A long overdue Update

Hello blog readers if you still exist because I know it has been forever! sorry it has taken me so long to get this updated. I've been so busy! These might be out of order but thats ok, you'll figure it out. enjoy :)

So Sarah and I have had this eternal argument about her hair. She like to plaster it down to her head so it looks like its glued on. Don't get me wrong, Sarah has always had gorgeous hair. But she insist that if she blowdries it, it will just turn into a frizzball. She also takes about two hours to straighten it and then has a stiff head all day trying not to let it get to tangly. Not so. I dragged her to the bathroom the other day and working my magic, gave her conditioned, blowdried, straight, non-tangly hair that lasted the rest of the day. Take THAT, Sarah!

Everyone knows I play bagpipes, of course. But did you know my teacher lives in canada? Well he does. Rob menzies is a fantastic piper and also a pipe jugde that people basically pay hundreds to travel around and judge them and then give them tips on how to play better. How cool would that be? A couple month ago, my band hired him to come and do a workshop with us and he offered to give me lessons. I told him I didn't have the money to pay him and guess what he said? not a problem, they are free! So whenever we both happen to have time which is . . . .well not very often, we hop on skype and struggling with headphones and a stopping camera and echoes, we somehow manage to have a decent music lesson.

With getting off work super early, I have been able to take up piano again! YAY! sadly, I still do not have enough time to play as much as I want to but the time I do have is an improvement. At the moment I am working on a christmas duet with Christie burgon (my fantastic teacher who gives me lessons for free in exchange for giving her and her husband massages) Also, Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet and Venetian Boat Song by Felix Mendhelsson.

Metasource is the call center I work for. Not sure if I meantioned it before, but I have a full time job doing customer support for a loan company called First Bank of Deleware. Now for those of you who are going wait! what happened to massage?? don't worry, I still do massage, just not as an employee of anyone. I had a few job opportunities with massage but they didn't work out with other things I wanted to so like piano and being in a pipe band. So I took a job working from 6am to 1 or 2pm and I get the entire afternoon to do whatever I please with my time. usually, anyway. I have my massage table and I can work on people at home or I do events with chiropractors, that sort of thing.

My wonderful, beautiful sister-in-law, Leslie, has agreed to be my personal trainer in exchange for art lessons. So here I am getting ready to work out. I must say, I am not the best at it. My work out habits are sporadic at best. But I do try, I promise. Probably not hard enough though.

And here is me at the end of a work out. nice and sweaty and tired.

Shooting 0051

Shooting 0050

Shooting 0049

Shooting 0048

Shooting 0047

blessings blessings blessings

As many of you know, I have been on a quest to find a second job as fast as I can in order to make my payments for the next couple months. In interviewed with a massage place and that didn't seem like it was going to work and finally, out of desperation, I applied for a customer support position. Its a full time job in a call center which basically means I'd be soulless (thank you for the term, matt) but I would be able to pay my bills. Well, I went to the interview and got offered the job but they wanted me to work sundays. So I turned them down. But the next day, they called me back and said that the manager (who I talked to before my interview without knowing who he was) wanted them to hire me and they'd make an exception for sundays for me. So I got the job AND I don't have to work sundays! well two hours after that phone call, the massage people called me back and said-hey, we really want you to come join our office. Be at our meeting next thursday. Woah. And just to fill you in on this place, Its an office that is run by this guy that developed his own massage modality. So you pay him $1500 to learn his method, pay rent to work in his office, but then you take home most of what you make working on clients. So its a great opportunity, It just costs a bit. Also, Christie is trying to train me to be a piano teacher (if I ever get time to practice and work on it) and of course with being in a professional bagpipe band and stuff going on with matt, It just feels like everthing is happenning to me at once! But, like matt said, I just need to have faith and everything will work out.

When did I get here?

I've been thinking recently here and there how much I have changed in the last few years. I remember being a shy, quiet ten-year-old who played with stuffed animals and like to pretend she was a horse or cat with her friends and colored with crayons and always kept her hair in a tight pony tail. At that age, my brothers were starting to drive and go on dates. It seemed it would be an eternity before I reached that monumental point in my life. The thought of even speaking to members of the opposite sex who were not related to me was horrendous and wierd. I used to be very quiet. I kept to myself and didn't talk much about what I thought or did. I was content to observe others; to listen to conversations but rarely join in unless asked and then give an embarrassed short answer. Now, years later I am at that unreachable age. The one I thought would never come- and where is it going?? Where once, as a child, time seemed to creep along- now it rushes past me and I hardly have time to glimpse a picture of my own life before its in the past. Now I drive to work everyday like its the most common thing in the world- which it is. how strange. I've graduated from high school and a trade college. I am no longer the quiet, reserved girl I used to be. I talk about the details of my life like handing out candy at a parade- candy that before I would have kept close and never let anyone know I had. I think I could now be considered "outgoing"- A concept that before was strange and foreign to me. I am becoming somewhat practiced at "juggling boys" as Ashley would say- although I seem to be dropping them more than juggling them at this point. Looking back, I'm not sure when these changes took place. Some of them I like and some of them I don't. I'm just not sure when I got here.

The Depths of Despair

Adam, you know when you always tell me that your blunt honesty gets you into trouble? I'm experiencing one of those moments. In my last post I wrote something about someone that was honest but not very nice. I've deleted that part of the post now but the damage is done. The person about whom the post was written already read it. I feel like Anne Shirley. I'm in the depths of despair wondering if he will ever forgive me and how on earth I can ever make things right again. I value his friendship and now i'm not sure if I have it anymore. He was a better friend to me than I ever was to him. To you, (and you know who you are if you are reading this) I am more sorry than I can say. I don't know how to make it right but if you have any ideas, please tell me.

Oops, huh, yay, grrrr, thank heavens, and why not just kill me now

Also, I spent the day with matt for the first time since I told him I wanted things to end on friday. That was interesting. Mommy and Daddy freaked out for some reason. I didn't even flirt with him or hug him when he left or anything. we watched a movie, made lunch, i forced him to play piano with me, and we sat on the porch and talked about nothing in particular till he decided he really really really needed to go do his laundry, haha.

Friday night I went to hang out at Kabrina's apartment since she moved there forever and a day ago. I met her boyfriend, colored a felt picture, watched youtube videos and played with her kitty. I haven't just gone and done random stuff with my briner babe in the longest time! It was fun :)

Ok, i'm so mad about this. There was a solo competition in wellsville yesterday (that up by logan) and I registered to compete but for some reason it got postmarked a day late. and the stupid face lady wouldn't let me compete even though they were supposedly desperate for me solos! So I drove all the way up there for basically nothing because I didn't even know half of what they played in mass bands. The little good that came out of it, was that I got a pretty knife (remind me to post of picture of it later) and some incense. that pretty much it.

To after my long, frustrating day, I went for a drive with adam and then went to kalisse's house to eat junk food and watch t.v. and ended up making $5o off her dad for a massage. that was fun :D

Then I got home, was going through my laundry and found a gargantuine spider hiding in my clothes. I'm getting the creepies just writing about it. Poor Adam, I woke him up to text him because there was no else to run to and be a baby to at two in the morning. He was very nice about it.

misunderstood teenager

Sometimes I feel like a misunderstood teenager. Father has this new rule at home that everyone has to do at least twenty minutes of weeding before they get on the computer. Of course, in our house "everyone" refers to the "litte girls." I wouldn't mind this policy, except that I still hold "little girl" status with my father. Never mind that I work and do about a million things and clean the house almost as much as Wendy. (you're still the number one super kitchen cleaner, Wendy. Don't worry!) So here I am at the library updating my blog and looking up jobs because I have not done my weeding because I took a shower to go to the chiropractor this morning and I'd rather not get dirty and stinky before I have to go to work this afternoon.

OK. here's the real update. So I have come to the very sad conclusion that I am in desperate need of a second job in order to meet my financial obligations. So, I was very excited to hear about a structural therapist who trains other therapist in his office. (structural therapy is my favorite) So I called the guy and had an interview with him on monday and found out he has a year long training program that costs $1500 along with rent to use the space. uh . . .darn. Not only would I be paying the guy to spend time in his office, I wouldn't be really making anything there for at least six months. But I want to do it so bad! I love the kind of work he does and It would provide good experience and a new education experience. Only problem is, I need money NOW. So I won't be doing that. Not in the near future anway, but its something to look forward to, maybe. In the meantime, I'm looking for another job that I can get quick. Even if it isn't doing massage. Anything to pay the bills!

Also, I've decided I miss being in school. So i'm making plans to go to slcc by next fall if all goes well. Only thing is, I will only have time for one or two classes with all the work I will be doing. So I can't decide what to take! wo is me :(

Ok, I have to say this too. There's an odd looking person wearing a black tank top sitting at the computer kitty corner to me, and he keeps looking at me. Creepy? I think so. that is all.

Day three (the last one!)

Ok, this is the LAST ONE! About this trip, anyway. Sunday morning we checked out of our hotel and headed over to the fairgrounds once again for the piping and druming workshop. The workshop is usually quite fun to go to and I learn lots of new things. Its very inspiring and motivates me to practice more and gets me really excited about playing pipes. Not this time. It was really nothing new to me and most of it was for the pipe major and drum corps and mostly irrelevent to me. So it was a slightly disappointing use of my $10. after that, we made it to church which was nice and then it was time to go home! Well not quite. On the way, we stopped at Ashley's house in Etna. Turns out her mom is trying to start a blog and had no idea what she was doing so I got to help her with it. That was an adventure :) We just sat and talked for a little bit and took some pictures outside her house before it was time to go

Ashley has a massive dog named champ and the cutest little kitty named varni. I think?

this is her front yard. cool, no?

yeah. thats us.

After visiting Ashley, it was time for the looooong drive home where we only nearly got in a crash a couple of time because people are crazy and don't check their bling spots before trying to change into my lane while i'm trying to pass them. And when we got home, there were brownies waiting for us! fantastic :)

The big day! (day three)

Saturday=competition day. I have pictures this time but they are all out of order so I'm going to tell about my day and then you can look at the pictures. We met bright and early in the square to play some tunes with a couple other bands for the entertainment of the general public. Then it was off to the fairgrounds for the actual competition. Mass bands (which is where all the bands play all together and there are about 150 of us marching down a field.) was at noon and the games were officially started. after that, we had a lunch break and the band ordered pizza. I was so hungry, I ate three gigantic slices! I felt like a pig but it was sooo good! Then I took mother to look at some of the vendors selling their celtic wares. I've been saying i wanted a skindig (dagger that slides into your sock) for a while and she always says how dumb that sounds. but once she saw all the other pipers wearing them and saw them for sale, she wanted to buy me one, haha! I didn't see one I really liked there so i'm going to wait on that one. Then it was time for the march medley! we warmed up and tuned for about an hour and then marched onto the field and played. Its quite exciting to compete- everything you have been practicing and working for all year comes together in that short but very long five minutes and you can see the judges walking around the circle out of the corner of your eye. after that there was another bit of a break and then it was time for quick march medley. I wasn't going to play in this one but DeAnne had me play her pipes for warm up so keep hers in tune while she worked on everybody else's. One big problem with this. DeAnne is short. which means her pipes are small. Well her blow pipe is, anyway. I had to scrunch my head down to reach it and it kept popping out of my mouth and every time it did, i bit my lip. ouch! so then I watched them march off and play. after that, there was some time to relax, wander around, and then back to the pipes for another mass bands and then finding out what the scores were. We placed third in both medleys. which isn't bad but it isn't great either. my band consistently places third in every competition. But the important thing is that we get better than the last time we played and we have a bucket load of fun doing it. And we did :) so thats alright. Once we got back to the hotel, we got in the hot tub, showered, and went into town for some shopping and eating. Jackson hole has some great shops, but everything is stupid overpriced! So we had fun looking but didn't buy anything. There's this one antique shop that had crazy expensive things. They had this bowl of rings just sitting out on the counter and one of them was a $2300 ring! yeah, just sitting out where you could pick it up and put it on. crazy. Well we finally made it to a resteraunt around 8:30 and the wait to be seated was over a half hour. but it looked like a really good place so we waited. Its called The Merry Piglets. It a mexican place and they have murals of pigs on all the walls. ha, kinda funny. it was fun though. ok, enough narrating. look at pictures now.
this place had a bunch of cool artistic sculptures. Mom really like bears and mooses. I'm not sure why but if anything has a moose on it, mom likes it. And bears. So she made me get a picture with this artisticly shaped bear.

Outside the cool restaurant we went to. the food was delicious! and i made another discovery. turns out chipotle sauce is spicy. I didn't know that before. I do now.

This picture was actually taken at the end of the day just before we headed back to the hotel.






mass bands!



warming up for competition.


this was in the morning, warming up for our little performance in the park. I think my mom took a lot of pictures of this because I was standing next to a large metal moose. or maybe it was an elk. whatever.



playing at the park

Friday (or day two)

Ok, no pictures for this one either. Friday was relatively uneventful. Mom and I, packed up Elektra and headed off for Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The drive there was nothing really special until we got into Star Valley- the home town of one of my very best friends, Ashley Watkins! I called her as soon as I got there but she works in Jackson so she was waiting for us there. Also, we stopped at the cheese factory and bought some cheese and fudge. This is where we made a DISCOVERY! It turns out huckleberry fudge and cheese go fantastically together! no joke. I'm not even kidding. Its delicious. It tones down the sickly sweet of the fudge so you can actually taste the flavor better. Love it! Ok, on to Jackson. After checking in at our Hotel which was super easy to find, thank goodness, we met up with Ashley for dinner and then it was time for band practice. It went well except for one great big disapointment- DeAnne (the pipe major) asked me to sit out for the timed medley. Dangit! oh well, at least I still got to play in the march medley. After that, mom and I wandered around Jackson a bit but pretty much everything in Jackson closes at about nine. Lame, yeah? Ok, here's the depressing serious business. This is at the end of my stupid long post so only my serious loyal readers will get to see it. Remember the confusing crazy obnoxious guy mentioned before? I don't know if I said before, his name is Matt. Well I've been feeling for a long time its time to end things for good. Well officially, anyway. I think they were ended (on my part, anyway) we just hadn't said anything. Well I asked to him to call me that night and we had a talk. So now, it is, without a shadow of a doubt, finished. It kind of sucks, even now, I'm feeling a melancholy loss even though I would never in a million years go back. I feel good about it but I do still care about the guy, dangit. why does that have to happen?? So i'm sad, relieved, concerned, and still have a little lingering frustration about it. Still not quite back to my old carefree self but I'm sure I'll get there in time.

Day one

Ok, here it goes. I'm going to break up my weekend my days so it won't be so overwhelming to write. Or to read, for that matter. And since the first part of my adventures has no pictures, I will write about it now :) how does that sound? good.
So In case some of you didn't know, I happen to play the bagpipes and I am in a bagpipe band called The Utah Pipe Band- and every year we compete all over the place. One of the places we compete is Jackson Hole! Usually I just mooch a ride off somebody in the band but this is the first year I have had a car and I thought- hey. I have a car, that means I could drive!- but I didn't want to make the five hour drive up to Jackson all on my lonesome to I got a member of the band, Carlos (who is a recent high school graduate who thinks i'm the wierdest person on earth) to come with my but two days before he bailed. So I gave in and decided to mooch a ride and go with Ellie and Claudia which I was not looking forward to. Let me tell you something about Ellie and Claudia. They are two older women who play tenor drum together and they never. stop. talking. They are both very sweet nice ladies but if complaing were a sport, they could get gold medals! I think they just do it because it gives them something to talk about. Also, they were leaving super really early in the morning and I am a firm believer in sleeping in. SO. At the last minute, I magically somehow got my mom to come with me! that is right. The night before my trip, mother decided she would tag along so that we could take my car and sleep in a little bit. Problem solved! and that is that. for now.

lame sauce internet

So. I was going to post an epic post about my epic weekend BUT. Blogger is having issues and will not upload any of my pictures. So that will have to wait. Just know that it is coming!

After Much Deliberation

So after the weeks of endless conflicting emotions, frustration, and craziness I have given a previous mentioned boy "the boot" so to speak. I'm not even sure if thats the right term but basically I told him we are done. Of course I have told him that before and we got right back but this time I mean it! For really reals. And since I have now blogged about it, it is final. there.

Rant.

So for the past several weeks not much has been going on in the way of interesting events that I have taken pictures of. In fact, my camera has remained in the same spot on top of the piano for at least a month or two. But quite a lot has been going on emotionally and mentally. The poor people who live with me are forced to hear about it just about every day because I am a big whiner pants. After the past few weeks I have come to the conclusion that boys are not good for ones emotional and mental health and wellbeing. They are infuriating, frustrating and most of all- confusing. What kind of guy holds your hand and then tells you he doesn't want to be in a relationship then doesn't talk to you for a week and then decides he does want to be in a relationship but he can't see you that night because he's going out with another girl????? And then he says I love you but only in text even after I asked him not to. This is just a very small glimpse of the confusion of the past few weeks. I realized I haven't blogged in a while and I know this is not much of a post but its what has been going on lately. Thank you for reading.

Okay, this new blog background is very cool except that is says Happy thanksgiving on the side. So just ignor that part, please. Its really not a thanksgiving background- its just trying to trick you!

The Latest!

Hello all my lovely readers! Sorry it has been SO long since I posted. Here is why; about a month ago I got a brand new used car named Granny Myrtle and I was waiting till I had a chance to wash and take a pretty picture before I posted about her. But as fate would have it, I crashed her two weeks after I got her and never even got a chance to wash her, poor thing. She was totaled and I had to find a new car. so once again, I embarked on the grueling task of finding a car. This one didn't take nearly as long as the last one and on tuesday I picked up this pretty little thing. Her name is Elektra because even though the picture makes her look silver she is a pretty silvery blue. This Time I washed her the first chance I got. Look, Bella is even posing for the picture :)

GRADUATION!

Ok, Everyone! It official! I am now graduated from the Utah College of Massage Therapy! It was crazy intense with some sleepless nights, mountains of stress, lots of friends and fun, constant business, and a brain stuffed to its limit with anatomy, injury, russion, reflexology and a million other things! And now, $12,000 plus in debt and everything I've gained from the last seven months I'm ready to move on with life.


My very best form school, Ashley, and me Saying good bye. She headed back to her hometown in Wyoming and is working at a resort in Jackson Hole.


Walking across the stage to get my diploma. The graduation ceremony was fun. It was pretty casual With the speakers cracking jokes and some of them crying. Its a small school, so we all got very close there.


Everybody that came to watch me graduate. Well, almost. Adam and Kabrina were there but they are camera shy for some reason. Love you guys! We went to the Mayan afterwords to celebrate. Super fun :)

These are all the lovely people I spent the last seven months with. They are a crazy bunch but I love them all! oh, p.s., that gang sign that a bunch of us are doing in the sign for pec minor. We are all anatomy geeks.


And finally, the last news! Today I had an interview with massage envy and got the job. I'll start working as soon as I'm licensed and have liability insurance. Its actually not my first choice for a place to work, but its a start. I am also hoping to get on with a chiropractor.

So there are four weeks left of school until I am graduated!!!! Three weeks of learning and practicing and then finals, certification exam, licensing and then I will be an official licensed massage therapist and legally charge you all $60 an hour for my services! (but since i'm nice i'll give some of you a discount) muahahaha! But i realized to today, six months of school has not made me much of a genius. I was working on a gentleman today who wanted injury massage on his right shoulder. With the shoulder protocol fresh in my mind from just two days ago, I got to work. I finished his shoulder and moved on. about three minutes later he said something along the lines of "uh, I wanted my right side worked but it seemed like you did my left" So I looked at the shoulder I just done an epic massage on and realized it was the left. OOPS!!!! So I acted like it was all part of the plan and started all over on his right and added some trigger point in just to make it believable (which i'm sure it wasn't) moral of the story: learn left from right before you go to college.

Emily has Goblin King hair!

The is a picture of the beautifly me about 28 hours ago. Now I have carmel and purple streaks and spikes on top! haha, I feel like such a rebel! My camera is being silly right now so i don't have an amazing picture of the finished product. I was styling it this morning and The thought came to mind that I look like David bowie on Labrynth with my poof and spikes. oh, excuse me. they are called "roosters"

The evils of facebook

Like millions of people, I fell into the trap laziness and wasting away and idleness disguised as a social networking website called facebook. I am addicted!!!! i realized there were about a million things i could be doing instead of facebook. like getting my laundry done, studying for finals and just generally living my life. So I made myself a sticker chart. So far I have gone five whole days without it! I've had some withdrawls but i'm doing ok in case you were worried. Of course i'm making up for it by blogging A LOT! Also, I ran out of texts about the first week of the month. So I have been off of that too. It's amazing!

count down!!

This is just to prove I have the best sister in law ever! Wendy made me a count down till the end of school. only five weeks left!
there's still a pile of chain on the floor; not very encouraging. But despite how it looks right now, its getting shorter everyday.

Sad Story

This is a fish tank of death and tears. About a month ago, i got a frog for free. I was keeping in a plastic box until David and Wendy offered to let me have their fish tank to keep him in my room. I should have guessed when i found a dead fish when i cleaned the tank the first day i got it. So I had two fishies and a frog living in my cute little tank and I thought I was pretty cool. Until a week or two later when squiggle died. So I bad Bertha and Alex the frog left. But sadly, a week after that Alex died! And all of our April fools fish died except for the one you see in here. his name is lucky. I'm not sure i can take any more carnage!

Books

So I finally finished Jesus the Christ! I think it took me about six months to read. I also just finished this book. Its a good one. Its very abstract but I like it. And now i'm reading the Articles of Faith by Talmage (the same author as Jesus the Christ). And Aleah, if you're reading this, I just want you to know that I took great pains to Capitalize every proper noun and beginning of sentances in this post.

Recent paintings

Massage

So for any of you who were wondering about the humble biginnings of seated massage (i know you weren't but pretend like you were) this is a massage chair from the 70's. The poor thing looks like it will snap if a five year old sits on it. but it folds up pretty nicely. i was sill and didn't take a picture of the more recent models but they've come a long way!

Easter!

I didn't get pictures of easter day (but wendy did! look at her blog) these are pictures of the easter egg coloring the day before. It was an adventure :)