We are T-minus 2 days and I am so proud to say …
All the presents are still wrapped in their original paper and not one gift has been spoiled!! ;) Yes, there has been a little shaking, but that is harmless right??
GO US!!
Monthly Archives: December 2008
Memory Lane … thanks to work!?
I don’t think many of you know, but the company I work for makes many of the rings that High School and College graduates are wearing these days – branded as Balfour. What even fewer of you would know, is that as part of our student recognition entity, we also have sister companies who take care of the announcements, invitations, caps & gowns, and apparel (hoodies, t-shirts, shorts, flip-flops, etc.). Very interesting, I know. Long story short – when we end up with excess inventory of hoodies that have ‘Seniors 08’ on them, and they are no longer sellable, employees get a shot at them for a pretty discounted price. Today, I became a 2008 graduate and bought me some really cute Yoga Pants.
Not too bad, right?? For pants I’ll probably use for nothing more than working out in (maybe they’ll inspire me to start doing Yoga again. ha!) or sleeping in, I think I can handle the ‘Senior 08’ insignia. Plus … they make my butt look really good (sometimes I just can’t ignore my vanity)! Sorry, that picture will have to be saved for a later date! Much, much later! ;)
The funny thing of purchasing these pants, however, was the memory lane it sent me down. Lucky for me, trips like this are easy to take when I’ve got every day of my High School career documented through journals! My memory is pretty good, but journals are fun to read through to pick up on all the little details that seem to get lost as I age! Silly details like – did you know the word ‘Go’ is sung 88 times in the song ‘Go Go Go Joseph’ and that the quickest costume change Joseph gets in the musical is 15 seconds? Oh ya, I know you’re impressed! Apparently that was something I read in the newspaper and felt it was worthy of being documented in the Shanan Chronicles. Or … you can simply deduce from this information that I was completely, utterly, and insanely obsessed with the musical … oh and a man that played Joseph!
Anyway, I came across one memory that I thought I would share with you. Before I do, I should note that in addition to the many pages that are etched, day after day, with my life happenings – I’ve got almost just as many pictures to coincide with my writings.
These pictures that I’ve posted below, I have to admit, are some of my favorites.
In Grade 11 (yes, not 11th grade … or Junior Year … I’m Canadian, people!), I was one of the lead roles in our school musical, ‘Oklahoma.’ It consumed A LOT of my time, but offered great memories for me to reflect on.
This was the opening scene … when sweet Curly comes singing to me.
This is one of my all-time favorite pictures. Ever! My dad deserves all the credit for this one – perfect timing!
This was my favorite scene of the play – all cast members had their eyes on me! ;) Sometimes, a girl just can’t get enough attention. ha! (ok, ok – I’ll keep my vain remarks to myself now)
See hunny, I shot a gun way before we even got married! ;)
Aunt Eller’s curtain call with Jud Fry and Ali Hakim – we’re the ones that always got the Standing-O’s! Oh ya!
(I certainly didn’t do this on purpose, but I just realized that my mouth is wide open in almost every one of these pictures … did you notice that way before me?? Hmmm … I’m such a nut!)
I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my memory!
Date Night With ….
… ME!
I guess it’s not really a date night – just a night out by myself! Aaron is out shooting the UT Men’s Basketball game tonight, so I thought I would take the opportunity to go see ‘Twilight’ in the theater. Awww … I know … going to the movie by myself – how terrible. That is an obvious first reaction – but, no need to feel bad. At all. Really. This is not anything new. I have absolutely no problem going to a movie by myself – in fact, when I was single, I was known to go to restaurants by myself too. Believe me when I say one of the many bones that make up my body has ‘anti-social’ written all over it! When I’m hungry, I wanna eat – don’t want to wait for a group of people to get together first just to complicate things! Onlookers had more of a problem with this than I did! ;)
Anyway, back to the movie …
There was one thing I knew before seeing this movie – there was no way the movie was going to be as good as the book. I thought this was a fair enough expectation to have before seeing the movie. I haven’t really been itching to see ‘Twilight’ for this very reason. But, after hearing mixed reviews on the film, I figured I might as well form my own opinion.
Before I get into the details, if you were to straight-up ask me what I thought of the film, you would probably get this reaction, ‘nyah (with a slight tilt of the head, shrug of the shoulders, and lips pursed with a glimpse of a frown) … it was worth seeing.’
If I had to choose one word to describe what I thought of the film, it would be awkward. Edward was awkward. Bella was awkward. Their connection was awkward. The extreme, constant close-ups of their faces were awkward (although I understand why they did this, it was still awkward). The giggling teenagers sitting behind me in the theater … awkward! ;) Although, I had compassion for their awkwardness as I was one of them many years ago! Man, to think how cool I really wasn’t! ;)
Sidetracked again … back to the movie …
I didn’t like how my infatuation with Edward was all based on the book. I don’t think I would have fallen in love with him if I had only seen the movie. Nor would I have understood the true, inseparable connection he felt to Bella. And, I must admit this ones a little petty, if it weren’t for the book (and, from the film, the small moment Bella and Edward had in his Volvo when they briefly touched fingers), I would have never known just how stone cold Edward was to the touch.
But, with all this said – even if it was aided by my reading the book first, it still allowed my brain to step out of ‘my life’ for 2 hours. I was a part of their story and a part of their emotion. All the actors who portrayed the Vampires were great. The Baseball scene was great fun to watch. Alice and Esme were easy to love. James was easy to hate. And they teased Jacob’s character just enough to get me anticipating his relationship with Bella in the next film.
So, as I mentioned above, it’s worth seeing – just don’t set your expectations too high!
Oh, and remember, this is nothing more than my opinion. Not a published critic here!
And The Test Starts Now!
So, remember how I mentioned in the post for Aaron’s birthday that we’re terrible at keeping presents wrapped until the big day! Remember how I also mentioned that I need to train myself to shop for things the day before a birthday or Christmas just so that presents don’t get spoiled??
Umm … I guess I decided that I needed a good challenge!
For some reason, Aaron and I decided to dedicate one evening last week to complete all of our Christmas shopping – for extended family and ourselves! What were we thinking???
We now have a stack of presents, all nicely wrapped, sitting here in our living room … staring at us saying, ‘Open … Open … Open!’ To try and muffle this urge (and keep Kala from digging her teeth into the luscious wrapping paper) we’ve covered them with a blanket. It has worked so far …
We are determined, however, to keep all presents wrapped until the 25th.
Got any tips to make this happen?? ;)
Old Email Humour!
I am a filing Queen! If any of you were to see my filing system for electronic files and emails, I think your eyes would go crazy with how organized it is. Everything has its own place to be stored. Even my physical files in my work office are neatly organized – pretty colour coded files and nicely printed labels! I never really thought I was a pack rat, but I guess that’s not necessarily true since I’ve got emails going back years … literally!
Actually, come to think of it now, it might be a little fun to have somebody filter through my emails or computer files looking for something specific just to see how easy it would be for them to find it! Then again … maybe not … everybody organizes differently ;)
Anyway, that was random – but gives a little background for today’s post.
In preparation for Birthdays and Christmas’, Aaron is so good at providing me an excel spreadsheet with direct links to all the potential gifts he would like to get. This cuts any worry as to whether or not I’m getting the right camera-thing-a-ma-jig! It is quite nice – for both of us. For some reason, however, he’s been a little sparce on options this year – leaving more room for my creativity I guess. Trying to pull at any strings I could, I started digging through old emails this morning to find any past lists that perhaps I could pull gift ideas from. In doing so, I came across another email that gave me a good laugh. So, I thought I would share …
Back in May of this year, Aaron introduced one of his thumbs to a box cutter. And as I’m sure any of you can deduce, the box cutter won! This is an email I sent to just my family about the incident as I didn’t have a blog at the time. But, I’m sure if I had one then, I would have just posted it here instead. So, here’s making up for lost time …
Enjoy! ;)
(Date: May 13, 2008)
Subject: Who’s Next To Slice Something??
Well – I didn’t want to scare you too bad with the subject line … but yes, we have had another slicing accident in the family. Yesterday, Aaron managed to slice his thumb with a box-cutter and here’s how the story goes … (I’m sure you will all be entertained)
I got a call from Aaron around 1:30pm saying nothing but ‘You need to come home’. So, I asked him what happened and he said, ‘I sliced my thumb – you just need to come home’. Because I am the wonderful wife that I am, I didn’t ask anything more, hung up the phone, told my boss I needed to go tend to my injured husband (which he had no problem with at all), got in my car and drove home. The short 7 mile trip home I was bracing myself for the worst – saying little prayers to give me strength not to faint! My husband was relying on me and I needed to be strong!
I got home around 1:45pm to see my husband’s thumb neatly wrapped in a wet paper towel with no sign of blood anywhere – I could certainly handle that. I made sure he was conscious and ok before I asked the daring question – ‘will you let me see it so I can know if we need to go to the hospital?’ Now Aaron, the smart man that he is, already knew he needed to go the hospital and also knew he needed somebody to drive him there – so he didn’t let me see it! So, without any further adieu, we jumped in the car and headed to the urgent care facility.
Everything was going great – Aaron was back to himself, we had filled out all the necessary paperwork, checked ourselves in, and we were patiently waiting for his name to be called. Once this happened, they took us back to an open room, put Aaron up on the bed, took his vitals, and told us to wait for the doctor. Sure enough, when the doctor arrived, they unveiled the wound and stitches were needed. Since blood wasn’t gushing everywhere, I thought I could handle looking at his thumb – so I did. And to my surprise, nothing happened! It looked like a really deep crease as he had perfectly sliced his thumb along one of the knuckle creases – and I was doing good! The doctor went on to tell us that the stitches weren’t going to be the hard part, the numbing would be! So, both of us braced for the inevitable pain (who knew what I was bracing for since I had nothing to do with getting poked) and let the doctor do her thing. Of course, with all the nerve endings in one’s hand, any sharp instrument would cause a great deal of pain!
Here’s my queue to enter the show!
I started feeling a little light headed from seeing my husband in the great deal of pain he was in – so before it got any worse, I told him I would have to excuse myself and that I would be waiting for him the waiting room. I got out to the waiting room, sat down, and realized sitting wasn’t going to help – I needed to lie down. So, I asked one of the attendants at the front desk if there was an open room for me to lie down in. As they were taking forever (in my mind) to decide what room I could go into, I was getting worse and worse by the second. So, I decided to lay down on the floor right there. One of the patients waiting in a chair behind me voiced up and said, ‘She just fainted. Shouldn’t you guys be doing something about this?’ No, I hadn’t fainted – but who was to know that. So, I assured the people that came out to my aid that I was conscious and just needed to lay down. Of course, let me remind you – we were in an urgent care facility! Lying down on the floor wasn’t good enough – they got a wheel chair, three of them picked me up, and they, along with one other attendant, wheeled me back into an open room (didn’t take long for them to figure out which one was open now!). One attendant pushing/pulling the wheel chair, one holding my left knee (who knows what for), one holding the wet rag and the other holding a cup of water and my purse. Being in this state many, many times before, I knew getting up in the middle of an episode is not the best thing to do – so it only proves to reason that I started getting worse. I finally convinced them to let me get to the cold floor with a cold rag and just let me be. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, I was sitting up and feeling much better. I walked myself back out to the waiting room and waited for Aaron to finish – hoping he hadn’t heard all the commotion that just happened.
On our way home – he explained to me how the rest of his time went with getting stitches in his thumb (this being the first time he’s had to have stitches for an injury in his short 26 years of life) and let me know as the doctor was just about finishing up, a nurse came in the room and told him, ‘Don’t worry, we got your wife back out to the waiting room and she will be just fine.’ Confused a little bit, he was able to put two and two together when he had made his way back out to the waiting room to find his wife as white as a ghost. I then went on to explain to him what had happened.
So – that’s it … Durda’s do things in style! Everything is fine – Aaron got a few stitches and a brace on his thumb as he won’t be able to bend it for the next 10 days and I was fully functioning and conscious during the times that I needed to be. Aaron is still saying what he first said when we were sitting in the waiting room and he had finally gotten back to himself, ‘Man, that was stupid!’
What Would We Do Without The WWW??
Sometimes I just have to laugh at this phenomena that we have all become somewhat dependent on – commonly known as the World Wide Web! I think it’s so funny that I can type ‘how many calories do you lose in a day’, ‘what causes loss of fur on kitty paws’, ‘how many cups in a pint’, or even ‘The Oak Ridge Boys Christmas album lyrics’ and be able to find hundreds if not thousands of related sites all with answers for me! Now, I certainly do appreciate the fact that I can do this and think it is amazing how much information is so readily available at the click of just a few buttons, but I still think it is funny ;)
My internet home page on my work computer is currently set on Yahoo. Everyday, they have a list of new headlines for everybody to read that are usually entertainment, news, or sports related. It often seems, to me at least, that they find the strangest topics to make available just so they can attract readers … probably hoping they all click on the advertisements!
Today certainly did not disappoint!
I saw the headline “Traits That Reveal What Kind of Driver You Are” and had to go take a look ;) Ummm … where do they find this information?? Seriously! I want that job that collects data on whether or not a brunette is a worse driver than a blonde! I had a good chuckle when I was done reading this … and was happy to know that I live in Austin, my astrological sign is Pisces, and my profession is a glorified secretary! (you’ll understand after you read the article! ha)
So, just in case you weren’t so lucky to catch it on Yahoo, here it is for your reading pleasure …
Traits That Reveal What Kind of Driver You Are (By: Dayna Davis)
We all probably know by now that not all drivers are created equal. Everyone has those friends who terrify us behind the wheel with their aggression and speed and other friends who drive slower than our grandparents do.
Believe it or not, statistics compiled after reviewing car accidents tell a lot about the kind of drivers we are. Who knew that our occupation and even our astrological sign could predict the likelihood that we’ll get into an accident?
These statistics reveal some important information about who to watch out for on the road.
Professions Most Likely to Crash: Research conducted by the price comparison site, moneysupermarket.com shows that bus conductors are the most likely to have an accident and engravers are the least likely. The report does specify bus conductors are the most likely to crash their own cars, so that’s a relief for us commuters.
The research was derived from insurance quotes of 10 million consumers. Other professions in the top ten most likely to have an at-fault accident are general practitioners, psychologists, and surgeons. Hmm … maybe the stress of saving lives all day gets released on the road?
Horse dealers, butlers, golf caddies, au pairs, and zoologists are among the least likely to crash. The same report lists army officers as the most likely to speed on the road.
Astrological Signs Most Likely to Crash: A September 2008 study of over 115,000 car insurance claims by Accident Exchange, a British accident management company, analyzed car accident rates by astrological sign. And sorry, Gemini, but your sign tops the list as the most likely to be involved in an accident. The next two most likely signs to crash are Taurus and Aries. Interesting data since that means drivers most likely to get in accidents are those born between March and June. Scorpions and Sagittarians were ranked the least likely to get in an accident.
So the next time you get in a car with a friend, make sure you know her sign before accepting a ride. And if you’re a Gemini, Taurus, or Aries, take extra caution behind the wheel.
Most Likely to Hit Deer: A State Farm Insurance report shows people living in New York, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are the most likely to hit deer on the road. The report shows 1.5 million car crashes involve deer each year, mostly between October and December. In New York, the odds of hitting a deer are one in 141. In West Virginia, one in forty-five cars collides with deer.
If you’re worried about hitting a deer, move to Hawaii, where the odds are one in 11,000.
Most (and Least) Likely Cities for Road Rage: If you live in Miami, New York, Boston, Baltimore, or Washington DC, your city is one of the top places where drivers are likely to have road rage. The survey, conducted by Auto Vantage and Affinion Group Media, also ranked the most courteous driving cities, which are:
1. Pittsburgh
2. Portland
3. Seattle
4. Minneapolis
5. Cleveland
The survey also found younger drivers are the most likely to honk their horns and those with the longest commutes are the most likely to use obscene gestures. Some other “most likelies” from this report are:
· New Yorkers are the most likely to tailgate
· Miami drivers are the most likely to cut off other drivers without notice
· Baltimore, New York, and Tampa drivers are the most likely to eat or drink on the road
· Denver, Houston, Miami, and Phoenix drivers are the most likely to text behind the wheel
· Washington DC drivers are the most likely to slam on their brakes
· Drivers in Miami and Tampa are the most likely to run red lights
Now that I know the stats, I’ll let the Gemini drivers speed past me on the highway and I’ll keep an eye out for surgeons on the road.
Back At It … and it feels good!
By way of this photo, I would like to introduce you to my new running companion! My new companion is available to run whenever I’m ready to run. They don’t get upset if I completely flake without so much as a call. They let me listen to whatever music I want – and even sing along if I feel so inclined. And they even have a special way of making running easier! I’ll give you a hint – it’s not the lady in the blue shorts being good and stretching before she runs. Nope, not the girl in the pink shirt talking on the phone (shoot – if I could get my exercising done by simply talking on the phone, I would have it made!!) or even the gentleman hiding behind one of those beams also stretching.
Think outside the box, my friends – My new running companion is that redish/orangish cement looking thing … the track!
Unfortunately, my running schedule has dwindled down to nothing over the last several weeks. And I was doing so good, too! It’s just too dark once I get home from work for me to feel safe running out on the streets by myself :( I was hopeful for the time change as I thought it would be light enough for me to start running in the mornings again. But, I wasn’t so lucky. If I get up to run in the mornings, I only get about a 20 minute window to get any exercising in.
After mentioning to Aaron that I would really like to start running again and just didn’t know how it was even feasible, he mentioned one of the benefits of living close to UT campus. This outdoor track is a high-traffic area that is always lit. Perfect for running in the daylight or in the dark of night. Perfect solution, if you ask me!
I’m excited to keep my body active …. since, ultimately, more exercising can only equal more pounds lost!
(wow, I just used ‘excited’ in reference to exercising! Who would have ever thunk?? Maybe this is all a part of growing older and wiser! ha)
My Quirky Life 
