what's under your bed?

cleaned out under my bed the other day.

so ... would you say that i *am* or *am not* the type of person who is used to packing up and moving at a moment's notice?

resolved for the better

last week, i went to the hotel gym for an hour each on monday, tuesday, *and* wednesday. then i went running in my neighborhood on saturday morning.

the week before, i went to the hotel gym for about 45 minutes each on tuesday and wednesday, then went running in my neighborhood on saturday morning.

i had oatmeal 2 or 3 times a week the past couple weeks. plus now i am doing the vegetarian day thing.

i think i am doing much better with my new year's resolutions than previously anticipated. and it feels good to be doing something good for me.

upward and onward, friends. upward and onward.

look how they grow!

i mostly took this picture so my mom could see how long my fingernails are. but i figured that all of you would want to see, too. i mean, why wouldn't you?

see, mom? i can let them grow ...

this is what happens when i am working out of town so i can't have weekly harp lessons (which require short nails). plus, i guess i haven't been stressed enough to chomp them off. though ... looking back at how this busy season went ... not sure how i can claim to not have been stressed ...

i didn't really even recognize how long they were getting until my sister commented on them last weekend. yeah.

okay. now i am going to go cut them.

they clack on my keyboard keys.

that gets annoying after a while.

vegetariano por un día

my sister called me on tuesday with the latest and greatest fad diet for me to try for my cholesterol woes:

vegetarian for one day a week

so here's how the gig goes:

• choose one day a week to eat no meat.

okay, maybe i didn't really need to explain that, but ... i did ... live with it.

anyway, so i thought i could give it a try in order to add some structure to my resolution número uno.

being that it was tuesday afternoon that my sister called and told me, the week was about half over before i even knew about my resolution. but because i wanted to get a jump-start on this, i planned for a wednesday vegetarian day. but then the client had brought in yummy mexican food with chicken and steak burritos for lunch. so wednesday was out.

thursday was the next option. and i did really well through all of breakfast and most of the morning. then my co-worker suggested that we sushi it that night and run the charge through. well, can't go to sushi and eat vegetarian. it would be a waste. so ... thursday was out.

and today is friday. gotta do it today. because a vegetarian weekend certainly spells n-o f-u-n. it really does. i looked it up. anyway, i was delighted when my co-worker suggested that we work through lunch and take off early. that meant that i could spend the day un-tempted by restaurant menus and un-influenced by what others are eating. plus, i am way better at maintaining some food self control when i am not eating with others. (don't know why. hmmm. that might be fodder for another self-analysis blog post.)

so today my diet consisted of oatmeal, eggs, hash browns, and o.j. for breakfast. then yogurt with granola, edamame, and (of course) chocolate through the noon hour and the afternoon. i got home from san luis obispo around 9 and i had a grilled cheese sandwich. (on wheat! woot!)

look at that! i did it! a vegetarian for one day!

here's to a great start. check back for updates. y'know, if this is the sort of thing that interests you. yeah.

quotable 2008

okay, following the precedent started last year ... only a little delayed this year ...

these are quotes i have been collecting this year ... some i've seen on friends' blogs (thanks); others i've just run into. enjoy! if you have one to add, let me know.

• "wheresoever you go, go with all your heart." -- confucius

• "never let your failures go to your heart, or your successes go to your head." -- anon.

• "a wise man learns by the mistakes of others; a fool by his own." -- latin proverb

• "to keep your marriage brimming with love from the loving cup, whenever you're wrong, admit it. whenever you're right, shut up." -- ogden nash

• "being in a relationship is like eating ice cream with chop sticks: you're not sure why you're doing it, but you wish everyone would just leave you alone about it." -- unknown

• "life is best enjoyed when time periods are evenly divided between labour, sleep, and recreation... all people should spend one-third of their time in recreation which is rebuilding, voluntary activity -- never idleness." --pres. brigham young

• "whenever i'm about to do something, i think, 'would an idiot do that?' and if they would, then i do not do that thing." -- dwight schrute

• "a government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have." -- thomas jefferson

• "it's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground." -- interesting nasa guy on the airplane, (explaining the benefits of flight delays)

resolutions, v. 2009

so it's the middle of march. shoot me.

i can still make resolutions.

yeah, huh!

okay, so this year, i would first like to announce my great success related to my prior year resolutions. whereas my cholesterol did not go down as much as i had hoped ... i successfully complied with my resolution for one year.

i deserve a pat on the back.

*pat*, *pat*, *pat*

okay, and now on to the main event:

this year's resolutions!

1. red meat and cholesterol - i think i started a theme last year. so we'll see about continuing in that great cause. however, i will not limit my red meat intake to weekends only anymore. because ... well ... just because. so ... this year, i am eating red meat whenever i choose, though not as much as i did in the pre-2008 years. if my resolution last year had any impact on me at all (besides 4 points lower cholesterol, thank you), it has broken my addiction to red meat. don't get me wrong: i still love the stuff. but it is no longer the only thing i eat.

   i am trying to work oatmeal into my diet as a combatant to high cholesterol. i freely admit that this resolution this year is not as well-thought-out and thoroughly defined as last year's. but ... it's busy season. i hardly have time to think about anything. but here's the general idea: eat oatmeal. yeah.

   (if anyone has suggestions for helping me get this goal into action, let me know. keep in mind that i don't have time for breakfast, so oatmeal will be an evening meal. hmm: oatmeal ... evening meal. interesting.)

2. exercise - there was a month a while ago that i went jogging / running 3 times a week. really. i calendared it -- yeah -- i can show you. so ... i think i'm going to do that again. jogging / running 3 times a week. it was easier when i had a buddy, but yeah. no more excuses.

   until busy season is over, i can't promise anything more than maybe 15 minutes at a time, but that's something at least. when summer gets here, we'll talk about maybe stepping that up a notch.

3. spiritual - my stake relief society released a new program called the personal righteousness program in which we make goals around 7 different values and the complete a 15-hour project. it's kind of like the personal progress program in young women.

   as of this moment, i have read through the suggested goals for exactly 1 of those values. i'll remedy that. and then i will do those goals. (if anyone wants more detailed information about the program, let me know. i have a pdf of the whole thing i can send you.)

okay, i think that is all the burden i can pile on my own shoulders right now. i am getting a bit overwhelmed just re-reading all that. [deep breath] just gotta remember that i have the rest of the year to work on these things. yeah.

anyway. there you go. someone once said that a goal not written down is just a wish. so these are my goals: they are written down.

d-i-y car repair?

reggie sounds like an orca whale ... again.

i think it was november that i took him in for a check-up and my mechanic fixed him up real pretty, even changed the power steering fluid tubing because it had a leak.

about a month later, he started squealing at me on cold mornings whenever i turned the wheel. so, after text-consulting a car guru friend, i took him back to the shop. my mechanic tightened the belts and added a super-powered-additive-juice-something to the power steering fluid. pronto! reggie stopped complaining.

until a couple weeks ago. the orca whale is back.

(oh -- i don't actually know what an orca whale sounds like, as opposed to a regular whale, but i presume it says something like "ooorr-caaaaa", which is what reggie says, too, so ... there you go.)

i texted my car guru friend again. he says it might be expensive to fix. so i was thinking of trying to fix it myself. because, y'know, i *am* a fan of do-it-yourselfing it in general -- i mean, if you *can* do it, why not? besides, i figure learning how to fix cars is a good thing.

which is, i am sure, what the owner of this vehicle thought:

see the funniez? yeah, i captured that perfect shot that on the way home a few months ago. heh.

a sign

last night i did not sleep well.

last night i woke up 17 times. okay, maybe not *17*, per se, but many times. and i like the number 17. so there you go.

after an ridiculously exquisitely deep-fried monte cristo at jerry's famous deli in costa mesa, ca, i returned to my hotel room and turned on the tube. on the night before the last day of fieldwork, it seemed like the appropriate thing to do. that was at 10 o'clock.

i fell asleep somewhere around 10:30, if i made it that far.

then for some reason, i was looking at the clock again at 11:43. weird. if you know one thing about me, you know that i sleep well. i am a good sleeper: i fall asleep quickly; i stay asleep. it's kinda my thing. (not exactly a "thing" i can put on my resume ... but my thing nonetheless.)

so waking up only an hour after zonking out was kinda weird.

mmeh, didn't think too much about it ... because i was back to sleep before the clock turned to 11:44.

but, boy, was i restless. i actually remember being asleep and thinking "i'm restless. this is weird." my eyes fluttered open several times over the next couple hours, but i insisted on being asleep.

trying to get past the restlessness, i thought it best to start dreaming. let's see ... what to dream about ... ? summer? maybe. boys? maybe. chocolate. hmmm. that could work ... i sweetly drifted off to a luscious land of flowing chocolate rivers and strawberrys 'a plenty.

at 2:14 i came screeching into consciousness. with a heavy breath and a racing heart, my mind was swimming with spreadsheets; the remnant glare of a computer screen lingered in my semi-conscious mind.

was i ... no ... ... wa- was i ... dreaming about ... work??

no ... couldn't be.

... could it?

as i thought more about it, i started to piece together some of the storyline. i was at my computer. okay. what was i doing? a spreadsheet. yes, i was looking at a spreadsheet. hmm. okay. i, umm, like spreadsheets. okay, no biggie. but what's going on? i looked more closely at the spreadsheet. numbers. some words. hmm. okay. so ... what's the big deal?

i clicked on cell A43, but suddenly my mouse wouldn't respond. excel didn't quite seem to be feeling well. i tried clicking cell E40: nothing. i couldn't click on any cells? umm ... what about the arrows? nope, those buttons didn't work, either. scroll? uh uh. oh no ... switch to something else, let's come back to it: Alt + Tab wasn't working. Ctrl + Alt + Del did nothing! what is going on!? click click, click click!

and *then* ... and *then*! ...

... *then* the spreadsheet started scrolling autonomously. first down about 2,000 rows, then it started scrolling right *and* down. what was it doing? where was it taking me?! i tried to click out of it. i tried Alt + Tab again and *nothing*! arrows? no. Ctrl + Home? okay, that takes me back up to the top left ... the scrolling paused ... maybe it's okay? maybe? ... *nope!* we are headed southeast again! stop! stop stop!! click! arrow! Alt + Tab! stop!! please stop!

and that, friends, is when i opened my eyes to see 2:14 become 2:15.

as my breathing began to slow, i could feel my heart jump back out of my throat. [sigh]. okay. it was just a dream. it was just a dream.

...

i submit that this *could* be a sign that it is *possible* that i am working too much.

google accident

what was shiny and new but a short 2 months ago ...

is no longer ...

... shiny and new, that is ...

(note: artist's rendering, in order to show detail.)

i had a google accident today. my google phone now has a google crack in the google screen. i google dropped it while google crossing the street to go to google lunch yesterday.

*cry*

*google cry*

evidence

i mentioned previously that my favourite shows of late include csi and house. probably most of the appeal of these shows to me is watching the characters figure out a problem based on evidence collected. (well, that ... and i have a secret really-mean-doctor-crush on hugh laurie. sshh -- don't tell.)

yesterday something happened after work. see if you can figure it out based on this evidence ...

my elbow:

my pants:

and here's my leg:

any guesses about what happened?

... ...

the weather in socal has been kinda crazy lately, like in many other places this year (hello -- 10 inches of snow in seattle in a single day?). it was actually 39° here yesterday morning. but because i have been living in utah for a number of years recently, of course i didn't grab my coat. i mean, c'mon: this is california. no one from utah needs a coat here.

yeah, i decided that *before* freezing cold rain started falling. great. oh, well.

after work, i made my way to my car with my computer bag on one shoulder and an armload of papers in the other arm. i tried to appear non-chalant and completely comfortable in the sheeting, half-frozen rain. after crossing the unusually busy street to get to the parking lot, i said hello to the only other person out in this weather, as i stepped off the curb onto the asphalt.

just then my ankle wobbled a little, but i caught myself. phew!

with a nervous smile in the general direction of my cold compatriot, i snickered a little to myself as i imagined the carnage and destruction that would have ensued were i not so coordinated. and cool. yeah, i'm cool.

anyway, unfortunately, at that precise moment, a gust of biting cold wind came howling from the north.

my overly arrogant attitude and underly stable stance came into direct conflict in my war against the wind. it was a losing battle. time slowed and i watched helplessly as the ground got closer and closer. soon i was laying on my left side in a polluted parking lot puddle.

i thought i was cold before. it was much colder sitting in water. (as a side note: my grandmother has a sign hanging above her toilet that reads: "if we were meant to sit in cold water, we would have been born with webbed feet." heh.) well, since i don't have webbed feet, i didn't sit there long. standing up was a bit tricky with my inconvenient cargo, but i did it.

as i made the rest of the way to the car, i couldn't contain my laughter. oh, the irony: the very fate that i had but moments earlier presumed to have narrowly avoided became a very cold reality. literally.

how come no one i know is around when i do stupid stuff like this? it's much more fun to laugh with someone else.

anyway ... that's the story. is that pretty much what you thought, having looked at the evidence?

the results are in (again)

last year, i set a goal to limit the amount of red meat i was eating in order to decrease my cholesterol. it's been difficult and i have whined a lot, as you may recall, and i have had to really expand my ... umm ... horizons ... ? (something. can't think right now.)

anyway. i got my lab results back today. here are the highlights:

---

	PY (2007)	CY (2008)
triglycerides	97 mg/dL	82 mg/dL
cholesterol, total	215 mg/dL	211 mg/dL	(should be less than 200)
- hdl cholesterol	60 mg/dL	58 mg/dL
- ldl cholesterol	136 mg/dL	137 mg/dL	(should be less than 130)
glucose	80 mg/dL	83 mg/dL
sodium	138 mmol/L	138 mmol/L
potassium	4.0 mmol/L	4.3 mmol/L
white blood cell count	5.9 thousand/uL	5.7 thousand/uL
red blood cell count	4.91 million/uL	4.71 million/uL
hemoglobin	13.0 g/dL	13.4 g/dL
hematocrit	38.4 %	39.0 %
platelet count	283 thousand/uL	308 thousand/uL

---

okay. so ... my cholesterol is still a high. grr. it went down 4 points. woohoo. but ... honestly, i kinda expected more. i mean, i cut my red meat consumption by roughly 73%. so ... yeah, i kinda expected more. [sigh.]

so now what? as i see it, there are a few options:

1. continue the red-meat-on-weekends-only regime.

2. amend the rules such that i can have red meat on any 2 days of the week. i mean, c'mon, it went down 4 points: that deserves some kind of reward.

3. eat oatmeal everyday (or on some regular schedule) to fight this with a little proactivity instead of just restraint.

4. give up entirely and eat red meat whenever i darnwell please since it's not making any difference anyway.

anyone care to vote? c'mon, we all did it a month ago ... let's exercise our right to vote again!!

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.

the emerald city

one of my favorite people followed suit with so many others in my life ... and moved to seattle. i like to think that they are all just making the exodus with the intent to prepare that promised land for me. i'll end up there someday, mind you: just you wait. just you wait, henry higgins. (sorry, that sentence was just asking for it.)

in celebration of his outset to a new life and to to help him make the transition, i joined a team of 2 others in taking on the task of picking up matt's whole life and transplanting it to the emerald city.

aside from the almost unbearable, all-in-one-day, 18-hour car-ride, it was a fabulous trip to my previously-declared favorite-city-in-the-whole-world-that-i-have-never-lived-in. (think that's a long title? just imagine having to fit that on an 8½-x-11 ivory certificate. not an easy thing to do, my friends.) (oh, and please note that the car-ride is herein described as "almost unbearable" simply for its length: sitting in a car for that long should be legally, ethically, morally, and chocolately wrong. the adventure and the company was quite pleasant otherwise.)

(i don't think i have ever used so many hyphenates in one post before. nor so many parentheses. this is quite a monumental post!)

after dragging the dregs of matt's stuff to the cars, we scooted out of santa monica at the butt crack of dawn on friday morning, august 29. being so early in the morning, this meant, of course ... no makeup for me:

mattso didn't wear any, either.

the road trip was filled with adventures and sights such as these:

now, i'd imagine that there aren't a few of you guys out there who are feeling a bit left out at this point, but don't worry: it wasn't anything you can't recreate. all you need is a vw golf crammed full of stuff, a location that is 18 hours away, and a dave. gotta have a dave.

we got to seattle around 2 am and crashed (on our beds).

saturday started too early. but saturday started with a bang. dave showed me the most amazing stuff: debacterol. it's awesome. it cures canker sores. all you do is put the sulfuric acid on your tongue (or wherever the canker sore is) for 10 seconds, it burns like a race horse, and then your canker sore is just a bit of dead skin you wait to fall off. (kinda gross, i know. sorry.) as you can see from the picture, it wasn't as bad as it sounds.

after such excitement so early in the morning, i suppose you wouldn't expect much else in the day ... but ... then we rounded up the troops and headed to ... bumbershoot!! oh, my heavens, what an amazing time was had. after waiting in a 4,000-mile-long line, we got into the gates around 11, i think. my old friend brad met up with us for most of the day (hi, brad!). we walked all over the place seeing everything that was there and making plans for what we just had to see before the day was through. after some discussion, we decided on a game plan of (1) eat bratwurst and french fries, (2) wander around for a couple hours, (3) watch modern dancers in the water fountain, (4) watch part of lucinda williams, (5) watch band of horses, (6) get high from second-hand smoke while waiting to watch beck, (7) watch beck, and (8) tucker out and go home.

sunday was a day of rest. as it should be. kinda. church started at 9, where we met many cool people! then we went on a beautiful drive and a bit of a hike up near (in?) issaquah. the weather was a bit damp, of course, which makes everything so green and beautiful so it's okay. here's the group in front of lake sammamish ("yeah, i'd say that lake is pretty sammamish."):

while there, matt taught us about the life cycle of salmon. we learned a lot, and, having been thus educated, we were ready to go to the university. and so we did. we drove out to university of washington to walk around a bit. last year when i was there, the cherry trees were in bloom and it was just absolutely gorgeous. this year, the ducks were in bloom -- this meant more poop than cherry blossoms. not quite *as* gorgeous, but not bad, no. i was able to do about 17 cartwheels in the quad and didn't get any duck poop on my hands.

from the university, we went to a ward-member's house and had all kinds of yummy desserts at a "dessert potluck" in which the hostess prepared all the desserts, (don't really think that qualifies as a "potluck", at least where i'm from, but ... it's seattle -- who knows?), after which we headed to st. mark's cathedral to hear the episcopaleon monks perform gregorian chanting. that was an *amazing* experience.

monday was officially dubbed "moving day": early in the morning, we drove matt's stuffed car to his new place to unload ... 2,374 armloads from car to apartment later ... all of his earthly belongings were safely stashed in his new seattle station.

from there, we had to officially re-seattle-ize mattso with the purchase of ... dun, dun, dun ... a northface fleece from rei! oh, behold the re-seattle-ization (okay, now say that quickly 4 times and note the excitement on mattso's face.):

being now appropriately equipped, we headed out on an even greater adventure! after a deep fried seafood lunch at ivar's, we drove down to the water and to take a ferry over to [ insert name of island here ] island. we didn't have to wait too long before the ferry arrived and we boarded. i love ferries. i love being on the water. i love standing at the front of the boat and getting almost blown away and then standing at the back of the boat and feeling the calm ... ... love it. i think they should put more in l.a. -- ferries, that is -- not fairies. heh.

after arriving on the island, we started driving. and we drove and drove and drove. it was *bea-u-tiful*! we drove up to deception pass and had to take a hike: it was sunset and it was awesome.

after hiking down to the water and back up again. we drove to the top of [ insert name of island here ] island and to another ferry pier to wait for the next ferry. i love ferries. i think they should put more in l.a. -- oh, wait -- we already did that joke ...

umm, tuesday morning found us atop of the space needle. well ... tuesday mid-morning found us there: we were on vacation, afterall. but it was lovely. the city is beautiful from up there. and it's just so cool to be 605 feet up! cell phone reception was surprisingly really good at that height.

after returning to sea level, we checked out some other tourist staples in this fair sea city. such as ...

i love this waterfall tunnel.	there's a pig in pike place market!	look who we found.

we capped off the day with yummy pizza with new friends. pretty good day, i'd say ...

wednesday morning we went to japan:

and then china:

and then we had lunch in seattle's international district (aka, "chinatown") at the uwajimaya village. that was not bad chinese. (while in china, i also found a chinese grocery store that had colored tapioca. little pink, green, and yellow tapioca balls. so cool! and even more fun to eat than the boring white stuff!)

our fearsome foursome split ways shortly after lunch. dave and nastia got back in the golf and started south. mattso and i had a couple more small adventures in seattle before i flew to utah the next morning: we went to gas works park and spent some time in the sunshine, then we went home furnishings shopping at target ... which was sorely needed for his otherwise barren abode.

farewell, seattle! i'll miss you dearly! --

err, uhh --

i mean ...

farewell, mattso! i'll miss you dearly!

gone are the days

i like my new haircut, i do. but i have to say that this has been a transition.

gone are the days of ...	and in this new day ...
get out of the shower and go. (so what if that's what it looks like i did ... that *is* what i did.)	blowdry. everyday.
flat iron on my bangs: pronto.	curling iron burns on my neck, ears, face, and fingers. (don't really know what my problem is.)
up, down, half-up, bun, half-bun, braid, knot, low knot, high knot, chignon, ponytail, curly, messy, wavy, straight.	part left, part right.
100 strokes of the brush before bed.	haven't picked up a brush in weeks. (okay, not really.)
rubberbands, sticks, claws, bobby pins, clips in my purse.	more room for chocolate in my purse.
wind blowing long beautiful blonde locks in my face.	wind blowing long beautiful blonde locks in the face of a cancer patient.

okay, that last one makes it worth it.

...

alright, and the more-room-for-chocolate-in-my-purse thing, too.

...

(oh, honestly. i'm such a whiner. you'd think i've never had short hair before in my life. sheesh, christianna.)

half-way

two down (again):

two to go (again):