Of Loquacity, Conifers, and Vacuum Cleaners

I have discovered that it is rather difficult to keep up a blog, mostly because I don't believe I have many "post-worthy" moments worth publishing here on my own personal-public journal (there's an oxymoron for you). Some people of course, have the talent of making even ordinary experiences seem quite entertaining simply by they way they retell it. I don't really think I am one of those people, but it won't stop me from posting whenever I feel like doing it. It's funny-- I am actually quite a loquatious person, and in fact I just discovered that in the two years and two months in which I've had my cell phone, I've spent at least 589 hours, 45 minutes and 53 seconds talking on it. However, when it comes to writing, I often draw a blank. Every now and then, though, I try to come up with something.

Today's post came to me this morning while I was cleaning. Now, there are many things I was looking forward to when Lance and I got married. One of them was getting to spend all the holidays together -- especially Christmas, and how much fun it was going to be to decorate our own place in the traditional Yuletide fashion. I was also looking forward to all the fun household things we would get to buy, including my very first, very own vacuum cleaner. It isn't like I love vacuuming or anything, but there was something thrilling to me--perhaps because I have never owned one personally--in the very idea of choosing my own Staubsauger (German, literally "dirt sucker"). Lance and I finally decided on a fire-engine red Dirt Devil upright from the Home Depot.

So our first Christmas together was wonderful and our little apartment looked fabulously festive. After the holidays were over I was so sad to take down all the decorations and to denude our beautiful little Christmas pine tree whom we dubbed "Needles." However, that thoughtful Needles left us a lovely parting gift, namely, all of his needles all over the carpet. But never fear! My trusty dirt devil came to the rescue and I didn't really have a problem cleaning up. But Needles' gift was more far-reaching than any of us would have guessed. Even though there aren't any more needles in the carpet (although I will admit that Needles himself is still sitting outside our doorway), and we've already unloaded all the dust and gunk from our vacuum, every time I've turned on the vacuum cleaner since then the effervescent aroma of pine wafts through the apartment. Now there's a gift that keeps on giving!

Needles Then...
and Now
Our faithful Sentinel! Thanks, Needles.

S.A.D. No Longer

I can still recall picking up a copy of the Daily Universe my sophomore year at BYU with a large color photograph of a few bitter, yet defiant looking students proclaiming February 14th as "S.A.D." Those of you who are not familiar with this acronym either 1.) Don't care a hoot about Valentine's Day (in which case you are probably male) 2.) Already have a significant other or 3.) Have never attended BYU and are therefore unfamiliar with its peculiar dating culture. Let me enlighten you: S.A.D. stands for "Singles Awareness Day," and anyone who has ever been lonely on the Day of Love knows that it can be very sad indeed. Although I will admit to being disappointed on February 14th, I have never been the embittered female/man hating/I'll-revel-in-my-singleness type, and instead for most of my life I have simply tried to tell myself that Valentine's Day is probably not all it's cracked up to be anyway.

This year, however, for the first time in my life, I had a Valentine-- and the day could hardly have been any better. In the morning we were able to attend the Provo Temple and then we braved the snow to buy groceries for our special dinner. In the afternoon we finally got around to returning some Christmas gifts at the Mall and then headed over to the movie theater to watch the new 3-D stop motion movie, Coraline. Boy, 3-D movies sure have come a long way. Gone are the old paper glasses with the cellophane red and green lenses. We were handed what looked like sunglasses in their very own individually wrapped, sanitary plastic bags. The movie itself had a very interesting plot, and if anyone tries to tell you it's creepy-- believe them! But we enjoyed it nevertheless.

The credit for our dinner idea has to go to Mom and Dad, who gave us a fondue pot for Christmas. We made an oriental beef broth fondue and enjoyed cooking sirloin steak, shrimp, asparagus, yellow squash, broccoli, and baby bella mushrooms. And since there was only the two of us, we each got four forks--which makes the wait quite a bit shorter! We also had a couple homemade dipping sauces and cold bottled Apple Beer. To top it all off, we had homemade mint oreo milkshakes.

We exchanged small gifts and then fell asleep watching The Sword in the Stone. It was a wonderful day-- probably just because I got to spend it all with the person I love the most. So, in the end I have to say that Valentine's Day really is all it's cracked up to be once you've found that special someone, and I'm blessed to declare I'm S.A.D. no longer :)

What Do You Do?

What do you do on your day off when you have no kids to take care of and your best friend is busy doing school work? If you are me, you

1. Do crossword puzzles.
2. Pretend to be creative by attempting to be crafty (right now it's Valentine cards).
3. Do more crossword puzzles.
4. Go to the grocery store-- but only if the cupboards are bare and you are really craving ice cream.
5. Did I mention crosswords?
6. Call Mom.

What you don't do:

1. Write wedding thank-you cards which are almost six months overdue.
2. Clean.
3. Get up early and stay awake.
4. Check your work email (they might remind you of some responsibility you don't want to know about. Be warned: this is a particularly dangerous one-- only for those who like living on the edge).
5. Iron.
6. Exercise.

I'm sure I've just made you all suberbly jealous of my day-off routine. How is it that I can be blessed with so much free time and yet still manage to avoid doing anything useful? Trust me, if I could share some of it with you, I would. Of course, I would also remind you that on the days I do work, I really do work. This week I almost had to deliver another baby. The doctor was mulling around the nurse's station and then ran into the wrong room when the baby's head was poking out. I'm afraid I'm going to get a bad reputation at Orem Community Hospital!

Oh, and did I mention I need a new crossword puzzle book?