Vacation This Week!

We'll be leaving for California tomorrow! I'm excited! I also start Fall Semester tomorrow! We'll be leaving after I get done with school. It's kinda crappy I have to miss a day of school, but such is the luck when you plan your trip around a Nascar Race that is pre-scheduled :)

Here's the itinerary:

Tuesday - Drive all night (taking shifts)
Wednesday - Chill out with Ramin's family
Thursday - Disneyland!
Friday - Lego Land!
Saturday - Lunch with Grandma and Grandpa!
Sunday - Race day!
Monday - Drive home

It's going to go by so fast I'm going to be sad. Lady will be staying with Mom and Bob - Belle will be staying with Steve (Ramin's friend from work).

I hope to take lots of pictures and post them all up when we get back! Why can't vacations last longer? :P

A Meditation on the Speed Limit

This experiment by some college students is AWESOME. Ramin and I always say this, how the speed limit is just an impediment to traffic. You should go fast enough to keep up with the speed of the rest of the traffic, which is usually between 70 and 80. This experiment proves that slowness can be more dangerous. I thought some of you would find this entertaining :)

Progress?

So it's been about 5 days now since I fell on the bike. The pain has lessened a lot but it's still there all of the time. My right arm likes to shoot random pains that feel like needle stings every now and again. My right arm also cracks and bleeds because of the movement of my arm. Every time I move it and I can feel my scabby skin crackle. It's really gross I know. I keep it very clean, regardless of what it looks like below. Every day I wash it with mild soap and water and then immediately follow up with quite a bit of hydrogen peroxide. Then I top it with a layer of neosporin. At work I try to leave it open to the air but sometimes it gets so itchy that I have to cover it with a band aid otherwise I'll scratch it all off. I didn't post any pictures of my left arm only because they didn't turn out well and because it's healing just fine. Anyway - below is two views of my right arm. It's progress right?

Still Stinging

Last night was kinda rough. I had it all bandaged up for a few hours but it's hard to keep bandages on bendable parts. I don't even have to rub my arms against anything for them to sting...they are in a constant state of stinging. It's really weird. The bigger cuts don't hurt as much either. It's the small surface scratches that hurt. The top picture is my right arm, the bottom is my left. You can see the biggest scab on my left arm is right at the tip of my elbow. I think when I hit there I also bruised my elbow cause I can't really bend that arm straight. That's also the elbow I broke in 2nd grade. Anyway, the pictures make the scabs look more red than they are. All of the scabs are like dark purple. I like to take progress pictures of how things heal, cause eventually this will heal and it will be pretty amazing what the human body can do to repair itself. So expect to see more scab progress pictures. It's too bad I hurt myself a week before our California trip though. At least in all of the pictures the inside of my arms will show and not the backs of them :)

Planes, Bikes and Bruises

This week was rather fun for all of us! Wednesday night we all headed out to the local mini-airstrip for some model air plane flying. It was Ramin and Chris' second time out so they still weren't that great. On Wednesday night's there are members from a club there that help newbies figure out what they're doing. Babak wanted to bring Belle along for the ride. She rode well in the car and did good at the park for the most part. She whines so much though :P I took a bunch of pictures at that place. Ramin did a good chunk of the flying and takeoff/landings. On one of his landings he did something weird and zoomed it right into the orange temporary fence. Luckily no damage was suffered :) Chris also flew the plane once it was up in there, he needs some more practice in the flight sim before trying to land.


Today, Ramin, Babak and I headed up to the Solitude Ski Resort as they have summer activities you can do. You can ride the lift up and head down a number of bike or hiking trails. We piled all 3 of our bikes into the Titan (LOVE that truck!) and headed up. We already have helmets and cool gear. I even have riding gloves from when Lisa and I went biking in Moab a few years back. Anyway, we were on the "easy" trail and low and behold there's a huge dip. I could tell the entire story but suffice it to say, there was a huge dip, I misjudged distance and slammed on my brakes too hard. My front tire stopped and I kept going right over my bike. I basically slid flat on my chest a bit and dragged my elbows along for the ride. The picture of some of the damage is below. It hurts worse than it looks. Usually people say that phrase just the opposite. This shit STINGS! I'm all bandaged up now thanks to Ramin's help. He called me a trooper for taking a fall like that and getting right back up and finishing the trail. We even took the lift up again a second time and went down again. That was it for me though. My neck was already sore this week for some strange reason, and the fall apparently made it worse. I took 800 mg of Ibuprofen :D.


This week was fun! Yes I did get hurt and I've got a TON of bruises on my legs and arms, but after falling like that and not seriously breaking a bone (which I've done before many times) I actually felt kinda rejuvenated and relieved that I hurt myself like that finally. It was bound to happen. I need to practice my biking skills on the trail back near our house a bit more :)

I can now ride a motorcycle!

Over this past weekend Ramin and I took a two-day ride education course to learn to ride a motorcycle. We took it from Utah Rider Education and they held it at Murray High School. For the first half of both Saturday and Sunday we did classroom teaching with a booklet and videos...it was rather interesting. From about noon until 5 pm on Saturday we were outside on the bikes. Boy was it tough at first for me. For someone who never learned how to drive a manual transmission car, learning the bike was rather hard. But by the end of the day I got the hang of it and rarely stalled the bike. Motorcycles are rather forgiving honestly. Oh, and I hate first gear :P On the second day we did more classroom learning and took our written exam...Ramin got 100% and I got 98% - I missed one question that I originally had the right answer on. I started thinking too much about it and questioned myself. Anyway - Sunday on the range was nuts. We were out there from about 12:30 until 6:30. We got rained on HARD - and hailed on....we were all soaked for about an hour and then the sun came out again. We practiced our figure 8's and weaving and swerving. It was way fun! I love weaving in and out of the cones. At the end we all did our test one by one - there were 11 of us total. I gotta say I think I did better than some of the guys out there :) I got a 90% on the road test and Ramin got 85% - but it doesn't matter cause we both passed! The plan now is to go get our licenses sometime soon. Ramin plans to get a bike soon as well so he can drive it to work before winter comes. After that he'll drive the Titan and I'll drive the Audi.

Oh BTW - the Avenger is now parked permanently at Mom and Bob's house. It was rather convenient as we had planned to keep it there when it was time. Last week I was there to pick up some of my old Barbie stuff and when I went to start the car, it didn't work. It was so strange. Bob was there with me. It's like the car knew that it was time for it to park itself. So Ramin, Chris and Ramin's brother (Babak) came in the truck and picked me up. We covered up the car and it will be fine there. We left a small amount of insurance on it in case anything happens to it while it's parked. It will become the project car in time. I don't have the heart to ever get rid of it because I have so many memories with that car. Just thinking about it now I'm getting tears in my eyes. It's been a very good car to me and I love it. One day it will run again and it will be better than it ever was before.

So that's been my last week. Ramin and I are taking this Friday off so we can go mountain biking with Babak. I'll try to take pictures and post them up.

3's

3 Joys:
My friends and family
Traveling to historic places - especially when there's some ghosty stuff involved
Doing well in school

3 Fears:
Anyone from my immediate family dying - haven't had to deal with it yet :(
Lady dying (I think about it a lot :( )
Not being able to have kids when it's time

3 Goals:
Finish college - only 2 more semesters!
Actually use my degrees once I have them
Get married to Ramin and have some kiddies

3 obsessions:
Blogging (newest thing)
Lia Sophia jewelry - seriously I've stopped now, I promised Ramin
Watching Most Haunted - I can't help it, it's my favorite show!

3 Random Facts:
I majored in Philosophy because I wanted a challenge (boy did I get one!)
Jill and I have been best friends for almost 20 years now - holy cow!
England is my favorite place in the entire world and when I have the chance to go there someday I will relish in it!

I tag Bob

Bath Time!

Lady had a bath yesterday. It's tough giving her baths because she's so big - but boy did she need it! She's so weird cause while she's in the bathtub she is scared and shaky. The moment she gets out and shakes off she turns into CRAZY DOG. She runs around the house drying herself on every soft piece of furniture around. The couches, the bed, the rugs. Consequently, because Lady fires up, so does Belle. Belle takes it as a sign that Lady wants to play (which she never does of course). So I took some pictures of Lady right out of the bath and Belle and her running around being funny.

So after the bath hoopla was over I dried Lady off some more and then it was lunch time. I don't know why I thought it was cute watching Lady eat but for some reason it was. So I took the picture. Belle got jealous and started howling at me...so I told her to go over to her bowl and I'd take a picture of her too. So we get there and she starts howling, hence the picture below.

Now we're at this morning...and I had to get one more picture of Lady all dried and trimmed and pretty before she turns into a monster again. She was being stubborn this morning and didn't want me to take her picture. She laid right outside of the office as I kept saying "Lady, look at me!", "Lady!", "Look at me!" - she just stared straight ahead...until the moment she turned and gave me The Lady Look....mom, Bob, Chris, Taylor and Ramin know The Lady Look and this is it!

My Break

It's nice having no school for a few weeks. I don't have anything nagging in the back of my head like "gotta read that chapter" or "I gotta study for that quiz" - none of that! It's nice. I did a bit of job searching today. Not because I want to leave eBay, on the contrary. I just wanted to see what types of jobs are available to me here in Utah once I graduate with my degrees. There are a lot more than I previously thought it turns out. Even opportunities in Psychology with a lowly Bachelor's. We'll have to see what happens. I'm doing rather well at eBay right now. Things have calmed down A LOT. We're still in fast paced mode but I'm not being pulled in 5 directions at once anymore. It's more like I'm being pulled in 2 directions at any given time :) But that I can handle.
There are and have been some recent job postings I could/should have applied for within eBay. But I'm not sure that it's the right time for me. I do still have two of the toughest semesters of my life coming up and I want to feel secure I'm in my job doing the best I can. In my current spot I know everything that needs to be done and I know how to do it on my own. If I moved to a new spot there's lots of things to learn and I'm not sure I want that extra stress. As hard as it is for me to let opportunities pass me by, I know it's for the greater good. I need to be patient and bide my time...I need to enjoy my last 2 semesters of school and learn as much as I can. Come this time next year, I can start thinking about the future!

Fun Stuff

I ran into my new blogs today that I find rather entertaining...they are rather girly but Jezebel is REALLY sarcastic and I like it!

Here they are:
Jezebel
Working Girl