Not the traveler I thought I was

Well, this burst my little travel bubble. Here I was thinking I was this great traveler, but according to this map, I basically stay home!!

The map is a bit deceiving. It's very general in it's choices; you can only choose places like United States or Canada and not the states or provinces in them. This thing makes it look like I've been to the Artic Circle!!

Can you see the two very small red spots at the middle top portion of the map? England and Ireland didn't look that small when I was driving there!! :-)



create your own visited country map

Stephenie Meyer Book Signing

Friday night was awesome!! Stephenie spoke for about 20 minutes and then they started herding us into the school's auditorium for the signing. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures during the actual signing. Oh well!

It took us about an hour and a half to get in to see Stephenie. Here we are afterwards. It was then time for some ice cream! We made our way to the Ben & Jerry's up the street and pigged out!

Camping at Barnes and Noble

A few weeks ago I was invited by Stacey’s daughter (H14) to attend a book signing with her. Stephenie Meyer is coming to town on May 9 to sign copies of her newest release, The Host. Tickets became available on May 6 at the Barnes and Noble at FM1960 and Champions Forest, so I volunteered to take the day off to run up there and stand in line if need be. I was thinking, “B&N opens at 9, if I get up there around 5 I should be ok, right?”

Uh, sure!!

This is how it went down.

About a week before the tickets went on sale, I was talking to H14’s best friend, who is going to the signing, only to find out that she and her aunt were going to go up and buy tickets also. I called her and was like, “Hey, could you buy two for me?” No can do. Turns out the aunt is a fanatic and so are 20 of her friends and in order to procure enough tickets (you could only buy 4 tickets per person) for the signing, she talked a friend and her niece into coming with her and since I was only buying tickets for myself and H14, could I buy two for her, too!!

Sure, why not?!?

During our conversation I found out that they were planning on getting there around 11pm Monday. They had heard that a lot of people were planning on showing up and they wanted to make sure they got tickets. At that moment I started to get a little nervous about my plan to get there at 5am. I had promised my friend that I would get these tickets and if I came home empty handed, I would feel horrible!!! By the time I got off the phone, it was agreed that I would pick up H14’s BF and meet at the aunt’s house at 10pm where we would carpool to the B&N.

Ten rolled around and off the four of us went! Good thing the aunt drives an SUV; we had pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, chairs, snacks, cameras, extra cloths in case it rained, etc. The back of her truck was packed!! :D We were ready for a long night of concrete camping.

Just arrived, 11pm.

Just about to buy our books!! Our Killeen friend on the right.

Everyone was pretty lively until around 3 and then it began to settle down and folks began to nod off. Several of us made trips to the local Wal-Mart for potty and monotony breaks. I went around 3:15 with a girl who had traveled on her own from Killeen, TX. She arrived just after we setup camp and we invited her to join us. She fit right in and we all became fast friends. She and I spent about an hour wandering Wal-Mart; which I hate doing, but that morning it was absolute heaven. It felt so good to get up and move. Wal-Mart is weird at 4am. All the stockers were out and about and they had the radio jamming full blast over the speaker system.

I guess I crawled into my sleeping bag around 5 and laid there until around 6:15. I dozed/slept for about 45 of those minutes.

Houston, we have tickets!!!!!!!!!!

As a side note, at around 6:30am I'm sitting in my sleeping bag trying to stay warm when I see two chicks arriving all fresh faced and smiling. As they get closer I can't believe my eyes, it's my long lost friend Kelli!! I hadn't seen her in over 5 years!

What's in a name?

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Dallas Mathews

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus izzle) Dalizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (fav color and fav animal) Red Cat

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, and current street) Desiree Amaranth (sounds worse than just soap opera!! lol)

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name) Matdahic

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink) Blue Water

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (Mother's middle name and father's middle name) Marie Ray

8. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one your pets) Black Reilly

Ok, break time is over!! Back to work! Anyone want to come over and help me? I'm swamped!

Testimony

D&C 63:2 (I always think of this scripture when I share my testimony)
Nevertheless, ye are blessed, for the testimony which ye have borne is recorded in heaven for the angels to look upon; and they rejoice over you, and your sins are forgiven you.

I bore my testimony yesterday in Sacrament meeting and I’m feeling compelled today to write it down. So, since I don’t keep a journal (bad me!) I guess it gets written here for you all to read (and a few blurkers).

Last week was a standard regular week. Nothing different happened to indicate that something deeply personal and overwhelmingly spiritual would occur. It was a normal Thursday; I got up, went to work, came home, ate dinner, ran an errand. Voila!! Done, right? Uh, no.

My errand was to drop something off at a friend’s house and get on home. I dropped off what I needed to and hung out for a little bit, but it was late so I started making my way to the door. I say “started” because anyone who knows me knows that I can carry on a “doorway conversation” for as long as you’ll let me!! :)

Our conversation was of a personal nature, but still nothing to indicate that it was about to turn into this huge spiritual moment. There was a slight pause at one point and while I stood there, a thought popped into my mind that it was the right time to share with her something that I had been wanting to tell her.

I will remember the conversation that followed as being one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I shared my thought with my friend and she in turn shared some things with me and from that point on, I could feel the spirit in the room. It was as though as we stood there the spirit was between us and the words we spoke flowed through him to our ears, bringing with it compassion and understanding.

I’ve always known that Heavenly Father loves me, but sometimes it’s not as clear as it is at other times and I am thankful that experiences like the one I had that normal Thursday night bring back to me a remembrance. He loves each and every one of us and the hardships and trials that we have in this life can be used for our growth and make us fit for his presence.

As a closing, I'd like to share something my friend said to me in an email the next day.

“[H]ow many of the Pioneers really WERE hurt or afflicted [while out on the trail]? I wonder if any of them thought to themselves, "How can I be fit for Zion? What use will I be?" How do you think Brigham Young would have answered them? Or Heavenly Father? I think they would tell those Pioneers that every willing heart is needed in Zion, and that we all serve to the fullness of our capacity, however limited that capacity may sometimes be. So...we have a hardship that is our own, we are engaged in a battle, we fight and pray and are winning. And Heavenly Father still wants us to serve in Zion, to fellowship. When I think of that, it helps me to put aside any doubts…that Satan constantly tries to sneak into my heart.”

More fun than Pilates

I went over to Naomi’s house Friday to work on a project with her. She’s the creative genius, I’m the one that just happens to come up with a good idea every once in a while!! :-) Anyway, we had been working diligently for a while, when we finally came to a point that nothing more could be done that night, but we were both really jazzed up from the project that neither of us was ready to call it a night. I asked her if she had ever heard of the website I Can Has Cheezburger? It was all downhill from there!! The next two hours were nothing but us going over page after page of this website and laughing so hard we were crying. This was bent-over-laughing-until-you-can’t-breath-anymore laughing. Naomi looked over at me at one point and said, “Guess I won’t need to do Pilates tonight!” Part of what made it so funny may have been the late hour; we started at 11pm.

I thought about attaching some of the photos they have posted on this site, but I think it best if you go there yourself and take a look. The whole website is dedicated to pictures of animals (mostly cats) that were caught on film doing random things. Someone uploads the pic and then puts a phrase on it that they think explains what the animal is doing or thinking. To add to it, part of what you’re suppose to do is spell the phrase in “engrish” (sadly, not all of them are). It’s hard to explain what Engrish is; lots of misspelled words and swapping “L” for “R,” but in such a way that you can still understand what’s being said. Does that make any sense??? Probably not; go check out the website if you dare!! :D You’ll find out just how weird my sense of humor is!!

Also check out www.engrish.com if you want some more of my weird humor. It takes you into the world of Engrish. Countries such as Japan, China, and Korea have lots of signs, menus, instructions, etc. printed in their native language, but then have a so called English translation below it for us Americans to read. Who ever does the translating basically does it word for word from the original to English and most of the time it doesn’t come out at all like it should!! Take a look!!

ABC's of Me

I got this from Heather's blog.

A - Attached or Single? Single

B - Best Friend? It's hard to point to one person. I don't call you a friend unless you're the best!

C - Cake or Pie? Cake

D - Day of Choice? Saturday

E - Essential Item? My job

F - Favorite Color? Red

G - Gummy Bears or Worms? Neither

H - Hometown? Bellville, TX

I - Favorite Indulgence? Heath Bar

J - January or July? January

K - Kids? Sure, why not?

L - Life isn't complete without? Cloths. Life, for you and me, would suck if I didn't wear cloths!

M - Marriage Date? Some time after today! You tell me!!

N - Number of brothers and sisters? 2 younger brothers

O - Oranges or Apples? Both, but only in juice form with no pulp (blek!!).

P - Phobia or Fears? Belonephobia - Fear of needles

Q - Quote? "When referring to an individual, including yourself, never use the word 'just'." Gordon B. Hinckley

R - Reason to smile? Cuz I can!!! Do I have to have a reason?

S - Season of choice? Fall - I love how it's cooled off to just being "warm" and you can begin to feel coolness in the breeze.

T - Tag ten people? I tag whoever is reading this!

U - Unknown fact about me? If I'm sitting at a friends computer, I get this almost uncontrollable itch to "clean" it up. I want to go in and delete the stuff that's causing it to be slow. Stuff like temp files (internet, but MS Office apps like Word and Excel create a lot of temp files). Then I want to run defrag. Then I want to see how much memory you have installed and if you don't have a lot, I want to bring you more and install it for you. I don't do this, because it would be rude to just jump in without asking, but I sit there REALLY REALLY wanting to. You wouldn't have to ask twice if you wanted me to do this. I have little batch files that I run that makes it quick and simple! Please??? Can I???

V - Vegetable? Broccoli, peas, corn, black eyed peas

W - Worst habit? I chew my cuticles

X - Xenophobic? (I added this one. The original list didn't have a "X") NO!!

Y - Your favorite food? Mom's lasagna and Lupe Tortilla's Carne Asada

Z - Zodiac Sign? Aries