Tri-Valley 2 week Triple P Blitzkrieg

Saturday at football, some girls told me they didn't believe they were dating enough. I agree. They are wonderful, beautiful, talented girls. They don't get asked out enough. They told me about a dating plan. A contest.

The dating contest will last two weeks. The Triple P's are: planned, paid for, and paired off. They can be asked, or they can ask guys on dates. They must list them out by activity and date. The incentive is a pair of tickets for a nice restaurant. We told the guys at church, so they'd know why the girls were going date crazy. The dates start today.

I thought it would be fun, easy, and interesting. All the girls interested in participating are competitive and proactive. It has been one day, and it has not been easy. Turns out I don't have much discretionary time during normal weeks and dates every night of the week will take the rest of my time. 

I didn't expect it would be so complicated to plan dates every night of the week. It's hard to decide where to go. It's difficult to know what kinds of activities we could do in the time available. It's hard to change plans. It's hard to decide who to take. Who is already going on a date? Who could I ask that I would like to know better? Who could really use a date to lift their self-esteem?

My sister asked me what happens when guys don't get asked out. Good question America, maybe this contest will be as good for the guys as for the girls. I also noticed the girls asked out the guys who date a lot. I guess they were more comfortable asking guys out on dates if they already knew them pretty well. 

It's enlightening. Now I've got to go and figure out what I'm doing for my dates...hmmm.

Dickens Day

I've been listening to The Eye of the World, the first book in the Wheel of Time series. I finished today. It was quite interesting. Sucked me in all the way. Now I have to read the other 13 books of the series. I also heard there's a prequel, but I haven't read/listened to that yet. What kind of reading black hole did I jump into? I've started book 2. How do people write such long story lines and keep them interesting and viable? I don't know, I can't explain it, but it inspires me.

In other entertainment news, Arrested Development is going to debut on Netflix in May. My roomie Hayley heard about it on the radio. Prets exciting!!!! It's going to be awesome. Then, after the new episodes, a movie. You should read up on it. Something to look forward to.

In another change of thought, I am pleased to announce it's cold here in CA, but not as freezing as Missouri, where it's been blizzarding all week. I'm pleased to announce last Monday I just watched tv, read books, and watched a Jet Li movie. Not my fav. unfortunately.

My favorite tv shows right now are: Scandal, Carrie Diaries, Grey's Anatomy, The Middle, Parenthood, Chicago Fire, and Modern Family. These shows are very interesting.

I scratched myself this morning and I just now scratched my scratch. That felt less than awesome. Almost worse than gluten free cookies. Almost.

Last night we had a girl's night. A ladies night. A night for the ladies. At my house. With lots of delicious food and nail painting. I did not get my nails painted. I did accomplish some braiding. It was a nice night. We did have a special guest cosmopolitan man. He didn't massage my feet or hands, paint my nails, or do my hair, but he did for others.

Dream Weaver

Last night I had a dream. It was a longish dream. I was on an island coast, or next to the ocean. There were many of us. Half of the fight was in my front yard at home and the other half was on the coast. It was a cool fight. It was a war between lots of early 20's aged youths. Weirdest part was it was like a giant zone conference on my mission. 

So all of us were warring, but our weapons were straws. We inserted mini pencils made out of paper into the straws and blew them out like dart guns. At the end of all the fighting, we had a banquet. There were lots of cakes and cookies on tables. It looked like a wedding reception setup. There were nuts sprinkled on all the cakes and the cookies were all bland looking and unappetizing.

Even though we had a war, we were all very chummy at the reception. We also walked down a sidewalk that had a bunch of mangoes, peaches, or tomatoes fallen from a tree. I couldn't tell what they were, but they transformed a bit as I was trying to figure them out. I believe I realized they were tomatoes growing in the tree, which means they were probably just persimmons. 

I told the person walking with me it was a waste to have such a lovely fruit tree unappreciated- nobody was eating or gathering the fruit. In all fairness, the tree was on a sidewalk by the street, but the fruit was abundant and the fallen fruit had the coloring of peaches and looked delicious. 

We ate vegan food for lunch at work. Nobody really wanted to eat vegan, but I said it would be ok. I was wrong. It was gross. No more bbq tofu for me. Unfortunately all the people  who got other food were right. Not my fav. I'm just trying to widen your horizons people. The sun is shining hard in veganland. And it hurts my eyes. 

Also, our PG&E was like triple the norm this month. We realized that turning off the heat when we left the house increased our bill by a mil. So we looked at the stat and realized, instead of turning it back to Heat Auto, we just put it on heat. So we blasted the heat when we got home instead of just putting it to auto. Stupid expensive mistake. Not cool thermostat. Not cool. 

Cheer up govna-

Today has been kind of a sad day for me, so I thought I'd put this out for you all to watch. Since it makes me so happy to see it. It's the vid I mentioned before. It is a parody of the film "The Phone Call".   Pretty sweet http://youtu.be/18wt6z9ALjI

Chocolate. All I want is chocolate.

This Christmas I had the opportunity to see a great many of my nieces and nephews, along with other important family members. I realized the beauty and simplicity of a child’s love. My favorite interactions were with the younger kids and all the love they gave to me for just being in their family.

That just made my break.  It was filled with lovely family interactions and beautiful days filled with nothing. Speaking of beautiful days, Saturday was a beautiful day. After four hours of sleep, I played two hours of Frisbee and two of football.

Yesterday I could barely stand up. Today is better. Also, turns out I’m way better at Frisbee than football, but it figures since I play Frisbee every Saturday.  And if I was still terrible at Frisbee, I would not be impressed.

Then I went to a Chinese bakery. I believe the name of it was Chinese bakery. I felt like I was in Guatemala again, because it was organized the same as a Guatemalan bakery.

There were quite a few people in there, with trays and tongs, pushing for bread. I got two pork rolls, a pineapple pudding sweet roll, a coconut cream roll, and a tiny raspberry mousse. I didn’t really like the pork rolls…but the coco, pineapple, and rasp businesses were delicious. Oh what a treat. San Francisco it is.

I have also recently realized how important and impossible it is to get 8 hours of sleep every night. I usually get about 6 ½. I’ll work on that.  Then maybe I’ll get over my death cough, which has lasted at least three months and is cutting my breath at least twice a day.  

I’ve been doing some rather tedious work lately for my job, tagging commercials. So I’ve been watching lots of tv shows. My favorites include: Modern Family, Parenthood, The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy, The Bachelor, Chicago Fire, and Scandal. I know, I’m a tv watching fool.

We also made videos for FHE last week. I’m the girlfriend in ours and it’s a parody of a movie made in the 80’s “The Phone Call”.  Therefore, I used my high, fake voice for it… on purpose. Maybe I’ll post the link on here. If ya’ll get lucky.  It’s really nice outside. I love the sun.

Happy Thanksgiving Back-

Can you feel the love tonight? Well, can you? Can you? I saw the Lion King last week. The musical. It was awesome. I can't convey how great the costumes and sets were right now. Just imagine a banana cream pie with music. That about sums it up. 

It's Thanksgiving week. I will be sitting pretty on a turkey tomorrow. After frisbee. With two feet in a nest. My calves have been killing me this week. Weird. That's what happens when you stand on your tiptoes like a ballerina all the time. Some folks do. Take note of this turkey doing such with a walking stick. Not really happening, but if you glance over, it totally looks like he is. Classy Mr. Turk. 

I am thankful for my mother, my father, my siblings, my friends, and my boyfriend. I am thankful for a fancy car named Rodrigo, a job that pays my bills, and some sweet weather. I'm thankful for my mission, the people of Guatemala, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My life is very blessed. Every day. I'm grateful for the opportunity to recognize those blessings. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh, and I'm thankful for burritos. 

I need to start shopping and prepping for Christmas. I feel like I'm already out of time and the Christmas decorations haven't even been put up for the year. On a different note, I think the fruit of the loom ab ad is pretty sweet. Very inspirational fruit of the loom. 

As a side, my favorite pies are pecan and banana cream. I like Thanksgiving because I get to eat those pies. I don't know why, but for some reason I don't eat pie most of the rest of the year. Banana cream is actually a great breakfast pie. Fact. I have also noticed with all the holiday candy binges my face has become a teenager's nightmare. It's my favorite. 

I completed a month of dating Charles this Monday. Which is pretty sweet since I don't always get that far. He's such a sweetheart. He will open my car door every time I exit a car and he's within 10 feet. He makes me food and tells me he likes me. He's the best. 

He also sent me flowers for our one month. He sent them to my office after sending an email to our info email confirming the physical address of our office because he wanted to send flowers to his girlfriend. All info emails get sent directly to me. Surprise! Anyway, it was a very thoughtful thing to do. Thanks Charles in charge. He did memorize the address though, for any future escapades. 

As for birthdays, I need to write a list of yearly dates to remember because I want to be a good person who remembers those dates...I'm not quite there yet. Even if my brother Christian tells me I'm a good person. I should make those candy bar filled crescent rolls tonight. We have lots of candy in the candy bowl on our coffee table right now. Lots of delicious candy. 

Oh, and Happy Mustache Movember! I'm growing mine out, are you?

Costumation-

Alright people. My hands and unfortunately, mouth smell like onions right now. Not suuuuper cool. I wish they were a little less potent in the days after ingestion. I just had a burger. I was supposed to get a salmon burger but it was actually labeled incorrectly. Most of our sandwiches were. Every Tuesday and Thursday we get food at work. That's where I usually eat my main meal of the day. I think my mission ruined me at making food. I never feel like doing it anymore. 

I'm currently back at not eating burritos. After a year of just burritos, I'd say it's about time to switch it up. So I've gone over to smoothies. They're so easy and fast. I just don't have a lot of time to make food. Today I actually need to go to the store for some food. I currently have spinach, yogurt, cheese, and milk in my fridge at home. 

I bought a baseball glove a couple weeks ago for $65 at Sports Authority. Then I took it back because I decided that was a lot to spend on a baseball glove. So I am still thinking about it, but all I've bought is soccer stuff thus far. I play soccer on Wednesday nights still so that makes more sense than a glove for when I play baseball (never). However, I did go to six or so A's games out here this summer, so I've had good reason to think about baseball. The Giants made it to the World Series. Good job Giants.

I bought this hair stuff a couple weeks ago. It's called IT'S A 10 TEN - MIRACLE LEAVE IN PRODUCT. I don't know if it's a Miracle product, but it keeps my hair from having hundreds of flyaways and detangles quite well. It's a little bit expensive, but you don't use a lot and if you have that problem with your hair I would recommend that stuff. My hair definitely feels healthier lately. It's also getting longer, weirdly enough. Go hair go. 

To all of the mothers I know..and to some I don't know, good job. I am always grateful that I don't have children when I read your emails even though your children are precious and wonderful. I know it's hard to be a mom. I'm working towards that life, but honestly, I am doing the Arsenio Hall "Woo woo" for you every day and your classic endeavors. Good job. 

In other news, I'm pretty sure I'm getting a cold since everyone I know has one. Boo. Not excited about that business. An onion cold no less. It's not going to be pretty. I just washed my sheets yesterday- my one consolation since that's about the greatest thing in the world-clean sheets. I should probably get some new clothes/shoes since I haven't really bought anything for a year, since Bonnie took me out to not be a clothing loser. I'll maybe do that laaaater. 

As an old lady in attendance of a singles ward, I am going to a Halloween dance Friday night. I do not know yet what I want to dress as, but I should figure that out, since today is Tuesday. I've got a lot of people asking me about this important life choice, so I don't want to mess it up. I'd go matchy with my boyfriend, but I think it's a little fresh to be that cutesy. I don't want anyone to throw up on my costume. 

I still work at the same place I have been working at for a year. I'm the office manager at a place called ConnecTV. One day I will quit and work somewhere else that appreciates my college education. Today is not that day. 

Boys. Menfolk..I just got a boyfriend. You all know how I am- totally nervous about relationships. Well, this guy is named Charles. He's in my ward, he's my home teacher. He asked me out twice about 4 months ago. We had fun but he didn't ask me out again and I knew he was asking a couple girls out in the ward at the same time. Weirdly enough, when he asked me out the first time, I'd never even thought about him as a dating possibility but at his house I had a really intense attraction to him. It actually kind of weirded me out. 

So a couple weeks ago I sat by him on the futon during a movie at my house. He decided that was a pretty good sign that I was interested. I wasn't. He asked me out twice. I told him I couldn't date him b/c I didn't want my roomie to be weird about it. He comes over to hang out at our house and I didn't want to ruin any dynamics we already had. My roomie then told him I was crazy and was making excuses. 

So he asked me out again and he kissed me. He's 23, served his mission in Spain, and wears toe shoes. Then he asked me what our status was. He actually asked if he could tell the Elders Quorum in our ward. It was a joke, but I was like, Uhhhh, no. So he told my friend Stacy the next day he probably wouldn't ask me out anymore. And I was like "What?" It actually made me really sad. I just needed some time to get used to the idea. You know?

So I texted him and was like "What the heck Charles?" So we had a text conversation about our status. Cleared some stuff up. That was last Wednesday. Friday we had a talk. I decided I should probably stop hemming and hawing about dating. I had a couple experiences this year that reminded me I'm not getting any younger, but I'm still really skittish with guys and exclusive dating. Instead of pretending we're not exclusive for a month and then telling people, I decided to just tell everyone we are exclusive right off. 

So we held hands at church. Now our whole ward knows. Now you know. It's new. It freaks me out still, but I like him. He's really smart, interesting, and attractive. He plays soccer on Wed with all the people I play with and he's pretty good. He's going to school to be a rocket scientist. That's another 10 years of school. Right now he's going to school for free since his father is a disabled veteran. He's also really good at physics. Go figure. 

Uh, yeah. That's all. I told him I usually date people for three months. At least he knows what he's up against. I wasn't telling him we would only date three months, I just told him that was my max thus far. He's the guy in the pic with the striped shirt. Sorry, not a big picture. I am really excited it's fall because I love the fall and all it entails. Lots of people seem to have started dating lately. I'm glad I've been put on the list. 

So I guess that's one or two sentences about what I've been up to. Word. Love you so much. Love, Merilee