I need a good read...

Okay blog fans and leeches...I need your help. This summer I'll be spending five weeks in Africa working on a project for my graduate program and I need a couple of good books to read...especially because sometimes in foreign countries things run a little slower than they do in the U.S. and I might be WAITING around a lot.

So what do you suggest? I need a book or two that are really really super duper good so I won't drag the book all the way to Africa, read half of it, and then end up hating it and be like, "why the heck did I bring this all the way to Africa?"

So leave me a comment and let me know of a book or two that you LOVE and would highly recommend. Then if I chose your book and end up liking it maybe I'll bring you back something from Africa or something.

Oh, and leeches, this is a great way to come forth, leave an easy comment, and clear your good name for a month or two. Think about it.

Oh, and let's just get a few things clear right now...

Scriptures don't count...I'll already be bringing them.

I already read the Count of Monte Cristo and it was too long and the movie was better anyway.

"The Audacity of Hope" isn't an option.

BUT other than that I'm open to any suggestions and I can't wait for yours.

7 Glitches in the System...

A tag I received from Geri forever ago.

So I guess I'm supposed to list 7 things that are glitches in my system...things that are wrong with me, different about me, or just little things that make me me. So here we go...

First of all, I am racking my brain trying to think of anything wrong with me and since I cannot I am just going with things that are different about me. In no particular order...

numero uno: I have always prided myself in not being a picky eater but in recent years I'm discovering that maybe I am a picky eater even if I don't want to admit it. I think that the reason it has taken me so long to figure this out about myself is that I will try ANYTHING to eat...if for no other reason than to add it to my "Disgusting things I've eaten" list. I've eaten cow intestines, cow liver, chicken feet, squid, snails, blood sausage, guinea pig, caviar, whole fried fish (including the head), various raw meats, and recently even a live termite. However, although I'll try pretty much anything one time, once I decide I don't like something I just don't eat it anymore. Here are some foods I don't like too much: mushrooms, raw onions, cheddar cheese, bacon (unless you can pick out all the fat), sausage, pastrami, salami, pepperoni, oysters, clams, squid, any part of an animal other than the actual meat, American yogurt, cheap junk food, most fast food, etc. Oh, and I only like fruit and string cheese if it is room temperature....I don't like food to be too cold.

numero dos: I spend/waste COUNTLESS hours on the Internet researching travel. I plan trips I never go on. I look up airfare for flights I won't really be flying just so I can know how much it costs to get from point A to point B. I research hotels I never stay in. I have a crazy fascination with traveling, whether or not it really happens. BUT I guess that's how I find good deals...like 150 dollars round trip to Belize for example and I guess that's how sometimes some trips do work out.

numero tres: And speaking of good deals, I love to get one and I love to tell people that I got one so that they can try to get a good deal too or at least tell me I'm awesome for having gotten my good deal. I especially love getting good deals on things I was already planning on buying (like 70% off the new luggage I wanted) and not just impulse purchases due to a very good deal (like the two tickets to Belize I bought for myself).

numero cuatro: I have grocery bags full of random junk everywhere. Overall I pride myself on being a very clean and organized person but my bedroom is usually messy and even when it is clean I usually have boxes or bags full of random stuff somewhere. These little piles, bags, and boxes of randomness usually come about from cleaning my car or a purse (and putting the random stuff I'm not sure what to do with in a bag for later sorting). Or they come from making moves in a hurry and instead of sorting and throwing out stuff at the time I just put it in a box, label it "RANDOM" or "MISC" and forget about it.

numero cinco: Even though I am 29, I still don't make my bed...hardly ever anyway. I really only make my bed either right after I wash my sheets, if someone is coming over and will see my bedroom, or before I go on a trip (just in case I die on the trip I don't want anyone to think or know I was a slob).

numero seis: I say and do stupid stuff all the time...I guess just to get attention or to get a good laugh. I don't think I need to go into much detail about this. All who know me or who are regular blog readers/leeches know that I didn't come installed with pop-up blocker or filter. What comes to mind comes out. Sometimes for a good laugh and sometimes to make me look stupid or to get me in trouble. I mean really, who tells their married male co-worker, "let's gang bang this work and get off early"??? But just for the record I SWEAR I didn't know what it meant at the time.

numero siete: I have a major thing for Idaho...to a fault. I love Idaho and want to live there forever and ever. This is mostly due to the fact that all my family lives in Idaho, that if I live there I can have a nice house built by my dad, and that it is just a good place to live. When I meet single guys from SE Idaho (excluding Pocatello and Roberts of course) I automatically give them a subconscious plus 1000 points in my subconscious dating point system. This causes a lot of problems for me as it makes me fall for guys that are really wrong for me and makes me miss out on potentially dating guys that are way right for me (if they don't happen to be from, want to live in, and love Idaho). I'm trying to get past this little glitch and give guys from other places a chance, since I'll have to if I ever want to get married (since there are, at my last count, only 2 Idaho guys left single and there are tons of Utah guys) but it is so subconscious that I can hardly help it.

So there you go...there are 7 of the glitches in my system. May I echo Geri's words in saying, "in spite of all these things you guys still like me, right?"

I tag anyone who hasn't done a blog post in the past two weeks.

Been There, Done That!

I know I haven't blogged in forever so I figured I'd catch up on a couple of tag posts. This one my Aunt Lucy tagged me on and I guess everyone in my family (at least my mom and Aunt Lucy) is adding one thing to the list at the end (and so far they seem to be animal themed things). I guess we just can't leave anything as it is.

Oh, and I tag all my blog leeches. If you have read my blog once or more in the last month but haven't ever left a comment I tag YOU...Leech.

Been there, done that...

Bold the items you have done:

1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity...more than I thought I could afford

7. Been to Disneyland

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a Praying Mantis

10. Sang a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Been to the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa at the Louvre

20. Slept on a train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitch hiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Ran a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (Is there anyone that hasn't?)

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (yeah right!)

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Cooked over a open fire

47. Had your portrait painted (sketched actually)

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (No, but I've been there twice...I was too cheap and too impatient to stand in line)

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Tied a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a Bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper (front page even)

85. Read the entire Bible (and let's be honest...it was pretty BORING! Especially the OT.)

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person (and Pee-wee Herman was right...there is no basement)

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake (No, it stinks...but I have swam in the Dead Sea which is WAY saltier)

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Visited Italy

101. Fed chickens

102. Attended a sheep show

103. Eaten cow intestines

Thank you mother, and thank you common sense!

BEHOLD... The world's biggest lint ball to come out of a dryer at one time. You're seeing here a dryer's lint accumulating max. Basically this is as big as a lint ball can get before just starting your dryer and whole house (and probably you) on fire. Here it is in all its glory...(although the pictures do not do it justice) Fat at one end and tapering off at the other, this is one beautiful and amazing lint ball. Besides containing lint from several different colors of laundry, this lint ball also contains: gum wrappers, hair, and glitter. It is a sight to behold.

Look at how thick it is...

Thicker than my cell phone. Look at how the strata contains a history of all the different batches of laundry ever dried in this dryer...such a variety of colors and thicknesses. What a great history.

All I ever needed to know I learned from just not being a total tard.

Now don't get me wrong, I really like my new roommates, but COME ON people, how do you make it through your 20's without learning to remove the lint from the dryer every few loads? I just moved into a new place this past week (yes, I have left homelessness behind for now) and when I went to do laundry out of habit I checked the dryer lint filter. And you've already seen what I found. I was AMAZED. Which is why I'm blogging about it I guess.

So I'd like to thank my mother, or common sense, or whoever taught me to clean out the dryer lint. Thank you, thank you.

Valentine's Day, my favorite.

Last night I was at Macey's buying a few pre-Sabbath groceries. They had a big display of Valentine's Day candy and other paraphernalia (such as gorgeous red silk roses). I decided to see if there was any good candy or special Valentine's surprises I could send my parents. Of course half of the display was taken up by Conversation Hearts...those nasty little powdery bad excuse for a candy candies. And although I think they are disgusting I remembered that my dad likes most candy that I would consider disgusting (such as: orange sticks, those Circus Peanut things, jelly orange slices, and even those little chalky Necco coin looking things) so I decided to get them some. (Don't worry MOM, I got you guys the good SweetTart ones). There are a lot of different brands and different types of conversation hearts. As I looked through them I noticed that the Necco brand had a heart that said "FAX ME." Wow, I thought to myself...that's the sexiest thing I can think of someone saying to me..."FAX ME." Maybe I'll try it sometime. I meet a guy I like at a party, I hand him my number and say "Fax me." Maybe it would work, who knows. Since I'll soon be happily unemployed, maybe I could get a job with Necco helping them update their conversation heart sayings. I mean, I may be eternally single but even I know that "fax me" hasn't been a come-on since 1992 (and probably not even then.) At least Brach's brand had "YOU ROCK" as one of their sayings. They must be a little more with it. Anyway, happy V-day to everyone who likes V-day...and to the rest of us (my Spinster friends) I'll see you in Belize! And if any of you work for Necco or know anyone that works for Necco, tell them I'd be glad to do some consulting work and help them update their conversation hearts.

A typical Sunday afternoon conversation at my house...

Lee to me just a few minutes ago: "Hey Becca, if you lost a limb in an accident would you consider eating it?" Before I could answer Russell says: "I might not eat it but I'd definitely keep the bones and make some jewelry or something out of it." Me to Lee and Russell: "Definitely NOT. You guys are weird." Lee: "Well, wouldn't you want to at least try and see what you tasted like?...I mean if you eat yourself it isn't considered cannibalism, right?" Me: "I don't know if it is cannibalism or not but it is weird." Lee: "I'd just throw my arm or leg or finger or whatever in the crock pot (Lee is REALLY into crock pot cooking right now) and taste it just to see..." I immediately decide to blog this little conversation so that I can document that I am definitely not the weirdest one in my family. I mean, I might be deathly afraid of Bigfoot, but I am not weird or curious enough to want to eat any limbs I may lose in the future. So I start googling cannibalism and looking for a great image for my blog and I find out a little more about cannibalism than I want to know. Yeah, so apparently some Chinese people are into eating babies. I tell my brothers this and also mention that in some cultures people eat the placenta after their children are born. I start reading some of the new information I find about cannibalism and then my brothers are like, "STOP reading that, you're SICK." Me: "I'm sick? How did I end up being the sick one? You guys brought it up!" Then we took a brownie break. Kim goes to throw away a few crumbs from her brownie and Lee reaches over and grabs them and says, "Kim, don't throw those big crumbs away!" Kim to Lee: "You would eat your own leg." Lee to Kim: "Yeah, but if we had been in the Donner party I would put a tourniquet around my legs, cut them off, and sacrifice them for our family." Kim: "Gee thanks." Me to myself: "WOW it is amazing that I'm not even more messed up than I am." The end.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Hello blog fans and leeches... I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack from the world of blogging dead. I know it's been awhile. I'm way behind. I haven't yet finished blogging my daily gratitude journal from December. I haven't blogged much about Brazil. I haven't blogged about Belize. And I haven't even blogged my pictures from Costa Rica in October. And yes Geri, I even remember that I haven't done that post you tagged me on back forever ago. I'll get caught up eventually but for now I'll just give everyone a little update on my unstable life. This is mostly for the sake of one of my favorite little blog leeches, my Aunt Jenny (now Sister Thornton), who claims she doesn't know how to leave a comment. I don't buy it though. So, here's my life in a nutshell... I am homeless. I am soon to be jobless. I am happy. The end. JUST KIDDING! Of course I'll give you more info. I've never been a woman of few words. But those of you who like to complain about my "super long blog posts" can just quit reading here. It's my blog and I'll write what I want to. I moved out of the house where I was living because our lease was up and two of my roommates were moving out of state and the other one is borderline engaged (and you can't count on borderline engaged people) and I wasn't really sure of where I was going or what I was doing anyway. So we just all decided to go our own ways. I went through a little while there where I basically didn't have a clue about what to do with my life or where to be and I actually seriously considered just leaving SLC all together. But then I decided that I wasn't going to be half way through my graduate program and not finish...that would be dumb so I'm staying to finish school and then I think it will definitely be time for me to move on to a new place. So I found a place to live in SLC but the spot won't be open until this coming week so in the meantime I've been homeless. It has really only been about 2 weeks of homelessness now. I've spent a couple of nights at hotels in SLC, a few nights at hotels in Belize, a couple of nights at my cousin's house, and a few at my awesome friend Rachel's house. I considered just sleeping in my car for awhile too and just showering at work (as I do have a sleeping bag in my car right now) but first of all my car was so full of my stuff from moving that I couldn't lay the seat back and then I hurt my back in Belize and just couldn't bear the thought of sleeping sitting up. So I didn't resort to that, although I wouldn't have minded having the experience. In fact I'm kind of sad now that I didn't do it. I mean how many people can truly say that they "lived in a van down by the river?" Here are a few things I've learned from being homeless...and let me tell you, homelessness isn't all it's made out to be. 1) First of all not all homeless people are druggies or have major mental problems. I've been homeless twice now in the past year and I don't have any major mental problems and have never used drugs. 2) When you basically live out of your car and sleep somewhere different every night you also usually eat in your car too. And let me tell you that the protein shakes I eat for breakfast every morning on the way to work stay nice and cold in my car and even sometimes, if I'm lucky, form little ice crystals...deeeelish. 3) Changing your underwear everyday is nice but not ABSOLUTELY necessary. Okay, I only wore the same underwear twice one time and it was only for part of the day...but still, I have done it, have you? The reason that I had to wear the same underwear twice is that I grabbed the wrong suitcase when I went into one of the hotels that I stayed at, and then by the time I realized I didn't have any clean G's inside the hotel room with me and was going to go out to my car to get some there was a scary guy roaming around the parking lot so I didn't dare go get my clean undies and just didn't change underwear until later that day. I lived through it but did feel a little creepy for being a two-day underwear type person. And that leads me to my next thing which is... 4) Staying in hotels alone is sort of scary and sad. I mean I lived alone for almost three years and that wasn't too scary, but I guess I didn't see creepy guys roaming around outside my house. 5) You can survive long periods of time of only eating protein shakes, string cheese and Jamba Juice. And they are all easy foods for people on the go. So, early next month I'm quitting my job. I know...it sounds crazy to quit a job when everyone else in the world right now seems to be losing theirs. But I figure that right now I can either totally lose my mind or totally lose the job. And after much (many many months) of consideration, I'm finally going through with it. I guess right now I'd just rather be poor and not crazy and stressed out rather than have money but be miserable. I'm just going to focus on finishing my graduate program and hopefully not spending every cent I have saved. My goal would be to just use my savings to pay for tuition and hopefully be able to earn my living expenses through little odd jobs and things like selling plasma and maybe one of my kidneys until I can find a part time job that will work with going to school. Let me know if any of you have suggestions for jobs or for little things you can do to earn some cash on the side...nothing really is beneath me for earning money as long as it is legal and not a sin. Okay, so there's my whole life story for everyone to know. The real end.