more vibrant names

Kashira, Dominique, Chiquana, Kawana, Sharonda, Arica, LaShaunda. A few names I have found recently and won't tell you how. I am not trying to be condescending in any way, I just think it's so interesting, the difference of culture between here and there. I wonder what some names are that sound so common to us are weird to people from that area.

Hi.

I dunno what's in the air today but I feel so happy. I just feel so incredibly grateful for being blessed like a royalty, though royalty i am not. Just when I think of all of the wonderful people in my life, and all of the wonderful things around me and the opportunities, I'm completely amazed. How and when and why is life so good?

I feel like the cheesiest person in the world for doing this, (and i seem to refer to song lyrics all the time, but this seems to sum it up alright) Edwin McCain:
These are the moments I thank God that I'm alive
These are the moments I remember all my life
I've found all I've waited for
And I could not ask for more

Also - remember Curtis Brown from BYU football? He's our new salesman; he starts next week. (Don't worry, I have a reasonable suspicion that the salesmen make bank). Anyway, Geoff is very excited to meet him.

Today we watched an episode of our favorite Sunday show, Little House on the Prairie. It was about drugs. Albert had gotten himself addicted to morphine and we, as priveledged viewers, got to watch his withdrawal. We saw the sweating, the screaming, the tremors, and the vomiting - lots of it. Geoff and I sat there, amazed at how hard-core Little House on the Prairie had become. It was really quite gutsy for Michael Landon, I thought.

I skipped church today; I just couldn't drag myself out of bed, so Geoff went alone for the second time in two weeks. I've got to quit doing that, but see, it's so hard to wake up for the new schedule. The only two wards that use our church building are ours and a polynesian singles ward. The singles wanted our schedule so they could stay up late on Saturday night and sleep in Sunday morning. The young moms in our ward wanted the early schedule because the 11:00 one interfered with nap time. So, the trade was made. Of course I'm not one to challenge their decision - in fact, I would be more afraid of the young moms with cranky babies than the polynesians, but now I have to learn to overcome my intense struggle to get out of bed for something that no one is going to hold me accountable for - at least not right now. Though I suppose some would argue me on that one.

Anyhow, one thing that made me really happy this weekend was that my macroeconomics professor told us that he is not going to focus on all the graphs and economic models and equations throughout class, because he's not an economist and that's not his thing. (He does have a masters or a PhD in economics, but he's also a psychologist and does other stuff). Anyway, my thought on that: Whew!!! That was ALL we focused on in microeconomics and it wasn't much fun. I expect that the class will still be challenging, but at least it will be challenging in a different way than the other one.

Last night Geoff and I went to the BYU basketball game. Then we came home and inflated the huge air-mattress, and laid out in the living room and watched movies. It was a lot of fun.

Fat? I don't think so. More like Fab. Totally.

You may have heard the recent negative commentary on Jennifer Love Hewitt's body. I am sorry to say, but they are wrong. She looks more fabulous than any other celebrity I know of:

scaredy cat

Kitty did something so funny last night. (Geoff changed his name to Marcellus Wallace. I've just been calling him Kitty... sort of like when we had that bird, growing up, and we just called it Bird.) Anyway, when Geoff got home from work, he opened the front door about three inches without coming in, and stood there staring at kitty from outside. It spooked him a little bit and he stood there staring back with his back arched the way cats do. After about a minute, Geoff suddenly burst through door and said, "RAHHHHH!!" Kitty jumped and darted to the other end of the room and smacked face first into the wall. We laughed so hard and then we felt bad so we tried to pet him, but he was pretty steamed. Evertime I reached toward him, he'd turn his head suddenly the other way and walk away, like a little girl sticking her nose in the air. He got over it by the end of the night and was playing with us again. We do enjoy him. This is a link to a video, you may have seen it before. It's not our cat, but this is pretty much what it looked like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1MC1BsW7bA

Irregardless, I have spaghetti arms

Well I just got through with browsing a whole bunch of people's blogs (yes, I know, I know, very stalker-esque. Way to go Cal.) There sure were a lot of warm fuzzies going on, you know? Life is perfect, the kids are perfect, the S.O. is perfect, etc. etc. Then here's my page with two swear words in the header. I guess I am just different that way, you know? At one time I would've probably worried about stuff like that, but who really cares at this point? Life goes on. Anywho, I am aware that it's been awhile since anything remotely interesting has graced this page. It's the result of a pretty good schedule - I've recently had a couple of people (a couple, not just the one some of you might be thinking of) remark that we are crazy for taking it on. Perhaps we are. I'm pretty sure I've known people who do much more than what we are doing though. Irregardless, this is a little of what our days look like: (The word "irregardless" is completely nonsensical, pointless, and self-defeating and I think it's so funny when people use it. Also feel free to make fun of me for using stupid words.)

Cali:
Mon: 8am-5pm work, 6-7:30pm class
Tue: 8am-5pm work, 6-7:30pm class
Wed: 8am-5pm work, 6-7:30pm class
Thr: 8am-5pm work, 6-7:30pm class
Fri: 8am-5pm work
Sat: 10:30-1:00 class...Sat night: date night!!

Geoff:
Mon: 7am-11am class, 2:30-11pm work
Tue: 7am-8am class, 2:30-11pm work
Wed: 8am-11am class, 2:30-11pm work
Thr: 7am-8am class, 2:30-11pm work
Fri: 7am-11pm class, 2:30-11pm work
Sat: 8am-10:30am class...Sat night: date night!!

Geoff squeezes in homework and errands between school and work mid-day, and I squeeze it in after class at night (in addition to going to the gym if I possibly can, and of course the pesky errands, such as grocery shopping etc.) Of course you can see that this schedule doesn't leave much room for cleaning the house or doing laundry, not to mention have friends, or take vacations. Even if Geoff got work off Friday night so we could go out of town for a night, there's still the classes on Sat. morning. Oh also - our church just got moved to the 9 a.m. schedule on Sunday, so that pretty much kills any chance to really sleep in, EVER. (Of course my sleep-ins are always to noon, so maybe this will be good for me.)

But you know what, I can't complain cuz we picked it. I guess you could say we just want to get through school, pronto. It's a pretty darn good thing we don't have kids yet, because this would be impossible. I bet you can also tell how cherished our Saturday nights are, since that's our chance to get out and play! And spend time together. We discovered a long time ago that date nights are necessary for marital health. I look forward to them all week. :)

I also, knowing how having a full-time job makes it hard to focus totally on school, I don't want us to have to work while in graduate school, either of us. That's a pretty lofty goal I agree, but I think it can be done. There are plans in place.

Anyway, we stayed up super late a couple of nights ago to work on math together (which I am proud to say I totally understood chapter one, thankyouverymuch), and the next morning I was totally, and completely out of it. I think I had been laying on my stomach, sleeping, with my arms up by my head, when the alarm went off. It scared me so bad that I leaped out of bed, blurry eyed and heart racing, and went to the alarm clock to turn it off, and realized that my arms were completely useless. They were dead to the world. I tried and tried to push the snooze button or something, but there was absolutely no strength to be found, and the alarm had started beeping double-time, sending me into a half-asleep panic mode. (Doesn't logically make sense, but it's possible). Geoff later told me that I had kind of freaked out: "Geoffff, my arrrrrrrms are asleeeeep! Bothhhhhhh of them!!!" Finally, desperate to make the beeping stop, I let my useless arms drop to my sides and bent down, oh so graciously I'm sure, and hit snooze with my chin. I then dropped into bed, exhausted, and waited for the feeling to reappear. (It reminded me of something a dance teacher in high school would always say: Watch out for spaghetti arms! spaghetti arms!)

Sigh. It's just time for a new alarm clock - I'm very surprised this one has survived as long as it has. And maybe we should put it on Geoff's side of the bed. He is so great to put up with me. He's a better person than I am. I am incredibly lucky to have him. I do get bored once in awhile just with life in general, and the schedule and the monotony sometimes get me down, but marrying him was the best thing that ever happened, and will ever happen to me.

Even with being busy, I still manage to find "blog time." I guess you could say it's relaxing.

They Dance Alone

I love music so much. I love how it just reaches in touches you on whatever level. The song I'm at right now is They Dance Alone by Sting - it's kind of a random subject, but I just love the music that goes with it. I'd have to say it's one of my favorites cuz it never gets old.

My Physical Science teacher normally teaches a bunch of 3000-level classes, and since they couldn't find anyone to teach our little 8-person, 1000-level evening class, we are stuck with him until they replace him. He's very nice but he's way too advanced for us 'just-trying-to-get-the-generals-done" first-timers. However, the bright news is, that there are two guys from my hometown in the class, one that I went to high school with... the three of us and another girl who is really nice are going to do a study group, yayyyy. School may be a pain in the rear but I do enjoy getting to know people in my classes better. Most classes, anyway. (If it's a morning class, or if you are annoying, I probably won't say much to you.)

So, bring on the caffeine, hubby and I are staying up laaaaaaaaate tonight (he doesn't even get home until 11!) to work on a class together - we both have the class but just at different times.

Also, I wish I was in the carribbean with McKenna.

I just did a property search on our condo - the guy we bought it from had purchased it in Jan '06, sold it to us eight months later, and made $5,000.00 (Not including the down payment - that was just the information available in the public records). He could've gotten more if he'd taken the time to have it appraised before putting it on the market, cuz we still bought it for under the appraisal value. Unless we got scammed, but I don't think so. Still though. Interesting.

When you dream, dream big

Great game tonight. I've decided my new dream is to one day be rich and famous enough to sit courtside right on the sideline, and for a player to get out of control and fly out of bounds and land on me. Hot.

deviating, digressive, erratic, excursive, long-winded, meandering, prolix, roaming, roving, spreading, wandering thoughts

The Wal-mart parking lot is one big puddle. We've got thick, heavy, very wet snow, and it is impossible to NOT be stepping in an ankle-deep puddle in that parking lot. (Who engineers it? They suck. Do people actually engineer parking lots though? Probably not.) Anyway, there's a useful thought for the day.

Today was my first economics class. It's going to be good but a LOT of work. There are some very intelligent people in it, who seem to know such a lot about the subject already. One works with municipal bonds in some financial organization, one is a financial anaylist, and one looks almost exactly like Keifer Sutherland - all three make amazing comments. I admit the subject is still a little new to me, but I hope to become more informed throughout the semester. And afterwords of course.

Tonight we're going to watch the Utah Flash (NBA development league) play. Geoff is starting to take more interest in basketball, which makes me happy because I think it is by far the most entertaining sport to watch.

Must be strong

Somebody brought a big thing of cream puffs to work today and set them right outside where my desk is. Argggghhhhh

Back in full swing

One good thing about getting the holidays over with is that it's that much closer to spring! Yay!! One bad thing is that school has started again. :( Geoff says he's ready to have something to do, but I know better than to think that feeling will last... at least for me. Started out the semester with a calculus class. I understood the review, which is a good sign (cuz if you can't even remember the stuff in the review, you're probably screwed). Well, all except for the domain and range stuff. Domain and Range was just one small concept that I never made the effort to get the hang of when I first heard it YEARS ago. Then it came up again... and again, and again. (Sounds like vomit, huh? Feels like vomit.)

It was also the last day of the "maintain, don't gain" program at work. I lost a pound. One pound. Meaning: 1 down, 24 to go. Well at least I got through the holidays relatively unscathed. They're going to start a new program here soon, we'll have to use food "checkbooks" and keep track of points.

Geoff and I have also started a New Years resolution to wake up at 6 a.m. every morning to get some things done - not an easy feat for someone who loves her sleep. (remember the alarm clock post). I'm going to have to start going to bed before Geoff gets home from work if I expect to make through the days... I don't know how he does it.

I just feel I need to add to my cuz Ror's collection of bad album covers. This was my favorite: I don't know why but it struck me as funny.

Escape

So I just read a very compelling book, Escape, by Carolyn Jessop. It's her story of growing up in the FLDS church/community/cult, being married and having eight children, and finally, her escape.

It's easy to laugh about the concept of plural wives, but this stuff is no joke. They would have killed her if they'd caught her. I had always wondered what the relationships between the wives were like, if there was jealousy, etc. The book really spelled out the whole dynamic between the husband, the wives, and their children. Very interesting. And sad.

It made me think a lot - it seems there's a fine line between preaching obedience and being manipulative.

Anyway, I had a lot of deep thoughts but suddenly I feel too lazy to write them all. (Yay for you.) You'll just have to read it for yourself, it's a pretty amazing story.

Does the fact that you're headed for Hell concern you?

Okay folks - all two of you - due to the incredulous and somewhat preposterous nature of this finding, I feel compelled to share it with you. (Kenna found it, I don't know where she finds this stuff, but she does.) NEEDGOD.COM

www.needgod.com/index.shtml

Are you a good person, by God's standards? And if so, are you good enough to get into heaven?

This is a questionaire designed to tell you just that. Such inquiries as, "Have you ever told a lie?" "Do you go to church regularly?" "Have you ever looked at someone and had lustful thoughts?" etc. etc., eight questions total. When you are done checking yes or no, you are directed to your results.

It then goes over each question, tells you what is wrong with your answer, and exactly why it is that you are going to hell. After you have read about what a bad person you are, it asks you if you are Guilty or Innocent. If you click Innocent, it tells you you are incorrect. Then asks if you think you are going to Heaven or Hell. If you click Heaven, it tells you you are incorrect.

It asks if the fact that you're going to hell concerns you, tells you that it should concern you, and then asks if you'd sell one of your eyes for a million dollars. (Don't ask me what selling your eye for money has to do with this, but heck yes I'd sell my eye for a million bucks. I've still got the other one.)

It ends with a huge allegory of what hell is, designed to scare you, then it tries to talk about the atonement, but seriously, who is going to get that far?

Nevermind that my moral character and the quality of my soul are being determined by an eight-question survey, it looks like I am going to hell. In a handbasket, no less. I wonder if my trip comes with complementary pillow-mints.

(Oh yeah, and then it politely asks you to print a copy for your records, in case you, you know, forget.)

PS, just one more thing - I'd like to know just what person in the world hasn't had a lustful thought about someone else (I'm thinking Patrick Dempsey right now)... seriously folks...

Spice Up Your Life

Earlier in the week, I lamented to my friend that I wished I had the energy to clean the house after work; hers is spotless everytime I go over there. She suggested I try blaring some fun music to get into it.

Enter: Spice Girls. As it turns out, I did more boogying than cleaning but no harm done- unless you count scaring the cat. (You can't tell me Spice Up Your Life doesn't throw you into a cha-cha frenzy). As I relived the days of the seventh grade, I thought, who more appropriate to serenade generation-x than the divas of the nineties? And was there ever a more inspiring couplet than "get down get deeper and down, get down get deeper and down?" Didn't think so. Go Spice Girls.

Another Christmas come and gone, it would be our fourth Christmas together (three married Christmases). It’s crazy! We decided to go scrooge-style this year and skip on gifts for each other… cuz you know if we really want something, we just go buy it, no sense in spending money on stuff we don’t really need or want. We consider the cat our Christmas present. :)

We did do gift exchange with the fam, however, which was fun.

Also, we sold my piano. *sniff* Actually I don’t feel too bad – it had more sentimental meaning than utility. I used to just sit for hours and hours and play – so Geoff got me that one for our first Christmas. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time that I used to have and it was just sitting there, taking up space. A girl from Logan bought it and was very excited about it, so I was happy for her, and we’ll get another one when the time is right.

Geoff also sold one of his guitars. Now he only has three guitars left, which reduces my chance of tripping over one by 25%. (They can often be found lying on the bedroom floor, or against the couch in the living room, or by the computer in the back room, etc.) He’s going to keep at least one acoustic and one electric.

So you would say we actually made money this Christmas, cool.

As for Christmas day, we went to the rents around 11 (they gave us the Die Hard collection, some cash, and a gift certificate to the mall, woo hoo), and from my sis I got a cute red purse and lip stuff. (Geoff got black socks and a tie from my other sis., “dad gifts” he called them). We went to grandma’s for lunch w/the extended family, then came home and had a huge nap and watched Lost for the rest of the night. Oh I also went to Rikki’s to exchange gifts (she got me sockies and an Office Calendar, which is hanging in my cubicle now). And Geoff took down the tree as soon as we got home too (at my request). It’s good to get back to normal.

It was a nice, relaxing Christmas. I love my hubby.

Wally the cat

This is him discovering his new bed for the first time - he kept rubbing his face in it and purring, he loved it.

Prayer to St Peter

Edwin McCain

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

Give them things they like
Let them make some noise
Give dance hall bands not golden harps
To these our boys
Let them love Peter
For they've had no time
They should have bird songs and trees
And hills to climb
The taste of summer
And a ripened pear
And girls as sweet as meadow wind
And flowing hair
And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Let them in, Peter
For they are very tired
Give them couches where the angels sleep
And light those fires
Let them wake whole again
To brand new dawns
Fired by the sun
Not war-times bloody guns
May their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie
God knows how young they were
To have to die

You know God knows how young they were
To have to die

And tell them how they are missed
But say not to fear
It's gonna be all right
With us down here

It's gonna be all right
With us down here

Walter Silvestersmith Stanley

Wally-Sly for short. Our new cat. We have a new cat. In the history of Stanley pets, and for Cali pets, period, this is a first.

I'm sure it dates back to my childhood, when I was diagnosed with allergies to cats. (A hereditary trait strung through my dad's family). Add to that an old crazy neighbor-lady, who, in addition to attempted spousal murder and leaving her three kids at home for days without word of where she was, had HUNDREDS of cats. Of course since she was never home, the house -- and the cats -- went unchecked. And they multiplied and multiplied, until they ran rampant. (Just so you know - people called social services on her all the time, but of course she always managed to clean up before the investigators got there)... I have memories of cats being up inside the car engines when the car was started (pop! fizz...), and once my mom went over to her house (I think to make sure the kids were okay, once when she was gone) and came back talking about awful smells and urine-soaked carpet (from the cats). Of course in my 6-year-old mind I didn't fully understand the situation, but somehow, maybe from these experiences, and the allergies, we never had a cat. (We only lived in that house a short time.)

When Geoff and I got married, we started off with rats. Two of them, Polly and Madonna. You'd be surprised but they each had their own personalities, and I actually cried when we had to put them to sleep due to illness.

Next we tried a puppy. A Black mini-schnauzer who was too smart for his own good. He got so bored at our house that we got him a companion, a black cocker-spaniel puppy. We kept them long enough to potty-train them and soon realized that between work and school, we did not have enough time for them and they were miserable. So eventually they made their way to better homes.

It's now been about 9 months, and we are trying again. Wally-sly is a 4-year old tabby, and morbidly obese. I mean I have never seen a cat so fat. He seems to be pretty mild-mannered though, he just walks around and looks at stuff. He already has a fascination with the bathroom cabinets. I'm sure he'll get more comfortable with time. (He's already potty trained too, yay!!)

As for the allergies - I am hoping that after being around him enough, my body will get used to him. Surprise surprise but Geoff is slightly allergic too. He had a cat growing up and didn't react to her, so maybe that is a sign that we can get used to Wally.