Multiple Choice:

"Is there a reason you didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign back there?"

a. Because I'm in a hurry to get to work to get this day over with so I can get to the good stuff tonight.

b. Because I didn't see you hiding in that parking lot.

c. No.

Maybe I should have tried crying.

Dear Santa Claus again

Thank you for the safe and sick-free travel. I know the sick-free part wasn't easy after my friends got sick just before I left, so I appreciate it. Thank you also for the snow. Can I have this much every year?


I know demand is high for good guys (all my friends want one too). I can only assume that this means they are on back order. Please send mine along when they become available again.

Happy New Year!

Dear Santa Claus

How have you been? Did you have a nice summer? How is your wife? I have been extra good this year, so I have a few special requests of what I want for Christmas.

1. Safe holiday travel with no missed layovers and no getting sick before I fly.

2. Snow for Christmas so I can go sledding.

3. A good guy to date.*

4. A fisheye lens, a new computer with better processing speeds, Photoshop, graded filters for shooting landscapes, and an external flash unit.

All I want is what is what I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.





* I realize this one doesn't exist. Maybe world peace instead?

And the waiting is the hardest part

I realized something in the past week or so. Being optimistic about the future and having the patience to wait for that bright future are two totally different things. Also, life isn't fair. But as my dad always said, "Nobody said anything about life being fair. But it's worth it."

Shouldn't you be in the other lane?

I'm a terrible backseat driver. Just last night, I had to hold my tongue so I didn't tell a friend I've known for years how to get to my house. She definitely knows where I live and needs no assistance from me. Today as I drove up that same road, I had an epiphany.

When I offer you directions or helpful suggestions while you are driving, it's not because I think you're an idiot who doesn't know where you're going. You're an idiot because you aren't driving the way I would drive.

Living in a Beach Boys song

A few weeks ago I was bored and browsing photography contest websites. I found one that I considered entering, but I ran out of time to compile/take pictures and I was too chicken to enter. But I've been thinking about it ever since. The contest theme was Homeland--where you live now, not necessarily where you were born. So here's what I would have entered and why.

When I was eight years old, my dad bought a cassette tape of Endless Summer by the Beach Boys. I loved it. My siblings and I would bring our tape player out and blast "Surfin' Safari" as we roller skated in the driveway. And even though I only knew the "inside outside U.S.A." part of the chorus of "Surfin U.S.A.", I sang along with gusto.

A few years ago I decided I was going to learn the real chorus. As I read the lyrics, I discovered that they were listing surfing beaches. Not only that, I had been to many of those beaches, or at least knew where they were and had driven past in the last year or so. I was living in a Beach Boys song.

In a nutshell, that's what makes this place so special to me. We do have an endless summer, with 80-degree days in December and sunshine almost every day. I've always loved the ocean, and now I can be at the beach with my toes in the sand in 10 minutes. I love the craziness of the beach on a big summer weekend. But more than that, I love the quieter months when I can enjoy the waves without the crowds. That's why I love my homeland.

Lessons Learned in Europe

My sister is a rock. She kept me from completely panicking on more than one occasion.
I do not react well to cigarette smoke.
Guidebooks are just opinions.
Don't fly Ryanair out of Ciampiano.
Spaniards are very enthusiastic people.
Three museums in one day is kind of insane, but doable.
You can get by just fine by pointing at menu items. Hand gestures work too.
The Pantheon and Eiffel Tower really do exist and are just as cool as you imagine they are.
A pear and two hot rolls don't count as breakfast and lunch.
Game shows are funnier if you don't understand them.
Maps are a good thing.
I don't know enough about history, art, music, or anything, really.
Food is better in its native country.
I like European chocolate, Gaudi, and Strauss.
Jet lag is crazy. Tylenol PM helps.
My sister and I look like sisters.
Metros and buses are awesome. Why don't we use them more here?
The world is an amazing place and I can't wait to see more.

A Realization

Ever since I graduated from college, I've been in the process of becoming a grown up. Getting a real job. Insuring my own car. Having my own cell phone plan. Paying bills like cable and gas. Working on my birthday. Planning trips to Europe.

For some reason this trip has stressed me out considerably. I want it to go well. No, I want everything to be perfect, but I know that won't happen, so I'll settle for it going well. My sister, who I'm taking the trip with, has been busy with school and such, and we decided that it would be easier if everything were in my name anyways. So I bought the plane tickets and booked the hotels. All that grown up activity has made me weary of being a grown up.

Tonight I'm packing and stressing about packing too much or too little and making lists of things to do tomorrow (get cash, convert cash to Euros, buy power adapter, sort out credit card, mail a package to my mom, pay all bills...). I took a break for yogurt with a friend. I said I was tired of being a grown up. He said that it's better than the alternative (and he would know). And I realized something: it's not being a grown up that I'm tired of. I like the freedom and the money and the accountability of it. I'm tired of being a grown up alone.

Hey, Honey! What's the Latest Buzz?

About a month ago, I heard a strange buzzing noise at work. I was in the office by myself that morning, so there was no one else to notice. There were some grounds crew guys using leaf blowers, so I assumed that's what I heard and wrote it off.

But the next day, it was back. Louder. And the next day. It wasn't a constant buzzing noise; just every once in a while. Enough to break my concentration and really annoy me. After about two weeks of that, I couldn't handle it any more. I felt a little silly complaining to the receptionist to have her complain to the powers that be about something so simple as an annoying buzzing, but it was loud enough that I could hear it above the music coming through my headphones. Too loud. My office mate has been watching all the seasons of Lost, so her theory was that it was the Others coming to get us. I had thought it was a little lost bee, but bees don't live that long.

Turns out I was sort of right. The next time the noise happened, I climbed up on the desk and payed attention. When the noise ended, something long, black, and yellow crawled out of a space in the corner where the window frame and wall meet. I emailed the receptionist again, this time telling her what was making the noise. She said they were going to send someone out to spray for the nasty critters.

Trouble is, they didn't go away. We could still hear them, building their nest, throwing wild rave parties... it got old. Friday, at the risk of becoming annoying myself for always complaining, I asked one more time if we could have someone come out. I even volunteered to show them where the bugs were getting in. Turns out they had sprayed, but they didn't have the right stuff to plug the hole, so the bugs got back in. So this time, they sprayed and filled the hole properly.

If I hear buzzing on Monday, I'm tearing open the wall myself. It will not be pretty.

Sometimes the Hardest Thing and the Right Thing Are the Same

Last week, I got in my car Wednesday morning to go to work. I was already running a bit late (because I got up late, because I stayed up late...the story of my life). I piled my cousin, her tennis stuff, and myself in the car and was greeted by the empty light once the car was on. That stupid little light had been on the night before too, but I was too tired to do anything about it. So I pulled into the 76 on the corner to put a few bucks' worth in (the 76, while convenient, is overpriced). But then I discovered that I had left my wallet in another bag at home. I returned home, got my wallet, and returned to the corner gas station. This whole process added 15 minutes to my morning. Not the end of the world, but enough to really frustrate me for the rest of the day.

I told my dad about the whole thing while talking to my family on Sunday. He said "Well, look at it this way: you found out your wallet wasn't there when you were only a few blocks from home and still had enough gas to go back to get it. Had you tried to get farther down the road or to work, you would have been stranded with no wallet and no gas."

Sometimes things happen that seem like the worst thing ever. You get frustrated, upset, emotional. But given time and perspective, you see that maybe it's not so bad after all. Maybe this bad thing actually saved you from a worse thing. You just have to wait for that perspective to come.

Happiness is...

* watching General Conference in your pajamas.
* sunshine and 70s on a Saturday.
* finding the perfect pair of brown shoes on sale at DSW.
* finally delivering birthday presents, even if they are over a month late.
* strawberry surfrider smoothies from Jamba Juice.
* being able to see out my car windows.
* daffodils.
* pizza and pizookies from BJ's.
* people who love me.

I've had half a dozen posts in mind but haven't found time to write them out. Now that I have the time, I can't remember any of them. Very annoying. Oh wait! They're coming back to me. Kind of.

So we had a bonfire to burn my Christmas tree. We got a fire going in one pit (and by we, I mean my boyfriend...I didn't realize we'd need lighter fluid) and set the tree up in another. We were just waiting for my roommate to come join us before sending it off in a blaze of glory. All of a sudden there was a commotion behind us and we thought, "Oh, someone else had a tree too." Then we kept turning and realized that they had taken our tree and lit it off in their own pit. I was rather annoyed. However, the story has a silver lining. We still got to see the tree burn (except my roommate), albeit at a greater distance. The high school kids who stole it looked like idiots because it fell over and sent burning ash all over the beach, and it's always fun when high schoolers look like idiots. And finally, there was a group at the pit behind ours, and with the way the wind was blowing, we would have sent burning ash all over them, which would have made us look like idiots. So really, it all turned out okay.

I've also been thinking a lot about a scripture that I always thought was a "well, duh" principle. Alma 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." Men are that they might have joy. We're supposed to be happy! This life is not meant to be some big trial to be endured in misery, waiting for the life after to be happy. Yes, there are hard things and sometimes we will be sad. But real, lasting joy exists in life too. So seek joy.

I was always one of those girls who never saw what the big deal with Valentine's Day was. My parents always spent it at home with us kids. They'd exchange cards, maybe make a heart-shaped pizza, and call it a night around 9. That seemed like a good way to spend the day to me. In college, I proudly wore my "single" shirt to the gym that day and attended more than one anti-valentine party, though out of a need for something to do that day, not out of bitterness. But now I've seen the light. Valentimes is serious times. This year, I got flowers, breakfast, a walk on the beach, a museum visit, and dinner on the Santa Monica pier. And having now experienced a real Valentine's Day, I don't think I can ever go back to my carefree days of not caring. Turns out it's awesome to be spoiled for a day.

Life is good, friends. Life is good.

If you see it once, you'll never be the same again

I went to Vegas for the first time this weekend. Oh sure, I had driven through plenty of times, even spent the night at friends' houses...but I had never really been to Vegas. And let me say, it was quite a trip.

We started at the crack of before dawn so we could do a session at the Las Vegas temple (giving me three temples in three weeks). Late lunch was at Cafe Rio. I got my beloved pork salad, which is as addicting as the churros at Disneyland. By that time we could check in to the Bellagio for nap time.

View from our room

They upgraded us to the suite floor because they had run out of the room we were supposed to have. We certainly didn't complain about that. Not only did the bathroom have a phone, it had a TV. Even better, you could tune in to Channel 22 to hear the music for the fountain show. Definitely cool. "Dinner" was a crepe from Jean Philippe. They had this chocolate fountain that reminded me of Willy Wonka, only for grown-ups.


Then it was off to Love, which was fantastic. Trippy, but fantastic. My favorite was probably either the opening act of "Get Back" because of the people bungee jumping from the ceiling, or the part when they brought out two U-shaped ramps and four guys with rubber mop-head wigs did rollerblading tricks (sadly, I've already forgotten what song it was to). There was always so much visual stimuli...it was hard to know where to look.


We spent the rest of the night wandering various casinos, mocking hoochies in high heels and skimpy skirts, watching boats on the canal at the Venitian, and playing the penny slots. I lost a whole dollar in that endeavor.

Sunday morning we went to the spa. I learned that I like steam rooms, especially if they're infused with eucalyptus. Brunch was at the Hash House, where our food took f-o-r-e-v-e-r, which I really didn't handle well, having not eaten anything that day yet. Then we headed out in an attempt to beat the traffic (which we did, for the most part). And now...back to real life again.

I'm alive and I'm free. Who wouldn't wanna be me?

Happy new year, everyone! I love the chance the start of a new year gives us to reflect on our lives. I've decided mine is pretty good.

I have a good job. Yes, it stressed me out a lot last year, but I like the work and the people. Oh, and a paycheck is always nice.

I have a place to live. My house, though a little chilly at night right now, is perfect for me. It also happens to be in southern California, which means I get to enjoy beautiful weather, the beach, and Disneyland.

I have a car. I managed to replace both sets of brakes, some steering column part, and a tire this year, but most of the time it works quite well.

I have a healthy body. I didn't take advantage of that as much as I should have last year, and intend to be better about that this year. (No, this is not an "I'm going to lose 10 pounds" resolution; it's an "I'm going to take better care of myself" resolution.)

I have a phone. Even though I was only without a phone for about 12 hours, I really missed that connection to my friends and family. If I couldn't talk to my family on a regular basis, I don't think I could handle being so far away.

I have money. Not in the sense that I'm loaded, but that I can afford to buy food and pay rent, with enough left over for things like trips to Washington DC and cameras.

I have good friends. They keep me sane. They make me laugh. They make me want to be a better person.

I have a loving family. My parents are incredibly supportive (even when I do crazy things like move to California). And my siblings are all amazing.

Most of all, I have a testimony of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives; I know He loves me. That makes everything worth it.