Job Hunt

So- first of all, Arizona was great.  Cotillion turned out well and nobody died.  That was all that I was hoping for anyways.  I didn't take any pictures, though.  I left my camera in my bag and forgot to bring it with me- SAD!!!  Oh well.  Stephanie did a goofy little photo shoot of my dog, Dixie, and I, though so maybe I'll post some of those pictures someday.  Here is another picture from an old Cotillion.

On a much funnier note- my roommate Amanda was applying for jobs today on the computer.  She applied for a job at the Smithsonian and some other cool places back east.  She was looking for some other places to apply so she started googling different government agencies that she would be interested in.  After a little while she turned around and looked at me with an embarrassed look.  I asked her if she had found anything interesting.  "Well" she said, "I just tried to apply for a job at CTU.  Obviously they don't exist!".  I was laughing hysterically.  Oh, Amanda.  You know that we love 24 when we begin believing that it is a real govt agency and want to work there.  Amanda's the greatest.  Gotta love it!! 

Catch Up

When I went in to work on Monday morning, I found out that our project that we have been working on DAY and NIGHT has been put on hold for a little while.  It will definitely start up again soon, but we are just waiting for some decisions to be made at levels far above me.  So, since I don't have to busy myself with all of the project stuff, I have not been able to keep myself as busy as I usually am at work.  It is a really weird feeling.  I am used to always moving and trying to get things done at work.  It usually seems like there isn't enough time to get it all done in a day.  So, I have had a chance to catch up on some things that need to be done at work and also came home early yesterday and today.  I was actually trying to think of things that I could do to keep me busy- I hated it!!!  Busy work is one of those things that I just can't stand- especially when you are trying to create it for yourself!

  Today, I am finishing up some bows for Cotillion this weekend.  This year, I am going to be doing all the florals and since there is no way that I will have time to make all the bows while I am in AZ, I am trying to get them done before I leave.  I am also going to go to the BYU bookstore and buy my mom some of those chocolate-covered cinnamon bears.  They're her favorite.  So, here is to slow days at work!!!!  They let us leave on time and sometimes even early.  It's good to savor these rare days when they come cause it surely isn't that often! 

Here are a few old pictures from previous cotillions with Stephanie and I: (note- these are old!! I think they're funny, though!)

More pictures to come after cotillion!

Moab

Last weekend, I went down to Moab with some of my awesome friends.  It was so much fun to get out of the city and just hang out in one of the prettiest places on earth!  We failed to realize that is was Spring Break and ended up getting there a little later than we should have to get a good camping spot.  Luckily, we found one of the last spots available in the SlickRock camping area and set up our tents there.  It turned out to be quite a fun little spot to camp.  The first night, we set up camp and then went on a little   exploring adventure.  We walked over to SlickRock where all the bikers were riding.  This poor guy was showing off and fell on his face right in front of all the girls.  We felt pretty bad for him.  The worst part was that some old man came riding up right behind him and said, "Don't worry about it.  It happens to the best of us!".  

After our little walk, we went back to the campsite to get a fire going so that we could cook dinner.  I went out and hunted for firewood.  I found this fabulous old tree that looked like it would burn great.  I felt like Superwoman as I tore the branches off the tree.  (Lucky for me it wasn't that difficult).  I climbed up in the tree and kicked off some of the branches, too.  Super fun.  We found out the next day, however, that we weren't supposed to "gather" wood around the campsite- oops!

The next day, we woke up and went to Arches to go hiking for the day.  So much fun!  

After our long day of hiking and checking everything out, we stopped at the Arches visitors center and had to take a break for functioning bathrooms and the petting zoo that they had there.  Here is a picture of one of the animals they had on exhibit:
WE went back and had some great dutch oven dinners and watched Twilight on the projector.  All of our neighbors were so jealous!!

The next day we woke up at about 2AM because of the wind.  Lindsay thought that it was me knocking the tent around and trying to scare everybody, but I was appalled that she would ever think I would do something like that!!! :) The wind was so bad it felt like our tent was going to fly away.  Needless to say, it was hard to get a good night sleep that night.  We woke up and left early Sunday morning.  I started to feel kind of yucky on the way home and figured out that I had gotten sick while we were down there and trying to read my book on the way home certainly wasn't helping anything.  I took the rest of the day and slept and the day after also.  Not Fun!  But, the camping trip was super fun.  We are already talking about our next adventure- Survivorman!!! Rachel and I are so excited to prove Linds and Carly wrong!  THey think we won't make it, Hah!!

Here are a few more pictures form the trip (As if there aren't enough already!)

spare time

SO- I know its been a while since I've written.  It's not like there are many people that read this anyways, so I guess it doesn't matter too much.  There have been a couple things that I have been wanting to write about, so I'll take them a few at a time.  Today you get to hear about what I have been spending my spare time doing.  

It all started last Saturday night.  My roommate Michelle had tickets to a play and invited me to go with her to the Hale Center in Orem.  It was a fun little play.  Well, on the way up we were talking about how Twilight had just come out on DVD.  If you know me very well, you know that I thought that those books were pretty dumb and never read them or saw the movie in one of my stubborn protests that I create sometimes. (At least I can admit it, right?)  Well, Michelle and I decided that we should get the movie and watch it.  I wanted to see what the hype was all about.  The whole evening she kept preparing me for it and telling me that I probably wasn't going to like it.  I re-assured her that I had no expectations for the movie and I was watching it purely for social value.  I just wanted to know what everyone was talking about.  I didn't want to waste time reading the book when I could just watch the movie.  We got home, got the movie and started it.  Here is where my whole stubbornness flipped 180.  

I got trapped in the story!  I was totally not expecting it- actually I was opposing it, but it happened.  Yeah, I know the movie is cheesy and goofy, but I was caught.  The next evening Lindsay's sister was coming over for Sunday dinner and she was gracious enough to bring me over book 1 to read.  I got 3/4 of the way through it on Sunday evening.  I realized Monday that I was not going to be able to wait for all of this trade-off/borrowing stuff so I went to Costco after work and bought the hardcover set.  I read like a madwoman all week.  This evening, 9 days after I opened the cover to Twilight, I closed the back cover on Breaking Dawn.  9 days and 2379 pages later ( I should really say 7 days because I was camping for the weekend and didn't really read and I worked late on Wednesday and didn't read, but I guess we'll take the actual day count), I can finally say that I have fallen in love with that story.  I honestly thought that I'd never admit it, but I am throwing all my pride out the window and saying that I Love TWILIGHT!  Edward and Bella- WOW!  So, that is it.  I know it's shocking, but I'm not afraid to let the world know that I am a vampire lover.  Isn't it amazing how quickly things can change!  So here is my little shout-out for those books.  They are great.  My Mom was right.  She kept telling me that I was a little brat for refusing to read them- I get what she meant now!  

A case of two spreads

I present exhibit A for your examination:

It seems like an ordinary little tub of butter, right?  WRONG.  This little sucker almost killed me this morning------let me explain.

I woke up a little later than usual this morning, took a shower, and went downstairs to eat breakfast and do some reading at the kitchen table.  Nobody else was home since I got up about an hour later than usual.  I put my bread in the toaster, poured my glass of milk, and went to the fridge to get butter to put on my toast.  I had just enough butter left in my tub for one piece of toast.  But, I remembered that I had seen a little container of butter in the butter shelf on the door of the fridge so I figured that I would just use that.  When I opened it, I saw that somebody else had already used some of it and I figured that it was just some butter that somebody got with take-out so I was certain that nobody would mind if I used it.  I put it on the other piece of toast and went to sit down at the table.  I started eating the piece of toast with my butter on it starting with the crust first and then eating the inside (that is how I always eat toast- it's just a habit from when I was a kid).  Then I got to this piece of toast.  I began to eat the crust off and noticed that the butter tasted kind of minty.  I figured that it was just some kind of flavored butter- you know, like honey butter or cinnamon butter- I had never heard of mint butter before, but I'm sure it could be out there somewhere.  After my second bite, my mouth started to tingle and pretty soon I couldn't feel anything.  I immediately threw the toast down and started freaking out.  This was no ordinary mint butter! 

 

I thought that I had eaten some rancid butter.  The first thing that popped into my mind was that I had just eaten botulism ( I know that this is a completely ridiculous idea, but I wasn't thinking very rationally). I had absolutely no idea what had happened.  I started drinking lots of milk in hopes that I could flush the invading culprit out of my system and out of my mouth, but by this time my entire mouth was numb.  I figured that there was nothing I could do about it, so I went to work and thought that if it got horrible there, I could go to the clinic.   

Well, we had a meeting first thing at work so I sat there, not being able to feel my mouth, and couldn't wait to ask Amanda if she knew that we had rancid minty flavored butter in our fridge.  After the meeting, we walked back to our desks- by this time I was regaining feeling in my mouth- and I asked her if she knew anything about the rancid minty butter on the butter shelf in the fridge.  She looked straight at me and said, "Brittany, that isn't butter.  That is my numbing cream for my laser hair removal!!"  I almost died.  I ate her numbing cream.  No wonder it was minty. No wonder I couldn't feel ANYTHING in my mouth for 3 hours.  Can you IMAGINE what would have happened if I had eaten any more.  I only had 2 tiny bites of the crust part- I didn't even eat anything with that much "mint butter" on it.  Heavens.  I could have numbed my whole self- AGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!  Needless to say, the whole office was rolling about this one today.  This was definitely not a breakfast choice that I would suggest to any of you!!

This is the mastermind behind the whole "putting numbing cream that looks like butter on the butter shelf" scheme- Amanda.

Happy Birthday

In honor of  my favorite state's birthday yesterday, I thought I'd give a little shout-out to the official state neckwear.  Many of you may not know that the bolo tie is the official neckwear of the great state of Arizona.


 On Valentines Day we not only get to celebrate love, but also everything that we love about the best state of all.  Growing up, we did some random coloring projects and craft projects in class for Valentines day, but I remember doing more stuff for Arizona's birthday and our teachers telling us that our state was so special because we became a state on Valentines day.  I even remember the year, 1912, because it was so drilled into us.  I had always known that we had a state "neckwear" and I always knew it was the bolo tie, but I never stopped to think if anyone else had a state neckwear.  Maybe they wear scarves in Alaska or leis in Hawaii- I don't know.  So to celebrate Arizona's birth, I searched and found some other fun facts about my favorite state that I'd like to share.  

• In Arizona, it is against the law for donkeys to sleep in bathtubs.
• We have an official state fossil- petrified wood.
• It is against the law to refuse to give a person a glass of water in Arizona.
• If you are being attacked by a burglar, you are only allowed to defend yourself with the weapon that the other person is using.  You better get good at getting it from them.
• Hunting camels is prohibited- this is obviously a big problem.
• Any misdemeanor committed while wearing a red mask is considered a felony.
• The original London Bridge is in Arizona.  A man paid to have it shipped over brick by brick.
• In Tombstone, it is illegal for men and women to have more than one missing tooth visible while smiling.
• The best preserved meteor crater is found in Arizona near Winslow.
• In Mohave County, anyone caught stealing soap must wash himself with it until the soap is all gone.
• We have more parks and national monuments than any other state.
• AZ contains over 60% of all of the wildlife species found in North America.
• AZ has more boat owners per capita than any other state- go figure
• In Tucson, it is illegal for women to wear pants.  Their jails are filled to the brim with crazy pants-wearing feminists.
• AZ has been known to have both the hottest and coldest recorded temperatures in the country on the same day.
• AND last but not least, Arizona is smarter than all other states because they don't randomly move their clocks around twice a year and confuse everyone because of daylight savings.

So, as you can see, I love my home state.  It is the greatest and most wonderful place.  I just had to give a little birthday recognition to good old AZ!!  Here is a link to the "unofficial" state song that I actually know.  I have never heard the ?official" state song.  I remember hearing this all the time when I was little- not this guy singing it, but for some reason I knew the chorus and could sing along- random, I know.  

But, I LOVE AZ!!!!!

I love my dad!

As I was going through the pictures on my phone and trying to delete the random pictures that my little cousins took while I was babysitting them like this one:

I came across a picture that I took over Christmas vacation while I was visiting my parents in Mesa. We were on our way to go to a movie on Christmas afternoon and we had to stop behind an SUV at a stoplight. My dad has this odd habit of reading license plates. He looked at this plate and said, "yugo girl, hm.... she must be from Yugoslavia". My mom and I looked at each other and almost died laughing. It took a while to explain to my dad what "you go girl" means. I don't think he ever got it. For this display of naivety towards popular culture and many more, I love my dad!!