Oh to be young and adored.....

Well, the young part will not return but apparently I am adored....

There is a friend of my boss who occasionally stops by our office to see if Dan wants to go to the skateboard park for awhile or grab some lunch. He's very quiet, seems nice, served a mission for the church, is a faithful member and keeps pestering Dan for my phone number.

The problem you ask?





He's 22.

Photo of the Day

I took this last winter in Springville, UT....I was looking through my Deviantart account and realizing I have taken some very lovely shots (and some truly crap ones) but I thought I should post some of them where they can be seen not only by others but so I can also remember them.

So why this shot? Because of yesterday's blog about September leaving and how winter will be here before we know it. Even with winter's grip all around, autumn was hanging on for dear life in these little leaves....and you have got to love a fighter.

Look for the "photo of the day" coming to a blog near you......

its nearly over

September. It came....and now its about to leave again.

Bummer.

Not that October isn't nice....I love October with its crisp fall leaves and fresh-smelling air....

but September (lovely, lovely September) is the start of it all.

October brings Halloween (admitedly my favorite holiday) but then all too soon comes November and then hard on its heels is December...

The next thing you know the world is no longer fresh and crunchy with leaves and autumn colors but fresh and crunchy with the cold fallen snow and the world becomes a swirl of blue shadows, white snow.....

and the dirt they dump on the road for traction.

Soooooooooo not attractive.

But I will try and look on the bright side with all the lovely scarves I've knit that will soon come out and play.....

I guess it will have to do.

And now for things completely random....

I thought about doing an ode to my bed and how absolutely comfortable it is to sink into its pillowtop cushy-ness......but I thought that everyone would look at me funny. After all, who writes a blog about her bed except the chick who spent a couple of days in a hotel with a mattress as hard as a brick? Besides, there are no good rhymes for cushion that would apply. sigh. My opus will have to lie unwritten for the time being.

I then thought about writing a blog about my new ringtone and how you shouldn't download something new at 4 in the morning after coming home from a trade show in Vegas...especially when you are extremely tired and not thinking clearly: you end up downloading "I kissed a girl" and, while you secretly think the song is hysterical you still aren't sure you want the world to know that everytime someone decides to call you. Interesting story, but not enough to really fill a blog with.....

Then I considered writing about my upcoming weekend....until I realized I really hadn't formed any plans for it yet other than getting take-out tonight. Heck, I haven't even decided if I am grabbing a salad from Cafe Rio, going for chinese or just snagging a pizza. All I know is that it needs to be something quick that I can bring home and eat because I was too darn tired to put on makeup today and I look completely hammered.

Seriously....the caffeine just isn't kicking in today...but no one cares about that either.

So what can I blog about?

Nothing I guess.

Vegas Update....

Rolled into Orem at around 2 a.m. on Thursday. Dan and I unloaded the truck and then he dropped me off at my place where I stumbled in, dropped my bags on the couch, fed the cat a treat and then crawled to bed for some well-deserved sleep.

Unfortunately the neighbors had other ideas.

Not not loud by their usual standards they were laughing and joking pretty loudly until somewhere around 4 in the morning when I managed to pass out until my cell phone began shrieking its alarm at 7.

It was promptly reset for 8.....and then 9.

9 a.m. saw me crawl out of bed bleary-eyed and practically comatose but I managed to pull all of my show clothes from my duffel bag and into the washer before I stumbled into the bathroom for a hot shower.

Somehow I managed to get my hair pulled into a rubberband and a little bit of makeup on before heading to the gas station for some caffeine soda.

2- 1 liter bottles of cherry coke later I was feeling a bit perky and began filling the orders placed at the show and working on what fell behind here at work.

So where does that leave me now? Well, its nearly 6 and I have to get to school and I am still okay. Yawning a lot, but okay. I have another coke in the fridge ready and waiting but I admit I am happy that tomorrow is Friday and that all I have to do at school tonight is show my final assignment and then I can leave.

Of course I am heading to Jason's house after class to give him his birthday present from Yancy and probably snag an episode of Smallville but then I am coming home, running my second load of laundry and then going back to bed.

See you all tomorrow.

Response to Jalee's Book List

A good friend of Jalee's posted this list. You are supposed to bold the ones you have read and put the ones you want to read in italics. You do NOT need to copy my commentary.......

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (not the greatest fan of her style but I love the story...I like dialogue rather than third person narration throughout)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (great series but with boring parts...sorry Tolkien!)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (one of my faves!)
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (not bad...want to try "Heathcliff" at some point)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (not that impressed really)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (another great book)
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (started once and never finished...would like to though)
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (I've read most of it but not all...)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier (interesting book.....)
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (I liked LOTR better but this is still a great book)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (hated it really)
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (tried...couldn't get into)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (frankly my dear...the book was much better than the film but Scarlet is so flawed she drives me nuts)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (love this book--another fave)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (does anyone NOT love this book?)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (depressing but I love him anyway)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (my favorite quote is from this book)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (read eons ago)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy (read most of it actually....never finished...but I recall liking what I had read)
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (read times without number)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (again, Austen's style leaves something to be desired but the book itself is great)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (see above)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (amazing series of books)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (depressing but brilliant)
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (loved the book, not the movie)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (Pooh!)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (very interesting little book)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (total crap--film and book)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving (I'm on the reservation list for it right now)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (great series!)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (did not like)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (graphic but great)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (still debating on this one)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert (couldn't get into)
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (extremely sad sad sad)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (strange, but good)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding (undecided on this one)
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (okay)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (big Alice Walker fan)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White ("some pig")
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (I cried buckets)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (another one re-read a billion times)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (not a fan of Charlie...sorry everyone)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Turns out I have read a lot of the list and own quite a few of these as well.....I would have added a few more to the list personally, but then I have read a lot of books in my lifetime.

Vegas...10 p.m. Tuesday night

Hmmmmmmmm......I admit I had fun. Satisfied?!?!?!

First, before you ask "where's the picture you promised us?" let me toss it at you now. THIS is what our booth looks like at the Western Car Wash Association Trade Show, 2008. Enjoy it 'cause odds are by the time you read this we will be in the process of tearing it down (Wednesday, 3 p.m. Pacific Time).



The show seemed to go on for quite some time but, in reality, was really only 6 hours....7 1/2 if you count me heading up to the banquet breakfast at 9:30 thinking I was going to have to wolf my food down to get on the show floor by 10....turns out its tomorrow at 10, today it didn't start until 11. It was nice seeing some vendors I have met at previous shows (one from Coeur d'Alene). Its just fun spotting a familiar face and having a chat with someone who remembers you too.

After the show we got out of our "show clothes" and went to In-and-Out Burger (Dan and Lori both love that place). I have to admit I am not a fan of the place...the burgers are good but the fries taste like they were freeze dried before being fried...its like eating hot greasy cardboard. Then I asked Dan to drop me off at the Tropicana so I could go through the Titanic exhibit. Lori and Dan looked at me as if I was nuts. Dan asks if I am sure I want to go to the Tropicana (its run down) and Lori asks "Didn't you already see that thing?"

Yes.....and, well, yes.

I admit I went to the Titanic exhibit on my first sojourn to Vegas one year ago. Of course I was under a time limit and was all but zipped through by Ronetta but I was detirmined this time to make it last. Honestly I was seriously wanting to visit the Promenade Deck again.....in the midst of this very busy town it was a place of quiet and solitude....and I was willing to shell out 30 bucks to get it. So even though I didn't share the particulars of why I wanted to go, Dan drove me to the Tropicana and let me go.



Of course the exhibit tells you several times that there are no pictures allowed to be taken once inside but I tried to sneak a shot of the Promenade Deck...without the flash it turned out all red and frankly is a crappy shot, but I honestly think the flash wouldn't have done anything either since its supposed to be outside on a very dark and frigid night, sailing over waters filled with icebergs. There is a fan blowing cold air like a chilly wind and there are lights that flicker on the wall and ceiling of the "star-filled night" that passengers had. The light flows off the side of the deck railing and simulates starlit waves (there was no moon that night) that slip past. There's a recording of burbling water and the rumble of a ship's engines and, if you're very observant, the floor beneath you rumbles just a bit as if stories-tall pistons were actually propelling the "ship" right under your feet.

I love this part of the exhibit. Sure its a tad creepy being in there all alone but I sat down against the ship's bulkhead and watched the stars and listened to the wind and the waves and felt so freaking relaxed.....until the employee walked in. It took her a moment to see me sitting on the floor but she screamed and ran (no kidding) back through the gangway door. A few long moments later she peeked back out to see if I was still there and then came out saying "this part of the tour always freaks me out--its so creepy in here--I am definately peeking through the window before coming out here again" (the door has a large round window in it). She was laughing and clutching her chest when she said this to me but I really don't think she was all that amused.

Well since that kind of ruined the mood I continued on with my tour, "touched the iceberg" and walked around a hugemongous replica of the decaying ship on the ocean floor. I have to say that while I appreciate the nice touch of simulating sunlight trickling down from the world above its pretty unrealistic; at nearly 2 miles beneath the surface no sunlight reaches that far down.

Finally you come to a room of personal items that they know who they belonged to. There is a write-up on these passengers and you are informed whether they lived or died before being confronted with the wall listing all of the survivors and victims of the tragedy. At the beginning of the tour you are given a "passenger card" and once you reach the end they ask you to see if your passenger survived or not. The first time I went through my passenger survived but had lost everyone else with her; this time was a bit of a letdown because I knew up front that my gal had survived. I decided to backtrack and take one last moment on the Promenade Deck but there were people already in there and I realized that the mood was definately gone...I still love that space though. I have to say that if you have the remotest interest in the Titanic its worth the money if you happen to be close to one of the exhibit sites.

So it was on to the gift shop where I bought a book and then out onto the bustling Vegas strip. It was a nice night out so I decided to walk back to my hotel (I'm at Bally's this time).

Of course, as with anywhere else you have the usual jerks and some surprisingly nice guys....leaving the Tropicana and crossing the skybridge to the Excelsior I heard a group of guys get behind me on the escalator going down. One of them starts exclaiming "OMG how huge is that" and starts joking about "getting a piece of that". Readers I hate to tell you this but he was talking about me. I was debating if it was even worth turning around and telling this guy what I thought of his comments when one of his companions lets out a "DUDE!" and I hear someone getting whapped.....then silence. Its nice to know there are some guys out there who do not feel that picking on the fat girl makes for good sport.

Once back on the street level I snapped a few shots (yes I played tourist) and walked to the Belagio to watch the water show. Funnily enough, the first song they played once I got there was "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion (from the Titanic movie soundtrack). I watched a second song ("Hey Big Spender") and checked out Michael Jackson watching the show (a pretty convincing celebrity impersonator) before heading back to my hotel room to rest up. From my tour of the Strip I smell a bit smokey and my nose still stings a bit from all the smoke and exhaust, but I feel pretty happy that I went out tonight. My feet are tired but not killing me though my back is insisting it is done for the day so I will sign off, take some more Tylenol and climb into bed.

I will post some of my Vegas shots after I get home....for being high speed internet here in my room its taking forever to load shots and keeps dropping some of them....I am too tired to want to fight with it tonight.

So I say goodnight to all of you Gentle Readers out there and I hope that you are happy to see me write the following words: Vegas ain't that bad of a place after all.

Viva Las Vegas....again

Once again I find myself in sunny Las Vegas and not exactly enjoying it.

I miss my own bed......having my own stuff around me just in case I want to use it. My cat walking over me at 3 in the morning as he climbs into my window to confer with the neighbor's outdoor brood.

Okay, maybe I don't miss that last one quite so much.

Yesterday we arrived in town, Dan dropped me and the booth stuff off and while he registered at the front desk, his son Tyson and I set up the booth. Luckily Dan arrived in time for the bigger stuff (I'll take a pic of the booth and post it tonight). We were finally done and headed up to Dan's room to collect my aunt and my other 2 cousins that came down for the trip. Dan had Lori, Tyson and I go to the "meet and greet" where they had some h'orderves (however you spell it) and some toned down cover band playing in one corner. Can we say awkward? We then ate at a deli here in the hotel (really good sandwiches) and then we took a tour around the pool.

We then split up....Dan wanted to show the kids some of the cool stuff around Vegas and I just wanted my room....so to my room I came. I watched the Heroes opening show and then the 2-hour premiere episode but I admit I was so tired I drifted off a few times and was a bit confused about what was going on. Having watched all of Season 2 over the weekend I thought I knew where everyone was but, for some reason, Matt was in the desert and somehow Syler got Claire without anyone else knowing about it???? As I said.....I was confused. Then it was off to bed drifting in and out of sleep all night on a fairly uncomfortable mattress.

Woke up this morning and my back was out. Seriously out. It must've been from my super-hard mattress but I also know that I really do need to lose some weight.

I ended up stretching for a bit and then a superlong hot shower focused on my spine and 4-tylenols for me to feel remotely ready to face my day. I still hurt but am able to walk upright so that's a good start! I actually feel great otherwise and am in a very happy mood....I just wish my spine was on board with the rest of me. Maybe I should wear my tennis shoes today rather than my nice ones just to be safe....

I went to the opening breakfast and grabbed some scrambled eggs and honeydew melon and then back to my room now to check emails from the work account. Now a quick blog and down to the conference floor because the show starts in 20 minutes.

Wish me luck and I will talk to you all later!

Got those "don't wanna get up" blues...

Well, I really wouldn't call it blues...more just reluctance to crawl out of bed at a decent hour...

I went to Jase's yesterday and spent time going over his photos with him and had fun doing so....Janelle called and apparently wanted to watch season 2 of Heroes on the big screen before the season premiere on Monday so she snagged some Cafe Rio salads for us, stopped by my place to grab my disks from the roommate and then came over.

Jase pretty much left right after she arrived as he had Comedy Sportz last night so Janelle and I watched episode after episode starting around 7 am and finishing just after 1 in the morning! It was great getting through the season so now we're prepared but dang if my body did not want to get up this morning.

Gee....I wonder why?

Going back to Jase's this afternoon for dinner (I have a pot roast simmering in the crock pot as we speak) but I think I need to be home by like 10 as I am going in to work at 7 tomorrow to pack up a few orders before Dan and I head to the trade show. He announced Friday that my aunt Lori and their 2 youngest boys are coming with us as well so it ought to be fun. With the boys coming I think I will need my energy levels up for sure so its off to bed by 11 tonight!

I know it will be tiring but I am now actually looking forward to my Vegas excursion (but then my aunt and uncle are both a kick in the pants so I know between the two of them we'll have fun)

Tired.....but still has potential....

Yeah, I'm still tired.

I'd stopped by Jason's before school to grab a piece of my cardstock that I needed for a homework assignment (and to get my package of braunschweger that I've been craving since last weekend)...and ended up staying for a few minutes more looking at the photos he's considering for the Sundance Harvest Market. For those who have yet to see a chunk of Jason's work....if you live in Utah you really ought to come to the market on October 4th and 5th (conference weekend). Trust me....you'll love seeing his stuff.

So then it was off to school where I turned in my die-cut project. Funny but I didn't think it was THAT complicated of an assignment but it ended up being passed around as no one had done that assignment yet (it was due yesterday) because they couldn't figure out what to do with it. We only have 2 more nights in class (one of which I will miss with the Vegas trade show) but I am the only one who has turned in a majority of the assignments. I have my primary colors photo in (a lot of people were complaining about that assignment because he won't accept a staged photo), my 4 background are in (only one other gal has hers in) and I am the only one with a die-cut assignment in as well. Which is really sad because out of the 8 classes we have for this subject, I am missing 3 of them and yet I am on-task. The final assignment is to design a flyer, get approval from the company you are making it for, get a bid for printing it and have 1 copy done. Honestly, this will be worked up tonight and in the morning and then I will stop at Kinkos to print it up and get the bid and then I am done.

I got home from class and, seeing I was buzzing still from guzzling several caffeinated bevies made the mistake of parking my butt in front of the TV to watch an episode of "House" (which is a freaking good show). Well that was followed by another episode of "House" and then I channel surfed a bit until I found an interesting show on the food network. Its essentially "Miami Ink" for the cake decorating set. I can't recall what it was called but the shop is in or around Baltimore and the designers were creating cakes like an armadillo wearing an emt outfit (Steel Magnolias fan for that one) and a nature scene with a lake and ducks hanging from a mobile above with a sculpted duck hunter and his faithful pooch.

Freaking incredible...but I didn't get to bed until after midnight.

So yes, I am tired.....but I am still feeling a buzz from last night's class (or last night's caffeine, who knows) and I am doing pretty good today.

sooooooooooooooooooo tired

Yesterday was fun....

Yesterday was tiring.

I had to run around town getting pictures printed up for the trade show I am heading off for on Monday, plus photoshopping other images to be printed on banner material (also for the trade show...which I will have to pick up tomorrow).

After work I went to a soccer game in Springville that my friend's youngest girl was playing in (they whipped the other team 5-2 which leaves them undefeated so far this season). Spent a few minutes flirting with (and subconciously drooling over) a divorced father at the game that my friend knows...bummer he's so hung up on himself and has a thing for skinny chicks. After the game we went back to her place and canned pears until just after 10. Trust me, 5 hours of peeling and peeling and peeling and then slicing and slicing and slicing will freaking wear you out!

I crawled home covered in excess pear slop, cleaned out the litterbox and was shutting the front door when something banged into it. Hmmmmm. No idea what it could be, but then I wasn't about to open the door to check....I was too tired and frankly wasn't concerned. changed into jammies and crawled into bed....only to be kept up by cat fights outside my window. All I can think is that some crusty stray decided the food was all his and that he wasn't going to share(the roomie leaves food out for the strays and all the neighborhood cats who have a home but want the food anyway).

So I was awake off and on for a hefty chunk of the night.....no way I was getting up early.

So now I am at work, nodding off and seriously about to go to the gas station for some caffeine cola just to get me through today and class tonight.

Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday...but I have a trade show to finish packing for, a keynote presentation to prepare, homework to finish since I'll be missing class on Tuesday and I am sure at least a dozen other things before I leave on Monday.

It never ends.......

When it all comes together...

Do you ever have days where you feel like you can't get a single thing right and then, amazingly enough, the next day you're on top of your game?

I'm like that at school.

There are days where I feel like a complete idiot because I can't find a function in Illustrator or Photoshop that I would have sworn was there earlier. Or sitting there staring at a blank new document and wondering how in the world am I going to convey "serene calm" into a background....while students all around me are zipping away with the assignment and not sitting there held captive by their own lack of imagination.

I need to learn how to "find my muse" as they say. Goodness knows I have an active enough imagination but I have no idea how to take what is in my head and get it down on paper. Anyone have any pointers?

But then this blog is about getting it right.

So I am sitting in class last night and first I had to show a photo I'd shot that captured primary colors. I had pulled together several of them to show and not only was my instructor impressed, he actually asked for one of them. It was a nice shot I took of Jason and Yancy walking down the street in SLC last Christmas by Temple Square.

Compliments are amazing things. Here is my instructor telling me I have a good eye and how happy he was to see that I found the colors he'd requested in objects you normally wouldn't notice them in (the pink/red of Jasper's nose, the yellow of his eyes and the blue of the cube he's looking through or how mom is pretty much all 3 colors in that shot). He couldn't believe I hadn't photoshopped colors or used filters on some of the shots.

In other words he liked my stuff.

Which is nice because I like it too. But it helped me that night because as I sat there working on my next project I started to trust myself and just start playing. Sure the buttons still weren't where I had left them (maybe its just my computer) but I was able to hunt around and eventually find what I wanted. I wound up with several nice backgrounds that are going to be turned in on Thursday and my die-cut card project turned out freaking amazing.

I need to start trusting myself more.

The following isn't even the best of my stuff but its what I took with me to class last night...they all have primary colors in or around them.


Downtown SLC


Closeup of metal sculpture


Boards


Jasper


Mom


Sorrow


Sunset Fence


Tiger Lily


Waiting


Woodgrain

Amazing

Considering Jason's "Christmas in September" birthday theme and the amounts of fudge and cookies that I not only baked but also ate I somehow managed to lose a pound over the weekend rather than the 5 I was sure I'd gained.

Of course the my actual weight is still in the "Oh my goodness" section and I am still retaining water like a freaking hippo...but it doesn't change the fact that I lost that pound.

Only in Utah

I was driving in Springville Saturday morning when I passed something all-too-familiar down here: a fender bender. What I noticed next, however, was not as familiar....the young gal who had been rear ended was leaning casually across the trunk of her car smiling up at the young man who had run into her...who was leaning against the side of her car and smiling back.

They were flirting.

And apparently having a good time of it, which was suprising considering the broken pieces of taillight and miscellaneous debris on the road and the flashing red and blue lights of the city police writing up his tickets.

I can hear it now.

"Mom.....how did you and Dad meet?"

"Well honey, its a funny story...it all started when your dad rear-ended my Toyota with his pickup".

Only in Utah can you have an accident and wind up with a date.

I can only hope he didn't rear end her on purpose just so he could meet her.

Back to the same old same old

Well I went home, ate, watched some more "Wings" and then went through all of my photo files on my computer for a class assignment (I have to find images that I have taken that are in primary colors....the problem wasn't finding them, but narrowing the list down!) I got so into going through my photos (I have taken some dang great shots!) that I lost track of the time and, before I knew it, it was heading towards 1 in the morning.

So I brushed my teeth, went to hop into bed and realised there was one more photo I wanted to look at so I found it and then went on to look at a couple more before I managed to put down the computer mouse and crawl into bed.

5 am. I actually bounced out of bed...sorta (being fat I tend to bounce naturally) and headed for the bathroom. After the call of nature I decided what the heck, I felt good at the moment but was sure I'd crash and burn long before class was over tonight...so I went back to bed until just before 7.

Zip in the shower, feed the cat, make the bed (shoddily, but at least its done), primp, breakfast on the fly from the gas station and I was 15 minutes late again for work....for what you ask?....a little extra sleep.

Sadly, I kept waking up every 10-15 minutes with my body saying "get up, c'mon get up...you can do this" and me just lying there, weighing the pros and cons, before drifting back to sleep.

Next time I am going to listen that inner voice and get up....I really missed my relaxed (and much healthier for me) morning. As I was getting ready this morning all I could focus on was how nice the last two days have been...of course I also need to start paying closer attention to how late it is getting so I won't put myself in this position again!

I did it again...

I had class last night (made it through class just fine, considering how early I got up), got home at 10 p.m. and then plopped down to watch a couple of episodes of "Wings" (I'm now on Season 7...dang I love that show!) Crawled to bed just short of midnight and then woke up this morning at 5:02 (which was a surprise as the alarm didn't go off).

I GOT UP!!!!!! I FEEL GREAT...but then its also a gray and cloudy day with promise of rain so that may have something to do with it as well.

I showered, ate a bowl of cereal (while I watched another epi of "Wings"), played with the cat, primped, made my bed, looked for some picture's I'd taken that are stored somewhere on my computer that I think will work for a class assignment I have(I'll search again when I get home) and then came to work.

Frankly the cat looked disturbed this morning as he surveyed the neatly-made bed. He's never seen it made 2 days in a row and I am sure he doesn't know what to make of it. He has no problem sleeping on it though, which is good since he tends to ignore my bed when its messy!

The only problem with getting up so early?

I didn't notice until I got to work this morning that my shirt was covered in cat hair....I was wrestling with the little bug right before I left so I am sure that's when I was attacked by the fur monster....soooooooooo not attractive. But a few moments with a bit of tape cleaned that right up. Wish I could say the same about my scratch-covered hands!

5 a.m.

Today I set my alarm for 5 a.m.

I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it...and I did.

While I can't say I literally bounced out of bed, I was able to get right up, find some clothes and head straight for the shower feeling, remarkably, refreshed.

I then had breakfast (wow...I'd forgotten what that was like), fed the cat, did homework, listened to my MP3 player while I made my bed, folded my laundry and actually put it away. I had time to write and mail a thank you card, clean out the litterbox, take out my bedroom trash and play with the cat for awhile before casually making my way to work, happy knowing that my chores for the day were already done....I left my room looking clean and a happily purring cat curling up on my bed for 40 winks.

Wow.

In in a few small hours I accomplished more than I have in the past couple of nights. I'd forgotten I once was a morning person and, while I glanced nervously at the clock a few times, I was constantly surprised to find I still had loads of time before I had to be out the door and on my way.

I liked it.

I think I'll be a morning girl again......

A few hours with family

I have an amazingly cool family. Seriously. I could probably heap up tons of stuff on each individual family member....and most of it would be good!

Today my aunt Chris drove down from Salt Lake to take me out to lunch.(Incredibly long and convoluted story short: Chris is from Washington State, drove down for a summer job and was in SLC for a few days visiting her sister).

Since she didn't know anywhere down here I drove us to one of my favorite places: Mimi's Cafe. I thought she'd enjoy going somewhere new that she'd never been to before...turns out that Mimi's must be a chain of some sort because there is one across the street from Disneyland and Chris eats there whenever her job has her taking a trip to the park (she organizes trips for the handicapped...trust me, she's been some cool places).

So my place isn't as unique as I thought, but that doesn't make me love it any less and the food was great (as always).

Afterwards Chris wanted to see where I lived (crap, I knew I should have made my bed this morning) so we drove to my duplex and she met my cat (which she appropriately loved and thought was adorable) and the roomie's dog. Funny, but I think my aunt's eyesight must have gone haywire for a few moments because she thought the dog was cute. Apparently not cute enough to stuff in the car and take home with her, but cute.

Whatever.

An hour-and-a-half flew by all too soon and I eventually had to come back to the office and Chris had to make her way back north in time to go to a football game that my cousin will be in tonight. Tomorrow she'll drive north to stay at my Uncle Eddie's place up by Boise and darn if I don't miss her already.

I have a freaking cool family and I love spending time with them....even if its only for a short while. I hope she can make it to my brother's wedding in November because every minute with that woman is a good time.

p.s. She's going to look into buying a coffeehouse when she gets back home that is up for sale and has asked me to make up a logo for it!!!!!

Field Trips and Educational Deviations

So I had a field trip yesterday. Both of our current "Print Design and Color Theory" classes met on campus, piled into cars and drove a few miles down the road to Alexander's Printing where we re-assembled and had a freakingly amazing tour of the facility.

For those who are not interested in design or what happens when they send work in to be printed you probably would have been bored stiff but I happily listened (and asked probably more than my fair share of questions) about the various equipment we were shown and about variations of paper, ink, digital vs. offset printing, binding etc etc. We saw a book being created from start to finish...printed, cut and then bound in softcover and stitched in hardcover formats. Postcards, business cards and flyers were being printed on every side. Bond paper weight and color variations flowed past in a stream of discussion and, for about an hour-and-a-half, I was in designer geek heaven.

My fun field trip was not only educational in the sense that I finally had a grasp on just what happens "behind the scenes" but in the fact that I ended up catching a ride with my instructor/mentor Tim. On the way to the printers I listened as Tim was weighing the pros and cons of a fellow student continuing her education into the Bachelor program (which will be offered starting in January). As he laid it all out for her I found myself weighing out my own options as well...and as soon as their conversation finished I began asking my own questions that hadn't been covered.

The end result, you ask? Hmmmm. I will still have my associates in Graphic Design by June of 2009, as planned, and will graduate with my degree. By the time I take my graduation walk I will already be in classes for the Bachelor's Program and will graduate again in September 2010 with a BA Degree.

A BA Degree.....me.....who'd have guessed that one was coming.

Unaffiliated does NOT mean uninterested, uninformed or unaware

You know what I don't understand? The need some people have to know which party you are a member of. Seriously, does it really matter?

I admit I tend to vote Republican but I have been impressed by the Democrats a time or two. The honest truth is that I vote with who I think will do the best job...not which team they play for. To hop fully into either Party partisanship, to me, is like saying "I am only going to eat peanut m&m's from now on....so long plain." Goodness knows that somewhere down the line I will get a craving for a plain m&m and be munching away happily when some idiot from my party is going to come along and say, "HEY! THAT'S NOT PEANUT!" Like its his business anyway.....and the hoops you have to jump through to change affiliation in time for a primary election? Deadlines dependent on which state you live in? As if I have nothing better to do with my time than to keep track of deadlines and paperwork if, heaven forbid, I should decide to switch my allegiance.

The bummer of being unaffiliated is that I am not allowed to vote in the primary for either party unless I cast my lot with one party within the proscribed deadline. While I understand the need for not allowing Democrats to vote for which Republican should be allowed to run (to keep a weak candidate from being selected that their party leader can easily crush) I do not see why unaffiliated party members should be excluded from the polls...so long as we only vote on one party ticket. After watching the open hostility, schoolyard bickering and name calling between Obama and Clinton I certainly would not have thrown my lot in with the Democrats for this election, but what if I had to choose between the lesser of two Democratic evils because I hadn't changed affiliation in time? Seriously....the thought freaks me out.

I want to be free to choose completely and at any time...not be thrown into a category that I have to fight to change should the need arise.

What brought this on? No, no one cornered me on the street or anything....I simply filled out a new voter registration card as I have moved since the last time I voted. I admit that I hate the idea of belonging to one club or the other but if I want the freedom to select who I will be voting into office down the line then I guess I will have to make some hard decisions in the next few years.

If I had to choose parties just based off of this years campaign I would seriously throw my lot in with the Republicans. Though, as a sidebar I would like to know what does Palin's daughter's accidental pregnancy have to do with her being a bad choice for VP? I would like to say to the gal harping online about "doesn't Alaska have birth control?" Its not as if BC is 100% foolproof and if that's the worst thing you can come up with then boy are you grasping at straws. Teen pregnancy (sadly enough) is all around us but can you really blame the mom for her 17-year-old daughter's free agency? Her stand is pro-life, which is something her daughter is apparently supporting since you don't see her trotting off for an abortion. Where is Palin supposidly going against her beliefs? I have known several families who do not support extra-marital sex whose children still end up making their own choice. I do not blame the parents for their children's own decisions...especially when the child is practically an adult themselves.

Celebrity endorsements or not (though I hear Lindsey Lohan is Republican) the Obama train is just a 3-ring circus whose smooth-talking ringmaster has no hard answers as to how he is going to fulfill all his big talk. Goodness knows I was not a Clinton supporter (for either term)...but I supported Al Gore rather than George W. I think Gore would have done a good job once Bill got out of his way. Funny how a lot of people dissed him for his "cry wolf" of global warming but that its now a major issue to both political parties....

Luckily I still have awhile before I have to make my choice...I think I will have to see who ends up running for the next election before making a final decision.

You'd think there would be an easier way of it though.

Field Trips

I am strangely excited to go to class tonight because we are going on a field trip. Of course it will be a bunch of us from both of the "Print Design and Color Theory" classes just piling into our cars and driving over to a local print shop for a production tour (rather than having us all pile into the big yellow bus of days gone by) but I am still rather silly over the idea. I haven't been on a field trip since high school.

I feel as if I should have a signed consent form from my mother.

September, Poems, Birthdays and Autumn

September has come, It is hers
Whose vitality leaps in the autumn,
Whose nature prefers
Trees without leaves and a fire in the fire-place.
So I give her this month and the next
Though the whole of my year should be hers who has rendered already
So many of its days intolerable or perplexed
But so many more so happy;
Who has left a scent on my life and left my walls
Dancing over and over with her shadow,
Whose hair is twined in all my waterfalls
And all of London littered with remembered kisses.

- Louis MacNeice, "Autumn Journal"



Some of you may recognise the opening lines from my old myspace account...some may not. This is one of my favorite poems followed closely by "Inversnaid" by Gerald Manley Hopkins. September is that magical time of year when summer closes and Autumn takes the stage. It is the beginning of some of my most cherished things: the smell of woodsmoke, foggy mornings, the orange of ripe pumpkins, cool windy days, the leaves in bright colors across the hills and crunching underfoot, buying school supplies and knowing that Halloween is just around the corner....

Autumn is when I feel the most alive.

I am so happy that I was born in this most beloved of months and at this wonderful time of the year.

I didn't make a wish when I blew out my candles yesterday...I'd already received my wish.

For those of you here in Utah I am sure that Labor Day this year was a bit of a bummer for you: a 3-day weekend of rain, cool weather and a lot of clouds with just a little sun peeking out at the end, but for me this weekend was exactly what I needed, and honestly one of the best birthday presents I could have ever asked for.