Whoosh!

We snowboarded!

Life Update

That's right, get excited folks. You have been missing out on the thrilling details of my day-to-day existence for too long. And what is a blog for if not to regale my readers with information all about me? So let's just jump right in, shall we?*

*if you are bored by reading all kinds of strung together words, skip the next bit. I've suited the preferences of all possible readers by also including pictures to summarize my activities! You lucky ducks, you.

Job: My current job situation is AWE-some. I work at Fold3 (fold3.com) doing work for their website. They are a smaller company that belongs to Ancestry.com, if that helps you wrap your head around the obscureness of my company. I have two jobs with Fold3. One of them is less exciting, but it is the lovely little low-paying job that introduced me to my favorite job ever, which I will tell you about momentarily. Just hold on to your hats for a second, we'll get there. The title of my less exciting job is "Quality Assurance Editor," which sounds kinda fancy but really I just look at scanned images of old documents and make sure they match up with the typed-out version of the same page. In essence, we make sure that when you search for something in fold3, we can pull up documents that actually have what you searched for on the page.
The second job I have with them has another fancy title that I can't even remember. Specialty Content Editor or something. But in order to do this job I must.... write articles about history!! It's amazing! Yes, yes, I'm sure it sounds boring to the majority of.. humans... but I love it. I sit at home on my computer, I look up cool/weird/random military history stories, and then I write spotlights on them for the main website page. Go to the website. Go on, do it. See that "spotlights" section on the right? I write those! Well, some of them. There are three of us slaving away to make sure people are vaguely interested in what our website can provide. It's quite fun. I really do love it.
Also I clean the office where my mom works. I do not like this job.

School: This section is easy, because it doesn't exist. I graduated. In history. Over a year ago (sigh.) I am saddened beyond all expression about this reality. I want to go back to school, but alas... money. But hopefully I will be back in again soon, learning more about english, writing, languages... ya know, all the good stuff.

Boys: Ok this section is the most fun, because... well because it is. And because I have pictures! Oh yeah. Blog-stalkers dream come true. Hopefully this particular young man won't mind that I'm throwing around his image for everyone to see. I doubt he will, I'm sure he'd love to be oogled and oggled by all my admiring blog-fans.

Anyway my boy of the now is Mr. Joseph Robert Galloway, more commonly known as Joe. This is him!

I like him. I think I'll keep him.

He looks unenthused because he's very tired. I keep him up 'til all hours with my girlfriendish neediness. Although I guess "all hours" now means like 11:30, because we're old and employed and go to bed earlier these days. But he is nice and lets me cuddle him and watch tv and chat 'til we can barely keep our eyes open. I think he likes me too. :) He even takes random pictures with me. Aww.

Yay cheesiness...ok moving on.

Joe got a job this week!! Really exciting. He works at Tycon Systems Inc., doing accounting stuff and some other random things. So far he likes it, it's kind of what he's been wanting for years, this job. So if you're reading this, give a robust thumbs up to the chap for making his way in the working world.

In other news:

{July} Family reunion in Washington state!

{August} I went to Robber's Roost for hiking purposes. Highly recommended. Plus Joe finally kissed me there, so... bonus.

I... have no picture for this event. I'm sorry.

Also I became a True Aggie, with the help of Joe. You can see the magical "A" behind us. He thought it was ridiculous (it was) but came along anyway, cause he's nice.

{October} Joe 'n' I dressed up for Halloween. He is clearly a pirate. I am, not so clearly, a jester.

{December} We picked out our Christmas tree and drove it home. It was very huge and pokey. Possibly the best Christmas tree ever.

My beau took me to the Nutcracker in SLC for Christmas. We are so classy!

{January} I took my brother (or rather, he took my dad, Joe, and myself) snowboarding! It was Spencer's first time. He LOVED it.

I think that gets us about caught up. We have fun times. Coming up...ice skating tonight (maybe)! Snowboarding again on the 15th! Road trip to California for my cousin's wedding! The good times never cease. They really don't. Life's pretty awesome.

I feel like I should keep some continuity in my posts by putting a quote at the end like I used to. Let me go find one....

...alright, this suits my nerdy obsession that Joe and I share. 100 points to whoever can name what movie this is from. It's obscure, so I'll even give you three. My favorites :) 119342498290 points to anyone who can name the characters that say the quotes.

"Sometimes people have feelings. I'm referrin' here to people."

"I am a leaf on the wind. Watch me soar."

"This is the captain. We have a little problem with our entry sequence, so we may experience some slight turbulence and then --- explode."

Good luck :)

Love, me.

And this is why I'm going to start blogging again

The other day I partook in what for me has become a daily activity - the Blog Stalk. As I stalked a blog, done by a coworker at my (awesome though occasionally mind-numbing) job, I realized that her comments about sleeping through classes and eating french fries with friends made me remember the silly pointless things that I used to do, which, although seemingly unimportant at the time, were really the tiny little pieces of fluff that come together to make the figurative stuffing for my "Tara Doll". The Tara Doll is a visual that I am giving you to better illustrate what I mean. But when I say "Tara Doll," I am really just using a metaphor. Tara Doll = Tara.

I was going to upload a picture of a slightly homely, freckled, red-yarn-hair doll, but it would seem that blogger forbids it. So just imagine it in your alarmingly capable minds.

{update: i figured out the photos. Turns out it was just my own incapability. Ha ha!...}


Just as you imagined it? Thought so.

The Tara Doll has a bunch of stuffing in it. This stuffing makes it full of life and vitality, and as a bonus, helps it be much more cuddly. Without this stuffing, Tara Doll is just a sad, limp shell of a human-shaped figure who does nothing but flop around, and even then, only flops if helped by a finger or perhaps a slender stick.

Recently I have come to find I have been pulling all of the coolest, most fun pieces of fluff from the Tara Doll to put on a shelf or in a box (presumably a shoe box because apparently I have a "thing" for those) and as a result, Tara Doll has recently been limp, boring, cranky and shaped weird.

I am determined to re-stuff Tara Doll with her favorite bits of fluff. She has been missing the following things:

1.Blogging
2.Reading ridiculously nerdy fantasy books
3.Wearing whatever she wants, EVEN if the clothes are manly and not fashionable at all
4.Saying funny stuff without staring people down self-consciously afterwards to make sure they thought it was funny too
5.Not being stressed about using her spare time to make up hours at work
6.Having spare time to do whatever she wants, including doing nothing at all
7.Not being stressed about driving. Her "mental chatter" during her drive to work has become increasingly appalling as the days, and construction, continue on. Jane Austen would not approve.
8.Watching Fantastic Mr. Fox six times in a row, in a huddle of blanketed, sick roommates who all decided that this was a MUCH better idea than going to all classes that day. Incidentally, they were right.
9.Sleeping through art history, or really any class that took place between 12:30 and 2pm. Those are the times of day that the universities test students by drugging the air to see who would be scholarly enough to resist going unconscious. Tara Doll always failed the test.
10.Wearing enough layers to become indistinguishable from Randy of Christmas Story fame, in order to make it from Richards Hall to Old Main without freezing to death.
11.Spending half-hour chunks of time watching the weather and trying to come up with an amazingly awesome book idea, one so incredible that the whole world will change because of her amazing book.
12.Saying weird, artsy, nerdy things like "yesterday I just sat at my window and watched the hills' warped reflections in the raindrops as they trickled down the glass," even though she hurts a little inside every time anyone else says mental things like that.
13.Being fascinated by art, history, fantasy books and biology...
14....and having time to indulge such fascinations.
15.Not being obsessed with Pinterest and Facebook and texting.
16.Watching poorly made, unrealistic chick flicks that I can't help but love anyway.
17.Other cool things. I'm sure you can think of the rest.

In short, all of my faithful readers must prepare themselves for some mind-blowing blogging. If you didn't notice, it's on the list of fluff. You too can profit from the reorganization of my life's priorities.

And Sarah, never stop pestering me to blog. "By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!"

Moments that Matter Most

We would to well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most.

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Red Egg

Well....well.
I've decided that I'm going to be pretty loose with my "creative" posts, because clearly I don't post that often if I choose to be strict about them. Thus, I'd like to introduce you to my latest right-brained endeavor, Red Egg.

Isn't he just the fiercest? Awww...

So my singles' ward had their (apparently) annual egg roll tournament for our FHE this past monday. Here is how this goes down:

One brings a nice, plain, hard-boiled egg to the activid-nee (Brian Regan, anyone?).

One observes the fine array of markers that have been offered to potential egg artistes.

One chooses a selection of markers.

One marks up their egg.

One is put in a bracket with other eager egg fighters, against whom they battle one by one.

The one who's egg cracks...loses! The victor takes his unscathed egg up and up in the competition until he is a loser also.

With my clearly dominant and superior egg, I strode confidently to the tape line and faced my first opponent - a mere boy between the ages of 9 and 12 (one of the bishop's kids). His egg was decorated with a cutesy little bunny. How laughable! How weak! My angry toothy egg looked his adorable bunny in the eyes and sneered an eggish sneer. Oh, would that his strength had been equivalent to his confidence! We rolled our eggs and I lost immediately, the mouth of my vicious egg crumpled into pieces. A painful blow indeed for Red Egg.

You know that phenomenon where you stare at a word so long that it becomes unrecognizeable, and you begin to doubt its legitimacy as an actual word? Well I'm having that with the word "egg" right now, but I majorly had it earlier when I was filling out a.. personality survey that used "agree" and "disagree" in about every other line. I mean just look at it.

Agree. Agree. Agree.

...agree.

The phenomenon, by the way, has a name.

At least, I'm pretty sure it probably does. I have no idea what it is. If you find out, let me know.

{UPDATE!} : Thanks to my cousin Kelsey, Internet Researcher Extraordinaire, I have discovered the name of this peculiar word sensation.... Semantic Satiation! There, you may all stop fretting about what it could possibly be called and return to your normal lives wondering about one less thing.

A Nod to Lewis Carroll

More like a violent head-banging motion than a nod. Not because it rocks, it's just not exactly subtle, particularly the part where I directly quote him. You get it.

I recently watched the new, slightly freakish Alice in Wonderland, and it reminded me of the Jabberwocky*, since that poem is in the book/movie. Sooo I decided to write something Carroll-esque, which didn't start out having a story but, lo and behold, one bloomed forth anyway.

*If you have no idea what 'Jabberwocky' means, go HERE immediately to further your poetic education and delight.

It doesn't have a title. Yet. Suggestions welcome. No sad eyes or glaring if I don't use them though, that's the rule.

Where slything sleek and sundersome
the gorgon gala weals,
out roils the frothy fettergale
and petulantly peals.

Within the nimble bowerways,
all flora boundabout,
come craggering the gorgonelles
to cast the bonner out.

No body dared there enter in
what gabed the wrinkled wags,
else in the leafy arbory
stayed borful stonely rags.

But dear and doughty Perseus'
ambrosial amber eyen,
when hearkened of the bulbadrum
did fair and seedly gline.

Minerva's steeling shield he glommed,
and Hermes' tortile sword;
Then he abaft and sails ahull
they frapped the shiply cord.

All gybing were the fearless few
which braved the walty sea;
Soon baffed upon grim craggy isle
the ship, the sword, and he.

His crew though blenching at the sight,
brave Perseus there strode
with shield in left and sword in right
while gloamy night forbode.

Came keening through a dreggy dark-
most grubious to be seen-
Medusadell, the crithy belle,
that ruled as gorgon queen.

Gripped cripply he the knurly blade
and whicked it near and nack
'Til fiend keeled dead, and with its head,
he went galumphing back.

Where mything sleek and mendersome
the hero Perseus bounds,
out blythes the frothy fettergale,
and galavantly sounds.

Cause I Said I Would...

So... Ice Castles! Here are some pictures, and I guarantee that they are in no kind of order.

A castle...of ice!Squid arms.

Nauseating(ly cute) couple picture. Aww.

Cool little corridor - dad standing in for sizeability. frozen.

They were cool. Generally it was just a cool place. The castles were bigger than I expected, and the square footage of the overall castle...area...was less than I would have thought also. But I believe 'twas worth the drive to Midway. Go next time you can! It's cool in so many ways ;)

I'm pretty sure that my ineptness with Blogger caused me to delete a few of the pictures that I uploaded, but since I can't remember which ones I had this'll have to do. I'll be blogging a poem-y thing directly to excuse this non-creative post.

Happy St. Patty's!

The First Story

Ok, well this is sort of cheating but here's a story for you guys:

A TERRIBLE TALE OF BLOGGISH DESPERATION

Or, The Night I Just Wanted Everything To Look Nice

Once upon a time there was a tired red head who just wanted wider margins on her blog. She looked and looked at the way her words seemed so sadly scrunched up on the page. She hesitated to alter anything because of her understanding of her own technological deficiencies. However, at long last she concluded that the tendency of her current template to allow only four or five decently-sized words into a column was not enough, and that despite the late hour, she would put forth all endeavors to create the visual blog that she desired.

Quickly and efficiently this young lady clicked on this link and that, working her way through the intricacies of templates and gadgets. To her dismay, she discovered that the blog preview function was not performing to its best abilities - that is to say, it was not working at all. But the determined dame was not to be deterred from her purpose. She painstakingly clicked on every alteration she wished, and fearlessly applied it to her blog with no idea what the outcome might be. The results, at first, were horrifying. Colors clashing without shame, margins swerving out of control, backgrounds weaving in and out of each other with complete abandon. It was the nightmare result of a brain not suited for the complex combination of html script and template settings (which as far as I can tell are set in stone and completely stubborn about being hidden away by any attempt, no matter how vigorous and/or pleading).

The young lady eyed wearily the slaughterhouse of fonts and hues that she had unwittingly unleashed. This could not be permitted to shame the face of her occasional cute pictures and witty commentary, no matter how infrequently the general public may choose to peruse it. So, with grim defiance and a few fingers to the spreading migraine in her left temple, she clicked on. Hours passed, colors and designs flopped on and off the screen like dying fish. Nothing seemed right, nothing seemed to fit. And then, at long last, she discovered something monumental.

The visually stunning blog that she was seeking...

...would definitely elude her this night.

She settled on a background that was vaguely more splashy and vibrant than what suited her mellow demeanor, but which seemed more upbeat and "swirly" than her last, and which thus became suitable thanks to her amazing, creative, original title. She scrolled through the result, pleased to see that her efforts had ended up in a relatively readable blog, and, at long last, slightly wider margins.

THE END

I apologize for using the word "blog" so often in this post. I guess it kind of came with the story though. It just is kind of an obnoxious word, said enough times repeatedly. Right? Maybe not. Lots of non-annoying things seem annoying after 1 a.m., I'm thinkin'.

That story was probably pretty boring. Or perhaps not. I liked it, myself. By the way if you're kinda nerdy and read this, and realized that I may or may not have invented some things, well then I'm pretty impressed at your perceptiveness, since I don't think I mentioned really anything of technological value. But also I apologize because I admit that I did make up some things.

Nevertheless this is a true story. Pretty much.

(Another annoying thing that also coincidentally involves blogging - every time I add pictures, it messes up my spacing between paragraphs and stuff...is this just happening to me? Cause Facebook does weird spacing things to me too, and I thought that was a universally experienced frustration, but apparently...no.)

Back to the point though, guys. I hope you all appreciate the semi-loveliness of the current state of my blog because it was really quite a doozy figuring it all out. I'll display my experience for you, in pictorial form.

First, I was like:And then I was like:And now I'm pretty much like:

Except a girl.

I'm pretty sure next time I get it in my head to do that, I'm waiting til the preview works, cause that was just ridonculous.

And, well, really that's it for me.
Night, folks!