book club reminder

Don't forget about our online bookclub. Discussion has already started for this month's book.

kristin and erin's online bookclub

one more thing...

One more thing about the Nauvoo trip. I forgot to say that Lady MacBeth saved my life. It seems very ungrateful of me to have not mentioned this.

We had stopped at an exit for dinner and we were waiting around for the [insert appropriate adjective here] people who decided to go to Denny's on our 45 minute stop. We were standing near the bus on a curb by some grass and other plants. We were, no doubt, discussing what we would like to do to those Denny's goers who were holding us up.

Suddenly, Lady MacBeth's eyes got really big and she said, "A bug just crawled down your jacket. Take it off! Take it off!"

I was wearing a hoodie and before I put it on, I took my other shirt off, so I was just wearing a shade undershirt underneath it and really didn't want to take off my hoodie. So I panicked.

"I can't!" I exclaimed.

In a flash, Lady MacBeth, at great peril to her own life, reached into the folds of the hood and pulled out the bug and threw it on the ground. In the process, she scraped her ankle on the curb to the extent that it started bleeding. That is a true friend.

if we ever meet again it will be zion to me!

This last weekend, our singles ward took a trip to Nauvoo. We rode a bus all night long on Thursday and came back Saturday.

highlights
- I was pretty much the only one who slept on the bus on Thursday due to my amazing ability to sleep anywhere.
- Of course all the sites we saw were pretty neat. I've been to Nauvoo before, but it's still a good experience. I think my favourite thing I saw this time was the memorial to all the folks who died before making it out west and seeing some of my own relatives.
- I actually really enjoyed the corny show that we went to in the evening - "Sunset on the Mississippi" (which we did not watch outside due to recent rain - we saw it in the visitor's center). It was fun to see the little old missionary couples shuffling around singing. (I kind of hope my padres get called to Nauvoo on their next mission because I would love seeing dad having to sing and dance.)
- The night we stayed in Nauvoo, we stayed in a very nice place. They were called vacation condos or something like that. Loads of room for everyone, and not sketchy like some motels can be. I slept on a couch, and it was awfully comfortable.
- On Saturday morning, I was suckered into getting up at 5 to go running, but it was a really good run, so I'm glad I went. I honestly wish it was safe for a woman to run by herself at 5 in the morning because it is a wonderful time to run.
- Doing a session at that temple was great. I went to the open house years ago and it was neat to see it again.
- On Friday night I randomly ran into my aunt Krsten and cousin Samantha who were walking around the temple at the same time I was. This was especially fortuitous because I was having a competition with Lord Goring and David Copperfield to see who would run into the most people we knew and we were all tied up at 1. So running into Krsten and Sam made me the clear winner. (Plus, Krsten had her two nephews with her, which I also counted just in case even though I really didn't know them. Though, it turned out that I didn't need them.)

lowlights
- I think I must have fallen asleep with my glasses on on Friday night because I found them on the couch that I slept on the next day a little bent out of shape.
- By the end of the trip, we were all pretty tired and I think it was No Good for everyone to see how truly awful and mean I am when I'm tired.

In other news... Happy Father's Day! I went home to see dad. We watched that classic Father's Day film "Taken", which dad really likes. Mum gave me the treasures she bought for me while the padres were in Europe, which included a very lovely amber necklace, bringing my necklace collection up to 2.

signs you're starting to get worried about your next birthday

Today I gave money to a panhandler outside my building because she called me "Miss" instead of "Ma'am".

disturbing development

For the last few months I have been living with a false sense of security. In my last apartment, we had all sorts of insects running around. Mostly basement monsters, but the occasional spider too. I thought I was safe in our new place. But, my peace of mind was short lived. I should have realized that we moved into this place in colder weather and that most insects were hibernating or in insect revolt planning meetings or whatever bugs to in the winter. But now that the weather is warming up, I have had a very troubling experience: a few days ago I saw a spider in my kitchen.

Those of you who have lived with me know how much I hate and fear spiders. I have so many spider stories. I used to bribe my brother with candy to kill spiders for me. (The later at night and the more he had been asleep, the more candy I had to give.) Luckily, he is a nice brother and never tried to put bugs in my bed or anything. Mrs. Weasley (back when she was just the Future Mrs. Weasley) probably killed about a million spiders in our apartment, with me squeamishly cringing in the corner. Once Nat the Rat convinced me to let her use one of my computer science books to smoosh a spider in the bathtub, but when she picked up the book, the spider was still alive! I screamed like nothing else.

(Aside: for me, spiders are kind of like watching scary movies. I get all tense and I don't really want to know what's going to happen next, but I can't look away. And if something unexpected happens, I scream.)

And then there was the time Jane Eyre courageously fought the battle of the spiders with me. I don't remember why I went into my bathroom after Jane was asleep - maybe it was the middle of the night or maybe I just went to bed after her - but when I went in there, there were about a billion little red spiders in the sink. It was disgusting. I think they'd just hatched or something. I knew I couldn't handle this alone, so I woke Jane up and she helped me kill them. Yes, I even did some of the killing myself - I had to.

It was Jane Eyre that came up with my preferred method of killing spiders which is to spray them with whatever cleaning supply is handy until the spider curls up and dies. It's brilliant really. The only problem is that you still have to dispose of the spider carcass, which creeps me out almost as much as a live spider.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. The other day I was getting breakfast in the kitchen and I saw a spider. It was a lighter colour and it was above the cupboard above the sink. Well, being that high up, I naturally couldn't reach it. And being above the sink, I couldn't get to the cleaning supplies that were under the sink. (Obviously, that would have been throwing myself into harm's way, as the spider would have probably jumped onto my head, given the chance.) I'm always up earlier than my roommate, Scout, and she wouldn't have been much good anyway, being nearly as afraid of spiders as I am. So, I decided to just kind of keep an eye on the spider and when it moved away from the sink, I'd grab some windex or something.

I watched the spider as I poured myself some cereal. I had to look away for a second to pour the milk. When I looked again - the spider was gone! And I mean completely gone! It wasn't on any of the walls or anything. There was only one logical conclusion: it had apparated.

As terrifying as spiders are, wizard spiders are even worse. What if the spider apparates onto my face while I'm sleeping? What if it apparates into the shower? And there's no way to kill it, because it will just apparate away when I'm about to spray it with chemicals.

It is a truly terrifying situation I have gotten myself into.

easy breezy japanesey

List of temples that I have done work in:

Columbus
Washington D.C.
Chicago
Salt Lake
Jordan River
Provo
Manti
Timpanogas
Manhattan
Vernal
Oakland
San Antonio*
Orlando*
Nauvoo**

And soon to be added to the list......Tokyo! Japan! More details to follow.

* Okay, I've just witnessed weddings here.
** This one is being added next week.

my stupid mouth

I know I say a lot of things that I shouldn't. I get into loads of trouble because of my mouth. I think it was Mrs. Weasley that said my mouth was hard-wired - things just pop out without having the chance to pass through my brain for review. And I will say it's true - quite often my mouth filter has shut off.

I'm not really going anywhere with this post. It's just on my mind after saying quite a few things that really should have gone unsaid yesterday.

And despite what most of you may think, especially those who know me well, I really am working on it. It really does bother me that I make people fell bad or uncomfortable because of the things I say. If anyone is aware of my flaws, trust me, it is me.

Point being - I'm sorry for all the stupid things that pop out of my mouth. I hope we can still be friends.

jackpot!

You know how when you're used to something being one way, you never even think about another possibility?

Well, at my past two workplaces (the Department of Taxation and the Department of Job and Family Services) I would keep change in my desk drawer for vending machine purposes. (Usually for pop, even though I "gave it up". But sometimes for when I forget my lunch or for dark chocolate.) About every other month or so, I would take a $20 bill to the change machine and get twenty $1 coins and put them in my cache. This method is easier than trying to scrounge around for change when needed.

Yesterday, I wanted a diet coke so I headed down to the break room. I figured I might as well get some change while I was there. Imagine my chagrin when I put my $20 bill into the change machine and instead of getting change in dollar coins (I think you know where I'm going with this) I got it in quarters. Quarters! As impractical and annoying as it is to have twenty coins rolling around in your pocket from the break room to your cubicle, it is much worse to have 100 coins. (Specifically, it is four times worse.) Okay - really it was only 95 coins since I did get that diet coke.

And of course there were other people in the room, so I had to act all nonchalant and pretend that this is exactly what I had wanted to happen. Yeah I wanted a boat load of quarters. Maybe I'm doing laundry later. Or perhaps I'm on my way to Indiana to try my luck at the slot machines. Just back off, okay?

Then when I got back to my desk I couldn't get the cap off the bottle. I tried for seriously five minutes. I had to give up and ask my neighbour to open it for me. That was pretty humiliating too. (Also, why is my spell checker set to British English instead of American English? So it recognizes "neighbour" but not "neighbor." It's a mystery.)

I think the universe is combining against me to have me truly give up drinking pop. But if that was the case, why would the universe make pop so good? I will leave that question as an exercise to the reader to figure out. I will be over here sipping pop and calculating the driving time to Wendover from here.