Argh!

way to go, fly!

2010-12-18T15:50:00.001-08:00

dads

2010-10-05T20:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.danoah.com/2010/09/you-just-broke-your-child.html

thank you to my father and brothers-in-law for being so wonderful.

battle of the bathtub

2010-09-13T23:49:00.000-07:00

*flick* no light

*flick flick*

"that's odd," i muse aloud. the light in my bedroom doesn't turn on. being human, i must test it a few more times, to assert my humanity.

*flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick flick*

still nothing.

*flick flick flick flick*

half-blind i wander through my room, looking for light. finally, i find a small lamp and plug it in to the wall socket i can barely see by the dim light filtering through the slats of my window blinds.

the night is cold. the wind is still. a quiet surrounds the house.

when i turn the switch on the small lamp in my hands i feel a buzz and see a flicker before its weak light steadies. through the doorway my light reveals movement in the bathroom. but what could it be? i am alone here.

with faltering steps i shuffle toward the doorway to see what awaits me. something arrests my progress, it is the cord on my lamp. do i stop? do i press on to unknown horrors?

my curiosity pushes me forward, it hastens me to set down my light and press on. when finally i peer beyond the curtain, i let out a sigh of resignation. it is as a suspected: there is a zombie in my bathtub.

he does not move.

he sits there, watching me with a baleful glance.

he waits for me.

with lightning reflexes honed from years of fighting off these demons, i go for my one weapon against such beasts. the only thing i have at hand: water.

in moments, his corpse has shriveled into a pose i know can mean only death. it floats on the surface of the water and circles the drain. victory is mine. its warmth curls my lips into a sneering smile only seen at the demise of ones enemies.

thus victorious, i make to return to my lamp. to fix my light. to go to bed.

but what's this? what is that sound i hear coming from the drain? could it be?

i glance back. my nemesis is crawling from the pipe.

how can this be? i saw him....i saw his corpse.

i have again succumbed to the machinations of this vile beast. he feigns death to murder me in my sleep. he ruins my light and blames the bulb. is there no end to his trickery?

but i am wise. wiser perhaps than his last victim. it is a hope i hold dear as i turn to face him once again.

his claws tear at the porcelain as he tries to free himself from a watery death. the slick metal beneath him can offer no purchase. still he pushes, strains for freedom. were he not a zombie, i might be impressed.

and yet he and i cannot remain here together. so it is with grim determination i turn the water on again. its burning heat scalds him as his miserable carcass slips back into its final casket. the metal and soap and hair will trap him there. i put the final nail in his coffin, as it were; the plug slips into place with a final clink.

the bathroom is safe again. the bathtub is mine. no zombie will claim it this night for his own.

he will have no feast of brains.

i have defeated him and saved my small portion of the world from this one specimen of the plague that surrounds us. follow me, learn my story and benefit from it. they have won many times, we will will many more.

and by 'zombie' i mean spider.

amber's wedding

2010-09-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

yesterday, my former roommate, amber, and her fiancé, carlos, got married. yay!

of course, i woke up late so i had to really hurry to get to the temple in time to watch amber's niece, sarah, so that her parents could go into the session. i made it just in time. sarah (3) is very friendly, she told me all about the bolt toy she was holding and that she looked very pretty today. then she said, 'you're matti.' as this was and still is true, i agreed. then she said 'you're amber's sister.' not really true, but we share a brain so it's roughly the same.

we had a lot of fun playing skating across the tile which turned into running back and forth across the very 'skatey' tile. then sarah and i and her cousins played monster (me) so i chased them until one cousin asked what we were doing. i told her we were playing monster and asked if she'd like to join. she said she'd think about it.

when the marriage ceremony stuff was over we all went out for picture-taking. it was SUPer windy and the photographer said he *really* wanted to get a picture of amber chasing her veil since it kept trying to fly away. it would have made an awesome picture, but alas, we stuck in some more bobby pins and it stayed in the rest of the time.

after a bunch of pictures we all left to go takes naps and eat. i enjoyed my chic-fil-a and my nap, though i had strange dreams. when i woke up i was all set to go pick up my dad from the airport. except that his flight was delayed. it was supposed to come in at 5.30 (leaving me plenty of time to get to the 6.30-9.00 reception) but it actually didn't come in until 7.20 or so. which means he didn't get to my car until almost 8. which means i had less than an hour to find the reception in a place i'd never been to before. and my instructions were for coming from the freeway, when i was already on bangerter.

so dad and i were driving (i made him come with me since i was already low on time) down bangerter, turned onto redwood as the instructions indicate. but i could not for the life of me find 5800 north. seriously. the street just vanished from all human knowledge some time after the instructions were written but before i needed to follow those same instructions. finally, after driving back and forth on redwood a few times, i just pulled in to amber's sister's subdivision and hoped i'd find it.

you know those times when you are trying so hard to do something and you are pretty sure you're going to fail? this was one of those times. i was seriously almost in tears that i wouldn't make it back in time to see them off. and because i was trying so hard and i have such great skill at getting lost, and because i am fully aware of this gift of mine, i was very sure it just wouldn't happen. by the grace of some insane street engineer-guy somewhere, i actually found a street with the right name, which turned out not to be the right street, but connected to the right one? anyway, i made it with about 10 minutes to spare, just in time for the bouquet toss (no, i didn't catch it but amber's sister-in-law confided that amber was probably aiming for me).

i saw them off to the sound of party blow-horns and a barrage of bubbles. i am so glad i made it, even if i was incredibly late. but hey, amber said i could be, i asked her and everything.

to commemorate the occasion, i made sure to get a lovely keepsake that will stay with me for roughly one week:

uuhh

2010-08-18T17:31:00.001-07:00

hey, remember the part where it's august? i remember that, too.

so, i haven't seen you in a while, how have you been?

well? oh, that's good. me? well, let's see. i got a new job (still kind of miss my old one, miss the people, not so much the work itself) working for adobe in the omniture business unit. it's fun and scary at the same time. i am vaguely working my way further from scary and more toward fun. let you know how that goes....

what's that? no, i'm not living with my parents anymore. i miss seeing them, but i don't miss the drive. and since i got a speeding ticket yesterday, i at least have to *try* to drive the speed limit now which means it takes me at least 1 million times longer to get anywhere.
what?
no, i'm not exaggerating, why do you ask?

oh, yes, i *did* dye my hair. no, i don't know if i had more fun as a blond or - now - as a brunette. i'll let you know what i learn.

yes, i still like sandwiches. why, are you going to bring me one?

oh, reggie

2010-01-08T20:23:00.001-08:00

today reggie decided that it would be fun to not brake unless i depressed the pedal all the way. and barely so, even then.

after class i got his oil changed (because he'd been needing it) and found out that jiffy lube doesn't do brakes. i then went to my optometrist appointment so i can get my new contacts and find out if my eyeballs are swelling. after that i went to discount tire and found out the master cylinder was leaking and needed to be replaced.

finally, i got to work two hours late and roughly $500 poorer.

all this after getting to sleep in for an extra 2 hours.

i feel now that either the sleep gods or the car gods are punishing me.

on the plus side, i've decided that since i have 4 boxes of contacts and some free solution in my backpack, today would be a good day to randomly get sucked into a parallel dimention where they don't have contacts. i could stay there for like a year before i wouldn't be able to see.

the hearts of the children

2009-11-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

i taught again this past sunday. i finished about 20 minutes early. that's okay, right?

calling

2009-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

i finally got a calling in my ward. i avoided it for about a year and a half, but then some uppity guy in my ward decided that i needed to teach sunday school. actually, it's okay, we're still friends.

so i teach gospel doctrine, now. my first lesson was on the 11th, called "a mission of saving." it was about rescuing the martin and willie handcart companies.

i was freaked out of my gourd to teach.

it went well, i'm told. my roommates and that guy told me that i am a very sincere teacher. i showed a video and then we read a bunch of quotes. it was fun.

i'm still freaked out of my gourd for the next one, though.

shaving

2009-10-06T14:05:00.000-07:00

i was driving to work the other day when i stopped at a red light about to turn right. i pulled up so i could turn and stopped to make sure there weren't any cars coming. happened to glance into the car just to the left of me and saw that the driver was holding an electric razor.

now, for some reason it always makes me smile when i see someone getting ready in his car. doesn't really matter what's being done: hair, makeup, shaving.

so when i saw the guy holding a razor i got kind of anticipatorily excited that he would be shaving in his car around 2 in the afternoon. i mean, i'm lazy, but if i'm going someone after noon, i'm not going to get ready in the car. so that he was shaving that late made it all the sweeter.

i watched. i waited. he lifted the razor. and shaved....his hands?

seriously.

he was shaving the backs of his hands. with an electric razor. almost in public.

the end.

oi

2009-09-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

so it's been a while since i wrote. let's think of all the things that have happened.

1. i got a new (to me) car. his name is reginald huntington III, 'reggie' for short. formerly of christianna-car fame.

2. i moved apartments on aug 20-21. it was only down 2 storeys down but it still took 2 days. amber and i have a lot of stuff, mine is mostly made up of books. maybe i should read them all before i buy anymore.

3. i dyed my hair. not that this is a new thing for me, but it was recent so i remember it.

4. in moving amber and i got a new roommate: anna eagar. she's fun and funny and has an awesome freakin' car. just saying.

5. i started a really dumb schedule for work at my own behest. half night shift, half day shift. all lame shift. it wouldn't be so bad were i only working, but doing both work and school is messing me up. seriously.

6. i finished my spring and summer classes without my brain ex- or imploding. go ahead and cheer for me, i know you want to.

7. i went to idaho for the wedding reception of my friend from junior high school, brittney fekete née carlson. in 45 minutes i got a sunburn but it was totally worth it to see my old friends and to hear brittney's mom scream when she saw me.

8. my friend, esther pluim, got her mission call and left for the mtc. she will be serving in wisconsin and promised to bring me back some cheese. she'll be awesome!

9. my youngest nephew, anders, turned 1. wahoo!

10. i attended my roommate's family reunion and learned that someone in her family tree is a sorensen. we're probably related and stuff.

11. in acquiring reggie i got to fly to la, drive with christianna to provo, drive to grandmother transtrum's house in eagle, drive to provo and die. but it was fun except when christianna poked my really hard in the face for no reason whatsoever.

12. my parents found a new house after agreeing to lease theirs to a family who used to live in their ward. they've been trying to sell it to move closer to salt lake for work, but now they are leasing and moving. their new house looks cool from what i've seen though it isn't done yet. it'll be great for them to be living together again.

well, that's all i can think of right now. but it's nearly 2 in the morning as i sit here on my night shift so there's good reason for nothing to be forthcoming. i'm enjoying my classes which include shakespeare (whose name sign i learned recently), modern american usage and the romantic era. by include, i mean that's it.

i'm having a bit of an issue with my html and i'm angry at it so i think i'll stop writing now anyway. i suppose it's good then that i ran out of things that have happened.

energy

2009-07-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

for the love!

2009-06-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

my work is being so stupid right now.

on friday an email was sent out saying that for summer semester instead of the 39 hours that we had been allowed (39 instead of 40 due to budget) we would only be allowed to work 30 hours. and then there was another email saying that we are now allowed to take on a second campus job to work 20 hours at each.

yeah. a second job.

now does that make sense to anyone else? because i don't get it.

also, keep in mind that this was sent to us 2 weeks before summer semester starts. which means that any position with on-campus jobs will have been filled. also, it's june. any job openings in provo have been filled. and if any of us manage to find another on-campus job, it won't pay as well as this one so we'd want to work 30 here and 10 there. but what other job is going to let us only work 10 hours?

now, those on my team had thought to avoid all this crap because we're doing roughly 1/3 the work of the entire call center where there are about 10 teams. are we exempt? no. they want us to cut back our hours so they can hire more people and make us train them. which only really serves to frustrate us more.

all of this is only because we're the peons in the entire operation.

i say we just delete everyone's accounts and then see how they feel about cutting back our hours.

crazy sauce

2009-06-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

so i went to texas last week and while there we went to the beach.
we saw sand.
we saw rocks.
we saw shells.
we saw a lady drive into the ocean.
we saw birds.

what?

oh, we saw a lady drive into the ocean. yeah, it was....um...interesting. but i forgot my camera and haven't gotten the picture off my phone yet and i keep forgetting to make inge and jared send me pictures, so i drew you a diagram of what happened:

I know, it's really bad, but i am not the artist in the family, and i did what i could.

we still don't know why she did it. some thought maybe suicide or maybe drunk or maybe seizure/stroke. but seriously, no idea.

oh, and i forgot to mention that we saw the ocean.

finals

2009-04-20T10:12:00.001-07:00

so i finished my finals the second day. i'm really proud of myself. but now i must recover from them. the end.

seven pounds

2009-03-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

i really liked this movie.

just so you know.

sunday night

2009-02-11T17:25:00.001-08:00

so i was laying in bed trying to get to sleep and it wasn't working.

i counted sheep.
i relaxed my whole body one muscle at a time.
i reviewed what i had to do for the week.
i checked my eyelids for holes.

nothing.

but then i started having one of those almost-dreams you get where it's mostly just your mind wandering freely. in this almost-dream i was going swimming. but wait! i hadn't shaved my legs. well, you can't go swimming without shaving your legs!

this thought drew me from my halucination. that was why i couldn't sleep: my legs were hairy. i couldn't get to sleep at all. but i was awake, so i figured that i might as well get up and just shave and get it over with.

problem.

i couldn't get up!

seriously, i could not move! i tried and tried, but to no avail. and then i began to panic.

finally, i realized that i really was asleep. ah, that's why i couldn't move. phew! okay, i turned on the light next to my bed and went to sit up.

but wait.

i was still asleep!

so i fought my way to consciousness, turned on the light and...was still asleep!

by now i was just afraid that i wouldn't be able to wake up at all. what if i was dead and just didn't know it? three, four times i tried to fight my way through and at last, i made it!

yay for me!

wait.

i just actually woke myself up

so i could shave my legs and get back to sleep.

crap!

well...i might as well shave now that i'm actually awake. *shrug*

so i did. and then i went back to sleep. totally not worth it!

Job at the FBI

2009-01-16T11:31:00.000-08:00

The FBI had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were 3 finalists: two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

'We must know that you will follow your orders no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair...Kill her!'

The man said, 'You can't be serious. I could never shoot my wife.'

'Then you're not the right man for this job,' the agent replied. 'Take your wife and go home.'

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes.

Then the man came out with tears in his eyes, 'I tried,' he told them, 'but i can't kill my wife.'

The agent said, 'You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home.'

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were hears, one after another. The agents standing outside heard screaming, crashing and banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet again. The door slowly opened and there stood the woman, wiping sweat from her brow.

'This gun was loaded with blanks,' she explained. 'I had to beat him to death with the chair.'

MORAL:
Women are crazy. Don't mess with them.

english

2009-01-13T09:34:00.000-08:00

i forgot to tell everyone that i finally changed my major - officially - to english.

for the past year i've just been telling people that i was an english major whenever it suited me since it meant that i could win an argument. okay, it never actually meant that, i just tried to win by saying, 'hey! i'm an english major, i should know what's right.'

it never really worked since i always got a response like 'are you really, matti? really?'

to which i would have to respond that no, i wasn't.

it probably didn't help that i called myself a psychology major when that suited me. i seldom, if ever, won arguments this way but i felt like i would.

anyway. i am now, officially, an english major. as such i can - officially - claim to know things because i am. unfortunately, i can no longer say that i know things because i am a psych major.

'i used to be a psych major' just doens't carry the same weight.

*sigh*

google

2009-01-12T12:14:00.000-08:00

my family is google.

seriously, if there is anything you want to know, someone in my family knows it.

according to my brother, 'our dad is like google and we're like mini versions. we're google mobile.'

but i'd like to extend that to the rest of my family.

i'm not really that smart, but i at least know where to go to get the information. i'm like the search engine, i know where to go to get whatever you need.

surprise

2009-01-07T16:03:00.000-08:00

i have lived in my apartment for about 4 months now. every time i go into my closet i think "why didn't they put a light in here?"

today while i was putting on my shoes i was standing in my closet when i started to fall (i'm kind of a klutz sometimes) so i reached out and grabbed the wall. and there i found the switch that has always been there. seriously, been there the whole time. i don't know how i missed it but there is totally a light in there.

unless the apartment managers installed it just to mess with me. yov have to admit, it could happen.

okay, probably not.

happy birthday to me

2009-01-04T16:00:00.000-08:00

yay! amber and i are now 43 for another month.

woot.

rain, rain, go away

2008-11-26T20:59:00.000-08:00

i really wish it had.

this morning around 2.30 my family and i arrived in valencia. for the duration of our visit we will be staying at the house of some friends of my sister and brother-in-law. when they were first living in california they met this nice family and have been friends ever since. but by the time we got to their house, i didn't care where we were just so long as i wasn't driving any more.

why, you ask?

well, for some strange reason i decided that i needed to get up at 5 on tuesday morning. i think it had something to do with wanting to finish packing or something that made sense until i was staring at the business end of an alarm clock. shudder. i had also gotten to work late the day before and so when i was ready early i decided to go to work and make up some of that time. i went to work at 7.30. around 11, my mom was supposed to come get me so we could all (mom, dad and brother) drive to la.

11 comes, no mom.

12 comes, no mom.

12.30, i call to see what's going on. they're in salt lake waiting for my dad's meeting to get out.

1 comes, no mom.

1.30 i get a call and they're downstairs from my work waiting for me.

so then we have to go to my brother's house to drop off some of his stuff. and then i realize that i left something at my house and need to pick it up before we leave. and then we get gas and grab lunch. and then we leave provo for our 11-12 hour drive.

at around 12.15 my mom pulls off the freeway and asks if i can drive because she's so tired she's started seeing double. no problem. for some other really weird reason, i'm still awake and have been since i woke up at 5 tuesday morning. we were already in california, not too far from hour destination, maybe an hour and a half away.

but then it started raining.

and we started hydroplaning.

i honestly don't think i have ever sweated so much in my life. and no, you didn't really need to know that particular fact.

all in all, we arrived safely and i only tried to go up one off-ramp when we had to turn around. we arrived at 2.30 (as i already said) and promptly spent about an hour talking about random things with christianna. meh.

football

2008-11-22T21:36:00.001-08:00

i am not the biggest fan of football. in fact, i could get along quite well without it and usually do. no offense to anyone who likes it, but it isn't my favorite thing.

this year i lucked out in having a friend and roommate who feels the same. and so, since amber and i live right near the byu stadium we still get to hear the game. oh, joy. we have since learned to find other things to do when the games start since pretty much no one else is out doing stuff. it makes for very little waiting.

it all started with bowling. since that was how amber and i met, it seemed fitting. we invited a friend, richie, and went bowling up at the miracle bowl on state street here in provo. but for some reason today that wasn't what sounded fun. instead we decided to see a movie.

and though i fought it, we saw twilight. okay, i didn't really fight it so much as not plan on seeing it any time soon. the reason? i've read the books. i realize that it isn't always true that the book is better than the movie. case in point, i much preferred the movie stardust to the book of the same name. seriously, i loved that movie.

anyway, when amber (who hasn't read the books) suggested it i thought i'd at least give the movie a chance. we bought the tickets, finished getting ready, went to lunch and then drove to the theatre. in spite of this being a college town, there were surprisingly a lot of people in the theatre.

so i have now seen twilight. and now i can honestly say to all those who have read the books, wait to watch the movie. or at least go in for the matinee instead of at night. don't get me wrong, it was good. in fact, i liked it. but i feel that the story line was so different from the book that though i still recognized it, it wasn't as good. worth seeing, but not for full price.

for those who haven't read the books, amber said that she liked it. though there were a few things she didn't understand. maybe if you haven't read the books you should go to the matinee with a friend who has read them and who doesn't mind explaining some things.

the end.

temple

2008-11-20T15:20:00.001-08:00

A coworker shared this with all the members of our team and I thought to share it with all of you.

My dear family, brothers and sisters, friends and leaders:

My heart is overflowing with joy and gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His tender mercies and mighty miracles in our behalf. I just have to share this with you. As most of you know, I am a Temple ordinance worker and work the morning shift in the LA Temple every Saturday. Today, I had the priviledge of translating sister Martz-the new assistant Matron's-message during our devotional. She started like this "The prophet Joseph Smith said that no unhallowed hand would be able to stop this Work from progressing. These past few weeks when mobs have combined and armies have gathered against the saints, the Lord has protected His house". She went on to say that those, like her, who were inside the Temple when mobs were surrounding it, did not realize how scary and terrifying this looked on TV to the rest of us, because inside the House of the Lord all was calm and there was peace abundant.

After Proposition 8 passed, the Temple began receiving threatening calls and mail from those opposing it. They were warned that more than 5000 people would come to the Temple and burn it to the ground, and stop Its work. The first Thursday when the mob came, the new LA Temple President called the Salt Lake City Temple Offices for instructions. He was instructed to call the local police and to insure the safety of those attending the Temple by closing the gates. The assistant Matron said today, that it was a tender mercy from the Lord that the mob chose that Thursday to come since they had only one person coming to receive his own endowment that day, which he received in time to leave before trouble started. The LAPD and the FBI responded quickly to the Temple Presidency's summons and patroled the grounds and kept the mob from entering the same. Most of them had never been there before and expressed their surprise at how beautiful and peaceful all around was. They were invited to come back during the Christmas season to see the lights and they promised they would.

On Thursday, November 13th, sister Campbell, a secretary in the Temple, was opening the mail and upon opening a large manila envelope found inside a smaller one. When she opened this one, a white powder flew all around her desk. She thought this could be related to the demonstrators and feared the worst-ANTRAX. She contacted the President, who in turn called the Salt Lake City Temple office again for instructions. The FBI, the LAPD, and even the SWAT teams were once again in the grounds to investigate, and the Temple once again had to close from around 11:30 AM to 5PM. They closed the gates and were instructed to keep all the people there wherever they were found at the time. Those in the parking lot had to remain in the parking lot. Those entering the Temple had to remain in the first floor and those already upstairs were taken to the Celestial Room.

Then, the miracles began to happen: A brother serving as a recorder that day is a Microbiologist by profession and used to deal with hazardous substances every day. He was the first to say the white powder in the envelope was only talc, and put every one at ease. Then the sister coordinator upstairs was impressed to call upstairs to the sealing area, and said "They said we can't go down but no one said we can't go up, and I have many people in the Celestial room with their ceremonial clothes on ready to work. Could they do some sealings?" As it happened, there were four sealers present that day and they ran four sealing sessions non stop while the Temple was closed. Downstairs, someone else thought to invite those in the Lobby to do some initiatories, which they promptly did for all those hours too, brothers and sisters alike. Among those waiting in the parking lot there was a large group of young men and women with their leaders who had come to do Baptisms for the dead, and who waited patiently all those hours and decided when the Temple was reopened to go ahead and fulfill their assignment instead of driving back home.

The Temple reopened in time for the 5:30 PM session. The next day when recording the ordinances, they discovered that they had performed 2000 sacred ordinances on Thursday, only one less than the day before when three stakes had been visiting the Temple. Once again the assistant matron reminded us of the words of the prophet Joseph Smith, "No unhallowed hand can stop the Work from progressing...". But, this is not all, a prophecy was fulfilled also. When the new LA Temple President was set apart by President Uchdorft of the First Presidency, he received a blessing and these words were pronounced: " The time has come for the LA Temple to come out of obscurity and become an Ensign for Righteousness to the world under your presidency." The pictures of the Temple have been shown on TV, newspapers and the internet, not only in this country but worldwide. People of other faiths have called and sent letters to the Temple thanking the Church for defending marriage and protecting the family, and commenting how impressed they are by how beautiful and majestic the Temple looks . One minister of an African American church, who by his own admission had harbored ill feelings against the mormons before said " I am impressed by your integrity and Christ like behavior, and even if I am not ready to consider you my brothers and sisters in Christ, we can be first cousins!".

I asked the assistant matron if I could share her comments and she said to go ahead. I can only add my own testimony that I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the power and authority of God on earth. God Lives and Jesus, His only Begotten Son and our Savior is coming soon to redeem His people. I am grateful to know this and I pray we stand firm, steadfast and immobile while the prophecies of the signs before His Coming are fulfilled. "Be not afraid, only believe" He has said, and also " What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same." I testify that this is true and testify it in the Holy Name of Whom I strive to serve, even Jesus Christ. Be faithful and safe is my humble prayer.
Your sister in Christ, Patricia H. Arnazzi

two costumes...lots of strange looks

2008-11-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

a few weeks ago amber and i got invited to a halloween party hosted by her boss that we were supposed to dress up as celebrities for. the problem? i really wanted to wear another costume to work...

okay, let me explain.

at work we have these nicknames for all the students on my team. danny is this one. erik is that one. lex is lexi hopalong. melissa is missy punkin. paul is hey you (he didn't much appreciate that one). preston is bubs. calista is allison. and i...i'm the crazy cat lady. sometimes the extra crazy cat lady.

come on, now, doesn't that just beg to be a halloween costume? especially if i don't tell anyone? :)

so it started like this...

and after a little help from my brother, i became this:

scary, no?

anyway. so i then had to become some sort of celebrity. and my friend and former roommate, megan, suggested marilyn monroe.

what do you think? well, amber's costume was a little harder and a little more fun. since she had to be some celebrity we spent some time trying to decide who she could be. pussycat doll? no. edward scissorhands? cool, but no. and then we had it. she would just be all of them.

apparently she was an inmate at an insane asylum who thought she was every celebrity. i must say, it was a lot of fun when we were driving to the party to have amber always saying, 'hey, i'm on the radio!'

richie also came with us, but we don't really know who he was. interestingly enough, no one asked. though, can you blame them for not?

christianna would be so proud...

2008-10-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

on friday night i and my friend, richie, went to the fall fantasy masquerade ball to benefit uso. it was a lot of fun! we got there around 9 and stayed until 11, two hours of dancing and playing and making new friends and playing with old ones.

when we got back to my apartment my roommate, amber, was still awake (she'd been waiting for us since she spent most of the night alone). so i got out the ice cream and we all started watching brian regan because...well, he's awesome and we don't need a reason.

the next thing i knew richie was getting up to leave and the dvd was finished.

that's right, i fell asleep.

on a date.

christianna is not the only sorensen to fall asleep on a date anymore. though i'm sure someone else has.

2008-10-24T08:03:00.001-07:00

i miss my long hair

um...surprise

2008-09-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

christianna was in town! yay! we even had an awesome hotel-party on thursday night. but since i work disgustingly early i had to make christianna drive me to work on friday morning (as usual, i was late). as i was getting out of the car, christianna asked to see my id card that i need to get into the building which has a picture from three years ago on it. it's of when my hair was short. so christianna commented that i should cut my hair again.

like my brother-in-law, jared, i do whatever christianna tells me to, right?

so, this is what it was...

minus this:

plus four hours, equals this:

what do you think?

finger waves

2008-08-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

yesterday, my most amazing friend, emily, asked if i could do her hair for a murder mystery dinner she and her roommates are having at their house tonight. because i love doing hair, i agreed. the only problem was that she is supposed to be a '20s lounge singer sort of person and i've never done that style of hair before.

so last night around midnight i decided that i should look up how to do it and practice on my hair such that i would know how to do it on hers. the look she wanted was the classic 'finger wave' look. and after a little practice, i think i got it down. now i just have to copy it onto emily's head tonight. eech.

power!

2008-08-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

our power went out yesterday. yay. wait, i mean ew.

on the plus side i learned how to identify my shampoo and conditioner in the dark (when you turn them both upside-down, the shampoo runs to the top faster) and that if i open the window at night it's pretty comfortable in my apartment.

on the minus side, there was no way to keep the food in the fridge cold or to heat it up for dinner.

on the other plus side, it gave me a really good excuse to go to dinner with jorgen, eden, clint, flynn and eden and clint's friend cynthia. we went to chili's and then made some plans so that i can get home this weekend to play with our visitors.

on the other minus side, i was seriously hoping that the power would be back on when i got back to my apartment, but no such luck.

this morning, amber called the apartment manager whose immediate response was to ask if we had called our hometeachers (amber's immediate thought was, 'what, are they going to bless the apartment?') and if we had flipped the switches in the breaker box. but i totally did that yesterday while i was on the phone with her. apparently, we need our hometeachers to do this in future, because it isn't good enough when i do.

anyway, amber figured out today that the contract was up from the old tenants (ashley totally thought that might have been the case, kudos to her) and so she had to put it in her name. they'll be turning it back on at some time today. i'm excited to shower in the light. :)

new roommate

2008-08-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

her name is ashlee allen and she's very nice. she's an elementary ed major currently teaching 3rd grade somewhere in the nebo school district.

new place

2008-08-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

so long, casa dea!

hello, timpanogas gateway!
amber and i moved in today and i'm so excited. but still exhausted. oi.

amber got to the new place while i was still at work and so she got to check the whole place out and let me know how cool it was. apparently, i and our thusfar anonymous new roommate both have ceiling fans in our rooms. amber doesn't. also, my room is the largest of the three. i'm still not sure why that is, but considering that i have the most crap of all of us (assuming the new roommate doesn't have as much as me) it makes sense.

I also have a walk-in closet....which i immediately walked into so i could take a picture. and here's what the rest of the room looks like:

i'm really excited to live here! if only moving weren't such a great black hole, sucking all the fun out of life.

moving along

2008-08-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

i'm all packed. finished this morning freakishly early. here's the evidence:

i think i have too much stuff : /

nevermind

2008-08-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

okay, amy didn't come to stay. i didn't really expect her to since i'm moving and both of our contracts are over in about two weeks. but yesterday when i got home from work amy was having a hard time. our hometeacher came and gave her a blessing by the end of which amy had decided to go home. it wasn't that it felt wrong to be in utah, but however right it felt to be here, it is more right for her to be home.

so we left last night around 8 to take her back up to idaho falls. got there about 11.30. slept. got up around 9 (i was hoping to leave by 8) and then we had to get all of her things out of the car and get her music off my itunes on the lappy. and then around 11.30 this morning i left. we hugged goodbye in the living room of her parents' house while her nephew told his grandma that we weren't letting go. and then i drove home.

i stopped once for gas and once for food (they don't have jack in the box here) and got to work around 3. after a few bouts of tears, i felt sufficiently sane to write a blog post. now, aren't you all glad of that?

amy, i love you and miss you, but i really feel that you were right in going home. i want only what is best for you. keep in touch.

she's baaaaaaack

2008-08-11T11:39:00.001-07:00

amy came home on friday. i was not there because my mom needed a ride to the airport on saturday and so she took me to ogden where i did laundry and then drove her to catch her plane. and then on saturday i went with amber to her brother's house to play guitar hero while we "housesat."

so when i finally got back to my apartment on sunday, i was so excited to see her. i walked in and immediately went to give her a big hug. she'd had a really hard day, but it was still wonderful to see her. we're not sure how long she'll be here, she still needs to find a job and a place to live once our contracts at casa dea are over. eech!

and we got to have scripture study and prayer together which is something we've never done before, but i want to keep doing. it was really nice to read together about peace (alma 32, i think) and then finish it all up with a prayer.

we also went to ward prayer afterward, but that wasn't as fun. apparently, while i've not been going they've been changing things. there are now two prayers, opening and closing, as well as opening and closing hymns. all. four. verses. now, i'm all for singing and stuff, but that's a little ridiculous. i'm not gonna lie. and then we have announcements and spotlights. for the love, people! ward prayer should be short and sweet.

anyway, i'm really glad she's back.

eugork racecar krogue

2008-08-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

it's a palendrome.

so this morning my alarm went off at 7. i was glad for that, but when i stumbled across the room to turn it off before climbing back in bed, i discovered a little surprise...

inge had her baby at about 5.30 this morning.

after discovering the news i was too excited to go back to sleep so i got to take a shower this morning. thanks, inge.

i'm still hoping for his name to be eugork, but i think he might get teased. hopefully they pick something else.

must have been musk

2008-07-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

cami gave me some candy from australia. apparently, a lot of people there like it. couldn't tell you why if i tried. cami made me promise to take pictures of my friends trying them. here are some of my favorites:

oh happy day!

2008-07-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

amber got a call while she was at work from diana, the manager of where we were planning to live.

diana called to say that the only other apartment there that she managers has one girl who decided not to sign. one free spot. then she was looking through her paperwork and found that another girl just hasn't resigned yet. another free spot. she's going to save them for us.

yay! we have a place to live again!

new office

2008-07-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

we have a new office at work. they moved us upstairs and now we have a new view. pretty, ne? we're on the third floor and the time clock is on the first so it makes it a little hard to clock in and out for lunch, but i think the view makes it better.

the only problem is that around 5.30 the sun starts shining in the windows so that i can't see unless i put on my sunglasses. in my office. yeah. but there's less noise and cooler temperatures (not sure why but it's cooler up here than it was where we were before). plus, there's more room. word on the street is that we'll be getting a plasma screen for the office, but i'm not sure when or if that will happen. it's pretty nice up here so i don't mind.

accepted

2008-07-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

i'm leaving la. rather, i've already left. but i have a new story to tell.

we were watching accepted (a movie that i think is hilarious but have only before seen edited) non-edited when i got a call from the manager of my new apartment. or, she was the manager until the owners of the condo decided that they wanted to run the managing of it and put their own kids in. the manager said that she had our (amber's and my) security deposits and wondered how we wanted to get them, either to have her mail it or we come pick it up. i was in shock so i had to tell her i needed to talk to amber.

so i called amber and had to leave a message. then i sent her a text a while later because she hadn't called back and explained it again. she freaked out. read the contract and found out that the contract states that before 90 days before the start of contract, if the owners back out we get $50. after that - i.e. 90 days before the start of contract - they cannot break contract. amber's going to talk to the manager, diana, and figure this out.

in the mean time, after we finished watching accepted we all piled into the car and went to souplantation. this most delicious of places to eat. they have soup and salad and pasta. they also have these really little ice cream cones that were a source of conflict for cami and i. by that i mean that while i was eating mine she reached over and hit my hand so it went in my face a little bit. it wasn't much so i just played it off until she wasn't looking so i smeared the side of her face. a battle ensued that ended with ice cream covering our arms and faces. then she got out the butter and smeared my face with it before we finally decided to just go wash up.

then we went home and i got all packed. clint and cami drove me to catch the flyaway to go to the airport to fly home. i talked to a bunch of friends and read a little bit before catching my flight. mom picked me up from the airport and we met dad for dinner at the littleamerica hotel in salt lake. then we drove to my little sister's house to sleep. tomorrow i have work and then friday i'm going home to ogden to do laundry.

it was a really fun vacation and i am so, so happy that i was able to go. thanks to eden, clint, flynn, cami and christianna for making it so very much fun!

wicked awesome!

2008-07-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

christianna and i went to wicked tonight! it was so good. it was a little bit different from the cd, but it was good different. the only thing that bothered me really was that the lady playing madam morrible didn't really sing so much as just talk. actually, she would start to sing and then stop half-way through. yeah, not so good.

it was really cool to see the play that i had heard so much about. my roommate, amy, saw it in both la and new york and said that she preferred the la version. so i'm glad that that was where we were so i could see it. i hadn't really thought that we'd go when i was planning the trip, but then i texted christianna about it and she got really excited to go. so we did! it was so good! there were a few slight changes that made things funnier and made you realize that this was so much better than watching a movie could ever be. i'm converted.

anywho...

on the way home we stopped at jack in the box because neither christianna nor i had had dinner and hey, we don't have one in utah. i miss it. love the tacos, funny enough. we got home pretty late and i made sure that christianna would be okay to drive home since she had had some trouble on saturday. and then we all went to bed. it was a wonderful day.

glasses

2008-07-15T12:31:00.000-07:00

so, sometime last night i put my foot up on the back of the couch and i heard a clatter. it was my glasses. i opened my eyes, realized it was still way dark so i wouldn't need them. i went back to sleep.

when i woke up to flynn, i decided to wait on finding my glasses until after he'd had breakfast. so after he was fed, i looked behind the couch to see if i could find my glasses. hmm. not there. maybe they went under the edge. i couldn't get the angle right to look. okay. i moved the rug and pulled the couch out. i still couldn't see them. maybe that was because they were my glasses. around this time flynn decided he wanted to help so i brought him over the end of the couch with me. i went out to the front of the couch thinking that i might be able to see them.

so then i hear flynn, "i see it!"

hmmm. this could mean one of two things. either he sees my glasses, or he wants to see them. right around then, cami wakes up and i make her go look. she didn't see them. and then i have this brilliant idea that maybe i didn't put my glasses on last night. i went to my luggage and looked. there were my glasses.

what i heard, i still don't know. but i put the couches and rug back and then proceeded to feel like an idiot.

disneyland

2008-07-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

okay, getting tired, can't think of better titles.

we went to disneyland yesterday! surprisingly, it was a pretty slow day. unlike last year we didn't run around crazy, and i think it was more fun. not gonna lie.

we started off slow by going to the finding nemo submarine ride. cami got a big kick out of the "real" australian accents. we all thought it would make more sense for them to just get real australians to do it since it was all recorded anyway. but whatever. flynn seemed not to care. it was fun though and cool to see all our favorite characters in the water.

the rides i remember going on (sorry, not a very good memory) are these: submarines, that one rockety thing, space mountain, splash mountain, grizzly bear thing in california adventure, california screamin' (twice), soaring over california, mike and sully save the day, buzz lightyear, indiana jones, jungle cruise (have to go at night!) and then the reagans went on a few rides for flynn. i can't remember if we went on anything else, but we got to see a lot of other things like how sourdough and tortillas are made. we saw a few parades and the fireworks. it was a lot of fun.

we also got these pineapple whip ice cream things that were so good! we got them the last time we were all at disneyland and so had to get them this year, too. not entirely sure what they are, almost a sherbet, but not quite. if anyone's going to disneyland soon, they can be found by the tiki room. there's the whip (pictured) and then a float with pineapple juice on bottom. i prefer just the whip because the juice doesn't seem as sweet when the whip is on top. but they are absolutely fabulous. try one!

we left the park around midnight, grabbing some last minute provisions in the form of cream cheese-filled soft pretzels. mine was a jalapeno one that was really tasty. i have no idea when we got home, but i fell asleep still dressed.

this morning eden woke me up to ask if i could watch flynn while she and clint took clint's car to the shop to get some work done. i woke up to hear flynn crying so i hobbled my way to his room and got him up. we had breakfast of cereal and yogurt and then cami woke up. i think today we were planning on making a movie, but i think we'll just be recuperating.

happy birthday eden!

2008-07-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

i'm so glad you were born so you could be my sister. and i'm glad you have help to blow out the candles. and congratulations!

we need to get to sleep early so we can wake up early for disneyland tomorrow, so i'm going to go to bed. i hope today was wonderful for you.

beach

2008-07-13T02:45:00.000-07:00

wow, long day. but it was really fun so it didn't seem so.

we started off by going to the beach. christianna had planned on us going boogie boarding while i was out in la, so we all went over to zuma beach to meet her. there was a little trouble finding christianna and her friend because for some reason, there are two #3 guard towers. weird. that was the one they were by, just fwee.

anyway, we found her...well, part of her at least:

it was a fun beach day and we all got covered in sand. christianna got a monstrous bruise on her shoulder from being thrown onto the hard-packed sand. i still had bruises from climing through the window. flynn (and therefore clint) built a fortress to keep the water at bay. cami took on an awesomely huge wave on her boogie board and impressed a bunch of guys who were watching. and then all three of those in the back seat (cami, flynn and i) fell asleep on the way home. that is, after we took wierd pictures of the landscape. i'm not really sure why we did that. meh.

after the beach we went to vincenzo's pizza experienza and listened to the grateful dudes bluegrass band. once there we met with a few friends of eden and clint's and went to their house to play rockband. so much fun! i was really bad at playing the drums because i always forgot to use the foot-pedal. the guitar wasn't so bad because i've played guitar hero before. but the vocals were okay, if you know the words.

we were there until about 2 and then we left to go home. church is at 9 so we'll see how well we do getting there on time.

promenading

2008-07-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

after recovering from magic mountain (cami and i totally trashed our feet when we went) we spent the morning doing nothing. that's right, nothing. eden went to aerobics, but we stayed in bed. and when i did get up i had to hobble around for a little while. that wasn't so fun as it may seem.

but after that we - eden, cami, flynn and i - went to little tokyo. we wandered around the grocery store for a little while and got an absurdly large amount of the fruit gummies, at least on my part. and then after we ate a delightful lunch of curry donuts (so good!) we went to the hello kitty store for a little while. and cami and i got something very special there.

and then we left to meet clint at his work down in santa monica where christianna was to also meet us. we got there, clint came out to meet us and eden immediately made him guess what cami and i bought. his clue? what is the silliest thing he can think of to do there. funny enough, his first answer was correct.

yup, that's right. we got underwear. this is actually the $1 pair i got because i thought it was funny. we also got normal-people sized underwear.

and i must say that although christianna's suggestions - taking off all our clothes and running around screaming, dressing up like hello kitty, painting hello kitty on our faces but then being so embarassed that we had to wash it off - were still good, i like what we actually did.

so after meeting clint at his work and finding christianna, we all walked down the to the 3rd street promenade. there were some pretty cool things there. a couple of guys were dancing in the street so we all stopped to watch them for a while. it was insane! i cannot describe to you what these guys did. crazy-sauce! we also found a games store that had some pretty fun things, but most of them were fairly run-of-the-mill.

it started getting pretty late so we decided to find some dinner and then keep looking. clint told us that as we walk along if we see something we want we should just call it out so that we can stop and eat. but because it was really busy, there pretty much wasn't any room once we did stop. so as the night wore on, we were getting more and more hungry and even the places that didn't have a wait didn't have room for six people. so we walked back to the cars. and then we went to this place called norm's that used to be a denny's. there we found that there was a half-hour long wait. so then clint ran across the street to see if the same was true for denny's. it wasn't so we went there. that was an adventure. we got in there, sat down. decided what we were going to eat and then since we were already all tired, clint ran off to get someone to help us. perry came then. this really um...interesting man. he was very friendly, but then he got in major trouble with these two people i suppose were the managers of the place. apparently, he was taking tables that weren't his. however, no one was helping us, so what was the problem if he did? it was really dumb.

clint made sure to tell the managers that perry was just doing his job and doing it very well since whoever was supposed to help us didn't. i was really glad that he did.

magical

2008-07-10T20:50:00.000-07:00

today we (cami, troy and i) went to magic mountain, six flags. it was a lot of fun. we went on a lot of rides--a few i didn't really want to go on--and got to see some fun things.

one of the rides i didn't want to go on was tatsu. for serious, never go on this ride. i kid you not. i had my eyes shut pretty much the whole time. it's one of those feet-dangling rides, except that the seats move so that you start the ride on your stomach. i almost died!

cami and troy also went on goliath, which i also loathe. i made them go alone while i went looking for superman capes. i don't like this ride because the only restraint is a lap-bar and since it goes so high i don't feel safe with that. last time my family went i could have sworn i would go flying off. so there was no chance that i was going this time. troy and cami kept wanting me to go, but that wasn't going to happen, nope! so i found my capes and - suprisingly - they didn't die.

i did like the ninja ride. it was sweet and simple and i didn't really fear for my life while we were on it. which was good.

moral of the story? stay clear of the killers. oh, and when it gets really hot, go into the waiting line for superman. it was amazing. i didn't even go on that one, but the waiting line was absolutely worth the wait. ...right.

amy

2008-07-09T23:15:00.000-07:00

i flew to la tonight. my flight attendant was really funny and put me in a really good mood by his sense of humor. unfortunately, the good mood didn't last.

as i was getting off the plane i got a call from amy, my roommate. she asked me when i would coming home and i told her a week.

she told me she is moving out this weekend. going home to idaho falls.

while i'm gone.

in la.

i haven't seen her since last week, wednesday. i told her that was fine and that she needed to drive safe. she told me to come visit her.

once we got off the line, i started to cry. for some reason too little sleep and bad news don't mix well. i got off the plane last and went in search of my luggage, hoping no one noticed the ninny-ness of me. got to the baggage claim, walked immediately outside so that i could cry in the semidarkness. called my mom and talked to her about it. she didn't really agree with me when i said it was the best thing for amy, but she let me cry. she told me to call my dad since he is always very calm. i told her that i usually am.

but then i had to get off the phone and find my bag so that i could meet my brother-in-law, clint. i also had to stop crying so that clint wouldn't think me a ninny. by the time he got there i had stopped crying enough that i don't think he knew that i had been. we drove to his house and i got to see eden, flynn and cami.

we joked and had some fun before going to bed. the end. :)

grrr

2008-07-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

okay, i'm going to complain a little bit...

i'm flying to la tonight. right after work. as such i needed to do laundry last night. being me, i waited until the night before i left to do said laundry.

about 10 o'clock last night my roommate came in from wherever she had been, grabbed her purse and the mail key, and then left again with her friend who is leaving for a month. now see, the mail key has the laundry key attached, but i didn't think much of it.

because of cleaning checks this saturday, i had to clean my room before i left for la. so i started doing that. around midnight, my roommate still wasn't home. she still had the mail key. so i just started working on something else. i brought everything i needed to pack that was not laundry into the front room with my suitcase so that when i finished my laundry, i could just put everything in and zip it up.

1 o'clock, still no roommate.

okay, i'll sit on the couch and wait for her. fell asleep. some time before 3.30 i heard a sound and sat up on the couch. didn't see anything. fell back asleep. heard the same noise again. sat up, this time sure that it was the door. still didn't see anything. lay back down. at 3.30 i woke up and decided that if she were to come home and i was asleep she wouldn't know what was up. so i got up and took a shower. got out about 4 and there she was. complaining that she was so stupid for having stayed up until 4 when she needs to work at 8.

whatever, where's the key?

she still had it. in fact, she had come home and seen me on the couch, but didn't think about it. she gave me the key and i put in the first loads of laundry (getting it all done in one go if i could). when i came back she apologized profusely and said that she would put it in the dryer for me so that i could sleep. i told her it was fine and she didn't need to do that since i would need to finish packing tonight.

then i went to put everything in the dryers. came back to my apartment. discovered that i had locked the door on accident. i had also left my phone in the apartment so i couldn't call my roommate. fine. she hadn't been asleep that long. i rang the bell. nothing. rang it again. nothing. made a whole lot of noise for about ten minutes. still nothing. fine! she had probably fallen asleep (she was the only one home). so i climbed in through the window.

hurt my stomach, have the bruises to prove it.

at this point i was pretty tired and irritable. angry is a better term for how i was feeling. but whatever, i just was ready for the night to end. since i still had some time before i needed to pick up my clothes to fold them, i decided to get on my computer and check my email or something, just to stay awake. but the internet wasn't working. i went into my roommate's room to powercycle the wireless router.

she was still awake.

her light was still on. she sat up and looked at me. but she didn't have the look of someone who had just woken up. or really even someone who had been dosing. she was fully awake. which means she had to have heard all the noise i made earlier, but chose not to come open the door.

now i can understand if you think it's scary to open the front door of your apartment at 5 in the morning when you don't have a way to find out who's there before you open the door. but if it were me, i would have been so mad that someone was making that much noise so early in the morning that i would have just opened the door to hit whoever it was.

but no. she didn't even do that.

i cannot tell you how angry i was. but i didn't say anything because i don't do that. i just finished with the router and left. i was livid!

finally got to sleep around 6.30, woke up at 8.30. now i'm at work and still mad at my roommate.

finally

2008-07-08T09:47:00.000-07:00

amy sent me a text this morning saying that she was okay and in salt lake staying with a friend.

i love the girl, but i really wish she had told me this before i had spent most of the night and some of the morning calling her. i was up until 2.30 calling her - every half-hour - and then i started again at 7.

i'm glad she's all right.

friend

2008-07-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

my roommate, amy's engagement broke off last week at her fiancé's instigation. he feels like he doesn't really know her.

and then today i found out that a friend drowned in utah lake over the weekend.

amy is taking this all pretty hard. i haven't seen her yet today. not sure where she is.

yay

2008-07-04T13:42:00.000-07:00

i got approved to take off work from the 10th to the 16th. i'm going to la!!!

fly away

2008-07-04T10:39:00.000-07:00

i checked the flight information for going in july and for going in august. i can go either time for the same price. which means that i just need approval from work to take off for a while. that will help me decide when to go. maybe i can go when cami will be there.

california and cami

2008-07-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

so eden called me a few weeks ago to let me know that cami - a friend from australia whom i met last year when i was visiting eden and clint and flynn - was coming back for about two weeks at the beginning of july.

last year we had a lot of fun getting to know each other and playing and being immature. so i thought it would be a lot of fun to see her again.

hmmm, problem. with the change in email systems, they don't want anyone to leave between june 21st and july 11th. eden said cami was coming the first two weeks of july. that means that i couldn't be there when she was.

okay, well. now that eden mentioned it, it would be a lot of fun just to go see clint, eden, flynn and christianna. so then maybe i could go in august.

not sure what all i'll be doing, but i'll let you know.

ew...some more

2008-07-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

and i thought yesterday was bad.

who wants to start at 5 in the morning? not me, i tell you what.

i was going to come in at 6, but then emily (who drives me to work) was asked by her boss to come in early to help set up breakfast. so--since i would have had to get up and leave by 5 anyway to catch the bus--i went with her then and helped her set up.

it was gross.

ew

2008-06-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

i'm at work.

ew.

engineering?

2008-06-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

today at 5:30 pm the church will migrate to a new email system. why the engineers chose to do this, i don't know. why they chose to do it in the middle of the summer when everyone will be wanting time off, but can't take time off because of the migration, i will never know.

the old system was working fine, and it was something we all (support staff and users) knew. there may have been glitches somewhere that no user or support personnel or indeed anyone but the engineers will ever see, but they wanted to change it. fine.

along with the change in mail client, they have set up a new system for the computer log-in portion of it all. but not just any system, a system wherein the users gets to pick his own username. so now, along with all the usernames that follow the standard (lastnamefirstandmiddleinitials) we get things like irishwife42 or xhlllln. do you want to try to find users by their first and last name when there is no standard? i certainly don't.

and then on top of all of this...last night an engineer deleted all the accounts of all of the support staff.

all.

so yesterday my team - because we administrate accounts - worked all day trying to recreate and re-add all the rights on some 200+ accounts. again, why the engineer couldn't have conducted his testing on test accounts is something else i'll never know.

and did i mention that because of this change i get to go in to work at 6 in the morning instead of my usual 9:30. i'll be working a 12-hour shift trying to help out as much as i can. ew.

now, i love my brother-in-law, but i'm glad he's a chemical engineer and not one that i'll ever have to work with in my job doing technical support.

thanks for that, jared.

i'm gettin' married in a month

2008-06-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

i don't know which month.

so i have this roommate that always used to say that. and now that she is really engaged, no one really believes her. but i still think it's funny. my roommate, amy brower, is engaged to david armstrong. they were dating for about a week before they decided to get married. they are getting married august 27th. funny enough, this is my second roommate to go about getting married this way. last summer and now this one. wierd.

but then today i also got a call from one of my best friend's in high school asking for my address so she could send me a wedding announcement. she - unlike my roommate - has been dating this guy for about three years, i think. she's getting married july 10th.

sometimes i feel like all my close friends are entering that noble state (my other best friend from hs is already married). i don't yet know if i feel left behind, or if i'm still satisfied with my life. i'm okay with not being married, i don't feel like i'm old enough to. though, i sometimes act like i'm about five so it stands to reason. meh. we'll see.

Humility

2008-06-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

"If the Lord was meek and lowly and humble, then to become humble one must to what He did in boldly denouncing evil, bravely advancing righteous work, courageously meeting every problem, becoming the master of himself and the situations avout him and being near oblivious to personal credit.... Humility is not pretentious, presumptuous or proud. It is not weak, vascilating of servile."

--Spencer W. Kimball

read any good books lately?

2008-05-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

there is this guy at work, erik, who is taking a communications class this spring semester. for the class he had to take a poll of ten people asking how many books they have read in the last 6 months, not including text books or scriptures.

here are some of the responses:
Danny--3
Bri--0
Lex--0
Melissa--1
Emily--8

me?--around 80

that's right friends, 80.

i don't think that i could name them all without a serious amount of thought. my only consolation is that this was in the last six months and that i rode the bus to and from work.

so, you read any good books lately?

ingratiating

2008-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

last saturday, amber informed me that her friend ryan was coming to utah to visit. since i had randomly had two text conversations with ryan when amber and i had bowling class, she decided that i should go with her to salt lake to see him on wednesday (yesterday).

however, my normal work schedule gets me out of work at 6 at night and amber wanted to go up to slc before that. so i came up with a brilliant--yet painful--plan...i was going to go to work at 6 in the morning and leave at 2 so i could still get in all my hours for the day.

*gasp*

i know. matti actually planned to wake up earlier than normal. not just earlier than normal thought, at 5.30 in the morning.

and i did it. i woke up at 5.30 in the morning so that i could be to work at 6. but i still didn't make it there until about 6.30. so at least i hadn't completely lost my mind and started doing things completely out of character. you can tell since i was still late.

it was the longest day of my life.

no joke. the longest day.

i left work around 1.30 so that i could go get some party supplies from the grocery store. so we didn't get to slc until around 3.30 or 4. we went to find food at taco bell, then got desert at sonic, then went bowling, then went to ryan's sister's house where we played guitar hero and got tattoos. by the time i got home it was around 11.30 or 12 at night.

but the point of all this is that apparently when i'm really tired my vocabulary expands.

when i got home my roommates and i were talking about new girlfriends who aren't nice to the boyfriend's family. and i was trying to say that she should try to make a good impression and make the family like her. but i didn't say that. i said that the girlfriend should try to ingratiate herself. that's right, really long word. and it went on for about an hour. really long or at least uncommon words just kept coming out of my mouth even though i don't know how coherent i was in understanding anything, i kept sounding like i knew what i was talking about.

so apparently, if ever i want to sound really intelligent i just need to be awake for 18.5 hours and it might just happen for me.

yay!

2008-04-28T09:33:00.001-07:00

finals are now officially over, now the dreaded wait to see if i actually passed everything that i thought i would and how dismally i did on the others. fun!

two of my roommates moved out, one on thursday and one friday. the two new ones came in on saturday. breanne has a brother living in the ward already and is really nice. helen williams used to live in the same ward as amy (who stayed but is currently in new york) and i, it's great to see her again and it'll be great having her as a roommate for these four months.

yesterday in church, my friend, dan, asked me if i wanted to make dinner with him. i said sure, but asked him what we would be making. he told me that he had some ground elk meat. for some reason, i don't think it occurred to me that they actually made ground elk meat. but we made meat pies which were really good, but the flavor was...different.

after we made dinner we played Life Twists & Turns. It was a lot of fun, i lost both times. Yay for me!

two down

2008-04-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

three to go.

and actually, one of the ones down was from my bowling class so it doesn't really count. but oh well, i'm using it. this way i feel more accomplished.

finally!

2008-04-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

so, today marks the start of finals week which will continue through next wednesday. i have three scheduled finals and one that i just have to go take.

wish me luck!

i'll be so glad when it's over. this past school year was not my favorite, and i feel like i just needed some time not to be doing school. you'd think that i would be fine because i had a break last summer, but even fall semester started with me wanting a break from thinking. not good.

in may i'll be going to visit my sister, inge, and her husband, jared, in texas. i am so excited to go and see her before she's too round to move. she's pregnant, by the way. christianna, another sister, and i are going to go together to visit her and the four of us will have a blast. just have to remember those fruit jammers for my brother-in-law.

welcome to stuff-n-stuff

2008-04-11T11:23:00.000-07:00

yesterday was an auspicious day. my bowling friend, amber, became my future roommate, amber. we signed our contracts to live in timpanogos gateway...which is beautiful.

it has:
washer
dryer
pantry
full-size beds
three private rooms
two bathrooms
storage
huge desks in every bedroom
and--oh yeah--did i mention it was beautiful?

i'm not so sure how i feel about paying that much per month, but were i to live in any other city this would be quite the deal for what i'm getting.

amber and i have decided to christen the place with a plaque on the door that says "welcome to stuff-n-stuff. come inside for more details." i'm not really sure where that all came from except for the randomness that is us, but we're pretty stoked. we're currently think up more signs to put up on the doors and fridges and things. the bathroom that we 'share' (it's really hers, but she's going to let me use it so i don't have to share with a stranger) will probably have a name. and only the coollest visitors may be granted use. sorry, if you don't fit the bill.

be kind...

2008-03-29T22:43:00.001-07:00

this evening, my friend amber and i went to the dollar theatre and watched "Be Kind Rewind." it's a movie about the owner of the video rental store in a small town.

the owner goes on vacation and leaves mike (mos def) in charge. mike's friend jerry (jack black) isn't what you'd call the fastest car on the road, but he thinks very highly of himself. he also thinks that the power company is out to get them. but jerry has a brilliant plan: sabotage the power plant! unfortunately, the plan backfires and jerry ends up getting magnetized. when jerry returns to the video store the next day, he erases all the videos.

mike--who, if you'll recall, was left in charge of the shop--decides that in order not to get in trouble they need to remake all the movies. funny, enough, people seem to like these strange new versions of all the films and mike and jerry have to create more and more of them.

anyway, so all this was really funny. i think it would be awesome to get to see some of their remakes all the way through (most were only about twenty minutes long), but i can't seem to find the "sweded" versions on the site. sad day.

the only problem i found with the actual movie was that there didn't seem to be a real end to it. lame-tron! okay, it did have an ending, but it didn't say that everything ended happily. the movie just sort of...ended.

amber and i had to decide how it really ended because we need the happy ending that everything worked out well for everyone. so, it was good for us, but we complained as we were sitting there in the theatre.

it was still a good movie and i'd go see it again, but watch out for those endings.

Mommy dearest

2008-03-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

"If you rearrange the letters of 'Mother-in-law' you get 'Woman Hitler.'"

deaf ninja

2008-03-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

so, in my asl 202 class last night, my teacher tried to bring up 'deaf ninja' on youtube. unfortunately, youtube is blocked on byu campus. so instead she told my classmates and myself to look it up when we got home.

gotta tell you, this was hilarious.

here's the first video:

deaf ninja: origin

and the sequel in which deaf ninja fights off an evil transformer:

deaf ninja: dn vs tf

they might be a little hard to understand if you don't sign at all. and the intro to the first will be completely useless (he tells us that his brother had a really old hearing aid system that he wore on his chest, austin then has a daydream in which he sees deaf ninja fighting off hordes of enemies). but transformation of the transformer is awesome!

Peanut butter love

2008-03-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

"Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."
--Charlie Brown

Parasite

2008-03-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

“If I come back as an animal in my next lifetime, I hope it’s some type of parasite, because this is the part where I take it easy!”

--Jack Handey

blog

2008-03-26T17:57:00.000-07:00

so, i've had a blog for three months now, and i just started posting things today. nothing is really special about today, except that it's my first bloggy-day.

two of my sisters have had blogs for a while, so--being the typical youngest sister--i had to follow in their footsteps and get one for myself.

so i did.

hm. problem.

i have no life.

at least not one interesting enough to write about. which is why i finally just decided that since it's my blog i'm going to just write whatever i feel like. so there!

i thought i'd start with things that make me giggle. i hope you like it...

Nicknames

2008-03-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

“Sometimes you have to be careful when selecting a new nickname for yourself. For instance, let’s say you have chosen the nickname ‘Fly Head’. Normally, you would think that ‘Fly Head’ would mean a person who had beautiful swept-back features, as if flying though the air. But think again. Couldn’t it also mean ‘having a head like a fly’? I’m afraid some people might actually think that.”

--Jack Handey

'A' names

2008-03-26T10:42:00.001-07:00

“If your name has an ‘A’ in it, come serve!”

--A guy on campus

“My name is Satan. That has 2 ‘A’s in it…”

--Satan (or some random guy on campus who is really funny, it’s a toss-up)

ice cream relations

2008-03-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

“Being in a relationship is like eating ice cream with chopsticks: you’re not sure why you’re doing it, but you wish everybody would just leave you alone about it.”