DAY 66 - Fabric, Furniture and Frosting!

When many people make the trek to St. George, its to spend time outdoors, riding mountain bikes, taking hikes through the majestic red rocks, grabbing their carabeaners and scaling a giant cliff. Oh not I, point me in the direction of the nearest baked good! Brandy and I found this little cafe on Main Street with a large selection of cupcakes. We got a peanut butter cup and a coconut cream, and split them. They were simply Divine! And it was a cute little shop too.

We continued our theme of a lazy laid back vacation. We slept in a bit, didn't really get out on the town til about 1:00. Then we just ran some errands. Brandy looked at fabric at some quilt shops, we stopped at a little consignment type shop on the Boulevard and looked at some furniture and stuff. Stopped by the outlet malls and looked for some running shoes for me. Just lazy no stress stuff... I loved it. We ended the afternoon swinging in the park and reading entertainment weekly laying on a blanket on the grass. Seriously chronic case of Spring Fever has set in.

We ended the night with some bowling at an old school bowling alley. It was fun. They didn't even have the ball returns enclosed, you could see your ball come all the way back along the alley and right up on the the ball holder thing. The whole little shopping center it was in looked like it was freeze dried in 1978. I loved it. After the bowling we had some yummy Thai food then headed home for the next installment of High School Musical... Which incidentally was filmed right in the lava rock valley's of St. George.

DAY 65 - Red Rock's and Outcropped Stones

After a trying emotional and stressful week, I made a run for it! Tried to leave all of my woes in the dust as Brandy and I headed to beautiful St. George, Utah. I have been debating whether or not to take the trip for weeks, but early in the week with all my car issues I decided to just do it. I needed to get away. Brandy has a friend who teaches at Dixie, so we were able to stay at his place which makes it nice to not have to worry about getting a hotel somewhere. You never know what might happen at the Motel 6.

We decided this would be a pretty laid back trip, so we decided not to leave until noon. I got up WALKED to the store, made some Snickerdoodle cookies for the trip and packed up my stuff. Brandy came to pick me up around noon, then I went to her house while she got ready. The entire time I was trying to get in the mood for a fun exciting trip, but the car issues and impending expense hung over me like the dark gray clouds that filled the Salt Lake Valley today. As I was sitting on the couch waiting for Brandy to get ready, reading articles in the New Yorker (I just added that cause it makes me sound intellectual and cultured), my phone rang. It was a Centerville number so I assumed it was news about my car. I nervously pressed the answer button on my phone bracing myself for the absolute worse possible news...my car was never going to run again, the transmission is dead, it needs new axles, new pistons, new bearings, new radiator, new jockey box button..you name it I was expecting it. But that is not what I heard at all, I almost thought the mechanic was speaking a different language when he said to me "your car is running fine." "Come again, what's that you say? Speak any English?" I couldn't believe it. All they did was give the transmission a good flush and added some transmission fluid. He had driven it up and down the freeway and said it was running fine. This changed everything. Instead of a $2000 to $5000 repair I ended up paying $300!!! And $100 of that was to tow it from the inept Ken Garff Honda Downtown, who didn't even bother checking the Transmission fluid! The gray skies are beginning to clear and the sunny Red Rock's of St. George are calling me!

With the burden of my car turmoil lifted, I was able to get excited for the road trip. We left about 1:00. Things were going swimmingly. Brandy had all her music , which is completely foreign to me, not much I can sing along to. But it expands my horizons and I'm finally learning about music from the 90's and 2000's that I've completely missed. Then we hit snow! Yes, snow! It snowed for a large section of the trip, but after Cedar City, the skies cleared and St. George welcomed us with blue skies. Tonight we didn't do a whole lot after we arrived in town. We got settled in, then headed for some dinner. After that we tried to get on the Internet at Barnes & Nobel, but it was expensive. So we just grabbed a few magazines and hung out for a while. Brandy is reading "Modern Dog", Must be hilarious!

After we got back to the apartment we put in High School Musical. Brandy and I have had this goal since September that we were going to see all 3 High School Musicals. Neither of us had ever seen any of them. We watched the first one back in September, but it had been a while, so we deiced to start over from the top. We managed to push Randy, Brandy's friend we were staying with, out of his own living room by playing the utterly ridiculous HSM. But it was worth it...you just gotta love it.

DAY 64 - LIES!

I'm growing increasingly bitter. I have moved my car from Ken Garff to a mechanic in Centerville who thinks he may be able to fix it for cheaper. I'm not really counting on it. I'm bracing for the worst. I'm trying really, really hard not to freak out over the whole situation. On Monday at my work orientation, they explained each of the products, they told us about the Stress Formula, and that it takes up to 2 weeks to start working at the regular dosage, but the guy joked that if you take half the bottle you'll feel really good and not remember a thing... I took his "advice" I took about 8 capsules. I didn't so much relieve my stress, just made me want to put my head down on my desk for most of the day.

Tonight I walked (obviously) to Clete and Greg's to watch Ugly Betty. In the episode Betty's family was getting evicted from their house. The only way they could stay is if they raised $15,000 to put a down payment on the house to buy it. The whole show followed the Suarez family as they tried to raise the funds. It looked grim until the dad entered a cooking contest show, much like the Bobbly Flay's challenge type show. He lost, and it looked like he wasn't going to get the money. However, in the last moments the chef came and told Betty's dad show is rigged and he has to win 4 out of 5 challenges. But he really thought his recipe was the best, and wanted to buy the it for $10,000, just the same amount of money they needed to save the house.... It all worked out for Betty and her family. It is similar to the Brady's raising funds in the talent contest to replace their parents silver platter. Everything always works out for TV families. What about me, maybe it will all work out in the end. On my way home, feeling somewhat hopeful. I looked down at the sidewalk and some wise street side tagger had reminded me television is lies...ALL LIES!!! I need $2000 or more to fix my car...where's my prize winning Molé recipe, or sequined jump suit and step brothers and sisters to help sing my way to financial freedom? HMMMMM? Thank you wise street graffiti for keepin it real!

Day 63 - Santa Maria, send me guidance!

Day 3 of no car! I can't handle it! I am a car person, as much as I hate dealing with them, I really need one. I rode the train to work this morning, taking and hour and a half from the time I left my apartment. I have found out my car is going to be $3000 - $5000 to fix. It needs a completely new transmission. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! Why do bad things happen to good people. On my walk home as I passed the Cathedral I fell to my knees and prayed "Santa Maria." But nothing! I thought maybe when I got home there would be some check in the mail from some long lost relative that died and left me millions...Nope, nothin, just a Pottery Barn catalog and a bunch of ads. Yeah right, like now is the time I'm going to go out and do some careless buying, I need to save everything I....oh look a sale at Penny's!

DAY 62 - Carless Children Sang as they Walked, and Walked and Walked and....

Today I walked, and walked and walked. My car is dead! My dad came down this morning to follow me to Ken Garff Honda. I tried to coax the poor injured Rodeo to the corral. I was pretty sure once I pulled it in the garage they were just going to shoot it to put it out of its misery. It took forever to drive it through the streets of downtown. It wouldn't shift into gear, I was driving in probably 1st or 2nd the entire way over. I didn't want to stop at any red lights or stop signs cause I didn't know if I could get it going again, so I just ran threw them. People were angry and I received some honks and unfriendly hand gestures, but I just smiled and waved as if in a parade. I should have put some streamers on the car and threw candy, that way people may have been a little more forgiving.

Once I dropped off the car, my dad took me into work. But I had the challenge of finding a way home from Sandy. I ended up catching a ride with some guys I work with to the 21st South Trax station, then catching the train and riding it to the City Center stop, then walking home. We left the office about 5:30, I got home about 6:40. My usual 20 minute commute has expanded to over an hour. I guess that's what life is like for the carless. But I'm trying to remain positive and singing a happy tune!

DAY 61 - Stay Golden Pony Boy!

Tonight I had the privilege of going to Granger High School's production of "The Outsiders." I loved this show as a kid, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Machio, Patrick Swayzee, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Rob Low, Tom Cruise. A who's who of 80's Hollywood hot young actors. It was the pages of Tiger Beat come to life... It was pretty much the same watching it at Granger....kinda. It was fun to go to, they did a pretty good job. I am used to Alane's large scale productions, they don't really have the program like Bonneville's but they do a good job with what they've got.

The worst part of today is that my car DIED!!! The transmission finally gave up. It has been going for the past few weeks, and this morning I tried to make it to work, I only got a few blocks from my house and it wouldn't go into gear. At every stop light I had to turn off the car an turn it back on, it would go into first and I slowly made my way back home. I had no idea what I was going to do, I had to figure out a way to get to work. My friend Hunter had offered me his car the night before as a facebook comment, but I didn't know if he was serious. I finally swallowed my pride and asked if he was joking, or if I could really borrow his car. I was so, so, so grateful that he was not joking, he happily lent me his Jetta. It was really fun driving a stick shift again, I miss it. I didn't want to give it back. I held on to the bumper and kicked and screamed as he drove it away.

But the one good part of the day was at my work we had an employee orientation meeting. we went to lunch at Cafe Rio and I ended up sitting with another employee and the VP over training and development. He had set up a "biggest loser" challenge. I asked about it and he told me a little bit about what was going on. I told him I would have liked to have joined... A few minutes later after the conversation had shifted he looked at me again and said "Why would you need to join? You don't have to lose weight?"...One of the happiest moments of my life. I really could stand to lose about 15 lbs. But I still see myself much much bigger. So out of dreary depressing day, that was my golden moment.

DAY 60 - Doing Laundry and Money Laundering

Ahhh Sunday. It was a very laid back lazy day. I spent most of the day at the parents house doing my huge stock pile of laundry. I think 98% of my clothes were dirty, so I finally gave in and loaded them all up, broke out the Tide and spent the afternoon, washing, drying and folding... Well I didn't do it, mostly the machines did it. However, according to the girl at work I do remind her of a washing machine, or some sort of house hold appliance. She gave me her wedding invitation, and it was addressed to Ken Moore... I'm pretty sure Kenmore is a leading name brand in the home appliance industry. Maybe I'm agitated a lot or something. It's OK I forgive her, I'm relatively new, and she's 19.

After getting the bulk of my laundry done (I always have to leave a little for my mom to finish). I came back down to Salt Lake and went to Clete and Greg's for some Amazing Race and the "2 hour Brothers & Sisters movie event." They have been advertising there was going to be a death in the family. We had also heard the guy that plays Tommy was leaving. So we all assumed he was going to die... We were wrong. Rob Lowe died...but only for a second. So lame. But Tommy was convicted of stealing money from the company, and it looks like he's going away for a long, long time.

Oh so sad that I'm talking about these people like they are real. I need to get out more..or do I mean Ken Moore?!