Hell: Comcast Edition

Comcast may have catchy commercials, but their customer service sucks. i swear, i just get transferred all around to the different departments because none of them can ever help me when we have internet problems. Until i got in contact with Michael (my new Comcast go-to rep). He is the only one who has been of any help with switching our internet and fixing the glitches. Which is lame. AND it's been this way for the past TWO YEARS that we've been Comcast customers. WTF?! Momo even calls getting upset "going Comcast" because she's had to give them a piece of her mind more than once in order to get anything done. AND i had to call my brother to have him help with the internet network because i knew he would be able to. He doesn't work for Comcast, use Comcast, AND he lives in another state and he was able to tell me how to fix it. And yet the trained (paid) employees were not. Ya. Pretty much hellish. i totally owe my brother cupcakes.

Auntie Em and Evie Lynn's Day of Fun

Calah's friend wasn't able to watch Evie today because her little boy got sick. So i got to watch her :) The day has been full of games, reading, crawling, and coloring. She scooted on her little car toy and laughed with delight when i blew bubbles for her. We read Moo, Baa, La La La a million times over and she dragged her blanket around the house. At one point she was looking out the window and King was laying next to her. it was the cutest thing! it reminded me of the picture of Shania and Kaden sitting on Kierston's front step one morning when they were real little. I absolutely love this little girl!

cupcake wars

You may think this post will be about the TV show Cupcake Wars, a genius competition pitting four cupcakeries against each other for $10,000 and showcasing their cupcakes at a celebrity event. Well it's not. Sadly, this is a war between me and my cupcakes. i had found the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe. it failed me today. Two whole batches overflowed like Vesuvius and then pathetically caved in in the middle. it was the most tragic thing. i was able to salvage about half of the cupcakes and filled them with frosting. i can't serve people skiwampus cupcakes! The new people in the ward have already been told by others that i always make cupcakes and they're always good. i have to keep up with these high expectations because i KNOW i can make yummy and pretty cupcakes. Which may be why the ones today turned out so tragic: karma kicking me in the butt for being so confident.

you are my cupcake

Today i discovered this little treasure "You Are My Cupcake" by Joyce Wan. it's a children's board book with each page dedicated to the yummy endearments we give our children (and each other). Some include pumpkin, cutie pie, sweet pea, and peanut. Adorable, right? Needless to say, i purchased the book this afternoon. Cupcakes have pretty much become my favorite thing. i even found a whole cupcake display at Barnes & Noble complete with sticky notes, puzzles, and key chains. Again, i'm fairly certain i need these things. i have also decided that i would like to be called Cupcake. Ya...we'll see haha

change.

Change is here. Whether for good or bad, it’s here. And i think it’s for great. The new school year brings the first semester of my program, new roommates, pretty much a new ward (almost everyone moved out from summer), new job responsibilities and goals, new friends, new interests. With this change, i’ve given myself some goals:

- Attend EVERY class period (unless illness or emergency prevent me)

- Read ALL assigned material (or at least skim)

- Converse and actively participate in classroom discussions

- Attend big ward activities

- When issues arise, let those involved know promptly (otherwise things become personal and all hell breaks loose)

- Ask more boys on dates

- Attend campus and community events

I figure these are good semi-general goals that i can stand to improve. Here’s to embracing the change and meeting it head on.

The Legend of The Turn Signal

Once upon a time when Ford and all those car inventors were doing their thing and inventing the automobile, one such genius said, “Hey! These automobiles are going to be thousands of pounds of metal racing along at high speeds all over town and that, my friends, is unsafe”. After this eureka moment, Genius Man teamed up with Edison and his amazing light bulbs to transform the automobile into something better than it was. Something safer. Something genius. Their combined teamwork created The Turn Signal. Equipped on both the front and back of the automobile as well as the left and right sides (of the front and back) the turn signal would SIGNAL to other travelers which way you planned to go. Want to turn right? Well flip that little lever up and, voila!, everyone is made aware and can drive accordingly. Want to turn left? Well flip that little lever down and, voila!, same thing. The world was in awe of Genius Man and Edison’s invention. Positively GENIUS. All automobile manufacturers wanted these Turn Signals to be installed on their models and it was done. Genius Man also realized that The Turn Signal would save many a life and headache because drivers would no longer be angry and blurt out those four letter words because they don’t know what people plan to do. No more! Again, genius. And THEN! And then society remembered that, hey, we’re all mind-readers here. Just read the minds of those around you and then you don’t have to take the extra two seconds to flip the lever either way because we all know that is the biggest hassle ever. Come on people. So The Turn Signal, though genius in the eyes of Genius Man, Edison, and the manufacturers went unused and unloved. And these men of genius IQ wept bitterly for they knew the truth: we are NOT mind-readers…

a skip and a hop down memory lane

While driving home from the Bees game last night, Momo and i began to reminisce about our favorite year of college: freshman year. Heaven knows the drive from Salt Lake takes forever and day so we had plenty of time. There’s just something about the dorm experience. Having your bed raised sky high, decorating over the atrocious brick walls, sharing the bathroom.

 

That was the year that gLee started and we were all obsessed, i don’t even know how many times we had gLee karaoke sessions.

it was also the year that Momo and Whitney got me hooked on The Bachelor. it was about 4 or 5 episodes into Jake Pavelka’s season and they were watching it on Momo’s computer. They then informed me that it was necessary to catch up because he was just so dang amazing. i then proceeded to catch up on the 10 or so hours i had missed. We all loved him until we realized he was actually more of a sissy and just kinda weird and very much into the wrong girl. During the season finale we were all watching on the TV in the basement of our dorm and a group came in to have FHE and actually tried to kick us out. Lame. They proceeded to be extremely loud so we left and found a whole floor of girls watching on their common area TV. Perfect!

Freshman year was also when Dairy Queen and Wendy’s were our special treats because none of us were working or had cars. Our go-to gas station for Dr Pepper was Chevron and we never had to worry about parking for football games because we lived right next to the stadium. Our snacks of choice were goldfish crackers, shark fruit snacks, and mint Oreos. We also spent about two weeks eating out of the vending machines because we were tired of the Cannon Center.

Momo and i had a Calculus class together and would do our homework on my bed. We’d fill my Tinkerbell bowl with goldfish and fruit snacks and then attempt to understand the concepts. We always ended up feeling like we were slap-happy and everything was funny. Then it was nap time and she would take Camille’s bed until Camille got back from class.

We had sleepovers on the uncomfortable couches in the common area while watching terrible late night TV. Momo and i had a sleepover on our bathroom floor because we still wanted to be up talking but both our roommates had gone to bed. We closed the door to the section with the toilet and shower and then laid a million blankets on the tile so we could be semi comfortable. Our pillows were in the middle so that our heads were next to each so we could talk and then our feet were sticking out into our individual rooms. Momo, Camille, Whitney and i also had a sleepover in mine and Camille’s room. We pushed our beds together, stuck the mini fridge under the beds (it was an adventure trying to get anything) and then jumped on the beds, had a dance party, and watched sad sob-fest movies.

We took a weekend trip to the Dibble’s Midway house and all hell broke loose in the middle of it. Some of the girls brought their laptops and Momo had gotten upset because it should have been a weekend away from everything and all of us actually spending time together. Which it really should have been. Kirsten picked her up early and the rest of us just stayed. i ended up annoyed with everyone because they were upset with her and she was upset with us so I decided to stay the night at Calah’s after we got back from Midway. While Calah and i were driving to her house we were just passing Orem and she helped me realize that Momo needed me. it was her against everyone and she needed a friend at the moment. So i informed Momo that she was my best friend and the whole situation was stupid and invited her to Calah’s. We turned right around and picked her up. i think that was the biggest turning point in our friendship. i don’t know what would have happened had I just left for the night and not said anything to her.

Freshman year was the year of Ari and her crazy self. We always got a kick out of the weird things she’d say and do. Oh, random roommates.

it was also the year that i spent New Year’s Eve with Tommy. He picked me up at the dorms, we went sledding, walked around, went to his sister’s, went to the movies, and then after dinner went to the movies again with Calah, Matt and his family. Afterwards we all went to DeeDee and Floyd’s house for games and treats. Tommy and surprised everyone with a Nerf gun sneak attack which turned into a Nerf war with Matt’s cousins. (Tommy had surprised me with a Nerf gun attack prior to this and we had a battle in the dorm parking lot. He ended up letting me keep both Nerf guns which i still have).

We hung out with Kyle a lot and would have him come to dinner with us at the Cannon Center. He tried to take a snack size bag of chips out once and they told him off for it. The Cannon Center staff was notoriously stingy about food leaving the building. Super lame.

 That year we all dressed up as Pop Tarts for Halloween and got a million compliments on our costumes.

 Finals week for Winter semester i was in my navy blue BYU shirt and some sweats all week and Momo was in an indiana shirt and basketball shorts all week. We had a photo shoot with Whitney when we were watching Kyle play rugby because we had been watching America’s Next Top Model right before.

After all was packed up and cleaned, Momo and i loaded up the car she and Kirs shared (it was brought back from indy after Christmas break) and took it to their family friend’s house. We unloaded the whole thing and were invited to stay for dinner before making the hour/hour and a half trip back to Provo.

luxury

This evening Momo and i had the opportunity to attend a Salt Lake Bees baseball game. in luxury. One of the accounting firms my office works with has a suite at the games and gave the tax guys a bunch of tickets. One of the guys then gave me two tickets (so i could bring a friend). i assume i was invited because i was so awesome at helping with their projects this summer. Just saying lol. Anyways. The suite was air conditioned, had an amazing view of the field, dinner, dessert, soda, to-go boxes for the food....put simply: it was luxurious. Coming from two seniors in college, we don't get that kind of luxury ever. Everyone who came was so fun and the game was great AND the Bees mascot CAME TO OUR SUITE! Of course that called for a picture. All in all, a fabbity-fab-fab evening with my best friend :)

the painters are in

Yep. They're back for their monthly stay. Ever feel like your insides are going to explode? Well it's like that. Times ten. Every month. While my innards are at war with each other, I've come to contemplate the actions of the female gender. Why on earth do we blame eating a pint of ice cream or drinking our weight in caffeinated heaven on these uninvited guests? Because in reality I don't need an excuse to do either of those. Or to take the world's longest bubble bath or sleep until noon or....the list goes on. So no more playing scapegoat with the painters. I will eat that ice cream just because it's Tuesday! (Although I will admit that the treats and indulgences do make war that month a little more bearable).

music pt. 32

The ArmyMan showed me this group last night. The Piano Guys. All i can say is: fabbity-fab-fab! Seriously, i love this kind of stuff. Piano, orchestra, the whole bit. i think it goes along with my love of soundtracks. There's just something about the music that speaks straight to the depths of my little heart. That makes me swoon and sigh in adoration. This is one of those groups. Plus, who doesn't love this song?

daily odd compliments

daily odd compliments

Recently i stumbled across a Tumblr account titled Daily Odd Compliment. The guy comes up with the most random compliments and shares them with the world. They, of course, are all odd and most are just downright fab! Here are some of my favorites:

endless words...

i can't seem to stop writing. Words just keep coming. Some meaningless, some as important as all get-out. They just come. Which is how all of my journals/diaries begin. i want to write and write (or type and type as is sometimes the case) because i want to find the perfect outlet for all these thoughts constantly swirling around my head. i've tried real diaries, you know, the kind you buy at Barnes & Noble with the daily quotes inside. Those always end in a bust because i feel like my thoughts aren't always lofty enough for those hardcover-bound pages. i've tried a simple spiral notebook. And then i feel like my thoughts just..become lost somehow. Next was the Word document. Perfect, right? On my computer, easy access, a fast outlet for thoughts, easy editing, you can add pictures..perfect. And yet not. All of these diary/journal attempts end in utter despair and loathing of either the outlet or my thoughts. Did i really think those thoughts? Was i really into that guy? Or that upset over something so miniscule? Who's to say this blog won't end the same way? No one. Maybe it will. Or maybe i've finally found the one outlet that is perfect for me. So similar to the Word document and yet....completely different. All i can say for now is that the words are endless and this is their escape.

it's a baker's life

Over the past couple of months i've come to discover my passion for baking. Whether it be cream puffs, birthday cake, or cupcakes i love to make it all. Especially cupcakes. i love the process of combining all of the ingredients and seeing how (after the appropriate baking time) the finished product looks just how the recipe promised. There's definitely a trial-and-error process that goes on though. Because some recipes are just not good: the cakes sink in the middle or rise too much and overflow or are too moist or have fall apart. But i am proud to announce that i have finally found the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe! Which is fabby but at the same time kind of suckish because it isn't all from scratch, which is what i really want. i have found one nonetheless. This is after trying about 3 or 4 different recipes, all ending in despair. i came across this recipe while making Cinnamon Toast Crunch cupcakes. i realized the recipe is simply vanilla cake with cinnamon. Genius! These have the perfect dome-top, texture, color, everything! i even made some yesterday and added strawberry extract for my Strawberries N' Cream cupcakes. Simply divine!
Aside from loving the baking process, i love sharing my creations (creations is a bit of a loose term. i don't create the recipes. i simply follow directions and sometimes add my own little twist. i hope to create recipes someday though). i love taking the treats to different apartments in the ward and to Calah and to Momo. Everyone loves baked goods, especially homemade and it just gives me the warm fuzzies when they love MY homemade baked goods.

Life.

Sometimes life is just fab. For those who don't know, fab is short for fabulous. You can also use fabby, or if things are just so positively amazing i like to say fabbity-fab-fab. Or fandabbydosey. According to the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson and America's Next Top Model: British Invasion all are British slang. Which of course must be true. Even if they aren't, these words have now become part of my vocabulary because what is life without some truly spectacular words in which to describe it? Lame, that's what. And right now, life is rather fab. i have a clean apartment, a great roommate, amazing friends, the best family, a great major, and an awesome job. At this moment, i really can't complain.