So I was reading old blog posts of friends, catching up on their lives, and was hit by the sad fact that I don't call these people to hear for myself how they are. I just read a generic synopsis of what they are doing. To all three of you that read this- I love you, even if I don't call you. : )

And while reading old blog posts of friends, imagine my suprise when I saw that our new Mrs. (S)Parks tagged me to do these lameoid "all about me" lists. Like I'm really going to do that!!

...

And yet.... I need something to do to pass the time tonight.

...

Seven things I was doing 10 years ago...

1. Loving life post-dorms.
2. Living in Branbury with Heather, Denise, and Terese
3. Working at the Gap (big suprise there)
4. Thinking I was going to be a Nursing major (what was I thinking??)
5. Hanging out with Nate Conover and watching Kids in the Hall and eating at Pizza Pipeline- literally EVERY day
6. Acting as Heather's driver after she broke her arm rollerblading with "RollerBlader Boy"-Who knows what his real name was- in fact, I don't even know if I ever did know what it was.
7. Eating Cake- we love you chuck!! xxoo

Seven things on my to-do list...(is this like this week or in my life??? I guess whatever I want it to be)

1. Start/Finish Christmas shopping. Somehow, when you live at the mall, you don't want to stay there when it is time to go home.
2. Make English Toffee
3. Go see the movie Australia- any man that can be that manly, but also sing and dance on Broadway like Hugh Jackman, is all right by me
4. Get a Passport- I've never stepped foot out of U.S. soil. No, not even Tiujana...It's the great tragedy of my life.
5. Buy Manny a scratching post so that he stops scratching my new red couch.
6. Figure out how in the world I can watch the season premiere of LOST while I'm at the Store Managers Coference for Gap in San Diego.
7. Maybe get TIVO?

Seven books I want to read/reread...

1. I have been on a Barnes and Noble binge as of late, and finished a ton that were on my list... Best of which was the new Malcolm Gladwell book, Outliers. He is such an interesting writer!
2. I also have been on a Sophie Kinsella kick. She wrote all the "Shopaholic" books. They are the equivalent of watching a Meg Ryan movie. Totally enjoyable, fun, and you don't have to think too hard. I usually read these in one sitting. So I need to reconstruct my list.
3. I just started The Count Of Monte Cristo
4. East of Eden (good choice, Joc. Thou Mayest. It's beautiful.)
5. Bless Me Ultima
6. The Tales of Beedle the Bard (I'm sorry, J.K. You know I love you. Just because I bought it 4 days ago and haven't read it yet doesn't mean that love is waning. I mean, how many times have I read the ENTIRE series???)
7. ...The Harry Potter Series... (I mean, we all know it's true. I'm a total dork.)

Seven places I want to visit...

1. INDIA! TO MEET SHARUK KHAHN!!!!
2. Chicago
3. D.C.
4. Indiana
5. L.A.
6. Anywhere!!!!
7. OK. Jocie, let's start planning. I have also never been to the Grand Canyon...

Seven places I have lived...

1. Glendale, CA
2. Glendora, CA
3. Montclair, CA
4. Rancho Cucamonga, CA
5. Provo, UT
6. Salt Lake City, UT
7. (man, am I boring... Under Provo can I put the subcategories of where I lived? Stover Hall; Taylor Hall; Branbury; Green House; Belmont; little basement apt. by Smiths; condo on 7th and 7th; Pinnacle by Walmart. Yes, that is 8 homes in 8 years...)
   

Seven things I would do if I were a millionaire...

1. Let all my friends and family decide what to do with most of it- you all know me and big decisions! And let's be honest, you would all come up with much better causes.
2. Go places- lots of places. Starting with the month long Mediterranean Cruise that I dream about.
3. OK. We know I would shop with at least some of it. It would just be a very successful trip to Anthropologie.
4. Buy a house at the beach.
5. Not work at the Gap anymore.
6. Buy a hybrid Toyota Highlander. I know this isn't really that extravagant, but it is my dream car as of late.
7. Buy an apple laptop, top of the line, state of the art, and spend a few days downloading on itunes.

Seven snacks I enjoy...

1. Diet Coke
2. BBQ or Sour Cream and Onion Lays
3. JuJuBees
4. Clementines
5. Rasberries
6. The sugar cookies at Einstien Bagels
7. Biscuits at Chick-Fil-A

Seven things I can do...

1. Play the piano
2. type fast
3. Run a $4.4 mil. store and handle 65 employees
4. Pick the perfect outfit for any occasion
5. Laugh easily
6. Snowboard
7. remember song lyrics

Seven things I can't do... yet...

1. Sing. Oh how I wish I could.
2. Remember names easily.
3. Run fast- 11 min. mile, baby. And that's when I'm in good shape.
4. Speak another language fluently.
5. keep my house as clean as my sister, Rachel.
6. I am incapable of keeping a poker face during games.
7. Stay warm in the winter- I just turned my heater up to 75...

Seven things that attracted my to my husband...

I'll let you know...

Seven favorite foods...

1. Burritos
2. Guacamole
3. Chips
4. In-N-Out hamburger
5. Pumpkin Cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory
6. Frosted Mini Wheats
7. Rasberries

Seven things I say most...

1. Hi, thanks for shopping at the Gap. How can I help you today?
2. I don't really know what else... Do I even have catchphrases??

OK. That took way too long.

Meet Glen Murphy.

He is the CEO of Gap Inc. where I have spent the last 10 years of my life. It used to be the rarest of rare to get the big corporate visit.

But lucky me, I met him in April, after only working in my store 3 months. And you think they'll never come back after that...I mean, Gap Inc. is operating 3,170 stores across the globe! (although, that may not be accurate.

I was looking on their financial website, which claims to be updated monthly,

and it states that there are 6 Gap stores in Utah...

I wonder where those other two are hiding out?)

But, as luck would have it, he visited my store 5 days ago, with all sorts of other big-wigs in tow. He said that I was a smart business leader, and had made great decisions for my store, and thanked me for all my hard work.

And then he got on his private jet to fly somewhere else,

and I drove home in my smashed up Mazda 3.

I wonder how he's spending Black Friday.

~Happy Holiday Shopping!!~

So I've had several conversations with people lately that have given me a new direction for my quasi-blog. They revolved around the act of blogging, and around the state of my social life, two seemingly unrelated topics. But they will be brought together for this post.
It seems that most peoples blogs are the "sunshine and lollipop" versions of their reality. In a blog everything is perfect, and it can give you a distorted picture of what is really going on for them. Which can then cause insecurity and unease in your own life. I also had a friend tell me that she believes my life to be "glamerous and interesting." Hm. So here I go. I am going to tell the naked truth about my social life. There are two stories that illustrated this best.

#1. This story involves my niece, Nicole, shown to the right. Now, I am someone that is always up and current on Pop Culture. Entertainment Weekly is my favorite publication, and Movies are a favorite recreation. And the Movie "The Dark Night" came out and it was breaking records, and creating buzz, and I hadn't seen it. Because the sad truth was, I didn't have a single soul to go see it with. So I planned a date with my 13 year old neice. With a flare for the dramatic, I had taken her to see Lord of the Rings movies and other such epics, and I knew she would be a good companion. Plus, there was nobody else. Now, you know that your social life isn't what you would hope when you are resorting to taking your young niece to a movie. And you really know it's not what you would want when she calls you that day and tells you she can't go to the movie because of the 8th Grade Dance. When you get stood up for the 8th graders, it is time to re-evaluate. She actually ended up doing both- going to the dance, where I picked her up from, and we went to the movies, and had a wonderful time. But still...

#2. Story number two involves my work. Years ago when I worked in Orem at the Gap I had a lot of close dear friends that I worked with. And often we would go to Chili's after a closing shift. We were all young, and we all got along so well, and we always had a great and rowdy time. It became a sort of tradition. Fast-Forward to running my store in Murray. A week or so ago a bunch of sales associates were going out to the Cheesecake Factory after a Saturday closing shift. And they invited me to go with them. And I thought how fun, and I went. And then sitting around the table, I was struck with how different my life is now. Because every woman at the table with me was over 50 yrs old. And they are great and dear and nice, but 20+ years older than me.

So there it is. My brutal honesty. No frills.

Enjoy. : )

I wanted to put a picture of my family at the end of the last one, but being new to this blog thing, I couldn't figure it out... So here is an incredibly outdated pic, but sadly, the only one I have of all of us together. We are actually missing little Bella and Isaac in this group shot (they weren't born at the time) so here they are so everyone is represented.

I recently returned from 7 days at one of my favorite places in the whole world, the luxurious Newport Coast Villas at Crystal Cove Beach, CA. I'm cheating and showing last years pictues, but my camera broke, and so I only have my memories this year.

I went to Disneyland, and was able to ride just about EVERYTHING.

I surfed at Doheny (if you count gettting pushed into the wave by my brother in law, and then getting up on my knees surfing...I do...) and braved their polluted water. (there is a river that runs off right into where the great surf break is.) That warning sign up above (since I can't figure out how to insert it here) tells you what you're up against. But being in any ocean, albeit polluted, is still a treat.
I went snorkeling in Laguna, and faced my fear of fish head on. Turns out, I hate snorkeling. It petrifies me. Something about the quiet clausterphobia being under the water puts me in a panic. I held my brother in law's hand (yes, the same one, bless his patient heart) most of the time, and he said I had quite the grip.

One particular favorite was Dolphin Dave. This is our 3rd year going, and it is amazing every time. We saw 5 blue whales, the largest animal that lives on earth, and to quote my Favorite Dr. Suess Book, they were

"all spouting their spouts and thrashing their tails!"

The last one we saw flashed his tail up as he went, and we could feel the splash from the water, he was so close to us.

The Whales were huge and scary and beautiful. But the best part is ALWAYS the dohphins. We don't call him Dolphin Dave for nothin'. This footage is from last year, but it gives you an idea of what we see. There are literally thousands of Dolphins that live off the coast at Dana Point Harbor, and we got to hang out with most of them for a few hours. They travel in pods of several hundred at a time, and swim and jump and dance through the water. And let me tell you, if you haven't seen tiny baby dolphins jumping out of the water with hundreds of other grown ones, then you haven't lived. Sea World has nothing on this boat ride.

I also got to hang out with every single member of my family during the last 7 days, which I LOVE. I never thought of the Gap once, I slept a lot, and ate In-N-Out Hamburgers, I watched dumb movies, and sat through the entire Parade Of Nations during the Opening Ceremonies, and I got too tan as I usually do. All in all, it was a successful vacation.

So I've decided to join the world of blogging. Why, you may ask? Because I've recently become quite the cyber-stalker. And then I thought to myself, "what if somebody wants to cyber-stalk me? There is no way for them to know what I am doing!" Not that I am doing much of anything, but the point is, I might. And there might then be some people that would want to know about it.

So here I am.

Most of you bloggers show pictures of your many children. Since I am lacking in that department, I am dedicating my blog to my wonderful companion, the Transgendered Wonder, my cat, Mandrake. We are enjoying our new home at the Polo Club. There are trees and birds to satisfy any feline, and there is a pool with lounge chairs to satisfy any sun worshiper.

So maybe I'm not driving cross country in a velour sweat suit, I'm not moving to a major metropolitan city, I'm not planning a wedding, I'm not bringing a new baby home, (you all know who you are), BUT I may have something noteworthy to say someday.