Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 224

Work really picked up this week. It's good... makes the time go by faster. My boss also let me know this week that my raise has been approved, so I will be making a little more money which will be great. That and my big bonus will pay for my next trip. :)

I went back to the fish store... as I typically do. I bought some more crabs to eat my green algae. It was the owners wife that was there. They are all so chatty and their daughter was there was is also chatty and very friendly. Kept giving me hugs. ha ha. It's nice that they are all so friendly, makes it pleasant needing to go back often. You do run into some weird... like really weird fish nerds in the salt water community though. I made the owner a pie for coming to my house and checking up on my tank. I thought it was only right.

Speaking of my fish tank... I found something new growing in there. It caught me by surprise. I'm never sure if it is good or bad at first. So What do I do? I check with my cousin. :) I guess it is a mushroom that he has growing in his tank. Must have come in on one of the coral he gave me. BONUS! Awesome. More life in my tank, the better. I love it.

Bummer information I got this week. My massage therapist quite. I am really sad. I have been going to her for the past 7 months or something like that. She didn't even tell me she was leaving when I was there last. We were just starting to become good friends. Now I will have to go someone else and hope they are just as good. We shall see. I miss the days that I had friends to trade with.

On Tuesday I went to Creative Collaborative again. The speaker was an artist named Santiago Michalek. His art is awesome and we all got a free print of one of his paintings. I wasn't really inspired like I was the last meeting I went to... he just talked about how to get into the art business. However, I decided I want to start painting again. I only did that one painting and then never really painted again. So here's to a new creative outlet. I have a sketch pad to paint in and my desk all set up and ready to go.

I love that I get to spend time with my family once a week. I especially love playing with the  babies and toddlers. Not that I don't love my other nieces and nephews.. I do. It is just when they start to get older they care less about playing with me and want to go do their own thing. Anyway... This boy makes me smile every Sunday. I just love him.

I watched the newest posted season of "The Glades" on Netflix. Ever since the main love interest got together, I have lots interest BIG time! It's just too cheesy. I don't know if I will keep up with that. I also watched the latest season of "Switched at Birth". I have no idea why that show draws me in so much. I love the drama and the deaf community intrigues me. Now I am watching the latest season of "Psych" which is always a good one. Next will be the latest season of "Sherlock". Oh and let's not forget about the Bachelorette. I love that they went to Santa Barbara. I recognized each place they went to.

Sunday school, my neighbor Jed taught. I always really enjoy his lessons. I sometimes (a lot of times) have a hard time with Sunday school because people just have people read the chapter and then we discuss it. As soon as a teacher starts a lesson with "We will take turns reading verses going down the row" I tune out. Jed on the other hand... he keeps it interesting. For example, our lesson on Noah's Ark, he gave everyone in the class an animal and if you made a comment or participated, you had to start with your animal noise, and then say your comment. Well, this week was the lesson on Ruth. We read the verses... but Jed asked people to be the characters and each character would read their lines and act it out and Jed would narrate. It was awesome.

The girl that played Ruth (in the blue and orange sundress) she has this new hobby where she makes cross stitches of people... and people in the ward. Jed said it is his new goal to be cross stitched. I don't think I will ever get chosen. I don't think I'm cool enough. ;)

Tinder made an update on their app. It is called "moments". Basically, it is kind of like snapchat... you take a picture, can add a caption or whatever and when you post it, it goes to ALL of your matches on Tinder for them to see for the next 24 hours. I wonder if it is going to stick around or if people will be over it. It has brought some entertainment to my roommates and I. I mean, I have over 600 matches on Tinder, so I get a handful of "moments" a day. Are you imagining what type of "moments" guys on Tinder are posting? Oh... it results in a lot of selfies, many of which are shirtless with captions like "Monday, back to work" and "First one to message me gets to be my cuddle buddy tonight". They make me laugh.

Speaking of Tinder... remember Mr. Compliments? Well... he was doing a contest of the best Tinder pickup lines. He was posting the best of on his Instagram. Mine made it on there. It was a pretty good one. :)

Oh, and RJ finished my Bachelorette video. It really is only good thanks to him, but he made it exactly what I wanted it to be. RJ is fun to film with. He also took some pictures of me. I will have to post all of this stuff in another post. RJ is talented and probably the nicest guy you will ever meet.

And speaking of the Mormon Bachelorette, I went to the casting call and seminar thing on Saturday. I think it was pretty much a fail. The casting call that is, the seminar was awesome. I just don't know if I am meant to have my dating life filmed. Guess we will see. If that doesn't work... I'm in the LDS Matchmaker database. Maybe they can find someone for me. OR... one of the 3 people that have someone to set me up with will actually follow through. I'm not desperate, I'm not going to settle... I'm just seeking more opportunities and being open to possibilities and enjoying meeting new guys.

I have had a couple of dates this week. I had a lunch date in the park that was really nice. I'm not interested, but he is a sweet guy that maybe can be a new friend. I also met up with a couple of guys at a bar this week to chat and hang out. You feel pretty out of place drinking water at a bar, but I don't care. I'm just meeting new people. Here is something that crossed my mind though when I do this. A part of me loves meeting up with guys in Utah that are not members of the church or not active. Why? Because it makes me feel like I'm not in a Mormon bubble and I like people to know that not all Mormons fit the Mormon stereotype. I can be friends with anyone. Even if we believe different things or have different values... it doesn't make them bad people and not worth talking to or being friends with. I really enjoy having conversations with people from different places with different believes and learning their life story. People are great and different and everyone's story is so different. I truly enjoy it. I had a great time talking with these guys (one was from New York and the other one just moved here). Guess what? They were good guys, very sweet to me, they didn't care that I wasn't drinking... in fact it made one of them feel bad that he was) and I wasn't there to judge... just get to know them and be their friend. I wish there was more of that that went on around Utah... maybe then people would judge less and be more respectful (on both sides). On the other hand... I don't care if people drink... I can't expect people to have my same values that don't really know any different, but what does bother me is when they get drunk. It was all fun and enjoyable until one of them had too much to drink and started saying weird things and acting weird. That is what I can't handle about drinking... when people lose control of themselves and you can no longer have an intelligent and meaningful conversation. That is when I left, which was fine. I have my boundaries and I know when to leave a situation. Anyway... just some thoughts I had this week.

On an entirely different note, my friend Jessica was in town last night from Idaho with her kids staying at her parents condo in Park City. When I found out she was in town we arranged for me to come over last night. We figured out we hadn't seen each other in 7 or 8 years. WAY too long. We hung out a lot in High School. It was so fun to catch up with her and meet her cute kids. I love seeing old friends. We had a good time.