It snowed here, a lot. My toes are frozen in my adorable new boots and this is just the beginning. So as one last final farewell to summer, I thought I’d post a video from sunny beautiful Lake Powell.

In this video Heidi and I wanted to share the panoramic view that a simple picture could never capture. We are trying very hard not to giggle throughout the whole video and internet, I must really have no shame because there is about four seconds of me looking absolutely horrible. Oh well, the beauty of Lake Powell totally makes up for it.

Enjoy!

Vacations

Have I mentioned yet that in my new place I have a shoe closet? Well, technically it’s a storage area with shelves that I transformed into every girls wet dream.

The girl living here before me used it for food storage, an extra pantry of sorts, which totally makes no sense to me. I mean, isn’t that what a fridge and and cupboards are for? Who has more food in their house than that?

Obviously not me.

The shoe closet was actually Karina the Russian’s idea. I tell you, that woman is brilliant! However, I discovered a serious problem with my shoe closet right after I got it all set up. It was missing something and I simply couldn’t rest until I fixed it.

Blurry camera phone picture

Of course I am referring to the perfect pair of sexy black ankle boots which you can wear with slacks or a skirt.

Not to worry, I have fixed the problem. In fact, I double fixed the problem!

Soft suede and shiny leather of course.

The picture totally doesn’t do them justice, but trust me they are hot!

After buying them I called ED all excited. I am not sure why I thought he’d care, but I tried anyway.

Me: “Babe! I just bought the cutest black ankle boots! I bought two pairs though because I couldn’t decide on which ones to get and they were on sale.”

ED: “Like you don’t have enough shoes.”

Me: “I don’t have any black ankle boots.”

ED: “And I’m sure you don’t have any shoes that could work in their place.”

Me: “These shoes are very versatile honey. I don’t think you understand. I can wear these with both pants AND a skirt!”

ED: “But you never wear skirts.”

Me: “Well… should I decide to start wearing skirts I have the perfect boots. I’m prepared.”

At which point he changed the subject.

Men… I don’t think they will ever understand the importance of shoes. They just don’t get it.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

ED is not Emotionally Disturbed, Finding Home

After much deliberation, Heidi and I decided to throw a combination house warming/Halloween party together. We called it a “House Haunting Party”.

Here is a little sample of the fun!

ED and I, the Warrior Duo!

Strawberry Shortcake (Karina the Russian), Marie Antoinette (Heidi) and me!

To see the rest of the pictures from our crazy Halloween debacle, visit my Flickr feed.

My liver I’m still recovering from the weekend, but I promise normal posting will resume as soon as I figure out the mystery of where my toothbrush disappeared to and distribute the contents of the party’s lost and found box.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Halloween

Halloween is right around the corner, not that you need reminding. I am sure you are totally on top of your costume situation. Me too… except I’m having a little trouble this year. You see, Halloween is what ED and I like to refer to as “National Dress Like a Slut” day. It’s incredibly hard to avoid the hooker costumes if you are a woman. It seems like every costume has a sexy twist to it. Hell they even made Olive Oyl sexy this year!

I can’t say I am necessarily opposed to “National Dress Like a Slut” day. Throughout the many years I have been a sexy milkmaid, sexy cop, sexy school girl, sexy woodland fairy, busty saloon girl and just last year I was Jessica freakin’ Rabbit!

So what is the problem this year?

ED and I decided to dress as a couple. We went down to the Dress Like a Slut head quarters, also known as the seasonal costume shop, and went down each row twice trying to agree on what to be and I finally chose a costume I liked (of course I’m not going to tell you what it is, that would spoil the fun! But let me tell you this: it’s sexy! Shocker!). I tried it on and immediately called ED in to get his opinion if it was too sexy or if he thought I could pull it off.  Eventually, after much debating, I decided “what the hey! I’m only going to be young once” and paid the goth checkout lady my grocery money and was on my merry little way.

A week went by and I decided to try it on again. This time without a bra, or pants, and HOLY FREAKING COW… my girls look like two puppies fighting! I mean which is totally cool because I now have a place to keep my lipstick, phone and bottle of beer. Who needs a purse when you have a costume that creates an unmovable cleavage storage area? Right? Right?

OK, so obviously I’m slightly exaggerating. Slightly. But there is a lot of clev going on and yes, last year there was a lot too, but last year I didn’t have to take the whole boyfriend thing into account. I want to be respectful to both of us. I want to be comfortable and I want him to not want to punch guys in the face for ogling.

I’m thinking about getting a long wig so that I can kind of wear it over the shoulders? I thought about getting some fabric, but I know it just won’t look right. I’m committed to the outfit–it’s non-refundable and ED has the matching outfit–so I just need to find a way to make it work. A way to come across as sexy-classy, not sexy-trashy.

HA! Who am I trying to kid? Classy? On National Dress Like a Slut day? I’m about as likely to accomplishing that as I am to turn back time to before I bought the outfit!

Oh well. I’ll make it work. Hopefully you’ve chosen more wisely and your costumes are not causing you any need for concern!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Halloween

My days are spent not talking.

Let’s examine this a little bit, shall we? I work full time. At work I sit alone in my office and write things for clients like news letters, press releases and marketing plans, I research the latest marketing trends, responding to emails and attend meetings. I then go to school where I listen to teachers lecture and take notes. In the evenings I am reading my text books, studying and doing homework.

Oh the exciting life I lead. It’s an rare night in deed if I can find the time to work out or watch TV.

I spend so much time reading and listening that when I finally do get placed in a situation where I have to use my audible communication skills my words fail me. They just flat out disappear. I have no backspace, cut and paste or delete keys to rely on and I can’t just “Google” what I am looking for. I find myself simply listening to whatever conversation I am in and not really speaking up too much because when I try to contribute or tell a story I simply can not get through it without help. “You know that one thing with the four wheels and you drive it? Yeah, a car! So I was in the car and I was listening to, oh crap, what’s the name of that one band that sings that one song? Remember? We saw them in concert that one time?”

You get the picture. And heaven forbid you ask me my opinion! Because that answer will leave you so lost you will think you have just been talking to mentally challenged person. I swear, it’s still me! I am just out of practice at… talking?

Maybe I just need to get more sleep or take some ginkgo biloba or whatever vitamin makes your brain work more better. I’ve seriously  got to do something though because all this learnin’  and edumacation is making me unsmart.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Back to School, Bag full of complaints, Random

I no longer live close to anything except the mountains.

I am 95 blocks away from ED, a point he brings up whenever he makes the drive to come see me.

It now takes me approximately 33 minutes to get to work in the morning and 25 minutes to get home (depending on the time of night).

The gym I frequent used to be five minutes away, now the closest location is 15.

To make it to my parents house for Sunday dinner now requires at least 45 minutes in combined drive time.

But honestly, how can I complain when my drive looks like this?

And This…

And This…

I am sure people who live in major cities will scoff at the times I listed because they are used to long ass commutes. In Salt Lake, if your commute is longer than 15 minutes people wonder about your sanity. I am asked constantly how I can handle the drive.

Truth is, I actually LOVE my commute because I get to stare at the mountains, study the changing leaves and look out across the city before dropping down into it. It’s so beautiful it makes me want to cry – BUT I DON’T because that would blur my vision and impair my driving and I am nothing if not a responsible driver.*

Blogfully yours,

Summer

*ED would like me to point out that “responsible drivers” do all of their makeup before leaving the house and therefore I am NOT a responsible driver. I told him I disagree because I am careful to only do the difficult makeup at stop lights so I am totally a responsible driver.

Finding Home

Ed and I have been dating since January. So we have been together, what? NINE MONTHS! Whew! That is the longest I have been in a relationship outside of my ex-husband! But I digress. In those nine months together I have not cooked for him once, unless you count heating up a Totinos pizza, which I totally do but he claims it doesn’t count.

Whatever.

None of that matters now because I “officially” cooked for him AND I had him take pictures to document it.

Look! An apron and everything. Total domestic goddess!

OK so domestic goddess may be a bit of an overstatement for cooking breakfast. However, I did purchase all of the food, mix a pre-made waffle mix, crack eggs and touch raw meat. All to create a lovely meal for my babe.

I cooked eggs too but they didn't make it into the picture.

There should be some type of award for best girlfriend EVER, because I would totally win! I even did the dishes after cooking while ED looked up sports scores online. Yet for some odd reason ED is not nearly as impressed with me as I am.

Again, whatever.

At least I’ve got that out of the way and he can no longer say I A) don’t know how to cook or B) that I never have for him. Which is awesome because now I can go back to my philosophy that kitchens are simply where you store the wine and house the wine glasses.

Blogfully yours,

Summer

ED is not Emotionally Disturbed, Finding Home

More often than not, if I do not have plans for lunch you can find me eating a sandwich in my car at the park. Occasionally I get out of the car to soak up the sun, but for the most part I sit confined in my own little world, listening to NPR, people watching and trying to figuring out the mysteries of the world.

It was on one such day, as I was eating my club with lots of Ranch because it has less calories than mayo sandwich, that I saw the most interesting and disturbing things I’ve yet to witness.

The park has a wonderful walking/running trail and it is not uncommon for me to see the same people pass by twice. I noticed a top heavy woman in a baby pink fleece walking. She had long gray hair that reached all the way down to her butt. I was trying to figure out if she was Native American or something else as she approached the stretch of sidewalk in front of my car. Then she stopped, and without realizing I was sitting in my car not more than 20 feet away enjoying a saucy sandwich, put her finger to one side of her nose and blew a great big stringy snot rocket out of the other. A SNOT ROCKET! As in blowing your nose into the air and not a tissue! From a cute old lady in a pink sweatshirt! A SNOT ROCKET!!!

Seriously?

I swear I can still see it all happening in slow motion. I don’t know if she continued to clean out the other nostril or not. I was too busy trying not to THROW UP my lunch! I couldn’t even look at my now half eaten sandwich. I ended up wrapping it up and throwing it away so I could get out of the park before she came back around the trail and managed to do something even more disgusting like, I don’t know, eat chewing gum off of the bottom of her shoe!

Now I’ve seen construction workers blow snot rockets before, hell my uncle does it while we are boating as a family, but to have a cute old lady in a crowded public park do it right in front of me while I was eating… Oh man, that was just too much!

Dare I ask… what disgusting behaviors have you been witness to?

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Story Time

The past six weeks have been very transitional for me. I moved into my parents place for about a month while I waited for my new place to be ready. Truly I can’t thank my parents enough for taking me in… again. Although I won’t lie, it was hard on me to go from having my own space to only having a room in someone else space. But the wait was totally worth it.

I am finally moved in to my new place! It took seven cars, jam packed full of my crap to complete the job.

One of the moving cars, Karina the Russians Benz, completely filled with clothes! Why I think I have nothing to wear is beyond me!

My new place is absolutely amazing! Keep in mind I am coming from living in a one bedroom hole in the wall apartment with a 70′s themed “Golden Rod” kitchen. Trust me, I feel like I just moved into Buckingham Palace! Please allow me just a moment to describe the new heaven I am living in:

It is the basement apartment of my friend Heidi’s house. It is right up next to the Wasatch Mountains–I’m talking there is deer poop in the back yard! Speaking of back yard, my door walks out into it because I have my own entrance and my gianormous family room has three large windows that look out on it. I have a huge kitchen which I keep threatening ED that I am going to use, two bedrooms (one is my office), a large bathroom, plenty of storage (I made one storage area with shelves my shoe closet!) a shared laundry room, a garage to park in and my personal favorite, a wood burning fire place.

Finally, after living in multiple dwelling units for years, paying rent to places I did not love, I have a home. I HAVE A HOME! I am one happy chica right now!

I almost have everything unpacked and decorated. I promise to post pictures soon!

Blogfully yours,

Summer

Finding Home, Moving Blows

I saw her walking towards me even before I set foot out of my car. She walked with a limp and carried a crooked cane. Her hair was curly and mostly grey. She had tan skin with the most adorable freckles dotting her nose and cheeks.

“Do you want to buy me a sandwich?” she asked me. There was no sheepishness in her voice, just a small lisp and an inflection of hopefulness.

I stared at her. For a moment I weighed my options. I had the money, luckily that was not an obstacle. I wasn’t in a rush and for the life of me I couldn’t think of an excuse to say to her that first of all was believable and secondly that I would feel good about saying.

“I’m headed into this Subway. Do you want to come in with me?” I asked.

Eagerly she shook her head yes and followed me in. I asked what her name was, to which she smiled and said “Gildred”.

I took my place in line with the lunchtime crowd. Shyly she asked me, “What type can I have?”

“What type would you like?”

“Do they have ham? I’d like a ham sandwich.”

“I believe they do. What type of bread would you like?”

“White. I like white bread.” Another smile, lifting the cheeks housing those adorable freckles.

We continue through the line a little further and Gildred turns to me and softly asks, “do you suppose I could have a small drink too?”

By this point I am feeling like she is pushing her luck, but I say, “Sure, why not?” instead.

I pay for our meals and help her get a drink. I am about to leave when the Subway employee in charge of keeping the tables clean, who also happens to be disabled, comes over and says “hi” to Gildred. Then she comes over to me and thanks me for being so kind as to buy Gildred a sandwich because normally she was the one to do so.

Apparently mooching Subway sandwiches is a skill Gildred has mastered.

For me, it was the freckles. I could not say no to the freckles. But you know what? I’m not upset about it. I don’t feel like I’ve been had, although I suppose I was. I guess I just feel like I did a kind deed. Not just for Gildred, but for the minimum wage Subway employee as well. I can live with that.

What about you? What do you do when you are accosted by the lunchtime beggars? Is there a correct way to handle it?

Blogfully yours,

Summer

PS – When I came back from lunch I shared my story with a co-worker who said the same lady had approached him a month earlier. He too bought Ms. Gildred a sandwich.

Story Time