Series 4

For all you that didn't know, I passed my series 4 so I am now a registered option principal. Which means I am responsible for supervising options' exposure and the trading activities on options within client accounts. Its very exciting.

Zion National Park

Last weekend I went to Zion with my ward. It was lots of fun, I don't have a lot of stories about it but I do have some pictures that I will add as I am typing and try to comment on them as I go. I was planning on hiking the Narrows on this trip but I figured it wouldn't be a good idea since I had missed a week and a half of work because I had a bad reaction to some medication that my doctor put me on. Anyway, I went on two shorter hikes instead. The first was Emerald Pools, I was glad to not be hiking alone, my friend Marshall had hurt his foot so he came with me and Kathy, Stephanie (note the alternate spelling or this trip could become confusing really fast), and Mary Ann went on the short hike, while most everyone else went for the Narrows. So the picture that should be to the left is Marshall, Stephanie, Kathy, and May Ann. I am taking this one so I am not in it. The next one is of Marshall and me. I am scrunching down a lot since Marshall is about 5 inches shorter than me, but we're excited to go hiking.

The trail led us under a very cool waterfall so these are my best pictures that I took there. I love taking pictures and I'm excited that my camera will up load now so that I can share with my vast audience.

Marshall always takes a journal with him every where so he can write his thoughts and about the people he meets. We had just met a family from Illinois, the Dad's name was Ried I don't remember the mom or son's name, but we kept meeting up with them on the trail so we were pretty good friends by the end of the day.

The pools were not as cool as I thought they should have been and the Algae that was supposed to make them emeral was missing, but there were a lot of other awesome things to see. The red rock against the blue sky was amazing! And the squirrels would come right up to you. One of them stole an apple.

This is the view from the top, Marshall was good to be the subject of my picture, it's not great but it documents the top... probably should have taken a picture of myself here but I guess there is always next time.

And this one is just to mess with my mom, I'd say "I'm not that close to the edge..." but Marshall would say that's a lie, so... I'm pretty close to the edge. But the shot needed perspective, otherwise it would just be a nature shot with no subject and you know how I feel about that.

The sign was just too ironic to pass up.

Alright here are the next day hike pictures, we hiked Angel's Landing, it's about 5 miles round trip, but its pretty steep, I definately need to do this one again when I am feeling better, because I was just miserable by this point of the trip and I still had to drive home.

This is a view looking up at the first set of switch backs... if you are wondering if there are pictures of the second set... no.

This is a view from the top of the first switchback, at this point the hike moves into a sort of canyon going to the north side of Angel's Landing so you can hike to the summit.

I keep trying this shot, I just really like this erosion pattern in the sandstone, it's never as cool in picture as it is in real life.

I also like pictures that I can title, "me on a rock"

And this is my artistic picture for the hike, its Kathy in a rock with a very long aperture and both of us are moving. I just really like how it turned out.

So the one drama story to tell for this trip comes after this hike. I need to back up momentarily and say I drove down to Zion and my car pool buddies were Kathy, Stephanie and Kristen. Now keep in mind that I have not felt well for a couple weeks, my allergies were all flared up (I blame the sage brush), like allergy shiners bad, and I'm on my 3rd round with my fast acting inhaler for the day. Kathy's back yard flooded a couple days before and she was needing to get back to take care of some sod that was coming that day. Stephanie, Kathy and I are the first to get down but Kristen wanted to get to the summit, which is fine, that puts her about 40 minutes behind us. But really we were ready to go. We watched the rest of our group come down, I had arranged to Caravan back with Marshall and his car but we had to wait for Kristen... and she still wasn't down the mountain. Well, Marshall was overridden, and his car had to leave... people were still coming down the mountain and leaving... one of the last people down was Sam, and talking to him he didnt' drive but he figured he could get the driver of his car to wait for us down at the visitors center. After waiting for Kristen for 2 1/2 hours, we're ready to send out a search party and barring her death we were pretty ticked at that point. Kristen saunters down the mountain and informs us that after she goes to the rest room we can go. I told her we were getting on the next shuttle with or with out her. She made it back in time, but no one is talking to her, and we were the last ones out of the canyon, I'm still not feeling great, and I'm thinking that I am the last car to leave with a bunch of girls and somehow I have to get home.

Luckily that wasn't the case, Sam came through for me and got Nicole (the driver of his car) to wait for us. Initially she started leading but after missing 3 out of 3 turns between Zion and Cedar City she lost the right to lead. Also in Cedar City, we voted Kristen out of the car... we didn't tell her that but in actuality that's what happened and swapped her for Sam who was pretty fed up with his car full of estrogen and happy to switch over to a new car full of estrogen. So he kept me company, I kept losing Nicole on the interstate, which shouldn't have happened as I was using cruise control and staying in the same lane... but what can you do? I was just happy when I wasn't being tailgated.

Oh, and I'm totally crushing on Sam. Sorry I don't have a picture.

Road Trip

Ok so I have been on a couple trips in the past few months, but I lost the usb port to my camera. So I now have a new connection to my computer so here's my update.

Over memorial day my room mate Jodi and I drove to San Francisco, but I have always been told that if I am going to bother going to San Francisco I should drive the coastal highway, and if I am going to drive on the coastal highway I have to come from the north. So clearly with all the information there is no point in going to San Francisco if you're not coming at it from Oregon.

On this Premise, Jodi and I drove to Oregon, which is a state I have only every driven through... I think... its possible that this was my very first trip to the state. Important things I saw here include the northern extent of the Great Basin, and some boats. I did not see any volcanoes though I did stop in the cascades and try. It was foggy I have pictures of me in front of Mt. Washington and you can't see a damn thing. Don't worry those pictures will be attached at some point but as is evidenced by my previous attempts the pictures show up where ever they want to.

So we drove from Utah to Eugene Oregon in a day, that is a freaking long drive especially since we were in the middle of no where and realized we were running low on gas and had to turn around and drive the wrong direction for a 1/2 hour so we could make it to the hotel, where we slept for about 5 hours.

The second day was even longer, we drove from Eugene to San Francisco. On the way I saw a light house and some big ass trees. I tried to hug one and got a face full of an attacking spider instead, they seriously need to do some bug control in those forests! you don't know where they've been! We almost hit a deer in Muir Woods, crossed the Golden Gate Bridge around midnight, got in a wreck in downtown San Francisco around 2:00 am, and made it to the hotel by 3:00.

The third day we didn't drive any where, but I did see Pier 39, Alcatraz (from a distance) and got up close and personal with some sea lions and the Bay Bridge. Oh, and I also ate sour dough which was really good with the soup I was eating at the time. So it was a successful day.

Day four we drove home, and that felt like the longest day because after week took a picture at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevadas we just wanted to get home and Nevada is just ugly, its like we would drive for hours and hadn't gone anywhere. The only place worse was once we crossed the state line and realized we hit the salt flats. So maybe Nevada isn't the ugliest place ever.

It was a good time, nothing like a whirl wind trip to cross one of those items on the "100 things to do before you die" list. Enjoy the pictures.

I have no excuse....

Jessica told me the other week that she didn't look at my blog anymore because I never have anything new to say. So my reader following went down 50%. Then today Beckee emailed me about my severely neglected blog, so my following dropped another 50%. I hate to disappoint my fans, and I am hanging out by myself on a Friday night, so I've got lots of time! Prepare yourselves to get caught up on the happenings of 2008!

Alright, where did I leave you? Well let’s just start with work; I know it's what you all want to know about most anyway! Work is going well, I just got promoted to the active trader group, which means I get to talk to all those wackos that sit in front of multiple computer screens and watch stocks all day every day. It’s pretty exciting; I work on east coast time, getting there by 8:00 ET when you're living in MST is kind of hellish, but I survive. Basically work is over by lunch time. That's just about right.

My braces will be off before my birthday!!! I was actually having some problems with them last month; my jaw really hurt a lot so my orthodontist had me take off the rubber bands and all that for a month. Just to give you some idea of how much my jaw was hurting. I also had my first cavity filled last month. It's true, my first cavity. I really only noticed there was a problem when I woke up one morning to find myself spitting out about 1/4 of my back molar. So I called my dad in a panic, because that is what I do. Then I called Ashley and she looked at it," yup, you're missing part of your tooth, it looks like you have a cavity there too." then she got helpful and recommended some dentists. The dentist was equally helpful when he asked, "didn't this hurt before? Would you like me to try to fill it or should we just do a root canal?" Have I mentioned this is the first time I have been in a dentist's chair for anything other than a cleaning? Don't worry, so far the filling has been great and I am not yet experienced an abscessed tooth.
So I went to the Orthodontist 2 weeks ago and he's talking about all the progress my teeth have made and that I should be losing the braces soon. "How soon is soon?" less than three months. Now naturally he is concerned about making my jaw hurt again, but we have to get my teeth to line up correctly so he decides that I should wear 2 bands instead of 4 and if that doesn't work than we are going to have to rebracket next month to pull the teeth into the correct position. Screw that!!!! I can put up with anything for a couple months, so I am wearing the 4 bands, and I am switching them for new rubber bands every 4 hours (except at night) effectively wiring my mouth shut 90% of the day and we'll see how long it takes those teeth to get where they are supposed to be!

Ok moving on, let’s face it the only other thing worth mentioning in my life would be my church responsibilities... just kidding I couldn't help it!

Isn't my life all about the pursuit of a boy? It kind of feels that way and there has been some goings on in that realm. But this is not for the faint of heart, and once you start there is no going back. Now that I have cautioned discretion, let me begin.

You may recall my previous stupid boy stories. If for some reason they have slipped your mind... I think you can look down the page a bit and find them. :) So we'll start with the Australian. As I can't read my previous posts while I am writing I will hit the high points, Jason and I dated last fall, I wrote him off around November and stopped contact all together around the second week in January. Come to find out that week I ended all contact; he had to go to the hospital and have some fluid around his heart drained and was incapacitated for a month. So naturally I feel bad about abandoning him in his time of need. But in my defense he didn't tell me until after he was out of the hospital because "he didn't want to worry me." But this leaves me feeling bad so I started hanging out with him again.
So from February through the beginning of April I have been seeing Jason pretty regularly, he had chosen his spot on the living room furniture and we watched a lot of movies. The good news is he went to California for the summer which has uncomplicated things considerably.
Why are they complicated? Enter Boy 2, Jeremy.
Jeremy is awesome, but he is also an engineer... what is up with me and engineers? I don't know, they are infuriating! But let's not get ahead of ourselves; you will need some more background information. Jeremy is the typical tall, dark, and handsome I usually go for and he is brilliant, so that helps. Also he is not as socially awkward as most engineer-types are, but he does have the following of crazy girls that usually accompany very nice, nerdy guys, it's not his fault, but he is very patient with them, which I think if kind of cute. He is going to be graduating with his bachelor’s in biomedical engineering in December and just finished his senior research project two weeks ago. Teresa and Sue have been telling me for months that I should be dating Jeremy, and around mid January I decided they were right. But I have do come up with a plan.
The plan has been several months in the works, I started with the typical flirting at social functions, but I had to compete with the bizarre bazaar and I just don't do well with that. So I decided that I just needed to get him away from all those other girls as laying the smack down is not very becoming. So I started staying back, and letting him come to me, which he would do if he could break away from the gaggle of girls. After about a month of this, I decided I had to step it up, so I made dinner and invited a bunch of people over, you know trying to show interest but not be too forward. So we'll start with the dinner and the narrative can go from there.
Dinner consisted of about 16 people; I had to have my support group and enough guys there to justify the entire support group. And I can cook, so I made broccoli cheese soup for the first time ever and chili. So good, I haven't made any since but I will definitely have to do it again. Anyway, I am not sure how it happened but Jeremy and Jason ended up being there, but there were lots of other people so I was able to pretty much ignore Jason without actually ignoring him. My cute friend Marshall plays the guitar, so we had a show and it was great. Most importantly Jeremy was totally impressed with my cooking, and I'm cute, so that helps.
So we start talking more and texting more, but he still isn't asking me out. What I failed to take into consideration is that Jeremy is an engineering student, with a huge research project he is right in the middle of, as well as other classes. He really doesn't have time to date anyone or do anything outside of school.
What is a girl to do? After spending a couple of weeks in a quandary, I decided to ask Cody. Cody always has a plan. So I whine for like an hour, and then Cody tells me about a class he took at BYU. I don't remember the class, but the important thing is that in this class his teacher gave his students a method to accelerate the dating process. What the pursuer would do is make sure that he/she had contact with the pursuee every day for a week. Contact could be a phone call, but preferably would constitute some sort of face-to-face interaction. Each interaction would need to include at least one sincere complement. During the week it was also necessary for the pursuer to do one extraordinary thing for the pursuee. One of three things will occur:
1. The pursuee will get freaked out and tell the pursuer to back off
2. The two would become very good friends, with the pursuee reciprocating the thoughtfulness exhibited by the pursuer.
3. You're dating.
Now this theory is all well and good, but what if the pursuee is legitimately unavailable for face-to-face contact every day for several weeks and the pursuer is impatient? Well if the pursuer is me, and let’s face it... it is me... she takes this plan adapts it to her situation and hopes for the best. So this is what I decided I needed to do.
Instead of a week, I took the time frame of a month. I also have brought in some of my other theories and melded them into the greatest pursuit plan I have ever devised (Becker, I know you'll be impressed, Wes will think he's not worth my time and do girls really do this, and Jecca will just laugh at me).
Some aspects of Cody's original plan are solid, and need to be conserved. First, I have to make sure that I am doing something special for him every week, and within this month I have to do two extraordinary things. Contact needs to be made five out of seven days per week, this will include phone calls and face-to-face, seeing him at church only counts if I learn something new about him and physical contact is made. Texting does not count but should be incorporated into the overall communication aspect of the plan. Of these five contacts per week, 4 of them must have a sincere compliment. Lastly, I need to ask him to do something for me, not anything big or time consuming, but I must have something that causes him to help me in some way.

So I think all I need to recap on is the cute things I did for him. Week one, I made dinner and took it to him at school since he was just too busy to get dinner. Positive things, I didn't have to try to find the engineering building he met me at the institute... so eating on the lawn was a bit awkward but I didn't see anyone I knew. So he didn't have time to get dinner on his own but he found an hour and a half to spend with me. And the time was just with me, I didn't have to compete with other girls for attention. Also the fact that I thought to take him dinner at school makes me thoughtful, creative, and sets me apart from all those other weirdoes. I'm in a class of weirdness all by myself.
His thesis was due the next week, and I mentioned that I wanted to see the poster he had to make for his presentation. So the cute thing he did was he made a color copy of his poster and brought it to church so I could see it and be impressed. My nice thing for week two was I sent him a note to congratulate him, and to let him know how much I enjoyed going to dinner with him and that I appreciated he had made a special effort to make sure I saw his poster.
That weekend was conference weekend so he invited me to watch the Saturday morning session with him and some of his friends... yes they were all girls! So positive things for this experience include, he took me to a function that some other girl invited him to, the other girl made an ass of herself, and then she had to watch Jeremy take me home. That was good.
Week three I made ransom brownies, that means I made brownies, let him know they existed, and if he wanted them he'd have to come and get them. That weekend also turned out to be the weekend he had to do something for me. Beckee's aunt passed away so my Mom was flying out to Spokane so Rochelle could come back to be at the funeral. This wouldn't have been a problem, except my mom was supposed to pick up Lindsey from the airport the day after she left and therefore needed someone to fill that void. Happily I was able to do that, but with picking up Lindsey on Friday and a funeral to go to on Saturday, my very open weekend turned into a very busy weekend and I was pretty stressed. Jeremy put up with my crying to him multiple times. He did a good job too. Other positive things we discussed my migraine issue (it kind of came up when I had blondies for me a brownies for him) which I really haven't discussed with anyone outside my family and roommates. For me, that is huge!
Last week (Saturday) I made a finals week survival kit, for dead/finals weeks... this coming week being finals week. I used all my best scrapbooking skills to make it awesome! And in week three I found out that he really isn't a treat lover so I made sure I got him less treat like snacks (so jerky and granola bars instead of chocolate and gummy worms). I also included a stress ball and motivational note cards for each day of the two week process. It was a lot of fun to make and I want to thank all of you who were so supportive! I was very stealthy in dropping it off, right up until the motion sensor lights came on when I hit the porch. Wes, I just want the record to show... I'm fast enough. Jeremy loved it! But he felt bad because he only has one final, and I spent more time preparing that box than he was going to spend on studying for one test. I told him to give it back.
This week I have been laying low, he had his test today and he really did need to study for it. So I figure I am being supportive by not being distracting. But, he called me on Monday to ask me to go dancing next Tuesday... because he can... we'll see if he still likes after he finds out I don't dance well...

Oh my goodness, I have pictures to post!

As you may or may not know, I have been holding off on buying a camera because if i waited long enough, my company would buy one for me. Well, the wait is over! My camera came just before Christmas so here are a couple pictures from the Tyson et al and Wes et al visit.

I think my Brenden and Solace pictures are still on my camera... I know I have some of those. So I am sorry I don't have them on this post, which I'm pretty sad about since they are such good looking kids. I promise I will add them later.

And as this is my first try, I don't think that I did it right. So I am open to coaching... please help!

But here they are
top: Armour as Santa he's not smiling, but I like the picture so I'm posting it.
next picture: Heighley with a Care Bear as big as she is
still going down: What two santas? I like this picture of Ender too. I think I like the mismatch reds as a background. It feels festive.
next to the bottom: Uncle Bret... he's a trooper.
And the bottom picture: Ender's a pro with a camera

Stupid boy installment Part IV Or I've decided that I need to hang out with drunk Hispanics more often

If you haven't read the previous Blog on the work party, start there and come back.
....
Oh, good you're back!!!!

Let's recap, Tyson is a guy I work with, he is Hispanic, and likes to party... a lot. But I spent a good 5 hours hanging out with him, he made sure I was comfortable had everything I wanted, made sure I made it back to my car safely, all in all pretty much a gentleman even after a couple beers. I had a good time and didn't feel self conscious.

Now, let's compare... Jason, who I guess I might be dating, but I'm not sure so I figure I'm not and am not really worried about at this point... called once I got home, was so excited to talk to me... but didn't really say much, as he was going over to a friends house. And no he didn't invite me.

He's still doing the school thing, so I can't be upset that he hasn't been as attentive as I think he should and/or could be. There still isn't a really good story here. Except to say that it really bothers me that it is so easy to go out and play with someone I could never date for religious reasons alone, and leave feeling good about myself and like I had a good time... and then anyone that I could date... if only for religious reasons... is just lame. I'm sorry, LDS guys are really dumb, even more dumb than most. I think its because they think they are going to marry any girl they actually date, rather than going out just to get to know someone, or for the hell of it. Where as other guys are just going out to have fun, it doesn't have to be going anywhere, your just two people having fun together. It doesn't have to go anywhere, heaven knows most girls don't think about that on the first date. Or if they do they are completely nuts!
Can someone please explain this to me?

I thought I graduated from High School! or Let's Count to 10.

So every year my place of employment (whom I am not to mention when blogging as per some company policy... so we'll say I'm in the CIA) has a work party. Only employees are invited to this party, which always has an open bar, a DJ, dance floor, pool tables, and pretty much all the food you can eat. And no spouses, it is sometimes referred to and the Infidelity Christmas Party.
Now, my other deep cover CIA cohorts and I have been excited about this for... well like a day before... but we all RSVP'ed.
So the day is finally comes, and we are all going to this party, which we were paid to attend since we had to leave work early to go. Tyson, Stafford and I were a bit late since we had to stop by Tyson's house so he could change into his suit. The attire was business professional, and I couldn't be seen with someone under dressed. He walks to work and we had to get downtown so it wasn't really out of the way. As soon as we leave work, Stafford start talking about how wasted we are going to get, and who they are going to pick a fight with once they are good and drunk.
Tyson, knowing I am not a drinker tells me it's my job to make sure he doesn't get sloppy drunk. So we take TRAX down to the Grand America Hotel and get to our little work party. So while I'm checking my coat, Tyson and Stafford start into their first of many beers, and I found them getting whipped at pool, (but playing a better game than I could dream of playing so I can't say much there) and are starting into drink #2. This is about 30 minutes into the night... or about 5:30... and after about the fifth drink offer, Stafford comes to the realization that I don't drink. Though I appreciated the offer. They down beer #3 while we were in line to grab some food.
Later we catch up with some of our other friends, Gavin, Nicole, Jordan, Chris, and Brad --- Tyson is off to get #4... now I know that I am not supposed to let him get really drunk, but he was getting me a Sprite while he was at it so I wasn't too concerned. I was sitting at our table talking with Nicole and Chris. Brad is on the dance floor by himself, soon to be joined by a scantily clad, we later find out, married, woman. And Tyson comes back with#4 and #5 and forgot my non-alcoholic drink at the counter, so he had to go back and get it, while he was there he figured he would pick up #6 while he was at it.
Fortunately for my task at hand, #5 and #6 were given up to Staff and Jason and #4 was forgotten when Tyson decided it was time to dance. Gavin isn't to be out done for very long, so three guys and one chick are out dancing Nicole, Chris, Jordan and I are spectating. And lets face it, the man who had downed 3.5 Hienikens was a much better dancer, though a little off balance.
But Tyson is a good looking guy, and much to Brad's delight they are soon joined by 4 or 5 more scantily clad women... I thought this party was business professional... Anyway, one of the girls asked Nicole to dance, (she even got on one knee) so Nicole is out dancing for a good 30 seconds. I don't know where these girls were coming from, but they were dancing in such a way that Gavin was embarrassed enough to leave the dance floor.
Chris, wants to get pictures taken, so we go and get in line for that... it seems like I spent a lot of time in line... anyway, Chris, Jordan, Gavin and I are holding the group place in line while Brad, Tyson and Nicole are being joined by more and more intoxicated people on the dance floor -- this group now includes directors, special agents and those deep under cover people... CIA employees are crazy! I'm pretty sure Jack Ryan was there...
So this picture line is long, I felt like I was in high school all over again... but I do work for a corporation so that's pretty much like high school anyway... but Gavin gave a rousing speech about how we were committed... look how far we had come, and how long the line was behind us. No sooner had we recommitted to our goal than Gavin is dragged out of line onto the dance floor by Vanessa, a girl who has been in love with him for over a year now, Gavin isn't really into her as much as she is into him... but he can't turn an offer down, so he's gone. Chris decided he wanted to find Angela and Ivanna for the picture, since they were in our training group back in the day when we were all new to the agency. So Jordan and I are holding down the fort and inching closer to the green screen. Somehow Gavin comes back with dessert... fortunately he brought me something so he could be forgiven for leaving, and I had to go pull Brad and Tyson off the Dance floor, Tyson had found another beverage, is this #7 or #8... I'm not sure at this point... but at some point beer is going to get to even the best so I'm stuck with the beer while Tyson finds the bathroom.
So we are all finally in line for pictures, Tyson has his beer back and is pretty upset that I haven't been dancing. I don't know what to do with someone who has consumed that much alcohol so I promise I will dance after the pictures. So we get the pictures taken and head toward the crowded dance floor. Chris, who is married and as his wife would be mad enough about him drinking decided not to give her something else to be mad about and stayed on the sidelines. I'm not a big dancer, so I kept my promise momentarily and then headed for the tables too.
The dancing was out of control, again, I don't know where these girls came from, if they were fired today, or when the Grand America turned into a club. There was some major ass grabbing going on, Roxbury style.
Brad insists that I haven't fulfilled my promise about dancing after pictures, so he dragged me back out to teach him to salsa. Once that song was over, Tyson wanted me to swing with him. He can't swing... and was that beer #9?
Anyway, it's getting late for a work party, so Tyson and I decide it's about that time. His friend was coming to pick us up since he was in no condition to drive... somehow not sloppy... which can't be said for most at that point.

All in all, I would say it was a pretty successful night... and I was in bed by 10.