3.....2.....1.....
Meltdown

Bad day

So, its not been a great couple of days.
Well, today was great for a couple of hours. But, before it....meh. After it.....meh.

Yesterday I started a.....detox. Yeah, a detox.
Tye is doing it with me. It's not HCG.
Anyway, I slept funky Monday night. I didn't get to sleep until about 2. Then kitty started crying, whining and meowing REALLY loud at 5:30. In THE MORNING!!!! So, I had a raging headache all day.
First day of detox + funky sleeping - actual sleep + drama that just won't go away and makes me crazy = the crappiest of crappy days in a long time for this girl.
Today, headache lingering because I slept funky. Kitty up at 5:30, gotta get to work, "don't back out B....don't back out B" going through my head. Low numbers. Blah blah blah.

Here's what I need. I need a wise, non-biased person to talk to.
I don't want someone who will give into and agree with my smallness.
I want someone to tell me I'm wrong for feeling this way about *this*, and that I'm not seeing things as their potential.
I want someone to tell me I'm wrong, and I want them to be right.

And, I want my tooth not to hurt until I have insurance.


And I want a cookie.
Hmmphh

New Year, New Day, New Moment

***K, I wrote this on Saturday, but was having issues....with my fauxhawk, jeep, and I gained 5 lbs overnight. Plus I keep getting little jabs of pain all over my body.

Hmmm....how perplexing.....***

Happy new year!!!!

I resolve everyday. So, I'm not going to do this whole resolution thing just because it's the beginning of a new year.
I do it cuz it's a new day, a new moment, a new opportunity.

Daily:

-I punish myself way too much about food. I won't do that anymore. That doesn't mean that I'm going to just eat like crap and ignore the consequences. No, what I mean is that if I chose to not eat crap, it is because of how it makes my body feel. It will be because I am treating myself kindly. And I will no longer treat myself unkind with words in my head.

-With speaking more kindly to myself, I will with others as well. With my girl and my hubby specifically. I will spend more time with my girl, doing what eight year olds do. With that, I will also have more follow through with my girl. I mean this in the discipline area. She may voice the contrary, but she works well with discipline.

-I'm going to read more books. With this new thing I have that is flat and shinny and has a fruit on the back (I dare not say the name for fear I might get another jabbing pain in some random place on my body), I have downloadable books. There are lots of free ones, and the ones that aren't free, are cheap. More books that really interest me. With that, I will be consciously creating more time to do so.

-I won't resolve to keeping my house cleaner. I think that will be a result of me being truer to myself. Doing what centers me. What grounds me.

-I'm going to say sorry when I'm sorry, and say I'm wrong when I'm wrong.

-I'm going to say yes when the answer is yes, and I'm going to say no when the answer is no.

- I am going to say kinder, thoughtful, conscious words in my marriage. 2010 was a great year for us because hubby stayed conscious. 2011 is my year to do that. Oh man, we're gonna make our friends dry heave. Hehehehe

-I am going to make use of the money I pay to the gym every month. I just dont know when.

Now for the FUN stuff:

- I am going to go to AT LEAST 3 Brandi Carlile concerts. In Utah or out of state. Whatever.

- Im going to get 2 tattoos!!!

- Im going to do the SLC Marathon again. (Bike Tour)

- Im going to do LRRH.

WAHOO!!!

What are you creating in 2011?

Alisa

Yay! I'm blogging from my brand new iPad! Tye brought it home for me yesterday. I was sur-prised indeed.
I always thought they were cool, but never thought of spending that kind of money on me. Or on something I don't "need".
But, I have to say, it's pretty rad.
I know that I haven't even begun to know all it can do. But it will be fun to figure it out.

Last night I downloaded a bunch of free iBooks. Then I read one to grace as we snuggled, rather than watching tv.
It's good.
Really good.

So, how was your Xmas? Ours was fantastic!
Tye was pleasant, grace was pleasant. I think I was pleasant.
We went to my mom and dads on the 23rd to celebrate Xmas. Everyone had originally planned on going to San diego over Xmas, but us. So we made othee loans for Xmas. Then, not everyone decided to go to San diego, so, my parents came here.
However, we had already made Xmas plans, enter Xmas on the 23rd.

It was great. We ate, talked, played games. We also gave my parents their gift.
We had the grandkids pictures professionally done for them.
The last time we had them done was 8 years and 4 grandkids ago.
It was time.

I had my sister in law, Sara, take the pictures.
Those that are followers, prally already know how awesome she is.
Then ww had them printed on wrapped canvas from iprintcanvas.
He rocks.
Our pictures came out UH-MAZING!!

We were so excited to give the pictures to them.
They LOVED it!!!!

My mom cried. Score!

Then we played trivial pursuit until 2 in the morning.
It was such a great night.

The next night we went to tyes moms for our annual family Xmas party. Every year we have a themed party. This year analee wanted to have us bring our music stuff so we could make music. So we decided that we would all come dressed as musicians. Well, not EVERYONE was a musician.

Tye was some guy from alice in chains. He actually could have been kid rock.
Grace was shania twain and I was Elton John. I will post pics when I can get them from Sara.

Analee was Liza maneli (sp?)
I can't remember who Doug was, but he looked AWESOME!!!
Yale was Ted nuggent, allee was pat benatar (sp?)
Linzy was one of the beetles and Xander was Chris ledeux.
Alex was Elvis, Sara was MJ and Oliver was Michael McClain. Oliver was my favorite. He looked awesome!!!

Anyway, it was a great night with yummy food and awesome music,

Grace got a couple small things for Xmas from Santa. Then......from around the corner the kitty came.
She flipped out!
She has wanted a cat for a long long time. I have always said no.
She eventually got good with it. So she didn't suspect a thing!!!

I'm not gonna lie, this kitty is pretty damn cute!!
We named her Tori.

Then up to tyes dads we went. We spent most of the day there. It was really nice and relaxing.

However, I am glad that it is over.

Now, back to the gym. I gotta get there before the beginning of the year so it isn't just a resolution.
Know what I mean?

Bye bye.

Alisa

15 Hours in Seattle

So, my trip to Seattle.....

LOTS of driving.

LOTS.

And then more.

Why did I go?

Silly, you know why I went.

I went to go see my girl, Brandi.

I was supposed to see her twice, but only got to once. The story is coming.

Now, as much as I love Brandi and the twins, they are not complete without her drummer, Allison Miller. She is not only the frosting, but the sugar IN the frosting.

Serious.

So after their headliner, they dimmed the the lights. Then Allison snuck up on stage, sat at her drums, and without any notice, went INSANE on the drums. INSANE!!

I think it scared everyone.

And here she is, going CRAZY!!

Oh man, it was SO GREAT!!

THEN, here is the song........

(There are some swears here....)

I WAS SO EXCITED!!!! I have always wanted to see her do Creep Live!

I cant even tell you how AMAZING it was!!!

In this video, she is singing with her sister Tiffany (who is engaged to Phil)

While we were in line, I mentioned to Jen and Cristina (our new friend) that I bet she will bring her sister on stage, since they are playing at home. OH, and MAYBE even her mom.

Guess what, SHE DID BOTH!!

This is Tiffany and Brandi.

I love, love, love, love, love her.

But, you know this.

So, bum deal though. We didn't get to see her perform with the Seattle Symphony. :( Sad.

There was some gnarly weather headed our way, and I DID NOT want to drive in it.

I woke up Sunday morning with 6 different weather alerts on my phone and ALL of them were places we had to drive through.

I just had a pit in my stomach. Leaving was the LAST thing I wanted to do. Well, second to last thing. (The VERY last thing I wanted to do was drive home is gnarly weather.)

So, as I listened to myself say to Jen, "Jen, we cant stay, we need to go."

While the rest of me way saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I knew we had to go.

I had been nervous the WHOLE trip about driving home.

I like to believe that I made the smart choice, even though we STILL had to stay the night in Baker City......AGAIN!

Oh Baker City..... I really dont care if I EVER go there again.

INFACT, if I drive to the Northwest again, I will drive straight past Baker City to Pendleton. If I have to break it up, I will stay in Pendleton for the night.

Our first night, we stayed in Baker City. We stayed at Knights Inn.

Oh lala.....

When we got in, I think it was 21 degrees.

We checked in, and sorry, but I could only understand about every 5th word that came from the man behind the desk.

We get up to our wood paneled room and bundled up. IT WAS SO COLD!

It looked like there were about 3 different ways to heat our room. So, I picked up the phone in our room to call the front desk to ask which way I heat our room that was, no lie, 45 degrees.

Im not kidding you when I tell you that the phone in the room, WAS A PROP!

Serious.

There were no hang up buttons.

AND, there was nothing plugged into it.

Yeah. Things were goin' great.

So, I called the number that they had on the pad of paper that they provided.

Apparently, Knights Inn has a call center.

A women answered the phone and I told her what room we were in and we needed to know how to turn on the heat, My Land, THE HEAT!

Mother of all that is warm, I NEED HEAT!

The girl on the other line says, (quite condescendingly, I might add) "Listen, Im not at your hotel, this is a call center."

I say "This dump has a CALL CENTER??"

Her: "........"

Me: "Well, then I bet you have the number to the one that I am staying at. Im in Baker City, Oregon."

She gave me the number. I call it.

Again.... every 5th word is understood.

However, I did understand this part: "If you like, I can come up there and help you figure it out..."

Uh, Thanks, and NO THANKS.

We did what we thought we needed, bundled up, and tried to fall asleep. (Worst night of sleep on a LONG time)

I figured the heat came on around 2 or 3 in the morning.

Nice.

So, as I said....back in Baker City again. I was NOT a happy camper.

Anywho, watch those Youtubes and love her. LOVE HER!

Consistantly Inconsistant

Holla!

Can I just tell you.... I AM SO AMAZINGLY, TRULY, GENUINELY EXCITED!!!

Really, I don't get REALLY excited about much. Day to day stuff just isn't exciting.

Don't get me wrong, I am comfortable in my daily, boring and predictable routine.

Comfortable- VERY

Love it- Not all the time

I have a great job. It really is a good gig. Minimal stress. Casual setting. Great people to work with. As far as jobs go, I have a sweet gig.

BUT- There are the mornings when I wake up and I say out loud "Please...no....not again. I cant do this routine one more time...I cant!"

Then I think really hard.

And then I remember, ITS SATURDAY!

Now, dont think that just because it is saturday, there is anything exciting going on.

Nope. On any given Saturday you can find me cleaning my house. Just so it can stay clean for 3 days. Then it becomes a mess and I do it all over again on Saturday.

Hows that for routine?

BUT- Not this Saturday. Hip Hip Hooray!

I will be in SEATTLE!!

Serious, this little ole Utah girl has wanted to go to Seattle for-EVAR!

The gloomeyness of it. The GREEN. The grunge. And I am positive that Seattle just always smells like coffee. ALWAYS.

Oh man, i am SO EXCITED!

So in this post, I blogged about why im going to Seattle. Remember how I mentioned that we paid 400+% for our symphony tickets?

Well, shortly after I blogged that, I got this email....

Hi,

I read about your unfortunate experience with the symphony tickets on your blog. I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't already, there is a secret show with Brandi and the Twins on Saturday 11/20 at Neumos in Seattle. Tickets are still available. The show is listed as "The Story Guy and his Band".

https://www.etix.com/ticket/servlet/onlineSale?action=selectPerformance&cobrand=neumos&performance_id=1342018

.

Hope you can make it.

Roberta

(www.againtoday.com)

WHA????

How did this chic know to read my blog? Don't get me wrong.....SO GLAD SHE DID!

Againtoday.com is a fan website for Brandi Carlile.

So, yeah....I've been on it a few times.....what of it?

Anyway, the next day I went online to the venue website.

Sure enough "The Story" guy and his band.....

But, there was no bio for them. I get it, is supposed to be a secret show.

But I wanted to make sure!

So I called the venue.

Ring Ring Ring

Them: Neumos

Me: Hi. I have a quick question.

Them: Sure. What is it?

Me: So, Im looking at your website and the shows coming up.

Them: yeah

Me: Well, Im reading the bio's, but there isnt one for "The Story Guy"and his band....

Them: ................

Me: Hello?

Them: Why are you asking?

Me: Well, as I mentioned just now, you have bios for all the other bands, but not this one. What can you tell me about them?

Them: Well, actually, its a secret show.

Me: Secret show? How is it secret if its on your website? ( I knew why it was secret.....I just like to ask alot of questions)

Them: Well, its a band that is pretty popular in Seattle, so they are doing a show only for those loyal, hardcore fans that would know how to find out that they are doing a secret show.

Me: So, you're talking about Brandi Carlile.....Right?

Them:...................

Me: Hello?!

Them: I cant tell you that.

Me: Well, OBVIOUSLY Im one of those fans you speak of since I just asked the secret question about the secret band.....

Them: Per the contract, I cant say the name of the band. BUT, I can tell you this. Get your tickets.

IM SO EXCITED!!!

AND Brandi was on Austin City Limits on Saturday night.

It was like watching someone I know on TV.

I know, I am pathetic.

I am pretty much a stalker.

Wait, no, im not.

I don't know anything that anyone else couldn't know.

Its not like I know the color of her drapes. Or her route to the gym......past the grocery store and next to the library in the small town she lives in.

Sheesh...its not like I know that she likes to eat brown sugar on her cream o wheat with one boiled egg while she reads the paper (local section first)

THAT would be icky.

Funny Grace story (havent done one for a while)

We went to the dentist today.

I knew that she had at least one cavity. So, I wanted to make sure I used my insurance before things changed the beginning of the year. AND, I wanted to make sure we didn't have to deal with any bigger problems later.

I know, good mom, right?

So, she HATES the dentist. She gets scared. But, we have a great one for her. She gets to watch a movie on the 3-D glasses magigado thingy.

AND, she gets laughing gas.

SHE IS HILARIOUS!

All inhibitions out the window. At one point the dentist was giving her a numbing shot. It was pinchy and it hurt.

Grace was saying "Ow! Owie! Stop. Please Stop!"

The dentist said "Im almost done.....5 more seconds...."

Grace YELLS (with the dentists hand in her mouth, but heard VERY clearly) "DONT LIE TO ME LADY! TAKE YOUR EVIL MACHINE OUTTA MY MOUTH!!"

hahahahahahahaha

The dentist looked at me, I just shrugged my shoulders. Thats my girl.

Then, as the dentist was working on her, and she was watching Tom and Jerry, at one point she started laughing and could not stop. The dentist stopped for a second and asked "Whats so funny Grace?"

Grace responds with sticking her pinky finger in the air and giggles "Look how skinny and little my pinky finger is....I wonder how bendy it is...."

Yeah, she was feelin' good.....

so, if you know me, or if you read my blog (at the right time) you know that i have the hugest girl crush on Brandi Carlile.
HUGE-EST!!

last time she was in town, she came for THREE nights in a row!
THREE!!
the first two were impromptu.
i went to 2 of the 3.

she is so amazing.

anyway, i met lots of super cool people in those two days as i sat in line waiting for the doors to open. one person had told me about brandi's performance in seattle with the seattle symphony.
she said that if you are a brandi fan, this performance is not to be missed.

i have never been to seattle, but i already know that i love it. serious.
already love it.
so, a couple weeks ago, being the brandi ho that i am, i decided i was going to see her in seattle.
i may go alone, i may invite someone. who knows.
either way, im going to go see her.

now the money.

i was determined. this would happen and the funds would make them selves known. (does your money hide from you as often as mine does?)

i was given what i needed.
we were refinancing our house at the time, and as luck would have it, between the payment we skip with the refi, the taxes we paid for 2010 that we get back and the money that we got back at closing (which we werent planning on)- there is more than enough to go on my trip.

su-weet!

so, then i decide that i will invite a friend.
it took a few days, but she was in.

perfect!

then, on tuesday night, my friend asked if we should get our tickets.
i didnt think so. brandi is doing two nights. the first sold out, but i didnt think the second one would.
i went online on wednesday to get tickets.................SOLD THE EFF OUT!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, well, not totally sold out.
there was still ONE ticket left at $71.00
ONE!

i called my friend in a panic.
then we decided there has to be ones for sale.
ebay, craigslist, other ticket vendors (aka...scalpers)

so, we found 2 tickets for $87 each. we knew that we were paying more than face value. prally 200% more. but we were fine with that.
my friend ordered them. they were to be delivered to her house.

she text me today to let me know that they tickets showed up.....and they have their face value printed on them.

come to find out that we would have saved some money IF paid a 200% increase.
we would have saved money if it was a 300% increase.
and....we would have even saved money if it was a 400% increase.....
we paid a 450% increase on the face value of our tickets.
they were $19.00 tickets!!!
yup, i said $19.00!!!

i decided its all good. i would be WAY more disappointed if i didnt get to go.

road trip from salt lake to seattle and back in 3 1/2 days.
and i get to hear brandi sing.

i. am. so. excited.

lets hope we do better with the hotel rates. :}


alisa