Scattered PIC-tures....

Alrighty, I'm totally cheating here. Bonny had a really fun blog entry challenging all of her readers to tell a memory they had of her, and the most amusing one would win a prize.

I'm going to request the same from any of you reading this. However, it will have to be pure intrinsic motivation that gets you to play along, because I have no prize to offer for the most amusing memory. Well, maybe I have a better idea. Every single one of you that records a memory in the comments will have the right to request homemade chocolate chip cookies from me at any given time (understanding that the production turnaround will be no less than 24 hours.)

This is redeemable forever, so if you're not in my vicinity currently then next time you're here vacationing or visiting family or have made the trek purely for the cookie's sake (which is understandable because I make a mean chocolate chip cookie), so be it. Also, a special prize for the first person who can make sense of the title of this entry.

So start racking your brains, kids. I'd love to hear what memories of me have stuck in your heads. Also because at the rate my own memory is failing me I can use the reminding. Ready go!

Oh, the picture at the top is pretty old... though that's probably pretty close to what I look like squinting nowadays. I put it on this entry because I'm looking back. Which is what you'll all be doing. Get it? Ha. Ahaha.

Oblogotory

It's been a week and a half - and I'm due for a blog entry. However, time is short and pictures of my activities are few. So instead, I'll offer a few questions from a book I got for my birthday/Christmas entitled If... Questions for the Soul.

If you feel so inclined, answer these for yourself in the comments so I can get to know my audience a bit better and possibly cater future blog entries to you! *That's a lie. There will be no catering.*

If you could plan your last meal, what would be on your menu?

My answer: Chicken Salad from Cafe Rio and a lemonade Slurpee.

If you could be buried or have your ashes spread anywhere on earth, where would it be?

My answer: Somewhere in Grand Teton National Park.

If you were to have one entertainer at your funeral, who would it be?

My answer: Karen Carpenter. Not only would she sing beautifully, but she'd be a ghost, and THAT would be cool.

These, believe it or not, are some of the less ridiculous ones. Some of those include:

What is life's greatest adventure?

If you were the devil for a day, what would you do?

And my personal favorite:

If an angel were to come down and whisper one thing in your ear every day, what would you want it to be?

Feel free to answer these ones as well, but I reserve the right to make fun of you.

Step right up!

Sometimes your dreams and ambitions are like balloons that you release into the sky and the hope in your heart can't help but spill over into a hopeful expression on your face (thanks to Wendy and Melanie for the forced looks of hopefulness.)


Sometimes those dreams and ambitions encounter obstacles that, at the time of releasing, weren't considered obstacles. Like a big fat giant pine tree far away from where you released your ambition and dream balloons.


And sometimes your carefully planned hopes and dreams get stuck in the unforseen obstacle, never to escape, and all the hope in your heart and on your face (real or pretended) was all for not.


The end. Now didn't that inspire you? Let's hope it's not an omen for Wendy's upcoming marriage... a shower for which warranted the occasion for the life metaphor. (What?) Thanks to Heather for the shower concept (carnival themed) and thanks to Wendy for the excuse. Congrats!


Speaking of freak shows, notwithstanding the cuteness of this picture of Katey Teece and I, I'm starting to notice that my facial features are disproportionately large. Like someone photoshopped my face onto a head that was too small.


Maybe I should be a carny for REAL. Sadly, I'd probably make more than I do now...

Come sail away

Sometime around February my friend Jason called and asked if I had plans for the 4th of July. Being someone who only plans their life a week or so at a time, of course I didn't. So he excitedly told me that Styx would be performing in Logan on the 4th of July, and he wanted me to come.

Now, while some other people's parents raised them listening to bands like Styx, Poison, Journey, REO Speedwagon and the like, my parents were busy raising me on James Taylor, John Denver, and the Carpenters. My mom was raised in Soda Springs, Idaho and my dad was a choir geek, so frankly I didn't have a chance. But, notwithstanding my big hair band ignorance, I told him to get me a ticket.

Jason requested that we dress up for the affair. I forgot that request until I got to Logan and found Jason in cut-off black jeans and a hideous tie-dyed shirt, with his hair all skewampus and lines etched into the side of his head. I felt bad that he was so committed and I had come unprepared, so I borrowed a bandana and pulled my hair down in messy braids. This is us, giving our best white trash expressions (I don't know what that means either.)


It also happened to be the weekend of the annual Cruise In, so between the car show crowd and the Styx fans there was a colorful group of people to behold. Right in front of us there sat two women; one, a woman who had come by herself to relive her glory days and couldn't stop moving to the music, the other, a silent Japanese woman who looked like she had gotten lost and stumbled upon the concert. The first woman (who I found out later is named Stacey) kept turning to the Japanese lady and talking to her excitedly about the concert, and the Japanese woman just kind of looked at her bewildered. It was making me laugh, so I took a picture of them the best I could without being hauled off by concert security (cameras being prohibited as they were.)
The concert was extremely entertaining... Those Styx characters put on a very fun show. Only a couple of the songs sounded even familiar to me, but it didn't matter. The keyboard-playing one was especially animated, and at one point he broke out into something completely different. Here's a little bit of what he was playing; I regret I didn't record it all but because I was doing it sneakily I had to cut it off early.

Hope you all were able to celebrate your freedoms this weekend in equally amusing ways.