Wednesday, June 27, 2007

My numbers blog...

Current mood: frustrated

What do the numbers 22, 55, 57, 215, 80, 210, 10, 60, 170, 101, 110, 5, 134, and 405 have in common?

That's all of the freeways I've driven on today. (blech)

What is significant about $158?

Thats how much I've spent just today on filling gas tanks and paying for my Long Beach rental car.

Which two friends willingly came to my rescue today?

Jeanne and Leslie

How many hours of sleep did I get last night?

2.5 hours

How many minutes between the moment I jumped out of bed to leave for the airport and when my flight took off?

63 minutes

I usually don't use blogs to vent, just to update others on my life. But I really feel like I've gotta vent. These last 24 hours have been terrible. I've called a few friends and left messages to get a little support, but nobody's called back. Taylor is already in bed, none of my good friends are in IM now. I'm feeling isolated and like I'm going to burst. It's funny for me to say that I'm so frustrated right now, because yesterday I was basking in the happiness of an absolutely fabulous week in Utah and Idaho. I'll blog about the fun later and post some pics.

Now just as a disclaimer, any named names are just for reference...I'm not writing this blog just to point blame on people. I understand that life is crazy, and you can't plan everything ahead of time. I'm usually pretty easygoing if someone will have to fall through with a commitment. I just am not used to so many falling through at once. Especially when pregnant (my intended ride is, not me) And when you find out you're in a pickle later than it's socially acceptable to call around for help...your options can be very limited. That's why I feel like I'm nearing my breaking point.

So I called around numorus taxi and shuttle companies, and the cheapest ride from Long Beach to La Verne was $85, plus extra for Rosie. I looked on dozens of websites until I found a rental for $60. JB agreed to help me return the rental during the evening, so I went for it...even though it was still more expensive than I could afford.

Then I had to find a sitter to watch Rosie while I go to work. Her summer daycare doesn't start until next week, so for the rest of the week we're scrambling for help. I called everyone in my cell phone contacts to see who could help. Rosie went over to Leslie's house for the day, and I headed off to work.

Work was okay...I little boring and hard to get into. But I survived.

In the evening, I picked up JB and Rosie to help drop off the rental. Unfortunately, we'd only been communicating through texts, and I didn't know that she was meeting a group of friends later in the evening. Instead of a quick 45 min each way to Long Beach, we drove up to Burbank/North Hollywood to meet up for a gathering in Canoga Park. Three hours later...I just barely got home.

I have a splitting headache too. My vision is getting blurry. Time for bed. Hopefully I'll wake up on the right side of it tomorrow.

Currently listening :
It Won't Be Soon Before Long
By Maroon 5
Release date: 22 May, 2007

Saturday, June 16, 2007

My concert addiction

Current mood: nostalgic

If anyone knows me well, I've always been a concert junkie. Ever since I first saw New Kids On The Block at the Memorial Coloseum in Portland in 1991, I was hooked. As a teenager, I always wanted to go to concerts, especially pop-alternative groups. In fact, once I had a #2 wristband for Duran Duran, but my parents wouldn't take me and I couldn't find anyone to go with (this was about a month after I moved to Utah.) Those seats would have been awesome!

The next concert I went to was in 1997 for U2's Popmart Tour. It was at the old Rice Stadium at the UofU. That concert was great! I went with so many cool people, and the showmanship and music was incredible! I thought that show could never been beaten in excitement, and to date it's still one of my favorite concerts.

Sometimes people ask me all the concerts I've been to, so here's a list off the top of my head. I've excluded the opening acts and local/LDS performers because the list would be infinitely longer, unless their show was terribly awesome or influential:

NKOTB 1991

U2 1997, 2005

Savage Garden 1997

Lilith Fair 1998 (Sarah McLachlan, Paula Cole, Cowboy Junkies, Lisa Loeb, etc)

Weird Al Yankovich 1999

Chicago 2000

They Might Be Giants 2000

Sarah McLachlan 1998, 2004 (the night Taylor decided he wanted to marry me)

Barenaked Ladies 2002, 2004

Sugar Ray 2003

Matchbox Twenty 2003

Dixie Chicks 2003?

Butterfly Boucher 2004 (twice)

Sting 2005

Depeche Mode 2005

Howard Jones 2005

Howie Day 2004, 2005

Michelle Branch 2004

Maroon5 2004

Kelly Clarkson 2004, 2006 (Rosie's first concert)

John Mayer 2004, 2006, 2007

Keane 2006, 2007

Rob Thomas 2005

Anna Nalick 2005

Missy Higgins 2005 (an Aussie, one of the best undiscovered talents EVER)

I know there are more that I am missing, but this is just the big name concerts I've been to. I'm sure I've been to at least 50 smaller-name concerts and local-type shows. I'm always up for a show, so if you get extra tickets or want someone to go with, give me a holla!

But the reason I wrote this blog was to write about my adventure with Lizzie last weekend for the John Mayer/Ben Folds/Rocco DeLuca concert at the Hollywood Bowl. I purchased the tickets in March to go with Taylor, but it didn't work out for him to go since he's neck-deep in training at Jet U. So Lizzie and I went, and by the advice of a coworker, we went to Pasadena to the stop for the BowlBus Shuttle. I was told about the madness of the Bowl traffic and parking, so we thought we'd be responsible and economical and take the shuttle. Unfortunately, I read the website wrong and we missed the last shuttle. We had to drive to Hollywood anyway. We drove for almost two hours looking for a parking spot, and the cheapest one was $30 almost 2 miles away. We didn't have anough cash on us to park at most places. So we drove around and around and got hit on by this Haitian Rapper in his funky van, waved to a Raider in a limo (I can't remember his him right off), had a few near-death experiences on Cahuenga, and minute by minute missed more of the show. We finally got in touch with Lizzie's cousin Patrick who lives in Hollywood. He saved the day by letting us park at his place, and then dropping us off at the show. By the time we got seated, it was 9:45, and John Mayer was 2/3 through his set. We'd missed Rocco and Ben Folds entirely

But the songs we did catch were awesome (Dreaming with a Broken Heart, Why Georgia, Waiting on the World, Stop this Train, Vultures,Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, Gravity, and I'm Gonna Find Another You) I wasn't too broken up about missing the rest of John's show since I saw him less than a year ago when Continuum came out. I was however, very very bummed to miss Ben Folds. He doesn't tour very much, so that was my only downside to the night.

I have to say, though...Lizzie makes every situation enjoyable. Even though we missed so much of the concert, we jammed to some good tunes, laughed at the hillarity of the other people madly trying to find parking, and we had fun grabbing hot chocolate with Patrick after the show. I was so tired after it all, that Lizzie drove home and I crashed on her couch.

It's nights like this I'll never forget!

Currently listening :
More Than You Think You Are
By Matchbox Twenty
Release date: 19 November, 2002

Saturday, June 9, 2007

So tired, but I can't sleep

Current mood: drained

So it's 3:00 am, I've only gotten 3.5 hours of sleep and I know I'm completely exhausted...but I can't sleep. This has been the case since early April. Some nights I sleep okay...4-6 hours. But usually I wake up multiple times and feel groggy during the day. I saw the sleep specialist last week, who agreed that I need another polysomnography test. I'm waiting on the pre-auth from my insurance.

I'm not sure my exhaustion is just from lack of sleep. Responsibilities at work have increased, I started school last week, I've had a lot of church obligations, and I miss Taylor terribly. Since my asthma attack a few weeks ago, my energy level has plummeted. I don't have the energy to make a full hour of cardio at the gym anymore....20 min is pushing it. I've gained back 7 pounds this month, due to lack of exercise, overeating, and steroids.

Taylor's interview date with Pinnacle has been pushed back a few weeks, so it looks like he'll be in FL until early June. It's still unclear how long he'll have between his interview and his start date in Memphis. I hope we get a week or so, but there are no promises. He'll be in Memphis for two months, then on reserve in Detroit. This year is really going to suck. I wish his flight benefits kicked in sooner so we could see each other more often. Distance has definitely made the heart grow fonder.

I'm feeling a little under-sympathized than I'd hoped at this point. Right when Taylor left, neighbors, friends, and ward members were clammoring to help me. (Babysitting, dinners, etc...) I wasn't that lonely at first, and I was holding up really well. Now that I'm lonely and worn out, I have a really hard time figuring out help with Rosie. Now that I'm in school, I feel like my life is overly scheduled out everyday and I don't get a chance for ALONE time very often. Just about everywhere I go, Rosie goes too. Last night I really wanted to go to a movie by myself, just to get out and enjoy myself....but I couldn't find anyone to watch Rosie. Tonight I'm going to a concert and I can't find any help either. It's hard, since I won't be getting home from Hollywood until 2ish am....and a sleepover really would work better. But since tomorrow's Sunday, a lot of people have a no-sleepover rule for Saturday nights in my ward. I feel like I've over-extended Eleanor with watching Rosie 1-2 times a week. I just don't want people to feel put out...even though Rosie is super-easy to take care of.

I know this too shall pass, but for now I'm struggling a lot. Rosie has been a great help for me not to miss Taylor so much...but I can only handle so much kid-time and kid-activities. I love her to bits, but I'm deep down a person who needs a lot of alone time to refresh and renew myself for my self-imposed overly busy life. Taylor is always telling me to cut out something, but I feel the need to fill up my life even more to not miss him. It is not good that man/woman should be alone.

If any of you are feeling sympathy, let me know if you are willing to help. It seems like my only alone time is from 5-6 pm, from when I get off work until I pick up Rosie from daycare....but most of the time is in the car to just commute home. I'm a go places/do things kinda girl, and I'm usually not content to just stay home every night.

I'll be fine. I know it will....eventually.

Currently listening :
Continuum
By John Mayer
Release date: 12 September, 2006

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Tucson...it's a small world after all

I've been trying to sell my Honda Fit for a few weeks. I posted it in a few websites, put signs in the windows, and have been generally promoting it since mid-April. I was getting frustrated that I hadn't had any luck for nearly 6 weeks. I hadn't tried eBay motors because I was under the impression that eBay would take a percentage of the purchase price. But once I knew Taylor was coming home for a few days and could car shop with me, I looked into posting on eBay motors.

Once I logged on, I realized that it was a flat fee to post, and another fee at auction end. Since it was affordable, I posted my car at the beginning of last week. I had a bunch of hits and watchers, but no bids. The night before the auction ended, I got a call from Al in Tucson. He said that he wanted to suprise his wife and buy her a Fit. They had seen one on the road a few days prior, and she immediately fell in love with it. All of the Tucson and Phoenix-area Honda dealerships said it was still a month waiting list and a big market mark-up fee. He was waiting to hear back on financing, but agreed to purchase the car at my Buy It Now price.

The next day he called me to say that his financing was pre-approved, and he wanted to move forward with the transaction. As an afterthought, I mentioned that I was willing to drive the car to Tucson over the weekend so he could have the car asap...as long as he paid my travel expenses. He agreed to do so, and I planned all my travel. Even though the transaction was potentially risky, I had a feeling that I needed to go on faith and everything would work out. Talking to Al on the phone was as fun as talking to a girlfriend. He's a head coach and college sports recruiter, a real jokester, and he plays off my sense of humor perfectly.

I left around 6:45 this morning, had a few stops along the way, and arrived in Tucson around 2:00. I drove to his house, met his wife and kids, and filled out the bills of sale. As I walked into their house, there was a painting on the wall that I used to have a print of a few years ago. We thought it was so funny that we would have the same picture. He wanted to get to know me a little, so I talked about where I've lived, what I do for work, etc... I mentioned that I went to college at Ricks. Al started laughing and said he'd been there recruiting before....then he said that he was LDS too...just not currenly active. How odd is it that a total stranger on eBay would be LDS and have so much in common with me?? The similarities kept happening, which helped me feel good about the transaction.

The funniest thing was how Al told his wife that he was getting her the car she coveted. He took her to a nice restauarant and said "I have a confession to make. I met a woman online named Nicole. She has something that I really want, and she's coming to Tucson to give it to me this weekend." He kept playing off the story for about a half hour, as his wife got more and more furious. Then he fessed up...Nicole was coming to deliver the Fit, which would be her new car. She was slightly excited but still mad that Al led her on. Apparently, she didn't believe that I was coming until I called to say that I was a few miles from their exit to drop it off. That would explain why she took a while to open up to me once I arrived

After all the paperwork was filled out, we went to dinner at a place called Las Margaritas. Then they treated me to the Tucson phenomenon called Egees. They have delicious fruity slushies. I enjoyed it immensely. After dinner they dropped me off at the airport for pick up rental car, I checked into my hotel (Marriott...nice!) and relaxed for a while.

Since he gave me $250 cash to cover my expenses, and I ended up breaking even on the car....Taylor and I decided we could afford a laptop since I started school this week. I shopped around at a few electronic stores and found a basic-ish laptop at a decent price. I don't need a lot of frills, and this one fit the bill. So here I am, blogging away from my hotel room in Tucson. I will have most of the day to sightsee tomorrow, then I'll fly home in the late afternoon.

Currently listening :
X&Y
By Coldplay
Release date: 07 June, 2005

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