Sometimes I like to play the game, "If I Won the Lottery." It's a simple game, costs almost nothing (depends on if you actually buy the ticket or not) and makes me feel a little more optimistic about my boring... er, simple life.

Tonight I'm all about my love seat. Don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing, but when you only spend $30 at the Goodwill, you really can't expect much. It's lumpy, almost worn out (hello, it came from Goodwill) and you sort of sink into it, but not in a good way. More like you may need a crane to be hoisted out because your knees are up near your ears and you can't get any leverage to hoist yourself up. So while playing tonight's episode of "IIWTL," I decided that when I win, all the sitting surfaces in my house are going to be comfy. I don't care what they look like (although I do have some standards, don't plan on seeing this in my house: ...ever) but looks aren't as important as comfort. (Also, I figure that for enough money SOMEWHERE out there there has to be a sofa to be had that is both.) Don't get me wrong, I do have loftier dreams for when I win the lottery, but today... today, all I want is a comfy couch. That's not too much to ask for, right?

Thought for the Day

I totally stole this from my sister, but I really liked it, so I am claiming it. :P

Women are angels and when someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly... on a broomstick. We are flexible like that, so don't mess with us!

Random Thoughts While Driving Home

Dear Mother Nature,

Can we talk about this weather?? {yes, I was actually composing a letter}

Perhaps an investment in new windshield wipers is in order. These aren't helping so much as smearing.

I should go home and update my blog. It's been an embarrassingly long time since I have done that. Maybe I should just start a new one and let the old one die alone in shame.

Where did all this come from? It was clearing up like an hour ago...

Seriously people, you live in Colorado, it's not like you've never seen snow before.

Ugh, I REALLY need to do the dishes when I get home... WHY didn't I get a place with a dishwasher? I wonder if I could pay someone to come over and just do my dishes.

Dude! Just because you have four-wheel drive doesn't mean you can act like a maniac!

"When you've only got a hundred years to live..." Oooh, I just realized this is the first time in forever this song has come on and I haven't immediately switched the station.

Is everyone playing commercials at the same time? What, do all the stations get together and plan this out so you HAVE to listen to commercials? They should make a station of just commercials. Of course, I guess that would defeat the purpose then because no one would listen to...

Oh my gosh, that has to be the biggest snow plow I have ever seen. I think it's gonna eat my car.

Why do I only think of blog posts when I'm driving? I can't even jot them down, let alone type them out.

I should probably do laundry when I get home.

I really love these new boots.

Maybe I'll watch a movie when I get home. Hmm.... "The Truth About Charlie" or "Mamma Mia?"

I should probably start packing a suitcase to go out of town this weekend, just in case. It is Colorado and you never know what the weather is going to do.

I REALLY need to get to the post office. I'm not sure anyone is going to buy the excuse that I don't know where it is much longer.

Sometimes the speed and randomness of my thoughts amaze even me. And most of the time I don't even realize I am doing it. These bits of useless fluff were all conscious thoughts I had while driving home. Keep in mind I only live 5 minutes from work. And that's if the weather is bad, traffic is heavy and I hit all the red lights.

Procrastinators, Unite!

Tonight I was (supposed to be) packing to head to Utah for Christmas.  I hate packing.  It is in the top ten things I hate to do most in the world.  It's on the list with cleaning the bathroom.  Yeah, that bad.  You might think my reluctance to pack is because I'm not excited to go.  Not so, I just hate the act of packing.  I would totally go with just the clothes on my back (provided I could find something I want to wear) but I know I'd just be mad I didn't have more clothes when I got there.  And the bonus fun of packing to travel for Christmas is you not only have to pack clothes and toiletries, you have to cram gifts in there too.  

So tonight instead of packing, I wrote the following song:

(It's to the tune of "Jingle Bells")

It's ten o'clock pm
The night before I fly
I have so much to do

It makes me want to cry

I need to find my clothes
And somehow get my gifts
To fit inside my bag
I want to throw a fit!

Oh, packing sucks, packing sucks, packing really sucks!
Why can't I find my other shoe, for help I'd pay big bucks,
Oh packing sucks, packing sucks, packing really sucks!
I wish my clothes would fold themselves, but it seems I'm out of luck!

I know, I know, super talented, right?  Still beats packing.

(And just in case you wondered, I did get my bag packed, see?)

Vote!

Okay, first things first. You need to go here and vote for the image of my nephew and the pie. (It's #16.) My sister's image is one of the 20 finalists out of over 200, which I think is pretty dang cool. Voting ends December 2nd and there is only one entry allowed per IP address, so tell your friends!

And because I don't want you to be distracted by the other cute images on there (and because I like to put pictures in all my posts) here is the image you are voting for:

Lame-O

Okay, so here is the bottom line.  I SUCK at this whole blogging thing.  (Which is really sad, because I actually really enjoy it.)  My problem is that I have so much I want to say that I keep putting it off until I have "time" and I pretty much never have enough of that and I am tired of being behind.  So keeping that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and skip a few (a lot of) posts and I'll get back to them when I can.

Breaking Dawn Concert-Seattle

As you may have noticed from previous posts, I absolutely adore Stephenie Meyer and her books. You may also have noticed that I was a teensy bit excited about the release of the 4th and final installment in the Twilight saga.  In addition to being "mildly interested" about the book, I have also desperately wanted to to attend the Breaking Dawn concert series even since I found out about it.

So after much deliberation, preparation and manipulation (of my finances and plans, no people were manipulated that I am aware of) I headed off this week to Seattle to see the concert series--all by myself. In retrospect, this was no big deal.  At the time, I was scared to death, and pretty sure I was going to hurl at many different times.  I've never done anything like this--gone somewhere all by myself (for longer than a few hours) for no other reason than because I felt like it.  It was actually quite an empowering experience and I would definitely recommend it to everyone.

I flew into Seattle on Tuesday and rented a car.  Since I couldn't check into the hotel for about an hour, I drove around down by the airport and found a store where I could purchase the stuff I forgot and found some food.  (How lame is this, I went to McDonald's.  Apparently there was only so much new stuff I could handle at one time.)  I checked into my hotel down by the airport, and the best things I can say about it were it was clean and cheap.  After I got settled and rested a bit, I changed my clothes and headed into downtown Seattle for the book signing/concert.  I cruised on in (after only a minor detour when I missed my freeway entrance and got lost... thank heavens for friends with the internet and google maps) and was giddily singing along to Blue October on my iPod, trying to see everything I could while still driving, and snapping pictures out the window.  

                                     

I followed my directions into downtown, exited the freeway and made the left turn that would eventually lead me through the one way streets to where I needed to be, and nosedived.  No one told me that the streets of Seattle were steep like San Francisco.  I handled going down okay, but when I had to go up the next street, I was a ball of nerves.  I was terrified that I was going to roll backwards into a car behind me and just prayed that there was a sticker or something on the back of the car that identified it as a rental and therefore I was from out of state and give me extra room.  I found Benaroya Hall and luckily there was a parking garage just a little up the street so that I didn't have to add parallel parking (which I suck at) on top of the roller coaster streets.  I grabbed my book and hurried to get in line.

When I finally got inside, it was PACKED.  I was amazed at how many people were there, it was crazy!  I found my seat and to my intense delight, I was in the 4th row.  Not only that, but there was no 3rd row on the side, it was an aisle, so I had plenty of leg room in addition to the fantastic view.  (Although to be honest, I would have sat in the corner behind a pole just to be there.)  I sat there for awhile by myself with no one to share my excitement with before I finally got up the nerve to ask someone to snap some pictures of me.  Self portraits just don't cut it sometimes.  (Although you can kind of get an idea of how big the hall was behind me.)  Eventually Cyndi, the girl I bought the ticket from on eBay, arrived and we sat and chatted until the show started.

I don't even know what to say about the show.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.   Justin Furstenfeld  came out and sang a couple of songs (which were awesome, of course, just him and an acoustic guitar--so cool)  and then they brought Stephenie out and she sat and chatted with the audience, talked about how music influenced her writing and how some of the Blue October songs in particular applied to different parts of her books.  As she would talk about a specific song,  Justin would then sing it.   I'll be honest, that whole segment was probably my favorite part.  I tried to do videos of each of the songs with my camera, but people kept walking in front of me, so the only song I got in its entirety was "Sound of Pulling Heaven Down," which is my favorite. (You can go here to watch it. And you totally should, it's awesome.)

After they finished the music part, Justin left the stage and an interviewer came out and asked Stephenie a bunch of questions that had been submitted by the audience prior to the show.  It was really neat to listen to her talk about the books and get a little "bonus" info about some of the characters.  (She even talked a little about the Host and it's probable sequel!)

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and there were a lot of books to be signed.  They started having people get in line based on where they were sitting, starting with the balconies.  Turns out just because you have a screaming good seat, there are drawbacks.  Front row, last in line.  (Again, so not complaining, I would have stayed to clean up for this opportunity.)  I waited almost three hours before I got my book signed, but it was so worth it.  Stephenie was so cool, she stayed until every last one of the 2000+ people got their books signed.  Sadly, by the time I got to her, I was completely tongue tied and only managed a mumbled, "thank you!" in place of the well thought out things I had planned to say before I shuffled off with my book.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful... had to walk down into a deserted parking garage at 11:30 at night all alone with a dead cell phone, got lost downtown while trying to find the freeway, finding the freeway, but going the wrong direction, finally made it back on going the right direction, realized about half way back to the hotel that I had been driving with no head lights on, quick sandwich from the Safeway and sleep.

And if you made it this far, you deserve a cookie.  I don't have any, but you should go into your kitchen and have one.