By small and simple things

You really never do know the affect you can have in the world.

I was going into statcounter.com to look up the analytics for this blog, and instead I went into the account for my marriage blog (they're in separate analytics accounts). And I am so humbled. I was shocked to see that it's topped 12,800+ hits from across the globe! Literally - it's had visitors from every continent.

Well, okay - except for Antarctica. Penguins aren't the most computer-savvy critters.

Anyways... it's an interesting thought. You start something and never know how it'll take off. I barely touched the blog since March - only eight posts in four months, with none in June - and yet it still got almost 400 hits this month alone. Pretty cool stuff!

Oh Yes - the Snuggie for Dogs!

This video was sooooo cheesy, I just HAD to share it with you all. Enjoy!



PS: Do we enjoy the slight rhyming throughout? Pretty fabulous, huh!

Ugh, timing stinks

See these handsome gentlemen?

They collectively compose The Fray, one of my most favoritest bands. Seriously, there isn't a bad song on either of their CDs, and their rendition of "Heartless" is to DIE for. Listen for yourself:



I've been listening to it nonstop for a few weeks, and I loooooove it!

Anyways. Tonight The Fray in all their glory will be playing at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, just down the road in Irvine, along with Jack's Mannequin (who I hear are fab). In my lovely purse is a ticket to the show.

And I'm not going.

Sucks, doesn't it?

I'm pretty bummed, honestly. I had a health issue come up this week, and I'll spare you all the gory details, but long story short, I feel zapped of energy and would like nothing more than to curl up in my bed and watch Alias (thanks, Laura, for getting me HOOKED!!! And yes, I have had spy dreams - pretty awesome!). The thought of wrestling with massive crowds of people, noise, parking and a late, late night makes my toes curl. At least my cousin with whom I was going is there with a bunch of her friends, so I'm not leaving her high and dry.

But I just have to wonder - at what point did I become such a boring grown-up that I'd skip a concert in honor of staying home and taking care of myself? Such an idea was unfathomable for me even two years ago. I mean, I had pneumonia a few years ago and was back to hanging out with the crew within a week, even if it meant lying listlessly on the grass, wrapped in a blanket, watching them play volleyball.

So, on the upside? Apparently I've matured and gained some wisdom. On the downside, I'm opting out of seeing one of my fav bands and enjoying a concert to which I've looked forward for a while now. And admitting that I'm currently ensconced in an agoraphobic phase. Does anyone else get like that from time to time? I've had zero desire to be social since coming back from vacation. I'll go to meetings and church stuff and the like, but beyond that, I've become a hermit. It took serious willpower to not bail on Scott for the OC Fair last weekend. But it's Scott, and I can't bail on him. And we had a blast (I should post some pics, huh? Later tonight...), but I think that's the only social thing I've done in a month.

Oh well. Such is growing up, right?

Soldier looks for politician's apology on healthcare debate

Here's a great clip - a soldier makes the point that within the section that deals with legislative powers, nowhere does it give them power to control health care:



Now, you might say that they didn't have health insurance back in the Founding era. At least, not as far as I know. But the main point is that the system they established is supposed to govern lightly and not inject itself into its citizens' private lives. Politicians should get the Constitution out and read it on a regular basis, along with The Federalist Papers. After all, they've taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, not to tear it down and alter it.

I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again - the Founders weren't pulling concepts out of thin air as they designed the three-branch government, complete with a bicameral legislature. The system is so complex, carefully filled with checks and balances. There is a reason it's set up that way, and having that sort of a system in place is what allowed America to rise to the forefront of global politics for years. It's a good thing. I believe it is divinely inspired, personally. Is it perfect? No - but it's better than what else is out there, and I don't want to see those uniquely and innately American values give way to European and, worse yet, Communist-esque ideals. Let's protect and defend what sets us apart.

A quick thought on universal healthcare

The last month has been quite the doctor-y one for me - annual optometrist visit before vacation, followed by a second visit last week, plus a dental trip last week and then an unexpected emergency physician trip today (nothing major - no worries). Out of curiosity and some modicum of good money management, I just added up all of those health-related expenses. Grand total? About $440. Holy freaking cow! And that's pretty much just routine maintenance - not including my bi-annual visits to check my TSH levels every six months. Add in the cost of lab work, and that trip adds up quickly.

So, moral of the story? Yep, paying for your health sucks. It really is expensive - and that's with insurance. Without would be awful! However, I still don't think that the government has any right or mandate to take taxes from the rich to pay for my healthcare. The system is broke and needs fixing, but I don't think that's the right tack. What would you propose?

Seeing clearly

If you ever have the debate of whether to wear a slightly torn contact that makes things a smidge blurry or to replace it with a new contact that's a slightly different prescription, opt for the torn one. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience... but, uh, that's what I learned yesterday.

Or you could chuck your vanity and just wear your danged glasses... But I'd usually prefer uncomfortable contacts to that. Blame it on my weird rule that I can either wear glasses or wear my hair curly, but not both at the same time. I feel like such a frump!

What is America to me?

Sorry I couldn't find a more visually interesting clip of this great song, but at least give it a listen - the words are fabulous and so well express how I feel about this land of ours. It's one of my favorite songs of all times.

What is America to me?

Boy, that's a question to which you'll get as many varied responses as the number of people you ask it to, but I think that these days, the American ideal is more fractured than ever.

When I was in college, one project that all American Studies had to do was the American Dream project - to ask five people what the American Dream meant to them, and then to take their responses and extrapolate an essay about what the American ideal meant to them. My five interviewees were my father, my grandmother, the American Heritage professor for whom I TA'ed (Brett Latimer) and two of my peers, my good friend Laura and my colleague Mark, a Marine veteran. Granted, all five and myself share some common foundations in terms of religion and politics, so the answers I got weren't as vastly varied as they'd be if you asked any five random people on the street, but I think that at the root of it, America means an opportunity to make your dreams come true and to pursue happiness.

Sadly, that opportunity is being diminished by those who would rather see equality of results enforced, making everyone's share of the pie equal with no effort expended - a recipe for disaster that will burden the backs of the hard workers with the labor of carrying the lazy. That is not America to me, and it's not the America our Founding Fathers set out to build.

Friends, I worry for this great nation of ours. I really, really do. I find that for the most part, my generation doesn't know its history. People don't understand the principles upon which America was founded. They don't study the primary sources, the words of the Founders themselves or the books from which the Founders got their ideas. They don't even go to the secondary sources that examine those ideals and quote from them directly. No, most people rely on what they read in high school or college general ed textbooks, information that is often a tertiary source at best. These great, ennobling ideas are watered down to summaries and synopses that lose so much of the heart and soul of this nation in translation. So many nowadays focus only on the rights of citizenship - not the responsibilities that accompany it like honesty, self-sufficiency, integrity and devotion to family.

It frustrates me so much to see our nation headed toward a trainwreck while so many people kick back and focus only on seeking entertainment and luxury. That's precisely the European attitude from which our Founders sought to break away in order to preserve the American character of a people who were "industrious, frugal, and honest," as Thomas Paine said in his great treatise Common Sense. In our land was a spirit of equality and public virtue because "the people of America are a people of property; almost every man is a freeholder," he wrote. Being part of the land somehow made people grounded, working hard for their sustenance. Today we're so far removed from that (myself included - I mean, I'm from L.A. Food comes from the grocery store, not the ground!). However, I think the Spirit of America can prevail even in our modern age.

But what will it take to survive and thrive in these trying times? It will take men and women like you and me, devoted in a return to the heart and soul of this nation, to put a stake in the ground and to make an effort to educate those around us as to what this country is really about, to study and to grow, to pick up the phone and be an engaged citizenry, willing to call our representatives and tell them if we disagree with a particular policy - not to sit around whining about what a terrible idea it is or, worse yet, to sit around ignorant of what's going on in Washington. Our nation is on a rapid track to change with a president at its helm who fundamentally believes in equality of results, not of opportunity, and whose platforms run diametrically opposed to what our Founders set up America to be.

After all, it isn't like the Founders were ignorant of how some things sounded great on paper - but didn't work in reality. As Samuel Adams wrote,

The Utopian schemes of leveling (redistribution of wealth) and a community of goods (gov't ownership of commerce) are as visionary and impratical as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideals] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.

Or we can turn to Jefferson, who wrote:

If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Furthermore, Jefferson warned:

We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority.

Please, friends, do what you can within your sphere to make a difference. Preserve this great nation of ours. Don't let it fail in the face of ignorance, laziness and self-centered pleasure-seeking. Follow yet another admonition of Jefferson's:

If a nation expects to ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness... Preach... a crusade against ignorance; establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [of misgovernment].

If we don't stand up for the ideals of freedom and prosperity, we'll be enslaved by our very own government through taxation and limited liberty. That is not America to me.

As an extension of that project I did in college seven years ago, I'd like to ask all of you:

What is America to you? How would you define your version of the American Dream?

Dental drivel

This morning I made a trip to the dentist - my first visit with my new one. I'm so glad that she's fabulous and not insane like the one Steve Martin played in Little Shop of Horrors. That guy was bad news!

Anyways, I love the dentist. Blame it on always having great ones, starting with a family friend who tended to my teeth all through my childhood. Good times.

But I'm not loving this headache or the slightly sore mouth. Now I remember why I always got a milkshake after getting fillings in high school - it numbed the pain. No bueno!

Why, speaking of cheese danish...

[Brace yourself for a lil' viral marketing at its best - danged geniuses!]

... did you know that tomorrow is Free Pastry Day at Starbucks?

Click here to go to their site and get a coupon for a free pastry with drink purchase before 10:30 a.m. tomorrow. I think I'll be grabbing a steamed milk tomorrow morning - and perhaps another cheese danish... or a muffin... so many possibilities!

And then I'm going on a diet. For reals. I found my workout clothes again (which had been MIA - which meant that they were sitting IN PLAIN SIGHT on top of a stack of magazines, so somehow I rifled through all my clothes but didn't think to check a bookcase for clothes, right?) - anyways, they're feeling awfully neglected, and I need to hit that goal of running three miles by my quickly-approaching 27th birthday.

Okay, fine. If I can run one block by then, it'll be a vast improvement.

I'm going to go sulk at my pathetic out-of-shapeness now.

*slumps shoulders and grabs Starbucks coupon off the printer - I mean, FREE is FREE, friends!*

Musical memories

Isn't it funny how certain songs will forever remind you of a particular moment in time?

I'm busily working away with my iPod blaring (so as to drown out the loud sales guys we share an office with - nice, but loud). Anyways, the favorite song of a former more-than-friends-but-didn't-pan-out fella came on, and even though I'm totally over the guy (bless his heart), I can't help but GRIN every time I hear it. Not so much because of him, but because of the whole fun of the experience, of how happy I'd get whenever it came on in the middle of the whatever-it-was because it reminded me of him.

There are a few other songs to which I have the same reaction - and a few that make me cringe each time, too, for the related memories. What songs bring up particular memories for you guys?

I'll start the meme with a more specific one: "Hanging By a Moment" by Lifehouse. As long as I live, this will always, always remind me of the guy I was head over heels smitten with the summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college. It came on when we were getting a bite at the Creamery on Ninth, and it so fit how I felt - and, voila! Forever memory. Now he's all old and married and paternal and stuff... but that song will forever remind me of his 21-year-old self when I was 18 and starry-eyed. (Awwww... memories!)

Okay... your turn!

The siren call

Oh, cheese danish - why you gotta tempt me so?

This morning, I caved and answered the siren call of the cheese danish (not the one pictured - that's from Flirty Kitty's Flickr photostream). Heaven help my hips!

Is it a sin, though, to admit that I prefer the version from 7-11 to the one from the snooty French bakery around the corner from work? 'Cause I'm test-driving the snooty one this morning, and it's just not as cakey good as the poor man's version.

Mind Games

Oh my goodness, I just had the most vivid, crazy dream! So, thought I'd hop on here and jot it down superquick before I dash off to The Sound of Music rehearsal (yay, nuns!)

In this wacky dream, for some reason I was engaged to a guy with whom I grew up [which is odd because a) besides a massive crush on him in 7th grade and going with him to one dance in high school, we've always been just friends - although, for the record, he was the best dance date I had, hands down. Great guy. b) I haven't talked with him in 6+ months, so of all the guys, don't know why he's on my radar. We're still good friends, but it's one of those friendships that's picked up when we're nearby with very little keeping in touch in between].

But I digress.

So Fiance and I were engaged... but I'd just broken it off for some reason while we were at some cabin resort by the beach in Colorado or California, not sure which (don't you love how dreams make NO sense?) with his family (which, of course, wasn't his actual family, seeing as I know them). And then I was on the beach without him, and there were these massive waves that washed water up almost to the end of the sand. All the people got out, but the waves just kept coming until it flooded the area below this big, empty house in which I was standing. So I called him and said he had to come down, which he did, and we surveyed the damage, stunned. Then we drove to the airport to fly home to Utah (where, of course, I don't actually live), and our plane crashed. But he and I got out safe, of course, and helped other passengers before the plane blew up. Oh, and I was smart enough to pack all my important stuff in a teeny purse that I grabbed when the plane was going down, so my cell phone, iPod and lip gloss survived A-OK.

And then I woke up and realized that I needed to get ready for rehearsal. Which, um, I sooooo still do. That's reality. ;) But, meanwhile, anyone want to figure this one out? My theory on the plane crash is that I read The Survivors Club while on vacation, and, well, that makes perfect sense. It talks about plane crashes in depth, and now I feel like I could totally survive one.

But the rest? Makes no sense. Whatsoever. And I hope that when hell freezes over and I get engaged, we don't get in a plane crash. Maybe roadtrips are the way to go.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Honey, I'm home!

Vacation was fabulous. FABULOUS. Seriously, I had such a blast! The trip definitely merits some more in-depth chronicling (complete with some pics), but seeing as I'm terrible about blogging these days, here's a teaser list of what I did on my summer vacation:

* Star-gazed with a dear old friend in Cache Valley (near Logan)

* Went four-wheeling - and discovered that makes your back all tight and sore for a few days, lol. Who knew?

* Ate Cafe Rio. Twice.

* Went through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house in flipflops - it was a spur-of-the-moment decision (and a wonderful one at that - thanks, Melissa!)

* Marveled at an awesome summer storm with my little cousins in the cabin loft

* Saw three black bears in Yellowstone (including one who hopped up on his hind legs and scratched his back against a tree - awesome!!!)

* Caught a fish - and watched in disbelief as my uncle and grandma released aforementioned fish back into the lake. And then watched as they managed to catch a dozen-plus fish between them while I didn't get a single other bite all day. Lame, lame, lame - I so wanted to eat a fish I caught!

* Took in a fabulous production of Guys and Dolls at the Playmill Theatre - my favorite tradition for 20 years now!!! 

* Ate way too many of my grandma's homemade chocolate-covered peanut butter balls. Soooo worth it, though!

* Slept in five beds in nine days. (Alone, of course - not a hussy! That could soooo be taken the wrong way...)

* Loved the "biggest fireworks show west of the Mississippi" on the banks of the Snake River in Idaho Falls - it was amazing! And hearing my friend Elise sing the national anthem at the swanky party across the creek wasn't too shabby, either.

* Marveled at the bizarre hairstyles so prevalent in Idaho. Note to the men: mullets are not attractive. Get over it. Note to the women: lay off the hairspray, ladies! And teasing should be done to children, not your hair.

And that, my friends, pretty much encapsulates the last week and a half of my life. So delightful! More tales to come soon, I'm sure...