I Smile Grimace at Style

Making its appearance fashionably late is...

Ha. Me? Stylish? I think you got the wrong person, Syida. I'm assuming you didn't see my last post about my hatred for shopping (yes, this includes clothes shopping). But I'll accept the award, anyway. Thank you.

You know who totally deserves this award is my cat, Kudos. She craves this kind of attention. She lives for style. She loves playing dress-up (well, not that she has a choice...). It just makes her feel purrty.

Kudos graciously accepts her award.

Will you accept?

Katie
Betsy
Kelly
Kathryn
Patti
Jillsmo
TV
Kirsten
Tattytiara

If you so choose to accept this award, there are rules that come along with it (because nothing worth having comes easy):

1) Thank with all your heart and link back to the blogger that generously awarded this to you
2) Share with the whole Internet world 7 random facts about yourself
3) Award some great bloggers

I GUESS I better start telling you about myself before this award is swept away from me right under my nose. Here goes:

My Facts

1. Do you know how a completely otherwise delicious cookie or brownie can be ruined? Just add nuts.
2. I am against dressing your dog or cat up in human-like outfits. Unless it's Halloween or something, then it's completely normal...
3. I contradict myself.
4. My ringtone for phone calls is currently "The Breakfast Machine" song from Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. For texts, it's the Seinfeld theme song.
5. I was with my family vacationing in New York City--even stayed in a hotel within the Twin Towers--two weeks before September 11. Two weeks!
6. San Francisco is my favorite city. I'll probably end up writing a post about all the reasons why I love SF, so I won't explain here.
7. My "favorite" number is 13.

Well, I think I've overstayed my welcome with this particular award, so I'm making my fashionable exit (uh, you totally didn't just see me trip right then...).

You Like Me, You Really Like Me!

The title of this post is in honors of the Oscars this week. Yeah...also, I got an award (I'd like to thank all the little people that I had to step on to get it--I'm pretty it was 5. Now I can see the world from a normal heighth). Ladies and gentlemen, I'm proud to introduce you to...drum roll...

Ooooh, how embarrassing. It seems we've had a wardrobe malfunction. Cut to commercial break!

AND...we're back. Making her reappearance is...

Special thanks to Cakeologist for this award!

Now down to business. As always, there are rules to receiving a blogging award grumble, grumble:

1. Thank and link back to the blogger who kindly gave you this award
2. Write 7 random facts about yourself
3. Pass this award along to a few other fellow bloggers

Facts

1. The first movie I ever cried in? The Lion King.
2. My favorite Disney cartoon? No, not Home on the Range. 'Twas The Lion King.
3. Which Broadway play have I seen that's based off a Disney cartoon? Beauty and the Beast...and The Lion King.
4. From which movie was my very own first cat, Simba, named after? The Lion King.
5. Which Sega game did I absolutely love to play? The Lion King.
6. I first discovered Elton John from what soundtrack? The Lion King.
7. I've only recently started liking gummy bears. What do they taste like, you ask? According to ChaCha, "...and boogers taste like gummy bears."

As you've seen from my "random" facts, I'm deserving of this award--I'm very versatile.

All good things must come to an end (like James Franco's career after having "hosted" the Oscars). It's only fair for me to share my wealth (sharing is caring, right?). I had fun in the short time I've spent with my award, but it's got to move on. There are many other worthy bloggers out there who deserve it. I'm handing my award over to:

Jenni
Miss 365
The Upside Down Cupcake
Mary
Eileen
Stephanie

Please take good care of this beauty.

And this concludes a fine example of my very versatile blogging style. Stay tuned next time to find out who the next winners are!

Catwoman

Halloween was just around the corner and I needed a costume for work on Friday. It was the end of work on Thursday and as I was walking a student to the bus, I asked him, "What should I be for Halloween?"

"You could be a princess...or...angel...or...Batman's girlfriend." I only have three options according to this kid, huh? And they're all sweet things...

Later that night I went a saw a play called Hotel Frankenstein, and ended up coming home late. Still with no costume idea for the next morning. Then...voila! It hit me. I won't be Batman's girlfriend as the kid suggested, but I will be the "kind of the antithesis of bats"--Catwoman. Think about it, I love cats, and I'm (kind of) a woman. Perfect!

So, at about midnight I was running around finding things to piece together to create my costume.

The next morning, at about 7, after putting my costume on and looking ready for Halloween fun at work, I go in to show my grandma my costume. She says to me, "You look beautiful!" Thanks, Grams, that's exactly what I was going for in my Catwoman costume.

I arrive at work at 8:04 AM. Four minutes late. Dang it. But it was worth it because I had to wake up earlier than usual to get ready for the Halloween party that we'll be having at work all day. As I walk into the classroom, my boss says, "Now, I have to ask, who are you supposed to be?" Isn't it obvious?...or was she making a joke? I don't know.

The day moves on. Adults at the school are complimenting me on my outfit. I don't think the kids quite understood who I was, but I don't blame them, because how would they know who Catwoman is? They're still young.

After work I head on over to a stake bowling activity. In my Catwoman costume. My mom warned me to change before I went because there could be guys there, and how am I supposed to attract guys in that outfit? Mom, are you telling me that Halle Berry looked better as Catwoman than I do? Fine, okay, anybody would look better than me as Catwoman. But...I thought I was being creative...because looking around, no other girl was dressed as Catwoman. This tells me that 1) either I'm really creative, or 2) other girls, for some reason, would not want to dress as a woman in cat attire.

I think the reason other people were not dressed in the same outfit as me was for both reasons, actually. I'm just really creative...because I was the REAL cat woman. Who wants to even pretend to be a REAL cat woman when you can be some girl who wears cat ears and a tail and gets into trouble? I was representing all the REAL cat women out there in the real world. The ones who strive to give cats good lives. The ones who care more about their cats than they do themselves. The ones who have names for all 37 of their cats and who can tell you each individual cat's favorite meal. Let's give a round of applause, for these are the true cat heroes. I will be joining these women (if I'm lucky enough to be accepted into their clan) so I was actually dressed as myself in 25 years--wearing a pink bathrobe, my glasses, curlers in hair, bright blue eyeshadow, rosy red cheeks, bright pink lipstick, lines drawn on my face for wrinkles, bright orange Halloween cat socks, and leopard-printed slippers. Not to mention, I had cat stuffed animals hanging out of my robe's pockets.

*This is the reason why my grandma told me I looked beautiful--because I was dressed as HER (I was using her makeup and robe). Grams also likes cats.

*This is the reason why my boss asked who I was--because I pretty much look like that everyday at work and she couldn't decipher whether I was really dressed for Halloween or not.

*This is the reason why I couldn't attract guys in my outfit--because why would they want someone who wears slippers in public?

Well, folks, let me say: I was kind of dressed up. Kind of myself. But I don't think Halle Berry could play the part of Catwoman quite as well as I can.

The Sock and Shoe Bandits

Yesterday there was a cougar warning in our neck of the woods (and no, U of U, I don't mean the BYU Cougars, although you better watch out!...Confession: I don't watch sports. I'm supposed to be supporting my college, right?). Yep, a mountain lion was spotted at the park a couple of blocks away from my house. But forget the cougar. There is something else on the loose that is even more ferocious...to apparel.

My cat.

My cat is a sort of vicious killer--she likes to play "cat and mouse" with her prey before actually killing it. Who would've thought? Last night she had apparently been out hunting in the woods and being so generous as she is, decided to surprise me with a dead mouse left right outside the front door. Aww, how cute. And I must admit that she's pretty talented considering she doesn't even have front claws. It is true what Robert De Niro says in "Meet the Parents": Cats make you work for their affection. They don't sell out like dogs do. So, either my cat loves me because she's bringing me "gifts" or in reality she's actually plotting my death.

I don't know about you, but I'd rather Sassy not bring me dead mice. I'd actually prefer to be brought shoes, underwear, or socks. Oh wait, that's what my other cats carry around the house. Call them lazy...or slow (in the head)...but these other two cats will only "hunt" clothing items--hmm, they must be girls who love a true shopping spree. It has pretty much become a ritual now, because every single night, I repeat, EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, Kudos will go into the master bedroom and drag at least one of the slipper socks (shown at left) into my gram's room. But, the best part is when Kudos makes her hunting cry...it sounds like she's in pain, yet she cries like this the whole time she is dragging the cotton carcus. She truly believes she has caught something and is the proud killer of this sock-shoe thing.

Truffles, the smarter cat, makes a hunting cry as well. Except, she's not dragging around a sock...she's actually upgraded to shoes. I must admit that it's pretty annoying when you're running late and go to put your flip flops on, only to discover that they're two rooms over, like under the kitchen table. Or in the center of the family room. Or in the office. Silly kitty. Why do you think they're carrying around shoes? Are they inadvertently telling us that our feet smell and we need to cover them up?

But wait...that can't be true. Because...Kudos will go through partially opened drawers pulling out underwear. What is she trying to say with this action? I don't know. But I will tell you one thing that I know will never happen, even though it'd probably be a humorous situation: What if you were home alone with your boyfriend? And you're just, like, upstairs chilling, watching a movie or something. But then...your parents come home to discover underwear, socks, shoes all over the floors knowing that you said Johnny was coming over that afternoon. The looks on your parents' faces would be a Kodak Moment, all thanks to your cats named Truffles and Kudos (intimidating names), also known as the Shoe and Sock Bandits.

So, mountain lion, I know you’re perfectly capable of taking down a small human and stuff (which would be sad), but I’m more scared of running late and not being able to find shoes to wear. That would be horrible.

I ♥ UT

I was at Wal-Mart today when I was amused to see a woman wearing an I ♥ UT shirt...in Utah. Seriously, though, who sells shirts proclaiming their love for Utah? Even better, who buys a shirt proclaiming their love for Utah? I just find that so funny--in fact, I thought about taking a picture and sending it to peopleofwalmart.com, but alas, I don't think many people would find it hilarious like I did...unless, you have a unique sense of humor, I guess.


Normally vacation spots such as New York City or London will sell shirts that consequently say I ♥ NYC or I ♥ London. Well, San Francisco happens to be one of those cities who is also supportive of selling these shirts. I'm originally from a city about 45 minutes from San Fran and so my family would "travel" there every so often. When we found out we would be moving to Utah my sister decided that she needed to have a San Fran shirt to remember that beautiful city by. So, now we're living in Utah and one day my sister decides to wear her I ♥ SF shirt. Bless this Utard's heart, but someone actually came up to her and said, "Wow, I didn't know Spanish Fork sells shirts." Sheltered? Yes. I mean, has this person never been out of Utah before so they think that SF can only possibly stand for a farming town with a population of around 30,000? That is freakin' awesome. Utah natives, I ♥ U.

I ♥ LAMP, too.

Cha-Cha-Cha!

Yesterday I was contemplating something of utmost importance: why is there a North and South Carolina, a North and South Dakota, but only a West Virginia and Virginia? Why no East Virginia (if you have the answer to this feel free to tell me)? Usually when I have awesome questions like this I will ask ChaCha (Text your questions to 242-242 for FREE answers!) because 1) I'm too lazy to get on the computer, or 2) there's no computer nearby to look up a question. But lately, I've been disappointed with ChaCha--it's like there's not even a person on the other end of my question answering, it's more like a computer that just goes to Google and types in one keyword from your question.

The last intelligent question I happened to ask ChaCha was What's Justin Long's date of birth? Now, this may not seem like a big deal if I don't get the correct answer to it, but I wanted to know how old he was. See, a friend and I had been talking and she said she thought Long was like, 25 and I thought he was exactly 32. The only obvious way to resolve our question was to look to ChaCha to enlighten us! Anyways, so ChaCha responds with Justin Bieber was born on March 1, 1994. ChaCha again soon! Umm...nowhere in my text did I write "Bieber." How the heck did they get that mixed up? Okay, so it may be a confusing question to some, since Justin is a common name and everything...so, I respond to ChaCha by asking them my original question again. They then responded that they did not understand what I was asking. I told them that it's a very simple question and to just google Justin Long's birthday. FINALLY. There is ONE smart person who works for ChaCha who was able to give me my answer (turns out he IS 32...I win!).

Justin Long/ Justin Bieber.

On a separate occasion, I was really wondering whether Dr. Seuss was indeed a doctor. Naturally, I asked ChaCha. Their response: Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Well, thanks for the info, but it doesn't quite answer my question...so, I ask the same question again. They then give me the same answer. Repeat step 1 about five times. Then, finally, a smart ChaCha person comes along to my question and gives me a satisfactory answer (in case you're wondering whether Seuss was in fact a doctor): No, he wasn't a doctor. He went to Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife, married her, and returned to the US without earning a degree. And who cares that he's not REALLY a doctor?! He still has Dr. as part of his name! On a sidenote: like, the next day after asking this question, I saw some guy wearing a cool shirt about "Doctor" Seuss (pictured below). I almost shared my new learned knowledge with him that his shirt was a blatant LIE. But instead, I ended up taking a picture of the guy's shirt, because, I have to admit, that shirt was a classic. So, I was nice and let the guy live his life believing that Dr. Seuss was really a doctor. Life is so much better when you're naive.

Even though ChaCha isn't 100% reliable for factual answers, you can still ask an open question where you just want an opinion. ChaCha can be fun to text for this option. Your challenge: text 242-242 and ask Are you dumb? or Is the Book of Mormon true? or Are cats or dogs better? because some of their answers are fun...only if you're bored, though. Like, if you're on a bus ride, are waiting at the airport, or are sitting in Calculus, because these situations=no fun.

Chacha on! Thanks for using ChaCha! ChaCha!