vacations and holidays

I went down to St. George this past weekend to see my family and help my dad move into his new house. It was great, I love spending time with my family, and I love St. George. but, traveling always makes me really tired. and the short weekends driving all the way down to St. George can be pretty bad. I SOOOOOO need a vacation! lucky me, I'm getting one! I decided I need at least one semi-long vacation per year. It has been a whole year since I went on the cruise and I am itching for a trip so bad I can barely stand it. I leave for DC on Thursday - Thanksgiving morning. I am going to go spend the holiday with my best friends that are at law school in Williamsburg. I get to be there for 10 days! I am going to spend the bulk of my time in DC visiting old friends and my dearest former place of work - The Hotline. ...revisiting the past, my former life. I'm worried it might be heart-wrenching because I ache to live there again, but I am hoping that it will just be the perfect place to spend my much-needed time off. plus, I'm a total nerd and could wander around that city for days, all by myself, and be completely satisfied. so, until then I am trying to get a TON of work done so that they can handle things at the office while I am gone. I am also trying to spend as much time with "the boy" as possible. 10 days is a long time... I am going to miss him a lot. and then 10 days after I get back he heads to Venezuela for two weeks. It is going to be a long, lonely month... :( Its a good thing I have the holidays to keep me busy. speaking of which - I LOVE Christmas! my family rents two huge cabins in Teasdale every year and we spend a couple days there eating, playing games, watching movies, riding 4-wheelers and motorcycles, shooting clay pigeons, and laughing our butts off. I LOVE my family. We have a great time together. I look forward to that get-together all year long. I can't wait. finally - good things are ahead.

this thing called love

growing up, my mother drilled into my head the ideal and perfect future husband. he would be educated, good looking, sweet, mature, considerate, but most of all - he would be a mormon who had served a full time mission and kept himself worthy to marry me for time and all eternity in the temple. there is nothing wrong with this goal, but I think that maybe I took it a little bit more literally than my mother had in mind. I was told to never settle, so I haven't. but, I am also scared to death of marriage so I have been subjecting myself to horrible relationships with people that don't fit that mold in order to save myself from it. however, during all of these experiences I have realized that I could be perfectly happy with someone that didn't fit that exact mold. and I find myself a little perturbed that I have been made to believe that was the only recipe for success and happiness... after all, who fits that perfect mold anyway?

I think I have pretty good judgment. and by now, I definitely know what is going to make me happy and what isn't. I think it is okay for me to redefine my ideal future husband -- don't laugh, this really is an epiphany I just had and it sucks that it took so long for me to realize it. of course my religion is extrememly important to me, and I would love it if he felt the same about that as I do, but it won't be the end of the world if he doesn't. it is more important to me that we "get" eachother, that we have a good time together, and that we are willing to stand beside eachother through everything, help eachother with our goals, and be there for eachother during our life journey.

...now, excuse me for jumping the gun, but I think I found someone that actually fits this new mold I created. he even has some extra bonuses - he is a mormon that served a full time mission, he is a veteran, and he will definitely be rolling in the dough someday. so, why is it that I am putting up a huge guard and working my pants off to make sure I don't fall for him? what is wrong with me? I know that I have been hurt, and that I don't enjoy it and so I do try to protect myself sometimes, but - I also know that I want to fall in love and be happy more than anything. I guess my emotions are playing tug-of-war. ...I hope the love side wins with this one. I'm almost too scared to let him go.

you have got to be kidding me

first of all - YAY! WE WON!!! I have been meaning to post my excitement since it happened, so sorry it is so late. anyway, election night was the best. I went to Orem to Bethanie Newby's party and then hung out with my best friends, steve and marti, watching the results come in until about 3 AM. I couldn't have chosen a better way to celebrate. Bethanie didn't win, but that was expected. somehow, Utah is always an exception. I have no idea what it will take to give the Ds more power in Utah. I mean, democrats won all over the country, most of them in pretty shocking races, but Utah didn't change one bit... anyway, I'm super stoked about the national results and cannot wait until January when the 110th Congress takes power!

okay, remember when I said that the universe works against me? well, this past week was no exception. I got the flu. I was really sick, but work was too crazy and there was no way I could take a whole day off. so, on Thursday I slept in, took a hot bath, and then headed to work. It started snowing on the way and at the intersection of state and 4th South I was stopped at a red light when I got rear ended! I was the third car in the line, so it wasn't horribly bad, but my bumper got cracked. I had to wait for the police, and the paramedics wouldn't let me turn my car on so I sat there in the freezing snow filling out paper work and waiting... the good thing was that the paramedic was cute and asked for my number! the bad thing was that I was involved in another accident. this is my third bumper in the past 6 months! I am definitely tired of this. anyway, the guy's insurace got my car in the shop and me into a rental the very next morning, which is good. but, they put me in a HUGE TRUCK! haha! Its a 2007 Dodge Ram. It is nice, and only had 160 miles on it, but it is so huge! I hate driving it. and I know people see me driving it and laugh or stare. I had to call my brother so he could tell me whether to put gas or diesel in it... my friends and I drove it around Friday night though, and that was a lot of fun. the other trick the universe played on me this weekend was pretty painful. I have to be to church early so that I can print off the programs and hand them out. I was wearing my black heels and I had to park on the street because I was afraid to take the monstrosity I have been driving into the parking lot among all the other tiny cars. so, as I was walking downhill on the pavement around the side of the building, the bottom of my heel broke off and I slipped. I landed on my left knee and it slid across the asphalt. I felt the skin being ripped off! it was VERY painful. and I couldn't leave so I spent all of sacrament meeting wiping the stream of blood and clear goo off my leg. I spent all day cleaning it with peroxide and smothering it with pain relief neosporin. and today it actually hurts worse. I would post a pic, but I refuse to litter my blog. ;)

we had a girls night on Friday and went to an SUU Alumni event. we went to the hardrock and had appetizers, and then we went to the U and watched the T-Birds kick the Ute's @$$! :D It was great fun. PLUS - I got another catering job out of it! I will be catering the alumni scholarship fundraiser at Hale Theater in a couple months! I really hope this helps me get more catering gigs. I love it! plus, the money is nice... okay, so maybe things are looking good.

par-tay!

so, I actually did have fun on Halloween. I know - I wasn't feeling it, but I got invited to a haunted house at the last minute so I went. thank goodness for my awesome friends! generally, haunted houses aren't scary, but we got into it and my throat was sore from all the screaming afterward. I would reccomend the Nightmare on 13th to anyone in northern Utah! ...then, we took the party to my house and we watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I had seen it before, but it is one of my favorite scary movies. mostly because it is a true story. it totally freaks me out. then, we stayed up until about 3 AM talking about whether or not it could really be true, how it happens, what they should have done for the exorcism to work, etc. everyone there, except for me, was a returned missionary for our church so they had stories to tell and a lot of insight.

the next day I went to Cody, WY, with my boss. we didn't miss our flight this time, and I was extremely nervous to go, but it turned out to be a GREAT time! it was my first business trip and we went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which is my client. I had a budget, media plan, and ad concepts to present and hopefully get approved. I had never been there so the first thing we did was go on a tour. there are five museums - natural history, buffalo bill, plains indians, western art, and firearms.
they are all AMAZING! they would fit in on the mall in DC, right along with the smithsonians! I am so proud to be representing them now! anyway, the meetings went well, everything was approved, and I even came up with a new tagline after having been to the museums that we are going to use in all of our 2007 ads! :) we went out for a drink, then to dinner with the clients -which was a hoot!- and then to the local watering hole. haha! there were only 8 people there, so my boss and I had a great time. It was COLD in Cody. my boss had to buy a carhart coat. he fit right in with the locals. ...the flight, however, sucked. those little planes are SO loud! I had never been so glad to get off an airplane before!

this past weekend, I went to a party at my friend Laurie's house. we watched Wait Until Dark in her basement on a big screen with a projector. we all screamed like a bunch of little girls at the end when the guy jumped out! haha! afterward we sang karoake, and I'm afraid I made a fool of myself. but, it was fun! I sang Sweet Home Alabama and The Rose just to name a couple. I was the life of the pretty dead party. hey - at least I sound better than cameron diaz!

I spent all day Saturday (well, at least the time that I was actually awake - I was fighting off the flu) helping with Bethanie Newby's GOTV canvass. I won't go off on politics and elections again, but I really wish she had a chance at winning. she is amazing... it was a saturday well spent.

anyway, things are generally going pretty well right now if I do say so myself.

my america

my ideal America probably wouldn't have political parties. my America would consist of a population that voted for a candidate based on what they stood for and how they were going to better their lives and the general state of the union. negative campaigning wouldn't exist, and more than 70% of the eligible population would vote. I know that is seriously stretching it, but we're talking about my dream situation, right? ...I have been thinking a TON about this lately. Alex's comment got me started so I thought I would make a full blog about it...

I hate that you have to play dirty to win, and that it is all about scheming and manipulating and strategy instead of the issues and the worthiness of the candidate. I have spent numerous hours, even months of my life, trying to figure out what needs to be done in order to change the way the system works. but, the only way I can see this happening, is for the American people to change the way they react to it all. Americans thrive on it. they vote based on fear, not hope. what I wouldn't give for them to vote for the person that they believe in - the person that is going to make things better for them. instead, they vote against people. they are scared of change, they are scared of candidates that are open-minded enough to go against the system. and they are unimpressed by those that are honest and sincere. I have seen it time and time again because I have been fortunate enough to work for candidates that are great people. they were actually honest and sincere, and they had America's best interests at heart. they would have made a very positive impact on our government. but, they always lose...

I will admit that voters have probably been negatively tainted by the way politicians have acted, and that they have lost faith, and for good reason. but, that isn't what matters. we could go back and forth all day about how we got where we are, but, what we really need to talk about is what we can do to change things...

now, that aside, and I know I might get blasted for this, and I will also admit that I am a bit ashamed of it, but - I LOVE campaigns, elections, and politics. I thrive on it. and - I am good at it. I know how the system works and I have learned how to manipulate it. I do want to be a political consultant. now, I either want this because I am a bad person that somehow thrives on all of this nonsense and see this as a legit way to deceive, strategize and manipulate, or I want it because I am smart and I know the only way I can make a difference is from the top. my hope is to climb my way up and become the democratic Karl Rove, and then do what I can with my power and influence to make the changes that both of us want to see. I hope I can do it. we'll see how it goes if I ever get there.

as far as the two-party system goes, I actually like it. I do know that because of it, there will never be a party that anyone completely agrees with, BUT - hear me out. there are usually two sides to an argument. at least there are two sides that the average person can understand. I know there can be more, but the majority of people only understand or care about the two major ones. so, having two parties makes it less complicated and easier on the American people. also, I love that power goes back and forth between the two parties. both parties have strenths, and the strengths of one overcome the weaknesses of the other. so, the republicans have had power for 12 years and have done the good that they can, and now the democrats are going to come in and do the good that they can, recovering where the republicans were weak, or messed up. it sort of balances out. it takes a lot of time, and costs a lot of money, but it sort of works out in the end... that is a VERY brief and shallow explanation of how I feel about it. these are the thoughts running around in my head during this election cycle. that, and pure bliss and excitement for the results tomorrow!