Queen of Sketchiness

Every once in a while, I tell a story to coworkers or friends and realize how strange I really am. Or how much of a weirdo I was as a kid. I grew up with very exciting and adventurous people with plenty of stories that can one-up mine so I lived in a bubble of unawareness. Thinking about how I was as a kid and what I morphed into, ultimately has made me realize how sketchy I have become. I was in Arizona last week and asked my mom if she was ever concerned about me as a kid. Her response, "No, you were extremely intelligent and everyone loved you." Here was the evidence I presented her with:

Exhibit #1:
I am the oldest child and grandchild. When my younger brother was born I loved him but also would've been very happy if he mysteriously disappeared. I played it hot and cold with him, I would shower him with love and then attempt to get rid of him. I would ride my baby brother like a horse, or drag him by a limb into my bedroom and pile all my stuffed animals on him. My mom said that she couldn't ever leave us alone because she was afraid of what I would do. A few years later, brother and I wanted a pet fish. I begged mom to buy us betas so I could train mine to kill Brother's. Sociopath alert.

Exhibit #2:
When I was in Kindergarten, I wanted to do two things, just for fun: One-steal cars, Two-cock fight. You might remember how I had my dream jobs of becoming a stripper or bartender. But my other two activities were just "hobbies" that I was convinced I would be great at. In fact, to practice stealing cars, I took a wire coat hanger and went to town on my parents key hole of their old Honda. Needless to say, it did not go over well and I had to confess my wrong doings before my parents called the police to report an attempted break in (and bent key hole).

About the same time, I walked in to my parents watching a show on cock fighting. I was sucked in and decided that I could be the best cock fight trainer there ever was. My conversation with my mom went like this:
Me: "Mom, I have to do that. I would be SO good at it."
Mom: "Do what?"
Me: "I need a chicken so I can train it to fight."
Mom: "It's a rooster and you can't do that."
Me: "Why not?! I could do it and be so good at it."
Mom: "Shelene, it's terrible. They put sharp things on the roosters and train them to fight. The roosters get so hurt that they usually die. It is really sad, mean, and inhumane."
Me: "I guess that's sad.........(long pause)....(creepy voice)... But, my chicken would kill all the other chickens."

Mom said that she was a little concerned about that incident.

Exhibit #3:
When I was staying with my G'ma, I would get passed around a lot while she was at work. I have an aunt/bff the same age as me and we usually would end up taking off or playing together. Our favorite activity was to find money (usually on my grandpa's dresser) and go get ice cream. We lived in a small town and would wander until we found a store or ice cream shop. After we would eat our treats, we would stop by at our favorite spot, the cemetery. We would steal flowers off the other graves and put them on our "family member's." Really, we just found people with the same last name as us and put the flowers on them. This was usually accompanied by some fake tears and made up stories about how much we loved them. After we were done mourning our ancestors, we would lay in to grass and stare at cloud shapes, and sometimes take a nap.
It wasn't until later in life that I realized most kids didn't hangout in cemeteries and steal other peoples' flowers.

Present day:
Just a few weeks back, I gave a tutorial at work on how to watch TV shows and movies online. And how to easily and illegally download music.
 As hard as I try, I just can't shake the sketchy. What can you do?  :)

Google Ruined My Life

I'm the little nerd that referenced my encyclopedia and dictionary a lot as a kid. I also read many biographies on people just to see what they were like or what they really did. Yeah, what kind of kid does these things? The same kind of kid that wanted to be these things when they were little. I truly believe that google was invented to prevent my ADHD and constant curiosity from being ridiculed. Life needed to give me some type of a chance to appear as a normal person. I google everything. Seriously, everything. I hear or think of something and jump on my computer or phone to instantly google it. If I'm not near either of those, I have to resort to taking note on a post it until I can look it up later. I think I have a problem.
The other night a friend was talking about how cute puppies in wagons are, and I had to find proof. I was researching "puppies in a wagon" on google search, and then I got carried away. All of my friends started to do the same and compare our pictures. Here's some of the highlights:

"Puppies in a wagon"

"puppies in a basket"

"puppies in a shoe"

"puppies in the snow"

"puppies in a car"

What is my life coming to? I also spent over an hour googling hamsters, hermit crabs, miniature frogs and turtles. I want a pet that will be difficult to kill off but I'm afraid of commitment. I think I will just stick to googleing animals and whatever else comes into my head for now :) I love google for saving my curious mind, but I hate it for wasting hours of my time. I love it and I hate it, it's my preciousssss. I don't know what I would do without it, though! I <3 Google. 

15 Going on Hot Mess

While looking for my passport the other day, I found my journal from when I was younger. I was flipping through my early teen entries and found numerous lists from days I was grounded. Apparently, when imprisioned I would get bored and write what my favorite things were and names that I liked (let's not talk about all the Laquisha and Shaniqua names I picked).  I read just a few things from age 15 before I was too disturbed and thankful to continue. Awkwardness and hot mess like none other. Here's a little example of how I've changed:
THEN                                                     NOW
Age: 15                                                  24
Height: 5'1"                                            5'2"
Weight: 95 lbs                                      I rather not
Hair: Hot Pink                                       Back to natural
Piercings: Ears and Belly button             Ears
Food: Steak                                        Sushi or Thai
Color: Blue                                          Blue
Movie: Josh Hartnett                          Shawshank Redemption
TV: Anything on MTV                        Right now, New Girl
Place: California :)                               Guilin, China
Music: 50 Cent                                   Everything
Book: To Kill A Mockingbird             BofM or McCarthy's books
Hobbies: Shopping, Dancing               Movies and work
Job: Babysitting                                  ILP and respite

The one thing that has stayed constant: My boy JT. Hate all you want on Justin, he still has my heart.

What's that Justin? You wanna dance the night away and then get married? Done.

Thankfully, my lists are the only thing that keep me from cringing while skimming through the journal. For all my friends that stuck it through with me in Junior High, bless your sweet little hearts. I'm sure those friends are the ones that kept me from going completely wild, keeping me away from bad boys, making me go to class,  and having me take out my piercings. Maybe being 24 isn't all that bad, I dig the things I like and I love the person I've become. Thanks old journal for taking me back and making me grateful :)

Guess Where I'm Going to Live...

Hey all, here is a little post for the famdam and friendlies. So it looks like come April time, I will be moving to Phichit, Thailand for four months.

Remember when I blogged about how much I wanted to live there?

 That's right, I get to spend my summer on the other side of the world in one of the hottest and most humid places ever....I know y'all can't wait to see pics of the nappers (my hairrr) and I during that time. But real talk, my summer will hopefully make up for the last few summers times a trillion. I'm committed and I'm doin it! Here's a little map of Thailand and the red is where Phichit is:

Right now is a big of a rough patch so I'm just praying that April comes soon...or like now. I just want to ride elephants through the jungle and take legit pics with tigers

And guess what my province is famous for?

CROCS!

Here's some random giant, hollow...statue (?) of a crocodile. Friends and family may remember, this is a really serious fear of mine that I plan on overcoming (cuz I'm all about conquering my ridiculous amount of phobias). Alligators and crocodiles have freaked me out forever. I really wanted to build a barrier on my bunk bed so that the ones in the Phx Zoo wouldn't hop on the freeway, break through my window, and jump on to my bunk bed to almost fatally injure me. In my child mind, this was a very real possibility and reoccurring nightmare.  I was well aware how high they could jump (spring, leap, snap at, whatever) and being mortally wounded by one was worse than actually being murdered by its jaws. Just saying. So the fact that I get to live in Thailand AND get over my intense fear of crocodiles, is basically the best thing ever. 

Yeah, I'm stoked. And you all better write me while I'm gone. That's all :)

Birthday Triumphs

My birthday was last Monday, and it shares the day with Halloween.I really like Halloween because I enjoy dressing up, but this year my costume idea (pregnant Beyonce) was snuffed out by a previous promise I made to my mom about not dressing up like I was pregnant.
Anyways, I didn't have anything planned for my birthday, other than buying boots, and eating cupcakes and drinking Jamba Juice. Mission accomplished. I went to work and although I was crazy busy, I still managed to laugh my face off. I seriously have the best job with the greatest co-workers. I loved all the birthday wishes and hugs I received!
As I was about to leave work, I got a call from two of my friends, telling me not to eat because they were taking me to dinner. Yay! I don't have to sit on my couch by myself watching my dvr tonight!! A couple friends met at Rice King, you may remember how much I love them from this post. The owner even said, "I know, she likes cashew chicken." Yeah yeah.
Kiera, Michael, and I ran a couple of errands and had some tasty frozen yogurt before we decided to go see a scary movie. I'm all about getting over my irrational fears and phobias so I agreed to see the movie, even if I could potentially pee my pants.

I don't have the best track record with scary movies:

INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE

When I was little, my Mom let us watch Interview With A Vampire. Don't throw my mom under the bus, I'm pretty sure we begged her to watch it, and she had read the book. I don't do well with blood, biting, and veins so I was traumatized for life. Basically this is what I had to do every night for years and years, wrap my neck with a blanket so that I could try to fight off the vampire if they attempted to suck my blood and got their teeth stuck in my blankey.  

PSYCHO

I was definitely old enough to appreciate and notice the cheesiness and "special effects" of this movie. Nevertheless, I had to close my eyes during any scene when a knife or blood was present. And this is how I showered for many years to come..

With my hand covering my throat. Just in case a crazy tried to knife me when I was rinsing my hair. 

Paranoid.

SCREAM

When I was 16 and my aunt was 17 (old enough to get a rated R movie) we decided to rent Scream. Once again, this was foolish on my part being fully aware and still scared of knifes, stabbing, and blood. Even if it is just a movie, I covered my eyes and whimpered through the entire thing. I also slept in my aunt's bed and cried the whole night, because I kept having nightmares about people with knifes. To this day, I get mad anxiety when I see one of those masks. 

Birthday: FRIGHT NIGHT 3D

As if this movie wasn't terrible already, we have to put it in 3D. I realized during the previews that I had made a huge mistake. I was so stressed, I should have taken an entire bottle of Xanax. It didn't help that Michael purposely scared me during one of the previews and I almost experienced a "fade out." My family also refers to this as the possum. As in, "Oops, someone scared Shelene again and she possum-ed." Possuming is when I black out and my body collapses due to being surprised or stressed from a recent scare. My brother use to wait by the door to jump out and scare me just to watch me possum. It's not funny, I promise, don't try it! 

Anyways, Michael scared me and I experienced slight tunnel vision but thankfully came out of it. The first half of the movie was really scary for me and I was on top of my friends, with my feet up, and my coat covering my throat and half my face during most of it. But the second half was a little corny and I managed. 

I was worried that when I drove home and entered my dark house that I would still be scared, but I realized that I was NO longer afraid of vampires! I'm proud to say that a Colin Farrell movie helped me overcome my irrational fear at the age of 24. Maybe being a little stressed out on my birthday was all I needed to check one more phobia off my list. Go me! 

So You Think You Can Dance

Anyone that knows me well, knows that I have a slight obsession with SYTYCD. I've driven to LA to go to a show taping, watched every episode, own the workout DVDs, and gone to the concert tour. Oh, and met some of the previous contestants and Cat! Once the show starts I decide to work a little bit more or put money away because I plan on buying tickets once they go on sale. This year I took my cousins (who watched the whole season or dvr-ed it for me all summer).

It was basically the best night ever. I love me some Disneyland, but I would rather go to a SYTYCD concert than spend the day at Disneyland, yeah, that's how much I love it. I laughed, cried, and grinned like an idiot through the entire performance. Here's a little overview from my crappy phone camera/video.

Mitchell (one of the dancers this year) w/ April and I. 

 Me and cousin April

 Bollywood number

 So good...oh, there's tadd

 Really cool group number. 

 Turn me to Stone w/ Marko & Melanie. Tears, like a lot of them.

 Tadd's solo. Smitten. .

  The boys door dance. Sooo good.

And here are some videos..

Melanie's solo. April and I cried as soon as they started her video.

(Notice her first audition mixed in there.)

Here is Sasha and Melanie

And the vulture dance was one of my favorites too..

Okay, that's probably enough for everyone. It was the best birthday present I've ever given myself.

Evolution of Addition

Yesterday I went to visit one of my favorite people, my hairdresser. When most girls feel down or not well (like I did all week) they go shopping, get their nails done, or get a massage. I get my hair done. My sister refers to my hair as my "kool aid hairr" because I cut or dye it or both every month. She's convinced it will fall out. Here are a few examples of my hair over the past couple years..

And this doesn't even cover half the colors I've had.

Maybe because this is what I grew up looking like. So awkward..

Awful hair. I either had to slick it back or let the afro free. Plus the glasses and braces. 

Ugh.

After talking to my hairdresser and thinking back on past hair, I realized I have a problem. I'm a bit obsessed with change. 

Here is another pic of the new hair

 If I'm going to be addicted to anything, I think that hair is probably the safest.  

"I'm feeling fine, just a little pass-y out-y"

Yesterday I missed class because I was not feeling well, and by not feeling well, I mean faint. I thought it would be a really foolish idea for me to drive 15 minutes to campus, park 10 minutes away, and walk up and down many many sets of stairs when feeling a bit dizzy. I don't have the best track record with keeping it together when I feel faint at school, so I really didn't want to risk knocking my head on some steps. As I contemplated whether or not I should attempt going to school, I thought of my other two close calls...

Pause

These poor goats are so me

Close Call #1:

During Winter term I took a biology class and lab. The lab only had like 12 people and was actually really fun. For one of the labs I had to take my blood so that I could test what type I was. Having hypoglycemia and testing my blood before, I thought, "I can do this!" I had so much confidence in myself until my teacher gave me this little pokey thing and said we would have to push really hard to get the blood out. I was determined so I laid across the table, put my head down, and brought my hands in front of my face so I could see what I was doing. I mentally prepared and while the house of horrors (aka the rest of the class) moaned and cried I pushed the poker into my finger and squeezed out the blood. I was so proud of myself and tried to get up but everything was spinning and seemed to travel through light speed. I had to lay there for a while until I could finish up my lab and get it together. Luckily I survived and got through the rest of class totally fine. 

Close Call #2:

Earlier this year I took a human development class. The class was incredible and the teacher was even better, BUT the course included some talk (and video) of actual child birth. Anyone that knows me, knows that I don't do well with that, and earlier attempts to view such material (or even the Baby Story on TLC) usually leads me to the floor or gagging uncontrollably. 

So I am in class and the teacher announces that we will be watching an epidural, episiotomy, vagainal and Cesarean birth. My teacher also said that we could leave class, along with him, during the 15 minute video that would be broadcast on a giant screen; making it larger than life. I was all about leaving but when I went to stand up and realized that I was in the smack middle of an auditorium that holds 350+ people and it was going to take me a little while to shimmy down the row...

 The thought of a baby's head charging out of his mom incepted my mind and I started to get light-headed. *Danger* As I stood up to leave and make my way out, the room starting spinning and I envisioned my unconscious body falling onto one my classmates on the level below me. I quickly sat back down and put my head between my knees. For the next 15 minutes (also know as the longest 15 minutes of my life) I slumped over in my chair, trying to play games on my cell phone, while going in and out of tunnel vision.

I barely made it through the video and had to hold on to the railing to get out of class. Luckily, the fresh winter air helped and I made it home without passing out. 

Yesterday:

After reviewing my past experiences, I decided that I should go to the doctor instead. If anyone ever wants to  feel really good about themselves and their health, you should tag along to the doctor with me. The nurse asked me a lot of questions:

Nurse: "Have you ever broken a bone or had surgery?"

Me: "I would say about 11 or 12 bones..."

Nurse: "Whoa, that many? When was the last one?"

Me: "Yeah, about that many, give or take some toes. The last one was two months ago but I just cracked my ribs a little."

Me: "Oh, and I had my last surgery in 2009."

Nurse: "Oh, okay. Wow, you're pretty young for that."

Me: "Welcome to my life."

Doctor: "Well, everything you told me isn't adding up and doesn't sound normal. I'm going to need to send you to someone else too, along with some blood work."

Me: "Hmm..comforting."

Nevertheless, I made it through the two hours and getting blood work done, all without passing out! 

I was pretty stoked and gladly rewarded myself with victory lollipops while they made me wait in the lab room just to make sure I didn't go down on them. 

1 Point Me: 1,000,000 Universe. 

48 Hours in AZ

This is a couple weeks late but ya know, that's how I roll. Plus, I was waiting on my famdam to send me the pics from that weekend.
So two weekends ago I flew (thanks to Uncle Tony's buddy pass) to Arizona to see my family and be there for when my two brothers got the Priesthood. I knew everyone would be there and I don't like missing out on special occasions so I booked a flight last minute and hopped on home for two days. Anyone that knows me well knows that I don't like flying but I did it for the kids.
Usually I like spending as little time as possible away from work and not in AZ, but I really really missed Mesa. I missed the Mexican food, my family, my friends, and the good people. Luckily, my buddy Isaac was back in town and agreed to go grab some delish food at Rosa's with me. Man, Utah your food sucks. You know you're good friends with someone when they don't judge you for eating the entire basket of chips and shoving enchiladas down your gullet twice as fast as everyone else at the table. Thank you forever Rosa's.

I also spent some quality time with the family messing around, eating treats, and watching criminal television. That's how we do. The next morning we set out for our three hour journey to Snowflake for Great Grandpa Webb's 95th birthday and a visit with the rest of the Webb clan. Here we are with Great G'pa.

Isn't he precious?

We went and saw my cousin's soccer game, played with the other cousins at G'pa Webb's house, and went to see My Uncle Jason and his girls. It wouldn't be a Webb trip is something didn't go according to plan... Mom's van got hit by some pastors on our way..but it was only a minor scratch. And it also wouldn't be a Webb road trip without us jammin' out to 80s the whole way and having a note-holding contest to Pat Benetar (BTW, I won seven times). What can I say? We know how to have a good time and get down.

The next day we had stake conference and then the boys were ordained. Here is a picture of the Morris bunch with the sibs and Mahzer. 

Look at all those kids...and I'm the oldest. They're pretty great and I love em.

We went home to take our regularly scheduled sunday nap and eat some tasty yums. Of course Fahzer had to take more pictures of us..

Here's the fambam

Sheridan and I have a hard time just standing there. 

And the kids Sound of Music style

After the naps, per request, we had an epic family slide show and one of my favorite cousins/people/friends, Peter came over to visit and catch up. I love that kids and I'm glad he stayed for the ridiculous display of old family photos. I had to fly back that night to be back in time for school and work but that 48 was so worth it.

It was a good time and hopefully will hold me over until my Christmas visit...love and miss you already family. Plus, brothers, so proud of yousss!! 

Lay Off Me

Today I resurfaced a wound and complex of mine. I have a pretty addictive and loyal personality so when I like something, I really like it, and want it All.The.Time. If someone mentions my problem or points it out, it kinda bothers me though. I feel like this:

 Here's an example:
About a year ago I would order out and eat at Rice King (chinese food) pretty often. My excuse was it was summer and I was working long days and didn't want to cook. My order was cashew chicken with "clear sauce" because I'm allergic to soy sauce. Maybe I went too often, and maybe I was okay in justifying that until one night, when I called  to order for my roommate and I. Here is how it went down.

RK: "Rice king, how can I help you?"
Me: "oh hey, I wanted to place a take out order..(still planning on talking)
RK: "OH, clear sauce, clear sauce, that you?"
Me: "Yeah, it's me"
RK: (yelling to the cook) "Clear sauce on phone!"
RK: "Okay clear sauce, be ready in 10 minutes, see you then!" Click
My roommate: "Leene, did they know it was you just by your voice and call you by your order?"
Me: "I don't want to talk about it....maybe I go there too much."
I took a break and didn't go back for 2 months.

Example: Today

I went to The Sweet Tooth Fairy. This seems to be a pretty common occurrence lately since they opened a new shop right by work and decided to carry many delicious Gluten free treats. Sometimes a girl just needs a cupcake and sometimes that girl needs to hide and eat it in her car so people don't think they a sweets problem. Today I walked in and the girl said,

 "Oh hi! Guess what, you're in luck, we just put out all the gluten free stuff." The new employee she was training smiled and said, "You must come in often, huh?" I just gave a nervous/embarrassed laugh and told her I did come in pretty regularly and that it was near work..blah blah blah...sometimes I buy things for other people so I'm not a complete manatee.

In my mind she really said, "Oh hey fatty, guess what we put out all the gf stuff just for you, because you are in here every day." Thanks cupcake counter girl. 

Usually when this happens I need to take a break or fast from a particular place or food. I think it's time. What can I say? I'm loyal and people love me to spend my monies there. I think I'll have to eat one more cupcake before I take a break though...lay off me I'm starving :)

You Did What Now?

So about a year ago I was preparing my Halloween costume for work. The zipper on my skirt broke less than an hour before I had to be to work so in a panic to fix it and without a sewing kit or safety pins, I headed to Walgreens. It turns out Walgreens didn't have a sewing kit or safety pins either, BUT they had super glue. Super glue that claimed to attach any type of plastic for eternity in less than 30 seconds. Golden! I bought two tubes of super glue and tried to speed home as soon as possible.
While in the car and waiting at a red light, I had a brilliant idea...

This is how it went down in my head:

"I'm at a red light...I should open this package of glue to give myself a head start on fixing this zipper"

"This light is really long...while I have the package open, I should just go ahead and take off the cap..."

"Welp, off with the cap, oh, now I have to puncture the top of the bottle to open it. I should do that too!"

(Puncture) "Oh *@&%! Something is wrong with the pressure in this bottle, it exploded glue everywhere!"

"OH @*&%! This is SUPER glue! Ahh!" " OH %*&#! The light just turned green!" "Oh &*#@! my fingers are glued together!"  (can you tell I don't deal with stress well? oops)

"Okay, calm down, you can drive with your wrists...you should probably put the cap somewhere though...hmmm...in my mouth! I'll hold the opposite end of the lid in my mouth!"

(Muffled) "Oh #@*&! There is glue all over this cap. IT'S IN MY MOUTH! It's on my tongue! It's on my teeth. I just glued my tongue to my teeth!" "Drive, I have to drive, stay in the lines, get home"

So I made it home with my fingers all fused together, my tongue attached my the back of my front teeth, my bottom lip stuck to my bottom teeth, and my permanent retainer completely immersed in a pool of everlasting super glue. 

(Can we pause for a moment and try to imagine how hilarious this would be to witness another driving suffering through? I wish there was a camera.) 

Anyways, I stumble out of my car and into my condo to try and strip myself of the adhesive and fix my skirt. I successfully disconnected my ten appendages from each other and removed my bottom lip from my teeth. At this point I had ripped my tongue from my teeth but had a huge mass of glue still clinging to the back of my chompers. If there is one thing I care never to break or ruin, it's my teeth. I started to freak out and shove any kind of instrument in my mouth to try and extract the glue from my mouth. After ten minutes all the flakes and chunks were off my lips but the glue on my teeth seemed like it was there for good. Wanting to cry, I decided to fix my skirt zipper (which didn't work). All that work for nothing. I eventually thought of something else and arrived at work on time. 

When I got there, my coworker asked how I was doing.

Me: "Pretty good, except for I just glued my tongue to the back of my teeth."

Coworker: "You did what now??"

Me: "Oh, I accidentally got super glue in my mouth and glued my tongue to my teeth. It's still there, look!"

So..the following few days, I still was unable to remove the glue and I had ingested a lot of flakes from my attempts. One of my friends googled it and we came to the conclusion that I would either die from eating that much toxic super glue, or I would have to wait about a month for it to come off on its own. After about a month, google proved to be right, and the glue wore off and my teeth were back to normal. I'm really glad I didn't die from eating all that glue, and my teeth seem to be stronger than ever, so maybe it wasn't that bad after all. 

Cabin Time!

I'm still waiting for my seesta to give me pics from two weekends ago, so I'll post about AZ when I get them. In the meantime, last weekend I was able to go with some friends up to Kiera's cabin. I decided that I need to work less and take more days off to play. This weekend was perfect and I even caught up on some much needed rest (just ask everyone I fell asleep on).
Last time we went to Kiera's cabin (in Northern Utah, almost Wyoming, but not actually in Wyoming because Kiera says Wyoming is "dirty") it was covered in snow and freezing! This time the weather was in the low 70s during the day and nice and cool and night. So basically heaven.

See what I mean? Heaven on earth.

It was such a fun weekend to play and relax but I won't bore you with all the details (even though my Mah loves that crap). Here are some lovely pics I stole from my friend, Michael's blog. Thanks Michael!

 A little lake we rode ATVs to. 

 The other side of the lake looking at the ATVs

 Why is my helmet different from the others, you may ask? It was the biggest one...my noggin is ginormous.

 Michael, Cami, Justin, and I at a stream near a lookout. It made me want to strip down and play in it..but my parents told me I wasn't allowed anymore after I turned eight...

 Don't you love our sexy dirt faux tans?

 Pushing everything together to make "Mega Bed" was the best idea of the weekend. 

 Looking like we love each other at Mirror lake.

Mirror Lake on our way home. I'm still not sure why it is called "Mirror" lake...it didn't look very mirror-y..

I wish I could take off every weekend to play but that's just not going to happen. I'm am grateful for the times it does though. I sure love the view and the company...and the sleep :) 

That explains a lot...

The other day in class (or on tv, I can't remember) the expert was talking about concussions and the effects it has on the person who received it. I started to think about all the concussions I have experienced over the years. I chose to start early and try to cram in as many as possible. I think I can attribute my memory loss and sometimes erratic behavior to the many, many head smashing, brain banging incidents. Here are my Top Five:

Number One

So in the third grade I jammed my finger during P.E. on a rubber playground ball. When I went to show my teacher, he pulled on it and I passed out hardcore. Then while unconscious, I stood up again, and passed out again. Luckily, my teacher caught me and carried me to the grass to lay down. A whole bunch of ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars showed up and took me away for some tests and a day stay at the hospital.

Good times. Lots of sympathy.

Number Two

About a year later, my aunt wanted to crimp my hair. I stood too long with my knees locked and passed out. Another a concussion for me. We had a day of activities planned so my Grandma decided we should do that instead of going to the doctor. So we went on saw Hercules and ate lunch...I don't remember anything from the rest of the day or the movie.

Number Three

About a year after the previous incident, I got heat stoke (ya know, AZ summer time) while at my best friend's house, hoping that she could play and passed out. I cracked my head on the kitchen tile. I don't remember anything after that...

Number Four

A few years ago, I was trying to quickly shave my legs on a narrow tub ledge when I slipped and hit my head straight onto my avocado-colored wall. It was clear I had a concussion and my neighbor/nurse confirmed it. I don't remember a lot after that because my mom let me nap a bunch of times. (BTW aren't you supposed to stay awake?) I also remember my sister's friends making fun of my weird comments. My head hurt for several days and I felt really bizarre but my mom let me drive the next day...(big mistake..so sketchy!)

Number Five

Around the same time as the last concussion, I passed out again in the doctors office. I was fasting to get tested for celiac disease (which I have) and after the blood samples, I had a seizure. Not only did I seize so hard I kicked my shoe into the other room, I hit my head on the chair and got ANOTHER concussion. That was a rough experience and they made me chill at the doctor for a really long time before my mom took me home and I completely forgot about the next two days.

I'm not entirely sure what all the effects of this many (and more) concussions are on a person's brain, but I'm sure it is not good! Hopefully I'll turn out alright and I won't have dementia or something by the time I'm 30. Time will tell, I guess....at least they make for good stories :)

The Golden Age

Last night I couldn't sleep so I watched Midnight in Paris. I enjoyed it, it was entertaining and interesting to see how they captured another time. In the movie, Owen Wilson is able to visit his "golden age" the 1920's while in Paris. After the movie, I was trying to sleep but kept thinking, what would be my golden age, where do I feel like I belong. Finally, I determined it was a toss up. It would seem that I would obviously belong in the 1980s, but I tend to live like I'm still there now. Let me break it down what I discovered...

1960s

I always felt like that decade was one of empowerment and movement. they had civil rights (both with African American and Hispanic), feminism, and a struggle for peace in a time of war and contention all around the world. Music, fashion, film, art, and science were on a rise. I think it would've been so awesome to be in the middle of the great change that was occurring. Plus, my life would've been freakin sweet. Here's proof: 

He would be my boyfriend. It was a short but wonderful love 

 Here's my best friend. People think she's a little crazy (crazy awesome) but she kills it onstage and has a voice like I've never heard before. 

 She would be my inspiration and idol,but way too cool for me. I love the hair and eyes! 

 This is pretty close to what I actually dressed like. (I'm the one with the afro, of course)

1970s

Technology, social movements, architecture, music, art, and film just seem like they exploded at this time into something wonderful and new. Also, I was always a big fan of the disco scene and fashion. Here we go again:

Here's my bff, Stevie. I wish I had a picture of her boots..they were always rad

 My gay bestie, Freddie. I hated when he would steal my clothes without asking.

 Yeah, everyone wanted to be like them. What can I say, their clothes are awesome.

(So was Farrah's hair)

My favorite movie. I saw it 10 times in theaters.

Plus, I was in love with Harrison Ford :)

After reviewing the evidence, I think it's quite obvious that I would belong in either decade. Maybe I'll just stick to my current golden age and work in aspects from my others...