This is not a post.

This is an update:
So part of getting a new job is you have to go to work now. I have worked every day this week and have been getting up at (or before) six every morning. I am not complaining, WAY NOT! I could not love it more! It has exceeded all expectations! The people are great and the store it amazing! The days really fly by but when I get home, man o man I am useless! I actually went to bed last night at 8:30! For reals guys! So, please ready yourself for Lindsay's post tomorrow and forgive our recent neglect.

(Liz, I will not address you here as Lindsay has left you comments on our previous post.)

A Lovely Year

So, we are all set up here for a romantic Valentine's Day night, but it's still January and so I would like to take a bit and remember this incredible 2007 our family just had. It was a big ol' year for us: I left Pier 1 and Lindsay stopped teaching at the College of New Rochelle (an hour and a half from home). I (with my two great friends Adam and Katie) wrote a play that I am very proud of and that was seen on both coasts. Lindsay passed her French test (which means she can translate French now... so, that's handy) and she passed her "First Exams" which consisted of a panel of professors quizzing her on any part of Theatre they wanted (any part) for two hours--this following her 4-hour written exam. So we're pretty glad that's over.



We also went abroad. For Christmas last year Lindsay gave me tickets to Paris and 6 months later we were with my brother Spencer and his wife Joanie (Pead) in the deep reaches of the forests of France (incidentally, there are monkeys in those deep reaches). The picture above was taken at Haute-Koenigsberg , a restored medieval castle in the Alsace region of France. It was life changing, and will be a fondest memory always. It is one thing to be in a beautiful place, but to share it with people you love makes it all the better.

We also made it home twice this year: First for the Livingston trip to Flaming Gorge/ Adamson trip to Lagoon (both sublime), and Second for the actual Holidays (working retail, you tend to shift your holidays to a few weeks later, when you're allowed to leave your store). It was fun to head out on adventures with our families, but the people are the real draw, and they were at their prime.

Here at home we have lost some great friends to moving (Liz and Jared (then Hank) headed off to Zion), and we have gained some great friends to moving (Nathan, Suzie, and Syd, Lord Love a Duck where would we be with out you?!). We live in a great ward that is full of great people who we love. We teach the 5-7 year olds and it's great; also, in October we celebrated our 1-year anniversary of working in the Manhattan Temple, a calling we adore and are reminded every week we work how blessed we are.

It has been an amazing year, and what's more, we have an amazing year ahead. We've already been to LA (Disneyland and Adam's House) this year, and Lindsay has been accepted to present at three different conferences this year (one in LA, one in Buffalo, NY and one in, that's right, Honolulu!) And I have just been offered a job at Anthropologie at Rockefeller Center, where I am an Assistant Manager of their Home Department (and could not be more excited!)

And so we blog and hope to keep it up (Liz said we need to be consistent for two months before we'd be forgiven). So keep with us, gentle reader, and we will (hopefully) give you reason to.

You must remember this.

I have been wondering about you, the reader. What makes you tick? What is something that we can all talk about? And so, I would love it if you could just drop a little note in the comments about the following:

The first girl I ever kissed was Jenny Lloyd. We were in the Orem Jr High School production of 'Ghost Chasers' and we were in 8th grade. (Side note: My two older brothers had told me the summer before my 7th grade year that I should kiss a girl in 7th grade and French kiss a girl in 8th grade, so this story is already a year behind. Side side note: I did not French kiss a girl until 10th grade when I was dating a senior; she eventually put a stop to it, on moral grounds.) Now for my memory: Jenny was playing a young beautiful new patient in this hospital that was now being taken over by ghosts and the like. She was dressed in a light green dress and sometimes had a white coat and a suit case. She was very pretty, just as her character.

For her memory: I was playing a 'dancing skeleton' and I looked it. The 'Dancing Skeleton' costume was an over sized, black (with iron-on bones), one-piece suit that hung on me like I was wearing my older brother's pajamas. But that's not the worst thing. The worst thing was that my makeup was:
1. A layer of white all over the face;
2. Black around the eyes; and
3. So that our faces would show up under the black lights as we danced, the entire face was covered with some glow-in-the-dark goop that was the consistency of Vaseline that would periodically drip drops of glop as I walked.

There it is, while I was looking at her in her Sunday best, she was looking at me--a 86-pound burn victim with eye liner.

It wasn't but years later that I thought of my first kiss from Jenny Lloyd's point of view. I am pretty sure that her first kiss was some kid in her 'Ideas*' class at Aspen Elementary, so while it wasn't her first it was still a kiss and she did look into my blacked-out goopy eyes, noted the double toothed smile (my real teeth and the ones drawn around my mouth) and promptly shut her own eyes as I went in for the kill. A memorable moment for each of us, no doubt.

And so I come to you. There is only one first kiss in your life, just that one. Now, you don't have to go into deep detail but I would like to have you comment. Just so the world remembers. Please post who and how it was. It could be two words: "Hillary Duff. Badly." but then we would all know. So do tell!!! Really, go on! Push the button.





*"Ideas" was a class for smart kids that I was not a part of. It was when I realized two things: One, I am not smart.
Two, I like smart girls.

Inconvient Truths...

So, I have to just come out and say it. After twenty-three years of attending one school or another, the time has come to admit something to myself:

I am not that great of a student.

This is not a pleasant realization to make 2 1/2 years into a PhD program. The real truth is that school has always come too easy, and I'm kind of lazy -- a combination that has enabled me to develop a massive procrastination problem, one which has caused me heartache and headaches in the past.

Never more so, however, than when I sat down two days ago to schedule my study hours for this coming semester. This may sound like I am actually a good student. I'm sure you're saying to yourself, "but, Lindsay, having a study plan makes you a good student." The trouble with that sentiment is twofold:

1) I just got back from a one-month vacation to Utah and Los Angeles where I did nothing. For four weeks. Seriously, nothing.
2) I was supposed to complete this study plan at the beginning of last semester.

Anyway, my study plan is a week-by-week schedule of studying that, if I stick to it, will enable me to read all my books for my 2nd exam in August and pass my German exam in April (I passed my French exam last summer. Tres bien!). Unfortunately, because I waited until now to start studying, my plan now consists of 10-hr study days six days a week. Woof!

So, now I don't know if I'll be able to do my 2nd exam in August, which is hugely annoying -- I've been in school too long, and Patrick and I are counting the days until I'll be done. The most depressing thing about it all is that it really, truly is my own fault. Why oh why didn't I pay more attention in 7th grade study skills? My only hope is that my own experiences can save someone else (Seth, I'm looking your way) .

So...there you have it. I am a bad, procrastination-ridden grad student/professor, and now I guess I better get back to my studying. After a bath...or Extreme Home Makeover...or another post...

A post is a post.

So I really want to keep posting on this here blog. But I realize now what our problem as bloggers is...was...is (this is directed at you, Lindsay)! We get too worked up on what it is we are going to blog about, 'cause we want it to be real cool. And, truth being truth, we are not that cool every day. Like yesterday, I made Lindsay work on my resume before I went to a job interview and it took up a lot of her day. Then I made her come with me to the interview but she had to wait outside where she couldn't be seen, then I went in and stayed for an hour. She had set up a little work station at a table because she is getting a PhD and needs to be doing crap and doesn't need to be sitting in a mall waiting for me. I sauntered out after what was much too long for her to be waiting and I tell her to grab her stuff and let's split 'cause I don't want them to see us out here. So she does, then she listens to me all the way home (another half hour) telling her all the real funny stuff I said in my interview, none of which gave her any hope of me actually getting the job. Then, after exhausting myself with my own brilliance, she asked, "How did it end?" "Oh," I say, "They would like to continue with the interview process...cause they liked me...enough to have be back." This, I realize, is what she's been waiting to hear about, not the fact I got to tell them about my awesome play I just did in LA...which I did (do and tell them about). I can't think of why that might have come up but I spent 20 minutes telling her about it...huh. I hope they brought it up and not me...huh. Ah well, I just got a call and they want me in for a second interview, so that's something to blog about.

How's this:
So, I just got a call (while I was writing the above) from this company that I really want to work for and they would like me back for a second interview. Lindsay's real happy.

That's not a very cool post...



Here's one.
Ha!! Get it! That is one COOL POST!! Some might say that post is down right cold!

FREEZING! you could say...

if you...heh...wanted...



ARCTIC!

No...cold is fine...

just cold.

To Sleep.

So I am all messed up. I can't sleep at night and then when I do it's until noon. Last night Lindsay put me to bed at 11:30 and I read my book (Pontoon, Garrison Keillor), then I stared at the painting we have hanging on our bed wall (it's all one room here so it's the bed wall or the couch wall, or the piano wall, every wall's got something) and I imagined what it would be like to live in that painting and how I would be bugged if the sky was always that matte blue and how there are no clouds in that painting so it would never rain, turning all that is green to brown. In the end, I decided that I would like to visit my painting, but I could never live there. That got me to about 1:30, when I decided to break out my Genius Deck that I bought from the spy museum in Washington, DC. It's 75 riddles & conundrums, and I like to make my brain work every now and then... I thought it would make it tired and then it would go to sleep.

Some riddles are easy, like:
"This kid was sitting in biology and he was smiling and when his teacher asked him why, he said, 'Because I know what has four legs and two ams.' the teacher thought and thought and could not come up with anything." What was he thinking? Well... that's right, an arm chair!

Some are harder:
"What has 21 spots but is never ill?" Don't read on till you get it!!!
It's a Die.

Then there are ones that are beyond my realm of understanding:
"An old fashioned 78 vinyl record has a diameter of 12 inches. The outside border is a 1/2 inch wide and the distance from there to the central hole is 5 1/2 inches. If you put the stylus down at the very edge of the playing area how far will the needle have traveled by the time the music stops? You and assume that there are 83 grooves to the inch."

Did you get it? Yeah, around 2:15 I went to the TV wall and watched Ratatouille. I really like that movie.

Post Script: I have the answer to the last riddle; if you get it right I'll give you a prize!

We Are the Real Deal!

So, we just walked in the door to our little Hoboken house, (which we have been away from for a month) and I wanted to let you know about the awesome life we lead.

So I wrote a play (rrredthemusical.com) and I got to do that play for six weeks here in the Big Apple and then I got to do it in LA for two weeks. I know, right?! And it was as screaming awesome as it sounds. Opening night we had Kathy Griffin in the audience and she told me I was amazing! (No, Ms. Griffin, you are) Then we had buckets full of people who came even though they weren't famous and they all loved it too. Then we had Zack Ward, (the redheaded kid from 'A Christmas Story') who said that he recognized me from something and I said that was doubtful as I'm from Utah and he said, "Provo, Utah, Comedy Sportz! I knew I knew you." he went on to say I was funny then and I am funny now and he was just in 'Transformers' so ya know... he ought to know. Then Closing Night I entertained Sir Ryan Gosling (I don't know if he's been 'Sir-ed' yet but give him time) and he said I was (expletive)ing great! And then he smoked! Yeah, I know. So, now were home but we have been gone, really really gone! After the awesomeness of the past month... it's good to be not that awesome again. But just for a bit.



Oh Yeah, and we went to Disneyland.

See, the real deal!













it uhh, rained.

Forgive us...

So, we know that we've been horrible, awful, pitiful bloggers. We are ready to recommit, though. We've become better, more grown-up people. Turned over a new leaf, if you will.

The last time around, we weren't ready. Things were just going really fast, you know? And we got scared. Believe us when we say it wasn't you -- it was us.

But we've changed. Honestly. We know that our abandonment of you, gentle readers, was nigh unto unforgivable, but we promise...we're different now. We're ready for a real commitment. Ready to treat you with the respect you deserve. We love you.

So, what do you say? Can you forgive us and give this relationship another chance? Because we're nothing without you. Nothing.