Dear Annonymous Blog Commentor,

I am grateful for you comments that come across my little page of Julia. It brings a smile to my face knowing that you actually take the time out of your busy day to look at what adventures have come my way.
At times I think "Who is this Annonymous?" and "How do they know so much information about my life and family?" Then I make a round of phone calls to all the people I know that read my blog on a regular basis (Truth not being one of them)and ask if any of them are Annonymous.
But they're not.
They normally post comments under their own names.
Or so they say. How do you do it?
Remaining familiar with the intimate details of my life, but never revealing your true identity. That is some crazy magic trick.
Bruno said that you're probably not a single entity, but a group of multivarible beings.
I ask only one thing of you. Reveal your true identity and I will answer your question. I know that you are dying to know, so I leave the choice in your hands.

I honestly have to tell you, I get a little excited when you comment and I call Bruno and Truth to see if they have read my blog lately and if they posted anything. They are just as puzzled as I am. Bruno and I had a nice little conversation about you today. Wish you would've been there. Just send me your email and I will tell you what we talked about.
Sending out this letter might cause copycats to make annonymous blog comments, but it won't be the same. I await your resonse.

Hair of Gold

Pictures of Alma

I thought it only appropriate to post some pictures of Quickhands and myself from the mission. These are on her blog and I am known as Switchback, so you can link to her blog and check out some of the fun stories we've had together. I love these picture because:
1)We are on P-Day at a Museum drinking little boxes of pear juice for lunch, sitting on a wall with our legs swinging like we were little kids
2)We are at the park for her birthday
3)We are missionarires in Rome
4)My hair is dark brown
5)Alma has the best boots ever

Some of my favorite memories of Quickhands from the mish are her peanut butter pies, running along the aquaducts, hymns on the harmonica, p-day gelato at Piazza Navona, pizza, christmas at the church, birthday parties in the park, 30 days solo Italiano and the deer noise, the sciopero and the 3 hour walk home when we went to buy a camera, Bruna the blind lady and getting sick in a house with no heat and water for 5 days. She was never my companion, but is my bosom buddy.

P.S. This was when I was dying my hair really dark brown. I dyed it as soon as a found out I was going to Rome-thought it would make me fit in more over there. Kept it up for a while, then one day it didn't work and I've been clean and sober since October 2004. 3 years this month. I don't think I'll dye my hair again unless I get grays for which I can thank Truth because it runs in her family.

Picture

Here's the actual picture from this weekend of Alma, Myself and Megs at Aunt Margaret's House. Then there's me eating snow. Can you tell I'm from California I didn't bring a jacket and I was freezing!
One thing I love is when people from different areas of your life come together and love each other and get along great. It just confirms your friendship and allows them to make new friends. That's what happened this weekend and I loved it!

La Conferenza dei Missionari

This past weekend I drove to Utah for my mission reunion and it was so much fun. I went all the way with Randy and we dropped of TJ in St. George around 2 in the morning and then I took the wheel for the next 5 hours. We had the best conversation ever. We laughed, we cried, we laughed some more. I can't say enough wonderful things about Randy. He's a jem. We got to Alma and Mike's House at 7 and then I went to sleep and Alma ended up taking the day off of work and we hung out. We went to lunch in the best place in Springville, The Boxcar. Honestly the best salad I've had in a really long time and the service was very nice. Then that night we went to the mission reunion and we saw all the good peeps. Megs, Walsor, Brittney, Price, Whitney, The Rhiens, The Jensens, The Himes, Pearson, Cowley, Wiggins, and the list goes on.
One of the highlights of the evening was seeing the Spinelli Family, a family from Rome. Brother Spinelli whenever he would see Megs(my last comp) and myself would just grab his head with his hand and shake it back and forth saying "Sorelle Sorelle" He was always teasing us, he could dish and he could take it as well. Well, the first thing he sees when he walks in to the room is Megs and me and just starts shaking his head. It was classic Fratello Spinelli, honestly one of my favorite members in Rome. It was so good to see some of the members there. I was able to ask about some people and know how they are doing.
It was fun to see all the missionaries and see who they married or what they were doing now. I didn't ask one person if they were dating, I went straight for "What was your last trip?" That seemed to be a better conversational starter. I met a lot of people for the first time and it made me wonder when they said, "Oh, yeah, I've heard a lot about you." I wonder what they've heard, good or bad. I should've asked them. Most of them have been back to Italy and that makes me want to go more. I need to talk to my financial advisor and see if its in the budget for next year(Please)I really need to go back.
Then on Saturday we watched both sessions of Conference and stuffed envelopes for their big wedding day in less than a month. They are so perfect for each other, so creative, and compliment each other. I just love seeing that in couples. So much fun with them just hanging out and the 3 of us curling up to watch movies every night. I did get to see some really good movies this weekend. One thing I love about their house is the collection of classic Disney, Muppets and Fragile Rock. Amazing Mike!
We met up with Megs and drove to Aunt Margaret's House for the best pizza and cookies ever. She showed us her workout videos of the 60-yr old New Yorker who miscounts and says things like "thees is the eease paart" and "I can feal myelf gettin taaler" She even showed us how the exercises should be done. I touched snow for the first time in 3 years. The last time was on my mission. Margaret got to play with Alma's Iphone and was in heaven. We all decided that we love Aunt Margaret and one reason is that she has no inhibitions. She will make you pose for a picture no matter where you are and she will tell the funniest stories and we love her for that and more. Megs got to meet her on the mission in Rome.
I got to talk to Megs a little and give her the wedding quilt that I made for her a super long time ago. She's a classy gal and SUPER funny. So glad she was my companion. Sunday we watched the first session and listened to the other when we weren't listening to "Rich Dad Poor Dad" on cd. I brought 9 Books on cd for this trip. Maybe that was a little too much, because the conversation was all that we needed. It was a great trip and way too short. I can't wait to go back on November 1st and 10pm and leaving Sunday Novemer 4th at 515pm on JetBlue.

PS Here are some pics of Megs and myself in the Rome 2 area. My last area.

How I've Missed You

Every week there are certain things that I look forward to. Monday mornings I get an email from my brother, Monday Night BBall, Tuesday Volleyball, and Friday I get a nice little magazine in the mail. I became aware of this magazine last December. I was speaking on the phone with my dad and he was going to get me a magazine subscription to the magazine of my choice for Christmas. I thought of the usual health and news magazines, but none of them really sparked an interest. I wanted something that would cover more international and health news. Consulting with my father, he made a recommendation for the most wonderful magazine ever, The Economist. I love this magazine and every Friday I look forward to going out to the mail and picking up my latest edition. But 2 weeks ago it didnt' come. So I waited until Saturday and it still didn't come. Now I was worried. Had my subscription expired? Did the post office no longer forward my mail? I called my father very concerned and he assured me that it was still good until December, but then why didn't it come? I was honestly really upset, maybe a little too upset for a magazine. I went out to town this weekend and it would have been the perfect travel magazine. But when I got back there they were. The last 2 weeks of my magazine. I took them to school today and read all that I could. I love them. I love that it has new words in the it that I have to look up and talk about places of which I have never heard. I like that other people like it too and like my old copies. How I 've missed them, but now they are back. Ahhhh.

Whitney Knows Who She Is

This week I busted out my favorite CD of all times. Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits Album. Its everything wonderful from the diva from early 80's to the remixes of all the remixes that make the ultimate mega mix dance party. I have such great memories singing my heart out to "I Will Always Love You," and a plethora of workouts to the fantabulous hits of "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and "How Will I Know." Anyone who knows me from 1999-2001 time period can attest for my love for this lady. She was incredible. She's also a walking example of a great D.A.R.E. commercial when your brain is "on drugs." I can't believe she married that guy. But she's currently working with her former producer Clive on a new albumn. I can hardly wait for "All Things Whitney." (that's what I think it should be called)

All Apologies

That's what I'm full of these days. I consider myself normally a nice person, don't really cause much damage or harm to people. No murders committed here. But for some reason last week I was living in a parallel universe where all I did was harm and offend. Lets take a look at these examples, this isn't the whole list, but a few key examples of my meaness.
Apology #1.
It started off Monday night at BBALL when I glared at a guy who bumped me and was gaurding me with some full court press. On the court I dish it, so I should be able to take it. I felt bad, but didn't really recognize my error until my roommate told me he brought it up on their ride home. I spoke to him after church and asked for forgiveness for my glare and we laughed it off. He was on my team this week and it was great.
Apology #2
Friday morning when the same roommate came up to me EARLY in the morning full of useful advice about that night's movie night, I once again gave the evil eye that burns like a laser. But in my normal morning trance, not fully aware of my glare and after 3 hours of sleep I'm not at my best. After seeing the look on my face she said "I can see this isn't a good time to talk to you," and left. I later appologized to her and did try some of her advice for the movie. We laugh about it now and she threatens to visit teach me before 8am.
Apology#3
Then on Sunday I snubbed someone, just didn't say hi after he greeted me with some nice Sunday salutation. I was upset about some stuff and really a jerk on this one. I later had to call and apologize. I left a message(which wasn't my favorite option in discussing such matters) but just my luck, it was still the Jewish New Year and he could forgive me on such a blessed day.

In Sunday school we had a really good lesson about forgiveness and forgiving and I learned that it's ok to let people know that they have offended you and that we should talk about these matters. We all can learn from our mistakes and hopefully not make them again. I learned a great lesson and now implore all of you to talk to me if I have offended you and to let me know so that I don't do this again. I would really like some helpful hints too if you can think of some. I appreciate all your comments, questions and concerns. For some reason the song by Dispatch called "The General" keeps coming into my mind, it mentions forgiveness. Check it out.

P.S. After telling my dad this story, he is now sending me a book on tape called, "How to Make and Keep Friends." I hope it works.