Snow!

It has been absolutely frigid here the last few days, 30 with a wind chill on top of that! we got our first snow but it was kind of lame just a sprinkle! I love the first snow it makes me happy but then I drive in it and I'd have a few "Jesus take the wheel" moments as I'm spinning out of control. All in all I love colder weather it's good for:

Hot chocolate
Cuddling
Sweaters
Boots
Mismatchy gloves and socks!
Snowmen
Weird reflections late at night
Measuring the amount of snow fall on fence posts or tops of cars
Holidays!
Family

Anyway I can probably fill this whole page with wonderful things, the only thing I don't really like is the fact that I am always cold! Even in summer sometimes I am still clammy. I am super excited about Halloween, I will post some cool pics in a few days.

Loot

As fall (my favorite season) comes to a close, the leaves on the trees changing into their most lustrous gowns of crimson and blotchy orange and yellow, cold, wet, and unpredictable weather setting in, I love to go for walks in this neighborhood. Discovering unused food in Provo has become a bit of a hobby for me. The past summer I was able to reap the benefits of an abandoned black berry bush and plum trees, not to mention the yummy grapes I stole. This time I asked for permission to partake of unused fruit on trees. It truly amazes me how people won't put this fruit to good use! The first was a pear tree a couple of blocks over. I knocked on the door and a 20 something woman answered, I had apparently woken her up...it was 1 pm. I asked politely if I could have some pears and she said "ya whatever" and shut the door, "Thank you" I replied through wood. The next house was men's housing and I totally had that in the bag, they could care less about the crisp apples on the tree and the ones falling every few minutes on the ground cracking open for the sake of the wasps which were incidentally loving life. After I had spoken to all the necessary people I went to Andrew's house and was super excited. He however was not so excited and it took a lot of pleading and begging to get him to come, but a slice of apple pie and a half hour of whining did the trick. See I need Andrew because he is taller than me by at least 6 inches and can reach higher. We did pears first, the ground was littered with gross sticky mess. There were pears everywhere and I really stress that, EVERYWHERE! It smelled like rotting fruit and as soon as we started picking, the tree was disturbed and the pears would plummet to the ground like sugar bombs, they would make a sickening splat sound. Some were brown and gushy, others that fell were OK so I just picked them up and put it in our bushel basket. After we picked all we could with the 6 foot ladder we climbed up on the roof of the house to get up higher, and after that Andrew climbed the tree and shook the branches nothing really came of that though because they were all squishy! I would run out from under the tree with my hands covering my head yelling and slipping on rotting pears. It was really gross but fun, I found a birds nest with dead birds in it, I thought it was pretty in a really morbid kind of way.
After the pear extravaganza we headed over for apples, at this point Andrew was really enjoying himself and trying to get all he could which was great but he was scaring me because he would stand on the top step of the ladder, I swore at him a few times and he told me to stop being smotherly and continued to be "daring". Luckily he didn't die, we would position the ladder in different positions to gain the most produce, one time we were actually right on 900 east I couldn't stop laughing because we must have looked like a couple of loonies. We had a blast and now I get to can it all and make applesauce, Andrew will get some jars for helping of course. Here are some pics from our adventure!
These pears were kind of impaled on the BBQ.

Andrew handing me pears WITH BUGS ON IT!
Dead birds....I bet it was global warming.
Apples on the air conditioner
Andrew in the tree

Our loot!

Where the Wild Things Are

I have been looking forward to seeing this movie for months! Yesterday I made friends get up early to go see it. For the first showing the day the theater was packed and I'm glad we got there a little early to ensure tickets. The movie starts and nostalgia sets in, then something else happens Max has a life outside of the pages I'm used to. His mom is divorced, his sister makes him cry because she doesn't want to stick up for him in a snowball fight, and he observes his mom in stressful situations about work, then kissing her boyfriend?? The boyfriend doesn't make another appearance in the movie again. All of this is causing Max to be "wild" and the story becomes a riddled ride of psychology. When Max eventually makes it to the land where the wild things are, the monsters are fighting and terrible communicators. To be honest the whole group reminds me of these stoner kids I used to hang out with in high school. They were essentially depressed monsters. WHO HAS HEARD OF DEPRESSED MONSTERS??? There are real emotional problems in this story, we decided that the monsters in the film are Max and his demons and he is working them out while he is spending time there in the land. Every monster has a different personality, one is picked on, one is angry and destroys things, another curls up and doesn't do anything etc. I would not recommend this film for young children because they would get bored after the monsters loose their initial coolness. Because the story is based on the psychology of Max, kids might get distracted big surprise their kids! The graphics were indeed beautiful and realistic, Spike Jonze did a wonderful job adapting the story I would have never thought so deeply into the monsters, but the story as a whole was sad! I left the theater feeling like I needed a hug. I hate to admit this but....I didn't like the movie. I probably won't watch it again I'm sure a lot of other people really dug it! So go and make your own opinion on such things, I will stick with the book.

Last night I made an apple pie from fresh crimson colored wormy apples, I added raisins and currants and a ton of cinnamon. The crust was a whole wheat pastry flour bonded together with pure butter and a bit of sugar and salt. I believe I have captured fall in a pie.

la lluvia

For the last few days it has been raining pretty steadily, I love autumn storms because it brings out the best colors in sky and earth.Since my camera is still broken I feel cheated because if I knew what I was looking at I could have gotten prettier pictures, but these will do. My favorite thing about this weather is the funky warm glow of the clouds when it reflects on everything. I love Utah when the seasons change! I didn't really mess with these pictures too much! It really was a gorgeous end to a stormy day.

Enjoy!

Whip It

After staying up until 4 in the morning last night I woke up bright and early at 9:30 and decided today was a good day to see a movie by myself. I choose Whip It because I used to watch this documentary series called rollergirls on A&E, I was fascinated by this whole culture and the kick ass attitude these girls had. The movie was pretty inspiring the catch title was "be your own hero" I liked that! I also love Drew Barrymore, she is one of my favorite actresses and this movie was directed and produced by her as well. I was confused at the time frame it was in because everything seemed old, the computers were really outdated and cars driven were rusty and also outdated but I like that it seemed more realistic, I guess it was Drew's way of painting the boring lifestyle of a small town in Texas. The storyline was pretty awesome, homely girl who's mom wants her to be the beauty queen and forcing her to do pageants girl hates and always loses, mom living vicariously thorough her daughter, and dad is hiding out in a beat up van in some deserted parking lot watching football and drinking beer but oddly enough very supportive and loving towards his family. Bliss (aka Babe Ruthless), Ellen's character, sneaks out one night to see a roller derby game and falls in love with the culture and finds her niche in it. I thought the movie was well done, I was expecting a wittier dialog but this wasn't Juno, thank goodness. I loved Juno, but I also love other movies with different directions. Unfortunately I felt Page was cast because she plays the same parts so wonderfully, shy but witty, cooler than the popular kids but doesn't know it, la la la. OK Juliette Lewis played the opposing conflict causing character Iron Maven, and she literally has NO BOOBS! I was really distracted by her very revealing shirts that wasn't really revealing anything, um she's a great actress too. There was a sweetness to this film about finding yourself and discovering your potentials. The language wasn't to bad I never heard the F word and there wasn't any hard core sex scenes, a cool underwater montage of love, and the occasional butt groping from her parents which was funny and cute. I am listening to the soundtrack right now, I love it! I am glad I watched it maybe I can get some motivation to go roller skating!

A page in my book is turning...

This Last week has been a big page turner for me, I have decided to try and make more friends because I am just not being stimulated socially like I used to. I have become a sort of recluse drowning myself in self pity and obnoxious behavior towards my friends and those who love me most. I have learned in my 10 or so years of being on my own that only I can change my life and make it into what I want it to be. I go through these periodic changes ever 6 months or so. Last night I went to my friend Marcia's to play games and meet an entirely different group of people, and I love it of course I had everyone laughing and felt like the center of attention which I do love! She always invites me to do things but I am always busy being anti-social and unhappy. Second on my agenda is get back to the gym on a regular basis I need to schedule days so far it's Monday, Tues, Thurs. I need to stick to this even after my horrible experience with the personal training assessment last Thursday which included the guy telling me something like this:


Personal: well I'm just concerned with heart disease and diabetes
Laura: I'm really healthy I just need to tone up really
Personal: *gives unbelieving look*
Laura: Um, just because I'm chubby doesn't mean I'm unhealthy?!
Personal: Ya well I have degrees that say other wise.
Laura: ???!!! OK WELL HAVE A NICE DAY AND MAYBE I'LL COME BACK.
*leaves gym*

I am going back in about a half hour just to work out but hopefully I wont have to see that A hole. That was just the ending insult he had already insulted me a few times by comparing me with a slender girl and looking at me like I was a slug. I have been quite happy these last few days with my new changeling attitude, I feel better and even bought some new winter clothes today that I am pretty stoked about. The garden froze. I am pretty upset, we worked super hard on keeping it alive and one swoopy arctic wind froze them silly, Andrew and I got into a spat over it because I wanted to cover the remaining plants and save what we could and he wanted them to just freeze and die, I didn't take that very well and might have slammed the door on my way out. I am a passionate woman! I just don't see the reason for things to die earlier than they should, it wouldn't have hurt to try. Too late now they're dead, maybe next year we will be able to have better luck, I have learned more than I hopped for with my first garden, our strawberries were just starting to produce yummy bits of goodness even though we had to share with the birds who would eat half of a strawberry I would still eat the other half, they were delicious because we grew them! I am trying hard to continue at the farmers market, we have 4 weeks left and I am struggling keeping up with the demands of sewing and painting some weeks I work tirelessly and then meet and sell no one! It is a lot of work and sometimes just isn't worth it even though ladies at my work have bought my bags and their friends want bags etc. I am seriously thinking of setting up an etsy page and seeing if that works out in a positive way. OK off to the gym!

I noticed today that my camera is broken, well the screen is cracked and I cannot see what I am taking a picture of, the pictures up today are the ones I took blind. It will have to do until I can get a new one, blast.

School is great I love my classes and I am planning on taking more next semester, I love learning to write and argue properly and I love knowing exactly what is going on during earthquakes in Indonesia and Samoa thanks to geology, which were all on different subduction plates by the way and had nothing to do with each other...COOL HUH!