Premature Departure

I have found that most people have no clue what I am talking about, but I must share my tale despite this fact.

When I was between the ages of 8 and 10 years old, there was a Kellogg's cereal called Bigg Mixx, and I loved it! It was one of my favorites. This cereal was a combination of different flake and oats, covered with a sensational cinnamon and brown sugar mixture, that was very delightful to my young pallet. The mascot for this cereal was a giant beast created from a mixture of animals, and was called Bigg Mixx. He had the head and body of a rooster, moose antlers, the snout and tail of a pig, and the fur of a wolf, and to top it all off, he had crazy eyes. I liked this mascot, I thought he was cute, and I even sent in several proofs of purchase in order to obtain my very own, orange, plastic, digital watch featuring this crazy creature.

To my dismay, after a short 2 years, my beloved cereal was discontinued, never to be heard from again. I often think of this cereal and ask others if they can remember a better time when children had such a treat to share on Saturday morning as they watched their favorite cartoons. Sadly, most people either can remember it no longer, or were never privy to such a happiness as I experienced in my youth.

A couple of days ago I was once again reminiscing about my good friend Bigg Mixx, when I decided to try to find some tangible evidence, via the internet, that this memory of mine is more than a mere fantasy, dreamed up by the imagination of a person who has always enjoyed the simple pleasures of cold cereal. To my joy, I found a few internet sights offering up proof of the existence of this mythical creature and the story of it's short life.

After scanning through a few articles on the afore mentioned cereal, I was crushed to discover that my precious Bigg Mixx was voted, in 2007, as the 4th scariest cereal box personality of all time! PREPOSTEROUS! He's simply misunderstood! Even more now than ever can I understand how Frankenstein's monster must have felt! He too was a combination of body parts thrown together to create life, and people feared him and never gave him a chance, or they would have known how gentile he was.

So this is my ode to Bigg Mixx. May the few of us that still remember your simple, crazy, mixed together bliss, always remember, and try to reach out to those who don't appreciate you, and try to help them understand.

R.I.P.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ineMv7M_rI0&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2oUqs9MJYM

Oh my holy freaking crapnoid!

I'm watching Wonderfalls, and I don't really like it, in fact, I don't recommend it, but it's like a train wreck, I can't make myself turn away... Perhaps I'm hoping it will somehow improve as time passes, but I feel there is a reason in only lasted one season...

In any event, it is only serving, at this point, to deepen my growing despair over my current situation in life. I feel for the main character in this show. She is a college grad working a stupid retail job, and is basically stuck in a rut while the lives of those around her continue to blossom and hold meaning... I would only be so lucky to have inanimate objects talking to me, it would liven things up.

WHAT AM I DOING IN LIFE? I'm so utterly and completely LAME! I have a stink hole job, and I can't find a better one to save my life. I have no circumstances worth mentioning in the work aspect of me life... or pretty much in any other aspect of life either, if we get down to it.

I have friends, but somehow never see them. I'm tired when I get home from work, and as the year draws once again on fall and eventually winter (vomits in mouth and chokes it back down), and the days shorten, my desire to go out after work in the ever darkening evening is diminished exponentially. I have no ward to call home anymore, I'm not part of my South Weber ward anymore, due to boundaries being strictly enforced, and I don't feel like my new singles ward is where I should be. My only other option for church right now is a conventional/ "Family" ward, and I would really prefer not to go there either, I'll no doubt serve another sentence in the nursery there, and I'd really rather not. I have no guys in my life to make things even remotely exciting, and I am fighting against reality as it pulls me ever closer to 30, with nothing to show for it.

I'm in THE biggest life rut known to man at this point in time. I feel nothing but despondency when I look around me. My life is in ruins. It's depressing to think I'll be stuck at Big Lots the rest of my life... All 70 years that are left of it... (melts into a desperate puddle of pathedicness and and seep into the fibers of the mattress for a good, solid 5 minutes before recovering), I'm a little fatty with no social life and the energy of a 87 year old arthritic woman, the love life of leper, and the same place in the world that Frankenstein held... that of a nomad and a loser who is shunned by society and forced to roam from place to place looking for a niche the right size to squeeze into and rest for the remainder of ones life... which is becoming increasingly shorter as the long and dreary days of pointless existence take their toll...

Someone, PLEASE make the madness stop! I'm 2 seconds from running away and joining a traveling band of carnies just to mix things up and make things different from the eternal SAMENESS I am destined to endure!

Hawaii- August 2010

My cousin Tawni and I kept saying how we needed to take a trip together, but we never made it happen. Then on Father's Day we were chatting at our grandparent's house, and decided it was time to make it happen, so we made some plans, and in August, we went to Hawaii.

We had to go from SLC, to Las Vegas, to LA, and finally to Honolulu, but we finally made it. The trip from LA to Honolulu was a long one... literally and figuratively. I wasn't able to sit by Tawni, and I was sitting next to a 13 year old boy that TALKED my ear off the ENTIRE way! Holy cow! I was ready to just turn my ears off after that.

We took a cab to our hotel and crashed for the night.

The next day we got up and headed down for out "continental breakfast." Much to our disappointment, the breakfast consisted of... toast, a small cup of pineapple from a can, pineapple juice (probably from the same can as the pineapple), and if you knew to ask, a small croissant from the plate they hid from the view of the people.

We scarfed down our meager meal and headed off to find someone to take us the the Polynesian Cultural Center. We asked 3 cab drivers, no one knew what were talking about... They lived on this small island, and they didn't know how to find the biggest tourist attraction on it... strange.

We made our way back to the hotel, and found, to our luck, a concierge desk. The lady there was able to get us set up with a bus ride to the PCC and an entire package to get us set up for the day there. We took the bus up to the PCC and were set up with some tour guides. We had a girl from Fiji, and a guy from Ukraine as our guides.

We toured the PCC, and had lots of fun, and learned lots of stuff... then I noticed our tour guide from Ukraine was giving me the eye, soon he was approaching us and staring at me nonstop as I tried to make conversation with him... awkward... but he was a nice guy... and we are facebook friends now... ha ha... :) Later we went to a luau there in the PCC and enjoyed lots of yummy food and a little entertainment.

After eating we wandered a bit and took some pictures and then headed to the big show. It was a really cool show they put on and the dancing and such was great, we also got some yummy ice cream at intermission.

The next day we had plans for another luau that night, so we went to the beach during the day, waikiki beach. Tawni is afraid of water, so I had to urge her to get into the ocean with me, which she finally did, and we had fun and goofed off, took pictures, and got clobbered by waves when we got to close to shore. (ha ha ha)

The luau that night was good, but it was slightly disappointing after the fun night we had the day before at the PCC. The luau was on a beach though, and it was beautiful, and the food was good.

The next day we went to Pear Harbor and a flea market. Pearl Harbor was super interesting, and sad as well. I was noticing how many Japanese people were there, and I was a little surprised. The shuttle driver on the way home told us he has a lot of Japanese friends working on the island, and said that the Japanese visit a lot to pay their respects and ask forgiveness for what their ancestors did. He said they also fly over the same path they took to attack Pearl Harbor each year, and drop flowers in respect for the lives lost that day. Interesting.

By the time we were done at Pearl Harbor and the flea market, I was SO hot, SO sunburnt, SO dehydrated, and SO tired, that we went back to the hotel, went and ate dinner, and crashed. We went to bed early that night, we were bushed.

On Sunday we didn't have any plans, we mostly wanted to get some shopping in, so we went to the market area, and I bought lots of stuff for myself... and some for my family. :) Hey, it's my vacation. :)

That night we went to the pool at our hotel, and Tawni was in the pool, I was sitting on the edge, and this guy comes down. We were the only ones in the pool at the time (it was outside, but some hotel rooms were outside) and he came over and got in the hot tub behind me. I wasn't watching him, but Tawni pulled a face and told me to look at him. I turned to look and he was pulling the khaki shorts off that he had over his swimming suit. I said, "yeah, he came down with those on." Tawni said, "No, that's not the problem, it's that those are the second pair of shorts he's pulled off." I laugh and we go on talking. Then we hear laughing from the hot tub. I look and the guy is reaching across the hot tub, and I just assume he is laughing to himself at something he dropped in the hot tub. A few minutes later the laughing is louder and isn't stopping. Tanwi asks if he is alone, I say he is, she asks if he's on the phone, I say he's not. I turn and look again, and he is swimming around in circles along the edge of the hot tub laughing to himself. I just think he's weird but Tawni is scared, so we hurry in and go back to our room.

The next day we get up bright and early and head back home. Our layover in Las Vegas is supposed to be like 3 hours, but to our luck, we ask a guy at a counter a question, and the next thing we know, we are boarding a plane to SLC right then. My baggage shows up on my front porch in the middle of the night, and it didn't even cost us extra to get home 3 hours earlier. YEE HAW! :)

And that my friend, was a nutshell of Hawaii. It was fun, but now we are home again.

Now for my next trip in March, to Australia! YAY! :)

Lake Powell- June 2010

Not long after returning home from the cruise, my friend Jenny invited me and some other girls to join her family on a week long Lake Powell vacation. I had never been to Lake Powell, so I was not only excited to go on vacation with my pals again, but to experience Lake Powell.

We spent our days sleeping, eating, swimming, floating on tubes, wave running, boating, wake boarding, tubing, and in general just having a blast.

I had never tried to wake board before, so it was my first experience with it. I watch my friends try, and some succeed, and I watched Jenny's brother and his friends show us a thing or two about how it was done, but I wasn't getting up. Jenny's brother was trying to instruct us, but for some reason I couldn't get up. Later in the week Jenny's dad took us out. After trying once and not getting up, he told me how to change what I was doing just slightly, so I tried it, and I got up, I was so excited, we all were able to successfully wake board that week. My arms were sore, but it was a good sore... probably the only exercise I got all week, but I guess that's what vacations are for. :)

Thanks again Jenny. :)

Caribbean Cruise- April 2010

This was, so far, the biggest group we have had on our travels. There were 11 of us, and it took 3 rooms to accommodate us all.



We woke up nice and early Saturday, and made our way to the airport where we took our first flight to Atlanta, Georgia. We stayed there long enough to have some lunch and make our way to San Juan, Puerto Rico. We got into San Juan kinda late, so some of us went to bed and some went a wandered around the streets for a bit. The next morning we made our way over to the ship and climbed on board to begin our cruise.

(BTW- The computer is being weird about uploading pictures right now, I'll have to come back later and add them in, maybe...)

So we toured our ship, which happened to be the same ship we were on on our last Caribbean cruise, and just enjoyed a chilled out day.

The First day we had our first port in St. Thomas. The 3 of us who had been on the last Caribbean cruise together had been here before, but this time instead of going to St. John, we went to Water Island, and to Honeymoon Beach were we enjoyed a lovely day of swimming, tanning, playing, eating, and generally just relaxing. It was a nice little beach, we were not too crowded, and there was a lady from New York that had left the hustle and bustle of the city to set up her own little hut on these beach to sell yumm-o food to the tourists and the people on the island.

We made our way back to the stores by the ship and did a little shopping before hoping back on and getting ready for dinner. We filled up an entire large table with just our group, and people certainly took notice of the group with "All the single ladies", and several people commented on it.

As the details are beginning to fade some, due to my lack of promptness to get this posted, I'm sure I'm missing plenty of good stories, but I will just do my best.

So the same people who shared hotel rooms in San Juan, shared rooms on the ship. I didn't seem to notice the first night together, in San Juan, but once on the ship, we discovered that we had a snorer in our room. Bless her heart, she was not aware of this tendency she had, but it certainly kept us up at night, and I guess one night it finally got to me and I lost it...
The next morning we were chatting at breakfast and the topic somehow came up, of snoring, and this is when we learned that the snorer didn't even know she snored. Later that day I approached 2 other girls in the group, and they asked me about how I had yelled at people the night before... I looked at them for a second to gauge their seriousness, and seeing that they meant it, ask "I did?" They looked at each other and started laughing. Apparently in my sleep I shouted, "STOP SNORING!" To my great relief the girl snoring was wearing ear plugs and never heard it, but the other two girls in the room now thought I was off my rocker, although they were glad I said what they were thinking... I pleaded my case to them, and they soon were laughing at me too, but I guess I'm going to have to control my thoughts in my sleep a little more since high emotion tends to bring out sleep talking.

Our second day on the cruise we were in Dominica, were we split up into 3 different groups and each took a different hike to different waterfalls in the rain forest. We couldn't all agree on the same hike, we we all went where we wanted too, which is a great thing about having such a large group, it's easier to break off when we each have different ideas of what we wanna do.

It was a fun hike, and we got to swim in the pool under the waterfall, which was really cold, but I enjoyed it. Then we hiked back out and headed back to the ship, stopping to do a little shopping before getting back on.

The third day we were in Barbados were we took a catamaran out and got to snorkel with fish at one stop, and sea turtles at another. It was cool to be that close to them, but it did scare one of our friends, and she headed back in to get away from the fish. After snorkeling we played on a beach and the guys that took us out gave us lunch and back in we went. One of the guys was a huge flirt and kept hitting on my friend and I, it was pretty funny.

The fourth day we were in St. Lucia and we took a bus up to the rain forest, and there we were split into 2 groups (because of our size) and we got to zip-line through the rain forest. Our guides were Melanie and Faron, who were a lot of fun, but they didn't get along with each other too well... But it was a good time. :)

The Fifth day, we were in St. Kitts, we decided there wasn't a lot to do there, so some girls went to a couple of beaches, and other, including myself, stayed on the ship and just relaxed and enjoyed the day.

The Sixth day we were in St.Maarten, we had been here the fist cruise as well, but instead of snorkeling here like we had before, we took a ferry over to another part of the island and hit some flea markets and then the beach before heading back again.

The next day were back in San Juan, and since it was Sunday some of us made our way to a church and got there part way through sacrament meeting. It was fast Sunday so we listen to the testimonies in Spanish, and afterward were greeted my several friendly members hoping to help us understand the meetings since they would all be in Spanish. There were some missionaries there that day, but they were afraid of us, a bunch of girls, since they haven't talked to girls much for awhile... ha ha ha... but eventually they came to assist us in translation. It was a nice day and we went back to the hotel to get other girls, and put our stuff away. We then made our way to the San Juan Fort to check it out. Some of us stopped to eat at a cute little bistro first, and then, regenerated, made our way to the fort.

It was a windy day, but it was cool because so many people were out flying kites on the grass by the fort. WE walked around to the entrance and commented on the fact that someone was going to end up getting clothes lined by one of the kites, and then on the way out of the fort, one kite attacked my friends Jenny and Kristianne, so we had to save them... it was sad cause the string hurt them, but it was sort of funny too... glad it wasn't worse. The next morning we headed home bright and early, and got home late... only to be greeted by snow! Poo! We enjoy a nice sunny vacation and come home to that? It's hard enough to come home as it is, but that makes it worse... But I lived. :)

Okay, sorry, that was the short version... Maybe more pictures to come...

Well...

I realize that I said my next post would be about my cruise, and that I said that a long time ago, but... here is the thing. I have not made my blog private because I really don't care who reads it, and sometimes people I know come across it through other peoples blogs, and if they don't know how to contact me, then they can't ask me for an invitation... BUT, as some of you may have noticed, I have been getting a bunch of comments in Chinese on my blog posts, and they are incoherent to me, and they are becoming more and more frequent, and are really just too much, I don't know these people and their comments are not useful since I can't read them. So, to sum it all up, I am THINKING about going private. I don't know whether or not I care, like I said, if certain people I don't know want to follow my blog, but I must request that all comments be in English (since that's what I speak, and this is my blog) and of relevance to the post. Thank you that is all.

Four Things I Learned on My 2010 Caribbean Cruise

Okay, I'm bad at posting tales of my travels, there is so much to say, and I find it daunting, but I decided I would try to get the ball rolling tonight.

Four Things I Learned on my 2010 Caribbean Cruise:

1- Be happy with what you have.

Somebody, I forget who, said that most of these islands are considered third world, and I suppose it was varified by some of the homes, annual incomes, and just general living conditions that we learned about the people on these islands. Yet, despite how these islanders lived, in comparison to the lives we are used to, these people are a typically happy bunch of people. Everyone seemed to be proud of their island, their island was the best Caribbean island in their eyes, and they think they live in paradise, despite not having many luxuries we have.

I come home, and I and meet with foul weather, less than ideal issues at work, as well as drama, and a laundry list of things I want to change in/about my life. Wow, what's my problem? Don't get me wrong, I do use my blog to vent things, but I'm really a pretty happy person. So why is it then, that I can't appreciate the fact that Utah gets to go through all 4 seasons, even though some seem longer than others, and some bring a few more trials, but not everyone gets that experience. Don't get me wrong about my job either, I'm happy to have one, even though it is sometimes draining, so why not appreciate it all the time? I'm healthy, my needs are met, and I have great family and friends, so why don't I think I live in paradise?

2- Be Patient, and Expect the Expectable, and Un-expectable

Similar to the reasons in number one, the overall attitude of the people in the Caribbean, these islanders are considerably patient. I'm sure part of it is the laid back way of life, and that tourists are their livelihood, so they are out in the fresh air all the time, but they still have their stressors. When I was in China a couple of years ago, I was terrified by their traffic and the overall driving experience there. I was glad I was on a bus, and I just had to try not to look at the near collisions happening all around me in order to not feel anxious about it. I swore, I could never be persuaded by money or any other means to ever personally drive a vehicle in China.

Well, it would probably not be much easier to get me to drive on some of the roads in the Caribbean, they are a little scary too, but I noticed something different there. Yes, in China there is honking and maybe even some road rage, and it seemed a lack of patience on the part of many drivers, but in the Caribbean, the drivers seemed to expect other drivers to do dumb things, and it didn't bother them. Our taxi would be cut off by some other, non-signaling, non-caring driver, and the driver of the cab would slow, but barely flinch at the poor driving etiquette and disobedience of the laws, it was as if they knew the driver was going to do it in advance, and they were prepared. I never really heard mumbling under ones breath, or saw rude gestures, they just calmly adjusted to fit the situation.

So what's my problem? I yell at foolish drivers, even if they can't hear me. I occasionally stare a driver down as I pass to let them know I think what they just did was rotten. I allow myself to get bothered by the inappropriate behaviors of people both on the road and off. I need to take a lesson and just slow down, chill, and expect that things will happen, so be ready to adjust to fit the situation.

3- Live Every Day Like a Vacation

Now, I don't think that I should never have work, or never be responsible, but on my trip, I enjoyed myself and basked in each day. I knew my vacation wasn't going to last forever, so I tried to savor every moment, and soak up the day. When I am home, I find myself wishing time away as I wait to leave work, or look forward to some specific place in time I want to be, and I don't live in the moment enough. It's time for me to see what I have in every moment of the day, and stop wishing my life away. I need to live like this won't last forever, and like any given day is one in a handful of final days.

4- Vacation From a Good Habit, is the Birth of a Bad Habit

I told myself that I could do whatever I wanted to do on my vacation, and I should enjoy it because it was my time to let loose... true, and not so true. I wish that I had only loosened the reins on my healthy eating a little. I didn't want to let myself miss out on new and exciting things to eat because I was trying to stick to strict eating habits, but I went a little too far and threw healthy out the window, and it's been hard reviving it in many ways.

I didn't workout like I do at home, but I did get exercise everyday in various forms (always taking the stairs, hikes, swimming, and lots of walking), and I think I was okay in that respect, but I am finding it hard to get back into the swing of things. I find this to be true, really, with all things. If I miss reading my scriptures once, it turns into twice, and then before I know it, I haven't read them for multiple weeks or months. I am so glad that I was wise enough to maintain at least that one good habit while I was on vacation.

Well, I guess that's it, tune in next time, for the first episode of "High Times, on the High Seas."