Crazy Socks & Writer's Block

Sammy and I have made a new tradition. Every Friday I check out a movie from the library and we watch it that night. It's been a lot of fun, mostly because Sammy always loves my picks. When I brought home Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, he was a little wary though.  Sammy watched the five hour version of Pride and Prejudice with me a few years ago. He got totally into the movie during the last two and a half hours, and has always loved Mr. Darcy since. So he had the requisite background knowledge coming into the movie.  We absolutely LOVED Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. It was fantastic. It sticks so closely to the original story while adding zombies into it. Whenever the girls have their deep philosophical conversations about men, they're usually practicing their fighting skills. When Darcy and Lizzie are arguing, they're fighting as well.  Lady Catherine DeBurg has an eye patch.  I loved this movie so much, I watched it twice in a weekend, onc...

Whenever people talked about wanting to go hiking out of their own free will, I thought that they were crazy. Insane. Who would put themselves through that for fun?? The only times that I've been hiking has been at girls camp. I had no say in the hike, how far we went, and we went over all the things that could go wrong while hiking. While these re good things to know, and knowledge is power, it's not the best thing to hear before embarking out into the woods.  Sammy has been wanting to go hiking for quite some time. So I finally agreed and we went out on Labor Day Weekend. It was a rough start to the morning because I was feeling anxious about the whole thing. Somehow we made it into the car and out into the woods.  Once we got started hiking, and after a little heart to heart about my anxieties about going out, I started to enjoy it. I loved feeling my body working. Unlike running around our neighborhood, I felt accomplished after climbing over rocks and up the...

This is my first time at work sharing a bathroom with men. I've been blessed in having all the men in my life put the toilet seat down after using it, and not making a mess. That isn't so at work. We share our staff bathroom with the Parks and Rec department who comes in to use it throughout the day. They ALWAYS leave the seat up, along with leaving pee everywhere. Everywhere. It's disgusting.  We ladies were annoyed and my coworker finally decided to do something about it. She put up a sign above the toilet. When it was taken down, another co worker used a crap ton of double sided tape to secure a sign to the wall so it couldn't be taken down.  When we came back from Labor Day weekend, this was waiting for us.  Seriously? I was so pissed. There were a plethora of pictures that we could have put up. We could have mentioned the pee all over the floor and needing better aim. But we didn't.  I hope they fall into the toilet in the middle of the night ...

Whenever I'm talking to people, I always say, "Oh, my favorite author just wrote a new book!" or something. Basically all authors get the titles of favorite authors. But Tahereh Mafi is truly one of my favorite authors. When I found out that she was coming to town with her husband, who is also an author, I had to go!  I stressed out a lot about going to this event because I've made a fool of myself at other author events. When I met Meg Cabot, another of my favorite author's, I walked away without realizing she was trying to talk to me. I still cringe when I think of that. When I met Alex Bracken, instead of telling her the things I wanted to, I talked about pot brownies instead. I don't like pot at all, but when I get nervous I often talk about it. Way to live up to stereotypes about my state.  I really didn't want to make such a mistake with Tahereh though. She is such a huge inspiration of mine. Her stories are so beautiful and her language is ...

After a few year hiatus while I attended college where I didn't dress cute because I had to walk a few miles everywhere and so my outfits consisted of what was warm or cool enough, and also after finding out that Target's socks are stupid and really do not fit everyone, I'm happy to say the crazy socks are back. I'm finally living back up to my blog's name again.  Here are the awesome llama socks that my sister got me for my birthday, and gifted me early. I love them so much. I've worn them to work and managed to look like a librarian, while also having a lot of fun. I posed with my favorite children's book with my llama socks. (Sadly, the author of these books passes a few weeks ago due to brain cancer.) Some days I'm not happy with the way I look, whether that's because of acne or my weight, but I always feel happy and pretty when I'm wearing crazy socks. I'm excited to get more and get back to creating cooky outfits like I used to...

A few weeks ago, I thought that I was possibly experiencing identity theft.  My brother in law still works at the bookstore where I previously worked. He texted me late one night saying that an online book order had come in for a Kylee Gomez. Not only that, but the billing address was in the exact same city that I live in. I started panicking. Kylee Gomez doesn't seem to be the most popular name out there in the world. I have my name, and a Mexican last name. Plus, my city isn't that large. So there was no way that someone with the same name as me living in the same city as me was going to the same campus as me and ordering textbooks from my former place of employment.  I thought it was a joke, or that my credit card information had been stolen. After checking all of my cards though and seeing no strange charges, I turned to Facebook. And what do you know? There actually is a girl with the same name as me living in the same city as me going to the same campus as ...

I've started doing this new thing I like to call Check Yo Self. It's no secret that I'm filled with so many feelings. I've been reading about being a highly sensitive person, and that seems to fit me SO well. I often get so overwhelmed with all these different emotions and feelings, that I feel like I need to cry all. the. time. Which is just not reasonable. You can't always be crying. And even though I feel like I should be crying and I know that it'll be a relief afterwards, I struggle to cry.  Anyways.  I've developed a new strategy for dealing with these emotions. Because half the time I don't even know what I'm feeling upset or so strongly about. Once I can identify that though, I feel better. This method really helps me.  I take a piece of paper and start writing all the thoughts in my head on it in cursive, because my cursive is so sloppy. I just write whatever pops into my head. When I fill one side of the paper, I rotate it 90 d...

Last weekend, the only football game that I care about was played. The University of Utah versus BYU. My aunt referred to it as the holy war, and I like the name. Those two schools are the biggest rivalry in Utah. They also cause a lot of tension at church because there are so many BYU fans out there.  My dad graduated from the UofU, and when I was born my parents lived in the married dorms there. So I like to say that I spent my first few months at the U. When it came to the two schools, I was raised to be a U fan. Then again, there was a brief period of my life where I was trying to be rebellious and wanted to go to BYU. Those were the dark years. Eventually I came back to the light and saw that if I was going to be a true rebel, I should be a UofU fan. After hearing from friends, I also don't like the culture that comes with BYU and would never have survived going to school there.  Thankfully, Sammy has become a U fan too. So this weekend when we were at his parent...

Last week, one of my old coworkers from the bookstore passed away after a lifetime battle with type one diabetes. He'd been in and out of the hospital for the past few months, but he'd been feeling well enough to return to work. My brother in law Michael and him were good friends, and that night as they were leaving work, he gave him a hug and told him he was so happy that he was getting better. Then, George went home and passed in his sleep.  George was an amazing man. He had such great wit, humor, and intelligence. He was always smiling. I know that's often said about people, but that was true with George. Even when he was mad at someone, he was able to crack a joke and start laughing. George worked for loss prevention, so he was always watching. He'd always take funny clips of people and turn them into videos and such. He also knew where everyone was and was able to see if they were having a tough day, and would come talk to them. Whenever George came up and vis...

A book entitled The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence showed up in our donation bin the other day. It's clearly from the eighties. Seeing that book has had me thinking a lot though about feminism. First off, I would like to explain what being a feminist means to me. It means that a woman is equal to a man. It does not however mean that a woman is the same as a man. That's just not possible thanks to biology. It also means that as a woman, no one should ever tell me what I can and cannot do based on my gender. It's the idea that a woman has the choice to do what she wants. If she wants to be a stay at home mom, that's great! I do not see that as losing the battle of feminism or anything like that. A woman should be able to choose and do what makes her happy and not be judged for that. I also believe that only woman should make decisions on women's issues. If you don't have ovaries and everything else, shut up.  Something that wo...

I don't often do my hair. I just don't have time in the morning. Plus, since I do it so rarely, I usually get a headache because it's not used to being in a new place. But one day when I didn't have time to wash my hair in the morning, I decided to try a look that I'd seen on Blake Lively. And I loved it!  When I left for work that morning, Sammy told me not to let anyone flirt with me. That's when I know I'm looking good :)  Sammy tried out a few new looks recently as well. He always says that he looks horrible in baseball caps, and, well, it's kind of true. To add to this look, he tried on his dad's glasses, and then his brother's.  From now on, I'll be the one the baseball caps.  So thug. 

(Disclaimer: I write all of my blog posts three weeks in advance, and I really, really hope that our fish is still alive by the time this posts.) After a few months of having an empty fish bowl sitting on our table, Sammy and I finally went back to the pet store and got a new fish. It actually took more convincing than I thought to get him to go to the pet store. He wanted to wait until he'd be home more so there'd actually be light in our house. He also was really sad about our last fish's death, and didn't want another fish to die.  When we got to the store, there was a group of people looking at the fish, so we wandered around a bit. To our horror, we found a dead lizard in one of the cages. He was all black and just lying there with his mouth open, his eyes closed, while crickets walked all over him. Sammy didn't believe me that he was dead, but later in the night admitted that I was right.  So, back to the fish. We went and looked, and Sammy was im...

A few weeks ago Sammy and I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Fort Collins Temple open house. We were ushers for the day, helping people navigate through the new temple during their tour. It was such an amazing experience that I will never forget.  A long, long, time ago, when I decided that I wanted to marry Sammy, I always thought to myself how nice it would be to be one of the first couples sealed in the Fort Collins temple. I'd gone to the Denver Temple growing up, and while it is beautiful, it's very dated as well. However, construction times didn't allow for this, since it's just being finished and Sammy and I have already been sealed for over a year. But seeing the inside of the Fort Collins temple, I have to admit I'm feeling a little envious. It is so incredibly beautiful inside. The marble floors, the ornate carpets, the stained glass, the wall murals, the chandeliers. It's unlike anything I've seen before. You can see pictures of the in...