Tuesdays could be better. (part one)

My last two Tuesdays haven't turned out like I planned. Tuesday numero uno:

(Did you know it is illegal to earn a paycheck in Utah without having a Utah license? A federal guard told me that over the summer when I applied for a government job in SLC. I had no idea I'd been doing something illegal for 4 years. Students are an exception, I thought....)

Oct. 12, I went to get my Utah license. (Weird feeling. I've lived in Utah for 4 years, with only a couple summers away, but it never felt official until they punched those 2 holes in my NY license. Sad day. My blonde license picture is gone....Maybe that's a good thing). They gave me the run-around the first 2 places I went, even after I googled the correct way to change my license in Utah.

Then, I get to the right place in the boonies of Orem and I have maybe 45 minutes to get it done before it closes at 6. However, they had a little confusion when I told them that I was changing my name AND my state. Normally, people do one or the other. Took them a little longer to figure out what to do with me. Luckily, I brought every single piece of paper I needed - in a cute folder with sparkly flowers, nonetheless. :)

I didn't have to wait very long before my number was called. I go up to the desk and the man asks for all my stuff. He goes through the whole "name-change"/"state-change" application stuff, then notices that I have a motorcycle license (thanks to my wonderful father who encouraged me to get one so I could drive his scooter and motorcycle around!) in addition to the regular license. (Note: apparently, motorcycle licenses in UT are "endorsements". NY has them as a whole other class of license. That's why he didn't notice. AND THEN, he assumes I'm applying for a motorcycle license. That's where all the problems started.) 

We go through the "name-change"/"state-change" process again. Yay. Then, you are required to take the written exam. (oh boy.) Because he assumed I was applying for the motorcycle part, I had to take that one too. I passed the standard one, easy peasy - especially because they let you use the handbook on the test!

Then they make me take the motorcycle one (I later found out that was a mistake on their part). Unfortunately for me, they put all of UTAH's motorcycle permit rules on the test. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THOSE????? I know all the motorcycle rules. BUT how am I supposed to know how long you need a motorcycle permit for in Utah?? I already HAVE a license. So, you have to get an 80% to pass. I got a 75% because I messed up on their random questions. LUCKILY for me, you can take it twice in a visit. 

So I go chat with the lady at the testing desk. She tells me I can retake it and that she'll set it up. I go sit down and start the test again. Except it's the WRONG test. She made me retake the standard - which I had previously gotten 100% on. Please understand how confused I was when there were NO motorcycle-related questions being asked. I go talk to her again. She apologizes profusely, and sets up the motorcycle one. I still miss questions, but I passed (after checking the answers after I "failed" the other one.

Next stop, testing lady again (by this point, it is 5:55 and every other clerk is closing down their area). There were 2 people ahead of me, and they got through pretty quickly. I get up to the desk and she again apologizes, then proceeds to tell me how to schedule my road test. WAIT, WHAT? Due to the man who helped me the first time, she is now telling me I can't have my motorcycle license until I test. WHICH I ALREADY DID IN NY. It took them another good 5 minutes to figure out that I already had it. 

Then they printed me one of these:

(I greyed out areas so no one can steal my temporary identity.)

 And then, I was done. And I drove home and I don't remember what I did for the rest of the night. (I meant to write about this last week, I even put it in my planner, and then promptly forgot until now.)

A not-so-fun Tuesday.
BUT, I now have an official UTAH license. Yay!

Buddies.

Do any of you ever go to a store and always see the same people there?

I do.

Regardless of what time of day I go (usually anywhere between 4:45 and 10:30 - that's a pretty big time frame, I know), I always seem to see the same people. And I'm not talking about you running into the same person in different aisles of the store when you go there once. I'm talking about every time you go, you see them. There are 3 people I see. Sometimes they rotate who has what day, but I see them all pretty frequently (as frequently as you can go to a grocery store and see people). It is surprisingly fun to see "familiar" people at the store.


 In my head, I call them my grocery store buddies (who even uses that word anymore??) now, even though they don't know that. Sometimes, when I remember I have to go to the store, I think about what I'm supposed to remember to buy. And then, inevitably, I wonder if I will see one of my buddies at the store. Maybe one day we will say hi to each other like old friends.

I've decided I like seeing familiar faces at the grocery store. Or anywhere I go, as a matter of fact. Does anyone else want to be my [grocery] buddy ?

A new member of the family.

So we have been thinking about this for a couple weeks and we finally made a big decision last night. I am now happy to introduce the newest member of our family:

* pictures courtesy of the guy who posted it on KSL

We are picking it up tonight as soon as I get off work!
I am so happy that we don't have to deal with making this decision anymore!!!

The relief is oh-so-sweet.

Stats

1) Blogger has a whole new page devoted to stats about your blog. Kinda interesting to look at. Apparently my blog has been viewed a total of 1,125 times - of which I'm sure 1000 are from me checking to make sure I didn't spell anything wrong or hit enter too many times.

2) My parents are leaving TOMORROW for here:

They will be gone for almost 2 weeks. And they are leaving as 2, but coming back as 3.



3) I check the clock approximately 1000 times to see if it gets any closer to it being time to go home.

4) The average high school graduate makes approximately $30K a year. I'm a college graduate and I make much, much less than that. Which is kind of depressing when I think about the student loans I have to pay back.

5) Also, mint.com is really an interesting site. I think we are going to start using it to help keep a budget.

Dreaming.

JetBlue has $79 each way tickets to JFK today.
My heart is begging me to purchase them

--- because we all know new york city is way more fun than work any day.

Oh, to be able to take the overnight here.... I wish.



I'm a bad photographer

When we went to Jackson Hole, the boys decided to go crazy and raft down a smaller river that didn't really have tons of water in it. We watched them go through the toughest part, Snaggletooth. Here's the play by play (please excuse my finger that is in almost every shot):






















So much for my future photography career...

Birthday party

So we went to a birthday party for Kristen a couple weeks ago. Not a normal one. A water balloon party. Except there was a catch. It wasn't water in the balloons. It was PAINT.
Kristen has more pictures but here's the ones from my phone:



I got blue paint everywhere. I looked like a smurf!



David got a full one in the back.
We just went to DI and bought old clothes for like $3.


This was David's. It was almost a bummer to paint it.

Afterward, we all went to the mall still covered in paint and had birthday cake!

Then we went home and changed our brake pads. Fun, huh?

As promised....

Here are the pictures of my curtains.

 Here is what the pattern looks like close-up:

LIVING ROOM!
* So the blinds on the window are kind of old and very not-white. So we made a little covering that can come off if we ever want to actually look out of the window and we just pulled the blinds up out of the way. (We attached it with velco.) Oh and the little ties that hold it back are attached with velcro too.

I am quite happy with them. They won't fit any other windows because ours are the weirdest sizes, so when we have to move out of this apartment, I'm getting the feeling I will be sad to not be able to use them anymore. I'm already attached. 

Chinese cravings.

Remember what I said about having a hard time figuring out what to make for dinner? Well, after perusing the world wide web for ideas, sometimes I come home and start making stuff and make Mr. Bean guess what we are having. The first two times he got it SO fast. I was flabbergasted. For example, the first time I did it I was making chicken nuggets (NOT THE FREEZER KIND. THE HOMEMADE KIND) and he STILL guessed it.

I finally stumped him on my third try. I made delicious sesame noodles. YUM. Oh man. One of the best parts about these noodles is that you can use any  kind of noodle. Which means I DON'T have to make spaghetti with all the TONS of angel hair pasta I have. I would rather make this any day. Spaghetti is not my favorite, sorry.

Last friday, we had a chinese dinner (mongolian beef, sweet and sour chicken and sesame noodles, with a little bit of rice on the side). It was scrumptious! Especially now that we have figured out how to make everything spicey! (THANK YOU red hot chili oil!)  I took pictures. If you ever want some, we would be more than happy to make it for you.....I will always gladly eat Chinese food.

I would like some more please. 

Actually, now that I think about it, there might be some noodles left in the fridge. 

I'm going to go search for them.

The benefits of having a whiteboard as your wall.

One nice thing about having whiteboards as your walls means that you can do a practice o-chem test without wasting any paper. To prep for test numero uno, that's what Mr. Bean did. And then he had me check his work and correct it if wrong (which he rarely is...).  Pretty much just like taking an o-chem test on the wall.

It is also beneficial to practice writing the titles of the D&C sections when you have a quiz. Again, simulation on the wall. (They are still up there right now because I've been too lazy to go find the 409 and wipe it off.)

But one of the best things about having a whiteboard is when you go to sleep in the morning, wake up and drive your husband to school, come home and then, as you are getting ready to walk out the door, notice this on the walls (I really did walk past it twice without realizing it at all.):

There was writing on every section of the walls in the living room. I didn't notice. I fell asleep faster than he did the night before, and apparently he couldn't sleep so he decided to write on the walls. I felt silly that I walked past it twice and didn't even look at the walls. And at first, I was confused because I only saw the word "love" on the wall by the door, but the Chinese character for love isn't the one that is under it (apparently chinese sentence structure is different.....of course.) And then I slowly spun around the room. It really was like a bright light just turned on over my head when I noticed.

It was definitely one of the best things to start the morning with.