Kayaking...Again...

So I went on my first kayaking trip of the year last weekend. Again on the Blue River, which to be more accurate is green to brownish. Out of the group, I'm the only one who's been on this trip before and out of the group, I'm the only one to swamp her/his canoe/kayak. LOL. In my defense, it had been raining all week and the river was just a few inches under 'No Go' stage when they close the outfitters down for safety reasons. This trip is always listed as a class II, but I'd never seen ANY white water. You're luck if you don't have to get out and walk it's so shallow in sections in the summer. I have a bruise the size of a grapefruit to show for it in the middle of my lower back. Yummy.

It was so fun though. I'm glad we got together a good sized group to go. I loved it. I would go every weekend if I could get away with it. I'm not the most athletic person by any stretch, but in a kayak I can rock! Its nice now to feel like I've had a nice workout at the end and not be completely exhausted. (My last trip I forgot to check that the drain plug was in the kayak until two miles downstream when I started floating 2 1/2" under the water, I wasn't a happy camper.) We decided to stop to try out a rope swing and I tucked into a tree root ball to get anchored. In the process I bumpbed into a branch, which immediately deposited it's 3" long shelled occupant into my lap. I've never seen a baby turtle look more frantic. He was really cute. I started drifting back into the current and had to drop him back in the water. If you're intersted in going, I'm always going to say YES!

My Movie Watching Mantra

Ok, so last month I watched the movie 'Seven Pounds' and just sat there for 3 minutes when it was over, with tears rolling down my face. I hate crying over movies. HATE IT. Life has enough unfun moments not to pay to cry other fictional people's unfun moments. No paying to cry! Nope. Dont' wanna.

Situational Comedies make me cringe, I hate watching people be embarrassed, let alone watch when you were told its going to happen right there on the outside of the box. Romantic Comedies make me grind my teeth (....mainly because I don't have enough in my own life...cue teeth grinding). I unabashedly tend to stick strickly to the action genre. It's relatively safe. Yes, I am the target audience of very big budget, all fluff and guts, no plot, action movie each summer. I can admit to having seem just about every 'car movie' and number quite a few in my all time favorites. Fast & the Furious, Gone in 60 seconds, The Italian Job, Transformers (still a car movie under the sci fi), et cetre, et cetre... I like them. I watch them all on my lonesome without a the influence of a male..cough.. friend helping me choose. I'm not looking for a cathartic 'get into my head' experience. I want out of it, my head that is, like its on fire! Just let me not think, have a fictional problem to resolve in under 2 hours, and have a concrete resolution, often with the good guys winning.

Sigh...Vehicle blowing up make my punctured tires on the interstate look like cake walks. Maybe that's what I'm doing. Buildings exploding Die Hard style just make my 'need to replace the siding over the loading dock door' problems look small. Perfect! I am checking the box labeled 'Rationalization' with gusto! (grin) I was listening to a speaker last week in church who read a quote discussing the dumbing down of society through the numbing influence of media and the weakening of the fibers of our moral code'....He's right by the way. It does. This is not advocation, its more like a mantra. I refuse to pay to cry. Nough said. :)

Derby City Roller Girls

You know, every once in a while its kind of nice to see some girls you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. My friend Heather and I end to see the Derby City Roller Girls this weekend for a bout against the Bleeding Heartland. I've wanted to go ever since I found out we have a team three years ago. It was so fun! I had to reread the rules 20 times and I still wasn't quite sure how you scored each jam session, but it was seriously fun to watch. With team member names like Olivia Hurtin', Mel O'Drama, Celia Graves, and Carrie A. Glock it was a riot. Unfortunely the home team was down by 35 point and when it slipped to 50 points it honestly looked like they just decided to get even if they couldn't win. Suddenly 3 out of a team of 5 are in the penalty box every 3 minutes, leaving only 2 on the floor. A skater falls and stretches out wide for no other reason than to be a tripping hazard for the four people behind her. I would totally go see them again! Probably more than a third of the crowd was family and friends which made it even better. The crowd was totally into it. Family members had team jerseys with names like 'Papa Glock' on the back and 'Sweet Momma's Momma'. Ya, its been a while since I've seen that many tats on display in one place, and ya, I now know where the common Louisvillian lesbian now hangs out one night of the month, but it was really fun to watch. :)

Easter!

(I just discoved that Blogger does drafts....so those posts that I started, got distracted durning, and thought I lost...are still here! So this one is a little late...) So I got to give a talk in sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday. I'd like to point out that in a small congregation, passing the sacrament is a 7 minute deal. Branch business announcements? There were none. I was the first speaker of two and we had 45 minutes to fill...um, color me intimidated. Honestly, though, I don't HATE speaking. I spend more time when preparing a lesson or talk, in my scriptures than I commonly might in a week. It's lucky for me lately, that I teach women on Sunday 1 to 2 times a month. I learn with more depth than I might normally. I really have to review what I believe and what I practice. Sometimes they're not so similar. I've made more adjustments in this area of my life in the last 6 months than I think I've made in the last 4 years. There are lessons that I really feel were meant just for me, let alone the women I teach. I wonder lately what kind of woman I would have been had my life fallen out like I'd intended as a teenager. Would I feel the empathy that I do? Would I be as confident in my own path as I am? Would I have learned to stand up and be counted for what I believe? In business or personal matters? I was considering the other day that my Mom used to refer to me as 'shy'. LOL, I think somewhere in college I got over it. I still blush or ...rottenly...tear up at the drop of a hat (which is why I don't like the click flinks) but I can also almost always find something to talk about. I have so much random knowledge stuffed into my head that it should be used by SOMEBODY.

Priorities

So I haven’t had the best month. Sometimes you look around and realize that life can get harder, quite a bit faster than you ever thought possible. This month, it hasn’t even been my life, it’s been everyone else’s. I cry for them and I want to make things easier. I want to smooth their path. I want to shoulder some of the grief. I didn’t always, but usually I can look around and tell myself, “Well, I can’t fix that, but I can do this…” Lately, the obstacles have been life changers. How can you ‘fix’ something that’s looks so shattered? That it isn’t just going to be hard now, it’s going to be harder forever. My solution to date, be there. Let them know that you know. Let them know you can, if nothing else, listen. I don’t have a lot of concrete obligations with my time. I have a job, but it’s not my life. I have a life, but it’s not my everything. I caught myself thinking last week, “What wouldn’t I give up, to fix this?” Would I drop everything and move across the country? Yes. Would I get tested and go on the donor registration? Yes. Would I sell all I own, (sadly this one took a little longer, but…) Yes. What wouldn’t I give up to save someone I love from hurt? Very little. My integrity, my faith, and my hope are mine, but you can have my time, my focus, and my skills. Just ask.

My Lofty Goals...

20 things I want to do for myself before I die...

1. write and publish
2. visit an active volcano
3. learn to scuba dive
4. take horse back riding lessons until I can jump 4' fences
5. hike 100+ miles on the Appalachian Trail
6. own a Jeep Wrangler with a roll bar and a lift kit
7. build my own vacation cabin
8. skydive at least once
9. raise an orchid I don't kill in under 6 months
10. certify as a sailboat captain
11. learn to pick locks
12. take voice lessons (blues emphasis)
13. run a 7 minute mile
14. live in a foreign country
15. learn to play "Kid Fears" by Indigo Girls on the guitar
16. get a motorcycle license and purchase required motorcycle
17. own 50+ acres
18. own my own business
19. kayak a class 4 river
20. understand men :)

Over scheduled and under slept...

Do you ever plan and plot to fit everything in and then realize that you've overcommitted to a bazillion things you need, want, and just might crave all in the same small window of time? Yep, I'm an idiot. I leave for a roommate reunion in 8 days. I need to pack the remainder of my things (I'm estimating an additional 10+ solid hours of work to go on that front)so that I can move 4 days after I get back. I'm committed to house sit for 4 of my remaining days before vacation. I'm supposed to go to dinner tonight with friends, I have a date for Lost watching on Wednesday, bowling and Joe's on Friday, and another dinner with different friends on Saturday. I need to buy/make a baby gift before I leave and ... these were all, at one point, all commitments of MY CHOICE. Throw in that I can't sleep lately and I feel stessed and have absolutely no one to blame but myself. Grrr. Active social life? check. More active than I've ever had in my life? check. Needing to find a better balance? double check. Wishing I could still pull all nighters like I did as a freshman in college? triple check. Like I said, I'm an idiot.

New Apartment in outer Mongolia...

I'm moving to LaGrange, KY in about a month. I have a really cute apartment that is only 3 miles from work, instead of the 20-30 minute commute I have now twice a day. And let me tell you, 20-30 extra minutes of sleep is a big deal when you're trying to be at work by 7:00am! I'm really excited in a way, while I'm worried I've just made myself so geographically undesirable I'll never convince my friends to visit. My logic being that my social life only really comes alive on the weekends anyway, so a 30 minute drive 2-3x a week vs. minimum of 5x is an improvement. My apartment is within walking distance of the local library and the only movie theater in town, PERFECT! My two favorites! Now if I the theater only served Chinese food and only attracted dark haired, blue eyed men I'd never leave. A girl can dream...

Christmas: The Great Delay

Do you ever look back at a week and thing, "Wow, that was rotten." Then think about your month, and think something remarkably similar? October kind of felt that way. November got a little better; which meant December was pretty fun. I love having my whole family together. I may complain and poke fun at our Christmas morning traditions, but secretly I don't mind. It's all part of the drama. (Just in case you don't know, we are not allowed down stairs until given permission by the Grand Po-Ba of Christmas, Dad himself. Presents must be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Christmas casserole must already be in the oven. Showers taken, hair fixed - this requirement may have evolved after a few years of unattractive photos...lol. ) Jenna made Dad promise this year that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING would be ready by 8am on the dot.

Hilariously, this year was the year that Conner decided not to wake up until 7:30am, delaying Kristen, Adam, and Connor's arrival until close to 9:00. Normally he's a spot on alarm clock for 6 am. I don't blame them at all. It actually gave me a chance to remember some of my "6 year old, itchy feet, can't wait! can't wait!" feelings of Christmas mornings past. This year was a year of pretty, useful things I really wanted. (Can you tell I still haven't gotten over some of the 6 year old habits of giving people a list of the stuff I got?) I got a leather ottoman the size of a coffee table that I've been looking at for 3 years. I love it! As well as a vacuum, a standing mixer, and a really pretty mirrored wooden advent calender. I tried to talk the Santa's into smaller Christmas' this year since my driver's license says I'm not 6 anymore, but apparently they weren't having it. It was a lot of fun. I hope you got to spend time with people you like and love too.

Slackers unite!

OK, so I've started a blog and now I'm committed...phewey. While this is a relatively harmless concept that I've bowed to the peer pressure to join the ranks of, it still causes twinges when viewed on the list of other things to do during my day. (See, right here some of you should be laughing as I lost my job last month.) But I will attempt to add weird cameo thoughts that pop in and out of my head on occasion. Please don't judge me too harshly.