No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Last week I got a notice on my front door about Scouting For Food. I looked through my cupboards but I don't keep a lot of canned foods around. (Cooking for one is an interesting thing. Sometimes I eat pretty well. And sometimes I don't. But I digress.) Because I wanted to support the food drive, I went to the grocery store and picked up some cans to donate. When I was growing up, I must have thought food drives were a good way to get rid of items I didn't really like from our pantry. I remember always feeling generous as I "donated" our cans of chili and canned corn. So when I went to the store to get some canned foods, I specifically picked up things I don't really like and would never eat, just because I thought it was funny. You can see where this is going. The Scouts never came by to pick up my bag of canned foods. I now have a large bag of chili and canned corn in my entry way. Do I take it to the food bank? Save it for the next food drive? Learn to love eating chili? It's really a dilemma for me.

Random Things That Made Me Smile

*This Picture.

*Looking at optional "shore excursions" for the Caribbean cruise my sister and I are going on next month.

*BYU plays Florida tonight. Can't wait. Go Cougars!!!

*YouTube videos: "Elephant Medley" from Moulin Rouge and the theme song from the "Jeeves and Wooster" Masterpiece Theater episodes.

I Need a Nap

Last night I got lost driving from Farmington to Riverdale. (There's lost and then there is Traci-Lost. This was a bad case of Traci-Lost.) I make that trip every couple of weeks... so it makes sense that I would get a little turned around. Or a lot turned around. I finally had to pull into a parking lot, call my Dad, tell him the cross streets I could see and have him get me back to familiar territory. At one point, his directions were, "If you hit Wyoming, you're going the wrong way." And that was helpful information at that point in time.

Today is not going much better. The cashier at Starbucks (it was a "caramel apple cider" morning for sure) told me my dress would be really cute and stylish... if it were longer. Yeah whatever. I'm probably lucky I made it from my office to Starbucks and back. Who cares what I'm wearing?

Please DON'T tell me to find joy in the journey. I'm not buying it today!

A Post For Smart People

In a meeting this morning, a contest was announced where the prize is an Amazon Kindle. Someone in the meeting mentioned that Kindle screens are black and white, which makes it difficult to see the pictures in magazine articles. My boss's response was, "This is for smart people. People who read." Ouch. Even the English major in me thought that was a little harsh!

Beyond Help

I went to Home Depot on Friday. I always feel like an impostor at Home Depot... like everyone there knows and cares that I couldn't fix a broken sprinkler head if my life depended on it. (I also feel that way in fabric stores. So what if I don't sew or paint or own a vinyl cutter. Judge me.) It's like everyone in those orange aprons is just waiting for me to burst into tears and run screaming from the store. Which isn't entirely fair, since that only happened one time, and I have made several successful trips to Home Depot since.

After I left Home Depot with my newly-purchased garage door opener, I popped into Kohls, Seagull Book and Fashion Bug. I don't feel out of place at any of those stores. It would probably be better for my bank account if I did.

In Which You Will Learn that I am Crazy

There is a large, gray, unmarked van parked outside of my window. I'm sure the driver is here to deliver sandwiches or something equally mundane. But having that van parked outside my office makes me feel like I'm about to be swept onto the set of an action movie. Pretty soon me and Matt Damon are going to be driving down back alleys with shots flying and plunging off bridges and stuff. I just know it.

The Man With the Yellow Hat

When I watched my nephews last month, we read stories at bedtime. One of their favorites is about Curious George and Thanksgiving. At a certain point in the story, Bryce would ask me what I was thankful for and I was supposed to point to something in the picture, like the turkey or the apple pie. So I guess it shouldn't have surprised me when Bryce's bedtime prayer that night, in its entirety, was "Thank you for the Man With The Yellow Hat. Amen"


In that spirit.... today I am thankful for a working water heater (since mine has been broken for the past couple of days and I have been semi-homeless). I'm thankful for a new CD I picked up that surprised me with some really great songs that haven't been on the radio. I'm also thankful for argyle socks, string cheese and amazing sales on baby clothes at Old Navy. And, of course, I'm thankful for apple pie and the Man With The Yellow Hat.

To Me, From Me

I bought my birthday present last night. It's a 32 inch Sony TV. I really like it. I set it up all by myself too. Well, mostly by myself. I did make 2 phone calls for tech support. (Thanks Tay and Dad!) But I was the only one in the room, so I'm counting that as getting it to work all by myself.