I Love You Not Beyond Reason

On my first day of Christmas Break(where I didn't have to work) I actually took the time to sit down and watch a movie. After getting up at 530 to catch a flight I wasn't about to run to the store to rent on and the OnDemand Menu's best option was Much Ado About Nothing.
I'm not one to sit and read Shakespere just for some good jollies, but I really do enjoy his plays and seeing them acted out.
I had never watched the whole movie before, but I absolutely loved it. Not only did it have my favorite Keanu Reeves(He's so dreamy) and some other big namers like Denzel and Emma T., it also was filmed in my most favorite place in the world. After a long argument with Truth about where it was filmed Napa or Italy, I was victorious in our litigation and reaped all the benefits as only a victor could.
Maybe because I haven't really watched all that many movies lately, but for some reason this movie was so funny. It was full of witty banter and I couldn't stop laughing. I also noticed how much the English language has changed since then. We're really killing it slowly and surely. Of course it had my favorite line "O, that I were a man" by the wonderful Beatrice in her moment of grief.
I love the character of Beatrice. A strong, sassy mouthed single girl full of wit not taking crap from anyone("sounds like someone else I know" pipes in Truth), especially the equally sassy-mouthed Benedict. The relationship between Beatrice and Benedict was the best part of the movie. That and Michael Keaton as the idiot constable. After pretending to hate each other for so long the truth comes out that they they really love each other. At their wedding she said she loved him "Not beyond reason." It was hilarious! I would totally say something like that too.
I encourage all you non-commenting readers to go and watch this movie. You will laugh and learn as well.

The Winner is....Scottish Man

Well, it turns out the guy who bought it (was wearing a kilt) is doing his 4th Ironman triathalon. So what I thought was going to be an hour long church basketball embarrassment is now turning into an overnight, get up at 4 and wait three hours while he bikes, comes back to change and runs. Plus he mentioned something about me having to paint his body with numbers. I don't know really what he's talking about, but I'm so excited. Maybe it will encourage me to do a mini triathalon like a sprint.

I just want to see how it works. I am really excited he bought it, because he will totally love all the support I can give him. Good thing too. Now other people want to come watch him compete, so maybe I will be President of his fan club as well. (another resume booster) How many people could write that?

"President of Scottish Man's Fan Club" Duration:1 ironman event

Duties included:

One monogramed towel
One Capri Sun Hydration Unit
Orange Flavored Slices
One hand made poster decorated to meet his specific sporting needs
Photography of the event (including one framed picture)
All out cheering and total embarrassment of myself, just to make Scottish man look good.
Organizing of all other cheerleaders and fan mail.
Waking up super early and painting his body with numbers

I look forward to the challenge. And yes, my dignity did go for cheap.

Your Biggest Fan

For my ward's service auction this Saturday I thought this would be a creative thing I would provide and have fun doing:

"Your Biggest Fan

I will attend one sporting event that you are competing in and provide the ultimate emotional support and encouragement to ensure your sporting success. This includes:

One monogramed towel
One Capri Sun Hydration Unit
Orange Flavored Slices
One hand made poster decorated to meet your specific sporting needs
Photography of the event (including one framed picture)
All out cheering and total embarrassment of myself, just to make you look good.

This can also be applied to watching your favorite sports team if desired. Certain terms and restrictions due apply.
I will not support LA Lakers, Oakland Raiders or Ottawa Senators due to personal preferences."

Let's hope that my dignity doesn't come cheap.

My Own Personal Bob

So the other day I was at the gym and the Biggest Loser happened to be on. I have a strong affinity for this show because my cousin was a contestant on the 2nd season. She didn't win because she didn't lose a lot of weight after they found out she was pregnant. (If you guessed she was the one from Utah, give yourselves a big high five) But one thing I have always loved about the show is Bob, the blue trainer.
Not only is he super hot, he's uber-sweet. Yes, I know that we will never be together because of his preferences, but that's not why I love him. He just exudes support and advocates for his team members. Whether they win or lose, he loves them and its such a sweet thing to see from a trainer. I want them to lose weight so Bob will give them a hug and kiss. That's how much I love him.
One normally doesn't associated emotional encouragement from the guy who makes you do push ups, especially from a male. (no offense males, it's just not in your make-up to be that way) I often think of my basketball coach in high school, a retired drill sergeant who had absolutely no compassion for us and usually made his daughter run more.
But Bob is a rock of support for them and I just think he's great.
As I watched the show and awed at his love for the team as one was being kicked off, it made me think of my personal trainer. We'll call her Meena for security purposes. I recently signed up for a gym and didn't really like the people who worked there, but I was able to receive 6 trainings with a professional trainer. I thought it would be fun to see what someone else had to say, learn some new exercises or maybe get my own personal Bob.
We set up the first appt. where she determined my physical ability and how much I could lift and what my restrictions were(stupid knee=no running for me). The second session she kicked my trash and I was exhausted afterwards. I loved that workout, and I learned so much.
I thought things were going great.
We were well on our way to discussing traumatic childhood memories that lead me to overeat or crying together when my skinny jeans were too big for me or planning for that day when my best friend saw me again and we just start jumping up and down with excitement. Oh how I couldn't wait for our "Bob" moments to come.
That was 3 weeks ago and I haven't heard from her since. She hasn't returned any of my calls, and I'm wondering what did I do? I did everything she asked me too like a little puppy. I'm not new to the workout thing, but I was humble. I even did all the exercises I dislike doing like bicep curls and calf raises. I even did free weights! I hate free weights.
So one can only conclude that it wasn't meant to be. She wasn't the "Bob" for me after all. I continue to go to the gym regularly for my health, but it just isn't the same. I had such high dreams, big plans and long term goals. Oh well. I'm going to get my money back and write Bob a letter and tell him how wonderful he is.

I'll never claim it?

So while home for the Thanksgiving madness, I saw my next door neighbors while on a walk. Marc, the kind fellow that he is asks the usual small talk questions and we are great at these little chats. Somewhere along his years of being my neighbor, he found out that I really love Nor-Cal bumper stickers. It was probably when I saw his and asked where he got it from and if he could get me one too. But ever since then all of our conversations somehow turn to a point where we comment on the last sticker we saw and if we liked it or not. This time at the normal point in our chat, he said that he had one for me. I was so excited and there on my sister's car when we left for church sat a new sticker for me.
Stephy just rolled her eyes and stated "You do know that you live in So-Cal now and have for the last part of your life?"
"Yes, but I'm not from San Diego" I replied.
"When are you ever going to claim it. You've lived there for 6 years."
"I'll never claim it." I stated.

This got me thinking. Sure I have lived here for the last 6 of 8 years of my life. But it's still not a majority or even enough for me to want to claim it. Don't get me wrong, I love San Diego. There is a lot of fun things to do, but I don't want to end up here. This is not another Nor-Cal is so much better rant, but more a declaration of purpose. I go to school here. That's what I do. When the schooling is done, I might go somewhere else.

I still have my home address in Stockton, still registered to vote there and most of my medical records there as well. Only this year did I get my immunization record from my mom. Maybe that's a sign that I might be staying down here permanently or just that I'm becoming more of an adult. Whatever it is, it's happening.
Speaking of immunization records. Today when I went to show the SDSU nurse mine, she pulled it out and said, "Oh, how precious. It's so little. I've never seen one that small. How cute!" Um.... a little weird. That's the piece of paper that is the proof I won't infect others with Hepatitis B and she found that cute. So apparently Utah County records department thought that making little records would be better than the normal sized ones. But just a funny story from today.

Just Can't Get Enough L.A.

Sunday night after an action packed weekend a friend called to see if I wanted to go see Feist and Spoon at Universal Studios in LA. JES!!!! Sure it was the 2nd time in 2 days, but I only live once. Plus I didn't have school or work on Monday. Sometimes I like that I'm still a student after all these years.
We drove up after work and some wonderful Indian food at my house and got to see my favorite musician right now, Feist. Plus she's Canadian and I love all things Canadian! I've already posted a blog about her and check her out because she is really creative. Opening for her was Spoon. Most of you might know them from the Stranger than Fiction soundtrack, as they did most of the music from that movie. Their newest song "The Underdog" is really good too.
I love rock with piano in it and they both had piano and brass. How cool is that? Two thumbs up from this girl. I enjoy both of their sounds because they have songs from all over the spectrum and it's hard to label them. Just doing what they do and making good music. I'll stop trying to sound like I know much about the music industry and let your try for yourself. Here is a look at Spoon.

WICKED!!!!

So I finally saw the musical event of the year this weekend and it was AMAZING!!! I loved it. Bruno came into town this weekend and we spent Saturday morning and afternoon at the Wild Animal Park. It was my first time in 4 years and I remembered how much I love it more than zoos. We saw the feedings of Gorillas, Tigers, Elephants and Giraffes and let me tell you, it makes a difference in the quality of your visit when you plan to see the feedings. The animals get up close and very active. Plus you have someone to ask questions.
I loved the tram that goes around the park and shows all the South African animals. I'm so ready for my safari to Jburg next year and pick up Golden Boy. I even learned what a Springbok is. Its the nickname of the S. African rugby team that won the World Championship this year. Its also a deer-like animal that is really cute and springy. At one point while looking at the lions, Bruno asks "Why do we need to go to S. Africa next year, we already saw all the animals?" Funny, but not true. The cutest thing we saw was a baby elephant running to keep up with the moving herd. His legs were moving so fast and his ears were flapping in the wind. He was part of the herd they shipped here from Swaziland to prevent them from being culled.
We also saw the Bird show with a beautiful Andian Condor. Which made me think why is the California condor so ugly and the Andian so beautiful? We spent so much money preventing the Cali condor from going extinct, but it's really ugly. I fully support preservation and that's what the Wild Animal Park is all about. So GO Califonia Condor!
The 2nd funniest thing we saw was Stephy-Steph playing with the blue Macaw in the Atrium. It was the most amazing blue color. The bird wasn't a performer and was just hanging out when Steph got really close. She would shake her head up and down and then the bird would do the same. Then she would shake her hair all over and the bird would follow suit. It kept us laughing for minutes and Stephy got quite the captive audience. Jeremy didn't think the bird was mimicking Stephy, but I think it was.
Then we drove to L.A. for the WICKED!! It was so awesome. We made final call after hitting way too much traffic. But we had 4th row tickets and the view was AMAZING!! The music was wonderful and the actresses were incredible. My most favorite musical by far. At half-time, as Stephy calls, we got to go to a VIP lounge under the theater and the best thing about it was the bathrooms-no line and the free snacks. At this point Jeremy states that he "definitely hates the music less now." Stephy had already seen it and driven Jeremy nuts with the music.
We had a great time and now I know some more songs other than Defying Gravity, which is still my favorite. Afterwards we walked around Hollywood Blvd and saw some streetwalkers and got some pizza for some post-theatre dinner. There are way too many cars there. It was fun to see all the stars on the sidewalk, but I was ready to leave L.A.
Sunday we had a nice walk on the beach, hit up Stephy's ward and I helped her teach the Sunbeams(3 year olds) They are hilarious and so full of personality. Bruno drove back after sacrament and while walking him out we saw a deer mouse running around the church and scaling the wall. Pretty interesting. Now back to the grind after a great weekend of not studying or doing work. I think that Bruno should come to see us more often.