Food XXI

I'm super excited: My mom's birthday is tomorrow (Fri) and I'm taking her to Melting Pot! Neither of us have been but we're so excited to try it! Anyone been? Favorite things? Things to avoid? Things to pig out on?

Ugh

Okay, so I really try to not whine and complain, but I'm gonna for a sentence here: I've got food poisoning. And boo. It sucks.

/complaining

iBad

I've been housesitting for some of my favorite people. I thought I was doing a fantastic job. And then I realized, I may have forgotten a certain strip of plants in my watering duties. Images in picture have been changed to protect actual plants from further embarrassment.

Fluhman Rocks

Y'all know how much I loved Brother Fluhman and his classes up at school. I recorded his lectures, transcribed them, and still listen to them to this day. Here is my very favorite off-the-cuff intro he did once; Nancy should appreciate this one since she was there. =) He was talking about how men and women have different definitions of "doing one's hair" and how they discussed this at length in one of his sections. Brooke, cue the Fluhman voice. Go.

"We found that men and women have very different ideas about what that verb entails with regard to hair. It took us some considerable time to chase this down. Apparently for the majority of the women in the class, doing one's hair involves an electrical implement of some sort, and probably product, and considerable time. So one gal had her hair braided, pony tail, fancy, weaving in and out, as braids tend to do. And I said, "Well, you did your hair." And she said, "No." Like, "You're an idiot. You're crazy." I don't wake up with my hair in this perfect weave formation! But see, I didn't know. I didn't know. Because she didn't blow dry or straighten or . . . there's something else. Curl! DID ANY GUY ANSWER THAT?!

"Don't look at me. Same haircut since 1992. But it was interesting to see how people define that. And we took more time than I thought, but I could not follow what they were saying. I could not figure out. She said she had not done her hair, but it was very, very fancy."

Movie Theater Genius

Last night I went to see the Emma movie with Heather. As my bladder is the size of a pea, I had to leave during the movie to use the restroom. That didn't turn out to be a bad thing: I walked into the restroom and it smelled like men's cologne! (I didn't walk into the wrong restroom, I assure you) I was pretty much in heaven. Anyone who's lived with me or been around me long enough knows I have a deep, deep love for men's cologne; a man can't wear too much. I remember worrying that people would think a boy had been in my room up at school, only to realize that I'd just sprayed some cologne myself, for my own enjoyment.

I'm such a dork, I know.

We Need Men

After spotting yet ANOTHER Black Widow spider tonight (is that six or seven this summer?), I called up my favorite ChemicalMan, Mr. John Cardall. He's ChemicalMan because he owns a pool-cleaning company that has franchises in the western states, and he's that guy who's out spraying the lawn/house/whatever pretty much weekly with whatever gets the job done. He's also an adopted dad to me, willing to chat about the Lakers and Jazz or the recent Conference address. Guy's a stud.

I answered the door, and he said, "Okay, let's kill stuff. I brought this awesome foam spider killer. They don't stand a chance. It's almost not fair."

Seriously. We need men. We need men to slay our dragons, and spiders are my dragons.

iSmooth

I may or may not have fallen into the toilet bowl today. I may or may not have left the lid up after cleaning said toilet bowl. Thank heavens said toilet bowl was clean.

Liz 2.0

Lyndsey let me tag along last night, visiting her sister and her family up in Tustin. I adored the woman, and a big part of the adoration is because she reminds me SO much of Liz--how fun is that?! I can't get my daily/weekly in-person Liz fix down here in CA, so I'll take whatever clones I can. =) She's got Liz's fantastic facial expressions, as well as classic one-liners--I was seriously in heaven! I didn't catch any super-delayed laughs, though . . .

iSad

I’ve had a pretty rough couple of weeks. You all know how much I love my job and the CEO and the people there—it’s been such a fantastic place to work and learn! Last week a couple board members had us stick around until a 6:15pm meeting (which ended at, what, 8:00pm?) to tell us they were essentially booting our beloved President/CEO/Founder and inserting their own guy (whom we’d all met and, frankly, couldn’t stand) into the position.

There’s been TONS of drama since that point, pretty much none of it good, and work has become pretty miserable. Graham (President/CEO/Founder) quit last week, I quit on Wednesday, and the network guy quit today; one more person is quitting on Tuesday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more follow next week, as well. I have no idea how the company’s going to survive without all of us, but we can’t survive without Graham and with this new guy in there—it was dreadful!

It’s amazing what a difference ONE person can make. The office was so fun and light and lively and supportive with Graham around—and there was always good food. With UghMan, it was boring and pissy and we were on edge all the time, and we always felt like we were being manipulated or pitted against each other. So sad!

I’ve pretty much been a wreck for these two weeks, barely sleeping, and thus being super emotional because I haven’t been sleeping. (I have been eating well, which everyone else at the office, sadly, hasn’t been able to claim) Luckily, I’ve got several fantastic friends: Cute Lyndsey came over during my worst days and got me out of the house—and shopping, no less (MissKerry, you’d be so proud!); Wendy did her usual fantastic checking-in/deep-thoughts conversations; and Kobe was his usual sweet/spazzy self. I had him sleep in my room with me during the roughest nights, and he’d snore like nothing was wrong—it was fantastic!

No Title Needed Here

LittleSister is heading back to Provo soon, so we decided to go to PF Chang's before she left. We were both starving, and I've had a horrible week, so we went all out: Chang's Spicy Chicken, Pepper Steak, Crispy Honey Shrimp, Buddha's Feast, and yes, the Great Wall of Chocolate. We had maybe three bites of leftovers. It was awesome.

Practice Makes Perfect

The other day I got so severely cut off on the freeway that I almost hit the car, and I got really mad. Thinking, "My co-workers would be so proud of me if I could be proficient at flipping the bird," I thought I'd try one on my own, just to myself, to see if I could do it.

I was horrible at it. Good thing, because I'd probably never have the guts to actually do it.

Fluhman*10

Christa came up to me at church yesterday and put this flyer in front of my face. It was a golden flyer. "Evangelical/Mormon Conversation with Dr. Robert Millet, Dr. Spencer Fluhman (!), Pastor Greg Johnson, and Pastor . . . I forget his name"

SUPER COOL!

I'll write more about it later, but as a quick intro, Brother Fluhman was my FAVORITE professor at BYU--I took five classes from him! Absolutely amazing. I recorded all of his lectures and I still listen to them.

Pastor Greg went first and Brother Fluhman was up on the stage--a rock-star stage, really, with two huge big screens behind them--listening until it was his turn. The first words out of his mouth when it was his turn?

"When Pastor Greg was speaking, I saw out of the corner of my eye this big screen behind us with my huge face on it. I apologize for THAT."

I miss The Fluhman.

Hypocrite

So y'all know how much I hate texting. And how I'm super anal about cell phones in church and all that. You know, Brother Barry's, "Don't bring your gun to church" thing.

Last Sunday I went with Mom to her ward because we were heading down to San Diego to visit some family, and we wanted to get an earlier start. I'm not always awake at 9:30 am, much less at church at 9:30 am, but I was with Mom at her ward, when, during the opening prayer (by a temple sealer, no less!), my phone rings.

SNAP!

I knew I couldn't dig into my purse and silence it nearly quickly enough, so I picked up my purse and ran out the door. Luckily, I was just a couple seats from the door, so I was super fast. But man . . .

At the very least my ring wasn't Super Mario Bros. Can you imagine? A 26-year-old recent BYU grad running out of Sacrament Meeting to silence her Super Mario Bros-themed ringtone?

Full House

I don't quite remember the context of this conversation my mom and I had this past week (maybe she was trying to stuff more clothes in one of her two already-full closets?), but she was on a roll:

“I don’t know how four people lived in this house: it’s BARELY big enough for one."

Pause. (and quick p.s. is she hinting? =))

"It would be funny if it weren’t true."

Another pause.

"We just need another wing.”

As though we have *a* wing.

"Love Means Nothing"

I have this fantastic t-shirt that says "Love Means Nothing" on it. I wore it Saturday night when a few of us went to CPK for dinner, and Heather said something like, "Gee, you're kinda bitter." I was shocked!

Apparently, she didn't quite get the clever sports joke behind the t-shirt. The O in Love is a tennis ball--it's pink, not flourescent yellow-green--so it's essentially tennis humor.

Maybe tennis humor isn't funny, but I love my clever t-shirt.

They're Baaaaaaaaaack!

The crickets are back. We are camping once again.

Socks

Yesterday I opened my sock drawer to pull out some ankle socks so I could take Kobe to the park in high style. But there were none in the drawer--they were all dirty! There is only one solution to this: Buy more socks.

I *heart* my job.

The company, minus yours truly, is in Boston right now at a conference. I'm working from home today, and I got this and a "Thinking of You" balloon from my friends (co-workers) at CitizenHawk: "Hey Laura, We all miss you at the show. Looking forward to seeing you back at the office. Have a great day!" Awww! I love these guys!

Memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. Or four or five. (really, just one, unless you feel so inclined)

2. Post this on your blog and see how many people leave a memory of you! If you leave a memory about me, I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

I'm a Blue and this stuff is fun, so humor me. =)

iCaved

iCaved today and got an iPhone. My boss offered it to me a month or so ago, and I thought, I don't need it--I already have a phone! But iCaved. I'm still keeping my other cell phone, the number, and Verizon (I have too many great friends and family members I spend a good chunk of time with who are on Verizon), but the CEO offered an iPhone either in place of, or in addition to, my current phone. So it's in addition to.

iLove it so far. iM not gonna lie. iT's pretty fun.

But really? Now I have what's essentially four iPods. Seriously.