Sunday, December 28, 2008

Please sir, may I have some more?

Staying down in Mesquite for the week of Christmas honestly was a great week for me.  Mesquite Nevada has changed quite a bit over the past ten years, once the quick gamblers fix/rundown retirement community, has grown to become just like most cities.  New housing developments, shopping complexes, movie theaters, and golf courses have popped up seemingly overnight.  But who is gambling in these hard economic times?  Not very many apparently; the four major casino's of Mesquite (Eureka, Virgin River, Oasis, and Casablanca) have become three casino's (Eureka, Virgin River, and Casablanca).  The Oasis has closed its doors temporarily until the economic crisis has passed.  
 
I spent a lot of time this pass week reading, napping, walking my dog around my parent's community, and listening to my iPod.  It was during the latter that I re-discovered how much I love to listen to my music and zone out.  If you were to ask my parents they'd tell you that I spent 70% of the time listening to my iPod, even when I was reading and napping.  Listening to Genius playlists from my favorite indie songs got me to doing a lot of thinking.

Mostly thinking about how much time I waste sleeping, watching TV, playing Xbox, and amongst other things.  I need to start spending more time at home instead of going to the Gateway, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Costco as an "excuse" to get out of the house where I really just end up spending money that I shouldn't be spending because I’m bored.  There are plenty of things to do here in my house, plenty of projects, and cleaning that I should be concentrating on.  I have a treadmill and enough free weights that I could get in a good gym-esque workout every day, instead of sitting around watching TV downing a sugar filled carbonated drink.

The past week in Mesquite also got me thinking a lot about getting a new tattoo.  After getting my koi tattoo I thought that would satisfy me for a while.  But over the past week I've been really itching for a new one.  I've thought about getting my favorite bible passage, Matthew 16:26, scripted on to my chest, or the side of my chest under my left arm.  It's a passage that I love and I should be living.  I have other ideas floating through my head that need more thought to them, or certain events will have to transpire before getting them.  I know what some of you are thinking that I shouldn't get anymore tattoo's and the ones I do have I shouldn't have gotten.  And that is your opinion and one you are justly worth having.  But please understand I feel tattoos are a way I can express myself, it's something I do for myself not for others.  I love my koi design, it's a symbol and a reminder of the dark year I went through after my mission, the choices I made and the lessons I learned from them.

Now normally I couldn't care any less if people comment to my blog posts but after what I've written in this blog I'm actually quite curious what some of you have to say or think, so I encourage you to comment, even if you wish to leave it anonymous.  I'd like to hear your feedback.

-miniSCHOF

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

It was... soap...poisoning! ohh...

Happy Christmas Eve all! And Happy Christmas tomorrow.

It's that wonderfull time of the year where: people over eat, drive distances to wish relitives happy holidays, watch "It's a Wonderful Life"/"A Christmas Carol"/ and "A Christmas Story", promise themselves and boast out loud how "come the new year, say good bye to this body." 

While everyone back home in Utah is suffering from a dead cold wind and come tomorrow a horrible snow storm, I'm in Nevada livin it up in 40-50 degree weather, so to all you in Utah. HA HA HAHA HA.

But my trip yesterday wasn't all merry and cheerful. What should have been a 5-6 hour drive. took an awesome 8 and a half hours! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas but I hate Christmas crowds, and driving in a storm. Because every utah driver for some reason reverts back to be a sixteen year old behind the wheel. Kay now what I drove through wasn't a snow storm it was a flutter storm. As in maybe 10-15 snow flakes a minute falling. I did hit a surprize blizzard in Beaver but that slowed me down maybe 10 min on my trip. The longest part of the trip was it took 3 hours to get to Provo. 3 F'in hours! I had "eh" traffic through salt lake, but the second I hit the point of the mountain it was stop and go traffic from the point all the way to Spanish Fork. Awesome! But I'm here now and am really diggin the weather. Hopefully the drive home will be normal. Anyways, TBS is about to start "A Christmas Story" Hope all is well with everyone! 

Have a happy and safe Christmas.

-miniSCHOF

Friday, December 19, 2008

Five Senses Friday

It’s been a while since I did Five Senses Friday, and due to popular demand by one person, I figured I really should get on that and start writing regularly. It really is the best way to tell everyone what I’ve been up to on a weekly basis.
Tasting


Five Guys: Burger and Fries. I don’t know if many of you know about this place, they just appeared into Utah about six months ago. I discovered them from the girl that cuts my hair in Murray, she told me it was the best burger she has ever eaten. Based off a recommendation like that how could I refuse myself the joy of the possible best burger I could eat. Now to give you an idea it’s a lot like In and Out Burger, but so much better! So I go and order this fabled “best burger;” go out to my car and begin to eat. Now I know this sounds like an exaggeration… but I swear by the Hammer of Thor it’s the truth, I wept after eating this burger… I did! It was so good it brought tears to my eyes. It was glorious!


Smelling



I found a new cologne that I really like, and according to the few ladies that occasionally grace me with their presence it’s a good one. Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. It’s very vice, and they gave me a free bath towel when I bought the big bottle of it. Don’t get me wrong I don’t mind getting a free gift; even if it is a pretty cheap towel, it’s better than not getting a free towel at all. Now I have a new towel to use when I dye my hair.


Feeling

Cold, from shoveling; today is the first day that it has actually snowed for more than a couple hours in Bountiful. Finally a Christmas with snow! Granted I’m going to Nevada for Christmas and will probably be playing golf the next day, but still I love looking out the window and seeing snow falling. Really gets me in the mood for the holidays and Hazelnut hot chocolate. Mmmm hot chocolate… I’m going to have to go to Starbucks when I finish this.


Seeing



I found a new TV show that I’ve have fallen in love with! It’s an older British show called SPACED by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (The same guys that gifted the world with “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”). I first heard about it when Shaun of the Dead came out back in 2004. But I never got around to watching it till just recently. And it’s pure genius! I’m upset that I’m just now watching it. It’s about two strangers who meet each other in a coffee shop looking for new apartments and stumble across the perfect flat, only it’s being rented out to couples, so they decided to fake being a couple to get it. And try to play this lie off to their land lord upstairs. The show is so random and over exaggerates suspense, even in scenes where there is no suspense. There’s a segment where Simon Pegg and his best friend go paintballing and his friend sacrifices himself to save Simon, and what follows is a very dramatic oscar worthy “death” scene ending with Simon looking up to the sky with tears in his eyes screaming “NOOOO!” as the camera pans up and circles. Now just because this is a British show don’t let that put you off; it’s not like the British Office where it comes with a three page dictionary to their slang. They talk like you and I were to have a conversation, only with a British accent.


Hearing



This past Tuesday All-American Rejects came out with their third full length album "When the World Comes Down." Once again AAR has blessed the world with yet another radio friendly album (radio friendly, meaning every song has a catchy hook to it becoming a potential radio single). It’s been three years since their album "Move Along" came out, and the altern-pop/semi-emo culture has held its breath. But has it been worth it? Comparing to their last album "Move Along," it is a great album, following the same formula of heartbreak, heartache and other cheerless conditions of the cardiac organ. My only disappointment of this album is that with three years in the making, the sound hasn’t really changed. There are the additions of strings, and a duet featuring a soothing female voice. I feel the band hasn’t really grown much. I would have liked to see the band try a few tracks breaking out of their element. I love AAR’s first two CD’s and this album isn’t any different from them. Out of a five star rating, I would have to give this album 4 stars. It’s a great CD, just more of the same. A great band or artist can reinvent their sound with still being able to pay homage to their original sound. A perfect example of this is Kanye West. As much of an ass that he is he makes amazing music.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Whats up!

I know I haven’t been showing my blog much love lately; there really is no excuse for it not like I have a job or anything. For this I apologize to those few of you who do read it. So I’ll do a quick update of what all has been going on. My incredibly awesome sister is officially in Iraq serving her country till February. Leaving me and Sadie all alone in my dark, cold, lonely house. I can't even begin to describe how much I look up to my little sister and how proud I am of her. She truly is an amazing person, it’s takes a certain kind to VOLENTEER to go to Iraq especially over the holidays. I love and miss you little sister!

So what do I do all day long being alone in my house you wonder, well… I look for work a few times a week. Still haven’t found anything I want to do. (still working on my 5 year plan) Run errands if I have errands to run, watch movies, or play video games, go to the gym, and hang out with friends. Oh and I have been doing a lot of experimenting with cooking as well. I took the past few days to find and change a recipe of Gingerbread cookies to make my own, and I finally found a recipe that’s really good. I’m quite pleased… I know it’s kinda girly but I love to cook I found out. Awesome thing about being broke and home alone, I’ve started cooking a lot.

Well beginning of this week I got a call from one of my best friend Grant telling me that Wicked (the Broadway musical) is touring to Utah, and it’s the actual Broadway across America tour cast. So it’s just a step below going to see it in New York. Granted it would be nothing like the experience to seeing it in New York, but as a simple Utahn’ I’ll take it. So since Grants wife Amber is a huge, huge, huge, huge, fan of the music, and the book he had to get tickets to the show for fear of divorce. (haha it’s a joke she wouldn’t leave him for not getting tickets to this show, but she would be disappointed) Well they both are in Maryland currently and asked me if I would get them their tickets. After a little research on how the sale date for this show is going down, I planned my choice of attack to get tickets. And I have to say I was very disappointed in what friends I thought I still had at the radio station. Out of the people I texted or called to see if there was a chance I could maybe get tickets put on hold so I could buy them without having to either stand in line all night, or sit at my computer with the phone in hand trying to desperately maybe get tickets. Only one person actually responded and was actually chatty with me. I wasn’t expecting much by calling or texting them; I honestly expected the answer “No we can’t put tickets on hold.” So don’t think that I was upset that I couldn’t get the tickets through my old connections. I was fully prepared to go wait in line all night. But It made me realize just how grateful I am that I no longer work for that company, and just how corrupt those vultures are. Right now I will admit apart from a small few I have little or no kind words to say about those who do work there. And looking back on my experience working there I pity the businesses that advertise with them. If they only knew what goes on behind those doors a good majority of them wouldn’t. Kay that’s enough of my bitching about that company.

Back to my story, Thursday night I went to the Gateway mall to do some Christmas shopping, after I left I drove past the Capitol Theatre to see if there was a line starting or not. There wasn’t so I declared I was safe till 1am to get in line. At 1am I left my house and as I was driving down 500 S. in Bountiful, all of the sudden the familiar flashing lights showed up behind me. Something you should know about Bountiful cop they are hands down the most bored and unprofessional cops in Utah, for a routine stop as in not fully stopping at a stop sign you should expect at least two cop cars to show up. And possibly a third will roll by to check it out. I’ve been at the Exxon gas station filling up my car and next to me was a tricked out Honda with the spoiler, custom lights and the coffee can exhaust pipe. He was filling up his car like me and a cop pulls up behind him, and proceeds to make sure his car is street legal. As I was coming out of the station from paying for gas and my soda, two more cop car had pulled in and he was now being questioned by all three cops… that’s my tax dollars at work… makes me so proud! So I pulled over and the cop comes to my window. Now this part I’m going to write like you were to read a conversation in a book to save me from typing, “he said, then I said, that when he”

He looked at my license then looked at me. “Where you off to at 1am?”

“I’m going into Salt lake to get in line to buy tickets for Wicked in the morning.”

“Wicked?”

“Yeah Wicked, the Broadway musical. It’s coming to Utah in April and tickets go on sale in the morning.”

Now words cannot describe the look the cop gave me. It was mixtures of what I’m guessing is confusion, are you serious, and fear. If he had to say something to go with the look I’d assume it would be, “I can believe I just pulled over a gay.” (Which I’m not! I very much love the ladies!) He gave me back my papers and license then tells me that I was swerving coming down the hill…(BULL!!!) and sent me on my way!

Now when I got to Capitol Theatre the line had formed and had rounded the first corner of the block. I took my place in line luckily there was a granite ledge in front of window to the building where I got in line so I had a place to sit that wasn’t the sidewalk. I pulled out my iTouch and started up The Dark Knight. After my movie ended I check to see if I could steal internet from one of the businesses nearby, and I found one. Haha, stupid business... First thing I did was check the temperature, 27 F'in degrees. No wonder I couldn’t feel my feet and lower legs. So after watching The Dark Knight, and two episode of Chuck, I attempted to nap, but the amount of red bull in my body just wasn’t having it. I let one of my friends little sister cut in line with me, she showed up around 6am with McDonalds to pay me for the sweet spot in line. Hey if there is food involed I'm always game for a little dishonesty. At about 6:50am the line finally began to move, an hour and a half later, and after four times of changing the dates I wanted to buy, I finally got good tickets and was gently shown back out to the cold. I wanted to sptint to my car where a working heater resided but alas I was stopped by about 10 people asking if they had a chance to get tickets of if they could buy mine, I was very tired, very cold, and very irritable. I could only respond with “I don’t know. And hell no!” Just so they would let me go home.

I got the tickets and am very very happy that night it over now I'll have to pull another all-nighter here soon to attempt to get my sleep schedule back in the norm. Grant, Amber I love you guys but next time you want me to stand in line over night in the middle of winter, all I can say is, you two are coming with I’m not going through that alone again! Or we're going in shifts.

Till next blog, goodnight!
-miniSCHOF

Friday, December 12, 2008

Thats WHICK-ED!

So I just got home from standing in line for 7 hours to get tickets to Wicked (the broadway musical). I offically can't feel my feet, my hand are so cold that my fingers shrunk, I'm about to fall over from sleep deprivation, and I have easily enough caffine in me that equivilates to approximately 8 large red-bulls. I got in line at 1am, it 9:50am just got home. I'm tired and I have a headache. I need to go to bed. I'll write more about my experiance when I rouse at most likely 6pm. Good night!

P.S. I came to the conclusion whist in line that Jesus is Awesome! That is all!

-miniSCHOF

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Awesome!!!

That is all!