krikes

those who know me well know that i have a bit of an addiction. let's call it an 'entertainment' addiction. music, movies, and tv. i love it all, and i feel no shame or remorse. for the most part, i do try and keep my addictions at manageable levels. i implement certain failsafes that are supposed to prevent me from getting in over my head, as it were. one of these failsafes in regards to the television facet of my addiction, is to pre-select a certain number of shows to follow, and stick to my guns. there might be other shows that look appealing, but i will avoid them just for the sake of my sanity and time management.

case in point, 'friday night lights.' i knew this show would be a problem for me. don't ask me why, i have less than zero interest in actual football, but movies or television shows about the sport have me glued to my seat. so i've avoided it. with gilmore girls and veronica mars on on tuesday nights, it wasn't too much of a sacrifice.

but then, those clever network executives reached out to the suckers like me and i bit. with studio 60 on hiatus last night, they instead aired friday night lights, and oh craap, i'm hooked. again, the reason completely eludes me. i have never 'gotten' football, i'm much more of a basketball girl, but i've been reeled in, and have to add another show to the lineup.

between how i met your mother, heroes, studio 60, the bachelor: rome, gilmore girls, veronica mars, lost, grey's anatomy, ugly betty, six degrees, men in trees, survivor, amazing race, real world road rules challenge, the original csi, and now friday night lights--not to mention the ocassional law and orders, emergency vets, mythbusters, the english dubbed japanese gameshow mxc, and my netflix queue which currently has me working on dark angel, prison break, and very soon west wing season 7, and boston legal--i think i am going to have to quit my job. anyone hiring a professional tv watcher?

muuuaaaahhhhhhaaahaaa

weekend update

it’s been literally months and months since i engaged in a large group activity of any sort. i could use the work excuse, but it wouldn’t be entirely honest. mostly, i’ve just not been in the mood for the ‘scene’. sometimes i can put up with the superficiality of it better than others..you know, having a million ‘friends’ who are good for chatting up at parties, but if you ever needed something in a pinch, might be conveniently unavailable. it’s the nature of the mormon singles scene, and sometimes my tolerance is higher than others. lately, it’s been low, and my social time has been spent with close friends in small gatherings.

but i love halloween. it is probably my favorite holiday, next to christmas. i think it is the theater girl in me who loves a holiday where you get to pretend to be something you are not. but a costume this year was stretching my willingness to invest in a large social gathering. almost every year i drag myself to the barn dance, and i usually have a good time. i knew if i was going to force myself into a costume though, i would never do it. especially since i was without a wing-man.

so, i dressed in normal clothes, and if anyone asked, i was going to tell them i was a reality show contestant. my handy dandy gps unit got me there via some back roads about 30 minutes earlier than planned.

so what did i do? i sat in my car trying to convince myself to go in. i gave myself a little pep talk. it went like this:

‘tara, get out of the car. you have friends in there that you haven’t seen in a long time and who will welcome you with smiles and open arms! why are you hesitating? you are a 30 year old woman who feels good about herself. this is ridiculous. you are being a baby. just get out of the car. if you go in and don’t see anyone, you can turn around and leave. but you’ll never know unless you give it a chance. get OUT of the car.’

apparently, i give good pep. i got myself out of the car, and was relieved to almost immediately see a couple of familiar faces--and even better, some of my favorite familiar faces. i ended up knowing less people than i thought i would, but i still knew plenty, so the fact that i was flying solo wasn’t so painful. all in all, it ended up being an enjoyable evening. however, it did remind me why i have been avoiding the large group gatherings. it’s just not my scene right now. i am more content and fulfilled spending time with the old faithfuls who have been there through everything and are still willing to put up with me!

saturday was a perfect example. the last open weekend at king’s dominion, and even better, fear fest. lara, corey and i all have season passes, and jill joined in for the fun. after all the rain and cold weather here recently, we were concerned that it would be a less than ideal day, but we couldn’t have been more wrong. the sun was out and it was absolutely stunning. we enjoyed all the usual, the volcano, funnel cakes, tomb raider, boardwalk fries..you know, the usual.

in the evening some of the rides turned ghoulish and we settled on the antique car ride. the scariest thing about the haunting was the park employees screaming at corey and i to (in his case) give them the camera and to (in my case) stop taking photos. now, keep in mind, nowhere did it say no photos. nowhere. and even in the instructions they gave us (hands in the car, etc.) absolutely no mention of photography. so these two park employees chased us throughout the ride, and that was pretty scary. i can’t for the life of me figure out why they would care, apparently dead people have bigger issues than, um, death.

the weekend was capped off (or completely destroyed) by having to teach on sunday. i haven’t found a groove yet and it just feels awkward and uncomfortable, and draining. but i got through it, and after church made a stop at the willis home to spend some time with julie who was here from nc all pregnant and stuff. and that was a much better way to call the weekend done.


for more pics of the barn dance, click here.
for more pics of fear fest, click here.

happy birthday

to my lil brother dylan.

confessions

there is only one thing i hate as much or more than teaching, and that is cleaning my bathroom. pretty much, i only ever clean my bathroom when someone is coming to visit and will be staying in the guest bedroom, thereby sharing my bathroom. don’t get too grossed out, we have visitor’s enough, that my cleaning is on a sort of reqular cycle. however, it may be a little longer than most. i would rather do any household chore than clean my bathroom. vacuuming? fine. dishes? fine. you name it pretty much, and it’s all good. except the bathroom.

see the bathroom, once it’s clean, is immediately dirty again. especially if you are a girl with long hair. i can spend hours scrubbing tub and toilet and sink. and by the time i walk back in to lay the rugs down, all i can see is hair. it just seems so fruitless, this cleaning of the bathroom thing. when asked what i would to with ten million dollars, my first response would be to hire someone to tell me what to do with it, and my second, to hire someone to clean the bathroom. i’ll do the rest, just not the bathroom.

so why the bathroom tirade you ask? because again, we are having company. which means sometime in the next two days i have to clean my bathroom which, and by the time the guest arrives, will be inexplicably dirty again anyway. oh yeah, and i also have to put together my lesson for sunday in the next couple of days.

ah, the two things i hate most in life, simulaneously destroying my otherwise peaceful state of mind. oh joy.