Here's the brief, general

You know, I never know how to start my entry. Apparently, I am not very good at introducing subjects. I have that problem with my journal and with papers I write to.
So, my blind date. Before we went out, I had enrichment. Unfortunately, this being the church it is, we started fifteen minutes late. Which means, we ended fifteen minutes late. I only live about two minutes from the church, but apparently he had already been to my house and the eight year old had told him I wasn't home. But I had text messaged him and he got it when he got back to the car. I left enrichment right after the prayer, neglecting to even say hi to a couple of my guy friends in the parking lot. (If you know me, you know that I stop to talk to everyone. I felt bad I couldn't). I got home and went to fix my hair and text messaged him and he came.
He wasn't too bad looking. About 5'9" ish, with brown hair. Trim, which was a definate plus. We went to Happy Sumo. I've never had sushi, but I figured I might as well try it, I might end up liking it. I always say that, and I am always wrong. I had a stomach ache all night. But Blind Date was nice. He tried to make conversation, which was nice. Sometimes its hard to find a topic of conversation. He was much better at it than I was. He is a big football fan. I'm having difficulty finding someone who's not, I'm thinking I might just have to give in to that one. Doesn't mean I have to go, though. Another downside, he's lived most of his life in Utah.
On the other hand, he always seemed interested in the conversation, and after they boxed up our food, he leaned across the table while listening to me. He opened the doors (that's a big one in my book), and walked me to the door afterward. And he gives good hugs.
He invited me to go country dancing sometime. I might have to take him up on that, though I do not like anything country. Who knows, maybe I'll like it? (I really should know better)

Richard Marx

I took my mom to the Richard Marx concert. He said we were a great audience, and I thought, how many audiences have you seen lately, because no one was drunk and most people were just sitting in their seats until the last two or three songs.
I actually quite enjoyed the concert. I'm not normally a concert person, the music is too loud and the people are too crazy. I think the fact that it was in an outdoor theatre was very helpful, the sound had somewhere else to go other than reverberating around my skull. He has a new song I just loved called 'Through My Veins' He saved 'Right Here Waiting' until the end. He was very funny.
I have to tell you the part I thought was amusing. He told us he wrote a song for N*Sync and then he played his version. Wish I could find that version. I don't really care for boy bands, but I did like that song (I promise you). Now I know why I liked it. It wasn't written by boy band writers, and I do like Richard Marx's ballads.

The Joys of Life

Truth is I don't really want to write today, but as I get bored when other people don't write, I figured I had better.
Today was my first day substitute teaching. It was a second grade class. I was more worn out after subbing a second grade class than I was after teaching all my classes when I taught dance at both a middle school and a high school. Maybe I just don't remember being this tired because I did it everyday. Now I know why I don't work out when I am teaching.
Also funny thing today. I won Richard Marx tickets off the radio this morning. They asked for caller six. I was caller two, caller four, and caller six. Apparently, I was one of the only ones calling. So after my (long) day subbing, I drove to the radio station (a nice hour drive) only to find out that they had given away too many tickets. Fortunately, they are calling and there will be two tickets at will call for me. Crazy. Just crazy.
And I have a blind date tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Laugh of the Day

I was so excited for my first substitute teaching job that I showed up TWO WEEKS EARLY! Hm. That could be mildly embarrassing. Except I don't really see the point in getting embarrassed.
Needless to say it was very interesting to walk into the classroom and have the teacher there preparing her lesson. Poor girl, wondering who on earth I was.
That's my 'laugh of the day!!'

What is it you're doing?

This coming year, I am substitute teaching. Apparently in this part of the valley, subs get paid very litte, which I did not know because in other parts of the area (ie where I used to work) they got paid more. So I have to get a second job, which I did. I am now working for a guy I used to work for. In retail again, but its a super flexible job, which I totally need.
I also have an 'unoffical' third job (did I mention I'm crazy?). I work for my land lady. Sometimes babysitting, sometimes selling shoes, and sometimes whatever else she needs me to do. It's kind of like being someone's clone. Maybe I should go watch Multiplicity, I've never seen it all the way through.
Oh and in case all that doesn't make me busy enough, I'm still dancing and the RSP. Sometimes I think someone should seriously put me out of my misery.

Viva Las Vegas!!

My last vacation of the summer. Because school starts . . . TOMORROW! Truthfully, I am very grateful to be home. I feel like I have been gone so much, I am very out of sorts. But, it was great fun!! First we drove down to LA (my dance partner and I). We went to the beach, where we saw a seal!! He couldn't have been more than thirty feet away from us. From there we met up with my sister and her boyfriend (can't wait to see where that goes!) and had dinner. Pizza on Sunset Boulevard (after spending an hour driving Hollywood Blvd, Sunset Blvd and Santa Monica Blvd looking for a parking place. And seeing Sunset and Camden and singing it just like Debbie Reynolds. My partner didn't get it) Then we saw Wicked. Fantastic! Amazing! Loved it! So much better live! And we were in the seventh row!! Orchestra! Got to see everything. Amazing. Did I say that already? 'Cause it was!
Anyway, moving on. The next day we drove to Vegas and competed. That was really fun. There was a first round in Pre-Champ, which makes it quite a large event. I think we would have made the final if I hadn't been off-rhythm in the cha-cha. Totatlly sucks. Didn't like the DJ, it sounded as if the music started partway through the song. None of the judges called us back for the cha-cha in the semi and only one or two called us back for the other dances. That's what happens when the judges all watch you first and you start off rythym. But it was fun, I always enjoy dancing. The next day we went to the Cheesecake Factory, which quite possibly might be my favorite restaurant, and had dinner. We competed Amateur, but didn't get called back. Didn't expect to. This event only had a semi final, but there were many good dancers. Watching the Pro events was so much fun. My friend Jeremy competed there and did quite well and the standard event had an excellent level of talent.
Well, that was probably more on dance than you wanted to hear, but now I'm back! And probably won't be going on vacation for a while, considering school is starting. I sure had a busy summer!

Sad, sad day

It is always a sad day for me when I realize the summer blockbuster season is over and there really are no good new movies coming out that I want to see.

Lake Powell

I have decided that next year, my family needs to rent a house boat during the summer and go out on Lake Powell. I had so much fun! It was a decent temperature, not "kill me" hot, and it was fun to be on the lake. I think I might have been a fish in another life

Here are a few things I could have done without . . .
1. The fish that nibbled at us the first night. One of the boys ended up bleeding. I only felt a slight tug on my suit.
2. Forgetting the one swim suit I actually wanted to wear, because it was drying in the shower from going to another lake the night before we left
3. The 20 and 23 year old girls who were already married! How do they do that? Why do I have such a hard time even dating! (oh yeah, and I was the oldest one of the 'kids' who was unmarried.)
4. The abrasion type burn thing on my thighs that I got from lying belly down on the tube while we went insanely fast.

A few really good things
1. I managed to NOT turn bright red!! Hallelujiah for SPF 50! I was just barely pink
2. I went tubing, which I absolutely love. I don't like roller coasters, but I could go tubing all day.
3. I got to go swimming anytime I wanted!! (Really, a fish)
4. Lots of snacks. I ate all the time
5. My friend's husband couldn't come, so I didn't have to compete with him for her attention. (not normally a problem, but when your on vacation with a friend, who wants the friend to spend time with someone else?)
6. Sleeping outside on top of the houseboat and NOT getting eaten by mosquitos!
7. Hiking up to see the Indian ruins and pictographs (and announcing that one of the warriors is Moroni and having an eight year old believe me. I really shouldn't be so convincing. That's what comes from doing too much theater!)
8. Getting ice cream at the dock
9. Coming home and taking a REAL shower and sleeping in my OWN bed!!

Anyway, I had a really good time!

Where I want to go on Vacation

This place looks really cool, and I would love to spend a three day stay there. Now I just have to figure out how long it will take me to save that much money . . .

Need Reflector!

This is a hot picture of me after my shower washing off all the gook from the lake. Ok, I was just figuring out how to get pictures on my blog

On the water . . .

We had a ward boating activity for FHE tonight.. We went to one of the shallowest, greenest lakes I have ever been in. I was wary about getting in the water until they pulled out the tube. I have never been wakeboarding, I don't think its really my style (though I should try it eventually), but I sure have a good time on a tube. The tube we had was huge! It fit three people. They really tried to get us to fall off. The first time I went, both the other girls flew off a couple times, but I held on. The second time I did fall off once.
We were up in the front of the boat eating sour patch kids. Jewelry Girl finished them off and put the bag in the guy's lap who was next to her. All the leftover sugar spilled into his lap. He said we could call him Sugar Britches. So he shall henceforth be referred to as Sugar Britches.

Run, run, run!

So yesterday morning, I was awoken by a small child who needed to go to the bathroom at four in the morning. Now I know I'm a morning person, but I'm not that much of a morning person. Unfortunately, I was not able to go back to sleep. So finally after trying to fall asleep, and reading, I decided to go for a run (well, really more of a jog). The nice thing is that the school by me has posted on the tennis courts how far a mile is along my road. So I ran down to the marker and then back, so a total of two miles. Now I was only gone from my house about half an hour, but I saw EVERYONE running too. There were at least twenty people running on just that one mile stretch of road. As I was running past the hill, I saw a motorcycle coming down. I heard someone whistle. Now, normally, I just ignore whistles, but I realized I know people with motorcycles who live up that hill, so I turned. It was the Sunday School president (ps, in case you don't know, its a singles ward). So I waved and kept going. On my way back, I ran into one of my friend's dad. Then when I hopped in my car to go somewhere, I saw another guy in my ward running. Its like an epidemic around here.
And also of note, I can feel every muscle in my thighs right now. They are not very happy with me, especially since I danced for an hour and a half in the afternoon after I went running.