush make my food I was contributing. Then the rest of the day was taken up my dinner, dinner at Boyfriend’s. family fun, etc, so I never got to it.

Friday was shopping, then nap, running, errands, movies, early sleep, so I couldn’t get it in there either. If only nails didn’t take so long to dry! If it took like, a minute to dry, I could do them whenever, but they take so long! Saturday I meant to do it, but then I accidentally started cleaning, and it took like, 3 hours to do, then the rest of the day got away from me.

Sunday was totally going to be my day, but then I overslept, so I couldn’t do it before church, and then afterwards, I started to decorate the Christmas tree (but didn’t finish it, a blog about that later), and then got done and had to write in here, and now even though I have an hour or two that will be free while I watch my Sunday TV shows, I just don’t know if I can bring myself to get up and get the polish. So yes, my earlier days, time got away from me, but right now, I think laziness might be my downfall.

So here we are, deciding if I will be painting. I’d like to say yes, but being wrapped up in my blanket sounds so much more appealing than having my hands outside, waiting for them to dry, hands getting chillier than the minute.

Memory of a goldfish, yes that’s me…

I try to remember things, I really do. I of course have things written down, the most important things to make sure I have the info, but holy crap I can never remember things after like 5 minutes. This is apparent mostly when its like a shopping list, or something from work that I needed to remember. For instance, I will tell myself in the shower that morning, “Ok, I need to remember that I’m out of shaving cream, to write it on my list to go buy it” I’ll get out of the shower and get ready with my normal routine, and I won’t remember it until the next morning, when I get in the shower and find the emptying shaving cream container. I’ll try to remember again, but alas, it’s a vicious cycle.

The reason I’m telling you this (besides this being my blog and I get to choose what I write on) is because I had a really good blog idea today. I thought of it while driving home, and I was like, this is going to be a good one. Good subject, I had a way of doing it, and then by the time I got home, got the laptop turned on and sat down to write it, I had totally completely forgot what I wanted to write on. So you get this boring entry instead, explaining why the blog fail today. I will try to remember things in the future, even if I have to write it on my hand the second I think of it, to make things better for you, the reader. I can’t make any guarantees though, or even that I’ll remember that I made this promise. But I’ll try and really, isn’t that enough?

Sometimes, it just feels like insanity

Happy Black Friday, shoppers! All right, I don’t know that many of you hit up the stores, but it’s a holiday nonetheless. I of course, participated once again, even though stores opened earlier than last year. I awoke at 2:52 AM – my alarm was set for 2:45, but what I didn’t realize until I woke up is that I set it for PM and not AM – holy lucky that I got a text this morning and just happened to wake up for it! I hurried out the door and made it to Target by 3:30.

After standing outside in the freezing freezing cold for half an hour, we finally got in. We were really quick with everything there, then moved onto the next store. We basically just went from store to store for the next 6 hours, finally finishing with everything by 9:30. I came home and immediately went to sleep – I was so tired after my less than 4 hours of sleep!

I know that most people think that doing Black Friday is craziness, but I still like doing it. You go in with a great attitude, and you’ll have so much fun! I’m glad that I went, but I’m always glad when it’s over.

Holy freezing cold

Happy Thanksgiving!
All right, now that that’s out of the way, I’m just going to do a quick one, to detail my race – the annual Earn Your Turkey run.  First of all, it was 6 degrees outside this morning. I was in running tights, shoes, a long sleeve shirt, a short sleeve shirt, and some gloves. I thought I’d be ok, and for the most part, I was. I wasn’t all that cold before the race, I was more hyper. PJ and I were just jumping around to stay warm, chatting, etc, and Boyfriend was so grumpy about how cold it was outside. In his defense, this was his first race, and it was freeeeeezing cold. I let him complain, because it was funny to hear.

The race was good, I finished in the time I wanted. By the time I was done, my hands were in pain. They had started by being freezing, but at the end, they just hurt. PJ was trying to warm them up, but they hurt so bad that tears were involuntarily running down my face. While we were waiting for all of us to finish, I was getting colder and colder. I couldn’t warm up, nothing was helping. I was given a giant blanket to wrap up in, and it wasn’t helping all that much. By the time we were all done, I was shaking so hard I could barely walk.

We got into the car and cranked up the heat whilst I was still wrapped in the blanket. I was cold the whole way to the house, and when we got there, I was still cold. We turned on the fireplace, and I sat directly in front of it, still in my blanket, drinking hot cocoa until I warmed up. It took 20 minutes for this to happen. I’ve never been this cold in my life, and I’m not even entirely sure why my body was failing me this morning, but thank goodness it’s not anymore.

Well, that was the race. It was short, but cold, and I loved every minute  of it, and I don’t regret it at all. If its this cold again next year, I might just run with a blanket on – make sure that I keep as warm as possible!

Turkey Lurkey

At FHE the other night, our activity was frosting cookies (which I had done a great cookie of Justin Bieber. It wasn’t on purpose, but it looked pretty good. And he tasted delicious) and finger painting. I’ve never really finger painted before, and I was excited to do it. This is what I painted:

 

That is my hand, decorated as a turkey. It is really good, I know. It took me a while to make it, and the stuff all over the place is my fingerprints, just in different colors. I know it looks like a small child painted it, but I don’t care, I’m proud of it anyways.

PS Sorry about it being sideways, I don’t know why that happened.

Another check off the list

All right, I know that my bucket list has some crazy entries. Eat a Grey’s Pappaya hot dog isn’t all that impressive, waxing my legs is weird too, and touching a cow all seem like things that shouldn’t really be on your life list. (BTW, since I’ve written this list, I have touched a cow, just in case you didn’t know.) But there is one on my list that I recently did, and of course I’m going to share it. The thing I did: eat a McRib.

I know that that’s not at all exciting, because people do it all the time, but usually, those things freak me out. Last night, Boyfriend and I were waiting for FHE to start, and I was hungry, so we went to McDonalds, and as I was deciding what to get, he told me to get the McRib, and usually I would ignore him, but today I was like, you know, I’m going to do this. So I ordered the combo meal, ready to dig right in.

I don’t know how many of you have had the McRib, but its not as good as you think it’ll be, but you just can’t stop eating it. You have a bite, and you’re like, hey this isn’t that bad, but the more you keep eating it, the more you’re thinking, dude, this is not all that good. And I know what you’re asking yourself: “Vieve, why did you keep eating it?” And I’ll tell you – because I was hungry, because it was on the bucket list, and because I didn’t want to admit defeat by not finishing. So I ate almost the whole thing.

Now, I’m just glad to say that one more thing is off my list, and for sure it’s gotta be the impressive, right? I’m just glad the McRib came back, so I could cross it off. Onto the next item!

Miscellaneous Monday

Today I have a bunch of random thoughts that I’d like to share. They’re not enough for an entire blog, so I’m combining them into one!

I recently bought a new soap for my bathroom – Nutmeg Cream. It makes think of Christmas every time I use it. Plus, my hands smell delish even for a while after having washed! I would recommend this to anyone.

Today on my way to work, the roads were a little slick, thanks to that wonderful snowstorm we had over the weekend. I didn’t really alter my driving though, I kept going like I usually do. There was a time when I started to slide and skid all over, and as I was heading over to the sidewalk, I thought to myself, “I really don’t want to die while listening to a Ke$ha song. That’d really make my death even sadder”. Luckily, I survived, and changed the song.

I was eating a delicious slice of cherry pie, (thanks Chelle for the free slice!) and it was sugar-free, which I imagine to be healthier. As I was eating it, I noticed that without sugar, cherry pie is really tart, and then tart made me think of a slutty person, which just confirmed my suspicions that cherry really is the sluttiest of the pies.

The other day, a friend brought her baby into work, to show him off. He was fussy, and the ladies around me were all talking about how you should bounce a baby when it’s fussy, to quiet it. Asking why, one of them explained that it’s like when it’s in the womb, you bounce when you walk, and it’s used to it. I guess the look on my face expressed disbelief, because the same gal picked me up in her arms, slung me around her, and then walked so I could see what it was like. What a weird thing that was to happen –especially at work.

That’s pretty much the extent of what I have going on. I’m sure there are more miscellaneous thoughts going on in my head, but I should save those jewels for another time! Happy Monday (Imagine I just threw some confetti or leaves up in the air when I said that, it’s much more fun!)

Penny Can!

I have discovered a new game. I took it from Cougar Town, my new favorite show. It’s a delicious game, and it requires so little! Alls you need is a can (like a big, coffee can. This presented a problem, since I don’t drink coffee. I had to substitute with a vase I had around the house. It still works.) and a handful of pennies. The number of pennies you need is directly proportionate to the amount of times you want to get up out of your seat to collect them. I started with 5 or so, but as the game went on, I was playing with like, 20+, because I got sick of getting up.

The premise of the game is such: place your can/vase a few feet away from you. You can play this game sitting or standing, I so far have only done it sitting. After your can/vase is set up, toss a penny into the can, trying to make it in. And that’s it! That’s the game! Every time you make a penny into it, you have to yell “Penny Can!” to celebrate.

It’s quite hard to make it in the can, I’ve found. When I had like, 20 coins, I maybe only made 1 in. If I was really lucky, I made 2. But I still love this game, and once you get started, it’s hard to stop! If anyone wants to play, let me know. You bring the can, I’ll bring a sock full of pennies, and we’ll play until the sun comes up. Or until we’re sick of getting up to collect the pennies, whichever’s first.

Yeah, this is how much I love them.

Everyone here knows I love cupcakes. They are one of the things I love most in this world. Today, after I was done shopping, I decided that it would be delicious if I had one today, I was really craving one. So PJ and I set off towards the place. As we got to the mall, we noticed that traffic was horrible. As soon as I saw it, I remembered, today was a BYU home football game – and we were mere hours away from it! Gah! So quickly, I turned away from the traffic and into the mall’s parking lot, but as soon as I did that, I wondered what my plan there was, because traffic would be bad everywhere.

As we were driving into the mall, I thought, the cupcake place is not that far from the mall, what if we walked there? I got iPhone, and deduced that it’s only 1.8 miles away, we could totally do that! I laced up some shoes (I was wearing flip flops, but I had some spare running shoes in my trunk), zipped up my hoodie (it was so cold and windy!) and off we went.

It took us about 36 minutes to get there, and cold it was the whole time! By the time we got there, my hands were frozen and barely moving, and I was just cold overall. I ordered myself a cupcake (pumpkin chocolate chip!), a hot cocoa (with vanilla flavoring!) and sat down to warm up. It took a while, but at last, feeling was regained. I kept saying I thought our idea to walk there was a great one, but PJ disagreed with me.

As we were walking back to our car, it was colder outside! We were moving fast to make it, and as we got about halfway back to our car, a friend happened to pass us, picked us up, and drove us the remaining bits. It was nice to have that happen! I maintain to now that it was a good idea. Sure it was cold, but I appreciated that cupcake and hot cocoa more since I had to work for it, and we definitely avoided all the traffic, which was our main goal! I would absolutely do this again.

You down with the HP? Yeah, you know me

Listen, I love Harry Potter. I will admit it freely. I have read all the books, some of them many many times, and I have seen every movie, again, several times each. I didn’t get into them until the 4th book had come out, this is when my younger sister introduced them to me. I started with the first, and from book 1, I was hooked! When people tell me they aren’t Harry Potter fans, it baffles me. I don’t know why, I just can’t believe that someone isn’t a fan of these amazing stories!

Today was my mama’s birthday. (happy birthday mama!) So for her birthday, she requested that we all go to the latest Harry Potter movie, which opened in theaters today. We get there, and immediately, family fights are abounding, over miscommunications in when we should have arrived there to meet for the movie. Luckily, after about an hour, people had simmered down, and we were good to be all friends again.

My brother, James, had a hand in that, he was really funny at the theater. James is someone like me, who doesn’t embarrass easily, but he takes it to the next level, where he out-and-out tries to see how far he can go with things before they get embarrassed. This evening, I didn’t get embarrassed, but mama got there after about 3 minutes of him just being himself. He would make loud announcements when people would try to pass him when we were sitting (he would loudly say “person passing!” to let everyone else in our row know to tuck their knees in) and then when I came in to the theater mere minutes after he had, he loudly screamed my name to let me know where I could find him (even though I had already seen him) so I loudly screamed back to him until we met up.

It was a blast, and the movie was great to boot. Luckily, there is a second half to this final movie, because I’m just not ready for this series to be over. When it finally is, I’ll probably shed a tear for all the good times I’ve had, escaping into the imaginations that is Harry Potter. And I don’t care if that makes me a nerd – I’ll embrace it.

It’s not laziness…

So today, I got home from work later than normal, after some shopping and errands and what not. When I got home, I was going to work out, I was so ready for it. It was on my to-do list and everything. I get home, I put on my workout clothes, lace on my shoes, and after I had done all of this, I decided that instead of working out, I would instead eat taquitos.

So, I’m in my workout clothes, making taquitos, then I sit down and eat them, and the whole time while I’m eating, talking on the phone, I’m thinking, wow, I could not be lazier. But at least the intention to work out was there, so I can feel better about myself. Which I do. And I’d like to say I regret the decision to skip the workout and eat, but I don’t. I feel like I made the right choice.

Toes in the water, toes in the sand

I probably think about my toes more than most people. Most of my toes are pretty normal, I have to say that. My big toes are pretty good, but my pinkie toes are just ridiculous. They are barely even toenails they’re so small.

The reason I usually think of my toes are because of running. Ever since my first half-marathon, some of toes have never recovered. A few of them are just blackened and ugly, and some keep threatening to become that way. There are also many blisters that keep popping up my toes like little jerks that won’t leave me alone. Why don’t they just stop popping up?! Come on!

Anyways, today seemed like a toe day. In the shower, I dropped a relatively full bottle of shampoo on my toes, ouch! Then, for my sisters birthday, I gave her a pedicure, and she finally cashed that in. I say finally, because her birthday was back in July. So after smashing my toes this morning, I pampered them a little this evening. It felt awesome.

I was going to include a picture of how I got my toes done, but every picture I took made my toes look like tiny sausages, and I was uncomfortable with it. But for a mental picture, I painted them a light blue/teal color, with the cutiest snowflake painted on them. Yeah, this is the girliest I’ll get – but I can deal with it.

Doodle doodle doodle

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a doodler. If I am somewhere with a pen and some paper, I will draw either tiny peoples on it, my name with varying flourishes, or anything, pretty much. Mostly it’s in meetings, or at church, but basically I’ll do it anywhere.

I decided to blog on this today (well, I was given the idea by Chelle, gracias chica) after our meeting at work. I was sitting there, looking at it, and  I knew the world would want to see everything I had drawn. I know it’s all terribly exciting. I’m not at all a good drawer, but the things on this paper are things I know how to sorta draw. I’ve been working on this tiny sheet of paper for over a year now, and this is the result.

If you’ll notice the tiny peeps, I like the little guy with the bowtie and the fro. I like that I felt I had to specify on the page that his hair is a fro, and not a crazy hat, apparently. Most of my peeps wave, I like to draw them that way. My name is definitely on here about a hundred times, and there are letters all over the page, singly, and those are my name, just separated and hanging out. My turkey on there must have been drawn at last Thanksgiving, and the birthday cake must have been drawn near my birthday, I guess. I never remember when I draw these things. I’m pretty sure I drew the wizard near Halloween and the little house with the lights, plus the little choir boys around Christmas.

I hope you enjoy looking at these tiny photos, and I urge everyone to become a doodler, if you aren’t already.

Aloooone….

Tonight when I was driving home after FHE, I got a hankering for some tacos. And not just any tacos, the tacos from Del Taco. That’s right, those delicious $.49 ones. And I didn’t want to wait to get home to eat them, so I ate them on the way. One, I ate on surface streets, and the second one I ate on the freeway. Which, BTW, it is pretty hard to eat a crunchy taco while trying to go freeway speeds. I don’t recommend it.

As I was eating my tacos on the way home, I realized that it’s a little weird to eat in your car when you’re alone. With others, its totally cool, you and a friend, (or friends) are eating, having a good time, but when you’re alone, you feel just a little weird. And then I thought of other things that are totally normal when you’re with other people, but alone…kinda weird.

Hitting up an amusement park. I’ve never done this, but I can only imagine how odd it would be to be at this sort of place by yourself. There’s no one to enjoy the good times, to laugh at all the craziness happening! Bowling is another one. With friends – a great night! Alone…you seem a little sad. Playing on a seesaw. Well, now I just feel bad for you. You couldn’t find one friend to sit on that other side? Aw.

I know that I do weird things all the time, and this is neither the first nor the last time I’ll eat in my car. I don’t care that I do it, it’s both delicious and a time-saver. Genius.

My Secret Longing…

Today in church, in class, we were talking about how excited all of the kids in my ward are for the upcoming Thanksgiving break. Being in a predominately college-age ward, I’m used to hearing about classes, breaks, etc., that they have. Today when they were talking about it, I had a little longing for the times when I had these too.

I love being an adult. I would not go back to school, I would not go back to being a kid, let me just get that out of the way. But I miss being in school, because I miss the breaks. I miss having that week or two of Christmas off. I miss having a few days of Thanksgiving off. I miss having a whole summer off for vacation! I miss being forced outside a few times a day to get some exercise on the playground. I love the playground! Monkey bars, parallel bars, swingset! Oh my heck I love playing on those – I even play on them now!

 

I know that it wouldn’t be all fun and games to be back in school. For one thing, I would have to deal with homework again, and that would just ruin things. Plus now when I get time off, it’s so much more precious to me, because it rarely happens, so I appreciate it so much more. But sometimes, when I see kids outside while I’m at work, I think “Man, this place would be so much more awesome if we had a playground out back”

Tick tock, on the clock…

I went running today. (a shock! I know!) I have this running spot that I go to, it’s down in the Sports Park of SF. Today, I get all ready, hop in my car, get down to the place, do a pre-run stretch (not like an actual stretch, just the kind that you do when you wake up, you know, arms over your head, full body tense, just to yawn it out) and then started walking. I made sure this morning that I had enough clothing to be warm, long sleeves, longer shorts, etc. I had my iPod, I had gum, I had chapstick. I took a few steps, then went to turn on my stopwatch on my watch, looked at my wrist, and…nothing. I had forgotten my watch!
It’s not that big of a deal to forget my watch, but still, how irritating. To do my run with no timer, just to free-form it…I never do this! So instead of doing this new run I had envisioned, I went with an old run that I know about the time that I have on it, to have an inkling of how long I had run, because I’m not really sure when I started. The last time I remember looking at a clock was in my car, on my way down to the place, but I was still a few minutes away when I looked at it.

It was actually a pleasant run, not one that was ruled by the clock, I had to just go on feel. I did the route I thought of, and when I got in my car at the end and looked at the clock, I figure I did about an hours worth of running. It was interesting experience to not have minutes to be counting down on, but I don’t know that it’s one I’d do more than a few times. Its not that I’m ruled by the clock, its just that if I want to put the effort of running in, I’d like to be able to know exactly how long I did it for! Next time, I’ll just have to remember – double check for the watch!

Vieve’s Video

All right, ya’ll, I haven’t done one of these in a while, but I found a video that I enjoyed, and I’m sharing it. It’s not really a video so much as it’s a commercial, but I heard of/stumbled upon this, and it made me laugh so hard, I want to share it with you:

I don’t know how many of you have seen this commercial, but it is freaking hilarious. I love two parts in this the most: First of all, when he says “I’m emotionally compromised…whoopsies”, I about died laughing. Then later when he says “And I’m all, OMG, Becky’s not even hot” I seriously couldn’t have laughed harder.

So I hope you enjoy this commercial, and if you’ve seen it, laugh along with it again. Because seriously, is there anything funny than a grizzly old man acting like a teen with pink sunglasses on his head? I say no.

Why, oh why?!

Today I was at work, hanging out, when my phone rang. That’s normal, since I answer phones quite a bit. I answer, and who’s on the other end but the receptionist of my dentist? How exciting! She was calling to remind me of my appointment that I have tomorrow morning, a cleaning, at 7:00.

The first thing that popped into my head was, why oh why did I make myself an appointment so bloody early in the morning? 7:00 AM?! Who does that? I must have gotten far more sleep back then, to think that getting going an hour earlier was no big deal. I know I can make it there that early, but still, that sucks. And then I still have to go about my day like normal, albeit with a cleaner mouth.

The second thing that I thought of was, why me? It seems like only yesterday that I was at the dentist getting worked on. Surely that should buy me a free pass, right? Man these people sure like to schedule you in for these appointments.

I know that it’ll be better once its done, and I only have to do this every six months, but holy cow do I dread the dentist. I can seriously think of about 100 other things I would rather do than go. I’m just hoping it’ll be quick, and I’ll get a clean bill of health and be sent on my merry way. With a free toothbrush!

I'm taking a stand

It is now, officially, cold. There is rarely any warmth outside. When the sun is out (from about noon to four) it's still not enough to make it feel like its more than about 6 degrees. But still, I will not waver. I'm taking a stand against the cold, a losing battle it might be.

I will not give up my flip flops. I don't care that it's 30 degrees outside, I don't want to have to wear regular shoes yet. I just like my freedom. I like having my shoes on and off within 4 seconds. I like having my toes wiggle. And now, when I'm outside, which I'll admit is rare, since I'm just working all day, my feet are cold within a matter of minutes. And I get that it's not smart to be wearing flip flops this late in the year, I just still want to.

I know that in a week or month or so, I'll have given in and I'll be back to wearing socks and shoes that cover my toes, and I'll resent it. But I'd rather wear shoes and keep my toes than be a weirdo with no toes at all.

The passing of a friend

This is an ironic event that has happened. We all know of my friend, Leafy. He has had a special place in my heart these past seven days of our knowing each other. We’ve had our ups, basking in the sunshine, hanging out, and we’ve had the downs of a few recent rainstorms. Even during all of these rainstorms, Leafy held onto my windshield wiper with all of his might. I thought, foolishly, that we would be together forever. It took me so long to blog about him though, that you all have barely gotten to know him before he has left us so quickly.

It happened so fast. I headed out to my car this morning, and noting that it wasn’t snowing (like the radio announcer said this morning) I was happy. As I was getting to my car, I thought, I should take a picture of Leafy this morning, so that people can see him. But I was in a hurry, so I just jumped into my car, and fired it up. Noticing I had some rain/snow on my windshield, I turned on the wipers. This is when everything went horribly wrong. As soon as they went, instead of hanging on like he usually does, Leafy just…let go. Off he flew, into the oblivion of things. My friend is gone, and now I am mourning him.

I had a quick eulogy for him on the way to work, and shed a tear or two for the good times we shared. I’ll always have him in my heart, and think of him fondly whenever I see a tree. For now, Leafy my dear, I will miss you. You’ll never be replaced.

 

RIP Leafy 11-2-09 to 11-9-09

A new friend

I have a new friend. He is a week old today, and what a crazy week it has been. He first came into my life as just a passing thing, I didn't expect him to stay. But he's kept on this whole time. His name...is Leafy.
Leafy, as you can probably deduce, is a leaf. He landed on my car last Tuesday, after I had parked under a tree. When I came out of work, there was about a hundred leaves on my car, and when I drove away, most of them fell off, except for Leafy. He has now survived countless trips on the freeway, so I feel like I can't just take him off. He used to be a full leaf, gloriously colored, but the wear and tear of being thrown about by the wind has taken a toll, and now he's just his stem plus a little foliage. Not quite as magnificent as he used to be, but we all get worn down with age!
I'll keep you updated for if/when he finally leaves (ha, get it?!) us, but for now, he's sticking with me. Bless his tiny leafy heart.

Shuffy the Shuffle

I love an impulse buy. Whether it be a pack of gum as you’re going through the check stand line, or a chapstick as you’re casually walking by them, it’s always a good time buying something that you don’t really need, but it looks appealing to buy. I had such an experience on yesterday, but it wasn’t as small as a pack of gum.

I was walking through Target, more specifically, through the electronics section, when I wanted to go look at the iPods. Now, I already have an iPod shuffle, a 1GB little silver jewel that I use constantly. I use it for running, I use it when I’m cleaning, I use it when I get ready. It’s not like I’m neglecting the little guy, believe me when I tell you that he’s always being used. But when I was looking at the new iPod shuffles, I really liked what I was looking at. They’re smaller, more squarey and it has 1 GB more memory than my current one – what’s not to love? So I decided right then and there to purchase it. I don’t know why, it’s really not like I need it, but I wanted it, and that was the only thing in my brain right then.

I named him Shuffy. Before you think that’s a dumb name, let me tell you that my previous shuffle was named Vieve!, so Shuffy seems a step up in the right direction. I’m not terribly clever when it comes to naming things, on my computer, I’ve named my phone iPhone – so clever am I, right? But I’ve decided to use my old shuffle as my running one, and the new one will be for everything else. I’m pleased with my purchase, and it was kinda nice to just buy something for fun, not for necessity. I think Shuffy and I will have a nice life together. I’ve included his picture, so you can see what he looks like.

End of Season

Tonight was the last RSL game of the season. I didn't know going into the game that it was the last one. It was a playoff game, we were playing against Dallas. We had already played Dallas in the first leg of things last weekend, at Dallas, and they beat us, 2-1. I was not happy, but not discouraged, because I knew that we could turn things around at home. We are so far unbeaten at Rio Tinto for the last 25 games or so. All we had to do was beat them by 2 or more points, and we would continue onto the next round, but that was easier said than done.
It just wasn't our night. We played pretty well for the first 15 minutes or so, but then Dallas unexpectedly scored, and then we kinda fell apart for the rest of the half. We came back from the half and played really great - and had so many missed goals, and opportunities to score that we just couldn't finish on. Fortunately, we scored in the 80th minute, tying up the game, but we needed one more goal to stay alive, which we didn't get. Although the game ended in a tie, we lost out of the series, so season over.
I'm sad that the season is over, soccer is my favorite season. It'll start again in 3 months, so at least I have that to look forward to during these cold months. And the good thing is now my weekends aren't going to be determined by an RSL game going on, there's more of a freedom here. But still, I'm sad. Good work, RSL. You finished a strong season.

Like a Virgin…of the Flu…

I have never gotten a flu shot. There- I’ve said it. I’m a virgin of the flu shot. This is because I never get sick, so why do I need a shot to prevent something that, odds are, won’t happen anyway? I have also never had the flu (knock on wood!), which I think just makes me awesome. So I usually will accompany others onto their trips to get the flu shots, but I will leave shot-free. Today, I changed this and got my very first one.

This year, Chelle was heading over to get her flu shot, I was heading over with her, in case she needed someone to hold her hand. (She didn’t, but come on, what if she did?) As we were getting up to go, they told me that I should get one this year. I laughed, like I usually do when I hear about the flu, but they reminded me that something is different about this year – I’ve been a little close with someone, (Who I’ve already caught a cold from) so maybe it’s a good idea if I try to head off anything before it comes to me. I grabbed my wits and a little courage, and off we went.

The gal who gave me a shot asked me if it was my first time (I had marked it that way on the form, did she think I was lying to her already?) and when I confirmed that it was, she asked me if I had people that worked in my office with me. I gestured to Chelle, saying she was, and then she told me that since it was my first time, I needed to make sure that I was still alive fifteen minutes after getting it, since I could have a reaction. My throat could feel like it was closing, I could feel nauseous, all sorts of things. So of course, that makes me panic more than anything else does. She gave me the shot and sent me on my merry way.

On the walk back to my desk, I noticed a mediciney taste in my mouth. I asked if that was normal, and Chelle said she had one too, so I was fine with it. I was super paranoid for the next 15 minutes, making sure everything about me felt normal. I think had the gal not said anything to me about it, I would have been better off, because every little thing that happened, I was like, “Is this ok? Am I dying? Is this something else?” but luckily, I survived it. A couple of hours later, my arm started to hurt. Typing, writing, using my mouse, lifting my arm, everything just aches! It’s still that way right now, 5 hours later, but I am surviving. I will be stronger from this. And hopefully, I will be successful in once again dodging the flu.

There's an app for that!

I love iPhone. There is so much it can do. I can be anywhere and get any kind of information. I can check Facebook, play games, book a flight, pretty much anything. I am always checking for new apps, things that are not really worth anything, but can waste my time nonetheless. I've recently stumbled upon a new app that just makes life worth living.
It's called Talking Roby, and he just brightens my day. The purpose of the app is really unknown, I think it's mostly just to be a time-waster. But whenever I need a pick me up, I just open the app and he makes me smile. When you open the app, the first thing Roby does is wave at you and say hi in his little robot voice. It's so cute, I'm immediately happier. Then, there's a few things he does that I play with. If you rub his belly, he giggles a little, then swoons and puts his hands over his heart like he's in love. If you poke him anywhere, he spins around, and sometimes falls over. When you make the phone move, he'll sway with it, making a noise like he's about to fall over. And one of the best things of all, is he talks. You type in what you want him to say, and he'll say it. If you talk to him, he'll repeat what you say. It's cute.
Now, I'm not sure why a simple talking robot brings me such joy, but he does. When I need a smile, I just turn to Roby, and he takes care of me. I appreciate all he does for me.

And, as an FYI, I typed this whole entry from my iPhone. It took forever.

I wish this was something I was better at...

I recently took a caramel-apple making class, at Gygi up in SLC. I was looking forward to it, because, hey, who doesn't want to learn how to make this stuff? It seemed to me like it could be pretty easy, like, not rocket science or anything. So, I get there, and they have everything all set up for me, apples, sticks, dipping supplies, etc. After a quick intro to everything, they set us free on the caramel, in hopes that we could do stuff ourselves.
Turns out, I'm actually not very good at caramel-apple dipping. I don't know if I just don't have the patience for it, or if I didn't follow directions very well, but like all of my apples looked so ugly! So I just keep going with it, because what else am I going to do? So then I just keep trucking away, and I'm trying to salvage my apples, and I'm looking around at everyone else, and they all seem to be doing such a great job! I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about everything, but when I'm not that good at something, I just keep getting angrier at myself. I tried to keep calm, but I was just so upset at my badness!
So at the end of the day, I had made six apples - an Apple Pie one (which was dipped in caramel, then white chocolate, then rolled in a cinnamon/sugar mix), an Oreo one, an M&M one (which was not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be), a chocolate coconut one, a Butterfingers one (which was crazy delicious), and a Reese's peanut butter cup one (also pretty good).
I was glad I took the class, I'm glad I learned things, but I feel like there's so much room for improvement that I feel so behind with it. I don't know if I had an issue, but a few of my apples had the caramel just slide off of it, so that there was like, a ring of caramel on the bottom, but the apple was basically naked. So I need to figure out what's going on with that because I need them to be perfect before I start giving them away to people. So I'll work on that, and then everyone I know will get one!

Best.. night....ever....

As everyone knows, I have RSL season tickets. I've had them almost as long as the team has been a team. We've moved from stadium to stadium, and we've tried different parts of the stadiums too, to see which parts are best suited to us. We found one that was really great section, we made loads of friends over there - some of who we keep to this day. But then we had to move stadiums, and our friends bought more expensive tickets, so we couldn't sit by them anymore, sadly.
Our tickets now are in a really good section - mostly because the people we sit by are really cool. We sit by some of the RSL staff - kinda. I sit by one of the coach's wives, and the rest of the people are just people that help them out with stuff, fundraisers and the like, so pretty much they all know the players. One night after a game, Jen turns to us and asks if we want to go to the club with her. I thought she meant like a dance club, so I was hesitant to say yes, until she clarified that it was to the clubhouse where the team goes after games. Uh...hells yeah I wanted to go! So we waited a while, for the place to clear out, and into the clubhouse we went. We grabbed a table, some food and drinks, and awaited the arrival of the players.
They finally came, and they were swarmed with fans, so we waited for most of the fans to clear out, and then Jen introduced us to most of the team. It was so amazing to meet them in person - I was shaking so much from like, excitement and nervousness. We got loads of pictures taken with them, some of which I will share with you here. It was only about an hour, but it was definitely one of the best hours of my life.
Me, PJ, and Nick Rimando

Us and Chris Wingert
Us and Jamison Olave - this guy is as big as a house. His calves alone are like, as big as my head, I swear

And Kyle Beckerman, the captain of the team.

The guys were all really nice, and while I didn't get to meet all of the players (there was not enough time, nor did they all come to the clubhouse) I got to meet some of my favorites, so it was just amazing. I hope we get to go again next year!