My happy time today

An old friend of mine used to ask me at the end of the day what my "Happy Time" was. Here is mine for the day. How can a cookie like that not make you smile? It tastes really good too...
What was your happy time?

Choices for this evening:

1. Dave Barnes is in town and he was so funny the last time I saw him. I found this picture on his myspace page. He has a great voice and has written some of the best and cheesiest acoustic love songs I've heard. He even made Uzi cry. $10 at Cafe Du Nord at 9pm. 2. Uzi invited me to see some opera about a barber trying to help someone escape from prison. ha. Or something like that. To read a synopsis that counts, click here. The tickets are $10 but they're standing room only and its 3 hours long. Hmm.

Things I've learned recently:

1. I decided last week that I was going to exercise every day this week. So far, so good. I've learned that I'm incredibly out of shape. That's why there's tomorrow though, right? My lungs have been hurting all day from my "run" this morning. My grunting is worse than usual. Sorry guys.
2. I miss country music a lot. On Sunday Buck and I sang along to a bunch of country music at the airport and it brought back a lot of good memories. I created a George Strait playlist on pandora today and it has made me very happy all day long. Darn you San Francisco and your non-existant country radio stations!
3. I can't stand my new bangs. I want to shave them.
4. My grandma doesn't smile for pictures. I'm not sure why.
5. I think that Melissa just might get married this summer. Mel, if you read this, I am SO happy for you.
6. If you ever get caught holding hands and nuzzling with someone at Taco Bell and run into people that you know, don't immediately drop "someone's" hand because then you look really dumb.

Jerrytown

The other night I went to Color Me Mine in Provo with my friend Autumn. While we were there, some guy was playing his guitar and singing. His voice was amazing and I was so happy to find that he actually has a few CDs and click here to see his myspace page. I hope you like it as much as I do.

My luck with laptops

Its broken. I should be getting it back before Christmas. I . am. so . annoyed.
Update: My laptop did not break in half. The screen stopped working; much like the last three laptops I've had in the last three years.

Thanksgiving

Hope yours was great!

And then I found these two tables.

I fell in love with this table just like I fell in love with the couch. If I knew that it would fit in my apartment, and if I had the money, I'd buy it in a second. I put a picture of the buffet that goes with it, even though I'm not buying it. I think its gorgeous. Oh how I want this set. Christmas? Presents? Anyone?

Kristy - What do you think of the silver table? Kinda cool...but wouldn't exactly go in the apartment very well. Hmmmmm...

Survey time!!

Ok which table do you like more?

Exhibit A:
Exhibit B:

What I'll be doing at home this week #3

My parents started collecting Nativities from around the globe a few years ago and due to my Father's love of collecting various items such as clocks, Noah's arks, rocks, Arnold Friberg paintings, etc., the project of decorating for Christmas is super daunting. I believe that my parents own about 80 nativities now, so all year-round decorations are put away for the holidays so that the Holy Family can show off their cultural differences for a few months. The pictured nativity is not part of my parent's collection, but I have a feeling that if my Dad ever makes it to Russia, it will become a part of the family. My mother called me last week to ask me if I'd help her set up the day after Thanksgiving. I'm tired thinking about it.

Christmas Festivities in the town in grew up in

The Matthews United Methodist Church has a "Walk Through Bethlehem" every December. I think about this every holiday season and when I go to my parent's home for Christmas, I always make sure to find the Christmas ornament that I got from this walk one year. Unfortunately there aren't any pictures on the website, but here is the link anyway. If you don't know what this is, its a live nativity. When I went about ten years ago, there were live camels and people dressed as Roman Soldiers, and lots of little kids running around trying to sell you bread and other treats. So fun!

What I'm going to do at home this week #2

Celebrate this:

What I'm going to do at home this week: #1

Probably do a little of this....

Things I miss about North Carolina during the holidays

This little town in the middle of North Carolina puts on quite a light show. If you're ever in the area, check it out. AMAZING. If this picture of a guy with a mullet separating Christmas lights doesn't get you excited, nothing else can.

Official Fire Fighter

My day on Saturday was filled to the brim. I went to breakfast with friends to my new favorite place, the Grove. I'm definitely going to become a regular for their awesome hot chocolate alone! I spent the rest of the day getting ready for the Jazz Thanksgiving Dinner that I had helped plan as a church activity. Silvia, Mike, and I had gone during the day to setup the lights and then gone home to get ready. We went back at 4:30 to finish setup and to our surprise, the Chinese branch thought that they had scheduled the building for an activity when the reality was a bit different. Luckily the missionaries were there at the church and a member of the Chinese branchy was nice enough to help us redo the lights and haul the ladder all around the cultural hall. I was stressed, but it looked great in the end. Unfortunately, the band was a no-show. I'm not sure what happened, but luckily, Seth taught me a few years ago how to setup an ipod with the old speakers that we have at the church. I dj'd the rest of the evening on the fly and actually had a lot of compliments despite the requests I got about wanting a slow/fast/salsa/swing song. I think that all in all, the activity was a big success. I'm grateful for everyone who helped out.

Towards the end of the evening, there was a guy who showed up to help us out in the kitchen. He looked familiar, but I didn't think much of it. He was helping me carry bags out to my car when we started chatting. Turns out he just moved to Utah from DC and when I was in DC with Mauri a few months ago, she took me to his goodbye party. RANDOM! Why do weird things happen to me all the time? Speaking of weird things. I had a dream last night that Tommy and I were professional ice dancers in Tonga, but that it was snowing....so maybe it wasn't Tonga, but Rick Buck was there and he told me that it was. We sucked at ice dancing and the herd of giant lions that kept on running down the beach really scared me. Yeah; try to psycho-analyze that one!

A lil' personal update for ya.

1. I called about my couch today. It was manufactured in my beloved North Carolina, which makes me love it even more. An even bigger plus is that it was shipped today. The customer service agent that I talked to told me that it would be two weeks before I see my couch. Ok with me since I'll be in Utah next week.
2. I haven't gotten out of my pajamas all day long.
3. Tomorrow I'm going to visit my girlfriend Melissa who just had a baby and lives in the east bay. I haven't seen her since her wedding day 6 years ago. Scary! She has 3 kids now.
4. I called another girlfriend of mine today to tell her that I was going to go visit her tomorrow and she said "I live in Utah now." moment of silence please for my stupidity.
5. I love the new makeup that I got at Sephora. If I wasn't hot before, I am now.
6. I talked to my "crash" today. Yeah...he's pretty cute.

Call me whatever you want

I found this hilarious website this evening that lists all the possible (well, a lot of the possible) bad nicknames that you could have with your name. Here are mine. This made me laugh pretty hard. I highlighted the ones I've been called.

Stephanie

Teasing Nicknames:

Stuffy

Epiphany

Phoney

Step on me

Steppapee

Stay funny

Steffers

Effnie

Steffe Weffe

Steffe Weffe Waffle Face

Stephanuffeluffagus

Weffers

Stef-funny

Stiffy

Stephanopolis

Stupid Stephanie

Stuffunny

Silly Steph

Stay Fine

Schwefania

Stepharoni

Stephanovich

Staphanie the Giraffanie

Steffie Stuff

Snephrod

Steppy

Sneff

Neph

Snephanie

Stef-fanny

Stephanitis

Stetnie

Stuffy Steffy

Steppy

Step

Stepper

Roani

Step on me

uzelich---please start calling me stephanovich. i love it. OR Shwefania.

Some great restaurants...

While I was in Las Vegas, I had the opportunity of dining out at one of the best restaurants that I've ever been to, called Rosemary's Restaurant. I can say that when the cab pulled up to this place, I wasn't impressed when I saw that it was in the middle of a strip mall, but once I tasted the food and experienced their amazing service, I renigged my previous feelings. This place is a ways from the strip on the west side of town, so if you're ever there, its worth the trip. I had the butternut squash soup, the NY strip, and creme brulee. Oh yum. This place isn't cheap, so get ready to pull out your wallet. Trust me; you won't be sorry.

I took a sick day today from work so that I could get some much-needed rest after my exhausting trip. Rebekah and I went to a great place called "The Grove" down on Chesnut St. for a late breakfast and I will definitely be back. The atmosphere was very rustic and it is definitely a place that the "Marina crowd" likes to hang out. Its on the corner of Scott & Chesnut and if that still doesn't convince you, they have free Wi-Fi so that you and your yuppie friends can be connected with the world wide web while you dine on their awesome food. Their hot chocolate is amazing.

Ok now that I'm hungry again....what's for dinner, Uzi?

Home again home again diggery doo

I'm leaving...on a jet plane...don't know when I'll be back again.

brent still owes me $22. cheap skate.

12 things I want to say to people...

Thanks to Yancy, Jason, & some guy named Jared.

1. I will never forget the way you made me feel inside when we met.
2. Thank you for letting go of the past and starting over with me a few years ago. It means more to me than you could ever know.
3. I keep thinking that I'm going to see you everytime I walk around the corner. I heard our song the other day when I was standing somewhere that we'd been together and I cried. I miss you and I hope you're doing great.
4. I wish you'd kiss me while you have the chance.
5. I hope that one day I can let go of the hurt I feel inside because of you.
6. Yes, it was me who sent the missionaries to your house, but I didn't tell you because the missionaries told me that your husband yelled at them.
7. You are the most amazing friend. I wouldn't have made it this past year without you. I hope that you are my friend forever.
8. I wish that you wouldn't lead girls on the way you do. I love you more than I can say, but I'm tired of watching girl after girl get hurt because of the way you treat them. Its not ok. Please stop.
9. When we went on our first date, I still had a boyfriend and I'm sorry. The timing was horrible and I really liked you, so I did it because my boyfriend at the time treated me like crap. I just want you to know that I'm sorry for acting like a psycho while we dated; you didn't deserve it. I wasn't ready to be in a relationship yet, but I thought I'd miss the chance if I didn't date you then. I hope you can forgive me.
10. Hang in there. I love you. It will get better.
11. If only we were 18 again and we could go back. I wouldn't have said those things to you and I would have been more upfront so that we wouldn't have fought when we did. I miss laughing with you so much. Poor donkey...or was it Poor Mule.??
12. I smelled vanilla the other day and it made me want you talk to you so much. I miss our friendship terribley and it makes me sad to hear from other people that you don't really care to know anything about me anymore...when you used to know me better than anyone. No one dances in the car like you do, or pretends to know the words to songs like you do, or sleeps as much as you do. In an emergency, you were the first person I thought to call; I knew you'd listen and tell me exactly what I needed to hear. I wish you were still a part of my life.

Ok so I bought internet use in my room tonight

I just got back from Gilly's, which is a country-western restaurant/bar here in Las Vegas. I decided to post some of the pictures from my 8 years...I mean, days here. Tomorrow the show closes and I can't wait for it to all be over so that I can get some rest. I'm not necessarily looking forward to going home since my life here is much more exciting than it is at home, but such is life. Here are some of my favorite pictures from my adventures here. Hope you enjoy.

I am so lucky to have a friend like Brent who not only does an obligatory visit with me while I've been in town, but we've hung out 3 times, with plans for tomorrow night as well. I definitely have had a great time spending time with him. This picture was taken on Friday night when Brent and his friend Bryant came to town to hang out with me. I wore a hat since we were hanging out around 25,000 Ophthalmologists and I wanted to be incognito. I think it worked.

I took a picture with one of my favorite temps named Betty Boop. I'm serious. Her name is Betty Boop and her grandson is a member of The Killers. True story. She WAY overshared a few times, but I walked away with some great stories. She told me that I don't need to worry about falling in love; I just need to marry for money since thats what will make you happy in the end. I'm quoting that from her...not my own philosophy personally. If you'd like the story in person, you just let me know.This is Coleen. She goes to Penn State and she's been helping me work the Advance Registration area here in Vegas. We have had so much fun together; she's awesome. I wouldn't have made it this week without her.

Ah...my girls. They drove all the way from San Fran to hang out in Vegas and sleep in my free hotel room. haha! I'm glad that Silvia was able to experience Vegas and see all the things that there are to see. It was fun to have them here; I just wish I could have spent more time with them.
Brent and I went to see Blueman Group one of the first nights I was here in Las Vegas. I was very unsure about the whole thing but it turned out to be pretty cool and I still don't understand how it was all connected. Basically it was like someone had a bunch of cool ideas for a show, but they didn't go together at all, so they turned it into Blueman. We were in the 5th or 6th row, so we had to wear Ponchos because of the things such as paint, mashed bananas, etc. that fly into the audience during the evening. I thought I was going to have nightmares after one of the blue men stood right in front of us and climbed over our seats. Scary. Ew.My friend Heather's older brother is an Ophthalmologist. I knew that he'd be coming to the show and so based on a previous conversation with Heather, I edited Eric's badge information to say "Heather's Big Brother" instead of Eric Linebarger, MD. I didn't tell anyone that I had done it, so when one of my temps printed out the badge, he just started laughing and decided to wear it during the meeting. He did come back the next day asking for a badge with his real name on it so that he wouldn't get so much flack for it, but I think that it was a hit.
A lot of my friends have heard about the infamous Jeramy. I really hope that he never reads this, but I have to be honest. Because of Jeramy, I've had no need for a boyfriend over the last 10 months. We've talked on the phone at least once a day since March and we've become good friends. Sometimes, he calls me in the morning just to say hello and good morning. On my birthday, he called JUST to say Happy Birthday and that he hoped I'd have a good day. He's a sales manager here at the hotel and he has made my stay in Vegas SUPER enjoyable. We are completely plutonic friends though. For real. He's happily engaged to someone and I'm so happy for him. I don't know what I would have done over the past few months without him; who needs a boyfriend when they've got their own Jeramy?

These are some pictures from tonight. Don't worry; there's a video coming too. I was the first in line to ride the bull tonight at Gilly's and I think I even stayed on longer than the average girl. All my coworkers were around supporting my first attempt at mechanical bull riding. Wow. What a ride. :)
And then I got knocked off. Woo hoo!

oh-o living on a prayer

Still here in Vegas. I haven't been this tired since I worked at EFY. Everything is going well though and I have great temps to work with. I've been told that I'm wasting my talent as a meeting planner and that I should be a performer. At least this year no one is trying to set me up with their son.

I'll be back to my regularly scheduled blogging on Thursday.

So far, Vegas has been great. I've seen the Blue Man Group, Phantom of the Opera, had a spa treatment, hung out with my good friend Brent, had Kristy & Silvia come to visit, tomorrow night I'm going country dancing, and I don't know if it can get much better. Someone asked me if I was looking forward to going home and I told them that I have friends wherever I go, so I never really get homesick. So true.

Oh...and anyone know the snow report for Salt Lake? I want to go skiing while I'm home in a week.

~Sizzle

i'm alive

just wanted to post that i'm alive and thriving here at the Venetian hotel. I would say that I'm in Las Vegas, but I haven't left the hotel for more than 5 minutes total the entire time I've been here. The docs will be arriving in T minus 3 hours. eek!

Let the games begin.

Fantastic Art

I saw this artwork on Juniper Designs the other day and I loved it. This is one of my favorite pieces. The artist's name is Cecilia Carlstedt. Check her out here.

Travelling shmavelling.

So before the year ends (and there are only 8 weeks left) I'll be in Las Vegas, Utah, New Orleans, New York, and Utah again. I wanted to apologize in advance for the lack of blogging that will be happening in the near future. My life has been insane the past month at work with all of the preparations for my big meeting. Hopefully everything will go well and I'll survive to tell the tale. At this point its either smooth sailing or complete disaster. I'll blog when the opportunity presents itself, but please don't be completely disappointed if it isn't very often.

A year ago today, Jeff and I went on our first date. Oh how time flies. Not sure why that was written on my calendar at work, but it was. Jeff, if you read this, Happy Anniversary. Scott, if you read this, Happy Birthday. I hope you like your birthday present. I doubt you'll cry when you get it like I did when you gave me mine, but I'll be optimistic about it. I can picture your reaction in my mind and it does make me smile.

How many people are out there with your same name?

So I've been playing around with this website today. I'm not sure how accurate it is since two of my best friends don't technically exist according to its figures. Kristy, you are the weakest link.

My new cousin!!

My awesome cousin Jeff and his wife Stacy had their first little baby on Halloween!! His name is Jake and he is one cute baby! I can't wait to meet him! Congratulations!

Halloween Night

The fun never seems to end. Tonight Kristy and I went trick-or-treating and then hit up the Castro with some friends. Its late and I'm tired, but here are some pics from our eventful evening. Oh...and FYI, we left a few minutes before 10 people were shot. Awesome. Not really.Dave went as Slash..

Derek went as Bob Ross. Judy is admiring his work.

This was our view as we left...and right before the shooting. That was the intersection of Castro & Market at 10:30pm.

Paris & Nicole in the Castro.

Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Dolly Parton, Penguin, Spider Girl, Austin Powers girl.