So (after I noticed my mistake) I kept waiting for someone to point out the irony in my misspelling "Genius" as "Genious" in my last title...

I've gotta say, I'm a little disappointed in you all.

My husband is a genious

While I was beyond the ability to think clearly or logically Sunday night, my husband was a genius and suggested I call in sick yesterday morning (at least for the morning). I immediately did so and instantly began to relax - an important step toward actually sleeping, wouldn't you know. He administered meds, gave me a massage and I slept. Finally.

I sauntered into work around noon yesterday, rested and awake. I learned that coming in to work four hours late (as opposed to an hour early like I normally do) means several things:

• I battle NO traffic on my commute to the office
• I get the BEST spot in the parking structure (go figure)
• Everyone is at lunch upon my arrival so I still get that uninterrupted hour to settle in for the day (which is why I normally go in an hour early)
• Everyone still goes home at 5, so there's no one to know if I stayed late or not
• Everyone politely greets me and is extra careful not to overburden me with extra work (or their own lameness)

I also learned that

• I could totally get used to five hour work days
• I love having my morning to sleep, jog, tidy up, etc, to mentally gear up for the day
• I also loved having my evening free (i.was able to visit with Kenny before his class, went to dinner at his sister's, and enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal - before 9pm!!! (our normal dinner time) - all without any of the accompanying guilt that would have been there had I skipped the gym. It was glorious. As was the dinner she made.

Unfortunately, I also learned that apparently my boss is totally against the use of Sick Time (but, in my case, he was glad I used it wisely and for its intended purpose). Phew.

I'm thinking every Monday morning should be spent sleeping. I hereby move that the standard work week begins no earlier than noon on Monday for evermore. Anyone second my motion?

A good man

It's 1:45am and still not sleeping - at least not restfully. Kenny's out searching for an open pharmacy in an attempt to find some source of relief. 

I have a good man. 

That's all. 

Peach Days 2009

The lowdown - Brigham City, UT hosts a Peach Days celebration for a weekend every September. Since both sets of my grandparents ended up living there, I've grown up attending this with many of my cousins. It boasts a parade, a car show, a beauty pageant, craft booths, a carnival, dances, etc. And lots of peaches, including dutch oven peach cobbler (which is divine). The family will usually BBQ and spend some time boating and such. Truthfully though, it had all lost its appeal by my mid-late teens and the whole thing seemed pretty hokey.

Enter Kenny. After hearing my cousins and I bash Peach Days, he decided it was just something he would need to experience for himself. Four years ago, the stars aligned and he was able to attend. And he LOVED it. He stood on the parade route yelling "Peach Days" at regular (frequent) intervals and relished in the small town (albeit white-trash) glory. He made a game of counting mullets. He recognized all "Peach Day Miracles." Throughout it all, he especially made sure to embarrass my grandmother as much as possible and took time to inhale several orders of peach cobbler. His enthusiasm for this annual event has spread to the rest of my family and has effectively reignited our appreciation for the festivities. And Kenny is affectionately called "Saint Peach Days" in my family circle. So now, four years later, almost ALL of us attend. Yes, we drove from So. California to Brigham City, UT solely to attend Peach Days. And it was good.

The Parade:

The Star Wars group always makes an appearance.

This lovely old woman used to work with my mom...in the Mayor's office. Apparently, this is how she dressed even then.

Jason and Melissa enjoy some frozen treats...a little too much maybe.

Awww. Grandma.

"Give us candy!"

The Carnival:
Ryan and his lady, April

The Iconic Zipper. No trip to the fair is complete with out this ride. Bummer we had to wait so long while they cleaned out the puke from the rider before us.

Cousin Jake and Sister Becca make some lovely faces

Dad and Anna...she was nervous about the rides, and ended up choosing the fastest, most vomit-inducing ride there. My dad was stoked.

The Misc. Activities (Tennis and Boating)

This is my dad telling me he'd appreciate it if I stopped calling him the Ball Boy. I told him to get his mind out of the gutter.

"I thought you had it!" said both Anna and April

Becca actually plays for OHS and was donning her legit uniform. My mom packed up all her stuff while we were playing so she was stuck wearing this all the way back to Orem.

April is a dancer. Can you tell?

You can kind of see Tami and Jon, who (as a former varsity tennis player himself) was nice enough to give Becca some pointers.

Tyson taking his boy, Cam, wake surfing for the first time. Cam wouldn't put his feet down and Tyson could only grip the life jacket, so Cam kept sinking further inside his jacket. Pretty cute.

Uncle Don and his grandson, Cam. Obviously enjoying himself. (Thanks for taking us out!)

I don't have any good photos of it, but my grandparents put in a fire pit in their back yard. Much time was spend making s'mores and chatting around the fire. Lot's of fun. (Thank grandparents for letting all of us crash your place all weekend and for feeding us such great food! We look forward to repeating the madness at Thanksgiving!)

Because there's not much else to discuss on a Monday morning unfortunately

So, I’m no architecture expert, but I do appreciate beautiful, thoughtful, and efficient design. Growing up, my dad had a line drawing of Frank Lloyd Wright’s iconic Falling Water in his office and he was the first to introduce me to Bauhaus ideologies like form following function. Once, I assisted my mom’s architecture-student friend build a model of her designs on the campus of MIT and was fascinated by the process. Also, Ayn Rand’s novel Fountainhead instilled in me an appreciation for the architect that considers the structure’s surrounding geography and neighborhood and the interplay between building and environment. So, while I’m no expert, I am a fan of good architecture and property development.

Have I lost you?

All this is to say: whoever designed and built the mid-rise office building – no, the entire business campus – where I work was an idiot. Seriously who builds two parallel towers right on next to a busy free way at an angle that captures both the winds from the freeway and from the coast?! You’d think you were in Chicago walking between the two buildings, it’s so windy. Also, the developers kindly placed a huge Bellagio-esqe fountain at the end of this wind tunnel, so not only are you stuck frantically holding down your skirt and hair as you walk up to the building but you’re also trying to avoid getting sprayed by the fountain, which (thanks to the wind) reaches clear to the parking structure on some mornings. Some days it’s just a little too much for me to handle. So, to all my colleagues who have had the misfortune of seeing my skirt fly up, thus exposing my awesome Mormon underwear...I apologize. Blame the property developers.

That’s all.
(Happy Monday!)

PS – I didn’t even mention the pavers that are spaced just wide enough for a girl to get your heel stuck , thus causing her (okay me) to trip and almost break her shoe/ankle at least once a day. Nor did I mention the safety mats intended to warn the blind that the side walk is ending. The mat is covered in inch high bumps making walking in heels all that much more treacherous. Sigh... it’s like a mine field getting from my car to my office everyday.

PPS - I might fight anyone who points out that I could just wear pants or flat shoes.

Friends and Foes

Dear Motorcyclist (who I had the misfortune of encountering after what was already a long and exhausting commute home after a long and tiring Monday at work), 

I apologize if my getting into the turn lane early upset you, but it was hardly cause for you to wedge your way next to my passenger side window and proceed to yell and scream at me.  It definitely didn't justify you then cutting me off to block the turn lane in an attempt to make me miss the light.  (FYI, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody effectively drowned you - and your cussing - out.  Oh yeah, I made the light anyway.)  Jerk.

Dear Elise, 

Thank you for listening to whatever sixth sense made you suggest that we meet up and treat ourselves to gelato tonight, thus redeeming humanity.  Your company and thoughtfulness reminded me that the world is not, in fact, full of horrible, cursing, road-raged motorcyclists. Plus, who can stay mad at the world when she is enjoying gelato? Particularly in the presence of a wonderful friend?

Not me.

p.s.  Mom and Dad: yes, we did make it home safely last night - and not too late.  Sorry I didn't call this evening as promised; I was a little preoccupied hating the world.

Check me out

I got an award at work in recognition of my community involvement - specifically with the CA Counsel for Economic Education.
Let's ignore the 3 inch roots and awkward pose and just focus on the fact that I'm pretty awesome.

For Elise...some photos

Yes, I just talked about some terrible photos and sorry they aren't going to shared at this time; my vanity just won't let me do it. But Elise keeps reminding me of all the photos I haven't posted so I'll take this opportunity to share some of those.

This delicacy was taken at H-Mart, an Asian Grocer in Irvine. Pretty sure we were the only non-Asians in this strip mall. We were there to enjoy dinner at Guppy House. Specifically we wanted to eat a giant piece of sugar toast and a "small" snow cone. (It's that massive bowl of strawberry covered ice in the photo below. The restaurant plays club music after nine, so we all got to "eat to the beat."
The second purpose for dinner at Guppy House was to help Skyler and Elise carbo-load for their first Half Iron Man competition. If you ever want to feel lazy and unaccomplished, watch your friends push themselves to their physical limits. But we wanted to be supportive, so we went to cheer them on.

It was a really long walk along the beach to get to the transition area where we could see them.

Here's the triathletes after they finished. Tired, cold, but excited.
Before Skyler saw us, we got a glimpse of how exhausted he was.
Here's Elise starting out on her run. So after swimming a mile and a half, then biking 56 miles, she was running a half marathon. She's nuts.
Skyler and Elise weren't the only ones to accomplish incredible physical feats this year. Our brother-in-law, Jeff, also put us all to shame by completing his first marathon. He's awesome.
And since I denied you all the horrible photos mentioned in my previous post, I hope these serve as a consolation. I made this super hero costume for my nephew - and finished really late at night. Kenny indulged me with some photos as I modeled my handiwork.

Note to self: Avoid Cameras.

This week not just one, but TWO of my friends have emailed me photos of myself with a caption essentially saying “Don’t worry, I won’t post this, but you had to see it.” In other words: “Wow, Jill, this photo I took of you is so horrible that you have to at least see it before you demand I destroy all evidence.”

And they’re both totally right.

In one, I’m at the beach – in the background – evidentially in the process of rolling onto my side. My beach-dress is hiked up exposing my rear-end, which is busy swallowing my bathing suit bottoms. It’s lovely. Really.

Okay, so a little wedgie at the beach, while unfortunate, is somewhat common. At least I’m far enough away in the shot that there is no visible dimpling or cottage cheese. And at least it’s not a photo of me pulling the wedgie out. A less-than-flattering picture yes, but not the end of the world. However, in the second picture, it’s my face that’s horrible. I had just run up a net bridge at Disneyland’s CA Adventure Wilderness Area. (With Skyler and Elise, we don’t go to D-Land for the rides, we go to make up our own entertainment – often at the expense of the other guests. Anyway, I was racing Elise – who by the way shoved me down on one turn...but I took her legs out from under her toward the top, so we’re even.) Anyway, in the photo I’m standing and laughing. Eyes tightly shut, nose scrunched up, mouth open way too big, arms in an awkward position, hair messed up...I can’t even describe it, but trust me, it ranks up there with worst face of all time. I believe Elise wrote “You’re just so happy and having so much fun.” Well, if that’s what I look like when I’m “having fun” I think I’ll be refraining from all Fun-Having in the future.

At least when there is a camera around.

Thank You's

Thank you John Sharpe treating Kenny and me to a wonderful dinner at Roman Cucina last Friday. I meant to take a picture for you of the bruschetta, the roasted mushrooms, the penne w/ shrimp in a lemon-cream sauce, and the spaghetti w/ crab in arribiata... I meant to, but I pretty much inhaled everything the second it was placed on the table. I was fat and full before I remembered my camera. Sorry. It was wonderful. Feel free to stay with us anytime.

Thank you Whitney (i.e. The Rookie Cookie) for thinking to send me a recipe for flour-less chocolate cookies. I look forward to trying them.

Thank you Ben and Katie for hosting our softball team for a BBQ on Monday (and thank you Teammate Amber for that marvelous ice cream dessert). I thoroughly enjoyed all the food, company, volleyball, star-gazing on the trampoline, and quoting "Tard-Cards." Ben, thanks for being the winning component to our volley ball team; you don't know how rare (and gratifying) it is to beat Skyler and Elise in anything... as a side note, I couldn't figure out why my forearms and wrists were so sore and tender yesterday, until the bruising showed up today. It was totally worth it to win (especially after Skyler nailed me in the face on that one serve).

Angela, thank you for agreeing to meet me for lunch today. I'm expecting it to be the high-light of my work week.

Thank you Jamba Juice for creating your "Jamba-Light" menu. I love it. (And I want to marry it and have its children.)

Colleagues at work, thank you for not judging me too harshly when I come back from my lunch breaks looking like I just woke up. Because, in fact, I did just wake up. And I'll have you know that it's hard to look refreshed after trying to nap in your car - especially when your car is black and is parked in a So-Cal inferno.

Thank you Ruth and Lisa at 24 Hour Fitness for whipping my body in shape every Tuesday in S.E.T. and Yoga classes, thus making it possible for me to eat all the junk I love to consume. Elise and Skyler, thank you again for the cycling shoes you got me for my birthday. I feel so legit and hard-core in my Wed and Thursday spin class now.

Thank you, Jon and Kristyn for first, employing my husband to do some odd jobs, and second, for growing and sharing all those oranges. Seriously, they make the best orange juice I've ever had.

Kenny, thank you for collecting and juicing those two huge bags of oranges and not being upset when I drank almost all of it myself. Also, thank you for being a responsible adult and attending your marketing class instead of Monday's BBQ. I know it was a hard decision for you and I'm very proud you chose class. Mostly though, thank you for staying up with me for those two hours last night (from 1-3am) that I couldn't sleep (again). Thank you for tickling my back and rubbing my neck and shoulders in effort to get me comfortable, for getting me Kleenex when I was crying in frustration, and for cleaning up the blankets and pillows I left all over the apartment as I tried to find a comfortable spot to sleep. (Well, I'm assuming you've done that last thing already...you've done it every other morning this week.) You're wonderful.

And thank you...I'm sure you've said/done something thoughtful and nice. Keep it up. I like saying thank you.