I Watched It Die

I am not what you would call a green thumb. I don't know how often plants need water or even if the water is supposed to be tap or drinking or distilled. Are you supposed to add extra dirt or is the stuff they come in enough? How much sun is too much? Even with all of these unknown variables I didn't think keeping a plant alive would be too difficult. After all in my last house there was a plant on top of the fridge that I am sure was never watered or move into more sun friendly environments (I think some of its leaves were even shut in the freezer a time or two) and it was just fine. I didn't want anything too big, just a plant I could keep in my room. It was nice enough looking and seemed to require very little attention. I guess I shouldn't say that...let me rephrase that last statement. It seemed to be staying alive with what little attention I was giving it. There were a few times that a leaf or two turned a little brown but I would put a little water in my cute yellow planter and life would be restored. But on this fateful day I am not sure what I did wrong. It was looking a little sad, possibly from lack of hydration so before I left for work I dumped in plenty of h2o (don't worry it wasn't swimming) and as a treat opened my blinds and placed it so it could get as much sunlight from my north facing basement window as possible. I went to work feeling so generous. How many other people do you know that let their plants have water and sunlight in the same day? But apparently it was too much too fast. The little guy didn't know how to handle it. It was looking so much worse when I got home there were even more brown leaves and they all seemed to droop slightly. I took it out of the sun  immediately and added a little more water. I had a thrilling night of watching Friends ahead of me so I put my plant back in its usual place on my DVD player popped in the DVD with the episode where Ross is sad about something and chandler makes a joke  Monica goes crazy about a mess and Joey doesn't understand what's going on. I'm sure you've seen that one anyway, about halfway through I glance over at my plant and I swear in the last 15 minutes it has taken a turn for the worse. As I sat there I literately watched my plant die from across the room I could see the core turn brown and spread its disease to all the leaves they drooped and turned black and there was nothing I could do. I know it was just a plant but I felt so helpless. So now I am left with an empty planter and still no knowledge of that to do to prevent the same fate for future planter dwellers. 

Take My Word For It

Typically for remodeling projects there should be attached photos of the before and after. The problem with that is you have to remember to take a before picture before you even start the project and at that stage how do you even know that you are going to be happy enough with your project to want to share it? But trust me my newly antiqued and stained table looks so much better than it did before.  See? 

Sleep, Glorious Sleep

6 years ago I moved to Utah. I had nothing to my name and no money to buy anything but I could handle it. It took me a month and a half to find an apartment but in the mean time I was lucky enough to stay with some very nice people who happened to have a guest bed. Once I found an apartment I realized I was in need of a place to sleep. Luckily those very nice people had a very nice daughter that happened to have a mattress that was in her basement left by the people that owned the house before her. I'll take it! I figured I would sleep on it for a year tops and then I would be able to buy a new one. How bad could it be? Here is the deal, this mattress had been in the basement for about 6 years. Who knows how long it was actually used before that. Plus, i don't think it was very high quality before that. Mattresses are supposed to be replaced every 5 years or so. Fast forward. 6 years later. This mattress is the worst possible thing. I can feel every single spring. If I move, they make noise. If I don't move my appendages fall asleep. If I am too tired or sick i have better luck falling asleep if I lay on the ground. And still no money for a new mattress but I decide I will go shopping for one anyway just so I can see how much I need to save. I go to Ashley, where I worked for about 7 months. They tell me not to look at the prices just find the one that I love. I find my dream mattress. Haha get it? Dream mattress? Haha.  Ok moving on. I glance at the tag. Don't worry, it was only $1998. Why was I not looking at the tags? I HAVE to have this mattress and there is no way I am ever going to be able to afford it. Thanks a heap ex co worker and ex manager that was a great idea. But wait they have a deal, of course they do. It is a furniture store after all. But this deal, is actually a deal. This is a deal so good in fact that I cannot even say what they did for me because I don't want to get them getting in trouble. I still don't have the money but I do have a line of credit and seriously this deal is too good to pass up. I'll take it! The mattress will arrive in 6-8 weeks. If it is possible, the old mattress is even more uncomfortable then before I took the $800 out of my wallet to pay for the new one. Oops I just told the deal. My back aches. I can't sleep I can barely sit on the thing without complaining. Finally it is here! And it came early! I get it in my house, which is a story in and of itself. I will spare you the details at this point. This all latex mattress needs a few hours to "inflate" so sleep will have to wait until night time. What time am I allowed to go to bed? Night comes. There is give in the support it gives me, there are no springs therefore no noise no appendages falling asleep, no metal digging into my back. I never want to get out of bed. A sincere thanks a heap to ex co worker and ex manager. 

Weekend número uno

I moved into my very own apartment! My first weekend was very exciting and if every week is as eventful it will be an interesting experience for sure. I have some great friends, aka Nathan, Whitney, Daron,  Liz, Logan, and Jeff (who let me barrow his truck) that were willing to help me. We only had to leave a few things behind for me to go back and pick up. Nothing too important, a mirror, a cooler, a few pictures. After we got all my stuff in the new pad I started looking around and realized that having all the furniture you could possibly want in a bedroom and moving that into an apartment leaves it a little lacking. As in; lacking a sofa, lacking a coffee table, lacking an area rug, lacking pots and pans, and lacking many other kitchen supplies, lacking a shower curtain, lacking a bath mat...but don't worry I had plenty to hang on my walls. So, project A - get a sofa. I had a budget of $20 and Nathan with his grandpas truck. What else could a girl need? The truck was being used by the grandpa. The back up plan - Jordon with his brothers truck. So what if Jordon lives in Salt Lake and the truck was in Farmington and the sofa was in Ogden? Not a big deal. We can do this. Task 1; find a sofa within by budget. Thank you Savers! The sofa is comfortable and will look great in my apartment. Task 2; get the truck to the parking lot. All I had to do for that one is agree to go to poker night. I can totally squeeze that in between the unpacking and working. Task 3; get the incredibly helpful Savers staff to help load the sofa, that was only $10 P.S., into the truck. Good thing I have Jordon the biggest sweet talker I know with me. Task 4; get the sofa into my apartment. This may be the only time I have been grateful to have smokers for neighbors. And once again, good thing Jordon is a good sweet talker. I didn't have to lift a finger this whole project! Once again, Jordon thanks! You are seriously the best or if you prefer, you are my #1! My apartment is so much more livable with a sofa.  Project 2- buy a shower curtain. Task A; find the time to go to the store to buy the shower curtain. I know that should be easy but here is my time line; Wednesday - move and start unpacking, Thursday - wake up late and work from open to close then continue to unpack go to the store and buy things for the kitchen and totally forget about the bathroom things, Friday - wake up late work open to close go straight to Jordon's for poker night. I couldn't wait any longer so I was stopping on the way home from Jordon's! Task B; find a store. Don't worry i had gps on my side. Task C - be awake and alert enough to remember what I was stopping to buy. I made it to the check out with the curtain and the curtain rod. Task D - hang it up. I got rod in only hitting myself in the head once. I ripped open the curtain to realize I have no hooks. Great. I CANNOT go to work one more day without a shower! Also I am way way too tired to go out again I mean it is 1:30 am at this point. Task E- find a solution. The real problem is that my tub does not have a stopper so a shower is my only option. Time to get creative. I could drape it over the rod but there would be a gap and water would get everywhere. I could use something to temporarily attach it to the rod but what? Most of my stuff is still packed. I could find something else as a stopper and take a bath. Perfect. I try to use a hair product bottle as a stopper and it is the perfect size but water is still draining so i try the corner of the curtain but it just floats up. Ah ha! The corner of the curtain with the hair product bottle keeping it in place. Mission accomplished. No time to blow dry. i need sleep. Saturday - look and look and look for an outlet in the bathroom to no avail work open to close than go and buy rings and take a real shower the look and look and look for an out let in the bathroom to no avail. Man it would be nice to have a mirror in a room with an outlet. Also, seriously!? No outlet in a bathroom? I mean I know this place is old but not too old for electricity. When was that invented again? Was it invented or discovered? Either way I don't ask for much, but I would really like an outlet in my bathroom. In fact,  if I could only choose one room to put an outlet in I think it would be the bathroom. Sunday aka Project 3 - get ready for church. My hair is a mess man it would be nice to have an outlet in the bathroom or a mirror in the outlet room. Look at hair in bathroom. It looks bad. Go to bedroom. Try to fix it. Look at hair in bathroom. It looks bad. Go to bedroom to use straightener more. Go to bathroom to check hair.  Look up in aggravation/exasperation/ frustration/ and many other ations. SUCCESS!!! Holy Hanna who put that outlet on the bottom of my bathroom light fixture? Ahh... I guess I can handle living on my own. 

The Interweb

Apparently not having access to the World Wide Web puts a damper on blogging. But never fear, even without Internet I have written a few blogs. It is my sincere hope that having  several post on the same day does none of the following; 1. Confuse my followers into thinking that all of these things happened in one day or even in one week, 2. Entertain my readers so much that they start thinking I should have several posts EVERY day.

Goal #17 host a party....and realize you aren't as cool as you thought

It has been two weeks since the blessed celebration of my birth. At this point i think i have swallowed my pride enough to report on my thirtieth year goal #17. Although the party turned out to be an unattended event it was an event that I will count as me hosting a party. Let me be clear I am not mad or disappointed or upset that my party was overshadowed by so many other occurrences I do however feel as if I have finally learned my lesson and will never again try to host an event in my own behalf. As summer approaches I love spending time outside especially in the evenings with this in mind, I decided to host an outdoor movie night. I attempted to barrow equipment from a few different friends to no avail but the invitations had already been sent and the rsvps had been received so the party must go on. I found a company online that rented out everything you need for any type of multimedia event...they even delivered and set it all up. So I got out my credit card. For this cool of a party it would be worth the little extra dough. I found some fantastic summer movie recipes on pinterest, of course. Spent the day cleaning, decorating, cooking and hoping that I had enough of everything. My BFF Whitney came down early to help with the last minute prep. We had the blankets set up the sun was getting ready to set and the crickets were out, even if the people weren't. Now don't get me wrong, there were more attendees than whitney and i and I appreciate them coming but between the three of them I think they were there for a total of an hour and none of them overlapped so the most that were there at one time was 3, me, whit, and a stopper by. Even though the turn out was less than expected it was so fun. I want to watch movies under the stars every night! I wish I was not swearing off event planning just so I could do that again. All those that were not able to make it really did miss out on the coolest party I have ever attempted to host. It does leave me wondering if it was poorly attended bucause if schedules or because of me....but then I remember it couldn't possibly be because of me. Right? Right?

The beginning of my debut novel/ day 6 (for those in the know)

Today is day 6 of "this book will change your life" and here is what I wrote: This is a true story. Not like those stories that say they are real but the more you read the more you are sure none of this could have happened to one person. This is actually true, I would know, after all it is about my life. My memory isn't great so before the age of 15 there isn't much to report other than one tragic incident were I was left at the park and a horrible nightmare involving a ken doll and some applesauce. For years afterward I wasn't sure if it was all a dream or if some of that fuzzy night had actually happened. I suppose there should be more on that but lets be honest, nobody wants to read every detail of another persons childhood. Now the teens and the young adult years that is another story all together so let's get to it. Watch for the rest of the story in bookstores near you.