It's That Time Again...

Yes, it's true. It's that time again. You know, the time of year where I sit down on the toilet seat at work and my butt freezes to it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, read this post from last year.

Aside from the frigid cold temperatures we've been having lately, I must admit that the snow has been quite beautiful and it has really gotten me in the Christmas spirit.

For instance, my friend and I drove around on Friday night to look at Christmas lights. Draper residents were by far the most festive. West Valley and Sandy residents were the most drab. We'll go out again in another week or two and see if any improvements have been made. So if any of you wish to take part in the Christmas festivities, string up some lights! Just make sure they aren't the solid blue ones or I will automatically give you a failing grade.

Oh, and now might be as good a time as any to mention that my roommate finally bought a Christmas tree this year! I haven't seen it yet because she is having it shipped to our house, but it apparently looks something like this:


That's right. It's a palm tree. I guess this year we'll be turning our house into a tropical paradise for Christmas. So if any of you need a break from the cold and the snow, head on over! We can even set up our hot tub! Which, if you've never seen it, looks something like this:


Free admission to the first 10 visitors. Just be sure to bring your swim trunks.

Spring in Utah...

I wanted to paint you a picture of what spring in Utah is really like, but who am I kidding? I can't paint. Therefore, snapshots will have to do.

Friday, March 26, 2010:
You can't tell from the picture, but the snowflakes were the size of golf balls. I kid you not.


Saturday, March 27, 2010:
I realize that nobody really wants to look at a picture of my street but I mainly wanted to show the blue sky and snow covered mountains! It was an absolutely beautiful day!


I can't guarantee it will stay this gorgeous though, because as you can see the weather is a bit unpredictable.

Thursday Confessions...

Normally these would be my Thursday NIGHT Confessions, but I won't be around tonight to write them. So I'm giving them to you a few hours early.

• I once survived living in -30 degree temperatures.
• The house I lived in barely survived.
• It was the worst winter of my life.
• I have friends now who are practically bawling over the fact that it is -10 where they live.
• I told them to suck it up, wait until it's -30 and then call me.
• It was 2 degrees when I woke up this morning where I live.
• I wanted to cry.
• I've been inside for over an hour and I still can't feel my feet.
• I'm a whimp.
• I need to wait until it's -30 and then call myself.
• I hate being cold.
• I'd rather be cold than hot.
• But not frozen.
• I need hot chocolate. Then I'll be warm.
• I love being warm.
  

Peeing in the Arctic...

I am still trying to work with Google about getting my full name off their search results. I've been trying a few different things and it might take another day or two before I know for sure if they worked. If they don't, then I will invite you all to read my private blog. I know there are a couple of you out there who read my blog and don't think that I know. Well, guess what? I know. So just fess up already. Otherwise, you'll be banned from reading my blog forever. And trust me, you'll be missing out.

In the meantime...

I came to work today dressed appropriately for the frigid cold weather...thermals, boots, hat, gloves, etc. I wasn't leaving anything to chance. After all, I ride the train and sometimes trains are late. Of course, I was able to shed most of these layers once I got to work because my office is kept fairly warm.

The bathroom, on the other hand...

I'm not sure why, but for some reason the bathrooms in this building are at least 40 degrees colder than the rest of the building. I walked in there and the cold slapped me in the face so hard I thought I was going to suffocate. It was so cold that for a second I thought about walking right back out and putting on my winter gear...just to use the bathroom. Thankfully that thought quickly passed when, in a moment of clarity, I realized that would only create additional problems with the whole bathroom procedure.

As I walked into my stall and stood there staring at the toilet, I actually wished I had been born a man just so I wouldn't have to bare my bum and stick it to the ice covered toilet seat. But then when I did sit down and had the breath knocked out of me, I wished to be a polar bear. If I were a polar bear I wouldn't need to bare my bum, be a man or even use a toilet. And most importantly...I'd still be warm.

I wonder if I could get workers comp for getting hypothermia while using the bathroom.

Perfect Timing...Or Not.

Story 1: Yesterday afternoon I was walking through a building on campus with some co-workers. As we were walking down the hallway, we were talking about an upcoming trip two of my co-workers are taking in June. They are going to Egypt, Israel and a few other countries over a 2 1/2 week period. Sounds fun, right?

Well, I made some comment that I better not turn on CNN and see a headline that says "Two American girls kidnapped in the Middle East!" They both laughed and said "We'll be with 38 other people in a tour group" and my reply was "Who cares. They don't have to take everyone. All they have to do is reach out and grab you!"

At the exact moment I said the last sentence, we all turned our heads to the left and saw a classroom full of students staring at us. I think I gave out a slight gasp when I saw them, then turned my head back to the others and covered my mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Not wanting to further interrupt their final exam, we hurried down the hall and exited the builidng. It was such a funny moment, and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.


Story 2: I woke up this morning (keep in mind that it is MAY 1st!!!) to a snow covered car! I was not the least bit excited to have to wear a winter coat in May, nor was I the least bit excited to have to scrape snow off my car...in May! But, I begrudgingly did it anyway. I drove over to the train station in a spectacle of snow flurries, got out of my car and saw the most hilarious sight ever: SPRINKLERS!

They were going full force this morning, despite the fact that it was 30 degrees outside and snowing! That's what I call bad timing!

Adventures in Snowshoeing...

Friday night I went snowshoeing!! I had never been before so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I drove up to Brighton with a few people from the ward (I didn't really know any of them since I'm still fairly new to the ward) and when we got there the guide handed us all showshoes and told us to put them on. He did finally instruct us on how to do this after we all started putting them on, which was before we read the warning that says putting them on incorrectly could result in injury or death. Okay, if they want us to read a warning first, maybe they should put it so it was in front of us and not behind us. I don't know about anyone else, but I certainly don't have eyes in the back of my head.

Mindy and I (my new friend in the ward) had a great time coming up with marching drill songs:

I don't know and I don't care
If I run into a bear

I've got snowshoes on my feet
I can out run one if we should meet

I've got a glowstick in my hair
That can double as a flare

Yeah...corny, but we were laughing so hard it was hilarious! Here we are before our journey began:

This is a picture of me anxious to get going! I was wishing I had some of those cool ski poles like some other people had (mine are invisible):

Part of our group:

I apologize for this blurry picture. It's hard to take a picture while walking! This was our group heading out on our trek. Here we are walking across Silver Lake.

Me walking across Silver Lake, forging my own path:

I had never walked across a frozen lake before and I was completely in awe of this moment. And walking across it in the dark with only the moon and stars (and glowsticks) to guide me was a breathtaking experience.

Our group taking a breather. I was glad we got to stop a time or two because it was harder than it looked at times. I definitely got in my cardio workout for the day!

Me during one of our breathers. The flash was so bright on this picture that I was blinded for about 10 seconds:

We were out for about two hours and surprisingly enough it wasn't as cold as I was expecting. Probably because we were moving the entire time. We estimated that we walked about 4-5 miles. I was certainly tired by the time we were finished, but overall I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Commuting Nightmare...

Do you remember my post from a week or so ago where my roommates and I had to dig ourselves out of our driveway because we got about a foot of snow and the drifts were 3 feet high? Do you remember the question I asked at the end of that post? If not, let me refresh your memory.

"Why does this never happen on a work day?"

Yes, that is what I asked and today I got my answer. This DOES happen on work days and the reason why we usually hope it doesn't is because it's an absolute nightmare getting anywhere!

Take last night and this morning for instance. Yesterday it started to snow around 2:00pm. The wind was blowing pretty hard, but it didn't look that bad. I jumped on the train and headed home at the usual hour. I arrived to my car at the usual hour. But I did NOT arrive home at the usual hour. I arrived home an hour late. It took me almost 1 1/2 hours to drive 7 miles. I went 20 mph the entire way. The roads were covered in snow and traffic was completely backed up. But, I never lost my cool. I always say it is better to be extremely cautious than to end up dead in a ditch. And I figured that they'd have everything all cleared for the morning commute.

Boy, did I figure wrong.

Do you remember in my last post how I posted a picture of my roommate's car nearly covered by snow drifts? If not, let me just refresh your memory:


Well, that's what my car looked like when I woke up this morning. Did you ever think I would get out? Not me. I was outside at 6:15am shoveling and digging, shoveling and digging. Finally around 7:00am, I jumped in my car and slowly made my way to the train station. I drove those same 7 miles in about 40 minutes today, which was definitely better than last night. I got to the train station at 7:40 and a train finally showed up around 7:55am. Obviously, that's the time I am supposed to be to work. But the trains all seemed to be malfunctioning for some reason and so I didn't get to my stop until 8:55.

Oh, but at least I made it by 9am, right? WRONG! That would be too easy. I still had to catch a shuttle to my building. I waited for 10 minutes in the blowing snow, by this time looking like a wet mutt, and when the shuttle never showed, I just decided to walk. Normally the walk is about 10-15 minutes. But today, see, none of the sidewalks were shoveled and the walk is entirely uphill. So in my attempt to not slide back down the hill or go crashing to the ground, it took an extra 10 minutes to make the trek.

But never fear! I made it to work. I walked in the door with my nose running, eyes watering, chest burning, hair wet and ragged, face bright red and pants completely soaked up to my knees, at 9:30am.

It's days like this I am so glad I can shut the door to my office so nobody has to see me. And never again will I hope this happens on a work day.

Getting Down to Business...

My roommates and I woke up this morning to a winter wonderland.

The thing that caught our eye was the snow drifts! Check out this snow drift behind my roommates car!

It all looked pretty cool at first, but it slowly started looking more like a nightmare once we realized we had to go to church. With 2-3 foot snow drifts and no HOA snowplows in sight we knew we were in trouble. Lori called a counselor in our Bishopric to see if church would be cancelled and he said "I don't understand. Why would it be cancelled? She said "We have a foot of snow out here and we can't get out of our driveway!". He said "Well, it's not even precipitating in Holladay!" Is that supposed to make us feel better?

Needless to say, church wasn't cancelled so we decided to get down to business! We all bundled up in our winter clothes and took to the snow. We did run into a slight problem though: we only had one shovel. So while one roommate used the shovel, the other roommate and I grabbed the next best thing: dust pans!

The dust pans may not have been very good for shoveling, but they did a great job scraping snow off the cars (which was my job).

After about an hour, we realized we weren't getting very far so we decided to call in reinforcements: the hometeachers. This is what hometeachers are for, right? We called one who was more than willing to come, and he even brought his brother.

So between five people, three shovels and two dust pans, we were done in about another hour. That's two hours total. It wouldn't have taken that long, but the guys went the extra mile and shoveled our neighbors drive as well, while we three girls shoveled the road (I mean, what's the point of clearing the driveway just to get stuck in the street?)!

The overall snow total at my house was 11-12". If any of us can walk tomorrow it will be a miracle. But just the same, it was a grand adventure. I love the snow!

Why does this never happen on a work day?