Steve and I were in the market for a car stereo. After getting a nearly $800 quote from the car dealer and a $500 quote from Best Buy, we decided to go with a local car stereo shop which came recommended by both Steve's brother aaaaand the sales guy at the car dealer. The local shop was charging $120 total for the exact same stereo and install, plus they could install the next morning.
So we go to the local shop. Picture your average car stereo shop in a not-awesome part of town with a super courteous employee behind the counter. While browsing around and checking out various stereos, Steve pulls me aside and solemnly says, "I think you should know something. This store was the site of some really brutal homicides back in the 70's."
WHAT?
He goes on to tell me that the employees and customers were bound, tortured, and murdered. He started to go into details, but that's when I stopped him; however not before he told me about the murderers jamming pens into people's ears and stomping on them as a form of torture.
So now it's almost three in the morning and I can't stop thinking about. I already had one nightmare. I didn't want Steve to share any more of the details, and we agreed that next time we're hanging out at the site of a high-profile homicide, he should just say, "Honey, we're in a bad neighborhood," and leave it at that. I read about the "infamous criminal case" on wikipedia, and while I might vomit, I'm finding a strange sense of security knowing that it wasn't as bad as my wandering mind allowed it to become. I feel super creepy going there tomorrow morning to drop off the car. And I'm definitely not hanging out there for a couple hours waiting for the install. In my rational mind, I know that the murders happened almost forty years ago, but I feel sick just thinking about it.
Yah, I really could have been just fine not knowing any of that. Or this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-Fi_Murders
Many of my friends have included these very sad six words in their blog entries: In case anyone actually reads this...
And to this, I say, "YES. I actually do read your blog." It doesn't matter if we haven't seen each other since we shared a shopping cart eight years ago at a grocery store in Provo. Or if we recently got in touch on facebook. I'm not an online stalker; I'm much too overworked and underpaid for that. I do, however, enjoy seeing how my friends' lives have turned out with careers, kids, families. All of those other things we have done (college, missions, starting careers, graduate school) have really prepared us for this place in life where we are now. I genuinely enjoy reading about your family vacations, potty training your kids, craft projects, career moves, etc...
So to those who are about to blog, I salute you.
(Clearly, I'm a dork. Please overlook this.)
Hello friends! It has been a relatively quiet summer. Here's what I've been up to:
... and it is with this reckless abandon that I am splurging on a week-long vacation/road trip through Utah with Steve's family. I realize that Zion is a National Park, but holy cow, hotels there are expensive! Almost as much as in San Diego or Chicago or other expensive hotel cities. I got my flight at twice the normal cost, and I could only find a room for one of the two nights at Zion; everything was sold out! I couldn't figure out why until I realized that it is a HOLIDAY WEEKEND (in Utah).
That's right friends, Utah is celebrating Pioneer Day. Of course I'm grateful for our Pioneer ancestors and their brave and gallant trek across the country... I just wish that it wasn't so expensive to travel to Utah during this state-specific holiday.
Luckily this out-of-town excursion coincides perfectly with my realtor's vacation, so it won't impair my house-buying abilities at all. Staying in town due to real estate emergencies has been trying.
This is the first summer since I started teaching that I haven't been able to leave town. Not even once. A nice opportunity came up to meet up with Steve on his family vacation with his parents and brother's family. His brother's family is driving through Vegas on their way to Zion, and I could have caught a ride up there with them. However, between paying for two nights of hotel near Zion National Park on a holiday weekend, plus a pricey flight home from Salt Lake City, it is just completely out the realm of affordability right now. It isn't like $300 is that much money, but to me, that's a credit card payment/2 months of student loan payments/half a mortgage payment.
Boohoo, right? I'm really frustrated because I work so hard all year, I'm financially supporting my mom, and I deserve just a few days to relax on vacation. During the school year, it is impossible to take time off (I don't get any personal days). Here I have eight weeks of vacation, and I'm stuck at home in a house where my mom watches Korean drama DVDs 16+hours a day while chainsmoking.
I seriously can't take this anymore. I need to get out of town. I need to be able to spend some time/money on myself for once.
Thanks Jessica W. for pointing this out: http://heatherbay.blogpot.com/
Yah, for future reference, "heatherbay" *dot* blogPOT is definitely NOT my website.
Also for future reference, my blog is NOT a:
"MEGA-SITE of Bible, church, Christian & religious info, & studies. Easy to navigate
If YOU have ANY concern about your future on earth + eternity, it is critical you read this page."
Don't get me wrong- I love my 2001 Toyota. I purchased it brand spanking new, and it has been a great car. It has survived countless trips to and from the Motherland, has facilitated moving in and out of several houses/apartments across two states, endured the abuse of hauling my drum set and other music gear, and even survived being rear-ended by a vanful of polygamists (true story). I drove this car to class while I earned a B.A. and a M.Ed. This car moved me into my first classroom, and moved me in and out of three different schools in five years. I discovered that my car has the capacity to fit myself and two passengers, as well as a full drum set, including all hardware and cymbals, a bass guitar, acoustic guitar, and amps. That's a lot for a compact sedan.
Sadly, I fear that our time together is coming to a close. A symphony of undesirable sounds is coming from under the hood and it sounds like a racecar (which it is not) when I exceed 45mph. My coworker has termed my car the "deathmobile." I just hope it can hang on for a few more years until I can afford to replace it with a hovercar. Those should roll off the assembly lines pretty soon, right?
At least the air-conditoning still works!
So apparently I've taken to titling blog entries exclusively with songs featured in commercials from bygone eras... but that's another topic for another day. My lovely friend Wendy wrote a blog entry about how she feels that she only blogs when she "has something to kvetch about," and then I realized that I, too, often blog only to complain about this or that. So I decided to read through my blog entries for the last 12 months and tally how many were rant-filled blog entries, and then calculate a percentage. You know, because its not like its 4am and its not like I need sleep.
But don't worry, as soon as I started reading previous blog entries, I was sucked in as if my blogging was indeed a work of mediocre teen literature. And then I got to blog entries from about a year ago at this time... and I recognized that, although I feel I'm at a standstill, life goes on and changes and twists and turns.
Before I use any more tired cliches (which is itself a tired cliche), I will use bullet points to illustrate the differences from 12 months ago:
Yes, at the House of Blues.
I went to a church meeting the other night where the speaker told us how a high level church official implored him to raise the number of single adults that attend activities. Apparently, there are over 14,000 single adults in the Las Vegas valley. Less than 300 regularly attend church activities. He wondered why so many single adults don't attend activities. I've got a few ideas about this.
1) We are adults, not kids. A YSA ward shouldn't be treated as if it is an extension of Mutual groups. Many of us went to college and even have advanced degrees. Many of us have professional jobs that have hefty requirements. Playing broom hockey in the church gym just isn't appealing after a 10+ hour day of work.
2) The pressure to date and get married is intense. I think most of us would like to date and get married. However, there is a definite "type" of gal that gets asked out. Twenty-nine year old women with masters degrees who don't look like Barbie generally do not get asked out. Its fine to not get asked out, but its stressful when the focus of the ward is on dating and getting married. Shouldn't Christ be the focus of church?
3) The focus on dating can be hurtful when the men get the idea that they don't even have to be nice to people they aren't physically attracted to. Once, I called my home teacher, who had never met me before even though he had been my home teacher for months. When I told him who I was, his first question was, "Soooo, are you hot?" (This was years ago. I now have an awesome home teacher). Another example was when I attended a church luncheon. I sat down, and the guy next to me immediately grabbed his plate, glared at me, and stood up and moved to sit next to a (younger and hotter) gal on the other side of the table. Gee, sorry for taking up space.
4) People act like inconsiderate fools, Part One. A church leader once asked me why I'm single at my age. He didn't really want to know, as he cut me off before I could give an explanation. He then proceeded to rattle off a list of other overweight, "undateable" (his words, not mine) women in my age range and suggested that I hang out with them. Never mind that I have nothing in common with these women other than the fact that we are not size zeros, older than most, and single. That would be like me rattling off a random list of other Caucasian senior citizens and suggesting that they all go play a round of golf.
5) People act like inconsiderate fools, Part Two. Case in point:
Sigh. Honestly, I don't know what he would have done if he'd caught one.
Started off with this:
