Tale of two cans

Let me tell you this story that illustrates our lives:

Graham's paycheck came late earlier this month, leaving us with a zero balance.. and no way for Graham to pay the toll on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to pick me up at the Seattle/Tacoma Airport.

So he gathered up about $2.25 in change around the house.. And had this brilliant idea to go recycle a large bag of cans we'd been saving over the past month or so to get the extra cash to pay the toll. (Mind you, the toll was only $4. Yes, we were that poor.)

Graham drove all over Brem Brem, circled the grocery stores for recycling centers, and asked customer service centers at all of them if they recycle there. After many blank stares and vague directions, Graham finally received a clear answer: cans could be recycled at the recycling center which just so happened to be closed for the night... but it would only be for FREE. Washington doesn't reimburse people for recycling, which is why you don't see homeless people in Seattle collecting cans in shopping carts.

You see, in Portland, you get 5 cents per can.. Meaning Graham would've gotten enough money to pay the bridge toll, pick me up on time, etc..

Instead, Graham had to take the long way to avoid the bridge---60 miles down to Olympia, then 60 miles up to the airport--when it only would've been 60 miles straight to the airport... received a speeding ticket along the way and picked me up 30 minutes late for my flight that arrived at 1:15 AM.

So anyways, we ended up saving these troublesome cans because we were too lazy to get rid of them. When we were packing to go to Portland for the weekend, I had the brilliant idea to take the cans with us for a big profit--i.e. we had not paid the redemptive value at purchase and we would make a profit over the original soda purchase.

After Graham's cousin's farewell on Sunday, we stopped at Fred Meyer, the Northwest's Super Target/Wal-Mart, to recycle our cans and collect our cash.

Something went awry and over half of the cans were not processed by the recycler... and we wasted a half hour trying to force these recalcitrant cans through the recycler. The trouble makers were then tossed into the trash angrily.. although I considered giving them to an unsuspecting homeless person.

With our pitiful net of $1.90, we bought ourselves a 1 Liter Dr. Pepper for the drive home and called it a day.

I don't know if Graham will ever recycle again.

In honor of my 100th post

Here are 100 things about me that you might not know...
1. I love LOVE love being married. I know this is one of those duh statements, but it really is the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.
2. In high school, I thought 25 would be the perfect age to get married. At BYU, I thought 25 was old, and then just I happened to get married 2 weeks after turning 25.
3. I’m obsessed with the Food Network. It’s my go-to TV channel.
4. I watch TV to fall asleep—usually Seinfeld or The Office DVD’s.
5. I’m in love with cool weather—not cold—COOL… like light jacket weather.
6. My favorite food is corn tortilla chips and Pace chunky salsa.
7. I can’t stand making the same recipes over and over again—I make new recipes every week.
8. I read cookbooks for pleasure.
9. My pinky toes are bent under my other toes so you can’t see my pinky toenails.
10. I don’t like pedicures because they tickle my feet and they rub off my hard-earned calluses.
11. I worked at a tanning salon while in high school and during summers in college.
12. I tweeze ingrown hairs on my legs.
13. I hate people who commonly mispronounce words like supposedly (I heard supposeBly the other day) and voila (it’s NOT wha-la you idiot).
14. I hate people who can’t spell, especially versions of words like “they’re/their/there” and “your/you’re”.
15. If I could, I’d live in Monterey/Carmel for the rest of my life.
16. I never get zits, and if I do, it drives me insane.
17. I’m not a child-friendly person.
18. I have road rage. I think it’s just from learning how to drive in California.
19. My favorite non-soda drink is Odwalla lemonade, which is only available in the summer.
20. My favorite soda is Dr. Pepper. Bad Sherri.
21. I took swimming lessons until I was 13.
22. I love comedy movies and I dislike action movies.
23. I was involved in every kind of activity while growing up: soccer, softball, piano lessons, dance classes, Girl Scouts, church, etc…
24. I try to go shopping on every vacation.
25. I’m an extremely competitive person, especially in sports.
26. I almost exclusively wear pointy-toed shoes to work.
27. I hate clothes with the brand name on the shirt, but I only wear jeans that have the brand name on the pockets/butt.
28. I’m a clothes snob.
29. I think I got food poisoning from TGIFridays once.
30. I drink a diet soda every single morning. I tried to give it up, but I felt TIRED the whole morning.
31. I never blow dry my hair. Don’t have to.
32. I never got in trouble with my parents growing up. I was the perfect child.
33. I have a photographic memory for some things. Graham calls me “googlemaps”.
34. I’ve been on 3 cruises with my family.
35. I love to read.
36. My preferred books to read growing up were horror/mystery books.
37. I wish I could travel more, but it would stress me out.
38. I’m deathly afraid of snakes.
39. I’m also afraid of heights… Ok, I’m kind of a wimp and am afraid of a lot of things.
40. I like to wear holiday and cheesy socks, especially when it’s nowhere near that holiday.
41. I hate when I’m going to the bathroom in a big ‘ol empty public restroom and someone sits down to use the stall directly next to me.
42. I hate when people fart in public restrooms. Yes, sometimes you can’t keep it in, but come on… some of you are violating the Clear Air Act of 1997.
43. Sometimes I wish I could live a life like the ones I see the models “living” in J. Crew catalogs.
44. I’m a lazy student. I still can’t believe I got my master’s.
45. I secretly want to be in power over people.
46. I often readjust my wedding ring as a nervous habit.
47. I get scared of the dark after reading scary books.
48. I really like to annoy Graham sometimes to test his tolerance and patience.
49. I don’t like chocolate, although I’ll eat it occasionally.
50. I am a very fast test taker.
51. I didn’t kiss a boy until I was 16 and a half… and it was on my first real date.
52. I follow rules religiously and am always courteous to avoid people saying bad things about me.
53. I hate the smell of coffee.
54. I look really bad in hats.
55. My face is very expressive—you can usually tell what I’m thinking.
56. I love the fall season: the leaves, colors, crisp air, etc.
57. It drives me insane when people keep asking me questions about things I don’t know and couldn’t possibly know.
58. The body and its inner-workings fascinate me.
59. I used to love a Gap shirt I got my freshman year of college that said “Famous”.
60. I’ve always thought of myself as semi-fat.
61. I really wanted to do cheerleading at BYU when I started high school, but I probably would’ve had to be on a diet all 4 years.
62. I passed the Spanish AP test in high school and received the academic letter, but I was too afraid to take it in college.
63. I’m still obsessed with wedding stuff.
64. I tried out for “select” soccer in 7th grade, didn’t make it, and started cheerleading soon after.
65. I also didn’t make the cheerleading squad the first time I tried out.
66. I dumped my “boyfriend” in 5th grade because he got his name on the board too much and he wore a shirt with a hole in it.
67. I got my first thong in 10th grade and loved it.
68. I love watching football games in person.
69. I go to sporting events just for the unhealthy food.
70. I hate white people who think they’re cool because they listen to independent bands and other typical white people music.
71. I’m not racist I swear.
72. I’ve been called a “man-stealer”.
73. I hate MacDonald’s.
74. It drives me crazy when people are too stingy with money.
75. I love makeup. I don’t see the point of wearing makeup if people can’t tell you’re wearing it.
76. I’m a sunglass freak and consider them to be an essential wardrobe accessory.
77. I despise fake designer purses.
78. Sometimes I make fun of people who wear glasses, including Graham.
79. I used to love tall and skinny guys. Now just skinny.
80. I absolutely hate to run.
81. I have a strong sense of smell.
82. I suck at video games.
83. My entire purpose at BYU was to get married—how sad is that?
84. I HATE cats.
85. Throughout my whole life, I’ve only ever had a handful of best friends, including my sister and mom.
86. I love the smell after it rains… like wet asphalt.
87. I am deeply sympathetic to handicapped and morbidly obese people.
88. I am so not political.
89. I love British accents.
90. Sometimes I talk with a Russian accent—a very bad one I should add—just to be random.
91. I am very stubborn. I didn’t realize how much until I got married.
92. I’m pretty vain.
93. I love to dance…sometimes.
94. My favorite musical artists include the following: Craig David, Dashboard Confessionals, Darren Hayes/Savage Garden, Brian McKnight, and Maroon 5.
95. I can’t wait until my kids go to BYU and have fun experiences like I did.
96. I’ve gotten 3 speeding tickets—all within one year. But, I haven’t gotten one since November 2002. I also got out of one last July in Portland.
97. Certain songs and smells really conjure up strong memories and feelings.
98. Guys who play guitars to girls really creep me out.
99. I cheated in my aerobics class in college.
100. It took me several hours to think of all these things.

Not really insightful into my character, but maybe you enjoyed these random bits of information.

Interesting Ward

So, Brem Brem is an interesting place.. It's kind of a beat up, run-down, and tired town. The city planners are trying to revitalize the downtown, but with the economy being the way it is, it's slow and the people here are trying to resist change..

The first time I drove through Brem Brem was to my first job interview at the hospital. I was like uh wow... this is kind of ghetto. It's a gorgeous area, but the town itself is run-down.. with a lot of public housing units... you know--the "projects". So yeah, there's a lot of low-income people and military people. Let's just say it--a lot of white trash.

We live in the part of Brem Brem that has a lot of the low-income housing units, so our ward is quite interesting. We have rich people that have lakefront houses, low-income people, elderly people, and some young people who just started working at the shipyard as engineers. There are a lot of elderly people in our ward, which isn't a bad thing, but most of them are in Relief Society because the younger women are in other callings. So, us young ones in RS sit there while the rest of the women laugh at "old people humor".

The reason why I bring this up is because when I first got into the ward, they found out that I work full-time... which I didn't think was a big deal.. until they asked me if I'd have enough time to do visit teaching. Uh yeah, duh.. I work a normal 40-hour workweek and I don't have kids.

So, I just got a calling as assistant ("to the") secretary in RS. I got an email about weekly RS presidency meetings, and they were worried that I wouldn't be able to go to meetings because I "work long hours".

Wtf? I'm thinking that a working LDS woman must be quite rare here in good ol Brem Brem.

My best friends

Since being married, I have become very close to my new friends.. Let me introduce you:

--My KitchenAid. Thanks to this big guy, I no longer have to knead dough. Thanks KA! --My lil Food Processor, which shreds cheese, slices carrots, and mixes pie crusts like a champ. Thank you FP.

--My lovely knives, without which I would not be able to slice an onion without crying.

As you can tell, I have a profound love and appreciation for my kitchen appliances. Let's just say I'm a kitchen accessory junkie and call it a day.

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Ok, so.. Graham got home late tonight after a genealogy training for the Elder's Quorum Presidency, so I heated up some leftover pot roast, vegetables and mashed potatoes. He put his bowl on the coffee table and went to sit down on the couch.

Our couch is really annoying because the stupid cushions slide out from under you... so Graham does his fake temper tantrum and pushes the cushion in, flailing his arms about, and accidentally knocks his bowl over on the rug.
Can you see why we put a rug over carpet?

As I'm laughing hysterically, Graham proceeds to eat his pot roast from the floor.

Apparently--it's still good!
I love Graham.

Lesson learned: don't flail your arms about when you're only pretending to be mad.

Attention

You wouldn't know this about me by interacting with me on a normal basis, but I really do like to be the center of attention and have praises showered on me.

Normally, I take the sideline to other people who are talking and let more outgoing people take center stage. I'm pretty reserved and hard to get to know.

However, I just realized how much attention I'd like to have if possible..

Anyways, someone in our family just told Graham and me that she's pregnant. I was/am really excited for her.. until I had a little pregnancy scare today.

My first thought was NOT, oh baby, but instead it was, NO I want to have a baby when nobody else in the family is pregnant so it can be MY turn!

Isn't that silly?

Oh, and I apologize for the boring blogs. I am tired and lazy when I get home from work. Eventually I'll get used to working every day and I'll start working out again and my energy will hopefully improve.

Oh, and... I'm not pregnant. :)

San Diego... Discovered by the Germans in 1904

They named it San Diago which of course in German means a whale's vagina...

Yes.. that's where I am right now. I'm staying on Shelter Island, near Point Loma, which has a view of downtown and of course the water. Surprisingly I got a bayside view from my room. Nice.

San Diego is really nice. It has a Spanish influence, a beautiful beach, tons of palm trees, and lots of houses. I'm not gonna lie--the suburbs made me miss home a bit. Anyways, I digress..

I'll be straight with you--I have a bias against Southern California. I hate how people call it SoCal, I hate the people who think that they are SO awesome because they're from there, I hate the pollution, the shallowness of the people, the traffic and so on.. Maybe it's because I'm from Northern California.. but if/when I return to CA, I hope I never have to live in SoCal. Is that wrong?

I'm here for a diabetes conference. Not exciting, but hey.. I'm getting paid to do this!