nic nacks: February 2008

{ I'm a bird }

As coworkers yesterday, we decided to choose what kind of animals we each would be if we were animals. The person being chosen for had no say in the matter, and it was actually pretty funny. The result? I work with a bear, giraffe, hyena, labrador, puppy, dolphin, mouse, and rat.

I am a bird. The reasoning behind the decision was that I hop around, and sing and just go about getting things done and doing my thing. In my boss, Mike's, words, I'm "one of those chirpy little birds that hops around next to picnic tables." Not so sure if that's flattering, but I liked my friend Natalie's take on my being a bird. She sent me over these photos in an e-mail that read "You are definitely a cute little birdie!"

{ Future me }

After finding a link on the Urban Outfitters blog, I decided to write an e-mail to my future self. How could I do such an amazing thing you ask? Through FutureMe.org, a relatively plain looking Web site that houses a fun idea. You type your message in, set the date you want your e-mail to arrive, then construct your message and hit send. Easy peezie.

I guess the site developers published a book that contains a bunch of the letters people have written to themselves. I read a few, and one was actually really sad. It just made me 1. Grateful to be my happy self, and 2. Want to reach out and give a big hug to the guy who wrote it.

I scheduled my letter to arrive in my e-mail box on my 30th birthday. The letter began "happy 30th birthday!" and concluded with "I love you (is that weird?)" I think it will be a fun little treat 4.5 years from now.

{ Niece visit! }

Last weekend, I had my cute, 14-year-old niece, Megan in town. The purpose of the trip? To see MIKA in concert. Thankfully, despite all his show gear getting stuck in a snow storm on the way to the show, MIKA still performed. It was the bands first time, and probably only time, performing a fully acoustic show. No bells and whistles. No giant puppets or bubble machines. Just the musicians, a piano, a guitar, two kinds of basses, a drum set and a few bongos. I would say the show was a raving, unique success, and I was glad to be a part of it. The best song of the night? Love Today -- by far.

After the show Friday night, me and Megs spent the remainder of the weekend in Provo hitting up a Festivus party, visiting the BYU museum of art (the Minerva Tiechert exhibit was awesome), feeding ducks, watching movies, crafting reusable grocery bags out of old plastic bags, going to church and just enjoying one another's company. The weirdest/crazziest part of the weekend is that my niece (keep in mind that she is 14) was mistaken more than once for a college student and was also hit on more than once by guys I know. It's a good thing she's such a good girl, or I would have to worry.

We met up with Alda and Hoda (some lovely family friends) and grabbed food at Wendy's before the show on Friday. Hoda took this series.

MIKA in the flesh

{ Facelift }

Seeing as it was a particularly uneventful day at work today, I decided to give Nic knacks a little sprucing up. I also read up on how to make those reusable grocery bags from old plastic bags (thanks for the link, Marie) and went to costco. All in all, I would say the day was a relaxing and refreshing success.

{ Buggy stowaways }

So, the other day I was blow drying my hair in my cute miniature bathroom, and as I was tipped upside down, I thought to myself "Hmmmm...I should check under my sink to be sure there aren't any bug nests under there or anything." I mean, after all, I live in an old house, and my deep sink would be an ideal little cool, dark, protected little place for critters to hide out. Lo and behold, to my (disgusted) astonishment, I found a little cocoon structure with multiple holes for bug entrances. Eww. So, I mustered the courage to remove it (a large wad of toilet paper acting as a barrier between my hand and the cocoon), and it's now sitting in a jar in my loft. It appears to have been abandoned by its occupants before I got to it, so I am hoping that's the case.

the bug hut I found under my sink. yuck.

{ Photo boarding }

Despite multiple efforts to get pictures of me boarding in the past, I never had any that really captured any sort of anything cool. But, at last, I got some! Well, one actually :) I went boarding with my friends Andy and Rich the other day, and we took some time out for picture taking on some drop offs we found at the Canyons. The powder was really nice the day we went -- pretty tracked out in some places, but we managed to find some tree runs that were still pretty sweet.

Grabbing some air off the first drop off.

Andy took this after I caught some powder and took a face plant in the trees.

{ Skydiiiiivvving }

It's true -- I jumped out of a plane two miles up the other day. On a whim, I drove down to Arizona with my best friend, Trish,and her husband, Russell. We stayed at Tricia's sister Kim's house for the weekend, and after a few rescheduling hiccups due to weather, we took our jumps on Tuesday, Jan. 29th.

Surprisingly, it wasn't scary at all. Not even kidding. By the time the plane got to it predetermined height, it just seemed natural to willingly jump out of the plane. Contrary to my anticipatory thoughts, the actual freefall didn't feel anything like a roller coaster drop. It felt more like sticking your head out of the window of a car traveling at 130 mph. Overall, I would say that it was a pretty cool experience. Plus, I think my actually jumping is a feat in and of itself. If I was to go again, I would definitely make sure it was somewhere pretty -- parachuting over the Arizona desert wasn't the prettiest of all scenery, but it was still very nice.

Trish and Russell jumped first. This is just after their landing. The plane was so small only two people could go at a time, so they took the first flight and Kim and I went second.