zowie bowie

at dinner tonight, the fam and i go to this incredible mexican grill called bahio's. it's cafe rio-esque. we are friends with the owner, he's in our ward. we are eating and chatting with him like usual. it was awkward at first when we would go there and he would talk with us through our whole meal, but we're used to it now.

anyways we're eating and a couple walks in. the guy has bleached hair and a tight t-shirt. a girl follows him and my mom says, "here comes fergie." she's referring to the lead singer of the black eyed peas. she is very tan and fit as well.

well it turns out they are the red rock hotel lounge act zowie bowie. celebrities! they come over to our table and begin talking with jason, the owner as well. i ask if i could come see their show even though i'm underage. she looks at me with her collagen lips that probably cost more than my entire tuition of college thus far and says, "oh honey, yes! they would let you in, you're darling! and if not, come up and sing with me." i was like, "uhh, no, you wouldn't want that believe me." they were both so friendly and real. well, their personalities were real at least. i'm not so sure about the tans, hair, nails, lips, lack of wrinkles, etc. they were very down to earth nonetheless.

as they were leaving, the guy brought us a cd of theirs. it is really good too. she has a great voice and i really want to see their show!

on another note, i recently got a fortune that read, "people find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner." i died laughing. i think i'm a pretty persuasive person and this fortune must have been written for me. i can convince people to do things that they aren't necessarily thrilled with. i'm not sure if this is a positive quality of mine. i try to use my powers for good.

my cousin taylor dyed my hair over the weekend, as you can see from the picture. i think it looks good: no more maroon, more natural and i love the side swept bangs.

guitar hero

i'm house sitting for my aunt and uncle while they are picking my cousin up from his mission in paraguay. they'll all be home on tuesday! well i suppose it's not really house sitting because their two other boys are still there. i'm not calling it babysitting though because they are 16 and 13. i've never lived with boys before so this is a little bit of an adjustment for me...

there is this game, my latest obsession, called guitar hero. you have this guitar that you play as the buttons light up on the screen and you strum at the same time. i can't really describe it, it's like playing a real guitar i guess. i even have the power stance down, thank you mr. dewey finn.

i'm left handed and didn't know which way to hold the guitar: strum with my left hand or play the chords with my left hand. i tried it the first time with my left hand playing the chords and my right hand strumming, like the righties do it. that was okay. but then, my friends, i switched that sucker up and rocked it with my right hand playing the chords. it was pretty much awesome. my cousins are way good though. they destroy me. they wanted to play it how i did, left handed but i told them, "it's not as easy as i make it look." haha, riiight. i'm learning.

so my main goal from now until tuesday is to improve my guitar playing skills. i mean, it's to make sure that the boys don't kill each other or burn the house down. yes, that's what i meant.

bring on the rain

monsoon season has begun! there have been all kinds of flash floods in vegas the past two days. i absolutely love the rain. my sisters and i stood outside last night when it was POURING and were so happy. i was seriously grinning. charley, who is almost 8, said that she's afraid of the lightning but not the thunder. i think this makes sense because it's the lightning that will kill ya. it rained again today and i was driving with my windows down, loving it. i was getting all kinds of weird looks. i hardly ever rains here but when it does, i enjoy every minute of it.

this girl named kelly sweet has sung at a few singing events with my cousin casey a couple years ago. well, she released a cd in march and i just found this out today!she's kinda like a corinne bailey rae/norah jones/sarah mclaughlan type. casey is home from his mission on tuesday and possibly she can hook him up with another duet for old times sake... or maybe his own album! check her out:

http://search.music.yahoo.com/search/?m=all&p=kelly+sweet

a fashionista?

i work on a construction job site right by the strip. the mgm is in our backyard. this also means that i am nearby the shopping malls and cool vintage stores. i'm not really a shopper but occasionally i need to spend a little money on some clothes or shoes that i don't need.

so i'm at this trendy, unique little store last week. just to give you a visual: the employees are wearing skinny jeans with red cowboy boots, headwraps, leggings, t-shirts with faded faces of young hollywood... you get the picture. i went shopping at this store right after work and we all know that i'm not about to bring a change of clothes. i walk in sporting my t-shirt, ripped jeans with paint splatters and even the dusty construction boots.

so there i was, happily shopping when an employee who could have been a walking advertisement for the bohemian fashion sense approached me. she looked at me and said with one hand on her hip, "contruction boots?" i was completely taken off guard and began to stammer, "yeah, i just came here straight from..." barbie, as i read from her name tag, interrupted my defense with, "i never would have thought of it! where'd you get those?"

wait. what!? construction boots as a fashion statement? did i miss something here?

noodle!

okay so i walk my dog every night. her name is peaches and she is a miniature shih-tzu. she looks forward to our walks and we are becoming closer through them. but seriously, i can tell that she likes to get out of the house and get some fresh air. i mean, doesn't everyone?

so yesterday, kaley and i take peaches out. we are walking along and we stop at this grassy area like always. we let peaches run around and what not. after like 10 minutes of enjoying the weather, i notice this little black dog coming our way. the dog has to cross the street to get to where we are. it almost gets hit by a car. keep in mind that at 9 pm it is dark and this little dog is black. it is nearly missed by another car. kaley and i are sitting there flinching. peaches, of course is oblivious.

fortunately, kaley and i did not witness that dog being hit by a car. it makes its way over to us, mainly to check out our dog. so i notice the dog's collar with a tag. the dog's name, noodle, is on there with a phone number as well. we figure that someone at noodle's house accidentally left the door open or something. i want to run across the street to the clubhouse and tell the guy who runs the place about the dog. i figure that he could call the number on the tags, the owner will pick up their long-lost dog and all would be well in the world.

i tell kaley my plan and she's like, "you can't leave me alone with noodle!" she looked at me like i was sprinting across the mexican border without her. i raised my eyebrows and began to run across the street. i talked to gavin, the clubhouse guy and he called the owner. i told him if anita, the owner, didn't pick up her dog we would keep noodle for the night, so she had somewhere to stay. kaley said, "my mom won't go for that." she's right. so we left, only with peaches.

as of now, i don't know if anita ever came to get noodle.

also, i learned yesterday at work that "you can get everything you want by telling the truth." good advice.

a sunrise and some spanish

i had to work yesterday. i was not looking forward to it because i was planning on a saturday at the pool, just relaxing and lounging around. so, getting up at 5 am any day completely bites but when this misfortune falls on a saturday, i must admit that i am not happy to be alive. "watching the sunrise" is not something i would add to my list of hobbies. did i mention i'm not a morning person in general? yeah, i definitely am not awake until around noon-ish. i may be working and conscious but i'm not in the least awake. i'm not really in a bad mood i just don't like noise, questions or anything else envolves vocal cords. don't talk to me, i'll talk to you. ya feel me?

however, saturday was a good morning because i saw the sunrise on my way to work. it was so beautiful: a pink sky, orange clouds and the lighting on the mountains was just gorgeous. my mom has always taught me to enjoy the simple things in life, especially those of nature. i thought of her while watching the sunrise and thanked her for the appreciation i have gained over the years for the beauties of nature.

i have always been a fan of sunsets though. this is probably because i am well awake by the time these babies occur. but while driving as the sun was rising on saturday, it reminded me of a beginning. sunrises are incredible. i'm converted. do yourself a favor: go watch a sunrise and let the healing begin! i saw a movie tonight with my sister kaley called "half nelson." here is a quote from it that reminded me of my saturday morning: "the sun goes up and then it comes down, but everytime that happens what do you get? you get a new day." there's a little inspiration for ya...

back to work: the day before, on friday, the project manager of the job site and i went through each unit of a huge luxury condominium project to look for door trims that need painting and other random touch-ups. when we saw a problem area, we stuck a piece of blue painter's tape to the spot. this was done to ensure that the painters would see the tape on saturday and repaint the specific spot. on saturday, the project manager (flavio) and i went around the two huge buildings making sure that the painters were staying on track and doing a good job (aka babysitting).

after the workers' lunch break, flavio and i went around again to put a check mark by the workers' names to prove that those who signed in at 6 am were actually still working at 1 pm (once again babysitting). flavio had me ask for the painters'/tapers' names... in spanish. we decided that it was easier for me to ask and then he could easily find their names on the sign-in sheets. we had a ton of ground to cover so i was willing to butcher a little spanish in order to get this little task done as soon as possible. to our suprise, we checked every name off of the list.

all i had to say to the workers was three words in spanish: como te llamas? or como se llama? the first form is less formal so if i approached an older guy i would use the more formal form. anyways, so that was fun. i fooled them. they thought i was a native speaker... or not.

i took four years of spanish in high school and still remember a little bit of it. confession time: i've learned more spanish grammar and pronunciation from listening to shakira than i ever did in high school. it's true. i can bust out some espanol like nobody's business when i've got shakira on my side.

i thought jesus was a carpenter...

i'm sitting in my trailer on the job site today when this guy who works for another subcontractor comes in to say hi. i have had one 15 second conversation with this guy before, it was about a month ago.

me: "hey, how's it goin'?"
plumber: "what's up."
me: "man, it's hot out here!" *wipes imaginary sweat from brow*
plumber: "yeah, it's f-ing hot." *fumbles with tools on tool belt*
me: "well... see ya around."
plumber: "yeah, uh, see ya."

okay, so now you see where i'm coming from. i hardly know this dude. he comes into the trailer, well he makes kind of a kramer-esque entrance from "seinfeld" and says, "my hair is longer than yours!" weird. his hair is kinda longer, but like wavy and borderline nasty, always in a ponytail. so i'm trying desperately to not let my emotions/thoughts of please-leave-the-trailer and why-the-hell-are-you-here affect my facial expressions and i stammer, "yep, yep it is. that's funny." then homeboy takes OFF his hard hat and SHAKES his hair, with his eyes closed. he looks at me and says with his bearded face, "see? now you can tell everyone that you've met jesus!" and there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. today, i met jesus.

a primadonna?

hello friends!

today is july 1st. i love the beginning of months. it feels like a new start, a fresh start. this month is a big month for me, there is a lot going on. we are celebrating america's independence this wednesday. i can give blood again (hopefully). my sister gets her wisdom teeth out. two of my sisters have birthdays. my cousin casey is coming home from his mission in 30 short days. i have two more months of summer to enjoy.

we got back from the beach today. i am doing quite well considering the fact that a few hours ago my days consisted of a morning run on the beach, followed by swimming in the ocean and laying in the sand. life is so simple at the beach. i gotta end up in california somehow. why can't byu be in san diego?

i have a difficult time adjusting to real life after vacationing. this is why i mentioned in a previous entry how i dream of becoming a professional vacationer. life itself would be one big vacation. i mourn my last night on vacation and dread packing my bags. i waved goodbye to the beach like i was departing from an old friend. while running on the pier saturday, i was thinking, "i won't be doing this again for a while." i can hardly relax on vacation because i know that it will be over soon.

i was called a "primadonna" on the trip by a member of my family. excuse me, but i wasn't the sister who packed makeup on our trip to the beach. i am a low maintenance kind of gal. i don't need constant entertainment and i find happiness in everyday life. but i must have an agenda each day. i like a game plan, get over it. i hate that "we'll play it by ear" nonsense. i want times, places and specifics. i'm a planner and a little dramatic at times, my family should be used to that by now. they knew that going into it.

i think i'll watch "reality bites" tonight so i can fully experience how i'm feeling on this fine sunday evening.