goodbye, Olympics...

Your flame may be extinguished, but it will live on in our hearts. 

Just kidding, I'm not that cheesy. Yes I am.

I really am very sad to see you go.

Then again, I will be very very glad to finally get some sleep again. 

(and the Olympics aren't really over for me, since my "temporary tattoo" doesn't seem to want to wash off.)

so excited I might pee my pants.

TONIGHT IS THE MOST DRAMATIC ROSE CEREMONY 
EVENT OF THE OLYMPIC FORTNIGHT.

Or, at least the most anticipated and watched, according to Olympic broadcasters-- 

it's ladies' figure skating, free skate/long program, going for the podium.

And I have a special connection to the event:

(photo: Harry How, Getty Images, courtesy of TeamUSA.org)

MIRAI NAGASU!!

How?

1. Because she is a former student of Arcadia High. ("former" not because she was 

expelled, but because she obviously had to start online school or whatever for the Olympics).

She never took MY class (boo), but I did sub in one of her classes once. She goofed off the whole

time and was eating Doritos. I'm sure that has nothing to do with her Olympic performance.

(totally kidding Mirai, don't be mad... actually your Olympic performance is GREAT, maybe

Doritos should catch whiff of that and sign you as an endorser??)

2. We both used to train at the Pasadena Ice Skate Center. Sure, she has gone further than me, 

but both my 100-dollar and her 1,000-dollar boots/blades have touched THE SAME ICE. Probably 

her butt more than mine, though, I've never fallen on it (just once on my knees.) Really I'm still 

training there,just taking a break this year-- I figure I'll make it to the 2018 Olympics, because by 

then I'll have gathered enough signatures for my petition demanding a Mature Ladies' division. 

3.  She would have been a junior here right now, and I am the Junior Class ADVISOR. 

Seriously. The connections are FREAKY.

I will admit, though, that I can't do this:

 

(photo courtesy of LA Times)

I did try once... it was after skating class... I came home and, while opening the fridge to find 

something to eat (because of course I had burned major calories perfecting my "bunny hop" move),  

I started thinking about all those flexible little girls I had seen practicing their spins, and wondered 

if I could even bend that far backwards when NOT on the ice. So I stretched/leaned back as far as 

I could while holding onto the fridge door. And I ended up pulling something and my back hurt for 

like three weeks. (Hopefully that element won't be required in the Mature Ladies' Competition.) 

(Probably should get a secondary petition going.)

CONGRATS anyway, Mirai!! I love you almost as much as I love watching Ice Dancing. Please bring me back an official USA Olympic vest, I can't afford that Ralph Lauren crap. (Blogpost/rant about that, to come)

sometimes I don't have my camera with me.

And that could potentially be tragic, because there are often exceptional moments in time which I would like to capture for all love and eternity, and not just in the recesses of my memory.

But... FORTUNATELY, I have entered the Modern World and have an iPhone. Which is of course superior to all other phones, in all aspects, including Camera capability. (maybe not really, but Apple will never sponsor my travel habits if I start bad-mouthing them now.)

So yesterday I was syncing my phone with my laptop (that's what we do, we iPhone/Powerbook owners) and it pulled off a multitude of random photos that I've taken in my first months of ownership. And so, since I obviously took them for good reasons, I figure they should not be hidden from the world any longer.

Welcome to an intimate look into my life.

__________________________________________

I get cold a lot. Especially in movie theaters, so I always bring a blanket. 

Also to the live theater... and I'm not sure why the silver-haired contingency of this audience 

(85% of it) looked at me strangely for that; aren't old people always cold?

First (of 6) viewing(s) of New Moon. At the EDWARDS theater, I might add. 

Coincidence? -No, DESTINY.

ABSOLUTE DISTRESS. I am going to be in INDIA when the next one comes out!! 

Fortunately I looked on the InterWeb and found out it will be showing on the Indian Subcontinent, 

I might have to take a plane to get to a decent theater though.

My good buddies Kris and Brian produced this little Fox. 

Like-father-like-son was classic, and OF COURSE, I didn't have my good camera 

available to really capture it. Grrr.

"Security" in Indian airports-- women go to one side, men to the other. 

Women go in a curtained area and get frisked by another woman. 

Men stand out in the open and get the wand. Awesome.

Already stated-- Etihad airlines is crappy. BUT-- on their individual screens, you get to (are forced to) see the take-off and landing view, live, from the cockpit... which is cool, but also SUPER creepy-- 

what if, as you're landing, you are watching as the plane suddenly starts to veer off to the left, and miss the strip entirely and you know that a crash is imminent??

...or land too fast and plow right into the dude just trying to help out by waving his direction lights? 

I think there's a clear reason why American carriers don't tout this little live-view trick: lawsuits.

This is a hideous picture of me (which is why it's staying small, no need to scare the kids)

but it's the only one I have of me on Arabian soil. Christmas day, 2009. Jared, thanks for

making sure I looked good when you took this. Harumph.

The Abu Dhabi airport. Cool.

The restrooms in the Abu Dhabi airport. 

Just inside the gender-appropriate entrance, you find yourself facing three 

ultimate destination options: toilets, an ablution area, and... a mosque.

I left my Christmas tree behind to go to India. So here was (part of) my Christmas: Chicago O'Hare airport, London Heathrow airport, and the Crowne Plaza in Rosemont, Illinois. Pretty great.

My brother Chad is hilarious. 

This was his Christmas gift to me, and I think he's right-- it would

be totally appropriate to wear this when it's my turn to conduct Relief Society.

This is what we of course DIDN'T do on New Year's Eve. 

Instead we went to an initially-horrifying-then-resolved-to-be-kinda-fun Mid Singles' 

dance in Huntington Beach. Probably the kind of thing that is less painful for those 

who ARE of the imbibing type.

Post-dance at the IHOP. Tired. Jazzed! Toasting in the New Year.

Pretty great (dreamy) mattress at a pretty schnazzy hotel in the HB. I took this picture 

so I could remember what kind of mattress it was, so I could go home and buy 

it since mine is crap and I sleep horribly. Then I found out it costs $5,000. Goodbye, sleep...

This photo is not from the 70's. 

(but it was from Leslie's awesome 40th bday Disco party, where I was crowned limbo queen...)

This lady must get cold in movies too, because I had just come out 

of one when I saw the Abominable Snow Beast in front of me, keeping her warm.

Dahi Puri or Pani Puri, found at the Samosa House in Culver City... 

YOU MUST GO THERE!

Donny Osmond sighting!!! Some small (but delicious) fast Mexican food chain,

"Bajio's", Provo, Utah, January 2010. I am complete.

Went on BYU campus to meet up with Jared and new fiancee Nancy,

and while waiting outside the Wilk, discovered that I am STILL popular on campus, 

even 10 years later. Totally ran into someone I knew! Or, actually, SHE saw ME, and 

called out "--DOEZIE!" I am soooo popular! I should probably go back to BYU.

Dang Utah Valley's beautiful. 

Me and KJ at Pee Wee Herman night, LA Live, downtown. 

Not one small chance that I'm going to see this movie (though I would

personally like both a hot tub and a time machine of my own), but Derek posed anyway. 

In the Vancouver airport, you are TOTALLY taken care of in the ladies' restrooms

(washrooms, if you're a Canuck) in event of an emergency. Coin-operated machines

offer Feminine needs, unmentionables, lip balm, and... TEMPORARY TATTOOS.

(Looney Tunes brand, at that.)

WHHAT???

and finally...

I pick window seats for a reason. SO THAT THERE IS A WINDOW TO LOOK OUT OF.  

I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone where the creepy kid, that everyone's scared will send them out into the cornfield, does his wordless voodoo and makes his uncle's face turn into smooth skin where once there had been a mouth. Silent screams.

.

Phew. Glad to get all that out into the open. What things do you see, that make you want to take a photo?

I wholeheartedly concur.

.

(photo courtesy of l.a. times blogs)

I had a friend who once revealed that he liked to buy-- and use-- girlie lotions from Bath and Body Works.  In case you didn't catch the gender reference when I said "he", this is a guy I'm talking about. His rationale/justification/on-crack-delusion why this was a good thing? -- Because "girls like the smell, so I should smell like that, and girls will like me."

NO. NO NO NO.

Girls like men who smell like MEN! Ahhh, man-smell. Rugged and musky. And not to be confused with "boy-smell"-- that rank, mustily offensive malodor of Unwashed Boy that can commonly be found embedded in the walls of BYU off-campus male housing. No, the best man-smell is one of CLEAN--nothing better than fresh-laundry-smell on a man!--, with a slight woodsy musk coming from a not-too-pervasive man-perfume, preferably not identified as Drakkar Noir (that one is soooo over).

And, to be honest, the best smells I've ever whiffed from those men of my close acquaintance (close enough that I am allowed to sniff closely, and liberally) have actually been from not from cologne, but from... deodorant.

Which is why Old Spice definitely has something here. Deodorant, body wash, same diff.

But even if they had no platform for their claims, I would be sold on Old Spice purely by the genius of this commercial. -Wait, what am I saying? I AM sold. I am going to go out and buy it by the carton-full, to ensure that these commercials keep-a-comin'. I came home from the Olympics sad and depressed and lonely due to a moderate-to-severe case of PTD (Post-Trip-Depression), and whilst trying to fill that void by watching my recording of Tuesday night's LOST, I saw this spot for the first time and... I became whole. 

SO - FUNNY!!

And it doesn't hurt that Isaiah Mustafa is hhhhhot. Hgggllrrrrrrr. On or off a horse. 

But it does hurt that he's taken, SO sad, I was pretty sure I had a chance.

(photo of courtesy of l.a. times blogs)

For a great article about the commercial, and to even watch a "The Making Of...", click HERE. 

Take a lesson, Men.

proud, happy and so excited

Top News in doezieland...

Big brother Allen

 arrives here tomorrow

(photos courtesy of Reuters)

to spend a week giving his vital plastic surgery skills, attention and love to those in need...

Little sister Kate

just announced that she is soon to be...

(photo courtesy of azuwish.com)

!!!!!!

and my little brother Derek

was called to serve to do THIS!!

(photo courtesy of lds.org)

in the Missouri St. Louis Mission, Spanish-speaking! 

So much news...  so much to be grateful for!

Allen--

The perfect big brother (and how lucky am I to have two perfect big brothers).  So talented, so generous, you have no idea how much I look up to you...

Kate--

CONGRATULATIONS!! I'm so happy my little sister has found love and happiness!

and Derek--

I am going to miss you terribly, but you are going to be SUCH a great missionary. I am so proud of you!  

Love, love, love. I am the luckiest sister, and absolutely claim these three. Photos are proof, after all. :) 

Mekka Lekka Hai, Mekka Hiney Ho!

My wish was granted, long live Jambi.

In honor of Black History Month, I (had) a dream. Or, let's call it a wish. Because it came true last night, when I became the Luckiest Girl in the World because I got to go see:

-Exclamation point exclamation point! Triple exclamation point!

It was soooo great! I am, was, and always will be a Pee Wee Herman fan-- I LOVED Pee Wee's Playhouse as a kid/teenager, owned the Pee Wee Herman pull-cord talking doll (MAN I wish I'd kept it-- eBay jackpot for sure!), practically had a scrapbook of Pee Wee magazine clips, and could (still can) recite just about all the lines of Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure. (Big Top Pee Wee, the sequel, however? Lame and crude. Waste of space. BTW.)

So how GREAT was it to go to a live version of the Playhouse? It was a riot, and brought back so many memories-- Ptery is still my fave, Conky still bugs, Randy is still bratty-- and with 4 of the 11 original actors, there was massive cheering going on every time a character came center stage, and Miss Yvonne for one had some pretty dark stage makeup slathered on her age-d waddle to try and give the illusion of a jawline to those in the audience who WEREN'T sporting a sweet pair of Nikon binocs.  Even sans nocs, though, it was still super grody that the relatively-jailbait younger Cowboy Curtis supposedly had a thing for her. NOT Cougar-rific. Shudder.

The stage set was almost identical to the original set (as seen below)...

except, of course, we didn't get to see the cool exterior of the Playhouse

AND didn't get to see Pee Wee fly up into the sky on his scooter at the end of the show! Also conspicuously missing was the original theme to Pee Wee's playhouse, wasn't sure if that was because they were creating a whole new identity, or because there was some kind of rights issue.

BUT--

BUT BUT BUT

There WAS the integration of contemporary references, including a new puppet-- the ShamWow!-- and even a 30-second video spot of the BUMPIT!!! Miss Yvonne's dream come true. Not to mention the dreams of young Bumpit creators everywhere (Arizona and/or Utah) since they just hit the BIG time, making it all the way to a live Pee Wee show. Thank you again, Jambi and Black History Month!

I obviously can't share my whole experience or the whole show with you, but please enjoy this informative video on Lunchtime Manners that PW shared with us.  (albeit in a slightly condensed version, this is the full one). It will change your life.

I really, really DON'T want to be a Mr. Bungles. And not just because I fear marionettes.

AND FINALLY...

Not to ruin the ending for you, but Pee Wee eventually gets his wish of being able to fly (thanks to Jambi, of course, and some of his smooth-talkin' Playhouse friends) and closes the show with this moving anthem...  

(this is a recording from a performance years earlier... he is NOT 58 here! and in ours was 'wearing' his classic grey suit)

I know you are, but what am I. 
Infinity.