Mmm Haaalloweeeen!

My favorite part of Halloween is the abundance of these puppies:

And I just ate a million of them!

Oops!

Long-winded

I talk a lot. I've always talked a lot. Home videos show me talking a lot. Kindergarten Native American teaching units gave me my "Indian name" of Little-Babbling Brook (evidence of me talking a lot). I had my name on the board frequently for talking during class in Elementary school. (And once, I got a check next to my name and had to stay in during recess because my name was already on the board for talking and then I stuck my tongue out at Aaron Beach--next door neighbor and fastest boy in the class-- while he was passing out worksheets.) Two years in a row I was voted "Most Talkative" in my 4th/5th grade combined classes. Report cards frequently had the comment, "Fun to have in class" followed with, "Has a talking problem". Middle school found me frequently being called on because I was talking. By high school I had learned to keep my comments under my breath so I wouldn't get called on or so no attention came my way.

I never caused real disruption to the whole class. Actually, the teacher calling me out during the lesson was probably more disruption than the actual whispering I was doing caused. I wasn't a bad kid. I was a good kid. I loved all my elementary school teachers. (Mrs. Henry, Mrs. Stark, Ms. Nissel, Mrs. Good, Mr. Asmos, Ms. Ficke)

I just had a lot to say!

If you know me well, you know I frequently talk. I talk during church, during meetings, during meals, during commutes to and from work. I talk all day long in typing form. I just talk a lot.

It's a problem. I will often realize I'm talking a lot and try to reel it in. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

There's a guy in my office who talks a lot. He give waaaaay too much information in our meetings. It's annoying. I find myself day dreaming and then realizing that he's still talking when I come to. I have to edit some information that he sent out. It should be one page or so, he gave me four. I'm annoyed.

Now I know how people feel when they read long blog posts. Or long emails. Or have to sit in a conversation with me when I feel like I'm talking and talking and talking. I really have to learn how to reel it in otherwise I'm going to be like this guy from work! (Well, perhaps not since I'm not quite so monotone and don't ever talk about agriculture and trade...)

Note to self

Look in the mirror more.

I got home from work today (yep I went to work. I'm not feeling sick anymore. Hallelujah!) and found that I had a piece of black something in between my right front tooth and the one next to me. I'm smiley. I smile a lot. I smiled all afternoon. No one told me.

No. One.

So, I will have to up the vanity and look in the mirror more.

I'm sick

and I'm worried I won't be better for work tomorrow. I have body aches, a headache, a sore throat, and a cough. I fear I might have other symptoms too by the way my stomach feels right now. Work is still a necessity since I already have planned days to take off at Christmas and I haven't exactly accrued enough days to take off. Not fun. My roommate just told me I have Swine Flu. I'm nervous.

Worst part about the whole being sick thing? I was going to make Banana Pudding and give it away. I can't now.

My want-er isn't broken

My dad frequently tells me I need to break my want-er.

Wanter: (n.) The part of the brain that turns something unnecessary into a necessity.

This is illustrated by my somewhat frivolous purchases of the past.

Example A:
When I had my first overseas, no family experience (Vienna) I went crazy on buying things. I found myself buying things I didn't need: glass flowers while on a trip to Venice; a knitted shawl poncho thing; fairy wings (Halloween, but I didn't take them home, so clearly not needed); scarves in every city visited; and lots more that I'm getting embarrassed as I write.

Example B:
When I was on my mission it was so cold that first winter I went out and bought practically the first full length down coat I could find. (It looked like a sleeping back with a head hole and sleeves.) I also bought boots. These boots were wool lined and had cute faux fur trim on the top. There were even little tassle things that swished around when I walked. I've provided a picture so you can get the full idea:

Great boots right? So, I'm fully set for my winter clothes for two whole winters right? Wrong. I bought another coat and another pair of boots the next winter because it wasn't as cold and I wanted to look cuter. (I realized about three months into my mission that Eddie Bauer clothes were not ok to wear on a mission because I looked like a dorky middle aged lady.) I started frequenting H&M on P-days.

Although I'm getting better. I learned this while in Jerusalem and had to suffer the consequences.

So, I need to fix my wanter.

ut before I do that, I want a new camera. I neeeed a new camera. This is because I want to post beautiful pictures on this here blog. I have a problem, I want a nice one. I want one that's going to take beautiful pictures. I want one that has cool features. I want one that might require me to take a class to learn how to use. Is that so very picky of me? My sister Emma is in Europe right now. She got a new camera before she went because one of the classes she gets to take is a photography class. She takes beautiful pictures. Like this:

She has this camera. I want it.

Buuuut, I also want this:

or this:

or this:

So, does the fact that I'm not going to get both (...yet) mean I've broke my wanter?

Probably not, but it's a start, right?

AGAIN??

Here we go, another thought about my mission. I understand you're sick of it by now, but I'm going to post anyway.

I think about my mission a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I wonder if it's abnormal. I don't remember thinking/talking about it as much as I do when I was at BYU, but for some reason it's always at the front of my mind. I think it's probably because I have two sisters on missions and I'm so proud of them and think of them often. But today I was on Facebook and up on my Newsfeed popped an album update from a girl who just got back from Poland. I met her before she left. She knew my sister's roommate's brother and we were invited over for dinner to talk about Poland and get her excited about serving a mission there. Today as I looked through her pictures I had an overwhelming sense of jealousy when I saw all the pictures with missionaries.

Now, I loved my mission-- (You all know that.) I loved the members. I loved the missionaries. I loved my companions. Oh how I loved my wonderful companions. All of them. I didn't get a single bad one. Really. I have to be the single most luckiest person alive. That and both Heavenly Father and the mission president knew I'd be a terribly depressed/bad worker if I had bad companions-- But, a few weeks ago in church I looked at the sister missionaries with their long skirts, faded button up shirts, dorky looking blazers, nylons and ugly shoes and thought, "I am so glad I'm not a missionary anymore."

But today as I looked through the pictures from this girl's mission I wanted to go back. I wanted to go back to P-days spent figuring out what we were going to do that day in a crowded internet cafe. I wanted to go back to shopping at Tesco and discovering new flavors of yogurt or good cereal combinations. I wanted to go back to P-days spent watching Disney movies at the chapel and hanging out with the district at the elders' apartment with pizza. I wanted to go back to Zone Conference "Buki Breaks" and Sister Sleepovers. I wanted to go back to P-day trips to Krakow, Concentration Camps, castles, walled cities and the sea. I wanted to go back to a time where I had a strong spiritual connection with all my friends.

I'm glad I'm not on a mission right now. I have new things to experience and love, but for those moments, I wanted to be back on my mission.

(And to Marie, I'm sorry for posting a picture of the sea, but I'm glad you went there so I don't feel too bad about it. Love you girl!)

Public Transportation

This morning as I stood in the rain with my umbrella waiting for the bus I realized I was singing "Belly Up to the Bar" in my head. Do you know this song? You can watch this clip if you don't. But, fast forward to 3:14 if you want to just watch the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" part. The line that kept going in my head was, "Ooonly drink when you're all alone or with somebody else! Belly Up! Belly Up to the bar boys! Better loosen your belts!"

So I'm standing there waiting for the bus with "Belly Up to the Bar" stuck in my head and I'm having the urge to dance around. Maybe the fact that I'm wearing a dress that has a full skirt, with boots made me feel like Molly in the bar scene, I don't know. But I wanted to full on dance and sing that song at the top of my lungs. (You'll be disappointed to know I didn't.)

Anyway, I'm standing there waiting for the bus. I realize that the bus is not only late, but I haven't seen any of the other buses come by and I'm wondering if there was some kind of bus strike or something and if I was going to have to go home and beg my roommate to take me to the Metro Stop. Right as I'm thinking this I see the 10A come up. (Now, the 10A will take me to a Metro Stop, it will also take about twenty bus stops longer to get there than the 10E. My problem is, the 10A and the 10E come to different bus stops. They're close together, but not quite close enough that it's a quick cross the street or something.)

So, quick recap: 10A at stoplight. I decide real fast that I don't want to wait for the 10E. I start running.

There I am, running down the sidewalk trying to keep my umbrella steady my red tight-ed legs going as fast as they can since I DO NOT want to miss this bus, when I see the 10E pull up behind the 10A. I stop and quickly turn around and run back to the bus stop.

Ok, I know buses have windows, and I know people don't have anything to do when stopped at a red light but look out the windows, but in my mind, I was pretty sure no one saw my dorky little sprint down the street, about face, and run back. Nope, no so. I get on the bus and see a guy who's frequently on it and he comments on my little run to the bus. I had figured that at least no one on my bus would see me. (Maybe the 10A, but definitely not the 10E.) Then I find out that other friends were on the 10A and they saw me run to the bus too.

Great.

So this morning I provided two entire buses with entertainment this morning with my split second decision making skills.

Clutz

I just did three really clutzy things within the span of 15 minutes. All of which were unfortunately enjoyed by me and me alone.

1. I'm really busy today (except for the 5 minutes I'm taking to write this post) and had to run down to get lunch really fast and eat it at my desk. So, as I'm getting off the elevator, I trip. I don't know how you trip on flat ground, but I did.
2. I eat my lunch quickly and run back to the copy machine to make about 300 copies of a huge binder for three other people. I'm in the midst of copying when I look down and I have a full on dribble of sauce from my sandwich running down the buttons of my white button-up shirt.
3. Since I made so many copies I used all the paper and had to refill it. I opened a new reem of paper and practically slice my pointer finger off. There were blood spots on the brand new paper.

Anyway, I thought I'd share. They were funny at the time, but now my foot really hurts from my stubbed toe. And I have to go clean my shirt. And I can't type without feeling my paper cut.

Gosh. Life is tough!

Ugly Naked Men

Have you seen Friends? Watch this video if you want a refresher and a laugh:

Well, we're in NYC this weekend staying with two dear girls, Erin and Andrea, who have kindly let us stay in their apartment despite being out of town. Last night while looking out the window I found myself looking at the bare-naked butt of a random stranger. And I felt like I was on Friends and staring at Ugly Naked Guy. I ran away from the window saying, "He's naked! He's naked!"

Then we all had a good laugh and were awkward for feeling like Peeping Tammys.

Gone.

I decided to remove my "rings" post.

Singledom and Dogs

(This is Ellie in our family backyard. Photo compliments of Emma.)

So, I promised a post about rings I like but I'm having technical difficulties and thought I'd share another thought first.

I love weddings. And I love things that surround it. But I sometimes don't think that my own wedding will happen as soon as I'd like. Last week, I had a friend from my mission offer to be my "back-up" if I wasn't married by 40. I might have to take him up on it at the rate I'm going! (That makes me sound like I'm desperate, or distraught that I'm not married yet, I'm really not! I couldn't have done all the things I've done if I was married, but the thought is always there in the back of my mind. I'm 25 and I'm not even close to getting married...)

Yesterday on my run I thought, “If I don’t get married by the time I’m 32, I’m getting a dog. “ Then I thought, “and since I'll be alone and having to work I’ll have to get a dog walker… I bet someone in the single's ward would do it..." I think it’s a great idea.

Buuuut I hope I find someone to love and someone to be loved by before then.

And then WE can get a dog!

Absolute Productivity

I had a VERY productive weekend. Here is what I accomplished:

1. Initial cleaning of room. Remember when I posted about THIS? Well, I got home from work Wednesday and my new room was so much worse than that ever was! How could it be worse? It was, believe you me! My new room is bigger, so there is more room to have clothes strewn about. But in my defense, I didn't have a dresser and didn't have anywhere to put my things. (But, I really did look at my room and think that someone must have gone through my closet and thrown everything all over the room!)
2. Got my new lamps put together
3. Put together my new five drawer black dresser I bought Thursday night at IKEA. Want to see which one? Go HERE.
4. Listened to General Conference while I cleaned and put together. It was wonderful.
5. Had people over for soup. I made Thai Pumpkin. I found the recipe HERE a long time ago (long time ago meaning before my mission) and have been wanting to try it again. But, on a side note, as I searched for the recipe for my link I think I found some other ones that could be better. That's because if I ever see anything with coconut in it I'm inclined to think it will be absolutely delightful. I might try THIS one or THIS one in the future.
6. Dance party while we did the dishes. New guilty pleasure song: Party in the USA
7. Watched Some Like It Hot with my roommates.
8. Cleaned, cleaned, cleaned my room. I put the clothes from the box (a BIG box) my mom sent away in my dresser or moved clothes from the closet into the dresser. I washed sheets and clothes. I swept the floor too.
9. Rearranged the paintings on my walls
10. Cleaned the bathroom
11. Folded my clean laundry

I would say it sounds like a productive weekend. Pictures to come of my room when I have it where I want. (But unfortunately I didn't take a "before" picture.) On my to-do-list now? Find a chair, chaise or some kind of seating furniture. It's going to be great.

HUH??

I woke up this morning with a plugged ear.

I figured I just had an excessive amount of ear wax or something gross like that. So I tried to clean it out with a Q-tip. Nothing. It was clean.

I feel like I'm under water. And I feel like I have to talk extra loud so I can hear myself. (I really hope I'm talking normal though.)

But the problem is I still can't hear and it's the ear that faces the front of my desk. So when people come to talk to me I have to turn my whole head so I can listen, so I don't look at them as say "huh?"

Major problem.

But, I'm feeling more for all those who are hard of hearing.

I give you my sympathy!