A Workaholic's Tale (Part 2)

Short post with four funny stories from the summer at work. Because I started writing these post but stopped and now I will just post them.

After Philly, I had a super lazy weekend, spending it at home and enjoying Father's Day with my daddy. Then I had to hop onto a plane to Illinois. I started reading American Sniper and was loving it. As I met up with Dan & Tim, I was telling them about how much I love the book so far, and Tim was like "Isn't that guy dead?" And I was like, no, it's an autobiography, he's alive to write it." Tim said "noooo. i'm pretty sure he was shot this year while out working with returned vets." I looked it up, and he was right; Christ Kyle was killed this year, on Groundhog's Day while working with a returned vet who snapped and killed Chris,  another person, and then himself. It was really heart-wrenching news. I felt like my own friend was killed.

When you're on business trips with the same people over and over, you tend to get to know a little about each other rather than small talk all the time. We were talking about me not having a boyfriend. Tim told me "You have a car and a career; you dont need a boyfriend." He then went on to explain how boyfriends would be jealous of all the time I don't spend with them, because I travel for word and am never available. I said, "errrr...i'm pretty sure and car and career aren't good boyfriend substitutes" but I dont think he really understood. lol.

The next tale takes place in Atlanta. We were in the office for a long day of too much working. I take a break to read the news because Lindsay messaged me that there was an announcement with the Supreme Court ruling over gay marriage. I read the articles, and casually say "The Supreme Court announced their ruling on gay marriage." One of my co-workers looks at me and says "Do you fly the rainbow flag?" I pause and look at him saying "excuse me?" and he repeated his question. I said "I think you need to stop and think about  what you want to ask me and re-phrase your question." He did not. Paul is sitting across the table gawking at us, and I say "Paul, are you hearing what I'm hearing?" and Paul says "Yeah. It sounds like he's asking if you're gay." I nod my head and look at the guy and he's like "that's not what I meant" and I just had to laugh because it was such a horribly worded phrase, but it broke up the monotony of a long work day with a chuckle.

About a month later, (7/31) Paul is visiting Houston and having a workshop with Lindsay and me early in the morning. He is on the phone talking to someone and was like "yeah. natasha is waking up right next to me." He then pauses, looks at me and says, "that didn't come out right"  I think the best part of that day was during lunch when Paul opened up to us about how he used to work too much, and it started causing marital issues. He told us of how his wife gave him an ultimatum and how he felt that the Spirit told to discuss this with his boss, was also a Christian. His boss told him to cancel all his meetings and phone calls, and go home to talk to his wife. They talked and went to marriage counseling and really began to communicate better. He realized that he needed to make his family a higher priority than work and make sure he's making time. This made me stop and pause, because if I look at my life right now, there is little-to-no work/life balance. I may not have a spouse or kids who are suffering from my work schedule, but I'm working too much and not having enough me time. It's starting to affect my life. I went to get a facial and even the lady was like "you are breaking out girl" and it is the first time in my life that i am getting stress acne. It's gross. It is making me sleep less because when I get home, I want to stay up and do me-time things. It makes me re-think my priorities. What am I willing to sacrifice to have a successful career? How important is a high-level career to me? Is this what I want to do for the rest of my life: work long hours to make money, but not necessarily have time to turn off my brain, lay in the grass, and relax? What do I want in life, and how do I obtain it?

Just Call Me Neville

I am super awkward. I am embarrassing. I am Neville Longbottom when the whole Gryffindor house is ashamed of him for having written down the week's worth of passwords only to get in the hands of the accused murderer, Sirius Black.

As Stephen Colbert says, "If you don't know who that is, congratulations on waking up from your eight-year coma. Let me get you up to speed for some of the things you might have missed. First of all the economy is terrible. All human thought has now been limited to 140 characters. And most importantly Neville Longbottom now looks like this. I think we can all agree that that is a real message of hope." But like Neville, I hope to grow out of the awkward embarrassing stage of my life....one day. A girl can dream, right?

But for real. This is a story of why I am borderline anti-social. So this week, in preparation for the roadtrip I was taking with my sister, I was given the task of putting HP6 on my iPod. I had forgotten to pack the night before I had to drive home, so I had to pack Wednesday. I quickly plugged in my iPod and uploaded the book files back onto my iTunes and put it on my iPod. I got home and relaxed a little by doing some online shopping as Saryah was getting stuff together and loading her car. At one point, she put all her clothes, with the hangers still on, on a blanket, and wrapped the blanket up. I felt like we were carrying a dead body into the trunk of her car.

Thursday morning started off like any other, waking up after a few hours of sleep at 4:30am, making sure saryah was awake....hang on.....wait a second.....that's not right. I do not do that. Sorry. No. Let's start over. I managed to wake up to my alarm at 4:30 am. Slowly and sluggishly we made it to the car.....nooooo. I woke up and made sure Saryah was too. We got ready and got the last minute things in the car only to realize after about 1 minute on the road, we forgot something. oops. So we turned around, and hit the road for a second time. I passed out cold in the passenger seat. Two hours later, Saryah was pulling into Buc-ee's to get some gas and for us to change driving. So she fell asleep as we went into San Antonio. What we didn't consider is, despite our early departure from Houston, we hit San Antonio during rush hour traffic. Since we were in San Antonio, we decided to pull off at the next Taco Cabana on the side of the highway. However, this was not happening as quickly as we hoped. I put it in my phone and the closest one was off Hildebrand. When we got there, this one had no bathroom that we saw. Instead of sitting at a table and eating, we went to the car...and ate. lol.  the tight space caused me to spill on myself. #fail Then when I went to throw away the trash, we discovered the outdoor bathroom door. #fail

On the way out of the city, we decided to put on the HP6 audio book. The problem was, the tracks weren't playing in order, and we couldn't control it with the usb cord connection......and it wasn't HP6. In my rush to leave my place, I put HP7 on my iPod. #spoileralert  #epicfail I had been stressing about starting the HP series again with book 6 because I haven't re-read the series in over half a decade. Overtime I try, I get super angsty and have to stop. Now I was starting with #7. The last one. #facepalm #iamnevillelongbottom 

We had to stop listening to it anyway because we couldn't navigate the iPod menu on her car and needed and AUX cord. The problem is, we had passed the last Wal-Mart that would be on I-10 for a very long time. So we had to listen to my music instead. Qué horror! Saryah went back to sleep, and I continued driving.  We tried to get gas around half tank just in case there was a long time before the next gas station. It's West Texas; there isn't much out there. 

We managed to find a Wal-Mart (with a surprisingly clean bathroom) and got the AUX cord and started at the very beginning. A very good place to start. We realized we had lost time in the traffic in San Antonio, and the weather, while sunny, had a bit of chill to it, so we skipped our planned stop at Balmorhea State Park. Instead we drove straight up to Roswell, New Mexico. It took about 10 hours on the road before we crossed the border out of Texas. It's a pretty big state. When we hit Roswell, we stopped off at a gas station to take a picture with an alien statue, and I re-enacted the Roswell scene where Max tells Liz that he's an alien. #imsuperfunny There were little alien heads on all the lamp posts in town. Our plan was to stop at an alien themed diner, but we weren't hungry as we drove through. The healthy snacks Saryah picked up were doing their job.

We drove the rest of the afternoon to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Truth: you can't trust a city when all the buildings aren't build bigger than two-stories. We checked into the hotel. It was pretty cold out. Please note: deserts get cold at night. After my phone said there was no Panera Bread in the city, we decided on Jason's Deli. On our drive to pick up our order....we drove past a Panera #lyingphone #fail *sigh* Oh well. The food was okay, but people, don't get Tomato Basil Soup from Jason's Deli. It had a layer or grease/oil that seemed so out of place. We showered after a long day in the car and watch some tv on saryah's laptop, because using the hotel's real tv is too much effort. giggles.

First stop Friday morning? Four Corners of course! It is where the states of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona meet in one place. Take that A Walk To Remember! Two places at once? Underachievers! We got four! Own3d. We had to drive thorough Arizona to get there and to continue our trip, go through Colorado to get to Utah.

We stopped for lunch at Subway and afterwards, I wanted some crackers. I ate the crackers before getting in the car and went to throw my little wrapper in the car trash bag. When I did, all the crumbs in the wrapper fell out onto the driver's seat. Oh goodness. I didn't know what to do. They were such tiny crumbs. I thought, maybe saryah won't notice and think her car is just super messy. Then I looked at her and she looked at the seat and didn't say anything. I thought 'maybe she didn't notice?' so i went to sit down and she said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and started laughing. I started laughing. I thought i would pee my pants. I then had to pick up the little crumbs from the seat. #iamnevillelongbottom #epicfail Saryah laughed at me for the rest of the weekend for this.

The drive to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful. We drove up a super steep hill and were nervous her little car's engine wouldn't make it. As soon as we hit the top of the hill the Capitol was staring at us. It's quite lovely. We drove to her place and met the people. They gave her a warm welcome with a tour. The most awkward part was the man who was moving out said "The Mormons shouldn't bother you too much either" and then him and his wife started telling us a little bit about the Mormons. It was so awkward, I didn't want to make it uncomfortable for Saryah (who has to live in the house) that we were Mormon, and Saryah didn't say anything either.  We both agreed after that there will be a better time to bring it up anyway. We unloaded Saryah's stuff, made a list of what she still needed and went off to dinner. We went to this cute little restaurant I found online. Em's. It was so perfect, and I felt a little under-dressed in my tshirt and jeans. I should have had a blouse on or something. Oh well. The food was really delicious too. I have a feeling Saryah will return there often after I leave. We then hit up target, pick up stuff, and then we went to visit Elo!

Ah yes. The Cool Bus. :)

I was a little surprised when we showed up and her boyfriend was there, but it was nice to meet him. We all hung out and one of her friends came over and shortly proposed to me. lol. oh funny people. Then we quizzed him about what the 7 horocruxes were. He got 5/7. Decent, but not impressive. It was a nice night seeing Elo and catching up a little. We went back to Saryah's place and promptly went to bed, because it was a long and tiresome day.

Saturday morning started off nice and early as we went to Bruges Waffles to meet Ian for some breakfast. We were sitting in the cold, as Saryah didn't bring a winter coat, thinking that the 80degree Texas spring season continues up to Utah. After being 15 minutes late, we called him to see where we was. He said he was a Bruges Waffles waiting for us. As soon as he said that, I knew....there had to be more than on location in Salt Lake City. #fail We went over to the one by him and had a great morning chatting over waffles. yum. We headed off to Whole Foods to get some groceries for Saryah. It was Sample Saturday, and the Whole Foods is pretty big. We went shopping for a bit and didn't find anything. We then went to eat luch at the Pie Hole, a recommendation from Ian. It was good even though it has the feeling of entering a biker bar. We then went to check out he Library, and listen to the HP6 audio book because we were about to start the Snape's Memories chapter. You cannot pause in the middle of such an emotional chapter. We then went back to Saryah's place to relax because it was already a long and exhausting day. I fell asleep as soon as we got back.and was woken up with Saryah saying "Is that Pam at the front door?" In my disorientated state, I was super confused at what was going on, but I went to the door and there was a surprise. It wasn't only Pam; Trey was there too! Que milagro! I was told Trey was working, but he wasn't! Woot! We went on a walk to the Capitol, even though it was cold and drizzling. It is a pretty cool capitol. We then went off to get some Ethiopian food and meet up with Katie. We had a lot of fun at dinner, and stayed much longer than anticipated, just talking. Katie arrived a little late because she got a little lost. It was nice catching up with everyone. We said goodbye to Katie, then went to Target again for some more last minute things for Saryah. We had to say goodbye :( So sad. I told Pam that I would come back for Conference & the Mission Reunion this fall, even though seeing everyone post-mission makes me awkward. Bleh.

Sunday morning was super sad because I had to say farewell to my lil sis, We woke up early and had a nice big breakfast of omelets and toast. yum yum. She then dropped me off at the airport. SOOOOO SAD. While at the airport, I had time to continue reading Born to Run. My dad, lil sis, and broseph had read it already, and Saryah's been trying to get me to read it since. I finally got it out from the library, and as I read it, the more I fell in love with it! You know those moments in life where you hear something or read something and it just kind of rings true to every fiber of your being? It was as if I had always known it on some level but was waiting for the memory to be awaken from my state of forgetfulness. I loved it. It is about a people in Mexico who run ridiculously long lengths with no real problem. As someone who hates running with a fiery passion, I was not expecting to really like this book as much as my dad and siblings did. The people in the story were truly inspiring and the stories and facts that backed up theories about running, just seems to ring true to me. It definitely altered my way of thinking.  Here is just a little quote from the book that I loved:

Love of life! Exactly!...It wasn't just how to run; it was how to live, the essence of who we are as a species and what we're meant to be...Perhaps all our troubles --all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome -- began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way. [...] Maybe the ancient Hindus were better crystal-ball-gazers than Hollywood when they predicted the world would end not with a bang but with a big old yawn. Shiva the Destroyer would snuff us out by doing...nothing. Lazing out. Withdrawing his hot-blooded force from our bodies. Letting us become slugs (99).  -Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

"Just move your legs. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You are denying who you are" (244).

I think the person I found the most interesting would have to be Barefoot Ted. Yes. That is what he was called. But he runs more or less barefoot. The reasoning behind it just made sense to me. Therefore, Monday after work, I went on my first barefoot walk. True story. I went to the lake around the corner of my place, slipped of my flip flops, and walked around the lake next to the side walk. I also discovered that the lake has Texas Bluebonnets growing all over. It was beautiful. It felt good, and made me super happy. That night, I enjoyed a good FHE night of a sidewalk chalk art contest. Since it's a church activity, You can't really single people out, because I would feel too badly. Everyone got a participation prize!

On a side note/tangent:
I do supply chain management for a living. Part of that includes cost savings. As someone who is current focusing on cost savings at work, when I see a deal, I want to jump at it. In this spirit of frugality, I begin my story. Earlier this year, T-Mobile announced they will be adding iPhones to their service. I looked at multiple articles (this is only one example), which compared the pricing. You see, if you get your phone from T-mobile, you have to pay an unsubsidized prices (meaning, you have to pay all $600 of the phone). I've read another article recently about how Americans don't like having to pay a lot of money up front even if there is cost savings in the long run. It's true. To fight the instinct that Americans have, T-Mobile has said "no pay the subsidized price up front and then every month pay $20 extra). I see what you are doing T-Mobile, and I am pleased by your sneaky ways. Even with paying for the phone outright, I would still see about $800 in savings in the next two years. For me, that's kinda awesome. However, to avoid Early Termination fees, I have to wait for three months. THREE! #firstworldproblems

Now on a more serious note, The Boston Marathon Bombings. I am grateful for the men and women in uniform who protect us. I am grateful that the other suspect has been apprehended  It was a truly horrific bombing that happened there. It's serious moments in life like this where I am left with a loss for words. I think my first reaction was more of a "I can't believe this just happens" state of shock. It was a terrible incident, but with a mixture of comedic relief in the middle of all the emotional turmoil, I think Stephen Colbert ended his opening monologue perfectly when he said “These people tried to make life bad for the people of Boston, but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are.” It's sad and tragic, but in these moments, I feel hope when I see strangers helping each other and showing selfless service towards other. In the tragedy, there is good breaking through to give light to others. As John 1:5 states, "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."  Light and Darkness.  I recall something I read about light from Robert D. Hales in "Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light" that said:

As children, we learned how to keep darkness away by turning on a light. Sometimes, when our parents went away for the evening, we would turn on every light in the house! We understood the physical law that is also a spiritual law: light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More importantly, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs. When the spiritual light of the Holy Ghost is present, the darkness of Satan departs.
...we are engaged in a battle between the forces of light and darkness. If it were not for the Light of Jesus Christ and His gospel, we would be doomed to the destruction of darkness. But the Savior said, “I am come a light into the world.” 13 “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 14
The Lord is our light and, literally, our salvation. 15 Like the sacred fire that encircled the children in 3 Nephi, [in The Book of Mormon] His light will form a protective shield between you and the darkness of the adversary as you live worthy of it. You need that light. We need that light. Carefully study the scriptures...and listen to the teachings of your parents and leaders. Then, by obedience to wise counsel, learn to claim the protective light of the gospel as your own.
You may wonder, “How can I do that?” There is only one way: you must learn to generate that light each day by believing on Jesus Christ and following His commandments. 

 I know that our Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. I do not doubt and cannot forget. Even though the world is in turmoil, and there are moments ahead in the our future as human beings that might be difficult; He is aware. Our God is a God of love.

I Believe in Miracles

You remember the 2003 version of Peter Pan when Tinkerbell is dying and people around the world begin to chant "I do believe in fairies, I do. I do."? Yeah. That's me. I love that part. Let your childhood self free and believe. After all, the Bible teaches us that unless we "be converted, and become as little children, [we] shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Now, many people who read of my miracles will say, "No. That's a coincidence, not a miracle" To you I say, "Curly hair don't care." I ignore your attempts to destroy my love of miracles and belief that they still exist today.

On Wednesday night (3/27) I was finishing up my golf class and went to return the empty bucket. The owner of the driving range asked me how I was doing. I told him I didn't think I was improving. He asked if I owned some golf clubs to practice my swing on. I told him how I didn't want to buy anything expensive, and I was having a hard time finding cheap girls clubs. He suggested only buying one club to practice on, and I said something about feeling like a loser only buying one club. Then he said "one moment" and went to find a girl's golf club. He gave it to me; I said I would bring it back next week, and he said "no. keep it." It was so nice. My heart melted. I thanked him and went on my merry way. I love kind people. Time to pay it forward. #miracleofkindnessandgenerosity

Thursday I had a long day in a very important meeting in our downtown office with Addy. I had to get there early, so I was expecting lots of traffic, except there wasn't. However, there *was* time for me to hit up a starbucks to get a hot chocolate (it was a little chilly). There was a cute guy in behind me who asked "isn't that a christmas drink" to which I responded "you should have the spirit of christmas with you year-round." #wittyme After my long day in meetings, I went home to finish last minute packing and have some dinner before heading to the airport.

I was going through security, putting my stuff on the conveyor belt, when the guy behind me says something along the lines of "are you following/stalking me?" As someone with residual stalker-like tendencies, this is always a valid question ;) I turned around to say something super sassy, but turned to see the smiling face of someone I actually know! I was kinda stunned. What are the odds? It turns out we were both heading to PHX for the weekend, and we were on the same flight. Well, you know how when you meet someone you kinda form this idea about who they are and what they're like? I've realized a few weeks ago that my ideas about him have about a 40% accuracy rating, which I thoroughly enjoy. He once again surprised me by suggesting we change our seats to the emergency row together. As explained in my previous post, say yes, unless you want the fun to end. I did not. It turns out you have to pay money to change assigned seats to the emergency row, so instead we got assigned regular seats together. Now you may say, that's just what friends do when they see each other, but you see, until this point, I thought he only talked to me in group social events to be nice. It had never crossed my mind he might actually *want* to get to know me. Once again, I was surprised, because for *some* reason he wanted to sit next to me on an airplane for a 3 hour flight. We talked over food, and we talked during the plane ride. He continuously surprised me as our conversation flowed, and I loved it. Was the 4 hour conversation the beginning of a beautiful friendship, or was he just being a nice/polite person? Well...only time will tell. More than likely, whatever the outcome, it will probably surprise me. #miracleoffriendshipwhenleastexpected

Note the confetti in my hair and on the floor :)

Speaking of beautiful friendships, I was picked up at the airport by the lovely miss erica, who suddenly had a lot of errands to run and wanted to endanger my life by texting and driving after picking me up. Of course, I stayed in a state of ignorant bliss. We finally got to her place, and she encouraged me to go put my stuff in her room. As I was putting my jacket on the chair at her desk, I screamed as someone smashed cascarones on my head and confetti fell everywhere. I turned to see the guilty culprilt who gave me a mini heart attack only to shout with joy and laugh as I saw Ben. Surprise! I wasn't expecting to see him till later in the weekend. Great surprise, because I was expecting anything and seeing Ben always makes me happy. I was covered in confetti, but I could only laugh and try to ignore the OCD feeling of having to clean the up the confetti off the floor immediately. Quidditch practice ran late, so Erica had to stall by running her funny errands, and was texting Ben to make the surprise work. So really she risked my life for the good cause of bringing me joy. Ben, Erica and I ended up chatting for a while. Eventually Erica brought in a lot of pillows and we made a mini lounge on the floor. We were all sitting into a comfy zone which led to all of us falling asleep as we were talking. Finally, around 3pm, we somehow woke up and Ben staggered out the door, and magically made it back to his place unharmed. #miracleofsurprisesandjoy

Friday morning started a wee bit sluggish as we were functioning on a few hours of sleep. Erica had to get to work, and I had to get to Stine's to hang out with her a lil' Lia. We bid Erica farewell to work and Jordan (Stine's husband) farewell to school for his Calculus quiz (even though it's Good Friday). Stine, Lia, and I went on a walk. I felt so domestic pushing Lia in her stroller, with Stine walking the dog. We went to the park, where all the kids loved the dog and we loved swinging with Lia. The rest of the morning was us talking about everything  possible and me soaking in Lia-time. She's unbelievably adorable. Erica got off work early, and Jordan finished his test so we were able to get together for a little bit longer, till Jordan and Stine had a sealing to go to. Erica and I met up with Matt to have papusas at the papusaria we love. We accidentally told Matt the papusas were smaller than they were, so he wasn't hungry for Bahama Bucks after lunch. Oops. But really, I feel horrible because no one should ever miss an opportunity to eat at Bahama Bucks. The shame. But we had a great time! Matt is one of the handful of friends I still have from freshman year! (because they turned out to be terrible people or got married so single people no longer exist to them). He's awesome, and he served his mission in Germany, so he loves it as much as i do :) We hung out at Bahama Bucks, as Erica had to go back to work and eventually Stine and Jordan joined us. Then I said my goodbyes to Matt, and went over to Jordan's family's house to dye Easter eggs!

Now, I've known Jordan and Stine for a while. I also am friends with one of Jordan's older brother's, Marshall. Last time I saw Marshall was when Stine and I had a girls night and went to see him in Much Ado About Nothing. It was great, and he was so happy to see me. Call me vain, but I was expecting the same reaction. I saw him playing on the floor with one of his neices, and when he just looked up at me and casaully said "hey", I was a little disappointed. As I was looking around the room, *REAL* Marshall popped into my sight and gave me a hug and an enthusiastic welcome. I had seen Marshall's twin on the ground, and I only met him briefly once before. Sneaky twins. It was a lot of fun. I got to dye eggs with the kids and help pass out gifts after the Easter egg hunt. That's right. i'm not sure if it's just this family or all white people, but they their easter eggs have the name of presents inside them, and they get to collect their presents after the hunt. say what?!?! Gifts for doing an easter egg hunt? #whitepeople When i grew up, you hunted those eggs for ammunition so you can smash them on each other's heads! #mexicanpride We got root beer floats, yum. And while I was outside watching people play on the trampoline, like a ninja, Doug appeared out of no where on the trampoline. I was super impressed. Didn't see him coming. Doug is so funny, and he's their backyard neighbor. #hadnoidea

Then it was girl time. But first we needed our fake booze for the BYOB art class we were going to. I've been wanting to go to one of these for MONTHS! So I booked it up for us this weekend. The hardest part was finding a store near by. Of course there are tons of liquor stores...but we needed a Wal-Mart to get some Martinelli's. That was a little more difficult to get to.When we got there, I was surprised by the lack on instruction at the art class, but also surprised that my painting didn't turn out terrible.

We went in, chose from about 50 pictures which one we wanted to paint. We were given the colors and set free! After the base coat, you have to go blow dry the painting dry and then use chalk to draw what you are going to paint next. They said if you didn't finish in time you can come back some other time. Problem is, I'm not coming back anytime soon. Luckily, I finished. Our inner artist shown through our painting. We are awesome! Then we went for the next best part about girls night...cake. Erica promised me a cake when I came, and she did not disappoint. We went back for her to make the homemade icing, only to discover she was out of powdered sugar! What did I do? called ben to bring us some. duh. However, erica hates accepting help from others, so we ended up going over to Stine's where she has powdered sugar and ben had to wait an extra day to get cake. The cake was wonderfully delicious. And we had more Lia time, because Lia would not fall asleep! Poor little Lia.

Saturday morning was beautiful. I went to the temple with Stine & Erica for the first time. We've never made it all together before. It was great. Much needed peace and revelation happened.

After the temple, Erica and I went and hopped into our swimsuits and laid out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. #sogood It was cloudy, but nice and warm. No sunburns for us. Sadly, Erica forgot some headphones, so she had to listen to the frat boys at the pool. #realtragedy Then we went to go get groceries because Erica was cooking us dinner! Except Stine cancelled on us. Sad. I really wanted her to finally meet Ben. We got back and Erica started cooking, and she sent me to bed because i was crazypants. I slept until right before Ben showed up. I was only incoherent for a bit after waking up luckily. We had a GREAT dinner with cake for dessert and a wonderful time talking and feeling judged by the imaginary hypothetical guest at our table as we tried to mesh different groups of friends. #dontmixfriendgroups Ben and Erica taught me the Wobble in an impromptu dance party. And we finally left to go to meet up with Stine & Jordan at the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. Parking was terrible, so Ben dropped us off on a corner as he went to find parking. We managed to find Stine in the crowd and sit down in time for the BEST PART OF EASTER! His resurrection. Spoiler Alert: Jesus lives! It was great, and I love the Easter Pageant. We wandered off and Ben found us in front on the temple, waiting. Then two of my friend groups finally intermingled! It was quite entertaining. I'm such a good friend-matchmaker! We all went to Dairy Queen and had a marvelous time. After Stine & Jordan left, Ben said "I like that you have mean friends". lol. me and my friends tease each other quite often. Ben, Erica, & I stayed out a bit later and we shared our inner most thoughts and feelings and Ben dropped us off at Erica's. Erica and I stayed up until we started falling asleep, which wasn't much longer after being dropped off.

Sunday morning was quite pleasant  We went to 9am church at the Institute (my fav place on ASU campus) and it was a great service. I love how everyone is so musically gifted. The Spirit was there, and the message about the Atonement and of our living Savior was a powerful one. I really enjoyed it. Then it was time to hop on the plane back home to Texas. I read Clockwork Prince the whole plane ride back. I feel like book 2 is where Cassandra Clare really differentiates this trilogy her previous trilogy and the story becomes better (I acknowledge that there are now more than 3 in that series, but it irks me that she made it a trilogy and changed her mind a year later and wrote more). The plane ride was longer than anticipated, due to bad weather. I was tired and hungry as the shuttle driver taking me back to my car thought I was a teacher and then a secretary. Really? Would you like to stereotype me based on my sex some more? Men. When I got home, I had a nice surprise! Grandpa was there!!!!!!!!!!! Dear world, my grandpa is dabomb.com. We had a lot of fun and it was awesome. Especially when my mom, dad, and grandpa started trying to one-up each other on childhood stories. #grandpawon It was a great Easter weekend.

ps. As a book update. I stayed up super late Monday night to finish book 3, Clockwork Princess. LOVED IT! I cried the entire epilogue, although I am not sure why. It was perfect. I think I was crying from happiness of the perfection of the ending. I dont think I could have thought of something that wrapped everything up so nicely. And I wasn't expecting it. (I love surprises, but only when I don't know there is going to be a surprise, because my imagination always thinks of something cooler than the surprise) If only Mockingjay had that perfect of an ending, but that's beside the point.

pps. I really wanted to post the picture of ben and erica when we all fell asleep on Friday night, but decided not to because I dont want anyone to see it and for erica to feel more of the wrath of ben's fan club #understandable #prettypeopleproblems

The Fault in Our Stars

Let's face the facts. There are 2 comedians in my life that can do no wrong. Mindy Kaling and Tina Fey. I've read both of their books. Correction....I've listened to their audio books, which they narrate. Brilliant. In Tina Fey's book Bossypants she talks about the rules of improv. As someone who did theatre all in junior high, i know exactly what she's talking about.

1. Always say yes. #bestruleever. 
2. There are no mistakes, only opportunities. 

Now someone who does not do theatre or has a boring life, should take note of these rules. Why? because they make life more interesting. You want to go to Puerto Rico this weekend? No = Oh, okay.#nofun #nofriends You want to go to Puerto Rico this weekend? Yes = party time. See? Flawless logic. Of course, this rule has it's limits to excude the bad immoral sneaky people things in life. ie. No prostitution, stealing, breaking the law (some exclusions do apply), killing people, etcetera. It's fun and it keeps life interesting when you are open to new opportunities.

You know those old tv's with the bunny ears that were small screens in a HUGE box from the old days? You know, the ones that should be in museums for people to look at and laugh at as they think about current technology? Yeah, that's the kind of  tv my family has my whole life, since probably the 80's. It is pretty ghetto-licous. But with parents who grew up with nothing, they just see a working television and no reason to spend money to buy another working television. Now, to present time, the tv remote has been lost, so my dad missed watching Dr. Who. This of course is more unthinkable and ridiculous than having a super old tv, so my dad immediately requested that my brother go help them pick out a new tv. Now this new tv is all hi-tech and HD. It has netflix and my dad decided to get Hulu Plus so he can watch current tv shows too. He's so funny.

Now, the weekend of the new TV (3/15-6) , I slept over at home because I had a long week and wanted to escape. Due to my long week, I was feeling ready for a good long cry, which is ideal when you are planning on setting aside time to read a very sad book. That's right, I do enjoy a good emotionally traumatic book every once in a while. I read The Fault In Our Stars. Don't be alarmed by any spoilers, because you know it's going to be sad based on the summary, so please, calm down. As I was reading this book, I was cry. It was a constant of tears streaming down my face while I sat on the couch downstairs in the living room. My mom walked by and of course interrupted my intense emotional connection with fictional characters to ask me if I was ok. I responded "Of course!" and she interrupted again saying "are you sure?".  Please note the difficulty that exists when there is a very pivotal part in a book and then your mom interrupts because she's concerned that you are sitting by yourself in tears. Please. Later she came by and said sometimes along the lines of  "you dont have to keep reading it if you dont want to" and I said "why would you say that? I love this book!" and she said "it doesn't look like it". Don't questions a girl crying over a book! It was a great book. I loved it. It touched my heart and I will forever remember it. (I was introduced to my love of heart wrenching books when I read The Book Thief....on an airplane, and ended up bawling my eyes out next to a stranger, and trying my hardest to maintain some composure and not freak out my anonymous neighbor. #amazingbooksenvokeextremereactions)

(3/17) So does ditching your family to hang out with family take away from how bad it is to ditch your family? The other week, I was talking to my Aunt Sharron and she invited me over for dinner, and my mom said it was fine and added something along the lines of she's no longer friends with Aunt Sharron for stealing me away. I dunno. But I went and it was funny because Aunt Sharron meant to call my mom the next day and invite the rest of the family over, but she forgot. lol. So I went and ate dinner with them and it was fun. One of Aunt Sharron's old mission companions (from Argentina) was there, and Uncle David's mom was there. So we had a fun time after dinner talking in Spanish as I realize how bad my Spanish skills have become. Whoops. It was  lot of fun and I really enjoy this side of my family.

Now for the Charles quote of the week: I'm not diabetic, im just really angry!

So for work, my boss has asked me to update my resume to include things that I have been working on for the past 10 months. It was stressful. The bonus to working on your resume at work is that the management can look at your resume with you and give you some good advice about what they would be looking for in a resume. It was pretty funny because the plant manager was like "you need to put that your an excel expert!" lol. I'm really not that great. but it make me laugh. He thinks I'm so great that he gave me what he calls a "mission impossible" which lead me to having to read computer coding in Microsoft Visual Basic. I honestly never thought I would have to look at computer code again after my freshman year of university. It was gross. I gave up after two days. They really weren't expecting me to figure it out, but they were hoping. Nope. Leave that German engineering to the Germans (it was a program written by one of our German facilities)

So I've been meaning to do Pottermore for a while. I signed up when I was in New Zealand with Saryah due to her intense peer pressure. But when my big sister sent me a link about what each house would read in real life, I realized, I need to finally be sorted. So I did. It took longer than expected to get to the chapter where I could get my wand and be sorted. It turns out I'm a Ravenclaw. Woot. (I was secretly hoping I would be a Slytherin and terrified I might be a closet Hufflepuff #hpdrama) It was a happy day.

On Wed night (3/20) after golf, I was called out. I got another calling, and was talking to one of the stake counselors. He was pretty funny, and it turns out I live close to him, so he asked if I had taken a walk around the lake my hotel. I said I have seen it and have been meaning to talk a walk around it, but I become a vegetable as soon as I get to my room after work. He called me a lazy bum, and I laughed at he truthful remark. Therefore, the next day, after picking up some books from the library, I went and read outside by the lake and enjoyed the sunshine during my lunch break.

Now speaking of books. One important thing you have to know is I am a recovering addict. I'm addicted to reading. Sometimes I fall off the wagon and cannot stop. That is what happened that week. I read 7 books in 6 days, and didn't sleep much. A book to me is like a pringles can to everyone. Once you pop the fun won't stop, aka, i cannot stop. I just get tooo curious that I have to know how it ends. It's bad. I'm working on it. Acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Right? I have to practice putting down a book in the middle of it. It is hard, but I try.

This fact may have contributed to Saryah coming over and us not doing anything...together. She came over and found me on goodreads. Then instead of encouraging me to do something, she joined me and we looked at book lists of books we could read in the future. Eventually we determined we needed food, and I made speghetti. It was great. Then we watched The Hunger Games before bedtime, when she went to bed, and I stayed up reading a little later. The next day (3/23)  was PANCAKE DAY! at Stevie and Sonja's. It was fun. We ate lots of pancakes. Everyone had a party. Afterwards, Saryah and I went to Half-Priced Books. Yeah. Problem, remember? Then we were so tired, that we went back to my place and sat on the couch together and read our books. She left, and I continued to read. It was a very relaxing day.

Speaking of Saryah, she is moving far away. So sad. She has asked me to drive up with her to her new residence to keep her company on the long drive. May I just note the life parallel of how we roadtripped the North Island of New Zealand together May 2012, and we are roadtripping the Southwest together in April 2013. Adorable we are. The only problem is I will have to fly back, so I had to start looking at one way tickets back to Htown. I pressed a wrong button at one point and accidentally searched for a round trip ticket to find that the cheapest round-trip ticket would save me $70 and get me home on a direct flight rather than a connection flight. #savyshopper #likeaboss

Now for some angst. I was talking to a girl the other day and she's about a year or two older than me. In our conversation she said a couple of times the key phrases of  "when I grew up" and "in my generation" as in...we are from different generations. She referenced the fact she grew up without cell phones and had to use payphones. Ummm, yes, so did I. I was on my best behaviour and smiled the entire time, but in my head I felt very patronized. It was one of the most ridiculous things ever. #bahhumbug

My last story of the week comes from me working from home on my laptop one night, while listening to music on my personal laptop and thinking, why can't i connect the two laptop screens? (I have two screens at work) It is hard to go from working on two screens to one small laptop screen. #workangst

Boys, Work, & Life

source: iwastesomuchtime.com

Let's talk about feelings right now. I remember a few years ago, I was talking to my friend Greg, and he made the comment that all girls are crazy. Being in my state of denial and haughtiness, I thought, "yeah, right, i am so sane and normal". Now, age and clarity have settled into my life and I realize, he's so right. lol. por ejemplo, i have met this guy who makes me super nervous, and this causes me to act really weird because my nervousness overrules my ability to seem any kind of cool. I say weird things and my face turns red. Lindsay thinks it's adorable I have a crush on someone. Me? No. I dont like him. Why? because he doesn't like me. #girllogic

Let's start with an amusing anecdote. Anecdote, not antidote. Because one will help you if you are dying of a crazy disease, and the other would not. I was talking my friend Petra and she was asking me if there were any boys I liked. I said something along the lines of "no, boys suck" and she asked, "are you sure you even like boys?" lol. I said "oh, i like boys." that's the problem. I just know what I do and don't want. Mix that with the phrase "he's just not that into you" and you get my life.
Boy Rant: Complete

So one time someone asked me, why dont you write about what you do at work more? and I thought, 'why do you want to hear about what I do at work? #boring' But I will tell you. I normally enjoy what I do at work. Our company is divided into two sections. In one of the sections you have the president of that section and his VPs. I work with the VP of Manufacturing. He tells me what he wants, and I make it happen. I like what I do. I like making things happen. However, I hate when he asks me to do impossible things, because he doesn't realize they are impossible, so I end up trying super hard to make it happen only for it to never work. I almost made myself cry the other week because I thought he would be upset that I could make something happen he wanted to happen, be he was like "okay" and moved on. Now he wants me to do something in SAP that everyone is telling me I cannot do, and he's like."....mmmmm, i think you can". So I shall continue on my quest to make the impossible happen so I can create a graph about it and send it to him. He loves graphs, data, and powerpoint presentations. He's awesome, and challenges me, which I like. If I didn't respect him as much as I do, I would probably not try as hard as I do. But he's legit, and knows what he's talking about. It's cool. 

Another work story: last week, I was put on a the a materials management team for our Petroleum facilities. Oh man. This team is awesome. I met up with them a little late because we were all stuck in traffic, but it was at a different one of our Houston locations, so I go to be out of the office for the day. It's a team of four men. One of the guys described the group quite well, "We laugh a lot, because if we didn't, we would die of boredom". Let me just say, I laughed a lot that day. We had a good productive meeting, and one of the guys at that facility was our host, and he was intense. He asked if we wanted anything and I said a water. He said they didn't have cold bottled water, and I was like, "ok, nevermind" but he went and got some water bottles, and stuck them in the freezer and brought one out when it was cold for me. It make me feel super awkward, and all the guys laughed about it. 

source: iwastesomuchtime.com

I may or may not have caused a minor Cold War with me and this lady who is a total arch nemesis. Luckily I defused the bomb with the best defense mechanism...playing dumb. It worked. She's still a total arch nemesis, but now I don't get scared when i see here because I know it's not just directed at me, but to everyone. Also, I had to keep my own anger at bay when my xenophobic co-worker said a racist comment and thought I was joking when I told her it was racist and that I took personal offense to the comment. The cold shoulder lasted the rest of the week, but had to end because I gave a lesson at FHE about how everyone can get angry but disciples of Christ forgive and are loving. I made the promise, I would try to let it go, so I am.
Work Rant: Complete

So work bestie Charles, grew up as an expat. he was told me that he received kidnapping training when he was little. He got a phone number he could call from anywhere in the world and was told they would have someone there within 24 hours of the phone call. I said that wasn't very impressive, because they could have you moved within 24 hours. However, the guy told him that the first rule to being kidnapped, is to not get kidnapped. (i know, right?). The guy said to kill as many of them as possible, because the worst that can happen is them killing you which is probably better than then holding your for ransom, torturing you, and cutting off body parts to send to your family for proof that you're alive. This convo happened because I told Charles about when I was out with David, I asked him if he was going to sell me me into the sex-slave trade and he looked at me and said, "depends how much they offer". #germanhumor

Now what to say about the past few weeks since I've posted. Well, being older has is perks. As in one perk I can think of: I can now rent a car without paying extra for being underage. Please note: pretty much only america has this dumb tax. #embarrassing. Since my birthday I have:

• decided I'm want to hang out with little Ron Weasley forever, because, let's face it, he's adorable. 
• hung out with Alison, who I haven't seen in forever. She's moved back to H-town, and in celebration, we made dirt pudding, texted Chad a picture, and watched a movie. Just like old times. Love it. 
• had a Spanish Saturday, where Laura was dying the whole day and slept in the car while we were in downtown. Christina, Teri Jo, and I ate tapas, and even though they had papas bravas on the menu, it was a sham. So sad. Papas bravas are my fav tapas. Then we went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see the Spain art they brought from El Prado. Oh El Prado. Oh Spain! Te echo de menos. 
• had a dentist appointment. My dentist is cool.
• been a super lazy bum and have done a lot of nothing. 
• seen Cirque du Soleil with Saryah. It was magical. I loved it, and I'm pretty sure that I looked like a dork just staring in awe of the cool stuff. It really made me appreciate the wonderful gift we were given from God to come to earth and get a body. So cool. Another fun part was that we ran into Sam and his brother Oliver, who were also out and about as siblings. #siblingpower
• become lucky enough to get an invite to David's house for dinner with the sisters. Laura got one too and we got to experience David's great cooking. I'm impressed. Way to go. We had such a fun time together. Then Laura and I headed to the Chili Cook-Off together.
• seen a chili eating contest and a pie eating contest at the chili cook-off. Never have seen one of those before. The chili contest was painful to watch, especially since I had spicy thai food earlier that week and was dying from the mild curry. 

The best part of my post-birthday life, is that I pulled Walk-To-Remember wish. I witnessed a miracle. It was one of those miracles that have nothing to do with you, but have everything to do with someone else. But I was blessed enough to be a part of it. I am so grateful. When I wrote it in my journal, I remembered one of the reasons I write a blog; when I hand-write things, it takes forever because i write with so much detail that my hand cramps and it's insane. I won't write much more about it on my blog because I don't want to trivialize the experience, but it strengthened my testimony that God knows His children and loves every single one of them, whether they are aware of it or not. Plus, I was able to give a talk in church, which always makes me happy. Pretty much, it had been a great Sunday, that ended with Stevie & Sonja coming over with their kids and us having lots of fun. I guess that's why I was having such a rough past two weeks. it's always right before the really good that Satan tries to derail us with really bad.

"Fear not; only believe. This is a time to make resolutions that will be binding upon you. This is a season to set standards that will hold you to the right course and make you happy now and in the years that follow." -Gordon B. Hinckley,  “Fear Not; Only Believe,” New Era, Jan 2000, 4

P.S. There is a really real possibility that they are going to start production on a Veronica Mars movie this summer. #dreamsdocometrue

PPS. I read this great article on International Women's Day about women in the workplace and them balancing work and family. It was written by a successful business woman and mother, and I loved it. It really spoke to me.

PPPS. Lindsay sent this one to me. It made me realize how much I have appreciated the de-cluttered life of living out of two suitcases. I did it on a mission and I'm doing it again my first year of employment. It's funny because whenever I go home, I realize how much stuff I have and how I haven't missed most of it or even thought of it. It makes getting rid of stuff much easier. But be warned, I may be transitioning into a more minimalist mentality, but that doesn't mean that I'm not planning on going shopping this weekend to buy some new clothes.  ;)

my life is a romcom....minus the rom

My life is insane. No really. I sometimes just sit and think, I am so weird/awkard/ridiculous. But, hey, that's my life. Just a list of things that happened recently that made me laugh.

I was looking at possible places to spend my birthday. This popped up on the screen: "Due to United States travel restrictions, we are unable to display travel itineraries that include Cuba.". BOO!!!

That awkward moment that you are trying to change lanes at a stop light and the little old lady next to you makes eye contact and shakes her head no. 

I was chatting with Lindsay about a boy coming over to my place and said: I feel like people think I'm cooler as soon as they find out I live in a hotel. I want people to like me for me, not for my hotel. #firstworldproblems

I told a joke to my work mentor that I already told to my boss, Michael, and my mentor thought it was super funny. Last month, Michael told me he wanted to have a graduation get-together for me and the other new-hires for our one-year mark. I told him we should do it at our facility in Brazil and have a team building sandcastle competition on the beach. My mentor thought it was very funny and said "You are very good at thinking outside of the box". #professionalpride #gtforever

Jarrett making an acronym in anticipation for our Groundhog's Day adventure in Punxsutawney, PA. #GHD2K13

Family dinner discussing a date I went on: 

     Mom "Did he try to kiss you?"

     Me: "No"

     James: "It's because he didn't want to"

     Me: "No, he probably did"

     Saryah: "No. He didn't"

and it someone turned into a debate where I was arguing that I could kiss any slutty guy if I wanted to, but I choose not to. #bestfamilyever

I have a new bff. He's my brother's best friend's wife's brother, Seth, who I always thought was younger than me until a month ago when I realized he was 30. lol. I told him he was my new go-to guy because he lives so close to me. I've always wanted a cousin bff. Just like, through this marriage, Saryah finally gets a cousin her age (Seth's youngest sister) who we're friends with. Way to marry into a cool family Stevie. Best idea EVER!

My grandma has decided to throw herself a birthday party....on my birthday, after weeks of me trying to determine what I wanted to do for my big celebration #speechless

I still don't have a name plaque for my cube....so I printed and cut one out for myself. It looks legit #proactive

At work we were practicing with a fake fire extinguisher and a virtually simulated fire, and the funny Brazilian lady had her turn and started singing the line from Alicia Keyes' new song "This girl is on Fire" #mylifeattheoffice

I even have the sassy co-worker bff character in my romcom life. This role is taken by my new work bestie, Charles, who denies that we're besties. I tell him about my boy problems and he gives me advice

Example 1:
     Me: So, I'm thinking of just going up to him and telling him I would like to get to know him better.
     Charles: Yes! If girls just did that, the world would be a better place
Example 2: 
     Me: I'm so mad he didn't text me back last night!
     Charles: That's because he was with his wife and kids.
     Me: He does not have a wife and kids.
     Charles: That's what he wants you to think. 

I had a really bad day the other day. In order to make myself feel better, I listened to My Favourtie Things from The Sound of Music on repeat. She's right, when I simply remember my favourite things, then I don't feel so bad. :) #iwishmylifewasamusical

Me thinking: I wish I had a dvd player for the tv in my room. I want to watch the Sound of Music from my comfy bed instead of the couch. #firstworldproblems

I sometimes forget/forgo sleep in order to read a book #bookaddict

I have been lazy all week and have been wearing my glasses. But it's sunny and I do not have clip ons. So I wear my big hipster sunglasses over my normal glasses and no one is the wiser. #twoglassesarebetterthanone

I've decided: if there was an actress that had to be me in my life movie, it would have to be Mindy Kaling. I feel like she is the only ones who would be able to capture my essence. (plus, erica agrees)

being ASSERTIVE

So it turns out I am not assertive in many situations. SURPRISE!
This discovery all started at the end of last year. At work, my manager asked me and the other new-hires take a management skills assessment test. When we got the results back, it turns out I FAILED, and I mean EPICALLY FAILED, the managing conflict portion. I got a 47%. Seriously. Jon and I both received that section as our lowest section, so our boss, Michael, told us to do some training. The training was interesting because there was one part that really stuck out to me. It was about constructive confrontation. Say what? I know. The Assertive Communication part was like an epiphany to my soul. The irony of it came from how the day before I took this training, I was agreed to a second date with a guy, even though I didnt want to, and was planning on lying and cancelling it (avoidance = passive/bad communication).

The assertive communication said I needed to:
1. Express my thoughts, concerns, feelings and ideas
2. Request what you want directly and specifically
3. Refuse someone without feeling guilty
4. Avoid being self-sacrificing and confrontational

Now I know what a lot of you are thinking. Natasha, I know you; you are totally assertive. I'm very assertive with people I know and am comfortable with. I still am, when I'm feeling extreme or negative emotions. For example, if you hurt a friend/family member of mine, I will destroy you without any guilt or remorse. However, this is another post-mission new personality trait that I've discovered. So when I am trying to be polite or nice or I don't really know a person, I my assertive abilities are severely lacking.  For example, take the guy I said yes to on a second date. For privacy, we will call him Mr. Presumptuous. Mr. Presumptuous thought that taking me out on a date automatically means he gets to kiss me and take me out again. Negative. In my internal freak out, after deflecting said kiss, I agreed to a second date just so I can continue my fleeing of the scene (in this fight or flight scenario, I took flight). After this training, I thought, I will be direct, specific, and refuse without feeling guilty. I should not have to feel guilty about my own feelings. I should not have to sacrifice my happiness just to allow a guy to feel good about himself and get a second date. No thank you. So because i'm not 100% assertive, I was honest and specific, over a text, and not the phone. It was like a weight was lifted off me and I felt great!

Why do I have this fear of making people feel bad? Maybe because I use to be really mean and now I am forever trying to make up for the past by being super nice to people. It's true that the mission has made me way nicer than I ever have been. Or maybe I can blame my parents. LOL. JUST KIDDING! I read the other day something along the lines of: if you never saw conflict when you were young (from your parents) then you never really learn that conflict can be resolved and are likely to be afraid of conflict. I guess that's the price I will pay for never having seen my parents fight my whole life. But seriously. Maybe I'm overcompensating for my Bad Natasha years.

Another example of me learning to be assertive. I went to Monroe, LA last week for work with my boss, Addy. We had a 7 hour car drive there because it was hardcore raining so Addy didn't drive over 55 mph most of the way. It normally should only be  about 6 hours. On the drive up, it was very enjoyable because Addy is such a good ol' fashion family guy. After driving for a few hours, I really wanted to ask him some advice questions about my career. My passive voice said "Don't bother him with that because he'll think you're too needy or annoying." My assertive side said "Do it. You will never get what you want unless you ask." So I asked and he had some really good advice and things to say. The next day, I was giving a presentation to some people about the project I had been working on and had to ask a lady about getting some more data from her. She was really defensive about it and kept telling me I didn't need the information. I was hoping Addy would step in and she would respect his authority and do what he says...but he didn't. It was up to me to deal with it. I was assertive in my request and eventually she agreed. I was SOOO PROUD of myself! I felt like I could do anything!

My last example happened yesterday, when Addy told me to set up a meeting between us and a vendor. Oh man. I felt so out of my league. I felt like I had no authority to be requesting meetings with VPs of other companies and telling them when and where we need to meet. I had to put aside my feelings of inadequacy and be assertive. It is so funny because ever since our training and discussion with Michael over what we learned, Jon and I have been constantly sharing our experiences of being assertive and the outcomes. It is really encouraging. It's kind of like my own personal support group of being assertive. I can do it!

Topic change...but it will tie back to my assertiveness theme.

Let us define harassment in a legal sense:  the act of systematic and/or continued unwanted and annoying actions of one party...including threats and demands. The purposes may vary, including...personal malice, an attempt to force someone to [do something]... or merely gain sadistic pleasure from making someone fearful or anxious.

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/strategies/assertive-responses/

Ladies and Gentlemen, yesterday I was a victim of harassment and I was not assertive about confronting it. Let me tell you a story. And I will change names for the sake of privacy. There are two guys in this story, one is JR and the other is Mr. Should Have Been Slapped (Mr. S) So the story begins yesterday, after I had a long day at work and went to work out, and FHE. (PS. I'm FHE Coordinator #awesomecalling). Afterwards, I was having a good time and was called over by Mr. S, who kept on saying stupid things like "you have to say yes" and repeating phrases along those lines. Then JR asked me out for Saturday night. I had to say no, because I had just made plans with someone else to do something. I felt bad because I always seem to have plans when JR wants to do stuff. His intentions have been made known, and I get the picture. Then Mr. S started bothering me again saying "you need to say yes" "you hae to say yes" and other unwanted commentary. Yes Mr. S. I get it. You really want your friend to go on a date with me. JR then took a proactive approach and asked when I will be free. Sadly, the next time I can go out is Feb 8th. So he has to wait about 2.5 weeks before a date, but it is written in my planner so I will not forget. Afterwards, Mr. S came up to me and was like "did you say yes?" and i said "yes" and he said "when" so i told him. Then he started saying how if you really want to do something you can always find time. I told him that I was a busy person and that is the only free time I have. I was like, I'm done here and walked to my car. Mr. S called me back, and I went back because I thought he was going to apologize for his harassing behavior. Instead he made me feel bad about myself. He had crossed the line from concerned friend to complete jerk and I wanted to slap him so badly. Come on, Mr Presumptuous had to wait like a month because we had such conflicting and busy schedules, not like I told him that, because it is none of his business! Get over yourself Mr. S! I should have been assertive and said specifically and directly without any guilt "Mr S. You are acting like a jerk and not like a friend. I hope you do not go around harassing girls to date your friends often. If you talk to me again about this subject, I will slap you and maybe even punch you in hopes of breaking your nose or severely injuring your person." Granted, it wouldn't have been as polite if I had stayed to respond to him. Instead, I walked off, without him knowing of his inappropriate and harassing behaviour, and he may do it again to some other girl. As a disclaimer...JR is a really nice guy, and if he wasn't, i probably would have called him by now and broken off the date due to his stupid friend.

I was so upset that I called Erica and she had to talk me down from it. She reminded me of how I need to be assertive and not worry about other people's feelings when they are doing something like that. Don't laugh it off. It's not okay. This is my number one goal for 2013. I am going to be assertive in all I do. 

I Feel Infinite

Get ready. This is three weeks worth of life updates.

Tues (10/9) night. I was going to sleep after a long day of working and updating my blog. As I was dosing off to sleep...there is a knock on my door. I remember Sage saying how kids used to knock on Jon's door to annoy him. So I didn't open the door. Instead, I got my phone and was at the ready to call 911. Mainly because i'm on the bottom floor and i was scared they would try to break in. I said a prayer for safety and peace so i could get back to sleep. I woke up to a text from Lindsay saying that Sage slept over (on a worknight) and to come over cuz she was making cinnamon rolls. So I went over super confused to find out...it wasn't kids knocking on my door last night...it was sage. Her car broke down and a cop gave her a ride over to our apartment complex. Sadly, Lindsay burnt the cinnamon rolls #supergross #superfunny It was a very long 11-hour day at work. the good thing was, when I went home, Cody brought me some homemade apple pie! She's sooo nice!

Thursday (10/11) there was a vendor who came over to take us all to lunch for our vendor meeting. We went to eat at a "Texan" restaurant and i got some yummy sweet potato fries. Guess what they came with? MARSHMALLOW CREAM DIP!!!!!!!!!! #noway #dreamcomtrue It was amazing. I was very happy and ate a lot. I was also impressed with how knowledgeable I am. My SNL savvy-ness made me cool too as we chatted about the SNL take on the debates. Later in the day, we decided it was a good idea for Lindsay to throw snow peas at me over the cubicle wall so she didn't have to get up and walk them to me. Please realize...we do not have neighboring cubicles. There is a cube between us. lol. It was soooo funny, especially cuz the first time, it didnt make it into my cube. good thing the person in that cube was not there. lol.

New Life Goal: Make Family History COOL.

At the Gateway to the West

Friday (10/12), Sage, Lindsay, and I hopped in the car to start our epic drive to St. Louis. before we started our drive, Sage and I decided on a safe word for when we get super obnoxious to lindsay. Sage and I feed off each other's energy...so when one of us gets ridiculous...the other quickly follows and it escalates. lol. So for lindsay's sanity, we chose...Yogi Bear. And only had to use it twice the whole weekend. At one point...lindsay turned up the music so loud that sage and I couldnt be heard over the music. #ohwhatfunwehave :) We made good time to St. Louis thanks to Lindsay's driving. We went to a cute little place where it served cheese and pretzels...lindsay's fav german food. so we ate that. our food came but sage didnt eat....she said the food had too many colors. i've never heard of something like that before. we pulled out the we're-not-leaving-this-table-until-you-take-a-bite card. it was soooo funny. like a kid being scolded. She even made me take a bite of her food first to tell her it wasn't bad. So we were finally able to leave and go see The Perks of Being a Wallflower...something I've been wanting to see for WEEKS! and finally we are near a place with a cinema to see it #victory Of course we missed the previews....because we have bad luck like that. But the movie was AMAZING! I was skeptical when it began because all the scenes from the tailers were in the first part of the movie...so i didnt know if it got any better than that...but it did. It was heart-wrenchingly beautiful. I cried. And also received a firmer testimony of God's love for children, like Elder Oaks talked about during General Conference. We finished the drive to Sage's house and Sage's mom has rice crispy treats and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for us when we arrive.#goodsurprise

Botanical Gardens

Saturday (10/13) Sage's mom made a HUGE brunch for us. There were homemade hashbrowns, chocolate chip pancakes and juice! I was sooo stuffed afterwards. plus i found out we share the same birthday. #birthdayfriendsforever Lindsay and I took off into St. Louis to do some sightseeing while Sage spent time with her family. We went to the Gateway Arch and it was cool. I felt like i was going up in an alien spaceship going to the top. It was cool. The museum in there was super cool too. Then we went to the botanical gardens. it was beautiful. and the sun came out for us too. We ate sushi for dinner and it was really good. We saw the Old Cathedral and it was gorgeous. There was mass going on, so we were discouraged from taking pictures but we went in for a few moments. Wonderful. It was a long day of sightseeing and we were so tired because it was chilly and the getting dark. Our phones were slowly dying so we decided to get back to sage's with batter power. We made it back and were so tired that we just turned on the tv and watched Step it. The first one was terrible. the second one was pretty legit. I recounted to Lindsay about my times dancing in The Streets and how I had to inspire a crowd in a club to let me and my crew dance even though we were different :)

Sunday (10/14) morning, Sage's mom made another huge breakfast and stuffed me up soooo full. It was a lazy day and it was nice. we spend the day in st. louis before our drive home to Sedalia. It was a really fun weekend meeting Sage's AWESOME family and hanging out in a home again.

Monday (10/15) - Friday (19)  was my kaizen event that i was hosting. So for a week, I'm in charge of a team to implement the inventory management kanban system that i've been working on the past 6-7 weeks. it was soooo stressful. It was a week full of being at work from about 7am-6pm or later to get stuff done. Half my team was in and out. I was sooooo busy that i didnt have time to really talk to my family or text anyone. I also realized I'm not made to do manual labor full time. but it was fun to be in the factory getting dirty and working hard. but i was soooooo tired. By friday I was about to die. Friday, Lindsay took off to Chicago and Sage and I made our own epic plans. We decided to go see Pitch Perfect. I had to wait for one of the guys to return the company car so i could have it for the weekend. Around 6:30, I called him to remind him to hurry back. He told me that he returned the car, but forgot to return the car keys. #genius so I had no time between getting off work and the movie to eat...so i made a judgment call with the help of sage for what to get for dinner....decision: hot chocolate and yummy starbucks sweet bread. #thisiswhyimgainingweight When I got to the cinema...there was a line. Seriously. It was out to the middle of the parking lot. I asked the people ahead of me if that was normal. it was not. Sage found me when i was almost at the front. haha. so we went in....missing the previews and probably the first few minutes of the movie. BEST MOVIE EVER. I almost peed my pants laughing the whole time #iatemytwininthewomb #crushedit #ihaveafatheart The movie was so good we were on a movie high all night long. we got back to my apartment and danced in the parking lot as sage blasted It's Time by Imagine Dragons. It was a beautiful expression of joy :) Then we kept being giggly all night and went out to get ice cream and snacks from fast food places....
Me: mcdonalds makes shakes? are they good?
Sage: yeah. i had one in high school

:/

...and watched The Mindy Project. We also made some new goals that will forever change our lives :) Can I just say....Pitch Perfect is Hot Rod kind of funny. So if you like Hot Rod...i think you'll like Pitch Perfect.

Saturday (10/20) I woke up a little later than I wanted and i went to Wal-Mart because I decided I needed a new color of lipstick to spunk up my morning. I went dark this time. I drove up to Independence and thought that all the church history sites where really close by....false. so I road tripped it further north to see some sights. I enjoyed the brisk autumn air and beautiful scenery of some land the church owns. I loved seeing the cornerstones for the Far West Temple that has never been build and the American flag flying proudly on the grounds. I got a snack at the little store there because i had no time to stop and eat (i was on a strict schedule). I was able to visit Liberty Jail and reflect one my favourite revelations from a modern day prophet. The prophet Joseph Smith (please note: Mormons do not worship Joseph Smith) received it after being falsely imprisoned for months in a cold gross prison...he received this comfort from our Saviour, Jesus Christ:

And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he? 

I was then able to attend the Saturday night session of stake conference in Warrensburg, which was nice. 

Sunday (20/21). I went to the Sunday session of Stake Conference, which was really great. My favourite part what when one of the speakers spoke about how we need to re-evaluate our lives. I dont know what he said specifically that made me pause, but I loved it. I saw my Institute teacher (aka Bible Study teacher), and she invited me to have dinner with her family after church. So I went over and tried my best to not be awkward. It was cool because her husband is the brother of my family's home teacher from when I was growing up. It was a lot of fun and everyone was soooo nice. It was nice to have a homecooked dinner. I went home because I was so exhausted, but I decided to go over to Sage's later that night to say hi and finally see her place. #badidea after hanging out for a bit, I wanted to get home in time for a tv show so I left and the street was not well lit, so I felt for my keys, pressed the unlock button and hopped in the car. I put the key in the ignition and was a little confused when the engine wasnt starting. I decided to pull the key out and do it again....only to realize the key wasn't coming out. Sage came out to help try and get the key out (it turns out it was not the actual key but a decorative key I got in mexico where they take an old key and engrave your name into it. So we got some soap and pliers to pull the key out....and it broke the key off in the ignition. I called a locksmith and he was with us from about 2.5 hours trying stuff only to realize that the key is really in there. ugh. i was trying not to cry and trying to convince myself  i could not get fired for this, even though my brain was not very convinced. I sent an email to my boss to call me in the morning, and texted lindsay to tell her she needed to pick me up in the morning. Sage had to drive me home.

Monday morning I got to work and went to talk to my not-really-boss-but-the-guy-who-looks-after-us-best, Mike. He laughed at my story, which made me feel better. But I felt so bad that I avoided the lady who is the keeper of the keys. By the end of the day I found out that the whole office knew...and the factory knew. Everyone was convinced that Sage and I were high or that I was super drunk because getting the wrong key stuck in the ignition is so dumb that you had to be under the influence of something to do something so stupid. I felt horrible, embarrassed and like and idiot. So I went to the store and bought stuff to make cupcakes. I promised the guys a few weeks ago I would make them cupcakes, so i made them, and everyone else in the office cupcakes to ease my troubled mind and heart...and to hopefully earn some goodwill. So the week was long and hard. I had a huge presentation on Tuesday about my project so far and I felt like I will not be remembered for my awesome work on this project, but will forever be the girl who broke the car. I was depressing and discouraging.

Tuesday (10/23) night I got a late night text from Lindsay asking if I was awake....I was totally watching alias on netflix :) Her neighbors were being loud, like always and she was pretty sure that the boyfriend was beating the girl, so she called the landlord to complain. Moments later they came knocking on her door (and she actually openned the door) and yelled at her. Then they went upstairs and called the cops on her, lying and saying she came upstairs to yell at them. Because they sound crazy, Alex (her bf) and I were in agreement that she needed to get out of there, so she came over and slept over. I drove over to her building because it was cold and dark to pick her up only to have her creepy upstairs neighbor blatantly creepily watch us through the window. #creeperalert

Thursday (10/25) Lindsay and I matched today. As in, we had on red-orange tops that were the exact same color and black skinny jeans. We had to train some people on the Kanban system, so when we put on our matching steal toed sneakers....it was too much. LOL. lindsay was freaking out and everyone thought we were so cute. hahaha i had a nice long chat with my dad, something time has not allowed me in a while. Lindsay called and asked me to help her move, because she got a new apartment because of the scary neighbors. So we moved her. Then it was tv night and sage came over and we had some social time. #goodtimes

After work on Friday (10/26), I took our new Ford Escape and drove to Nauvoo. I asked Lindsay to ask permission to use the car, because i'm pretty sure they'll never let me touch it again, and she agreed. #goodfriend I checked into my hotel and was glad i didnt rely on the GPS on my phone because there were some areas on the drive where I had no data connection. Luckily, I printed out directions earlier, but forgot how difficult this archaic way of following directions could be ;) I went to see the Nauvoo temple. I almost hit some guys dressed in all black on a not lit street, and was scared they would kill me as revenge. (yes....i have an overactive imagination that makes me freak out more than normal people). The temple was GORGEOUS and was the first time I ever saw it. After the Saints left Nauvoo to head west to Utah, mobs destroyed the temple and someone burned it down. It has been recently that the church reconstructed the temple as it once was. There is nothing like staring up at the temple to calm my troubled heart and soul after a stressful week. I love the temple! So I went back to my hotel afterwards and read a book, because we are too plugged into the internet some days.

I remember loving this statue of a family when I was a little girl,
and i still think it's wonderful. Families can be together forever :)

Saturday (10/27). I got a late start because i stayed up too late finishing my book. So I had a waffle for breakfast at the hotel, checked out and left to go straight to the visitor's center. However, Google believes the Visitor's Center is on the other side of the Mississippi River than it is. So i went to a different town, and there is no bridge in the town to cross...so I had to drive another 40 minutes, and go over a toll bridge to get to Nauvoo. I should have just gone the way I went last night, but Google said this way was faster. #cruelfate. I took pictures of the temple during the daytime. I went on a horse drawn carriage ride tour of the historic town and it was soo nice. they had quilts for you to use because it was cold and the winds off the Mississippi River are very cold.  I went to the little bakery  and they had little gingerbread cookies for you to have. #yum I toured some of the buildings, but didnt have nearly enough time. I remember coming here when I was little, and it was summer so we walked all around. But this time it was sooo cold. I had on my earmuffs, scarf, winter coat, and boots. #supercold

After seeing some buildings I went to visit Carthage Jail. For yall not in the know with LDS Church History, Carthage Jail is where the prophet Joseph Smith and his brother were killed by a mob while, once again being falsely charged, waiting their trial. It was an experience and one of the ladies there was so kind and shared such a powerful testimony of the divinity of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the calling that Joseph Smith had to restore Christ's church onto the earth. I then drove back to Nauvoo, even though the sightseeing places were closed, you could still drive around the town. What I really wanted to do was to take myself back to imagine what it would be like to have to leave this beautiful town. LDS History Lesson: For early church members, leaving their homes was not new. They had left Ohio because it was not safe for them. There was an extermination act signed by Missouri's Governor Boggs forcing church members to leave their homes in the dead of winter from their homes in Missouri, and they were allowed a swampy marshland in Illinois to start a life again. Church members drained the area and named it Nauvoo and started a town where they were able to live in peace for some years. Then, once again, due to mobs, they left their homes. I walked the new Trail of Hope with leads you from the town to the Mississippi River, where they would have had to cross to start their journey westward to find a new home. It was cold, but I tried to imagine what it would be like to leave your home and all your possessions because you could not take them with you. As you walk away, the beautiful Nauvoo temple, which was built with so much love and faith, fades into the distance. It was a moving experience I will never forget as I made it to the banks of the river and looked westward, as they once did, with faith that God will always direct our lives and our paths. With these thoughts on my mind, I made my journey back to Sedalia and felt spiritually prepared for Sunday.

Sunday (10/28) was great. I woke up early and wrote down some thoughts for my talk in church. I was excited because I was asked to talk about my mission. Talk about my mission? BEST TOPIC EVER! My dad and lil sister both commented on how I dont even need to write anything down because I could talk forever about my mission #truestory but I felt impressed to write some thoughts down so I would not ramble. I was the second talk, and I went over on my time limit, but really, i was so happy and loved every minute of it. Then in Relief Society, they forgot to ask someone to give the lesson, so I volunteered. We had a Q&A about being a missionary, and more specifically, a sister missionary. It was AMAZING! I loved it. I felt wonderful and fell more in love with my life. It's amazing how well our Father in Heaven knows our hearts and what we need. I felt so blessed for the opportunity to share something I love so much with others. #bestsundayever

Note: I will be an auntie at 10am (central time) on Friday. #icantwait