Chaaaaarge!

Bruce and I had our date night last night and decided to carve pumpkins.  So we went to WallyWorld to pick out pumpkins, I forgot how picky I am when it comes to pumpkins...so it took longer than I anticipated, but we finally got around to choosing the appropriate pumpkins, picked up dinner and went back to watch Arsenic & Old Lace, a classic Halloween favorite.

After the movie, we started in on the pumpkins.  Bruce was kind enough to cut off the top of my pumpkin and gut the sucker while I sketched out his carving pattern for him.  He's great like that.  We did have some pretty funny times trying to extract the top of his pumpkin, which fell into the innards and refused to come out without a serious amount of coercion.

Bruce carved out a Batman pattern, and I chose Darth Vader.  His turned out amazing!  Mine had some issues, but overall I was satisfied with it.  Yeah, I know I'm a perfectionist...which explains why I've done nothing with the 7+ years of art classes I have taken.  All those classes to be a doodler ;)

Here is a picture of our handiwork.

Hello, Bruce...

I have basically had a goofy grin perpetually plastered on my face for the past couple weeks, and I can't get it to go away.  Frankly, I don't want it to go away.  I am absolutely, ridiculously happy.  I currently get to keep company with the most amazing man ever, who for some inexplicable reason, wants to be with me just as much as I want to be with him.  In the past, I've refrained from even mentioning a significant other until we've been dating a number of months, but I literally cannot keep this to myself, he's too phenomenal and I'm too happy :)

If and when I mention him, I'll refer to him as Bruce, which will probably only make sense to me, but that's the whole point of a pseudonym, isn't it?

I love the fact that he loves the Gospel, that he's a dork, that he's responsible, that he laughs quickly and easily, that I feel safe when he hugs me, that he loves music and movies, that he can't help smiling at me, that he's ambitious, that he respects me, that he smells amazing, that he's more than a foot taller than me..it's crazy, that he enjoys good books, that we just seem to work, that I find him very attractive, that I can't stop thinking about him...all. the. time.

In short, Bruce is the best, and I'm glad he's mine.

Not High Yet

My neighbor smokes pot.

A lot of pot.

Most days the smell is pretty faint (yeah, it seeps into my apartment), but today when I got home from the Temple (yeah, I thought it was kind of appropriate too) I could barely breathe.  The smell was completely overwhelming and I became sick to my stomach.

Normally, my friends and I joke about the fact that I have the "fun" apartment where everyone feels really really happy all the time due to the second-hand pot, but tonight was definitely not such a night. The giddiness hasn't kicked in yet anyway...but then again, I set up the fan to disperse the nastiness.

The Good, The Bad, and The Pervy

Those of you who really know me (if you don't know me, I question why you're reading my blog in the first place...) know that I have a difficult relationship with online dating.  I've been on dating sites off and on for the last 4 years or so.  I sign up, get frustrated, cancel my account, and then sign up again, because quite frankly, if I didn't use online dating, I probably wouldn't date at all.

In fact, I can probably count on one hand the number of guys who have asked me out based off of real-world interactions...and still have fingers to spare.

I've had good experiences from online dating, a few relationships of varying lengths, fun dates, good conversation, hilarious conversations, etc...

But I have also had to deal with my fair share of sickos, perverts, and jerks. Which is why I generally cancel my subscriptions...that and I get tired of going out with people, having great chemistry, and a few weeks later they fall off the face of the Earth.  It's not so much that I care that they don't want to continue dating me, it's that we'll be talking just fine, and then conversations become less frequent, shorter, but not non-existent...so we both keep talking, but it's obvious that something is different.  And then they abruptly stop altogether.  We met on a dating site!  I know you date other people, as do I, I'd just appreciate a quick text saying, "Thanks, but no thanks", rather than dragging it out longer than necessary.

My current lament is the sheer number of and the complete brazenness of the perverts.  And may I mention that I am only on LDS dating sites?  Yeah...  It's disgusting, disturbing, and just plain awful.  It makes me want to quit the whole thing again, but as previously stated, I don't date people I meet in real life...or rather, they don't date me.

So I guess I have to keep weeding through the nastiness and hope I find something worthwhile.

Again...

Oh July, how swiftly you have come and gone thus far...

Kelly came for a visit at the beginning of the month, so we got to gallivant around town and explore some of the surrounding area, which was fun.

After that, I went whitewater rafting with some friends from my ward in Wyoming and had a blast!  I like hanging out with outdoorsy people, it's pretty sweet sometimes.

The next week, I had meetings in Salt Lake, so I got to stay in a hotel downtown, and spend a lot of time trying to remain engaged in what was being said...which was tough.  Somehow I still kept staying up fairly late, so what should have been a relaxing hotel stay, did not do anything to help me catch up on my sleep.  Kelly and I sang a musical number in her ward on the Sunday I was down there, and I think it went fairly well, all things considered.

This past week, I wound up having multiple late-night conversations (like, til 2am each time)...I either need to stop talking to/hanging out with/being around people, or adjust my internal clock a few hours.  I get anxious when I sleep past 6:30, and consequently have to work later in the afternoon, and when you've been starting work between 6:00 and 6:30 for the past 6 years or so, it's hard to get that frame of mind to change.

Maybe I'll just start having to work 9-5 like everyone else...boo.

On a happy note, Pie-N-Beer day is this week, and that is always a good time...I'm hoping to convert some of these Idahoans to the awesomeness.

Catching Z's

I am about as tired as a single, childless person can get.  The past few evenings have been late ones, where I haven't gotten to bed until after 2am...or if I do get to bed before then, I wake up multiple times during the night...and then still wake up to start work at 6am.

It really hit me today during a fireside that I went to...in which I fell asleep...more than once.

I think I need to just sleep for an entire day...and being that I am single and childless, I can totally get away with that.

I love the fishes...

Two Saturdays ago, I was driving home from a ward shindig when I passed a cop.  The cop, sensing my desire to meet him, turned on his flashing lights and flipped a U-Turn in hopes that I would see him and we could have a friendly chat...

Okay, my interpretation of the scenario might be a little off...

Turns out that my left headlight had burnt out and I was summarily told to fix it.

Monday afternoon, I purchased a new bulb for the aforementioned headlight, and had a friend change it out for me that evening!  Problem solved!  We also discovered a fair amount of water sloshing around in the headlight chamber (I don't know that they are actually called "chambers", but whatever), and it was suggested that I should keep a goldfish in there for fun....though something tells me that the fishy wouldn't last too long...I can't even keep them alive when they aren't  in unfriendly surroundings.

Fast forward a couple days...

I'm driving home one evening, and notice that my headlight is out again!  Now, those of you that know what happens to hot glass when it touches cold liquid have already deduced what my problem is...the Trusty Justy likes to blow things up, apparently.

Because of the water in my headlight chamber (yep, chamber) I cannot merely replace the bulb and be done with it.  Unfortunately, I also cannot just empty out the existing water and call it good either, since there are some pretty major cracks in the plastic and water has a tendency (clearly) to collect there.  So I get to replace the whole light...chamber...thing.

P.S.  Did you know that Justy headlights aren't the easiest thing to come by?

This is gonna cost a pretty penny.

Meanwhile, I keep getting pulled over for having a headlight out.  It's fun.  Makes me feel like a rebel.