Sustenance, Suits and S'mores on Saturday

Today our postal workers gathered food from all over the city to donate to the local food pantry. The postcards in the mail to tell residents of this great communal effort said to put non-perishable food in a bag and set it near one's mailbox. Uh... heck no! A small black bear has been known to roam our area as well as other animals (including fellow humans) that are attracted to food; the last thing I was going to do was leave out food in the open. As you can see, I stuffed my little locked mailbox with various cans and a box of lime Jello (the "Mormon-y" side of me couldn't resist). What you don't see is that a hefty jar of peanut butter didn't fit so I put it in our outgoing mail box with the flag up accompanying a letter to an old friend in Maryland (you also didn't see that I went out and did all this while heavily medicated and wearing pink fuzzy slippers). This was such a small thing and yet I found it quite fun. Hooray for supporting local causes!

My lazy Saturday ended with dinner and dessert at the parents' house with 2 sets of missionaries from church. There was the pair serving in the Young Single Adult (YSA) ward (congregation) and the pair serving in the Hmong branch (smaller congregation that is in this case language-specific). Dad made his famous 5 noodle, 3 pepper soup... but forgot one noodle type so it turned into 4 noodle, 3 pepper soup. This version featured deer (not something we get often up here) and chicken hearts (per my request because they are my FAVORITE) as the soup's meat. Very yummy; less spicy than in the past. I ate my first green salad since January tonight as well; they have been the cause of a lot of agony so I've been in avoidance mode. Pray it's not a trigger for issues tonight... I've been missing my greens.

Side note: I (apparently) really (really) really (like) using (parenthesis) today.

After dinner we enjoyed s'mores made with GIANT (see how big they are compared with the chocolate bar?) marshmallows.

At Christmas I enjoy a fun tradition I purposely started within the last few years of roasting s'mores outside over the grill (or whatever you can get lit on fire). This last Christmas I was unable to participate due to illness and the s'mores were not made nor eaten. I was so happy to see the bag of massive marshmallows on the counter and hear dad ask, "What do you think of s'mores for dessert?". Mmmmm-mmmm. Post-gallbladder removal surgery day 8; time to experiment with food.

Oh my goodness. Those s'mores were amazing! With super GIANT marshmallows you don't have to put 2 on the roasting stick. One is definitely plenty. The s'mores were EXTRA messy and hilarious to eat while trying to keep an air of dignity. I ended up hiding in the corner laughing hard while attempting to finish s'more number one. By the time our marshmallow-roasting adventures were over, I had ooey gooey marshmallow goo all over myself... as did the elders. Way fun.

It took me hanging out on a Saturday night while fairly medicated for pain with my parents and 4 young men at least four years (at most 6 and a half) my junior who are un-datable and serving God on a proselytizing mission 24/7 for the next 2 years for me to laugh and really say I had FUN fun.

Now why aren't I having these kinds of enjoyable times with people my own age that are actually huggable? Hm.

Tell me I'm ugly, tell me I'm fat... but please, leave my religion alone.

Well everyone, life's been busy lately and full of adventures; some welcome and some not.

I'd like to share some recent happenings while out and about.  Brace yourselves.

My friend Katie called me up one evening and wanted some company for dinner.  I had stuff to do around the house, specifically laundry so I wore a denim skirt and a much-applicable "Grumpy" (from Snow White) t-shirt that day, but being a good friend took precedence and I went and joined Katie at a local late-night restaurant.  Dinner was good, conversation was better, and as we stood in line to pay we were jovially intercepted by a well-dressed man, his wife, and their son.  

He asked, "What church do you go to?" and Katie answered him, "We go to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What church do you go to?"  

Now, at this moment I was expecting him to say he was Mormon too and he knew he had recognized us from Stake Conference or something.  Right?  RIGHT?  No.  HECK NO.  He told us he went to some other church, and to be kind I won't mention the denomination.  Then he handed us a pamphlet, invited us to visit his church, and took his family into the restaurant.  What did Katie and I do next?  We looked at the pamphlet of course!  And you know what it was?  It was blatant anti-Mormon literature.  If I remember correctly the front mentioned something about us worshiping a different Jesus and somewhere inside it also clearly stated that we're going to Hell.  Nice.  Fantastic way to go about making friends.  

It was painful.  We weren't the only ones standing there in line and he specifically picked us out of the crowd as Latter-Day Saints and then proverbially stepped on our souls.  Really, that's how it felt.  Tell me I'm ugly, tell me I'm fat... but please, leave my religion alone.

This last weekend I was chillin' with Katie again.  We were both craving Italian and found ourselves at a cute little Italian place, split a canole for dinner and gelato (Italian ice cream) for dessert.  It was a yummy watching-the-budget-but-not-the-waistline dinner.  Kudos to Katie, fantastic idea.  

After dinner, long story shorter, we ended up at our $3 theater to join some friends for a movie at the last minute.  We were a little late, but no biggie.  Neither of us knew much about the movie, which will remain anonymous, but it was rated PG-13 and actually came recommended by a fairly good friend.  There was an actor in the movie that I find myself despising due to his crudeness but our said friend assured us he was decent in this movie.  Ok, we took a chance.  BAD IDEA.  It was terrible.  Not long after we sat down, amidst everyone's laughter and guffawing in the theater, we had to leave.  

The movie was the least of the evening, on our way to my car we were intercepted by an upset young lady needing gas.  She stopped us and told us that she worked as a security specialist (or something) for Wal-Mart and needed gas to go back to Wasilla (about 50 miles outside of Anchorage) so she could get breast-milk to her baby.  Katie's night to run the show was at the restaurant with the guy and the Anti-Mormon pamphlet, this night was apparently mine 'cause I did all the talking.  I clarified what this woman needed and made the decision to help with what I could.  We are our brother's (or sister's) keeper, right?  She looked cold so I told her to wait inside the theater lobby and we'd go to the gas station and get a can filled with gas for her.  

Katie and I didn't walk 15 steps further and -Bam!- another woman intercepted our short walk to the car.  She was older, wearing a pink jump suit, and needed a ride somewhere.  She claimed to be from Eagle River and wanting to get to a friend's house nearby.  I had a hard time following her story, which included (I think) something about a drunk guy and driving somewhere.  All I could do was tell her we were on our way to get gas for someone and instructed her to go wait in the lobby with the other lady and talk to her.   

Katie and I were in shock.  Really, if you want random adventures, hang out with me.  I'm like a magnet.  No joke.  This kind of stuff happens a lot.

At the gas station there was only 1 gas can left.  The darned thing only held 2 gallons and actually cost more than the gas to go inside it!  And I thought the cost of gas was atrocious; It's plastic we need to worry about.  While filling the gas can and dealing with the super quirks of technology and the crazy random evening, our defense mechanism of choice was laughter.  I'm sure the gas station guy and whomever else was in the parking lot thought we were drunk.  Yeah, we were laughing that much.  Really, if you think about it, there was humor in the situation.  Coming up with possible solutions provided some entertainment.  One solution that we deemed as rather funny and somewhat ironic... is the one I actually went with when faced with dealing with the women.

Back at the theater, gas can in hand, Katie and I found both of the women coming out of the theater lobby.  I gave the gas can to the woman going to Wasilla and explained it wouldn't get her far, but would get her far enough to hopefully happen upon someone else that could contribute to her trip home.  Then, I asked her to please bring the pink sweatsuit lady with her and drop her off wherever she needed to go since it was on the way.  I am absolutely not comfortable transporting strangers and that was the only solution Katie and I discussed that came out of my mouth at that moment.  I wished them luck and we high-tailed it out of there.    

Fun stuff eh?

There's one more adventure I'd like to share, and it's a good one.

I have a list on the bottom of this blog that is a list of things I want to do before I die.  I started this list years before the movie "The Bucket List" came about, so no accusing me of copying, imitating, whatever-ing Hollywood.  Everything I have accomplished thus far (not much) is listed in blue with a date of completion following it.  Well, there's a new light blue one in town... "Learn To Belly Dance".  I began classes on June 3rd of this year and am LOVING them.  

I look forward to Wednesdays and having that hour and a half of what I think I'll call "no-cares time".  I don't care about how I look, I don't care about what happened that day at work, I don't care about if I can get something perfect, I just simply don't care.  It's fantastic, and the nonchalant outlook is encouraged.  My instructor is this vivacious woman who has personality and spunk in class as well as while performing.

  

The belly dance style she teaches is Gypsy-influenced, fun and full of movement and personality.   Costuming for performing is colorful and fairly flexible per each dancer.  I can maintain my modest clothing standards while fitting in and having a great time.  I was so happy today I used my computer to take a few pictures post-class to share with everyone.   

See? I'm smiling!  

I wish everyone a great no-cares rest-of-the-week ahead.

God bless.

The Power of YouTube

On Saturday some friends and I decided to try the theory (made popular on YouTube.com) that one can pop popcorn with the radiation emitted by active cell phones.

As you can see, success was not achieved.

And here is everyone watching the YouTube video that says it's all a joke... 

Feeling very very silly.

I have....

I have been negligent. I have not written in.... forever. I have been busy. I have had other things taking up my time. I have dedicated most of my time to other people and am now taking a moment for myself. So there.

In addition to my condensed version of updates below, I changed my cellular plan to AT&T and upgraded to a good phone. My plan allows unlimited net usage which means I can take photos during my crazy days and when I figure out how, I can post them straight to the blog from my phone. I'll do my first test ones after I'm done with this post.

Yay for blogging-on-the-run.

The first update missed was the much celebrated arrival of my dearest friends pictured below. They lived up here in Alaska for 4 years, their first year being my last year before I bailed out of the state. I didn't meet them till I was in Maryland. We had instant connections which grew into a great friendship and I ended up living in their basement for a while even... and then on base in temporary housing with them for a few weeks as they shipped out to Idaho (my heart broke that day). Well... One year after they left Maryland, and 6 months after I left Maryland... guess who just moved back to Alaska and bought house!?!?!? Yuppers, THEY'RE HERE!!! Life is now complete.




Next came disc golf. April 19th I got suckered into playing disc golf with two good friends of mine. I had played (hacked at it) once before in my life and that was in Provo, Utah. I thought it was some funny backwards Utah sport. Turns out we have 2 courses here in Anchorage and they've actually been here for quite a while. The day was beautiful and the company I kept was wonderful. There was snow here, mud there, frozen water that way, and running water this-a-way. The day was superb with a much needed sanity-saving outing followed by strawberry smoothies and a chic flick.

Next was April 25th, 2008. Save the date, it made history. Not only did the young and older single adults in my church get together for a food drive complete with driving themed light-hearted activities (it was fun, and great to entertain the two kids that came), but we did so amidst a record-breaking...........

SNOW STORM!!!! It snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. Welcome home to Alaska. One minute it's great, the next it's covered in white stuff so deep you don't park your car... you drive until you bottom-out. But I have to say, we had a nice little snowball fight after the food drive.... it was perfect (and boy do I mean PERFECT) snowball and snowman snow... as you can see Shad demonstrated below with his handiwork.

More fun to come, the snow is gone now and the weather is t-shirt friendly... at least for Alaska standards it is.

Traveling Kitty: Scenes 1, 2, & 3

A friend of mine in Maryland sent this stuffed Hello Kitty doll up here to Alaska so I could take some pictures of it and send it back for a project her niece (I think) is doing.

I'm busy, so I haven't gotten as many photos as I'd like thus far.

Today, post-Easter dinner offered some fun time for photography.

My friends Cristi and Jessica came to dinner at my Grandparent's house with me and afterwards I showed them a place in town where you can see downtown Anchorage quite nicely. [Check out my photo page for more views.]

And here you see Cristi, reliving yesteryear with Hello Kitty in hand.

It is life's priceless moments we live for, eh?