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.

Coming up for air

Hey readers... sorry I've been slacking on the posting. Here's a quick summary, and I hope to have more detailed and entertaining things to say again soon:

- Wrapping up loose ends at my job and it's making me grumpy.
- New job options are opening and look promising.
- New church calling is more time-consuming than I'd prefer.
- Can check "speed dating" off my list of things to do in my lifetime.
- Hair is now less dramatic and more like me (apologies, my hair dresser... I promise, it's nothing personal).

Since I've failed to provide you anything original to laugh at this time around, try this out for size until I can get back to you.

Harry Carey?

Can you believe I've lived my whole Mormon life without having ever seen Saturday's Warrior until tonight? My verdict: I could have gone a couple more lifetimes without it. The part that I found the most ridiculous (I know, it's hard to pick a favorite) is that of all the things that Jimmy's friends could be using their influence to pressure him about, they've chosen world overpopulation. I certainly know it was a hot topic at my school, so much that alongside the D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. programs (if you've never heard of the latter, it's because you didn't grow up in Rose Park), there was S.N.O.O.T.: Say No to Opinions about Obscure Topics. Sheesh.

Neither here nor there. First, bowling. I'm bad at it, but was convinced to go last night. Here are some pics. I think of our two games I topped out at near 80.

Second, I spent two and a half hours at a salon yesterday morning having this done to my hair:

Love the cut, don't love the color. I know it doesn't look bad, it just looks unnatural on me. For some reason such obvious and unnatural-looking highlights imply a certain amount of high-maintainance-ness to my personality, which I don't appreciate. Consequently, I will be doing something to remedy the blonde tomorrow. Here's hoping it turns out okay; I'll let you know how it goes.

My Sweet Baboo

Happy Valentines Day. Here's some cookies I made for a service project last night:

Also here's the valentine I'll be giving my co-workers tomorrow. I won't claim it as my original idea; in fact, I stole it from some girls on my mission. But I love the fact that you can slap the band-aid on yourself anywhere and be wearing a valentine all day long!

I know it's the cool thing to hate Valentine's Day if you're single, but I don't really anymore. People are in love, that's great. In truth, it's probably the ONLY day of the year that when I see public displays of affection that I don't want to punch people in the neck.

Rear view.

In my continual picking apart of my own brain I made a new discovery recently. The reason I have a tendency to instigate change in my own life is that the change will be under my own control, on my own time. In the meantime I hope that I'm instigating enough change in my own life that the Heavens will not see it necessary to inflict any unexpected change on me. I don't really like to be caught off guard. Who does, really? Anyway, consequently I'm always keeping an eye out for change that might ambush me, which also probably explains why I overanalyze most anything. And so the blog entry thus far has come full circle.

Lucky for you, that's the only deep thinking I have for you tonight. The rest will be pictures of recent activities...

First, a couple of snowmen my roommate Jenny and I made after shoveling one Sunday afternoon. In the process of making them we really didn't have an agenda, but the final product could be interpreted many ways. Especially if you correctly identify the snowman on the left to actually be a snow-woman, and not a snowman with a rockin' '80's mullet.

On Thursday my roommates and I hosted a Chinese New Year gathering. Two or so years ago I realized mid-day that it was Chinese New Year, and decided at the last minute to go get a Panda Express meal in honor of the day. Later on that evening I also just happened to have rented the movie Serenity, which has some subtle Chinese elements to it, and chuckled at the coincidence. Well, last year I did the same exact thing on purpose, and this year the tradition has followed suit. However, this year I invited quite a few more people to partake in my tradition. It was truly a testament to the fact that all people really need is a place and a time, and they'll gather for the most absurd of reasons. But then again, I didn't get this fortune in my cooking for nothin'...

Lastly, today I picked up bleach trays for my teeth. I had no idea they were going to give me a whole mold of my mouth, and though for most of the day they've freaked me out, the following has made me laugh instead of cringe every time I see them.

Job hunt continues, as does my countdown until I can leave my current one.