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”