Cruises and Bruises

So I am a big blogging slacker. I know it's been many weeks, and I apologize. Instead of trying to get everything that's happened (because really, there hasn't been much.) I'll just start from where I am now.

The major event would probably be my Caribbean cruise. Instead of boring you all with a day-by-day description, I'll just post some pictures to prove I was there:


Judy, me, Indra the Bartender, Kristi, and Ben the E.M.T

Me, Judy, Pete the monkey, and Kristi

All of us at dinner. The big guy is Nate, Kristi's cousin

Me and some native dancers at Roatan

The girls

I have a bunch more pictures on my facebook and myspace (yes, I have both. I am just that dorky). We all had a great time enjoying the tropical weather and making new friends. Not to mention eating obscene amounts of very yummy food. I miss my 2 A.M. frozen yogurt runs!!

Christmas was also a good time, as usual. No longer the frantic run from place to place like it was when I was younger. Different, but sill good. This year my mom and dad picked me up Christmas Eve Eve and we took the Frontrunner up to Layton. Well, first we were too slow getting to the door, so there was an unscheduled stop in Clearfield, but luckily there was another train to take us back. Christmas Eve was spent buying last minute gifts before enjoying some tasty pizza while watching movies.

Christmas Day we went down to the Zauggs for breakfast and the opening of presents. Delicious french toast made by Preston! Finally Arden got to open those packages she's been having to stare at for so long! She's getting to be old enough to understand about presents and Santa and all that good stuff. Dax was happy as long as he had interesting things to explore with his mouth. We had a good day of opening and playing with presents.

For New Years I'll be going up to my friend Jeana's for a party. (Weather Permitting) I was invited to go to Disneyland, but too short of notice and short of funds to take this trip. Not too sad since I'll be going in February! Yay Disneyland!! I'll be in serious need of a break from winter by that point.

So now you are up to speed. Oh wait, boy news: A couple of dates with some nice guys that were enjoyable, but didn't lead anywhere. I found out that Jeff now has a girlfriend, so I guess I waited too long (duh) and blew that one in specatular fashion. I pretty much figured that's what would happen, but still. Ouch. Wasn't meant to be, everything happens for a reason, live and learn, blah blah blaaaaaaahhh.

Dating straight up sucks sometimes :-( Especially when the crap I go through is my own fault.

So . . . who's gonna make me some chocolate cake?

Ummm . . .

It's been a while since I blogged.
There's a very good explaination for this.
Abso-freakin'-lutely nothing new to blog about.
Things have been pretty low-key since the last almost-moving debacle. Still waiting for whatever reason I'm supposed to stay here for to make itself known. Starting to think it never will. Work is fine. Still slow, but doesn't seem to be getting any worse, so that's good news. We keep waiting for the holiday rush to start. Hopefully it will soon.

I know people most want to hear about the guy situation. Well, it has come to a grinding halt for the time being. My own fault, really. Haven't talked to Jeff in going on a couple of months now. The last time we went out it was rather awkward. I was getting pretty attached to the boy, and my unique way of showing this is to pretty much freak out on the inside, and become an uncommunicative, emotionless shell on the outside when in the presence of the guy. ( This only happens with decent guys. When I go for the jerks I'm totally fine.) Add to that he was not in the best mood, pretty stressed over school starting and frustrated over a project due the next day. Not the most fun date ever. Since then, I have thought up every excuse in the world to not call him, even though I still think about him often. So for my sanity's sake I guess it's time to grow up, dial the digits, and deal with whatever comes after that. I've been very good at eating healthier and cutting down fairly dramatically on my junk food intake. But I foresee comfort food in the form of chocolate cake in my near future.

Speaking of eating healthier, and on a positive note, I had a "Yay for me!" moment today. I've been strength training for a few months now. I'm stuck home being on call for work a lot, can't go anywhere since I may get called into work at any moment, so this started from sheer boredom. I'm getting some definition in my arms and legs, which is nice to finally see after months and months. And this evening while getting ready to go out with friends, I noticed if I flex reeeeeaaallly hard, I can see the top two sections of little baby six pack abs. I have a two pack! Sure, I have to really contract those muscles hard while holding my breath to see it, but still I did a little happy dance in my bathroom. Gotta take the little victories where they come.

I wish I had something less drama and vanity-related. But this is all I have for now. Maybe next time.

The Universe Has Spoken

Ok, I get the hint.

Powers that are larger than myself seem to want me to be right where I am, so I am giving up my attempts to move before my lease is up.

I was up at my parent's house today when my dad told me he'd help me out with my rent for a few months if I stay where I am. It can be treacherous in the winter on the east bench, and the thought of my having to drive on those snowy roads worried him. I was just about to leave for a friend's house and was caught off-guard by the proposal, so told him I'd think about it.

After weighing the choices, I decided to take his offer and stay put at the risk of looking like a huge flake to all the people I keep telling I'm going to move, and then never following through. I called the girl who had shown interest in taking over my lease and told her I'd changed my mind. The call I was really dreading was to my friend I was going to be living with to tell him I was ditching out. I wanted to do it in person and not over the phone, so was resisting calling him all day even after he sent me multiple texts asking to call when I could. I thought if I'm going to alienate or possibly lose a good friend, I could at least let him yell at me in person.

Finally he sent a text saying: "call me asap Val . . . we're not living there anymore"

Huh?

So I called. He told me he'd caught the landlady going through our things under the pretense of looking for duct tape. He'd been suspecting that she was nosing around for a few days now, and was even sure she'd been on his computer at one point. There were some words exchanged and he let her know that we would be moving our things out of the house very soon and not to expect rent next month.

Whoa.

Sometimes life works out in strange ways. I'm not generally a lucky person, so when things fall into place so smoothly and so quickly, and best of all with friendships preserved, I can't help but think it wasn't all simply coincidence. Whatever the reason, I guess I'm where I'm supposed to be for now.

Swinging Chandelier

Ah. Apartment living. Makes one feel so close to mankind. Or at least to the herd of guys in the apartment above. Not sure what it is they're doing up there every night that causes the chandelier to move like that. But it involves loud music and stomping and jumping that I suppose could be dancing, man-style. I'm guessing Guitar Hero. It's good music, and generally I'm not trying to sleep, although my roommates are probably less than amused since they're both in bed by 10 or 10:30. I actually find it kind of comforting to hear signs of life around me. It makes me giggle to hear them laugh and hoot and holler, so I say "rock on, boys!"

Work is much busier this week, despite further plungings of the stock market. I do double shifts on Thursdays, and today I did as many massages as I usually do in 2-3 days. Tuesday and Wednesday both filled up too, and I know I have another busy day tomorrow, starting off with back-to-back 90 minute deeps. This next paycheck may actually not suck! With the cold weather coming to drive everyone inside, I'm very much hoping to have more weeks like this.

On a more festive note, I did go to a haunted house last Saturday. Well, the Haunted Hollow up in Ogden, strangely enough, and I was tricked into going. I went costume shopping with my friend Kristi and her roommate Sam. Kristi had made plans to meet with her cousins and some of their friends for dinner at The Pie after the Priesthood session. Sam feels much the same way I do about haunted houses, so Kristi chose to omit the fact that we were doing the haunted house thing until we were on our way to dinner. Tricksy. But we both survived, and had a good time. It helped we were in a group of about 14 people. And yes, I made people do the arm-linking thing with me. We now have plans to go to Vegas with one of these cousins and his friendlies for Halloween. Should be fun!

So, guess what? I'm moving. For sure this time. It's kinda far, about 80th south and way east. But close to freeways so it won't take me much longer to get to work. The rent there is over $100 less than it is here, which is my main reason for going. Utilities will also be pretty cheap. It's a basement apartment, so we'll be splitting our half of the costs 3 ways. My friend Brady has already taken care of our first months rent and started moving in yesterday. I have to get my stuff packed and get someone to take over my lease here, which I already have a couple people interested in. Our 3rd roomie, Chelsea, is a student from Southern Utah and will be moved in soon as well. Only problem is, the place already has a washer and dryer. Since more than likely I'll be there less than a year, I don't want to sell mine then have to buy another set in a matter of months. Does anyone have room to store a washer and dryer for 6 months - a year at the most? Or if you know anyone who needs some, I'd even loan them out to a good home as long as I can have them back when needed.

That's it for now. Tune in next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.

High Times, Hard Times

So I guess this is what is known as the "hard times". I've been somewhat in denial about it. Kinda hoping if I just ignored it, it would go away and life would return to normal. That does not seem to be happening, so I guess it's time for me to make some decisions.

Work has slowed down to a very frightening trickle. This comes as a sad blow, since just a couple of weeks ago we were very nearly back to normal. Unfortunately, the you-know-what then hit the fan on Wall Street. I've been noticing a direct correlation to how the economy is reported to how busy we'll be at work. When things are holding or looking up, people come in. When things go south, or in this case right down the toilet, appointments are cancelled and the phones don't ring. And those few who do come in are stingy with the tips.

So now I have to decide how to best handle this, and I admit I'm at a loss. Do I grit my teeth and stay put? I love where I work and have been very happy there, and would be sad to have to leave. Also, the holiday season is right around the corner, always (at least in the past) a busy time at the spa. I'm not losing money at this point, but if things get much worse I will be. Do I start looking for a second job and cut back on the days I work at the spa? And if I do that, should I look for another massage job or fall back on my only other job skill which is retail/sales? (Which I hated and why I went to massage school in the first place to escape from.) Also, and this would be my last resort, at what point do I cut and run completely, hoping to return when/if things even out? Being a grown-up SUCKS!!!

So that's my main source of crazy-making these days. I've kinda put boys on the back burner for now, as I can only handle one disaster at a time. So feel free to send any advice my way. As well as lottery tickets or rich bachelors :-)

Me too, me too!!

Thought I might as well jump on the band wagon.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE?
Not to my knowledge

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?
I'd rather not answer that one . . .

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?
I do. It's messy and unique. Like me :-)

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT?
Tuna!

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS?
Nopers. Two fishies though.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD THEY BE FRIENDS WITH YOU?
Ummm . . . I think fishies aren't too social.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT?
Who, me? Nah . . .

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS
What's left of them, yes.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP?
Oh yeah!! Bring it on!!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL?
My yummy vanilla Kashi stuff. Kinda oatmeal-esque warm cereal. Very good with strawberries and banannas

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF?
Not if I don't have to.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG?
Getting there

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM?
Homemade vanilla

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE?
Mouth/smile. I have a bit of a lip fetish, especially on guys.

15. RED OR PINK?
Red.

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF?
My habit of second-guessing myself.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST?
Depends on the day.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU?
Sure

19. WHAT COLOR SHOES ARE YOU WEARING?
None. I like barefoot.

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Fruit Gushers Blue Bursters. Fruit snacks with blue stuff in the middle. Very grown-up and sophisticated.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
The crickets chirping outside. They won't be doing that for much longer.

22. IF YOU WHERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE?
Greenish-blue. Or blueish-green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS?
Fudge cooking, reminds me of Christmas. Hard to describe it, but that "summer" smell in the air when it finally gets warm. Food cooking when I don't have to make it. I could go on for days.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE?
Brady, couple days ago. I don't talk on the phone much.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
Yep. Hi Mom!!

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Soccer and Hockey, but I enjoy just about any sport. Except golf.

27. HAIR COLOR?
Brown

28. EYE COLOR?
Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
No

30. FAVORITE FOOD?
Cheese fries!! Although Cadbury Eggs are fabulous, not sure they count as food.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS?
Happy endings

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
At the theater, Iron Man. Otherwise, Holes at my parents yesterday

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING?
Yucky black work shirt

34. SUMMER OR WINTER?
summer

35. HUGS OR KISSES?
All of the above

36. FAVORITE DESSERT?
Chocolate cake with lots of frosting
37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
Dunno

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND
Dunno

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?
This Is Your Brain on Music. It talks about how our brains respond to music, why we tend to like the music from our teenager-hood, why annoying songs get stuck in your head, all kindsa stuff.

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD?
Not applicable. Magic tracking thingy I work with my finger!

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT?
Lots of stuff, my parents have satellite. Football, Holes, Batman Begins, Ever After, I forget what else we flipped to.

42. FAVORITE SOUND?
I'm a cuddle-er, I love to hear heartbeat and breathing. Ocean waves are up there, too.
43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES?
Both
44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME???
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I think. Or is Orlando farther? Might be Orlando.
45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT?
Locking my keys in my car.
46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN?
Lay-uhn
47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK?
Whoever decides to do this, too.

Fried Food on a Stick

It just occurred to me I haven't done my blog for this week. That could be because this week has been rather uneventful. Work picked up a bit, I'm hoping that this means our slow season is over. There has been some roommate drama, which is very unusual. (And no, I'm not the cause of any of it.) One of my roommates is, shall we say, less than communicative. Apparently a few things have been bugging her for quite a while, but myself and the other roommate weren't aware of this since she's never said anything. She told us her concerns in an e-mail, which my other roommate took exception to. Oy. I'm sure it will all blow over soon, just girls being girls. So til it does I'll be keeping an even lower-than-usual profile around here.
Yesterday brought up some memories. The History Channel had a couple of shows about September 11. One was told by various photographers who were in the area and illustrated by the pictures they had taken, another was people who had been in the buildings and survived. Tragic, amazing stories. I hadn't even thought about it in such a long time. Seeing those images again . . . I don't think they'll ever completely lose their shock value.
And now back to my trivial little life :-)
I locked my keys in my car. In the bay of a car wash. Again. I was even thinking to myself as I pulled in "don't lock the door, don't lock the door, don't lock the door!" I didn't have a pocket for my keys, so left them on the seat. Dug out some quarters, got out of my car, and . . . locked the door. It's a habit, I do it without even thinking. Also locked in my car was my cell phone, and my purse containing my AAA card. There was a couple on a motorcycle nearby, and they let me use their phone to call my dad to call AAA to save my sorry behind from being stranded at the car wash when I had to be back at work in 45 mins. It all worked out well. A tow trucked pulled up less than 10 minutes later and the nice man only teased me a little while he got my door unlocked. Then it was back to work and business as usual.
After work, it was girls night out at the State Fair. Oh yes, fried food and fun rides!! Actually, I do believe this is the first time I've actually gone on any rides at a fair. The 3 of us pooled our money and got a bunch of tickets. None of us have a problem with motion sickness, even after various deep-fried treats, so we went on all the spinny, roundy-roundy rides we could. We also looked at the pigs, goats, cows, and rabbits. If we had gotten there a bit earlier, we could have seen the "Elvis Extravaganza". Basically, it was a bunch of Elvis impersonators. Isn't that just perfect? Fun night :-)

So that's all there is this time. Catch ya later

Running and Not Moving

I survived my first half-marathon!! Disneyland sure knows how to make anything into a party, even something as torturous-sounding as running 13.1 miles.

My parents and I flew in to Bob's Airport (Long Beach) on Saturday morning. Amanda and Matt flew at almost the same time, but they were at John Wayne airport. We rented a car and after a a minor setback when the powers that be decided to close the exact on ramp we needed to get to the correct freeway, picked them up and made our way to DISNEYLAND! Yay!! It wasn't as crowded as we were expecting for a holiday weekend. Manda heard from a reliable source that this has been happening all year. Dang economy! But then again, I like a non-crowded Happiest Place on Earth, so you won't hear too much complaining from me.

My run was on Sunday morning. I hadn't been feeling nervous at all until the afternoon before. For one thing, I misunderstood my e-mail and dragged my parents to the wrong convention center looking for where I got my packet of race stuff. We walked all the way to the Anaheim convention center, but there was church of some sort going on there. My mom asked one of the nice information desk ladies and she told us to try the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center. Did you know they had a convention center? Neither did I. But they do, so I turned in my waiver form promising not to sue should I injure/kill myself during the race, and giving them permission to use any pictures or video of me "in perpetuity and throughout the universe". So they can beam pictures of me continually to Mars and not pay me a cent. I felt a little better after being officially checked-in, but started getting nervous again in the evening. I hit the sack at the unusually early (for me) time of about 10. I was so tired from getting up early for the flight out that I had no trouble sleeping.

The next morning I woke up at 4. Yep, 4 o'clock A.M. For one thing, I was paranoid about missing the start of the race. I also wanted time to eat breakfast as there was no way I'd last that long without food. Mom and Dad came with me and saw me off at my starting point. The runners had been split into 3 different groups, 14,000 people had signed up to participate. The serious, fast runners went first. Then the semi-goods. Then the rest of us, first timers and slow people. I gotta say, though, I think I was in the most fun group. People were dressed up as Disney characters, chatting it up and having a great time. Very casual and non-competitive. When it was finally our turn to cross the starting line, it reminded me of the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. Lots of runners holding up cameras to take pictures of the tightly-packed crowd, and everyone in a festive mood.

We first ran through the parks, starting with California Adventure. There were lots of Disney employees and characters out to cheer us on. Runners would stop for quick photo ops with the characters, then jump right back into the race. Lots of joking and laughing. To risk sounding like an old lady, it was a hoot! One of the selling points of this half-marathon is you get to run through the castle. Well, with such a large crowd and a relatively narrow castle opening, we actually walked through. But no one in this group was overly worried about making good time. This was more like a 13 mile party than a race. Even once we left the park, every half mile or so there was a band or cheer leading squad from a local school. Our names were printed on our racing bibs along with our numbers, so it was fun to be cheered on by name. We were also cheered on by the cops who closed the roads down, boy and girl scouts, random locals, even some Polynesian dancers!

My legs started feeling tired and heavy about the 9 mile mark. Although my pace wasn't much faster than the walkers, I am proud of the fact that I didn't actually walk. Ok, except at the water stops, it's difficult to drink out of a paper cup while jogging. Trust me. I tried it at the first one and nearly drowned myself. The nice marine layer we had keeping things cool burned off at around 11 miles and it got hot fast. I'm glad I was nearly done at that point. Had it happened much earlier I would've been in serious trouble. Dad had walked over to give me some end-of-race support, which I appreciated. The last mile lasted for-freaking-EVER! We finished close to where we started, kind of in the Downtown Disney/Hotel parking lot area. Lots of turns in this part of the course, so I kept thinking the finish line had to be just around the next corner.
No?
Oooookkaaaay, this one.
Nope.
This one's gotta be it.
Wrong again.
Are you kidding me?!?
One more corner and I probably would have broken down. Lucky for me that was the last one, and with the help of ridiculously supportive strangers cheering for me I made it! Mickey and Minnie gave me high-fives as I crossed the finish line, which made it so totally worth it. I was so relieved! I've been nervous that for whatever reason I'd have to drop out without finishing. After all my training and buildup that would have been a bit humiliating. I was slow, but finish I did. Out of the 14,000 that signed up, 10,849 runners crossed the finish line. I was the 6,628th finisher with a time of 2 hours and 43 minutes. Not too bad, but plenty of room for improvement. I'm definitely doing it again next year. Anyone care to join me?

After the race, I got a medal (woohoo!), ate some of the free food, found my mom, and headed back to the room to rest a bit before playing at Disneyland. I was very sore and quite a bit more tired than I usually am for most of the trip, but still had a good time. To help with the soreness, Dad got us a room with a big jacuzzi tub, and Amanda and Matt were kind enough to let me have the real bed while they slept on the couch bed mattress. Yep, I am spoiled :-) We got home this morning, and now it's back to reality.

My moving plans fell through today. The landlord of that beautiful house threw a last minute curve ball that made it quite a bit more expensive then he had told us it would be. Good thing we hadn't signed our respective leases yet. So I'll be staying at my apartment for now, and my poor buddy Brady is still technically homeless and stuck commuting between Layton and Salt Lake everyday. Not sure about the girl who was going to our other roomie. Although I'm no worse off than I was before, I'm bumming pretty hard. I was really looking forward to my room with the window seat and a fresh start in a new place. But no, I'm stuck here. Not that here is bad, but I had started thinking about all the things I wouldn't miss when I left. Ended up with quite the list. Now I'm not in the best frame of mind about my current situation and feeling rather restless and unsatisfied. Oh well. Hopefully another opportunity will present itself in the near-ish future. All of you who were worried about me sharing living space with a boy can breathe a sigh of relief. I will continue in my BYU-approved quarters for the foreseeable future.

On the upside, at least there's a hot tub here :-)

wait. . what?

Holy crap. I swear I can't get my little ADD mind to focus on this screen long enough to type anything. It's been a looooong day. The more tired I get, the less control I have over my attention span. I kid you not, it's taken me 10 minutes to get this first paragraph written out.

I've got a pretty good excuse, though. At least I think so. Last night I finally went for my long run after scheduling conflicts kept pushing it back. Unfortunately, it was quite a bit later at night than I had planned. I was originally supposed to go 10 miles, which is the most I had ran up to this point. Around 8 miles I was feeling good and thought I'd see if I could make the whole 13.1. Dumbest idea EVER!! Well, I made it to 12 miles before admitting I just had nothing left and couldn't go any more. Unfortunately this left me far away from my car. That was the longest, hardest walk I've ever experienced. For those of you coming to Disneyland, time to draw straws to see who's going to piggy-back me to the room after my run. My legs and feet protested every step. I swear it took me an hour to walk up that one side of the park. I guess this is the infamous "wall" that I've heard about. Probably didn't help that at this point is was nearly 1 A.M., or that I didn't really eat much dinner. I was EXHAUSTED. My stomach even hurt, which has never happened before. So I drug my sorry self back to my apartment. Didn't really eat since I was feeling a little nauseated. I very nearly collapsed in a tired, sweaty, un-toothbrushed heap on my bed and went to sleep then and there. Luckily, hygiene took over long enough to get myself showered and teeth brushed. But then, oh happy day!, I got to lay down. Holding still has never felt soooo very good. I was asleep within 30 seconds. Today I finally made it to the running store before it closed. I got some insoles with extra cushioning and arch support for happier feet and legs, and some energy gel to give my body fuel to burn during these longer runs so I don't hit that wall quite as hard in the future.

I felt much better when I woke up, though tired, and ate an extra big breakfast to make up for not eating last night. I usually function just fine on 5 or 6 hours of sleep, but today I've been dragging. It's Thursday, so I worked a double shift today. I did get a pretty big break, which I was grateful for. That gave me time for lunch, the trip to the running store, and I still had time to kill so stopped in at the Ross store. I found a nice pair of boots for $22, and they actually fit! Our family tends to be lacking in the calves department, so I was surprised. Not sure if this happened to be a skinny legged pair, or if the pain from running has actually paid off some. Either way, I'm now a member of the boot club, and for at least $80 cheaper than I was planning. Woohoo!!

A friend of mine is buying a house and asked if I'd like to be a roommate. I still have A LOT of thinking to do before making a decision, but I am considering it. I went and looked through the place tonight after work. It's much nicer, newer, and bigger than what I was expecting considering I'd be paying about the same in rent as I am now. I think. I'll have to ask if the price included utilities and all that. But if I did take it, I'd basically have the lower floor all to myself. The bedroom I'd be in is about the same size as mine now, and has a window seat. If I cooked, I'd be really excited about the kitchen and it's new and expensive-looking appliances. There is a lot to consider here. It is farther away from work, but not horribly so. Having a yard would be nice, but I know that means yardwork. And yes, there will be snow-shoveling of the driveway when needed. I do have one major concern that I would like to discuss with Mom and Dad before making any decisions.

Sorry, no boy news this week. Jeff is at Lake Powell with his family, we'll see if he calls when he gets back. Still keeping in touch with Kwanki, but haven't yet found a time when we both have a free evening. And holy crap! It has taken me 3 hours to write this thing! Attention spans are for sissies.

'Til next week . .

Brownies For Dinner

Yep, that's right. I'm eating a brownie for dinner. I'm also having a big glass of milk. That makes it healthy, right? Don't worry, Mom, this is a pretty rare event. Usually I make myself something at least somewhat nutritious. I've even gotten to the point where I can finish a bag of salad all by my loners without it going bad.

Not much has happened this week, so this will be a fairly short blog. Today was my first double shift Thursday, and it went pretty well. I had 2 appointments this morning, then a couple hours break before another 2 this afternoon. I was kinda hoping for more appointments. Christmas is coming, and so is my cruise. It's official, I put down my deposit the other day. It lasts December 7-14th, we're even going to have a window in our room! Yay! Although the cruise itself isn't much since we're return customers and they gave us a great deal, the airfare (leaves from Miami), shore excursions, and souvenirs will add up. I'm going to go to the post office on Monday to get the passport thing going. I'm stoked to finally get a passport! I've always wanted one. You know, just in case I have to leave the country in a hurry. Haha.

Ok, I know what you're really wanting to hear about is my dating life. Or whatever it is. I am still seeing Jeff a couple times a week. It's kind of an unusual situation, not sure if it's "dating" or not. He did let me know early on, and to respect his privacy I'm not going to blab his reasons, but there is a lack of the usual dating indicators: No cuddling, kissing, that kind of thing. (Which will thrill my parents to no end, I'm sure) On one hand, it's rather nice to know that he actually likes me, and isn't just hanging around for the physical stuff. On the other hand, I have no idea if he "likes" me, or just likes having a new buddy to hang out with. Either way, he's a very fun guy (he was uncharacteristically quiet at the Fair last weekend. Normally, he's quite a spaz), and I'm having a great time with him. Tonight we went ice-blocking, which was a riot, then rented a movie.

Kwanki (Kwan Ki? I'm not sure yet) and I have been talking as well, but it's harder to actually get together with him since he lives up in Ogden. Hopefully sometime next week we can coordinate schedules.

It's getting late and I'm pretty groggy, so that's all I'm writing for this week. Let me know if something doesn't make sense, and I'll fix it when I'm fully conscious. Goodnight!

Cravings

Who knew the Travel Channel was so dangerous? Here I am, minding my own business, naively thinking I'd get a little education about some exotic, far-off locale, when BLAMO! They throw on "Food Experts" doing an episode on the best places to get ice cream. I am bombarded by smiling people happily chowing down on various drool-worthy treats, while I am stuck in an ice cream-less apartment. It's too late tonight to do anything about this tonight, but tomorrow I may have to get my fix at the Baskin-Robbins or somewhere. Maybe I can even last til Saturday at the fair, I'm sure there will be ice cream there. And funnel cakes!! Ohhh yeah, I love me some funnel cake. I think I'm hungry again.



Ok, let's see. What did I do this week? I finally saw the new Narnia movie on Monday. Right after I saw Ironman for the 3rd time. Dollar movies are fabulous! It's been a long time since I've read Prince Caspian, so I'm not sure how much liberty they took with the movie. It seemed like a lot of battle scenes for such a short book. Dad would like it, haha. Now I need to re-read it, although I did like the movie. Where did they film it? There was some impressive scenery going by. My guess is New Zealand. There were some mountains that looked LOTR-esque.


The Perseid's meteor shower is going on this month. I didn't know it lasted so long, but when I looked it up it lasts from July 15 to August 25. The peak nights are August 12-13. I didn't see any last night, even up the canyon, but I did see lots of satellites. It seems like when we were little it was pretty rare to see a satellite go by. Now I wonder how they can get anything into orbit without hitting a couple. Is that someones job at NASA? To coordinate launches with satellite traffic? hmmmm . . . Ok, ok. I know you're wondering. I was hanging out with Jeff. But don't go reading too much into things. We are keeping things on a friends level for the foreseeable future.

Also this week I have decided to do some reconfiguring of my training schedule. I was doing my long runs on Saturday. But now that my long runs are, well, long, they take up a big chunk of time on Saturdays that I often don't have. So I've traded my long run and easy run days. Now I'll be doing those long runs on Monday, which is my day off. This makes so much more sense, I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out! Another miscellaneous note: I will be working double shifts on Thursdays for a while. With our abbreviated hours in the summer this will be from 10-7, so not too bad at all. Plus the extra money will be nice to see on future paychecks.

So that's it for this installment. I'm going to find a snack, then its time for bed.

What Happened to July?!?

I can't believe how fast summer goes by. I wish winter would go by half so fast, but no. It draaaaags on for-seemingly-ever.
July has been a somewhat mellow month. Work is still slow, but at least holding steady and not getting any worse. I'm a month away from my half-marathon at Disneyland and still doing well with training. And by "doing well" I mean "no injuries." Both of my roommates have been having foot and knee trouble since they began running, so I guess I'm extremely lucky. I've also begun some weight training. I'm not trying to get buff or anything, just add some tone to my scrawny little self. I don't know when the results will be noticeable, but something must be changing. I thought I was constantly hungry before. Now its absolutely ridiculous how fast I burn through groceries. I just ate dinner 3 hours ago after work, my tummy is already growling for more.
Ok, since returning from Vegas, my summer of 80's music has continued. A couple of weeks ago I went to the Journey/Heart/Cheap Trick concert. We ran late and missed Cheap Trick completely, which bummed me out. Heart was performing when we got there. I gotta say, after all these years, that woman still has some serious pipes. I forget the musicians names. But I know the guitarist is her sister, and she still pretty much rocks as well. LOVED the guitar solos. We sang along with "Barracuda" and "Magic Man" and they did "Crazy On You" (my personal favorite) as their encore.
Journey was the main event, and they lived up to the hype. I was a bit taken aback at first. They have a new lead singer. He's a young kid from the Phillippines, which was not what you think of when you picture Journey. He's yet another YouTube find, that seems to be the place to get replacement singers. And he does sound exactly like the original singer. Plus has the added advantage of youth, so he was quite the bouncy little showman. He could definitely work the crowd. The fact that he wasn't bad lookin' helped with that, I'm sure. Really, what could be better than belting out Journey songs with a few hundred drunken strangers? And belt we did. I again forgot my camera, but my friend brought her's so if I get pics I'll post them later.
The next week was the Police concert, which both Amanda and Chrystie have done a good job blogging about so I don't have to. I will say I really liked the way they did "Wrapped Around Your Finger" Totally a different sound than I've heard it done before. I wish I could describe it, but can't think of the right words. Almost exotic, slower and stripped-down. Meh. Anyways, very cool.
I had an adventure last Friday and got to go outrigger canoeing. My little bit of regular canoeing expirience came handy so I didn't feel completely useless. A friend of the family, Kwan Ki (Ben) Au found me on the internet and invited me to come out. His father and his father's friends have been wanting to reconnect to their polynesian roots, and so have started canoeing on the weekends. Besides Kwan Ki and Mr. Au, I'm not entirely sure who was related and who was not. There were about a dozen people there, with lots of "uncle" and "aunt" being thrown around, but it seemed more an honorary title than actual relation. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly. They were a very easy-going, good-natured group and very easy to feel comfortable around.
The actual paddling was easier than I thought it would be. There are 6 to a canoe, with one steering. I suppose having 4 other paddles stroking at the same time as mine made it feel like less work. The only time I struggled is when we would sprint for a swell, then my arms burned a bit. I did get a bit raw at the base of my left thumb, but that was the only pain I felt the next day. Other than the bug bites on my shoulder.
The next day after work my friend Jeff and I drove up to Ogden to the Raptors game. Amanda got tickets from work so we got in free! Yay! We didn't realize it was a double header from a previously rained-out game and came in towards the end of the first game. But we did get to see the second game, which they won. It was a good night for a game, too. We were out of the sun, so it was pretty much the perfect temperature. After the game, Jeff said he was having a craving for a shake, so of course I took him to Jake's before heading home. Apparently if you're there when its not busy, they'll custom-make shakes for you. I had no idea!
So now you're all caught up with what's been going on in my neck of the woods. I'll try to do better at keeping this thing updated.

Las Vegas in Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Vegas trip, in no particular order.

Happy to be eating dinner!

Me, Scotty, and Ryan getting silly, it was late
The view of the pools from our room
Me and Kristi at Ceasar's Palace. Ignore the statue.

Rome and Scotty on the shuttle

Ryan thinking very hard on the shuttle
The BYU kids. Rome, Denhi, and Brian
Boston
Styx, obviously

Vegas, Baby!

Last weekend I went to Vegas for the first time in about 4 years. It was great fun :-) I'll post pictures when I get some. Not used to having a camera yet, so I'm afraid it spent the whole trip in my bag and never got used, poor little thing. Anyways, we left Friday morning. There were 7 of us in all, 4 in our car that left that morning, and another 3 that came down later. Our car consisted of me, Kristi (owner of the car) and her friends Ryan and Scotty that both came in from different states for this shindig. Ryan from Georgia, and Scotty from Rexburg, Idaho. The car ride was fairly uneventful, pretty much just getting to know each other as the only one any of us knew was Kristi. But we all got along very well and it wasn't long before we were doing what we do best, making fun of each other. The 3 that came down later were Kristi's younger brother Bryan, his girlfriend Denhi, and another friend, Rome, that all attend BYU. We didn't really hang out with the younger 3 much, so mostly it was just the 4 of us that drove down together.

We stayed at the Wyndham. Its a very nice timeshare condo place just off the strip. The best part was the pool area was open all night long! Since its still 95 degrees at 4 in the morning, I utilized this both nights we were there. Not a lot of sleeping going on in Vegas. The first night we got settled in, chilled at the pool for a while, then decided to go check out the nightlife on the strip. As we were deciding where to go for dinner, we found some guys passing out free admittance to a bunch of the clubs. We were skeptical about this as the clubs on the strip tend to be expensive, but it turned out to be the real deal. Well, for me and Kristi, anyway. The guys had to pay $30. We went to Jet at Ceasar's Palace. It was very, very crowded. But the music was good and we had a great time, even though it was $6 for a tiny bottle of water. The 2 of us that stayed longer ended up getting lost and wandering around Vegas for about an hour or so before we finally found our way to our hotel. Neither of us knew how much it would cost for a cab, and didn't have much cash between us. Walking is not fun after a night of dancing, and I thought I had it bad in heels. But Scotty had it worse, his foot was bleeding where his shoe was rubbing against his heel by the time we got back to the room. Ouch. To celebrate our not getting mugged, we went swimming before bed and crashed the party of a couple who were probably hoping to have the pool and hot tub to themselves for some private time. Heeheehee, bonus!!!

The second day we slept in, and spent more time in the pool. It was too hot to do anything else, really. That evening we all went to the Boston/Styx concert. It rocked!! Styx was first. Those are some energetic old dudes. They were all over the stage and having a great time. Boston was not quite as hyper, but still a good show. I was wondering how they were going to pull it of since their lead singer commited suicide last year. But according to Kristi's little brother, they found their new guy on youtube singing in a Boston tribute band. He sounds JUST LIKE the other guy! I was blown away. A couple of their songs went on a couple minutes longer than they probably should have, but overall still a great show. My ears were ringing for the rest of the night. Temporary deafness is always the sign of a good night, right? We tried to make it back to the strip in time to ride the roller coaster at the New York New York, but missed it by 5 minutes. Silly thing closes at midnight. Scotty had never been to Vegas before and was determined to do some gambling, so we hung out and watched him lose his money for a while. There had been much teasing between the boys and girls about trying to pick up on people while in Vegas. We had been very supportive of the boys' goal to talk to as many girls as possible, and had even scouted out some good targets for them a couple times. They were pretty smooth and did pretty well. But as soon as some hot Australian guys came over to talk to Kristi and I, the boys suddenly decided its time to gamble somewhere else. Punks!! Guys and their fragile little egos. . .

So after another 4 A.M. swim we hit the sack and slept in. I was sharing a room with Bryan's girlfriend, Denhi. Denhi is half Spanish and therefore, very excited that Spain's soccer team was in the Euro finals. We were the first two up, but after our hooting and hollering while watching the game in our room, it wasn't long before everyone else was awake. It was between Spain and Germany, and as I didn't really have a preferrance, I jumped on the Spain bandwagon. They were the underdogs, but won anyway. Yay! After that we hung out for a little while longer, then packed up and reluctantly headed home. There's talk of another Vegas trip in a couple of months, but we shall see if it actually happens. I was a total water-drinking slacker the whole weekend. I believe I dehydrated myself too much and it caught up with me last night, I haven't been feeling too great today. So I've been drinking lots of water, now I'm going to sleep and hopefully will be all better tomorrow.

Not sleeping, so blogging

I seem to be having a hard time getting to sleep tonight, so thought I'd update my blog for this week. It's been fairly uneventful thus far, just the usual work/training/whatever. Work is good, if a tad slow. I'm very happy at the spa and actually enjoy going to work. (Well, most days.) Mostly because of my co-workers. We all get along very well, there's lots of joking around and having a good time between appointments. We even hang out on our off-times. From what I've heard from those that came from other spas or resorts, the lack of conflict and general snarkiness is pretty rare, considering it's mostly women working in very, very close quarters. We do have one token male, Todd, who puts up with us very well.

I've been at Breathe 2 1/2 years now. Since I have senority over most of the other Massage Therapists, I get first crack at any new appointments. This has really helped during this slow time, which hasn't affected me too much as yet. But some of the newer hires are really struggling. Business always drops off in the summer, but not usually until the end of June. But with the economy in the state of flux that it is, it started getting slow around April. There was one very scary week in May when there was hardly any work to go around, but luckily things have picked up. Not quite to where we'd like, but one upside to that is people are more willing to pick up shifts. Like for when I go to Vegas for the Boston/Styx concert the weekend of the 28th :-)

Hmm, what else can I bore you with? Let's see . . . how about my running? With the training schedule I'm following, I run 3 times a week. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. Mondays are generally easy, 2 or 3 miles at my own pace. Wednesdays are for building speed and pace work, and are generally 5 or 6 miles. Saturdays are the long days, up to 8 or 9 miles now, 10 in another couple of weeks. Scary thought!! Today I was doing speedwork, in which after warming up I alternate running fast for a half mile, then recovery jogging for a half mile, repeated for 6 miles. Which is 4 laps around Liberty Park, FYI. I think I got a little over-excited my first few sprints tonight. By the 4th mile if I tried anything more than a slow trot I'd get a bad stitch in my side. What causes those things, anyway? Me no likey. So I took it easy and just jogged pretty slowly the last couple of miles. I'll have to pace myself better next time. I prefer running at night as that's when I tend to have more energy. Plus it's cooler outside and much less crowded at the park once the sun sets. The cold grass feels good to stretch on after, and seeing the stars through the trees is a nice perk, too.

I think that's a good enough overview of my life at this time. Hopefully I'll have something more entertaining for next week. Peace out, y'all.

My Birthday Camp-out

So here I am, 4 months later, finally posting a new blog. I was going to blog all about my cruise and everything, but I'm afraid too much time has gone by. So I'll just start where I am. Soon I shall have a camera (thanks Mom and Dad!) and will be able to post pictures when applicable.

For my birthday this year (I'm 27) I got to go camping! I hadn't been for years and was totally stoked when the opportunity came up. We didn't go far, just up Big Cottonwood Canyon about 10 miles to a campground called The Spruces. The plan had been to meet the rest of the group about 5 p.m. to drive up there. My friend Kristi got stuck at work so I waited for her and the two of us rolled up there about 8. At least that meant we didn't have to wait on dinner, it was waiting for us when we got there. We had dutch oven Enchillada Casserole, very yummy! Plus my friend Brady (the organizer of the trip) had gotten me a birthday cake with my name on it and everything. Chocolate, of course. We realized too late that we should have put the tent up before getting distracted by the food. Oops. We had to put the thing up in the dark. Luckily, its a very easy tent to put up, just took a little longer than normal. Kristi and I had a 6-man tent to ourselves, and as she had just had a long day to finish off a stressful week at work, she hit the sack rather early.

It was just an overnighter, so not much happened besides sitting by the fire and shooting the breeze til the early morning hours. But I loved it. Living in an apartment can feel rather confining. I was happy to be able to spend some serious outside time, even though it got pretty cold. Just as we were heading to bed, it started to rain. Just a very fine mist at first, then the drops were sounding larger as I went to sleep. I woke up when it got light around 6, and could still hear what sounded like rain hitting the tent. The birds were singing so I figured it couldn't be too bad. I sat up to look out the window, and had to laugh. It was snowing! I took a pic with my phone and sent it to a bunch of friends and fam, just because. The whole group (6 of us stayed the night, everyone else drove back. Wussies.) seemed to wake up at the same time, and I heard some colorful language from the other tents when they saw the snow. One couple packed up and left right then. I certainly wasn't going to drive down the canyon in the snow, so I snuggled back in to my warm, cozy sleeping bag and dozed off again. The next time I woke up the snow had all melted and the sun was out. The remaining 4 of us hung out for a couple hours and let the tents dry, and after a brief scare where I thought I'd lost my keys (they'd fallen out of my purse and were hiding under the foam I slept on. The Princess and the Pea I ain't.), we packed up and headed for home.

It was a good trip. Here's hoping I get to go again before the summers over. Without the snow next time . . .

P.S. My half-marathon is just a couple months away, Labor Day weekend. Training is going well, I'm up to running 8 or 9 miles on my long run days. I'm pretty much ready stamina-wise, just gotta work on getting a bit faster!

First official blog

Hey fam. I've decided to try out this blogging thing. I'm going to buy a laptop with my tax refund money. I'll be able to blog better when I can get online whenever I like and be able to have pictures to post. Then you will be informed of my half-marathon progress, dating adventures, and whatever other random weirdness I happen to run into. This should happen in the next couple of weeks.