The Times They Are A-Changin'

I've been noticing subtle signs for about a year now, but the fact that I am getting old pretty much reached up and slapped me in the face today.

One of the first signs was that I started caring about money and having some when I retire. Next was a growing interest in politics. Getting married, of course, was a pretty big sign. And then there was the Costco membership. Climbing half dome was a reminder that my body is beginning to have limitations in its performance. All of a sudden, I feel this need to eat healthy. I worry about getting cancer. I'm totally baby hungry. All of these are signs that I'm getting older.

But, today - a slap in the face. First, I found a gray hair. Then, I chaperoned a youth dance. Jared laughed when I told him that I found the gray hair, but this is serious business. This is the natural aging process being manifested in a very real way. How am I supposed to combat this? I can't. Age happens. And hair goes gray.

And, as if that wasn't enough, the youth dance was an in your face reminder that I am no longer young. Instead of be-bopping my whole body on the dance floor, I was just be-bopping my head while I told kids they couldn't go out the back door. Half the songs I didn't know and the other half were songs that came out when I was a kid. Everywhere I looked at the dance were scenes that took me back to my own youth dance days and were solemn reminders that I am in a very different place in life now. I'm going to be honest. It was a little depressing. As I said, a slap in the face.

However, there is a silver lining to this small cloud. Also at the youth dance, I saw awkwardness everywhere I looked. Awkward interactions between girls and boys trying to figure out how to act toward the opposite sex. Awkward dancing as they tried to dance to songs that are just not danceable, but still Mormon Youth Dance standards for some reason. Awkward lingering while they waited to be asked to dance.

After watching a number of these awkward interactions and moments amongst the youth and growing more grateful by the second that those days are over for me, I decided that maybe getting older isn't such a bad thing.

Now I just have to figure out how to get old gracefully so that when I'm 80 years old, I'm a classy old lady!

Do Good, Honey!

Today, Jared is taking the GRE. I got up and made him pancakes this morning so he would have good brain food. He needs to do well so he can get into grad school. But, I'm not worried. He's smart and he's been studying, so he'll do great. Good luck, honey! I love you!

America's Great Hope

Is this a joke? I see the growing infatuation that the American public has with this obscure politician and I think, "is this really what the PRESIDENTIAL election has come down to?" Everybody loves Sarah Palin. Democrats are jumping ship left and right to join the Republicans because of Sarah Palin. McCain's normal idiocy seems to be completely forgiven with his VP pick. McCain no longer has to campaign. All he has to do is bring out Sarah Palin and everyone goes wild. Nobody cares about the issues anymore. Nobody cares about the stumbling economy. Nobody cares about the war in Iraq. Nobody cares about health care. Because somehow, someway, Sarah Palin will fix it all. Magically. Because she will be VP. What?!?! When was the last time a Vice President did anything worth mentioning? Why is everyone so enamored with her? Guess what? If you vote for Palin, you get McCain, too. And he's the one who will actually be doing things. Remember? He's the one running for President. I watched part of a town hall meeting he had in Florida this morning. All he talked about was Sarah Palin and how her husband races 2000 miles across Alaska on a snowmobile. How is this going to fix this country's problems? Doesn't anybody else see it? I FEEL LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!!!!! I'm not going to get into her political history (although, I think it's worth looking into if you're unaware. She's not the squeaky clean politician everyone thinks she is). That's irrelevant to the point I'm making. The point is that we are in a campaign to choose the next President of the United States of America. I hope the voting public can wake up and realize that there are way more important things to base your vote on than the person running alongside the candidate.

Victory!

I know I just posted my Item of the Week, but I was so excited about what just happened, that I had to blog about it! I really wish I had documented all of this with pictures, but there was no time to get the camera. My dad, especially, will appreciate this post and I may even gain a little respect in his eyes with it, so this is for you, Dad!

First, a little background. Jared and I are house-sitting for my parents and my mom's car comes with the house. So, here's the set-up: my mom's car and Jared's car sit in the driveway and my car is parked on the street in front of the house. The street sweeper used to come every Monday to clean the gutters/streets. Due to budget cuts, the street sweeper now only comes once a month, so it is imperative that the street sweeper get an unobstructed shot at the street in front of your house or you live with the mess for a whole nother month. So, a few months ago, I decided to check the Sunnyvale city website to try to find out the dates that the street sweeper would be tackling our street. The schedule showed it would be Mondays, usually the second Monday of the month. No problem at the time I checked it because I was still working in San Francisco and my car was always gone by the time the street sweeper came in the late morning. Well, shortly after checking the site, I was home for some reason in the middle of the week and all of a sudden I hear the street sweeper truck coming! I run to the front window to see the street sweeper making a wide arc around my car leaving the gutters full of leaves and other crap. "This is not according to the schedule!", I thought. "It is not Monday!" But what could I do? The street sweeper was gone and the gutters were a mess. Irritated, I went about my business that month and hoped the street sweeper would come again before I stopped working in San Francisco. The next month, the city posted no parking signs on the street for street sweeping and street maintenance. Beautiful - some advance notice! Gutters/street cleaned. Fast forward to this weekend.

I like to walk around barefoot as much as possible, so this weekend I was on our sidewalks with no shoes or socks and was stepping on a lot of debris. Obviously, it was time to sweep the walks. So, this weekend, Jared and I swept/blew the sidewalks and front yard to get all of the leaves/tree crap out. Obviously, we just swept it into the street to be later taken care of by the street sweeper. I made a little mental note that I should check the street sweeping schedule so I could get my car out of the way because there were a ton of leaves! So this morning I'm sitting in the front room typing my Item of the Week, when I hear the street sweeping truck. I jump off the couch and run to the window. The truck was getting louder. He was definitely coming, but I couldn't see him. He must be on the other side of the street. So, I run to get my car keys and a jacket (still in pajamas) and sprint outside as the street sweeper passes on the opposite side of the street. I get in the car, start it up, and look in my rearview mirror to see the street sweeper turning around at the end of the street to head up my side. As I pulled away from the curb, leaving an unobstructed gutter/street in front of my house, I knew victory was mine. I beat that street sweeper this time! And now, the street and gutter in front of our house is clean and leaf free!

Item of the Week - a Little Late

A little late again. Time gets away from me! Oh well. On Saturday, Jared and I went to the AT&T store to sign me up with them. My Verizon contract expired and we decided to do a family plan because it's cheaper. Since Jared is limited in his choice as to service providers with his iPhone, AT&T it was. So, I got my new phone and I LOVE it! This week's item of the week is the Sony Ericsson W350. It's not a fancy phone with lots of awesome features (I think Jared thinks I'm crazy for not wanting an iPhone). But, it's small and that's the best thing about it. And it looks pretty awesome. It does play mp3s which may be a feature that I grow to like, but currently I don't care much about it. What is awesome is that with Verizon, I could never do file transfers between my phone and my computer via Bluetooth. They would connect, but file transfers were not allowed. Not so with AT&T. So, last night, Jared and I picked a bunch of songs, cropped them to ring tone size and transferred them to my phone. Instant aswesome ringtones that were free! Hurray, hurray!

Done

I'm done with deodorant/anti-perspirant. I haven't worn it in about 3 or 4 weeks. I decided one day that I didn't think I really stunk much and I don't sweat very much. And, I always am more wet when I use anti-perspirant than when I don't. And I'm sick of getting white smudges on my dark shirts when I put them on. So, I decided to go off it and gave Jared strict instructions to inform me if I needed to rethink my strategy. So far, so good. Jared says I don't stink. And I haven't gotten that uncomfortable armpit wetness as often. And my clothes are going to last longer. And, all of those theories about anti-perspirant giving you cancer - I don't have to worry about it! On average, I would say I'm about 8.7% happier each day with no deodorant/anti-perspirant in my life. Obviously the absence of deodorant is not for everyone, but I've had no ill effects from not using it, so I'm just going to soldier on - deodorant/anti-perspirant free!

Distraction

I have been distracted for a little while. Maybe distracted is not the right word. Completely absorbed in another world would be more like it. Though not proud to admit it, I have been reading Breaking Dawn. Yes - the latest and last in the vampire love story saga. I didn't start on it when it first came out because I knew I would need ample time to devote to it. I didn't have that when it first came out, so I figured I would wait a little bit. Soon after it came out, Jared bought me the book (which was a great sacrifice for him because once I started reading it, he got very little attention from me. But, he says he's not threatened.), but then the Olympics were taking up all of my time, so the waiting continued. Finally, things slowed down a little and I started reading. Everything was thrown to the wayside as I immersed myself into the supernatural world of Edward and Bella. I did manage to pull myself back to reality for a few things like picking up my sisters from the airport, helping David and Lenessa clean their new house, and church, but mostly I was in a completely different world. I have finished the book and will now be getting back to my life. I'm not proud of the fact that I was so engrossed in a novel whose intended audience is teenage/young adult girls, but it is what it is. At least now it's over and life can go on.