Merry Christmas!

We thought we'd take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. C and I were asked to be Mary and Joseph at our temple's live nativity, and we had an enjoyable time. It was a really great way to spend Christmas Eve. Surprisingly, instead of thinking about being Mary with the Christ child, I spent more time thinking about me and C being parents one day. In one word...WHOA.

Gym Rats

On our way to the gym the other day, C and I were discussing some of the people that we see on a consistent basis. As we have never really talked to any of these people, we had given them nicknames (much like stars-and-stripes bandana man from my previous post). Here are some of them:

• The Inclinators: two women who wear the heaviest clothing I've ever seen in a gym. This includes big sweatshirts, heavy sweatpants, and gloves. And these are not just lifting gloves, these are real, cold-weather gloves. These two women walk on the treadmill with it raised to a ridiculously high incline. It's pretty funny to watch. Do they really think that the water weight they're losing is really going to stay off of them?
• PinkSkin: named because the day before an important Redskins game she was wearing a pink Redskins jersey. She's there in the afternoons much like C and myself so we see her frequently. I actually think she's someone with whom I'd be friends.
• PinkSkin's mom: pretty obvious who she is. She is also often at the gym. She and her daughter will, of course, often chat and because of this I've learned quite a bit about PinkSkin. She has a boyfriend who is buying a gift for PinkSkin's parents, but doesn't know quite what to get them. Also, PinkSkin is a teacher, possibly of young kids.
• The Frenchy Friends: two women who insist on only watching Oprah while working out. They speak French to each other.
• Jar-Jar Binks: this crazy girl who has the craziest body movements while on the elliptical. If you saw her, you would totally understand the name. It's extremely awkward and you really just feel embarrassed for her.

Oh yeah, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Enemies

Although I generally don't like people, I don't generally dislike them. In fact, I can only think of two people that I would consider my "enemies." Both of these people have no idea that I consider them thus; I think it would take the fun out of it if they knew.

My first enemy is the stars-and-stripes-bandana-wearing man from my old gym in Orem. He and I would get to the gym at about the same time every morning, but usually I would beat him by just a few minutes. (A note about this gym: There were about 15 treadmills that faced 10 televisions. You could get a remote control from the employees in order to change the channels on the TVs.) Usually there was one TV that was tuned into MTV. Before you judge me for watching this trash, have you ever watched TV at 5:30 in the morning? There is nothing on. So while I'm not generally an MTV watcher, I found it easy to run to the music. Enter the enemy. He would come into the gym, grab the remote from the front desk, and attempt to change my MTV to...KBYU, which was invariably showing some BYU devotional or reruns of conference talks. I certainly mean no offense to the brethren. But do you really expect me to run to Elder Scott preaching repentance? I don't think so! Enemy number 1 would ask me day after day if I was watching the MTV and day after day I would nod my head, "Yes." And then day after day, I would feel victorious as I won the war of the TV.

My second enemy is one that I have to deal with on a daily basis right now: the paperman. He is undoubtedly the worst paper deliverer I have ever had (and I've been getting the paper delivered to me since my freshman year in college...11 years). Why is he my enemy? His inconsistency. Some days the paper is by my door before I wake up (pre-5:32 a.m.) Other days it's not there when I leave for work (post-6:25 a.m.). This is the worst offense as I will then have to purchase a paper to read at work. I just don't understand why you can't get into a regular schedule and have the papers delivered at about the same time every day. Unfortunately I am definitely losing this paper war.

What's my Age Again?

I have had a couple of experiences lately where people with whom I was talking learned my age. Upon learning my age, they were a little taken aback, as they said that they didn't think I was the age that I am (29). When I asked them how old they thought I was, the answers tend to be around 24 or 25.

Fine. Great. Spectacular. I look younger than I am. I'm sure that "someday I'll be happy about it." Even right now, I guess it's not horrible. It's not like I'm tired of being carded when buying alcohol or tobacco, because, well, I don't buy alcohol or tobacco.

So here's the real problem: when people think that I am 24 or 25 and then learn that I've been married two years, it automatically puts me into that category that I'm proud to not be in. (Please, those of who you did marry "young" don't get mad. You all know that the erin of the late-90s, early-aughts would have loved to have been married at age 19.) But the fact is, I wasn't. Instead, I finished my undergraduate degree, finished a Master's degree, worked two "real" jobs, traveled a lot, and just plain had fun. (Again, had my life gone differently, that is, had I been married while still in college and had a couple of kids already that would have been fine too. I am sure that I would still be proud of that.) But I like being in this category of being an older (at least for Mormons), accomplished bride and so when people think I'm not in this category, it makes me sad.

I realize that this is simply a pride issue. Maybe having a kid would make me look older; but then I'd be in another category I am not quite ready to be in: a mother!

A Christmas Tradition

After spending a loooong week in Kansas City I'm finally back to a computer. Thank goodness. As nothing write-worthy happened, I'll tell the story of the first Christmas tradition as celebrated by C and myself.

We spent last Christmas with my parents in Utah. Because of this, we decided not to have a real tree and opted to use my little decorative trees from Michaels instead. This year we are staying home and therefore had no excuse to not get a real tree. So I decided that I wanted to make a fun afternoon/evening of the whole event and at the same time, create our first holiday tradition. The first part of this new tradition was to get the tree. Now, I love to support the local merchants and try to do so at all opportunities, but when their trees were more than twice as expensive as the six-footer from the local Home Depot, well, you can guess where we bought the tree. Plus, the Home Depot had this cool pull-through thingy that wrapped the tree in plastic to keep it together. It was so COOL.

Next we thought we'd treat ourselves to a meal out. It's not often that we eat out, so we thought we'd go fancy: Taco Bell. YUM.

After dinner, we brought home the tree and pulled out the rest of the holiday decorations. C worked on the tree while I put up everything else. We listed to Harry Connick's Christmas CD while working. So fun.

Once everything was completed, we turned off all the lights except for those recently added to the tree, fixed a batch of rice krispie treats, and ate those treats directly from the bowl while watching "A Christmas Story." It was an awesome night! Long live this tradition!

Fun for Friday, part whatever

A new set of favorite websites I've found recently.

• Caveat: I am NOT pregnant. C and I have no plans to become so anytime soon. However, when I saw this stroller, I knew that when the day comes that I am pregnant, this stroller will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine. I love everything about it. The company just makes beautiful objects! (Check out the others strollers too.)
• This site has some of the coolest little things I've seen in a long time. I recently purchased two magnets and could realistically purchase almost everything she has created. (If you feel overwhelmed by all the products, start by looking at the magnets. They give a good overview of what she's all about.)
• And someday when I have enough time to create a business selling my wares, I will use this company to create a stamp that I can use as my logo. They're just so pretty.

Happy Friday and happy December!