On the streets of Pasadena

Today it rained . . . it rained hard. But where's the surprise in that, huh? I've gotten rather used to the unexpected and somewhat ridiculous amount of rain that's been going on pretty much since I arrived in California.

We finally got to sally forth from our home today and do the work we were hired to do. Which is to say we went around to restaurants to talk to them about styrofoam recycling. We traipsed about in the rain for several hours today, and I can rather confidently say we were successful. We visited about 15 restaurants, gave out and hang up posters, and gave out stickers.

I must say this website needs some work, but I'm up to the challenge and have some good ideas.

The downside to my job: we are walking in and out of restaurants all day. Some of which have some very delicious looking food. Hot dogs, Thai, Mexican, Chinese, Vietnamese, etc. etc. Yum Yum! My peanut butter and honey sandwich I made for lunch could hardly stand up to that try as it might.

The sunlight in the rain of today:

I was inexplicably drawn (ok so not at all inexplicably to those who know me) into a cupcake bakery during my sojourn. It was called polkatots. How cute is that? I wanted to buy a little cupcake as an afternoon snack, but I didn't have any cash. There was a minimum purchase to use a debit card. What a predicament I was in! Then the wonderful, beautiful, fantastic worker told me since it was my first time there it was on the house. What more could a girl such as me want than a free cupcake?

P.S.

I don't care what Cakewrecks says. Cupcake cakes CAN indeed be cute.

Saturday and Sunday

. . . and Monday too!

Saturday: 

Gym!!
3 miles running and 6 miles biking! Personal record

Glow bowling party and late night pancakes and french toast at Denny's.

Sunday:

Italian theme break the fast complete with decorations and peanut butter chocolate cupcakes, choir, and Sunday night get together.

Monday:

Working somewhere other than the living room, which included typical intern things like office supply and lunch runs. And (gasp) we get to go work in Pasadena tomorrow!

FHE with fun mask making project for Mardi Gras party Saturday (which inevitably no one will wear).

Just imagine it in black! And with my hair all fancy instead of just out of the shower wet.

What exactly does a Mardi Gras costume entail anyways? Supposedly you're supposed to dress up for this shindig I'm going to, but how exactly do I do that?

A Letter

Dear John,

I was most disappointed.

Always,
Rachel

The good news and the bad news

So just when I seem to think that life is going along swimmingly, (graduate school apps done, full time paying internship in progress, warmish weather, good ward) I indubitably have to go and do something stupid.

It's just a simple fact of life.

To start off this story, I must show you my driveway. It is very skinny and sharply curved.

And here is this pesky corner as well:

Are you seeing what I'm getting at yet?

No?

Yeah, I don't think I need to explain anything more.

Yesterday was just one of those days. Everything seems to be going great until you smack your rental car into a wall. 

On my way back in from taking these pictures I almost stepped on this guy:

Seemingly harmless when viewed as a single incident. But when you had a rather disturbing dream about bugs crawling all across your living room floor the previous night complete with massive, gapping whole in your living room floor, the snail seems like a rather ominous omen.

I also took a tour de force (I think this is the right word and if not it should be) of downtown Glendale on foot this evening. We parked in the structure just across the street from the gym, and I decided to walk a block up to Borders to see if they sold headphones because don't you know it is most uncomfortable to worry about your headphones popping out of your ears when you are just trying to run. The nice albeit misinformed man in Borders told me there was a Target in the mall just across the street. Turns out this mall just across the street only has an entrance around the other side of the block. Then I proceeded to wander around this massive mall for nearly 20 minutes before finally locating said Target. By that time I was utterly and completely lost. The sensible thing to do in this situation was to ask for directions back to Brand Street. The helpful security guard at Target (they have those in California) proceeded to direct me to a point that was at least a mile away from where I needed to go.

However, I can confidently say that downtown Glendale is a rather nice little place. Oh, and I did not have to worry about my well-earned headphones one little bit on my necessarily shortened run.

But luckily, I can even this post out with the good news which I have (with readers in mind) saved for the last in order to end this post with feelings of pleasantness rather than despair in the form of a $580 rental car repair bill, squishy bugs and unnecessarily long sojourns for a pair of pink skull candy headphones.

It was this guys 4th birthday yesterday:

I am officially a great-aunt of a four and a six year old at the ripe old age of 22. He had a Thomas themed party, and as evidenced by his general distraction when I tried to wish him happy birthday on the phone he had a rather good birthday party.

And a very very good friend of mine (that's you jessica) had her first day at her grownup girl job today. I am very proud of her. She has some big decisions to make from what I hear, but I know she will be just fine (and make an excellent choice too!).

Congratulations!

(I think the imagery of this picture is very appropriate. Big decisions, wrecked company car both evidenced in the big scary fish staring us in the face--see?)

I also finished the third Anne of Green Gables book today. Those books make me so happy. Don't get me wrong, I love my thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, doom and gloom, the future is going to be bookless novels, but there is just something so wonderful in reading these books. They are so real. The story seems like is could be my story, or yours, or anybody's story really. 

I love reading a story that feels so familiar to me even though I have never read it before. The story is simple, the characters and plots are real. They don't show a perfect life or an ideal world but rather a person who is almost always able to see the beauty in a very normal world and make the best out of even the worst situations.

Here is a little sage wisdom from Anne of the Island which is the book I finished tonight:

"Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence. Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them."

Amen to that.

Brand New...

Is playing in Salt Lake right now. I'm not there.

I'd prefer not to talk about it.

Who do I look like:

http://www.myheritage.com/collage

This is based on an impromptu photograph taken by Jessica at Tomato Head over Christmas break. And per usual when I do one of these things, there is a random guy thrown in the mix.

No I'm not going to bed...

So you know how all those commercials you see talk about how great it is to work from home and go to college online in your PJs?

It's not so great.

I've been working from home in my PJs (yes everyday in my PJs) for almost two weeks now. It's boring. I snack too much. The times goes by much too slowly. All I want to do is pick up that for fun reading book on the coffee table or turn on the rather large and inviting TV just across the room. Plus the lighting is not at all right for focusing on work. It is better suited to a late afternoon nap (after the reading or the tv watching of course). I'm more of a doing something kind of worker. I enjoy being in the pool at swim lessons, talking to people at recruiting fairs or running my classroom of kids at the elementary school.

This girl is not suited for a desk job. Not one little iota.

On the bright side, due to my overabundance of time and energy and a more nonexistent social life than ever before I am going to the gym approximately 5 days a week. Getting in shape and being healthy is kind of an addiction. And why shouldn't it be (within the realm of reason of course). When you look better and feel better about yourself, why not work to keep it that way? Especially when you have nothing better to do and are consuming copious amounts of cookie dough, ice cream, and teddy grahams in the course of your 8 hour work day just steps away from your kitchen. (You/Your=I/my)

I ran nearly 3 miles last night and biked over 5. I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when you push yourself that extra mile (I had been running only 2), and you think you can't do it but then you do. And it's never quite as bad once you come out on the other side of it. As a matter of fact, if I had the time I suppose I could have run more. Or maybe it just feels that way now while I'm sitting at home in my PJs on the couch with the knowledge I will be asleep in less than half an hour.

Oh and please riddle me this:

Does Charlie Daniels play a mean fiddle?




I'd give an arm and a leg to play like him . . . wait . . .