The Haleylphabet

I can just picture each of you trying to pronounce the word I just made up in the title... and it makes me laugh.

Robin tagged me and I'm glad. Here's me, from A to Z.

A - Attached or single? Too attached to too many singles to be attached.
B - Best friend? None. Or many.
C - Cake or pie? Pie. Razzleberry pie from Marie Calendars to be specific.
D - Day of choice? Saturday I guess.
E - Essential item? Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum for my hair. For such a low-maintenance personality I sure do have a high-maintenance head.
F - Favorite color? Most any blue.
G - Gummy bears or worms? Worms. If I suck on them carefully enough I can make them skinny enough to tie in a knot using only my tongue. If there are gummy worms in the vicinity and I'm making grotesque faces at you, that's probably what's going on.
H - Hometown? The Rose Park area of Salt Lake for the first 13 years of my life, then West Valley for the rest. I know my way around the humble parts of the valley.
I - Indulgences? Cheese fries. So good, but so bad.
J - January or July? July, but that's a tough one because I hate the dead of winter only slightly more than I hate the heat of summer.
K - Kids? After studying them in school and working with them at work, I'm excited to have my own to mess with.
L - Life isn't complete without? Humor. I laugh a lot more than I probably should.
M - Marriage date? We'll see.
N - Number of brothers and sisters? An older brother and a younger brother. I'm the middle child AND the only girl, which explains a couple of my complexes.
O - Oranges or apples? Oranges. My love for citrus is due to serving a mission in AZ where the orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees abound.
P - Phobias or fears? Disappointing and/or inconveniencing people, making phone calls, and bees.
Q - Quote? "Oh if life were made of moments, even now and then a bad one! But if life were only moments, then you'd never know you've had one." - Baker's Wife, Into the Woods (by lyrical genius Stephen Sondheim).
R - Reason to smile? I no longer work for someone I don't respect.
S - Season of choice? Fall.
T - Tag six: Whoever thinks this is fun. Six of you.
U - Unknown fact about me? If it were socially acceptable for white girls to rap, I think I would like to try.
V - Vegetable? Sugar snap peas, especially in a stir fry.
W - Worst habit? Letting people take advantage of me.
X - X-ray or ultrasound? I don't even understand why this is a choice I'd have to make. That tells you how much I know about medicine.
Y - Your favorite food? Shredded chicken salad from Costa Vida.
Z - Zodiac sign? Sagittarius. Freedom-loving, jovial, restless, honest to a fault.

Rewind

Four days ago...

I was on my way home from California by way of Paris (The Paris).

Six days ago...

I saw the worst casino ever on my way to California.

Almost two weeks ago...


My house was full of people getting "jiggy" wit' it.

The day before that...

I made good use of every inch of my parents' second fridge.

My road trip was wonderfully relaxing. I'm now at home using my unemployment time to get other things done that have been waiting their turn for months. It's been nice for the last couple of days, but I'm sure it'll get old soon. I have a good lead on a job with United Way (thanks, Bonny!) so we'll see if that pans out.

A vacation from my PROBLEMS!

I hope you've seen What About Bob? If you haven't, I suggest you stop reading this entry and go watch it this instant.

I'm blogging from a comfortable hotel bed in St. George on my way to California for a few days. After the long wet winter I'm looking forward to the sun and the warmth.

I survived the balloon-making event, thanks to a balloon-making friend more talented than I. She was only stumped when a kid requested a dragon. But, she did manage to whip up an octopus on command. Pretty impressive. And though I tried to bid farewell to my job and my boss, thanks to her irresponsible ways they still haven't hired someone to replace me yet. So I'll be back in to finish some things and train the poor person who replaces me.

I have some funny pictures that I'll post later. I just thought I'd let you know I survived the week.

Look out, Ringling Brothers

I submit for your consideration: The Bunny Hat.

This week proves to be one of the more stressful of my adult life as I finalize preparations for the Easter Egg Hunt that the agency I work for is holding for the families we service. The Hunt involves games, eggs, candy, face painting, and, incidentally, balloon animals. Because the task of organizing the event fell to me and I didn't have anyone solidly committed to make balloon animals for the event, I decided to buy some balloons and learn the, uh, craft for myself.

Thanks to some help I spent about an hour this afternoon practicing some simple creations that I can crank out fairly quickly to small children this Saturday. However, I seem to have an unfortunate inability to judge how much balloon I need to use, and consequently my animals all have a tendency to have a disproportionately large tail.

After some frustration I abandoned trying to create the back half of any animal at all, and wa-law, the Bunny Hat was born. There is one problem upon trying to remove the hat...

Wish me luck this week! And if any of you happen to have any connections to large amounts of breakfast pastries for no cost, please let me know.

Don't cry, little Emo child...

I was rifling through some old stuff tonight and found a book of poems I used to write in Jr. High. Here's an example:

If I'm to make any sense of it all

but then, we're all senseless every now and then

you're as entitled to yours as I am to mine

and when brought to the bar I've got nothing to say

other than "it's been one of those days."

When I remove myself from myself

and look objectively

I don't know that I see what you do

this bias is hard to ignore

I know I don't mean to alarm

and I don't intend any harm

when I do what I do how I do.

How much do you see?

Are the things I try desperately to show

getting through my calloused skin?

And how much of what I try to bury

refuses to be hid?

And do you love me anyway?

Because I see you - I think I do

and I see a little bit of both the hide and the show

and I know which is which

and love you despite

and love you because.

Alarmed? Don't be. My life wasn't nearly as dramatic as I liked to make it sound. I wrote as if I had troubles, mostly because it was cool to be troubled in Jr. High. Or at least, I think it was cool. I've blocked most of it from my memory. Who did I love, despite and because? Probably no one... It just sounded fun to be brooding over someone.

But in the event that the ability to create original music ever finds me, you can bet your sweet bippy I'll come out with a Fiona Apple-esque album simply titled Fourteen.