Monday, May 26, 2008

Speed Dating: It's not for wimps!

This weekend I went to a mid-singles conference here in Washington. The first evening we were given the opportunity to do some speed dating. I must say that I felt a little bad for the guys in that, because there were so few of them, they got stuck sitting in the room for hours talking to random women.

Here are some of the highlights of the ones I can remember.

One guy told me he was from Auburn, the town with the super mall. I said that I had been to there which was pretty cool. He said that it was lacking a Toys R Us. When I asked him if that was his favorite store, he told me that he was a HUGE Star Wars fan. (now I am not one to let a moment like this slip a way) I asked him if he had ever been to a convention, unfortunately he hadn't, they are a little too expensive.

Another lovely gentleman asked me if I was high maintenance. I said that I didn't think that I was, but someone else might think differently. :) What does it mean to be high maintenance anyway?

My favorite encounter of the evening was a guy we will call Darrell. Within the first 10 seconds of the 1minute time we were allotted Darrell told me to look into his eyes and said "these are the eyes of a broken down man who has been rejected and torn down". He then proceeded to tell me that because I was over thirty it was my responsibility to go after the men and ask them out. He then said that he would go out into the hall right this moment and get ten guys lined up for me to ask out. Needless to say I was slightly taken aback.

The rest of the weekend was not nearly as exciting. I went Kayaking on Saturday with a group in Elliot's Bay. It was a perfect day to be out on the water and made me revisit the possibility of buying a kayak. The conference ended Sunday with Sacrament, early dinner then a fireside in which Elder Pearson from the Quorum of the Seventy spoke. It was funny, he touched on all of the same topic Jill, Tiffany and I had been discussing all weekend. He basically told us to be obedient to avoid becoming discouraged and then falling away. It was definitely one of those talks that I needed to hear.

All in all the conference wasn't too bad. I got to get reacquainted with some old friends which was by far my saving grace. (I would not have lasted one night had they not been there) I don't know that I will ever go to one of these things again, but it is helpful to know that I am not the only single 30 something left in the church.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Anticipaaaation, it's making me wait....

I am currently waiting for Madonna tickets to go on sale so that I can snatch them up. Jeff was given the task of going on line this morning to purchase tickets early through the fan club. Now, I am not one to join fan clubs, but did so for the express purpose of being able to get tickets early. I was sooooo excited to get the tickets that I must have called Jeff ten times to ensure he new what to do, where to go, how much to spend, etc. (thankfully he is VERY patient with me) You have to understand, I have been a Madonna fan ever since Lucky Star. My friends and I even did a lip sinc and dance to "Dress you up". She is one of the few people that I would like to see in concert at least once in my lifetime.



Needless to say, I waited anxiously when the clock struck 10am for the call that would say, "the tickets are ours"! I could barely focus on my work, resisting the urge to call yet again to see if he was successful. About 20min after ten Jeff called with the news....he couldn't get the tickets, apparently the fan club level I signed up for wasn't high enough, so we have to wait until Saturday morning when EVERYBODY else gets to get tickets too. So not fair! Now I get to go through the stress and nerves and excitement of battling it out amongst other concert goers on ticket master for the best seats in the house. I really don't care where we sit just as long as we get to go.



So until then I will be waiting anxiously for Saturday, 10am sharp!

Monday, May 12, 2008

A week in Alaska





Here are just four of the 300 images I took while on my trip. I just spent an incredibly busy week on a cruise to Alaska. My parents, little brother and his wife, my aunt and uncle and my grandmother (who was my roomie by the way) all joined in on the fun. The trip was really fun and surprisingly drama free. We left from Seattle and headed up north to Ketchikan, then Juneau, Skagway and finally Victoria B.C..
Ketchikan was a fun little town where Wyatt Earp himself once resided. It was cool to see buildings and walkways still standing which added to the character and charm of this town. We spent the day walking around checking out the shopping. My brother, his wife and I received what we call the sucker stamp while visiting Ketchikan. We decided to take a small tram up a small mountain which we each paid $2 to ride to the top. These two girls took our money and then stamped our hands with one of those stamps they use when playing bingo. We happily paid the fee and climbed on board. It wasn't until we were heading back to the tram that we realized we had been duped. The girls were no where in site and inside the tram there was a button with a sign that said, "Press here to go down". Of course, they could have been on a break, but it was odd that no one was there to relieve them. We found it pretty fun and loved the fact that we got to walk all over Ketchikan with our sucker stamps.
Next up.....Juneau. This was probably my favorite place of all the ones we visited. The Yukon was great, but I loved having the opportunity to take a tour of the Mendenhall Glacier. I went by myself and went for a long hike trying to get as close to the glacier as possible. There was a mountain goat up on a hill that I saw, and apparently a bear cub nearby that I successfully avoided. Our tour guide was from Utah (go figure) who told fun stories about Juneau on our way up to the glacier. Here is one of the stories he told: There was a collision with a 737 and a salmon a few years back. An Eagle had just caught it's breakfast and was flying away with the salmon, at the same time the plane was taking off. The Eagle decided to let go of the fish, (they are assuming, in an attempt to avoid being hit by the plane) which then collided with the plane. After hearing a loud crash the pilot landed the plane and insisted on having it checked before taking off again.
Later that week we were on our way to Skagway, where we hopped on a train and headed for the Yukon territory. It was really beautiful and interesting to learn about it's history. Being surrounded by endless mountains covered in snow, I was in awe of the many men and women who traveled on those trails all for the chance to make some money in the mines. Each of the miners had to have a years worth of food before they were even allowed to enter the Yukon territory. It took us almost two hours by train to get to the top, I can't imagine how difficult it would have been for them to climb the mountain with the primitive equipment they had back then. We stopped for lunch at a corral like place that was part of our excursion. My grandmother decided that she was going to save one of her barbecued pieces of chicken and proceeded to wrap it in a napkin and put it in her butt pack. Do I need to remind you that we were on a cruise? Tons of free food? Yeah, she was in pack rat mode. Needless to say we laughed a lot when we went through customs joking about how the dogs were going to attack her trying to get to her chicken. We thought for sure grandma was going to get caught with her "stash". Luckily for her, they just waved us through.
Our last night on the ship was very rocky. We got caught in a storm where the waves got to be 20ft high and the wind was blowing at 50 knots(whatever that means). My brother and sister-in-law were both feeling really sick, and my grandmother was a little scared of the loud banging noises that were coming from the bottom of the boat. The crew cancelled most of the shows that night and cautioned us to be careful when walking outside. My brother, uncle and I decided to go up as high as we could on the boat.....I was almost knocked over a couple of times, and was laughing so hard I couldn't catch my breath. Really dumb, but oh so much fun!
Our final stop before heading back to Seattle was Victoria B.C.. The only day we had bad weather was here. Thankfully, we had all been there before, so we went up to the Skywalker lounge at the top of the ship and hung out for a few hours before heading to bed.
All in all, the trip was fun. It was nice spending time with my family and re-bonding with my 83 year old grandmother, who, unfortunately is slowing down. It was fun exploring the great white north with my family.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

BON VOYAGE!!!

This morning I am preparing to leave for a week long cruise to Alaska with my family. Being that I am single and my grandmother is a widow, we will be rooming together. I am sure that I will have lots of funny stories to tell and pictures to show when I get back. We are leaving from Seattle, (which is nice and convenient) and are going to stop in Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan and Victoria, B.C.. Not necessarily in that order. My only HAVE to do, is the Mendenhall Glacier. I already have an excursion set to go check it out.

Well, my suitcase is packed and I am ready to go...be back in a week, until then, wish me luck!

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Duran Duran

Last night Jeff and I went waaaaay back, to a time when leg warmers were considered cool and the mullet was a good thing to have. We went to see Duran Duran perform at the Wamu Event Center.

While in my euphoric state of mind I was slapped into reality when, while people watching, I notice that everyone seemed really old. I was commenting on this shocking state of events when Jeff ever so kindly pulled me away from the world I like to call denial, by pointing out that, we too, are as old as these people I was so unkindly judging. He refused to listen to my very valid arguments and I eventually conceded his point. Secretly though, I still believe that we could not possibly be THAT old, or that we look much younger and dress better than our supposed counterparts, they had to be at least 3 years older.

Anyway, back to the actual concert.....It was GREAT!!!!! (Simon Le Bon used to be the man I was going to marry by the way). It was so good to be back in this world. They sound really good live and remixed some of their older songs which I can't wait to download.

Despite the rude awakening at the beginning of the night, Duran Duran was all I needed to improve my mood.