random/ very long/ too personal post

Sometimes I feel like I share a little too much personal information on our blog. Normally I'm not really one for sharing my feelings. But some reason it seems like it's easy to do that on a blog. However, I figure since I'm terrible at keeping a journal, I can at least go back and read the posts on our blog (along with everyone else...yikes!). Anyways here are some things that I have been feeling like writing down - random remembrances and the personal.

First, I had a funny experience on Valentine's Day that reminded me of two other funny valentines experiences I had in high school. As I mentioned before James was out of town for V-day so I volunteered to babysit for my brother. When he and his wife got home they were talking about their dinner and how Matt's "feast for one," wasn't much of a feast. I have experienced the "feast for one" at Brick Oven and was surprised to hear him say that. We then figured out that the waitress never explained to Matt that he was supposed to go to the pasta bar to get the rest of his food. They decided they should call and complain. The manager said they could come in and pick up the rest of their dinner but they decided it wasn't worth it. I however live very close to Brick Oven so they told me I should go get it. I'm not one to pass up free food so I went for it. It was only when I started walking into the restaurant alone at 9:30 PM on V-day I realized what I was doing was a little weird. As I arrived at the pasta bar alone with a very large plastic take out container, I realized the guy running the pasta bar was an acquaintance from my freshman year. I definitely turned a little red and proceeded to have a very awkward conversation during which I attempted to explain why I was there.

This experience made me remember how my junior year of high school I had a Valentine's Day party at my house. In preparation I went to the grocery store and stocked up on A LOT of Blue Bell ice cream. Anyways, as I was heading to the check out with my arms full of ice cream I ran into the young "hot" track coach from my high school. He laughed and looked at me like I was the saddest creature on the face of the earth and I'm pretty sure he believed all that ice cream was for me and me alone. I said a very quick hello and ran away.

Thinking about that made me remember v-day my freshman year of high school. I was putting my books in my locker before first period wearing my new red shirt when out of no where this kid jumped around the corner pulled at my shirt and poured some kind of hot sauce/salsa concoction down it before I could do anything. I turned to see who the culprit was saw that it was one of the boys from the Special Ed class. What was I supposed to do...beat him up? I ran to class told my teacher I would be late, went back to my locker grabbed my track shirt, went to the bathroom and attempted to clean myself off. Let's just say I smelled like a lovely jalapeno for the rest of the day. Later that day my mom called the school to tell them what happened and they told her he must have "escaped" from his class and that he had a fascination with pouring things. Ahhh the memories.

Now for the personal. Life has been interesting lately. I feel stuck, cramped, lost and literally bored to tears. I think of things to do but I know if I get all my art stuff out it will overwhelm our apartment and I will be stir crazy after 10 mins. I have not been handling the graduation transition very well. I miss school a lot. I miss people. I never realized how much small daily interactions meant to me. I miss printmaking. I want to spread my stuff all over the intaglio room and answer the little freshman's questions while I work. Art is tricky...it's hard to finish a big project and to start something new, it's especially hard to do it alone. I am trying to figure it out because I love making things and I need to learn to do it all by myself like a big girl. So here's the favor I ask - be my art friend. Come do a project, send me a cool link, mail me a collage and I'll mail you one back. Tell me to get off my butt and go make something!

I have a job interview tomorrow. We'll see what happens. I'm scared. In most ways I want a full-time job - I love schedules and I love being around people all day. Plus I know I have a lot of time ahead of me to do lots of things. However, in some ways I feel like kind of a sell-out. I know that's weird but I'm sure most artists feel like that at some point in time. I just keep reminding myself of what one of my favorite optimists said:

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." - President Gordon B. Hinckley

Numero Uno

Although James left me for Valentine's Day, he returned victorious! His Construction Management team took first place at their competition. I am very proud of my national champ...he and his team worked really hard and spent a lot of time planning so I'm glad it all paid off! Here are some pics from the event:






To make up for his absence on Valentine's Day we went on a fun little adventure last night. One of my favorite shows is Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on the Food Network and the other day they featured a BBQ place in Salt Lake. I am on a constant quest to find good Brisket in Utah (a very difficult task) so of course I had to go try it out. It was pretty good. Definitely best brisket I've had here and James' pulled pork sandwich was delicious. It's called Pat's and it's in South SLC...give it a try. Our adventure also included a stop off at Nordstrom Rack (at my demand...although it was quite disappointing this time) and Ikea (at James' request). It was a fun evening and I'm glad to have my James back!

Spring cleaning

Today has just been one of those days where you have big plans to get so many things done and you get through about 1/3 of what you had planned to do. James left for his CM competition in Reno today and won't be back until Saturday night (we have only spent one night apart our entire marriage so I think I'm going to be lonely these next few days). Anyways I got up at 3:30 am to drop him off on campus for the trip. I came home planning on crawling back into my bed and falling promptly back to sleep. No such luck. I finally fell back asleep around 5:30 am and accidentally slept until 10:30. I hate sleeping that late. You wake up and feel like the day is already a waste. Cleaning our house was on the top of my list of things to do so I started with that. The problem with a day like today is that I have no obligations, no where I have to be at any specific time. For most of you this probably sounds wonderful, but don't worry having nothing to do is highly overrated. The problem is I make a huge list of stuff to do in my head. Then start one thing and realize that I might run out of time to do the other things and run around like crazy person. For example, part way through cleaning our fridge I decide to clean out my closet. After getting rid of half of my shoes and old t-shirts I go back to the kitchen. The fridge is wide open and half of the contents is on the counter. oops. And now I'm blogging while the contents of my closet is on my bed and my kitchen is half cleaned. Back to work.

PS. One random thing that happened to me today: My mixer that I have only used 4 times stopped working several weeks ago and I took it in to see if it could be repaired. They called and left me a message on Monday that it wasn't covered by the warranty and that it would be $173 to fix it - I didn't call them back. They called me again today to see if I would like to fix it. No thanks. I told them I'd just come pick it up. Then an hour later they call me and tell me they accidentally fixed it already and that I can come pick it up free of charge. I guess it pays not to return phone calls sometimes or maybe my luck is changing.

Tagged by Olivia

I'm not really into the whole tagging thing but this one actually seemed kind of fun. I was supposed to pick the fourth picture from my fourth photo album on our computer but I take after my mother and decided to cheat. The fourth photo was kinda boring but the third was a good one so here you go...


This is a picture of James and I fixing up our letterpress "Winnie" during the summer of 2007. You get a slight idea of how dirty it was by looking at the picture...and my hands. That summer I was taking my 2nd letterpress class at the University of Utah Book Arts Program (first one was at BYU from him www.trystpress.com) and I was really enjoying it. James loves projects and fixing things so he got it in his head that we needed to buy a press. He checked the classifieds on Briar Press everyday and in June he found a Vandercook Universal I in Boise. Needless to say, two days later we were driving to Boise with a trailer. It was definitely the beginning of one of our biggest adventures!

I think James and I make a good team and although getting it to Provo and fixing it up was a huge challenge it is one of my fondest memories. It's even better now that it works and we can do projects together.

Because I also take after my father and feel guilty for cheating here is the fourth picture from the album:

This is actually a picture from the fountain right outside the Library of the University of Utah where I was taking my letterpress class. One day James, his brother Ryan, and our friends Kate and Andrew came and met me there and we played in the fountain. We had won free REAL SLC tickets for that day so we went to the soccer game and to my favorite place Hatch Family Chocolates afterward.

P.S. I guess I have to tag people...so I tag whoever reads this and wants to do it.

HELP!

Okay. I need help with 2 things. Well, I probably need help with a lot of things but here are my 2 for the day:

1. Can someone teach me how to crochet? I bought a book. I looked at the book. I can't follow directions to save my life. I can make chains all day long...after that I'm a lost cause.

2. Can someone teach me how to take details shots, pictures up close, whatever you want to call it? I made a bunch of letterpressed valentine cards last week. I just tried to take pictures of them outside (natural light right???) and they turned out okay but I would like for them to turn out great. Then maybe I could put them on etsy and maybe I could make some money and then maybe I could pay for this hobby of mine.

even something like this would do:


I did not make this card. I found it on the internet and I'm just using it as an example.

Take your wife to work day

Yesterday was an interesting day for me. I didn't have to work and I have been a little restless lately so I decided to go to work with James. I've been meaning to volunteer for awhile but didn't have the time in the past. Now that I have A LOT of free time I decided I had no excuse. A group from BYU volunteers on Saturday mornings so I thought I could just blend in with them. We went to help a group of families who's houses are almost done so I basically picked up trash and swept up dust in the basements and garages. I inhaled a lot of dust so hopefully I don't get the black lung but I actually had a pretty good time. It was fun riding around with James in his work truck and seeing what he does everyday. Because James is a supervisor he isn't supposed to do the work, the families building the houses and volunteers are. It was pretty funny to have him come by and watch me do the work. Usually its the opposite...I stand around while he does the manual labor.

As a side note...James' work is starting a new group of houses and I told him we should build one. As part of the program each family has to work 35 hours per week on the houses. Here's basically how our conversation about the idea went:
J: I don't have 35 hours a week to work on a house.
M: But I do!
J: Ha Ha. That would be good. I can't wait to explain to people that your building us a house while I finish my construction management degree.
M: But then I could learn to do all the stuff you like to do.
J: Yeah and it would be like when I teach you how to play a game...you'll get better at it then me.
M: No I won't. I don't even know how to measure.
J: True. You'd tell them you need some wood cut at 2 lines past 10 inches.
M: Let's do it.
J: I do like adventures.

We were laughing pretty hard at the end and if you know how unhandy I am and how handy James is the idea of me building a house for us is pretty ridiculous. James told one of his coworkers my idea and his reply was "If she did it I'd never have to hear another joke again."

TRADITION tradition

Read the title like you would sing the fiddler on the roof song. This weekend was a weekend of traditions. My former roomie Kate came to town. We had a good time at our annual ice skating adventure and saw a lot of friends we hadn't seen in awhile. We also went to a couple of movies at the Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival is always kind of sentimental for me because it was the first date James and I went on (he asked me out and I told him I already had plans but he was welcome to come along...I learned my lesson because I've been planning our dates ever since). Also I have been to at least one movie at the festival every year I've lived in Utah so I can't break my record. There's been some really good movies and some really bad movies but somehow I find myself in Park City in the wait list line every year - just can't get past tradition. I'm really sad I didn't take more pictures to document the fun but here are the few I have:


It was really cold and the cold makes us grumpy. Once we got skating we warmed up and had a good time.


Kate + the 309 boys


Mere + James


Olivia + Ben


Freezing Kate. We got in line for a movie on Saturday at 7AM and they made us wait outside for an hour.