Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 120

 It was nice to have a long weekend... and only have to work one day this week... and it wasn't even a full day. ha ha. I know, I know.... people don't even think I work because I am just playing all the time. But I have to work to play. I love the summer. Many more adventures to come!

Last Saturday I went to the Drive in movie with some people from my ward (1 other girl and 3 guys) to see Men in Black III. I have only been to the drive in movie one other time and it was a long time ago, so I was pretty excited. It was kind of cold, but we still had a good time. I think we are going to go again when it is warmer at night and bring Vicki's truck and Jay's BBQ. Turns out the Drive In is fun and I don't know why they are hard to come by now. This was was nice too. I'm excited to go back this summer. Oh and Men in Black III was surprisingly funny. I liked it better than II which I had just watched that week. The first one is still the best, but yeah... I liked it.

 We had our 2nd softball game this week. Unfortunately I wasn't there because I was traveling... again... but I was happy when it was reported that we won again. Turns out, we have a lot of good players in our ward. Hopefully I will not have to miss anymore games because I love softball season. Hopefully we watch Sandlot soon too... cause I love that movie, especially in the summer when I am playing softball.

 So I recently decided that I should try and save the earth more and got me some of those material totes to take to the grocery store instead of them putting my food in a million plastic grocery bags (even though I do use those, we have so many that I can't use them fast enough). So far.... I really like it. Not such a waste and the totes actually make it easier to carry your stuff. So... I just keep them in my car and so far I have not forgotten them in my car when I go shopping. Not sure why I didn't think to do this early.

Okay... you are flying on Delta. They come by and offer you a drink and a snack. What do you get? If you are me, it's the same every time. Ginger ale and Biscoff cookies. Anyone else love those cookies? I mean... I have never seen them anywhere except on airplanes. Well.... guess what you can buy at the store now? Biscoff spread! It is awesome. It is up there is Nutella when it comes to yummy spreads. It is seriously just like eating the cookie. I just bought it at Walmart and I was pretty excited about it.

Photo of the Week 118

Another picture from Maui.

Mario Kart Live

A while back, my friend Mindi had this AMAZING idea. To dress up as the Mario characters and race go  karts. She decided to move to Maui and things got crazy and she never ended up doing it. However.... I wanted to do it SO bad that I put my own group together. Turns out.... I could not have chosen a better group to do this with. Not only were my friends excited to do this with me, but they went all out. I was really impressed with the guys and their creativity on their costumes. Especially Thomas (Bowser) who was a last minute addition. I had SO much fun and I am SO glad that we did this. It was epic. My vision came true. In fact, this was better than what I imagined it would be in my head. This epic event went down on the afternoon of Saturday May 19th.

Let me introduce you to everyone....

Josh = Mario

Rich = Luigi

Vicki = Princess Peach

Tracy (Me) = Toadstool

Liz = Yoshi

Jay = Donkey Kong (DK)

Ali = Koopa

Wes = Wario

Thomas = Bowser

So we get to Boondocks and nobody there knows what is coming. As soon as we get out of the car, people start taking our picture and asking us if we do birthday parties. It was like our own little version of a surprise flash mob sort of thing. Everyone just stared and thought it was the coolest thing ever. As soon as we get inside to go and pay for the go karts to race, we run into the manager. The manager thinks we are awesome and gives us a discount AND let us have the course to ourselves AND let our videographer Dan Randall go inside the course to get better footage of us. He also gave us his card after so that we could let him know when the video was done. He also took our picture and posted it on the Boondocks facebook page before we had even left. He also gave us free coins to play after we were done racing. It was pretty awesome. His only requirement was that we take a picture with Boondog their mascot. Done and done.

As we waited in line, people continued to take our picture and video tape us. We were really like little celebrities for the afternoon. I wonder how many pictures and video we have of us that day floating around the internet. Anyway... we had to wait a while to get the course to ourselves... but it was worth it. I also brought along my BFF Neighbor Darrell to document the event via photos. This kind of event doesn't happen often, so you have to make sure it is well documented. Good work Darrell.

Then it was time to race. We tried to race in character... but I think Wes (Wario) wins the prize for staying in character the whole time he was in his costume. He is awesome. After each time we were done racing.... people in line would video tape us and would cheer when we were done. Liz even got the crowd chanting for Yoshi!

All in all, it was pretty epic. I have the coolest / nerdiest friends. I LOVE it! Now I need to think of another epic thing to put together now that I know I have people that are up to it. Oh man... looking at these pictures still makes me laugh. I love my friends... and my life.

Silver Lake

Today my good friend Allyson invited me on a hike with some of her friends. The hike was up American Fork Canyon to Silver Lake. It was a beautiful day and there were lots of people up the canyon enjoying the good weather on the holiday.

I'm not much of a hiker... but I was excited because this was a new hike for me. I brought my nice camera along to get some good pictures. I'm so glad I did because it was absolutely beautiful up there. Spring is a beautiful time of year here.

One of Allyson's friends and her cute baby.... ready to hike!

It took up most of the afternoon. It was a long uphill hike. Round trip it was more than 4 miles. It sure felt good to get to the top. I had no idea we would be running into snow. We ran into a couple of guys that got to the top after we did and then jumped in the lake. It had to be freezing. They screamed when they got in... so I can only imagine. One of them said it was Memorial Day tradition to do that. I told him that was a terrible tradition and he said... I know right? The hike is already hard, but to know you had to jump into freezing water at the top. Yikes. They were funny.

At the top we took a break, had some snacks and took in the beautiful scenery and then headed back down.

Our dirty shoes after our long hike in the dirt/mud/slushy snow.

Good times. Thanks Allyson for inviting me a long. It was beautiful. Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day.

Maui Life

You know how I take a ridiculous amount of pictures? Well... Tara is the video version of me. :) It is pretty awesome because I never think to take video, but it is so fun to look back on our video's from the trip. Not only that... but Tara put together a 15 minute video of the trip with music. It is a fun summary of our trip. Obviously I don't expect you to just sit and watch the 15 minute video... but it is pretty cute if you want to watch some of it.

First thing when we got there.... we had some time while we waited for Mindi to get there, so we went to IHOP and all I wanted was a smoothie, but they didn't have them, so I settled for chocolate milk. I was so thirsty that I downed that glass of chocolate milk so fast. This lead to a chocolate milk drinking contest. Since my first one wasn't video taped... I had to do it again. Just for the record, my first time was faster. After doing this twice I felt sick. It was still funny though. Ashley was for sure the winner of the contest.

A lot of the trip we were crammed in the car... with DeAnna's dog. Good times... so I thought I would put one of the video's from the car on here. It makes me laugh. A lot of things from the trip makes me laugh.

The video that Tara put together.

Mr. Still Wants to be BFF

Me and Mr. Still wants to be BFF were seeing each other for a little over 3 months. It was nothing serious... but we spent most of our free time together, talked almost everyday and were kissing/cuddling/holding hands and what not. You can call the relationship what you want, I think most people's definition would be that we were dating. He was even in with the family. My niece told me I should marry him because he would make a great uncle. My family and friends all loved him. It got to a frustrating point where I knew it was not going anywhere. It died off. It ended well though. We talked everything out, I got to say everything that I wanted to say to him and we both left it wanting to be better people, let the other know how much we cared for them and that our time together was well spent and good feelings will always be there. It ended a lot better than these types of relationships tend to do.

After ending talk... we still kept in touch here and there with text messages or phone calls. Mostly he would call or text me to see how I was doing. He was dating someone knew, so I knew that wouldn't last long and I wouldn't expect it to. It was nice that he made the effort to show he still cared for as long as he did. He had a couple of my books so I let him know I wanted them back and he called me to drop them off, I wasn't home but he left them with my roommates and that was that. I figured I wouldn't here from him after that. Oh how I was wrong... the next day I get a phone call from him. When his ringtone started playing on my phone I was in shock of why he could possibly be calling me. I pick up.

Me: "Hey..."
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: "Hey, how are you?"
Me: "Pretty good. How are you?"
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: *sigh* "Umm... I'm okay."
Me: "Umm... just okay?"
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: "Yeah, What are you doing?"
Me: "I'm just at home."
*Silence*
Me: "Umm... are you sure you are ok? Do you want to talk about it?"
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: "Umm... yeah. Are you home a lone?"
Me: "Uh, yeah, I am. (wondering why that matters) I'm just about to get in the shower though. Can you wait like a half hour and then come over?"
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: "I really don't want to be home right now."
Me. "Uh... okay. Well, I guess I can just leave the backdoor unlocked and you can hang out while I am in the shower...."
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: "Okay, I'm coming over."

I hop in the shower. Honestly... I take my time. We are done and he started dating someone else, I feel no obligation to him, I'm just trying to be nice since he called me. I mean... I care, but I wouldn't drop everything like I would if we were dating. When I get out of the shower, I am just in my towel... I head to my room to change and he is there, laying on my bed. I then ask him if he can leave so I can change and he acted all put out by it. He waited in the other room while I changed. After I was ready, I walked in the other room to see him laying face down on the couch and I sit next to the couch next to him.

Me: "Ok, what's up?"
Mr. Still wants to be BFF: "It is so dark in here. Can we shut the blinds?"
*I'm thinking... I am in the basement and it is an overcast day, not sure what your problem is* He moved back to my room and lays down on my bed and closes the curtains for the most possible darkness.
Me: *Thinking is is so weird to see him all depressed because I had NEVER seen him this way* "Okay, if this is dark enough, let's talk"
Mr. Still wants to be BFF: "I don't really feel like talking about it yet."
Me: "Umm... I thought that is why you came over here? Okay, do you want to go on a walk?"
Mr. Still wants to be BFF: "No."
Me: "Want to go to this ward breakfast party?"
Mr. Still wants to be BFF: "Ugh... no. If you are going to go to that, I'm just going to go home".
*Wow.... wow. What do you want from me?*
Me: "Okay, want to watch a movie?"
Mr. Still wants to be BFF: "I guess we can talk about it now..."

He tells me all of his relationship drama and how they want to get married but have all these issues. I tried to give the best advice that I could and then thankfully his girlfriend text him that she was ready to see him again if he wanted to come over and he perked up and ran to see her. Thank goodness, because I thought I was going to be stuck with depressed Mr. Still Wants to be BFF all day. Seriously.

I thought that would be a one time thing. Maybe a couple weeks later I get a call from him at almost midnight. I answer and he asks me how I am doing and that it had been a while since he had talked to me. I told him it had only been a couple of weeks. Let's be honest, we all know that is not why he was calling me. I was right... he started talking to me about relationship problems again... which followed with "We agreed that we are not supposed to talk to other people about our problems", which I then said, "I respect that, so maybe you shouldn't". There was a pause and then he continued to tell me about his problems.  He also told me I was the only girl he still keeps in touch with and talks to. He cut every other girl off (except family and his girlfriend of course). That was probably supposed to make me feel special (which in a way I guess it is flattering that he still cares about my opinion) but I mostly was thinking... why? Why have you chosen to cling on to the last girl you dated for comfort and advice. The girlfriend probably wouldn't be thrilled if she knew. I continued to give the best advice I could and then after our hour or so phone call, we hung up.

After this phone call, I wondered if I was going to be their couple therapist and this was going to be become a regular thing. About a week later, I got another late night phone call from him. I had just gotten in bed and almost didn't pick up because I figured it was going to be another long girlfriend problem phone call. Boy was I wrong. I pick up the phone and he starts asking me about my eyelashes because his girlfriend was thinking about getting eyelash extensions and he told her he had a friend (me) that had them and how beautiful they were. To my surprise he quickly puts me on speaker phone to talk to his girlfriend. As soon as he does my picture lights up on his phone and she tells me how pretty I am. I am starting to feel awkward fast. I don't know where this phone call is going, but I try and play it cool. Then Mr. Still wants to be BFF tell me that they are right next to my house so they are just going to come over so she can look at my lashes in person.

Ummm..... okay? Do I have a choice? Ha ha... How do you prepare yourself for this type of situation? They are soon at my back door. I let them in and we introduce ourselves to each other. Mr. Still Wants to be BFF then puts his hands on both of our shoulders and says "I am so glad that you two are finally meeting. You are two of the sweetest and nicest people that I know". We both felt awkward and just smiled and said... aww...  and then we continued to talk about eyelashes.

Girlfriend: "Sorry we stopped by so late, I hope we didn't catch you right as you were going to bed"
*Which they totally did, but I decided to be polite*
Me: "Oh, it's okay... I'm a night owl."
Girlfriend: "Oh, so is he... he is always staying up so late"
*Boy do I ever know that! He would hardly ever leave my house before 3am when we were dating"
Me: "I know..."
Mr. Still Wants to be BFF: *Trying to cover his tracks so his girlfriend doesn't catch on to anything* "Yeah, I would be up late and would text Tracy and ask her if she was up and if she was I would get her to go to Betos with me. ha ha ha"
Me: "Yeah... that happened... sometimes..."
*I get what he is doing and decide to play along... she obviously has no idea what our relationship was... and that we made out a little over 2 months ago*
Girlfriend: " Ha ha... oh yeah, sounds about right"

Everyone awkwardly laughs. Thankfully, soon after that they left and I went to bed. I thought to myself... wow, he is so lucky that I have no feelings left for him, because who brings their current girlfriend to an ex girlfriends house who he pretends nothing happened with so that new girlfriend can check out her eyelashes? Weird. Surprising? No. Weird is the story of my life.

Flashback Friday 66

July 2004. That is where our flashback takes us to today. I was home in Santa Barbara for the summer and my friends and I decided to do one of the many Santa Barbara hikes. This hike was to Seven Falls. Sadly there was no water because there was not enough rain, so we didn't see any falls. Ha ha... but we still had fun hiking. And the view was beautiful... and the company was great. Good times in Santa Barbara. Love my Santa B Friends.