Wednesday, February 27, 2008

What you get when I don't have funny stories from work...

The Office Personality Quiz

I was bored tonight, not knowing what to do or what to write about, and so I roamed around the world wide web and found this quiz. Sometimes I like and value online quizzes. I find, however, that the quizzes that I value the most (and, consequently, believe to be the most accurate) are the ones that give me the answer that I most agree with. For example, The Office quiz said that I am most like Pam. I can handle that. I like Pam. If it had told me that I was like Dwight I would have had to disagree. If it had said I was most like Michael, I'd probably be searching for "ways to change my personality" on Google, instead of writing this blog. Here's another of my favorite quizzes: Which Smurf are You?

They gave me two options. I guess I have a split personality. I like both options, so this quiz is pretty accurate too. =]


Saturday, February 23, 2008

Two Homes, One Heart

When I was growing up we used to drive up to Provo, Utah for an entire week every summer so that my Mom and Dad could attend the seminary symposium. We hung out on campus, made faces at the college students, and played in the courtyards and in the hallways of the buildings. To this day the tiny dinosaur museum on University Parkway, next to the football stadium, with the decrepit green dinosaur out front (which I think they might have gotten rid of) holds a special place in my heart. It was our favorite place to visit. Dad would buy us tiny dino miniatures, or dinosaur puzzles.

When I turned twelve and went into young women's, the Girls Camp was perpetually scheduled for that same week, and even though I had a lot of fun going to camp I missed the more than eight-hundred-mile-drive up to the Wasatch Front. It was only natural that I apply to BYU when I was ready to go to college, and it ended up being the only application I sent in. I lived and worked and went to school and met new friends and learned how to live on my own for three years in Provo. Then I left for my mission, disappearing for a year and a half. As I got off the tiny plane that took me the 30 minute ride from LA to San Diego, I remember feeling the moisture in the air, seeing the boats in the harbor nearby, and knowing that I was home. A few weeks later a strange thing happened. I boarded a plane to Salt Lake City, Utah, planning to revisit my college campus and my sisters who were living nearby. As the pilot spoke into the intercom, telling us that we would be landing in just a few minutes, I looked out the window I was sitting by and felt a lump in my throat. It felt so strange, to have that same feeling of coming home when I knew that I had just left it. I didn't realize how much I'd missed living in Provo while I was on my mission until that moment.

After a few months of working in San Diego, I returned to school at BYU. It was almost a repeat of the first three years of my college life--amazing friends, difficult classes, the same mountains looming to the east of me, protecting me from harm. Some things were a little different. Decisions about my education and my future life had to be made, and I managed them the best that I could. By the end of two years, I was tired. I had spent almost an entire 7 years away from my family in San Diego, and I needed a break. I left my home to go home.

Then last week I went up to Provo for a visit and a writing conference. Now, in the past two years I have traveled up to Utah several times, but I've always managed to only stay for two, possibly three days. Not long enough for me to reattach myself to my mountains, my friends, or my campus. So maybe I made a mistake in staying the six days that I was up there last week, because my home away from home began to feel like home again. If I moved back up there, things would be different. So I guess you can't always have what you want when you want it where you want it, because if I could I would narrow the distance between San Diego and Provo.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentines Day

So, it's been another productive Valentine's day. Approximately 24 hours ago I was being dropped off at the San Diego Airport, on my way to Salt Lake City. 22 hours ago, I was calling my brother to come pick me up from the San Diego Airport and bring me back home. Apparently it was so ridiculously windy in Las Vegas that there was no way I would be arriving in Salt Lake City before 2am. So I figured, rather than miss my connecting flight in LV and have to spend the night next to a slot machine, I should probably just rebook it and sleep in my own comfy bed. What a great brother I have to come pick me up from the airport! In the end it turned out to be a really good thing that I hadn't come up last night. Both my sisters called telling me that the weather was extremely terrible and dangerous; and driving in Utah in terrible weather at 2am, after you're already tired from traveling isn't ever a good idea.

14 hours ago I was at it again, standing in line at the SD airport. This time I wouldn't have to change planes in LV (much to my Mom's relief. There was an incident a few years back just after finals where I was so tired that I fell asleep in the Las Vegas airport and missed my flight. Oops!). When we got to Vegas we had to wait for a while because we didn't have a pilot. We all thought it might be important to have one of those, so we agreed to wait. I put the arms up on the seats next to me and stretched out on the three seats, grateful I'd carried my pillow with me on the flight. I began reading my book, occasionally distracted by a little 11 year old passenger taping up paper hearts on the overhead bins to earn chocolates from the stewardess. The funny thing is that seeing that little boy running around a stranded airplane in the middle of the Las Vegas airport and taping up paper hearts with such an excited look on his face was the most Valentines-y that I've felt in a while. And I don't just mean February 14th romantic stuff. I mean that warm feeling all over your heart that makes love alive inside you whenever you need it. His joy was pure, so he shared that pure-joy feeling with me, and I'm grateful. Maybe I was supposed to miss my flight last night just so I could see him put up those paper hearts.

I arrived in SLC and picked up my bags that had gotten there sometime in the middle of the night, as they had traveled all lonesome-like on that first windy flight leaving San Diego. I found my rental car-a banana yellow Chevy-and made my way down to Provo. I spent the rest of the day attending some of the lectures I came down here to attend, and bowling with Britte. Whenever bowling occurs on a Valentine's Day, you know it's been a good one. Now I'm just sitting in the good old RB, waiting for Britte's karate class to end. It's kind of fun being back on BYU campus. There is a lot of stuff about BYU that I would probably change if I could...but the good memories and good things about the school outweigh all that other petty stuff.

Friday, February 08, 2008

The Young and the Restless

My co-workers and I frequently make jokes about our job. The running joke is that we could take all the incidents that happen, change the names and maybe the objects that are broken, stolen, or destroyed, and turn the story into an award winning mid-morning soap opera. We have girls that get pregnant and aren't sure who the father is. We have members who steal decorative statues in order to pawn them off to buy...who knows what. There are all sorts of love triangles, anger over mismanaged lives, and pride that gets hurt, leading our "characters" to do drastic things.

We had one of those days today. I mean, you know it's been a Soap Opera day when you can serenely say to your mom that you are late getting home from work because you had to stay late to clean up the blood on the sidewalk and wait for the glass repairmen to finish replacing the window for the safety door. Just another day with the Young and the Restless. At least they didn't steal our frozen chicken nuggets this time.

Friday, February 01, 2008

The funny little things that give me joy

The Dramatic Chipmunk

The Lemur


The Mother Look

Masterpiece Theater


Isn't there something in the phrase "Masterpiece Theater"? In one simple phrase, you know exactly what you are getting. What you are watching has been declared a masterpiece by the simple fact that it is being permitted to be shown in that specific time slot. If you don't like going to the theater there is no need to worry about it, because you can watch it in the comfort of your own home. If you adore going to the theater but have limited funds (ahem), then it is even better for you. Your imagination can be swept away, dreaming that you are actually sitting in those cushy red seats taking in a show; and don't worry. There's no need to "imagine" that you had to pay too much for nosebleed seats where you can barely see the characters' figures, much less their animated facial expressions. You can sit two feet away from your television to watch it if you want to (although I don't suggest it...and neither does your optometrist), and it would still be a great show.

Check out the Masterpiece Theater Lineup