I'm feeling a bit crap right now. I don't know why exactly. Maybe it's just a combination of many things.

I'm working on the stupid Roberts Collection, and I am so sick and tired of it. I'm so tired of finding random pieces of crap tucked into odd places. I'm tired of Roberts's crap that will never be used. I'm tired of the feeling I get when I look at all the boxes--the feeling that this will never end. It needs to end--and not just for my sanity, but there are other collections that I need to be working on.

I found out today I have to go--excuse me, I get to go to the CIMA conference in October down at BYU. I hate BYU. And the prospect of sitting through a conference of archivists at BYU is really quite ghastly.

Plus, I'm worried about some things, and angry about others, but I won't go into them. I haven't slept well this week, so I'm tired and worn out. I'm getting a headache too, and my eye won't stop twitching. This is a very complain-ey blog!

On the positive side, I'm going to the Davis County rodeo tonight with my family. I actually had fun the last time we went, even though I wasn't expecting to. It's kind of exciting watching the cowgirls doing the barrel races, and the cowboys on those bucking broncos and bulls. Plus, I like being with the family--it settles and regrounds me.

OK, I think I've got to go take some Tylenol for this headache.

My Show is Back, People!!!!

OK, so it's not back back yet, as in back on the air, but the cast and crew of The Office are back on set (and location) filming new episodes for season 4. Spoilers are beginning to abound, and the blogs and message boards are coming back to life. I love this time of year!! ;)

The first episode is called "Fun Run" and from the little bit I'm reading about it, the episode sounds very funny. And we've got the first filming pictures of the season!! Here's a great JAM picture that fills my heart with all kinds of joy and happiness:




According to the guy that took the picture, when "action" was called there was lots of hand-holding and laughing between Jim and Pam, so I am so super-duper excited for this season premier that I can't even begin to describe it! I keep telling myself that I'll stay away from all the spoilers, but I have no will-power. Oh well, what can I say? I'm a sucker for spoilers.

Only 43 more days until the premier!!

Fighting the Boredom

I'm in the middle of processing a collection, but I needed a quick break, so I thought I'd post some random thoughts and experiences. Just because.

**Jessica and I went to a laundromat about a month ago. It was quite the experience. The only things on TV were Spanish soap operas and soccer games broadcast in Spanish. Then a man brought in his dog while he did his laundry. The dog was very sweet, and mostly well behaved (he liked to bark), but I've never seen a dog in a laundromat before. As I said, an experience.

**Jessica and I actually went to our ward on Sunday and attended all our meetings! Sad thing: they didn't bring the sacrament out to the foyer where we were sitting. Funny thing: our Sunday School teacher shared his experience getting "Dear-John-ed" while on his mission. It involved The Lion King (from which he shared clips) and was truly hilarious. Interesting thing: we met a guy who lives in our apartment building, and he was very nice. He helped direct us to the people we needed to talk to about transferring our records to the ward.

**Today is August 1st!; that means CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!! Yes, friends and family, as per Johnson family tradition, Christmas music is now free game until the end of December, and the Christmas countdown officially begins--only five more months!!! I've been listening to Bing Crosby's White Christmas album, and when I get home I'll be sure to put on Manheim Steamroller--yes!!

I know I had other random thoughts and so forth to share, but I've forgotten them in the excitement over Christmas ;) hehehe. I better get back to work anyway, so I'll post again later.

p.s. my apologies to you Kira, if you're still reading my blog. Shall I listen to some Hanukkah songs in honor of you? ;) Love and miss ya!

Quick Update

I haven't posted a blog for a while, and I really shouldn't be doing it right now--I should be working, but oh well. I just wanted to post a quick update about some things that have been going on.

The last couple of weeks were kind of crazy crazy because Jessica and I were watching my cousin's daughter, and then my cousin spent a couple of days with us when she got back. Plus Katie spent the night one night and stayed the next day. John came up that day too, so it was pretty crowded in the apartment. House guests always complicate life, but it was nice to spend some time with all of them. All the same, Jess and I were glad to have the apartment back to semi-normal. It's still a mess: the floors need to be cleaned, dishes done, laundry put away, but that will get take care of slowly but surely. Last night I cleaned the bathroom so progress.

My parents went to Oregon last weekend. Actually, my dad went up the week before for work, but my mom flew up to join him over the weekend. I think they had a laid back weekend driving along the coast, and it was nice for them. I think they needed a quick break like that. They stopped at a great little ice cream parlor/candy store that we found last summer and picked up some fudge for all of us. It's a wonderful place on the side of the coastal highway, in a town called Seal Rock. I think the name of the store is "S.R. Fudge" or something like that. If ever you're driving the coast of Oregon you must stop there. The woman gives out HUGE scoops of ice cream: one of her scoops equals like three from any other place, and it's fresh Tillamook ice cream--sooooo good. I love Oregon ...

Anyway. I also went to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I will never, ever go again to a midnight showing. Too many snotty teenagers, and I'm just too old to stay up that late and then process a movie. So sad. The movie was pretty good; I like it. There were some problems, but on the whole I think this one was adapted really well. Favorite moment: Harry's flashback in the occlumency lessons to the Mirror of Erised and his parents, then Snape walking into the memory. AWESOMENESS! And Snape will be a good guy, he will be a good guy, he will be a good guy, he will, I know it.

I hope.

Book 7 this weekend and I am getting more and more excited. I haven't pre-ordered the book, because last time I walked into a store that morning and could purchase book 6, so I'm not dealing with that crap. But hopefully I'll have the book done by this weekend. If I get my homework done on time.

Speaking of homework, my class is going ok. There are a bunch of stupid people in my class, but since it's online I don't have to actually talk to any of them face-to-face. That's nice. But I do have to debate them, if you can call it debating. This is how it usually goes:

Stupid student: I believe something stupid for no good reason other than I don't know how to think for myself. I don't know how to research or look anything up for myself, so I have no supporting evidence for my opinion, but I feel very strongly about this.

Me: Ummm, ok, well let me give you some facts. [Insert numerous facts.] So you see, what you believe is stupid (except I'm sometimes nicer about it, unless they're really, really stupid).

Stupid student: But you see what we're really talking about is this feeling (or random experience, or assumption, etc.) that has no basis in logic or fact, so we don't want your facts that make us actually think. We just want to go on in ignorance unchallenged. And while we'll try to be nice to you, we really think you're a liberal who wants to destroy America.

Or another favorite of mine:

Stupid student: Well, this is a very debatable issue, and there are so many opinions on this subject. I can see why so many people feel so strongly about it. And even though this is a debate and I'm just stating the obvious, I'll keep on stating the obvious so I don't really have to think or express my opinions, but can still feel like I'm participating in the conversation.

Wow. Glad I got that all out. I better get back to work now.

We have a piper down. I repeat, a piper down.

We have a bag pipe playing neighbor. I love it! He/She lives in the apartments behind us, and we're separated by a little wood, so it was a funny experience opening my bedroom window and hearing bag pipes that I couldn't see. I sat down by my window and listened to the music and the birds calling to each other, and smiled. I was sitting at my loom (I love that my loom is now by a window with a great view), and I started thinking about old, dying-out art forms. Something about the setting and the music made me very contemplative and relaxed. It was nice.

Jessica and I are all moved into our apartment now. We're getting settled--last night we finally found enough shelf space for all our books (at least, I hope it was all of them!), and slowly the apartment is becoming home. I hope our bag piper friend plays again tonight.

Adventures in Snorkeling

My aunt and uncle have been living in Costa Rica with two of their daughters for the last little while, but since they only have two months before they return to the States, they decided to go adventuring in the surrounding countries -- because apparently, Costa Rica wasn't enough of an adventure. ;) Below is an excerpt from an update my uncle posted on our family website; it was just too hilarious not to share it, so I hope he doesn't mind. They have been spending the last few days in Belize, and one of their adventures was a snorkeling trip that included this run in with some manatees.

"We swam around for another half hour. People started getting tired and climbing into the boat. I came up to the boat trying to decide if I was done or not. Just then, the guide pointed out and said he thought he saw four more manatees surfacing in the distance. I was the only one close by, so I swam out by myself to see. Sure enough, there were four of them playing together. After a bit, one of them pealed off and swam up to me. She was about 5 feet down and 10 feet away. She just sat there staring at me. I wondered if she was waiting for me to give the secret password. I tried to mimic her behavior, but obviously I did it wrong because she spun around and went back to frolic with the others. I was not included. Soon, I noticed a very large male looking piece starting to appear near the rear quarters of one. So manatees are just like horses, donkees and fifteen year old boys. I thought. They have no control over when the self test runs. How embarassing. Then I thought, I sure hope this isn't mating season. As if to confirm my suspicion, just then another one came swimming up from behind and stopped right under neath stud man. Oh gees, I didn't want to watch this. But the female took off as if to say "just kidding". Good for you girl, I thought. Then in a completely unexpected turn of events, this guy's huge male thing suddenly detached and started floating away. "Dude, you might want to get that checked. I don't think that is supposed to happen" I thought.

But suddenly it dawned on me: 1) it was not a huge male thing, it was a huge manatee turd and 2) it was heading right for me. I don't know if you have ever tried to swim away from something in water. It creates a back suction and pulls the thing right at you. At this point, the jaws theme started playing in my head. I was swimming frantically backwards and this huge green thing kept coming closer and closer, filling up the entire view screen of my snorkel mask. "Scotty I need more power!". At the last second, I did a kind of rolling vertical move and threw off the heat seaking sensor on this thing and it floated by harmlessly. About then 3 other snorklers showed up and the manatees headed out. That was fine with me. I had had all the up close and personal I needed with these fellows."

Hilarious!! He had me laughing so hard -- well, on the inside at least, because I was at work when I read his post.

On other matters, I know I promised pictures from our Les Mis night, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I spent the weekend at my cousin's graduation and moving into the apartment, but I will post them! As for the apartment, it's going, but slowly. We still have to figure out how to move all our furniture, but we have been taking car-loads of boxes, and I have high hopes for getting everything done this week. Then, I will also post pictures of the apartment.

Until then,

MAD

p.s. I apologize to any of my family members who already read the manatee post on the family website -- on second, thought I don't apologize. It was funny enough for a second read! Hehehe!

Quick Update

Well, Jessica and I signed our lease today--so it's official! We'll probably start moving in tomorrow afternoon, so yeah!

Tonight we go with the whole family to see Les Mis, and I'm really excited about it. I didn't find a dress, but I did find some stuff to spruce up an old dress I have, so I'll look awesome! ;) hehehe. I'll post pictures here tonight or tomorrow. You're gonna want to see the shoes I got!

And on that little cliff hanger, I'll leave you now and get back to work!