one of those days

I had "one of those days" today. The day actually started off pretty good. I got up on time (first time in like two weeks), had time to eat breakfast (slowly), read, and get to work at a decent time oh and not to mention I actually got ready for the day.

The bad began when I got to work. Don't get me wrong I love my job but I have had a really light work load as of late, I mean we're talking REALLY light, to the point that it is almost non existent. So the problem comes when I sit for 8 hours a day trying to feel like reading online trade publications is work enough to have earned my salary. Needless to say I feel somewhat bad/guilty about this.

I have been wanting to talk to my supervisor about the possibility of me getting on some accounts sometime in the near future, so I finally got brave and...sent an e-mail. I know...I know...I am a total chicken but I really didn't want to come off as a complainer/whiner I just wanted to know where things were at as far as getting me a little more consistent work. You know if someone needs a reminder that I exist then I would really like that reminder to be made. My supervisor is so great and really is doing all he can to help me out. Unfortunately much of what needs to be decided is out of his hands, so that was slightly disappointing but I think that it will get better soon...I hope.

Anywho...

I left work feeling somewhat discouraged and just feeling like the day had given me a beating AND I had a zit growing (you know growing zits just have a way of dampening your day, especially when you feel like you should be out of that "stage"). I got home and shortly after i arrived one of the owners who was doing clean checks (who was supposed to come yesterday but didn't have a key to get in, yeah go figure on that one) came and breezed through our apt hardly looking at anything (I'm glad we cleaned so much, jeez) and then passed us. So that was good. I also got new blinds, which now open and close, which is also nice.

I went on a run to try and relieve some stress. It was beautiful. It was so nice out and I really enjoyed my solidarity and just letting my mind go. So I am running along feeling better and better with each step and then... wha bam!... I look up and guess what I see? A black cat. I just started laughing! My bad day had just been topped off with a sighting of a black cat. Wonderful. I don't claim to be superstitious but this was just too funny that I happened upon a black cat on what I would consider a not so great day. I guess I can plan on having a few more bad days in the future. Lucky me... or I guess not so lucky me!

special people in life

*WARNING* This is a..."I've been thinking post." If you have an intense fear of seriousness you may want to avoid reading this. Thank you.

For awhile now I have been pondering about the special people that each of us have come into our lives. Some enter only to exit after a short time, others come, exit, and return at later time and still others enter your life and will be there forever. No matter how they come or how they leave each touches our lives and impacts us in one way or another.

I have been taught so many great lessons by the amazing people that I have been so lucky to encounter. I have people that I have experienced grand adventures with, bonded, shared and really lived and when the adventure ended our constant contact ended but no matter how long you are apart when reunited that bond instantly returns. I have people who have guided, supported, and advised me through the many ups and downs of life. They are people that I will forever look up to and admire for the very person that they are. I have people in my life who simply know me, inside and out, top to bottom. They can "read me like a book" and always know exactly what I need in the moment I need it.

The more I have thought about it the more I have realized that each of these people were tailored to fulfill a specific role in my life and they have helped to make me who I am and who I will be. Each have added more depth and character to who I am. What a beautiful thing it is to have each of these people make their mark on our life.

Thanks to all the very special people in my life! I love you and appreciate all you do for me.

A little laugh...

At work today I was searching on the Internet for trends among small business publications and I saw this cartoon on smallbiztrends.com. I thought it was pretty funny! It made me smile/chuckle at 3:30 on a Friday. Enjoy!

P.S. I think it get's funnier every time I read it. Look at their faces...classic! Oh and one more thing the cartoonist Mark Anderson said this about the cartoon he said "I don’t know why, but the word 'apparently' makes this caption work. Seriously. Try taking it out and it’s nowhere near as funny."

may as well have been wearing nothing

My roommates and I made a little trip to the mall this evening and were having a wonderful time perusing and looking at a bunch of things that we couldn't afford. We wandered into Wet Seal because I wanted to get myself a cute red belt to go with a black shirt that I have. By the way this is the belt that you wear more around your stomach rather than you waist. Anywho...I found the belt I wanted and went to go and pay for it. As I approached the counter what do you think I found?? A quarter dressed girl... she wasn't even half dressed! I am serious this girl was barely wearing anything.

Not to paint an ugly picture in your head but it needs to be done. The girl was wearing what should have been a shirt...and it wasn't a very long shirt I might add...and this shirt was all she was wearing. That's right ladies and gentleman she had no pants on and her supposed "dress" was not covering much. It doesn't end there the top didn't have much to it either and I wondered if it was going to fall off the front of her. Needless to say this girl was barely covering herself, she put a sweater over this shirt/wanna be dress like that was going to make it any better. I walked out of the store amazed and just kept wondering how she could possibly feel comfortable in what she was wearing not mention keep warm!

IDAHO!

So I totally fell out of the blogoshpere for awhile and I have truly been neglecting my blogging duties and to be honest I have missed it so much!

My excuse...I was preparing to go to Idaho and then I was in Idaho and then I was catching up after being in Idaho. So basically it is Idaho's fault that my blog hasn't been updated in way too long. But I am here to give the latest!

As I am sure you have gathered I went to Idaho this past weekend. I took off a couple hours from work on Friday and began making my TREK to Idaho...yes TREK. That is such a long drive. I know I am weak sauce but 4 hours in a car is just not an enjoyable experience for me. I am not used to driving 4 hours I am used to 3 and so the one extra hour just about put me over the edge. Luckily it was somewhat scenic and I had good music and talks to listen to on my way there.

I arrived in Rexburg about 6:45 and boy was that a weird feeling. It was so great and so weird to be back in my college town after only having been away for 3 months. I felt as though it wasn't mine anymore and that I didn't really belong there. Yet at the same time it felt so familiar and so good. I hung with S.O. for a bit before I left him for a night of total GIRL FUN!

I stayed with my roommate of 9 months whom I just adore and loved getting to see. We went to Guitars Unplugged which is probably the best event held on the BYU-Idaho campus. It was fun to get to be in the student scene again. It kind of made me miss it and I determined that I need to get a life. At the same time I was happy to be done with the college scene. Weird how you can have two totally different emotions. Roomie of 9 months and I went and got Domino's pizza after Guitars Unplugged (where we have had many interesting experiences) and also rented a movie at good ole Horkley's! The night was so fun and of course didn't end until 4:00 a.m.

I had told S.O. before the weekend that the only two things I wanted to do was to...

1. Go to the temple and do baptisms

2. Take a walk around campus

The first occurred at 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning (which was still a little to early with bedtime having only been 6 hours earlier). We had a really nice time at the temple and the cute temple workers were so accommodating. I love that temple.

After baptisims I got ready for the day and met back up with S.O. and we proceeded to have a day of getting in touch with our inner cowboy/cowgirl. We did as the country folk do. We spent the day at S.O.'s roommates house on his acres and acres of land. I got to to ride a combine, shoot a gun (twice, and I missed the clay pigeon both times. But S.O. never missed a shot! I was so proud), play soccer, football, basketball, and then the kicker made a pipe bomb. That's right I had my first experience with a pipe bomb and frankly it scared the crap out of me. Why boy's have these desires to blow things up is beyond me, how they get the knowledge to blow things up without killing themselves is incomprehensible.

The rest of the night included...

1. Hamburgers and cold lemonade

2. S.O. and I getting creamed in Foosball (twice)

3. Me getting shot across the room when S.O. jumped on the other side of the love sack. This was repeated because it was just too funny!

4. Turing the sound off of the movie "Little Rascals" and doing our own commentary. This only lasted for about 20 minutes and then we just watched the movie. Great idea though...just have to be in the right kind of mood and have the right kind of people. We were lacking the mood.

5. Leaving S.O.'s roommates house 7 times and each time it got even more funny! An awesome tradition is held at this roommates home that you fake like you are leaving but then you turn around and go back around the circle again and the whole family always stays at the window and waves. We did this 7 times and each time the WHOLE family was still at the window waving and we honked our horn and waved back. I thought I was going to die of laughter!

Sunday was fantastic and I got my walk through the gardens with a significant other which I have always wanted and funny that I got it AFTER I graduated. I had a wonderful dinner prepared for me by S.O. and then was able to get on the road at a decent hour so that I could get home. I stayed at home with my family for the night and it made for a great ending to a great weekend!

Here are some pictures of my country experience!

Classic BYU-Idaho Moment

S.O. told me a most hilarious little story the other day about a conversation he overheard at the gym at good ole BYU-Idaho. I think this story has got to be one of the most classic BYU-Idaho moments. This is a little of how the conversation went…

Big macho kid: "You should lift those a little slower; it will work your stomach a lot more."

(Said with the tone of voice that say's he thinks he is all that and totally knows what he is talking about when in all reality he probably really didn’t. S.O. was convinced that it was just a tactic to start up a conversation, and I agree)

Girl: “Oh yeah. Thanks.”

Big macho kid: “That’s a cool bracelet. Did you make it?”

Girl: “No, it’s from Guatemala.”

(And then the bomb... and the best part of this WHOLE story and what made it totally worth S.O. eves dropping on the conversation)

Girl: “My missionary sent it to me.”

As you can imagine the conversation came to an abrupt end…I wonder why? LOL! I absolutely love this because I think it happens so much at BYU-Idaho and only boys at BYU-Idaho and probably BYU get shot down by the classic “missionary” comments.

Poor boy.

Squeakers

One of my co-workers little girl came into work today and you wouldn’t believe what she was wearing!

Squeaking shoes!

It had to be the most adorable thing until about 10 minutes later when it began to get slightly annoying. Everywhere she walked there was a little squeak squeak squeak like the noise little kid’s squeaky toys make. Her parents commented on the fact that they love that they can always know exactly where she is and when she is on the move!

Not going to lie I think it would be kind of fun to wear an adult version of these. I wonder how long it would take before someone hurt me??

Here is a pic of a pair of these squeaky shoes that are very similar to the ones that my co-workers daughter was wearing. Check them out at this Web site. Who knows maybe they do special orders for adults!


http://www.kidsqueakers.com/index.asp

What's in a name?

S.O. (by they way many of you have commented on the fact that it is ridiculous that I am referring to my significant other as S.O. because many of you already know who he is anyway, but I don't care. I am going to continue to use it because I like it and second of all I am just obeying the words of caution from my wise father who told me not to put too much "personal" information on my blog. So view it as simply being obedient.)

Anywho...

S.O. posed a great question through a lovely Facebook message to me, asking me what I thought his name meant. This got me curious so I looked up his name and subsequently mine as well. I have known for awhile now what mine means but I think I looked it up again in hopes that it had changed somehow because I really think my name meaning is LAME!

So for all you who just can't contain your curiosity anymore. My name means... of the sea.

Stupid. I know.

I have come to terms with it and have just decided to forget about the meaning of my name and concentrate on the fact that it is a totally AWESOME name and to be quite honest I am pretty fond of it. What does your name mean?

back and better than ever!

I am on the up and up from my recent sickness...I am not totally there, still a few residual effects but I think that I am going to be as good as new come Monday! All I need is a weekend of relaxation and rejuvenation and that is what I am going to have!

To start I am going to take a hot shower, use a clean towel that has that wonderful clean towel smell, shave, moisturize, and then paint my toenails (let's be honest they are in desperate need). All while in some comfy pj's I might add. Then I will probably eat a bowl of cereal as I enjoy a great chick flick. I wonder what I'll watch??

Simple plans for Friday night but oh so wonderful plans!

Sicker than a Dog

Yep it is true...I am sicker than a dog right about now. Which I don't know where that saying came from or why it means that you are really sick but that is the saying I am choosing to use. I basically feel like lying in my bed and doing nothing but blog and read blogs. I felt way sick yesterday and a tiny bit better today. Going to work when you are sick bites. I have had a huge reality check in that you can only be sick a certain number of hours when you are a working professional (as I like to refer to myself as) and you know what when you are brand new at a job you don't have a whole lot of those hours accumulated just yet. So basically I would have to be dying in order to take a sick day. Which leaves me sitting and starring at my computer screen all day trying desperately to get my brain to function. Not a fun experience. I don't write this to get sympathy (although if anyone feels the need to buy me some Gatorade and chicken noodle soup please don't hesitate) but mostly nothing exciting has happened in my life the past two days because all I have done is sit at work and then come home and gone to bed. Hoping I will feel better tomorrow...

Sundance

Sorry I am going post crazy...I didn't get a chance all weekend and so I am well overdue and the blog ideas and opportunities are just flooding in. Maybe I should learn some restraint...nah. This is really blog worthy so I need to post something about it.

S.O. and I went to Sundance Ski Resort today and took a scenic chair lift ride! So much fun! It was so beautiful! With the leaves changing colors great company it was just a wonderful evening. Not to mention I was sluffing work. I used two of my very precious PTO (paid time off) which I found out have to be accumulated. Dumb. Anywho it was SO worth it! I would highly reccomend that if you are in Provo to go and do this because it is so awesome. Go before it gets too cold and before the leaves start falling off the trees. Take a blanket and a jacket and you should be set!

One last note before I let your eyes set upon the glorious photography of Miss Marisa. The very last picture if of my behind and yes I know I am being very brave to post this picture but it is too funny to not. So when I got off the lift my behind was wet and totally looked like I wet my pants! Weird part about it was the S.O.'s pants weren't wet at all! Luckily I had a sweatshirt to cover up my bum so that people didn't think I got a little scared on the ride...if you know what I mean.

Enjoy!

For more pictures from this scenic chair lift ride check out my Facebook photo album titled Sundance Scenice Chair Lift Ride.

Women at the Priesthood Session?

After the second Saturday session of Conference, and viewing the artwork at the JSMB , S.O. and I were walking back to see if he could get into the tabernacle to watch the priesthood session while I went and caught up with a good friend from the good ole day’s at BYU-I. As we walked up to the sweet old men who were helping at the Tabernacle, S.O. asked if they were letting people in to watch the priesthood session. The man just stared and looked at us, and you could tell the wheels were churning in his head as he looked and me and wondered how he was going to tell us that I was not invited to priesthood. LOL! As I realized that this is what he was thinking I quickly responded that I was leaving and with great relief he replied that they were letting people (more specifically men) into the building to watch the session. Not going to lie it was pretty stinking hilarious to see that mans face when he thought that I wanted to come to priesthood! I think that I will leave the priesthood session going to the men.

Attack of the Umbrella

First of all I had the most WONDERFUL weekend of my life. I was home with the family and a very special significant other, relaxing and enjoying the special spirit of conference. It really couldn’t have gotten any better. As part of the wonderful weekend “significant other,” which I am going to refer to him as for anonymity and mysteriousness : ), and I were able to attend the Saturday afternoon session of conference with my family. As I am sure you are aware it rained hardcore most of the day. After the session was over Significant Other (S.O.) and I decided to go and check out a collection of artwork being displayed at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Thankfully we had an umbrella, as did the bazillion other people surrounding the Conference Center.

While walking to the JSMB we ran into a friend of S.O's. In the process of our chat with this friend a couple with one of those huge umbrella’s that soccer mom’s prop up at soccer games that shade the entire sideline comes walking through the crowd. What happened next had to be the funniest thing I have ever seen! The man and his wife were briskly walking and most definitely not paying attention to where their ginormous umbrella was landing. As they walked by S.O's friend the umbrella hooked around his head and he had to duck to keep from getting drug along with the couple! I couldn’t believe that this clueless couple had just about taken off this kid’s head! Funniest part about it was that they did it to someone else about 5 seconds later! Lesson to be learned here, watch where you’re hooking your umbrella or else you might find you have some additional passengers.

just do what the video says

I thought that this was actually a really cool video and surprisingly compelling.

like an old sneaker

Unfortunately I had some car problems this weekend. Out of the goodness of my heart I let my not so little brother but most definitely younger brother (I have still got him on that one even if he is at least a foot taller than me) take my car on his b-day to go ice skating with his friends. I was not excited to get a phone call from my kid brother asking if my window doesn't go up...my thoughts...ummm yeah it usually does a pretty good job of going up and down. Long story short, window got stuck DOWN and put me in a pickle.

I was very frustrated and annoyed as I thought of how inconvenient this was. I needed a car! I would have to become that ghetto car with duck tape and plastic on the side, find somewhere to take the car to get fixed, and finally find a time to do it (how do people do this when they work full time!??). Needless to say I started to think of possible alternatives to this oh so enticing plan.

Wouldn't it be so nice if I could leave my car at home, take my dad's very nice Acura back to Provo, have my dad take the car to a trusty mechanic, and I come back to get my car once it is fixed! Sounds like a plan to me! And that was the plan I went for! It took a little convincing but my dad (out of the goodness of his heart) let me take HIS very nice Acura while he so kindly took care of the window problem.

I am not going to lie it was a lot of fun driving around a car that I will probably never be able to afford. Not only did I love driving it but it was awesome to know that people were totally checking out my ride! It was fun but I was also basically paranoid every time I drove it anywhere because I was afraid I would get some kind of dent in it or something. I had the car for Monday and Tuesday and drove back home to pick up my car on Tuesday night.

This may sound so dumb but when I climbed into my '94 Lexus after two days of driving a 2000 something Acura...it felt SO good. It was like putting on an old pair of sneakers. So comfortable and it just felt good. I had missed my car! I had missed the way it drives (which is very smooth by the way), the funny noises it makes, and the lack of any acceleration. I have a much greater appreciation for my car and hope that she will get me through one more winter...we'll hope!