"TOTEMS"

Before I begin with my real remarks, I just want to make mention of a few things.

First of all Merry Day-AFTER Christmas! I meant to write, but just haven't gotten around to it. Even though my semester is over, I really haven't had that much time. Work has been out of control. I worked a 20 hour day last Thursday-from 7 a.m. Thursday morning, until 3 a.m. Friday morning. Not only that, but I had to be back to work again Friday morning by 9 a.m. No excuses though, I have been a very naughty girl, and good old St. Nick probably should not have visited my house, but since Easton (two year old nephew) slept over, the big man didn't have much choice!

Second of all, remember when I told you that my brother Brady decided he was in love? The impossible has happened. He has finally proposed, and will be getting married in February. It is such an unbelievable occurrence, that it should give some of us women out there a tiny bit of hope. Boys are just lame and sometimes just need a little patience and sometimes a threat to spark their interest and make them realize that they are dumb and should probably just listen to what women have to say to begin with. It would probably save them a lot of time and kissing up (or just kissing us).

So now, the real post. On Friday, Christmas Eve Eve, I drove Jaime to the airport in Salt Lake City. Her flight was not until 9 p.m. that evening, but with the mass of people headed to the very same location because of the apparent holiday which was upon us. Jaime, being the very smart girl that she is, knew she needed a little extra time to make sure she didn't get into a bind with the extra security and random extra screenings and such which was apparent she may have to encounter. We needed to arrive no later than 7 p.m. to account for all of this extra stuff.

Neither one of us wanted to travel in 5:00 rush hour traffic, so we decided to leave Orem at 3 p.m. and just hang out until she had to go to the airport. There was just one problem though. Once we arrived in Salt Lake, we didn't know what to do. Not enough time for a movie, so we thought we would walk around the mall so I might actually get some form of Christmas shopping done. That plan back-fired in a hurry because apparently the malls are undergoing a major remodel and so there are like zero stores. I got very annoyed and irritated and Jaime is not feeling very well. We decide to walk over to Temple Square just to see what was going on. This whole thing only lasted about one hour, and we still haven't any ideas of how to spend the next hour. We figured we would drive around and try and find a place where we could get some ice cream or something.

We drove around downtown for a while, without any luck. We drove more toward the airport to find a place closer that might be a little closer. We found ourselves in the ghetto of West Valley, Utah--which is not the place for two young single girls to even get out of the car--even if a very fabulous ice cream shop such as Coney's or Cold Stone were to pop up. Luckily for us there wasn't one, cause I think I would have found something like my tire jack with which to protect myself if any such place were to exist. We drove up and down Redwood Road with nothing but a few fast food places like Wendy's, Carl's Jr. and McDonald's.

One place, however tempted us on this dark and deserted armpit area of the state of Utah. I have spent most of the night trying to find some kind of picture of this place because I don't feel that describing it will give you what it truly deserves. I will take a picture though when I go pick Jaime up from the airport in about a week so you can laugh along with us. Anyway, the place was called Totem's. It is apparently a hotel, a bar, a nightclub, and a western steakhouse restaurant all in one. It looks like a cheap run down motel that you would find in small hick towns in Southern Utah--you know what I mean Shameonyou21. The only difference is that this place had two wooden, carved totem poles on either side of this ghetto, wooden sign that in giant letters with bright lights shining on it read, "TOTEM'S."

First of all this struck the two of us as being very funny. I don't know if that was because of where we were, the enormous amount of caffeine that was in at least my system, or what. As tempted as we were to go check it out, I think this place really just scared the living daylights out of us. So much so, that Jaime suggested we just drive through Carl's Jr. cause it was in more of a lighted area of business. She also hinted that she didn't mind going to the airport a little earlier than originally planned. She said it was because of how close we were, but I think Jaime just really wanted to be around all of that extra security at the airport cause she was wanting to get the heck away from there. On top of it all, I then, had to drive all the way home by myself with nothing but my thoughts of being killed in a drive by, and weird Country Christmas songs playing on the radio about seducing Santa Claus, which then terrified me to the very core of my being. Let's just say I am glad that traffic was light, and that no cops noticed me going 80 the whole way home.

The New Pride & Predjudice

Ok, since I hadn't completely ::hanging head in shame:: seen the BBC version all the way through, nor had I ::hanging head deeper in shame:: read the Jane Austen novel before my friend Jamie begged me to go see this movie, I didn't have much on which to base this new production. I heard from both Streets & Nemesis that even though it will never replace the BBC version, it was still very good. Normally, I can't completely trust anyone else's criticism about movies unless a good number of them say it is crap or otherwise, good. So when these two lovely ladies both, among others, said the new version of the film was good, I figured I could see it and be alright.

You have yet to hear the best part of it all though! I went, I saw it, I loved it, ::lifting head up slightly:: ate turkey, (the next day) giant photo of me on the front page of a newspaper section, cleaned my room, (that actually took place over the two days following Thanksgiving) and did all my laundry while watching the last five and a half hours of the BBC version on the Biography channel!!! (I missed the first little bit because I happend to be looking for a movie to watch on Direct TV after deciding my laundry needed to be done before my room could be completely finished) ::head is slowly lifting back up to normal, upright position::

The funny part was that the washing machine apparently had a heart attack because it hadn't seen so much dirty laundry at one time! (Note to readers, I did not cram everything I own into the washing machine at the same time. They were normal size batches, it just so happens that there were quite a few normal size batches). The [water] hose broke and flooded the laundry room with about two gallons or more of water. I noticed it during a commercial when I went to check on the status of my current load in the washer. I quickly informed my mom who along with my grandpa, came down to see what the heck was going on. Grandpa being the fix-it-man that he is, pulled out the dryer to see if he could get to the washer and figure out the problem. I was just standing there, so I sneaked back upstairs to watch the show some more and continued to check on the progress of the situation with my mom and grandpa during the commercials! I think I am officially hooked! P&P party anyone?

Turkey Day Surprise

I want to start out by saying that I hope everyone had a marvelous day--regardless of the fact that a few of you didn't get a vacation or even celebrate this wondrous occasion!

Anyway, I had every intention of for my next post writing a smorgasbord of things, but this morning my phone rang and my friend says to me that I am now world famous, and everyone is going to know about my cooking ability. Very confused, I asked him what he meant by that. He then proceeds to tell me that he stopped to fill up his car at the gas station and he decided to purchase a newspaper. Apparently my picture was in the Deseret Morning News, Utah Valley Life section of the paper this morning.

Do you all remember that big dinner we had at UVSC and how a photographer asked if I would pose for a few pictures? Nothing ever came of it...or so I thought. He made good on it today, and all the neighbors have been calling us today wondering if we had seen it. We were running late for lunch over at my aunt's house, so we didn't stop to get a paper until afterward and on our way home. We stopped at four different gas stations to no avail, and just as we were about to give up, we noticed Carl's Jr. has newspaper stands outside by their entrance. We went over and noticed they didn't have any of the actual newspapers left, but noticed the Deseret Morning News, Utah Valley Life section of the paper with my picture huge on the front cover! They were free so my mom took like six of them! I just thought it was this little article with a few small pics in the middle of the section of the paper that nobody really looks at! I didn't sign up for the cover of the whole entire separate section of the thing!

The website doesn't have the cover and stuff, but there is a nice article about the program and at the bottom is my pic that was on the front. I am not quite sure what to think about it all! My family thinks it is pretty cool, and I guess it is, it's just kinda weird for me I guess.

Comparison

After reading a post on my friend Nemesis's blog, I decided to do the same, so I could brag a little too. Not that it is completely fair, because Easton is a boy and Savvybaby is obviously a cute little girl. I kinda like the match, what do you think?














On a different subject, I am Sous Chef this week in the restaurant. That means that I am pretty much in charge, other than the fact that Chef will be there and he is really in charge. I guess that just means I am second in command! Today was dumb, just for the fact that I sat on my butt and just did dishes pretty much. Things won't really pick up until tomorrow which is just me prepping out a banquet mostly by myself, and then normal stuff in the restaurant on Thursday and Friday.

Just an FYI for those who may be interested, it is Japanese week. Being Sous Chef is kind of a busy and yet scary thing at the same time. If stuff goes wrong, I am partly to blame. I don't anticipate anything happening like that because we are usually on the ball, but the thought still scares the crap outta me! I guess this job is kind of a privelage. We only have this week and next left in the restaurant. We had to cancel our last week in November because we have too many parties to cater. We found out today, that some guy who schedules events for the McKay Events Center forgot to put some parties on the calander, so our catering manager was quite schocked when they called to confirm their menu choices. That just means that we have nine parties in only three days. NO PROBLEM!

Dumped On

Ok, so there comes a point when you just hit rock bottom with your current situation. One comes to a crossroads where more than anything she knows what she needs to do, but doesn't have the ability or power to actually make it happen. Does anyone know how to get lots of money so I can pay my tuition to finish one more semester of school and pay off my loans as well? CUZ I NEED TO GET THE HECK OUTTA HERE!

Since this post isn't meant to be depressing or anything, as I am a tad frustrated right now, there is one bright spot in the whole thing. I am not home nearly as much anymore to recieve half of the blows I normally do! YEAH!

My Weather Pixie

Ok, so since some of you wouldn't respond to my request for help on figuring out the weather pixie andl inks to others' blogs, I have spent the last several hours figuring it out myself thank you very much!

Now that I have said that, my cute little weather pixie I chose simply for her hair. I want to do my hair like that! I don't like the whole cat thing going on though. First of all, I don't like cats. Second, it is creeping me out. It is moving all over the place, and I just don't like it!

Follow Up

I took Chosha's advice, and republished the Ice Sculpture post in the correct order. She made it sound so easy, and really I didn't even realize I could change the date on it and re-post it. Anyway, thanks for the tip!

Just a quick follow-up for you all about the Pink Elephants post. We got all the shirts re-printed with the "o" in the correct place, and gave them back to the BYU Spanish Club girl who placed the order, etc. She takes all these 50 shirts to give to her professor, and he doesn't think they look very good! If someone had no idea that there was a mistake in the first place, and looked at the shirt, you can't tell me that they would even notice! STUPID BYU PROFESSOR!

We had to reorder all the shirts and basically re-do the entire job over again. Granted that is probably what I would have done if I were on the other end of the spectrum, but given the fact that I am not, I AM TICKED! Ok, ok, I am settled back down now. It probably just gets me a bit more upset than it normally would for the fact that:

A. The messed up shirts will probably come out of my paycheck and sit in a dusty pile until next summer when my family decides to have another messed up T-Shirt yard sale so that all of the Polynesians in the area come to and try to bargain me down from $1.00! (I have nothing against Polynesians, nor do I intend to make this into a racial thing, it is one true example I have seen while having these yard sales my entire life).

B. They are the ugliest things on the planet anyway, so even if I try to stick them out front for some cheap Joe Schmoe to walk in and buy off a table for $1.00, I still don't get any of my money back!

C. I went through all of the hallucinations of seeing pink elephants instead of orange contruction barrells, and the dizziness, headaches, high feelings FOR NOTHING!

That's all for now. Hey Nem, I will make that shirt for you and send it off as soon as I can. You may have to realize that my "as soon as possible" could take a while, but I will try!

Pink Elephants

To start this post, I must apologize to my friend Nemesis about a comment I made on her blog about being on drugs. Nem, I think I have topped it all!

Yesterday when I arrived at work, I was quickly informed I spelled something wrong on 50 shirts, and we had to find a way to fix it, so that those 50 shirts weren't coming out of my paycheck. The shirt was for the BYU Spanish Club and on one side of the shirt it was supposed to read something like "los cortes de la muerte." (For those of you who speak Spanish, which I don't, will have to forgive me if you understand this next phrase). Instead, I spelled it "los curtes de la muerte." Apparently the latter phrase means something really bad in Spanish--which the customer did not tell to us.

In, order to salvage the shirts, we have a high pressure type squirt bottle that, when filled with lacquer thinner (paint thinner) and squirted onto incidental ink splatters, they are removed. We tried a shirt, just spraying out the "u" and it worked pretty well. So we showed the customer and she was very happy it worked out. I proceeded to start working on the rest of the shirts after we got the ok. After about 10-12 shirts, I started seeing spots, and getting a slight headache from all the fumes, so I took a break from spraying out the shirts. As I was walking toward the dryer to dry the shirts I had finished spraying out, I noticed the embroidery machine needed some attention, so I started to fix the problem and back up the design so it could catch up to the other stations. I started getting dizzy watching it back up, so I had to just put the shirts in the dryer and go sit down for a bit!

Remember that there were 50 shirts and I was only about a fifth of the way done spraying the suckers out. To make a long story, even longer, (just kidding) I inhaled about a gallon's worth of fumes I would imagine by the time I finished that 50th shirt--I was flying higher than ever! My cousin started joking with me about how I will probably be seeing things on the way home all around my car, etc. Right away, as soon as I get onto the freeway from the on ramp in Provo, I see orange construction barrels, which then as I am talking to Jamz on the phone, I tell her I am seeing pink elephants. Obviously, Jamz is quite confused, so I tell her again that these orange construction barrels remind me of pink elephants. Now Jamz is starting to freak out, wondering who I was, and what the aliens did to me when I was abducted--apparently that morning!

I imagine some brain cells were lost in the process, but at least now I have an excuse for why I am the way I AM!

Pudding Fiasco

Let's play a little game shall we?

Question: How big of a mess can one person make using Jello instant pudding?

Answer #1: A normal person wouldn't make one.

Answer #2: Me? About 3 feet tall, 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, and about 4 inches deep.

Ice Sculpture

As some of you already know, we did ice sculpting in class a couple of weeks ago. These ice sculptures were used at the big scholarship dinner on we had last Friday, so they had to be presentable. My partner and I chose to make a lighthouse since the theme for my cold hors d'eurves project was dealing with seafood (you know the whole 'coastal' thing). We searched the internet and found some ideas, knowing full well this whole idea of scupting this structure could go to pot at any given moment. It doesn't help that people like Bossy were telling me that it was going to be so hard to do, and we might want to pick something else. To heck with them! As we already all know the ice sculpture turned out great, so Bossy can just kiss mine!

I was very nervous to attempt this ice sculpting idea for many different reasons. Let me relate my fears to you like this:

1. I am not artistic/creative in the least bit--let alone try to create something normal out of a 30"x40" block of ice! Who do you take me for, Wonder Woman? HARDLY!

2. We had to use chain saws, chisels, and power tools. I struggle every day trying not to burn myself on the ovens or cut myself with my knives, and you want me to pick up something that has the potential of cutting off my foot?! Yeah right! My good friend, Shameonyou21 and her mother, put it perfectly when they found out what I was doing and and what I was using to make this ice sculpture. She said,

"It isn't so much the fear of you having to use the chainsaw and power tools to do this. That is scary enough as it is. But it is the thought of you using these things that scares me the most!"

Ok, so that was pretty much it. Those two fears really encompass all of the other little fears that go along with it. Here are a few closer pics of what we made, even though there were a couple from the blog that had the pictures of the dinner.

The one on the left is the one we got off of the internet, and the other two are just different variations of the one I made with my fellow sculptor! These were taken inside the walk-in freezer at school, so I apologize for the quality of the pictures, some people just don't know how to use a camera. The middle picture has something in front of it, so it looks a little wierd in the corner. As with many things, you would have had to see it in person. It was amazing to see what any amature could do with the right tools!

Exciting Information

So the other day when I decided to wake up [at noon], first words out of my mom's mouth were:

1-Tavi is pregnant
2-Brady is in love

Tavi, for those who don't know, is my sister-in-law. She just found out that she is going to have another baby which will be due around June. Nothing is for certain yet, she still has to go to the doctor. We are all kind of hoping for a girl--not that we care if it happens to be a boy, just hoping for someone who might be able to calm Dennis the Mennace (Easton) down a tad.

As I am sure you are all falling off your chair with disbelief, Brady, my brother the commitment fobe is in love with the very girl who told him she wasn't going to sit around and wait for him any longer. We all really like her--especially because it takes a very strong woman to be able to give Brady the kiss off! After she did that, Mr. "I am lowering my standards a little" decided that he really liked this girl. I guess he finally told her the other day that he loved her, and she returned the sentiment.

This appears to be headed toward marriage, which is good, but then all of the attention is going to then be turned toward me. The focus has been primarily on Brady and how picky he was, and how he was never going to get married. I better hurry and move out and stop working for my father or I am going to get real tired, real fast of the criticism once Brady decides that they are going to get married!

My 14 Hour day

In case you were all wondering, I am alive and [barely] kicking. I got home from school last night, or I guess this morning (Saturday) at 1:35 a.m. and at 2 a.m. I finally went to bed. My day started around 8:30 a.m. Friday morning. I decided it was time to wake up from my partially Nyquil induced coma at :30 this morning--which is so not like me to sleep that long. I checked the time at 9:00 p.m. last night and we still had two or three courses to serve, not to mention dishes from an eight-course meal for 600 people to wash with people like Bossy who just stand around and do nothing.

Anyway, I thought I would post a few pics from the dinner, but I have to warn you, another student took the pics with my camera, and I am not happy with the way they turned out. Just a fair warning that they are not my doing! I am going to get some good pics from someone else I hope next week, but in the meantime, at least least are a good repre-sentaion of how I remember the whole evening as of this morning!

A reporter from the Deseret News was there last night taking pictures of all of us doing random things trying to prepare for this dinner. I am not sure if he was doing an article on the dinner or on the culinary arts program, but I am a little nervous about whatever his purpose there was . Right before the hors d'eurves reception he came up to me and said:

"I noticed you changed your chef coat and apron and you look all nice and white,
would you mind getting one of your platters and posing for a
few pictures?"

What am I going to say to that? No thanks, I don't want my picture taken. I can't really say no. So I agreed and I stood there for what seemed like eternity thinking to myself how long this really has to take. I swear he was taking pictures for like ten minutes. Meanwhile, I am standing there trying to keep smiling (which is so hard) and I notice my dressing on my is oozing off the side of the platter cuz he made me stand there forever tilting the dumb thing!

I got many compliments on my ice sculpture-which I am going to try to get those pics to you soon. One lady told me it was exquisite and that my food and table display was beautiful. I had one guy come up to me and the end of the reception and ask if he could have three more slices of one of my items since the reception was ending, and I had some left. I guess that means the food wasn't half bad either!

A Satisfying Filler

I am trying to keep this going, but I am in the middle of the most stressful week of school yet. Do you not remember the first post? Give me a break! I pretty much had another one written, but I am trying to figure this thing out and upload pictures of my cool ice sculture of a lighthouse. I finally figured it out, but my computer at work won't let me because it is a stupid macintosh or something! I will post that one as soon as I remember to put the photos on a disk.

This next random thought is for my dear friend Streets. You all might find this interesting as well, but since Streets just graduated and we had a discussion once about it, I thought she might find it a bit more interesting. Anyway, UVSC just switched to offering Pepsi products instead of Coke products. A few people wondered why, and Streets was glad she was leaving cause she wasn't going to be able to purchase her favorite soda (Pibb Extra). I just found out the reason. Val Peterson, a Vice President (For some of you who grew up in the Timpview Stake in Orem, his wife is Ann Peterson--the most competitive woman I have ever met) Coke product sales were steadily declining apparently over the last few years. Coke was paying the school $100 thousand to have their product on campus, not only is Pepsi paying $150 thousand, but the product sales have sky rocketed!

Teacher's Pet

For the most part, Chef (that is what my instructor will be called) is fairly lenient and unbiased with us. Yesterday however, was an irritating issue altogether. A fellow student, whom we will call Bossy, proved to me that she is clearly the teacher's pet and that she needed to have someone or something kick her in the backside to get her to do something.

Just to preface this story a little, we are preparing for a big banquet this next Friday, and each student has a project to accomplish for this dinner. Over 600 people will be attending this dinner (including the school president, and vice presidents) at $125/person. Needless to say it is a big deal and it takes a lot of work. At the beginning of the dinner is something called a Garde Manger (Guar-Muh-Zhe) Reception. Essentially it is a cold hors d'eurve reception. Each student has about 5 different things to make and then arrange them beautiffully on platters and such betwen two, themely decorated 8 ft. banquet tables.

Now, back to Bossy. Yesterday we all got started working on our projects, or at least what we could make a week ahead of time. My project includes a lot of seafood, as does Bossy's. There is only so much we can make a week ahead with out them going bad. I hate the fact that I don't have tons to do, because that means I am going to be slammed right before the dinner. I still found something to do--even if it meant two hours of project, six hours of washing everyone else's dishes. What did Bossy do? She went to Walmart a couple of times on errands for Chef or whomever else needed something that wasn't in the kitchen at the time. In between those two trips she sat on her roast--right in front of Chef, went outside about a dozen times and smoked a pack of cigarettes, sat on her roast some more--right in front of Chef, did I mention she went outside and smoked, or that she sat on her roast?

Chef said nothing. Somehow someone told him that I was back there washing dishes all night, so he makes a comment, not sure if it was meant to be sarcastic or funny, (which it wasn't) "I hear you're quite the dishwasher!" What I said and what I wanted to say were two very different things. I said, "I didn't have anything else to do, might as well." What I should have said, "Didn't feel as though I could sit and do nothing all night like some do!" Obviously Bossy was sitting right there.

I have no backbone I have decided. I can talk big, but backdown at the first chance to let out how I really feel. Clearly Bossy is the teacher's pet, and maybe by saying something I would somehow end up getting the grunt of it anyway. Anyone else sitting down for even a minute would have recieved the one-two punch from Chef in three seconds. Why should Bossy be any different?!