Bad blogger

So, I've been back from vacation for a week or so, well, last weekend was practically non-stop so I guess the vacation was over once work started on Tuesday, so I've only been back for three days. Now, I have a problem. I don't have pictures to share today. But, I'll give you the quick rundown in ten bullets before posting with pictures sometime in the near future.

1. Spent three and a half days, four nights at Yosemite National Park. I really love it there. And if it didn't sound quite so cheesy, I'd tell you it was like home.
2. Got a Kindle for my birthday. I love books and somewhat mourn the loss of not having the actual book, but it's so convenient for the gym it's worth it. (I like reading while I work out. When I worked out at the YMCA in Eugene they had these book holder things that were really fantastic. Bally's in DC doesn't have them and my reading quantity has gone down a lot.) 
3. Decided to read the Chronicles of Narnia since a.) I've never read them and b.) my cousin's seven year old daughter just finished reading them all. Finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on the plane and downloaded Prince Caspian a few days ago.
4. Roommates threw me and roommate Katie a joint birthday party Friday evening after returning from California. I will post pictures. We had a photo wall.
5. Went to the DC 4th of July concert dress rehearsal on Saturday night. David Archuleta sang the national anthem. The funniest part however was when we expected to see Gladys Knight and our came some white woman lip-syncing her songs. Guess Gladys needed to make sure she hit up church Sunday morning before jetting off to sing for the country.
6. Sat outside the Lincoln waiting for fireworks on Sunday. We played cards (Golf) and "what-if".
7. Best fireworks I've ever seen. They were RIGHT over us! And the finale seemed to go on forever. I was so glad we were right there to see them!
8. Went to Lake Anna with Shannon, Lisa and Debbie. I could hardly move the next day from holding on so tight to the tubes.
9. Well, I guess I only have nine things really, well, I could have written more about Yosemite, but I'm going to write a post dedicated to that. But, what is next is definitely the most exciting. (drum roll.....) Jess and Michael B announced their engagement in Yosemite! The immediate family knew it was happening, but they chose a date: September 4. It's perfect, right after Cami comes home from her mission, a long weekend, and right before Emma leaves for her mission. Here, I'll leave you with a picture. That can be number ten.
10.  

Dream Jobs

If you've ever talked to me (or an female member of my family for that matter) as summer comes around you will know that we LOVE weddings. Seriously love them. I may or may not read a few wedding blogs daily and I have decided a few dream jobs for me would involve the wedding world.

Dream Jobs:

1. Wedding planner
2. Wedding inspiration giver (that I just made up myself, but it sounds pretty nice)
3. Art museum tour guide (obviously not surrounding weddings, BUT, people do have their receptions at museums sometimes...)

Ok, there is a few because I want to get to the most exciting part about this little blog post. Last night as I was driving home from the airport having spent the last seven hours of my day traveling from Portland Oregon back to Washington DC (and it was waaaaay past my bedtime) but, I got a text wondering if I was still up, I gave my answer, which resulted in a phone call from Liz telling me she was engaged! You can read the story HERE on Mark's blog (and I think you should. It's totally worth it).

(Thanks Mark for letting me steal your picture. I just can't resist a fantastic picture of my lovely Liz looking so pretty!)

Anyway, what does Liz getting engaged really have to do with my dream jobs?? Well, nothing. Except, LIZ, give me a few details (ie, colors, venue, date, you know, the usual) so I can start scouring the wedding blogs and fantastic other things online and I can feel like a really awesome wedding planner!

PS- A long long time ago in November I once posted a video created by a guy in New York who had taken my dear Liz out on a few dates. I posted the video with the comment, "Created by Mark Weinberg (who I don't know, but might someday...)" well, now he's marrying Liz. So maybe I should add Wish-Maker-come-true-er to my dream jobs. (Though maybe it would have to be my wish coming true... Any takers?)

Nightmare

I think we can all agree that I'm a bit of a spazz. I had a nightmare this morning. I tossed and turned stressed out about the dream I was having but couldn't bring myself to wake up from it because I, 1) wanted to see what was going to happen and 2) wanted to keep sleeping through the howling wind and ringing wind chimes the neighbors have. (I knew if I woke myself up I wouldn't get back to sleep and I had stayed up too late last night watching Women's Figure Skating.)

So why was I stressed about the dream? I dreamt I was getting married but there were two major problems.

Problem #1. I wasn't getting married in the temple. I was getting married in a carpeted LDS church cultural hall.
Problem #2. I didn't know who I was getting married to.

Now you see where the nightmare begins. So I show up to the church and receive a cold reception from my family. My parents are fake happy, giving me hugs and so are my friends. I don't even know if my sisters are there. My parents have tears in their eyes. I see sitting in the audience all the boys I ever liked. And they're all sitting with their wives. The wedding felt more like a funeral than the happy, joyous occasion it should be. I feel anxious and sad.

Next thing I know (because it's a dream and they change really fast without explanation), I'm married but I still don't know who my new husband is. Everyone is sitting around in a big circle in the cultural hall and ignoring the fact that I'm married. I'm avoiding the room trying to find anywhere to go but in there. I'm stressed out and confused and sad. I finally come back to where everyone is because I have to know who my husband is. When I get in there, there are two empty metal folding church chairs set up next to each other. I come in and say, "Where is my husband?" Next thing I know, an old man (like 60 or something) gets up and walks over to the chairs and sits down. He motions for me to sit next to him. And I knew then that he was my husband.

(Cue screaming)

I woke up to my alarm, feeling sick to my stomach, relieved that it was only a dream, but still agitated. I laid in bed for a bit, breathed and got up and in the shower.

Though even now as I think of this ridiculous dream it still gives me anxiety. Why couldn't I have had a crazy dream like my roommate Katie who sold pot to Shaun White? That would have been a lot more interesting, and less stressful!

Scarab Power

At Karnak Temple in Luxor Egypt there's a giant scarab that apparently brings marriage if you walk around it enough times, fertility if you walk around it an extra. (Unfortunately I can't remember the exact numbers.)

So, of course we walked around it! Here's Mandi, me and Tricia showing off that we'll soon be engaged.

Before going to Egypt we were given strict instructions to always have a male present in our group. When we went to the market they wanted each small group to have two males. One in the lead and one in the rear. This was to help us be protected from gropers. One night we went to Pizza Hut. Yep, Pizza Hut. There's something about Pizza Hut in a foriegn country that is just so goooood. So, we take a taxi to the Pizza Hut. Oh yeah, and if we were going to take a taxi the male was supposed to be the last one out of the taxi. So, we pull up to the restaurant. I'm sliding across the back seat of the car and the guy in the front seat starts to get out. I'm a rule follower so I start getting nervous and in the 15 seconds it takes me to keep sliding across my seat and keep my skirt down modestly I have a million senarios of the taxi pulling away with me still in the car, the door flapping wildly as we drive down the road. My underwear on display as I'm thrown wildly about the backseat. That's about as far as my imagination got before I was at the door and getting out of the car.

Here's where the story gets good.

As I'm getting out of the car, a man runs up to me asking for money. I feel something touch my boob. (Yep I just wrote boob.) I look down and just see the guy's stump of an arm near my chest before two friends wisk me away and into the restaurant. I don't really know what happened. It all happened too fast for me to have felt truely violated. But as we get up to the Pizza Hut there are people from our group already there and it is announced that I was "nubbed".

Nubbed?

Yep, nubbed.

Everybody wants to know how I'm feeling. They want to know if I'm feeling violated or embarassed etc. Honestly, it happened so fast I didn't hardly notice. I doubted that the nubbing was an intentional act, but witnesses swear that the nubbing was on purpose.

What does this story have to do with Scarab Power you want to know? Well. A month or so ago Tricia, Mandi and I had the following Facebook conversation about the Scarab:

Tricia: "How is it that we are all still unmarried... So much for the Scarab"

Lauren: "Maybe it only works if you're going to marry an Egyptian. I got TONS of proposals while there. I guess it does work...

Mandi: "Well here's the thing...I don't know if you remember but we got really sweaty while we were gone, maybe we sweat out all the wedding luck. Just a theory."

Tricia: "Scarab power---->nubbing"

Mandi: "Hahaha NUBBING! Wow. Sorry you wasted that power on the nub."

Lauren: "I could have used some of that scarab power now that I'm in the big bad world. Why me? All ruined on some stupid nub. And it wasn't even a real good nub, just a sort of nub..."

Maybe you don't think that's funny. I do. I was nubbed. I wasted all my husband getting luck on a stupid nubbing from a guys nub of an arm. So tragic really! But, good to know that the scarab power does work right??

(On a side note, I have pictures to post from Halloween. My roommates and I went as characters from the Wizard of Oz. We looked great!)

** Picture curtesy of Tricia's Facebook Album

Weddings

I like weddings. Actually, I LOVE weddings. I read wedding blogs. I browse photographer's blogs. I have a folder on my computer desktop for wedding ideas. I attend multiple weddings a year and if I don't attend the actual wedding, I go to the reception, and if I wasn't there for the reception I made it to the bridal shower or some other wedding thing. This year alone, I have gone to at least 10, I missed one because it was one of my first weeks out here in DC, and I will be going to my cousin's wedding in December. So, because of my wedding love I'd like to share some of the favorite things I've seen from wedding blogs this year.

Don't like weddings? Go to your next blog now.

1. I love this one because of the colors. I really like the square yellow flower thing too, you know, the one with the owl sitting on top.

2. I love the treehouse in this one, and the overall forest feel. I think it's my Northwest roots.

3. The flowers and different glass jars really stand out in this one. And make me happy.

4. These pictures are really cool. I like the fair. I missed the fair this year. (It was rained out.)

5. And lastly, this wedding is my friend Megan's, the wedding I missed. I want her photographer and I also happen to be related to the florist (my sister Emma).

I have lots of other things I would post, but some people just don't want to keep clicking link after link, and if you have a slow computer like my lovely government purchased IBM it runs slow and having too many windows open really complicates things.

So, happy perusing. I sort of feel like I'm on the Wedding Planner, the girl who doesn't have marriage prospects, but still has her life revolve around them. (I don't so much have the life revolving around part, but I do really like them.) Is that pathetic?

Maybe I'll share my thoughts on rings someday. That way, if I ever do have a beau who could turn into a fiance and he asks what type of rings I like I can just say, "Please refer to my blog, Month, Day, Year. It's entitled something like, Rings Lauren's Future Fiance Should Highly Consider Buying..." Maybe that can be a post for another slow afternoon.