The Honeymoon

The honeymoon was amazing as well. John and I had a delicious brunch the morning after the wedding. The whole wedding party came over and enjoyed delcious food and great company. John and I socialized, ate, and opened our presents from the wedding. That was also when we signed our marriage license. And then high-fived.




We then had to rush home because our flight left in a few hours and we still hadn't packed anything. So we hurried home and got our things together. Luckily, we didn't really plan on needing much more than a swimsuit and maybe one or two nice outfits for going out. I had promised both my father and father-in-law that I was going to make sure to stay in the resort and not venure outside. But hey, I was in Cabo.

This was my first time out of the country so I was pretty excited. But also pretty nervous about traveling there. Our flight left on Sunday night and we had a layover in Denver. Our flight out of Denver left at 6am on Monday morning so my mother-in-law was nice enough to hook us up with a hotel near the airport in Denver. We got to our room around midnight, ate the picnic we had packed in the Eddie Bauer bag that Erin's parents had gotten us and got a few hours of rest. We had to get up at 4:30 to catch the shuttle back to the airport.



We got on our flight and headed to Pheonix for another layover, then finally landed in Cabo. John booked our trip through a travel agency and they had warned us that, when we get off the plane, go STRAIGHT outside, don't stop and talk to anybody because there would be people that would say they were with the company we booked with but were actually travel agencies. They weren't kidding. There were TONS of people. They were saying anything they could to try and get us to stop, even claiming that they needed to see our passports. We made it outside and borded our shuttle. Our driver didn't speak much english but one of the passengers asked him if he liked 'cervesa' (beer). I guess the driver was confused because he stopped at a convenience store and picked up beer for everyone to sip on while we drove to the hotel. Thankfully, he didn't have one.

We got to the resort and it was GORGEOUS. It was a palace. We walked in and they automatically hand you a marghareta. Our room wasn't quite ready so John and I walked around a bit, and hung out the on the balcony, and took the first tequilla shot of the trip.

When our room was ready, John immediately walked over to the thermostat and turned it down to 60. We were very thankful for this later in the week when the temperature was over 100 for most of the day. We suited up and headed to the pool. That ended up being where we spent a great deal of our time during the trip. It was also the place that I got a wicked sunburn on the second day. It was just so gorgeous, the water was heated just enough from the sun and there was a swim-up bar and awesome people.

I think that was one of my favorite parts of the trip was how many people we met. We met couples from all over the united States, all there on their honeymoons.

The resort had a few theme restaurants that we went to the first few nights, but decided to go into Cabo for some food toward the end of the week. The food we had was amazing in the city. We went to Mi Casa and to El Squid Roe. Squid Roe was kind of a tacky theme restaurant that I would compare to TGI Fridays only with MUCH better food.




One of the last nights we were there, we watched some performances at the resort with one of the couples that we had met and then hit up the 'bibliotecha' (dance club). It was actually really neat.

While we were there, we decided to go adventuring a little bit so we signed up for an excursion called 'beach hoppers'. We met at a marina and boarded these crazy little speed boats with seats that you actually had to mount. They took us on a tour around the bay and showed us some of the tourist attractions. We went scuba diving in two different spots and it was amazing. It was weird though, I really didn't think I would be scared of scuba diving. But when I put my face into that water and saw how many fish there were, I panicked a little and startled flayling around widly for a few minutes. I think I was a site. We had some lunch at a local bar and headed back.

The whole trip was amazing. It was great to wake up when I wanted, stay in the pool as long as I wanted, eat whatever and whenever I wanted...it was so relaxing. The last day we were there, we went into the city again so I could buy some gifts and so we could get some lunch.

We headed home on Saturday night so that we could have Sunday to rest. Amazingly we actually went out that night, only so we could give Jim the Bears Poncho that we bought from a street vendor in the city.

The Reception

At the last minute, I had to pick entrance music for the wedding party. Immediately I knew which one I wanted. So the wedding party entered the reception to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now". Each of the bridesmaids and groomsman walked down the stairs, along with the ushers. Our flower girl, Chaselynn and ring Bearer, Cameron walked down hand in hand. Chaselynn's cousin, Gage was up on the balcony at the time and how are you going to tell a 3-year-old that he can't walk down the stairs and be the center of attention? So Chaselynn and Cameron were announced by the DJ and then a proud grandma yelled "and Gage!" It was adorable. I managed not to fall down the stairs again so I was pretty proud at this point.

It was time for the first dance. John and I had our first dance to a song that we picked months ago. It was "I Can't Help (Falling In Love with You)", the Ingrid Michaelson version. I loved it because the lyrics were so perfect for our relationship and it was a song I heard growing up being sung by UB40. It couldn't have been more perfect. Well, let me clarify: the song could not have been more perfect. The dance could have gone a little better. I was having major dress issues. You see, I absolutely LOVED my dress. But I made a little error when I took it in to get it hemmed. I failed to mention to the seamstress that I would be wearing sneakers during my reception. So she hemmed the dress to my 3 inch heels, not my sneakers. So when I danced with my husband and my dad, my dress was everywhere. I got stepped on a number of times. But that's ok, I don't see myself wearing it anytime in the near future.

My dad picked the daddy-daughter dance song, we danced to Kenny Chesney's "There Goes My Life". I never hear my dad sing, except occasionally I would catch him singing the Lime in the Coconut in the car years ago. But when I was dancing with him, he was singing the song and it made me cry. Again. Like I said, there was a LOT of crying to be had at this wedding.

John and I had designed our own cake and I think it came out adorable. Originally our wedding colors were just blue and lighter blue but when we realized how cute our cake would be with some brown accents. So a few brown table linens and we had ourselves a new color to add to our wedding palette. Unfortunately, the only bit of cake I ended up having was the small bite that John fed to me at the cake cutting. Though, I think John got less than that because I smashed his in his face. But don't worry, that was prearranged. I'm not a complete jerk.

After that, we did the garter toss and the bouquet toss. We kept it PG when John got the garter and tossed it to the group of guys. I'm pretty sure it was Jim that caught it. But like I said, the night was a blur. So I'm just going to tell myself that he caught it. It makes me happy. I do remember my bouquet toss though. I remember counting it out from the middle of the stairs and tossing it over my head quite vividly. And I remember that Laurie caught it. I remember this because I know that Laurie has a strategy for catching bouquets. Throw elbows. Hard. So needless to say, the scrappy little brunet caught the bouquet (you know I love you, Laurie) but we didn't know what was more entertaining..the look of excitement on her face or the look on her boyfriend Mike's face. Guess you had to be there.

The rest of the night was amazing. I danced and drank and mingled. My flower girl was the cutest damn thing you've ever seen and by far my favorite dance partner. With the help of my brother as co-DJ and entertainer extraorinaire, we did all the cheesy wedding dance songs and it was the most fun I have ever had at a wedding. I loved how many people came out to dance! Of course I had my girls with me on the dance floor for the big songs. I think one of the biggest songs of the night was Journey's "Don't Stop Believing". That seems to have become my theme song this year. Though, I apparently missed the performance of the year when my brother danced to Michael Jackson. Moonwalking, stair dancing, pelvis thrusting at the grandparents and all. But that's ok, we got it on video. In Blueray. John and I didn't really get to dance to too many songs because he was busy going around thanking everyone on behalf of the both of us. I just wanted to dance. So I did. I did Crank Dat Soulja Boy with my brother (terribly, I might add). I danced to Abba with my mom. I started a conga line with my step-mom and skanked around like a mad woman with Erin and Anna.

skank (skāngk)
n.
A rhythmic dance performed to reggae or ska music, characterized by bending forward, raising the knees, and extending the hands.


The night went by so fast. Everyone that had given me wedding advice had all said the same thing: "Slow down. The night goes by faster than you think it will." They were right. In a blur of electric slide, the chicken dance and Soulja Boy, the night was over and it was time to go. I went upstairs and tried, unsuccessfully I might add, to get out of my wedding dress. Again, thank God for Traci, who helped me get out of my dress so I could get in my send off outfit and get ready to leave. John and I got one last dance together. We chose a song that meant a lot to us. One of the first movies we ever saw together was a Sundance Film called "Once." It's an amazing movie about two musicians. One of the main songs in the movie is performed by the two actors who actually have a band called The Swell Season. The song is called "Falling Slowly" and it is beautiful. We had originally planned on dancing to this song as our first dance but changed our mind at the last minute. But we were happy to have that moment at the end of an amazing night to share with each other and with all our friends that were familiar with the song.

Jeff was kind enough to decorate John's car before we left. Which, I have recently learned, was apparently payback for John 'decorating' Jeff's car at his wedding. John and I made our way through the bubbles, which, by the way, I am gonna have to agree with Kyle on this one that the bubbles are a little tough. At least they weren't scented. We crawled into the car and my brother hopped into the driver's seat. We had to stop at Dan's briefly because Cheri's car keys had somehow made their way into my brother's car, which was currently on it's way to the other side of the valley. After a brief meeting, we were on our way downtown. My brother dropped us off at The Inn on the Hill, which my sister and my mom had arranged for us. It was perfect. Candles everywhere, and the most BEAUTIFUL view of the city I have ever seen from the patio. And that is where I leave you.

Honeymoon post to come soon.

There goes the bride..

The wedding was beautiful. It could not have gone better. The morning was pretty hectic. I stopped counting about midway through the day and John and I had called each other 23 times at that point. Thank goodness for mobile-to-mobile minutes. But eventually we got everything put togther. We had briefly contemplated not seeing each other for the day of the wedding but quickly realized that that would be extremely difficult to accomplish since we both had a lot of things to set up.In the morning, Candice and I ran around trying to get some last minute things together. I still didn't have bridesmaids gifts, bubbles or a guest book. So we ran around trying to get all of those small things together. Finally, we ran home, showered and met my mom over at her house to pick up the decorations.

We made our way over to Heritage Gardens around three and I was really confused when I actually had nothing to do. Candice had pretty much everything under control. Jesse's girlfriend Brittany was doing Candice's hair and needed to start as soon as possible so she had to stop decorating. I was busy getting all done up by Alecia so I couldn't really help decorate either. Luckily, Jesse is awesome and went down to help the girls set everything up on the tables and did a great job. And to top that off, even went to the gas station to get my girls the Redbulls that we so desperately needed at this point. I spent the next two hours or so sitting in the Bride's room getting my hair and makeup done. I wasn't really allowed out of the room. Luckily, my girls were AMAZING about getting things done for me. Anytime I needed something, one of the bridesmaids was right there to take care of it. Along with that, one of the workers at the reception center, Jen, came in and handed me a magic walkie-talkie. She showed me a button that rings to her end and said she would come find me wherever I was and get me whatever I needed if I just pressed that button. I felt like the kid in The Santa Clause and his snowglobe. It was magical. When my hair and makeup were finished, my mom came in to help me get into my dress and get my veil on. Que crying. My sister was a mess. My mom was a mess. Erin was a mess. So obviously, I was a mess. The ceremony was finally starting and all the girls lined up in the bride's room, ready to start heading down the stairs while I'm trying my hardest not to look puffy and ridiculous. I'll admit, at this point, I peed a little. I was nervous. I stepped out onto the landing when it was my turn and looked at my Dad at the bottom of the stairs. I don't think I will ever forget that moment. I looked at him and he just hung his head and when he looked up, tears were filling his eyes. I completely lost it at this point. I made it down the stairs (without falling, I might add) and took my daddy's arm. I don't think I noticed a single person there while I was walking down the isle. All I was focused on was John. He was crying too. There was a lot of crying to be had at this wedding.

I finally made it to the alter and handed my sister the unusually heavy bouquet. Seriously, this thing weighed like five pounds. Luckily, Alecia had thought ahead and had equipped me with waterproof mascara because I could barely see at this point. Origninally, we were going to have Oz perform our ceremony. Unfortunately, his health got the best of him and he wasn't able to do. John's Grandpa, Charlie was happy to fill in and did amazing. Charlie went through the beginning of the ceremony, which I had read through a million times so there wasn't much to pay attention to except for John. Which I was appreciative of. John and I knew from the beginning stages of planning that we knew we wanted to write our own vows. So John started out with his and I cried. And he cried. We all cried. I started mine. And I cried. And he cried. We all cried. It was tough to do. Cameron was a great little ring bearer and stayed by Jim's side for the majority of the ceremony, only sat for a few minutes on Grandma's lap when he got tired. But got right up when it was time to give John the rings.
We lit the unity candle carefully, being sure not to knock it over and start anything on fire. We succeeded and finished off the ceremony with a kiss.
Walking back down the isle, I still didn't really see anybody, except my aunt. Most of you don't know the story on it, but it meant a lot to have my Aunt Gail at the wedding. So I continued crying when we got outside. Candice helped me fix my makeup and then I posed for over 200 pictures for my photographer. When the family was done with the pictures they needed to be in, they were excused to go eat. I was so jealous. The only thing I wanted in the world at that point was some food and a drink. We walked around, posing for pictures while everyone at the wedding watched us. And ate. At one point, TK's son, Joey asked John and I if we needed a beer, while we were in the middle of posing for a picture. Our response was "dear God yes". So we each chugged a beer, I belched in front of all of mine and John's family, and we were back to taking pictures. Luckily, the photographer was almost done. So we finished up and I went to eat. Finally.

     

I sat down and didn't even know where to start as far as getting food. Thank God for Jeff and Traci who are pretty much the most amazing people in the world. They were all over it. Before I knew it, I was sitting at the table with food in front of my and a beer in hand without having even gotten up. I managed to sneak a bite of food between greeting guests and eventually got two pieces of sushi and a veggie samosa down before I realized I wasn't going to be able to eat much, I had bridely obligations.

Sorry guys..my bad.

Alright so I've been a little MIA the last few..well...months. That's my bad. It's funny how when I have really nothing on my plate, I can't find time to blog. Yet on busiest week of the year in my new position at work, which also happens to be the week that I move, which also happens to be three weeks before the wedding..I have time to sit down and write. So to catch up...

Living Arrangements:
John and I decided not to renew our lease on our apartment in Gundale (AKA, Glendale). It actually made me a little sad. It's the first place John and I have shared on our own so of course I think it's special. But I guess the suspicious looking dealings in the parking lot, the Lord of the Flies-esque feeling I get when walking to my car amongst a hundred unsupervised children and the one alleged homicide which was apparently just an insurance fraud will not be missed.

A very convenient series of events took place in my mom wanting to move in with TK and needing someone to live with Candice so she didn't have to pay rent on her own combined with John and I needing somewhere cheap to live while we try to save up for a house. So on Saturday my mom moved her clothes and some other items and John and I moved into the basement at her house. I think it's a good set-up, I think Candice and I can pretty much stay out of each others way. So hopefully this arrangement will allow John and I to get some money put away to get our own house.

Job Update
Most people already know that I work for UPS. I've been there for about two and a half years now. I started at the call center just taking calls from customers needing to arrange shipments. After about six months I applied for and actually got a position in the Workforce Management department. This got me off the phones and into an office. This was quite the promotion for me, I was in charge of everyone's schedules, time off, etc. and I managed the call volume coming into the site. I was in this position for about two years.

Then a few weeks ago, my buddy at work, TJ got a job in Missouri and his position opened up. I decided to put in for it, not really expecting anything to come of it, mostly just so the management in my building knew that I was interested in moving on. Well to my surprise, I actually got the job which was actually an even bigger promotion than before. So my new title is Senior Cost and Finance Administrator. I manage everyone's payroll, all expense accounts, site invoices, and I am in charge of building a multi-million dollar business plan. I'm very happy with the job but at the same time, pretty stressed out. But all seems well in the professional world for now.

Wedding Update
Wow...where to start on this one. Well..the wedding is planned. At least for the most part. All the main tasks are done, reception center, DJ, catering, wedding dress, etc. There are a few small things that I haven't picked up but I'm just gonna continue to procrastinate and see how well that works out for me. I have pretty much the whole first half of August off so I'm just gonna plan on doing ALL wedding stuff in that week. Should be stressful. Bring it.

Things I'm looking forward to
-The wedding (duh)
-The honeymoon (duh)
-My new nephew Charlie is due to join the world in less than six weeks.
-My sister and her husband will be moving back to Utah (hopefully) sometime soon.
-Getting a new car that can actually safely get me to school. Maybe.

Now I promise I will try to keep a little more updated on this blog. So stop yelling at me Erin. Geez.

Alright school, you win.

Every semester I sign up for my classes and imagine what they will be like. I picture myself going to lectures, making friends, participating in discussions and group study and most of all, getting straight A's. I think every student does the same thing. At least I hope they do or I just admitted that I am very, very lame.

Despite my attempts to conserve paper wherever possible, I get really excited about each new semester when I get to buy a new notebook, even if the last one isn't even half full, and all sorts of folders and organizational tools. Here's the thing about me that few people know. I love getting organized. I absolutely love it. I don't however, love staying organized. I'm terrible at that. So about two weeks into each semester, I lose that drive. Now I'm gonna try and blame it on the fact that my classes start at 7:30 in the morning and I have to cram in two classes and be to work by 10. My second class of each "school day" is called A History of Rock n' Roll. At the beginning of the semester I had to buy a $70 book. Now, keep in mind, I have actually taken this class before. Two years ago I was registered for four classes when I decided I was too cool for school. Well now I am paying for it by having to actually pay for the class again to replace the obvious F that I got in the class.

Because I had already taken the class, I knew how it worked. The $70 book is actually a compilation of the professors notes for the entire semester. In perfect, organized, outlined order. After a few weeks of going to the class, and falling asleep each and every time, I made a discovery. I'm a college student, therefore, I'm an intellectual. That's how it works, right? Sure. Well this intellectual realized that after yoga, I could just go home and skip my history class and read the notes when I get home. Great plan! In theory. I didn't read the notes. So two weeks before the test, I go through the review sheets. I figure, take a few days to get the review sheets filled out, then I have a week to make sure I have them memorized. Again, great back up plan. In theory. Well it took me a little longer to get the review sheets filled. Then a little longer to get around to memorizing them.

So here I am, night before the test and still one more chapter to memorize. I've filled my head with two full chapters of music history and my brain honestly can't do it anymore. Why do I know the 5 musical influences of the Sex Pistols? Why do I know the foundation of commercial failure or success of the proto-punk bands of the 1970's? Who cares. All I can say is I can't do it anymore. There's no more room. I think the stylistic elements of Bob Marley have actually started pushing precious childhood memories out of my brain.

So I'm going to go to bed now. And wake up early enough to finish memorizing the last chapter before heading to campus. It's a flawless plan. In theory.

Waste of Space..

So there's a lot of things I don't understand in life. The meaning of life itself, the plot of Ocean's 11, and how people can think it's okay to vandalize and steal my property. My car isn't the nicest car in the world but it gets me from point A to point B. Everything generally works in it and I can enjoy pleasant rides around while listening to music. Well I don't have that luxury anymore. 

On Thursday while at work, I decided to walk John out to his car so I could get my history book and do some studying. Well when I got to just a couple cars away from my precious little Plymouth, I noticed something was missing. My window. 

Some waste of space decided that he or she had the right to smash in my driver-side window and have at my CD player. Here's the thing: I work my 40 hours a week, every week. I do this so I can pay my bills and afford simple luxuries like CD players and car windows. The 

best part about this was while I was standing, staring at the shards of glass that I used to call a window, it started to rain. Good job, Utah, you haven't rained in a week. Let's rain the day Stevie doesn't have a window. I go back inside, not wanting to deal with the situation and finish out my shift. I left about an hour later and head home. John called me when I was on my way and asked if it was raining. There was a really light drizzle, nothing I was too concerned about, but John then informed me that he was heading home from the East side of the valley and there was a huge storm headed towards me. Sweet. 

So I get home and run in to grab some garbage bags and duct tape. Little known fact: some forms of duct tape don't stick to cars and really don't stick to wet cars. So I had to grab some towels and just shut them in the door and hope they held. I was quite concerned about the safety of my car in that situation. Not so much because the seats would get wet but because it was parked on the street and had no window. I was almost preparing myself to wake up and find an empty spot where my car used to be. 

Luckily, I woke and my car was in the same spot I left it and, to my surprise, the seats were still completely dry. I got in my car and started heading to the glass place. Guess what? It started snowing. I started wondering if the jackass that broke into my car realized what hell I was going through just so that he/she could get MAYBE 20 bucks for my stereo. So I kept on my snowy drive on over to see Guadalupe Valdez of Guadalupe Glass in Glendale. It seems like a shady place when you first pull up, it's built on the wrong side of the tracks but I'm telling ya, the guy is awesome. He has replaced my windshield when I had a crack, he replaced my back passenger window when it got smashed in on Christmas, and he was happy to see me when I now needed a new driver window. He went to the pick n' pull to see if he could find a match for my car and I was happy when his search, labor and parts only came to $100. You just have to pay him in cash and probably leave the INS out of it. 

So now I have a new window and a gapping hole where my stereo once was. I have no intentions on replacing my stereo anytime soon though. With 4 break-ins in two months, I'm not giving those *expletives* another reason to smash my shiny new window. 

A-holes. 

It's snowing again.

I wonder why I am surprised every year when snow dumps on me in March. I guess in my mind, Spring means pretty flowers and grass and maybe some rain here or there. But, alas, as I stare out at the four inches of snow that fell on my porch yesterday, I realize that my perceptions of Spring were off. Luckily, the good weather Gods did appear at a very good time over the weekend. 

Had it started snowing on Saturday instead of Sunday, I would have been devastated. I would have missed out on the Festival of Colors! Every year, there is a festival to celebrate the coming of Spring. It is held at the Hindu Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah. To welcome the coming of the new season, the Hindu's celebrate with dancing, singing, music and colors. So we went and watched some awesome performances by Hindu dance groups, and then bought some bags of very fine colored chalk, and threw them at people. 

It was sooo much fun! They burned an effigy, then everyone chanted "Hare Krishna! Hare Krishna! Hare Hare! Hare Rama! Hare Rama! Krisha Krishna! Hare Hare!" Then everyone threw their bags of chalk up in the air and at their neighbors and everyone was dusted with very traditional Indian colors. You couldn't even recognize people, and what was more, you couldn't really tell the color of anyone's skin or clothes. That was part of the celebration apparently. 

The festival lasted a few hours but John, Jim, Candice and I had to leave a little early to get to a birthday dinner. Though, the birthday girl was at the celebration too so we couldn't really get there too much later than her for her own dinner. So we made the trek back to our car and started to drive home. To our surprise, there were people walking two and three MILES back to their cars from the Temple. We had no idea how popular this festival was. It was a pretty fun mix of people though. It was basically a mix of Hindus, hippies and Mormons. And us. 

So we drove back to Salt Lake, we hurried and showered and I soon found out that colored chalk sticks to highlights. Awesome. I didn't have time to observe the damage, I pulled my hair up in a hat and we were off. We went to dinner and then to get some drinks at the Bongo and then headed home. We were all tired from the sun and still digging chalk out of our ears so we called it a night. I woke up the next morning with mounds of snow on my patio and a small hole in my heart that was put there by the idea of said snow. We decided to call it a day in and had my sister come over to held address graduation announcements for John. 

I washed my hair three times in an attempt to get the glowing pink out of it but to no avail. So now I am sitting on my couch, ready to head to work and have to explain to every person that asks if I colored my hair that it was from chalk from a Festival of Colors. Maybe I will just make something else up to tell them. Something X-Men-ish. Yes. 

Icecream before bed is a bad idea.

So what leads me to blogging right now is the fact that I had icecream last night. I ate it while watching Biggest Loser Couples (which, on its own is just awesome that I ate half a pint of Ben and Jerry's Half Baked after watching overweight people reach milestone losses of 100+ lbs in 12 weeks). Well by the time I got home and watched it, it was about 10:30 and that about the time I polished off my tasty treat. So I went to bed almost immediately after..do you know what happens if you have sugar then immediately go to bed?

Well first you end up boring your fiance to tears while he is trying to sleep but you want to vent about work for an hour. After he finally falls asleep mid "uh-huh, that's nice", you eventually drift off to dream land yourself.

But dream land on sugar is filled with evil, evil things. Nightmare after nightmare of people breaking into your apartment and dreams of you crashing your car over and over. Luckily, John got to be the knight in shining armor by defeating the burglar, which was a plus. But it still caused me to wake up every hour or two, making for a very bad night of sleep. My tossing and turning kept John up all night too. Sorry about that, dear.

So when I did wake up this morning, I somehow made my way to Yoga, which woke me up for a minute. Figuratively. I got home, sat on the couch for a bit, browsed my favorite sites and went to work. Well all of my work for the day was done within 45 minutes of arriving. How's that for job security? So for the next few hours, my job was to try to stay awake. I was not alone in my quest. I managed to snap a picture of my co-worker asleep at his desk. It seems he tried to use my technique of closing your eyes and clicking randomly about on your screen so from behind it looks like you are working but really, you're "resting your eyelids". Well it worked for a moment but then he was out.

I soooo wanted a sugar-free Red Bull, that would have solved all my problems. But, alas, only sugar-full Red Bulls were available. I was desperate so I braved the unreasonably tart taste of the 8oz can and was wide awake within a few minutes. I was ready to be a functioning part of society but unfortunately, there was still no work today. I decided to try to communicate with the rest of the world by sending emails and text messages from my desk but it seemed as though the entire world had disappeared.

So now I was starved for work and any social interaction. My boss was asleep at his desk, my co-workers had left for the day and everyone was too busy to respond to my attempts at communication. Poor John sent me an IM and I was so excited to hear from someone and so amped up on Red Bull that I gave him the entire story of the foundation behind the concept of CSS in relation to HTML when all he asked was why a picture wasn't showing up on a website at work.

So that's what has lead up to this post. Icecream before bed time -> nightmares -> bad sleep -> drowsiness -> Red Bull -> extreme energy -> lack of social interaction -> blog.

I realize this is essentially a blog about absolutely nothing, just a timeline of my day here at work. But that's ok. Because I found some entertainment for a minute. Figuratively.

Dirty Word of the Day: DIET

So with the wedding less than five months away there are a lot of things to think about. I found the dress I've always dreamed of and ordered it. It fits perfectly...for now. I recently realized that it is a lot of pressure to stay the same size for 5 months, despite my dad's insistency that I haven't changed sizes since I was 12. But I think it will be tougher than that. Especially when there are so many things to stress over in the coming weeks. 

After reading my sister's blog (www.beingcarly.com), I realized that I didn't want to wait until the last minute to try to lose weight to fit into my dress. So I downloaded a new app on my handy dandy iPhone called 'Lose It!'.  Sounds like it will fit my needs. So I set it up with my information, height, weight, BMI, etc. Well the thing tells my I need to eat less than 1,300 calories a day. 

So I started documenting everything I ate and counting out my calories. Yeah 1,300 calories in a day is a LOT less than I thought it was. Day 1 I squeezed by by the skin of my teeth. I think I was 9 calories under goal. The next day, I was 200 calories under goal by 7 pm. I thought I was doing great..till I remembered it was girls night. Oops. 

So two GIANT pieces of The Pie pepperoni pizza and 3 cheesy pull-aparts later, I think I had reached my calorie intake for the entire week. The next few days, I did ok. Barely made it under goal. By the weekend I was pretty proud. Yeah about that....I went to Wendover. You can't diet on vacation. I'm pretty sure it's a law. So I let go of my diet and ate and drank what I wanted for two 

straight days. By Monday I was ready to go back to my diet. I was determined. I had some Kashi cereal with soy milk for breakfast, a Slim-Fast for a mid morning snack, Lean Cuisine for lunch, and John made salmon and steamed broccoli for dinner. I felt pretty good. 

Actually, let me reiterate. I felt pretty good about the diet. But I personally, felt like crap. All I could think about all day was food. 

"When am I gonna eat next? Shit. 4 hours. What did I bring for lunch? Bah. Lean Cuisine. I'm gonna walk away from that hungrier than I am now. Do I have any snacks? I think there's a dollar in change in my drawer and a vending machine in the break room. Hmm...maybe if i at least walk to the back break room, it will burn off the calories I'll accumulate by eating  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Oh c'mon Stevie, you know that doesn't add up. Ah screw it, where're those quarters?"

Not only was I totally distracted by my lack of food intake, I was completely impossible to be around. John and I have noticed that when I don't eat, I turn into the meanest person in the world. Be it some sort of hypoglycemia or whatever, it's not a pretty picture. And I had been like this the last week. 

Poor Johnboy. 

So after snapping at my co-worker for the 6th time in an hour he finally asked "hey how's your diet going?" Apparently John is not the only one that notices that I get ornery when I don't eat. I apologized for snapping at him and decided there are more important things than dieting right now. It's not like I need to lose a ton of weight or anything, I just need to maintain my weight. Which I can focus on in a couple of months. I think being a little nicer to the people in my life is worth the money I may inevitably spend on alterations to let out my dress. 

So officially, my big 'Thumbs Up!' to dieting has turned into me sitting on this couch with my computer with a pack of Reese's from the freezer in one hand and a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table. Life is too short for diets. At least until June. Possibly July.  

Downward Dog?

So after my catastrophe with my class schedule this semester (I may post something about that later), I started my second session of classes. This session I started a yoga class. I go three times a week at 7:30 in the frickin' morning. Last session I took an aerobics class with a woman that I often wanted to punch in the face due to her over excitement about fitness and annoying habit of calling me "fatty". 

I dreaded getting out of bed in the mornings for six weeks because I knew I would have to deal with Aerobics-Instructor-Betty (whose actual name is Shannon) and I knew the next day I could honestly convince myself that someone used me as a punching bag. So I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into a dimly let room with soft music playing and a man named Sam (who I think also goes by Wind Spirit) telling me in the calmest voice possible to grab a mat and have a seat. 

I think I was one of maybe three people in the class that has never taken yoga before. Being the first day of the class, I thought he would maybe explain a few positions before we got into it. Things were looking good when all I had to do was sit on the ground and breathe... until he said that we needed to have our knees below our hips. Now I consider myself a pretty athletic person but when it comes to flexibility..uh-uh. I ended up having to sit on a rolled up blanket just to keep my ass above my knee caps. I knew I was in trouble. 

We then started doing some breathing exercises. I thought, "Ok, I've been doing this for 21 years, I think I got the breathing thing down." Just as I felt a little less remedial at this yoga thing, we moved on to the next part: the actual yoga part. We began doing some, apparently traditional, yoga poses. As I said, I have never done yoga before save for the time I was doing drunken yoga on the Wii, which I don't think counts. So when he is telling us to try to transition to these new poses, I'm still 10 minutes back on breathing. When I found myself a little behind, I would overcompensate by forcing myself into the pose as quick as possible, which just ended up making me hurt about every joint imaginable and sent my body flying across the room as I lost my balance each and every time. 

But Wind Spirit just kept on dictating. From child pose to downward dog, to warrior, to farting tree..he just kept on going. The whole time I'm in the back of the studio practically dancing back and forth across the room, watching the other girls to make sure I wasn't making an ass of myself (too late). Finally, it came time to lie down on the mat, arms and legs spread apart and sleep. Ok we weren't really supposed to sleep. We were supposed to lie on the floor and "become aware of our energy". I, instead, lay there reflecting on how many weeks I think it will take before I can do a farting tree with less than 67 one-legged hops. This could be a long semester..

I fake organization like a champ

Coming into this weekend, I knew I needed to get some cleaning done. After a slightly late night on Friday, I was in no condition to clean early on Saturday. I, instead, slept until 2 in the afternoon, finished season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, patroned a new health food restaurant, and found myself becoming part of "the problem" when I barely survived Walmart in search of a new vacuum.

This morning I woke up at 10, ready to clean. Not just pick up things here and there, fully CLEAN my apartment. After doing a light cleaning around the kitchen and living room, I began organizing the computer desk, only to find myself getting highly distracted by past homework assignments and magazines I purchased but never read. After I finished that, I made my way to the hall closet. Once known as a linen closet, over the past 7 months it transformed to the "closet where you put things that have no other place in the apartment". It was to the point that I avoided opening the door for fear of being permanently buried under board games, blankets and viking hats. I cleared everything out of the closet and sorted them into piles titled: need, might need, maybe could need someday, probably don't need, and lastly - why the hell is this in the closet? By the time I had put the closet back together, I was left with my piles. A wee bit tired at this point, I condensed all my piles aside from 'need' into one pile... in the dumpster. 

After a few hours of attempting to organize the corners of my house that have accumulated junk over the past few months, I now find myself hungry, tired, and sitting in the middle of several piles of junk circling my couch. Luckily, I now have several empty corners to fill. Oh yeah, and I have yet to use my shiny new vacuum.

I love organizing.