Meg

The Birthday Chair

2010-10-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

Allen bought my mom a pink lawn chair for her birthday. He did it on his way to work. She'd been saying that she wanted one. Well some people are just too impatient for their birthday presents. Later that day, me and mom went to find a lawn chair for her birthday, we found one and bought it. Pretty funny when we all got home and found that Allen and Mom had bought the same chair. Ha ha! We ended up with TWO lawn chairs! And they're pink: the best color. So I think I may get to keep one;).

End of Summer Sweetness

2010-10-28T22:01:00.001-07:00

What do lemons and blackberries...and pound cake mean? Lemon-Berry Trifles!!! For my mother's birthday we had and end-of-the-summer barbecue. Shishkabobs of grilled steak, shrimp, and chicken with garden veggies, and rosemary and garlic roasted russet potatoes. Yum. I thought the flavors of tangy lemon curd (made from scratch thank you very much) and ripe blackberries layered with pound cake and whipped cream was the perfect end of summer party treat. Light, sweet, and dainty-looking, the colors and flavors were a great combination! Happy Birthday Mom!

P.S. Sorry about the food critic writing, I get really into my desserts. :)

Wax On, Wax Off

2010-08-31T16:47:00.000-07:00

I debated putting a picture with this post, but then just decided to leave it to your imagination.

Did I tell you that I started waxing? I got waxed. Mom started it, she is seriously hard core. She has waxed everything! All by herself no less! I was like Mom you are my hero. Then my curiosity got the best of me and so I had to try it too.

Anyway, we got it all out one night. You need all these supplies to get the job done, pre-wax cleanser, pre-wax powder, applicators (which are actually just Popsicle sticks), muslin waxing strips, wax warmer, wax (duh), and then wax-off (because the wax is seriously sticky beyond belief). I made her do little patches of muslin strips because I was fearful of the pain.

SO I sat there and Mom waxed my legs. Yeah it does kinda hurt. Seriously, it sounded like trees getting yanked up out of their roots. RRRRIIIPPPPP! Then Mom would exclaim 'Wow! Look at all that hair!'

I too was in total awe of this whole honey/wax concoction that could yank out my leg hair that seemed to be longer underneath my skin than on top.

The Egyptians probably invented this whole system. It just seems like something they would have done.

At first it's just so shocking how much hair is coming out of your body. But then I think your legs catch on and it seems to hurt more, probably because you know what's coming. And mom can't see super great, so there's all these little hairs that somehow escaped the waxing.

Allen hovered nearby, observing this bizarre ritual with a combination of fascination and disgust until we told him he could get waxed too if he wanted.

It took us 2 hours JUST to do my shins and calves. At one point Allen had come back into the room to find us still sprawled out all over the kitchen floor getting sticky wax everywhere, and Mom goes,"Look Allen, I'm totally a professional now!....OOOPS!" Me: "Yyaaaaahhhh! What are you doing back there?!" We're really going to have to fine tune our technique. But dude, there's this Lidocane spray you can get that NUMBS the area. Oh baby, that stuff is mine next time.

Overall it's a pretty delicate operation. The wax is definitely a hard to control variable, don't be getting that stuff where you do not want it! But the results aren't bad. Furthermore, I feel pretty darn accomplished once the whole ordeal is over with.

5 Reasons I'm Awesome:

2010-08-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

1. I still haven't bought anything from Victoria's Secret, even after working there for the past 30 days. Guys, this is big. (I would tell you if I did).

2. I'm going on a blind date this week with a man I met on the INTERNET of all places.

3. I decided to help Allen out with all his snitching and snacking and ate the last cinnamon roll so he didn't have to feel guilty about eating it later. I'm so nice.

4. I tricked my step-brother into letting me wax his eyebrow. Now he has two. Yep, just making the world a better place, one uni-brow at a time.

5. I put flax seed in my smoothie today. I don't know what flax seed is, but I'm sure it's healthy.

Death by Cinnamon Rolls

2010-08-22T19:09:00.001-07:00

I worked a kitchen miracle today!

My mom has been in CA for a couple of weeks and she's coming back tonight, so I wanted to make an extra special treat for her because I missed her so much.

So. I made some cinnamon rolls. They turned out to be the most awesome cinnamon rolls on the planet earth. Seriously. Most of my family members will give you a personal testimonial on this fact.

Diane took the first bite, and there was a moment of silence. She was speechless...in awe. Was it good? No, not just good: life changing.

Combine perfectly perfect cinnamon rolls, a little on the thick side...
with ravenous family members...
A frenzy ensued. We proceeded to devour the freshly baked batch of sweet rolls, still warm from the oven, dripping with creamy sauce of vanilla-buttery sweetness. If you were there, you would have witnessed an icing-dripping, fluffy-doughed savoring, cinnamon-infused dream state compete with moans of taste bud pleasure. In moments, the entire plate was gone. After eating one, we were in nirvana. My brother Geoff went back for more - twice. I think he overdid it, just a little. Death by cinnamon roll. The process takes time, but is TOTALLY worth it. And it's fun. I am fully convinced that I could feed someone these sweet rolls and then get them to do whatever I wanted. I could probably get a marriage proposal. Thanks to Bakerella and Pioneer Woman for awesomeizing my dessert repertoire.

April 1st

2010-04-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Today was my glorious day off. I slept in, praising the Lord just for the opportunity to really enjoy a good sleep in. I wobble upstairs around 11:30 and I look out the slider doors. I can't see anything but a total white-out, I didn't have my contacts in my eyes so all I saw was just bright white. I thought for a millisecond that it might be the Second Coming.

Then I REALIZED that it was a blizzard. And that 2 inches of snow had already accumulated on the deck. I hate you April 1st.

Then I did my budget. Which is only slightly less depressing than a winter that will never end.

Happily, Season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is finally available on Hulu. Thank goodness there's SOMEthing going right today.

German Pancake Love

2010-04-01T18:59:00.000-07:00

I am in love with German pancakes. Seriously, this food, if I even think about it briefly, I start wanting it until I have to go and make them. If I was ever on death row, this would be my last request of a meal. Come to think of it, I love German pancakes MORE than I love French toast.

Simple ingredients, simple to make, 20 minutes later all you need is some butter and maple syrup. It bugs me when people put berry syrup or other toppings on there, what the heck? Keep it pure! Savor the flavor! So today Mom and I were at Sams Club buying ingredients for our semi-annual conference crepes event, so we're buying eggs. We could either get the 5-dozen package or the 18 count package. Mom says, we've never used 5-dozen eggs before, what are we going to do with all those extra eggs? So I say, I'll just make french toast or German pancakes or something... Then I start THINKING about German pancakes...well you know how that goes.

So I made a batch. And while Rachel was busy eating her first piece and texting on her cell phone, I pounded down SEVEN pieces. Shameful. But my craving has been satisfied. SIGH.

More Work

2010-03-08T16:16:00.001-08:00

Another weekend of floorset. I'm pretty proud of how this zone turned out. And I love all the colors, Spring is awesome, and it means that Summer is coming!
I made up this wall on my own. All this product was on racks and so I fixed it up in the wall. Including upper displays. Cool, huh?

Best. Kitchen. Ever.

2010-03-08T16:09:00.001-08:00

I have found my dream kitchen. Behold! This kitchen and I were meant to be. We'll be making amazing and delicious cupcakes here (probably in the distant future).

Picture found at www.apartmenttherapy.com

Workaholic

2010-03-03T19:53:00.000-08:00

I worked around 45 hours in 4 days over the weekend. It was the big spring floorset at Express and that's a lot of work. I'm an animal when it comes to working. I love working, especially when I know there's a lot to be done, and when I know I'm making a big difference for my store and co-workers.

Of course after working a few 10 hour days, shifts of 6pm to 4am, I feel like I hardly know which way is up. Or what time it should be. I sleep in until the afternoon, groggy during the day, and then I perk up around 9 o'clock. It's weird. I feel like I've become nocturnal or something. And working my way out of a schedule like that is hard, I think I've lost a day in there somewhere.

BUT the floorset has got to get done, and that's money in the bank.
Here's some of my work: Folded to perfection. Trust me, this kind of thing takes hours.

Valentine's Day

2010-03-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

You know what this means... Treats! So I made my sugar cookie recipe of course. Mom wanted to take cookies to church for her Relief Society lesson, so I made little bite size circles dipped in colored sugar. Are these so cute or what? My Dad's birthday is also in February, so I got the recipe for the mint brownies from this BYU Creamery (one of his favorite treats). Brownies from scratch, with a layer of mint frosting, and a top layer of chocolate frosting. Seriously- this chocolate frosting is probably the most amazing chocolate thing I have ever made. It was like. wow. Yummy!

Dad Visits

2010-03-03T19:02:00.000-08:00

Towards the end of January, my father came for a visit. What can I say? Scrabble was played. Food was made. Movies were watched. Stores were shopped. We tried to have as much fun as possible. Most of these pics are on Facebook. Me and Karen. Dad, Diane, Merrill, Karen

Happy New Year!

2010-03-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

For New Years Eve, me and some of the fam went to Hale Center Theater in SLC for the opening night of 'The Importance of Being Ernest' (the most hilarious play ever). They had gorgeous Christmas decor in the lobby, so then we started acting like tourists who had never seen a Christmas tree before. It was a super fun night. We got New Year noise makers and decorations, and a live band, and treats during intermission. Best New Years ever. Diane agreed. :)

Christmas Tree

2010-03-03T18:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas was seriously a blur. On top of getting through finals by the skin of my teeth, I started working a ton (you know, retail during the holidays), so I kinda felt like Christmas consisted of a last minute freak out! Especially with our crafty/homemade theme, which in my opinion causes more stress that just regular shopping.

But Christmas Day is nice because then you just do nothing. And that feels well deserved. The one thing I HAVE to do on Christmas is watch 'White Christmas': my favorite Christmas movie. Come to think of it, its the only Christmas movie I like.

Here's me enjoyed myself by the Christmas tree in my new stripey socks that Di gave me. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Time

2010-03-03T18:35:00.001-08:00

This is me while I was writing my last paper of my college career. It was brutal. I know, so sad. BUT, once THAT was over with, I was able to enjoy the rest of the holidays relaxing with the fam. Here's me and Di at our awesome annual candy house party! This shindig usually includes candy everywhere and frosting on the face. (Most of these pics are on Facebook). The candy house approach varies, some people produce a house that looks like it got hit with a candy and frosting hurricane. Some people meticulously pick out colors and candy with architectural designs in mind. Either way, they look great. Good times!

The Christmas Bake-arama

2010-03-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Oh my gosh. I can't believe what a slacker blogger I have been. Especially when I peruse my Google Reader and grumble about how none of my friends ever blog. Ha ha. Anyway, I have a lot of posts that have been in the works, but haven't been published so I'll try to get this thing up to date.

The last thing I was going to blog was about my Bake-arama, but my computer was a jerk-face and crashed while I was in the middle of writing it. So here we go again...

The best thing I love about any holiday is that it's a good opportunity to make treats. Especially around Christmas time. I really love collecting and browsing Christmas cookie magazines. Better Homes and Gardens puts a new Christmas cookie edition out every year. Seriously, I read these things for my bedtime story.

Being that school was making my life so crazy busy, I just plotted and planned everything I was going to bake for Christmas. My sister Diane and I scheduled one day for baking- I feel like every year it's like this. We have a big baking day, from morning until night, baking all the treats we've been dreaming about. I have a few traditional recipes that I always do, and there's always a few new ones to try out. We call it the bake-a-thon, or bake-arama. Either way, you get the point.

Bake-arama 2009 was especially big. I think it's because I seriously hadn't baked anything for like, 4 months. So all my baking energy has to come out and there's an explosion of treats! Here's what resulted:
416 gingerbread babies. I make these every year and they are so yummy and cute!
113 sugar cookies. Also a traditional recipe, tried and true family favorite.
118 chocolate cake balls and 70 Oreo truffles, new recipes we tried, thanks to Bakerella.com
25 cherry pie pops. These were for Allen. Cherry pie is his favorite so I made these mini pies on lollipop sticks. So adorable! here's Di about to give one a taste.
150 chocolate dipped pretzels
and 15 meringue snowflakes!

I know right? Crazy!

Mini Crisis

2010-02-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

Meg's List of Things That Are Not Okay: Composed of various scenarios that make me feel slightly alarmed or are the cause for mini-crisis.

1. Running out of floss. (This is not okay because I floss daily)

2. Misplacing my day-planner for 2 days. (This is not okay because that thing tells me my life)

3. Not having Chapstick on my person at all times. (Dry lips are not okay)

4. Going to bed without brushing teeth if you spontaneously spend the night at someone's house without your spare. (This is not okay because it's just gross)

5. When treats I bake don't look right. (My desserts should look appetizing and aesthetically pleasing, when they don't - I don't feel okay. Like when you have to eat cherry chocolate tassies with a spoon and you have to use whipped cream to cover the top because it looks so weird. I don't care if people say it still tastes good - it doesn't look good!)

6. When it's under 50 degrees outside and I'm not wearing thermals and leg warmers. (Being cold is SO not okay with me)

So I'm interested to know...what causes you a small flash of panic. What causes you to think 'this is not okay!' Usually it's petty stuff that only bothers you, but it's kind of funny to think about the kinds of things that make you unique...or crazy.

Under the Weather

2009-12-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

I am sick, AGAIN! I can't believe this. Sick twice in six months?! It's like I'm Karen or something. Such a bummer! First the sore throat, then the congestion, then the coughing like crazy. I've stayed home from school the past two days drinking ridiculous amounts of water. On the one hand it's nice to stay in your pj's all day, but not fun when your head feels like it may explode because of sinus pressure. Blegh.

The Family vacation to Disneyland was awesome! Those posts will come, probably after finals. It really is the most magical place and we all had a blast. Apparently I partied so hard that now I am sick, or Disneyland has a lot of germs.

So I'm under the weather, not like I WANT to go outside at all when it's 22 degrees. I wish I could just be watching 'Psych' Season 2, but I have plenty to keep me occupied, two research papers and two finals exams to get through. It just seems unreal that I only have 5 school days left!

I'll be focusing on recovering my health over the next few days. Keep your distance, trust me, you don't want this dastardly cold. :(

Resourcefulness

2009-11-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

So my student loans have been trickling away over time and I've been freaking out about it since my job schedules me around 4 hours a week. It's like I'm working there as a hobby. Not good.

So I decided to try and be resourceful, thinking maybe I could make a little money in other ways:

I scrounged loose change from my car, bedroom, backpack, and wherever else it floats around....$15.00

I sold 7 old/used textbooks online....$37.68

I went through my closet and sold clothes to a thrift/consignment store...$22.70

I put other books and cds on Amazon.com, but no takers yet.

So my efforts landed me $75. It's not a TON of money, but every little bit helps. That's like 9 meals, or 3 tanks of gas, or a credit card payment.

Take a look around at your possessions that you've had forever, but never use. And be realistic with yourself. If you haven't read that book by now, you never will. If you haven't worn those pants for a year, you're aren't going to miss them.

If you're a sentimental person, this may not be the best way to get extra cash. I'm a consistent purger when it comes to material possessions so I have no problem throwing stuff out that has no purpose or use. Plus I'll be moving soon and I'd like less junk to move.

I think I'd rather have the money, instead of the junk that takes up space in my room.

Here's where I went:
Plato's Closet will buy back clothes, but you'll usually get pennies on the dollar and they won't take everything.
I sold my textbooks on Betterworldbooks.com, eCampus.com, textbooksrus.com,Firstclassbooks.com, textbooks.com, you'll want to search around for the best price.

The Vacation

2009-11-24T14:41:00.000-08:00

I think it's been so long since I blogged regularly that no one is checking this blog anymore. Plus it's been pretty depressing as of late I must admit. Here's some happy news. My family is going on a vacation to Disneyland for Thanksgiving in celebration of my mother turning 50 this year.

Historically, my family doesn't take a lot of vacations. furthermore, my family has never taken a vacation of this magnitude, in terms of cost, length, and all 10 members of the immediate family present. No doubt we'll be making memories, whether they will be good or bad is yet to be determined. This trip has the potential for awesomeness, but could also be downright psychotic.

10 people in 1 vehicle. 7 of these family members are women. My step-father thinks the trip will take 10 hours. Hmmm. Try 12. I'm wishing I had an i-Pod or at least a mild sedative just for the ride.

Don't worry, I'll take lots of pics.

My only regret is that I'll have to come BACK from the trip. Back to research papers, and final exams, and the undetermined post-college future. Back to the breaking winter of the high desert. Back to my minimum wage job.

I'm not the kind of girl that likes to look back. I'll always want more, I'll always be moving forward, I'll always push for change, I'll always be asking 'what's next?'

My Birthday November 2

2009-11-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

I turned 27 years old! This is what I look like now: Yeah, I know. Not much of a difference from 26.

Birthdays can be kind of weird. It is just another day and it goes by quick. It can be pretty anticlimactic if you don't plan something special.

Happily, I can report that I had a great birthday! First of all the weather was gorgeously sunny and warm. I had to go to class, so that was a bummer, but then I went out to lunch at my favorite restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen, with my dear friend Whitney. Love that girl!

Then I went up to Mom's and spent some quality time talking with her. Then I went to Massage Envy for a massage (which really was so great, I didn't want it to end). Then me and Diane went over to University Mall to do some shopping, met up with Karen and Merrill for a few minutes. They got me flowers (which I love to get) and Christmas cookie recipe magazines (which I love to browse).

Diane and I finished off the night with a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie and painted our nails. It was a lovely day. Thanks so much to my awesome family and friends for making me feel so special!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

2009-11-22T18:56:00.000-08:00

This is where I usually am on Saturday nights. Mom and Allen are temple workers there, so when I go to do baptisms I usually get to see them. It's the coolest.

Pinkalicious

2009-11-22T18:38:00.000-08:00

The GAP fitting rooms are often the scene of much hilariousness that happens with Meg and Di. In this incident, Diane got a little too excited about all the pink clothes. It was my birthday so OF COURSE Diane and I went shopping. I didn't have a very productive shopping trip, but Di was unable leave the store without those hot pink corduroys. So pinkalicious!

Rachel's Birthday Oct 24th 2009

2009-11-22T17:29:00.000-08:00

For Rachel's 19th birthday I concocted a plan to fill her room with balloons so that she would wake-up to a colorful wonderland and be all surprised. The balloons didn't cooperate that great, apparently helium only lasts around 8-10 hours. AND Rachel kind of woke up as soon as I opened the door and looked at her. So me, Mom and Allen threw the balloons in there and then sang 'Happy Birthday!' It was kind of anti-climactic, but pretty funny.
Then I made Rachel some breakfast, German Pancakes, (my favorite breakfast) but Rachel likes it too (which is not something I can say for most foods). I made her blow out a candle and everything. Happy Birthday Rach!

Wednesday

2009-10-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

I survived Wednesday. Didn't think I would. It was the kind of day where you really don't have a minute of nothingness, unless you're sitting at a red light. Today was bad for food. I ate once, spending $8 on my meal to only eat 1/4 of it. Drank Dr. Pepper to get through my 5 meetings in a row.

My adviser mentioned tonight that it's the most relaxed she'd ever seen me. I'm not relaxed, I'm so exhausted I can barely sit up straight. I have nothing to say because I'm too tired to think straight. I'm too tired to even clean up my mess of a basement.

Someday I'll enjoy checking my e-mail. The To-Do lists will have 5 items instead of 25. Someday I'll go to bed without dreading the morning. Someday I'll do what I want, instead of what needs to be done. Someday this exhaustion will end. But right now I feel like I'm swimming in the ocean, against the current, without a lifeboat in sight.

October

2009-10-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well I've been a pretty crappy blogger as of late. This is due to the fact that I'm having the worst semester of all time and I hate my life right now. You know those times you have gone through that were really hard, and you think to yourself 'Oh nothing could be as bad as THAT was'...Yes. Yes it can. In fact, it can be worse.

I compare my situation to that of running a marathon. A marathon is so long and so hard, and I'm sure the last 5 miles are nearly unbearable. That's where I'm at. Unbearable.

Nothing is more important to me than education. Education transforms your life in countless ways. I've been working toward my bachelor's degree for 9 years, but the past 3 years is when I really went pedal to the metal. It will be the greatest accomplishment that I have achieved thus far in my short life. And it is the hardest thing I have ever done. To stick with it semester after semester. To make it happen day after day. To jump through every freaking hoop in the University system.

Every single day I want to cry. Because I'm frustrated and overwhelmed and I don't want to be in college any more. My motivation is next to nothing. My stress level is out of control. I rarely talk to people about it anymore because no you don't understand my stress or my intensity. People give me advice that I just can't take.

But it is my choice to be here and finish this. It's important to me to accomplish this. College isn't about the research papers and group projects and busywork. A college degree says 'I can do hard things. I set a goal and I followed through. I did whatever it takes no matter what.'

And that's what I'm holding onto because in the meantime, I am miserable. The only way I can explain it is I feel like I am suffocating - mind, body, and soul.

Like a butterfly trying to break out of its cocoon. Exhausted, frantic, trying to get out. Almost there. Almost there. I'm starving for the day when I can fly away.

The Talk

2009-09-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Well we got 'the talk' in Sacrament Meeting last week. The Pornography talk. On the one hand I can say I'm in no danger of this nor am I involved in it in any way. So immediately I think that this talk doesn't apply to me specifically. On the other hand, it does apply, it's disheartening to hear from the Stake Presidency that pornography is a huge problem within my YSA stake.

I am starting to wonder if it would even be possible for me to meet, date, or marry a young man who has not ever perused, partaken, or succumbed to pornography. Like what are the chances of that? Pornography is so rampant in society at large, but also in the church? Man, that makes me feel hopeless.

I think of pornography as a silent killer, it's such a sneaky and quiet evil. The result of which is always pain. You wouldn't even know who is consuming it. And I can't understand it, maybe I never will, being a woman. But I do know of it's destructive power. My best friend's marriage and my cousin's marriage were both destroyed by pornography.

If I was without self-control, without the power of will, I would consider myself maimed. I have a hard time respecting people who live this way. It hurts me. And that's why church leaders don't like to talk about it to mixed company. It hurts the hearts of the women, for so many reasons.

Park Tree

2009-09-27T21:31:00.001-07:00

I caught this pic as we were leaving the park on Sunday. Picture of the week.

Sunday Afternoon in the Park

2009-09-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday afternoon Diane and I went to that park behind Wal-Mart that no one can ever remember the name of. We strolled around. Talk, talk, talk. Then we found a good place on the grass to lay out a blanket and relax. The purpose of our park visit was to re-evaluate our goals, how we're doing and where we need to improve (which for me is everywhere). But we ended up just talking about random things and goofing around.
It felt good to laugh. I haven't been doing a lot of that lately. We were just being dorks and laughing at ourselves. It was nice to get out of the house. I feel like I'm running out of daylight with fall here and winter approaching. I'm running out of days that I could actually be outside, laying on a blanket relaxing. And look at all of this green grass! Soon it will be gone.

Fall in the Mountains

2009-09-27T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not really interested in the mountains. I don't like them. I don't like looking at them. They block up a lot of the sky. Guess I just can't get used to it (being from CA). Anyway, I was up in the mountains on Saturday and got to see these brilliant Fall colors up close. It was really amazing. I really enjoyed and appreciated the beautiful scenes of nature. I couldn't get enough of these red-leaved trees! My eyes loved them. I'm not much into landscapes, but I ended up taking some landscape pictures. I guess I just like to see it a little closer. We drove the Alpine Loop, but I didn't get any pictures there. There's still a lot of green, but I would love to come back and see all the aspens in yellow.

Harvest Market at Sundance

2009-09-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Whitney and I went to the Harvest Market at Sundance. It was kind of a spontaneous decision, but I'm glad we went and got a small reprieve from the frustrations of life. The Harvest Market was a bit smaller than I thought it would be, there were booths of artisan crafts and the like. So we browsed around and didn't buy anything! Amazing, I know. It was sunny with a warm breeze, perfect weather to be wandering around in. Probably one of the last warm days of the year.

I loved these mugs and their colors. Walking around all these handmade item makes me want to get all crafty. I used to be very creative, but I don't really have an outlet for that kind of thing anymore.

when I get my camera out, I like to find the interesting details.

Whitney taking some pics.

Sundance was really beautiful and picturesque. Amazing natural scenes. I wished there weren't so many people there though.

Mom's 50th Birthday

2009-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

So this past weekend my mother turned 50 years old. Like wow. So we had a big Sunday dinner party to celebrate. On the menu was bruschetta, salmon steaks, sauteed zucchini and squash, ciabatta rolls, rice, and spinach salad with strawberries and poppy-seed dressing. So good. I was in charge of the cake. Last year I made her a coconut cake with coconut frosting from scratch which she loved. She wanted it again, but I had other plans.

I concocted the perfect end of summer dessert. Merrill named it: Lemon-Berry Layers. I made lemon cake from a mix and then layered whipped cream with fresh raspberries and sliced strawberries in between the cake layers. So simple, but fruity and sweet. I fantasized about it all through church and was so excited to bring my dream to a reality.

It turned out way bigger than I thought. Once we started slicing it, the whole thing fell apart. Oh well. It was delicious! Here's me and my mom and the cake. It's kind of leaning!
Some pics from the party. All the fam was there (all those that live in Utah) and Whitney and Joe came up too (and they're practically family). And those are the kinds of family dinners I love. Noisy, lots of action and laughing and eating.

This picture is Home Slice wearing my old Humboldt State tee-shirt. I think when I originally got it, it was from the children's section. It's too small for me now. I had brought up a bag of clothes that I was getting rid of for the girls to go through and Joe grabbed it to try on. Unbelievably, he got it onto his body, but I seriously thought he was going to bust through that shirt.
The birthday girl! Here's Mom wearing the lei that Allen got her from Hawaii. Made of orchids. It traveled pretty well.
After all the food we played a few rounds of Taboo. We're pretty competitive because we all think we're so smart. So it was an awesome night filled with family and good food and fun. I didn't want it to end. The whole time I just enjoyed all the love. I didn't think about school or work or any of the things that are stressing me out. It was a very joyful night and I'm glad that it went so well and was special for Mom. It was like the most awesome birthday of all time- maybe she'll blog about it.

Labor Day

2009-09-18T18:33:00.000-07:00

This is what I was doing the day I started feeling crappy. I love Black-Eyed Susans on a sunny blue sky day.

Careful when you cut them, they have this sap that is sticky beyond belief.

Labor Day started out nice. Diane and I went up to Mom's in the morning where the fam was gathered to get priesthood blessings from Allen. It's a little tradition we've got going, at the beginning of every semester Allen will give us a priesthood blessing. We tape record them and then somebody transcribes them and e-mails them out.

It's nice to get a hard copy because it's so easy to forget what was said in the blessing. An institute teacher told me once than every priesthood blessing you get is an addendum to your patriarchal blessing. So I think it's really important to make sure those are recorded.

Then me and mom and Diane and Rachel went over to Gardner Village to do some shopping around and hanging out. We were just going to browse around, but I think we each ended up buying something. Gardner Village has a bunch of little boutiques with trinkets, accessories, and home decor.

I don't believe there is anything there that would remotely interest a man, it's more for women with discretionary funds. Anyway, we had lunch and enjoyed a relaxing day of talking and laughing.

By the time we got back to Riverton I was starting to feel a little off, and by the time me and Di got back to Orem I wanted to die. Out of nowhere came this dastardly virus the result of which you can read about in the previous two blog posts.

That week (when I should have been laying flat on my back doing nothing) I put this together for Club Rush to advertise the UVU PR Club (which I am spearheading). This is probably what did me in- making my condition worse and making it last longer. But most people were pretty impressed with it, plus I made fliers. This is my big challenge of the semester: delegation.

Still Sick.

2009-09-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

I am still sick. I can't believe this and I'm so irritated. Of course you can't really be grateful for health and energy until you have neither. I am slowly coming back to life. The worst thing now is the cough and all the nasty mucus in my lungs. I am groggy, exhausted, and coughing my head off.

I can't remember the last time I spent so many days in bed. I've missed class too- there goes my perfect attendance. Luckily this semester may be the easiest in terms of homework that I have ever had. All I really am supposed to do is keep up on the readings, but I find I can get by without even doing that. It's happening- senioritis.

Being sick has caused me to be completely out of the loop with the news, what's going on in classes, I feel I have completely lost my momentum for this semester and now see the next 3 months in a very dismal light. I'm just counting it down. I don't enjoy college, never have. I know it's worth it though as I am now smarter and more capable than I otherwise would have been.

I am meeting with my academic counselor tomorrow to apply for graduation. This is where we make sure that I have all the requirements and am on track to graduate. I'm having nightmares that he'll tell me I have one more class to take, or I don't have enough credits to graduate in Dec. and I'll have to stay on one more semester. If that happens, trust me, I will have a historical freak-out. Come to think of it, I would probably cry and then call my mom.

I'm sure that won't happen, but I feel anxious and there goes my over-active imagination again.

I'm so ready to move on to the next thing. Life after college. Make my way in the world. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of a paycheck. I'm so restless that sometimes I don't feel comfortable in my skin. I purged my closet at least 4 times this summer. Then I completely purged and re-filed all my financial records. I'm having small freak-outs at the lack of change. I'm considering getting a drastic haircut just to have something different.

Those people who don't like change or avoid it can't understand this I'm sure. I'm like a snake that needs to shed its skin regularly. When that doesn't happen I start to feel crazy. Suffocated. I start thinking about getting in my car and driving away and never stopping.

I've been in Utah for 3 years now. I've been in my grandmother's basement for almost 2 of them. That's just too long. Too long of not being completely independent and not having my own space. Too long being at the same school. All this time I've been determined, frustrated, and tireless. Now I'm slipping into a place I feared would come: apathy.

Now I have to watch the days and weeks pass. Just jumping through hoops and waiting out the classes, essays, and exams. I used to relish conquering them, now I'm sick at the thought that I'll have to expend any energy and thought on such pointless things.

Just give me my freaking degree and get me out of here.

Sick Bed.

2009-09-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

I am sick, if you couldn't gather from my pathetic Facebook updates. A sore throat snuck up on me on Labor Day and I've been getting worn down throughout this week from the cold of doom.

Sheer determination kept me going to school and work to fulfill commitments, but finally today (Friday) I decided the world wouldn't stop turning if I didn't show up for class. That and I couldn't get out of bed anyway.

So I've had a long day in the sick bed. I didn't hear a peep from anyone the whole day. I started wondering if I would become invisible, if this sickness wore on, and eventually I would be completely cut off from the outside world. No one knowing or caring where I was. I felt my existence starting to shrink.

I know I have an overactive imagination. Really it's only been one day alone, sick in bed in a basement room. I shouldn't be left alone with myself for too long, I begin to feel a little lost.

The worst part is when you can't sleep anymore. I passed the time by watching hours of BBC drama. Plenty of awkwardness and angst. The kind that makes you feel poetic and melancholy afterward.

The only productivity I've had today at all was in the phlegm department. Well I guess I could have been playing Scrabble with myself. But it was probably better to not talk to anyone, as talking induces coughing fits.

I was wishing that I had my Mom around to take care of me. Bring me some food and medicine or whatever. She always knows just what to do. When you're sick it's easier to do what you're told than to figure out what to do yourself.

I've been drinking a lot of water and juice, had chicken noodle soup and ritz crackers. What else are you supposed to eat while you're sick? Especially when you're too exhausted to make anything. I'm getting that hollow, empty feeling that I get when I'm surviving mainly on fluids.

I'm completely exhausted. I feel disappointed with the weakness of my body in succumbing to this bothersome condition, and frustrated that the whole situation is making me miss the last hot sunny days and perfect evenings of the year. The state fair is going on and I wanted to go. My whole weekend is ruined. RUINED!

And I feel an enigma that I can't quite explain. Like a rubber band stretching and releasing. Waiting for a text that I know won't come. Checking out the window for a car that isn't there. The simultaneous feeling of anticipation and resignation.

Ogden Auction

2009-08-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

I went to an auction last Tuesday night with Josh and his parents. Josh's parents go every week, but we'd never been so I convinced Josh that we might as well go check it out. At least now we can say that we've been to one.

You wouldn't believe the most random assortment of junk that was there. So random and funky. Furniture, lamps, fans, jewelry, books, boxes of tools, kitchen stuff, art supplies, computers, spoons, tools, there was even a stuffed reindeer lawn ornament and a pair of crocheted lawn chairs!

I'm thinking, who would ever buy this stuff? But people did buy it. Crazy! It was in this warehouse-type room on the back of an antiques shop. The people-watching was great. And the auctioneer was legit. He had a gavel and everything.

I don't know if I could really get into auctions, just because I don't like old and useless junk, and I'm not on the lookout for random things to buy. I think Josh was bored to tears, but we ended up bidding on something and getting it! It was an interesting experience.

Murray Wet-Pack Cannery

2009-08-27T19:47:00.000-07:00

This past Monday, me and Diane went and fulfilled a cannery assignment for my parents ward at the wet-pack cannery in Murray. We had never been and just didn't know what to expect, but I was kind of excited to see what goes on in a cannery.

Check out these awesome hair nets! The assignment was corn and seriously, I have NEVER seen so much corn in my life! And it smelled so good in there, the smell of fresh corn. The assembly machines were huge and they were all connected, the corn cob went in one room and came out in a can. Crazy! The work was easy. Our job was to push corn cobs down these chutes to other workers who were putting the cobs in the slicers. It was really cool to see the process of canning corn.

The director of the cannery spoke to us and said that usually they produce 750,000 cans of corn a year. But since the economy has been bad and many families are struggling, it's been a strain on the bishop's storehouses. Church headquarters has requested one and a half million cans of corn this year! The director said that they are canning corn 6 days a week, 10-12 hours a day to make it happen. I felt proud contributing to such a great cause.

Once we finished up with the corn, we got handed hoses. They said if it was yellow that it gets sprayed down the drain. That's when things got ridiculous, first of all because there were corn kernels EVERYWHERE you could possible imagine, and secondly because there were 12 people, each with a hose spraying in various directions. We got soaked. They don't warn you about that, but just be prepared to get wet if you go to the wet-pack cannery! It's inevitable.
There was even corn on our shoes!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

2009-08-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday was the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication and we were lucky enough to get tickets to go to the temple itself for the dedication. We ended up just watching the broadcast on tv screens in some kind of big hallway, but it was still pretty cool to be in the temple again. It looks like blue skies over the temple in this picture, but it was seriously raining on us when we came out, I think that's why we're all squinting.

Gregory Family Reunion

2009-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we hosted the Gregory Family Reunion (which is my step-father's family). It wasn't really a reunion for me since I was seeing most of the attendees for the first time ever. We wore name tags and had getting-to-know-you-games (awkward). I even ate a hot dog - can you believe that?

Anyway, here are some fun pics from the day. This is me barbecuing chicken for the first time in my life with Mom:
Rachel wasn't feeling that great and was really getting frustrated with all the bees:
Geoff had returned from his Pinnacle stint in Canada that morning: I kind of caught Karen with food in her mouth in this one:
In a bizarre, totally unforeseeable turn of events, a wasps nest was discovered in the little kids playhouse that my mom had for her preschool. A little boy got stung a few times before we caught on, and then Allen had to throw the house over the fence. After that we had bees and wasps everywhere, plus we were barbecuing hamburgers and hot dogs. Yikes! But really that was the only snafu of the night.

After a couple hours of clean up, we finished off the night with a nice dip in the hot tub. It's exhausting to put on a family reunion, that's why they happen so rarely probably.

Diane is back!!

2009-08-27T19:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm sure most of you already know that my little sister Diane is back from her summer internship in Seattle, WA. It just didn't seem real until I woke up one morning to find one of my shirts in the bathroom and another one on my bed, both having been tried on and then decided against, previous to her wearing an outfit consisting of all of my clothes. The evidence is clear: Diane was here!

And while I missed my adorable sidekick all summer, I did enjoy having my own room which was kept in a state of tranquil tidiness and organization. Now it's a little bit of a squeeze as we are trying to fit back into one room.

Before school started, Diane decided to sort all the material possessions she has on the face of the planet Earth. I wholly support that kind of a goal because it's a big job that needs to be done and purging your junk is an incredibly productive and satisfying project (I should know, I do it on a regular basis).

Unfortunately, Diane's stuff refused to be contained. And the afternoon before I moved my stuff in, I came down to the basement to find this: I had a small freak out.

I think I just forgot how much stuff she has, and she forgot how minimalistic and tidy I am.

And I feel bad that I'm so sensitive to the visual arrangement of my environment, but I think it's genetic and there's not much I can do about that. I love Diane. I just don't love her cluttery ways.

On my tombstone it will read: Death By Clutter.

Or Driven Insane by Unorganized and Useless Junk.

Buying Books

2009-08-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

Hey Everybody! I'm happy to announce that I just spent $84.58 on three textbooks! I'm such a savvy on-line textbook shopper! I would have spent $234.20 at the UVU Bookstore, so I pretty much saved myself $150!

You will be so much happier if you go to www.bigwords.com or www.abebooks.com to buy your used textbooks. Just spreading the word to help other students reduce book expenses (because we all know they are totally outrageous).

In other news, I am moving back to Orem this Friday with my sister Diane (who is back from Seattle) and am looking with repulsion at the coming Fall semester. We had a little shopping therapy yesterday at the GAP. I am hunting for a great pair of jeans, but would prefer to pay less that $50 for them. I tried on some cute, distressed skinny jeans at the GAP, which were $70.

The problem with me and skinny jeans are that when I put them on, they are still baggy due to my skinny legs. SIGH. I am reduced to junior sizes. I usually love GAP style, but the fit doesn't always work. Here's my GAP wishlist:

I. love. shopping.

Timpanogos Cave

2009-08-17T18:57:00.001-07:00

So I went to Timpanogos Cave this past weekend. It was a free admission day so me, Josh, and two of his friends got up at 5 a.m. to drive up there and get the cave tour passes. After waiting 45 minutes outside of the visitor center we got scheduled for the 9:30 tour. So we drove back to Alpine and got some breakfast and hung out in the car until around 8:15 a.m. which is when we started hiking.

I don't hike. I'm not much of a nature enthusiast (which is an understatement). I'm the anti-camper. Anyway, my main motivation to go to the cave was appease to Josh, who really wanted me to go up there and see that cave and just wouldn't let it go.

Ok fine. So I'm going up this trail which is paved (which was nice) and is only a mile and a half one way (which isn't that far), but has a 45 degree incline (kill me). Right at the beginning of the hiking part, seriously 20 steps in, my left hip starts hurting. I'm thinking 'Oh GREAT. This is going to be SO MUCH FUN.' (note the sarcasm).

So I keep going, slower and slower. My hip is burning. It doesn't feel like it's in the muscle, it's in the bone or joint or something. Putting weight on it going uphill was a killer. Josh asked me 'Are you ok?' like a hundred times and pretty much he had to drag me up that stupid mountain.

Some vista shots taken way too early in the morning:
Somehow we get to the cave entrance. I am about to die or my left leg is about to fall off (either could have happened at that point). I mustered a little enthusiasm for this picture because I was happy we weren't hiking anymore.
We didn't have much time to rest because we got into an earlier tour right then. So we descended into a damp, dank, darkness that smelled like Medieval Times. We toured 3 caves that were connected by man-made tunnels. This is the Heart of Timpanogos Cave which is made out of three stalactites. It was really cold in the cave and at one point I got pegged in the head by a freezing drop of water - which apparently means I got 'kissed' by the cave. Josh quickly assured me that there weren't any germs in the water. I don't know how he can stand hanging out with such a prissy germaphobe.

The caves had all kinds of bizarre rock formations the recipe of which is water which leaks through an ancient fault line and various minerals in the rocks. It was like being on an alien planet. I couldn't even categorize it at first. Cave walls that looked like moldy cottage cheese, or a petrified ocean floor. There were huge caverns and tiny crawl spaces, everything looked slimy and cold.

The tour guide at one point turned off all the lights for us to experience total darkness, something your eyes never get used to. Freaky. It was hard to imagine how the founders of that cave did their exploring by the light of a candle. I was slightly relieved to see daylight again at the end of the tour and leave the cold, clammy cave and all of its weird glory behind.

UNFORTUNATELY, when we got out of the cave we were met with a torrential downpour and thunderstorm. Amazingly, Mr. Prepared had umbrellas with him so that helped keep some parts of us dry as we trudged down the mountain in the rain. Josh was pretty excited about the adventure of it all.

For me, excepting the pain and the cold, the cave was pretty cool, but I probably won't be doing that again. I was just like, get me to the car and take me home. I was exhausted and limping the rest of the day and I'm still recovering. What can I say? I must be a complete wimp.

I got home and told my parents about the whole event. What's weird is that I have had this exact same pain when I went hiking around Yosemite on family vacation almost 4 years ago, except THAT time it was both hips. It got to the point where I could barely walk because of that same burning pain.

My Mom said that I might have a bone spur in my hip. Allen suggested getting a bone density test. And Rachel said, "You hiked?! Anything?!"

Mrs. Madsen's New Classroom

2009-08-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Karen is starting her new teaching job this week at Noah Webster Academy, a charter school in Orem. This past week I went over there to help her get her classroom ready for the new kindergartners. The hardest part was trying to decide what to do with the bulletin boards. I ended up cutting out 50 stars for this thing. Here's the before:

and after: It was nice to help Karen out and see where she's going to be working. Here are some pics of the new classroom. Way nicer and bigger than that portable.
Good luck with all the new kindergartners Kar!

Weber County Fair

2009-08-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, Josh and I went up to Ogden to have dinner with his parents and we ended up going to the Weber County Fair. It was pretty small, but it was fun to browse around. The GREATEST part was the petting area with all the farm animals that you can see up close and touch.

My favorites were the little baby goats. Josh bought me a little cup of food so I could feed the goats and it was SO FUN! I was delighted. I absolutely loved it. (Which I can't really explain since I'm totally anti-pets).

Look at this, I'm practically having the time of my life! I ended up getting goat snobbers all over my coat sleeve and was so grossed out that I rubbed my hands with probably 8oz of hand sanitizer and walked around dripping until we could find a sink.

This is Josh next to a crazy horned cow animal. There were all kinds of different beasts of burden there. Including this huge, ugly white bull that you could pay to climb up in the saddle and take a picture. Josh REALLY wanted me to get on it. I told him in no uncertain terms to dream on.
We also saw all the pigeons, chickens, roosters, and rabbits that had been entered for competition. I have no idea what they are judged on. The bunnies were so cute, and there were so many different breeds. Josh and I bickered for a while on what the difference was, if there was one, between 'bunnies' and 'rabbits.' We finally had to ask the lady who was working there to clear us up.
This mutated-looking cotton ball is an Angora rabbit. You know, where Angora sweaters come from! We didn't see a lot of the livestock since it was close to closing time. We saw some sheep, lambs, and pigs and one horse. Then we met up with Josh's parents and watched a hypnotist show- which I am still skeptical about- but overall it was a fun night. I can't wait for the Utah State Fair!

Gas Works Park

2009-08-10T22:34:00.000-07:00

The final birthday event was a night trip to Gas Works Park. We went with a group of BYU interns and a guitar. The park is a big hill right on the shore of some large body of water that has an INCREDIBLE view of the city. By night it's mesmerizing.

I couldn't get a great picture due to the need for a tripod and a longer shutter speed, so I got this pic from the internet, but this might give you an idea of what we enjoyed. We were really cold, but it was awesome. We huddled up, serenaded by guitar. What a great night!

Diane's Birthday Dinner

2009-08-10T22:21:00.001-07:00

So Diane wanted a really nice seafood dinner for her birthday, so we found a posh restaurant called the Steelhead Diner in downtown Seattle. To avoid a longer wait we opted for patio dinning and got a cool brick alley to enjoy. Here's us trying to look sophisticated.
We ate expensive crab and halibut dishes that were very tasty. Unfortunately, halfway through our meal the sun set and the cool breeze from the Sound became icy. I started to FREEZE. Diane was pretty cold too, so we asked our nice waitress if we could relocate, anywhere.

I never try to inconvenience waiters so I felt like a jerk-face for asking to be moved, but she sympathized with our plight and said there was room at the bar.

So we went inside and sat at the bar where we were both promptly carded. We were like 'Oh it's okay, we aren't ordering drinks' but the bartender said that we had to be 21 just to SIT at the bar. LUCKILY, Diane had turned 21 years old THAT DAY!

The Space Needle

2009-08-10T22:13:00.000-07:00

So we didn't got up the Space Needle because 1. It cost money and 2. We had already been up the Columbia Bldg. and seen everything already. So we just took some pics in front of it on our way to the monorail. This is where Di was to take the previous picture of me.
First time on the monorail! Heading downtown, here's me appreciating the architecture.

The Muppet Experience

2009-08-10T21:55:00.001-07:00

The coolest thing we did at the SFM/EMP was to check out the featured exhibit: The Muppet Experience. It was all about Jim Henson and his life and creative projects (muppets). It was so awesome. No photography allowed - I was devastated temporarily.

I saw Kermit the Frog! In the flesh! More like in the fabric. But still. And Bert and Ernie were there! And Rolf - the piano playing dog from The Muppet Show. There were also displays of costumes and models from 'The Dark Crystal' and some muppets from 'Fraggle Rock.'

But the BEST part by far, was the muppet stage, where visitors could kind of get in on the action and be puppeteers. It was really neat to see how muppets are operated. The stage is low and the microphones are miniature so we crouched down on these little stools and watched a monitor on the ground to see what our muppets were doing.

I got Jimi Hendrix and Diane got Kurt Cobain and we rocked out to 'The Rainbow Connection.' It takes a lot more coordination than you think! If I focused on getting my puppet to strum his guitar, I kept hitting his head on the microphone. Diane was concentrating so hard on flipping Kurt's hair around, that she forgot to move the mouth to sing!

It was sheer delight. We were laughing and laughing. At one point Jimi Hendrix just fell right over on the stage because I was laughing too hard to hold my arm up over my head! It was way too much fun. For a full minute I considered ditching my Communications degree to go into the world of muppets! First timer muppeteers!
I couldn't resist giving Cookie Monster a squeeze. So cute!

SFM/EMP

2009-08-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

Diane and I went to the Science Fiction Museum and Experience Music Project. They are in the same building, but are completely different things. The SFM (Science Fiction Museum) has galleries of sci-fi paraphernalia from books, movies, and TV shows that stretch from the dawn of sci-fi to present day. It was cool, and you would not believe the crazy stuff they have in there! The whole time you're browsing through what looks like a space ship, you can hear Darth Vadar breathing. Freaky! Me and Di went to the restroom there, this was the sign on the door: Totally bizzaro.

The EMP (Experience Music Project) was originally established as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, but it also showcases Seattle's musical history as well as all kinds of interactive instrument activities. The coolest thing we saw there was this two-story sculpture made out of hundreds of musical instruments. It was actually programed to play music.

The Gum Wall

2009-08-10T21:29:00.001-07:00

Prepare yourselves, dear readers, for the grossest thing ever. The gum wall. Once again, something so totally disgusting is a one-of-a-kind tourist stop. Basically there's this wall in a dirty alley underneath Pike Place, where people get rid of their gum. This is the nastiest thing I have ever had the misfortune to be in the presence of. So. Gross. This is me looking really uncomfortable. This is me contemplating how many germs are probably on that wall. This is me thinking about how thousand's of different people's saliva has come together to create this ABC Gum shrine. Diane asked me if I wanted a piece of gum to chew and then leave my mark on the gum wall. I was like 'Gag me. Let's get out of here!'

Pike Place Market

2009-08-10T20:39:00.001-07:00

So we got a little touristy and went to Pike Place Market. I guess this is the original sign. It was so not what I expected. I was thinking that it was like a couple of booths and a bunch of fish flying around.
To my amazement, Pike Place is like a farmer's market on steroids. It is huge. And it has everything. On top of numerous tourists milling around, there were all kinds of honey, jam, sausage, fruit, vegetables, all kinds of seafood, flowers (everything organic and farm fresh), there were bakeries and coffee, jewelry, clothing, wood work, and a myriad of trinkets. Live musicians playing music on the street. There was so much to see I can't even remember it all. Lush flower bouquets were everywhere (and so cheap too!). I browsed the market in a slight daze. The place was a kaleidoscope of colors, textures, and smells. We found that famous Pike Place Fish Market by the hordes of tourists standing around waiting for fish to fly. Who buys this fish? I wondered. It smelled very very fishy. I just don't know if I could have a job where people stood there staring at me while I caught and threw fish.

We did sort of see one fish being thrown and caught. Everybody was cheering as the germaphobe in me started waving some red flags. They catch the fish with their bare hands! No gloves, no paper, they just grab it by its slit throat. I was grossed out. How is this a world famous tourist attraction? People are way too easily amused. Besides the fishy part, the market was cool. Everything looked so delicious. A guy was cutting nectarine slices and handing them out to people for a taste. I was like 'HELLO! NECTARINES?' (They are my favorite fruit.) So I made a beeline for the guy and got a taste of the best nectarine ever. It. was. amazing. sigh I dream of that nectarine.

Columbia Building

2009-08-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

After the temple we set out to go down town. Here's the birthday girl! Diane's roommate Lisa came with us, she was our awesome source of transportation. Our first stop was the Columbia Building, the tallest building in Seattle! Here's what it looks like from the bottom: Here's a view from the 75th floor Observation Deck. Crazy. We were looking down on the Space Needle!

After the Observation Deck, we went down to the 17th floor to get a tour of Amazon.com. It was pretty chill in there, I don't know if any of those guys were actually doing any work, but hopefully we made their day with our cuteness.

Seattle, WA Temple

2009-08-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

My last full day in Seattle was Diane's 21st birthday (August 4) and we seriously made the most of it. The first event of the day was an early morning trip to the Seattle Temple with a group of the BYU Flourishing Families interns. It was pretty chilly and overcast (my first brush with typical Seattle weather) but we had a good time.
Me and Di freezing in front of the temple. It was a really small building, but the grounds were beautiful.

Queen of Productivity

2009-08-06T20:30:00.000-07:00

I am now back in Utah. I am taking my traveling pants OFF! I hate airplanes, airports, baggage claims, security, the lines, the waiting, the flying, even that stupid baggie of peanuts: pretty much anything to do with air travel, I hate it.

So it was nice to come home, knowing my stay wouldn't be so temporary. I think I drifted off to sleep around 6ish and never woke up again until this morning. So I'm giving you, my faithful readers, a little break from the recent photo-blogs. Since I got my cute new camera, pretty much anything is picture-worthy.

Today I freaked out on my room. I went into a frenzy of cleaning, organizing, sorting, and eliminating everything in my room. The way I get into these moods goes kind of like that book : If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.

It all started with me unpacking my suitcase, but I ended up completely cleaning out and re-organizing my closet, tidying, dusting, and vacuuming my room, and doing so much laundry that the only clothes that are not hung up in my closet are the ones I am wearing. Here is only one of the various scenarios I experienced today:

During my flight, one of my eyeshadow containers came open and spilled into my make-up bag all over everything, so I start rinsing off all my make-up, then I notice that some of my foundation could be condensed, so I do that, then when I go to put it away I notice that the drawer is cluttery, so I completely clean and re-organize my bathroom drawer and put my make-up in there, then I notice that my make-up brushes are kind of dirty, so then I wash those, then I notice that the bathroom counter is kind of dusty, so I wipe that down, then I notice that the mirror has water spots on it, so I get out the Windex...

Flourishing Families

2009-08-03T19:04:00.001-07:00

Diane's out on an interview right now. That's why I've had so much time to blog! I got some pictures before she left of her and her amazing partner, Jesse, with whom she's been working so hard with this summer. Diane will probably never get around to blogging this, but I know the fam is curious. Here they are with all their gear and cute matching outfits.
Here's where the post-interview work is done. Only two weeks left and she'll be back in Utah. The Flourishing Families Project is winding down. After today Diane and Jesse have one interview left. Great work girls!

Diane's Birthday Present

2009-08-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

My trip to Seattle was essentially my birthday present to Diane. The past 2 years we haven't been together for her birthday and when I realized that we were going for a 3rd year, I was like 'not possible.' So here I am in Seattle! BUT I was shopping at the Emporium at Thanksgiving Point with Rachel and I saw THIS! A Decision Making Kit! Anybody who knows Diane, knows that she has a really difficult time making decisions. Which is why this kit is so hilarious. Inside it has little pads of paper for listing the pros and cons, the gut feelings, and the rational logic. The kit provides a 'No Regrets' pen in which to write down decisions! Diane's favorite part was the pin that reads, 'I decided today!' Watch out world! This is an enabled decision maker.
Then we celebrated (a day early) by eating our Pineapple-Upside Down Cupcake that we got from Trophy Cupcake. Even yummier than it looks.
This picture could have been a cute sisterly love picture, but it looks like I'm concentrating a little too hard on taking the picture. Darn.

Seattle Center

2009-08-03T18:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday night we went down to the Seattle Center to watch a free movie with a bunch of the other interns. It was 'The Princess Bride.' I forgot how funny that movie is.

I love this picture of Diane. I feel like the sentiment is, 'I'm 21. Whatcha gonna do about it?'

Seattle, WA: Lake Union

2009-08-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

Diane and I went canoeing. I haven't been canoeing since girls camp probably, so it was pretty exciting. The University of Washington (Which the locals refer to as U Dub), has a marina on the shore of Lake Union where you can rent a canoe or a rowboat for like $8 an hour.

The canoe made me feel like I was riding in a soda can. It was a little precarious when the wakes from the power boats rocked our little canoe. It took us some practice (and some yelling at each other) to get into a rhythm of paddling so the canoe could move around. With much difficulty we managed to maneuver to a calm inlet.

This place was seriously cool. I really couldn't get enough pictures. Abandoned overpasses in the land of water lilies.
Then we found a grassy knoll in the arboretum to have a little picnic and rest. Here's a picture of our canoe, the picnic, and me doing some serious relaxing.

Pure Awesomeness.

Seattle, WA: University Village

2009-08-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

Another shopping trip! This time we headed down to the U District (Which is the area around the University) in which in located a delightful shopping area with boutiques and restaurants amongst fountains and flowers. It's more upscale, but was still fun to browse. Our main reason for being there was the H&M. I had never been, but Diane love love loves that store. She assured me of amazing clothes at great prices. So we did some serious shopping there. You know you're doing serious shopping when you take more than 10 items into the dressing room.

We love shopping together because first of all, we can trust each other to be honest when evaluating the cuteness level of potential outfits. Secondly, if an item is really cute, but a little pricey, we decide to split the cost and share it.

Predictably this happened at H&M. There was an awesome peacoat-styled jacket and a short-sleeve sweater that we both really wanted. So I bought one and she bought the other, with a promise to share both. I don't know what's going to happen when someday we don't live together anymore, I just don't think about it.

H&M reminded me of Forever 21, just in the areas of clothing quality and price range. At first I didn't see anything I liked. After an hour I starting finding too many things that I liked. You kind of have to be more flexible with what you consider your personal style. Branch out a little. Try some new flavors so to speak. Here we are after spending way too much money at H&M. This green table was so cute so we took a little rest. Then we went over to Johnny Rockets for a considerably over-priced cheeseburgers. Diane's Flourishing Families partner, Jesse, was with us too. We had way too much fun. Here's one of Di's classic pics where everyone is supposed to stare off in the distance with a contemplative look on their face. I just couldn't handle it. After dinner we went to the coolest cupcake store EVER. A little boutique called Trophy Cupcake. You would just die if you saw these perfect cupcakes! We bought a cupcake for Diane's upcoming birthday. Then we went over to this candy store called The Confectioners. You can just say goodbye to your decision-making capabilities when you walk in there. Seems like there is every candy known to man in that store, organized by color and kind in glass jars all over the walls.

The craziest thing were all the chocolates displayed in the glass cases. Exquisite chocolate truffles, each one looked EXACTLY alike, in PERFECT rows. It was a like a dream. You would have to know me really well to know how delighted I am by stuff like this. I WISH I could have gotten a pic, but they caught me with my camera and said no.

Sudoku Champions

2009-08-03T16:59:00.000-07:00

We've been doing a lot of Sudoku lately...when there's a little bit of downtime we work on a puzzle or two. Sometimes we team up and do a really hard one.

Virgin Ears

2009-08-03T13:50:00.000-07:00

Virgin ear lobes, technically. So Diane is turning 21 years old. She was thinking it's about time to take the plunge and get her ears pierced, but was pretty freaked out about going through with it. Finally I was like 'Are we going to go through with this or what?' I dragged my poor nerve-wracked sister up to the counter and said 'OK people, we're here to get some ears pierced.' That was when Diane started having a freak-out.

She really wants pierced ears, she just didn't want to have to experience the part where you actually get the ears pierced. She was so nervous that I started getting nervous. I think after so long of working yourself up about something, when it's actually happening you can barely handle it.

So I told her to sit in the chair for a while, just to get comfortable (yeah right). I just told that we weren't leaving without some holes in her ears and that it was now or never. She was so visibly agitated that other shoppers in the store came over and told her their ear-piercing stories. Here's the BEFORE picture and you can see it in her eyes how nervous she is. After signing all the paperwork our conversation starts going something like this:

Di: 'What if I faint?'
Me: 'I'll lay you down on the ground. You're not going to faint.'
Di: 'I think I might faint.'
Me: 'Well let me know when you start getting light headed so I can catch you before you fall out of this chair.'
Di: 'What if I pee my pants?'
Me: 'I'll buy you some new pants.'
Di: 'What if I start crying or something?'
Me: 'I'll give you a big hug. Just CALM DOWN. You won't cry'
Piercing Lady: 'The last person we had cry was a 6-month old'
Di: 'What if it hurts really bad?'
Me: 'Then start screaming or something. You know Allen was less nervous than this when he was going in for MAJOR SURGERY!'
Di: 'I can't believe this is happening. I can't believe I'm doing this!'
Me: 'I'm sure you have probably experienced worse pain at SOME point in your life, try to think of that.'
Di: 'Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!'
Me: 'Diane. You won't even see a needle. There won't even be any blood or anything.'
Di: 'What if I faint? I think I might faint.'
(re-read conversation again)

So then the Piercing Lady puts on her plastic gloves and at this point Diane was practically hyperventilating. The lady asked her if she wanted to hold a teddy bear. No she wouldn't hold the teddy bear, but she did want to hold my hand. So I held her hand and told her to keep breathing. A minute later it was all over and she did great!
Then Diane couldn't get over it for like 15 minutes after it happened. What a brave girl! But her ears didn't hurt afterward or anything so that was nice. Mission accomplished! Can you see the cute earrings we picked out? Such a productive shopping trip! We had a great time! Ears pierced, cute accessories, t-shirts at the GAP, yummy Cinnabon, and new shoes for Di (we found some super cute black flats in her size! That never happens.) So here we are heading home. This is at the bus station with our bus transfers. No AC on the bus, but at one point the driver was driving around with the bus doors open to get a breeze inside. That was nice.

Seattle, WA: Bellevue Square

2009-08-03T12:05:00.000-07:00

Well I'm on vacay, and now that me and Di are together we made big plans to go shopping. That's like one of the things we do best together! So we charted a bus route over to Bellevue Square, which is a huge shopping/retail/restaurant center. Considering the ridiculous heat, the only SANE thing to do would be to get to a mall.

I had absolutely no anxiety about riding the bus. My first time ever riding a city bus system! Diane was the one in charge of knowing which routes and buses we were supposed to take, and she had some sense of the direction we were going. This is us riding the bus. 3 bus transfers and an hour and a half later we got to the mall. After a quick lunch we got into shopping mode. After some delightful scarf and earrings purchases we browsed this store called Fireworks, which was some kind of gift shop with all sorts of random trinkets. They had CD cases made out of real car license plates, jump drives that looked like Lego pieces, and these funny glasses: The BEST thing about this store were the star lamps. I LOVE these lamp shades. I WANT ALL OF THEM!!! I already have one, but now I want more. They looked SO AWESOME hanging up there all together! Then we went over to the GAP, where we always love to try everything on in the store. So I found this green jacket, I thought it was super cool looking (as well as super pricey) but I tried it on anyway. What do you think?

Sweating in Seattle

2009-08-03T11:51:00.000-07:00

So apparently I came to Seattle just in time for a record-making heat wave. It's never been this hot in Seattle EVER. These people don't have air conditioning because they USUALLY don't need to use it. They don't have sprinklers in their yards, because it drizzles so often. So this summer is on the record for highest temperatures ever (103 degrees) and the longest stretch of days without rain ever (30 days). Seattle got baked. There is barely a blade of green grass in sight.

Being that I was a bit unprepared in Texas, I packed 5 pairs of pants, 2 jackets, and 2 long sleeve shirts in preparation for the milder weather. So it was kind of shock to me when I discovered Seattle to be even worse than Texas. By far. 'Stifling' doesn't even begin to cover it. There's quite a few large bodies of water all around Seattle, so the humidity was like 100%. So it was pretty darn muggy. I'd even go as far to say suffocating, since there's no air conditioning. This is the kind of thing that kills people! I suspect global warming has something to do with it. It was miserable. Too hot to do anything.

We went to institute later, probably because there was AC there. Here's a pic of me and Diane being matchy-matchy in polo shirts.

Seattle, WA

2009-08-03T11:46:00.001-07:00

My first night in Seattle I was pretty much exhausted so we didn't do a whole lot. This is a picture of me and Di shaving our legs. I'm not sure how this started, but we do it every once in a while. We sit on the edge of the bathtub and shave our legs while discussing the mysteries of the universe. I think we watched 'Madagascar 2' that night. The penguins are my favorite part.

Seattle, WA

2009-07-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

After a day and a half back in Utah, I'm off again! I never travel this much. Once again an early morning flight. After going to bed at midnight, I woke up at 1, 3:15, 4:30, and 5:45 in the morning. I'm going to blame this on travel anxiety. Allen drove me up to the airport and since he had some time he parked and walked me into the terminal and got me all checked in. I really appreciated this because I get so nervous in airports. He flies every week so it's no big deal to him. The airport is like his second home.

Josh got me a Sudoku puzzle book to distract me from the flying, and it worked! After take-off I got to work on a puzzle. 6 Sudoku puzzles later, we are landing in Seattle! Here's some of the pictures I got from the plane. Mount Rainier and Seattle.

The Seattle Tacoma airport is huge. I almost couldn't find my way to the baggage claim. I had to ride this subway train over to the main terminal to pick up my bags. I was standing at my baggage claim realizing that I couldn't remember what my luggage looked like when Diane found me. I think we both nearly cried with all the hugs and happiness. Together again, now I am complete.

So our joyous reunion was cut short when I spotted what I was sure was my suitcase. I ran over and grabbed the straps of my suitcase, but with my 103 lbs did not have the leverage to get the bag off the carousel! So I was pretty much dragged along side the baggage claim while yelling 'Help!' to Diane, who was laughing her head off at me. Together we hoisted my ridiculous suitcase off of the baggage carousel and were able to finally get away from the airport. I was exhausted, but got some cool pics of the city as we drove in.
And some drive by picture.

Austin, TX: South Congress

2009-07-29T15:51:00.000-07:00

After all the sight-seeing we headed to a place called South Congress (known by the locals at SoCo). Basically this stretch of road is a collection of thrift stores, antiques, boutiques, art galleries, gift shops, and cafes. We browsed trinkets and jewelry, vintage clothes and furniture, zany gift shops, and expensive threads.

Whitney said that Austin was kind of like the Berkley of Texas. With the university there I guess I can understand that. South Congress was definitely an eclectic mix of the aesthetic and the abstract.

We parked in an alley and the first thing we saw coming up to the street was all this vandalism on building. I thought it was really interesting.

This is what the shops looked like. Each one with its own flavor.
There was also a group of trailers selling smoothies, ice cream cones, slushies, and cupcakes! The big cupcake on top was rotating. This is where we ate dinner : Home Slice Pizza.
But we had to wait like 40 minutes to get sat. The place was packed and there was nowhere to go but their out door patio in the back. At this point I thought I really would die. We had already been browsing and walking around for a couple hours in intense heat and direct sunlight. I was sipping on an ice water the whole time, but once we got hungry the heat was a beast. I have never been more hot and sweaty.

So we're sitting out there forever and the people next to us were drinking a bunch of beer which we could smell and then some dudemeyer lights up and starts smoking. I thought I was going to die. And Whitney is pregnant! I don't know how she did it. What a trooper. Here we are waiting forever and trying not to drown in our own sweat.
After dinner we felt a bit more revived and continued our shopping. Here are some other random pics from Austin.
After a long day of fun sight seeing, we headed for home. Here is a pic of the Austin skyline.

Austin, TX: University of Texas

2009-07-29T15:40:00.001-07:00

After the Capital, we drove over to the University of Texas campus to look around there. Not only is the campus huge, the buildings are classic. At this point I seriously started considering going to grad school in Austin because this campus is so beautiful. I started fantasizing about the silent standards of academic quality and serious-minded students that pursue knowledge in a place like this.

Check out this bell tower. This place was so cool. So. Cool.

Austin, TX: The Capital

2009-07-29T15:21:00.000-07:00

So we got to Austin and our first stop was the Capital. This building is seriously huge, and gorgeously decorated, so I took a lot of pictures of it. We went into the Visitor Center first to get some brochures and maps. Here's me and the Capital.
The inside was amazing and huge. No camera could really capture the grandiose scope and detail of the rotunda.
Joe wanted to up to the top of the tower, so me and Whitney waited at the bottom. Hmmm. My sunburn is really coming out now.
I did learn something new at the capital. Try not to laugh. We walked in and saw a life-sized statue of Davy Crockett. I was like what the heck is Davy Crockett doing in here? Apparently he was a REAL person who fought in the war for Texas independence. Didn't know he was a real guy...I thought he was just in that song, but there he was wearing his coonskin hat and everything.

Elgin, Texas

2009-07-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday we took a day trip over to Austin by way of Elgin. Elgin, TX is where Whitney lived during her junior & senior years in high school. Joe really wanted the Texas barbecue experience so we found a restaurant that serves the famous Elgin Sausage. Here's the Southside Market & Barbecue. This is what we got for lunch: Elgin sausage and brisket, with cole slaw and potato salad, beans and bread. I don't eat a lot of red meat, nor do I do it very often, so after like 5 bites I was done. Good thing we all just shared 2 plates.
Then Whitney took us on a driving tour of her old high school and residences. This is pretty much what it looks like out there in the country. Driving to Austin, the landscape got a bit greener.

Houston by Night

2009-07-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

Friday night, we decided to take a stroll over to this grassy knoll where there is a great view of the city. It ended up being a 2 mile power walk in the dark, but we got this awesome picture.

Houston Gardens

2009-07-29T14:33:00.000-07:00

Friday evening, we decided to go see some Houston sights. Over by the medical district there are some beautiful gardens and a park. It was still sweltering, but there was a nice breeze for us to enjoy as we walked through the gardens. Here we are in the car as we were starting out.

As we were driving to the park we passed by this shopping center called the River Oaks Shopping Center, which consisted of strip malls on both sides of the street which were all black and white. Of course I fell in love at once, but couldn't get very good pictures since we were driving by. It was so cool.

This Kroger grocery store design is Art Deco. The whole facade is black and white porcelain tiles. There were a lot of Art Deco buildings in Houston which was really fun to see. I love architecture.

So then we made it to the Houston Gardens which has different themed gardens to browse around.
Here's the Fragrance Garden.

This is me smelling some Lavender.

Here's the Rose Garden.

There was a statue of Gandhi in the garden so I went over there and held his hand. This was a cool gazebo, I think it was Japanese. There was a Japanese garden somewhere, but we didn't make it over there. More cool blossoms.
There were a lot of Chinese monuments there too.

Whitney and Joe strolling in the garden.
More of the garden.
The whole place was green with trees like this. It was amazing.
Then halfway through our happy garden meanderings, the tragedy of tragedies strikes! My camera battery died! Curse that battery! So the rest of the pictures from Herman Park made it onto Joe and Whitney's camera. And hopefully I'll get those pictures soon so I can continue this blog.

Pool Side

2009-07-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

After a very leisurely Friday morning, Whitney and I went out to work on our Texas tans (without sunscreen). Laying out in the sun is one of my favorite summer activities. I love to go to the pool, but the whole idea is to lay out next to it instead of actually swim. It was kind of overcast, but still a muggy, warm day. So we painted our nails a bright Flamingo Pink and discussed the mysteries of the universe.

Houston Trip

2009-07-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

I made it to Houston and so far I'm having a great time with Whitney & Joe. It's my first time to Texas and I love it! Here's a little trip recap...

So my flight was leaving at 6:45a.m. so I woke up at 4:45a.m. after getting like 4 hours of sleep. I REALLY don't like flying. I'm not at the point where I would say that I hate it, but I really, really don't like it. Flying gives me a lot of anxiety, which I think we can all agree I don't need any more of that in my life. I just start worrying about getting to the right plane, not missing my plane, losing my luggage, suspicious looking people.

Then once I'm on the plane, my germ-paranoia gets heightened. Breathing all that recycled air, when's the last time these seats have been cleaned or disinfected? I don't like the sound the plane makes, I don't like the feeling of taking off, flying, or landing. Once I landed in Houston and found my luggage, I was so so happy and relieved to be leaving the airport. Whew! But my stomach was jittery the rest of the day. So weird.

Here's a cool cloud-scape from my plane window, somewhere between Phoenix and Houston.

Here are my airplane cookies that I ate.

Whitney told me not to bring any pants because it would be so hot in Houston. So I was wearing shorts and my gray hoodie on the plane. Big mistake. I freeze on airplanes. It's so cold on the plane! I asked the stewardess if I could get a blanket and she told me that they didn't have any!!! Such a sad plane ride for Meg, freezing all the way. How could they not have blankets?! I mean what kind of an airline establishment is Southwest running here?! No blankets? Unbelievable.

Whitney picked me up at the airport and I couldn't believe my eyes! She's almost halfway through her pregnancy already!

Anyway, that first night we just hung out at Whit's apartment. We made some sweet potato fries which were so yummy, I want to try this again when I get back to Utah.

I took a napper because I was becoming zombie-girl from my lack of sleep. After dinner we watched a movie 'Marley & Me' (and that is why I will never have a dog) and then I completely passed out on my air mattress. The only discomfort I really experienced that first night was with the pillow. It was a couch pillow and so puffy and thick I was getting a crick in my neck trying to lay on it!

Thursday was the shopping day. Whitney and I got up and futzed around the house all morning. Then we went out to run some errands. Here's us starting out on the town.
I needed a different pillow so we went to Target and got one for $4 and we made a few other stops. Then Whitney drove me around downtown Houston so I could take some pics of the city. I really liked it. Downtown isn't crowded or dirty at all. It was really nice looking. We drove by some cool city parks and the theater district, Joe's work, and the Astro's MinuteMaid Stadium. It was cool. Here are some of the pictures I got from our little drive.

How'd you like to have the job of those window washers! Yikes!

Then we went to the Galleria Mall in Houston, which is the biggest mall I have ever been to in my life! It's 3 levels with parking below and hotels above. It is humongous! And it has in ice skating rink inside as well as all these restaurants. Also like a refrigerator in there. I was cold the entire time! We seriously walked like 20 miles around in there. Browsing around at everything and going in all kinds of stores. I love shopping! It was so fun.

The only thing I really needed to pick up was a cheap pair of jeans to wear on the flight back home, but I ended up getting a few more things...We got some adorable maternity clothes for Whitney and also got some great deals in Gap Body. We had to leave the mall when both of us started to lose our self-control. :) We had lunch at Sonic and I tasted my first Cherry-Limeade. So yummy!

So we came home exhausted and tried on all our new outfits for Joe. Here's Whitney in the cutest maternity dress of all time that I talked her into trying on. And then I couldn't get my outfit and face in the same pic.

We lazed around for a while and ended up watching 'Penelope.' I saw some bats flying around last night on our walk to the corner store for candy.

I love Houston. Or maybe I just love the experience of seeing and being in a new place. The humidity is awesome. It's like a warm, thick blanket. The one thing I can't understand is why my hands get clammy and cold. But overall, I love the heat. I haven't really been outside that much at all yet, so most of my trip I've been pretty chilly. Everybody has their air conditioning at like 65 degrees! I have to wear pants inside! So sad.

The landscape is so pretty. There are green trees and plants and bushes overgrown every where and not a mountain in sight. I've seen a lot of aloe vera plants.

All the traffic lights hang horizontally- something about the winds. The roads are terrible. There's enough bumps and potholes and broken pavement to wreck your alignment! The sidewalks are narrow and crumbling. It seems like an old place, kind of run down.

What's weird is the eclectic mix of the buildings here. Old and new, traditional and modern, decadent and decomposing, all mixed up together. One block will be brand new townhouses with bold clean colors and wrought iron gates, and then the next block will be shacks and run down buildings, or empty lots with garbage and weeds. I see a new restaurant and then right next door is an abandoned, condemned house.

Some parts we've driven through remind me of an older, more ragged Citrus Heights. The manicured lawns of Rockin, and the cookie cutter houses of Herriman are no where in sight. I love all the huge trees, it makes me feel like this place is really established.

I haven't seen much of the wildlife, but I can hear the insects in the trees. The sound varies from a rattlesnake's frenzied tail rattling and the buzzing hum of 100,00o volts of electricity. I wonder how something so small can make so much noise!

So today we plan on relaxing a bit. Maybe hitting up a few of those museums. Then we're supposed to have dinner tonight with Joe's intern friends and boss. Good thing I brought my adorable new wedges. Tomorrow we are planning a day trip to Austin for Whitney's birthday!

Heading to Houston

2009-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm taking a trip to Houston, Texas to visit my dear friend Whitney. Leaving tomorrow at the crack of dawn! So I'm packing one suitcase and trying not to pack too much stuff. I'm notorious for having an over-abundance of everything when I travel. I'll be sure to blog about my travels as soon as I can.

4th of July - Balloon Fest

2009-07-20T20:26:00.000-07:00

I went to the 4th of July Balloon Fest in Provo and it was so cool. It starts at 6am, but is totally worth sacrificing sleep for. I was lucky enough to have Josh with me to go check it out, but neither of us had ever been.

Basically you can walk around all the hot air balloons as they fill up with air and take off. Then there's a hot air balloon competition where balloonists try to throw bean bags onto ground targets, or pop small balloons.

The best part to me was just wandering around through the balloons while they are prepping for flight. When they're on the ground you realize how BIG they really are. I loved all the bright colors.

I didn't realize what a popular event this was (considering it's so early in the a.m.) but seriously, everyone and their mom was at Bulldog Field. Some people were on blankets and camping chairs and had brought breakfast with them. Josh and I were thinking that bringing some food would be a good idea for next time. Otherwise you end up at McDonald's with everyone else in Provo.

When the balloons are getting filled up with air they are laying down on the side. Here's a pic of the inside of a balloon. Then the pilots use a gigantic flame thrower things to heat all the air inside. You could be standing like 15 feet away and still feel the heat off those things.

Then the balloons start taking off and the announcer starts yelling at everybody to get off the field. See the huge flames on this one?

Up, up and away!

I also do flowers

2009-07-20T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, you might not have been aware of my extensive range of talents, but behold! I now add flower talents to the list! The other morning, Mom needed some help at the flower shop she works at. Usually she just does their bookkeeping, but when things get busy she helps out with the flowers, and when things get crazy she calls me.

So I helped Mom make 6 of these boutonnieres for a wedding!

You can't see all the details, but there's a little bunch of wax (those little white flowers), bear grass, and some white chiffon ribbon. At first my perfectionism was getting in the way of my productivity, but I got the hang of it and was quite proud of myself when all were done.

Shoe Shopping

2009-07-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

I went shoe shopping today. I hate shoe shopping. Shoe shopping is the Devil. It might actually be possible that I am more picky about shoes than I am about men. (Well...probably not). But seriously, I have the hardest time picking out shoes. For some reason I'm just not super confident when picking out shoes for myself because the commitment-phobe in me comes out and I just can't decide if I will actually wear them enough to make the purchase worth it. And all of a sudden I get wishy-washy and can't make a decision.

I usually rely on Diane to be the voice of reason (or persuasion), but since she's in Seattle I had to call her like 2 times during my 4 hour shoe shopping escapade. Hilariously, while I was actually in a mall shopping for shoes, she was simultaneously on-line shopping for shoes. So our conversations were something like this:

Me: 'Okay so what do you think about black flats, round toe or pointy toe?'
Di: 'Go with the pointy, you don't have anything like that already.'
Me: 'Okay...I guess they fit pretty good. I wish I was wearing pants right now...'
Di: 'So what do you think about an open-toe wedge in teal?'
Me: 'Is it like a dark teal or a bright teal?'
Di: 'Well it's really bright, but the other colors are black, purple, and cream...'
Me: 'Well you know I'm all about the black, but teal could be fun. Ooooohh! I am looking at some lipstick red open-toe pumps. These are so hot! I have to have them.'
Di: 'Meg, you would never wear those.'
Me: 'Really? Oh okay.'
Di: 'So I'm trying to decide between black heels, one has a rounded toe, one is pointy in satin-'
Me: 'Not satin. That's gonna be a high-maintenance shoe. I'm loving these open-toe shiny black pumps though, the heel is like 4 inches. This is sexy.'
Di: 'Walk away Meg. Just walk away.'

And this kind of thing goes on for half an hour. What I love about this is that neither of us can see what shoes the other is browsing, yet we rely on each other to make these shoe decisions. Despite the frustration I feel when I usually can't find anything that I'm wild about, that's nothing compared to the frustration Di feels when she can't find anything she likes that is actually in her size (3 1/2).

I need support when I go shoe shopping, it's just hard to do alone. At one point I was trying to decide if I was going to get these gold/wheat colored flats. I liked them, but couldn't convince myself to buy them so I actually asked this random woman who was also shoe-shopping for her opinion. "Hi, excuse me, do you think these shoes are cute?" She said she thought the shoes were totally cute, so that sealed the deal for me.

So I spent more money than I care to post, but now I have a little more variety of footwear and I can throw out the shoes I never wear. Yay for new shoes, I'm just happy the shopping is over. Someday I'll get this sexy pair:

Don't Leave Home Without It

2009-07-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

What's the one accessory that you don't leave home without? I took some guesses on this one, correct me if I'm wrong.

Diane...a scarf
Mom...a water bottle
Ryann...at least 3 bags
Darren...absolutely nothing
Merrill...socks
Karen...some kind of snack in a Ziplock bag
Rachel...a sketch notebook and pencil
Dad...a Pentel Hybrid pen
Josh...a belt
Me...sunglasses (usually it's earrings, but in the summer I'm pretty casual about it)

If you aren't on this list, it's because I wasn't sure. Please comment and let me know.

Meg's List of Things That Are Awesome This Week

2009-07-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

1. Flamingo Pink nail polish on my finger and toe nails.
This is the color of summer.
2. Dreyer's Creamy Coconut Fruit Bars.
This is the taste of summer.
3. Grilled shrimp, scallops, and veggies on a BBQ.
This is the supper of summer.
4. Light, cotton t-shirts and cargo shorts.
Thank you American Eagle. This is the outfit of summer
5. Sitting in a 104 degree hot tub at night.
Oh baby. This is a good idea anytime of the year.

Summer Schedule

2009-07-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

I honestly can't remember the last time I had so much nothing to do. At first it was weird, but I'm getting used to it. I haven't made a To Do list for at least 2 weeks! It's pretty nice. I'm usually running around like my pants are on fire, but now everything is just chill. I don't do anything fast. It's like every day is a Saturday. Here's a basic schedule of what I've been up to:

Sleep in.
Sun bathe in the backyard.
Power walk on the treadmill.
Shower and get ready for the day. (this can take up to 2 hours)
Sit around the house. (read, nap, watch TV w/ Allen)
Eat coconut popsicles.
Talk on the phone to people.
Sit in the hot tub.
Hang out with a certain cute boy.

I know, rough life huh? Well I deserve it. For the first time in years I'm not taking classes or working a job. I have nothing to do and I love it.

Time Warp

2009-07-11T16:09:00.000-07:00

I am a very busy person. I like to be busy. I like to be productive. My multi-tasking maniac pace through life is usually at break-neck speed. I'm more of a human doing than a human being. And I hate wasting time so usually I'm on the go, getting things done and getting to the next thing.

Weirdly enough, there are two places that I experience a total time warp - where suddenly time means nothing, the earth stops rotating, and all the minutes, hours, and seconds are frozen. All the hurry I feel completely dissolves...

1. The Shower. I love showers. I love hot water. As soon as I'm in the shower I completely forget why I was rushing or what's happening that day. I just can't take a quick shower. I'm in there for 25 minutes deciding which body wash to use, or reminding myself the order of my showering routine. I could seriously stand there spacing out for 10 minutes before I remember why I got in the shower in the first place.

2. Wal-Mart. This store is like a space station. Pretty much anything you could ever think of using in your lifetime is at this store at a discounted price. If I wander around long enough I'm sure to find 5 things that I never knew existed before I walked into the store, but now I can't live without. There's enough stuff in that place to distract you for like 3 hours and then you leave and realize you never bought what you were originally there for. I never go to Wal-Mart without a specific list of stuff I need. If I go in there without a list it will be 2 hours and $100 later by the time I can get out.

Don't Wait

2009-06-14T16:26:00.001-07:00

"If a woman waited for a man to propose to her out of natural causes, she'd die an old maid."

Barbara Stanwyck 'The Lady Eve'

I heard this quote while watching an old black and white movie and I think it is so true. I hate listening to women who have the kind of dating strategy that requires them to do nothing and the guy to do everything (including read their mind). Like how attractive is it when a girl acts like anytime her knight in shining armor is ready to sweep her off her feet, well there's the door and she's just waiting for him to show up.

Times have changed, so there's a little more effort required on the ladies' part. The art of subtlety, strategically-planned coincidences, and nonchalant conversations are only a few feminine tools. The men are usually the ones to do the heavy lifting (asking out, paying for stuff, coming over)but it's really up to women to put on the green light.

So if you're a single lady, you might want to ask yourself if you've got the green light on for guys you are genuinely interested in. I know some girls who THINK that they're giving the said male a go-ahead, but really they are waiting for him to read their mind. I cannot iterate enough how ineffective this is.

My point is this: girls have to make an effort too when it comes to dating. Especially when you bump into someone interesting. Sometimes you may get yourself way out there, take a risk, get out of your comfort zone, or you just might indulge in some internet stalking or a Facebook poke.

I met a guy that I was interested in getting to know better. So I picked up the phone and asked him out. Turns out he was even more interesting than I originally thought and now we see each other at least 3 times a week. True story.

Now what if I hadn't considered that I had absolutely nothing to lose by just calling the guy and seeing what happened. I could still be waiting around for his sporadic Facebook messages right now!!!

Things I Can Count On

2009-06-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

I enjoy the delicate details of life. The little things that make a person unique and their interactions familiar. It occurred to me recently that there are some things that are pretty consistent in my life. So consistent I'd consider them things I can pretty much count on.

Meg’s List of Things I Can Count On:

1. Waking up in the morning wearing one sock. If I go to bed with two socks on, I will only be wearing one of those socks when I wake up. This is without fail.

2. If a guy is wearing his pants well, has good looking pants or looks good in his pants, Diane will notice. This is what she first told me about Jay Boman:
Diane “I met this really cute guy in the ward.”
Me “Oh really. What’s so great about him?”
Diane “He wears Aqua di Gio and has great pants! What else is there?”

3. If my mother needs my assistance on a big project she's doing she will say these exact words, "Honey, I'm really going to need your help with this. " Every time. Like the time she decided to repaint the guest bedroom and bathroom a week before Karen's wedding.

4. Closet-itis. Every. single. day. I stand in front of my closet and can't decide what to wear. My thoughts usually range between 'What am I going to wear today?'to 'There's nothing to wear in here.' This is a daily consistency and it takes a while to actually get the clothes on my body. On really bad days I can't decide what to wear to bed.

5. Lack of appetite. I don't know what kind of disability this is, but I was born without an appetite. I don't really like eating food. I don't like the taste of food after like 3 or 4 bites. I don't enjoy eating. Eating meals for me equals the same amount of enjoyment I feel when I have to stop at the gas station and put gas in my car. I know it's weird, but this is no joke. But it's something I can count on.

You may want to now re-evaluate the delicate, almost invisible details of your daily life. You may find some frequent consistencies, those little things you can count on experiencing throughout your days, totally unique to you.

Concerts

2009-06-12T17:50:00.001-07:00

So I went to the Kelly Clarkson concert last night. She's pretty much amazing live. Seriously a talented singer. Like wow. The hard part about concerts is that you have to wait in lines all over the place! Waiting for the concert to start took like 2 hours! A lot of it was this stuff:

Waiting in line to get into the ballpark 45 min
Trying to find people 15 min
Finding a place to set up camp 15 min
Waiting in line for food 15 min
Waiting waiting waiting...
Concert 50 min
Walking back to the car and losing the car 30 min
Waiting in the parking lot traffic jam to get out 30 min

Concerts are like a serious time commitment! Linda and I found a pretty good spot off to the side, kinda close to the stage, I could actually see the performers. I'm not into being a hysterical fan. I'm not going to add to the mania of celebrities lives. And I'm not going to be squished up against strange people I don't know, breathing their air, getting shoved all over the place and stepped on and having no room to move. That's not an ideal concert experience for me. So I was standing back from the screaming masses, although I was a little close to some spastic adolescents. Oh well. I'm starting to think those VIP passes are totally worth it. Here's me, Linda, and Paola at the concert.

Anyway, It was my first concert ever! I know, right? 26 years of being on the planet Earth and haven't been to any concerts. But all that's about to change. This is the summer of concerts (and festivals). After being in social hibernation for the past 7 months I'm ready to do stuff. Stuff that's fun.

Next concert on the list is the Shawn Colvin concert at Thanksgiving Point. I am so excited! I love Shawn Colvin and have listened to her music for years, thanks to Dad for introducing me her music. I would describe her style as folk rock. She's one of those song writers that has a special gift with the lyrics. Can't wait for this!

My favorite album is 'Fat City' but I'm excited to hear her new stuff too.

Writing

2009-05-30T16:54:00.001-07:00

"Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead." Gene Fowler

For my internship I'm doing a lot of writing, mainly web content, but I also contributed to the June newsletter. I have 2 challenges in the writing projects that I'm involved in.

First, it can be difficult to write a short, clear, but informative sentence about a topic. Being that I've been in college for like...ever, I've acquired considerable experience in writing for papers, projects, essay questions, etc. I'm used to writing something that needs to be pages long, as opposed to what I'm doing now requires a few short paragraphs. And within this limited space I must portray the venue or event in a way that is interesting and informative, without sounding like bull-honky. This is taking some serious brain power on my part. Writing something shorter rather than longer isn't easier, it's just as much of a challenge. I think to myself that I already know all the words, I just need to find the best ones to use.

My second challenge is the fact that my college vocabulary is not always appropriate for a website and newsletter meant for the general public. This means not using words like 'meticulously' or 'picturesque' or 'substantial.' So while I might be proud of myself for creating very intelligent sounding word combinations and sentences, they will get edited into something a bit more basic. So I'm trying to keep this in the forefront of my mind while I'm reworking and writing web pages. Forget the $10 words.

Wednesday

2009-05-27T20:55:00.001-07:00

Whenever there's a Monday holiday, I feel a bit disoriented the rest of the week, like I can't tell what day it is. Seems like it's Tuesday when it's really Wednesday. I'm so tired lately. Once again I'm in a new transitional phase, getting used to waking up at 6:30 in the morning 5 days a week (which I probably won't get used to). There goes my workout regiment. The only thing I'm doing on a really regular basis is napping. The only thing on my mind in the early afternoon is sleep. Today I conked out at 3pm on top of my textbooks (which I was planning on reading). I had one of those deep naps, the kind where you go to the bottom of the ocean of the sleep spectrum. Where you have bizarre dreams and you feel like atmospheric pressure intensifies like a million and you can't even move. So then I wake up four hours later totally groggy. It took me an hour to come back to life.

Meg's list of things that are awesome this week:
1. The new Express shopper bags. So hot. They are in black & white.(That explains it).
2. Mika and his Life in Cartoon Motion album. I want this.
3. I talked to Diane twice this week. Miss her.
4. New nail polish: Pat on the Black. A purple so dark it looks black. I've been looking for this color for months.
5. I got a 90% on my biology test of doom with minimal studying. This means I know I can do better next time.

I'm also starting to realize that I may be the most overdressed person at my internship. I don't really have a substantial business casual wardrobe. Thanks to Express, most of my office wear is tailored business attire. So profesh. But I sit in a cubicle all the time so it kind of seems pointless to look so hot. But it's part of the office protocol and you know how I'm such an overachiever.

I interviewed at a small destination shopping district in West Jordan on Tuesday for a Fall internship. I think the interview went well, but I won't find out until the first week in July. Hopefully I looked stellar- this is what I was wearing (with black pants and black heels):

Biology Book

2009-05-19T19:24:00.000-07:00

The past 3 semesters I've been trying to beat the blood-sucking college bookstore system. So what I do is I buy my textbooks from the bookstore for totally outrageous prices so at least I have them and can start doing the readings and homework for classes, and then I go online and find them for super cheap, order them and then return the textbooks to the bookstore when I get the cheap ones in the mail. There are some great websites out there that can get you good prices (this is my fav www.bigwords.com). This process is nothing new, but something different happened this time: I got a message from the book I bought! Read below the e-mail I got (along with the shipping confirmation). How creative is this?

Holy canasta! It's me... it's me! I can't believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I've got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can't believe I'm leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don't have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it's time to see the world!
I can't wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen)and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol' brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I've had, I'm ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn't take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I've found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

Eagerly awaiting our meeting,
Essentials of Biology

Mom

2009-05-16T15:30:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure my mom is the only person reading my blog right now, at least she's the only one commenting. Which is great, because I talk to her every other day anyway so she already knows about whatever I put on here. Talk about 100% support. I love my mom. She's like the person holding the string of a balloon and I'm the balloon. So even when I'm blowing all over the place in the windy days of life, having some kind of freak-out because I think I might blow away or pop or something, I'm reassured because I know my mom is there holding onto my string, and I know she's not going to let it go. I hope I can hold her string someday too.
And she always validates me, what more could you ask for? Anytime I lament because I'm feeling unproductive or tired, she reminds me that I'm too hard on myself and that I totally deserve that extra sleeping-in-time or doing-nothing-time and I should be completely guilt-free when I do it. It's a good thing to have best friends who help you get out of your head sometimes when your perception about yourself is obviously unrealistic. Thanks mom. I'll do whatever I can to give you as many grandkids as you want.

Internship

2009-05-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Newsflash: I have secured an internship at a convention and visitors bureau. I was worrying about not finding anything, prepared to spend weeks searching and applying, but I heard right back from this place and got in for an interview that day. It seemed too easy. It was like the marketing director had already decided to extend the position to me before I got there. He didn't really ask me any questions about myself, he didn't want my references, and he barely looked at my portfolio! Maybe he was totally impressed by my Express-ified outfit. I'm excited to start working on the 150 hours of my requirement. I'm determined to wrap it up before the end of summer, just so I can take a little break before my last semester. It's a small office and I'm working directly under the marketing manager. I think it will be a good experience to be working on a lot of different projects and getting good work for my portfolio. I'm confident that I can contribute to and accomplish whatever project I work on. Starts Monday! My only lament is that I won't be sleeping in on a weekday for the next 2 months! But I'm shifting gears to get back in the fast lane. The only thing in my mind is 'go, go, go!'

Summer School

2009-05-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

I am going where no Bowns has gone before: a 7:45am class. What was I thinking? I am taking summer courses at UVU, just 2 of them. General Biology and Organizational Behavior. The pros and cons:

Pros
There are always close parking spots at 7:40 am
When I get out of class at 10:15, the cafeteria serves breakfast for 15 more minutes. And they have french toast! (my fav) I eat french toast every tues and thurs mornings!

Cons
Waking up at 6:30 is a total bummer. It hurts.
I have to come back home and take a 2 hour nap to compensate.
My biology teacher is zany and makes jokes about how he can't say words like 'naked' and 'sex' out loud at UVU. Sigh. I would give anything to be treated like an adult.
My Org. Behavior class is a bunch of whiners and wastes my time during class by complaining about how there's too much work in the class. It's so weird how people could come to class with the expectation that there wouldn't be any work. How do these people have jobs?

So, obviously the cons outweigh the pros. Which is unfortunate, but it must be endured. The end is in sight. 5 classes and 1 internship to go. I'm counting down every day.

Work-out Action

2009-05-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,
I'm in what I like to call 'a transitional phase' where my schedule and activities are changing and I'm refocusing in on what to do next. Usually it's a small internal freak out, because when things slow down for me I start thinking, "I'm stagnating! I'm stagnating! There's nothing going on! I'm being totally unproductive!!!" And as you all know I just can't have that.

Anyway, with all this free time, I've been working out again (for the first time in probably 8 months). I do my stair master and some weights, just taking it easy. Usually it's pretty uneventful, except for yesterday:
I was going strong on the stairs and was doing some arm circles with the weights, but my arm circles must have been pretty big because I bumped the lamp shade in the ceiling. It wasn't really screwed on very tight because the lamp shade fell off, hit me on the head, hit the stair-master and shattered into a million pieces.

Sigh. So I was stunned for a second and then just kept on stepping, wondering if Grandma would ever notice if I didn't tell her about it.

In transition...

2009-04-27T21:21:00.000-07:00

I'm changing this blog from a school assignment to a personal blog...so I changed my privacy settings, not like there's anything up here yet, but will be working on it during my short break next week.

#14 The Technology Lifestyle

2009-04-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

The class material of late has been pretty interesting. And I can't help but continue to draw similarities to McLuhan's theories. We've been talking about our lives becoming so integrated with technology that we use for tools, entertainment, and communication that it is nearly impossible to go without it. McLuhan warned of this: When we partake of a technology day after day, it becomes part of us, and their affect on our lives are harder to discern. It's only now that we've been talking about it in class, people admit that they would respond to a text, but not a phone call, or rather Facebook a comment, instead of writing an e-mail. We've become so used to being connected all the time to technology that we need and information that we want, that it seems archaic to go without. Simultaneously changing the mental/emotional/expressive contexts of our communication abilities. There's awesome things about this as well as detriments. People can communicate more instantly, but less intimately. We don't exchange dialogue, we post factoids.

#13 The Discarded Factory

2009-04-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Innocence is bliss. I am getting really depressed reading this book, and I'm feeling more and more guilty for ever buying anything ever as I have been made aware that in an anonymous and removed way, I am taking part in this perverted system of corporations, consumers, branding, subcontractors, outsourcing, and factories in obscure parts of the world making products for Americans, while their business practices aren't even legal in America. I am now aware of the most malicious, ruthless, consequence-ignoring, penny-pinching, impersonal, greedy food chain that ever existed on the planet earth. And at the bottom of it are young women, practically girls, getting worked to death for pennies on the dollar of what the fruits of their labor will be sold for. How does anyone sleep at night?!? What troubles me even more is that the employees of these militant death camps of work, would do anything NOT to get fired. I don't feel like I can complain about anything ever again. I know that I'm pretty darn lucky to have the opportunities I have for school and education. Those girls don't have anything to look forward to. This system is inhumane. And how are these companies turning a blind eye? I used to work for Express in the mall and while our clothes are geared toward "young, professional, fashion forward people" they are incredibly overpriced. I remember the tags: Made in: Laos, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Peru. I used to really love to shop. Now every time I pick up a $50 piece of clothing and see where it was made, I think about the little girl who made it, making .87 a day.

#12 Corporate Censorship/ Community Standards

2009-03-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

In 1939, Gone With The Wind was released. According to legend, the Hays Office (the industry censorship guidelines enforcer) was going to fine the producers $5,000 for the one swear word in the movie, which was Rhett Butler's line "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." and the closing line of the movie. Fortunately the Motion Picture Association Board passed an amendment earlier in the year and Gone With The Wind was not fined. Well we've come a long way haven't we.

After mulling over the readings and tedious class discussions I feel that corporations have to be sensitive to community standards or else they will lose that market and not make any money. Some people could argue against censorship and argue the first amendment and do whatever they want and not care who they offend, BUT that business isn't going to gain much popularity or demand. These are the rules of the game. There are still some things that aren't widely acceptable- only a FEW things left probably.

On the other hand, focusing on a certain community and tailoring a product for them is a good idea for businesses. I personally don't like it when my religion is marketing back to me. Growing up in California, i would never see LDS bookstores, LDS movies or missionary stores, let alone their advertisement on billboards. Food storage is also a big one, people are selling food storage organizing shelving systems and books. It's very different for me. I generally don't like it. But I think it's the nature of capitalism for businesses to find a niche they can exploit.

#11 Wet Seal/ Playboy Freedom Collection

2009-03-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I just got this e-mail notification from Wet Seal about their new 'Playboy Freedom' collection. You can see it at www.wetseal.com. Which is basically the playboy bunny symbol on bags and clothes. Wet Seal is a clothing company whose clientele consists mainly of girls and women ages 13-23. They are marketing the symbol of PORNOGRAPHY on clothing for young women. I immediately made the connection to the content we've recently discussed in class about the objectification of women and how dominant and pervasive it is in society. I kind of felt empowered after all those readings and discussions and I looked at that Wet Seal's 'Playboy Freedom' collection and I said to myself "No. I am not going to say that this is okay and acceptable. And I'm not going to stand by and act like I'm powerless to do anything about it." So I wrote them an e-mail. Below I posted the address to Wet Seal's on-line comment page. It's up to you to decide if this kind of thing offends you or not, but hopefully through this class you've been made a little more aware of how this kind of thing affect society. Take a stand.

www.wetseal.com/custserv/contactus.jsp

Here's a copy of what I wrote. Please do not copy mine, but write your own feelings about this company and their product. You only have 350 characters so make it good.

"I'm writing in response to an e-mail update I received about the 'Playboy Freedom' Collection. I cannot believe that Wet Seal would market the symbol of pornography to a clientele that is predominately girls/women ages 13-23. Why don't you just make shirts that read 'I want to be a sex object' or 'Sexually Objectify Me.' You are selling them clothing and accessories that advertise pornography. I can't believe Wet Seal would try to make something so trashy into something trendy. Shame on you."

I would love it if you would post your comment to Wet Seal as a comment to this post as well. Along with your thoughts.

#10 Product Placement/Brand Recognition

2009-03-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

I feel like our class discussions are some kind of communication/consumer confession and I wish we discussed broader issues more than personal perspectives.

Anyway, I was thinking about product placement in tv and media and two movies came to my mind immediately.

1. The Island- This movie is probably the winner of most product placement in a movie ever!!
2. The Truman Show- the example is actually in the movie. Because the channel just records this guy's life and there are no commercials, people in Truman's world have to do product placement. His wife is always doing it.

Brand Recognition: I thought of this when Bailey brought up the fast food documentary 'Super Size' me. In that movie, the film maker interviews kids at an elementary school. He shows them pictures of characters involved in brands to see if they will recognize them. All the kids knew Ronald McDonald and Wendy, but when he showed them a picture of Jesus Christ, the kids didn't know who it was. It just goes to show how pervasive advertising media is, even on these little kids.

#9 No Logo

2009-03-10T22:24:00.000-07:00

I'm really liking this book so far, I think it's going to be really revealing. I think it was part of Marshall McLuhan's theory, but he believed that our environment is invisible to us. "We have trouble recognizing 'the way media work as environments' because we are so immersed in them." So far Klein has raised a lot of interesting questions about corporate rule and it's effect on the world. And even more questions were raised in our class discussion about individuals and brands, why there is such a strong brand loyalty. I agree with Klein that our culture of brands and advertising affect every level of life, it is a sticky web that stretches across the globe. But just like the journalism issue in my last post, there's the ideal and then there's the truth. Already because of what I've read, I'm becoming aware of things that are all around me all the time, that I hadn't really noticed. There's the invisibility of environments. I wonder what else I'm not seeing...

#8 Media Ownership/ The Corporation

2009-03-10T20:32:00.000-07:00

Innocence is bliss. The truth is frightening.

That clip we watched in class from The Corporation was freaky. It's definitely a reality check. There is an idealistic way of things, how they should happen, what would be the right way, but that's rarely the real life case. You'd like to think that there's such thing as journalistic integrity. Especially in regards to the biggest and most prominent news stations. But that clip showed the truth of the world: If you are a big enough corporation and you have enough money, you can crush anyone, silence anyone, buy anyone, to get your way. And that's the way the world works. And people in power don't really care about the 'truth' or 'journalistic integrity' if they are threatened. Wow. This is what really matters: Money. I think I might watch that video anyway, to get more freaked out and disillusioned about the priorities of the world.

The other clip we watched was also enlightening which was about how media moguls are continually trying to make media monopolies legal. Which of course is absurd and dangerous, how could we ever get the truth then. Is somebody watching these people? I guess the courts were the only ones able to reign them in. I hope our system of checks and balances can continue to hold up against these guys. Does their greed know no bounds?

#7 Elaboration Likelihood Theory

2009-03-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

I just love it when the content I'm learning in different classes correlates with each other! In my Communication Theories class I just learned about Elaboration Likelihood Theory which basically explains how people make decisions. There are two routes to making decisions: the central route and the peripheral route. The central route requires mental elaboration which means that the message received is analyzed and scrutinized to determine its validity. This requires active thinking. A decision is made after the person is thoroughly informed. The peripheral route is a mental shortcut which accepts or rejects a message based on irrelevant cues which are unrelated to the content of the message. The six main cues are:
1. reciprocation "you owe me"
2. consistency "we've always done it this way"
3. social proof "everybody's doing it"
4. liking "love me, love my ideas" (celebrity endorsement)
5. authority "just because I say so"
6. scarcity "quick, before they're all gone"
Unfortunately, this is the most common way that humans make decisions, based on the incredible amount of messages that we are bombarded with each day, we can't possibly take the time to scrutinize each one in a completely unbiased way. This is a quick way to deal with incoming messages.
The reason I brought this up was because I believe that the messages we receive from the media are strategically engineered to trigger those cues in our minds. Some of the main convincing elements of the peripheral route are speaker credibility, external rewards, and the reaction of others. Scary, but true, this is how we make decisions about gender and race roles, this is how we make decisions about what we think our bodies and other peoples bodies should look like, this is how we make decisions about how women and men should act.
Celebrities in the media have to be accountable for the image that they are projecting, whether it is really who they are or what they believe in OR NOT. That's why those women at Spelman College wanted an answer from Nelly about his behavior towards women and portrayal of women in his music videos. People are watching that and making peripheral decisions on how THEY will treat women. If they think Nelly is cool, and they want to be like him, they see his behavior as acceptable, they want to emulate it. The whole situation reminds me of the smoking parent who simultaneously is telling their child not to smoke. You just cannot say, oh it's a music video or it's just a movie. That's not real or reality, that's not how Nelly really treats women or feels about women. Whether or not that's what his prerogative is, he is propagating the ATTITUDE and ACCEPTANCE of that behavior. I truly believe these things cannot be separated, and I don't understand how people can deny the impact of those images and situations. Even if they are fabricated for TV, they will translate to real life and real people. Based on the predominance of the peripheral route in human decision making, advertisers and celebrities should have to be careful and accountable, but I know instead they are using that against us.

Elaboration Likelihood info comes from 'A First Look at Communication Theory' by Em Griffin