Caught between a rock and a hard place

I've been feeling sick to my stomach ever since lunchtime. I guess it could be that I ate something that didn't agree with me, but more likely it's because I just filled my car up with gas and it cost me $60.01. In the grand scheme of things, $60.01 isn't a lot when compared to the price of a house or a nose job, but when I compare it to the cost of a lot of other things I start to feel ill. Especially when I consider that I could be putting that $60 toward some wedding costs. It is 15% of the remaining balance of my wedding dress. It could buy almost one place setting of china from my gift registry. I could get my hair cut and colored for the same amount, and it would last substantially longer. The list goes on, and I should probably stop complaining since the person that pumped before me left their receipt and I saw that they spent $97.29. And I thought that buying a sporty Korean family sedan would save me money. Who knew?

Tagged... Brought to You by the Number 5

Things I did today:
1) Woke up at 5:15 am to Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" playing loudly in some part of my house (not happy).
2) Ran out of clean towels, so I did a load of laundry when I woke up at 5:15 am.
3) Worked hard to finish stuff up at work before the end of the month.
4) Plan on going to the gym after work.
5) Plan on spending quality time with my honey after the gym.

Snacks I enjoy:
1) Smoked gouda with apples ("Gouda's my favorite!").
2) Hummus on crackers
3) Almonds
4) Churros
5) Carrots

Five things I would do if I suddenly became a billionaire:
1) Pay off debt.
2) Buy a huge, awesome house that cleans itself.
3) Travel the world.
4) Invest it in property and buy stock in companies like Pepsi because, apparently, Pepsi is very big in China, and China is where it's at.
5) Donate some to charity.

Five places I've lived:
1) Los Angeles, CA
2) Provo, UT
3) Dusseldorf, Germany (but only temporarily for work)
4) Don't have a 4th
5) Don't have a 5th

Five jobs I've held:
1) Office assistant for an oral surgeon (gross!)
2) Custodial at BYU's Heritage Halls
3) Jamba Juice
4) Nanny
5) Too many more to list

Five things people don't know about me:
1) I like the smell of skunk.
2) Back in the day when 21 Jump Street was all the rage, I planned to marry Johnny Depp.
3) I love the 80s and sometimes wish we could go back. Ronald Reagan was president, gas was cheap, and hair was big. Good times.
4) I wish I were bootylicious like Beyonce.
5) There was this one time, I stayed up way past midnight.

Five people I tag:
1) Mal
2) Chit Chatt
3) Forever Laym
4) Tenth in line
5) Melissa

Just get me to the church... er, temple... on time!

The post you've all been waiting for. It finally happened, Rob and I are getting married!!! And I've got the pictures to prove it. We went to LA over the weekend so that Rob could meet my parents and ask my dad if he could marry me. I was so worried that my family wouldn't like him, but more worried that he wouldn't like them. We're kind of a weird bunch, so I thought it likely that he might just run in the other direction when he met them. I couldn't be more pleased that my family likes him and he likes them. My nephew especially likes him. All weekend he kept asking me if Robert was going to be part of the family and if Robert was going to be his uncle. Last night before he went to bed he gave me a hug and then went over to Robert and gave him a hug and said "I'll miss you." I guess he's not going to miss me. He better remember what side his bread is buttered on if he knows what's good for him.

I was really worried for Robert to talk to my dad, so I gave him every possible scenario before we went to LA. I was surprised, but not surprised at my dad's answer. "She's old enough to make her own decisions. Actually, it's probably better because she'll be your problem now." Gotta love dads. But seriously, that's just my dad's way of doing things. All weekend I wasn't quite sure what he was thinking. He finally told me last night that he was happy for me. And of course my mom is excited.

Since I was expecting the proposal this weekend, I was going over every possibility in my head. My first guess was that he would do it at the beach but he didn't seem to be fidgety or weird while we were there, and I felt like he had multiple opportunities to have already done it, so I started thinking he would do it at the Griffith Park Observatory. Right as the sun was almost completely behind the Malibu part of the Santa Monica Bay, he turned his back to me, but I still wasn't thinking he would do it then. All of a sudden, he was on one knee asking me to marry him. He'll say that I answered before he even asked, but he's full of it - I waited for the full question. I got really embarrased because there were a lot of people on the beach that night due to the blazing hot weather over the weekend. As I looked around, I noticed that no one was even paying attention.

Life is great now that I am engaged... there's a lot of pressure off because now I can talk about it and make plans freely; however, I've noticed that everyone has come out of the woodwork with suggestions for how we should do the wedding. It's nice that everyone wants to help, but a little overwhelming, too. I'm going to try really hard not to be a bridezilla. If I am, please forgive me and know that I'll be back to normal by September.

I've always heard that when you meet the right one that things just fall into place... and they have. I feel really blessed to be marrying such a wonderful man and am looking forward to a great life with him. He's pretty great!

TGIF... sort of

Friday afternoons from about 2pm to 5pm are the worst time ever!!! Especially on the Fridays where we have a company potluck and we all just sit around eating lunch, leaning back in our chairs and telling cat stories. We really did that today. I heard some scary cat stories, which are making me feel totally not jazzed about having a cat as a pet. I did hear that spray bottles are indespensible and you can put your cat in "time out" if it is naughty. Sounds like good times. I digress... my point is that it is hard to work when you have a full belly and you've been sitting around for 90 minutes just shootin' the breeze. I think that we should just be able to go home after occasions such as this.

We all went back to our desks around 2, and I was really dreading getting back to work, when I opened up MSN.com and saw that Tim Russert, of "Meet the Press" fame, died today. I announced it, figuring that we could spend at least 15-20 minutes discussing the event, but all I got was "who's that?" and "hmm, that's sad." Dang it! I guess I tried.

People around this place have too good of a work ethic. I miss the old Symantec days where the office cleared out around 2, and anyone left after that was either a sucker or worked in Sales Support - I exclude all of you SSC peeps from the "sucker" category because I realize that you just don't have the option of leaving early. One time, I left work early and decided to catch an afternoon matinee and ran into the CFO. He didn't say "why are you at the movie at 3pm when you should still be at work." He was like, "hey, nice to see you here. What show are you here to see? Well, awesome! You'll have to tell me about it on Monday." People at Connect PR stay late on Friday. I'm not down with that. And I feel guilty for not staying late just because there are a lot of people who do. Overachievers, all of them!!!

So, this is my pity party. I hate Friday afternoons, blah, blah, blah. If you'd like to join, I have one every Friday afternoon from 2-5pm. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

P.S. I made Martha Stewart's Creamy Lemon Squares for the potluck today. I have one word... notworthit. That's all one word.

I'd like to order a BLT... hold the T

I don't like tomatoes. I've never liked tomatoes. I have ordered a BLT minus the T, which has often brought on a few funny looks from restaurant servers, but what do I care? It's not like I'm ordering a cheeseburger without the cheese, because that would just be a hamburger. Since there's no BL option, I have to order a BLT minus the T. I've actually been kind of happy with the ban on tomatoes because when I order food that normally has tomatoes on it I don't have to tell the server that I don't want the tomato. If there are no tomatoes, I don't have to refuse them.

And what's with restaurants thinking that because you don't want tomato that you must want extra onions? Is there a height requirement on sandwiches and burgers that is breached when you take out a tomato? I went to lunch at a friend's house today and we decided that we would get Subway sandwiches since the footlongs are only $5 - such a deal, and there were so many onions on them that my eyes were watering from the next room. So not only do I have to ask for no tomato, I have to ask that they don't put extra onions on because I've asked for no tomato. And the cycle continues because if you ask for no tomato and limited onions, they put more pickles on. I guess I just can't win.

I blame my parents, of course, for my dislike of tomatoes. They would make me go out to the garden and pick tomatoes for our salads every single night, and there were worms on the plants. I'm not down with worms. It must have had a psychological impact on me, seeing the worms, and not wanting to eat the tomatoes. You may be wondering if I stay away from all tomatoes. No. I like tomato products, just not raw tomatoes... unless they're cut up real small and I can't taste them and I can't feel the slimy texture.

So I know that some of you will read this post and you're going to comment on how it's "un-American" to not like tomatoes. I have this to say to you: "brownies and mushrooms."

Since I'm talking about foods I don't like, I might as well add milk to the mix. I love me some dairy products, but there is nothing that grosses me out more than a glass of milk unaccompanied by peanut butter, chocolate, cake, or cookies. I like to drink milk with cookies, cake, brownies and peanut butter sandwiches, but I have to carefully meter the amount of milk-to-bite so that I don't run out of bites before the milk is gone. That's just how it works for me. I do eat milk with my cereal, so I'm not totally weird.

I know that this is a pretty lame post, but someone reminded me today that I haven't posted in a week, so I thought I should grace my precious readers with a little tid-bit. As soon as I have something more awesome to write about, I will.

A lot of you have also been asking for pictures of me and my beau. Here's the sitch... in the pictures that we've taken, either he looks good and I don't or I look good and he doesn't. So, naturally, I can't post any pictures that don't make me look good. I would never do that to myself. And I don't want to post any pictures where he doesn't look good because I need everyone to see how really, really, ridiculously good looking he is. So, until we both decide to be photogenic on the same day, you won't be seeing any pictures. He really does exist, I promise!

ABCs of Jenny from the Block

A- Attached or Single? Attached

B- Best Friend? Mom and Robyn (Robert is ascending the ladder)

C- Cake or Pie? Chocolate cake

D- Day of Choice? Friday

E- Essential Item? Burt's Bees Lip Balm

F- Favorite Color? Pink

G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Gummy Bears

H- Hometown? Los Angeles

I- Favorite Indulgence? Mani/pedis

J- January or July? January - I'd much rather be cold than hot. You can always put more clothes on, but only so many you can take off.

K- Kids? None right now.

L- Life isn't complete without? The gospel... and Barefoot Contessa

M- Marriage date? I don't know

N- Number of brothers and sisters? 3 sisters

O- Oranges or Apples? Apples

P- Phobias and Fears? Snakes and never getting married or having children

R- Reason to smile? Life - I am so blessed in so many ways!

S- Season of choice? Fall - not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket.

T- Tag three people? Awallz, Chit Chatt, Forever Laym

U- Unknown fact about me? My IQ is 113 - very average

V- Vegetable? Carrots

W- Worst Habit? Leaving my dirty clothes on the floor

X-ray or Ultrasound? X-rays are a lot less messy

Y- Your favorite food? Chocolate

Z- Zodiac Sign? Aquarius

The Host

Has anyone read it yet? I started reading on Friday night, but I'm having a slightly hard time getting into it. I think I need some encouragement.

And, her eye is freaky.

Smart Cookie/Not a Smart Cookie

Yum-a-dum-dum! I love Smart Cookie. http://www.smartcookiecompany.com/

I do not love Clay Aiken. I heard about this on the Today show, but I don't believe anything that comes out of Kathy Lee's mouth so I did a little research and it looks like it is true. Get the scoop below.

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=316501&GT1=7702

Blog Stalking

I recently found out that someone I marginally know has been blog stalking me for the last few months. I felt a little weird about it, being that I don't know this person all that well. And then I thought, "who am I kidding? I do the same thing." In fact, I blog stalk someone who I've never met but just heard of and I am tempted to leave commentary on their blog every stinkin' time I read it. Why? Because I feel like they need my advice on how to live their life. I don't find this person particularly interesting or anything, but they seem like they have some weird things happen to them because of the choices they make. I think I'm turning into Dr. Phil. He just showed up in Britney's hospital room and said "I'm gonna whip you into shape if it's the last thing I do," and I want to do the same thing with this individual that I blog stalk. Unfortunately, their blog doesn't accept anonymous comments.

I'm just going to have to create a new blogger identity so I can leave semi-anonymous comments on blogs that I stalk.

So You Think You Can Drink

Last night I went over to my friend Heidi's house for a viewing of my favorite summer show, "So You Think You Can Dance." This show is awesome, but this post will not be dedicated to discussing the awesomeness of the show. What I want to talk about first is the Salt Lake auditions. Quel embarrassing! I feel as if the editors chose every weirdo in the state to feature, except for maybe the girl whose mother was the "High School Musical" choreographer.

First off, mom of four? You've got to be kidding me! I just hope that when I get married my husband will love me enough to be 100% honest and say, "honey, I didn't marry you for your dancing ability. Please do not go on national television and bring shame and dishonor to this family." And then there was the floating pants lady who was obviously in a world of her own. I feel bad for her. Really bad. And then the guy who is a strip club DJ. I don't know much about DJing, but something tells me that strip club DJing is probably not all that prestigious among the DJing community. He could have just said he was a DJ. And speaking of strip clubs, I didn't even know that Utah had any strip clubs. My guess is that it's in West Valley or Taylorsville. The thing is, I know that Utah has some amazing dancers. Why couldn't they show the really amazing, normal dancing people? I would have appreciated seeing some cloggers, because cloggers rock!

I know that I am going to offend at least 3 people who read my blog by saying this, but I don't care. I have never professed myself as being politically correct. After watching the auditions last night, I can see why the rest of the country calls people from Utah "Utards." The name totally fits. And the ironic thing is that the guy with Downs Syndrome was probably the best guy that tried out. I loved him!

OK, so I vented about how badly Utahns were portrayed. Now I want to talk about judge Mary Murphy. I think she hits the sauce. Hits it liberally and frequently. There's just something not right about her and I think it is due to alcohol. Last night, someone in the group pointed out that she brought out a flask as the camera shifted away from her. I have a suspicion that it wasn't Gatorade. If you look at her mouth in the picture above, it never changes expression. All teeth, all the time. I think it's a direct result of drunkenness. I want to start a Facebook group called "There's Something About Mary... and It's Probably the Booze." This group will be dedicated to intervening on Mary's behalf to get her into AA or some other 12 step program. She's in LA and my parents are group facilitators for an addiction recovery program down there. Maybe they can help. Let's all help Mary!

I know this post is a rambling one, but I just had to get all of the trauma of last night's episode off my chest. I think that in order to preserve my sanity, I can't watch the show until we're past the auditions. I can't handle watching other people embarrass themselves and I can't handle the judges being "way harsh" on them. Wake me up when the auditions are over.

Thoughts on a Tuesday Afternoon

My co-worker and I have decided that short weeks are worse than 5-day work weeks. Why? Because the first day of the week is Tuesday and it is much worse than any Monday has ever been. I don't know about anyone else, but I stayed up way too late last night and then rolled out of bed this morning and stumbled into work. I had so much back-log to take care of, a gazillion emails, and on top of that I just didn't want to work. I broke one of my rules and had a Diet Coke this afternoon (it's a good thing that Diet Coke guy left one for me) and now I have heartburn. But at least I was able to stay awake during a super boring teleconference and a meeting that followed directly after. It was a toss up - staying awake and possibly having heartburn or falling asleep and embarassing myself. I'll take pain over humiliation any day.

I think I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.

Go ahead, make my day!

There was a post on "Stuff White People Like" recently that talked about how white people live to find grammatical and spelling errors. I can't speak for my other white brothers and sisters, but I know that I sure do. I was reading CNN this morning, catching up on the daily news, when I came across this error:

"More than 100 children escaped injure when workers at the Windmill Daycare hustled them to a bank across the street, where they rode out the storm in the bank's vault, CNN affiliate KUSA-TV of Denver reported."

The thrill I feel is even more amplified because the mistake was made by a major news outlet! Yes!

To read the original post, go to http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/. It's #99.

Right place, right time

For the first (and probably the only) time in my life, I caught the bouquet in the bouquet toss at my friend Emily's wedding. Some may say I threw punches and elbows to get it, but I really think it was just because I was taller than all of the other girls there. Actually, that's not true. Jenny is the same height as I am. I think it just came right to me. My rommate says it was my density (destiny to all of you non-BTTF watchers). Anyway, I was really excited so I let out a huge scream when I caught it. And now I have it as a souvenir of my once-in-a-lifetime good luck. I like to say that I catch everything but money, men, and bouquets and now I can scratch two of those off the list.

Oh, thank heaven...

For M.A.C.s Studio Fix powder/foundation, color NC30! I woke up with a terrifically huge zit on my face this morning and then burned my neck with my metal round brush while blow drying my hair. Normally, I can handle things like this... when they don't happen on the same day, which happens to be the day that my friend is getting married! I'm the maid of honor and I know I'll be in lots of pictures, so it's a little tragic. I have a mountain on my face and a burn on my neck that looks suspiciously like a hickey, what is a girl to do?

M.A.C. Studio Fix to the rescue! This powder/foundation has such awesome coverage that it covered the redness from both the zit and the burn. Hallelujah!!! Now I won't look like The Wreck of the Hesperus for my friend's big day; however, my hair could be another thing ;)

I highly reccomend any M.A.C. product, especially the Studio Fix. It's kind of pricey, but it lasts a long time and it is really good quality. And if you save 5 of the empty compacts, you can get a free lipstick. Isn't that nice?

I don't like Jack Johnson

I have decided that I don't like Jack Johnson anymore. Maybe it's because I'm burned out... when I listen to my iPod on shuffle, every other song is a Jack Johnson song. Maybe because I hear his songs so often, I listen to the lyrics more and and I am just not impressed. I'm taking all Jack Johnson songs off of my iPod unless someone can give me a really compelling reason to keep them on there.

In other news, it is HOT in Provo. I am a little miffed that we seemed to go straight from Winter to Summer and skipped Spring altogether. What's up with that? Yesterday was near 90 and today is supposed to be near 95. I just don't know if I can go an entire summer with this weather. I'm pretty sure that it was so hot in my house last night that my blood neared boiling temperatures, and I was sweating so bad that I had to wash my sheets this morning. For real. But it's OK because I was up at 5am, so I had time to do a load of laundry. I don't like hot weather. I'm convinced that I'm like a chocolate bar. Nice, creamy, and sweet when the temperatures are mild. But then when it gets hot I get all melty and runny and cause problems for everyone. I hope that my boyfriend will still love me at the end of the summer.

Speaking of my boyfriend, he is still awesome! Yesterday was our 1 month anniversary and I still can't believe that a blind date could turn out so amazingly. A lot of you have been asking for pictures so I took a picture with my camera phone, but I don't look so hot in it... I won't be posting any pictures where I don't look hot. Hopefully we can snap some great pics this weekend. I've also had requests to hold a meet n' greet at my casa where all of my friends can meet him. Stay tuned for date and time.

So long, farewell...

As some of you may know, my dear grandmother passed away last Monday. Grandma Dee had been sick for a while, but thankfully it wasn't a long time. It was always her fear that she would have to be cared for by her family for a long time, just like her own mother who had a stroke in her 80s and lived well into her 90s but was completely bedridden the entire time. Grandma Dee was only really ill for a few months, but it was a blessing for her to go because she was in so much pain.

I loved Grandma Dee very much. Since she lived next door, I saw her every day growing up. Not only was she my grandmother, but she was a good friend. I'm so glad that I could spend as many years with her as I did and will remember her always.

My grandma was always really nosey, looking in windows, spying on neighbors from her living room, and asking tons of questions. I'll miss that, but know that she'll still be spying on me from heaven. I hope she likes what she sees!

They're Ronald Reagan's Favorite Treat

And apparently, they are the snack of choice for my Diet Coke guzzling co-worker. I love the picture above because this is what his desk looks like. I didn't take the picture, it just popped up during a Google search for Jelly Bellies. On Monday DCG brought in one of the above, Costco-sized container of Jelly Bellies. The container was full then, it is now almost empty like the above container. And the worst part of it is that he pours the beans into a smaller glass dish, making this crazy loud sound that echoes throughout the office. He does this about 3 times a day. At first, I thought "who is pouring nails into the trash can, and why?" And now that I know what he is up to, I just get annoyed.

So not only am I annoyed by Diet Coke guy, I also feel bad for him. We had an office potluck today, and both DCG and I brought desserts. I brought these pretty little pink cupcakes that look like they were made by Ina Garten, and DCG brought some sort of pie-like substance. I say pie-like, because I'm not actually sure that it was pie. If given the choice, you would choose the cupcake. And everyone did choose a cupcake. We have a partner that is so skinny that if she were to turn sideways she'd disappear, and even she ate one of my cupcakes. I'm sure she only allows herself sugar on 3 occasions during the year: Christmas, Thanksgiving, and 1 day of choosing. I feel privileged that she chose my cupcake for sugar day #3. No one ate DCG's pie. Maybe if he sprinkled some Jelly Bellies on it...

Clumsy

I think there's something wrong with me. Last night I came home from the temple around 8pm. I pulled into the garage but didn't shut the door behind me because I was going to put my stuff in the house and then go out to the curb and bring in the trash can. I got in the house, put down my stuff, and then my phone rang. I finished talking, locked the front door, turned off all of the lights and shut the blinds, and then went upstairs to get ready for bed.

Flash forward to this morning. I hear the garage door open and then I heard the front door slam. I went downstairs to see what was going on and the garage door was closed. But then I heard some strange noises coming from either upstairs or my neighbor - I couldn't tell. I called my roommate just to be sure that it was her and not someone else.

I got a voicemail from her later in the morning and she said that she shut the garage because it was open when she left the house this morning. I left it open last night, along with the door from the garage into the house, and left my car unlocked. I also had my purse with my wallet and car keys just sitting on the couch. What was I thinking? I guess I wasn't thinking!

I feel clumsy, like the Fergie song of the same name.

The Tide pen does not work. And it smells like belly-button. Do not buy it. The End.

The Latest and Greatest

So I know that a lot of you have been dying to know how the blind date I blogged about a few weeks ago went. It went nothing like the foreboding episode of The Office the night before, for which I am glad.

First of all, I have to give a shout out to my friend Mark for setting us up. I was a little worried because Mark likes everyone and I didn't know what I was coming up against, but kudos to him for setting me up with such a wonderful man.

Our first date was pleasant... he was polite, respectful, kind, chivalrous, but most of all I could tell that he was a truly decent person. Actually, decent is too benign a term... he was more than decent. I could tell that he had a good heart and that he was righteous. I could see light eminating from him, which is why I said "we should do this again sometime" when he dropped me off. Who knew that those 6 words would get an unstoppable ball rolling! Since April 19, we have seen or talked to one another pretty much every single day except for two - the day after our date and the Wednesday after.

After knowing each other for only two and a half weeks, we are officially dating and very happy to be with one another. Who knew? Not me, that's for sure.

I know this sounds kind of like an advertisement for blind dates, and it kind of is. I would encourage those of you who are single to embrace the blind date. I know a lot of happy couples who have met that way.

I don't have any pictures, but as soon as I do I will post some. He's quite handsome... and fortunately, I'm not the only one who thinks so. I've always wanted to date someone who was universally good looking, much like I am ;)

So thanks to all of you for your well wishes, and especially for your prayers. Hillary Clinton likes to say that it "takes a village" to raise a family, but I like to think it takes a village to get one started... putting two people together, I mean ;) Through this whole experience, the one thing that has been abundantly clear to me is that Heavenly Father does listen to and answer our prayers. Robert has been an answer to mine in so many ways.

Don't get too excited for me yet, though. Afterall, we have only known one another for two and a half weeks!