A Test

As I pulled out of our parking garage today on the way to work, I entered into the typical narrow alley standoff. A car wanted to get into the parking garage and was blocking my path; I couldn't manage a right turn to exit, so I continued to block said vehicle's way in. Dude decided he couldn't take the heat of my intense gaze (?), so he slowly began to back up. He reversed approximately three feet. Now I'm no math whiz, but I'm certain that amount of space had no positive effect on my turn radius or trajectory or whatever terminology math whizzes use in this situation.

So, what did I do?

Did I wait for him to back up more?

Did I honk to gently prod him into backing up more?

Did I honk seven times in quick succession to bully him into backing up more?

No.

I embarked on my exit. As I raised my hand in a hey-thanks-for-backing-up wave to the driver of the other car, my car made sweet love to the corner of the wall I was trying to get by. My right rear wheel well and door are demolished. Not just paint damage, not just a dent. We're talking restructuring of metal. We're talking around $2000 worth of ick. The wall, on the other hand, look like it just returned from a relaxing, tropical vacation.

And, you know, it stinks. It's not the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I'm fine. This is life.

Some days, you're the car and some days you're the wall.

What Utaught (or What I Learned in Utah)

Utaught? Utah-t? Wordplay comprehensiveness currently escapes me.

I just returned from a glorious vacation in Utah. Most of my time was spent hiking and breathing deeply and generally absorbing nature.

I also learned quite a bit and I'd like to share these lessons with you.

1. One may hand-feed a squirrel Cheez-its, but one may face dire consequences if said squirrel likes the taste of human. I was not bitten. My squirrel was friendly. Yet there are graphic pictures in Zion on shuttles and in newspapers that prove that someone's been bitten at some point. Maybe they just didn't have the proper squirrel feeding technique down.

2. It is illegal to feed squirrels Cheez-its.

3. Some squirrels are cannibals. Or very romantic. I saw a squirrel carrying another lifeless squirrel in its mouth. I believe that squirrel A was taking squirrel B to a private spot so the snacking could begin. Dylan thinks squirrel A happened upon his dead wife's body when he arrived home and was bringing her back to their favorite place so that could be her final resting spot.

4. The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" is played entirely too much on entirely too many stations.

5. Some stations, bless them, play hour upon hour of Aerosmith.

6. Dylan & I can name all 50 states and a great number of countries in the world.

7. I need to brush up on my cities in Ohio knowledge.

8. I may not be as clumsy as I once was. Yes, I fell 3 times in four days, but that's a new low. Especially considering the physicality of the trip.

8a. Flip flops + steep decline + loose sand = tent stake in the thigh. I was not impaled. I hit the blunt end. No big.

8b. When one climbs up a rock, one must consider the path that will be taken to get back down.

9. It rains it Utah. A lot. Unexpectedly.

10. It takes 875 crumpled Reader pages to start a fire.

11. Carrie Underwood is a terrible role model.

12. When one goes camping, one should bring towels.

12a. The definition of clean is different when camping.

13. People are inconsiderate.

13a. When there is a two foot wide path to walk along on the side of a rock face, you do not force people to pass on the cliff side.

13b. When generous, kind-hearted folks allow you to pass on such paths, you do not STOP TO TAKE A PICTURE. There are people waiting to get by. Was that not clear? (Disregard that I stopped to take a picture, as evidence by the above photo.)

14. Fording a stream is easier with a partner to lean on.

15. Climbing up rocks is easier with a partner to lean on.

16. Climbing down rocks is easier with a partner to lean on.

17. Life is easier with a partner to lean on.

18. I need a new job. Being indoors is suffocating me.

19. There are stacked rocks all up in Utah.

20. Waterfalls are pretty.

21. This particular photographer takes an hour & 42 minutes to take a photo.

22. This log looks like an elephant, but I brought the wrong lens, so I would have had to back up about a mile to get an accurate photo. Just trust me. It looks like an elephant.

22a. My iPhone takes such good pictures I didn't really need to bring the Canon.

23. I do this a lot.

24. I am adventurous.

25. I am strong

26. I am capable.

27. I can't end this list on an even number.

If interested, the rest of the photos from this trip can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/dawnmariemedina/Utah5201152311?authkey=Gv1sRgCO_o9MiH3O24OQ#

Lesson Learned

I thought it would be a good decision to skip coffee yesterday. I put about a gallon of cream in each cup I have & I know that's tons of fat and sugar. Not to mention, amaretto cream is clearly a processed food, of which I'm trying to limit intake. Other options are black coffee, black coffee with sugar, or coffee with milk. I should really do some research on just how terrible milk is for me. I refuse to do the whole skim or 1 % crap here because it just doesn't taste right. To be frank, milk isn't my favorite choice for coffee.

There's just something about a flavored creamer. Italian Sweet Cream, Hazelnut, Amaretto, Irish Cream. Yum!

So. Back on track. No coffee for me yesterday. Which led to:

Breakfast:

fried noodles
everything bagel with cream cheese

Lunch:

rolled tacos with guacamole & cheese
rice
beans

Dinner:

chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels

Not the best choices I've ever made. I felt terrible (emotionally & physically) and was asleep by 6:00 pm.

It may be better to go ahead and have coffee with cream, rather than risk another day like yesterday.

baby steps

I did not want to write about my foray into health for multiple reasons.

Mostly because:

1. It's sort of boring.
1a. Nobody wants to read that.
2. I will start out strong, then quit and don't really want public record of my attempt.

It's really only #2, though, because, um...no one's reading this except me. So, I can write it and bore myself. As for the real excuse I've been avoiding this topic. I love to plan. I get no greater joy than having a goal and setting up short- & long-term steps to reach that goal. The part that's tricky for me is the execution. Sometimes, I finish the planning portion and never begin the journey. Yet more often, I plan the heck out of something, try it for a week, then pretend none of it ever happened.

Buuuuut. If I start talking about this stuff here (which I have, obvs), there will be a way to be held accountable for something. And I hate that!

For now, I have a little complaint. I had gone weeks without buying any sort of "good" food. I was eating lots of processed stuff, for lack of a better description of what I was ingesting. So, like a good, little health-conscious girl, I dragged my butt over to Henry's to at least get some produce to start me off. See, aside from the health benefits of eating well, there's also extra incentive for me to do so. I get pretty nasty headaches when I'm not eating well. So, then I'm fat, lazy, and in pain. In addition to produce (and spices! Lord, do I ever love their bulk spices!), I needed to pick up some Greek yogurt because it's delicious and good for you. Right?

WRONG!!

I bought this stuff here and was so proud of myself. (I'm making good food choices! And it's so delicious! Tra la la!!) But, guys...it's loaded with fat. And the sugar! THE SUGAR! What surprises me the most is that cream is a main ingredient. Is this normal? I thought yogurt was supposed to be, well...yogurt.

Anyhow. Mistakes are just a kick in the butt to do better next time, right?

I need to look at nutritional information before I buy something. Not after I've been gorging on it for several days.

Lesson learned.