The Hulk

So, I finally found the cord to my camera (YAY!) and was able to upload some pictures. Woohoo! Anyway, I found this video from when my family came to visit Midland over the summer. Stephen and Mel get Kyle to do "The Hulk," which is a funny little trick. He tenses up, grunts, and his eyes get really big. Also, his parents teach him about kissing. It's cute.... Disclaimer--The narrator of this video (aka me) is very annoying. Pay no attention to her.

National Hermit Month!

Good news for all of you fellow hermits: January is National Hermit Month! Okay, so it's not official or anything, but it should be. I mean, what month could be more perfect than January to dig deep and get in touch with your inner hermit? There are so many reasons to put on your sweats, grab your Twinkies, and curl into the fetal position during this wonderful *cough* month. (Disclaimer: If you happen to be a hermit living in a non-cold area...like MIAMI, for example, some of these reasons may not apply. Also, I'm incredibly jealous and may exclude you from some of the hermit celebrations out of spite. No offense.)

1) For all of you Utahns--THE INVERSION!!
Yay! That's right, boys and girls. The mountains have trapped this lovely layer of smog in our valley, and we get to deal with it until...well, whenever. Woohoo! Not only does this mean our view will be impaired, but the air quality will be horrible and the temperatures will drop significantly.

Definitely a reason to crawl into your hermit cave and not come out until spring.

2) Cold temperatures in general. (I feel really bad for you, people in the Midwest.)

3) The current economic state...*shudder.*

4)...Actually, I'm done listing reasons. I'm just too excited to begin all of my National Hermit Month Celebrations!! You are more than welcome to come up with your own celebrations for this fantastic month, but I have my own schedule to follow.

Day 1: Stay at home.
Day 2: Stay at home.
Day 3: Watch a movie. Stay at home.
Day 4: Read a book. Eat some Twinkies. Stay at home.
Day 5: Drive to the store. Buy more Twinkies. Get out as quickly as possible and go back home.

Etc, etc.

Doesn't that sound exciting?!! Oh, I can't wait. ;-)

I hope you will join me in the festivities. (Of course, I'm not hoping that you'll join me literally. National Hermit Month should be celebrated alone, after all.)

Happy Hermit-ing!

Irritation for the Day

I am a procrastinator. I can't help it--I was born that way. ;-)

As a procrastinator, I don't enjoy worrying about things until I absolutely have to. In keeping with the spirit of my procrastinational (yes, I just invented that word) tendencies, I want to kindly inform the world of a few tidbits of information that should not be discussed until a later date:

1) Christmas. Actually, I don't mind talking about Christmas during any time of the year. I do, however, think Nov 1 is a little too early to start playing Christmas songs only on the radio. It's also too early to start airing the Christmas commercials--I can only handle the glitter and jingle bells for a limited time, and two months definitely exceeds my glitter-tolerance. And, Wal-Mart, please don't bring out the Christmas merchandise until the Halloween merchandise is at least stored in the warehouse or something. Please. Give Thanksgiving a little chance to shine, will ya? The turkeys, pilgrims, and Indians deserve their time in the spotlight, too.

2) The 2012 Presidential Race. Heavens. We've just spent the last two years being bludgeoned over the head with constant updates on political campaigns. Obama hasn't even moved his stuff into the White House yet, and already I'm listening to people interviewing Palin about her possible plans to run for president! BLEH! No thanks! 2012 is a long way away, my friends. The world could be over by then, for all we know. Let's focus on things that are a little closer...like Thanksgiving!! (Apparently I'm running Thanksgiving's campaign for "The Best Holiday Ever!" award. We don't plan on winning, but we're going to fight with all the strength we can muster!! That is, if we don't get put into a tryptophan coma first....)

That's really about it, for now. If anything comes to my attention, I'll let you know. It is my duty, after all, to stand up for the rights of the procrastinating public. Take care, friends. And enjoy Thanksgiving! I'm sure that it will be the best holiday ever! (Please ask all your friends to vote for it, and make sure you create several Facebook groups instructing all 800 of your friends to do the same.)

Lessons learned from a jeep

Gather around, kids. Your Aunt Julianna wants to tell you a little story about an adventure. So, let's start at the beginning....

Once upon a time, when I was a wee little kid, my dad used to get this suicidal look in his eye and he'd say, "Let's go for a drive up the canyon." In the innocence of my youth, I would say, "OKAY!" Then, he and my mom would load all six of us kids into the camper and take off on a drive up the mountain. (Just so you have an image in your mind, this is kind of what the camper looked like. Sorta. Ours was older, more "ghetto-ish," and more rickety.)


For the next several hours, I would suffer panic attacks as we drove up steep mountain trails located directly over precariously high cliffs. It didn't help that you could feel the camper swaying back and forth in the wind. It also didn't help that if you looked out the windows you could peer over the giant cliffs. Nope. That stuff didn't help at all.

Anyway, the point is that I have an itsy bitsy fear of falling off a cliff in a car. (I'm not the only one in the family who has that fear, isn't that right, Mel?)

Fast forward to the present day. A few of my friends and I wanted to go up the canyon and make a fire. Sounds fun, right? Well, not fun enough for my friend Griff. He wanted to take his parents' brand new jeep up the canyon for a drive.

Maybe I should have taken warning from the suicidal look in his eye, but I didn't. Instead, I said, "OKAY!!" And off we went. (Mind you, by the time we took off, it was already dark outside. That should have been another warning that it was not a good idea to go jeeping....)

We drove up to beautiful Silver Lake--



Of course, it didn't look like this to us because it was pitch black! Oh well. We started to get out of the jeep to decide where to build the fire, but then Griff said, "Let's keep going." What? "Yeah, let's go all the way up the mountain. We're in a jeep!"

So, we got back in the jeep and started driving up a tiny and incredibly rocky trail. I mean, not even my dad would have attempted this one. But, we were in a jeep, as Griff kept reminding us. So, we're invincible, right? Psht...

About halfway up the mountain, some people in our group started feeling sick, so we turned around to head back. Very carefully, Griff inched his way back down the mountain. Things were going very smoothly until we came across a particularly tricky spot. The trail veered sharply to the right, directly along the edge of the mountain. Griff backed up the jeep ever so slightly and started to turn, but unfortunately we didn't have enough room and the front of the jeep started to slide off the mountain.

(Imagine a dramatic flashback to all those past traumatic mountain drives of yester-year.)

Griff slammed on the breaks and we all carefully filed out of the jeep, which started to tip when the weight was displaced. So, we hopped on the back, ready to jump off if things went sour and the car slipped off the cliff. Griff tried to back up, but the tires were spinning, unable to get any traction in the thick dust.

Now, oddly enough, as I sat there inhaling dust and car fumes, I couldn't help but see the humor in the situation. I don't know why. Maybe I just laugh when I get into precarious situations. I just wasn't as afraid as I thought I should be.

To make a long story shorter, we all said a prayer for help, and immediately we knew what to do to get the jeep out of the mess. We put some sticks and cloth under the tire to give it some traction, and we were good to go.

So, kids, want to know the moral of the story? 1) Prayer really works. 2) You can always find humor in any situation. 3) If someone gets that suicidal look in his eye and suggests a nice drive up the canyon in a jeep, perhaps you should suggest a different activity.

I'm back...I guess?

I need to get myself an new camera cord so I can actually upload some photos to my blog. Note to self.... I still have pictures on my phone from May. Ha ha. Oh well! That should teach me not to lose things.

I'm back from Texas, so I'm happy to be close to the mountains again. (I had a perma-smile on my face for the first few days, which is saying something considering I was spending most of my time helping my dad paint and re-carpet the house. Ha ha.) I do miss all the Texas friends and family. :-( I hope y'all are doing well! (By the way, it's embarrassing how easily that little word "y'all" creeps into your language. It's just so darn convenient! I've already been mocked, so I'm hoping I can get rid of it soon....)

Now, once again, I have to figure out what I'm doing with my life. That's one of the bad thing about being in the land of the twenty-somethings. It seems like every few months you have to completely reevaluate your life and decide which direction to go. Where am I going to live and work? Am I going back to school? Where? What? When? Why? HOW?! Ah, life is an adventure, my friends. A very long, tedious, often monotonous adventure.

Rays of Hope

I was all gung-ho about going to the gym earlier today, but now I feel incredibly lazy and I'm trying to put it off.... Oh well. Hopefully I'll make it over there some time tonight. *Note to self: Go to the gym in the morning. *Reply to self: That means you have to wake up early. *Reply back to self: Never mind then. Bring me some ice cream.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to show y'all where I work at the moment. I don't have any pictures on my phone yet, but here is an online tour of Rays of Hope. It's a little different now, but not by much. I wish all of you could physically come see how truly awesome this place is, but this will do for now.

Enjoy!

Checking In

My sister Mel has informed me that my blog is falling to the bottom of the "recently updated blog" totem pole. "WHAT?!" you may be thinking. "Surely Julianna, the great blogger, would never allow that to happen."

Psht. Who am I kidding? I should set up camp at the bottom of the totem pole. We all know I spend lots of time down there, anyway. ;-)

So, life here in Midland has been an adventure. I miss lots of things from Utah (mountains, family and friends, etc.), but there are lot of good things here, too. I present to you a relatively brief list of highlights up to this point--

(The following list is not in any particular order.)

1) I am always fascinated with the sky here. The sunsets are gorgeous and the clouds are so fun to watch. I call them "Simpsons clouds," because they look like the clouds in the opening of the "Simpsons." (Random, useless fact about the way Julianna's brain works...or doesn't.)

2) It's fun being with the family here. Up until this point in my life, I have only gotten to see my "Texas relatives" every couple of years or so for a brief period of time. Now I can actually get to know them.

3) Bluebell ice cream. It is both a blessing and a curse, as is evidenced by my ever-increasing girth. I need the ice cream patch to keep me away from it...or at least some self control.

4) My job is awesome now. When I got here, I was volunteering at Rays of Hope, a children's grief center, and I loved it. But, as we all know, volunteering doesn't pay the rent, so I went out and got a job. I worked at a call center. *Dramatic music plays* Yes, friends, I reduced myself to the lowly position of "call center minion," and I heartily disliked it. I almost went insane!!!! Anyway, to make a long story short, I quit that and Rays of Hope found a way to hire Nicole and me for the summer! It's great--remind me to post some pictures the next time I happen to update. :-)

Here are some "lowlights," for anyone who is interested--

1)I'm definitely not a fan of sharing a car. Bleh. I hadn't realized how spoiled I have been in that department. I've usually had klunker cars, but they have always been mine. My grandma got a really nice car for Nicole and me to share, and I'm grateful for it and love the car, but I feel like I'm fifteen again at times. Oh well. Sharing is good, right? *Twitch, twitch.*

2) GOOBERS--(n, adj) def: a person, most often of the opposite sex, who lacks any and all forms of social skills. Goobers are most often unattractive and/or smelly, and typically latch on to people who are completely out of their league and then proceed to stalk them.

That is an excerpt from the Julianna Dictionary. Let me just say, I tend to be a goober magnet. I don't know what it is about me that screams, "Please, awkward and scary men, come find me! Ask me out on dates! I will reject you every time, but please continue to follow me around."

*Heavy sigh* They come to me, like moths to the flame. Does anyone have any Goober repellent handy?


That's the update from Midland at the moment. Love you all!