Music and Me

So, turns out that I really like to sing along with my music. This is a problem when I'm at work because I have to listen to my music on my ipod, but I still want to sing and dance*. But no one else can hear the music. Luckily, Heartless Siren is the only one who ever sees me dance and sometimes even gets to hear me sing... in soft tones.

I live in fear that I'll start singing out loud and not realize it. That could be really embarrassing. Highly reminiscent of the time that Superman started singing "My Heart Will Go On" from Titanic at work. Wow. I will never let him live that down. Now it'll be even worse if I do the same thing.

*dance being defined as swaying my head and sometimes moving my arms to the beat.

Creepy moment of the day

The Heartless Siren was in our back living room this evening when she heard a knock on the window right by her face. Poor girl was scared to death. She looked up, afrightened, to see the silhouette of a person waving at her, but due to it being dark outside and the light on inside, she could not make out who it was. Upon further questioning, she guesses it may have been a girl. Then the suspect ran.

I thought this was strange and a little creepy. I don't like unknown people in my back yard. Good thing we lock our doors.

Later on, I was walking through the kitchen when I smelled the nastiness that has been plaguing our kitchen for days. I had been assuming it was the garbage can as the smell was coming from that general vicinity, but we had taken out the trash twice since the smell began. So, intent upon finding the source, I started sniffing around the kitchen. Finally my smeller landed upon two very disgusting looking onions. I promptly took them outside to the garbage can to rid our house of the awful stench. On my way back in I almost tripped over this:



We assume it was left by the nameless creepy person. We are not eating food left by an unknown creepy person. (Don't worry, Mom. I listened when you taught me not to eat food from strangers. (Well, except that one time when I was a kid and we were at the cemetery, and that one guy gave me a piece of gum. But all the kids were taking some. And he was so nice! And I'm sure that someone there knew who he was. But that's beside the point.)) If anyone knows anything about the origins of this unexpected gift, please, do tell. Also, I would like to know that the creepy person is actually someone I know and not, in fact, some unknown creepy person.

Holi color, Batman!

Today, Heartless Siren, Cold One and I went to the Hare Krishna Festival of Colors. It. Was. Amazing. Really.

At first I felt a little dumb going around and throwing pinches of color on total strangers. I shouldn't have, considering my first encounter with color was a stranger throwing it right into my face. Yup, mouthful of color. Smells good, looks amazing, tastes awful. Claudio and I had talked about trying to find each other in the masses... to see who could hit the other with color first. So the three of us took off, making our way through the massive crowds, throwing color on anyone we could see while trying to find Claudio and Co. We had accidentally gotten in the wrong line and bought the $2/bag color instead of the $1. But by the time we realized it, we had been in line for an hour and had no desire to pick a different line. So we bought the color from India instead of the color made here. I'm totally glad we did, too. Because our color was much brighter and stayed much longer, whereas the other stuff kind of faded and blended together. I ended up with two bags of yellow and one bright pink, so any time I saw anyone looking too dark, faded, or dull, I sprinkled them with the yellow. It was fantastic. I'm super glad I got two of the yellow, because it stood out better than any color. We never did find Claudio, which was a shame, but we had an amazing time anyway.

It was amazing how something like walking around and throwing fistfuls of color on perfect strangers can totally bond everyone in an odd sort of way. Like I said, at first I felt dumb, but by the end, I was throwing color on everyone I could find. And they were saying thank you! And total strangers were throwing color on us and we loved it! Then, we ended up on the side where people were just coming in and didn't have color, so in an effort to help them feel a part of the festivities, we threw color on them. We ended up looking for the less fortunate to sprinkle. It was great fun.

Next year, we will buy more bags of the India color. We will also remember our cameras. And lastly, we will remember to bring towels or bags or something to sit on in the car. (Sorry Cold One's car!)

The sad part is, I can only post a few of the pictures I took since I forgot my camera at home, so all pictures were taken after we got back, so there are no pictures of random strangers covered in color... and it'd be pointless to try to Photoshop paper bags on our heads, since the best pictures are of our faces. However, these three pictures are a great representation of what the rest of us looked like:

When will it stop?!

Wednesday I had a bloody nose at work. Thursday I got another bloody nose. This morning I got another bloody nose around 8:30. It's now after 1 pm, and I still have a bloody nose.

This is getting ridiculous.

Good or bad?

Yesterday was a very... interesting day. It wasn't a bad day by any means. Rather, I was in a quite fantastic mood. But the symptoms of a good day and a bad day were both very prevelant.

The day started when The Cold One couldn't start her car. The battery was dead. (Turned out to be worse than even that... corrodedness and such.) I gave her a ride to campus for class, then came home and took my time getting ready, called the dealership and set up an appointment for her, then picked her up when she was done. We then went to jump her car and found out that when I got my oil changed last time, they had done a fabulous job of pulling my hood cable back into my car. [sigh] So we couldn't use my car to jump it. I went to the neighbors' house... no answer. Off to the girls' house on the corner. One came over and jumped the car, then The Cold One and I sat there discussing if she should go to the dealership or Checkers. So she called Checkers and they wouldn't be able to install her battery for her. So we called AutoZone. They said they were empty and could install it. So she went on her way and I headed to work. (Turns out, AutoZone was busy when she got there, so she just went to the dealership instead, which ended up being a very good thing with all the corrodedness and such that had to be fixed as well.)

On my way to work I saw two people in my ward walking to campus, so I gave them a ride. The girl pronounced blessings upon my head for such a good deed. I accepted them gratefully. I dropped them off, then realized I had left my access badge at home, so I had to turn back. [sigh] So much for blessings. But then I got to work and miraculously found an amazing parking spot! I was well pleased.

Work went well for quite awhile until one of the missionaries decided to read The Elders Journal while she waited for a book to load and promptly found 7 missing pages. Not what I wanted to hear. So I came back and asked the Heartless Siren (who was in SLC) if she could find the harddrives that the images were on. Of course, they were nowhere to be found in my cubicle. After a few frantic emails and searches, I was petrified--I had lost months worth of work. A huge project. My first real project. Fear was boiling up in my insides. Then one well-placed chat later, the drives were found. We had put them somewhere for "safekeeping." You know, one of those places you'll put things in order not to lose them. [rolls eyes]

Then I looked at our stats for this month thus far, and got really giddy. So my attention was diverted to making a report in Access to show how many books have been loaded every month for each site since we started our current process. It was lots of fun, except I'm not very Access-savvy quite yet. So Heartless helped me until she couldn't figure it out anymore, then we took it over to Yellow and he fixed it for us. Much Access learning for Dragon Lady yesterday.

Oh, and somewhere in there, I got a bloody nose. I never get bloody noses. I don't even remember the last time I got one.

Then it was time for Enrichment. Following tradition, I announced one time in church and sent out an email with a different time. I lose. [rolls eyes] But, we had a decent turn out (considering our last several Enrichments and the size of the place). And I bought pizza for everyone. And we had raspberry cheesecake which was made with pudding and really, really good. And I made four adorable Thank You cards. And then, it went late. So I was late for my bowling league. And then I got there to find out that this year they decided to do a tournament and only the top 16 teams got to bowl in it. And we were #17. (Due largely to the fact that we haven't showed up many, many times.) So instead of letting it ruin our night, Coworker K ran home (or rather, drove) and got August Rush and brought it back to my house where we ate leftover pizza and popcorn while watching the movie. It was quite fun.

I was in a very energetic mood, apparently. And I got rather emotionally involved with this movie. It also helped that I was surrounded with other people who hadn't seen it and were willing to gasp and moan and groan and cheer at the same parts I did. So I didn't feel dumb doing it by myself. Coworker K was particularly entertained by my grabbing my hair/head, flailing my arms, and pulling up my legs to hug them. It was rather kind of fun. It reminded me a lot of the day that Heartless and I watched John Q. But that one was much more intense. We were both screaming and yelling and shaking our fists and curling up in terror... the entire movie. It was great. Anyway, back to last night. Yeah, I would definitely recommend August Rush. I didn't get into it at first... it was kind of strange seeing Robin Williams as the creepy guy. And yeah, it could be considered rather hoky. But overall, I rather liked it. Mom and Sister, I think you'd both enjoy it. (Also, it's PG.) Also, I want to buy the soundtrack. It was really fun.

So good and bad things all day. I'm glad I was in such a good mood that the night was able to end in pure happiness, despite all the dumb things that happened throughout the day. I definitely fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Harry Potter and theology

The other day, Niffler answered this question about religion in Harry Potter. Today I found this article about religion in Harry Potter. Random.

The first part of the article is kind of cool. It's all about this lady who is teaching a class at Yale Divinity School called "Christian Theology and Harry Potter." What an interesting class. The last part of the article, however, is rubbish. Complete rubbish. It's all the Christians who claim that Harry Potter is evil and satanic and anti-Christian and blah blah blah.

Sometimes, you just have to ask

Once upon a time I was sitting at the kitchen table, poking around in a bowl of heart-shaped Red Hots. I didn't like cinnamon candy, but it looked so good. I was mourning my dislike of the candy and the unfairness of it all, so I asked Mom, "Mom, why don't I like cinnamon candies? Everyone else likes them." Now, I didn't actually expect an answer to this question. I was mostly just venting. Imagine my shock when Mom replied with, "What? You don't know?" "No. Should I?" She looked shocked and dumbfounded that I didn't know, which I thought was silly, because why should I know why I didn't like a particular food besides the fact that it tastes gross? She then proceeded to tell me the following story.


I was still young enough to sit contentedly in my car seat on the floor while Mom went about her business. This particular day, she and one of her friends were making suckers. The smell was pretty strong, so they stuck me in the next room where they could still hear me. The distance was perfect, until they decided to pull out the cinnamon flavoring. The smell filled the room with its potency. Suddenly, Mom heard me gasp, so she came running in to see if I was ok, only to see me not breathing and turning blue. The smell was too strong and I couldn’t breathe. Thankfully, she suspected the problem and quickly ran me out to fresh air. What a relief! I immediately started breathing and was soon content once again. The only scar I carry from the event is not caring much for cinnamon; I can only imagine how traumatic that had to be for my poor mother.


Who knew that there was actually a story? Mom, can you tell me any other stories about my past that I don't remember and haven't heard a billion times?

Failed logic

I grew up with the mountains directly east of me. (They were nothing to Utah mountains, but they were my mountains, nonetheless.) (Also, let me take this moment to say that I love words that are really three words smooshed together and grammatically acceptable as opposed to my made up ones such as jussasec.) The mountains seemed to be a cap on top of the geography of my home. We rarely traveled through those mountains to get anything. Sure, if we wanted to go up into the mountains to the reservoir or to get square ice cream cones, we'd head that way. But if we ever went anywhere else, we traveled west--the exact opposite direction.

Now, if someone were to ask me which way Utah was, I would have said South. New York? East. Most anywhere in the US? East. (There is plenty still West of us, but the majority is East.) However, in my head, when actually outside and looking at the world, if you were to ask me which way was New York, I probably would have pointed south, perhaps a little southwest. The mountains were the cap! There was nothing that way but mountains. Thus, that must be north. If we went to Utah, we went the opposite direction! Since Utah is south, this confirmed to me that the mountains must be north! If we went to Washington, which is west, we started out heading what is really north, but if the mountains were north, we would have been traveling west--which is the direction of Washington.

I always knew the mountains were east. If you asked me what direction we were facing, I could have accurately told you. However, actual direction and the location of places were two separate things in my head.

You can see how my poor little brain got confused.

I remember the day that I actually stopped and looked at the mountains and thought, "The mountains are east. New York is east. New York is on the other side of those mountains." The thought befuddled me. But... but... that can't be true! There was nothing past those mountains! The majority of the US just can't be over there! I remember asking my mom why we drove west to get to Utah which was southeast from us. She told me simply, "The freeway is west. Once we get on that, then we go southeast."

Although I accepted this as truth, it never actually fit in my head. The mountains were the cap. There is nothing past the mountains. I know this to be false, but sometimes, logic doesn't win. I guess this belief has followed me through the years. Utah is easy to figure out. The mountains are east; the lake is west. I can typically tell you which direction we are going. But I looked at the mountains the other day and it hit me--New York is that way. It is as strange to me now as it was as a child.

I really need to move somewhere that has mountains on the north.

Shattered Dreams

This morning, I was rudely awakened by my phone ringing. It was the Goblin King. (I find this highly entertaining as I just watched The Labyrinth last night.)

Q. Why didn't I return her call last night?
A. I didn't think she wanted a phone call at 2:30 am.

Q. 2:30?! What were you doing that you didn't get my message until 2:30!?
A. No. I got it much earlier. But I thought it would be quite rude to call back in the middle of dinner with friends when I knew we would talk. We've been best friends since 5th grade. Of course we'll talk.

Q. You sound like I woke you up. Did I wake you up?
A. Yes, yes you did.
Response. Good. I've still got it in me.

She then claimed that by waking me up after only 6.5 hours of sleep, she was considered charming. I tried to convince her that nothing she did this morning was in the definition of charming.

Conversation no one else cares about.

(Sidenote to mention that the italics feature in blogger is ridiculous. I am just glad that I know the teeniest bit of html so that I could actually get this paragraph to not be italicized. )

GK: Well, I'll let you get back to sleep. If you can. [maniacal laughter]
DL: If I can't fall back to sleep, I totally blame you.
GK: I will happily take that blame.
(Yes, she is cruel.)

I shut my phone and attempted to go back to sleep. Tragically, I have a room corner with two windows, one facing east, one facing south. The morning sun is quite bright in my room. Also, I have very light blue walls (which actually look more like primer than paint... I should ask my landlord if I could paint this summer) which lends itself well to making for a bright room. I was too hot and stuffy to pull my denim blanket over my head, so I just closed my eyes and hoped for the best. I never made it to sleep... I was in that half-asleep, half-conscious state where the conscious part is mummified so you know you're awake, but you're fully engulfed in dream anyway. I had the most incredible dream and the conscious part of my brain was thinking, "I have to blog about this when I get up." I even remember composing the first paragraph of this post.

I would love to follow through with that and blog about my dream, but it was interrupted
by a loud pounding on the front door, which just happens to be right next to my bedroom. Frightened out of my bed (I have this talent to answer doors and phones before I fully wake up. I simply can't allow them to go unanswered--my subconscious simply will not allow it), I woke up enough to realize that my pajamas were probably not appropriate to answer the door in. So on my way out of the bedroom, I stopped by my closet and frantically grabbed a tshirt, putting it on as I fled out of my room. I opened the door to find two teenage boys telling me (for the second time in a week!) that they were doing a Young Men's project of airerating (I slaughtered that, I know) lawns, then looked back at the sorry state of our lawn and asked if we'd like ours done. For the second time in a week I informed them that we were renting and didn't make those decisions. (We have someone who supposedly will take care of our lawn again this year. At least, he promised that we would have a lawn this year.) They thanked me, then turned and left.

I went back to bed for the second time this morning (this has to be some sort of sin on a Saturday morning) and officially couldn't fall back to sleep. So I decided to blog! And realized that those silly boys had driven my wonderful dream from my mind. Despite my desperate attempts to remember it, all I can remember is thinking about one of my plants sitting on my dresser. Pretty sure that wasn't it. Sorry folks, no dream for you. If I have to be left disappointed, so should you.

Goblin King, I blame you.

Little Victories

I have a silent battle going on with the janitor in Orem. Every day, I get to work to find my garbage can by the door--as far away from my computer as you can get. Every day, I grab that garbage can and put it next to my chair. Every night, the janitor picks it up from next to my chair, empties my banana peels, granola bar wrappers, and Subway sandwich remains, then puts it back next to my door.

If you were to draw a line between where I want my garbage can and where the janitor apparently wants my garbage can, you could place where I found it today slightly more than halfway towards where I want it.

I am winning.