There Were Never Such Devoted Sisters . . .

Okay, this sentence is going to sound really redundant, but I'm saying it, anyway: my sister and I are soo related. I know that goes without saying (see, tom? i'm not adopted!), but yesterday just reasserted to me that, despite the eight-year gap between me and my sister, we're quite a bit alike. My great-aunt Lillian passed away last week, so my dad flew down for the funeral in Spanish Fork yesterday, and Kelly and I went, as well. Well, she and I had a really good time trying to find the correct chapel (dad came down earlier than we did with his bro), and when we finally pulled into a parking lot with a hearse, we were both pretty happy that the search was over. To which Kelly said, "Kind of morbid to be happy to see a hearse." How true that is.

Anyway, after the funeral and seeing the extended fam, Dad hung out with us, his beautiful daughters, until it was time to go to the airport. So we hung out and chatted a bit before heading over to the music store. It was pretty darn laughable. Dad said he enjoyed seeing us so animated, but I'm sure it looked pretty funny to the outside observer, seeing three people just hunched over the choral music, saying, "Oh, I found this!", "Oh, you like this? Me, too! Grab me one!", and "Dad, go grab us this" (okay, dad didn't say that; we said it to him). What a good sport our dad was to put up with our antics. With probably two exceptions, Kelly and I got the same music (made for a fun time when we stepped away from the choral music and then had to go back to find duplicates). Even after we had definitely decided we were done (after . . . an hour? maybe more?) and Dad was graciously buying the music for us, Kelly and I were still having a grand old time seeing different sections of music and getting a little too excited about them.

Then we headed back to my place and played through all of the music we had purchased, with the exception of one of the four (that's right--four) versions of "Silent Night" we got. Dad says he wants us to move up to Oregon, but I think that he only wants us to do that so we'll sing in his ward choir. So, yeah. Maybe our excitement over finding music is kind of silly, but I think it's a good example of the similarities between me and Kelly. There are more, but this one is easily the most . . . observable. I wonder what it would have been like had Mom been there, as well. hmm . . .

-Me

"It is true that I was born in Iowa, but I can't speak for my twin sister." -Abigail Van Buren

You Had a Bad Day

In the words of Alexander, work today was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. After the two days last week when I left feeling like a hero who had accomplished something good, I was not expecting to come crashing down by 3 pm this afternoon. I won't get into the details; it's not really worth hammering out. Suffice it to say that I was feeling pretty dang cruddy most of the day, and was frustrated enough to burst into tears a couple of times in my cubicle. Granted, that's not entirely unheard of, but usually there are other forces at work to make me do so. Not today. Today was all work-related crumminess. I've had those days that drag on, that I'm counting the minutes to the end, but I had never been so happy to leave the office as I was today. -sigh- I sure hope tomorrow is better.

Yep. This is pretty much how I felt.

Fortunately, I have friends that are willing to change their plans around to comfort me in my moments of personal crisis. Okay, maybe "crisis" is too heavy a word to describe today. But I was not in a good place, and I was in desperate need of a hug. So, after texting Esther and giving her a reader's-digest version of the day's events and how I was feeling, she was kind enough to "comfort those that stand in need of comfort". We went to dinner and watched Kung Fu Panda, and it was a good release from the day. Sometimes you need "the big, fat panda" to brighten your day, and Po came through for us.

At least I know that these days come to everyone, even in Australia.

-Me

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." -Charles M. Schulz

Life is Such a Chore When It's Boring

I think I've made it pretty clear that I love my family. I love my family a lot. I also love my friends a lot. So this is no reflection on them or how I feel about them. Really. But, dang it all, I'm tired of suffering from this same malady! And what is the malady, you may inquire? Well, I don't know if it's really a viable disease, but I have christened it "Baby Blogger Envy". And it's not for the reason that I'm still single and most of my family and several of my friends are married and have children (or soon will). It's not envy for that. Okay, maybe a little, but the real reason I suffer from this disease is because they have an easy source of subject matter and pictorial evidence for their blogs: babies. Babies, babies, and babies! They're cute, they're photogenic, they cause havoc in our lives, so really, they are an obvious subject for my family and friends. I don't blame them one bit for writing about these little children. And I'm glad for the updates, especially from my family. I just don't exactly have the same luxury as they do when updating my blog.

I have become known as Boring Blog Megan! Because I do things where pictures aren't allowed to be taken, like go to King's Singers concerts, or where I have absolutely no desire to take pictures, like a typical office workday where I spend my life eight hours a day, five days a week. So that's it. I'm tired of the "not enough pictures" comments. I may not have babies, but I am going to take pictures. I am going to do things that are blog-able, because I wish to overcome the "Baby Blogger Envy" that invades my senses every time I see a picture of Jack or Ellery or Isaac (or the other little children that now grace the lives of those i love). Dang it all, I will no longer be Boring Blog Megan! I declare myself free from this nasty nickname and depressing disease (ooh, alliteration!).

I ate ice cream today. It was delicious. Coldstone generally is. I saw Kim today, whom I have not seen since June. It was wonderful. Seeing Kim generally is. There. That was terribly interesting, was it not? (snicker, chortle, chortle)

We had a roommate reunion at Esther's a couple weekends ago, which was excellent, as always, so we took every opportunity we could to document the occasion. Good times, all.

As ever, me and my gals

The Colemans . . . ah, the times they share

Trying to set up the shot. Is it working?

Happy People!

-Me

"Someone's boring me. I think it's me." -Dylan Thomas

It Was a One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple-People Eater

I had the least Halloween-y Halloween I've ever had in my life on Saturday night. But that's because I had stake conference and had to be in charge of music (wait . . . scratch that . . . got to be in charge of music) for the evening session. However, that doesn't mean I didn't get to dress up in a costume that made me embarrassed to walk into a grocery store. Oh, no. We had our office Halloween activities on Friday, and that was the day I looked incredibly embarrassing. (and really, isn't that the point?) Sylvia and I got to run around crazily that day because we were the ones in charge of setting things up and handing out awards and candy and the like, but it was a successful Halloween in the office.

Mark, enjoying a siesta before the kids come

Andy wants to be a pirate in "The Pirates of Penzance"

One of the best-themed costumes by Will and his daughter

Zarco, our "illegal alien" gets busted by his wife, the immigration officer

David's kids (probably the cutest football player i've ever seen in my life)

The pumpkin-carving contest

Once again, I am on the winning pumpkin team
But it's a tad disturbing.
Kind of a theme of the pumpkins this year, though. Disturbing.

Jared as Harry Potter

Kathy as Minnie Mouse

The back of Mike's head was "riDIkulus"!

Sylvia rocks the office as Miss Piggy

Corey as Sherlock busts Zarco

And me. The nerd. Wasn't much of a stretch.
But I got to wear the orange-and-white socks again!

-Me

"It is kind of strange watching your personal history become costume." -gadgetgirl