I've posted this everywhere else, so here it is for y'all, as well...
I posted this over in ADIML and thought perhaps some of y'all would be interested in taking a look. I will give you a real entry about fun vacation happenings tomorrow, because for serious, this took me all night and I've about had it.
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Hiya. Liz, 28, from Dallas, TX. First timer here! This is my July 4, 2008, in which I am on vacation in Richfield, Utah, visiting my mom and step dad. If you like clouds, dogs, and mountains, you'll love these pics!
59 pictures, including non-repeating teaser. Also, I am always in the mood for new friends.
I wake up to this creature waiting for me to wake up:
His name is Tonto, and he is in love with me. I love him, but just as friends. I truly thinks he wants to be my boyfriend. I just don't swing that way. Anyway, wake-up pic:
Apparently I am quite squinty when I wake up.
That says 6:34. Apparently the stove doesn't really show up in pictures.
There is really no reason to be up this early. We're going to the Fourth of July parade, but we aren't leaving until 9:00. Still, I don't go back to bed. Instead, I take a picture of my mom drinking coffee, because she literally can't do anything ever until she has 2 cups of coffee.
My mom and Tonto then have a moment:
Potty time. Instead of the pants around the ankles, here's a picture in the bathroom that my mom has had forever, since before I was born. It's always nice to have some nostalgia while peeing.
We have a while before the parade, so I finish reading this book. I have a problem where I reread things to death before I buy something new to read. I like the familiar, what can I say.
I check my email. Nothing interesting, except an email from my BFF about picking me up at the airport when I come home. So even though I'm trying to avoid checking internets while on vacation as much as possible, I check Television Without Pity to see the latest on my fave TV show:
That's about as healthy as it gets all day. My stepdad enjoys the healthiness of it all:
After breakfast I go outside and enjoy the somewhat chilly Utah morning. I join Lion outside. He was a stray and we have no idea what kind of dog he is. I just love his one white paw.
This is my favorite song right now, I won't lie. I've been involved in a relationship with Axl Rose since I was 12 years old, and there's nothing I can do about it now.
I don't usually wear make-up but my mom likes for me to wear it when I'm in her presence. I don't know.
We still have a lot of time so I settle in with some Sudoku. This is a recent discovery, as in the last couple of days. I must be getting better 'cause I solved this one in less than 10 minutes. That doesn't mean I'm ready to stop doing the Easy ones.
I text my boyfriend, who is waiting patiently for me back in Texas:
Parade time! We walk, but I can't help taking a picture of my rental car on the way out. I love it so much. It's a Charger, and I named her Charlotte.
Okay, so I'm fascinated by the Richfield Fourth of July parade. This is my fifth year to go and the fascination never ends. The people are...different. First of all, these chairs? They set them up days in advance. You go driving through the streets and there's these empty chairs lining the streets, and it's kind of eerie! But I digress.
My mom and step dad enjoying the parade:
There is always a llama in the parade:
There's a lot of food to enjoy during the festivities, but my mom and I look forward to the Navajo tacos every year:
My mom was fascinated by this baby:
We're back! My mom greets the dogs and I take a pic of the house. The house has been in my step dad's family for over 100 years. He lived there as a kid, moved to Texas, worked as a professor at Texas Women's University, met my mom, they got married and moved to Utah last year. I miss her. But I like this house, even if it is so old that you have to turn off the air conditioner if you want to use the hair dryer.
It is 12:01. We watch the dogs play for a bit:
Then it's nap time. Tonto gets himself under my bed and we all take a nap together. After that, we go to the horse races. Now, I go to the horse races all the time here in Texas, but in Utah, it's a little different:
It's not "betting," it's "donating." You can only spend $2 on a ticket but you can buy 20 tickets for $2 if you want. So that's interesting.
While we wait for the races to start, I can't help but take pictures of mountains and clouds, my very favorite combination:
We stayed for 2 races. It rained a little, which was exciting. None of the horses I bet on won. I took this picture of my horse, but mostly only because the horse's handler was hottt.
It's 3:08, lots of time before we go see fireworks. So we go to...
And I have a chocolate peanut butter ice cream cone!
I decide to go visit my mom's horses. They tend to ignore me if I'm with my mom, so I go alone. My rental car has Sirius satellite radio and the hair metal station is my BFF. But for some reason it tends to play Tesla more than anything else:
This is Comanche Moon, otherwise known as Moon Baby:
She was being a little bitchy but after I fed her enough hay (the girl eats like a friggin' machine), she posed for a picture with me:
Behind the horses is the house my step dad is building very, very slowly. He's going to eventually hire people to help, but he insists on laying the foundation brick by brick first.
That's what I'm talkin' about:
I go back to the house, and it's bath time! The house is so old that there's just a tub and not a shower. This is okay with my mom, but she had a fit about not having a washer and dryer, and now they finally have one.
Get a text from the boyfriend:
It's 5:22, and apparently time to watch CNN with the step dad and bug the dogs by taking close-up pictures of them:
My mom starts making dinner and has a cocktail while doing so:
I take a picture of Tonto and then realize it looks an awful lot like a framed picture (not of Tonto) that I got my mom for Christmas a few years ago:
After dinner, I get a doggie kiss:
My mom paints my toenails while we watch my favorite guilty pleasure movie, Step Up:
It's 8:48, a little too early to go watch fireworks, but we go to the local elementary school early and take a few intriguing, fascinating cloud pictures. There really is nothing like a Utah sunset.
These Utahans, they really like them the fireworks. They start throwin' 'em around days before the fourth and just never seem to get tired of them. I can't say that I particularly share this fascination, but whatever blows your skirt up.
You don't know how long it took me to get a picture of these fireworks:
BTW, the fireworks kept going. And going. And going. And they wouldn't stop. And while there was some new, interesting fireworks this year, my mom and I got bored. So we left before they were over 'cause we suck like that.
It's 10:42 and I have to wake up early to drive 3 hours to Salt Lake City to catch my plane back to reality. I hate leaving. *sad face*
I call the boyfriend to say goodnight. The conversation isn't exactly happy-making, but that's another entry entirely.
The last image I see before I drift off to sleep...
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And from my LJ today...
Today is the last day of my vacation and there's about 10 things I want to do. However, it's already noon and the only thing I've accomplished is running a virus protector on my computer. It's taking forever because I have to manually tell it what I don't want, and apparently I have like 2,000 threats or something because OMG, just hurry it up already!
So, I've decided to join Jenny Craig. I've been thinking about it for a while and I went in Monday to find out more about it. Typical me, I cried when I was talking to one of the counselors, mostly because my mom really pissed me off earlier in the day. My mom is awesome 90% of the time, but she's never struggled with her weight and doesn't exactly know how to deal with me being the fat one in the family. And I know it was hard for her to see me being all kinds of fat while I was in Utah. They weighed me at Jenny Craig, and I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm the fattest I've ever been. And I don't even know why...it's not like I'm eating more than ever. I figure it's because I'm getting older and because I need to start taking ALL my pills. So...I'm going to get my pills, I'm going to join Jenny Craig, I'm going to start working out again...and if these things don't work, perhaps I will just give up. That would be exciting and liberating and terribly unhealthy. And I'm rambling.
So, I never talked much about my trip. Here's a few highlights:
- As usual, I am completely fascinated by Mormons. They are so interesting to me, and I still want to find out more about them. They're nice people, I know this. But what I find intriguing is how young they are when they start having babies. A lot of the younger girls I see are pushing around strollers with a young baby, have a toddler walking around, and sometimes are also visibly pregnant. And they look so young! Now, Richfield, Utah is a nice town and everything, but don't these girls want to get out and experience life a little before they start settling down and making as many babies as possible? I am probably offending about a million people here, but I just don't get it. Why all the baby-making as soon as possible?
- My mom and I went to see Wall*E. I loved it. Aside from all the screaming babies in the theater.
- I met my mom's new dog, Lion. He was a stray that apparently cased out the house for a couple of days before making his move. The funny thing about him is that he mimics everything Tonto, who was also a stray, does. If Tonto stretches, Lion stretches. If Tonto barks at a passing car, so does Lion, even if he doesn't really know why he's doing that. He's kind of like an alien pretending to be a dog. He's cute as a button, but we didn't really bond as much as I wanted to. I think most of that was because Tonto is in love with me and does not want to share.
- I played a lot of Sudoku. I couldn't figure it out at all at first, but I did eventually. I can't complete a Medium, though, so I'll have to keep practicing.
- Going back home, my plane was delayed an hour and a half because they had to change 2 tires. That was good times. And then when we finally landed in Dallas, my BFF was waiting for me by the baggage claim! I mean, how cool is that? I can't say anyone has ever done that for me before. She's the best BFF there is.
- My mom made cream chicken and mashed potatoes for me. This is my favorite meal. And it's the best ever.
- I miss my mommy.
- That is probably all at this time.