All Night Long

Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhone

I recently, as of yesterday, pulled an all-nighter. It wasn't too hard, in fact I had to do it. I work at a home with three High-Functioning Disabled men. Somebody has to be there around the clock, so fortunately it was ME on Tuesday. Some people thought I was crazy. Some people were in awe, but seriously it wasn't hard. In fact it reminded me of the 6th grade sleepover my friends had where we tried to stay up all night long. I did really well and stayed up all the way until 4:45am. I should have known, but those girls did the most awful things to the girl who fell asleep first (ie. Shaving Cream, Frozen Bra's, and Moving my sleeping bag behind the couch). So needless to say, I knew I couldn't fall asleep. Somewhere in the depths of my mind, that first sleepover still haunts my mind and I don't want to EVER again put on a frozen bra.

What did I do all night long? Well, let me tell you I had the most fun ever. And I bet everone wished that they stayed up all night after hearing this.

First I watched TV. (Some TV addicts would say this is boring, but to a college student who doesn't have cable, it was fascinating). The GSN (Game Show Network) has "That 70's hour" where they schedule old Game Shows where the men harrass the women like crazy. Design on a dime totally redid a sitting room for UNDER $1,000. It was amazing. And it looked really good. Then, two vuloptuous women wore plunging neck lines to sell a work out video on HSN (which I recently discovered stands for: Home Shopping Network). I mean, seriously, did they really have to show all of that off? Why? Why? why? And, two other women got a new outfit and got to shop with the "hottest celebrity stylists." The catch was that they only got $150. If I wanted a time to shop with celeb stylists, I would definitely NEED more than that. What a rip off. After the joy of flipping through a hundred channels for the first hour and a half, my vocab was rich (GSN, HSN), and my sense of style peaked with fashionable and afordable rooms and outfits to think on.

After TV, I did what most people do to stay awake--Handstands! I am obsessed with Handstands. I love them and I want to be better at doing them. Don't ask, just amuse.

And next, Laundry, dishes, and washing walls. Pretty much the boring stuff. But I did have some eye candy in the DVD player: A River Runs Through It.

The highlight of my night was the awful pain of stubbing my pinky toe when I wobbled around the couch after some handstands. I couldn't shreik like I wanted to, I couldn't cuss, or kick the couch. What fun is stubbing your toe if no one sees you do it? And why even do it if no one can hear you scream in pain? Well it's not fun at all, especially at 3:30 in the morning in a house that isn't yours.

Then after washing the upstairs walls I fell down the stairs. Can I sue for that? I didn't break anything, just my A##, and my back is killing me today? Does that count? C'mon I can barely bend over, I feel like an eighty year old woman.

If you've missed the joy of staying up all night with your friends and giggling, just try to pull an all nighter now, watch tv, clean the house do whatever you want, but if you want me to join you, there is no way in Heck.

WE'RE GOING TO NEBRASKA

It's official, TJ got accepted and now we are going to Nebraska. I have never been there so I looked up all the State Symbols to learn all I could about Nebraska here's what I found:

State Names: It was officially called the "Tree Planter's State" In 1895. It was named that because of all the tree planting Pioneers who needed wind breakers on their land. Also the official Arbor Day was founded by a Nebraska resident in 1872. An honorable name some might think. Unfortunately noone calls it by that name anymore becacuse in 1945 an (obviously boring) government official repealed the name and changed it to "the Cornhusker State" essentially degrading their pioneer contributions to the earths atmosphere. No love for their founders, no love for the earth...

STRIKE ONE!!!

State Tree: THE AMERICAN ELM was named the official state tree in 1937, but for no aparent reason it was also repealed by the Legislature in 1972 because The Cottonwood was the tree that had a heritage. It was the landmark for many of the Pioneers. So Kudo's to the history lovers, but the tree is U-G-L-Y and it leaves all those nasty little cotton particles ALL OVER THE PLACE. Also, shaky government, can't stick with one idea, or one symbol...that creates all sorts of confusion: Hi I am from the state of the American Elm, Oh wait it's the Cottonwood, and next thing you know they'll change it to the corn stalk.

STRIKE TWO!!!

State Fossil: THE MAMMOTH?
Okay that's cool, I can deal with that. Apparently the largest one was found in the good ol' home of Arbor Day.

State Fish: Catfish...They taste good. I'll take mine Blackened!

State Folk Dance: Square dance? All I can say is Who does that anymore? I remember learning it when I was five...but seriously.

Thumbs Down!!!

Oh but lastly I found three others:

They have a state baseball capitol, and a state historic baseball capitol....that's pretty welcoming to baseball fans and i happen to be one.

State Soft drink: KOOL AID What? well okay whatever. I don't really drink it, but that is certainly something from my generation so that gets two kudos.

And state drink: is Milk. I am a soy milk fan, but milk is milk and we couldn't live without it.

So after all my research and skepticism I have decided that Nebraska is ready for me. Next thing you know you'll see me on Good Morning Nebraska (I heard they have a job opening).

Yoga Day 2006

Everyone better take a moment to meditate on Saturday. It's Yoga Day 2006.

I'll do my best to do a sun salutation or two.

Isn't it Bliss?

The wedding bells have rung and TJ and I are Married. You will never guess all the trauma we (or I) had to go through to actually get the show on the road. Saturday morning, December 17, 2005 I woke up like 50 times. I seriously couldn't sleep. As if there was something that I should be worried about. An omen, perhaps? So finally, it's like 5:50am so I get up and just do little things waiting for my mom, my dad, and my sister to wake up to so we could leave for the temple. I pranced around, did some yoga, and finally it was about 7:30. So I semi got ready, but I didn't have anything with me to get ready with, namely my dress. So 8 am rolls around and it hits me that I am not going to make it on time to get all ready, my mom is still asleep, and by now I am just freaking out. So I just grabbed my sister's keys and headed off all by myself. I was ancy, anxious, and snappy. It wasn't until I heard the beloved "Christmas Shoes" song that I realized that there was peace in the world, and that everything would be fine.



All was well until I walked into the temple, alone, my car still running in the driveway, and I tried to frantically explain why I was all alone for my wedding, and why my mom was gone. This didn't come out at all, I think it sounded something like (sniff sniff, big breath in and out) "My mom, and my car well,I've got to Oh my, where's TJ? Where's Joey? She's supposed to do my hair." Of course none of that came out either. It was all basically sobs. So, TJ showed up and we sat down with our reccommends and our information. THe lady asked us for our Marriage license and certificate. By this time I realized that my day, my wedding, was ruined. TJ looks at me and demands that I had the certificate. He was so adamant and I couldn't get a word in edgewise, and I broke into hyperventalating. So I was rushed away from everything. After people ransacked through my belongings, through my apartment, and through everything of mine, the certificate was at TJ's apartment where I saw it last.

Then my mom showed up and it was all okay.

Well, sortof. I got ready and our wedding was only minutes off schedule. After most of the guests left a friend kindly mentioned to the officiator of our wedding that he forgot some important parts of the ceremonial words, so we had to do it all over again.

And finally we were off. The end.