Happy Birthday, Matt!!!!

River run down the Snake River. Family Reunion. Aug 2007

This is my cute brother, Matt. He is the oldest and the wisest of the children. I'm not knockin my siblings. They are all completely brilliant, but Matt carries brilliant to a whole new level. He's off the charts spiritual, kind, humble, happy, helpful, sensitive, tender-hearted, talented, etc. He loves being a husband and a dad before anything else. I'd be lucky to find someone that loves me like Matt loves his family. You deserve the best everything. I hope you feel well celebrated, Matt. I love you. Thanks for being so Matt....nobody does it better. ;) You're incredible.

Matt, Jared, and Me after our river run down the Payette River. I love my cute brothers.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Friday night it started snowing and didn't stop until the evening of the following day. It was really coming down. I went to the temple on Saturday morning and took the above picture while I waited for a parking spot. Everything looked so pretty blanketed with snow. So I get out of my car and I'm headed for the sidewalk. I was wearing some dress boots that have, oh let me think....no traction. Before I know it I'm doing a scooby doo run-feet moving fast but not going anywhere-and I'm on the ground. Please refer to my body print...taken after I came back. There was a woman standing about 4 feet from me when I went down which was nice for sympathy's sake, but not one of my prouder moments. I got up and was completely covered in snow. I was trying to play it off like nothing had happened and I was totally fine. My initial reaction was laughter. Wish someone had been with me that could've laughed about it with me. But then I noticed my hand hurting. I looked down and it was dripping with blood. Sad. It was a pretty thick chunk of skin, so I just left it and rinsed it off. First pic on the left is after a couple band-aids the day it happened. The one on the right is today. It's healing up nicely. ;) Hope you've already eaten.

Tis the Season....Almost

I usually save Christmas decor for the day after Thanksgiving, but our schedules are a little crazy this year. We decided to get our tree up last night. Les, my roommate, has a fake tree that comes already strung with lights. But what happens if the lights don't work? You unstring the tree, buy new lights and restring. Eleven strands of broken lights tied in knots and almost impossible to get off the tree without taking a ton of branches with them. It was quite the process. And may I just say...all the knots those light strands are tied into factory style are unneccessary. Okay, they probably are, but only if the lights never stop working. Needless to say, the light removal was the least fun part. It was a crazy mess, but now it's done and beautiful. Les did the majority of light removal thankfully. I put the lights on the tree and then we added the trimmings. So fun. I love this season.

Man Boobs and Underpants

Do I have your attention? So I'm sitting at my desk on Friday and one of my clients comes over to my desk, seeking an opinion about something. He hesitated before he told me what he needed the opinion about. Then he says, "Do you think I have man boobs?". My immediate reaction was laughter, but then I realized how serious he was. My client continued...he was trying to explain to my receptionist and me what his chest looked like. Matt, my receptionist, was desperate to find a picture in a magazine that my client could compare himself to because we both saw what was coming...and then it came. "Ummmm, actually, Matt-could you come in the back with me and look?" The second they rounded the corner into the back room, with Matt shooting a look at me like, "Please stop this from happening.." I lost it. Full on tears of laughter streaming down my face. I was fortunate enough to be asked back into the back today to look at my clients whole body and tell him where he needed more muscle mass. :/ Thankfully he wore one of those skin tight shirts so it wasn't as awkward for me as it was for Matt. But still.....



Second story from this weekend:

I worked at Banana on Friday in the mens department. An Englishman came in and asked me to stand by while he tried on the stuff that we had picked out for him...because he needed my opinion. He left his door about a foot open as he started to try things on. I thought this was a bit odd, but figured they just did it differently in England. ? I was folding a stack of clothes right outside the entrance to the fitting rooms and before I knew it he was standing in front of me in his underpants telling me he didn't want the jeans afterall, but would give the shirts a try. He talked to me much longer than was comfortable and finally excused himself back to his room because "he was in his underpants and needed to get back to the room before customers came back". Ummm, hello? I'm back here!? Maybe in his mind he was thinking "doctor is to naked body as retail sales girl is to man in underpants....it's just part of the profession". I can assure you that it is not. I tried to act natural as if this was an extremely normal occurrence, though. After ripping off his snap up shirt for me moments later, he was done and ready to purchase. Before Friday I could say I'd never been to a strip show, but I feel like that's all changed. Pretty random. Anyone for a trip to England? I'm kidding. ;) He was a bit of a flirt and in retrospect he might have been coming onto me, but I'm pretty naive about that kind of stuff AND he was married. I assumed it was just an English thing.

The scenery is not made of steel, bud...

My cute friend, Heidi, is the new dance director at Hillcrest High School. Last night was the opening night for their musical, Beauty and the Beast. Heidi's choreography was AWESOME!!! She is amazing. Anyway...the production was great. Just a few little glitches worth mentioning. In one scene, the Beast was leaving the stage in a rage- went swinging around this column and dropped behind the set. After he dropped, so did the column. It was hilarious, but even more hilarious was the guy behind me that said, "Woah, he was ticked!" Heidi said they kept having to tell the Beast that the scenery was not made of steel and he couldn't treat it like it was. Maybe you had to be there, but I was laughing pretty hard. Second favorite part? During Be Our Guest, besides the unbelievable costuming (the aisles were lined with kids dressed up as forks, sugar bowls, whisks, everything kitchen related you could imagine....and dancing in it) , Cogsworth the clock went down on stage and Belle dragged him off by pulling him by his jacket across the floor. I thought it was all part of the show...turns out he sprained his ankle and it gave out on him during that number. I guess I don't remember Belle dragging any bodies in the original. So nice to get the inside scoop on the show, Heidi...it was awesome!! Great job. ;)

The Nebulizer

My roommate, Leslie, has been sick for probably a solid two weeks now. She decided to make a second visit to the Instacare...in hopes for a more thorough doctor the second time around. (first doctor just told her she had a cold...didn't do much more than that.) She was nervous about going by herself because she felt intimidated, so she asked if I'd go with her and be her back up. My role was to push an x-ray if they were refusing to do it. Not sure I have that kind of pull, but whatever...I went. Luckly there was a different doctor there that was very thorough. She said Les sounded really weezey and wanted her to spend about 10-15 minutes on the nebulizer(albuterol treatment...helps with breathing). I would compare it to a breathalizer....but backwards. Instead of blowing, you're sucking in....instead of starting out intoxicated, you're ending in a more intoxicated state-or just extremely jittery. (I actually know nothing about drinking or breathalizer tests. Strongest drink I've ever had is a coke...and even then...I really don't drink carbonation much.) After the nurses wrapped her in blankets she looked like a pipe smoker. For being in an instacare, we were having a pretty good time. Just for your piece of mind, Les did get an x-ray...and given a couple more days she would've had pneumonia. Safety first. You can never be too careful when three inches from a sick girl's face. See how much fun we were having?

After the instacare we headed over to Smiths to pick up Leslie's prescriptions. I noticed they were offering flu shots at Smiths...I also know that if I told myself I could find it cheaper somewhere else, I'd never do it. So I paid my money and sat down to wait for the shot guy. He came out and then panic struck. Not so much about the shot, but about my attire. You see, when Les asked if I'd go with her, she was in a hurry. I wasn't fully clothed so I grabbed a zip up hoodie and ran out the door. It was fine up to the point where the guy asked me to bare my shoulder. "Oh know!" I thought. "I can't just take my sweatshirt off while a million people are strolling around me." I looked at Leslie and said through my teeth..."I can't take this off. What am I going to do?" So, we went into the bathroom and traded shirts. I wore her scrub top and she wore my hoodie. I looked like a dream. Thanks Les...that could've been real awkward.

Does this look more masculine?

My receptionist is hilarious! He moved my car for me a couple times earlier this week and each time he came back it looked like he was trying to hide a can of pepsi he brought back with him. I, of course, started mocking him for trying to hide it....cause frankly, he could bring in a cotton candy machine and eat all day and I wouldn't care. So he started showing me how well he could hide the can as he drank from it. Impressive, ey? I would never have suspected. ?

Today he asked me if I thought it was more masculine to eat a banana from the side. ? He also taught me that monkeys peel and eat bananas from the bottom up...so in case I was ever lost in a jungle and trying to survive I should eat bananas from the bottom so no one would know a human was there.

Pure entertainment with Matt around.

(really bad lighting down here. I live in a yellow world in the alta club.)

Wicked Fun

Happy Halloween! This has been an eventful past week/weekend for me with parties and spooktacular activities-a-plenty. I'll break it down for you.

Friday: Chad, Tad, Brandon and I were the Black Eyed Peas on Friday night. I did our make-up so it looked like we had black eyes...and then we put the blue painters tape on our shirts in the shape of the letter "P". This idea was compliments of my brother Jared. Thanks for the tip. I failed to get a picture of all of us with the P's on our shirts, but I did get a picture of my black eye. I had to run some errands before we went out when my make-up was done. Everyone thought I really had a black eye. I told them it happened at work....that blasted elliptical. So hard to lean down and fix something when those arms are moving back and forth. ;)

Saturday: So I decided to mix it up a little bit tonight. I was Mrs. Incredible (aka: Elastagirl), Ally was Marge Simpson, Leslie was Betty Rubble, Jamie was a nurse, Tad, Dave and Chad were Dominoes. We went to a crazy big party. It was fun. By the way, I'm not with Dave...don't even know him all that well. He's just friendly. (?)

Sunday: I went to church....as myself.

Monday: Still just me. But today I was having the presidencies of the EQ and RS over for a meeting...not per my request....per the Bishops request-I just volunteered my place. So after I volunteered my place I started thinking I'd need to make dinner for everyone, just cause the meeting was going to be at dinner time. I made soup which required yellow onions. I don't think I have ever had such a teary reaction to onions before. By the last onion I couldn't even open my eyes. I was chopping with my eyes closed, just desperate to finish. I rinsed my hands and ran to the bathroom for some recovery time. When I opened my eyes this is what I saw. I realize this photo isn't going to win me any beauty contests, but I thought it was really funny. Soup turned out great. ;)

Tuesday: Tonight I went with Chad to the Salt Lake City Ghost Tour. We rode on a bus for a couple hours going to all the haunted sites in Salt Lake. There was a storyteller that gave us the background on each place and the hauntings that were going on. Crazy!!!! The Alta Club, of course, was in the tour. (I work at the Alta Club, for those of you that don't know.) I wish I had taken the mic at this point. I've got WAY better stories about the Alta Club than she does. We only got out of the bus at two different stops. The first was in the Salt Lake Cemetary to look at EMo's grave. Apparently if you walk around the tombstone backwards three times while holding a lit candle, you can look into the window that holds EMo's ashes and see his face. The storyteller told us to get our cameras ready, but I think all the flashes just scared the ghost away. Maybe he's camera shy. ? Anyway, this pic is when Lex looked into the tomb...if any of you can see a face, let me know. ;)

Wednesday: The day has come. I decided that the Alta Club members weren't ready for Elastagirl, so today I was an angel at work. Salon Angie was a devil, so it worked out perfectly. The reason my costume doesn't look quite right is because I brought the angel stuff as back up. I was going to be elastagirl, but to be work appropriate the outfit was just uncomfortable and not cute. Probably wouldn't have done the bottom half of me like this at all. I didn't think the back up through very well. There you have it...my halloween haunting extravaganza. (I'll turn the pic later. sorry, Lizzie. ;))

A girl with no favorites...

So I've decided that my time has come. I've received a million of these "about me" quiz lists and have yet to fill one out. I'm using a list compiled from multiple lists by my friend Melanie. Thanks, friend. And as I told her, I'm the one most frequently named as the least likely to respond. So consider this my response and I encourage all of you to accept the tag and do this yourself. One of my biggest problems with most of these lists is that I'm the girl with so many favorites that they can't even be considered favorites anymore...I'm the girl with no favorites. I love everything. Maybe this should be a list of things I don't like. That might make it easier. This list seems pretty do-able, though, so here goes:

A Few Jobs I've Had: I've had a lot...
Snowbird-Housekeeper
Macey's: Bagger(... and in my days of shame, I agreed to dress up as a pumpkin around this time of year to hand out candy. What was I thinking? I will tell that story later. It's humiliating, but so funny. )
Nordstrom: Womens shoes sales
Convergys/American Express: phone resolicitation...queen of phone sales-for real.
University Hospital: OB/GYN Research Assistant
RST and Associates:Fitness/Wellness Specialist
Alta Club: Fitness Director (current)
Banana Republic (current)
...just to name a few. Thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Guilty pleasures:
-The Apple pie carameled apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory...wow...if you've never, you should.
-Raspberry Almond Torte from Market Street Broiler...again, WOW. I dream about this dessert.
-Massages-who doesn't love em.
-Dance classes-I do consider this treating myself.
-Walnut Shrimp from Asian Star...like eating candy.
...I'm sure there are a million more, but moving on...

Places I have lived:
Indiana
Utah
California

Shows I enjoy:
The Office
Flight of the Conchords
Arrested Development
So You Think You Can Dance
Dancing with the Stars

What were the things I thought of when I first saw my husband?

Have any of you seen him? Cause I haven't. I've read about him in Twilight, but have yet to see him. ;) Please let me know-I've been looking everywhere. Kidding. Still single and living the life. I'll be honest and say I'm kind of terrified of marriage...so I'll just enjoy this life while I can. ;)

Some of the Places I have been on Vacation:
Washington DC
North Carolina
Colorado
Canada
Costa Rica
West Yellowstone
Vegas
Tahoe
Florida
Lake Powell
etc..


Favorite foods:
Cold Cereal
Fruit
Popcorn with Hot Tamales
Ummm, I love food.....can't really answer this one.
Do like Fresh Mex grill stuff. Soups. Sandwiches. Thai. Yeah...I give....can't answer this one.

Websites I visit daily:

All blogs I have linked pretty much
Email
Bank

Body parts I have injured:

Hip Flexors: Dance
Hamstring tear: Dance
Knees: Dance and skiing...I snowboard, don't ski...thus the injury. (Dance isn't lookin so good in this line-up, is it?! )
Low back: car accidents (2) and wakeboarding
Hit in the head with a croquet mallet when I was 5. (I know what you're thinking. Don't say it. )
Stitches in my chin from slipping on the sidewalk.

Nicknames I have had:

Sari Lou
Sare-Bear
Say Say
Pickle
Shugi pants
Love cuddle
Muffin bum (not from any physical traits...I hope. The last three are a result of slap happy girls. You're welcome to start using them.)
A guy in my ward regularly calls my Liz or Lindsey or Heather. I don't bother correcting him so they're kind of becoming nicknames, I guess.

Movies I Never Stop Watching...
If I never stopped watching I'd be considered extremely lazy, but here are a few I like....

Waiting for Guffman
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
The Holiday
Finding Neverland
The Bourne Identity
Stranger than Fiction
Airplane
Pride and Prejudice
....the list goes on and on...I love movies!

Biggest Pet Peeves

-A million empty stalls in the bathroom and someone comes into the one right next to you. Hate it!
-When traffic is merging in one lane because another lane is closed and you have those people that think they're royalty, so they drive to the front of the line and sneak their way in.
-Your roommate eating your grilled panini sandwich that you were really anxious to try when you got home from work...Look in the fridge...and gone. Umm, yeah. That one just happened last night. Still harboring some feelings about it. ;)
-Toenail clippings as already discussed in another posting.
-This might not fall into this category, but....I hate when my hands, or hair, or clothes smell like food. I don't like it on other people either. It's when there is no food around to smell like that it bothers me. You with me? Not a pet peeve, but I still don't like it.

Places I Would Rather Be...

In the warm sun...anywhere.
I love beaches
I love water...rivers, lakes, oceans, love waterfalls. Something so peaceful about water.
Love being in the mountains.
I'd like to go to Europe next year. Switzerland, Italy, Greece. Or Thailand. (I know thats not in Europe.)
The gym
With my family and friends
My bed

People think I lack an opinion on many fronts, but I feel like I have an opinion when it matters. I do know that my favorite color is Green. I know that I love watching movies and snuggling-in general. I know that I love adventures and discovering/rediscovering beautiful places. I love laughing so hard I can't catch my breath. I love music....in many varieties. I love to listen to it and I love to learn to play it on my guitar. (I'm not good, but I love it.) I love getting my hands dirty with projects. I love learning how to do things like household fix it stuff or yard care stuff. I love the satisfaction of making something look or feel better...translates across the board to many things. I love autumn. I love running outside to good music. I love dance. I love kids...especially my nieces and nephews. I love meeting people. I love to play games. I love shopping under a few conditions... reasonable amounts of time, money to spend, know what I'm looking for...these are all nice. There you have it. I have a ton of other loves, but I need to go. If you are reading this, you're on my love list. ;) have a great day.

Crazy Lady. (Clap. Clap. Clap, Clap, Clap)

My friend Chad called me on Saturday and invited me to the UofU game that afternoon. He had two tickets so I called Ally and got her to come as well. It was raining and cold, but we had such a good time. Thanks Chad. ;) We sat in the student section on the third row. It was perfect. Favorite parts of the game? Crazy lady for one. There is a woman that stands in front of the band and just dances like crazy. I've never seen a shimmy done with more pizazz. She has made it so big at the games that the student section even has a cheer for her. "Cra-zy La-dy." (Clap. Clap. Clap, Clap, Clap). Bet she feels pretty cool. This has actually been a tradition for YEARS. She is not the original crazy lady, apparently. Hilarious. Second, I love the guys that run with those gigantic flags every time our team makes a touchdown. Do you know who I'm talking about? There was one that was putting so much into his run that it looked like his body was on a 45 degree angle. And his face? Wow. Intense. I've gotta say, I think it would be a challenging job to run with those flags. Glad it's him and not me. Great job flag guy! Very entertaining to watch. Third...we won. It was a good day...and right as we left it started POURING. Ahhh, the memories.

To Annie....

Happy Birthday, my cute sister!!! This is Annie, as I call her, with her little girl, Sage. Angela is a great photographer and is often found with a camera around her neck and a child on her arm. She is pregnant and due in December. Her first boy. I'm so excited!!
(Real name, Angela) This is the sister that is three years my elder (just above me in age...and yet she looks three years my younger. :/ She's darling.)
She is the mother that reads a million books to her children a day, while folding laundry, making homemade applesauce, canning peaches, and pulling out whole wheat bread from the oven made with wheat flour she ground herself. Every time she has a baby she donates 12 inches of her hair to Locks of Love where they make wigs for kids with cancer....and what gorgeous locks they are. (They are much thicker than mine.) Her adorable girls.....Sage Virginia...who dressed herself, and Lydia McKinley. Annie is tender hearted, laughs at all my really dumb jokes...well pretty much laughs at anything...including giggle cookies, and is extremely positive about every challenge that comes her way. She is an incredibly hard worker and sacrifices so much for the happiness of her family. She is a great example to me. I love you , Annie. Happy Birthday!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Autumn in Utah. It's my favorite. This is for all of you living out of state...so you can enjoy it with me. The pictures speak for themselves. They're not great, but I was always snapping shots at the most inopportune times. I did what I could. You get the idea. This is the mountain range that we had the most perfect view of from our front porch growing up. I think it's the one thing that I miss the most about our old house. (the roof in the pic is my house now...view from porch is shrubbery, but at least I see the mountains when I drive in. ) Up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Leaves in my back yard that cover our back fence. The colors are more brilliant in real life. Across the street from the assisted living center that I live behind....on a very rainy day. How can I do this justice? The whole mountain is one giant patchwork of colors. It's gorgeous. Wish you all were here to see it.

The Good Samaritan...Late, but Good

Yup...that's me...changing a flat in the pouring rain. I knew my car didn't normally sit on a slant like that nor had I ever had such a hard time trying to steer. :( Luckly I was just in the parking lot of the assisted living center that you have to drive through in order to leave my house. I ran home to grab a different coat that would be more appropriate for tire changing in the rain and talked my roommate into holding an umbrella over me while I worked my magic with the car jack. (Did I mention that I was on my way to my job at Banana and was wearing my nice clothes?) Let me tell you, super glue is unneccessary for those bolts. I swear they were near impossible to loosen...I say near impossible because we finally got them off. Leslie and I had to put all of our weight into it, but finally we got 'em. I thought with the way I was pulling and throwing my weight I would end up on the ground, dirty and wet when the bolts finally gave. Fortunately that didn't happen. I just want to send a thank you out to the priests in my ward growing up...every combined activity that they were in charge of for mutual involved car maintenance-they couldn't think of anything else to do apparently, but it paid off. I'd also like to send a thank you out to the 7 cars that went out of their way to maneuver around me to get out of the parking lot and pass by me without a second look. "No really, I got it. Does it look like I need help?" :/ Until a passerby on a walk came over and offered to help me. He told me that he used to change tires for a living. I truely appreciated the gesture, but I was just screwing on the last bolts on the spare and was almost done. He still gets points for offering...and I still consider him a good samaritan even though his goodness could've passed by 30 min. earlier. One good thing came of this... I'm extremely confident in my tire changing abilities.

Dena's Stripper and Talese's Turn-tables

Wow did I have a crazy weekend!! Friday I was at the Alta Club at 6am until a little after 2. I drove home with just enough time to get ready for my second job. I worked at Banana from 3 to 6:15...rushed home for a date at 7. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time I got home that night. Next day wasn't much better. I worked all day...went straight to the RS broadcast, rushed over to my friend Dena's bachelorette party and ended the evening at my friend Talese's birthday bowling extravaganza. I was glad when Sunday came. I love a good day of rest. Maybe the second job wasn't such a good idea. : ? Let's talk a little bit more about Dena's stripper for starters....

This is my beautiful friend, Dena. We celebrated her upcoming wedding day at a bachelorette party Saturday night. I have never been to a mormon bachelorette party quite like this one. My friend, Camille, invited her buddy to do a mock striptease for the crowd of women. Talk about entertaining. He wore a mask and called himself Julio...with a weak Antonio Banderas accent. He asked for participation from a couple of the girls in the group. Their job? To hold up a blanket while he stripped behind it and threw his clothes off. The girls holding the blanket would start to laugh and the blanket would start to fall. Julio would drop the accent and with sheer panic in his voice he'd say, "don't drop the blanket." Or "You can't look back here." We were all laughing so hard. Turns out he was fully clothed in basketball shorts and a t-shirt, so I'm not sure why the panic. Anyway, we all started getting up to get food or whatever after his "strip show" was over, but he quickly informed us that his show wasn't over. He pushed play on the dvd player and started a hip hop routine with a little help from an aerobic hip hop dvd. Hilarious. He was concentrating so hard. I've gotta say, it took some guts to do what he did for sure. We played games and chatted it up after he left. We had such a great time. Much laughter. Loved it!(Front:Me, Camille, Couch: Annalea, Michelle, Tricia, Sarah, Dena, Amy, Corrine, Back: Dylan in the red dress....Dena's daughter.)

After Dena's I went to The Ritz bowling for Talese's birthday celebration. I think "The Ritz" makes this place sound pretty posh. Ummm...it's not so much, but it serves it's purpose well. I drove up to a kid trying to break into a car. Oh yeah, I totally want to get out of my car now! : / Not the most comforting scene, but for Talese? Anything! It helped that a security guard was approaching them when I arrived. Phewf. Anyway....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TALESE!!!! I love this girl. One of my favorites, for sure. Her friends that were there had made some delicious cupcakes for her and lit them up with some trick candles. This first pic is my beautiful friend Talese. We're singing to her...and although it looks like she's working with her turn-tables, she's actually just feeling the heat from the candles. I think. ? Or....What are you doing Talese? Just a well-timed picture I guess. Talese was sick so her fiance, Greg, blew out the candles for her. That's just the type of people they are-always looking out for others. Thanks for being so sanitary, Talese. ;) She's off to be a Rockette in Nashville for the next few months. I'm so excited for her, but I'll miss her like mad. Good luck Talese. :)

I swear it wasn't me...

This is me at work....

Today all of my clients cancelled...all but one which is at 2:00. So for the other 7 hours of my day what will I do? Well....a little of this...
And a little of this...
Summer is always a slow time of year in the fitness center...and apparently the beginning of fall is as well. A lot of my clients disappear for weeks at a time to go galavanting through Europe, or to spend time at their summer home in the Bahamas. Maybe even a safari in Africa, or what have you. How would it be? Without a lot of people here my job becomes a desk job. And what do personal trainers do at a desk all day without programs to write or 5K's to plan? Refer to pictures above. I'm exaggerating a bit and I certainly do other things work related, but I feel guilty for getting paid for all this down time that I do have. My boss is totally aware of the fact that I read a lot and spend time blogging, of course. I ask him for a project of sorts, but he refuses me every time telling me that they're coming off of a slow summer too. Oh well...I tried. On to another aspect of my job...
I'll bet if you had your choice between setting your office up right beside a port-o-potty, or not, you'd probably choose not...for the obvious reasons. And while most of you would recognize that as a ridiculous scenario, I'm here to tell you that it's not. I sit at a long, wrap around desk that is like any reception area in salons, fitness centers, offices, etc. The only difference is that my area has a small room off of it, where our towel drops are. If there is a towel drop, there is most likely a bathroom behind it. If there is a bathroom behind it, there are odors to follow. These towel drops act as an air funnel for all smells really. I know when my buddy, Ed, is just about done getting ready because I start getting dizzy from his over abundance of cologne. I picture him plugging the sink, pouring his cologne in it, and soaking his shirt as the final step before his exit from the locker room and into the world. WOW, Ed...pretty sure one or two sprays is adequate. The other scents that disturb my work days I won't get into, but I'm sure you could imagine. I take that back...I will get into them because what happens is these wafts of putrid odors fill my work area and then suddenly it looks like I'm the owner of them. Every time a member comes and signs in at my desk when one of these "air killers" is lurking around my desk like an inversion I want to say, "Look, I know what you're thinking, and I swear it wasn't me", but I can't. I just act like I can't smell anything, which is hard to do considering my gag reflex to bad odors. Sigh. Our citrus and pine air fresheners can't even mask the smell. Maybe Ed's cologne would do the trick. I hope you all feel a little more grateful for your odor free work spaces...unless you're a mom in which case I'm sure you can relate in one way or another. : / Best wishes to you and your noses.

Obsession

So, should I be embarrassed that I'm in love with a vampire and find myself completely obsessed with these books? Probably, but I'm not. The only problem is that these shockingly beautiful, attentive, sensitive, patient, adoring, perfect men/vampires that the author describes in such detail don't exist...so coming back to reality after reading is less than satisfying. (As I'm saying this, I'm reminded that I'm talking about a vampire. I raise my brow at myself questioning my sanity, but decide that my little escape to Forks, Washington is worth every rolled eye out there.) If you haven't read these, you need to read them. Not to be confused with Megan Cabots book called Twilight. My sister made that mistake when I told her to check out the first book. I asked her where she was in the story and after she told me that the dad had just died and the main character was about 5 or 6 I was sure we weren't talking about the same book. Glad we figured out the mix up early on or she would've been extremely confused when none of the vampires showed up. I finished these books a couple weeks ago, and I gotta say, it's hard to find a series to replace them. I'm currently occupying my free time with Confessions of a Shopaholic. Pretty funny, so far. I'll let you know if it's worth the read.