Photo of the Week 289

Another picture from beautiful Payson Canyon.

Mr. Dramatic

Tinder is an interesting place that brings you interesting people. Well I had another interesting interaction with a guy I started talking to on Tinder.

We matched on Tinder a long time ago. I don't even remember when. We talked for a little while on Tinder and then we became Facebook friends and then I gave him my my number. We didn't talk for that long before he sent me something inappropriate and I told him that I wasn't that kind of girl and he said something jerky in return and we didn't talk again.

I had forgotten that we were still Facebook friends. Everyone once in a while I would see him post something churchy (because of what he had sent me I didn't think he was LDS) or post a picture of himself dressed up for church. I thought to myself... mmm... maybe he has cleaned up his act?

Starting in January he would randomly send me messages and say, hey, your cute, we should meet up. I would say ok, but it wouldn't ever happen.

More recently he started poking me on Facebook. Apparently people still do that. Not sure why it is still a feature. Every once in a while I would poke him back because I didn't know what else to do. The beginning of this week he sent me a message and asked how I was doing and said we should go out. I said ok. I'm always willing to give people a second chance if it seems like he cleaned up his act. But who knows. Anyway... he starts texting me again and asks me for a picture. So I send him one, even though we are Facebook friends and he could see all the pictures of me that he wanted. He then tells me how cute I am and that we need to meet. Then he tells me he wants a full body picture. It's late and I just want to go to bed. So I tell him I'm tired and going to bed and responds with "ugh".

Next day after work he texts me again... asking how I am and what I'm up to. I tell him I'm just getting off of work etc... text conversation then goes as follows.


Mr. Dramatic - "You still owe me a picture lol"

Me - "I already sent you a picture, so I don't owe you anything ha ha"

Mr. Dramatic - "Too much attitude"

*What? Didn't you see the ha ha at the end of my sentence. We are joking around with each other right? I'm confused so I don't respond right away*

Mr. Dramatic - " Not attractive. See ya"

Me - "Ha ha... wow...."
         "I'm sorry you don't understand the difference between humor and attitude. I don't need drama in my life. See ya!"

But seriously... what happened there? If that is how he interacts with people, I want nothing to do with him. It really made me laugh.

Blood Moon

Tonight was the Lunar Eclipse. Apparently this Blood Moon isn't going to make another appearance until 2033... so I thought I better try and photograph it.

I went to photograph it with my BFF neighbor Darrell because we both like taking pictures... but as it turns out, it was quite the little party at the park of people watching the show. I'm super glad that it was at a normal hour this time. I'm also super glad that it was a clear night. It was beautiful.

I don't have fancy photography equipment to go with my SLR... but here is the best shot that I got with what I have. Not bad.

Jeeping through Payson Canyon

Today I went with my friend Amber in her Jeep and drove/ off roaded through Payson Canyon. Boy was it GORGEOUS!! We got some incredible views! We had fun listening to music and talking while we drove... got a little muddy and pulled over to take pictures of the views.

There was even one spot so pretty I decided to hang up my hammock. We just pulled over and set it up and hoped that no cars would come. One car did come RIGHT as I was unhooking my hammock. Close call! What a beautiful day to explore the beautiful Utah Mountains.

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 290

Well... I'm on week 2 of the Fast Metabolism Diet. It's going well. I didn't weigh myself when I first started because I didn't want to know. Weighing myself is depressing to me and I like to just go off of how my clothes fit. But... Lisa got mad at me for not weighing in... because I need to see my progress on the scale, so I weighed in on Monday. So we will see how I do next Monday. Lisa is a good coach. She is a great support system. It's nice to be accountable to someone. Even though weighing myself on Monday was depressing and I hated seeing how much weight I gained back... I feel really good right now. I am never hungry. I have been on top of exercising and feeling stronger. I know I have lost a little bit of weight, just don't know how much. I am not craving sugar as much as I thought I would which is also great. So far I'm happy with it. 2 more weeks to go. We will see how I feel at the end, but the plan right now is to finish out strict on the diet... take a week break (still eating healthy, but not being strict on the exact rules (food on certain days) and eating some extra stuff I can't have on the diet then go back on for another 28 days. Wish me luck. I am hoping this is the long term solution that I need to not struggle with my weight anymore. Clean eating. I have started shopping at Sprouts now and that helps a lot. There are only healthy options there. I still need to be better about prepping and finding new recipes, but hey... I even did well road tripping/ camping! I didn't get off plan. I would call that a success.

Wednesday I participated in my friend RJ's next music video that should be out next week.I wasn't a character or anything... although I almost was a backup for someone that was on the fence... I was just a dancer. I didn't mind though because I found out the day before... I didn't have to get a costume. I just showed up after work, danced for an hour until he got the shot that he wanted and then I headed to salt lake for my eyelash / massage trade and it was perfect because I missed all of the nasty rush hour traffic. I have no idea how the video will turn out, but they are always a fun to be a part of.

I had another picture featured on Instagram. I'm on a roll! Ha ha... this time I was featured on igSouthWest. They are a bigger account, not as big as igUtah. The picture they chose though was just ok I thought. It wasn't one of my best, so I thought that was weird. I'd rather be saved to get featured on my better pictures. But they chose it I guess.

My car was super dirty from the road trip over the weekend. All the old bugs I just scrubbed off, I got a whole set of new ones. I didn't want to spend an hour scrubbing them off... so I decided to try out Wiggy Wash in Springville. I AM SOLD! Best car wash I have experienced. It got all the bugs off except the ones that are stuck inside of the grill. It was awesome. I think on my 1 year anniversary of having my car, I'm going to go there and get the works. Wash, wax, clean the inside.... it's going to be awesome.

Almost done watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. First 2 seasons are the best, but I have been enjoying the other seasons as well. I'm half way done with season 5, the last season. I'm not sure what I will watch next. I guess all the shows are starting up again... so I will be spending time on Hulu keeping up with all the shows that I have watched that are still going.

My boss called me into the office this week. I thought I might be in trouble, although I'm not sure what I would be in trouble about. She was concerned that I isolate myself. Ha ha.... I do. Not a secret. I don't care. She tells me I need to work on being more social. I'd rather just watch my Netflix shows. When I told her I just get involved in work and in my Netflix shows, she pulls me over and makes me watch the beginning of a new show so that I want to watch it and keep up on it. It's called Blindspot. It looks interesting. Maybe I will.

My iPhone updated again. It is amazing the things they change. When I was in Salt Lake the other day... I didn't even have my GPS open and when I got in the car to go home.... my phone lights up and tells me that the traffic is clear on my way home. What? Interesting new changes. Cool.

I HATE changing my password at work. Seriously... for security reasons they make us change our password every few months or something like that. I hate it because I can never remember my password because it's different than the passwords I use for everything else. I found a way a long time ago to get around it. I would change it and then go back in and change it right back and it was perfect... so I had the same password for YEARS!! They have now changed it so we can't use a password we have already used. The new password has to use at least one lower case, one upper case and one number. So... I do that, and even still it tell me it's not unique enough. What do you want from me? Why do they make it so difficult. It's not like anyone getting on my computer would get any useful information that is going to ruin the company. Whatever.

Lately I have been trying to get rid of stuff. It easy for me to just take a load to DI... but sometimes I wonder if I give away too much. What is worth selling and what I should just give away. Especially how much luck I have had selling stuff on ksl. Should I be doing more of that? Anyone have any guide lines on that?

I got a call from a girl that used to be in my ward a little while ago. We weren't supper good friends... but she remembered that I dated someone that left the church because I was so open about it. I wasn't ashamed of it. I didn't care. So I would tell people that asked. Anyway... she called me to ask me about it because she is in a similar situation. So I had her call me and I talked to her about it for a half hour. Let her tell me all of her thoughts and concerns and my advice. She isn't the first to confide in me on this topic either. I have had other come to talk to me about it. I'm glad that I am so open about my life... so that other people feel like they can relate to me and it makes me happy that people (even people that I don't know that well) feel like they can reach out to me for a listening ear and for advice. It made me happy to help in what little way I can. I guess sometimes that is why we have the experiences that we do... so that we can be a mentor and help others.

Well... that was my week.

Photo of the Week 288

It's officially fall... but nature got a head start.

Deadhorse Point & Canyonlands

The day after Arches, we went to Deadhorse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park. Both places I had never been to before, so it was neat to see. In fact, nobody in our group had been to either place before, so it was new for all of us.

We started out driving to Deadhorse Point. Since it's a State park, you have to pay $10 to get in. There is no hike... you just go to the lookout point. That is all. Pretty expensive view. It's pretty though.

Then we drove to Canyonlands. We went to a couple different look out points. We did a couple short hikes. We ate lunch at one of the view points.The one I called Canyon Inception because it was a canyon within a canyon within a canyon etc..

 Then we drove home. Canyonlands wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be... although the National Park is split up into 3 parts, each having their own entrance, so the other parts might be more exciting. However... I loved the little hike that we ended on. This arch was rad and had an awesome view behind it.

Arches National Park

Over the weekend I went with my friends to Moab. Although I wanted to wait a month or two before going, nobody else wanted to wait, so I went with the crowd. When I go to Moab, I typically do the same things over and over again because I'm always with someone who has never been before. This time we went to Devils Garden, which I had before... but then we traveled to all the arches beyond Devils Garden which I don't believe I had done before. So that was cool. Our group split up at the end of the day... a few went to the Delicate Arch and booked the hike before sunset. I would have been happy to go again, but wasn't thrilled about booking it since the first part of it is all uphill. Since the other two in the group didn't care to go because we have all seen it several times, we opted to go find somewhere to chill and watch the sunset. So I didn't hate that.

Besides that, we did something else that I hadn't done before. We went to the Fiery Furnace. The cool thing about that part of Arches is that there is no trail and they only give out so many permits per day to go explore it, so we were 6 of 100 that day that got to explore it. It's pretty much a jungle gym for adventurers. You climb, you jump, you crawl and take whatever path you want to take. It's pretty cool. We had to watch a video first and take a quiz of the rules... part of which was which dirt we weren't allowed to step on... which pretty much ruined us for the rest of the trip wondering if we were stepping in the right dirt. Good times.

We had a fun group and had a fun time. Moab is one of those places that you could keep going back and find new things to do and places to see every time you go. That's pretty awesome.

Provo Canyon Drive

Now that it's fall and the colors are changing... (way too fast I might add) I have been taking drives up Provo Canyon after work. Here are some pictures from my drives.

End of the Fish Tank Diaries

After much debating, I decided to sell my fish tank. I have had it for a year and 9 months. It was fun while it lasted. It had it's high points, it had it's low points, but I wasn't getting the tank to where it was thriving. I am gone too much to give it the attention it needs. I was getting too frustrated with it. I said my goodbye's to my friends at the fish store. My heart just wasn't in it anymore and I no longer wanted to put money and effort into it.

So I put it on ksl this week and and actually was contacted about it the next day. I have had really great success selling things and selling things very quickly on ksl. It has been great. This guy committed to buying it right away, but he lived in Logan. We text back and forth a lot... to the point where I was starting to get annoyed and didn't want to have to deal with him anymore... so when he came to pick it up I wasn't thrilled to meet him. However, he ended up being this cool young guy going to school in Logan and we had fun chatting while I helped him get all the pieces of the tank to the car. He promised me my fish and coral was going to a good home and that he would get the tank thriving again and would send me a picture when it was looking awesome.

I had a little bit of mix emotions about letting it go. It was nice to have a little extra money and not have to worry about putting more money into it or taking care of it anymore. However, it was sad at the same time because of all the time and effort I did put into that tank and creating it the way I wanted it and picking out my fish and watching them for months and months. It was a good decision to let it go though. I'm a little relieved I don't have to worry about it anymore. It was fun while it lasted. If I ever need an ocean fix... I'll plan a trip somewhere that I can go scuba diving. :)

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 289

This week went by surprisingly fast. I guess I have just stayed busy... except for on Saturday. That was the most lazy day I have had in a really long time. MacKenzie and I sat on the couch all day. We didn't leave the house except for going to the grocery store and to try and new BBQ place and get Sodalicious and to pick up a redbox... which happened all in one trip and then. I don't love lazy days.. but if I'm going to have a lazy day, it's nice to have them with a friend.

We watched Age of Adeline, which was kind of cute... interesting movie. Worth a watch. Speaking of watching things... I finished Agents of Shield and started Friday Night Lights. It's a show that first off and most importantly, is over. It's a show about a high school football team. I'm not really that into football, but again, it's more about the characters. I just started the second season, but I like it so far.

I have been good about the gym this week, thanks to Jeannie. She is my good friend and Pilates instructor, or was my pilates instructor... I miss pilates. She is now teaching the U-Jam class on Tuesday which I went to. This week she also subbed the pump class, which I went to. Then yesterday she came in just to work out with me. It was like having my own personal trainer. We did weight training with a little bit of pilates. I haven't done any of that in months so it was REALLY hard for me. I'm super sore today. She kicked my butt. I'm so glad she did. I never push myself THAT hard at the gym. Now I need a massage. ha ha. I was going to go today as well, but we had a stupid work meeting that took the place of our lunch. They think it is ok as long as they feed us lunch, but I don't like having mandatory meetings over my lunch break.

Monday I also started my diet. Finally.... for reals this time. I kept finding excuses to put it off. It is harder because it takes prep and you really have to think about what you are going to eat the next day because there are different phases and you eat different things in the different phases and do different exercises on the different phases. That was the thing about Take Shape for Life. It was easy in the fact that you just grab their food and go. Didn't have to think, didn't have to prep. This is all clean eating... eating fresh. It's better for me, but takes a lot more effort. So far I have done well. Haven't felt too crappy either... you know sometimes your body doesn't like the change you are putting it through and you get headaches and have low energy. I have been fine. I have not cheated once... which is great for me since I have such a sugar tooth. I have also had a good coach. My cousin Lisa sends me text everyday to check on me to see how I did and make sure I'm staying on track and to motivate me not to cheat. Little pep talks everyday. It helps. Being accountable to someone always helps. It amazes me that with everything that she has going on... having 8 kids and 1 on the way.. that she has time to think about me on the diet everyday. She is sweet and I love her. I'm hoping this diet is successful for me. I really want to find something that I can do forever.

I went out with 2 Tinder boys this week. I haven't gone out with anyone from Tinder in a while, but I had two guys wanting to meet up, so I went for it. They were both younger. Not a surprise... most of the guys that want to go out with me are younger. The first one had different pictures.... some with a beard some without. He showed up a bearded mountain man. A big bushy beard. I'm not really into that, but he was nice and we had fun chatting at the park. The second guy I went out with was even younger. 8 years younger to be exact... but he was more fun. Hilarious in fact. We had a lot of fun. I would go out with him again... but knowing how most Tinder dates go, I will never see or talk to either one of them again.

My BFF Lolly had her baby girl last night. She text me when she was in the hospital and in labor. Dedicated best friend. She has wanted this baby for a long time, so I am happy she is finally getting it. Now we are both waiting for my husband that I have been wanting for a long time. We talk about these things all of the time. I love that I can call or text her anytime about anything and I know she will always be there for me. I'm blessed to have her has my friend all of these years.

Wednesday night I did some trip planning with my friends. Time for a next adventure. We are going to Moab this weekend. I have been several times, but there are still lots of places that I have never been to there. Should be fun.

I guess that is all for me. Happy tomorrow is Friday. Always excited to leave work to go play for the weekend.

Photo of the Week 287

Another picture from the beautiful Lake Blanche

Lake Blanche

I had seen many pictures of Lake Blanche from other people this summer and had been wanting to go all summer. I actually wanted to backpack and camp up there, but that didn't work out and my friends decided to hike it on Labor Day, so I took it. After doing the hike... doing it with a backpack with all of my gear sounds pretty awful. This hike is a BEAST!!! It's only a 2 miles or a little over 2 miles, but it took me 2 hours. It took me 2 hours because it is literally straight up hill the entire hike. It was SO hard. I thought it was harder than Angles Landing because the path is narrow and rocky with loose gravel and there is nothing flat on that trail. It's intense. I felt it for the rest of the week.

We had a big group and I hiked the slowest. I had one girl thankful that I was hiking slow and hiked with me. That was nice. Once you get up there, you realize the hike was worth it. It has the most incredible view and 3 beautiful lakes. We loved it so much that we hung out there for like 2 or so hours. I was thankful for that. It gave me a chance to rest before having to go steep downhill for an hour and a half which was just as hard on my legs.

We all ate our packed lunches at the Blanche and then explored the other two lakes up there. We watched Tom skip rocks (which turns out he is a pro and everyone that saw him... even people not in our group were super impressed and wanted to video tape him). We also ran into a big bull moose. Super cool. We watched the moose for a good 20 minutes or so.

We also ran into a fun older couple that offered to take a group pic of us that turned into a photoshoot with the husband taking the pics and the wife posing us. HA! We liked them. They also skipped rocks with us.

Then it was time to head back down. I hiked down by myself. I was in between groups... too fast for the other group, not quite being able to catch up to the first group. Oh well. I think because I was by myself, lots of people going up wanted to chat and ask me questions about the hike... two girls even stopped me and asked me about my eyelashes. Ha ha. People are super friendly here on the trails. I tell you what though... I can't tell you how happy I was to be done with that hike. I don't want to do it again for at least a year. When I got home I showered and was on the couch not moving for the rest of the night. I earned that right? Beautiful place though. SO glad that I finally got to go.