Sandy

I want to give a shout out to my little sis, Sandra. She's awesome, by the way. I don't know how many of you know her, but you should. She makes me laugh and I love talking to her for hours.

Love ya, Sis!

Thankful.

Well, another Thanksgiving has come and gone and I’ve gone all sappy again thinking about the blessing in my life. Not necessarily in any order, my blessings include:

#1: I live in one of the most beautiful places ever. I know I mock the “ Utah bubble” sometimes and, especially in the horrible, horrible winter I long for my home state of Texas . But Utah really is a great place. I live literally 3 minutes away from towering, snow-capped mountains which, right now at least, are covered with trees of bright yellow, fiery orange and surprising purple. I’ve lived here for almost 3 ½ years and it really would be hard to leave.

#2: I have a wonderfully crazy family. I can’t imagine life without my sisters and I have tons of fun wrestling and goofing around with my brothers. My parents have always been there with open arms when, most of the time, I deserved a smack on the head. And now I’m lucky enough to live somewhat nearby my extended family, who rival my own family in the “goofy” department.

#3: I have amazing friends. Corrine, who keeps me on the straight and narrow; Rachel, who keeps me sane; and Alisca, who keeps me laughing. Thank you for the late night giggle-fests, the ice-cream girl-talk sessions, for supporting me when I need it and telling me to “wake up” and get out of a bad situation when I need it even more. You are amazing.

#4: I have a great job. I took this job when I moved up here as a transitional thing, but now I just love it and I’m actually really good at what I do. Go figure.

#5: I am really happy. And I like myself and I'm proud of my accomplishments. I realize that some people don't like me, but I think that they're dumb, because I'm awesome.

Gobble, gobble.

On Thanksgiving morning, I ran in Salt Lake’s annual 6k “Cold Turkey Run” with Amy (my sister), James (my brother), Sarah (my friend), and Rachel (my friend) along with 995 other participants. It was so fun (painful)!
We started up at the Capitol building and went down into City Creek Canyon and then back through the canyon ending just below the Capitol. We all started together then broke into our own pace. I was going swift and steady (last).
I decided to do the race because I was excited to generate a proud feeling of accomplishment (my sister told me to do it).
As I ran (hobbled) along, I paused every so often to appreciate the beauty of my surroundings (I ran into a tree). I also enjoyed the crisp Utah breeze (icy death-fingers) and the stream (standing water) at the bottom of the canyon (it smelled like a urinal). The tingling (horrible burning) in my muscles as I crossed the finish line let me know that I had accomplished something worthwhile (I wanted to die).
All in all, a good (satanic) tradition.

Not quite a whim.

I've been thinking about doing something to my hair for a while. I really like my hair in the summertime because it gets really blond and dry (which makes it easier to style). But now it's winter and my hair is brown and boring and straight again and I'm just getting sick of it.

Yesterday, I was finally sick of just thinking about it and decided to just do it and get it over with. So I called the salon, thinking how shocked everyone was going to be when I came back with a stylin' new 'do. I asked the guy, David, when the next available appointment was.

"I could probably fit you in . . . next . . .Thursday?"

"You mean Thanksgiving?"

"Oh, right. I was wondering why we didn't have any appointments that day! Well, how about December 3rd?"

"Really? That's almost 3 weeks away!"

"Yeah."

So I officially have an appointment for a cut and color in like 3 weeks. Not exactly a whim, is it?

P.S. I will definitely be posting "before and after" pictures because I think this change is going to be pretty dramatic.

Nine years running and no cavities!

I went to a new dentist today. He was approximately 156 years old and pretty darn adorable. He mentioned that I had beautiful teeth about 4 times and then called the hygienist over to verify that they were, indeed, beautiful.

As he was cleaning my beautiful teeth he happily chatted on about war and football, pausing only to ask if I watched Dancing With the Stars, which is his favorite TV show. His wife tapes it for him. "That Marie is just a really talented gal!"

I was growing to adore this wrinkly old man when he started in on "the questions." Any single person knows what I'm talking about.

"So, are you married?"

"Huuh, uhh."

"Don't worry. It will happen. Do you have a boyfriend out here?"

"Naaah." (His hand was in my mouth.)

"Really? A cute girl like you?"

"Naharah ragumba garumg."

"Do you go on a lot of dates?"

"Aaragshy."

"You should. You need to put yourself out there. You have to date a lot to get married. Marriage is just such a blessing. Single gals like you . . . " (continues in this vein for about 4 minutes)
"Well, just keep working on it."

At this point he doesn't realize that I'm "working" on not biting his little old hands in frustration.

I understand that it is human nature to be interested in other people's lives, but when people insinuate that it is impossible for a person to be complete and happy while not in a committed relationship is infuriating and patronizing. I also understand the importance of marriage and family. I really do. People do not need to continue to remind me. I already know. Really. I do.

Sorry if this does not make any sense to everyone; I'm just a little sensitive right now.

Attention span?

I set out to do some work on my Christmas cards today. (Thought that I would get an early start.) This is what happened instead. . . .

I don't have an attention span problem, do I?

Mavs fan 4 life.

So the Mavericks are coming to Salt Lake in December and James and I are going. I'm so excited! If anyone else is going to be in town the day after Christmas, you should come with us. (No Jazz fans allowed in my car, Alisca.) Also, face painting may be in order. I just hope the crazy Jazz fans don't attack us or burn my car or something, Alisca. Those fans can get out of control, Alisca. Just putting that out there, Alisca.

Just another Wednesday.

I was out of my office for 2 days this week because one of our teachers is out and I was covering her class. Everytime I walked by my office, I saw the pile of papers in my inbox grow and grow and grow. I finally got a chance to get back to my desk today and the looming pile of work is a little overwhelming.

Answer: blog!

Today is picture day at school which is the day that all the kids come in their very best clothes and turn into little Tasmanian devils. Seriously, you can put a kid in jeans and a t-shirt and he will still be pristine at the end of the day. Put that same kid in a suit and tie and you'll be scraping clumps of mud off him in 15 minutes flat.

Sometime today, I hope to create and print a new ALLERGY AND SENSITIVITY list, process last week's Point of Service sheets, review the production sheets for October, fill three open positions here, enter our students into the new UISSI program Webkids, and master the Thai language so I can communicate with our new student.

Also, I have to find out today if Rice Krispies are creditable as a breakfast food by the USDA CACFP program. (If you just said "huh?" then, JINX!)

So, I'd better get to work. . . .