Simplicity

In a few short days, Brett and I will be heading off on a week long camping trip.  Just us and our dog.  It's going to be glorious.

This break from everything that makes my life hectic is so needed right now, and I look forward to soaking in every minute of it.  I don't care what the weather is going to be like. I don't care that I will be cut off from technology and the rest of the world. I don't care that the closest thing to a shower I will have is a box of wet wipes. I don't care about any of that, because all that matters is that the two most important beings in my life will be there with me. 

The two of them are all I need to be happy.

Instagram

I recently stumbled across this new app for my phone that I am loving. It's a photo sharing app that allows you to add effects to your pictures, as well as a social networking type of photo sharing. As far as I know, right now it is only available on the iPhone, but they are in the works for apps that will work on other phones as well.

I'm not too interested in gaining followers or following others, unless they are people that I know, but I do love how great the pictures look when you add the effects. Have you tried it? What do you think?? 

Here are a few of my favorites that I've played with so far:

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Sunset near my house

Indian Paintbrush in Moab

The stage at the U2 concert

Belle

Brett and I on the beach in Carmel, CA circa 2007

Mardi Gras 2011

Blurs

Life moves too fast most days. 

I don't always have a chance to sit down and write.  That makes me sad.  It seems like the older I get, the less time I have in my day.  When I fail to accomplish something that I needed to get done because I didn't have enough time, I get so frustrated.  I wish that I could just take the clock and slow it down, temporarily of course.

Do you think that Hermione Granger will let me borrow her time turner?  I bet I could get more done in the day if I had one of those in my possession.

Butter Yo Shit!

I came across this video on Dooce the other day and just about died laughing.  Okay, so I didn't just about die, but I did pee my pants a little.

This bitch is funny. 




If you haven't had enough of the hilarity, head on over to her website and watch the other six My Drunk Kitchen episodes: HERE

Indian Paintbrush

My mom absolutely loved wildflowers. If you had asked her what her favorite flower was, wildflowers would have been her response. She loved anything that grew wild in nature.

Her favorite wildflower was the Indian Paintbrush.  Whenever I see one now it reminds me of her, and I think about all of the memories that I have of my childhood when we would stop to pick one anytime we saw them.  It didn't matter if we were camping or driving through the canyon, she would always stop. Her favorite thing to do was take them home and press them, but the first thing she would do was take a small piece of the flower and stick it behind my ear. Every time.  

In Moab, the desert is sprinkled with Indian Paintbrush. Every time I saw one while we were out on the trails I had an urge to get out of the Jeep and take a picture.  After the first twenty, I started to realize that it was a little excessive, so I stopped.  It's funny how the little things in life make you remember the ones that we've lost.  To anyone else it's just a little red flower, but to me it's so much more than that.  It's like having a little piece of her there.

Inconsistencies

Last night after Brett got home from work we decided it was time for a snack, so we headed off to Smith's Marketplace down the street from our house. Brett grabbed a six pack and I got some ice cream. Quick trip to the store, and we'd be on our way in a matter of minutes.

Or not.

We got up to the self check out to pay, and when the machine prompted, the cashier working in that area came over to check Brett's ID. After handing his ID to her, she turned to me and asked for mine as well. I told her that I didn't have my ID with me, and she quickly advised us that she could not sell us the beer if we didn't both have our drivers licenses with us.

In the three years that this store has been open, we have never had this problem. Usually they ask the person who is purchasing the beer and that is it. In a few instances I have even been by myself buying beer and the cashier has not asked me for my ID at all. When we brought this to the cashiers attention she still wouldn't budge.

Management was involved and the cashier and managers that we were speaking with kept referring to the fact that they couldn't sell the beer to us due to a state law that prohibited it if we didn't both have ID.

We ended up leaving, sans beer, to go home and get my ID so that I could abide by their rules and prove that I was, in fact, old enough to buy beer.

We wouldn't want to break any laws now, would we?

Upon returning to the store after retrieving my ID, we gathered our items again and headed back up to the front to pay. When we got up to the cash registers, we chose another line to go through so that we didn't have to talk to the previous cashier again. She had been a real bitch, and I wasn't in the mood to hear more of her shit.

We put the beer and ice cream on the belt and waited our turn to pay. When we approached the register we were greeted by the new cashier and she began ringing up our items. She asked Brett for his ID and then continued to ring us up. Without asking me for my ID.

Before the transaction was complete, the cashiers phone rang. When she picked it up, we knew exactly what was happening. The managers that we had spoken with earlier, who were standing up at the front of the store, were apparently panicking because they knew that she hadn't ID'd both of us.

I was so pissed. I had gone home, and come back to the store because I was assured that there was no other way for us to leave that store with a six pack in hand.

Then the new cashier went ahead and totally proved us right.

As mad as I was that they had wasted 45 minutes out of my day, I couldn't have been happier with the outcome. We ended up taking the phone number of their store director and you better believe that he will be hearing about the way that we were treated by his employees.

Music in my soul

Last night we met up with Chaz and Shay downtown for the U2 concert. 

When we walked into the stadium, the stage was so massive that it took my breath away.

Not only was their stage enormous, but the colors on the whole thing changed for every song they sang and the big circular screen in the middle was on tracks moving up and down for the latter half the show. The visual of it all was so amazing.

It's a Beautiful Day

Tonight we will be joining Chaz and Shay for the U2 concert.

I have always liked U2, but I wouldn't say that I'm a die hard fan. It just seems like one of those shows that I would regret passing up. From what I have heard, they put in an amazing performance and I am so excited to see it.

It also doesn't hurt that The Fray, who I happen to love, is their opening act.

Mashed Potato

We went on a trail called the mashed potato on our second day in Moab.  I thought that it was a really fun trail, but the ass end of my Jeep would probably disagree with me.  There were so many steep spots to go down, that I had a hard time not slamming my hitch on the rocks as we would come off of them.  I even got a small dent in my tail pipe.  I've gotta tell you, when we bought this Jeep we had every intention of making a rock crawler out of her, but it made me cringe every time I heard the sound of metal grinding on rock.

I will learn to get over it, I'm sure.  

I know that I have said this about twelve thousand times already, but the pictures just don't do it justice!  Watching Chaz maneuver over these massive rocks was purely amazing.  I cannot wait for the day that Millie can do half the shit Culpepper does.  I was in awe the whole time we were there about what these vehicles are capable of.  

A friend of Mike's came down with his girlfriend, Newland and they rented a Jeep for a few days.  He looks just like Dexter, and that is all Shay and I were calling him the whole time they were there.  To this day I can honestly tell you that I have no clue what his real name is.  Is that rude?  Sorry Dexter.

Also, do you have any idea how hard it is to get a picture with 8 adults looking at the camera at the same time?  It's impossible.  That's why one or more of us is looking the wrong way in every attempt we made.  This was the best we could do.

Phone Etiquette

I work in a job where I am on the phone all day.  The one prominent thing that I have learned from working in this field is that there are a lot of people who don't have very good phone etiquette.  A lot.

Here are some pointers for you if you are one of these people:

1. If you are calling someone on the phone, don't stick food in your mouth right before they pick up.  It's gross.
2. If you are talking to someone on the phone, and they are in the middle of a sentence, let them finish what they have to say before you start talking.  Cutting people off is fucking rude.
3. Don't breath heavy into the phone.
4. Don't start your conversation off by yelling at the person who picked up the phone.  Chances are, whatever you are pissed off about is not their fault.
5. Don't have side conversations with your co-workers.
6. If you called me, don't put me on hold right after I answer the phone.

This shit happens on a daily basis.