Birthday Supreme! Just like the pizza, but I am 25!

This is what $25,000 would look like if these were $1000 bills instead of ones. I had to pop the 25 balloons that my parents blew up for my birthday breakfast surprise to get all the cash out. It was a great day, commemorating my birth.


Bob at work bought me cheetos. Rene bought me a cookie. Amy bought me the 20 questions game-rock and roll version. Diana bought me a design book. Drew and Megan bought me chocolate cake.
I wish all of you could have come!!!
After dancing and trying to stump the 20 questions games with Bright Eyes, Gustav Mahler and Reba McIntire, we went hot-tubbing at a hotel downtown. LOVE it!!!

maps interest me.

I do market and sales research. Basically I make spreadsheets with info for sales reps. One thing I have enjoyed is seeing names of cities that I didn't know existed. There are some really great names, it makes me want to visit these places, or just say their names, or just tell people I am from there. Here are some of my favorites:
1.Itasca, IL
2.Boca Raton, FL
3. King of Prussia, PA
4. Piscataway, NJ
5. Celebration, FL
I love being able to assign a memory to a dot on a map. You never know what a place looks like until you go there. Each city is distinct. Sandra Cisneros expressed this idea in her book "Caramelo" when she talked about her family's annual trip to Mexico. I love it. She says, "Not like on the Triple A atlas from orange to pink, but at a stoplight in a rippled heat and a dizzy gasoline stink, the United States ends all at once, a tangled shove of red lights from cars and trucks waiting their turn to get past the bridge. Miles and miles."
This weekend I saw Logan and got to know it a little better. Now it is more than just a dot on the map. That is another blog in and of itself, don't worry, soon.

The problem is money comes and goes...

At the rate I am going I will never be able to save enough money for grad school by this coming August. So I have decided that the only solution is to start playing Megabucks. yes! it was divine providence that I moved to Las Vegas.

U R A 10!

Happy Valentines Day! I love you all!
Fax me! Email my heart! Text me! Blog me!
Tonight is our ward temple night...for sealings. What a great coincidence! Since my friend and I didn't sign up for the ward valentine date (every year they do a little match making and assign you a date for the 14th of Feb. You can even make requests) we decided to go do sealings. This should be the best valentines day ever!

Dear Salt Lake City, I am really sorry to hear about what happened Monday night...

Rest in peace Trolley Square.

prolly this is my favorite picture of 2007.

I found this: two of my friends from elementary school jumping on the tramp in my backyard with my brother.
I love aaron's clothes, his checkered vans with knee-high socks and crazy shorts with matching pocket on the shirt. Then check out the girl on the left's boots. Any girl would wish she could own those now. We used to play hide-and-seek in my neighborhood. The best place to hide was in the corn-rows. Yum, look at all that corn in the background. Sometimes I wish I was still a kid. Childhood is so care-free, making faces at the camera, doing some chores so you can go swimming, playing monopoly for days on end, riding bikes to 7-11 and then riding home with no-hands so you can drink the slurpee and open the candy you bought, making home movies, playing recreational soccer, cheating at go-fish, getting in trouble for saying "butt-face" "stupid" and "shut-up"
I think that is why I liked "13 going on 30" so much. She recognizes her innocence lost. I wish we could all be innocent again and also tell more knock-knock jokes.

Life is not what I thought it was 48 hours ago.

My office is being remodeled this week. My boss kept saying, "tomorrow it will be done." But finally on Wednesday at about 3pm I figured the week was already over and I should just ask for Thurs and Fri off to go visit San Diego State University and talk to professors there about the grad program. I applied there this year so I wanted to check it out and I already had work off, I just needed to get into the car and drive. So with basic plans set up, I left about an hour later, hoping I could find a place to sleep and also hoping the ceramics professors wouldn't be on sabbatical.
I stayed at my sisters on Wed night in Long Beach. Then early Thurs I went to San Diego. I wandered around campus and felt so happy that I couldn't stop smiling. This is hard to admit, but I do miss being a student. I scheduled an appointment with one of the profs, then the other one gave me a little tour of the studio. They both seemed extremely nice and easy going and also I talked to some grads and undergrads. The program is awesome, the facilities are amazing and San Diego is beautiful.
I really wanted to go to the temple the next day, so luckily I found a place to stay there in San Diego. (muchas gracias a estefan) Then I drove home. wow. vamos a ver que pasa.

THIS is heaven on earth!!

I feel like life is always a lot different from what I think. Sometimes it takes a year to look back and recognize our growth, sometimes just a couple of days. Those moments are two-edged swords because on the one hand I love seeing the enlightenments I have had, but on the other hand I always wonder what my current blindness is.
So, moral is: I can't change the past and worrying about the future only makes me nauseous...I guess I have to live in the present with all its little surprises keeping me on my toes. Its a funny process: becoming who we are.
So, goal is: Do something crazy spontaneous today! It vales the pena. Thats spanglish for its worth the pain.

Things I really like on roadtrips...not necessarily in this order

1. rolling the windows down
2. sunflower seeds
3. looking at maps while driving
4. dr. pepper
5. making u-turns
6. npr
7. feeling independent
8. really loud music, I'm talking REALLY loud!
9. rest stops, those are great.
10. living out of a suitcase

Museums should be more interactive...

This weekend I went to/by two different museums that I really enjoyed. Rob was in town and we went to the Neon Boneyard. It is at the Neon Museum downtown.


They only take groups by reservations so we just drove by and looked in above the fence. It was amazing. They have all the old signs from old imploded hotels and casinos. I have to get an appointment and organize a rendezvous with some friends. So if you want to go, contact me and we will get a reservation!!
Second museum that we experienced was the Pinball Hall of Fame.

It was so much fun! They have about 5 rows of superb pinball machines. Most of them have little tags talking about how they acquired the machine and how old it is and how famous/infamous it is. Heres a picture of the inside.

Basically, I have been thinking all day about the next time I can go. I am really excited to play the Pirates of the Carribean machine. There was this guy hogging it for a long time when we went, but it's pretty awesome if you can sink
the ship like Rob did.
Wouldn't that be great if we could play with all historical artifacts when we went to museums. History would be much more interactive and maybe I would appreciate it even more.

THIS IS A MUST!!!

My friend Kara just told me about clearification.com. It is really funny. Just go there with plenty of time to watch and plenty of breath to laugh! oh man, I could watch it for hours...

COWA'BANGS'A!!

I have always thought about going to hair school. It would be neat to actually know how to cut and dye hair, even though I do it without proper training. Here are some of my clients/friends. I am trying, one person at a time, to take over the world with bangs. Bangs will hopefully soon wield more influence in society.

"The Sidesweep" a classic show on Bryn

"The Rachel" shown on Lauren

"Bangalicious" shown on Julia


This one is called "Bangarang" shown on Rachel


And just a note, from one who was told they have very healthy gums by a friend who is in dental school today, remember to floss. Gingivitis is no one's friend.

Did you know??

Ben Folds turns 40 this year. And to think that all this time I thought he was our age, I guess I never really thought about it. But now, rethink all of his music as being sung by a 40-year old man. weird.

me di cuenta

We just need to help more people. Everyday I realize more and more how many people need help. 2007: year of selflessness. Go forth to serve!!

steve jobs, can you help us out???

So when I was little I loved to talk on the phone to my friends. We would always imagine how cool it would be to be able to pass things through the phone. I feel that technology has advanced far enough now to be able to figure that one out. I mean, come on, we are in 2007! Also I think we should invent the ability to download real things (like 3-D objects) to our computers/houses and if you want to google a scent, for example you want to know what patchouli smells like, you just click on some icon and patchouli sprays out of your computer. That would be better than those weird flavored jelly belly beans. I think that the future has great things in store for us. Apple will prolly be the first one to make these ideas reality, hopefully they will include click wheels, and lots of them. I want everything in my house to have a click wheel. Patchouli, patchouli, patchouli...thats really fun to say, thanks Julia!!!

Merriam-Webster sandwich on spelt bread

This has got to be healthy. Do you ever wish you could just eat a dictionary for lunch and then ingest all those words that you need to know for the GRE?? I do. ONLY TWO MORE DAYS LEFT TO STUDY!!!

the after party party

Levi is practically spiderman. The Luxor did not know what hit it and the police were too slow to catch him. Happy day after New years where everything is closed except for the pizza shop in the NY, NY that sells a small soda for $4.
sorry i didnt rotate the movie, but i figured you all can rotate your computers or your heads. It is so amazing that it is worth a little rotation.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

saying "2007 is the new 2006" is the new "Happy New Year!!!"
I love fireworks!

I could never complain...

I have to say that I have an amazing life. I am very grateful. I love people watching, especially because it helps me realize that people need help and that's why we are all here together, to help each other. Life really would be no fun. In Jonathan Safran Foer's book 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,' Oskar, the main character has this idea that we should just have limousines that were so incredibly long they would start at your mom's womb and end at your mausoleum, it would be as long as your life...I thought about just walking through a limo alone and am even more grateful for people who make life so interesting!! PS its a really amazing book!! get it, read it!
Christmas was extraordinary! I made all my presents! And I think I received a grand total of 5 presents. I think it was the best Christmas ever. My parents have helped me so much this year, I told them not to buy me anything and the other small things from my siblings were things I really needed and appreciated ('Everything is Illuminated'-the book, a bell for my bike, a pair of shoes I picked out at Thanksgiving, a battery for my car clicker) Then my parents planned this big service project where they wrapped up all the supplies for hygiene kits and we all assembled them. It was a great Christmas activity!!!
Plus we started Christmas off with a, hopefully, new tradition...the morning jog. I kind of wanted to open presents, fresh outta bed, just because I am accustomed to that, but it was fun to go for a family jog and then open presents. The family that sweats together, stays together. Heres a photo from the jogging: Merry Christmas from the VANS!!

Provo, nice knowing you...

Well, I did my time. I packed up my car today and drove away. woah. It's a surreal cinematic feeling. I wish there would have been some sappy song as I looked over my shoulder at my living room, scanning for any last forgotten items, and then leaving my keys on the kitchen counter. I'm outta there!!! Now onto the next step of life. I told my mom that I want to set up a studio in our house. maybe the garage? Then as I checked out the christmas tree, I noted aloud that there weren't any presents big enough to be a wheel. I guess that will come out of my first paycheck. I already have a kiln and ceramist friends here in vegas. I have a feeling that things will be ok. maybe even great. so far, adulthood is great. ps. I have a celebrity crush on Chevy Chase, well just the character he plays in Foul Play.

wow...

It just hit me at the end of my hometeacher's lesson that I am moving from Provo. I will miss it a lot. I even shed a couple of tears. Surely, my hometeacher thought he had said something amazingly inspired, "little did he know" (I love "Stranger than Fiction") that I wasn't paying attention and was thinking of how that would be my last time being hometaught at my Provo abode.
Trying to figure out how to be an adult is confusing. I want to do something hard or challenging and have amazing experiences. So I am weighing my options. I don't want to take the easy way out of things, so thats why I decided to move home. ha. There I go embracing the future, branching out, and having an adventure.
You all have a place to stay if you are going through vegas. my house of course, not the ten-ga-jillion hotels/casinos. Unless you would rather stay there. But the continental breakfast at my parents house is much yummier.
Thanks Provo!