Let's Play!

As you may know, "Let's Play!" is the slogan of the Utah Shakespearean Festival which is held annually in Cedar City, Utah. On Friday my co-worker, Susan, came into work and asked me if I was doing anything fun for the weekend. As usual, my answer was no, we were just going to hang out. However, as I thought about it, the more I felt that I desperately needed to get away (this happens on occasion, I get a spontaneous desire to immediately do something new which my husband has labeled as dangerous).

While doing the monotonous chore of entering registrations into our computer system, I began thinking of all the places we could go and things we could do. I thought about hopping on a plane and heading to California, but luckily for my husband, I talked myself out of that idea. I then thought about Jackson Hole, but realized it was a 5 hour drive and I didn't get off work until 2:00, and it would just be a little too long of a drive for a short weekend. I then narrowed my thoughts to Utah and remembered the Shakespearean Festival and had to go. By the time I got off work I had talked my husband into my little scheme, bought tickets for 3 plays, and made room reservations at a hotel. Okay, so maybe I wasn't working as hard as I should have that day, but hey, it was Friday!

We were on the road by 4:00 and racing down so that we could attend the 'Tempest' which started at 7:30. We barely made it, walking into the theater 5 minutes before the show started. The show was terrific! The actors were tremendous and we had a great time. Checking into the hotel I was thrilled to find out that I was getting a room with a jacuzzi! Yes! For those of you who don't know, my tub at home is not much of a tub so I never take baths even though I love them. When staying in hotels I always appreciate the big tubs. :)

Saturday morning my wonderful, charming, adorable husband let us go down to the outlets in St. George. As soon as we got on the road the skies opened up and sheets of water poured down. I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me, the rain was so bad. This continued the entire way down. We finally made it to the stores and I found 60% off racks at the Dress Barn and I got three outfits there. We then each got super soft fleece windbreakers at Eddie Bauer and a pound of luscious caramel pecan fudge at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It was an awesome shopping trip.

That afternoon we saw a play called 'Art' which was so well done. A comedic classic that questions what art really is and what friendship is worth. That night we returned to the theater for front row seats and Agatha Christie's 'Mousetrap'. The play is a murder mystery and is filled with Christie's trademark red herrings and interesting plot lines. We had such a blast!

Luckily for us, the rain cleared up over night and by Sunday morning it was bright and sunny, perfect weather for us to race home and be back just in time for church to start at 1:00. Needless to say we are a bit tuckered out and will be heading to bed shortly.

Reflecting upon the events of this weekend, I have been reminded that life needs to be lived to its fullest potential. People need to experience as much as they can and who you share those experiences with makes all the difference. I am lucky to be with such an amazing man who humors me and allows me to fulfill those spontaneous desires and takes the time to share those adventures with me. :)

My New Addiction, Part Two

Okay, here is the post I promised with the pictures of my paintings. My camera was a little retarded, so the angles are not quite perfect, but that's okay, you still get the general idea. You can also click on the picture to see it bigger.

This one is the first one I painted. It's of the Delicate Arch at Arches National Park.


This is my second one. I have decided I like things that are not your typical pictures, so this is looking through an old castle window in Cornwall overlooking a little island. It is sideways, so you will have to tilt your head a little.


This picture is a close up of a very small part of a stained glass window in a medieval English church. I call it "An Excerpt of Peace" because the song is Dona Nobis Pacem, which means 'grant us peace'. I liked the old school look of the music so I painted it.


Next I did a series lilies. Like I said earlier, I don't like to be boring so I painted close-ups of the flowers.






They are not perfect, but I am still learning. Hopefully if I keep practicing I will get better. :)

Coughing up a Lung

Today I don't feel so good. The doctor has diagnosed me with bronchitis, again. This means that I am sitting on my couch, wanting to lay down but not able to because it is hard to breathe. Each time I cough my body is wracked with pain because my bronchial tubes are not big enough to handle the force of air that a cough produces. I am also having an incredibly difficult time speaking and swallowing. For my poor husband's benefit I have taken to writing any requests or responses on a small whiteboard, I think he was getting tired of his one sided conversations. I admit it's kinda funny since people usually can't get me to shut up. It's also funny to watch me speak using body language, at least Alexander thinks it's funny since he laughs every time I do it.

I am currently eating a bowl of pistachio pudding (Yay! Pudding!) which I started two hours ago and will probably take the rest of the night to finish. I am also bored. I can't figure out how people can spend all day surfing the web. I can only do this for a couple of hours (at the most) and then I run out of things to do. I have already spent $70.00 shopping at Old Navy.com and if I am on here much longer I will have to get a second job to pay for my spending habits. Oh well.

With any luck I will be feeling better soon, since I can't feel much worse. Sometimes ya gotta be thankful for days like this so that you can truly appreciate the days when you feel good.

My New Addiction

Okay, I admit that I have been a total slacker. But I can defend myself: I have been busy. Work is wearing me out and I come home every night feeling like someone has beaten me up. I have started to worry about the possibility of my blood pressure rising or something as equally old-person sounding. To help alleviate any potential stress-related health problems I have picked up a new hobby. Painting. Yup, you read it right, I have been spending most of my evenings painting.

I have been learning a lot and last week alone I painted 5 pictures. I can paint one from start to finish in about 4 hours and I have realized that I go into a sort of creative trance. I just sit for hours focused on what I am painting. The really amazing thing is that they actually look like what I am trying to paint (usually). I am shocked, so is my family, they didn't believe I actually painted them, they thought I bought them.

I think it would be neat to be able to sell my paintings for like $1,000 each. Then I could really be making money ;)

For your enjoyment, or perhaps to quench your curiosity, I will post pictures of my paintings as soon as I get my act together. :)

Feeling Frayed

I went to The Fray concert last night (they are the one's who sing "Save a Life") with my siblings. My 23 year old, super cool, and highly popular (the younger kids idolize her) sister decided to make it a family event and bought tickets for all the kids except the youngest (poor kid got to stay home with Alexander).

Anyway, the concert was held at the USANA Amphitheatre and I have decided that they have the worst traffic situation of any concert venue I have been to. By the time we got to our seats it was already 8:30 and some crap band dressed in what my 16 year old brother called "girl pants" was playing crap music and the lead singer was dancing like he had to go to the bathroom really bad. At 8:3o I was already exhausted.

This crap band played until 9:00 and then FINALLY left the stage (my brother yelled, "Yay they're done!" and clapped really loud, I thought I was going to split my sides laughing). I got my hopes up thinking that the "real" band would be starting soon, but alas, I still had a half hour to wait in my seat and twiddle my thumbs. By the time The Fray finally got on stage I was ready for bed. I was shocked at myself. Never before had I been such a party-pooper at a concert. I usually get all excited and pumped up, dancing and stuff, but I was just too old. I could only bob my head in rhythm and wonder how long this was going to take. When the encore came, however, I was psyched! I was all my young college self again with tons of energy. Do you know why? It was because I knew they were only going to sing 3 more songs. Yup, it was only 10 more minutes and so I decided that I could have fun for the last 10 minutes. It's like when you are hiking up a tall mountain but you can finally see the end in sight so you keep going even though you feel like you might die. Well, the last song seemed to last FOREVER with the audience sing alongs, but I could handle it because it was the last song.

I made it through traffic (it was a miracle!) and got home at almost 1:00 a.m. My great husband was waiting up for me (okay, we all know he doesn't go to bed until 2:30, but I can pretend it was a sweet gesture).

After not quite 5 hours of sleep, I am trying to make it though the day, but feeling rather manhandled and frayed. Who knew you could grow old so quickly? Only 2 years ago I would have been the super cool, highly popular, and crazily energetic one. Oh well, here's to those times when we try in vain to feel young and cool and fall slightly short.

Spoiled Rotten

On Monday I turned the big 24 and I was expecting it to be just like every other day. However, my husband made sure to take advantage of this double points day* and he went all out. Usually because he works at home he is still asleep when I leave for work at 7:45, but on Monday he was out of bed before I was. As soon as the alarm went off he gave me a lovely card (women love cards), a novel, and a ruby necklace/earrings set. I was stunned! Alexander can't keep secrets so I never get surprises, but this was a total surprise. He had done such a good job getting the gifts and I didn't even give him any hints or help.

Later that morning while I was toiling away at work (okay, between you and me I wasn't really working that hard but don't tell my boss that) I got a huge bouquet of flowers delivered to me. Another surprise! I had never received flowers at work before and I was thrilled. This boy was definitely doing a good job. Everyone at work went out to lunch and my boss bought my food so that was cool. When I got home from work Alexander took me shopping for new clothes, which he doesn't really like to do, but was willing to do anyway. We found some cute clothes that were on sale and only spent 15 minutes shopping, it was my lucky day (Alexander thought it was his lucky day too)!

On top of all that my parents made me a whale cake and my favorite meal of bacon and tomato sandwiches. I was sure that I was the most spoiled rotten I had ever been. I was wrong.

Today I got a brand new 2007 Hyundai Elantra, regetta blue with grey interior. It drives like a dream and has air conditioning (which my old car did not)!! I can't believe I am driving a new car! Now I know that I really am spoiled rotten. What a week!

*Double Points Days include birthdays, anniversaries, & holidays because 1) he remembered and 2) he got you a gift

Independence Day?

So yesterday was Independence Day. Being a history major, I have spent a large portion of my adult life studying U.S. History. Since there is only about 250 years of "official" U.S. history, I have focused a lot of my studying on the founding of our nation and all the little details surrounding it. Well, upon watching "A More Perfect Union" for about the 100th time, I decided that this whole celebration of our independence on July 4, 1776 is a rather silly thing. We should call the 4th of July "The Date on the Top of 'The Declaration of Independence' Day" or "The Day Two Days After Congress Voted To Declare Independence." We could even name it "That Random Day in July That We Don't Want To Work." Yeah, those would all be more accurate than "Independence Day" and I will give you some reasons why:

- Declaring that you are independent does not mean that you are actually independent. For example, when I was a teenager I said lots of things like, "You can't boss me around!" and "I'll come home whenever I feel like it!" Simply uttering these declarations of my independence did not make them true, because in reality my parents owned the bedroom and house I lived in and the car I drove, and thus they COULD tell me when to clean my room and when to come home. So Britain didn't care that America told them to take a hike, because they "owned" the land the Americans lived on. Just because the Americans wanted to be independent didn't make it so. It was the same way with the Confederates in the Civil War.

- The American Revolutionary War, which began in 1775, effectively ended in 1781 after the Battle of Yorktown, (though the war didn't officially end until 1783,) five years after the country declared its independence. Apparently Britain still thought America was theirs and so clearly we weren't really independent yet.

- Britain did not recognize America as its own nation until the war officially ended in 1783 at the Treaty of Paris (this was seven years after we said we were independent).

- America didn't "elect" (technically America appointed) its first president, George Washington, until 1789 (that's a LONG time after 1776).

So what's the deal? Apparently there is nothing we can do about it because the first Independence Day celebration was held on July 4, 1777. Our founding fathers may have done well setting up this new and unique government, but they sure didn't name their holidays very appropriately.

HAPPY NATIONAL FIREWORKS DAY!!