Not famous

If you look on page 200 of the September issue of the magazine I work for (I try not to post the names of corporations because I ALWAYS get comments from someone from their company and I hate it. I don't want my work tracking me down) you will see this wheel. I made it. I thought I would get a gutter credit for it but either it is glued into the center of the book or it got deleted. I actually didn't WANT the gutter credit, but since I thought it was coming, I got excited for it. I drew two things in that magazine and didn't get a gutter cred for either. Oh well. Anyway, here is the wellness wheel. It is to illustrate an article about internet quizzes on health and how you have to choose carefully what you believe. The author took one quiz with Martha and it said she is going to live to be well over 100. Job security, that's what that is called. Yeah right, I don't even really have a job. Or a gutter credit.

Yuba Lake

This past weekend I got to go waterskiing with my family on Yuba Lake. It is pretty much our favorite family activity (waterskiing, not Yuba Lake). My boss here knows that the reason I most didn't want to stay in NYC (besides that fact that it is dirty, hot, disgusting, and crowded with mice infested apartments) was because I wanted to waterski this summer. My dad planned a fun weekend and we met up in Utah. The plan was for us to camp on the lake, but, thanks to Delta Airlines and a lightning storm the day before in NYC, instead of being in SLC at 10 am on Friday, I didn't arrive until 8:15 pm, after a day of sleeping on the airport floor for 5 hours and 2 layovers in CT and GA. Lucky me. So we didn't REALLY get to camp, but we did overtake Bruce and Nancy's house, ate delicious camp food on the camp stove, and slept in the backyard.
Bruce's yard looks kind of woodsy from this angle.
My idea of the vacation was that me and Drew would waterski until we couldn't walk anymore. Sadly, we did reach this level of exhaustion, but much sooner than I expected. I just don't have the endurance I had when I was 12. Plus I haven't really skied in a long time. My only regret about the weekend was that I don't get to do it all the time. But that is my fault for living in the city.
These pictures are 1) Mom getting ready to ski 2) My dad skiing 3) my dad driving and me skiing 4) Drew skiing 5) our family (Drew is hiding Kyle. He is such an attention hog) 6) Kyle tubing (Kyle doesn't like skiing, but I don't like tubing, so I guess we're even.)

kindred spirits

Anne Shirley and I are of the same opinion:

"Diana said she believed she was born for city life. Miss Barry asked me what my opinion was, but I said I would have to think it over very seriously before I could tell her what I really thought. So I thought it over after I went to bed. That is the time to think things out. And I came to the conclusion, Marilla, that I wasn't born for city life and that I was glad of it. It's nice to be eating ice cream at brilliant restaurants at eleven o'clock at night once in a while; but as a regular thing I'd rather be in the east gable at eleven, sound asleep, but kind of knowing even in my sleep that the stars were shining outside and that the wind was blowing in the firs across the brook."

I only wish I really went to bed before eleven o'clock...

Alumni

I got an email from BYU-Idaho about some alumni activity. When I saw the email, I was annoyed. But when I saw the invitation they designed for it, I was sad I couldn't go. That is the power of graphic design. Look how awesome it is:

and yes, I DID say accordion festival.

Tuesday I got to go see the ballet "Giselle" (thanks to Aja for getting the tickets!) It was really beautiful and fun. I'm glad I saw it. The only thing we couldn't figure out (spoiler alert!) was WHY she saved the guy that caused her mind to become unhinged and not the other guy who loved her. Who knows. I guess I just don't understand love.

Saturday was a day of me serendipitously getting to do a lot of great things I've been meaning to do. First off, Becca Foster's goodbye party. I managed to get there after all the fun water balloons were gone, but it was a great party. Bye Becca! You will be missed.

Then I met up with Matthew Chrislip at Mood Fabrics of Project Runway fame. We've been meaning to go for MONTHS and today was the day! My bag broke a month ago and I've been planning a new bag that I wanted to make but needed fabric for and we got it! Now I just have to cut it out and find a sewing machine to use.

After that I was trying to meet up with Holly to go to the Main Squeeze Accordion Festival. I could remember that it was on 70th street and on a pier, but could not remember if it was on the east or west side. So I wandered around and had to call my brother and have the conversation of "Could you please Google accordion festival NYC for me? And yes, I did say accordion festival." Thanks to him I headed west and ended up on the same street as Toga Bike Store, where my bike was waiting for me! So I also got to pick up my bike. I love my bike so much. It is better than I even expected. I don't know a lot about bikes, but every employee at the bike store was nice enough to say, "oh, YOU'RE the girl with the yellow bike! It is a great looking bike!" So at least I know it is good looking. But really, with all I know about bikes, that is the only thing I can judge by myself. We took the bike to the accordion festival and it turned out to be REALLY amazing. Better than I could have expected. My only regret is that we missed the Queen cover band. We heard music from bands from Ireland, Albania, and Columbia. It was just really nice to sit out on the pier with a nice breeze, see the kayakers who came by to check out the music, and watch the sun set behind New Jersey (there are no mountains here. The only place the sun has to go is behind buildings. But at least we could see the sun). Here are a few photos. The first is of Holly enjoying the music and standing by my bike. I wish you could see the huge grin on her face the second before I took the picture. She loves accordion music.

?

I think everyone has a post about not being able to sleep. This one is mine.

2 a.m. Woke up wanting to eat scrambled eggs and fried zucchini. Thought I had already binged enough after fast Sunday and refused to get up to cook something so ridiculous at 2 in the morning. Laid in my bed, determined to sleep.
3 a.m. Gave up. Made scrambled eggs, zucchini, and toast while watching The Office and Charlie and Lola. It was delicious. And if you've never seen Charlie and Lola, you are really missing out. Please enjoy now:




4 a.m. Read blogs and figured out how long it would take me to travel to Mt. Rushmore, Ann Arbor and Rexburg on my new bike (10 days, 6 days, and one month respectively).
5 a.m. Decided to post on my own blog. Now I will try to sleep again. I'm afraid today is not going to be fun.

4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! One of my top two favorite holidays. I love gathering with friends and family and celebrating the birth of our country with food and fireworks. Nothing can be better. This year I had no family around, but PLENTY of friends and fun.

The festivities began on July 2nd with Ryan Simmons' (who is in my ward) first one man cabaret Star Spangled Spectacle! He filled a cabaret room in a gay bar with Mormons and did a hilarious show. There was a two drink minimum and I think the waitresses loved serving up ONLY juices and Diet Cokes. Here is a video snippet of one part when he was an indian:


Happy Birthday America.

Last Sunday Becca Shim and I decided to go on a 100-mile bike ride on the 4th. Unfortunately, I did not have time to purchase the bike until Thursday afternoon. The problem was they did not have it in stock so I had them order it for me. Here is a picture of my beautiful bike, soon to come:

I won't get it until next week, but after that, I am ready for everyone to invite me on bike rides. Please make that huge purchase worthwhile! Meanwhile, Jessica Allred let me borrow her bike and Friday morning Becca and I went across the George Washington Bridge upstate to the Bear Mountain Bridge, crossed the Hudson, and came down the other side. It was a gorgeous ride. The way up Bear Mountain felt like a rain forest and all the cute towns we saw on the ride down were called things like Sleepy Hollow and were so adorable. We ended up in the Bronx in time to watch fireworks. We intended to ride the 16 miles home and end up with 100 miles, and although my idea to buy out all the glow in the dark neclaces was a good one, we decided once it was dark, raining, and we didn't know where we were in the Bronx it would be best to take the Metro North home. 80 miles is respectable. It was a really fun ride. Did I train before I went? No. We made it all 80 miles, but it wasn't fast or too pretty. I will say that my padded knickers were worth every dollar. I couldn't believe when I was panting up the mountain when teams of cyclists would breeze past me as if they were going downhill instead of up. I have no idea how you get that good at cycling. Another high point was when Becca was changing her flat tire and a bird pooped on my hand. Thanks bird. We did have some delicious Indian food from the Bronx carnival. Some of everything for only $10. A great ending to a really great day. We only took pictures on the Bear Mountain Bridge and once we hit the Bronx. I wish I had a camera on the bridge of my glasses so I could have taken pictures the whole way of how pretty everything was. Where does someone get something like that? A spy store? Anyway, here are the pictures.

Coney

Saturday after I sweat through my shirt (as I always do) in my Muay Thai class (it is SO HOT in there. Everyone sweats that much) all I wanted to do was take a nap on the beach. Becca agreed to meet me at Coney Island. I was one happy girl. I was so glad Becca decided to come. So, after the super long subway ride I arrived for the first time in Coney Island. It is pretty cool. We bought some food at Nathan's, sat down on a park bench, and it started pouring rain. POURING. So we huddled under this big shelter area with a couple hundred other people to wait it out and eat our food. It did end after 25 or so minutes. Becca had to go to a party after that. I stayed and tried to take a nap but mostly just got mosquito bites. All in all, it is ALWAYS really nice to get out of the city. It was all worth it.

Montauk

A couple of weeks ago, (Holly read her version here) and I volunteered to help on this bike ride to Montauk. As the website said, "We didn't invent pedaling to Montauk...we just made it a lot more fun." All of the reviews touted what a great ride it was. You can go 145, 100, 66, or 33 miles, get to Montauk, eat lunch, and ride the train home. What fun, right? This was the plan: Holly and I were going to drive the 66 mile people's bags the 2 hours to Montauk. We were taking bikes so we could ride around Montauk, hang out at the beach, eat lunch, and come home by one. We were supposed to leave at exactly 7:13 a.m. Instead, when we met at Penn Station there was a huge shortage of trucks. At 8:30 people were STILL registering. The 66 mile people had to leave their bikes in front of Penn Station with us and take the train to their starting point. Imagine 300 bikes all lined up in front of Penn Station with like 6 of us there to load them. Holly and I finally left at 9:30 with the bags and some of the 33 mile people's bikes. It took us 5 hours to get to Montauk. FIVE HOURS. Some of the 66 mile people sat all those five hours waiting for their bikes and they never came. People just drove them to Montauk. The 33 mile people we saw were not happy and they had been waiting three and a half hours. When we finally got to Montauk, we rode our bikes around, ate, and had a wonderful day. The people who were there to ride did NOT have a great time. We hung around Montauk for a while because no one knew what we were supposed to be doing. We were supposed to drive a van home but ended up on the 7:30 train. Our friends that had been back to Penn Station 3 hours before us were still there waiting for the trucks to bring their bikes back. Our bikes were miraculously there when we arrived. Cristi didn't get her bike until 1 a.m. and Jen's wasn't even back by then. A total failure as far as the Montauk ride planners went. A great day for me and Holly. Here are some pictures: