New York, New York

So I went home for the weekend, again. And like the last time I was pretty busy almost the whole time. Thursday I left my house at 6 am to make the trek to Yankee stadium and my parents were taken down memory lane about 10 years. See, I have a tendency while I am at home only, to go stomping through the house getting ready for the day only to end up running late and making everything in my path look like a wind storm hit it. This only happens when I am home...I've never had this problem anywhere else, except maybe 820...anyways...my parents felt like I was back in high school again, running late for the bus. And, I have to give Zach credit because he did meet my dad at 6 am and that has got to be intimidating. We made good time through NY, PA and NJ...until we got to NYC. New York traffic...uh sucks. It took us about 2 hours and 15 minutes to go 5 miles. And that was on the way to the stadium in the middle of the day...coming home was not much better. I got to see the Red Sox lose at Yankee Stadium. That was kind of the lesser of two evils, because as much as I would have liked to see the Red Sox win, Zach is a Yankees fan, and because they won, it made for a much better ride home.

The next morning it was up early to run errands and get ready for day 2. I finally have my bridesmaid dress for Mandi's wedding and it's beautiful and it fits! So I believe I am all ready for that wedding, which is good considering it's in a month and a half. Then it was off to the State Fair! We did the usual state fair stuff (Dinosaur, wine slushies, watching horses in the coliseum) and it was a pretty good time. And I think for the first time in years, I did not run into one person I knew at the fair.

Saturday we went horseback riding at Highland Forest. I'm happy when I can be around horses in general, so the fact that the trail riding wasn't all that exciting or not like riding at all...was pretty much ok with me. I think it's pretty funny when I think back about how the Highland Forest trail ride was like the excitement of my summer when I was 10! Because I got to trot! Wooo! Then we got Twin Trees that night with my parents...which was good, because I haven't had good hot wings in a very long time.

Sunday was the first day that I got to be really lazy. I slept in until 9...which is pretty late for me. I managed to trek out to the field and find Chris and I even sat on the porch and read...which I haven't been able to do in forever!

Tomorrow its back to Utah so I can land at 10:20 pm, drive to my apartment and then be back at the airport at 5:30 am to fly to Clearwater. Yes, I realize that this is insane. And there are many reasons for why I couldn't just fly to Clearwater from NY, the least of which is that it would have been more expensive, and our meeting wasn't definitely set in stone until last week...so I'm stuck going NY to Utah to Florida. The things I do to be dating someone... Upon arrival in Tampa I will probably face plant on the hotel bed and be in a coma state until the next morning...when hopefully caffeine will get me through my meetings. Now as long as I don't spend the night in the Cincinnati airport I should be ok...

That is all!

2 Years Down...14 months to go.

I know I've said this a lot, but I cannot believe how fast these past 2 years have gone! I was reading through a few old posts today and also realized how very different my life was 2 years ago. (Warning the following is mostly a sentimental break down of the past 2 years that no one is probably interested in but me...but since it's my blog I'm putting it out there.)

2 years ago today I stepped on an airplane in Syracuse not knowing what a Mormon was, having never lived more than 400 miles from home and knowing that when I landed I had yet to secure a place to live and a vehicle. It was all very overwhelming. But I managed to get through it. The first year consisted of me mostly finding my feet and my wings...I had to make friends, learn about my job and what was expected of me and somehow find a way to deal with these Mormon folk. I was secure in the fact that I was dating a guy that assured me he would be there forever and always support me and my career, even if he was 2000 miles away. Well apparently forever is about 4.5 months. That fiasco ended and it was probably one of the best things that could have happened. It forced me to live the big girl single life wondering if I was going to die alone with my cats. I did go on a couple of dates...unfortunately all those dates were in New York...so not the ideal way to start a relationship.

The job was also frustrating at times. I felt like I wasted my time getting my masters and that the things I was doing I probably didn't even need a college degree to do...or at least not my college degree...sometimes I wish I was an engineer so I would understand some of the jargon. I worked on several different programs before they finally settled me on the one I continue to work on today. I was fortunate enough to find a "Utah dad" and he has become the one person that watches out for me. Not that I need someone to baby sit me, but it can be intimidating as a single girl living alone (especially when one of your guy friends goes loco and talks a lot about his guns.) So it's comforting to know that if I don't show up to work...he would be calling and finding out where I am within the hour.

I made an awesome group of friends in year 1. Unfortunately at the start of year 2, they all moved. So I made another awesome group of friends. I got the full Vegas experience and I got dragged out against my will once every weekend to hang out. It was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately some of them have moved too...but I still have a few friends hanging around.

At the end of year 1, I was so ready to be out of here. Then I started really traveling. To date I have been on 117 planes since August 24th 2006. That's kind of a lot of traveling (considering most of my trips are at least one week long.) I started to wonder why I had an apartment...I should really just live in a hotel. During this time of insane travel I lost one of my biggest cheerleaders, my grandmother. She loved this blog and always told me I should publish it cause she was going to be the first one to buy a copy of that book. It was incredibly hard being 2000 miles away and getting that phone call and knowing that I might not make it home in time. Knowing that every member of my family was already there and I was the oddball stuck out in Utah. But fortunately for me Jet Blue didn't suck...just this once and got me home. Then it was back on the road again and before I knew it...it was ski season.

Now I have never ever tried skiing or snowboarding before December 2007 and if you follow the blog you know how infuriated I was by snowboarding. I just couldn't get it...and it was this frustration that made me stick with it. Then I got hooked. I snowboarded by myself and I found that there was something very relaxing about being by yourself on a mountain, ok not totally by myself, there were other people there, but I would essentially be alone all day. I think I got pretty good...that is until I had company. That's when Gracie Lou stepped out and broke her arm (Grandma would have been proud.) Fortunately for me though I had a very sweet guy that was willing to take care of me and drive my butt around all weekend. And yes, he's 2000 miles away also (well 2050 but who's counting?) He asked me to be his girlfriend and I thought he was crazy. I mean if I had just spent all weekend taking care of a guy cause he broke himself...I might be cautious about seeing him again. But we have seen each other since, and yes we are still together, despite my cousin's best efforts. I'm not sure how serious it is, I'm not sure how serious I want it to be and I'm not exactly sure what his feelings are about me, my career and our relationship. I think we are taking things one day at a time and enjoying each other when we see each other. That's my observation at least.

When I moved to Utah I thought I would never be able to play my French Horn again. Music has been such a huge part of my life for so many years, that I was upset at the possibility that I would never again get to play (yes I know...I'm a HUGE nerd). I was lucky enough though to find out about the Ogden Concert Band and then I got recruited for the biggest gig of my life...playing with the Weber State Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall! It's April 8, 2009 for any of you who would like to come see me.

So I have things to look forward to in year 3. And I also know where the AF is going to send me at the end of this year...so now I have to make the decision about whether I should stay with the AF or if I should try to find another job, which is scary, but exciting. I can't believe it's August...and wedding season is almost about to start. And I haven't even started thinking about writing that toast yet! And after wedding season...it's ski season again!! Then it's time to move! And there are still so many things I want to see in this state (and surrounding states) that I haven't gotten to see yet...so I'm hoping to find time to do that as well. 14 more months...yeah, I can do that.

That is all.

I bet you a 6 pack of root beer!

So this exchange did not actually occur in my presence, but in the presence of one of my buddies. He was sitting at his computer minding his own business when he heard two coworkers trying to prove the other wrong. Finally one blurted out, "Yeah, well I bet you a 6 pack of root beer that I am right." My buddy said he felt like he was 12 all over again. This is when he developed his theory that Utah is really the kiddie table of America. Everyone around here is perpetually stuck in the 7th grade. No one kisses boys (especially not before a celestial marriage) and no one even thinks of drinking alcohol! Which inherently means that my friends and I...we are the bad kids. The kids your mother warned you about...and we have BYU drinking team shirts to prove it.

In other news, I have a band concert on Sunday and we are playing a piece called Harlem Nocturne. And it sounds very much like the name implies...a little bit strip club, a little bit night club, a whole lot of good sax on the street corner. Essentially, you should be playing like you are in Harlem. One problem. I am in Squaresville,USA. These people probably have never even seen a brother, let alone tried to play like one. Now I'm not claiming to have way ethnic roots or anything...but I did work in an inner city...and the squareness with which this group plays this song...kind of makes me want to go deaf.

So Redneck Stonehenge has been erected in Utah. To watch the piece, which I highly recommend...because its far superior to reading it...go here http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=3929956 And yes, the town is spelled Hooper...like Mr. Hooper's store on Sesame Street. But they pronounce it Huper. Why? Cause they are lazy and western...no energy for them there extrar vowels. But they will throw an R in Washington. Go figure. Anyways, I have yet to drive out to see this "Stonehenge"...although it's probably only 10 miles or so from where I live. I think my favorite quote of the whole piece was, "we spoke to a neighborhood kid who said his father thinks it's trashy." Yup, that about sums it up. This dude would totally fit in in certain parts of Oswego County.

That is all!

Another update…



So it was again brought to my attention how infrequently I update this thing. But sometimes I just get busy…or I don’t get mad enough about whatever it is that is happening in my world to warrant venting about it through a post, and in this case…it was the former.



So I flew to California, MD to attend ANOTHER training course. The area was pretty nice but was po-dunk Maryland which led to some logistics issues. The first logistics issue was the 4 hours I spent in my car the first night I was there trying to track down my cousin’s shower gift. I went to 3 different Kohl’s in 2 different states, but I finally found it. The next logistics issue was that I wanted to hang out with my DC friends…but they were an hour and a half away in light traffic…so that wasn’t happening in the middle of the week. But I did get to see a few of them on the weekend…so that was awesome! I hung out with my girls on Saturday and had a blast!! And we decided that men are all the same. As my friend Lauren put it, “Yeah they are all basically the same, they do the same things, eat the same things and you just have to figure out what level of annoyingness you can tolerate…that’s how you find your one.” I’m trying to think of other amusing things that happened while I was there….oh so I went to Starbucks…pretentious headquarters…and I pull into the parking lot. I get out of the car and realize that I am parked in a compact only row…which is fine because I was driving the brightest yellow chevy cobalt coupe…so clearly…I’m a compact. But I didn’t see the sign at first because right next to me (blocking the sign) is a Ford Excursion…not an escape, or an expedition…an excursion! And all of a sudden the Denis Leary I’m an Asshole song starts playing in my head. I really wanted to take a picture…but was sans camera…and it just didn’t come out well on the camera phone.



After the training from hell it was off to the Cuse to put on a bridal shower. I spent most of the whole day Thursday driving to the Cuse and all day Friday running around trying to get stuff done before Saturday. I finally got home at 11 that night and I still had a ton of stuff to do Saturday morning. I was stressed! So I’m sitting at the table venting to my mom when I hear tires squealing. Then a truck pulls into my driveway and almost takes out an innocent car while attempting to do a U turn. He peels down the side road and stops, on the wrong side of the road, right in the middle of the lane. Then another car comes up…parks right in the middle of the road and shuts off its lights. My mom and I were freaking out thinking they were going to cause an accident…and then I saw people milling about. We couldn’t tell exactly what they were doing because our trees obscured our line of sight (one good thing about Utah…that wouldn’t have been a problem…we have no leafy trees). It looked like these guys were fighting, then it looked like they were trying to climb down the embankment and that’s when I realized that there was a car almost in our field. These guys were obviously drunk and I couldn’t tell if anyone was hurt or not…so I decided to call 911. By the time I hung up with the operator, they were all gone. All of them, but the car was still in our field. Next thing I know half my family is in my front yard (cause they are all in the fire department)…and they were all chiding me because it didn’t appear we had a problem. Until they shined the lights in our field and realized that there was a car there. So finally around 3am I got to sleep. A few short hours of sleep later and I was up to finish everything I needed to finish for the shower. 5 cups of coffee later and the shower was on! Thankfully everything appeared to come together just fine…despite my nightmare about it beforehand.



Monday it was back down to DC to catch the flight that left me stranded in Denver in June…that fateful night when I spent the night on the floor of the Denver airport. The drive from Cuse to DC was rather uneventful…although I still hate PA and everything about it. When I checked in at the kiosk it was very grey outside, but the rain managed to hold off until I got out of the city…so I got home when I was supposed to…yay! Waiting at the baggage claim for my luggage there was an African American woman standing there. And instinctively in my head I thought, man this woman must be lost. Which is not a normal reaction anywhere else in America, but when 1.32% of your population is black and almost all of those 1.32% work at Hill…you tend to make snap judgments. So I’m standing there and said woman comes up and asks me if I know the area. And I said yeah, I live here…what are you looking for? Well she was looking for some hotel in Salt Lake City, which I confess, I don’t know all that well, but I showed her how to figure out where she needed to be. As we are standing there some father pulled 3 car seats off the conveyor belt. She exclaims, “Ooh someone must have triplets.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that the 6 urchins standing 6 feet away were all the guy’s children…and yes 3 of them were under the age of 2. And yes, this is Utah, where people are grossly irresponsible with their abilities to procreate, doing so at such a young age that they aren’t even fully grown up themselves, leading to a culture of chaos and young children running through airport terminals screaming their heads off. No…didn’t have the heart to tell her any of that…she’ll figure that one out on her own…probably after she figures out that she is the only black person in a 40 mile radius, and yes the airport is in a large metropolitan area.



Tuesday it was back to the grind. Not much else to report there. I head back to New York Wednesday. Yes, I know…I was just there. I just love New York so much I can’t stay away…just kidding. I am actually having a bit of a rendezvous, at least that’s what I’m calling it….and it does include a Yankees/Red Sox game…so I’m pretty excited!



I know I had another story for this blog…but I can’t remember what it was at the moment…I’m sure I’ll think about it at some inopportune time when I am nowhere near a computer to blog. Oh well.


That is all.

It has been brought to my attention that it has been awhile since I updated this thing...

San Diego was beautiful!!! I had such a good time, I just wish I didn't have to be in class! I seriously could live there, if it wasn't so damn expensive.

The top story in Utah this week...will the state do away with the private club concept? For those that aren't familiar a private club is what we call in the rest of the world, a bar. That's it. Except to go into a bar in Utah you have to pay a membership fee to drink there. It's an old antiquated system, but it's keeping people from bar hopping! Oh the horror! If you think I'm kidding, here's the story...

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The proposal to get rid of private clubs in Utah is inching forward. Wednesday, the DABC asked for legislation to be drafted to eliminate the clubs.

Governor Huntsman wants to get rid of them because he thinks they're bad for the state’s business climate.

But almost immediately Wednesday, there were objections.

DABC Commissioner Kathryn Balmforth said, “Alcohol is controlled for a reason."

She is the alcohol commissioner who most often takes the hardest line against drinkers.

Balmforth worries that getting rid of clubs might lead to things like club hopping, more drinking and criminal activity.

Balmforth added, “Everybody in a society that chooses to accommodate the right of people to drink and the desire of people to make money by selling alcohol, everybody pays a price."

And that prompted other commissioners to voice their concerns, even if they weren't exactly related to getting rid of clubs.

For example – one pet peeve - those little walls or barriers on bar counters in restaurants.

Gordon Strachan, DABC Commissioner said, "Somehow we have to figure out how to eliminate the Zion Curtain. I mean it just makes us look silly and sound silly."

And because the commission is not yet on the same page when it comes to doing away with clubs, it decided to postpone a decision and to advance the issue all at the same time.

Strachan said, "I suggest that we move this forward but that we actually have legislation in front of us for our next meeting that addresses these issues."

And if the DABC and then the governor come up with suitable language, a bill to get rid of private clubs will be debated during next year's legislative session.

Sources told ABC 4 that the LDS Church has not decided how they feel about the issue and are in no hurry to make that decision.

It was even funnier to watch this story first hand. Because basically the governor is being smart and that women was really mad that people were going to bar hop and destroy society with their alcohol.

It's stories like the above that just keep me shaking my head and thinking...man these people would never survive in America.

I am currently listening to show tunes Saturday night...and the DJ just made a comment about "Hair" not being performed in Utah because nudity is not a good thing. What?!

All joking aside though...I have 13 months left out here. Some days it feels like it is going entirely too fast and some days it doesn't feel fast enough, like when the little immigrants that just moved in down the hall are screaming in the hallway at 11 o clock at night, definitely not going to miss that. Seriously what parents think it is acceptable to have children acting like apes so late at night?

In other news, travel season is about to start. If you know what my schedule is, you are doing better than I am. It seems to be constantly changing and extremely busy. I think I need a clone or a personal assistant. I'm accepting applications. If you are going to be in the DC, Maryland, Florida, NY, Chicago or England area and want to hang out...let me know and I'll let you know when I am in a town near you.

In honor of my schedule for the next 3 months I went to Bear Lake today to chill out by myself. I totally meditated on the beach and fell into a state that still amazes me. See, I've been taking Yoga, Pilates and Jazzercise for the past couple of weeks. They help supplement my boring running routine and make me bend like a pretzel! Well in Yoga, the last 10 minutes is meditation. I thought this was kind of bogus...because honestly who can relax in the gym? Well the first day I didn't. The second day I fell asleep (totally not kidding...and if you know me...you know this is possible...thanks genetics). The third day I vanished. I know I wasn't sleeping, but I wasn't awake either. It was the weirdest damn feeling ever...it was like dreaming but not being asleep. Well today on the beach, I did the same thing. And spare me the lectures about being on beach by myself and all the bad things that could happen with that. I didn't go swimming, I didn't get kidnapped and at least one person knew where I was (sort of). And honestly I don't know how long I was in the meditation state, but I woke up when I got hit with a blast of sand wind. So the trip served its purpose, I achieved a relaxed zen state and I got a raspberry milkshake (Bear Lake is famous for these...mmmm.) It was a win-win day all around. Now it's time to get focused, get serious and get ready for wedding season! 3 in 5 weeks to be exact. 1 dress at the tailors and 1 dress being shipped! Whoo!

That is all!