The Excitement of a Cruise

I near future, I will be going on my first "grown-up" vacation. I am going on a cruise!!!!!! Since I don't have a lot of experience with exciting vacations (growing up, our vacation spot was Idaho), booking the cruise was a little intimidating, and a lot exciting. For months, I have been planning and dreaming of this trip. In fact, I've had so much fun with the anticipation, I don't know if the cruise can top the months of planning. Therefore, I wanted to document my final stages of planning. These are based off of the little bits the media/literature has taught me about cruises, ships and the ocean.

1. The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley, Thea Case of the Mystery Cruise was my first run-in with cruising. I don't remember many of the details, but I do know that they were treated to a surprise cruise, but found "bad guys" on boards. I have a vague recollection of a mime being involved (as a good guy) as well.

THE PLAN: Avoid crazy strangers and make friends with mimes.

2. Titanic. In this classic I learned 2 essentials of survival on the trip.

Number 1: Love can happen in an instance. Especially in near death settings. The girl needs to almost fall off (either by her own choice or accident) and the boy is willing to save her.

THE PLAN: Hang out on deck by cute boys that look like they can swim, but are strong enough to stop me from going over.

Number 2:  When booking this cruise, my friend and I picked the "poor people" cabins. We are the interior, interior. That means that we are two rooms away from the window. From the history of the titanic, I know that in a panic (especially if there aren't enough life boats) the rich people have the best chance of survival, which means that the poorer people (the people in the interior, interior) need to learn to push and shove to survive.

THE PLAN:  I am pondering, having "rush through people" drill at the LAX airport, as practice-just in case. I think that learning the skill of pushing my way, will help me out in multiple avenues of life. Maybe, I'll be brave enough for Black Friday this year....

Lastly, I hear a story about a girl who was so amusing, some rich old couple fell in love with her, and flew her to places, such as NY, NY to visit them.

THE PLAN: 1. Find a rich elderly couple from Hawaii, New York, or Europe, 2. Be adorable, 3. Make friends. 4. Save up vacation days to visit my new BFFs.

You might be a little bit redneck if....

A few months ago, I got a roommate (who is engaged and I never see her). The first night she was here, I gave her a few "pointers" about our little house. 

• "If the bathroom light doesn't work, just bang on the bedroom wall. If you hit the "sweet spot," it should come back on."
• "Don't mind my flip flop in the bathroom and the hall. I use them to kill bugs. Turns out, it is difficult to kill some spiders with shampoo bottles. If you try, they might fall on you in the shower...."

At that moment, I could see the, "What have I gotten into look?" so I didn't tell her any more. However, here are a few thoughts that almost came out.

• "Don't mind the scurrying you'll here in the roof. Now that I've seen the mice that get in our house, I don't think that they are massive rats, like I first though. I think they are squirrels. If you get lonely, you can play hide and seek. If you hit the right spot of the ceiling, you can hear them run. Actually, it's more like tag..." 
• "You see that burnt stick by the stove. That's my s'more stick. You can use it to roast marshmallows over our stove if you want. Don't use a fork. It'll turn it black. Please don't throw it out, it's the best I could find."
• "I like to keep the blinds down in the big window. Towards the end of summer the flies get slow, but somehow they make a hideout there. You can come home and play "whack-a-fly" with my flip flop. Don't worry, it's not just us. The missionaries (who live next door) said they get flies like this too." 

However, it wasn't until I 

took the following picture that I realized, I might be a little bit redneck....

The saddest part is, I'm not sure if I qualify, even as I write this post. However, I am thinking about opening a bug zoo in my house. How much do you think people would be willing to pay to see see a few big bugs and a zillion species of spider?

The Purpose of Signs

Today as I was driving home, I noticed this sign by the post office. 


                                         

While it is prettyish, I don't know what to do with the information given. When I see a stop sign, I stop. When I see a deer crossing sign, I look for deer to avoid hitting them. When I see this sign...I can't duck, since I'm typically driving my car. Do I try to wave and hope that the passengers in the aircraft see me? Or is there to calm me down when I see an airplane headed toward the airport? Maybe, some important person said, "We need more yellow on this street!" 


As it is, it is not the only mystery of where I live. I still don't understand why all the stores/restaurants have Christmas lights up all year (although the light on the street come down by March). If I asked, I'm sure the owners of said stores/restaurants would tell me it creates a magical feel that satisfies customers. I think it's because it's easier to leave them up all year long. 

Creating ...

President Uchtdorf, one of the apostles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, stated, "Creating and being compassionate are two objectives that contribute to our Heavenly Father’s perfect happiness. Creating and being compassionate are two activities that we as His spirit children can and should emulate."


He goes on further to state, "You may think you don’t have talents, but that is a false assumption, for we all have talents and gifts, every one of us. ⁵ The bounds of creativity extend far beyond the limits of a canvas or a sheet of paper and do not require a brush, a pen, or the keys of a piano. Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter."


I fully agree that creating things brings happiness and brings us closer to God.  However, I find that sometimes I compare my "creations" to others and value certain talents above others. For example, I had achievement days with my 8-11 year old girls tonight. I had planned a little service project, and wanted to give the girls a reward at the end. I didn't have a lot of time, so I ran into Albertsons and bought some cookies. I had a super-seal kind of tupperware in my car and thought, "I should put the cookies in there so that they stay air tight." In reality I was saying, " I really want to impress young girls and make them think that I made the cookies.  Probably because, young kids are very judgmental about where they get there treats." I wanted them to think that I had "created" the cookies-when really I was using my time to "create" memories of service. 


This isn't the only way that I want to look/act like I create other kinds of wonders. Last year, I decided that I was gong to grow a little vegetable garden in pots on my back deck. I was very excited as I planted my seeds and carried all the pots inside every night because of the fear of frost (think of this garden as a first child). I would check on the plants daily, and worry over them if I went out of town for the weekend. I even took pictures of them to watch their progress and show them to my friends/family. Unfortunately, they grew too big for any of the pots that I had and I got very little yield, as I watched my "first born" slowly suffocated or starved to death. That was a little traumatic, but the growing season is short, so I figure it was comparable to dying at age 75 in Wood River growth years. 


This year, I am on my "second child" of gardens. I planted my seeds and have only brought the plants in once.  I was out of town for over a week, with the hope that my plants were fighters-which they kind of are. I don't know if they will have enough room, to live a full life, but they are growing and are green.  Like a second child, this garden has no pictures (yet) and I don't worry over the small things. I'm not growing enough to even feed my Achievement Day girls, but it is good practice for the future. 


In the end, there are many ways to create. Sometimes, the creation brings good results, other times, ridiculous memories. Stay tuned for more crazy memories thoughts that should be published in the near future. Future topics may include: the mice return, online dating, continued work of being the stake project and demon deacons. If you have any requests for which topics should be first, please comment below. 

The Wrong Kind of Famous-Locked Out

According to TV, popularity is something that we all strive for. It must have some truth, because one of my favorite things about working at a small hospital is the fact that almost everybody knows who I am. I love waving to people as I walk in my office and having people say, "Hi" as I walk down the hall.  If my life was a sitcom, these scenes would be in every episode. 

However, there is good and bad fame. Over the months of May/June I managed to lock myself out of my office on four separate Tuesdays after coming back from the orthodontist, which is a post for another day. Now, when I pass someone from building services I hear, "Do you need in your office? Wait it's not Tuesday." I still feel popular, but in the, "Is there a sign on my back?" kind of way.

If this was my only fame, I think that I could feel pretty good about it. But it's not. Around the time I was locking myself out of my office I had to change multiple passwords at work. I meant to make them the same, but didn't. This has resulted in me locking myself out of my computer multiple times due to typing the right password on the wrong accounts, repeatedly . Luckily, St. Luke's employs a large staff of IT specialists that are just waiting for me to call. The large number of St. Luke's employees also means that even if I get the same IT professional, with a name like Liz, they won't remember me.

That all changed on my first day back from my vacation. As I spelled my name and stated my occupation, my IT professional said, "Didn't you call last week?' Since I was on vacation, I hadn't called... that week. However, over my year at St. Luke's I have called IT more times than I can count, especially in the past few weeks. On the bright side, it has to raise your self-esteem to know that at least you can successfully remember all of your passwords. I'm going to chalk it up to making somebody's day.

 Hopefully, this trend won't need to continue. I really don't want to start locking myself out of my car enough that the locksmith knows everything about me.