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. . . .

Hay, now . . .

So I'm the designated shopper for the school that I work at which is great because it combines two of my favorite things: shopping with someone else's money and getting paid for it. It's a pretty sweet deal.
Whenever one of the teachers needs something from the store, she submits a purchase request and every other Monday I buy the approved items.
Last week one of the teachers requested a bale of straw.
"Okay," I thought, "that should be easy enough."

Right.

First comes the problem of where to buy a bale of straw in the middle of a semi-big city. Called around. Struck out at Wal-Mart, Dan's, and Smith's.
Finally I got lucky with Albertson'sIt'sYourStore.
So I head to Albertson'sIt'sYourStore thinking this is going to take 15 minutes and I'll be back at my desk in no time.
Well, was I in for a treat.
I went up to the customer "service" counter (is that how to do sarcasm online?) and the lady had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently I threw her off when I referred to it as a "bale of straw" rather than a "straw bale."
After I paid for the "straw bale" I asked where the bales were located so I could put one into my SUV and be on my way.
"They're all out front."
"You mean the ones covered in pumpkins?"
"Yeah."
"But they're all covered in pumpkins," I said.
"Well, you can take the pumpkins off," was her helpful reply.
By the way, I am wearing a skirt and heels.

So there I am, in my heels, lugging pumpkins off a huge straw bale. I chose the bale based on the least amount of pumpkins I had to move, but I swear I still moved about 12 dirty, heavy pumpkins.

Then came the fun part of actually getting this straw back to school. I heave it into the back of my SUV and, in the process, completely cover myself and my cargo area with straw.

I never knew how heavy straw is.

Back at school, I take the straw out of my car and leave it in the parking lot while I jog inside.
I grab a large garbage bag out of the custodial closet and head back to the parking lot, thinking that I can put the straw inside and avoid covering my clothes with straw again.
Unfortunately, a bale of straw is bigger than a garbage bag.

After much heaving and huffing, I carry that stupid straw up to the building, leave it outside the classroom of the teacher who requested it, and go back to my office where my boss laughs hysterically when she sees my appearance and hears the story of how it all came to be.

Oh, yeah. And I think I'm allergic to straw because I now have a reddish, itchy rash on my arms and hands.

So, I think I'm going to go home now, in my car that smells like a barn, and take a bubble bath.

Today was good and bad.

Today was one of those days that doesn't really qualify as a good day, but it doesn't quite make it to "bad day" status. It was just a medium day.

Good things:
-My sister made me lunch today and it was muy bueno.
-I rocked out to Bon Jovi on my way to work. Always puts me in a good mood.
-I'm wearing my favorite skirt today and I'm not lying when I say I look smokin'.
-The Office is on tonight! Can't wait! Cause that show is awesome! Hooray!

Bad things:
-My little sister was out here visiting for the past week and she went home today. Sad.
-The IT guy at work came by today and confirmed my suspicions that he is an idiot. By the way, I cannot access any of my files or my email until he can send someone over tomorrow to fix whatever he did today. (Note: this is a totally different IT guy that the one previously mentioned on this blog. That guy actually knew what he was doing.)
-There was a really big deal going through today at work that I kinda dropped the ball on. Due to my slick maneuverings I was able to iron most of it out, but I was the one who caused the problem in the first place and I feel like an idiot.

So, just a medium day.