rough times

so i've been in the habit of injuring myself lately. (my cell phone also falls into this category because i'm pretty sure i've dropped it five times in the past 48 hours.) for some reason i've been really accident prone all week, cutting myself with scissors, bumping myself on sharp objects, grabbing the edge of the toaster, etc.

today i laid out (one of my favorite saturday activities when i actually spend the day at home, which is rare these days) for only 30 min. granted, this was between 12:30 and 1 p.m. but i like to think i get intense sunlight for short periods of time for the best tanning. i got FRIED. not the good kind that makes you look jamaican. the bad kind that's splotchy and itchy and red all over select parts of the body (for some reason my arms got no color whatsoever, so i don't really match). that hurts.

but the best one was yesterday. last night was my sister's reception in rancho and i really wanted to get down there to help the fam set up and whatnot, not to mention see my sis for the last time before she leaves. things came up at work and i wasn't able to leave as early as i had wanted. i planned to take the train to rancho (look at me, all about public transportation) and brandon was going to drive out after the traffic died down. i finally left the office around 5 and wanted to be SURE to get on the earliest train possible so i started running down fifth to the subway station. this is not an unusual occurence; i do this once in a while when i want to look nerdy and get home quick :)

as i was crossing the street, though, my flats bumped the curb and i felt myself starting to fall. i did everything i could to save it and kept my legs pumping -- i think i made it five more steps before totally losing it. then -- you guessed it -- i landed spread eagle right in the middle of downtown LA on the dirty nasty sidewalk. my cell phone went flying across the street, my bag fell down, the 20 people behind me collectively said "ohhhhhh." a good embarassing moment. a bunch of people actually stopped to make sure i was okay, and a nice-looking latina lady (who had also been running across the street) helped me up and brushed me off. i was in rare form -- dirty jeans, bleeding hands, bruised knee and hip, crying a little (naturally) -- but i got up and limped to the train, walking with a herd of people who had just seen me eat it. at the train station one woman with a jersey accent said "you okay?" when i nodded she said "see, lesson learned. never run. it's not worth it." and then walked away. love it. who says people in big cities can't be nice?

so there you have it -- i'm a klutz and i injure myself regularly. i'm not usually a tough person but dana's little trooper lucy has given me the strength to buck up and be strong with all my stupid injuries. guess it was a rough week for all of us :)

how to tell if a bum likes you

i work in downtown LA where there are a lot of homeless people, as i'm sure i have mentioned before. normally i'm more of a keep-your-head-down-and-avoid-eye-contact type of person (unless they're particularly clean and kind looking, in which case i usually give them money or food) because most of the people there, i'm sad to say, look like dirty cracked out mental patients that scare the crap out of me. i find it best to avoid them at all costs.

however, i have been accumulating a collection of experiences that have helped me to see that these crazies are, in fact, capable of admiring a lady.

my favorite story -- and scariest -- happened on my first day of work back in september 06. i was walking up the hill from pershing square (a major bum gathering ground, for some reason, and also the backdrop of the daniel powter "had a bad day" video -- there's your useless knowledge for the day) and one of the said crazies walked toward me down the hill. when he got near me he actually walked right up to my face with his lips puckered and tried to kiss me on the cheek. i mumbled something, pushed him away and hauled my butt to work. as if my nerves weren't fried enough starting my very first job, that definitely threw me for a loop.

most times when i walk near them on the street i hear them try to catch my attention by calling things to me (again, mostly ignored). yesterday though i heard something different -- one guy actually clicked his tongue at me, like you'd do to call for a horse. that's a new one.

another time i was in the LA public library, across the street from my office, and some gangster-looking kid (probably not homeless, but nevertheless a funny example) walked by me and tapped my hip. not quite sure what the purpose of that was, but maybe it's the new gang way to pick up chicks in libraries.

that's all i have for now, but in case i learn more homeless womanizing tactics i'll be sure to pass them along. until then i will just keep my head down and stay inside my office for 10 hour blocks like i've been doing all week.

boo

weekend trip

so i went to utah this weekend because my sister got married. it was frigid when we landed and there was still snow on the mountains, but it was nice to be back in the wasatch front. i made it 14 hours before my first cafe rio visit :)

the first amusing part of the trip came before we even left. brandon and i had to try to find a way to get a one-way trip to the airport (we drove home with the fam) that didn't include driving into downtown. whether or not this was our best alternative i will never know, but we took a shuttle directly from work which meantwe had to GET to work first. we hauled two suitcases, a duffel bag and two "carry-ons" onto the gold line, then onto the subway, then up that godforsaken hill to our work. i felt like the beverly hillbillies.



we spent a day and a half with brandon's fam in sandy (mostly all we did was eat, but it was fun...even though i have actually cut back my sugar intake. i know, i know, it's shocking). then we traveled down to provo to meet up with my fam for the wild wedding weekend.

lots of family time...

i had a little time to spend with my sis before she got married...weddings always make me a little sad because i feel like a phase of life is ending, but i pulled through. even though she WILL be living in rexburg for the next million years and i will rarely see her :(

but we will always have our myspace shots to look back on fondly :) do we look like twins in this or what? we didn't even pose it -- we both automatically make that face when a camera comes out.

other efforts completed while in the beehive state: trip to the byu bookstore (former workplace extraordinaire), good old modest utah clothes shopping, family bbq, costco run (UT costcos are SO different from CA ones), visits with my lovely friends erica and sami, and a drive by to my old home of deseret towers, which is sadly now a pile of rubble:

and then the pivotal event! cute little couple coming out of the provo temple on friday:

and coming out of the manti temple on saturday:

her hair did look quite fantastic :)

when i loaded all my pictures on my computer tonight i realized i had absolutely no group shots :( sad day! i put my cousins on camera duty and apparently they failed. oh well. the wedding was great and we all had fun. guess you can't ask for more than that.

growing in wisdom

so i think i'm growing a wisdom tooth. this is weird because for the past 10 years my dentist has told me i don't have wisdom teeth. which would make sense because i also don't have two permanent teeth on the bottom. (i still have baby teeth in there, as you can see in the photo below -- ask me about it sometime and i'll show you :)






however apparently i actually do have them, because something is growing in back there and i'm fairly certain i'm over the whole molar thing. i have a lot of empathy for babies now because it HURTS! the only time it feels okay is when i chew because it makes it a little better. is this strange? i'm almost 24, shouldn't i have gotten them a long time ago? every time i've ever heard anyone whine about "dry sockets" or gauze pads or how horrible their surgery was i just smiled inside knowing i'd never have to endure that. but NOW...sucks for me!

wii fit

so a little thing called wii fit came out this week. if you know anything about the amazing wii, you might have heard of it -- it's a new game that lets you do yoga, test your weight & BMI, work with a little virtual trainer and do all sorts of balance games and exercises. it's super fun and really does give you a little workout.

anyway, brandon does PR for nintendo so basically his life has been consumed the past few weeks (months?) with preparing for the big launch that happened yesterday. if you don't know much about PR (which is totally fine...not many people do; our parents don't even really get what we do for a living. just please don't ever ask me if it's like advertising), one of the major parts of it is working with the media to get word out about your product/client. in the case of wii fit, this meant that brandon and his team had to coordinate hundreds of interviews, demos, loans and press releases with media all over the country to help spread the word about wii fit before it came out to the public (and sold out on amazon.com).

they definitely did a good job (which is probably the reason you've heard about it already, if you actually have) -- all four anchors on the today show have played wii fit on the air; it was mentioned it on SNL during last saturday's weekend update and in the monologue on the conan o'brien show; and of course tons of articles have already been written (and will be written) about the new game. brandon's work specifically got wii fit into men's fitness, the atlanta journal-constitution and a bunch of other outlets.

so i just wanted to give a little shout out to my husband's great work :) basically this post is validation for myself so i can feel better about having barely seen brandon throughout the month of may...at least we work at the same company, so we can at least ride the train together and occasionally have lunch dates. but to all my friends -- let me know what you think when you get to try out wii fit!

yay!

so my boy david cook won american idol :) i watched about 10 minutes of the finale in the las vegas airport and finished up the rest via dvr at my in-laws house -- and then because the show ran slightly over, their dvr ended the recording right when ryan said "and the winner is..." CLICK. i freaked out -- thank goodness for google video!

i must say that i was quite pleased with the whole show. even the group numbers were pretty good and i usually hate those with fiery passion. i loved bryan adams, zz top (how awesome was that??) and george michael. and my FAVORITE part was the usc marching band, but i'm just nerdy that way. both davids were so cute and i was happy for cook.

and i'm not going to lie that i now have no idea what to do with my tuesday and wednesday nights. when did i become such a slave to pop culture?

p.s. it's 48 degrees and raining in SLC. boo.

a.i.

i got standby tickets for the american idol finale today, which involved waiting in line for hours on end. not to mention hundreds of screaming tweens and another day of vacation from work, something that's in finite supply right now. i gave the tickets to my friend heather. that better get me into heaven, and that's all i have to say about that.

nap time

today i decided a sunday nap was in order...so i curled up on the couch in my favorite spot (for some reason i hate sleeping in my bed during daylight) and went right to sleep. and didnt wake up for THREE HOURS!!! seriously, what the heck. first of all i never take naps, second of all only my narcoleptic husband (who can't make it through one hour of church without "resting his eyes") sleeps for hours on end like that. i felt a little guilty when i woke up but then figured this was my body's way of telling me to take a break. i guess the past few weeks have been a little non stop for me.

so that also probably explains why it's 11:32 p.m. and i haven't crashed yet. i'm fully looking forward to the week ahead though -- american idol finale, trip to utah (and i will finally redeem my free meal at cafe rio!! i've been saving up stamps for a year), the chance to see old friends. and of course the little wedding taking place on saturday. good times. and that means good blogs to come :)

jury duty

i was on call for jury duty this whole week but was never asked to report. imagine my surprise when i dialed in last night, for the final time this week, and found out i had to come in today! i've never actually had to serve before due to college and various other reasons, and it's not like i'm against it or anything -- but as i'm sure you can tell by last night's blog post, i have a lot going on at work right now and jury duty would def throw a wrench in that. not to mention that i'm going to utah in five days and the average jury case is five to seven business days.


so i mildly freaked out but still reported in this morning. i had originally received the summons at our old apartment (yes, i've already postponed a few times) so i went to one of the downtown LA courthouses. i sat in the front row, mulling over all the excuses i could present to get myself excused (my sister is getting married next week and i have nonrefundable plane tickets; my great grandfather was a raging alcoholic; i'm mormon and i abhor sin; etc. etc.), just coughing and enjoying good morning america (how did i never notice how cute josh groban is?).


the line for checking in was right in front of me and a blond woman walked up and got in line. the only part of her i noticed was a gross-looking black heart on her bicep with a name inside it; i glanced at it briefly and thought about how the only other tattoo i've seen like that was on melanie griffith. then the lady turned her head and it WAS melanie griffith! now i'll admit that probably the only movie of hers i've ever seen is "now and then" in the 8th grade when all my friends were obsessed with it, but i'm definitely a fan of the gossip mags (where ms. MG has had quite a few appearances) and that little celeb sighting made the whole day worth it.




i've seen some busted pictures of her in the past, but she didn't look too bad in person. her lips were obviously made of collagen but other than that she's just a skinny blond lady. she said something at the window and then got to leave, lucky girl.

to make a long story short i got to watch the opening segment of regis and kelly (yay!), listen to one of the resident judges give a PR speech about why we were there (the highlights: that building is where paris hilton was sentenced, and brad pitt was in the very same room as me only a month ago. probably when i was originally scheduled to report, dang it), and hear the rules behind postponing before i beelined for the window. i didn't even have to use any excuses -- i'm rescheduled for july 21 (and i kind of hope i have to serve -- the whole thing seems kind of interesting) and i giddily made it to the office at 10 a.m.

and i'm almost all caught up at work, thanks to today :) so glad our judicial system is lenient!

work is fun

it's 6:57 p.m. and i'm still working. just wanted to throw that out there. i've been here since 8:37 a.m., no lunch break. thank heaven for ipods, brownie bites and late night dinner dates or i don't think i'd make it.

things that make me laugh about american idol

first of all i have to share a direct quote from one of my favorite AI reviewers:

What's more, I disagree with Randy and Little David that a white boy can't convincingly sing about his ''boo.'' The color of David's skin had nothing to do with why ''With You'' was a catastrophe. Instead, why not point to his season-long struggle to handle nonfunereal rhythms, or the way he can't seem to break out of his ''catch a rainbow'' hand-extension dance move, or his general discomfort tackling mature relationship-themed material?
LOL! i've been struggling for weeks to identify a description for archie's awkward hand thing, and this is the best one yet.

that was really the highlight of tuesday's show, in my opinion. not even my boy david cook was all that impressive. i didn't even vote.

then last night went just as expected. (hmm...david and david in the bottom two? called that during top 12 week.) i don't think they should have shown david a.'s trip home first because when i saw him cry i was a little grossed out, but by the time i saw syesha uncontrollably sobbing and then cute little david cook tearing up, i was okay with the whole emotion thing.

did anyone else laugh out loud when david a. said "gosh....gosh...there are just so many people here! where did they all park??" HAHA. i am still laughing about that. you gotta hand it to the kid, he is pretty cute. except seriously, women crying? for a 17 year old? let's be real here people. i was pretty excited to see his little tour of the greater salt lake valley though -- yay for utah!

anyway...holding out till the finals. did i mention i'll be on an airplane for the DURATION of the finale??? stupid weddings. grr. thank heaven for my MIL's tivo :)

adapting.

i noticed this week that i've stopped automatically locking the car door as soon as i get in. if that's a measurement of the safety of our new neighborhood, i guess we're doing all right.

b. karf weekend

this weekend my best friend brittany rogers (and her husband spencer) came to visit us!!! they were our first official houseguests since we've moved to LA and i loved every second of having them here (even though they did have to sleep on the couch/floor, poor kids). we got to show them around pasadena and the greater so cal region. on saturday we went to disneyland.

navigating the park (right before we ran into fellow blogger roxanne...that was so random and funny! i wish we had met up again, lady!)

i make him take a lot of pictures with me.

BFFs.

i met brittany junior year at BYU, when she moved into the glenwood via my friend emily. (i would love to post pictures of this era in life but unfortch they are on my old computer.)

we hit it off right away and have been friends ever since, living in provo (together), salt lake (her), rancho and then LA (me), colorado (her) and new york city (together).

we were bridesmaids in each others' weddings, moshed to fall out boy together, longboarded (and later hiked, after my crash ended my longboarding career) in provo canyon and road tripped to CA (even when we got a ticket for driving too fast).

we've explored midget chocolate factories, gotten lost in various utah ski canyons, enjoyed a ton of diet soda and high fiber ceral, met each other's moms, siblings, pets and boyfriends (and voted on which ones should become our husbands). i love my karf -- i have a best friends forever necklace to prove it -- and i'm so glad she came to visit!

to the mommas...

slightly missed the mother's day-posting bandwagon (mostly because i was actually celebrating IN PERSON with my mom) but figured it's never too late to give a shout out to the two greatest ladies in our fam.



as previously noted, my mom is my best friend and has been my whole life. my dad loves to tell the story about how when i was barely over a year old, my mom would leave me with him while she ran errands and i would just cry and cry and then as i calmed down i'd just sit and whimper "mommy....mommy..." between every sob. she's always cheered me on, cheered me up and talked me into buying cute clothes at nordstrom because they are "high quality and long lasting." really, what more does a girl need? i've made it through four years of college and two years of "real life" thanks to daily phone conversations with her. she's a great example to me in everything (even if she did ruin me for life by always doing my laundry and cooking for me, so i was a serious late bloomer in both of those areas) and i want to be just like her. love you momma!




and for the past year and a half, i've been lucky enough to have one of the best MILs around as well. brandon's mom has been so welcoming and nice to me -- she is a phenomenal cook and either buys or makes cookies for me every time i come to utah! janie watches CMT music videos with me, takes me to fun girlie places like gardner village and sends us cute cards in the mail. and she takes me to cafe rio any time i want! janie is the best.

on a tangent...i'm not going to lie, i've been a bit down toward the whole institution of motherhood lately. i love our new ward but seriously EVERYONE (or so it seems) has kids. i'm all about children and i'm super excited to be a mom myself one day, but at the same time brandon and i have our own little plan for our family and it doesn't involve babies just yet. so that makes me feel left out from all these cute little moms i'm meeting, who have play dates and park outings and a secret mom's club for all i know -- all things i would never be able to participate in or even relate to in my current corporate life. boo. i've been feeling sorry for myself lately, like the lame girl that i am, but just a few days ago i realized how lucky i am to be in this situation and to be able to learn from the great examples of all these amazing women. so here's to motherhood -- to the fifteen friends who have given birth in the past year, to the ten more friends due before 2009, to the awesome moms i get to meet in my new neighborhood and through church -- i admire you. i watch your every move (not in a crazy stalker way, though ;) and i want to be as strong and graceful and multitalented and loving as you.

dog shots = bad news

THIS precious little thing almost died on saturday :(

for those of you who don't know, this is my little dog roxy. she lives at my parents' house but i love her. on saturday she went to get her raibies shot and ended up having an allergic reaction and almost DIED. my dad had to rush her back to the vet, they gave her a counteracting shot and sent them home with an epi pen just in case. i freaked out but then she was okay and all was well. so now i just decided to blog and tell you that i love her. yes, she's a dog. and no, i'm not paris hilton. i don't have any children and i love my little roxy pants. and this is my blog and i'll do what i want :)

lesson learned

so this weekend i learned that i need to limit the partying. when i was a freshman in college i survived on an average of three hours of sleep a night and could go out and have fun at pretty much any hour. in the past few days, i learned that those days are definitely over.

as a recap: friday we went back to the wilshire ward to go to the baptism of our friend yuri. she is the coolest girl and we were lucky enough to have her and the missionaries over for one of her lessons while she was investigating the church.

it's kind of amazing we are still friends actually because at one point during that lesson, the sister missionary from mexico took yuri around our whole apartment pointing out things that set us apart from the world. wedding pictures: "married forever, not just till death." entertainment center: "no bad movies." refrigerator (which was almost empty and not that clean, i might add): "healthy food, no alcohol." imagine that awkward little walk with a strong latina accent and you've almost got the whole experience. yeah. we still talk about that one.

anyway, it was so good to be there and see yuri on her special day.

jesse, yuri, sister burton (one of the missionaries -- not the one from my story ;), me, brandon

i should say here that we took the train to the church, because i THOUGHT the last subway stop was close to our old building. um, not really. we ended up walking like two miles to get there, but of course we didn't miss anything because the baptism started 30 min. late. but on the walk i realized i haven't shared much on the bloggy blog about the AMAZING los angeles stake center.

this is the exterior of the building...it kind of looks like a huge white mosque. the building was commissioned by heber j. grant himself in the 1930s and has been around ever since. president hinckley actually came in 2003 to rededicate the place after some renovations.

here's the front of the chapel -- hard to tell, but at the top of the dome there's a huge stained-glass mural of christ knocking at the door. it's amazing! it also provides a nice distraction from boring sacrament meeting speakers :)

these are the walls of the chapel. more stained glass, painted walls, even painted beams in the ceiling. it really is a beautiful building. (sorry for the fuzzy pictures...i was trying to be stealth-mode)

after the baptism we went to dinner with some LA friends at the grove, it was SO much fun to be back in the familiar neighborhood with our old friends. but then we had to ride the stupid train home, and got back at midnight. a little late but not so bad.

but then saturday came. this weekend was the stagecoach festival, an annual country music weekend-long concert extravaganza. i've been wanting to go for a while, and luckily for me toyota is the main sponsor so i got hooked up with two free passes.

we drove almost two hours just to get there (it was in indio, out past palm springs) and saw taylor swift, dierks bentley, the judds, dwight yoakam and rascal flatts. you better believe i wore my cowboy boots -- we had a great time! (just don't ask me about how tim mcgraw AND carrie underwood played today and how i decided not to go...still a little upset about that one. oh well, i have my priorities straight, right?)

all good and fun, until we left at 11:00 p.m. and still had the two hour drive ahead of us. let's just say i was reallllly tired when we got home. i just don't hold out like i used to, i guess.

thank goodness for sunday, my day of rest! we celebrated cinco de mayo a night early with THESE bad boys -- homemade cafe rio knock offs! it was the best. i'm almost ready for the workweek again.

and that was my weekend. longest post ever? probably. ten points if you made it this far.

without further ado...

please step into the current payzant-wells residence in lovely pasadena, california:


front room (and patio...getting supplies for that little space is up next on the to-do list)


from the other side...please note we only have mirror squares on ONE wall; the random reflections on the right wall amused me because you don't normally see that.


desk


bedroom

little kitchen (i miss my old kitchen :( though i LOVE the dishwasher!!)

and there you have the grand tour. all are welcome to visit!! however, our first official houseguests arrive this week, and you may have to ask them how comfy our floor/couch is. sadly we still do not have a 2-bedroom apartment, but i promise i'm a good hostess and that i'll take good care of you, even if you have to sleep on the floor :)