Football Season

There are only two things that get this look of anxious intensity out of Roy:

Football and basketball.

I like basketball--but football?  Yeah, that's usually when my glazed look shows up.  Football interests me for about ten minutes and then I'm bored.  The bleacher seats get immediately uncomfortable, the sun gets too hot or the lights too bright, there's hours of downtime when players are just standing around, and I'd rather be anywhere but a football game.  Or at least that's how it used to be.

I just went to the first football game in my life where I actually enjoyed it 100% of the time!

Dad invited Roy and I to go with him and Zac.  It was a game he was considering ditching out on, despite his season tickets.  Apparently the ducks are pretty good this year.  And Arizona is not.  But Roy was all over this game!  He will always love his home state of Oregon.

I agreed to go, but only if the guys would go all out, wear the shirts and the stickers and everything.  I had to get some enjoyment out of it, right?

GO CATS!  

During the game, Roy {disguised as an Arizona fan, but secretly smiling every time Oregon kicked our trash} patiently explained everything to me from fourth downs to penalty yards.  I've had guys attempt to explain the rules out of the corners of their cheering, screaming mouths.  But Roy is a quieter sports fan, which makes him a lot easier to understand.  Not to mention a lot more enjoyable to be around.  :-)

So something clicked.  And even though Arizona was put to shame by a bunch of ducks, I enjoyed every second of the game.

See?  I even had an intense face to match Roy's:

Official football fan over here.

Earlier tonight, I listened to the Cowboy's and Redskin's game on the radio while I was cleaning.  And Roy wasn't even there :-)

Homemaker

Still working on it.

Sometimes a success.

Glad my family occasionally lets me practice on them, despite bad past experiences.

Women's Bathroom

At the office there are two women: just Eryn and I.  And before me, Eryn was the only female to be found in the whole branch.  I guess two is just barely enough to separate the bathrooms into "men's" and "women's". 

But the guys aren't quite used to this segregation yet.  They've been using that same bathroom for years, and the new sign with the triangle-shaped lady on it doesn't seem to deter them from continuing to use it.

So Eryn and I devised an evil plan.

 

 

 

See if they can stand being in the women's bathroom NOW!

Life As a Betweener

I'm so between, it's not even funny.
Let's start with the basics...

I'm between a Collett and a Buckmaster.
Haven't changed my name on my driver's license, but I'm known as Mrs. Buckmaster for a lot of different things.  Sometimes it's hard to keep track: wait, am I Collett or Buckmaster for this?

I'm between a college student and a working woman.
My poor college diploma is floating around in the mail somewhere.  Somehow my BYU account reverted back to our old Springville address and so they sent it there.  I went to lengths to get the cell number of the woman who is currently living in our old apartment.
 "Um, excuse me, but a piece of paper I spent four years working my butt off for is on it's way to your home.  PLEASE FORWARD IT TO ME!"
It's hard to feel done with college before having that diploma in my hands.  Not to mention I still get every single English Department email from my old school about classes and events.  So then there's the moral dilemma of whether I should still use my school ID to get the student discount at the movies.  ;-)

I'm between being a kid and an adult.
This kind of goes along with the previous idea.  I mean, I work like a regular adult.  Go through stacks and stacks of papers every day.

But then sometimes I get carried away with the stamping.

And eat cupcakes like I'm the one pregnant with twins, and not my co-worker.

And some of the people I work with are quite often reminding me how young I am.  Or maybe I'm reminding them to remind me.
"Wait, who's Barbra Streisand?"

And of course...
I'm between homes.  All the time.
Currently we are staying at a family member's home, watching it while they're out of the country.  We packed up our suitcases {for the third or fourth time since June} and moved into our "new home," where we'll be staying for three weeks before we pack up and move again.
We're loving it here, but all this bouncing around is just getting plain comical.  So I got us a little something to make everywhere we go "ours".

Dollar section at Target, baby!  Every time we get to a new "home" I'm just gonna slap that puppy on the wall.  Wherever we are, we are home sweet home. 


Being between is flying by the seat of your pants, going with the flow, and trying not to look too ridiculous as you're grasping for some kind of stability.  I'm still working on the not-looking-ridiculous part.

PS All of these pictures were taken with my phone!  I love the iPhone!

Ten Years Ago Today

I was just barely thirteen, in my first year of Jr. High.  I couldn't even begin to understand what 9/11 was about.  Today America has been remembering, and has been standing a little bit taller, a little bit closer.  I thought I'd check in my old stash of journals to see if I recorded much on the actual day.  Turns out I did.  The year of 2001 is filled with snippets, dotting out a vague outline of the result of the attacks.

Today I thought I'd share what I wrote.  Disclaimer: Please remember, I was thirteen.  This is the perspective of a young girl who could only understand half of what was blaring out of the TV and radio stations.  But this is how I tried to wrap my head around it.  --Also, this person who I call my "enamy" {HAHA} is a great girl and we were really only in this fight for a summer.  In fact, I think it was this hug on this day that brought us back together as friends. 

Don't forget 9/11

Bacon and Rocks

Once, on a vacation when I was a kid, we were driving through many a worn Mexican street on our way to our nice, Americanized resort on the beach.  I remember feeling a kind of pain in my chest as I watched the dilapidated buildings pass.  The barely-running cars.  People walking in the streets with sweat-stained shirts that they'd probably been wearing for months straight.

Why did they deserve to have less than I had?  Why couldn't they have enough money to have air conditioning- for goodness sake!  It's hot in Mexico!

So I, an extremely brilliant six-year-old, came up with a solution to world hunger, deprivation, and moneylessness in general. 

Rocks.  All we had to do was change all currencies to rocks.  Trust me, there are plenty of rocks in Mexico.  And Arizona, too!  Then money would never be short, right?  Everyone would have plenty, because they are everywhere!  Except maybe the North Pole.  Sorry Santa.

Of course, I didn't know anything about inflation back then.  ;-)

Scratch that idea.  I'm not six anymore!  In fact, I'm a responsible, 8-5 working adult now.  Roy is a few weeks into law school, with almost three years ahead of him.  Since rocks won't pay the bills (especially not the tuition), I'm the one stuck behind a desk.

I'm bringin' home the bacon, baby!

Ew.  Not sure why that's an appealing phrase. 

Anyway, you'll be pleased to know that so far I'm loving my job.  I've been there for almost two months now, and I'm finally starting to feel like I know what I'm doing.  Since Roy started school we've been carpooling.  Campus is just a five minute drive from the office- we love that!  What better time to catch up than when crawling through rush-hour traffic?

Roy is kicking law school butt!  When he finishes classes he has several hours to study in the library before I'm done with work.  If he's still studying, I get to hang out in the library with him until he's done.

So what am I doing from 8-5?
Lots of this:

 

My old nemesis... numbers!

Our past, troublesome relationship has made me extra careful with my calculations.  So far no mishaps.  I also do some writing and editing!  Yay!  Contracts, quotes, brochures... it's not necessarily 100% creative writing, but I AM using my college education.  It's fantastic.

I love the people I work with, too.  Especially Eryn, the other admin who I get to hang out with 24/7.  I'm sure I'll talk more about her later.

Poor Roy is exhausted and needs to get some sleep.  We better get back to our cute little haunted house.  Yawn!

I'll have to continue my adventures of the working woman some other time.