Finger Update

This is going to be somewhat of a boring blog post, but some of you wanted an update on my finger (*cough* Erin) :)

The lab results came back late last week and I found out... (drum roll)... that I had a STAPH INFECTION!!! Yup. I'm 99% positive I picked up that beauty at the gym. Now I'm very hyper aware of everything I touch and wash my hands even more than before. There's no way in dang I want to go through an infection like that again. NO bueno.

My finger is back to it's normal size once again (phew). But, since it was so hugely grotesque and swollen from the infection, my finger is shedding an outerlayer of skin. It's amazing what the human body can recover from. Seriously. Right now the top joint of my finger is basically brand new baby soft skin (super pink), with bits of dried old skin that it's shedding. I feel as if the main reason I'm wearing a bandaid now is to keep people from being horrified at my finger if they accidentally see it.

Here's what my finger (and bandaid) look like today:

Now that I took the picture I feel as if I should have prepared a bit more by putting lotion on my fingers or something. Definitely not hand-model material. hehe. AND, if you look closely, you can kind of see a bit of bruising at the bottom of my ring finger from where they had to give me (4) shots of anesthesia in preparation of the draining. bleck.

Never Again

Never again will I ever, ever, EVER pull out a cuticle that's sticking out of my fingernail. I did that about a week and a half ago and usually it doesn't cause any problems... but this time it somehow got infected. No clue how it got infected. I wash my hands about as often as Monk does so, yes, I'm slightly OCD about having clean hands. So who knows how that little bugger of an infection got in there...

Anyway, I went to the doctor on Friday because it had been bothering me for about a week. It wasn't too bad by that point. Just red and a little swollen. The doc gave me an antibiotic and sent me back on my way. THEN Saturday my finger kind of exploded... It started swelling a TON and I was in so much pain that at around 4am Saturday morning I found the stash of pain killers I kept from my ankle injury earlier this year and downed 2 percocet pills --which is saying a lot because I think I only took 1 pill at a time when I had my ankle injury. Those 2 pills knocked me out until about noonish. Bless the soul of whoever invented that drug...

Fast forward to today... my finger was still killing me, but I thought it was silly to miss work for a little finger infection so I went in... I lasted until about noonish then told a co-worker I was off to the docs again because seriously. My finger was looking disgusting and it was way too painful to do anything...

When the doctor saw my finger he was amazed that I had lasted as long as I had without coming in again (what can I say, I'm pretty tough...? hehe). He immediately brought me to a little room where he could do some minor surgery on my finger and pumped my finger up with 4 shots of anesthesia (yeah, ouch) then pricked my finger and started squeezing (and I wont go into too many gross details about that part).

And yadda yadda yadda this is what I get to wear for the next 3 days:

I go back to see the doc on Thursday, so I sure hope I wont have to go through that fun time again! Wish me luck. 

ZOMBIES!!!

Saturday, October 15th, was the day that Salt Lake City attempted to break the 'Most Zombies in One Location' World Record. The World Record is around 4,500 and Salt Lake City wanted to get around 5,000 zombies.... and we fell short by A LOT. I think we mayyybe had 1,000 zombies show up. Oh well, it was still fun! They're going to try for it again next October so we'll see what happens.

This is our Zombie look:

I must say, I'm pretty proud of our Zombie looks. On our way to the Utah Fairgrounds we got some thumbs up by construction workers and a few different people at the Zombie event asked if they could take a picture of us. I think that means we're professional Zombies now. I should put that on my resume.

Getting Rusty

This weekend there was a spider camped out above my bed near the intersection of the wall/ceiling. I tried killing it by attacking it with a shoe, but I failed by trying to attack it with a shoe that slightly curved up at the bottom so the only thing that happened when I tried to smash it was the spider falling off the wall and going between my bed and the wall, very much ALIVE still. Only a perfectly flat shoe could have killed the spider in that location. It probably knew it, too. Creepy.

Anyway, later that afternoon I went back into my bedroom and saw a bug on my window blinds (over my bed) that looked like a spider (but it wasn’t). I thought ‘oh ho ho silly Berkley… why did I freak out so much earlier when the thing on the wall wasn’t even a spider?!’ I quickly grabbed a Kleenex and killed the little bug. Easy schmeazy.

Dang spiders; setting bait and throwing me off course.

Last night the spider was back in its usual spot (above my bed, in the crevice of the wall and ceiling) and I had a minor freak out, imagining the spider crawling around my bed while I slept the night before (while I slept peacefully, thinking that I had killed the bug that wasn’t even a spider). This time I knew I had to kill the dang spider or I would be sleeping on the couch that night.

Standing on my bed and staring at the spider, eye to eye, I realized it was pretty dang big and gross. I’ve been rusty in my spider killing skills (you can read about my old ninja spider killing skills here), so the thought of killing a spider grossed me out completely. Even trying to ask Moriah nicely if she would kill it for me wouldn’t work. Luckily this time I knew all the tricks. I had Moriah give me a flip flop that had a completely flat sole. We moved a trash can directly under the spider and flat against the wall (in case the spider decided to fall again). I practiced killing the spider by putting my flip flop against the wall/ceiling next to the spider to make sure it would be completely flat (hey, I had to leave zero room for errors). And then… I couldn’t do it. I stalled. It was similar to the feeling of stepping up to a cliff and stalling your jump into the water below (let’s be serious here, I’d never jump off a cliff into water… too afraid of heights). Finally, after giving myself a good pep talk, I pounced on the spider and held the shoe there for a few long seconds to make sure the spider couldn't somehow escape. That thing was obliterated... take that spiders.

Looks like someone is finally smarter than a spider... (yeah, it's me).

Curse You, AquaScum!

Today I was eating outside at my usual, favorite spot (see here). It was an especially enjoyable lunch, made up of a few random things I saw at the Asian bar. Usually I avoid the Asian bar because I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food, but today they had a few items that looked delish. Although, they did look suspiciously non-Asian. I picked up some rice (okay, that's pretty asian), little smokies in gravy, a chicken broccoli dish thing (you know, it's kind of like chicken cordon-bleu, but stuffed with broccoli sauce stuff and deliciousness?), and an asian lettuce salad.

The lunch was especially delicious because I didn't have the chance to eat my usual over-flowing bowl of frosted mini spooners mixed with cheerios for breakfast.

Anywho, as I was wrapping up my lunch and finishing off the last 10-ish delicious bites, a large BEE swoops down and starts hovering over my food. I, of course, jump away from my bench and leave my food to the bee. UGHH..

This is how I felt:

Dang you bee, dang you, for stealing the last enjoyable bites of my meal! Well, he didn't 'steal' my food per se, but he certainly walked his nasty little legs all over my food, making it un-edible!

Grrr. Looks like I'll just have to dip into the treat drawer at work this afternoon to subsidize my bee-ruined meal...

Did That Seriously Just Happen?

I have quite the story from Church a few Sundays back. One of those stories that can be passed down to future generations to scare young children into getting married early so they don't have to deal with singles wards.

Here is the story that takes the cake of pure singles wards awkwardness/awesomeness:

Two Sundays ago I was filing into Sacrament meeting and spotted my roommates at our usual spot (3rd row back, middle section). The row was unusually crowded so I decided to sit one row up, but on the opposite end of the row from my roommates, where there was an empty spot. I sat down next to a random boy that I'd never seen before and didn't pay much attention. I chatted with one of my guy friends behind me until Sacrament started and then turned back around. Once Sacrament started random-boy made the comment that he liked my fingernails and toenails (they were painted an awesome shade of pinkish/orange) and I thanked him... then he asked what the ward building's address was, so I handed him my program (luckily it had the address). That was all our interaction. ALL.

Once the first speaker started into her talk, I noticed that his hand was awkwardly palm up on the bench next to me and he was slightly wiggling his fingers. I thought "hmm that's weird, it kind of looks like he wants to hold my hand." I ignored it, because there was NO way that was what he was trying to do (since we didn't even know each other). After ignoring the icky, wiggling hand for a while, he started to become more persistant and started nudging my leg with his thumb. The first time it happened, I thought "that's awkward, I wonder if he meant to touch my leg?" (apparently I'm very naive)... then he nudged it again. This time I knew it was on purpose and I sat forward to grab my ward bulletin to pretend to "read" and hopefully give random -boy the hint to leave me the freak alone. But no, I guess random-boy can't take a hint because when I sat back up he leaned towards me and asked "can i hold your hand"?

WOW. Just wow. I can give some pretty disgusted faces and I'm pretty sure I, unintentially, gave him a horribly disgusted face and said "I DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU!"

Once I turned him down, he moved his knees away from me and leaned forward (I'm guessing to get away from me?)... and I started giggling silently to myself, thinking "Did that SERIOUSLY just happen?"

And nope, I still don't know random-boy's name. We didn't talk to each other again for the rest of Sacrament (thankfully) and I escaped once the closing prayer was said.

Was that the end of the story? I WISH!

This Sunday I had basically forgotten all about hand-holding boy and went into Sacrament. I plopped down at my usual spot and was chatting with my roommate when I noticed somebody coming to sit by my. You better believe it was random-boy. He didn't say anything to me when he sat down, and I did NOT want to go through another Sacrament meeting with him hitting on me, so I made an excuse to get up to talk to a girl a few rows away... and sat somewhere else.

What a Week

My oh my. This week has shaped up to be quite lovely. Sarcastically speaking, of course. I'm still trying to find a place to live (seeing as I need to be out of my house in less than 2 weeks), work has been supah busy, and I had quite the awkward moment on Tuesday. So glad it's Friday!!

In case you're curious about my awkward moment (so awkward I thought the idea of poking my eye out might be a better situation than the one I was in)... here is the story: Tuesday I was in charge of a luncheon (ordering the food, setting it up, etc) for a certain meeting. Usually I'm not the one in charge of these luncheons, but some things changed... and... yadda yadda yadda I have to put together luncheons once a month for a few apostles and a few 70s and some other people. I wasn't too worried about it initially. I thought "I can get it set up and get out of there before anyone sees me!" But that certainly didn't pan out... at the last minute my boss had me order some placemats for the luncheon and that meant I couldn't put anything on the table until the placemats arrived... and that meant by the time the placemats came the meeting attendees were THERE. AHHH (me screaming inside)!! So, I had to awkwardly squeeze between the apostles and 70s to put their food down. It might have been fine if there was one dish, but I had to go back about 4 times to add other bowls, plates, drinks, blah. I tried to keep a calm face on, but I wanted nothing more in life than to leave. You may think, "oh that doesn't sound bad at all!" But it certainly was. It certainly was. I'm not going to continue with this story... it's making me uncomfortable retelling it...

Race Against Time

Today I was running a race. It was a race against time - and the phone. My boss was on the line and I had to pick it up in his office so I could check something on his computer. But, that meant I had to transfer the phone to his office...

And that meant I had to answer it before somebody else answered the phone.

I was hoping that the outcome of the race would be like this:

With me winning and picking up the phone.

Here's what went down:

Once I transferred the phone I jumped up, RAN from my desk...

and, in my usual fashion, I failed miserably.



Nope, I didn't run into a door (but I thought this picture was funny so I had to post it). Instead, I somehow BASHED my leg into the corner of my desk.

Anyway, my desk run-in slowed me down enough that by the time I got into my boss's office a Secretary had picked up the phone. FAIL.

After the awkwardness of trying to transfer the phone call back into his office took place, I realized I had a massive bump on my leg... apparently 'Bruise Easy' is back in business.

(Bruise Easy = the nickname some of my friends gave me.... because... I bruise easy....)

Wasting Time

Dear http://www.iwastesomuchtime.com/

I just wasted an hour of my life on you.

I did find some interesting pictures though....

Check out this beautiful rat tail:

And who hasn't done this:

Sooo funny....



Funny Bones

Do you ever randomly laugh by yourself?

Maybe that happens to me more than I should probably admit...

Last night I was looking through some of my sister's pictures from our family's trip to Oregon and came across this picture:

It's a planking seal! I seriously died laughing. Luckily I was alone in my room (and my roommates weren't home) so I could laugh as hard as I wanted without them wondering what in the world was going on. If any of you are wondering what 'planking' is... youtube it. It's this new craze/phase where people try to hold themselves perfectly straight across objects. Funny stuff...

This next picture is also from the same Oregon trip they just went on. My little sister Naomi is so funny... her face cracks me up everytime I look at this pic.

Ahhh I like funny people.

Anyway, I can't wait to go home and see my family! One more week and I'll be on my way to MT for Gunner's baby blessing. YA-TA.

A Few of My Favorite Things

As of July 15, I can now say that I am an aunt to TWO nephews (eh, and zero nieces still... someday though, someday).

I had to post this picture because Carter's face is just priceless. It looks like he is taking the responsibility of holding his little brother quite seriously. What cuties!

Also, I thought I would add another picture to go along with my current Zombie theme. This old picture was resurrected on facebook today when my friend Kate Barlow commented on it, saying "AH, I accidentally just clicked on this picture and it freaked me out. so creepy..."

I'm so glad I can instill such heart warming feelings in my friends. I certainly strive to do my best, even if that means my best is a Zombie face that strikes horror in the hearts of those that view it.

Zombie Land

ZOMBIES ARE IN TOWN! Well, a Zombie is what I like to call myself after I visit the eye doctor. Dilated pupils are immensely enjoyable. Not so much for the part where you can't see anything up close, but because it makes you look creepy. And being creepy is always fun, right?

My best friend Courtney asked for a picture of my Zombie eyes, so this one's for you! This is my attempt at a ruthless, mean, Zombie face (eh). I think my favorite part is that you can tell my eyes aren't really focused on the camera because, let's be honest --I couldn't focus on the camera and couldn't even tell if this picture turned out until hours later. ha ha

Don't worry though, friends. I'm not a Zombie anymore... although, it does remind me of a dream I had once when I got turned into a Zombie... and then I had to turn other people into a Zombie (with a wand) and I was REALLY good at it. So... watch out people.

Hugh or Toby, Take Your Pick

Do any of you watch Friends?

There's an episode where Chandler's co-worker Bob thinks Chandler's name is actually Toby (all because Bob said "Hey Toby, want a donut?" and Chandler REALLY wanted a donut... so he pretended his name was Toby). Which, Chandler thinks is fine because Bob works on a completely different floor and he will never learn Chandler's real name. UNTIL Bob applies for a job on Chandler's floor and everything goes horribly wrong (including Chandler's office starting on fire... er, or something).

Anyway.. I'm quite certain that my life is parallel to Chandler's right now. There's a certain Church Office Building Employee that I have to email every week or so to confirm confidential records with. We've never met in person, so he automatically assumes I'm a man (because of my name). I've never corrected him... (which is probably my fault). Today, he took the liberty of shortening my name and calling me Hugh. WHAT THE. Apparently he thinks my first name is Hughes? Not sure where that came from. Anyway. since we're all buddy buddy now (apparently) I can't possibly correct him and let him know I'm female.

You probably think this is all fun and games... but obviously he doesn't have the new version of Microsoft Outlook that I have. I currently have Microsoft 2010 and it shows the employee ID picture of the people who send you email. Who knows when he'll get the upgrade... I just hope he doesn't have a heart attack when he realizes he's been emailing a girl named BERKLEY and not a man named Hugh.

I guess I'll find out when he gets the upgrade when he starts calling me Sister Hughes...

I Could Definitely Get Used to This

Yup... Summer. This is how I get to spend my lunch breaks. Chillin at the prettiest place in Utah every day, just soaking up the sun.

The only thing that could possibly go wrong with this picture is if my legs don't get slightly darker by the end of the Summer...

I love you Summer.

Ben F, I love you too.

If Ashley kicks you off I will find you.

p.s. Sorry Mom, Ben F. isn't a real boy. Sorry to get your hopes up... (Bachelorette)

Flooding

This post is for you, Erin! :)

My old roommate Erin is from Minot, North Dakota... and if you have been watching the news lately, you've probably been hearing about the flooding going on over there. Their poor town is inundated with water. So sad...

She thinks that the house on the left is her house:



Please keep her family (husband, 2 little girls and baby on the way) and her town in your thoughts and prayers! This is going to be a long recovery for the whole town, so they'll need all the help they can get...

Expelliarmus!

In case you're wondering... Harry Potter 7.2 comes out July 15th. Depressing and exciting all at the same time. What's one suppose to do with oneself once all the books have been read (long ago) and all the movies have been seen?

Well, looks like the only viable option is to go to Florida.  

Wait, what?

Yup, that's right. I'm going to HARRY POTTER LAND (aka The Wizarding World of Harry Potter) this fall! I'm so excited I can barely stand it! 

Even though I'm a Muggle I can still pretend to be as cool as Ron, Hermione, and Harry:

Pretty sure this will be the greatest adventure EVER!

Hypocrite Land

I am kind of embarassed to admit it.... but I am an avid watcher of the Bachelorette this season. I've never been a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette in the past. I thought it was the dumbest show that existed - especially when it was the Bachelor. Nothing irks me more than seeing a flock of girls fawn over one guy (girls in Mormon land are annoyingly way too used to that). But... somehow... I ended up watching the Bachelorette Premiere with my roommates this year... and... (dot dot dot) I've been hooked ever since. Speaking of 'dot dot dot' I'm pretty sure Bentley is the biggest MD I've ever seen. If you don't know what an 'MD' is... check out this blog link:

http://mormonchildbride.blogspot.com/2011/05/unfortunately-not-endangered.html

This show is turning out to be quite entertaining, who knew? My top three guys are JP, William, and Ben F.... I don't think Ben F. was on my radar until he showed up on an episode wearing a beanie... I'm not sure what's up with guys with shaggy hair and Beanies... but I love it.

Anyway... now that we've all lost a few brain cells let's move on to something more interesting.

I am leaving in approximately 4 hours to see this youngster:

Pretty sure he's the cutest little boy in the world! I'm so excited to get to spend some time with Jordan and Alyssa and their cute little family. I'm still slightly in shock that I'll be getting another nephew in a month. Alyssa's pregnancy flew by for me (but she probably can't say the same thing)...

Cops: 3 ... Fire Department: 1

If you must know, that is the number of times the cops and fire department have visited our house since the beginning of the year.

Nope, my roommates and I aren't a wild and crazy bunch. I mean, come on. Look at me. If you know me, you know that I haven't gotten in trouble in my life - my roommates are the same way. Well, I guess I have gotten pulled over once (if you can call that getting in trouble?). BUT, that was in high school. In my Mom's van. On my way home from prom night, in my prom dress. Luckily I looked sweet and innocent enough that the cop let me go without a ticket, especially since I told him I was late for curfew...

Anyway, in case you're curious, here are the events that caused my roommates and I to get to know the authorities a bit better:

Cop Episode #1: One night our friend Gabe decides to come over and show us his new gun. Unfortunately for him our neighbor was feeling suicidal and cops were outside our house. Once they saw him outside with a gun, they were on him like white on rice... bad timing my friend, bad timing... apparently Gabe doesn't like having police dogs attack and guns pointed at him? Hmm Weird.

Cop Episode #2: This was a few weeks ago - it was really late at night and we were all in our respective bedrooms getting ready for bed. I heard a persistent LOUD knock on our front door and automatically decided to ignore it, since... I was in my pajamas. Whoever was knocking could wait until the next day, right? Luckily my roommate decided to open the door and found an irritable cop waiting for her at our door. Yahoo... apparently somebody called in our neighbors bonfire (neighbors that we share a backyard with) and complained to the cops... thanks Kelsey for taking the brunt of the cops irritableness... (the Cop didn't believe that we weren't the ones who started the fire). Which, thankfully, led to a musical scene in our bathroom the next morning when Kelsey and I started singing 'We Didn't Start the Fire' by Billy Joel. Good song, good song.

Cop Episode #3 and Firemen Episode #1: This happened at mine and Kelsey's birthday bonfire last Saturday. Apparently we throw rockin parties? ha ha just kidding... but seriously. We decided to light a little fire in our backyard and turns out we have quite the cranky neighbor, seeing as he called the Cops AND the Firemen on us. Bleh, whatev. We weren't doing anything wrong, so we didn't get in trouble. It was kind of funny though, seeing firemen examining our bonfire to make sure everything was Kosher...

Well, hopefully that's the last we'll see of the authorities for a while. But, I guess if all else fails... the cops/firemen know exactly where to find us in case of an emergency?

Why I Wouldn't Have Made a Good Pioneer

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of visiting this crazy girl in DC:

She had to work the Friday I was there, so I explored some of the Smithsonian Museums, the Holocaust Museum, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing by my lonesome. No biggy, I kind of enjoyed taking my time at the exhibits I went to without feeling rushed.

I think my favorite monument was the Lincoln Memorial. I mean, come on, look at it! It's amazing! And ginormous.

Although my favorite monument was the Lincoln Memorial, I think the Holocaust Museum left the greatest impact on me. Just walking into the building made me depressed - lately I've read a few books based on WWII and/or about Jews, so I felt a little more connected to the place than I probably would have had I not read them. The museum had so many pictures of Jews literally seconds before their deaths -- I kept looking at their faces, trying to see if there was fear in their eyes since they knew they were about to die. None of them showed emotion. I remember looking at a particular picture of a group of Jewish leaders sitting on the ground, just waiting for their turn to get shot - and none of them showed fear. It made me wonder how I would react if I was in that same situation. What a sad time in history...

Anyways, now that we're all good and depressed, I'll see if I can cheer us up a bit.

On my way to the Lincoln Memorial I came across this beauty:

Isn't that gorgeous?! Possibly the best rat tail I've seen in my life. It grosses me out just thinking about him washing that sucker. A long string of wet nastiness. bahaha

Oh, and in case you guys are wondering, you walk A LOT while you're visiting the DC area. I was told to wear comfortable walking shoes. Which I did. But, the soles on said comfortable shoes were not quite up to snuff when it came to protecting my dainty feet and what-not. So, on day 2 of walking 12 hours straight everyday, both of my poor feet ended up with blisters right below my toes (if you don't like graphic pictures, look away now):

Yeah, pretty gross. And painful. Want to hear a gross analogy? Once again, if you get grossed out easily, look away now... Walking on these blisters felt like walking on big, juicy, potato bugs, ready to pop at any second. bahaha. Hey, I told you guys it was a gross analogy!

My blisters reminded me of the pioneers... especially those Pioneer Children who sang as they walked... and walked... and walked... and walked... walking across the plains. And I decided I wouldn't have made a good pioneer. Two days into the walk across the country I would have thrown my towl in. Said something like "I've been turned into a cow... can I go home now?" (name that movie)

Anyway, my trip to DC was a blast! And thanks go to Kate for being an amazing hostess. And thanks also go to my buddy Cody who kept me company on some legs of my trip. I'd say the weekend was a success.

A Cheeto Kind of Day

Somedays are just special, you know? The kind of days where you walk through the grocery store or cafeteria and say 'I could really go for some Cheetos right about now.'

Well, that kind of day happened today. It was divine. I grabbed a a bag of Cheetos and ate it with my sandwich and mixed veggies. Fantastic mix, if I do say so myself.

I've always loved Cheetos. In fact, when I was a wee lass, I ate so many Cheetos at my Dad's bank picnic one year that I was sick later that night (TMI?). Since then I've learned to curb my Cheeto appetite a bit, just to avoid the 'being sick' part. Sometimes I can even make a bag of Cheetos last the afternoon (like today). So proud, so proud. Oh, and want some random Berkley Cheeto trivia? I've kept a certain Cheeto since my college years because it looks like a dude doing a push-up. No joke. So, if you're ever at my house, feel free to ask to see it. I'll gladly oblige.

Oh, and want to know what else made this Cheeto day extra special? It's my BIRTHDAY!! Between a few early morning happy birthday texts from friends, facebook well-wishers, emails, and my co-worker who made me this (and draped it over my desk):

I'm feeling pretty good about life. Feeling loved. Oh, and to top off the 'feeling loved' moment, I even got an email from TripAdvisor with the subject line 'Without you, we're nothing.' Looks like this is going to be a good year.

Katniss

So, there's this movie coming out in the near future called the Hunger Games. If you haven't heard of the book series, you've probably been living in a cave for the past few years. If you like to read (or even if you don't like to read), and you haven't heard of the trilogy, I highly recommend getting all three books. Yes, all three books. Once you finish the first book you will hate life a little bit until you can read the second book. And then the third book. They're THAT good.

Anyhow, I was Katniss Everdeen for Halloween in 2010. Yeah, maybe I was a bit obsessed with the books. And maybe nobody knew who I was at Halloween parties. But I had a blast being Katniss.

Today I saw a picture of Katniss. I've seen a picture of the actress before, but she was all dolled up and had blonde hair. Now that she's dressed the part, I think she looks amazing! I am 100% for this girl as Katniss. Now I just hope they can work on Peeta....

Graduation and Rainbows and all that Jazz

I went home to Montana this past weekend for Naomi's high school graduation. Holy Moly... I still can't believe she's old enough to graduate. I remember when she was a baby!

Naomi's graduation party was Saturday night with a bunch of other kids. Lots of food and cake and people everywhere. And don't worry, I surely got asked by a stranger if I was the Hughes kid that was graduating from high school. I wonder when people will stop mistaking me for a high schooler.  Seriously people....

My drive back to Utah yesterday was what, I assume, Hades would be like. I think I had about an hour total of dry weather and roads. The rest of the time I was flying through rain and drenched roads, praying that I wouldn't hydroplane while, at the same time, cursing the heavy rain that was falling. During a short break in the rain I saw something bright out of the corner of my eye and saw this amazing double rainbow (pictured above). The picture doesn't do it justice... it was incredible!

Luckily I made it home safely -- I can't say the same for a poor car I saw upside down after an especially heavy downfall. Ugh. 

Gulliver's Travels

Aka Berkley's travels. Let's just hope mini people don't try to stake me down... that wouldn't be cool.

Anywho. This weekend I'm off to the land of my forefathers... the Bitterroot Valley.

It's my youngest sibling's High School graduation on Sunday, May 29th. What the heck? I'm getting old... seeing as I remember her as a baby and everything. Weird.

Speaking of babies, I get to see that very baby that's sitting in Naomi's lap! C-Mike is having his 1st birthday May 27th, which is convenient because it is also my brother in law Allen's birthday AND Grammer's Birthday all on May 27th! PARTY weekend! Good times are about to be had.

AND next weekend I'm off to Washington D.C.! Woot. I've never been there before, so I'm ready for some adventure!

(Now is the time where you give me suggestions and tell me what to do/see/eat)

My itinerary canvas is blank...

Shark Attack

So, question. Are you occasionally scared by people’s ID pictures? My Outlook email (at work) shows an employee’s ID picture in the bottom right hand corner of the screen when viewing their email. And not gonna lie, sometimes I have to change the email my screen is showing to get rid of a particularly frightening picture of somebody. I can just imagine the Jaws theme music running in the background as I hurry to change the email (and subsequently, the picture). Don’t worry; I’ve had my fair share of awkward ID pictures in my lifetime so I don’t hold it against them. These people look fine in real life; their pictures just seem to tear at my soul - in a bad way.

In case you were wondering about my awkward ID pictures, here are a few that top my list:

At BYU-Idaho, my roommates labeled one of my ID pictures ‘Christmas Alexaphee’ since one of my eyes happened to be green, the other red. Ohh life (and I can’t quite remember why they nicknamed me Alexaphee that semester… help, roommates?).

In SLC, the Bishop in my last ward said that my ward directory picture made me look like a German girl. I am German, but not 100% German. And no girl wants to be told they look like a German girl (it brings to mind stocky women with names like Bertha).

Oh, ID pictures... how I hate you. Too bad real life wasn't like Harry Potter world. Moving pictures would be so much more agreeable than the mug shots our Muggle world has to use.

Explosions

Do you ever feel like your head is going to explode? Well, that's me today.



Lately I've been trying to make some big decisions and I don't do well with making decisions... so I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully my head doesn't explode before I can finalize that decision...   

Berkley Hughesová

My name has always been mistaken for a boys name (same with my sister Jasper). No biggy, I'm used to it. I sometimes receive random junk mail for a 'Mr. Berkley Hughes' (which makes it easy to chuck - real people know I'm a girl), and at work I occasionally get emails addressed to a 'Brother Hughes' from people around the world or in the COB who have never met me. Meh, whatever. No point in correcting.

Anywho, today at work, my boss taught me that in Slovakia the females end their last names in an 'ová'! Greatest. Invention. Ever! Why doesn't every country do that? It would make life so much easier. Seriously. No more mistaken gender identities! From now on, I'd like to be known as Berkley Hughesová. Just kidding. Actually, I don't know all the rules about the 'ová' application in Slovak. Perhaps it's only used for women who are married, who knows. But I like it!

In other news, why do painters wear white jump suits? That seems odd to me, since white would show any splatter. Just wondering (and I saw a painter today).

Tigger

Today was one of those mornings where drivers were being... well, stupid drivers. You know how it goes. When I finally got into the parking garage, I noticed that there was a line of cars because one car in particular was just sitting at the gate. They probably didn't know what they were doing, or their card wasn't working, or whatever. I didn't care. I literally said out loud "what the crap. GO!" And, finally, I think the parking attendant heard me (not really though because my windows were rolled up), because he got out of his booth and opened the gate for the car that was stalling everybody up (and, in the future, if you're in a parking garage and don't know what to do... DON'T just sit there. Take a ticket. It's not that hard).


Because I had time to sit in my car and enjoy my surroundings, I noticed that I had kitty foot prints all over the front windshield of my car. It's happened a few times before, but this time it reminded me of my family's cat back home, Tigger. I think that cat sometimes had it out for me. I love the cat, but just because she's been a part of our family since I was a kid. I'm deathly allergic to cats, so she (and her brother Bob, before he died) were strictly outdoor mouser cats. I think Tigger was born to be a house cat, because she would ALWAYS try to sneak into the house whenever anybody opened the door. I mean, who wouldn't? It was always nice and warm and welcoming inside our house. Remember when I said Tigger had it out for me? I think she knew I was allergic to her and hated cats. Maybe she wanted to win me over, but all in the wrong ways. One time, when nobody was home but my Mom, Tigger slipped into the house. Where did she run to? You guessed it. She somehow ran all the way upstairs, around the corner, down the hall, and to the farthest room down the hall -- my Mom found her sitting on my bed. On my PILLOW. I guess she loved me so much she wanted to leave behind her imprint and hairs as a present.

Now Tigger is a decade older, is missing half of her tail, and still rules our neighborhood. I'm guessing she's probably 87 in cat years by now. I'll be going home in two weekends for my little sister's High school graduation and I can't wait to say hi to Tigger (through the kitchen window, of course).

Ginger Training

I'm covering for a lady named Ginger at the end of June - she's the Managing Director's staff assistant and I get to leave my division and hold the MMD fort down while she's gone. She emails me tid-bits of info every once in a while and I finally decided to make a folder in my Inbox to hold the correspondence. I labeled it 'Ginger Training.'

After I made the folder, I glanced at the folder name and giggled to myself. Sounds like I'm in training to become a red head!

Then my thought process jumped to actual red heads and why they get such a bad rap.


I really don't understand. Some of the prettiest girls I know are red heads. Is it because they don't tan? Have freckles? If that's the case, then I guess I AM in Ginger training since I can't tan and have freckles. Sure, some red heads are homely looking. But that's definitely the case with any hair color.

Who knows, maybe I just have a soft-spot for red heads. I mean, come on. Who doesn't love the Weasleys? Or FedEx from Cheaper by the Dozen? The hilarious Emma Stone is prettier as a red head than a blonde, and I've known quite a few super cute red headed guys (remember Petey, Kate?). One of my roommates in college married a red head - his last name was Furniss and his nickname was 'Furnace' because he was so HOT (hehe, get it?).

Anywho, I'll enjoy my time Ginger Training... and, ironically enough, she is NOT a ginger. She is, in fact, blonde. :)

The Ugly American

Before I blog about my a-maz-ing trip to St Louis this past weekend, I thought I'd do a precursor blog post. A blog post about Ugly Americans. No, I'm not talking about un-attractive Americans (physically), I'm talking about Americans who don't care about other people.

People who know me well know that I hate repetitive sounds. I can't handle ticking clocks when it's quiet or I'm trying to sleep (just call me Captain Hook), people who snore, and basically anything that is annoying and repetitive - you get the picture.

There was a woman on one of my flights who fit all of my 'annoying, get the heck away from me' categories, AND she was conveniently placed right across from me (we both had aisle seats).

Let me just tell you why I labeled her an 'Ugly American.'

She snored when she slept.


Okay, I won't call somebody an 'Ugly American' just because they snore. That's something they can't help... but it certainly put her annoyance radar on the map.

This was the REAL reason she made the 'Ugly American' list:


When she woke up, not even kidding, she played bejewelled on her phone with the sound ON. If you've never played this game before, google it. Listen to the sounds it makes. Then pity me. At first, I thought maybe she was hard of hearing, or deaf. Maybe she didn't know her phone was making loud sounds. But, no. I witnessed her converse with a seat mate. She could certainly hear her phone.



Why would an adult play a game on their phone, with the sound on, in a crowded airplane? Did her parents (if she had parents) not teach her to be polite? The only reason that I can imagine her doing this, is that she is in the 'Ugly American' classification. She certainly didn't care about annoying the people around her.



Anywho, I'll end my rant about Ugly Americans. I dedicate this blog post to Mr Mitchell, my High School U.S. History teacher, who read us the Ugly American book.

Hipster 101

So, sometimes my friends and I like to talk about Hipsters. The guys and girls are attractive and way too cool, and they're all highly intimidating. Sometimes we see a new guy, think he's cute, but find out later he's a hipster (in our defense, you can't really tell when they wear Church clothes). Automatically we write him off the 'list.' Because, we like to say, "once you go hipster, you can't go back" (meaning, once a guy dates a hipster girl he wont go back to normal girls).

My co-worker sent me this video today and I wanted to cry it was so hilarious. I dedicate this video to all the normal girls in the world who want to date a hipster:

Hipster Rule Number 1: Never Try. Never put effort into anything.

(favorite quote: "okay, we're gonna need to put jeans under that skirt. And sweats over those jeans.")

Hipster Rule Number 2: Only like things ironically. Books, Movies, TV Shows, the Environment.

Hipster Rule Number 3: Never show too much enthusiasm.

Final Rule: Everything is dumb. Someone says something you don't understand? You just go "I'm over it."

Tuna-fied and Loogy-fied Fountain

If you have a sensitive stomach, look away now.

Still here?

Okay.

Let me tell you a story. A story about a certain water fountain at work that can make or break my day.

Most days it's perfectly normal. No scents or 'residue.'

(Actual Drinking Fountain)

But, on occasion, somebody in that area decides to DRAIN THEIR TUNA into that drinking fountain.

Yeah, I know. So gross. Maybe I have a sensitive nose and nobody else is bothered. But, if the scent is there, it makes me gag a little everytime I have to refill my water bottle.

Anywho, back to the story.

TODAY I experienced something even grosser than the tuna smell.

SOMEBODY (I imagine it was a man), had hacked a LOOGIE into the drinking fountain. Seriously. I tried to rinse it down by running water for a while, but nope. No success.

I think it's gone now. But I still gag a little everytime I think about it when I'm drinking my water.

Yeah, I gagged a lot today.

To make up for this nasty post, and hopefully erase the memory of the loogie from everyone's minds, I put up a picture of my Nephew Carter:

See? Don't you feel better already?

The End.

Happily Ever After, Disney Style

How can you beat a fairy tale wedding...


And death of the evil villain...

All in one weekend?

Life is goood. Real goood.

Evil Step Sisters?

While perusing a few pictures of today's nuptials between my good friends Kate and Wills, I came across this dandy of a photograph. This is a picture of Britain's Prince Andrew and his daughters: Eugenie and Beatrice.


WHAT THE heck is on their heads? Automatically I bestowed the judgment upon them that they are the evil stepsisters, or whiny cousins, or acquaintances, that you always read about in the Pride and Prejudice type books. You know the kind that I'm talking about - that are always plotting about how they can get the guy. They probably both secretly hate Kate since she got Wills.

Or, you know, I could be 100% wrong. It's hard to believe though - not just a hat rack my friends... not just a hat rack.

Besties

I am flying here next weekend:


And I couldn't be MORE EXCITED!!! Seriously, I'm so excited I can barely stand it.

WHY, do you ask, am I so excited? Well.... (drumroll).... I get to see my two favorite girls in the whole world!!!

Miss Kate Barlow and Mrs. Courtney Howell!

I've been friends with Courtney since the Winter of 2004.... and Kate since Fall of 2004 (um, I think that's right?). So it almost feels like we've been buddies forever! But now Court lives in St Louis and Kate lives in DC.... pooh.

These girls made my experience at BYU-Idaho quite the adventure, to say the least. We have so many funny stories... one of my favorites is the "to the left" story. One night we were driving back to Rexburg from Idaho Falls and we had to take a detour... long story short, we ended up getting lost (the usual when you're with me). I kept saying "um, to the left?" and we ended up going through Lewisville twice without turning around. Yup. No joke.

Seriously, so many memories..... eating popcorn chicken salads with Courtney... eating my black bean and cheese (with taco time salsa) and turkey dips with Kate... going to Comic Frenzy ('Famous').... Going to Dairy Queen and Wingers... Bowling.... getting Texano Burritos at RAMIREZ.... Rigby Lake.... fishing in the La Jolla puddles.... listening to Matt Nathanson w/Kate before he was cool.... having 'LL' time with Court (language learning time)... Kate reading parts of her English books to me... Kate reading my homework to me... (hehe)... tanning.... volleyball.... wallyball.... DOMINOS.... watching Katschke at softball.... Bishop Hart.... BEEHIVE.... Sudoku puzzles... Tuesday Devos (naptime)....

Seriously, these girls are my favorites! And I miss them like the desert misses the rain (Sting, anyone?). In fact, I miss them enough that I'm contemplating moving to DC at the end of the Summer. Imagine the ADVENTURES!! But, shhhh, don't tell anyone.

9 DAYS!!!!