Brain Dump

So I have a lot of little snippets to comment on today. Hooray for brain dumping!

-I have learned that I am not unlike a small child when it comes to having to sit still & be quiet. Haha I'm really not so good at it. Every weekend (starting Thursday night/Friday morning) poor Jacob works from 1:30am to sometime between 9 & 11:00am. This means, of course, that he sleeps late into the afternoon--depending on what time he gets off, usually until at least 5:00. Since I have the weekends off, this means I am home all day. I try SO HARD to be quiet, but I've found that oftentimes when I'm attempting to be quiet I end up being louder than I otherwise would have been. My poor husband.

-Twilight is better the 2nd time you see it, I've decided. Especially if you brace yourself for the stupid cameo and just ignore it. Totally makes it better.

-Did you know if you stop working out for a month and then start up again, this time throwing in some yoga and pilates, you're probably going to be really sore for like, an entire week?

-I went into sentimental mode and rented Return to Oz from Netflicks, as my siblings and I used to watch it frequently when we were younger (although not as much as we watched The Chipmunk Adventure or Bedknobs and Broomsticks...). Dude, I had forgotten how wacked out that movie is! It's like The Wizard of Oz became a crazy drug addict and spawned an insane sequel. So awesome! We also noticed that the girl who plays Dorothy is the same actress who plays Adam Sandler's girlfriend in The Waterboy.

-Robot Chicken: Starwars II is hilarious. I'd put the link to it (on YouTube) so you all can see for yourself, but the guy who posted it said he's taking it down tomorrow because they got on his case for copyright infringement or something. Too bad. I love Robot Chicken. Seriously, Seth Green is a genius.

-Sometimes Facebook is a blessing and a curse. I mean, I love it for the simple fact that I am a huge gossip (yadda yadda, I know it's naughty but I do it all the same) and I love being able to see what people are up to without having to actually talk to them. And I know people have added me to their friend list for the same reasons. For the record, I do pride myself on only adding people who I'm actually friends with, but if someone requests to add me I usually let them even if I feel it's a stretch. ANYWAY, so today I was perusing about and noticed that one of my "friends" had posted some pics. Now, I always thought this girl hated me--she dated my high school boyfriend's best friend and was never very friendly to me at all--so imagine my surprise when she added me. So anyhoo, I'm browsing through her pics when I see a familiar face. "Hmmm" I think as I click to see the next one. Then my heart takes a momentary pause followed by thunderous pounding as recognition kicks in. There, in her pictures, is my ex boyfriend. NOT the one from high school. No, this is the one I dated a few months before meeting Jacob...the one I now "lovingly" refer to as Psycho (cuz boy, was he ever!). TOTAL deja vu, completely took me back--there he is, his stupid face grinning next to hers and oh, his best friend is there too. Looking through the pics was so very strange because I'm sure that had we taken photos when all of us were hanging out, they would have looked very similar. CREEPY, huh?!?!?! I'm thinking I'll go ahead and remove her from my friend list...thus avoiding accidentally stumbling across his ugly mug ever again. :-)

-Last but certainly not least, I have successfully beat Guitar Hero on medium mode. Not so sure I'll be able to beat it on hard mode...when they throw in that 5th button I'm a total mess.

Ok well, I'm sure there's more, but we gotta take off for Sunday dinner at the parents' house. Until next time...

Happy Happy Turkey Day

Ah, Thanksgiving...the day of over-indulegent eating just because some Puritans landed near Plymouth Rock and shared a meal with the Natives. Good times.

I've always been a fan of Thanksgiving, myself. In my family, we'd have the traditional turkey meal...then my Dad would spend the rest of the afternoon watching football while he carved the turkey we didn't eat and us kids would put up our Christmas decorations. Thanksgiving (despite what Wal-Mart and the mall had to say about it...) was always the starting point for "magical" Christmas season.

This year, however, feels different. I promised myself it wouldn't, because I would decide to be happy...but despite my best efforts to have a positive attitude, I still woke up at 5:30 with pain in my heart and an empty feeling in my chest. Yeah. 1 year ago today was the day I discovered that I had lost our baby. And it's silly, because why should today feel any different from any other day of the year? I don't think it should. And yet, for some incredibly stupid reason, I feel like I just found out again; I am reminded with perfect clarity how it felt to lose that child. It really hurts.

So you know me and my theraputic writing...I thought I'd just get it out there, perhaps to talk about it a little will aleviate the pain a bit. Cuz this really, really sucks. I think part of the problem is that when it happened, I consoled myself by saying that I'd definitely be pregnant again in a year's time, so even though this year would be awful, next year would be better. And now here I am, a year later and still nothing.

I will say this: despite the anguish of that experience, I am grateful for the knowledge that it is at least physically possible for me to get pregnant...because right now, that's all I have to go on.

Anyway, thanks as always for listening. I do sincerely hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving. I am thankful for all you guys' friendship and love...and your willingness to listen. :-)

Now, as a completely random ending to this post and getting back to that whole positive attitude/I'm choosing to be happy thing, I'd like to quote one of my favorite movies (Addam's Family Values--from Gary's Thanksgiving Play the kids put on at summer camp)...as the kinds are dancing around dressed as turkeys, they sing...

"Eat us! Hey, it's Thanksgiving Day
Eat us! We make a nice buffet
We lost the race with farmer Ed
Eat us 'cuz we're good and dead
White man or red man
From East, North or South
Chop off our legs
..and put 'em in your mouth

Eat me! Sauteed or barbequed
Eat me! We once were pets but now we're food
We won't stay fresh for very long
So eat us before we finish this song
Eat us before we finish this song!"

Hehehe Kajsia, that was for you baby.

My Weekend (but mostly a Twilight review)

Hello friends,
In order to not feel completely pathetic, I am refusing to dedicate this post entirely to Twilight, which I just finished watching (without even having to wait in line or arrive 5 hours early--I got to the theater 15 minutes early and still got a PRIMO seat--hooray for seeing movies on Sunday morning at the new Cinemark by University Mall, nobody seems to know that it's open yet).

So, first things first...here is my latest obsession:

This HORRIBLE picture of yours truly (aw, come on, I've been sick!) is evidence of how I wasted a good chunk of my weekend--yes that is a Guitar Hero guitar in my hands. Jacob thought it would be hilarious to document it. I was not happy. Anyway, we just traded our PS3 for a Wii and Guitar Hero came with it. Having never played before, I was quite hesitant and the first song I played was a total disaster. But then I guess my decade of piano lessons kicked in and I found that I am not too shabby. I beat the entire game (Guitar Hero III) in 2 days. Granted, it was on easy mode...I'm finding medium mode to be a lot more challenging...but that's no good for my obsession because now I'm even more determined to beat it again. So if you need me, you'll probably be able to find me on my couch rocking out to The Rolling Stones or Poison or something.

Secondly, for all you Bond fans, Quantum of Solace is pretty decent, and I'm not a Bond fan at all. Just make sure you watch Casino Royale first; if my brother- and sister-in-law hadn't given me the rundown of that one on the way to the theater, I would have been pretty lost. Even so, the action sequences are very well thought out and executed, and Daniel Craig has some of the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen...so even if I had been confused with the plot, I still would have been entertained. I give it a 6.5 out of 10.

Lastly...Twilight. Unofficial spoiler alert: I'll try not to give anything away for those of you who haven't seen it, but if you haven't you might want to stop reading here. We begin with the bad...
#1: I tried not to be too nitpicky, and I know that Twilight in itself is one hell of a cheesy story, but there were moments when the cheese envelope was pushed too far, even for hopeless romantics like me (like when they just lay in the grass and oogle at each other....waaaaay too drawn out, show us something else please).
#2: The whole falling in love part was rushed--I mean seriously, "I'm the bad guy stay away from me" today, "The lion falls in love with the lamb" tomorrow (ok, that's not what happened exactly, but that's how it felt)...where's the transition? They needed the scene where Bella faints in Biology and Edward takes her to the nurse because it transitions their relationship and basically the entire story. I was mostly ok with the other parts that deviated from the book, but I really thought that was too pivotal a scene to be left out.
#3: Lastly, and this is a big one, Stephanie Meyer's cameo was the LAMEST thing I have seen in cinema for a very long time...she basically ruined the credibility of the film by showing up in the very world she created. If you want to have a cameo, fine...you wrote it, you deserve to be in the movie. But could you at least pull an M. Night Shyamalan and show up as some minor character and NOT yourself? Or couldn't they have had the waitress say, "Here you go, ma'am" instead of "Here you go, Stephanie"? And couldn't she be reading the newspaper instead of typing on her laptap?? I'm just saying, when you show up in the world you created, you destroy the believability of that world even existing. And while we all know Twilight's world isn't real, the success of the books is due to the fact that deep down inside, all we women want it to be.

Ok, ok...enough ranting and raving before I really offend my fellow Twilight fans...here's the good stuff...
#1-The vampires were able to be vampires without looking too ridiculous. I was worried about the growling, hissing, biting and so forth...but the actors managed to accomplish all of the above without overdoing it (even the sparkly Edward part wasn't over the top).
#2-Kudos on the fight scenes, which were spectacular but not too lengthy.
#3-I thought the casting was really good (despite my initial reservations on Kristen Stewart as Bella, I did enjoy the chemistry between Bella and Edward). I quite dislike Jacob Black in the books, but try as I might I could not dislike him in the movie (perhaps because the actor they got is really good-looking...??), so I think that will effectively contribute to the conflict in the sequels (you know they'll make all 4, even though right now they only have New Moon in the works...), at least for me.
#4-Who didn't love watching the Cullens play baseball? Well done, well done.
#5-Despite what I mentioned above, I think they did a really good job of keeping the integrity of the original story intact, cheese and all.
So I'm going to go ahead and give it an 8 out of 10. Take out that cameo and it gets a 9 haha.

Ok, if I write any more about this I will cross the "I'm almost pathetic" line into "Twilight is my entire life" territory, so I'm going to sign off and enjoy the rest of my weekend...probably by playing Guitar Hero or something.

Wedding Receptions

Things I Hate About Wedding Receptions:

• Having to talk to people I don't know and whom I'll never see again
• Wearing a dress and heels for way longer than I'd care to
• The incredibly cheesy music playing in the background
• People asking me if I have kids, and when I say no, them informing me that I should have them soon because I'm "really missing out"
• Seeing my brother-in-law come without my sister because she refuses to be around the family, and feeling responsible even though logically I know it's not my fault
• Cleaning up after it's over

Things I Love About Wedding Receptions:

• Seeing important people from my life whom I haven't seen in forever, like the sweet old lady who taught me how to play the piano
• Showing off my husband to...everyone
• My ex-boyfriend's father coming up to me just to see how I've been and to tell me that I am still his favorite out of all his son's girlfriends
• Seeing that the people who used to think they were better than everybody else have gained just as much weight (or more) as the rest of us
• Chocolate-dipped pretzels
• Reminiscing about my own wedding
• Seeing my brother-in-law, even without my sister...because it's been 5 years
• Hanging out with my photographer friend when she's not busy snapping pictures
• Watching a 22-year old guy befriend my grandma by talking to her about Peter, Paul & Mary
• Seeing my sister and her new hubby look so happy

All in all, I think it was a good night. :-)

Kajsia's Wedding

My little sister got married today. It was good times.

SO not what I had in mind...

First, the good news: I still have a job. Not that most of you knew I was potentially not going to have a job...but I do, so go me.

See, they recently (as in, last week) reorganized the entire call center where I work by combining the 2 largest departments: customer service and data entry (I work in data entry). While I had originally taken comfort in the fact that I was hired on as a permanent employee, I've been an unwilling participant in the stupidity of corporate America long enough to know that none of that shit matters in a merge situation. And a merge always means lay-offs. The "letting go" began with the assistant manager of my department (although between you and me, I'm quite positive that wasn't really due to the reorganization; she was, um, not the best employee), followed by another 13 or so people from customer service and a couple more from data entry. FORTUNATELY, I was one of the very few to survive...and as a bonus, I made it through without having to take a pay cut, and I even think I'm going to stay a supervisor.

But now the bad news: we have to take customer service calls as well as data entry calls. NOT that I am opposed to having more work to do. Truth be told, sometimes I felt kind of guilty for getting paid to do such an easy job. So more work is definitely not the problem...it's the type of work we're now doing. In data entry, our calls were primarily sales reps and technicians, which is good mainly because there's really no reason that you'd ever get yelled at. Sometimes they're rude, but for the most part it's pleasant work. Customer service calls are a different story. When I worked in a call center for Sears, I was yelled at on almost a daily basis, and I really did not like it (I only lasted about 3 months before I quit--my last day there still ranks pretty high on my list of best days ever). In fact, I vowed never to work that type of job ever again. And now, here I am. Tonight a customer yelled at me for 20 minutes...no exaggeration, the call was 23 minutes long and she was irate from the moment I answered the call...and of course, my hands were tied by the fact that she signed a contract so there was nothing I could do for her, which only raised her ire. Sigh. To be fair, most of the people I talk to are very nice...but it only takes one call like that to ruin your day (or in my case, night).

Am I gonna quit this job? Nope, I really don't think so. The management experience is valuable to my resume, I like my co-workers (mostly), we REALLY need the health insurance, and I've been watching the Utah Dept. of Workforce Svcs job board and I know I won't be able to make this much money without going to Salt Lake because Utah County is horribly cheap (and I have already done the commuting thing--I don't care to repeat it). So now I gotta find a coping mechanism because while I am a professional and will get the job done, this is not what I thought I'd be doing when I took the job.

Suggestions, anyone?

I've Been Tagged...

8 Things About Yours Truly...


8 TV shows that I watch (in no particular order):
1. Scrubs
2. Arrested Development (on DVD, of course. Sigh.)
3. Gilmore Girls (reruns)
4. Whatever is on CNN
5. The Daily Show
6. The Colbert Report
7. Scream Queens, Charm School, or whatever other brainless Vh1 reality show I get hooked on, as much as I had to admit it...
8. Yesterday I discovered Top Chef on Bravo while watching TV at my parents' house--sigh, if only I had satellite...

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Happy Sumo
2. Chili's
3. Bajio
4. Porter's Place (gotta love those scones!)
5. Cracker Barrel
6. Village Inn
7. Tony Roma's (not that they have any in this state--but they have one in Anaheim)
8. Sizzler

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:
1. Did laundry
2. Wrote an e-mail to my Grandma
3. Bought a snickerdoodle hot chocolate from juice n' java--YUM!
4. Went to work
5. Worked
6. Worked
7. Worked
8. Worked

8 Things That I am Looking Forward To:
1. Friday, for so many reasons
2. My sister's wedding next week
3. The Neil Diamond concert in December (YEAH!)
4. The holidays being over
5. Jacob getting his private pilot's license
6. Jacob getting his commercial pilot's license
7. Moving out of this apartment
8. Someday in the very distant future when I will not need to work any more...

8 Things on My Wish List
1. To be a Mom
2. To grow old with my husband
3. Being able to travel the world (which will be a lot more possible after Jacob becomes a pilot)
4. Just enough money to be financially stable, I don't need to be rich
5. A mediterranean cruise
6. The trip to Disneyworld Jacob has been promising me
7. Being able to buy a house
8. Ah hell, I'll say it: equal rights for everyone

8 Things I Love:
1. Jacob
2. My kitties
3. My family
4. My friends
5. Vacations, especially to Disneyland or Las Vegas
6. Good movies
7. Eating out
8. Music, especially The Veronicas

8 Things I don't like:
1. Infertility
2. Hypocrites
3. Closed-Minded People
4. Vegetables
5. Going to the dentist
6. Dieting
7. Exercising (haha maybe I should just put "being healthy in general")
8. Ignorance

8 People to Tag:
1. Kajsia
2. Maureen
3. Peter
4. Amy
5. I don't think anyone else reads my blog...
6.
7.
8.

The Air Show...Part 2 (The Thunderbirds)

After we saw a bunch of demonstrations of various fighter jets and what not, the day ended with a performance by The Thunderbirds, which is the Air Force's elite Air Demonstration Squadron. They fly six F-16 jets and perform around 80 times a year. It was quite impressive.

Here's a video of four of them in their delta formation:

In this one, four are flying in the delta formation and one of the solo planes flies through the middle of their formation. I did a really bad job of filming it, but you can still get the general idea.

So if you're ever in the Las Vegas area at the beginning of November, I'd highly recommend dropping by the air show. It's free and it's really good times. But be sure to bring camping chairs or something, otherwise you'll have to stand all day and that part kinda sucks. Yes.

The Air Show...Part 1

So, on our way back from Disneyland we stopped by the USAF Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base. That was, to my surprise, actually pretty cool. I ended up taking a lot of video of the demonstrations, so I wanted to post a few of them here (forgive my shakiness--it's hard to get good shots of stuff going really fast over my head)...this first one is of a jet car racing a MiG-17 fighter jet:

This next one is of an acrobatic pilot named Sean Tucker...he was amazing:

Vacations Are Fun...

Disneyland is awesome. That's about all I have to say about it.