Recent Discoveries

Here are a few things I've learned recently:

Sometimes being too lazy to get up and change the television channel at 4 in the morning, and therefor being stuck half-listening to an infomercial, can be a good thing. I recently found out that I have $50 floating around out there in unclaimed money from two companies that I have never heard of. Who knew? I had no idea! Thank you Mr. 500 ways to find government money online. Had I been more awake or less lazy, I'd have never bothered checking.

Also? Raw sugar does not equal brown sugar. I know that is obvious to most everyone, myself included. Trader Joe's was out of brown sugar and I grabbed raw sugar on accident. I poured it into my sugar cannister, suprised at how dry it seemed to be. I wondered why it didn't pack into the measuring cups like it usually did. I wondered why my cookies were coming out with such a grainy texture. Duuuuuh.

If you are a movie collector, like I am, it is also a good idea to check the movies that you own before you go and rent them. Just sayin'. After seeing the most recent Terminator movie, I realized that I didn't remember the 3rd movie very well. I added it to my Netflix, waited patiently for it to arrive, watched it and returned it, only to realize the following day that it has been sitting in my collection for god-only-knows how long.

Finally, ranch pizza is the best thing ever invented. No story necessary, I just discovered this recently. It is so delicious I never want to have regular pizza again, which obviously means it must be 10x worse for you. 'Nuff said.

Oh The Shame...

So, I have a confession that I find incredibly embarrassing, and I just realized it the other day in the car. Ready for it? Here it goes:

I like Britney Spears.

EWWW, I know right? It kind of grosses me out, too. And I can't really explain it.

I think she sucks. I don't like a single thing about the woman. I think she sounds like shit, too.

It never fails, though, that when her songs come on, I invariably turn it up and start car dancing. It mortifies me, but I just can't help it. There is something so damn catchy about those songs. So I guess maybe I just like her producers?? I don't know

Has this happened to anyone else? Any other embarrassing closet likes out there?

Senior Homecoming!

On Saturday, my nearly 18-year-old sister went to her senior homecoming dance. She is nearly 6'3" now, so while she is quite gorgeous, there are obviously a shortage of 17 year-old boys up to the task (literally). (And it's all in the legs! Seriously, girl has a 37" inseam! Her legs are longer than my 6'6" father's legs! Hate! Her! But not really.) This is her first dance she has gone too in high school, and she went solo with a group of girls.

I managed to dash over there on Saturday to snap a couple of pictures of her. Of course, my mother says, "Eh, they're okay, I guess." But.. that is basically what I expected. Let's not ignore the fact that I didn't realize that I didnt have the lens I needed, that she was weiring 3" heels and kept swaying back and forth so half of them came out blurry so I only had a handful to offer in the first place (a few of which are below). But oh well.

I think she looks beautiful. :) And I'm SO happy that she decided to go, and I'm SO happy that she had the courage to rock the heels. :) And my dad bought her a corsage! Isn't that adorable?

Oh? And by the way? WHEN DID I GET SO DAMN OLD? SHE IS 11 YEARS YOUNGER THAN I AM!

Guess who’s back… Back again

So, considering that I haven't posted in about two months, I'm guessing I've lost those readers that were nice enough to humor me in the first place. But alas, now that the tidal wave has subsided there is nothing to do but begin again.

So, here is where I've been and what I've been up to:

I've been working. That is about it. My business went BOOM and we were super busy, and since I am basically the glue that holds this silly shit together, I've been incredibly busy.

Most days near the beginning of this madness, I found myself having to work out "in the field" a lot. This means I spent a great deal of time on construction sites, even though that is supposedly the one job in this place that I'm not doing, and even though I hired two people to take care of that part for me, it seems that things don't go smoothly unless I'm out there directly traffic and handling things myself. (Fortunately, we've managed to smooth things out by now.)

All of this basically meant I'd be hot and sweaty and tired and covered in a fine layer of dirt the consistency of talcum powder. And me? Not a fan of being dirty! Or sweaty! By the time I arrived back home I looked like I had been pounded flat, dredged in flour, and was read to be dropped into some bubbling oil to be pan fried up for dinner. I'm VERY glad that phase of this mess is mostly over.

These endless days of working have only been punctuated by a few strange things happening here and there. One day my metal punch had broken, and I was out in my supply yard on a Sunday afternoon disassembling it without a single tool that I actually needed. Let's just say that this was a struggle. About an hour into this mess, I hear a rustling behind me. I'm jumpy when I'm out there alone, and I spin around to see what is going. Guess what I see?

A ROOSTER!

No joke. I turn around to find a rooster hauling ass past me, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the desert. I looked at the rooster, who I was somewhat certain might have been a hallucination, looked back at my punch and decided.. "You know… I think that is my cue to leave." (I have since seen him several more times, so he is, in fact, real. Which is both a relief that I am not nuts, and disconcerting because… where the fuck did it come from?!?)

In addition to Foghorn Leghorn making an appearance, I also opened my front door one day to find a desert tarantula scurry in through the crack. NOT. HAPPY. We covered dirt and sweat. Know what else I'm not a fan of? Bugs. Spiders. Anything icky like that. I was of course on the phone with my father at the time, who had to ridicule me for screeching. Personally, I find it perfectly normal to scream when a big fuzzy spider three inches wide decides to saunter its happy ass into your home. Needless to say, may the spider RIP.

Another day, in a tremendous act of stupidity, I managed to blow up a pyrex bowl. In my face. While quickly making myself something for dinner while half asleep. It was stupid, it was my fault, but man.. how do you destroy pyrex? And when I say blow up, it literally exploded. There was glass and food stuffs for about five feet in every direction, including all over me. There's nothing like picking goopy glass shards out of your hair.

One weekend my upstairs neighbor came home to find the metal hose that connects the toilet to the water supply had flown off and had been filling her apartment with water while she was gone. This, of course, happened right above my office. Luckily, nothing has been destroyed that I have been able to determine so far, but I spent hours that evening moving stuff out of that room, rather than working, so I had to miss my Miles's birthday lunch (on his actual birthday). I'm glad I was able to make it to the party the weekend before, though.

Another day I grabbed a peach for breakfast and somehow managed to get the "peach" label stuck to my boob, and managed to walk around like that for HOURS without anyone telling me. My laughter upon finding the sticker was quickly replaced by the mortifying realization of just how long it had been there.

Even after all the work, it feels like the only thing I've actually managed to accomplish is that my dog no longer seems to pee everywhere. This means she has either found a really good hiding spot (and since I can't smell I'll never find it unless I can see it), or we've finally broken that barrier. If that's all I have to show for all of this, I'll take it!

So, things are still pretty busy over here, but I'm passed the "Can't sleep, clowns (read: work) will eat me" phase. I've been able to make my sister's volleyball games this past week, I was able to have lunch with friends over the weekend, I was able to see my sister off for her Senior Homecoming (her first dance) on Saturday. I took some pictures of her as well, which I'm guessing will be my Wordless Wednesday post!

This has been important. I would never have shut down my life for just a job. This is a family business upon which my entire family is dependent, so it was important that I kept it together this time. It sucked, but I knew it was temporary, and it was what my family needed. But don't think that I'm not bitter about missing important stuff to take care of some asshats! But it seems to have finally cooled off now, so I'm back to posting and back to enjoying some of the things that actually matter at the end of the day. See you back here soon!

Love Thursday: Jason

Once upon a time, in my brief stint in Reno, Kristen and I had a silly conversation. What's new, right? This one was arguing back and forth about who was better, or how the other person was great. Just for the record, we were each arguing for the other person, and not for ourselves.

The next day, I went to the dorm showers, and when I came back to my room, stuck to my door, was a list of all the ways in which I was wonderful. At the top was written, "You're wonderful because...". It was great. Over the years she ended up making several of those for me, and I still have them all, and I made a couple for her as well.

In this awesome tradition, I am going to apply this practice to someone else very important to me. Sometimes I feel like all I do is criticize him, but the truth is that my boyfriend is pretty awesome. And I tell him this too, but just in case there is any doubt:

He is wonderful because...

he always tells me I'm beautiful, even though I tend to argue with him about it.

he wakes me up most mornings, which is my very favorite thing.

he understands and accepts the things that are hard for me, and is helpful and patient with me while I struggle with them.

he plays Scrabble with me, even though he hates it.

he loves my crazy knee socks.

he forgives me for my playful teasing, even though I know it's over the top sometimes. (And I'm not anywhere near a good sport when the tables are turned.)

he stays up MUCH later than he should to be with me.

he is one of the very smartest people I know, and for some reason thinks the same thing about me.

he has these eyebrows that he absolutely can't control, and they make the most awesome facial expressions ever.

he tries, every day, to make me happy. And my happiness is important to him.

when I told him that my friend's daughter had passed away (he was at work, I texted him), he got right up and walked out of a meeting - missing the rest of it - and called me to be with me and talk about it.

(and he will probably hate me mentioning this) but he totally kisses his phone (me) and I think it's adorable.

he changes. He is wonderful the way he is, yet he betters himself. And I mean the deep, personal things that never change about a person... he strives to be the person he wants to be. How many people can you say that about?

when I tell him something is bothering me, he actually does something about it. "I wish you wouldn't do _____," or "I really dislike ______," and he'll actually listen to me and take steps to make things better. That sounds so simple, but that is such a rare thing, that kind of effort.

I'm a lucky lady. It is not always easy and it is not always perfect, but he continues to impress me everyday. Happy Love Thursday, everyone. I hope you all have someone just as special in your life.

Just a Little Everyday Magic

It occurred to me earlier today that I have completely abandoned my blog. Not intentionally, of course, but I've been obscenely busy. I've barely taken any pictures, I've note written here in several weeks, and it seems like it has all passed in the blink of an eye.

July found me buried in a class. I do not hide the fact that I'm not a fan of the English classes, and I've saved them all of this end. I believe this is my final class, since I took them all out of order. It was a standard 16 week class crammed into four weeks, so no wonder I was busy. I walked away with a 99.5% though, so I'm happy with that. I'd like to take a moment to blow raspberries at the English department... :P PTHPRPRPRPRP Okay, moving on...

The class left me seriously behind on my work, so much of August thusfar has been swimming in trying to catch up with that. I spent all day locked in my office, doing work from JULY (oh the shame), but I made HUGE progress and tomorrow will feel so much better because of it.

Oh how I have missed this, though. I hope I haven't lost all of you in my down time. I need to get my ass exercising again, on top of everything else I've been seriously neglecting my own google reader and that seems to be the only time I can make my way to all of my favorite spots on the interweb.

A couple of days ago I took the dog out for a tiny stroll. Of course, by tiny stroll I mean I walked her the fifteen feet to the grass and back inside. I daresay with our weather I was probably sweating by the time we got back inside.

Those few moments were all that I needed to find something beautiful, though. The sprinkler had just been on, and the tree outside my apartment had tiny rain droplets clinging to all the leaves. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots.

It really is amazing how something so normal can create a little momentary magic. I love the moments of those little discoveries. That is my favorite part of photography, I really need to make sure and keep my eyes open and my camera ready. It is important to me, and I need to make the time.

Plus, it gives me a reminder to come back here!

Itsy Bitsy Spider: Part 2

Except... not. More like... Holy-shit-this-is-an-enormous-fucking-spider: Part 1. But since this is the second post on spiders, I figured I would go with the theme. Besides, I like to save the flagrant swearing for the body of the post. ;)

The other day I wandered out of my front door to let the dog out. We had just woken up and she was so desperate to be let out she was practically dancing. I stumbled outside, yawning and wiping sleep from my eyes, and I glance to the wall on my left. About six inches from my elbow is the largest spider I have ever seen. Seriously, the pictures don't do it justic. I should have stuck my finger in the shot for scale or something. It's little bulbous body was about the size of a quarter. It was disgusting.

When I saw it, I screamed bloody murder and practically jumped two the second story. I took the dog back in, grabbed my camera, and snapped a few shots. None of them turned out particularly well (I shoot on manual and I was a bit too tired for that, I suppose).

I dropped the camera off inside, headed back out to grab something from my truck, and smashed the hell out of it on my way past. As I turned the corner on my way back inside, I had another near death (or heart-attack) experience when a bird scared the shit out of me as it was perched on the wall eating the spider. I could practically feel the feathers on my face as it scrambled and flew past.

All that's left of the spider are the few pictures I snapped, a smudge on the wall, and a few legs on the sidewalk outside that the bird must have picked out of it's beak. That, and whatever heart damage I sustained from the expereince.