June 30, 2009
Vacation
I leave bright and early tomorrow for a week-long trip back to Salt Lake. I'm so excited to see my family, friends, the mountains, and, for some strange reason, I-15. I also can't wait to eat at all my favorite places. I've got a whole list of them. I'm not taking the old laptop, so I won't be posting here for a while. I'll probably do some short posts on my sloppy heart, though, while I'm away. And maybe some tweets here or there. See you soon!
June 28, 2009
Shameless Plug for My Brother
My awesome brother just had a new book come out recently. He did the illustrations, and I can't wait to see it in person. But for now, I just spend lots of time looking at it on the HarperCollins website. You can too, or you can order your very own copy from Amazon, or, hopefully, your local bookstore.
I get my own (autographed?) copy when I go back to Salt Lake for a visit on Wednesday!
June 25, 2009
Car Problems Solved
Remember this a couple of months ago?
And then I got this:
Well, that little Toyota didn't work out so well. Let me tell you a little about it. Every time I went over the slightest bump, it would go CLUNK! And then I would turn slightly, and it would go CREAK! I would open the door, and it would almost fall off. One morning, we discovered a flat tire. When some nice fellas were changing it, a fuel leak was found. So I dutifully took it in... and then replaced it, along with two new tires. At that point, I found out I had bad ball joints (duh, the clunking!). And I suspected, after several episodes of Car Talk, that I had bad struts, too. And to top it off, the speedometer stopped working. Well, that's not completely accurate. Once I would get on the highway, it would shoot up to 65; however, that was no indication of my actual speed.
It was all giving me a headache.
So I decided last Saturday that I would just go to a dealer and see if I couldn't get something better. Not something fancy or new, but something with a smooth ride. Something I could trust to not break at any moment. When I got to the dealer, I checked out some of the used cars and waited for a salesperson to come offer me a deal. No one ever came. Since I was itching to get out of the 95-degree heat, I went in search of one inside. There, I met Christian, who showed me a 2007 Aveo.
Meh, it was ok, I guess. I didn't know anything about it and was more interested in one of the 03/04 Corollas they had on the lot. He tried to get me into a 2008 Nissan Versa. As if I could afford that, but he convinced me to let them check out the finances. Fine, I would wait. And wait I did. Let me give you a tip the next time you go car shopping: eat lunch before you go. I made the mistake of passing the nearest fast food chain on my way in because the drive-thru line was too long. I regretted that decision the whole 2 hours I waited for the financing, which came back as expected, the Versa was more than I was willing to spend. The wait gave me time to look up reviews on the Aveo, though, (thank you iphone!) and I decided a definite No on that.
The next car Christian presented to me was an HHR. A what? Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either, so I shrugged my shoulders and said that I might as well take a look. This is what pulled up.
I just shook my head and told Christian that I didn't even want to test drive it. It just wasn't for me. Then I told him that it looked like they wouldn't be able to help me out, but he insisted they could and went to call around other lots. I waited some more. He took me down the road a bit to another dealership (conveniently owned by the same people) and we found my new car.
A little 2005 Nissan Sentra. I know, nothing glamorous. And it wasn't really on my radar as far as new cars go, but it was in my price range, and they discounted it even more because I was ready to walk away. And it does have some sweet features. For example:
The lights are orange! (I know, not really a feature, but it's a nice change from past cars.) And it's got an AUX jack for direct ipod plug-in. Yep... living the high life. Oh wait, it also has keyless entry.
Part of my disappointment when my little Mazda crashed was that I wouldn't make it to 100k miles of my own. I bought that car at 63k and when I crashed, it had 154k. The new car (named Ra-Ra, in honor of Pete's word for car) was bought with 67k miles, so I guess I get to start over. Let's hope I make it this time.
June 23, 2009
Soundwaves
For the past several months at work, I've been putting together a massive tutorial to teach employees how to use one module of a Web application they use daily. It includes audio that a sound guy at work records for me. So every day, I sit with his voice in one ear and a podcast or some music from my iphone in the other year. Today, I went through one section and cleaned up all the "mouth noises" from the man's recordings. You know, the smacking of your lips together, the slight stutter before a word, a sharp intake of breath. Just little things that began to drive me crazy as I listen to this man's voice for at least 8 hours a day/5 days a week. It's strange to me how familiar his voice has become when I have only talked to him in person a total of 5 times. Even stranger, I can start to tell what words are based on the squiggly lines in Audacity. I kind of feel like a spy.
My Sister
I love living with my sister. We were always close friends growing up (even when we would raid each other's closet), but she graduated from high school and moved away. Then I moved away, and we were both off doing our own things for about 10 years. Now we live with each other again, and it's just like old times (closet raids and all). Except that she's a mom now. I love seeing my sister as a mother.
(And one more picture of Penny Lane, for good measure, and because she's just so cute!)
June 22, 2009
The Insectarium
This past Friday was my Friday off, so Amanda and I decided to take Peter and Penny to the Insectarium in downtown. Peter has an uncanny ability to spot bugs. The other day, he kept saying "bug, bug" when we reached the bottom of the stairs, and I couldn't see one anywhere. I finally noticed the microscopic ant speeding past us on the floor. He doesn't usually like the bugs, though, so we thought more exposure might help.
June 21, 2009
On Broadway
I have been wanting to take photos of all the blooming crape myrtle trees along every road here, but I got sick instead. Bronchitis. I'm doing well, but I've had more difficulty breathing than usual, and the heavy humid air here hasn't helped. (Guess I'm used to high altitudes with thin air.) So instead of going for a walk, I drove down Broadway and just snapped pictures as I went along. Don't worry, no one else was on the road. I just can't get over how lovely these trees are! They bloom in various shades of pink, purple, and white. We have some young trees outside our house that are a different shade than I have seen anywhere else. I think they may be my favorite.
June 19, 2009
Some Tunes
It's been a while since I've posted any music on here, so I thought I'd post some tracks I have been listening to lately. They're not really new or anything, but somehow, they've really been hitting the spot.
Antony & the Johnsons: Daylight & the Sun
June 16, 2009
June 8, 2009
Dear Me as a High School Senior
My friend, Katie, started an awesome blog a little while ago wherein women write letters to themselves at a younger age. In her own words:
We all know the old adage "listen to your elders" right? Well what if those elders were actually you? Dear Me is a project in which women write letters of advice to younger versions of themselves at crucial points in their personal histories.
Last Friday, I wrote one to myself. It was posted today, so feel free to click over there to read mine (and the other letters, of course). Writing the letter was much harder to do than I thought it would be. I have never been one to regret my choices. I have often wondered "what if?" but I recognize that every choice I have made has led to the next choice. And even when things didn't work out how I had hoped, I still learned from the experience.
What I realized as I was writing the letter was mostly how I still often feel like that 18-year-old. There's so much in life I haven't figured out yet. Many of the decisions I thought would be made by now are still up in the air. But I guess I've learned a few things along the way. You'll have to read the letter to see what those are.
Also, I'd like to extend Katie's invitation to the amazing women that I know to write their own letters and submit them to her. The submission guidelines are right here. I know I would love to read your thoughts.
p.s. Technically, the picture above is my junior year, but I'm very limited as to what pictures I have available here since they are all packed away in storage back in Utah. Also, it's a picture of the picture and the coloring was all off. Oh well... can't be too picky.