I can't wait to get old.

I meet some pretty interesting people at work. Most are the undelightful kind of interesting. You know, the smelly, dirty, hairy, perverted kind. I meet tons of those people every day. Those people don't really tickle my fancy, so I kind of get them what they need and move one. I work in customer service, so naturally I spend my day talking to people and meeting people. When I'm on my register I usually ring up customers' merchandise pretty quickly, make the typical small talk, and then tell them to have a nice day and send them on their way. But sometimes I'll have an actual conversation with people, get to know them a little bit. Sometimes I meet people who have the coolest stories, or life. For example, at my store in Tucson, I once was ringing up a guy who was buying two of everything. I just asked him, "you like the number two or what?" He said, "ha, no, I am buying things my home in the states and my home in Costa Rica." I said, "you have a home in Costa Rica?" He told me how he stays in his house in Costa Rica for half the year, and in the states the other half of the year. He said his house in Costa Rica is right on the beach, and he hangs out on the beach all day and sleeps in his hammock. And I thought, how cool are you. Here he is, this 60 or 70 year old man, and he spends half his life in Costa Rica! I asked if he had kids, and he said they come visit him all the time. I asked if he's retired. He said, "I'm retired from my career, but you have to have an income to live in Costa Rica. It's not cheap." So he has hobbies, but they're hobbies that make him money. So it's not like he's a bum living on the beach, he's a working bum. Don't get me wrong, living on the beach and not having to work would be bliss, but that's only stuff in the movies. After that man left I thought to myself, 'when I retire, I'm going to live on the beach in Costa Rica.' HA. Wouldn't that be something.

And then today, at my new store in Vegas, an older lady came in with her 6 or 7 year old granddaughter and tried to return something. I couldn't return it because she didn't have a receipt (store policy, not my rule). Well, she got mad at me and said, "well I'm not gonna get the other thing I was gonna get cuz I'm a little pissed off!" And stormed out of the store. About 2 minutes later she came back in, apologized to me, and said, "Sorry, my day is really hectic and I'm cranky. It's not the easiest thing getting ready for a 6 week camping trip." I said, "you're going camping for 6 weeks? Like, in an RV?" And she said, "no, my granddaughter and her grandparents are going to go camping in Oregon for 6 weeks. In tents." And I told her, "that is the coolest thing I've ever heard of." And she said, "yeah we're pretty excited." And then I said, "shoot, I want to go camping in Oregon for 6 weeks." She said, "become a math teacher, get old, and you can do whatever you want." Then I thought, if she's a math teacher and she's going on adventures like this, I can do it too. So, folks, that's what I'm gonna do. If you need to get ahold of me in say, 40 or 50 years, you can find me in a tent in the middle of Oregon. With my granddaughter. I'll probably be somewhere around the place that's in my picture down there. I CAN'T WAIT.

i've discovered something.

My siblings are really freaking funny.

I love talking about my childhood, and the things I used to do with my siblings when we were younger. But I've realized, when I talk about my childhood, the stories I end up talking about always end with us getting in trouble, or us making someone else cry, or us doing stupid things. Like, going out to the desert every day during summer and catching lizards and snakes in an abandoned pool that was filled with big cement blocks, trash, and beer bottles? Probably not the best idea. But we did it. I LOVED catching lizards. It wasn't so much about having pet lizards, but it was about the whole catching experience. We had strategies catching these lizards. We'd stand on the ledge of the pool, look 13 feet down into the pool til we found one, then stalk it for a little while, get in the pool, corner it, and catch it with a littered cup. Then, we'd ride our bikes home with it, name it, and put it in our big glass aquarium my mom got from DI or something. Then when it would escape overnight, which they always did, we'd go the next day and do it again. I caught so many different kinds of lizards. i had two identical geckos once, one was named George and the other was named Clooney. I could never tell them apart, and I don't know why I named them George Clooney. Once I caught a big lizard with a red stripe on its back, and another one just like it but the stripe was blue. The red one bit my finger real hard. I never caught that kind again. And one time we found a big snake, went home to get a 5 gallon bucket to put it in, caught it, brought it home, and showed our parents. My dad was pissed. Haha.

One time, Kimo, Kendric and I were playing outside in the front yard. Sometimes we would take a skateboard and "bobsled" down the driveway and see who could go the farthest down the sidewalk. Sometimes we would play HORSE or Around the World. Well, one time, for whatever reason, Kendric decided to climb into Aleigha's red and yellow Fisher Price car. This thing:

Notice how in the picture there is a child no more than 3? Well, Kendric was a little more than 3 when he decided to play in this thing. I was about 15 or 16, so that would put Kendric at about 10 or 11? He thought he was so funny scooting around in this car on the driveway. But he was actually stuck inside. Kimo and I were doing something else on the driveway, who knows what, but then Kimo whispered to me, "I dare you to push him down the driveway." So I said, "Okay." So I went and shoved Kendric, and he started plummeting toward the road. Kimo and I started laughing, but when I realized he was going pretty fast and was going to hit the curb, I started running after him to try to stop him. I couldn't. Kendric hit the lip of the curb, and flew into the road. All this, while he was still in the car. He landed face first into the road, and his face slid across the road. All I heard next was a yell. It wasn't a scream like most kids would do. It was a yell. Kimo and I were so scared. Mom was going to be so mad at us. We helped him up, shimmied him out of the car, and snuck him into the bathroom to try to clean his wounds. Obviously Mom heard the wailing. She came in, Kimo and I told her what happened, and then the weirdest thing happened. Mom grabbed KENDRIC by the ear and told him he was so dumb for playing in that car and blah blah blah. Kimo and I just looked at each other like, did Kendric really just get in trouble for this? And that was that. Kimo and I never got an ounce of punishment. Kendric got it all. We felt bad, and of course we ended up laughing about it later. Well, everyone but Kendric. Kendric still gets mad at Kimo and I whenever we bring it up.


Then there were the times where me, Tallen, Jael, and Kimo would play roller hockey on our patio in the back yard. Tallen played hockey one year, and after that we all got hockey sticks for Christmas. We taped the bottoms with electrical tape to make them look legit, then we would get our rollerblades on and play hockey forever. Either til Tallen pushed me or Jael too hard into the wall and made us cry, or until we hit the puck at the window one too many times and mom made us stop.

I'm bummed Maile is so young compared to the rest of us, and didn't get to grow up with us. Maile is seriously one of the funniest people I know. And she's only 7. She is witty, she's crazy, she's hilarious. Sometimes she tries to be, and that usually works, but she is funniest when she doesn't mean to be. For example, the other day, me, my mom, Maile, and Aleigha were waiting in the parking lot at the Excalibur hotel for the tow truck man to come pick up my car. We had to wait foreverrr. So we finally went inside Excalibur and looked around the gift shops. We ended up buying a mini CatchPhrase game, to pass some time. We went back out to the car and started playing it. It was Aleigha and I versus my mom and Maile. My mom was trying to describe to Maile the movie "Men in Black." Maile had guessed two words, "Black Men," but my mom was trying to get her to reverse the order and to throw the "in" in there, so she says, "Maile, flip those words and put a small word in between." So Maile says, "Black AND Men... Black THE Men.... Black OF Men!" And then the timer went off and Aleigha and I got a point. And by that time, me, Aleigha, AND my mom were all rolling off our chairs laughing. Maile is so funny. If you want to laugh, hang out with Maile for a couple hours.

I dunno why I'm thinking about all this. Kimo called me today from boot camp or basic training or whatever it's called. Maybe that's why. Kimo was always my LITTLE brother. Not my younger brother going off to the Air Force. It's crazy! Kendric is a senior this year, Aleigha is starting high school. What happened to childhood! I'm not homesick, I think it's just that I miss hanging out with all my siblings. They're all hilarious, we always just tell stories and make fun of each other's awkward stages. Tallen's wedding was the last time we were all together, but it was only for a couple days. Buuuut I guess that's part of growing up. The end.

ahem. WELL.

I feel like I want to blog about all my new stories up here in Vegas, but I realized it'd be me rambling on about how much of a loner I am up here. Haha. Not that I am particularly complaining. A lot of times I like being alone. Don't get that confused with being lonely. Although I have been lonely a lot recently, I don't like being lonely. But I do enjoy being alone. But the last few days have been mostly alone days. I feel like there's a lot going on in my life right now, but let's be honest, there's not. I'm not in denial, I just feel differently. I'm not taking summer school, I only worked one day this week, I have no friends here, so really, my life can't possibly be as busy or exciting as I feel it is. The major news of my life this week is: I started work at my new store (which stinks, bytheway), my longboarding warrior mark is now one big huge nasty sensitive bruise, the weather is 100% like Tucson (except nights here are a little warmer), and there is a primary in my singles ward. Yeah, I thought that was pretty weird too. That will get some getting used to. Other than that, I hang out at Jael and Paul's. Watch movies. I went swimming with my little sisters every day they were here. Jael and I went grocery shopping last night and got froyo. There are parks everywhere here, and I always think about going to them. Because I love parks. And grass. But it's one of those things like, once I go there, then what would I do? Sit in the grass by myself? Walk around the park for 5 minutes then get bored because there's no one there with me? Talk to myself? Longboard around by myself? Play catch with myself? I decided that going to a park is a wasted trip unless you go with someone. But they're everywhere here, and I love them. One day I will go to a park with someone haha. Until then, here's to aloneSUMMER days!

Here's to the Night..

I'm here in VEGAS! Kacy, Tricia, and I drove up yesterday. Let me tell you, it was a trip of miracles. First off, we just about ran out of gas, we made it to a gas station in Wikieup, AZ with about .000001 gallons of gas left. I'm not kidding. That is a result of Tricia reading my gas meter wrong and me failing to realize that the next major town was more than 50 miles away. Kacy said a prayer and my car slowly trudged up miles and miles of steep hills while the gas light was blinking. Tricia and I conjured up a plan while driving in literally the middle of nowhere, as to what we would do if we did run out of gas. All the while Kacy, who was in the back seat, was getting angry because we'd turned off the AC and rolled up the windows. She didn't really understand why we did that, she thought we were trying to torture her I guess. We were all sweating like pigs. It really was an act of God that we made it to the gas station.

When we got to Jael and Paul's house, Kacy took a nap and Tricia and I played RockBand for a little while. Then we got ready to go to the Strip. Tricia has never been to Vegas so we got there around 5 so we could walk around for a while. We went to eat at the Sugar Factory. It was right by the Paris Hotel with the Eiffel Tower in front, so it was pretty cool.


We went to the M&M Factory, watched the water show at the Bellagio, took pictures with Chewbacca and a black storm trooper or something, watched a man play the harmonica on a bridge, took pictures in front of the biggest chandelier in the world (no seriously, it's going into Guinness Book of World Records this year, a $34 million dollar chandelier!), took pictures in a humongous pink stiletto, and had many random strangers take pictures of us with Kacy's camera. Oh, and then on our way home from the Strip, my car decided to die. In the middle of traffic. At 10:30 PM on Las Vegas Boulevard. I don't know if you've ever been down Las Vegas Boulevard at 10:30 at night, but there is traffic for days. Cars in front of you, cars behind you, cars on either side of you. Well, we got stuck. In the middle of an intersection just past the Excalibur hotel. So, when the coast was clear, I threw it into neutral and us three girls got out and pushed my 4runner about 40 yards, then two nice English boys came and helped us push it into the Excalibur entrance. We had to stop because we started to go up a hill and there was a speed bump in front of us and that was just not happening. Well, long story short, Jael came and rescued us and Jael and two baggage boys from the hotel helped Tricia and Kacy push my car about a quarter of a mile into a parking space while I sat inside and steered. I felt so bad for those boys. By then it was 11:45 and they were supposed to get off at midnight, so they were already tired. I owe them so big. I owe Kacy and Tricia and Jael so big too. Tricia said this morning her arms were sore. I feel terrible! So anyway, my car is sitting in the parking lot at Excalibur, waiting for me to decide what to do with it. While we were waiting for Jael last night, I realized that I have broken down in the middle of the road at least once with every single car I've owned. This is just HAPPY. Ugh. So dumb. BUT we made it to Vegas. Thankfully.

I start work on Saturday. I am transferring stores so I am still with Harbor Freight. I keep wondering what it's going to be like. I'm so used to my store and the people there, I feel like my new coworkers are not going to be very welcoming. It's a different culture at Harbor Freight haha. But who knows, I'm just expecting the worst but hoping for the best. I'm just glad I have a job.

I moved here with the intention of bettering my life. I've made some poor decisions, don't we all, but I decided that leaving Tucson for a little bit and getting out of my comfort zone would help me focus on the important things. I've been in Tucson my whole life and have become comfortable with a lot of things. Too comfortable, I think. So I decided change would be a good thing for me. I'm hoping I'm right on this one. I moved away from my best friend because we both decided that we need to focus on ourselves for a little while and get ourselves back on the right track. But it's hard being away from him. I listened to that song by Eve 6 called "Here's to the Night" a couple nights before I left, and it makes me miss 'us'. It sounds stupid, but whatever. I've been up in Vegas for about 28 hours, and I know it's gonna be a hard few months, or however long I stay here. But I'm crossing my fingers and saying prayers. This is a self-made choice, so I have no one to blame but myself if I screw this up. Luckily I have my sister here. We're really close in age and grew up wishing we were twins and getting confused for twins. We did everything together. She moved to Utah right after high school so I haven't been around her much for the last few years, so I'm excited that I am close to her again and get to hang out with her. Too bad she has a husband now. HAHA. Just kidding. Paul is cool. I think I'll be okay :) Here's to the night <3