carpe diem

today:

• i got to work before 9am.

• i wore a skirt *and* did my hair.

• i bought a gym membership from costco.

• i branched out and bought a chocolate chip frappuccino with peppermint for happy hour half-price frappuccinos week -- not as good as my regular mocha non-coffee frap.

• i tried bayer (aka "the wonder drug") for my back pain -- verdict: works better than tylenol (and since i'm not donating blood until saturday, i'm okay to take it).

• my co-worker got called "laura webb-ensen" for not taking a lunch break.

• i learned how to fed-ex at work.

• i hand wrote out 42 percentage calculations on one sheet of paper.

• i locked myself out of my office after everyone had already gone home, and then spent an hour and a half chilling with the security team waiting for the admin to come back and let me in, rather than pay a $300-fee to have them open the door for me.

big day.

not proud

i'm sorry, but i cannot deny that i like this song:

when it comes on the radio, i actually turn the volume up. obviously, this is serious.

can we still be friends?

martha

this is what i made yesterday:

these are why:

never underestimate the demands of a great shoe.

the gravy

my boy jerry takes care of me. when i visited the woodworths this summer, mike made fun of me for how in love i am with my jerry jetta. but i cannot deny it: he is amazing. pretty, fuel efficient, powerful, acclaimed, sporty ... without belaboring all the features that i have already mentioned, i must tell you about some that i have grown to love over the past 3 months:

• sunroof. pretty sure i have already mentioned it, but i had to say that i *love*, love, love my sunroof. there is never a time when i drive without it open. man, that was a great choice, christianna. really. good job.

• courtesy blinkers. they blink, blink, blink and then turn off when you change lanes. talk about awesome. i will no longer ever be one of "those" people, driving down the highway unaware that my blinkers are confusing drivers on all sides.

• heated seats. now, i admit that living in sunny socal really limits the need for heated seats ... but ... i have horrible back trouble most of the days, and these heated seats provide the right amount of relaxing warmth for my whining muscles. ahhh. not the manufacturer's intended purpose, i know, but perhaps all the more valuable for it.

okay, ryan, i'll stop rubbing it in now. hope you get yours soon.

a mutual error

i was in chicago for work, participating in a team-building activity called "planks" at the time the 2-hour house season premier aired. the activity was kind of an interesting puzzle thing, and i like puzzles, but my team didn't win or get any prizes. *and* i missed house.

i was so annoyed.

so i got home from my trip around midnight on monday this week and turned on the tv to catch up on my house-watching, only to find that direct tv had recorded the episodes but wouldn't replay them! can you believe it? what's the point of recording the show if it can't be replayed? the dvr just sat there "searching for authorized content" for 5 minutes, then asked me if i want to delete the show.

uhh ... no! i don't want to delete the show! i want to *watch* the show! seriously, people.

i answered "no", and tried again. but same thing. and again.

i was even more annoyed than plank night.

but -- what can you do?

[grumble]

so tonight, i watched house online. my first time online. kinda cool set-up: fox.com posts the full episode 8 days after initial air. means i have to wait a week -- but it's not like i have oodles of time to just sit around watching house all day anyway.

the only really annoying thing, i suppose, is that each full episode is sponsored by a single advertiser -- which means that each regularly scheduled commercial break consists of only one commercial -- but it's the *same* commercial every 15 minutes. and you can't skip or fast forward or anything.

in tonight's case, the advertiser was northwestern mutual. life insurance. blah-blah.

on the third time through this riveting juxtaposition between baseball and blah-blah, i noticed something interesting in the commercial: the company can't even spell their own legal name right.

ha ha.

well, in all fairness, their tagline is, "put our strength to work for you." they said nothing about putting their spelling skills to work for you.

okay.

always prepared

wondering what to put in your trunk? well, as i disassemble mine in this pictorial essay, take note. have you forgotten any of this?

fuzzy jacket, pillow, and blanket -- it's a cold, cold world.

72-hour kit, toilet paper in a zip-loc, an empty grocery sack, and *2* first aid kits -- you never know what could happen on the 405.

tire pressure gauge and tire inflator -- first you check your tire pressure, then you inflate the tire. in that order.

a beach ball, a frisbee, a towel, a tank top and shorts, sunblock, and *2* bathing suits -- it's spelled c-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a.

3 types of pass-along cards, copies of the Book of Mormon (spanish and english), mormon pamphlets, and a Temple bag -- you might be inspired to do something with those.

printer, hole punch, and luggage roller -- for the auditor extraordinaire.

and holes -- where there is a hole puncher ...

how'd you do?

i am sure that if the boy scouts were to have a patch for the always prepared trunk, i would win it for sure. (you win patches, right?)

stay tuned, friends, if you're lucky we may soon venture on to the treasure trove known as the glove box.

one redeeming quality

tonight was the relief society Christmas dinner at the ward building. i love my relief society. i go to a family ward and so there are sisters there from every walk of life ... and they are so much fun!! i love it. so tonight was a great opportunity to see all of them outside of the sunday church atmosphere and enjoy some delicious homemade soup and salad.

when i noted the menu, i will admit that i was a little disappointed. despite the myriad of amazing-looking soups -- from clam chowder to turkey bisque, from chicken chili to homemade dumplings, it was a splendid spread -- i wasn't very excited to dig in. (isn't that horrible for me to admit?)

you see, as i previously explained: i don't really like spoons. i think they are ugly and i think they as not nearly as useful as a fork.

however, the chicken tortilla soup that one of the sisters prepared tonight made the use of a spoon not only necessary and forgivable, but totally and completely encouraged. seriously.

there you have it, friends. the spoon's one redeeming quality: chicken tortilla soup. amen.

poked and prodded

"the veins in my left arm are tiny and blood flows slowly."

that's what i told the phlebotomist last time i went in. that's what i tell the phlebotomist every time i go in. the saturday morning phlebotomists already know me and know my veins, so there's usually no confusion. but this last time was a tuesday evening. the tuesday-evening phlebotomist didn't believe me.

"well, what about this vein right here?" she asked, pointing to a tiny vein in my left elbow pit.

"they usually can't get that one; it's too tiny."

"i think i can get it ... see it there?"

"well, you can try, but the last time they tried, they couldn't get it and it flowed too slowly."

"i think i can get it ..."

"you can try, but it usually doesn't work. usually they just poke this vein here in my wrist or the one in my hand."

"i think i can get it."

with that, she started sterilizing my left elbow pit with the iodine and betadine ... okay, we'll try it!

and she got the needle in! that was pretty painless. so she opened the valve and let the saline solution begin to flow into the vein. the vein was flowing slowly. interesting. and oddly surprising. i kinda wish someone had said that the vein is too tiny and flows slowly. wait -- i think *i* actually said that. lemme check ... yeah. i did. i said it. i told her. i warned her.

because the vein was so tiny and flowing so slowly, the saline started to fill my whole elbow pit area, forming a growing lump ...

so, as i sat there watching my elbow get larger as it filled with saline, i could do nothing besides just chuckle on the inside and listen as the phlebotomist suggested that maybe we poke the vein in my wrist or in my hand. which she did: she pulled the needle out of my left arm elbow pit and put a new one in my wrist, where i happen to have *huge* veins. pronto. the rest of the platelet donation visit was pretty uneventful. i watched the other boleyn girl (great movie), and enjoyed many snacks.

that night, i took the bandage off and the lump was still there. so i put the bandage back on. in the morning the lump was still there. and i started getting a big bruise. fun times! so i called the red cross, y'know, just to check. the phlebotomist told me that because "we" had ruptured the vein (i *love* how she included me as one of the culprits), i should expect the lump and the bruise to remain for about 10 days.

after 10 days, my elbow still looked like this:

so ... the bruise has now healed and my elbow has returned to mostly normal. there's still a bit of a lump in there. it's been a month. oh, well.

don't you fret, though: this experience isn't keeping me from donating platelets (i went again last night) ... but i *am* going to be more adamant with the tuesday-evening phlebotomists, that's for sure.

(p.s. -- is there an actual name for the "elbow pit"? i feel kinda dumb calling it the "elbow pit".)

harping

i started taking harp lessons in high school. there was a lady in my ward that played and she taught me, in exchange for babysitting. and it was especially perfect because whenever i babysat, i would get to practice my songs. though ... it also meant that she knew *exactly* how much i was practicing ... hmmm ...

right before my senior year, though, we moved from the bay area to idaho. and my harp teacher did not move with us.

then i graduated from high school. then i went to college. then i graduated from college. then i went on a mission. then i went back to college. and i decided to try harp again. i took one semester of class at byu my last semester and loved it.

so when i moved to l.a., i really wanted to continue. i found a teacher, found a harp to rent, and got started.

so now it's been about 1½ years and i still love it. we just finished my first cd (don't get too excited; my teacher records my songs when i "pass them off". we did a cassette tape first, then a cd.) so because my cd is now full, my teacher gave it to me and i have burned some of my songs to post here soon. hope you'll like them! don't expect too much, i'm still a beginner.

oh -- last week was my harp recital, too. that was a lot of fun. i screwed up a lot -- in ways i have never screwed up before -- but had a good time. thanks, eden & clint, for coming. :)

(you can thank my harp recital for these pics. well, and you can thank eden & clint, too. i guess.)

ain't made for walkin'

i decided last month that i want to own some snakeskin shoes. well, particularly that i want to own some strappy snakeskin sandals ...

... but it's winter. and i was at target. because, as we all know, i love target. and because we *also* all know that i have no patience for shopping. so what i found are these *fake* snakeskin heels:

they're a fairly attractive shoe, i admit. but i tell ya, these shoes weren't meant to be worn all day.

i wore them to church on sunday. but it was stake conference -- so it was only 2 hours and i was sitting in one chair the whole time -- and then i came home and put my flip flops back on. (can i just ask *why* "professional dress" frowns upon flip flops? really. i mean, today you can find flip flops that would coordinate with anything. i vote that we as a nation re-think "professional dress" and give flip flops a second chance. who's with me?)

so, since the sassy snakeskin shoes gave me no trouble on sunday, i didn't think anything about their newness and the need to "break them in" when i decided they would look fabulous with my striped sweater and dress khakis on tuesday.

and now i have blisters. on both my heels. and even on a couple of my toes. my toes are sad about that.

i want it ...

my harp teacher informed me a couple weeks ago that she would be selling one of her harps. yes, the one that i fell in love with earlier this year:

i want it ...

charitable donation

i have been donating platelets at the american red cross for about a year now: pretty much since i moved out here. and i love it. now, some of my friends don't understand why i do this. i can go in up to every 2 weeks, but mostly try to make it once a month. it is a bit time consuming (one donation takes about 1½ to 2½ hours), but among the benefits, i count the following:

1. you save a life, or two, or three, or ... -- platelets are needed for cancer patients and other people undergoing a bone marrow transplant, surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment or organ transplant. people with type a+ blood are particularly good donors, and can even give 2 or 3 units in one sitting. that's 2 or 3 lives right there. so you can pat yourself on the back for that.

2. it doesn't really cost you that much -- your body starts replenishing platelets pretty much immediately. within 48 hours, your body's platelets should be completely replenished and you'll be totally back to normal, assuming you were "normal" to begin with. so ... what does it hurt?

3. you get to feel needed -- platelets can only be stored for aout 5 days. so that means they need to keep replenishing that supply. and, as it states on the red cross website, "platelet donors have the satisfaction of knowing that their donation will be saving a life within just a few days." you get to feel needed and satisfied.

4. it keeps you healthy -- i know that when i am planning to go in and donate, i kind of watch what i am eating and make sure i get enough liquids and such a little bit more than normal. in order to give platelets, you have to meet the same good health requirements as for donating whole blood. the thing that always gets me is the iron levels ... so i've learned that for the couple of days before i donate, i need to eat a little more red meat (ha! as if i could possibly eat more beef than normal!), or spinach, or raisins ... i've been learning all kinds of things that have iron in them. and i even find that chocolate has some good iron in it, more than i would expect, considering the bad rap chocolate always gets. it has iron! it's healthy, i tell you!

5. you can catch up on movies -- because the donation takes so long, they let you watch a movie while you are there. the following are just some of the movies i have seen while donating:

   the prestige
   transformers
   girl with the pearl earring
   failure to launch
   the aviator
   premonition
   cinderella man
   an unfinished life
   lord of the rings: two towers
   the illusionist
   x-men 3

   it's a perfect opportunity to see the flick you missed in the theater. my red cross is constantly getting new movies. in fact, i think they just joined netflix, so they can keep up with what's newly coming out.

6. you can catch up on cookie-consumption -- you know how when you give blood, you get to go to the "treats table" afterward and munch on some sugary goodness -- and that's when you just donate whole blood, which takes about 20 minutes -- well, imagine how many cookies they will let you eat (and even take some with you) after your 2-hour donation! i suppose i could include herein a list of some of the snacks i have eaten after donating platelets, too, but i think we'd all get a little sick just thinking about all those calories.

   oh! my red cross just got all new kinds of snacks, too!

i just scheduled an appointment for this saturday (yes, partly because of the new snacks) -- and i think all of you should look up the number for your local american red cross and set up an appointment for yourselves. i went twice last month and i am scheduled to go twice again this month. can you keep up?

now, before i wrap up this post, i have a question. i would definitely consider a platelet donation as "charitable." wouldn't you? so ... do you suppose i can get some sort of deduction for that on my taxes this year? just wonderin' ...

---

(to follow-up ... this is what i found at irs.gov. phooey.)

a pastime

if any of you guys haven't yet checked out "the pioneer woman" blog i have listed over there on the left, you are missing out!!

lately, she has been posting the story of how she met and fell in love with her husband, which has been hilarious! (and a story that any woman will love and wish she were the one living it.)

i have found her site to be the best way to waste time here at work -- way better than updating my own blog ... which i usually find entertaining enough ... but seriously: reading hers is way better. promise.

she also posts recipes and cooking tips on her linked site.

(and she takes really cool pictures. honestly, i don't know what she *doesn't* do.)

a day off

the day started for the first time on friday at 430 in the morning. as i was laying down for bed thursday night around 1230, it suddenly occurred to me that friday comes after thursday: my friend vanessa asked me to take her to the flyaway friday morning. so i set my alarm for 4, knowing that i never wake up when it goes off the first time. at 430, my cell phone alarm went off. i texted vanessa to see what the plan was and she arrived at my house about 10 minutes later. we headed out to the flyaway: she had a 7 o'clock flight. she wouldn't make it if she tried the flyaway, so i drove her down to lax. got home at 6 -- back to bed!

the second time i woke up friday morning was at 730. should have been 7 o'clock, but, yeah, that didn't happen. got to becky's around 815 and we went to breakfast at marmalade cafe, bringing along her tourbook and my list of "fun things to do in l.a." so we could plan the day over breakfast: breakfast was so good!

around 915 we headed out to the zoo. i called and spoke to my sister eden on the way -- we were meeting her and her baby at the zoo. fun times. i love the hippos. the rhinos weren't out, so we didn't get to see them. but the baby orangutan was fun to see.

becky had a dental appointment at 1, so our time at the zoo was a little short -- though we didn't leave before hearing the howling monkeys that really just sounded like they were burping. like, amazingly long and *loud* burps -- any self-respecting man over 200 pounds would have been intensely jealous.

we left the zoo around 1220, and thankfully traffic wasn't too bad so we made it to becky's dentist appointment at ucla in pretty good time.

while the dentist was polishing becky's pearly-whites, i spent some time in the botanical gardens at ucla ... with my sister inge. she lives in texas. here's a photo of us at the botanical gardens:

beautiful smile, inge!

leaving ucla, becky and i grabbed some teriyaki at a nearby restaurant then headed up 405 to the getty museum and spent a couple hours enjoying the art and playing in the rain. i love museums. there are so many just truly talented people! makes me wish i could do so many things! in fact, i was talking to a friend last week about giving up the exciting world of accounting to become a painter. of course, i wouldn't be famous until after i die ... so i would have to fake my death and then my art would be discovered. and i could get rich! while dead -- err, hmm -- still gonna have to figure out that one, i think.

the gardens at the getty museum are beautiful! just amazing.

around 630, becky and i got tired and went home. i dropped becky off at her house then hurried home, changed, fixed my hair, and went out with a friend for dinner: yummy dinner! i don't remember the name of the restaurant, but it's an amazing mexican place in northridge. i'll need to ask him for the name of the place again. it was *goood*!

home from dinner at 103o, grabbed my flip-flops and picked becky up again to go dancing up in santa clarita. there weren't too many people at the dance that night, but becky and i danced our hearts out anyway. after the dance, a cute guy asked becky to meet up with a bunch of people at denny's, so we went -- i couldn't deny her after all the begging. ha. we met lots of new people and hung out at denny's until about 230.

*finally* got home for the night at 3am. man, that was a *loooong* day!! used almost every one of those 24 hours.

o.t.s.

santa monica 3rd ward -- film festival -- july 2007

no snickers, please

on thursday i was supposed to meet one of the girls i visit teach for a lunch visiting-teaching appointment. i have been brown-bagging lunch recently, but because we were going out, i didn't bring lunch ... well, my girl had to cancel last minute, at which point i didn't really feel like going out to lunch all by myself. so i thought, "well, if i just work straight through lunchtime, then maybe i can get out of the office early today." i wasn't super hungry anyway, so yeah.

at about 230 i just wanted something to chew, so i went up to the vending machine. lots of fun snacks there! cookies, candy, chips, gum, more candy, more cookies ... lots of chocolate. but i'm not allowed to buy chocolate. :S so i started crossing things off the list of options. as i stood there, i was getting more and more hungry. so i figured i better get something with a little substance. well, cookies are good -- wait, those are chocolate chip cookies -- nevermind, can't get those. umm, chips are good. okay. what else? ooo! a snickers! "snickers satisfies!" yay!

well, $1.50 and a half hour later, i was satisfied. :)

mmm. really enjoyed that snickers. haven't had a snickers in a long time. mmm ... wait a minute ... snickers is chocolate!! argh!!

confessions of a chocolate lover:

at this time, i must confess that since february i have had a few breeches in my chocolate-purchasing-ban.

1. april 9 -- mcdonald's hot fudge sundae
2. june 1 -- starbuck's hot chocolate
3. august 16 -- snickers candy bar

the stories behind each of these offenses are similar to the one related above -- by definition lapses in judgement. aside from these minor mistakes, though, i have remained compliant with the rules set forth. that's 6½ months of not buying any chocolate for myself ... more than half-way there!

less effective

santa monica 3rd ward -- film festival -- july 2007

the chase begins

wicked witches.

flying pirates.

a star falls.

the chase begins.

last night my new friend becky and i went out to work with the sister missionaries and visit a new contact -- yay for referrals! (i haven't gone out with the sisters *at all* since getting back from my mission over 3 years ago! yikes! -- but ... how exciting to do it now!)

well, becky and i were running a little late, but got to the park where we were to meet up with the sisters just after they arrived -- they were running late as well ... perfect -- *love* it when that happens. after finding each other at the park and making our introductions, we all got back in our cars and headed off to go to the appointment. parked our cars. walked to the apartment. she wasn't there!! argh!! (*that* happened too many times in brasil.) so, the sisters tried to think of someone else we could visit, but it was kinda late to make an unannounced visit, so we split ways

becky and i had set out for an adventure, though ... so ...

... why not go see stardust?!?! sure!!

been looking forward to this movie for so, so, so, so long. and it was definitely worth the wait! and becky was super excited because she studied stage makeup and this movie had great makeup and hair.

i loved the story. and i loved the way it was told. just completely captivating. and we discussed later how much we loved that it was a completely new story -- not a re-make nor the second or third in an episodic sequence, which stories have completely overtaken the box office lately.

highly recommend this movie.

surf's up!

my friend jenn is teaching me to surf!! yay!

a few weeks ago, we met up at my house at 830 in the morning and headed out to ventura beach. i can't believe how much cooler it is out at the beach than here at my house! anyway, it's about a 1/2 hour or 45 minutes up the 101. we got there, parked the car and unloaded the boards. there were lots of surfers already there and more arriving throughout the morning.

jenn has been surfing for about 6 years and was so excited to have me come with her. after squeezing into our wet suits, we made our way down to the beach with the boards. jenn let me borrow both a suit and a board.

i had such a good time!! i love swimming and anything in the water. i have been wanting to learn to surf for years now -- and now that i'm in la ... being out on the board was so much fun! i caught a couple waves, but couldn't pull myself up to my feet. i got to my knees a couple times, but just haven't figured out the feet thing yet. next time ... it was so much fun anyway. and i'm getting really good at turle-diving. :)

oh -- gotta take the standard surfing pic ... please excuse the white legs ...

take me home tonight

byu 11th ward -- fhe group videos -- winter 2006