The Prop 8 Shock...

I just got my breaking news alert from CNN that said:

California Supreme Court upholds ban on new same-sex marriages, but lets existing marriages stand.

I don't even know if I can describe my reaction to that. I read the email, my hands shot up to my mouth and I said "Oh my gosh!" And then I just sat there and stared at it, with my hands still to my mouth, for a good two minutes.

I have to admit, I really had no faith in the California Supreme Court. When I heard that the court was going to hear the Prop 8 lawsuits I honestly thought that the voice of the people was going to be squashed. I mean, this was the same court who just last year legalized same-sex marriage. I had no reason to believe they would now side with the people. Boy was I wrong!

Though I do have friends in the gay community who will be hurt and angered by this, and though my heart goes out to them, I am glad that the court upheld the ban by saying that "the people have a right, through the ballot box, to change their consitution". Amen to that.

This is huge. It's huge because it was California, one of the most liberal states in the country. And this decision just goes to show that the voice of the people can overturn the court...and an extremely liberal one at that.

But even though today was a huge victory, this battle is far from over.

To be continued...

New Ringtones...

A few years ago I decided that I wanted to use TV theme songs for my cell phone ringtones and since that time I have had the same ringtone for all my friends and some of my family. This is partly because my ringtone is set to Simon & Simon, which is my favorite TV theme song of all time! Only my mom, dad, and two of my sister's have their own assigned ringtones (which are also TV theme songs). I decided to mix it up a bit and I've been trying to come up with more theme songs to use for a few of my friends. The trick is that I don't want to use just any theme song...it has to fit their personality.

In discussing this with my friends over the weekend, some of them decided to pick their own ringtone. Here is what they came up with:

The Magnificent Seven

The Oscar Mayer jingle from 1973

The A-Team

I'll let you guys figure out which friend chose which song! If any of you want to add your own personalized ringtone to my phone then let me know! Otherwise, you'll continue to ring through to "Simon & Simon". But hey, that's okay too. I love that song! Did I already mention that?

And speaking of Simon & Simon...I just bought season 2 last week!!

The Heber Creeper....

My family took in some gorgeous Utah scenery this morning when we took a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. I had never been on the Heber Creeper before and it was on my bucket list of things to do. So when my sister called and asked if I wanted to go, of course I said YES! It was a three hour trip and we had a blast! Well, aside from all the soot and ash that kept flying in our faces and mouths. But we didn't care!


Deer Creek Reservoir...





I love the countryside...



A trip to Heber just wouldn't have been complete without a shake from Granny's! YUM!!!

Peoa...

My mom called me on Saturday morning and asked, "Do you want to go visit the cemetaries with us?"

"I'd love to, but I can't. I'm going to Peoa!!"

"You're going where?" she asked.

"To Peoa!"

"Where is Peoa?"

"I don't know. But I'm going there!"

She thought I seemed awfully excited to go somewhere I had never heard of before and but she told me to have a good time and she'd talk to me later. I then met up with a couple of my friends and we headed to Peoa.

Where is Peoa, you ask? Well, it's somewhere between Oakley and Kamas. It took us about an hour to get there.

What were we doing in Peoa? What else is there to do in a small hick town other than go to a rodeo?!?

Yep, I went to a rodeo in Peoa, Utah. And I've never had so much fun in my life. Okay, that's an overstatement. But it was a really fun time. The little arena was located in the middle of nothing but farms and lots and lots of open space which was surrounded by mountains on all sides. It was such a beautiful place. I really loved it.

The rodeo was small, but it took about three hours to complete. Despite being there for so long and having to stand for the last half (we got rained on and the bleachers were soaked), I never got bored. It was a really fun rodeo. There was an exciting/horrifying moment towards the end of the event though that still has me a little freaked out. Here's the story...

The competition we were watching was for saddled broncs. A guy and his horse went out, the guy got bucked off and the horse just kept going crazy. The three men on horses chased after the bucking horse to catch it and calm it down but before they could get to it, the horse bucked right into a gate post - HARD! His head went right into it. The horse stopped, completely dazed, took one stumble backwards and then fell straight over onto it's side. The second it hit the ground it started seizing, its body going crazy in massive spasms. The three guys on the horses jumped off, ran over to this seizing horse, knelt down on it to keep it controlled and took off the saddle, bridle, etc as fast as they could. They then started hollering for something. About 10 other men ran over, some with ropes and started working around this horse. By this point, the horse had completely stopped moving. I looked at my friend and said "Is that horse just unconscious or something?" He looked at me and without trying to freak me out said "I think this could be a case where the horse has possibly died". "What?!?!" I said. And he said, "I don't know. I just don't see it breathing...at all".

The accident happened only about 10 feet away from us so the horse was pretty close to where we were standing. I looked at the horse and focused my eyes on it's abdomen. I saw no movement either. I looked at the horses face and it's eye wasn't moving either. Honestly, the horse did look dead. The men working around the horse continued to quickly tie it's front and back legs together and then they rolled it over onto a fence gate, picked it up, loaded it into the back of a horse trailer and drove off. The rodeo then continued as if nothing ever happened. It was all handled very professionally and so quickly! I think it was only 5 minutes from the time the horse went down to the time it was loaded on the trailer. They never announced the fate of the horse but I have a horrible feeling that I may have witnessed the death of a beautiful horse.

Other than that, it was a great rodeo in a beautiful small country town. I think I may have to go to Peoa again! :)

I Can't Believe My Ears!

Most of you probably know that one of my biggest pet peeves is when people answer/talk on their phone while using a public restroom. I think it is so disgusting and rude! I have even blogged about this before. It happens all the time though so I shouldn't have been too surprised today when I was in the bathroom doing my business and someone's phone started ringing. I rolled my eyes and thought "Oh great, here we go again!" But then something happened that I didn't expect. The girl didn't answer the phone!

The phone rang and rang and rang. After a few seconds it stopped ringing and then started again. Maybe she just didn't want to talk to whoever was calling, I don't know. But I simply could not believe my ears. I was so shocked, in fact, that I nearly fell down dead.

True story.

My Green Thumb...

About a month ago I was walking around Wheeler Farm with a friend of mine and we were discussing the concept of gardening. He mentioned that he has a huge space in his backyard for a garden. I suggested he plant it. He said no. His reasoning was that the garden is just too much for one person (I guess he never figured on sharing with his two roommates). I said that he could always share his garden with me...I'd be happy to eat the veggies anytime. He then suggested that I just use the space for my own garden. My response: "Yeah right! I don't want to do the work, I just want to eat it!"

Isn't that the way life is? We never seem to want to work for anything. Why plant a garden when we can just drive the two minutes to the store to buy everything we need? Gardening is a huge committment and takes time and effort to see it through. I've never really been committed to anything in my life. Even my quilt projects take years to finish. I always seem to have good intentions about starting something but then I get bored, lazy or just too busy and I quit. It's kind of hard to quit on a garden, unless I want a dead one. So when my friend offered to let me plant one in his yard, I kind of brushed it off as being too much work.

My parent's had a garden growing up and I always dreaded those hot summer mornings when I'd have to go out and weed, water and pick it. I hated it. And each time I was out there slaving away I always thought to myself, "I am never going to have a garden!" So imagine my surprise the other day when I thought to myself, "I really want to plant a garden!" Crazy, I know.

So last night as I was talking to my friend I said to him, "Do you remember that conversation we had awhile back where you said I could plant a garden in your backyard and you'd take care of it for me?"

"That's not what I said!" was his reply.

I was kind of hoping he wouldn't have even remembered the conversation.

"Well, do you still want to plant one?"

"I never wanted to plant one. But I will let you plant one"

"I can't plant it by myself!"

"Well, I don't want to plant one."

"Okay, if I plant it will you at least water it so I don't have to go to your house everyday?"

"Yes, I can water it. But you have to weed it and pick it."

"Great! I can do that once or twice a week...no problem"

Ta-dah! I'm planting a garden! My friend said he would till the ground for me and I recruited two of my girlfriends to help me plant it next week. I'm kind of excited about it, but pretty freaked out as well. I'm worried that I will kill it. So if any of you have ever planted and taken care of a garden before then feel free to help me out!

Happy Planting!

Lost Generation...

I think this speaks for itself...

What To Do...

Most of you know I ride the TRAX train to work each day. Well, last week there was a slight hiccup with the commute as UTA was doing construction on the powerlines (upgrades, etc). Because of this, the schedule was completely thrown off and fewer trains were running between longer intervals. This meant a lot of wait time at platform stations as well as a lot of crowded trains.

Last Wednesday after waiting for nearly 25 minutes to tranfer from one train to the next, I finally pushed myself onto the train, found an open seat and plunged my butt down on it. Upon sitting down, I noticed I sat across from a guy I knew. So, to be polite, I said hello. He looked up, said hello back and we engaged in a brief conversation. In the process of this, an older woman (early 60's) asked this guy if she could sit next to him (he had his bag sitting there). He started to move and then stopped and said "You know, there just isn't very much room".

He made her stand.

My mouth fell open and I just stared at him. I could not believe he just did that. Well, the person sitting next to me stood up and said to this lady, "Here, you can have my seat". I was still staring at this guy trying to figure out if he really knew what he was saying/doing. He then looked up at me and mumbled "I really just don't like to be crowded". Oh, I see.

About 10 minutes later more people crowded on the train and once again, someone asked this guy if they could sit next to him. This time, he changed his story and said, "You know, I'm actually waiting for a call from my girlfriend to find out if she's getting on the train or not. So I'm saving this spot until I hear from her."

For the record, this guy doesn't have a girlfriend. I rode the rest of the way in silence with my mind trying to figure out what just happened. Should I have stepped in and said something or did I do the right thing by remaining silent and not making a scene?

A week later and I still wonder...

Feeling Useful....

My co-worker came in today with two brand new ties and needed some help tying them. He doesn't wear ties and therefore has never learned to tie one. He has a funeral or something to go to this week and he needed a tie. He first asked the two in the office who have husbands, but neither of them knew how to tie a tie either, so then he asked me.

Both his ties are now hanging up in his office, ready to be slipped around his neck at a moments notice.

I know. I'm such a pro. And I have to say that I actually felt useful at work today.

Matt Passmore, Anyone?

Anyone want to take a trip to Australia with me?!? I'm serious.

The Truth About Lines...

Today was commencement day at the University of Utah. This meant that my co-workers and I had to be to work well before our usual hour of 8am to help line students up for their big "walk". It blows my mind at how students don't seem to understand what a line is. We ask them to stand in line and they crowd around in groups.

This is a process we go through every year on commencement day and because of all our hard work in trying to make it run smoothly, it has become a yearly tradition for our boss to buy us lunch! And every year we get pizza delivered fresh from the Pie Pizzeria. It is unbelievably good and since the only time I generally eat it is every year on commencement day, I was looking forward to it.

At noon we received the much anticipated email "The pizza has arrived!" and so I immediately rushed up the stairs to get some before everyone else started digging their dirty hands through it. Much to my dismay, there was already a line forming out the break room and down the hall (the disadvantage to working in the basement instead of the actual office everyone else is in). I stood there thinking to myself "I don't want to wait in this line!" and then I noticed something...

Everyone was waiting in line behind one guy who was dishing up his slice of pizza, but there were three other kinds of pizza there that nobody was touching! So, I walked into the room, grabbed a plate, and said something to the effect of "I'm assuming you are all waiting for the same pizza so I'm just going to get a slice of this kind". I grabbed my pizza and walked back out past the 20 people who had been patiently waiting in line.

Just call me a student. I don't like lines either.

My Crazy Side...

I bet none of you knew I had a crazy side. I'm not quite sure what happened on Saturday night. It just came out.

Unbeknownst to Jason and I, the black lights at the bowling alley make your legs look remarkably tan. So tan, in fact, that it looked like we had spray tanned ourselves with a gallon of tanning spray. Since both of us are fairly white, we thought it would be funny to wear our pants up for the remainder of the game (three more frames) to show off our gorgeously tanned legs. We also took this picture, but as you can see, the flash pretty much ruined the effect. I still look just as white as ever...


Oh, don't worry. I came fully prepared for a night under black lights. I wore my white shirt on purpose just so I would "glow" and I even brought my white headband and wristband too!

I was not ready for this picture!!*


Jason looked at this picture on my camera and said "What is that? A bowling ball?" "No..that's my arm."


It's good to see I'm not the only one who brought the crazy!



Our bowling group (minus Jackie)



*Hairstyle by Jackie