California....Here We COME!

4 girls + 4 ipods + 4 tickets to Disneyland + 4 days of vacation + 4 wheels burnin' rubber =

1 SUPER RAD VACATION ROADTRIP TO CALIFORNIA!

* I realize that 4+4+4+4+4 actually equals 20, but I've always been a firm believer in figurative math. Literal mathematics never sat well with me...

Ladies and gents, this is a HISTORIC vacation. I will be raodtripping it out to CALIFORNIA for the 1st time ever, living it UP at Disneyland for the 1st time ever, soaking up some much-needed warmth and sunshine next to the PACIFIC ocean for the 1st time ever, and wishing the rest of my life could be a FUN vacation for the...well, not for the 1st time, but just as much as EVER before!

I know, it's a lot to fit into 4 days.

Happy Memorial Day weekend to you! May your extended weekend bring you rest, sunshine, warmth, and capitalized words!

I Wanna Be....Kate

I kind of really love this song by Ben Folds, and I think it's a great theme song for me. A boy played this for me on a date once - I was quickly overwhelmed by both his taste in music and his taste in girls (I mean, helllloooooo!).

Can't you see how the song is a perfect, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative, representation of moi? Yo, check it:

(Kate, by Ben Folds)
She plays wipeout on the drums

the squirrels and the birds come
Gather around to sing the guitar
Oh I...have you got nothing to say

When all words fail she speaks
Her mix tape's a masterpiece
Walks through the garden
so the roses can see
Oh I...have you got nothing to say
And you can see the daisies
in her footsteps
Dandelions, butterflies
I wanna be Kate

Everyday she wears the same thing
I think she smokes pot
She's everything I want, She's everything I'm not
Oh. I...
Have you got nothing to say
She never gets wet
She smiles and it's a rainbow
And she speaks and she breathes
I wanna be Kate

Down by the Rosemary and Cary
She hands out the Bhagavad-Gita
I see her around every couple days
I wanna see her so that
I can say...hey Kate

She never gets wet
She smiles and it's a rainbow
Oh oh...You can see
I wanna wanna wanna wanna be
Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate
No, no, no, no, no

Okay...so perhaps it's not all spot on. I don't smoke pot, and I don't pass out the Bhagavad-Gita to people - I keep my only copy in my bookcase, next to my books on Buddhist meditation and Hindu philosophy (seriously). BUT my mix tapes really are rather spectacular, and I'm pretty sure flowers do perk up as I pass; you know, they lift so many people's moods - I'm just trying to return the favor.

So thanks, Ben F. Thank you for recognizing the greatness that my co-workers tell me about everyday. And for making a song about it. Now I really can walk around with a theme song playing as I go, the wind tossing around my hair in rhythm.

Well, if that wasn't enough of a self-esteem booster...you just need those every once in a while. And my 'every once in a while' seems to be a little more often than the average person...

Are You My Funny?

I think work has made me dull. I don't have as many thoughts as I swear I used to, I don't make up as many random stories in my mind throughout the day, and I may, quite possibly, be not as funny as I thought I was.

But I'm pretty sure I'm funny. Maybe I've lost the ability to be funny to other people, though what they can't seem to see as funny when I share it with them is definitely still really funny. Like today, I was laughing at myself for a good 25 minutes while I tried to get my boss and his client some lunch - it took me just as long to go get 2 sodas as it did for me to order and pick up 2 sandwiches! Man, I couldn't catch a break... But then when I tried to explain how funny it all was - and therefore how funny I was - it wasn't that funny. At least not according to co-worker Elizabeth. She only gave me a bit of a pity laugh and my customary "oh Kate, you are silly, always wasting my time with odd 'you had to be there' stories. What a sweet little child" smile. That happened twice today.

Maybe she just doesn't 'get' funny.

Is that what's actually wrong here?

It's not that I'm actually not really super strong in humor...it's that my audience doesn't 'get' funny!

Except that's not true. Co-worker Elizabeth is really funny. I laugh at her A LOT. (Hi E, in case you're reading!) And she actually laughs at me a lot, too. Perhaps more than I usually expect on an average day. Maybe...just maybe...I'm actually hilarious! Naturally!

Maybe today was just an off-day for the audience. Friday will be better.

I know I'll be laughing at myself, at least. But I usually am.

Looking Fabulous and Feeling Fine at 24

Today I am 24 years old. And 3 days.

And I look fabulous. And I'm feeling fine.

I was surprised at how little I had changed from 23 years old. When I woke up as 24, I expected my age to start showing. But no, I still look like I'm 19. I think I've been stuck at age 19-21 since I was about 15. It was awesome then. And, I'm not gonna lie, it's still pretty awesome. All the maturity of a 24 year old, but the youthfulness of a 15 year old. Though I wouldn't mind a more mature skin - I'm also still enjoying the stupid skin of a newly-pubescent teenager. Stupid zits. Oh wait, I mean blemishes - 23 year olds get zits. 24 year olds have blemishes.

And I've been enjoying a zit-free lifestyle for 3 days now. I'm loving this maturity. I no longer have to excuse my tiredness at 3pm, I anticipate enjoying prunes, and I can start my conversations with my younger peers with, "when I was your age, the internet was all dial-up, facebook didn't exist, and forget texting!" Kids these days.

My first day as 24 years old was on Tuesday. May 11th. Starting at 2:26am. I was the punk kid who made my mom stay up at all hours of the night, trying to birth me. And on Mother's day, of all times. I like to think I was my first present to my mom on Mother's day. I also like to ignore the fact that this meant more work than she probably wanted to do on her day.

I have a book in our local library in Mequon, WI dedicated to me. It was a prize we won in our town for having a baby closest to Mother's day. We tied with another woman and her son, born that same day. I don't know what the book is - some children's book. But I like to think I was a lucky baby, already winning contests for my mom. Happy Mother's day, mom. Here's another great present from me.

It seems fitting, actually. I'm still my mother's book baby. I make lists of what I want to read, make my mom go to the library and get them for me, or buy them online and have my mom reprove me for buying them when we have a perfectly good library down the road. With a perfectly good month-long waiting list for any book worth reading, I retort.

I could live in bookstores. I always felt like my dream job would be running a super great bookstore - without having to worry about the running part. Or becoming an audiobook narrator. I think I'd be great at that. Once, when I was helping my sister move across the country, we started listening to an audiobook and decided we hated the narrator. So I took over. It was awesome. I was awesome. Until 5 minutes later, when I got carsick and had to close my eyes and take deep breaths to regain my composure. But that's why I will be an audiobook reader on disc, rather than a personal traveling reader - it's better for all involved.

For my birthday, I bought myself a book I really wanted. My mom called a little bit later and told me that my book was surprisingly already available to us at the library - the waiting list got to us faster than we imagined. I told her I had already gone and bought it. She questioned my sanity at buying a book available at the library. I questioned her still not knowing her daughter very well.

I also bought myself an Ipod touch. First app I downloaded? The Complete Works of Shakespeare. The second? Classics2Go. Now I have physical books and e-books in a pocketsize reader!

I also went to dinner with some friends at a fabulous Thai restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City. Now that I'm 24 and mature, I eat at trendy downtown restaurants that serve mature, grown-up cuisine. While at dinner, I talked with 3 of my friends about good books we've read, good books we need to read, and good books we own that we can lend to each other. Then I ate fried bananas and ice cream, feeling so fine and looking fabulous all the while.

I love being 24.

Thoughts From My Desk

When I'm at work, I often find myself staring at my computer screen, having drifted through numerous random thoughts. 15 minutes have passed by, and I have yet to send the email that makes no sense to me information-wise, but that sounds stunning otherwise. I'll admit, this isn't so bad now that I have a new, super nice 22" flat monitor to work with - my thoughts swim in the screen's liquid picture.

I justify my mental vacations with 2 reasons: 1.) exercising my brain in various ways is the only way to keep my mind sharp and able to write such beautiful emails, and 2.) my random thoughts are always related to work in some way, even if just barely hanging on by a thread. It may have come from a realization or bit of knowledge gained by/at work, or started with something that definitely was work-related, but then spiraled off to something completely different.

What I'm really most impressed with is just how many thoughts/realizations I come to at work in just one day. For instance, my mind today:

1. The office is always cold.
2. More specifically, my cubicle is always cold.
3. How does it work that my cubicle can be freezing, but I step around my wall, and it's 10 degrees warmer?
4. My boss's office is much warmer.
5. It also smells like orange cleaner.
6. My boss has ADD, bad.
7. I think my other boss has a little ADD, too, but not enough to be officially diagnosed.
8. It's only 10am, and I'm completely starving for lunch.
9. When did I have breakfast?
10. Only 2 hours ago?!
11. I haven't done enough to be so famished yet.
12. Why is it that I can go 6-8 hours between lunch and dinner and not feel any rumbling in my tumbly, but I can't even make it through 3 hours between breakfast and lunch?
13. Eating a bigger breakfast won't even curb my appetite.
14. I don't think I like cushy desk jobs as much as I thought I did.
15. I can't believe how tired I get from sitting around all day.
16. Maybe if I pull up these notes and prop my head like I'm really trying to read and concentrate, no one will realize that I'm actually napping quickly.
17. No, people are smarter than I want them to be - they'll totally catch me.
18. I think my boss gave me ADD.
19. It's contagious, you know.
20. I really want to be at home cleaning my bedroom and bathroom.
21. They have been so neglected for the last two weeks.
22. I can't wait to go home and do some cleaning.
23. Too bad I know that when I actually do get home, that urge will be completed dissipated.
24. This weekend, for sure. I WILL clean!
25. My boss's goal is that no one spend Sunday night dreading Monday morning.
26. I don't think I've ever experienced that.
27. I think that's just the right of Sunday night - it's main purpose.
28. I have always dreaded Monday morning.
29. But maybe I've just been conditioned to hate Mondays by songs like "Manic Monday" and other delightful 80s music.
30. Surprisingly, Tuesdays are even worse.
31. Everything bad always happens on Tuesdays.
32. At least at work.
33. My birthday's on a Tuesday this year, so maybe we can skip a week of bad Tuesdays.
34. The only nice thing is that I can have something to blame when things go bad on a Tuesday.
35. Because it's Tuesday.
36. Good job, Tuesday. You've made yourself useful for once.
37. And now I'm personifying a day of the week.
38. And not even a good one.
39. My least favorite one, in fact.
40. Perhaps it's time to get back to work.
41. I wonder how soon my immune system can get over this case of ADD I've picked up.
42. I've found that I am more willing around 9am to think that I can and should stay late at work today.
43. I've also found that at 4:45pm, I realize that I actually can't and really shouldn't stay late at work.
44. I don't think I can sit at my cushy desk any longer.
45. It feels like I've been here at my cushy desk job for half a day already, but it's only 10:15am.
46. Why am I so hungry?
47. That's it, I'm taking lunch at 11 today.
48. I've been working hard, I deserve a break then.

Sometimes even I'm amazed that I get anything done in a day.

Wishing you and your day work together better than me and mine!

Inspirational Movie Marathon

It would seem that, on a day when I desperately need inspiration to put together a decent Relief Society lesson for Church (on a topic of my choosing, no less), every television broadcasting company came together and decided to play every inspirational sports movie they could think of. The Legend of Bagger Vance, catching the end of The Great Debaters, most of Glory Road. We Are Marshall. The Karate Kid.

I'm in heaven.

Blame it on growing up with brothers and a dad who were always watching and playing sports, and my need as a little sister to always tag along, but I have a super soft spot for sports movies. And make it an inspirational story - it might be one of only 2 things to make my tear ducts work (the other is irrational frustration at stupid, petty problems).

I'm loving the boost from this, and really, the lessons these movies are teaching are rather close to what I'm planning on teaching for my lesson. It's like a little blessing from above...by the satellites that bring me such enjoyable prongramming.

My biggest concern, though, is that all of this is going to make me sound almost cheesy tomorrow to a room full of 100 girls. I like to try to sound inspirational, but I'm almost positive I just come off as cheesy. But I'm hoping and praying that I can fool those girls tomorrow into believing that cheesy is inspirational. Hopefully they'll go with me on the idea of what I'm talking about, and perhaps they can just ignore how I'm talking about it.

Only other concern is this. It's currently 3:45pm MDT on Saturday (the day before Sunday, for those who like the obvious pointed out to them), my lesson needs to be ready by no later than 11:15am MDT tomorrow (which happens to be less than 24 hours away), and I have formally written out 1/3 of said lesson since I began at 10:30am MDT. Having thought about this lesson for the last 2 weeks (and knowing for 6 months that I would be teaching sometime or other), I really don't think it should take 7 hours to write 1/3 of a lesson...but I don't do this too often, so maybe it does.

Being here doesn't seem to be getting my lesson written either, though, so I'll take partial blame as well. But only if I can take it with a southern accent - most of these movies seem to involve the South, so I'm learning that inspiration is stronger down south, coming from thicker accents. Perhaps I'll teach my lesson with a southern accent as well - make the words go farther, you know?

Yes'm, it's decided. Wish me luck y'all, this lesson's gonnabe bigger than a greased pig chase in a Kin-tucky Walmart!