4 car pile up

So as I was saying, John had a great attitude during the game. But great attitudes will only take you so dang far.
Because we had met up earlier with my friend Vanie (and I stayed with her while he went to the stadium), we ended up driving each others' cars, which has never happened. And every time I drive John's car I think, "Please oh please don't let anything happen to this car..."
So, after the game, John and I were headed to Yogurtland for our frozen yogurt fix. It took me forever to find the car in the parking garage, so John was miles ahead of me when it happened.
I was stopped at a stoplight, and luckily had given the car in front of me about 20 feet so as to not block the intersection. I had been there for about 30 seconds when I suddenly got rear-ended. Hard. I got out of the car and realized I was the first of four hit cars. I motioned for us all to pull over to the side of the road. The car behind me did, car #3 took off to take his pregnant wife to the hospital, and car #4 who started it all was a hit and run!!! Luckily a cop drove by as they drove away and caught her. Haha.
The guys who had hit me were really cool and were actually from the same part of LA as John is from. I actually can't believe I didn't take a picture since we had 30 minutes to just chill and talk while the cop reamed out the other girl.
The girl didn't have insurance so we're still waiting to see what happens with it all. John's car actually looks way better than I thought it would. (And so does the Lexus coupe from LA.)
Our frozen yogurt had a lot more chocolate on it than we had originally planned on.
What a night!!!!

$1000 seats

There are plenty of things $1000 can buy.
Ten pairs of fabulous shoes.
Serious jewelry.
Two trips to Idaho.
Two flights to College Station on Thanksgiving Day & tickets to watch the Aggies play t.u.
A superbowl ticket.
A crappy car.
Some serious furniture.
Or.... a hard lesson on the fickleness of Phoenix Suns fans.
Now, John is a frugal frugal man. He also has the mind of an entrepreneur. Which has worked for him in the past. So last week, John bought 6 playoff tickets for game 6 of the Suns vs Lakers game with the hope of selling them for a little profit. They were great seats, and cost him, ahem, $1400. The thing about this plan is that if he had been in L.A., it would have been awesome. Because Lakers fan love their Lakers no matter what. But Suns fans come and go. And this week they didn't come as much. Despite craigslist and stadium selling, John was out $1000. He sold his cheapest ticket to the hot dog stand guy for $25 and a hot dog!
That left him with two tickets left at the second quarter. So John and I saw the game 6 playoff game. Quite possibly the only playoff game I will ever see in my life. (Especially for the NBA. How on earth I've now been to 3 NBA games and no NFL games is beyond me.)
Now, John's original seats had been lower level but were an entire section apart. So he traded and made like $100 for some upper level tickets together. I don't think we had any idea just HOW upper they were. We were literally two rows from the ceiling. I don't think either of us had ever even WALKED up that far in a stadium. Luckily, the stadium is not that huge and we could still see the players names, numbers, and recognize them. It just took a little while to get used to our aerial view. It was really fun though. It was crazy sitting next to a Lakers fan (I don't know very many) and actually having someone cheer for Kobe Bryant. But our hot dogs were great, the game was very exciting, and I'm actually kind of glad we got to have our $1000 seats. (Kind of).
And yes, John had a great attitude about it. I was very impressed.

What we have here....

So John really had a good attitude about Idaho the whole time. He was very good about acknowledging all of our good features even though it's not exactly a tourist trap. But after driving around Idaho Falls for a few minutes without getting out of the car, Kaitlynn had had enough of touring I.F.
"What we HAVE here," she said "is not a lot of FUN!!"
John lost it. In fact, we all laughed about it for days. John said she could come visit L.A. with him any time she wants.
(Just a quick note of gratitude to the fact that it was forecasted to rain pretty much every day. And it did. At night. It also snowed for a couple minutes twice. And hailed. Which made the 93 Phoenix weather seem like a fairy tale. But, really, it was generally beautiful weather. And it felt great to breathe Idaho air again.)

Merritt's and Idaho Falls

Our last stop in Boise was Merritt's. The duct tape on the seats was a little contrast to where we've been eating lately, but the food was hearty and American and very Idaho. And the cinnamon sugar scones were just as good as ever. When we got to Idaho Falls, we went straight to lunch at the Blue Hashi with my mom, my Aunt Jill, and Uncle Dan for some fabulous sushi (ok, so it wasn't scottsdale sushi, but it was good :-) )
There's not too awful much to say about I.F.. Mostly I showed John my high school and the Falls and my old house and then spent the rest of at my Nana's house (where my parents currently live for the month) and Candice's house. John left the next day to go to Utah and see his other friends and family and I stayed two more days to catch up with my family.
It felt so good to be back in Nana's house again.
And I finally got to meet Perri Marie! She is 4 months old and has the most beautiful smile ever. Which she gives whenever she hears Candice's voice. Seriously. Whenever. (And apparently I was too busy trying to get her to smile and practicing holding and feeding her to actually take a picture. Please don't kill me sister. I don't know how this happened!) I also learned that Tate is the cutest bobble head dancer, and Kaitlynn is a fabulous artist and totally has these long legs that are definitely not from our side of the family.
Here's a few tidbits of them! First, the little dancer:

John holding Tate's head from bopping around while he slept (Candice insisted it wasn't necessary, but...)

The mermaid at the disco ball party:

Candice's family and I went to the Museum of Idaho for the dog exhibit. Kaitlynn enjoyed petting the plastic dogs and Tate enjoyed the kid cabin. Candice and I liked the stamps in the dirt to make tracks of different animals. I think we all had a good time.
This is after the dog museum. These guys are power sleepers!


And my favorite picture. It is my good-bye picture, so it's a little sad, but Tate's "cheese" face makes everything better.

Rick's Press Room

Boise and Meridian are kind of small enough that if something is amazing, you usually hear about it pretty quickly. Rick's Press Room, however, is an exception. This is another place that we saw on the Food Network. Apparently the chef has cheffed in France, LA, & New York City, among others. And then moved to Meridian where he opened this restaurant. You can watch the clip of him on that link. I had never even heard of it, and Jessica is like 4th generation Meridian and she hadn't either so it was quite the adventure. (We actually showed up for lunch and then left when we found out salmon was only served at dinner. We made dinner reservations on our way out.)
So... John & I arrived looking all spiffied up and seven minutes late for dinner, but it was wonderful. Craig, Jessica, AuBrey, and her husband Joe were all able to come and it felt like such a fun reunion to just enjoy everyone's company on a gorgeous day.
Besides the fact that the wings were incredible and I never thought I could love hash browns on salmon set on a plate of mashed potatoes. But it was awesome.
Good times, noodle salad.

Second Day Boise- AuBrey, Baby Erickson, and the Cupcake Store

We didn't have too much planned for our second day in Boise, but it turned out to be crazy busy and very fun. First, I called AuBrey (who I met in kindergarten) to see what she was up to. Since she just had her 6th kid, I thought we could just stop by. But since she had actually just given birth 5 days ago, her mother and mother-in-law were taking care of the kids and somehow she kind of had the day off!
AuBrey met us at Target with her newborn and announced that we had the day to play! So we bought our little things (yeah, I don't remember what....except that now AuBrey and I have the same purse) and then headed to Rembrandt's for lunch.
Rembrandt's is a little church turned into an art gallery/restaurant. And somehow it works. We had fabulous chicken salads to save room for the cupcakes still to come. This is John holding her baby. Who, last I heard, is still nameless. Maybe by now. I love her little bum!
And finally, John & AuBrey were introduced to Lilly Jane's. And we even came on Peanut Butter day. What can I say? They were delicious, the store was cute, and I was thrilled to be between two of my most fabulous friends eating delicious cupcakes. Perfection.

Afterwards, AuBrey went home for awhile while John and I ran to the temple to do initiatories. Now, I had never done this and I thought it would be a quick little thing. But it wasn't. And the cute little temple workers weren't all so awesome at communicating with us so it ended up being a long and somewhat frustrating experience (and peaceful somewhere in the middle :-) ) that ended about 2 minutes before our reservations. It was cool to finally be in the Boise temple though, and I'm so glad we went.

May 19th is the day John met Boise

I love my Boise. I love it uncannily. I think it's great for many reasons, most of which are hard to convey. But I've tried now for almost 2 years to tell John how fabulous it is. He, being from LA, was a little skeptical. He, of course, feels like LA is kind of the center of the universe (and yes, a heck of a lot of stuff comes from there in this country) so he's a little hard to persuade. But somehow I got him to come explore Idaho with me :-)
As soon as we got to Boise, we stopped by my old work at Murphy's, saw a couple people there, stopped at the co-op where we got sandwiches, pasta, and ginger ice cream (still my very favorite) and went to Camel's Back Park. John was shocked by the 4 "bikini girls" laying out in the park in the 73 degree weather. We wanted to take a picture of a girl who was laying as sexy as she possibly could, but we couldn't figure out how to do it subtly. You'll have to imagine just how hot she thought she was.
We hiked up the little mountain where we took this beautiful picture and I remembered how gorgeous it is here.

Then we went to my old apartment and on a tour of most of downtown Boise.
And then 3 hours had passed and we had seen mostly everything. Oops!
When Jessica (my former roommate) got off work, Craig (my other former roommate's former boyfriend) met up with us and we had a divine dinner at the Red Feather, my other favorite Boise place.
Jessica bought a new house in January which is where we stayed. It is out in Meridian and so fabulous. I seriously love it. It was decorated so cute and just perfect. And Zoe, their little Yorkie, was adorable and fell in love with John's ears.

Oh, it was good to be back. :-)

Sunday. The end of a nutty weekend. (This happened on May 16th. I'm trying to catch up here Sorry!)

We cooked cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Out of a can. John's grandma was still totally impressed. And more eggs and bacon in my new skillets. Which are called Green Pans. Which I LOVE!!
Then John's parents drove home, and the rest of us went to church, and then I went to work. For two nights. Until.... IDAHO!!!!

World Peace (This happened today, May 28)

When I walk into an exercise class where everyone's dancing to "Whoop There it is...", I know I'm in the right place.
When the class ends with "Baby Got Back," I laugh thinking this is the most fun I've ever had.
When Native Americans, white girls, black girls, Asians, and Latinos get together to shake it to Shakira, I think this is what the world should be like.
I went to my first Zumba class tonight. I smiled the whole way through. It was like somebody gave me permission to dance for the first time. I love shaking my booty with these 45 girls who spend their Friday evenings sexifying their dancing moves. Oh I LOVE THIS!!(Here's a video of a class. It's not my class. But it's almost as cool.)

Saturday. Graduation and Sprinkles!!

Saturday morning John and I made breakfast for his family. Somewhere around cooking bacon in a sauce pan I realized it was time to buy new skillets (which I did that afternoon). However, luckily the day before Brad left he taught me how to make fluffy scrambled eggs which totally impressed John's mom and I think saved the day. Breakfast was eggs, bacon, fruit and fruit dip, and french toast.
Followed by a mini-tour of campus.
Followed by graduation.
John's friends drove in from LA about an hour before graduation, totally exhausted, but still so fun. His sister Karen and I ate pretzels during the ceremony as 616 people had their names called. And still, I would say we had fun. It's a graduation ceremony, really, what can you say?

This was followed by a Verona, Jessica, John, and Christin trip to Target for mandarin mango method hand soap, new skillets, and a dress that Brad is going to alter into a skirt for me. And some clothes for the LA girls who thought it might be chilly here. (It's not).
Afterwards, we all went to Bloom. Now, John's mom loves eating at Applebee's. John's dad loves eating mac & cheese at home. So this restaurant was a little bit of a shock to them. I've never been out to dinner with 8 people where we couldn't finish one order of calamari. I was a little confused. But I love my mahi mahi, John loved his rack of lamb, John's dad loved the asparagus bruschetta, and well, everyone else like their stuff too. Maybe not as much as me and John.
AND THEN IT WAS CUPCAKE TIME. Have I mentioned I lost my camera? I need to buy a new one. Maybe tonight. Anyways, here's what the graduation cupcakes looked like:

We ate them with milk in John's parents' hotel room and just sat and chatted.
And then, we talked some more, and went to sleep. :-)

Friday- The Parents Arrive. After my massage.

So Brad moved out last week to Sacramento and his room is now pretty close to empty. I offered up his room to John's friend Verona and her roommate who drove from LA for the graduation. But it needed to be cleaned. Along with the rest of the house.
So Friday morning was spent cleaning like crazy and doing laundry and doing all that stuff.

However, I had another very important appointment. I work with a guy named Larry who bought a spa package for his wife for Mother's Day. He thought it would be cool if I met her at the spa and we had a spa day together. In a fabulously incredible coincidence, Brad also had got me a gift certificate to the same spa on the same day (weird. really. there are like 200 spas around here. and this one was tiny.) So I made my appointment and ran in.

OH MY GOSH IT WAS THE BEST MASSAGE IN THE WORLD. I totally wanted to tell this lady I loved her halfway through. It was an hour-long combination of working all the tension out of my back and neck, hot stones, hot towels, and a foot massage and exfoliation. Kind of what I always wish my massages would be like, but rarely ever measure up to.
So... let it be known that Judi Lacourse of Body Shop Massage and Day Spa is fabulous and I'm pretty much never going to get a massage from anyone else as long as I live here. Seriously. I was so thrilled by this experience (also because it was about half as expensive as most places around here). Awesome. Awesome. awesome.

I went home, finished cleaning up, and then met John's family at Organ Stop Pizza for dinner. Now, this is not a place my family would frequent because, really, we know just about nothing about organs and we're just not that musical. (I mean, my mom has been known to fast forward through certain songs in certain musicals so we can get on with the plot.) John's grandma, on the other hand, had a pipe organ IN HER BEDROOM. And knows pretty much every major organist in the United States. Including the lady that played here. (Who lives in Portland). And his grandpa played the organ in silent movies. It's kind of a big deal in their family.

Let me set the stage for you: Massive pipe organ that is about as big as my condo. Amazing organist playing themes from every movie and musical ever. Basically sounding like a one-person orchestra. Surrounded by about 100 people eating pizza and Blue Bell ice cream. You wouldn't think it would work. But it does. I was so impressed. And John's grandma was seriously in heaven. It was so fun and so very interesting. :-)

And I got to introduce his dad to Blue Bell. Which made my night. Good times.

John Starts to Graduate. And the excitement begins.

First, I have to start off telling you about Brittney. She is my co-worker who I adore even though we really don't hang out outside of work. One of the many ways in which she adds to my life is to tell me cool places to eat. Like Matt's Big Breakfast. Matt's Big Breakfast is one of those tiny little places that made it to the Food Network on Guy's Diner's Drive-in's and Dives. It's a tiny little place in downtown Phoenix that Brittney said I just HAD to go to. So I did. A few days later.

See, being that ASU has about 70,000 students, they have two graduations. One where everybody CAN go and hear the president speak and technically be graduated and another divided up into individual colleges where you walk across the stage and they actually call your name. John graduated last week with a Bachelor's in Interdisciplinary Sciences with an emphasis in Business and Communication. His parents came for the smaller one (on Sat.), but it was just me and him for the "big" one (on Thurs.) (which really not very many people go to). It was so dang early, but he looked so cute and it was fun to be there and be in charge of taking pictures and stuff.

Afterwards, we went to eat at Matt's Big Breakfast. This was good because a) that place is nutso busy early in the morning and b) it wasn't in Tempe, where 1000 people were trying to get a late breakfast. IT WAS AMAZING. (Yes, I know I look exhausted. I got up at 6. I hate getting up at 6). We caught them on special french toast day which was incredible, they made eggs that the yolks didn't break as you cut around them, and it was the most delicious orange juice and chocolate milk ever. Basically, we ate most everything on the menu and still left feeling great (it's all local and organic and hippie like that. Which I think makes stomachs very happy). Basically, it was the perfect way to start a crazy graduation weekend.

Thanks Brittney!

Here I Sit....

Sometimes life is too busy and too boring to blog. And sometimes it's just crazy fun and too busy to blog. Which is what the last two weeks have been. Luckily, I have a 2 and a half hour layover in Vegas so here I sit blogging away. Lucky you. :-)

5 waffles, 2 chickens, 3 batches of grits....

Brad is going away. He's moving to Sacramento for the summer to do security and then moving out with his friend Tom. As much as I think this might be good for us socially, it scares me to death. Am I really going to find another roommate to make dinner for me and iron my scrubs and run to fresh & easy and be in charge of filling the water jugs? Will anyone else I live with really understand most things I say even if I only say half of the sentence? True, chances are, we won't be living more than 20 minutes apart from each other max. It just seems crazy for now, and I don't think I've quite wrapped my head around it. And I'm not looking forward to dividing up the kitchen stuff. Nor do I know for sure where I'm going to live or what ward I'll be going to, even though I have a few ideas.....
But the point of this post is really that Brad threw a party. A chicken & waffles going away party. I woke up Sat. afternoon (I worked Fri night) to this news. Brad was busy cutting up chicken and John had just come over. And when John realized we were having fried chicken & waffles, John realized we needed sweet potato pie. He called a few places, and shockingly, one place had one available if we would quickly drive to downtown Phoenix to get it. Just because it was an adventure, I pulled my hair back and jumped in the car in my pajamas (totally modest, of course...). And we got there just in time to snag a great sweet potato pie.
Meanwhile, Brad and our friend Lena from Russia had started cooking the main course. The cornbread was in the oven, Lena was having panic attacks wanting to start the waffles, and Brad was breading the chicken. Somehow it leaked out that Brad was using water in the chicken breading instead of beer, which everyone agreed was a terrible idea.
Luckily there was a pool party going on at our complex. Lena to the rescue. Lena, being the uninhibited girl that she is, crashed the party. She walked right up to one of the girls and asked, "Who's in charge of the beer?" The girl responded that Lena was! So Lena promptly stole a Bud Light and came right back over. Luckily Ben, a new convert, knew how to open it with a fork. Because as well-stocked as our kitchen is, it lacks a can opener.
It made for some fabulous fried chicken.
People filed in and out for a few hours, and we all had a blast. I made Quaker Instant Grits (9 packages), which, with butter and salt and pepper, were pretty good. It was still white people soul food. I mean, the only waffle maker we have makes heart shaped waffles, and we did use chicken breasts for everything, but nobody complained.

We were all pretty full, but only Lena complained that she was absolutely stuffed.
"What did you eat?" we all asked.
"Oh, 5 waffles, 2 chicken, 3 batches of grits....." Oh Lena. We love you.

No One Else on Earth....

There are times in my life when I think to myself, "There is no one else on earth doing this today. No one." Case in point: About a month ago, I ate a babybel cheese in my car. You know, the little circle ones covered in red wax? Yes, those. Well, not thinking about what heat does to wax, I left it on the seat of my car. And was so thrilled to discover it melted ONTO my seat a few hours later.
I really hadn't had time to clean my car (especially how I like to), so I had this red wax just chillin' on my seat for weeks. But last week I finally had time to clean all the nooks and crannies (and even the outside) of my car.
For those of you who don't know, placing a paper towel over melted wax and ironing it allows the paper towel to absorb the wax and it comes off your seat (or your carpet), however the case may be. A roommate taught me this and I have never forgotten. So I hauled out my 100ft extension cord, my iron, and a roll of paper towels.
And now my seat is gray again.
And my car is clean.
No more babybels in my car!!!