I spent my lunch break yesterday working on homework in the office conference room. Unfortunately my humanities teacher is confused, he seems to think he is teaching an art class. After every reading assignment we have to do an artistic interpretation of what we read. I do my best to be creative, but I am so not talented when it comes to art as is evident by my rendering of Buddha. For this weeks homework assignment, on top of the two artistic interpretations, we were supposed to draw our tree. Being the quick witted deligator that I am, I asked one of the designers at my work if he would be so kind as to take the crayons I brought with me and sketch me up a happy little tree.


Thank goodness he is also a student and with limited prodding, he was willing to humor me. I wonder how far I can push his charitable nature. Maybe I can work out a trade. I’ll agree not to get him fired for peeing in the bosses coffee if he does all my homework! OK sure he’d never REALLY do that, and come to think of it my boss doesn’t even drink coffee, but those are just minor details. I’m sure he’ll see things my way. I can be quite intimidating you know.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Back to School

A friend of my commented to me tonight that “ignorance is bliss” which really got me thinking, IS ignorance really bliss? I won’t lie, for a moment I was completely sold on the idea. But then the next obvious cliche line came to mind; “it is far better to have loved and lost then never to have loved at all.” Is that painful statement true? Which one is more accurate?

In my short life time I have loved and I have lost, over and over again. Each time I learn a lesson and I chalk it up to building character and forming me into the person I am today, but, I fear that after every breakup I become more and more jaded.

Outside my apartment there was a couple fighting. I couldn’t hear what the fight was about but it aided in my further reflection on past relationships. I have been in some where yelling came standard. I have been in one where if I dared to raise my voice I was met only with silence. Fighting, or rather, heated discussions, can have the tendency to make you feel alive. To have someone who evokes that much passion in you, to make you feel strongly one way or another, to actually feel the fire raise up inside you until you blow, is…something. Not necessarily good, but something. If nothing else it means you care enough to be upset. The reason this is of significance is because I have also been in relationships where that fire never existed, where I never cared enough to get upset. Truly, to know happiness you must know sorrow. You will never appreciate pleasure without having experienced pain. So where is the happy medium?

Sometimes I begrudge all of the pain that my search for love has caused me. I am, of course, no saint and have caused my share of pain along the way. I feel it is only natural to wish none of it had ever happened at all, that I had never felt a broken heart, had never cried myself to sleep, that I never knew the regret of loosing someone I truly cared about. Deep down I crave love, just as I am sure so many of you do, but I also fear it. Sometimes I feel it is easier to just keep my heart guarded and locked away. If you never let anyone in, you can never get hurt, right? But even that is not true because you hurt yourself in the process.

Honestly I don’t have any answers. Maybe if I did I wouldn’t be writing this post instead of finishing my math homework. But I wanted to put down my thoughts before I lost them and decided it wasn’t worth revisiting again…because reflection hurts. It may help you grow, but it stings in the process.

Your comments on the subject are welcome here. Don’t hold back.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Emotions get the best of me, Just me, sometimes I get on a soap box

I spent my Sunday afternoon helping prepare my friends house for 2008′s largest Halloween house party. To date there have been over 200 people RSVP. Fortunately the basement of the house holding the party is not finished so we were able to really get creative. I helped paint the Alice In Wonderland room, complete with stripes, polka dots and astro-turf flooring. I am getting VERY excited for this party.

So what am I going to be? As many of you have guessed from my clues, I will be Jessica Rabbit this Halloween. For those of you scratching your head like “who is
that”, she is the wife of Roger Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit and is also pictured below.


Obviously she is a cartoon so there is no way to replicate her exactly but I have all the pieces to be the human version of the redheaded temptress. In fact Friday night Karina and I even watched the Roger Rabbit movie to watch her mannerisms and study her makeup. Our favorite line (besides the blog title, of course):

Jessica: “You don’t know how hard it is to be a woman looking the way I do.”

Valiant: “You don’t know how hard it is to be a man looking at a woman looking the way you do.”

Needless to say, I will be channeling my inner diva this Halloween to get the sass and confidence needed to pull off this costume. I think next year I’m going to go as something boring, maybe a cat or a pumpkin or Sarah Pallin. This costume is turning into more work then I thought.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Halloween

Yesterday I received my first blogging award. I had read about people getting awards from different sites but never really followed what exactly that meant. This particular award, The Kreativ Blogger Award, was given to me by Kendal over at Confessions of an Odd Duck. There is no nominating comities, it is simply one persons opinion on which blogs they feel deserve to be recognized and those people nominate more people and the love is spread. I am honored that The Odd Duck felt Blogfully Yours was worthy of an award.

So the only stipulations of the award are the you must write 6 things that you love and then pass the award on to 6 people.

Things I love…

1. Family & Friends. I have the good fortune of being very close with my family and I do not take that for granted. I am blessed with amazing friends who are always there for me and are, essentially, extensions of my family. I would be lost without them.
2. Coffee. The smell, the taste, the feeling of coming alive as I drink it throughout the morning. It’s a part of my daily routine that brings me pleasure.
3. Hiking & Nature. There is nothing that make me feel more grounded then getting out into nature. I love to spend time in the mountains. It takes me away from the stresses of life and puts everything into perspective for me.
4. Being Challenged. Boredom is not my friend, it is my nemesis. I like to stay busy and I am constantly looking for new ways to challenge myself. Be it school, dating, work or projects. I may complain about being overwhelmed with so much to do, but the truth is I strive off of it.
5. Small Victories. Recognizing the little things that come my way and celebrating them. Today someone bought me a cup of coffee, yesterday I found out that 17 countries read my blog, I got 100% on my last math test…little things that deserve to be celebrated.
6. Laughing. I’m not sure how to expand on this. I love to laugh. One way to capture my heart, as a friend, as a lover, is to make me laugh.

For my 6 nominees to pass this award on to, I would like to acknowledge that most of them will not re-post and I want you to know I completely understand. Most of them I am sure have received numerous awards so this will not be as big of a deal to them as it is to me.

My first awards go to Caveat Emptor, Wind in Your Vagina, and Jenny the Bloggess as they all inspire me with their writing and make me laugh. My fourth award goes to Sarah Nielson who has become not only my blogging mentor, but also my firend. My fifth and sixth awards go to Doni in the City and The Kel who are my long distant blogging friends and continue to make me smile on a daily basis with their witty posts and hilarious tweets.

Much love to you all!

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Just me

I decided to come home for lunch today and had 2 wonderful surprises waiting for me. The first was a note on my door from UPS saying I had a package at the office building of my apartment. The second was another package sitting on my balcony delivered by the post office which was a little weird because I live in a middle level apartment so the mail delivery person would of had to throw the package up to get it on my balcony, but whatever. 2 packages in one day!
The first package ended up being the boy scout popcorn I ordered from Black Hockey Jesus’ son Jackson. It’s caramel nutty goodness has me on a sugar high that I will be riding throughout the day. The second package was 3 pairs of pants I ordered on-line at Alloy. Some of you may be thinking “pants, whats the big deal?” Well it is a very big deal when you are a 6 ft tall woman with incredibly long legs. Pants are hard to come by! So of course I strip down in my living room and try them on and guess what? They all fit perfect! No need to send any back.
So I’m sitting here eating a home made turkey burrito writing this little post with a smile on my face. I don’t think anyone can accuse me of being hard to please. I’ve gotta remember to start coming home for lunch more often!

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Random

For my Humanities class we are given reading assignments every week on different topics which we must then interpret in an artistic manner into our portfolio book. We can use any medium we would like such as drawing, collages and music (burnt on a disk). My artistic abilities are…somewhat lacking. That’s a nice way of saying they suck. Why I didn’t get the instructor who makes you write papers is beyond me. Every week I have to do an arts and crafts project, and every week I struggle with what to do. I decided that for this weeks artistic interpretation I would try using paint. Never mind the fact that I have absolutely NO idea how to paint and I have never taken an art class yet alone a painting class. I mean, how hard can it be, right?

We are studying Spirituality & Religion. One of the reading assignments we had to choose from was the teachings of Buddha. So I though, hey why not paint Buddha? Here is why not.

BEHOLD THE MIGHTY CHOCOLATE BUDDHA!!!

Think I’ll stick to collages from now on.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Back to School

My darling BFF, Karina the Russian, has met someone and has fallen, once again, in love. Truth of the matter is, he is actually a really decent guy and as of today, I approve of him. She has told him however that entering into a relationship with her is also entering into a relationship with me. She and I have learned from several past relationships that full disclosure is the best way to go. So she explained to him that boyfriends have accused us of being lesbians when in fact we are the ultimate non-lesbian couple. Putting it into a Russian analogy, which always has to do with food, she explained to him that she is the wine, I am the cheese and he can be the grapes.

I asked her via text message if she would mind if I told the internet about our new relationship and she said “Hell yeah!” I told her I would be putting her wine analogy in, to which she responded, “Yes, but its got to be that French wine, with that French Cheese and the big grapes!”

Apparently, without my knowing it, I have graduated from a non-lesbian couple to a very high class non-swinger relationship. The relationship may be sex-free, but at least I’ll be well fed.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

K to the R stories

On Saturday I went to my very first college football game, The U of U versus some other team! I know what you are thinking and yes, I am 28 and just barely going to a college football game. For those you who know me I am sure this is not a HUGE surprise. For those of you who do not know me, besides not being a big sports fanatic to begin with, I passed on the whole college experience of going to frat parties and experimenting with mind altering drugs that normally happens in your early 20′s. I was too busy planning a wedding while working full time to help support the man I was marrying with his education. So now I’m doing the whole college thing…minus the frat parties and drugs. But, my reason for going to this particular college game was to see my adorable niece B perform with her dance group at the half time show.


We were of course up in the nose bleed section, about 5 rows from the very tippy top of the stadium. My parents went and of course Staci, B’s mom and my baby sister. I must admit and please don’t be jealous, but I have the worlds cutest parents. There is no sense in arguing with me on this as it is just a fact. The proof is in the picture.

Since I was trying to show my University of Utah pride and fit in with all of the other crazy fans, I wore the only red shirt I have, a long sleeve sweater. Lucky me it ended up being around 70 (seriously this is the second time I have looked for the little circle thingy on my keyboard and not found it!) degrees. I had to cave and buy an over priced t-shirt to avoid a patriotic heat stroke. So I guess this will not be my only U of U football game because now I need to go to another just to get my money out of this shirt.


Blogfully yours,
Summer

PS – In case you were wondering, Utah won! I think it was something like 48 to 16.
Go Utes!

Back to School, Out and About

I have decided on my costume for Halloween! I am actually getting pretty excited about it too. Besides feeling confident that I will be the only one wearing this costume it has given me a newly found dedication to get my butt to the gym! I know setting goals is important to keep you motivated, but I just haven’t found a worthy one until now.

After deciding what I wanted to be, it hit me that this costume is going to require my body to be in tip top super smokin hot shape. Now, Halloween is 2 weeks away…I work full time and I go to school at night. Top that off with homework and it doesn’t leave much time for the gym. Crap! Tip top super smokin hot shape might not be a possibility…think I may have to settle for “pulling it off” shape.

So are you curious what I am going to be? Well my lovelies I don’t want to give it away just yet but I will give you a few clues. Last night I bought a long red wig, opera length gloves and fake eyelashes. Obviously there is much more to the costume that I will be ordering next week. Make your guesses if you like. I will not confirm or deny if you are correct but I promise to post pictures when my costume is complete.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

Halloween

The other day I was discussing with my BFF Karina the Russian how certain smells can evoke memories, some painful, some pleasant. The specific one I was referring to was of course a painful memory. An old boyfriend of mine, who turned out to be a royal scumbag but started out as a prince (as they always do), used to make me coffee every morning while I was in the shower. He would bring me a mug, along with a small plate of my favorite cookies, Pecan Sandies. I bought a brand of coffee that must have been similar to what I was buying back then because when I brewed a pot last week it took me back.

Karina: What type of cookies? Sandy…Mandy…pecan-y cookies?

Me (laughing): Close enough.

Tuesday Karina called me up incredibly excited and told me I HAD to come over for breakfast because she had a surprise for me. Of course I would never say no to free food so I said I would be there but I would probably have to finish getting ready at her house. When I got there she told me to go finish putting my makeup on in her bathroom and she would bring it to me. You should have seen the huge smile on her face as she brought this in to me!
Of course I started to cry (I am seriously such a sap!). She told me not to cry cause she had more and bustled off to bring me this:
Then she squealed and said she forgot one more thing and ran off to the kitchen. She came back with this…to help keep me healthy.
When I got to work I discovered that she had also put 2 granola bars in my purse. Now if I learned anything from my PB&J experience, it’s that the way to show a Russian how much you care, is with food. Today I learned that if you do, they will never stop showing their gratitude back.

Blogfully yours,
Summer

K to the R stories, Loved One(s)