I'm back! And I brought George with me

Hello friends! I'm very glad to be back with all of you in the land of internet. How have you all been? Good? I'm glad.

For my first post back after my incidental hiatus, I thought I'd tell you all what I did today. But first, a little story...

As a Seinfeld fan, I've always considered one of the tragedies of cell phones to be the fact that I could never do this:

I mean, there's nothing stopping me, but this really works best with a landline. For example, I can still answer calls when I'm not home because my cell phone is with me! Maybe it's just the English major in me, but the idea of something not making sense like that sort of eats at me, so I never did it.

I've been complaining about this for several years. Finally, while attending a football game with the family, I brought up the subject to my brother, Bret, a fellow Seinfeld fan. His view was that I should just get over myself and my English major pretentiousness and record the dang message. We discussed how most of the calls I miss come while I'm at work, aka not home. So while the message is slightly inaccurate, it's not wrong.

So I did it. Of course, I had to go about it very carefully. After all, people would be hearing this when I'm "not home". I watched the above video several times, studying the melody and words. I did a few dry runs, singing to myself (and perhaps creeping out my downstairs neighbor). Finally, I took a deep breath, recorded the message...and then sent a text message to my sister that said, "Quick! Call me and listen to my voice mail message. Let me know if I sound like a total idiot".

She called, listened, and approved. Of course, I'm sure it still sounds kind of goofy, and probably a lot of people won't get it, but I think it's fun.

So there it is! I finally did something I've been considering since I got my first cell phone. Yay me!

After a long, long absence, thanks for reading.

A Note, for Anyone who Wondered....

Hey friends,

So...I moved a couple of months ago, and I still have yet to set up my internet. Because I'm lame like that. Well, mostlyI'm awesome, but in this particular thing, I'm kinda lame. I think I lack that nesting instinct that women are supposed to have. I dunno.


Anyways, someday I will get internet set up in my new home, and then I will try to fill you all in on the last couple of months, especially as concerns my extra awesome bachelorette pad! Which I may someday complete decorating...


As always, thanks for reading.

Dear Boysin'

I feel that I may never get tired of writing these fun little posts. Welcome to this week's....




Dear Ampersand,

Today, I make a commitment to use you much more often, on account of your awesomeness & classy ways.

Sincerely,
English Nerd


Dear ZL,

I listed you as my celebrity crush today, but I also listed Robert Downey, Jr (I can't help it; he's Iron Man & Sherlock Holmes!). Anyway, watch your back.

Sincerely,
Little Ol' Me


Dear Ross,

Today I found out you were an engineering student....'nuff said.

Sincerely,
Rachel


Dear Puppy,

You live in Salt Lake with my brother now & I am sad (though I must admit to not missing the fur all over). People can call & text; dogs cannot. Why don't you just grow some opposable thumbs already?!

Sincerely,
Former Dog Semi-Owner


Dear Decades Guy,

I did not foresee a Southern accent coming out of you. Nevertheless, thanks for selling me that rad vintage purse. I will visit again, I'm sure.

Sincerely,
Girl Who Loves Old Stuff


Dear Tiresias,

FYI, one week more. Also, I kinda like your beard.

Sincerely,
Girl with an Interesting New Theory On Beards & Such

Right now...

Here are things I should be doing right now:

~laundry so I can wear clothes
~packing for my move in the near future
~proofreading the employee handbook for a coworker
~working on my quilt so I don't have to keep using the old comforter that really belongs to my mom

Here are the things I am actually doing:

~checking Facebook
~browsing Pinterest
~watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory
~watching the numerous commercials for that new show on TBS and trying to convince myself that I am not attracted to Danny Masterson now that he has better hair and a beard and is not playing a stoner
~continuing my week-long phase of super wanting to be at Disneyland
~blogging about all of the above

Oh, well. Life is still good :) In the meantime, please enjoy some love from my last trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Thanks for reading.

Dear Boys Time

I guess if I'm going to keep doing this, I should start numbering them or something, a la this gal. Nonetheless, I give you this week's Dear Boys:

Dear Semi-Seemly (formerly known as Unseemly),

Where are you, my friend? I want to hear about your life!

Sincerely,

An Interested Party

Dear Tiresias,

Aaaaaaaauggggghhh.

Sincerely, 

The Over-Thinker

Dear Tahiti,

I would very much appreciate if you got over yourself and committed to my friend, rather than breaking her heart. She deserves the best.

Sincerely,

Fiercely Protective

Dear Mariachi,

Have you left the area? Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Sincerely, 

Anglo-phile

Dear Mickey,

I miss you and that place you live, the Happiest Place on Earth. Becca and I might come visit you in December, now that we don't have retail blackouts to stop us from taking vacations then.

Sincerely,

Princess Michelle

Duck Rescue!

Attend the tale of the Great Conservice Duck Rescue of 2012! (title borrowed from the video title.)

So, Friday started out as a pretty normal day at work...but turned out to be pretty exciting! There I was, minding my own business and typing away with my headphones on, when I noticed a couple of my coworkers standing by the windows. They seemed to be watching something across the road very intently. I didn't think much of it until I realized that several people across the office were looking out the window, yelling out exclamations every few seconds. I decided to get up and investigate.

I couldn't figure out what was going on at first, so I had to ask my coworker. She replied that there was a mother duck across the street who had started out with 14 ducklings walking down the gutter. Apparently, they were on their way to the creek a ways off when a sewer drain got in their way. One by one, all but one of the ducklings had fallen down the sewer drain! As I watched, the final duckling fell down the drain and I joined in the painful yelling in which the entire department was now taking part.

None of us really knew what to do. Should we call animal control? 911? Someone stated that if the water was going down in the sewer, the ducklings probably has been washed away. This caused several of us to feel very sad.

Suddenly, we saw someone running down the sidewalk and toward the ducks. It was one of our own! This brave young man was going to save the ducks! It was incredible! He laid down in the gutter and stuck his arm in, immediately rescuing the first few ducklings. This led us to believe that the gutter wasn't all that deep, but soon we saw him climb down into the sewer! It was so deep that we could only see him from the shoulders up. More ducklings were saved.

Meanwhile, another guy from work had left and was walking home. He stopped to help, pulling out the remainders of his lunch and tearing bread from his sandwich to lure more of the ducklings to safety. He also assisted in keeping the mother duck and ducklings away from the open sewer (that's what was going on when it appears that he is kicking the duck in the video - he was not injuring the ducks).

Soon enough, Animal Control did appear on the scene, apparently someone had called them after all. The officer loaded the ducks into a kennel of sorts; we believe he safely transported the ducks to their destination. We didn't see because we were called back to work. A few minutes later, the duck rescuer returned to the building, where applause rang out.  And now...enjoy the video, courtesy of my coworker:

At the very end, you can hear our boss telling us it was time to get back to work. I thought it was pretty cool of her to let us watch for a while, though. Hurray for my new workplace!

As always, thanks for reading.

May I ask a small favor?

So, here's the situation, friends: I've been to ward prayer (a Sunday gathering in singles' wards in which we gather to pray and eye prospective eternal companions) a whole three times in the year I've lived in this ward; I enjoyed it well enough in other wards, but I never made a whole lot of friends in this ward so I feel quite awkward. Yesterday, however, I was asked to give the prayer and was therefore obliged to attend.

My current ward has this tradition of passing around a "talent stick" a green, oddly shaped (yet somehow endearing) homemade clay vase thing. It looks like this:

Just for fun, here's what it looks like after I accessorized it under the recommendation of Facebook friends:

The point of my post is this: I have chosen to share my blog as my talent. I have a book "published" of the first year and a half of my blog, so I'm going to take that to share. I'd also like to read a post, and that's where you come in! I'm sure you all have a million and a half things to do, but if anyone out there happens to have a post of mine in mind that they particularly enjoyed, please let me know! It doesn't have to be from the early days; I can certainly print a post out to take. I'm just worried that the post I might pick on my own may not be much of a crowd pleaser, though I will look into my blog stats to see which posts were more popular.

So anyway, thank you so very very much in advance. I appreciate your help.

As always, thanks for reading.