In Transition

Why can I not find a template that I like for this blog? I spent a long time yesterday looking. I did find one that I absolutely LOVE but the person who makes them and unfortunately SELLS (i don't want to have to buy one) them is away from her blog for awhile so I can't get ahold of her.

This is what it looks like:

Any ideas of where to find some cute templates? I'm not talking about just backgrounds, I want the whole layout style changed.

Love Will Fall To The Earth Like A Crashing Wave

I hate Valentine's Day for one and only one reason... Juju hearts. They are the devil in the form of a heart-shaped cherry-flavored amazingness.

At least I am not at BYU anymore. Every time I would walk through the bookstore, past the candy section I would have to stop and get a 1/4 pound of these. While remembering the holiday was coming up I realized I might be able to avoid this temptation because so far the bookstore was the only place I found them. But on a quick stop to WinCo tonight to get sugar free dots (see at least I was trying to be good!!) I spotted them. Uh oh!

Luckily we rarely shop at WinCo and it's not very close to my house. So either my car will be putting on a few extra miles between now and Lovebirds day or I will show great restraint and avoid the constant temptation from my taste buds...

It's like when you pee after drinking a lot of water, and then you find yourself having to go a lot soon after. You broke the barrier. But if you hadn't gone, you would be fine. Well... I broke the barrier. My mouth tasted the cherry goodness. I am going to need some serious will power to resist the urge for more.

I know that sitting right outside of my room there is a bag with a few left in it (my mother and I may have gone a little crazy... and we may or may not have practically finished the "pay by weight" bag before we even got to the register. but that's beyond the point) and they are calling to me. I told them to wait until morning. Breakfast of champions.

A New Day Has Come

Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.

Thank you Elle Woods.

No I am not unhappy right now, I just need a little perk in my life at the moment. I am kind of in a slump again (circa summer '09 when I was taking only one class, had no job, and no friends in Provo to hang out with) Well isn't that funny? Looks like I am in that same situation. No job. Taking one class through Independent Study. (which I have yet to start) No friends in Beaverton. Last summer I had the grand plan of getting a pass to Gold's Gym and make working out my job. Well that kind of fell through the cracks. Typical of me.

Right now I am completely out of shape. I can admit that. I can count on one hand the number of times I ran in Provo since August. Not good. Since coming home for Christmas break/to live I have been walking a few times with my mom. On Tuesday I left my car at my Grandma's and decided to walk home instead. In the pouring rain. It's just under 3 miles from her house to mine. Then the next day I had to go retrieve my car. So I walked again. In the pouring rain. You see the trend here?

Today I had no car to retrieve so I didn't know where to walk to. Plus I thought I would do a mix of walking and running to get back into shape enough to run instead of just walking.

I walked out to a makeshift track made from a trail that circles a park close to my house. I estimated it was a little less than a quarter mile around so it would be easy to keep track of my distance. My plan was to start out small. I didn't want to push myself and burn out. So I told myself I was going to really listen to my body and stop to walk when I needed to. I was thinking I wouldn't get farther than a mile.

I ran for 30 minutes straight!! Around mile 2.5 I answered my phone and had to stop only to type an address in my phone for a job interview tomorrow morning (yay!)

With this new enthusiasm I decided that I would set a goal for myself. So I have been researching HALF marathons to sign up for. My sister-in-law ran the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco last fall. I told myself I would never put my body through that much pain, but the course sounded so cool, going along the San Francisco Bay. Plus you get a sweet little Tiffany necklace if you finish. That's way better than a medal you'll never wear. If I'm going to do this, I am going to show it off. Of course they offer a half marathon at that time, so that might be my goal. But that's too far away. I need something to run sooner. Any ideas?

Right now I am going through my music to create a better running mix. I find myself having to change the song too much. So I am being very picky with this one.

I am excited to see what tomorrow will bring.

On The Wings Of Love

While watching The Bachelor tonight (thank goodness I have another Monday night show to provide quality FHE time) I realized a few things:

1. Jake has weird lines on his face when he talks and smiles. It gets distracting.

Also, I don't think he's a good bachelor. He just doesn't have much to say. He's kinda boring to watch. And plus, hello?!?! did anyone else have a flashback to the bachelor with Jason and the girl who wore the diamonds and the yellow dress and rode in an airplane on their romantic date. I thought things would turn ugly for Ali also. But I'm glad they didn't. I like her.

2. I thought it was disgusting that Rozlyn acted like doing things with a member of the staff was ok while on this show "falling in love" with Jake. I feel like being a contestant on a show like this should make you a one-man woman... guess not.

3. I think Michelle needs to peace out. She is crazy. And I'm scared she's going to hurt someone. I love how Jillian and Ed told him to get rid of her on the first episode. I felt the same way. Obviously Jake didn't. But he did have to get rid of that weird Christina girl first.

4. I hate the girls who spend their TV time talking about how bad the others are.

5. And since when did the phrase "here for the wrong/right reasons" become so commonplace on this show? Was it always like that? I'm getting sick of it. Just concentrate on yourself, play the game to the best of your ability and hopefully you win.

6. I kinda like how Elizabeth said those things about not wanting him to kiss her until he knew for sure that she would be the one in the end. But I know she sure regretted that while watching the fireworks with him. She was tempting him too much and you could tell she just wanted to lean in and give him a kiss.

As cheesy as I think this show is, I always know one thing. I'll be back next week. Monday night. 8 pm. On my couch watching it.

Until next time.

These Streets Will Make You Feel Brand New

I am bored of this layout, but I really love this picture from Busch Stadium. Because, get it, I am in left field... Well left-center. That's as far left field that I got last season. Unless you count the one time I had a Standing Room Only ticket. Or the other stadiums I went to.

But none of these other layouts I am looking at fit with this picture... What to do? What to do?

I'll figure it out in the morning. I might go girly...

Your One And Only Source

The past two years I have celebrated Turkey Day in Las Vegas at my brother's house. Oh man 2008 was amazing. N9NE Steakhouse Turkey meal... The food was sooo good. And the pumpkin cheesecake desserts. That was a good Thanksgiving. Anyway, back to the topic. So celebrating Thanksgiving in Vegas also meant that I'd be doing Black Friday shopping there. For some reason the thought of doing the biggest shopping day of the year in Vegas just overwhelmed me. So last year I opted out and got my rest instead.

But this past TG I spotted one thing in the Target ads that I JUST HAD TO OWN. Gossip Girl Season 1 and 2 were only $12!!! Can you believe that?? I already own season 1 from Blockbuster or something when I forgot to return them and just had to pay the fee to buy them. But I have been dying to get my hands on a copy of season 2 since it came out in August. I checked Amazon a few times a week. I just never had the money for it. It would get down as low as $35 and I would think, sweet I'll get it when it goes even lower, and then when I checked Amazon a few days later, it would be back up to $45 or $60. Ugh... I struggled all fall with wanting to just buy it so I could watch the episodes.

At midnight on November 27th Gossip Girl Season 2 was in my hands and I was a happy woman. Bring on the drama!

[Side note: Did you know that on Black Friday you can take other store ads to Wal-Mart at midnight and they will honor everything in there as long as you're getting the exact same thing? (same brand and everything) So on most things from Target and other stores you don't have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn only to wait 2 hours in line. You can just go to Wal-Mart and get them. You can also get everything in Wal-Mart's ads at that time except the door busters. You're welcome.]

Which brings me to my original point of posting. WHY?? WHY?? WHY?? Is CW making me wait until March for the next episode of season 3?? This is so cruel. I woke up this morning and thought about how it's getting later in January, so my shows should be starting up again. But then it hit me. Not GG. Luckily the Bachelor just started last Monday.

So until then I am left with my nightly (sometimes just a few nights a week) ritual of a gossip girl episode before bed. But if CW were to change their mind and start airing episodes early I wouldn't mind.

XOXO

Dwight Howard Farted And Then Smiled At Me...

My last week at BYU was a blur. I tried to think today about my last few days in Provo and I seriously couldn't remember a single thing I did... One thing I know I did one of the last weeks was go to the Jazz game with BYU Daily News media passes. This was my last chance and I just wanted to get the experience one more time. I went last year with Maddie when the Jazz played the Blazers. That was fun. Mostly I just wanted to get into the Blazers locker room and talk to Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez. Turns out I tense up in the presence of my favorite players. But it was just being on the court during the game. I had to take advantage of it one last time, so I arranged with a friend to go with me to the Orlando Magic game.

Rules are if you're going to sit on the court with the media you have to be holding a camera. We got busted for that one at the Blazers game. So this time we came prepared and both brought cameras to take video during the game. Turns out there weren't very many media people there anyway that night so there was plenty of room on the court. Plus they had designated a space for us so we got to sit where ever. Obviously we chose to sit next to the Magic bench. I love that the person I was with didn't care about the Jazz either.

Although the Jazz won, it was an exciting game. Vince Carter and Deron Williams were inches away from falling on me. I didn't know how to react. But my favorite was Carter doing his pre-game stretches right in front of me. He walked over to a few feet away from us and proceeded to bend over in stretch. Ya, that wasn't obvious... After the game we shot a few stand-ups and then went to the Magic locker room. And that is definitely where all the Magic happened. We had to stand and wait for at least 20 minutes waiting for Vince Carter and Dwight Howard to get showered and dressed. Howard took the longest by far. He would come out for one thing, go back into the shower, then come back a few minutes later for another thing. But he entertained us while doing this and while getting dressed so it was worth it.

It was a lot of fun. A great way to end my Daily News experience. I now am a big an of Dwight Howard and feel like we are best friends. He will tell you the same thing. He loves me.

Oh p.s. another highlight was seeing Hall of Famer, Patrick Ewing coaching for the Magic. He's a big guy!

Little Did I Know That Girl Was An Assassin Too

November 17th:

• the day I flew to Fresno to start my Thanksgiving break
• the day my necklaces and iPhone charger were stolen from my suitcase while it sat at the horrible PHX airport
• the day I sat at the PHX airport for 6 hours because my flight has serious issues
• the day I decided never to fly US Airways ever again
• but most importantly... the day I bought Battle Studies in the Salt Lake airport at 6 am MST and didn't stop listening to it on repeat until about 3 pm PST

That album has changed my life. I can listen to it anytime, anywhere, for any amount of time. John Mayer's lyrics are so powerful!

Now I have to admit. I heard Who Says and I wasn't completely convinced... It didn't make me want to buy the album when it came out. But I was sitting there in the airport and thought, what better way to spend a full day of traveling then listening to John Mayer's voice.

From Edge of Desire's "I want you so bad I'll go back on the things I believe. There I just said it, I'm scared you'll forget about me." to Half of My Heart's "Half of my heart is a shotgun wedding to a bride with a paper ring and half of my heart is the part of a man who's never truly loved anything."

Perfectly Lonely is my theme song right now and I LOVE it. "Nothing to dooooo, nowhere to beeee, a simple little kind of free. Nothing to doooo, no one but meeee." AHHHH love this song!!

So why did it take me 2 months to post about this amazing album?? I decided today that I want to go to his concert this year. Well... He's coming to Portland and Seattle when I will be in Spain. So that's out of the question. So I looked up the rest of his tour dates and found out he will be in LA the day before we fly out of LAX for Spain! How amazing. Go see John Mayer one night and then hop on a plane the next night for Europe! Could that week be any better?? I think not. Only problem though, only crappy seats are left. So I got to find some gems on craigslist to purchase.

I am a little sad though that I won't be able to have the same John Mayer concert experience that I had two summers ago in North Carolina (minus the rain and my iPhone breaking because of getting wet) I LOVED sitting on the grass at the outdoor arena and listening to perfect music. Sitting inside a closed arena in uncomfortable seats won't be the same... oh well. Anything to hear him perform live again...