Free Speech

I am getting extremely irritated and hurt by people who claim to believe in free speech but then ridicule me when I exercise my right. I am not promoting hate or violence, yet I have been met with hostility from people claiming to be friends. One of the things that I pride myself on is my ability to accept all people for who they are, no questions asked and I expect the same respect in return. This does not mean that I support everything that everyone I know does, just because we care about someone does not mean that we always like what they do. I sometimes struggle with the fact that while I extend this courtesy to people in my life I have been getting small seemingly subtle reminders that they don't like my ways of thinking. I am happy with the independent person that I am so I become frustrated when people who ought to know better overreact to the mention of anything that differs from their particular view of an issue or situation. There is not ALWAYS a right or wrong answer to things! There are just different ways of approaching something. Life is not merely black and white, but that's what makes life beautiful and interesting! So if you find yourself ridiculing someone because of their belief system try to remember that it is hurtful and does not help you prove your point. Maybe you should listen to other points of view, it may just strengthen your view and give you insight into someone else.

A List of 8's

8 TV shows that I watch:
The Office
Life
Grey's Anatomy
My Own Worst Enemy
Eli Stone
What Not To Wear
Iron Chef America
Snapped

8 Favorite restaurants:
Asian Star
Sawadee
Hamilton's
Market Street
Winger's (but ONLY for the wings)
Cafe Rio
Mad Greek
Tsunami

8 Things that I look forward to:
Owning a car that is not always falling apart
Having someone to share my life with
Seeing my niece and nephew on a regular basis
Having all of my debts managed
Not having carpal tunnel
Gas prices at under $2 a gallon
The freedom (ie money) to travel
World Peace

8 Things I like about fall:
I love jacket weather
I love watching the leaves change color
I like gaining an hour with the Autumnal Equinox
I like fall type foods; pomegranates, pumpkin, turkey
I like stores and roads better when kids are in school
No more hot weather
Less smog
College football

8 Things on my wish list:
I wish that I could sleep soundly independent of a breathing apparatus
I wish that I had not lost my camera
I wish that I had more energy
I wish that I had a home to decorate
I wish that Daniel Craig was smitten by me
I wish I could travel the world
I wish I had more time
I wish that I did not have to try so hard

Picture Tag

Random picture! Bowling with my ward back in March. It was super fun! I miss the old ward!

I now tag Mary, Natalie B., Melissa G., and Maurisa


So, here are the rules: Post the 4th picture in your 4th file and then tag 4 more people

To Thine Own Self Be True

There comes a time in life when as adults we must decide something. We must decide whether to be true to our own self or to cave to public opinion. I came to this point many years ago when I realized that if I was going to be the real me, that there would be opposition. I had to learn not to hide myself or my opinions but to realize that if someone opposed me or made a comment about my direction that it needed to just roll off my back. I am not rude in anyway about it, I just am not going to change the person I am based on what someone else thinks. There is a fine line between flaunting differences and embracing them however. I embrace my liberal nature but I don't flaunt it. I'm sure we all know people who insist on seeking attention by pointing out loudly to everyone what makes them unique. Often it is off-putting and deters people from wanting to get to know you. I have adopted the "listen more than you talk" method because I genuinely enjoy learning about other people. This inevitably means that I know a lot about people which requires that I have a measure of self-restraint as there are always people around that want to know the latest chit-chat about people that they don't actually have any interest in.

My nutshell: Independent, free-thinking woman who is seeking someone to share a life with who is not afraid to be different or agree with me on everything. An articulate, honest individual who has a passion for music, the written word, cinematic adventures and culinary delights. I love the gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am proud to call myself a member. I encourage diversity, tolerance and a welcoming attitude for all people.

So, as William Shakespeare once wrote: "To Thine Own Self Be True!"

Ahh! I Got Tagged

Seven fun things about me:

1. I am obsessed with family history. I like organizing things into nice little units and following lines even if they are not directly related to me. I now have over 6,000 names in my personal file.

2. I don't like sugar. I drink diet drinks because I don't like the taste of sugar in regular drinks not from a desire to cut calories. I steer away from Kool-aid and always check the sugar content on flavored waters.

3. I can't eat shredded lettuce. I don't have a problem with leaf lettuce but for some reason my gag reflex will not let me eat shredded lettuce. It's probably psychological.

4. I have watched 90% of the commentaries of the movies I own. I like all the behind the scenes tidbits and adore gag reels.

5. I really like movie scores. I am always very aware of the music in a movie and have an extensive collection of scores from movies. My collection rivals probably that of small music stores.

6. I love nature. I like just holding plants and flowers or standing somewhere and letting the breeze bring the smell of freshly cut grass to my nose. I like the mountains and don't know if I could live somewhere that didn't have them.

7. I get in moods where I really like to clean. I have taken apart appliances to get to little nooks and crannys and clean them. Not all of my spaces are clean in fact my car is a disaster, but I clean my desk once a week and disinfect my phone every other week.

Here are the friends I am tagging!

Jessica B.

Natalie B.

Jacob N.

Mary D.

Panic Attacks and Phobias

From time to time we are all afraid of something whether it is failing a test, not making it to something on time, or that we simply didn't plan enough. At one point in my life I was agoraphobic and suffered almost paralyzing panic attacks. Mostly this stemmed from an intense fear of social situations, but one symptom was that I could not handle sitting on the end of a row in a movie theater. My new thing is I absolutely CANNOT bear to be behind a desk all day. About a year ago I changed professions and went from being a T.R.T (Therapeutic Recreational Technician) to a Sales & Marketing Representative.

I actually loved being a T.R.T because I got to work in healthcare to plan activities and trips for people. After four years of doing this however, I had become disenchanted with large corporations that are more about the bottom line than patient care, not to mention that I despised all the paperwork that went along with my job. A change presented itself and I took it. One of the advantages to the change was that I got to do some "light" traveling. I visit people from as far away as St. George all the way to Logan. It's great, I like socializing and I actually enjoy peddling my wares. The only times I struggle are when for some reason or another I have to stay in the office all day.

I had such a day on Friday and I almost went insane, I kid you not. I had been there since 8 a.m. and around 2 p.m. I started to get antsy and nervous and was on the verge of screaming. I mentioned my frustrations to someone who told me to go take a walk around the building. I wandered around to a little swampish area that is near our building and picked myself a cattail and some other random greenery. There is something so comforting about nature. I have decided that the fake plants in the office just aren't cutting it. I need some real greenery. Maybe a nice hanging plant next to my desk will help me cope. Wouldn't it be nice if all our phobias or moments of panic could be solved by something as simple as plant life?

Klutzy Me

Every once in a while I have an awkward phase and this weekend was hopefully the beginning and end of my next one. Friday night I was at the Gateway with some friends and needed to go back up the escalator to get validation from a movie theater. For some reason the escalator was at a standstill and therefore became just stairs. I was a little distracted because I was texting someone and ended up falling UP the escalator. All I can say is ouch. I now have evenly spaced puncture marks and welts on my right leg. Luckily my pants didn't tear but I still managed to bleed. My next moment came Saturday night when I was coming home from a bridal shower at a friends. I was headed down the stairs of my house to my bedroom when I slipped on a rug and ended up tumbling down the stairs. So now to go along with the wounds on my right side I have a swollen left ankle AND a swollen left knee. I am in a fair amount of pain. OH, and to top it all off I change my contacts out at the beginning of each month, well Saturday my right eye was bugging me. So I took out my contact and discovered a massive tear, the problem is that it was my LAST contact and I haven't ordered any yet because I thought I still had another 26 days to go before I needed any. So now I am wearing my glasses which I had taken apart to fix and now can't put back together. Instead of a screw my glasses are now held together by a safety pin. Classy!