You have got to be kidding me!?

WHY IN GOD'S NAME IS IT STILL SNOWING?!?!?!?!?!
I am so sick of this stupid state and its weather...

Southern Utah here we come?

For the last three weeks my brothers and I have been trying to get down to southern Utah for a weekend camping trip. I am so so so tired of the snow. It seems like it has been Winter for waaaay too long. I am so ready for sunny days and warm weather!



I think that we may be able to finally go in a couple of weeks. I still haven't decided for sure where we are gonna go to camp. I think that we are going to go to Moab. I mean c'mon look at how beautiful that is! I'm hoping that we can find some good places to do some rock climbing. As I have never had the chance to experience Moab I am not really sure where the good spots are. It looks like it is going to be Andrew, Becca, Zach Mike and myself.. Who knows possibly more. So as I said before it is really going to come down to the weather. We will see if it happens...

Friday the 13th!

It's Friday the 13th today, in fact it is the second of three this year. From what I understand this happens only once every 11 years. I have never really had any issues with this particular day, so I generally forget about it. This morning I had a fun little adventure on my way to work. I was driving to work on 2-15 minding my own business when all of the sudden my car starts slowing down, by a lot. I then realized that I forgot to put gas in my car last night and I was quickly running out of what was left. So I start getting over hoping that I can make it to the 3300 south exit (which by the way is less than a 1/2 a mile away) I'm sure as you can guess I did not make it. Thankfully I pulled over when I did because my car promptly died as soon as I put my foot on the brake. If I had gone even two feet more I would have stalled in the lane because there was no room to pull over... That would have been BAD! I called Mike to let him know that I needed him to come help me and he let me know that he was on his way.. Oh I forgot to mention that my cars registration is expired. Now all I have to do is wait and hope that a cop doesn't see me parked on the side of the road. I did see one cop and I thought for sure he was going to stop but he didn't. He actually pulled someone over a little further up the road.

Finally Mike gets there with some gas, he is nearly done putting the gas in when.. yea you know what happens.. a cop pulls up. I just know that I'm in deep shit. I was aware that my car was illegal and that I was driving it illegally, so I was prepared for the consequences. I got in my car grabbed my insurance, my licence and my expired registration and waited while he ran my plates. He gets out of his car and starts walking towards us and I flinched as he started to speak.. "Did you run out of gas?" me "yes sir" him "is everything ok?" me "yes sir" him " alright, well if you need any help go ahead and call." me " Um.. Thank you?"

He gets back in his car and drives away. I'm sure you can imagine me standing on the side of the road with paper in both of my hands and my mouth hanging open in shock and disbelief. I was sure that this was going to turn into a scene from Super Troopers and he was just messing with me. I was waiting for it, but it never happened.

Anyway, I make it to the gas station to fill the tank and try to get to work as fast as possible. I got to work nearly an hour late. But I was really happy to be off the road! If you really think about it I was actually pretty lucky. I was lucky that it was not Thursday because Mike would have been in class and unable to help me. If it had been Thursday My boss would have been in the office, but he was gone today. It was lucky that I pulled over when I did, so I wasn't still in a lane. It was lucky that I got paid today so we had the money to put gas in my car. Most of all it was almost weird how lucky it was that the cop didn't give me a ticket. I know that none of this really has anything to do with Friday the 13th. What it really has to do with is that I am a dumb ass for not filling my tank when I knew good and well that it was empty.. Well there you go.. my Friday the 13th.

Here are five of my favorite Friday-the-13th facts:

1. Fear of Friday the 13th — one of the most popular myths in science. It is called paraskavedekatriaphobia as well as friggatriskaidekaphobia. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13.

2. Many hospitals have no room 13, while some tall buildings skip the 13th floor and some airline terminals omit Gate 13.

3. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.

4. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.

5. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

LEGEND HAS IT: If 13 people sit down to dinner together, one will die within the year. The Turks so disliked the number 13 that it was practically expunged from their vocabulary (Brewer, 1894). Many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor. If you have 13 letters in your name, you will have the devil's luck (Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Theodore Bundy and Albert De Salvo all have 13 letters in their names). There are 13 witches in a coven.

SPRING IS COMING!!!!!

I am so excited about spring/summer for the hiking season. I can't wait to get in those mountains and start climbing all of the rocks and hiking all of the trails. Utah really is one of the most beautiful states that I have ever seen. I can't really imagine myself away from the mountains. This year I intend on the hiking the trail to Gobblers Knob several times. You want a view? That is where you need to be!! The summit is 10,242 feet and you can see the entire Salt Lake valley when you look to the West and to the East you can see all of Park City, Heber and Jordanelle. It was hard to leave I could have stayed up there forever! This picture (-->) is on the way up to the summit, and the one below is at the summit.

This year will be especially fun. I finally quit smoking so I'm thinking it won't be as difficult for me to get tho the top. And this year Mike intends on joining Zach and I on our adventures. Maybe we can convince Andrew to get off his butt and come with us. I don't really know a lot of trails, so I will have to buy a hiking guide. Or if anyone has any suggestions I would gladly accept some ideas. I do know that in late August we are heading to the Uintas for a two day hike to Lake Amethyst. That one will rock as well. Either way Spring is inevitable and Sumner will shortly follow. I am so excited that I can hardly sit still while am waiting. I'm itchin for some mountain air.

Sales?!

What in God's name was I thinking going into sales? Was I on CRACK?

So I started at AppleOne last year in March as the office coordinator.. I really should have stayed in that position, so now I am a staffing consultant. With the economy the way that it is no one is looking for people. In fact they are letting people go, I'm sure that there is a good portion of you out there that know that first hand. Every day I sit here making calls.. so many calls, to all of these companies to see if they need any people. Most of them I have to leave a message and they never call back. They don't want to talk to a sales person! When I get a hold of them I get a mixed response... "No, we don't need any one and take us off your call list!" click.. sometimes I get a "actually we just filled a position so we are fully staffed.. thanks though." click. I would say that 1% of the calls that I make generate some kind of interest. That can be very exciting.. but then I still have to go through corporate and get workman's comp and credit approved. I have now had 2 potential clients get denied.. then they get pissed and then decide that they want nothing to do with me. woo...

I have been in this position for two months now and I feel like I have made little or no progress. You see, in order for me to move up I had to find a replacement for my position. So when we found the right person I began my training in N.E.S.T (new employee success training) while I trained my replacement to do my previous position. The whole situation was very stressful to me. I couldn't really turn to the other girls in the office for help, because the area manager asked that I just go to the branch manager. Which I understand, they have enough to do without having to train me too. So I would go to the branch manager with my questions and he would just refer me back to the manual. I read that God Damn Manual from cover to cover two times and you know just because you read the manual doesn't mean that you necessarily understand all of it. So I was training the new girl to do my old position and I was basically training myself to do my new position too!

So you can imagine that I was feeling stressed about the whole situation. Yesterday was test day... all I have to say it is a good thing that it was open book. I felt really stupid, there were a lot of things in there that I did not know. It took me most of the work day for me to do the test. I mean I had candidates that I interviewed and phone calls that I dealt with as well, so it didn't really take ALL day.... just a good portion of it. :(

I get my test graded on Monday and if I fail I will have to take it again. But if I pass I will be eligible to receive commission and be on rotation to take new clients that call in. Who knows...

I think the main thing that really freaks me out is that in sales it's all about numbers. I can call every company in this entire state and work my ass off.. But if I am not getting orders I loose my job. They don't care that you try, they care that you are generating profit. I can't loose my job.. I CAN'T! I can just imagine it now.. Sitting in the cold with my shopping cart filled with garbage. Begging for money. Some guy in a suit yells "Get a job you freak!" Every penny that I make begging goes to a strong bottle of liquor to keep me warm.

I have decided to put my resume out in the world, but I will be very careful to be sure that I don't leave this job for another just to get laid off. I think with the economy the way that it is right now it is likely that I will end up a bag lady either way!

Another day, Another dollar.

My last day at UTA was on the 18th of July... It was a wondrous day filled with relief and sadness at the same time. I have found a new job now, and I really think that I have found my niche. I am an administrative assistant for a company called Upper Limit Aviation.

What is so neat about this job is that I am getting to experience a lot of things that I never thought I would. What is it? Well Upper Limit Aviation is a helicopter flight training school. People come from all around the school to spend lots and lots of money and learn to fly helicopters. I have never really understood why people from anywhere other than Utah would want to come here for school... Utah kinda sucks..

I guess the reason why is that the weather here is always changing and the altitude and terrain are excellent things for pilots to put on a resume per say. Also because of where the school is located it is in what you call class b air space. Essentially what that means is that this area is a high traffic area. It can be very stressful on someone that has never flown through it before.

Anyway though I like it a lot so far the people I work with are really nice... Hopefully it stays that way. I did take a pay cut coming here from UTA, however I think that it is worth it. I love being able to wear what I want, and get a full nights rest. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of things that I loved at UTA but this just fits my needs better.

I don't know how it is that I happen to stumble upon these neat jobs, and if this isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life... Well I guess I will have one hell of a resume!

I'm acting my age!

So this is how it started Mike has to be to work at 10:00 in the morning he sets his alarm for 9:15 and I usually set a backup alarm on my phone for 9:25. This particular morning Mike was very tired so he turned the alarm off and went back to sleep. I'm one of those people that when my alarm goes off I'm up, I don't press snooze, I don't lay back down, nothin I'm just UP. I was getting upset because he wouldn't get back up and he was gonna be late to work.

So we get into an argument about how just because my job at UTA is SUPER strict on tardies (as in 3 tardies of more than one minute and your fired) doesn't mean that his job is that way. Its ok for him to be late every once and a while, they don't care. Finally I get so frustrated because now the argument is just going in circles and meanwhile he is getting later and later to work. I just get fed up and tell him that "he is 24 and its about God damn time that he starts acting like and adult!" To which he replies "how about you start acting like your 23 and not 40 and relax a bit."

That was how the argument ended. He turned around and walked out the door. I was really pissed off for a while. Where did he get off telling me that I don't act my age? Then I started thinking about it, all I really do is work and go home. I go see my friends every once and a while but its mostly sitting around having pleasant conversation. I don't go to parties, I go to bed at like 9 or 10 at night, a fun evening for me is when I get to stay up late enough to see my favorite shows on tv....... OH MY GOD.... I AM 40!!!!!!

Sadie and I had made plans for her to come over that day, so while I was still pondering the fact that somehow I has skipped years 24-39, she showed up. Soon enough we were talking about other things and I had completely forgotten about my fight with Mike. Then she starts to tell me that she is getting a car. That her sister had gotten a new one, and she was taking the old one. Her family lives in North Carolina so she was gonna fly out and drive back. She told me that originally she bought a ticket for her cousin before she realized that her cousin does not have a
drivers license. So instantly in my mind I get this flash of Mike saying to act my age. I told her that I would go with her if she wanted so she wouldn't have to drive back the whole way.

The ticket is in my name I'm flying out to good 'ole NC on the 8th of Aug, staying a couple days, then driving back to Utah. I'm going on a vacation! A road trip! An opportunity TO ACT MY AGE! I'm Really excited in case you can't tell!