You're being all selective 'cause you got a pony tail.

Merry Belated Christmas!

Things are going well here in good ole' Virginia. Christmas was pretty good for the most part but I'm not here to share what I didn't like about the holiday weekend, only the things I liked.
Our office closed early on Christmas Eve and I ran home and did a few little chores before heading over to the rents to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law (and nephews thrown into the deal too). ...um, I don't really remember Christmas eve that well so that's all you get for that day. Sorry, it happens when you get older.

Thursday morning I awoke to the sounds of Pat Benatar singing how love is a battlefield. I took a shower and got ready because this Christmas I was determined to look decent, especially since I didn't have the excuse of waking up and sliding down the stairs to open presents. I had to leave the house, briefly go out in public and then enter my parent's house. There was no excuse for a messy ponytail, mismatched PJs and a make-up-less face.

My dad had told me that breakfast was at 9:00, I told him I'd show up at 9:30. Which I did. Breakfast not only had been served, but any and all traces of it were being wiped away when I entered the room! All that remained was a sticky trail that my mom was wiping up and a half empty bowl of fruit salad. Now, the Jessica (D), sixth child, baby of the family, had to overeat just to eat side of me looked around and decided I wasn't hungry. I would be a Christmas Day Breakfast martyr and the family would hear about it for years to come. But mom insisted on making me some breakfast which now includes bacon nuked in the microwave between two sheets of paper towels (who knew?), some eggs that burned (my own fault) and toast. It was the best breakfast I've eaten in a while, beats a peanut butter granola bar.

I spent time with the family, which alternated as members and their sig figs travelled from the house, to in-laws, back to the house. I remained in the same place because my family (Chubber's and I) only had one family to commit to and we stayed the whole day. No, I'm not bitter about being the only single Donbrosky...nope. Finally everyone came over for dinner (at 2) and we ate. Then we opened the remaining presents (it was an all day thing as people came in and out).
We exchange names in my family because it's getting too big. My sister-in-law, Heather Lynn, had my name. She got me the Uglies series that I am interested in reading. I don't know how much I'll like them, but they had good reviews so I thought I would give them a try. I was pretty excited because I had only asked for the first one and she went ahead and got me the series. Mom got me The Office Trivia Game, which I picked out myself and put in the cart, but still excited to have.

Other than that I got a stocking full of my favorite candy and a 72 hour kit. Kathryn got me a popcorn tin since I am the only one "without a mate" as she put it. Thanks Kat. Sam got me bath salts, however I don't have a bath. I figured I'll save them for when I do have a bath, because one day I'll get that privilege again. That may be it, I can't remember. Never fear though, Chubbers bought me tons of stuff for Christmas. I got a pair of brown Converse (which I am wearing now), a new dress, shiny black dress shoes, Psych Season 2, and a ton of Candy Cane Hershey kisses because he knows I like them so much. What a great dog! Granted everything he bought came from Target over a month's time, but everything was also bought during incredible sales!

That dog is just too good to me.

This weekend was good, I got to spend time with my family (I played (and lost) a lot of Battleship games and I won Scrabble!), I got to eat more than I normally do (which is actually a very bad thing) and I got to just relax and not worry about anything. I also got to play ball on Friday and Saturday went to see "The Day the Earth Stood Still" with my sister and my mom. The movie is excellent and it's the perfect part for Keanu Reeves because he's not supposed to have any emotion!

Sunday I somehow got sucked in a show called Ninja Warrior, best I can tell is it's a Japanese show similar to gladiators except they never fight against each other. There are a few rounds, each with a series of complicated physical activities. Sunday's special was Women of Ninja Warrior. It wasn't like the show on Spike where they dub the voices and make it funny, this was some serious competition! 100 woman started off and only 2 made it to the final round. But only one (the returning champ) completed the course. There were English subtitles so I read them for everyone else in the room and let myself get carried away in the excitement..."four more dominoes to go! Can she make it? She made it! She made it!" Yeah, they had to keep their balance while walking across dominoes, each color was a little taller than the last and less stable. I couldn't have done it. I am in awe.

Well, that was pretty much my weekend, I'll post pictures when I get home.

It's amazing how exotic Wisconson... isn't.

I had a pretty busy weekend. It started Thursday night with basketball. Every Thursday (except for Holidays and then we try to play that Friday instead) we play basketball. It's mostly boys and I kind of prefer it that way. I wouldn't want a girl playing who is better than me!
This past Thursday I suppose I was playing pretty rough because I got the best bruises ever!!



This one on my wrist started out as a gross bump (we all know how I feel about my wrist). Suddenly it was a bruise, which continued to get darker as the weekend went on. So exciting for me. Now that it's in the healing stages it's not as cool.
Then there's the one on my knee...I don't recall what exactly happened for me to get either of these, but I know it was during basketball. It was a pretty intense night. One kid got a bloody nose (lucky dog), so at least it wasn't just me throwing myself around on the court...though I probably did a lot of that too.

Friday night a group of us got together to go see the new Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds". Due to some miscommunication rather than Christmas shopping at Target with some of the group I was at the boy's house playing Rock Band. It wasn't so bad, but I don't do the singing or anything, and I had kind of liked the idea of Christmas shopping with a group. But I got over it.


When we got to the theater most of the boys decided that they wanted to see "Yes Man" so they ditched and four of us went to "Seven Pounds". It was really good! I was totally confused for about half an hour, but you know, by the end I understood what was happening, so the next time I see it I'll follow better.

After the movie it was off to The Waffle House...I never thought I would find a place that made Denny's feel pristine. It was quite an adventure when the food came to the table...I wasn't sure if it would be my last meal or not.

I think the best part of the night was when Mikey realized that he had bought seven hamburgers (he shared with the group) and then at The Waffle House we had sevens drinks (but only 5 of us who went) and we had gone to the movie "Seven Pounds" and after eating at the Waffle House we probably only had 7 hours to live.


Here are the boys showing off their modeling skills. I don't know why they waste their time with day jobs and college.

Sunday was my Uncle's Christmas party. I wasn't going to go but last minute I decided to. It was after church and since my parent's were going there was no where else for free dinner! I spent most of the evening hanging out in a separate room with my immediate family...go figure.
In the picture before this one Ed had raised an eyebrow...a talent I have to work hard to even get close. As I tried to raise just one eyebrow my sister-in-law thought it would be funny to take the picture. What we get in the end is a photo that appears to be depicting a adolescent distaste for my older brother. Just wanted to explain why it appeared that way.

We kept trying to get Amanda to give a cute smile but she wouldn't, so I joined her in whatever pose she chose, and this was it. It's probably our most attractive photo opt together, if I do say so myself.

Back to work on...Tuesday (I took Monday off and got rid of that fridge...did I mention that it was gone within an hour and half??). On my way into work I pass this pretty water fountain, it was so cold on Monday and Tuesday (remember I describe it as "Rexburg cold" cause I think most of my "readers" can understand that type of description), the water in the fountain began to freeze. Since I was at a stoplight in my car this is the best I could do with the photo. Hopefully you can tell where the ice is, it's all that white stuff, the water isn't that powerful...it's a fountain, not a waterfall.

Today it is mostly melted because for some reason it's decided to go back up to 50 degrees. I wish it would make up it's mind so that I may properly acclimate.

Manic Monday

I have today off from work so I'm trying to be as productive as possible. A few weeks ago I got a fridge stuck in my room.


My sister was trying to get rid of it and my roommates and I need more freezer space so we figured why not? That night we had FHE at our house so we had plenty of boys to ask for help. It took them quite a while to get it into the house (first stop, my room). They ended up having to take the doors off of the fridge and then bringing it in. We got it into the little foyer right outside my room and we were going to try and get it into the laundry room. The door stop got in the way and since we are renters we gave up and left the fridge in my room. They put it back together and I wondered if I could live with a huge fridge in my room. In the end....I couldn't.

So today, my first task was to take that sucker apart and get it in the driveway and then put it on Craigslist as a free item. I took the doors off first.

Then I started to move it outside. It got temporarily stuck in the doorway, but I went out the front door and moved it a little, then back into my room (via the front door) and shoved it a little and walla! It's in the driveway.

I had to put the doors back on and let me tell you, taking stuff apart is a lot easier than putting it back together. I finally laid the fridge down to do it and when I thought I was done I realized I forgot a piece...I contemplated if it was important enough, and decided I wouldn't have any way of knowing, so I took the doors back off and put the piece back on. It wouldn't have been so bad except that it's Rexburg cold out there today and even with the gloves my fingers are numb. But all is well, the fridge is together in the driveway.

I planned a lot more time for this project, but I guess since I paid attention to how the boys did it last time I was able to do it quicker. Either that or I'm just a far superior being... but for the sake of my relationship status we'll just say I'm a quick study.

Now I'm going to clean my room, bake some cookies, take my roommate to the airport, wrap presents, do laundry, give Chubbs a bath, and try to find some other things to do with my day! :) Fun right?

December Happenings

At the beginning of this month we had out YSA semi-formal dance at the Richmond Marriott hotel. I went last year and had a pretty good time (at least I think I did from the pictures I had). So I decided I would go again this year. Here are a few of the pictures from this year. I didn't go as photo crazy this year as I had last year.

Emily T., me, and Whitney Z.

The R.S. Presidency: Natalie H., Kelli N., me, and Emily T.

Emily and me playing around in the lobby

Natalie, me, and Emily before we found Kelli.

Then last week we had our December enrichment. I was really excited because the numbers were pretty good. It rained all day long and was raining at 6:30 when I left to get there and really thought that would reduce the number of people showing up, but at our best I think we had about 15 people. Pretty good I think! For our activity we made little rice krispy treat houses.

Emily and Crystal working on theirs

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As you can see we had tradtional houses and teepees and...something else.

I love how much care Nancy is putting in to hers.

That's it for now, if anyone posts pictures I like from the dance then I'll copy and paste them in here for you to see my favorites. But as of right now no one has posted anything. Toodles!

Tagged

Cassie tagged me and I learned the hard way that you do what she tells you to do (though I don't recall her completing step five).

1. Link to the person who tagged you. (check)
2. Mention the rules on your blog. (check)
3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks about yourself. (coming right up!)
4. Tag 6 unsuspecting fellow bloggers by linking to them.
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger's blogs letting them know they have been tagged.

1. I'm a blog-a-holic. Totally addicted to blogging, I have several blogs so that I don't inundate certain people with writing so much (except for those people who have access to all the blogs, I pity them in a way because it must get annoying).

2. When I really don't like something it makes me gag. i.e. last night we were watching some old devotional on BYU-TV after the broadcast and the microphone came up out of the stand towards the speakers face...it was odd looking, and made me gag, but it wasn't gross...just made me gag.

3. I can't talk to boys if I like them (you probably knew this but I wasn't supposed to tell new information was I?). I clam up, I try to give myself pep talks about how easy it will be to talk to them I've just got to ask a question to start it...but I can't do it! It's very frustrating.

4. I put things in order on the register belt when I go to the store (this counts especially at places like Wal-mart where you buy more than just food). I put the food in the front, the cold together and the dry together, the fragile things in the back. Like stuff goes together too (like I happened to buy a LOT of candy this past time (not for me surprisingly) and I put them all together and despite the easiness of the way the candy didn't end up in the same bag, though it would have fit). Then the none food products go in the back. Cleaning supplies together, dog stuff together, personal care stuff together, miscellaneous stuff together. Get it?

5. I cut my own hair. So if you thought it looked off or hoped I didn't pay for that horrendous hair cut then you know now why it looks that way (especially in the back). I've never really paid for a hair cut and I can't bring myself to start going to the Haircuttery and sit in the lobby for over an hour waiting for a trim. And I certainly can't justify paying a lot for someone to cut an inch off. So...I do it myself. I like my hair and in the end that's all that matters.

6. I like to sleep in and I do it a lot. Sleeping in when I was younger meant noon sleeping in now means 7:45. Except today was 8. Not good since I have to be at work by 8:30.

Fun huh?

People I'm going to tag
1.Claire
2.Ed
3.Kathryn
4.Julia
5.Martha
6.Marianne

Can I skip the last step too? I'll try to do it :(

It's Sunday. Sunday is usually my favorite day of the week, I mean, Fridays have potential but sometimes you just end up hanging out in your room lamenting your condition whatever it may be; no date, no treadmill, no potentials, and no Ben and Jerry's flavors that entice you.



Saturdays are just, they are good for something, I don't want to knock them, but normally Saturdays are not on my list of favorites. That's why I usually work on Saturdays because I know I won't have anything to do during the day and why not make some extra money? Maybe Saturdays are an acquired taste and it's just been so long since I've been able to utilize them that I've lost my appreciation for a day all to yourself.



But Sundays, Sundays are always good. As long as I go to church I have the guarantee of seeing at least one cute boy, even if there is no interest on either side, eye candy is always a good thing, it's why chick flicks thrive, it's why action movies have a good looking main character, it's why I didn't drop out of high school (okay, so I would never have dropped out, but it sure made it more bearable). Church is usually good and now that I'm a good girl and go to all three meetings I get a whole lot more out of it, usually feeling good when I leave. After church I get free dinner that I don't have to cook and I don't have to clean up afterwards (cause normally the fam doesn't wait for me to get to the house, they eat before hand and are finishing up cleaning while I eat...so it's bittersweet). After dinner I lounge around at the parent's homestead, falling asleep on the couch, talking politics with dad, boys with mom, trying to avoid playing games with the little ones (they cheat, they make up rules as they are going, they fight with each other, and they tend to forget it's their turn...quickly).

German Santa

German Santa came to visit us last night. Apparently he was supposed to come on Friday, but didn't. We were told to put a shoe out in the family room before we went to bed and then while we slept German Santa would come and put treats in them

My roommate (Anne), err, I mean German Santa is awesome!

Seal Team

This morning, my roommate Emily and I went and met our friend Emily (not to be confused with Roommate Emily) at the park for "Bring a Friend day" with her Seal Team. Seal Team is kind of what it sounds like, it's run by a former Navy Seal and the purpose is to get you in shape. I envisioned some drill Sargent in my face reminding me what a fat, tub of lard I am and forcing me to drop and give him 20.


I don't know how Emily and I got roped in to attending "Bring a Friend Day", but apparently we had agreed to it some time before and this week we got an e-mail from Friend Emily letting us know that "Bring a friend day" had been bumped up to this week. This week...Thursday, 5:45 a.m. be there at 5:30. Jigga Wha? 5:30 a.m. is not a time that I take much notice of because I am usually still encapsulated in my warm shell of blankets.


I did a practice run the night before (no not an actual "run", my main concern at this point was waking up). I went to bed around 9-9:30 on Tuesday night and set my alarm for 5 o'clock. Stupid dog that I no longer love (oh did I not write about how he ruined my Wednesday?) woke me up around 3:00 a.m. to go to the bathroom. I told him he'd better not do that to me on the next night or he'd find himself sleeping outside, I don't care how cold it is. When my alarm went off at 5 I woke up, but realizes that I didn't have to be up I turned it off, switched it to 7 and turned it back on.

But even with the practice I knew it would be different when it was time to go. Last night I had trouble falling asleep, like a kid on the night before the first day of school. I finally did fall asleep, only to be woken up a few hours later by that same dog I no longer love, at 11:30. I let him out and he decides he wants to play. I yelled some not so nice phrases at him as I stood freezing in the doorway and then ushered him back inside when he finally decided to grace me with his presence. (I suppose now I'll have to tell you the story...later).

When my alarm went off I had no trouble getting up, though I did decide that since no shower would be taken beforehand I would hit the snooze once and just rest my eyes. After that I was up and dressed and almost ready to go. Ready except for the way my body screamed that it hated me, my stomach hurt and I felt like I was going to throw up, I wasn't sure if it was because I was sick (turns out I'm not), or nervous, or if it was based on the sheer fact that I was up at 5:00 a.m.

We get to the park and Roommate Emily and I are standing on the outskirts of this huge team of people, all with their cool running outfits and seal team shirts and we've got out $1 gloves from Wal-Mart and I've got my wholly basketball pants on and Reebok tennis shoes that are beginning to fall apart (quality my rear). We tried our best in the dark to pick out Friend Emily from the crowd but it was useless, finally she found us. We had to sign a waiver form that said the word "death" at least 6 times. If the earliness of the hour doesn't kill you I guess the workout just might. I signed away any responsibility for these people and then we started our run. See, that's the problem right there, I assumed we ran most of the hour...we don't. Running is to keep the joints warm, and once they are warm it's time to do some blasted push-ups!

Then we stop, stay in the push up position and The Sargent (for lack of knowing what else to call him) has the guests stand up. We say who we are, what we do, and then what we do for exercise. I felt lucky that Roommate Emily was before me and she said she didn't do anything for exercise, because my answer was close...I play basketball (didn't mention only once a week) for exercise. I didn't feel the need to throw in the that I take the stairs everyday or that on special occasions I get to chase my dog around the neighborhood.

Then we do some push-ups, go on a little jog, which involved going up a flight of stairs believe it or not. I was a little relieved that I race the elevators on most mornings because this one flight of stairs was a breeze to the four I run up at least twice a day (that's right, I race the elevator, I have a semi-competitive nature, someone gets in the building at the same time as me but goes for the elevator I hurry to the stairwell and start running, but I don't skip steps, that's cheating. My record is about 50/50).

Then the Sargent has us bring it in, we all run to the middle of an open field (the one my ward goes to play ultimate Frisbee) and Sargent goes over the rules. We respond with a "who-ah" (I can't think of another way to spell it). We are a team so we call out things like, "log", "step", etc. Which is nice, I need help like that so I don't trip and embarrass myself. Then he calls up all the guests to the front. We each get a trainer to come up and work with us. Then we have a push up race...uh...I've done maybe ten push-ups in the last 5 years...total. So he tells us that between each pair we have to do 30 push-ups. So my trainer does them really well, I suck but I did at least 10, pretty sure it was around 15 but I may be too generous with myself. She does the other 15. That's how it works in the "races" whatever I couldn't do she did. It didn't start out with what I couldn't do, but you know, that's how it ended up. Each time we had a push-up race (and we had a lot it seemed) I did fewer and fewer, though I tried harder and harder. I didn't want her to have to make up for my slack. I must say though I didn't know I could do that many push-ups, but I feel certain that I didn't do them right.

At some point we did sit-ups. They had us sit on our partner's feet. I'm sorry, I didn't know this girl that well. Less awkward for me though, Roommate Emily had gotten paired up with a guy and she felt really awkward. But I finally sat on her the way I was supposed to and then she went going with her sit ups. My goodness she was hardcore. I counted 105 sit ups! Then it was my turn and I looked at her and said, "I'll be doing about 10." I don't have high expectations for myself and I knew I wouldn't be doing as many as she did, no way on earth. So I started, my elbows had to touch my knees and my hands had to stay behind my head and I did the first 8 no problem, then it started to feel like my intestines was going to explode like when you squeeze a water balloon and everything gets pushed in one direction. It didn't really feel like it was going to explode because that would have been much more painful. But I'm sure something was about to. I ended up doing 25.5 sit ups (yes, I count the half). My partner had made them look easier, but we were given 2 minutes and in 2 minutes I did 25.5 almost completely correct sit-ups (I cheated on a few)...that's sad to me. But then they had people who had beaten their old records stand up and announce what they had done the first time and what they did today. That made me feel good, a lot of them started where I was and a lot of them weren't where the female terminator (my partner) was. So she was an anomaly...thank goodness.

Then we ran, then we had a tree race (we both had to touch 5 trees and then run back and get in line in the order we finished). Then according to where we were in line we did a certain number of push-ups...but this time it was each. We were 11 and the cut off was 10...dang it. So we did 20 push-ups each. Then we ran.

After running for a bit we had another kind of race too; first we did three sprints towards each other, then three bear walks (okay, P.S. bears don't walk that way and neither do I! It was so hard, my knees kept knocking my arms out of the way and I would fall to the ground. The girl next to me walked on her knees every once in a while and she wasn't a guest so I didn't feel too bad), then we did crab walk which I was actually pretty good at (go gym class!) and then we finished it off with sprinting towards each other and meeting in the middle, or meeting at all, sometimes one person had to run further than the other (hint: it was never me). Then we took off running to do some laps. After we ran for a while we brought it in and did...you guessed it, more push-ups. After that we got into groups of 10 and picked the smallest person and held them up, each person holding up a part. For a moment fear ripped through me, I thought we would have to hold up each member of our group, I didn't want anyone holding me up. Also, if that was the case I felt we should hold up the biggest first and save the smallest for when we were really tired. But luckily for me we just find a person, hold them up and then we bring them down and do our stretches. Then we got to go home and my arms were killing me, push-ups go on my list of least favorite things.

I got into the shower and let me tell you, taking a shower has never been so arduous, I stayed in just as long today as I would on any day, but today wasn't because I was sleepy, rather I it was because I could barely move.

Despite how I may or may not have made it sound it was a lot of fun, and I'm proud of myself for doing it. I would like to continue on my own to try and improve how I do before showing my face again, but people are understanding and they all have a story about when they started and they all remember the limits they had. I would totally do it all the time except that the price is just too much for me right now. You have to do boot camp first and that's $250 and then you "join the team" for $95 a month (if you just pay month-to-month) and $70 a month if you sign up for 12-months. Maybe when the weather gets a little warmer and I've had time to stash the $250 I'll do the boot camp. We'll see.

Addresses

Hey all,


It's Christmas time and I need some addresses! So if you want a Christmas card from this tiny Donbrosky clan then you'll need to e-mail me your address @ Lildonbro@gmail.com Or you can leave it in the comments, but I figured you wouldn't want to just have it out there in the open. Or...third option, you just don't get a card from me. Your choice :)

Just like any other day...right?

The other day (okay Saturday if you must know) I went shopping with my sister and brother-in-law. As we were driving to The Barnes and Noble we saw a small car switch lanes suddenly in front of a bus. Not the brightest move, so of course we read the license plate, Kitygrl3, and proceeded to inform Kitygrl3 that pulling in front of a bus is not the brightest idea. My sister peeks in at the driver and says something about how these blond girls are probably the type of girls who don't think anything can happen to them (or something to that effect) suddenly my brother-in-law says, "Kitygrl3 is a dude." Naw! So we try to inch closer to see Kitygrl3 but at least from where I am sitting I can't tell, Brother-in-law Ben assures us that Kitygrl3 has some unfortunate facial hair. Finally the lights turn green and we get to inch forward just enough to see that Kitygrl3 is in fact a dude. A dude that could tell we were looking at him. You know how you can tell? When someone looks straight forward refusing to look over and acknowledge that they noticed you noticing them. He probably thought we thought he was hot when in all reality we were shocked a dude would be driving a car with the license plate Kitygrl3. Who knows what the other 2 kitygrls look like. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and said that the car belonged to the female passenger and he was the boyfriend.

After B&N we drove down the parking lot to Target. You know how the "new" Targets have the random, decorative only, red balls in the front? Example number 1:

I always thought they would be cool if they doubled as trashcans, you know, fight littering, go green, or something like that. Naw, they are just these random red balls in front of the store. As we pull up we notice a man crouched down on one, perched perfectly, smoking a cigarette. My sister and I both noticed him at the same time and wondered why he was perched like a bird on the red ball. We instantly called him the bird man, and Brother-in-law Ben called him the Birdman of Libby Place (since the Target was in the Libby Place shopping...center, hub, whatever you call those things). Makes me feel like I'm back at Alcatraz.

We go about our business and do a little light shopping (including a spectacular deal of Psych season 2, but just to prove I'm not completely selfish I also did my shopping for my Angel Tree angel). When we left the store (an hour later) birdman was still perched on his ball. We marveled that he could stay in that same position for over an hour (since he had obviously been up there before hand) and in retrospect I marvel that he was still smoking a cigarette, I know it wasn't the same one, but what skill to be able to balance on a red ball, pull out a pack from whichever pocket you decided to put them in and light a new cigarette? We almost drove by and got a picture but I didn't want to insult the guy, I figured there was no way to get a picture of him without him noticing. But maybe it could have been done, maybe I just didn't have the guts to get the job done. I'm sorry I failed all of you, if I ever see him perched at Target again I won't let you down!

Would you wanna see Dustin Hoffman save the Alamo?

Happy Thanksgiving All!

This year I finally got an assignment to bring something. Every year I ask what I can bring and my mom tells me not to worry about it. So they assigned me to make gingersnaps, and here they are!

So delicious looking eh? Yeah, yeah gingersnaps aren't really Thanksgiving day like, but it's what they said I could bring. So today Chubber's and I got up early and made the cookies, then we packed up and headed to the homestead!

I stopped at a red light on the way there and a guy on a motorcycle pulled up behind us. Chubbers who had been in the back suddenly noticed this man without a car behind us and immediately went into attack mode. Of course there was a rear window in the way and he smacked in to it. From my rear view mirror I could see the motorist jumped back slightly, I've never seen Chubbers' fierce face, I'm usually behind him holding the lease, but apparently it's pretty fierce. Then Chubbers got low in the seat, I joked with him (because I talk to my dog) that he was embarrassed about going off on the motorcycle guy. But pretty soon Chubbers lifted his head and wouldn't take his eye off the guy until he finally turned down a side street. So that was Chubbers' very first time encountering a motorcycle. Well, I thought it was funny.


Chubbers loved being there with all the kids, he loves women and children, he's not such a fan of the men. He barked like crazy at my brother-in-law Ben for a while, but I think he quickly realized that he was family. Also, we don't have any trees in our yard so while at "grandma and grandpa's" we played with the leaves, he likes them almost as much as he likes bubbles.

I love turkey.

Turkey day went well, I had a lot of fun with my family, it was loud, but I think that's to be expected from large gatherings (well, large for our house). Tomorrow we are going to make fleece blankets together while watching a movie (okay, so just the girls are - who knows what the boys will be up to). So yesterday we went to the store to pick out the fabric and while we were at the craft store I came across this...

I know right? Santa and the squirrels, who would have thought. No, really, who thought of this? When I think Christmas squirrels are far from my mind, when I think Santa they are even further. If Santa favors the squirrels then my spot on the "nice" list is in serious peril.

These are a few of my favorite things

I feel a little like Oprah, except I'm cooler even though no one who reads this blog is going to get one of everything I like.


I feel that since it is Thanksgiving I would write my 2,008 favorite things/what I am grateful for. That's right folks, 2,008 things I am grateful for. Okay, maybe not, I doubt I'll even get 100, but that's for your sake, I am grateful for so many things! These are in no particular order except the first three, after that I just wrote them as they came to mind.


#1. My family - have you met them? They are awesome so of course they are number 1! (and if I named them one by one my list would be pretty well off!)


#2. My dog (Chubbers Horatio Umberto Bell) - he bugs me to death but he's so stinking cute and he loves me so how can I not return the favor?


#3. The Church - how boring would my life be without it? It keeps me busy most nights of the week. Okay, it doesn't really, but the people sure do. I have made great friends through the church, I went to an amazing church college and met tons of incredible people there. I wouldn't be the person I am today without it's teachings. It's such an intricate part of my life I couldn't not add it to my list, but just as with my family if I listed everything within the church I am grateful for I would have my 2,008 things!



#4. My car - not everyone has a great car (I haven't always had a great car) and to have it running, keeping the driver side door closed, avoiding getting crushed by SUVs, and having a CD player makes it pretty fantastic.


#5. Thanksgiving Day - I like the whole idea of a holiday they have difficulty marketing. No turkey shaped peeps, no yam flavored candy, nothing. Just a day to actually be grateful for what you have without trying to increase what you have. Know what I mean?


#6. Candy Cane Hershey Kisses - I'm not going to lie, these little things are fantastic. and white chocolate is not chocolate.

#7. Boys - Life would be so boring without them! I think everyone has to agree. Not only are they nice to look at, smell good, and give me butterflies in my stomach, but sometimes they really surprise you with how much they care.


#8. Internet shopping - For a girl who hates to go to the store this is just heaven. I did 80% of my Christmas shopping online. Plus, instead of wandering aisles looking for what you want you can just type it in.


#9. Basketball - Oh so much fun!


#10. The incredible regenerative powers of the human body - I think most of us remember the burns on my feet, well they look almost like normal now. I've broken a foot, sprained an ankle, sprained a foot, sliced my finger open (5 stitches), had a laser perform surgery on me, sliced my knee open...and all of them have healed! The body is a pretty cool mechanism.

#11. Being able to read - sounds silly I know, but not everyone can and I'm grateful that I can. I love reading and there are so many good books out there you just have to find them.

#12. Writing - reading and writing go together so of course I thought about how grateful I am that I can write. I may not write well, but I love being able to put the stories in my head down on paper (or Microsoft word for that matter).

#13. The Internet - There's no way I would keep in touch with so many people without the Internet! E-mails, facebook, youtube - all great things. Okay so Youtube doesn't help me keep in touch but it's pretty fantastic...should have probably gotten it's own number.

#14. Blogging - I can see pictures of my friends families, I can hear about their day to day life...and leave comments. So even though we can't be near each other and we no longer hang out I'm still in the loop.

#15. Direct Deposit - I hate going to the bank too, so it's nice just to get my money in my account right away.

#16. Sundays - I can sleep in, take my time getting ready, go to church, and go to mom and dad's for free dinner.

#17. Dryers - I don't like the itchy, scratchiness of clothes dried on the line, but I love when clothes come right from the dryer (especially in winter) and they had a dryer sheet in there too so it's twice the goodness.

#18. Digital Cameras - seriously people, how fantastic are they? Not to mention all the money I save by not having to develop the 7 different pictures I took of a mountain that all look the same.

#19. Going out to eat with friends - Friends and food are always a good combination.

#20. Sleeping In - a lost art in my life for some reason, but one day I'll be able to do it again.

#21. Cuddling up in a blanket and watching a movie - one of my favorite pastimes in Rexburg because seriously, who wants to go out in the biting cold. So starting freshman year I would come home from class, grab a blanket and pop a movie in. Sometimes I would scrapbook while watching.

#22. Scrapbooking - another lost art at the moment. It's always fun to look through old scrapbooks, so maybe I should start that up again.

#23. Shutterfly.com - amazing way to organize all my photos and order a print whenever I want one. Also saves money because I'm not developing every picture I take, just the ones I want at that time.

#24 Barnes and Noble - Do I even have to explain?

#25 Finding New Music - I love music, but sometimes I get sick of what I am listening to and go on the hunt for new music. Some stuff sucks, but there's a lot of good music out there and I love finding it (especially if I'm "first").

Um, since I can't commit to write 25 more things I'm going to stop here. 25 is a good number to end on, a nice good looking number. 26 would make me gag and 30, 35, 40, or 45 just don't seem right.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Festivus for the rest of us!

I've decided that I want a wallaby. I didn't know I wanted one until I googled what they look like.

Oh my goodness, the thing is about as cute as the mouse in my sister's house! I want one! It's like a puppy with hands. Maybe I could train it to bring me things without having to use their mouths! Chubber's better watch out, he's about to get replaced! You know, if owning one as a pet were legal

They are like kangaroo dwarfs which makes them even cuter to me. This one is either bringing his verbal a-game (what now!) or he's confused - can't tell, I don't know how to read their expressions.

Sorry for the randomness. I have one hour of work left because today we leave two hours early. That's probably because no one came into work today, they all take off and head out early to their Thanksgiving day destinations. Boss Lady even gave me a long lunch today...a long lunch. I didn't take advantage of it though, I took an additional 15 minutes, and even then those 15 minutes were spent doing a work related errand. Dangit. If I had gone home on my lunch break I would have used it up no problem, but I took my friend to lunch (it's her last day...so super sad day for me). We weren't in a hurry, but we finished eating and came back. Boss Lady still wasn't back and I contemplated running home to check on Chubb's but thought I should just hang out at work. Turns out I have nothing to do but apparently look up Wallaby's online, which isn't true, I'm sure if I wasn't ready for the holiday I would have found something. Guess I'll go do that now.

MSG! Aww my stomach lining!

Last night for FHE we had Thanksgiving dinner (yes, on a Monday). They gave out assignments alphabetically by last name. So I got stuck with a side dish. I'm not a Thanksgiving day side dish kind of gal. I'm not even really a Thanksgiving Day dinner kind of gal, stems back to my growing up years (which lets face it I'm still growing up) when I was a picky eater (still am). I also have a cerebral condition which does not permit me to take the easiest, simplest, and most obvious option. I could have taken a bag of frozen corn, peas, limas, veggie-anything. Rather I felt that my only option was to make mashed potatoes, and this girl don't use no flakes (yes, English majors across the endless expanse of cyberspace, cringe at that last statement. Muhahaha).

*cough*

So I bought a 5 pound bag of potatoes, foolishly believing that Monday between work and FHE I would be able to assist those russet potatoes through the metamorphosis from ugly brown round things into fluffy, creamy, melt in your mouth goodness mashed potatoes.

...I was wrong.
I got home around 5:15, I needed to be at the building at 6:30 (and it's a 30 minute drive from my house to the building). I washed the potatoes, I peeled them (because I abhor skins in mashed potatoes) and then I boiled them. I thought I could speed up the process but mashed potatoes are not something to be rushed.

I've only made mashed potatoes solo once before. That was in college and that was too long ago to really remember. I have mashed potatoes since, but I didn't do any of the prep work, I just used a little elbow grease (speaking of elbow grease that's a disgusting thought). I thought it was time to mash the potatoes but I didn't know how to be sure except to start doing it. It was not time, I put half the potatoes back in to boil, while working on one of the smaller potatoes, as I finished mashing one I grabbed the next. I threw in butter and milk to make them creamy. I may have dashed salt and pepper in there a little bit too (if I wasn't supposed to then I don't recall doing that). Six o'clock came, time to leave, I wasn't ready, I was still mashing. Halfway through the process my brand new potato masher broke, as did my spirit (just kidding, trying to be overly dramatic here). I kept going with the broken masher, but then my hand started to ache. When I felt certain that the potatoes were mostly mashed I pulled out the mixer and beat them.

Finally at 6:30 I was ready to go. My roommate, Anne and I got there at 7, luckily they hadn't started to eat, so we added our food to the mix and waited for the festivities to begin. Thus is my adventure in the side dish culinary world.

The Jury is Still Out

So, I went to see Twilight last night, the crowd was worse than when we went to see Batman on opening night. I couldn't help but feel like I was standing in line for a Hannah Montana concert. I've never been to a Hannah Montana anything but I feel like that's what it would be like. Mother's with their daughters, pushing, shoving, running around people on crutches almost knocking them down. I knew the lady on crutches so I'm not even exaggerating that part. The theater was packed and they had been showing the movie all day long--didn't matter. It was like going to a Ukrop's near Thanksgiving, you don't think that many people live nearby...but you'd be wrong. Not to mention the repeat offenders who have already seen the movie more than once. We were near the front of the line because as much as I hate being one of those people who stands in line for an hour or more I wanted good (comfortable) seats and if that meant waiting in line then so be it! When the theater before us got out they walked by the crowd screaming about how much they loved it ("they" being 12-15 year old girls) then telling the crowd they would love it, it was fantastic. There were a lot of girls wearing "Team Edward" shirts and swooning as they passed by. I maintained my lower expectations, I would not be fooled by the hormonal adolescents who probably did the same thing when the cute boy in their math class walked into the room. It made me sad that so many young girls were spoiled for real life romance. There's no hope for them now.

Then I started to see people from church who said that it was really good and that I would like it. That lifted my hopes a little, but I didn't want to be disappointed so I braced myself for it. We lost our spot we wanted somehow (despite being right near the front), well, I know how, a girl in a wheelchair (or with one of those walker thingys) was allowed to go in first. It was funny because the people in line who didn't see that were angrily asking why that group got to go in. I just rolled my eyes, this could get uglier than post election day in California. Then they "opened the gates" and the poor people trying to get to the theaters beyond ours had to fight through the crowd of maddened teenagers. I've never felt more awkward in my life. The woman at the door kept telling people to slow down, we didn't want anyone to get hurt. Seriously? Oh that reminds me, one of the girls standing behind us in line said to her neighbor, "I hope there's a stampede." ...I hope someone shoots a gun in the air but if I'm really lucky neither will happen.

We get our seats and wait. That's the great part of showing up early (that was sarcasm). Finally the previews started. I don't know if anyone knows this about me, but previews are my favorite part. Sometimes I forget what movie I've gone to see, but I'm making a list of future movies. I'm totally excited for the next Harry Potter and I've got to say I've never actually had that happen. I like the Harry Potter movies, but a preview never gave goosebumps. This new one is really good. You should look it up. I really like the music and maybe the music is what caused the goosebumps. But I really attribute the excitement to the last Harry Potter. I loved the last movie. Digression.

Then the movie starts, everyone in the crowd was clapping. I hate clapping in the movie theater, it should never be done and I almost disowned my mom after the second National Treasure because she clapped (but if we can survive her being a big fan of J. Lo's movies I think we can survive anything). I was worried that the crowd would be too loud during the movie but they stayed relatively quiet unless the main characters kissed. I rolled my eyes every time (not at the movie, at the crowd).

To not put in spoilers I won't write anymore about the movie, all I will say is that when the lights came up I wasn't sure if I liked it. That's a dangerous position for a movie to be with me. When Batman ended I said, "I love it, I'm owning it. So sad, so dark, but excellent!" When my roommate asked me what I thought of Twilight I shruged my shoulders, "eh". I didn't want my money back, but I won't be paying $9.50 to see it again, but I haven't ruled out owning it either, especially since I already have high expectations for the second one (they'll have loads more money and maybe a better director *fingers crossed*)

Sadly though, the man I feel in love with in the movie didn't make it for the second (oh come on, this can't be a spoiler, you've read the books right?) This is the bad guy, James. He can hunt me anytime.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Edward too, but I seem to like James more. I personally think he did a great job as James, but I may be biased already, I'm not sure. I don't like long hair on guys, but I made an exception for him. I don't care if anyone agrees with me, so I'm going to stop trying to justify it. He's my new Hollywood boyfriend. Wouldn't be the first bad guy I loved.

I may need therapy. And then I went to Barne's and Noble and bought three books...two about sociopaths. Hmm...I just can't figure out why guys don't ask me out. You know what? It's probably best since I am attracted to the bad guys and sociopaths (okay, so I'm not attracted to the real life ones but I do like to read about them and try to figure them out).

Oh no. I've shared too much.

Surprise Party Pictures

So I realize that I promised on Monday or Tuesday that I would post pictures. But I didn't. Such is life, here they are.

The Cakes

I cannot take credit for these cakes, I just took the picture, Anne made the cakes. I do like to bake, but I can't decorate, so I just have to make things so awesomely delicious that you don't notice they are ugly.


Here are the birthday girls, Emily and Emily cutting into their cakes.


This is Nic...he likes cake. He sat there debating doing this for the longest time, I think because he fears the wrath of my roommates...but my roommates are wrathless. I had a few action shots, but I think this one really captures the what's going on.

This is Arianne, me, Emily and Christie. We were trying to take the picture without a photographer, but I think two or three people for this kind of thing is enough, four is pushing it, no ones arms are long enough to get the camera far enough out. This is attempt 47 (not really but it took 5 minutes to finally get one we liked and this isn't it this just shows the ridiculousness of it). In this picture I am crying because we were laughing so hard and all the other attempts.

That's all I really have from the party, I mean I have more but I didn't feel like writing captions and stuff.

Crutches

Just so you guys know I was on crutches on Friday (and only Friday unless you count 2-3 hours on Saturday). Thursday night I went to play some basketball and I hurt my foot. Since it didn't continue to be painful I continued to play and afterwards is when I started to feel it. Stupid me didn't even think to ice it, so when I woke up on Friday morning I found that it was excruciatingly painful to step on. I hopped around every where and kept thinking after a shower it would feel better (thanks Dad for that life philosophy). It didn't feel better, so I decided I should be better safe than sorry and go to the doctor's. That's a big step for me, I never go to the doctor, mostly because whatever I can imagine I have it will be worse than what the doctor has to say. This only leaves me feeling like a spazz, therefore I try not to go often. So my roommate, Emily, drove me to Patient First. She is a student at VCU and did a rotation at this Patient First so she knew a lot of the people there, they even let her do my X-rays. That was kind of neat, how many people actually know the person who does their X-ray?

Long story short, it's not broken, the foot was sprained or twisted ligaments or something of that nature and they gave me anti inflammatory medication and a set of crutches. I went in to work because Open Enrollment is this week and we were doing most of the work on Friday. My boss was upset at me for coming in but I had to help out in any way I could. I received several nicknames while at work, the first being "crutches" then "gimp" then "crip". I also got to answer the "What Happened?" question about 100 times and near the end I just wanted to say, "Nothing, just had these crutches at home so I thought I would give my foot a break today."

Saturday morning I started out with the crutches but after causing permanent damage to my hands (not really, but it was more painful than anything else) I tossed the crutches aside and limped around the house for a while, but by Saturday night my foot felt fine, don't get me wrong, I can't run a marathon or anything (who am I kidding, I couldn't run one before my foot was hurt) but I just don't see the need for the crutches anymore.

Saturday night we threw a surprise birthday party for my roommate Emily and for our resident Australian Emily (pictures to follow later). Surprise parties should probably only be held for one person at a time. The Emily's were supposed to be together, and then they got separated. We had asked Australian Emily's boyfriend to help out and he kept trying to ask her out for Saturday but she kept saying that she would be hanging out with Anne (one of my other roommate's) so she couldn't. Finally, she went with him during the day and Anne took our Emily to Williamsburg. I stayed home and decorated, though I'm not good with decorations and it looked as though a bunch of Beehives and Mia-Maids attacked the dining room with neon colored toilet paper (i.e. streamers). But Evan (third roommate) insisted that it looked cute, but whatever.

As we were waiting someone asked me if the people bringing the birthday girls were going to let me know when they were close and I said I hoped that they would, but you can't be too certain so it was suggested that we lock the door so that they couldn't walk right in. Just as I locked it I heard a knock at the door and looked through the peep hole to see Australian Emily standing there. I quickly tell the people it's her and they go and hide (really well) but as I'm looking back towards where they went I notice we have a big "Happy Birthday" sign in the doorway so they don't really need to hide that well. I open the door and try not to act like there's a big sign behind me and she looks confused for a second but before she has time to really think about it the group came out yelling "Surprise!". Then I had to tell her that we were going to do it again when the other Emily came. I definitely expected Anne to let me know when they were close and we were all sitting and standing around when I got a text message from Arianne (the other person who went to Williamsburg with them) saying, "we're here." So I jump up and start to tell everyone that the other Emily is here and the door opens, and it's Emily. So I gave Anne and Arianne a hard time about the 2 second warning. surprisingly neither girl knew about the party though they both had at least one chance where someone had the e-mail opened up or someone said something to someone else about it.

Anyway it was a lot of fun, and I promise I'll post some of the pictures up tonight.

Books and Movies

I bought my ticket for the movie Twilight. Some friends and I decided that we wanted to go together since we all seemed to be sucked into the craze at the same time. When we were talking about it I kept thinking, "It doesn't really matter if I go opening day." I still don't think it matters and I'll admit that I was more excited for Batman. I'm nervous about Twilight because I really enjoyed the first three books (I don't think I really liked the fourth all that much, jury is still out on that one) and when you like a book and they make it a movie they sometimes screw it up. They'll add things, or leave things out. I don't care so much for the leaving things out, it's the adding things that bother me.

Anyhow, my roommate texted me last night to tell me she bought her ticket, so I bought mine so we could go at the same time, and then I got a little excited about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm still nervous they could botch it and I hope that they don't since almost all of the people going have read the book. It's not like with Count of Monte Cristo where they completely changed the ending but it didn't matter because most people who went to see it actually hadn't ever even seen the book much less read it.

I don't know why I'm even talking about it. There has got to be more interesting things happening in my life. I suppose I'm just trying to kill time until my doctor's appointment. One more hour.

Yes I know I’m ridiculous, but chances are it’s the reason you love me.

Late Friday night I was sitting on my bed when something scampering across the floor caught my eye. It was a spider the size of a nickel (not the biggest I’ve ever run in to, but the biggest I’ve seen on the move and in my bedroom!) I immediately grabbed a cup and went after it, but the little bugger was rather swift and kept dodging the cup. If I had shoes on I would have just jump at it, but as was I was barefoot. Each time it moved I screamed so my roommate came to see what the matter was and I asked her to bring the Raid. We keep a bottle of high powered Raid in the house because when we first moved in we had quite a roach problem (gag), we have since found that the Raid is fast acting on ants, crickets, and now we were going to test spiders. Emily came down with the raid and sprayed the spider a few times, when we felt it was dead I moved in with the cup and he was still moving! What the heck? He must have been a spider roach hybrid. I quickly put the cup over him and it still sits there because it could take days for that little guy to die.

Then last night I went to let Chubbers outside for a while and when we came back in I sat down on the couch (the one in my room) and Chubbers wouldn’t jump up to his side, he just stared at the cushion (which isn’t that odd, my dog is “special”). Finally I asked him why he wouldn’t come up and that’s when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a spider that was slightly bigger than the one last night and he was ugly! He was about two inches from my shoulder so I jumped up quickly and yelled at Chubber’s for not saying something sooner, or attempting to eat it, this dog is useless to me when it comes to arachnid assailants. I quickly ran upstairs for the Raid and came back to thankfully find the spider in the same spot. I moved the pillows and my purse and then I just let the guy have it. For some reason when I spray things with the Raid they end up running towards me, so I freak out more and keep spraying. It took a while for him to die though and my room had the creepy sweet smell of Raid. I scoped him into an old glass candle and lit the sucker on fire, because you can never be too sure with these spider-roach hybrids. Luckily the couch has a “cover” (a bed sheet) on it, so I took that off and put it in the wash right away.

New irrational fear….spiders crawling into my ear (kind of like my irrational fear of roaches doing that, but now I’ve moved on to creepy, creepy spiders). I have to wonder, if the Raid is strong enough to kill roaches and roaches never die…what does that mean it would do to us? I mean, a roach could probably survive a nuclear holocaust, but for some reason some high powered raid is going to do the trick and not be lethal to me?? Granted if I drank it I would die, but I sure use a lot of that stuff when a spider or a roach attempts to give me the heebie jeebies. Chances are I’ve inhaled half a canister…I’m probably a mutant now. I wonder if that will be cool like I get some cool power or if it will suck because the only thing that’s going to happen is that I’ll be more prone to colds and my left ear will be bigger than my right, because speaking of irrational fears being unsymmetrical in such an obvious way probably makes the list.

This is all probably karma because I gave my sister a hard time about the mouse in her house (just hours before the first hybrid sighting). That’ll teach me.

My name is Jessica, J-e-s-s-i-c-a

Getting people's name wrong is an inevitable part of life; like toast landing buttered side down, or tripping up in front of that guy you like. It's bound to happen, but hopefully not all the time.

Jessica is one of those names I suppose. I mean, as much as I hate being called Jennifer I suppose I can see it from their perspective. Jessica and Jennifer sound a lot a like. More so than Jeremy and Andrew and I always get those two names messed up.

When I first started working at this job there was a guy who I had to e-mail a few times about forms and such and despite that my name is at the bottom of the e-mail and even is the e-mail address, he would right back, "Jennifer," and go on with his message. It always just gave me a laugh because sometimes his e-mails weren't replies, so he would have had to type in my name in outlook to get it to come up. How many times must he have seen "Jessica" but still put "Jennifer"? The sad thing is, I always took it personal because it was usually after I had to ask him to fill out another form or to do something else. So, I felt like that was my punishment for being a pain to him. I think one of his coworkers finally informed him that he'd been calling me the wrong name and now he just doesn't talk to me.

Last night I went to play basketball (as I do every Thursday night) and there were three or four new people there. So we spent the first game trying to remember who was on our team and what their names were. At one point I made a basket (I know, I was just as surprised) and one of the new guys on my team was like, "Leslie?" and I shook my head (may or may not have made a face because where did that come from?) and corrected him. Then he said my name and that it was a good shot. Later I was guarding someone because I thought we were playing man but it turns out we were playing zone and I heard him but didn't connect when he kept telling Leslie to go to the bottom left of the key. I was the only girl on the team so I should have picked up on it, but Leslie isn't my name so it didn't get any type of reaction from me. I turned for some reason and we made eye contact and that's when it hit him, I'm not Leslie. He profusely apologized, but there really wasn't a need, at this point in time I didn't even know his name so why should he feel bad for at least trying to learn mine? Maybe I remind him of a Leslie that he knew once upon a time.

There were only two girls playing last night, so my favorite part was when someone (see how goo I am at remembering people's names?) told Erica to "guard the girl in green." to which I said, "That's me!" But Erica didn't hear that and she was reminded one more time to guard the girl in green and she laughed and said that she didn't catch that. I told her I was the only other girl, and she said all she heard was green so she was looking for people in green (there were two of us) and I thought that maybe they should have said, "Guard the girl!" But whatever.

Then today at work I passed by one of the girls and talked to her for a little bit and ten minutes later she called me to report a problem with the doors and she said, "Janet." I was confused but pretended I didn't hear her and went on with the conversation. We don't even have a Janet on payroll, so who knows where that came from. Aside from the fact that I've known her for over a year and she's always gotten my name right.

Just random. That and I'm trying to kill the last hour of work, thanks for putting up with me for this long. Only half an hour to go until the weekend starts!

Photo Tag

I completely forgot that I had been tagged.


I now I pass the torch on to Mur, Tami, Sarah, and Cassie.

1. go to the fourth folder in you pictures
2. choose the fourth picture
3. post
4. tag 4 of your friends

Happy Election Day

I woke up an hour earlier than usual so that I could get ready to stand in line. The reason I didn’t go at 5:30 in the a.m. is because I didn’t actually believe in the voting surge, at least not at my poll place, but since I was supposed to vote over by my parent’s house rather than mine I woke up early to ensure time to get there before work, as well as to stand in the line that truly mattered, the line at Krispee Kreme.

My boss and I had already discussed it Monday night. We both planned to be late, but wanted each other to know why. She said if she was late it would be because she was standing in the voting line and I told her that if I were late it was because as soon as I voted I would be headed over to Krispee Kreme to get my free presidential doughnut (Priorities, priorities, priorities). You see, it didn’t matter that last night during the Red Skins’ game halftime that Obama said, “Whether you vote for McCain or I, just get out and vote.” Or that Facebook has been telling me to vote or that the church has been reminding me how important this election is. All it took to ensure my vote was this…

So I arrive to my polling destination at 7:35 (keep in mind this is usually when I get up in the morning). I get out of my car, am approached by a friendly, older man who hands me a piece of paper. The man looks republican (because you can tell with some people) and I glanced at the paper and it looked republican too. I smiled and thanked him and he directed me to the proper entrance. I walk in and another person smiles at me and tells me to go to the table with the first letter of my last name. I step up to table A-J and tell them my last name while handing them my ID. They say, “What’s your address” and I told them and then also said that I had recently changed my address. Lady on the Left says to Lady on the Right they have to be the same, Lady on the Right looks at her and says, “No they don’t, she’s got her ID, she knows both addresses, etc. etc. etc.” (Note: she didn’t actually say “etc.”). They hand me my information, but it doesn’t seem to set well with Lady on the Left so I stand there for a moment waiting for the okay. Finally I got it. I went to the machine, cast my ballot, and got my sticker so I could get my free Election Day doughnut.

I learned a lot today about waiting in lines and the order of things. I learned how I have been doing some things wrong even though I felt certain I was the one who was right. It’s interesting to see the truth after pride has blinded you for so long, and I feel like I will never be the same again. Of course, I’m talking about the parking lot traffic at Krispee Kreme here. The nation expected the lines to be heavy at the polling places, but I didn’t have a line at mine. It took me a good 20 minutes to get through traffic to the other side of town, past the office building, through the woods, and not over the river to get my doughnut. I mean, since I hadn’t had a line to vote I had 35 to 45 minutes to get a doughnut and what more could you want on a rainy Tuesday morning?

I get to the one and only Krispee Kreme in the area and I pull into what I thought was the line. No one will let me in but it’s not like I’m trying to but, I’ll wait my turn. As I am sitting there a car pulls further into line and she points ahead of her, I look, but don’t know what she is pointing at. She does it again and I realize that she wants me to use this lane that I have never before noticed and go around the building….around to the line. Embarrassed, humbled, and grateful, I pass her and give her a wave. I had never noticed that lane, I had always assumed we could join the drive thru line that way. In fact my sister and I had been there about a month ago to pick up some doughnuts for the family and we got mad at a mini van who hadn’t been there who cut us off and took our spot. I bet if she had been there with me this morning she would have been just as embarrassed.

I parked and went inside because I could no longer handle the stress of the drive thru. I stood in line, heard person after person ask for the presidential doughnut along with their order and saw them get a little plastic bag with one. Butterflies were building; I was so excited for the star shaped, iced goodness of the Presidential doughnut. I place my order, I knew that I wanted a pumpkin spice doughnut ever since I had been snubbed a month before, forced to order a box of regular glazed rather than half and half. I took back the power and ordered a box of half regular and half pumpkin spice. I’m not going to eat all of those but it was the principle of the matter! I proudly wore my “I voted in Henrico County” sticker and didn’t even have to ask; the lady filled my order and then grabbed a small plastic bag for my long awaited presidential doughnut. I beamed on the inside as she handed me the box and then…then I looked down. It was a chocolate glazed, fall harvesty sprinkle covered doughnut. What a disappointment, what a waste, I won’t even eat it because of the chocolate. Could they really be out of the stars at 8:25 in the morning? Or could they just not bring their A-game and make them? So many unanswered questions, but it will be one of the first I ask when I get to heaven.
I paid for the doughnuts and walked out to my car, but more in a depressed Charlie Brown way, the way George Michael Bluth walked once in Arrested Development. I could hear the music playing in the background and I think I saw a snoopy dog house in the distance (goodness I love that show).

Despite this early disappointment I took comfort in the fact that at least I had within my grasp a pumpkin harvest doughnut, if that’s possible then there is still hope for my candidate to win.

If you’re a voting America I hope your election day went slightly better than mine. But if not, and if you have a Krispee Kreme, at least go get a free doughnut. If you're not a voting American or not even in America then...you know, whatever. You're still cool.