Crazy 8's

Crazy 8's
8 things I'm obsessed with right now:

1. College football
2. Getting a publication
3. Blogging
4. Making a movie
5. What to do with my life.
6. Watching TV shows on the Internet
7. stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
8. 80's movies and music

8 words or phrases I use often:

1. Really? Really?
2. I want to honor that.
3. You XY's
4. I'm sitting here.
5. I don't buy it.
6. Right
7. I'm going to be real with you.
8. Sometimes, I can't believe we're friends.

8 TV shows I love to watch:

1. Pushing Daisies
2. CSI: NY
3. ER
4. Gilmore Girls
5. Friends
6. Seinfeld
7. What Not to Wear
8. Everybody Loves Raymond



8 Things I Did Yesterday:

1. Wrote a paper

2. Met with my advisor

3. Saw six clients

4. Made Crock-Pot chicken parmesan

5. Taught class

6. Finished Season 4 Disc 1 of ER

7. Bought cheese and milk while I talked on the phone

8. Worked on my stats homework

8 Favorite Places to Eat:

1. Capriotti's--fabulous sandwiches

2. Baja Fresh--for their black bean burritos with grilled chicken

3. Sweet Tomatoes

4. Thai Pepper

5. Rosa's

6. Macaroni Grill

7. Musashi Sushi

8. Kerbey Lane

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:

1. Going to Washington for Thanksgiving

2. Seeing my family at Christmas

3. Being done with my stats class

4. Washington D.C. in February

5. Visiting Tracy in Georgia

6. Being done with school

7. Finishing the movie

8. Moving out of Lubbock



8 Things on My Wish List:

1. a new iPod

2. Sports Night on DVD

3. a nap

4. time off

5. mochi ice cream

6. a really good mixer

7. homemade bread

8. a bigger closet

8 people I tag:

Tag yourselves if you like!

Next Stop: 4 Bar K, Caprock Canyon

For what will probably be Stephanie's last birthday in Texas, we decided to go to 4 Bar K, a restaurant in Lubbock that specializes in catering and events, but is only open to the public from 11-2 on Fridays. I'd heard about it from several people who claimed it was an experience unlike any they had ever had before.

The main attraction is the all-you-can-eat barbeque and all-you-can-drink beer (for some people). However, what made it an event worthy of Stephanie's birthday was the large number of dead stuffed animals on the walls, and the disporportionate number of gruff-looking men. There was also a one-man-band (not like Mary Poppins) who managed to make every song sound exactly the same.

My favorite part of the day was when one of Stephanie's friends was asking for directions over the phone to get to 4 Bar K, and Stephanie said, "Yeah, you turn by the windmill and the rusty water tower." It doesn't get better than that.

The next stop on our journey through west Texas was Caprock Canyon, where the branch had a campout. It's sort of a weird place. You wouldn't think there would be a canyon in this part of the state, but after about an hour-and-a-half of driving through cornfields, there it is.

By the time we got there, it was dark, so we set up our tents (with some help from the guys), had dinner, and then went to bed. Here are some shots of people in the morning. That's Amber, our chaperone, who is younger than I am, with Karli, and Stephanie in the background.

Some of the people in the branch stayed up all night long, but I have discovered that I am too old and tired to think that is fun.

Amanda, Joanna, and Cathy bundled up outside their tent.

Chief cooked us a fabulous breakfast inside his motor home.

And we were back in Lubbock by noon. Here's a shot of me with a buffalo we saw on our way back:

Yet Another Tag

The rules are:

* Link to the person who tagged you
* Post the rules on your blog
* Write six random things/unspectacular quirks about yourself
* Tag six people at the end of your post
* Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog
* Let the tagger know when your entry is posted


These tags are starting to feel like a chain letter, but I got tagged by Melanee, so I decided to do it. Don't worry, I'm not going to put any pressure on anyone else to post this tag. If you like it, post it.

1. The older I get, the more I enjoy dressing up. On my nightstand, I have three pictures of myself with friends. In one, I am wearing a wedding dress. In another, I have on a camouflage bandana and warpaint. In the last one, I am wearing disco clothing. All three of them have been taken since I got home from my mission. The last one was taken since I moved to Lubbock.

2. I love to quote movies and TV shows, but I like to use quotes when they are appropriate to the situation. Some of my favorites lately have been:

"Maybe he just needed a date, and since I'm currently one of the women sitting around thinking, 'If only I could find a man like Aragorn,' he picked me."

"The answering machine confused him. And this is the guy who likes me."

"I hate my regular clothes now."

"Who is this?" (think George calling Jerry in a panicked state and Jerry responding)

3. My ankle pops when I go down stairs. For the most part, no one notices, except when I go down the stairs at the Provo Temple (the Lubbock Temple doesn't have stairs) because it's always really quiet, and it happens with every stair. I had a consult from an orthopaedic surgeon about it, and he seemed to think it was fine. He told me why he thinks it happens, but, obviously, it didn't make much of an impression because I can't remember what he said.

4. I have really odd priorities. I will fight off fatigue, hunger, thirst, and a need to go to the bathroom in order to get another case note written.

5. It's pretty rare for me to come across someone singing a song I don't know, and it's even more rare for me to resist joining in. Today, for example, my supervisor was singing "Black Balloon" by the Goo Goo Dolls, and I joined in.

6. I have ten frozen Ding-Dongs in my freezer leftover from last week's FHE. There were more than that, but I have eaten a considerable amount over the last week.

So there you have it. Like I said, feel free to use this tag if you want. No pressure, but let me know if you do.

The Female Mind

This weekend, the moviemaking continued. To keep to our schedule, we decided we really needed to shoot something, so we decided to shoot a skit I wrote, called The Female Mind.


The premise is not new. It involves four girls who live in a house together. One of them comes home from a date, and the four of them get out the ice cream and deconstruct the meaning of the date to decide as a group if he likes her. Sound familiar? The script is only slightly exaggerated from my own reality. When I showed it to the other girls who were in the skit, the inevitable response was, "It's so true." Of course, when I showed it to Layne, he loved it, but he said, "Really? Y'all are crazy."


The skit ends with two of the girls driving over to the guy's apartment to see if he picked up another date and went back to his apartment to cuddle with her. To do so, they dress in black and cover their heads with a ski mask and a pair of pantyhose. This part is the slight exaggeration, although, Lisa, if you are reading this, you may remember hearing a true story about two girls dressed up exactly like that. I couldn't resist. Just the ski mask and pantyhose. Several people admitted to driving by a guy's apartment to see if he was with another girl. So, possibly we are crazy. Of course, because the dichotomy is funny, we are adding in a scene at the end where her date comes home, and his roommate (who had no idea he had even gone on a date) asked him if he thought the girl liked him. He shrugs, and heads off to bed.


Before anyone accuses me of plagiarism, let me say that, yes, I did see this done on an episode of Friends (The One With the List), as well as in a Brand X skit. I'm sorry, Ami and Joel. I didn't steal any dialogue-just the premise. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?


Anyway, Ashley was kind enough to let us use her house for this endeavor, after we decided that my apartment was too dark, and we would have to do too much to Layne's house to make it pass for a place where women would live. Between the four actresses, the hostess, and the person doing everything from writing to craft service, Layne was outnumbered 6 to 1. He had to keep running into Ashley's bedroom to check the score on the UT game and reclaim his masculinity.



Below is NOT a video of the actual movie. This video is of Layne reading the lines for our actresses, which is almost as funny. I think this clip provides excellent insight into why I am not the one running the camera, and why I am okay handling props and scenery.






Yeah, I haven't really grasped the whole videotaping-with-my-digital-camera thing. If you are reluctant to watch it because of the sideways thing, I eventually fixed it.





Here is a shot of our four actresses. From left to right, we have Karli, Sam, Allison, and Breanne, otherwise known as Girl 1, Girl 2, Girl 3, and Girl 4, respectively. As far as acting goes, they surpassed my wildest expectations, and they were troopers.

And here we have a shot of our crew. They are both over a foot taller than I am, which is why they hunched or knelt down. I'm pretty sure Ashley would kill me if she knew I posted this picture. Don't tell.

Also, the bits and pieces I have taken with my digital camera may be the only parts that ever get posted on this blog. The first scene we shot was something like 2GB, and Blogger only uploads 100MB. I think we could put it on YouTube and link it from there, but Layne would never allow it.

First stop: Texas Tech Museum

After talking with several native Texans about where to begin my Texas adventures, I have gotten some good suggestions. I have already visited Galveston, watched the Longhorns play, seen the bats under the Congress Street Bridge, gone tubing in Hill Country, and heard Charlie Robison play at Gruene Dance Hall. However, as we all know, Texas is a big state. It's sort of one of their things. There are lots of things to see.



So, my tour of Texas began right here in Lubbock, when, this afternoon, my friend Jonathyn said, "I'm bored, let's go to the museum."



My response was, "Tech has a museum?"



Tech does indeed have a museum, and a short car ride later, there we were. It's an interesting museum, in that they have a lot of different, museum-like things, but nothing is particularly organized. They have a planetarium, and lots of dinosaur fossils. There was a semi-interesting video of a giant salamander, and a bunch of African masks, which Jonathyn was skeptical about. Having lived somewhere in Africa (I'm blanking on the country), he claimed it looked an awful lot like things you can buy in flea markets there. Having lived in Chicago, he was skeptical in general about the museum. However, having grown up in west Texas, and having done his undergrad at Tech, he shouldn't have been that surprised.

There was also a huge exhibit of art bought by and made by Anthony Quinn. In addition to being a painter, a sculptor, and a collector, Anthony Quinn also won two Oscars and fathered 12 children. Jonathyn and I both left feeling like we had accomplished nothing in our lives, and spent two-and-a-half hours when we could have been creating art, or at least writing case notes, looking at someone else's accomplishments.

On the bright side, the museum was free, and, had we known about the planetarium, we could have had naps in the middle of the day.

Hockey in Texas

For those of you who have heard me complain about this subject before, I apologize.

Hockey is a sport very near and dear to my heart. Don't get me wrong, I love lots of sports. I love basketball, even though I haven't followed it much since the Stockton-to-Malone days of the Utah Jazz. I do not think this is because I am a fairweather fan. Rather, I think I am SUCH a fan of the Jazz that I get too emotionally involved in their success, and, win or lose, I have trouble dealing with it like a grown-up. I get excited about March Madness in college basketball, but I never follow it

I love college football. I love the action. I get excited about being at a game. I love to watch the rankings come out every week. I love to talk trash about the BCS with my dad. I even enjoy the hearty debates over the Texas teams that are a part of every conversation here in Lubbock from August to December.

I am not a fan of baseball, although I did go to a couple of Mariners' games when I lived in Seattle, and I enjoyed watching Ichiro bat.

I cannot get into soccer as a professional sport, however, I have enjoyed watching guys I know play it in the park.

But hockey. Wow. I love hockey. It's never been a very popular sport in any place I have ever lived--except possibly upstate New York. It started when I saw the Mighty Ducks movies in junior high. Then, when I was in high school, it was the 96-97 Detroit RedWings. And the 97-98 RedWings. I didn't come back to hockey until I was in the last year of graduate school, when I used to go and watch a defenseman I knew play on BYU's team.

Then I moved to Texas.

As I have explained before, football is more than a sport down here. It is a religion. With this kind of fervor, there's not a lot of room for another sport to compete. And, sadly, hockey season overlaps football season from the end of September to bowl season. So the Texas Tech hockey team fits games in when they won't conflict with football home games.

Hockey is sort of funny down here. The Tech hockey team is probably the best in its division in the Big 12 conference. It's world's-tallest-midget syndrome. Last season, they beat all the other teams in their conference by many points. The team they were supposed to play at the end of the regular season bowed out (I believe it was UNLV, which would have been the only way to compare Tech's team to BYU's, as they also play UNLV) and they got Boston College to come out and play them. That's right, an east coast team came all the way down to Lubbock to play the world's tallest midget. Seemed a little suspicious to me. Especially when you consider that Boston College was undefeated when they got to Lubbock, and then somehow mysteriously lost three games in a row. It looked fishy to me. However, the wins against the undefeated-but-playoff-ineligible team were not enough to get them into the playoffs.

So, this year, Tech isn't messing around beating UT and A&M by ten points a game. They are playing serious, semi-professional and Division I teams. And losing. Still, I love hockey. I love the sound of blades on the ice. I love when someone gets checked hard against the boards. I don't love the smell of the players, but you have to appreciate the kind of game that gets you that close to the action. So I go because it's live hockey, which is much better than hockey on TV, which I don't see much of since I don't have cable.

And this week, a miracle happened. Not on par with the 1980 Olympic team's victory over the Soviet Union, but it was still pretty exciting: there was a hockey game on the Monday night when Layne and I were in charge of FHE. So we decided to take the branch. And I was very excited. I had been in contact with several people, including the head coach of the hockey team, trying to negotiate a group rate. Three hours before the game, someone called me to tell me that the game was cancelled because THE ICE DIDN'T FREEZE!

The funniest part about the fact that the ice didn't freeze is that this is the second time it has happened since I have lived in Lubbock. The first time it happened, I laughed as I sat there with Texas hockey fans who assured me that hockey was usually better down here. Two games cancelled because the ice didn't freeze. A game where the opposing team went home before the second game of a series because they got offended at some point during a big loss in the first game. A team and a city council that have been unable to reach a contract for the ice rink. A semi-pro team that collapsed and moved to another city. What's happened?

Hockey, I know we've had our rough times lately, and it hasn't been easy for either of us to be in Lubbock, but I haven't given up on you. Don't give up on me.

Another Tag

3 Names you go by:

-Megan

-Meg

-Moka


3 Restaurants I love

-Macaroni Grill

-Any place that serves good sushi

-Kerbey Lane (in Austin)


3 Trips to plan on this year

-Memphis in October (yea, Graceland!)

-Port Angeles, WA (It's right by Forks. I think we're going to try to see Twilight while we're there).

-Someplace where the Detroit RedWings are playing (possibly Vancouver, maybe Dallas)


3 Things I want badly

-a nap

-better Asian food in Lubbock

-Sports Night on DVD


3 pets I've had

-Cleo, the fish

-Speedy, the fish

-Lace, the fish


3 Things I did yesterday

-Presented a poster at Human Sciences Week (so much less impressive than it sounds)

-Saw a client

-Went to an institute activity

3 Things I ate today

-a chocolate chip cookie

-a chocolate chip cookie

-a chocolate chip cookie

3 Fears

-birds pooping on my head (I don't even stand next to people who have ever had it happen).

-Slipping in the shower, breaking my hip or leg, being taken to the emergency room, and having Layne operate on me and see me naked (this is a more recent, but pervasive fear, which has slowly replaced the fear of marrying someone from Lubbock).

-Not being able to get a job when I graduate (admittedly, this one would have the worst consequences, but I do not think about it as often as I do the other two).


3 Things I plan on doing today

-watching the Red River Shootout (yes, I am mildly rooting for Texas, sorry Ami)

-lots of homework

-calling the corn maze to see if we can come on Monday night forn FHE

3 Things I plan on doing tomorrow

-going to church

-attending stake choir

-having a meeting

3 Favorite Holidays

-Christmas

-Thanksgiving

-Fourth of July

3 Favorite beverages

-ginger ale

-Stephen's orange hot chocolate

-cold water


3 People I tag

-I think this puts a lot of pressure on people. If you like it, go ahead an do it. If not, I don't want to make you feel guilty.