PUzzLe

Today I started working on a puzzle. For the longest time I've been itching to do one to feel like I do have brain cells and solving problem skills, @ least of how to match shapes. I have most of the border in place and already want to give up. Patience is not one of my strong points, but, it is nice attempting to put a puzzle together after 10 years of forgetting that they even existed.

Pitbull. I hang out with my pitbull that lives in my parent's basement while I am here visiting. When I go up the stairs our other dog is there--it's like every floor should have a different dog. The 3rd floor doesn't have one...and no, I am not the animal on the 3rd floor. Thanks for trying, though. My human interaction is with my Mom. I am definitely okay with this, being able to get away from everything. Seriously, though, with dial-up and horrid cell phone reception, I am not only in a different part of the world but in a different time wharp. I went back 10 years. DOes this mean I am 15?

I have a few more days of vaction time and then back into the world of having to sustain myself and get an education. Gawsh. Make it stop.

:)

Pit-stop in Vegas

(this comes from my notebook. i wrote as i traveled. I met a lot of interesting ppl and i was asked several times if i was a writer to which my response was "no, i just do it for fun"...their response? You should be. Something to consinder, isn't it?)


The middle seat. Pilots wings. A heart. Chatter. Intellectual chatter...about brain structures. Nathan from my ward. Artificial nails. Fan adjustments. Limp bodies. Delays. Uncomfortable.
This is the sum of my enviroment. This one word will give everything away--Southwest.


The people behind me must really love school. The semester just ended but they are party poopers and insist on dragging it out. I am secretly jelous of the flow of the conversation. I wonder how dep the creases in their brains must be. I am positive I am older than them. Taking off.


I started chewing my gum a good 5 minutes ago when they announced we would be taking off to be prepared for this--but it's just the irony of my life--I have to keep waiting.


(off the plane waiting for my second flight)


Waiting. C14


I knew it. I should have gone to the bathroom before sitting in the perfect seat. This is the down-side of traveling alone...I can't just leave my sutff here. Nothing against Vegas but I'm not about to test it's honesty.


------i drew a picture in my notebook...will post in future-----


That older man to my right is the smartest person in the airport. As I walked what felt like an eternal annoyance of dodging inconsiderate travelers with their inablility to manage their luggage and small children I finally found my way to this perfect seat @ my gate close to the window. Just glancing to my left and i have not only a view of the adjacent red, orange, and blue southwest planes but a view of the dusty Vegas mountains contrasting the washed up royal blue clouds that are drapped by a blanket of salt and pepper clouds. Soon I will loose thsi spot to hit the bathroom that I missed on the way.


So, are you still wondering why this man is so smart? As we all know--and too well--the airport is full of things to buy--and I'm a sucker myself, whether it be a drink, meals, accessories, even massages--the airport has suddenly become a similarity to what is known as...Wal*mart. I took a break from writing and saw this simple man with his denim blue jeans and spalding shoes accompanied by a striped cream shirt and his trsuty wool suit coat, and let's not forget his Salt Lake 2002 olympic black cap. All this was very much his personality. Fit yet with his share of decades this man held in his hands a sandwich that still had teh plastic around the back part of it to protect his fingers from contaminating his home-made meal. Chewing ensued. (Who knows what is spread in an airport-or maybe he holds it that way out of habit). So-Senor Spalding had this mysterious sandwich in his hands, content, chewing, and totally denied the airport's enticements to buy, waste, and gamble. I wish i had more prucence like this good sir to my right.


Being smart doesn't look fancy--maybe it shows in the style--but I bet this man knows how to pinch a penny and has peaceful sleep knowing he was careful. The things you learn in the Las Vegas Airport.

Nine Days

Nine Days and I'll be on a plane on my way to Washington D.C.

A year goes by very quickly yet so slow at the same time. A year ago today I was still recovering from my apendix almost imploding inside my body and from having it surgically removed. That...feels like it happened more than a year ago. So much has changed, not just my lack of part of my digestive system.

I have a complete different set of friends, the job I always wanted, and a calling that I never guessed that I would have, yet I continue changing my mind all too often--just as I always do.

(this kind of cotton)

I gave up my dream major because, it just did not feel right. It was my "rough break up" of the semester. It was quite the ugly scene studio art and I had when we parted our ways. I was in my room a lot, contemplating life w/out it...if I could see myself in a commited relationship w/ it...realzing that we needed to part paths and ways took it's tole. That was not a pretty week. I'm totally serious.Parting w/ art is like giving up cotton. You can leave w/out it but it's a great fabric and shall be missed. Every now and then I wear a cotton shirt, or...pick up a paint brush. I feel at peace about my decision but looking back I would not have expected that change in myself.

I find that people say, "Oh, I'll never _______"--you fill in the blank. That has become quite the dangerous sentence. With time, that never becomes more than just a possiblity, (of course, withing the guidelines of the church. I am not talking about drinking or breaking a commandment, just our expectation of ourself or an idea.) Here's an example..."Oh, I'll never be a spanish major." BOOM. See, see! It became a reality.

I am a very concious person, I guess you can throw self concious in for fun but not really. More of the concious of what needs to be done, what needs to change. I have some deep thinking to do during this Christmas holiday of what I need to do to more fully enjoy what the Lord is giving me right now. He can shock me later w/ the nevers becoming realities.

Esticker

I just like emphasizing spanish words. Today I did it twice with "esticker" and "bulla". Ode to bulla. Bulla means noise. Esticker is the easy one...it just means sticker. I believe it is spelled the same way in spanish only the pronounce it with the e-sticker. I loved Peru for showing me that english is very much used in latin america, just with their pronunciation--and they have all the right.

With my missionaries today as we finished two sisters stayed after. They always stay after now to do a door contact with me. So, they did that and sometimes I really think I'm a horrid teacher. I want to laugh at inappropriate times...all the time. It's just......well, let's do an example. Today @ the end of class my missionaries insisted on playing a language game to practice the grammar principle they learned today. To sound like i know spanish i will tell you what it is called: present progressive/past progressive. Basically, that is saying something like "I am going, I was going, we were going, etc.". So, my missionaries wanted to do a review about it involving a game. I am rolling my eyes @ myself right now. So, I asked them to clean up their tables and get a piece of paper out. I look over @ one of my Elder's desk and chuckled to myself. Then I say things that I probably should retain to myself, but it was so tempting. This is how it went down:

Yo (me): "Elder sabe q significa la palabra pais?"

el (him): "Umm....no"

yo: "Los estado unidos es un pais, Peru es un pais, Colombia es un pais, Ecuador es un pais, Australia es un pais....q significa pais?"

el: "ummm..."

the rest of the class got it for him. Okay, actually he guessed something completely out there and i had to hold back my laugh which my Hermanas totally called me out on! I wish i had a better memory to tell this story. Sadly, it all leaves me not long after...

Then I continued

yo: "Okay Elder, su mesa me recuerda de italia, el pais"

el: "I look like italy?"

yo: laughing. "No, su MESA me recuerda de italia. ?Q significa mesa, elder?

el: "I have no idea. You want me to put everything away?"

yo: "No Elder. *then I started to do movements with my hands and started to immitate me. It was the funniest thing i could have ever seen." I continued to say and make awkward hand movements to try to explain like sign language: "Cuando miro a su mesa y le veo a usted pienso en italia, el pais."

After a while of the class holding back and letting him figure it out he said,

"Oh, when you look at my desk you think of italy."

yo: Si, veo a las cosas encima y pienso en el torre...el torre de piza.

His desk was full of books but it was sort of like this: scriptures, preach my gospel, hymn book, another PMG in spanish, notebeook....that's not exactlythe most orderly stack of books...i love it. I love the weird things people do. I find them funny while no one else does.
He started to laugh and apologized. I didn't want an apology, i just find humor in random things that probably don't need to be said. I dig it.

I had to go back to work and have cleaning checks so tbc....(to be continued)